Reish Rambling

I'm not dead yet!

rsh.shn@gmail.com (Reish Shin) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:11:00 -0700

I'm not dead yet! I know I said about two months ago that there'll be a new episode any day now, but this time it's for real. I have segments recorded and everything. I'm a big boy now! I can run a podcast! Moum! I can roun arcoss the porp! I did change my mind about the topic, though. Because it's that most witchiful time of the year (please don't kill me for that), I decided to put off talking about prayer (promise it's not an Inciting a Prayerful Riot clone!), and reflect on a few Samhainy, Halloweeny, [Pagan] New Yearish stuff. Also, you get to hear about how I was super sick in September, and how I run a club, and how boys are stupid. So, yeah.

Also, Fire Lyte from over at Inciting a Riot has, with his Ep59--Inciting a Motivated Riot, inspired me to do my own Do the Stuff Challenge. My theme is Spiritual and Physical Fitness! My base goals for the coming six months are

Perform a ritual for EVERY sabbat, full moon, and new moon
Maintain my altars properly: don't let the holy water run out, make sure the candles are fresh, make offerings at least once a week (probably on Sunday, my least busy day)
Meditate at least thrice weekly
Hit the gym at least three times a week. I know what I gotta do, so I gotta just bloody do it!
Eat healthily: balanced meals, homemade bread, minimal [HF]CS and processed foods
Eat enough: three big meals, with plenty of healthy snacking in between

I've just now cleansed and rededicated my altars, and also rededicated myself, so here we go! It'll be a ride, for sure! I'll post updates here, along with episodes. Hope you'll come along with me for the ride!

Also, Good Samhain to all y'all who reckon it by the moon! For the rest of us on the solar calendar, Good Be-earlied Samhain! Blessed be!

Reish Rambling promo!

rsh.shn@gmail.com (Reish Shin) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 15:54:00 -0700

A general promo for the show, if you'd like to pimp it on your podcast :)

Credit, as always, to Kevin MacLeod for the music, Cold Funk, from his site incompetech.com, available under CC-BY 3.0.

Roadtrip photos, part deux

rsh.shn@gmail.com (Reish Shin) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 19:12:00 -0700

Yet more excitement!

Some building somewhere.

This was an amazing, trashy diner about 1 hour outside Statesville, NC. The waitress was from FL, and her family from NJ.

Anachronistic signage, ahoy!

Crossing the Great Smoky Mountains.

It's beautiful. Pictures cannot capture it. Go visit the Appalachians.

Sam's Cats!

The Bijou theatre in Knoxville. Formerly a brothel, it is now quite cultured (or so we're told :p).

More Knoxville!

The Tennessee Theatre, the old(est) theatre in Knoxville.


BI.'.JOU.'. Also, I believe that tall thing is part of the courthouse.

Historical monuments about pioneers, near the old courthouse. There are also monuments to the Sevier family, which included the second governor of TN.

Cannon!

Spanish-American War memorial. Also, near here some lady in a convertible asked us, "Do y'all know where dey let the paddywagons out?" Sometimes stereotypes are true, apparently.

The current courthouse.

Justice, outside the courthouse.

A street!

There are some pretty cool statues in Knoxville.

This is near Market Square, I think...

Women's suffrage monument in Market Square.

More suffrage monument, and also memorial bricks.

Many, many thanks to Cory from New World Witchery for recommending so many excellent places to visit on this trip! Thank you!
And also, though they probably won't see this, many thanks to Lara and SamTS for having us and taking us out, Lisa's mom for underwriting our hotel stays, and, of course, my dear Lisa herself, saint of patience and the best travel buddy I could wish for!

New episode is upcoming, with actual Pagan/spiritual content, and also a science segment, and maybe even a folktale (yes, I'm jumping on that ol' bandwagon). I'm writing it right now. Hopefully will get it out by the end of the week. Bits of video from the trip will are also upcoming.

Pictures from the roadtrip!

rsh.shn@gmail.com (Reish Shin) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 21:38:00 -0700

All taken by my dear friend and traveling companion, Lisa.

Hittin' the road on good ol' NJ 31

First step into a larger world: Crossin' the Delaware!

"I'm in a state of P-fuckin'-A!"

Mercury Retrograde at work! Thankfully, this was the biggest problem he caused.

We crossed the Atlantic many times :p

PA Dutch country in Lancaster. This is a more interesting version of what we saw during a good portion of our trip. SO MUCH CORN!

Lancasterrrrrrr! This is an adorable town. You should visit it.

The War Memorial in Lancaster.

More War Memorial.

Public pianos in Lancaster! It was adorable.

More piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiano. The notice on it asks you not to play after 10pm, because all of us employed people need to sleep.

More Lancaster. I don't know why Lisa took this picture, but she probably had a good reason. Also, I probably stood there like a dork and took several minutes of footage of this one street. I'm a dork.

Lancaster is tiny, but it has modern sensibilities.

Lancaster also has lots of beautiful old churches.

These kids saw us filming and called us over. We had a cute conversation. The youngest one is out of the frame here. They were waiting for the bus to Bible School. Also, they asked if Lisa was my girlfriend, which shouldn't've been funny, but it was.

This church is amazing on the inside.

I told you so :p Also, the organist who was practicing sounded amazing.

Oddly enough, this was in a town called Railroad. We were lost.

Trails in Spring Valley Park, which is impossible to find without a York County map. It's near/part of Rehmeyer's Hollow.

It was a lovely hike. This is probably the cutest I looked throughout the entire trip. Because I'm attempting to stand up straight and you can't see my shamefully scruffy face.

More of the park. It's beautiful.

Artistic shot!

An actual red phone booth! Wow!

Mercury Retrograde at work (along with our tax dollars).

Small towns. This was kind of large, actually, compared to most of the towns we went through in VA and NC.

The War Memorial in Leonardtown.

More Leonardtown. While we didn't go searching for this legend, this was the home town of Moll Dyer, who was accused of witchcraft in the latter part of the 1600s, and froze to death in the woods nearby after being run out of town. A stone allegedly bearing her hand or knee prints was recovered from the woods and placed in front of the courthouse.

Salvaged Civil War cannon in Leonardtown.

On the road again.

The scenery was sooooo beautiful. There was just a lot of it.

IT ACTUALLY EXISTS! ...I believe this was in NC.

Saw these in NC. To me, they look like more or less preserved sharecroppers' houses.

Some were in better shape than others.

Anachronistic gas pump ahoy!

Jersey driver just pumpin' that gas. I look like a huge dickhead. But this was a pretty cool gas station.

Lots of old houses on this trip.

The Outer Banks. It's like going home.

The water was actually quite warm and calm on that day. It was also low tide when we were there.

Me again, slouching because I'm graceless and my back was trying to secede and form its own CSA.

The lovely Lisa, grateful that we're out of the bloody car, and also that we're by the water. She is such a saint of patience.

Currituck Sound.

More Currituck Sound, with seagulls.

Part II coming tomorrow (electricity permitting). Blogspot just vomited and deleted about half of the post, and I'm too tired to fix it. But enjoy these pictures! I hope they will make my rambly narrative more exciting <.<

Episode 3--ROADTRIP!!!

rsh.shn@gmail.com (Reish Shin) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 20:33:00 -0700

Hello, all! This is a light, albeit looooooooong episode, in which I talk about the super awesome roadtrip I went on at the beginning of the month! Vicariously experience Thrills (getting fucking lost!), Chills (heatstroke!), and Really Unhealthy Food (it's the South, what do you expect)! And also a little history. And I do mean a little.

I'll be posting photos in the post immediately following this one because it's quite a few photos. Video will also be coming eventually, after I (a)figure out how to edit it and (b)figure out how to use teh UTubz.

Also, I have my first blog follower. I nearly wet myself with excitement.

Thank you, Kathleen Borealis! You rock! (Pun maybe intended <.<)

So, it was way too long since last episode. I'm going to try to make another very soon!

Credits:
Recorded/Mixed with Audacity under Ubuntu.
Intro: Cold Funk. Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0" http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Science Intro: MTA. Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0" http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/; voicover:Bino the Elephant. Jason Steele (filmcow.com)
Outro: Raw. Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0" http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Day before roadtripping: sorry there's no minisode

rsh.shn@gmail.com (Reish Shin) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 09:53:00 -0700

Heyyyyy~ Sorry that I haven't gotten a minisode out like I suggested I might. Things at home have been a little busier than I expected. But I'll be back soon enough! And with pictures!

Episode 2--Colo(u)r and U

rsh.shn@gmail.com (Reish Shin) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 21:14:00 -0700

In this episode, I look at colour: what it is, where it comes from, and how we use it in magick. WTF is up with colour correspondences anyway? In the science segment (who am I kidding, this is mostly science!), I talk about tomatoes! Specifically, canned tomatoes (how do they work? Protip: not miracles!), and how you can preserve more delicate fruits and vegetables without turning them into mush.

I promise next episode will not involve science. Promise promise.

Also, I am now on Twitter: @RShShN (www.twitter.com/RShShN)
I totally forgot to put contact info in the last show! You can comment on the blog, email me at rsh.shn@gmail.com, or tweet me!

Visible spectrum by ascending wavelength/descending energy. By Spigget on Wikimedia Commons; licensed CC Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Electromagnetic wave; ±q is the electrical component (E⃗, blue); red (B⃗) is the magnetic component. Figure at right is a head-on view of the wave, as if it were coming out of the page. k⃗ is the velocity of the wave. By SuperManu on Wikimedia Commons; licensed CC-BY-uSA.

Helpful links for the perplexed:
Planck's Constant: 6.626 × 10^-34Js
Huygens-Fresnel Principle
Schrödinger Equation (not for the faint of heart)
FRET
cis-trans Isomerism
Opsins (visual pigments)
Perception of Colour

Plasmodesmata
Pectins!
D-Galacturonic acid and its parent sugar, D-Galactose (aka D-Gal)
Brønsted-Lowry and Lewis acids

Credits:

Recorded/Mixed with Audacity under Ubuntu.

Intro: Cold Funk. Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0" http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Science Intro: MTA. Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0" http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/; voicover:Bino the Elephant. Jason Steele (filmcow.com)

Outro: Raw. Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0" http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
"Please, God, tell me I have not inspired something burgundy..." Lola (Chiwete Ejiofor) in Kinky Boots (2005), Julian Jarrold, dir., Geoff Dean & Tim Firth, writers. Constitutes fair use.

Laaaaate

rsh.shn@gmail.com (Reish Shin) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 12:05:00 -0700

I'm sorry I'm so late with Ep 2. It will be ready soon! Just stuff has been happening. Soon, soon, promise promise.

Episode 1--Magick: A Probabilistic and Thermodynamic Approach

rsh.shn@gmail.com (Reish Shin) — Tue, 5 Jul 2011 22:34:00 -0700

Shownotes:

Hooray debut! In this episode, I talk about magick as the magnification of probability, and touch on the economic argument. In the science segment, we'll take a look at the preliminary report on the E. coli outbreak northern Germany, as published in the New England Journal of Medicine.


A Folding Funnel. "N" marks the position of the native conformation, and height represents free energy.

Credits:

Recorded/Mixed with Audacity under Ubuntu.

Outro: Raw. Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0" http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
O'Reilly meltdown sample from ye auld YouTube. Constitutes fair use.
Folding funnel from http://teenbiotechchallenge.ucdavis.edu/tbc10/Peter%20Wang,%20Clara%20Fannjiang,%20William%20Liu/Chemistry.html. Constitutes fair use.

Article Discussed:
Christina Frank, Ph.D., Dirk Werber, D.V.M., Jakob P. Cramer, M.D., Mona Askar, M.D., Mirko Faber, M.D., Matthias an der Heiden, Ph.D., Helen Bernard, M.D., Angelika Fruth, Ph.D., Rita Prager, Ph.D., Anke Spode, M.D., Maria Wadl, D.V.M., Alexander Zoufaly, M.D., Sabine Jordan, M.D., Klaus Stark, M.D., Ph.D., and Gérard Krause, M.D., Ph.D. for the HUS Investigation Team. Epidemic Profile of Shiga-Toxin–Producing Escherichia coli O104:H4 Outbreak in Germany — Preliminary Report. NEJM June 22, 2011 (10.1056/NEJMoa1106483)

Episode 0--Introductions

rsh.shn@gmail.com (Reish Shin) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:31:00 -0700

Nice to meet y'all! Here's a short introductory 0^th episode! Shout out to Fire Lyte, Cory and Laine, and Velma Nightshade!
Hopefully I'll put out an episode every other week or so.

Credits:
Recorded/mixed with Audacity under Windows Vista (I know, yuck.)
Intro: Cold Funk. Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0" http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Outro: Raw. Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0" http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In which a podcast is attempted

rsh.shn@gmail.com (Reish Shin) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:41:00 -0700

O hey, this was my test post! It's all gone now. No worries, it was crap anyway. I recorded it when I had strep.