My Stars

It’s been awhile since I wrote in my blog, because I really didn’t have much to report. So in lieu of my writer’s block, I thought I’d write about my Astrological signs. I got involved with Astrology back in High School when I was assigned to do horoscopes for the newspaper. Let me just say, I do not live my life by Astrology, but that I find this as something fun to do, a hobby and great as a conversation piece at parties.

Most people are familiar with Western and Chinese Astrology, but there are so many more cultures that participated in this practice. So, here’s a brief description of what I have found so far on myself.

I was born on Tuesday December 14, 1976 at 1:38 A.M.
At the Longitude of 76 Degrees 46 minutes East
And the Latitude of 9 Degrees 40 minutes North
(aka Kemmerer, Wyoming)
This is how the planets were aligned on that day.

And this is what the stars have to say about me:

Western Astrology ~ Sagittarius
Sagittarius has a dignified, restless nature, a drive towards the exploration of ideas, and a conscious aim involved with the attainment of wisdom through experience.

Chinese Astrology ~ The Dragon

Dragons exists to be flamboyant and exceptional. Dragons expect respect when talking and Dragons like action when they give command. Dragons are ready to take on any challenge, go off on a conquest of power, and tear down any obstacle. If by chance a Dragon fails, they will never admit to being vanquished and will find in this a new will conquer. Dragons like to see life as a big adventure and can't stand it when those around them lack ambition.

Aztec Astrology - The Lizard

Lizards are true individuals. They compromise only under extreme pressure, and then resent it if you have to. Lizards often attract attention by being different, but this action often meets their "performance needs. They are passive stalkers who work in full public view. Lizards are quick to react to opportunities and make contacts with the right people and this allows them to move upward socially without offending many people.

Celtic Astrology ~ The Fig Tree

Very strong, a bit self-willed, independent, does not allow contradiction or arguments, loves life, it's family, children and animals, a bit of a social butterfly, good sense of humor, like idleness and laziness, and of practical talent and intelligence.

Egyptian Astrology ~ Osiris

The character of Osiris is dual and the personality generous. Fiery but, vulnerable, when faced with adversity, they waiver more than others, and they experience the dilemma of picking the right moment for action and decision.

Native American Astrology ~ The Owl

Personality: Jovial, warm hearted, adventurous, independent.

Feelings: Warm

Intention: Objectivity

Nature: Sincere

Positive Traits: Versatile, adaptable, and saupulous.

Negative Traits: Restless, tactless and boisterous

Sex-drive: Adventurous

Compatibilities: Falcons and Salmons

Conscious Aim: Understanding

Subconscious Desire: Determination

Must Cultivate: Concentration, optimism, and enthusiasm.

Must Avoid: Over indulgence, exaggeration and greed.

South African Astrology ~ The Harvest in the Granary
A full, sober and reassuring figure, the image associated with this sign represents high huts of beaten earth, heavily laden from the ground to the roof with baskets of maize, sorghum and millet. This symbol of abundance brings together the dynamics that produce a spirit of grandeur. The environment of those of you born under this sign favors action. Your ability to attract attention and solitude is enviable, but the happy predestination that affects your life is a snare. Inclined to believe yourselves favored by fate and to feel protected by the care shown to you by others, you may not take full advantage of opportunities for success. "The Harvest in the Granary" natives are ultimately trailblazers who create their own destiny. When in love, exert caution! Your vanity may trap you into believing that you are on earth to make others love you. Learn to be quiet. Develop your undeniable faculties of serenity and sincerity. Your generosity and sense of loyalty accentuate the quality of your initiatives, in the joy of acting at the right moment, your energy will be reflected by wisdom. To prepare for success you will have to show proof of firmness yet leniency, knowing how to put an abrupt end to bad liaisons. Put more trust in you intuitions.


Indonesian Day Sign: PonThe Salasa

Pon folks are well-known for their strong, firm and determined personality. You respect the sentiments and emotions of others and it is because of this respect that you show for others brings back the same respect and adorability from others for you. Selasa Pon people are however too stubborn and it seems that the word compromise does not exist in their dictionary. Try and be a little soft and polite to others. It is because of your head strong and stubborn nature that very often you fall into troubles and quarrels with your friends, family members, co-workers and others. But as workers you folks are quite loyal and devoted.


9 Star Ki Astrology (Feng Shui)

Numbers ~ 6 4 7

Direction ~ West
Your Principal Number: 6 which reflects your overall nature:
Number six people are known for their punctuality and efficiency. They are sharp tongued people with a very strong will power. Being ruled over by this particular number, you practical minded and quite logical in your outlook towards life. For these individuals, nothing is more important than their strong ethical values and ideals. Others perceive you as the 'man of word'. A noble person, these folks are the most loyal of all the other numbers and it is because of their code of conduct and ethical values that they excel as leaders of any organization. As far as your relationships with others are concerned, you may face a bit difficulty in this field.

Your Character Number: 4 which reflects your personality.
Number Four people are quite practical, stubborn and are also vulnerable as far as love affairs are concerned. Personality of the number four folks is difficult to understand; they are ever changing and dynamic individuals. Ruled over by this number, you people are good listeners yet indecisive by nature. You are strict followers of the traditional ideals set by your ancestors. Apart from this, you possess high concentration powers and this particular characteristic trait of yours makes you great experts of any subject.

Your Energetic Number: 7 which reflects the inner person of you as perceived by others.
Number seven people are charming, sociable and know the ways of enjoying life to the fullest. They are excellent speakers. Being ruled over by this particular number, number 7 natives are fun loving and jovial by nature. They enjoy talking to people and it is their inborn charisma and expressive nature, which attracts people towards them. They love to wear nicely designed dresses and also have a knack for fashionable accessories. You love to enjoy all kinds of luxury and comforts that life has to offer. Number seven people lack the art of housekeeping.

The Power of Friendship, No Matter the Distance

In the past month, I’ve been able to be with many of friends in celebrating birthdays, weddings, and babies, even celebrating just getting out of the house and even those good chats on breaks from work. All these get-togethers are great therapy. Nothing makes me more happy than being with people I love and adore. I’ve learned so much from each person that has enter my life, and most people will realized that if I’ve met up with you, I’ve got your cell phone number and email address stored immediately. I may not be able to stay in constant contact with each individual, but that doesn’t mean that you’re not important to me.

Just today I got some inspiration Laurie and her blog. She wrote about some stuff that she’s going through and how she’s making it work out. I love her positive attitude and I’m hoping that it can rub off on me. Lauren has shown me that keeping in touch, even if it’s through a postcard once a year shows others that you care. Celeste, taking me in as part of your adopted family and letting me be a part of children’s lives is priceless and I hope that one day I’ll be a wonderful mother as you are. Tiffany, Jordan, Alyson, Michelle, Rachel, Heather, Kira, Kathryn, Ginger, Emily, Emily and Emily (great group for anyone with Alzheimer’s), the few hours I get to spend with you the past were ones I’ll never forget. It was so good catching up with y’all this past month's ladies night. Adell , Mike and Rachel, I love how I can bring out my inner geek around you! And April, I’ve known you the longest of just about anyone in my life. You’ve always been there for me, from the good times, the bad times and even the childish times. Thanks for over 2 decades of friendship.

From down the street of across the world I realize I’m a very lucky person to know so many people, with so many different traits and personalities. I wish I could write about everyone and tell them how much you mean to me, and maybe one day I will, but for now, just let me know if you’re reading this I care for you very much and wish you the best.

Addictions

First I’ll start with one of my addictions. eBay…I honestly need eBay therapy. Just this past week alone I’ve made so many bids I can’t remember all the things I tried to win. Thank goodness I lost most of them, but then for the ones I won, I end up wondering do I honestly need this?! With my sick obsession with the Beatles, Transformers, books and jewelry, eBay is my crack house. My eBay addiction hit a peak when I went to work for them. People would call in for help and the help I would give them, was purchasing the items that they needed help listing. Lately, I’m doing so much shopping, that I’m transferring funds from my Camaro fund into my PayPal account. OUCH! I’m trying to slowly wean myself off of it by telling my self I don’t need any more Beatles memorabilia or TF toys because I have no place to put them; jewelry is always nice but I rarely get to wear it and as for books…well, I’ve made myself a deal once I read the four that are currently sitting on my shelf, I can buy one at a time. Reading is a passion I can not and will not give up, but I can cut it back.

As for another addiction, this goes out to one of my co-workers who shall remain nameless at this point. This person is someone I care about, and they know who there are, this message is for you. We know that you have a meth problem. You may think that you are hiding it well, but you are not. Missing work, sores on your face and the jitters are not a good way for covering up this addiction but more like a cry for help, so let us help. I never understood the thrill of drugs, but I know what addiction is and how hard it can be to break it. Think it over and let’s talk. We can work things out.

If anyone else out there is needing help over-coming an addiction, I’m here to help, even if it’s only to listen.

Weekend Wanderings

Most people get excited when Friday comes along, not me. It’s the beginning of a time crunch, trying to get every aspect I can in. Besides working 26 hours in a 48 hour time frame, the weekend was filled up with many ups and downs.

First of all, for entertainment and my inner geek, Transformers Animated started off their 2nd season. Yes, I’m a huge Transformers fan and this series is the best since G1. I highly suggest it to every one of all ages. Most people that enjoyed the G1 series in the 80’s will recognize a lot of similarities that the show is giving.

Then I had the opportunity to have yet another bridal shower at my home, unfortunately that meant having to miss out on another friend’s baby shower. I hope you got spoiled Colleen. I love having parties for friends and celebrating their joyous milestones in their life, but then afterward I have a feeling of depression as I wonder if my opportunity has past to start a family of my own.

After the party, my pooch had a little mishap of her own. She’s an older dog (she’ll be 15 next month) and she’s having a hard time with seeing. Well, with all the pruning and mowing in the back yard she got lost in all the trimmings. Getting stuck and pinched, her hair was filled with stickers, branches and leaves so imbedded in her; we had to give her a horrible, horrible hair cut. Poor girl :-( She can’t get into the groomers until later this week so she’ll have this freaky look for a few more days.

Then I got to celebrate a birthday for my oldest friend April. We have now known each other for over 21 years. Man time flies! Well, somehow her present ended up in the garbage (still wrapped in plastic though). I did not notice that I could find her present until meeting up with her within the next hour. Having to rummage around in the trash, with the lawn trimmings, the necklace was finally found. We got to meet up with another great gal, Mary and partied it up at MacCool’s. Hope your birthday was a good one April!

As for today, after a long day of work, I decided to take a time out for myself and relax. I got to get out for awhile…took a drive and my camera. I am honestly very lucky to live in such a beautiful place. There are so many diverse places here. The small drive was great therapy, getting ready for another crazy filled week. I hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend as well!

"Two Temples" by Nicole D. Hale
Jordan River Temple (LDS Temple) and Sri Ganesha (Hindu Temple)

Sleep Paralysis ~ A Nightly Fight with Terror

A lot of you have told me that you were excited to see what I have to say about my crazy life, well here’s a bit about me to start off with. After reading this, you’ll probably wonder what the in world you’re doing knowing someone like me. Well here is it…

I’ve debated for awhile to let people know that I suffer from this, because of how extreme this phenomenon is. I’ve only told a handful of people about this and most of them are not close family or friends.

Most of you know that I do not sleep well, waking up several times in the night. This is due to a couple of reasons, first it’s because I’m afraid of not waking up to my alarms (I set two). The next reason is because of this strange thing called sleep paralysis. When I have the chance to sleep in and I’m not worrying about being somewhere in the morning is usually when this happens. This first time I remember this happening, I was around 9 or 10 years old. When someone is in a deep sleep and the R.E.M. cycle is occurring, most people have dreams, about wonderful places, flying and great adventures. Well, most of the time, if I ever get to the dreaming stage of sleep, I have violent nightmares. Waking up during these nightmares brings on sleep paralysis. What happens is the body is in its ultimate form of relaxation, so to wake up suddenly, you body cannot move…basically, you’re paralyzed for a minute or two while your body catches up with your brain. If it was just that, I could handle it, but the worst part comes next. I’m somewhat awake and somewhat still in the dream mode, so the mind is still processing the dream while I lay paralyzed looking around the room. This phenomenon causes the dream (or nightmare in my case) to come to life for the few moments, which seems like hours when you see dark images or creatures hovering around you. Most of the time the image I see is a large dark figure, kind of like a grim reaper appearance or similar to the dark shadows from the movie Ghost.

I know this sounds crazy, but it does affect my sleep. I have trained myself to wake up several times in the night before I can get to the dream stage, so I don’t have to deal with this. I’ve been informed that a lot of my health problems are due to the fact I don’t sleep, so last night I took ½ of a sleeping pill allowing me to get through the night. Because I was relaxed and not controlling my timely wake ups, this madness happened. The only reason why I know I’m not crazy is that I had a therapist tell me about this bizarre sleep experience, but if any of you reading this know of a way to control dreams and/or sleep patterns (without the use of drugs), any advice is welcomed.

Now y’all know one side of where my craziness comes from and hopefully it didn’t scare you off.

America's Top 10 Books

Reading through some of the fun headlines and I came across an article about American's favorite books. This is what is said to be the most popular books in the U.S.

10. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Sali
9. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
8. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
5. The Stand by Stephen King
4. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
3. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
1. The Bible



I have personally read all of the listed titles and I believe that there are so many more books out there that could be in the top ten, but this is what the main stream media gives us. Here's my small take on these books.

~ Catcher in the Rye – overall a good read but reminds me of too many other young teen stories

~ Atlas Shrugged – is a book of fiction but it’s scary how close this can become are future

~ Angels and Demons was great until the end, where it got a bit too unbelievable

~ To Kill a Mockingbird to me was just plain boring

~ The Da Vinci Code ~ The movie did not do it justice (especially the ending)

~ The Stand – I love Stephen King and this book ranks up there with my favorites of his. Personally, his Dark Tower series is better.

~ Harry Potter – What can I say? I love this series (2nd favorite next to the Dark Tower)

~ Lord of the Rings – OMG! This took me forever and a day to get through. I don’t recommend it if you’re just starting out to read fantasy books. I’ll stick with the movies.

~ Gone with the Wind – A long read, but worth knowing more inside details about Scarlett and her family.

~ The Bible – Not a page turner, but a good reference ;-)

I'm Here!

Yep! I've finally made it over here to Blogger. I'm not exactly sure what I'll be writing about. Maybe it'll be funny or upsetting or maybe just a movie or book review. But anyway, I'll be seeing you around the blog!
Luvs and hugs,
~ Nic