Collie's Bestiary

For my birthday in October, my wonderful housemate took me to see the display on King Tutankhamen at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco. It was, quite simply, amazing. Not only were the precious items quite breathtaking, but the information which accompanied the display was fascinating. There was some history on King Tut, including probable [...]

This month's Firestarter is a (badly needed) review and reflection on How Do We Keep Honesty? I figured since February is traditionally a month for love, this time I'd attempt to achieve love of self, and gently engage in some internal reflection — always a scary proposition. :-) Fair warning: this Firestarter will make the [...]

(Originally written some time in 1999 for an Independent Study anthropology class on various seminal works in the field) Roland Barthes' exploration of the mythologizing characteristics of bourgeoisie society in France is an absorbing read. He starts out by investigating the possible mythical meanings of many of the conventionally accepted societal norms or rituals in [...]

I try not to write "hop on the bandwagon" postings about the current "hot" topic in the news. I like to have a bit of time to consider and reflect on issues and situations. Within that timeframe I frequently find that simply quietly helping however I can is all I wish to say on the [...]

I've come to the conclusion I don't agree with the definition of Gatekeeper. I do agree there's more than just the two extremes — regardless of whether you call them "Warrior" and "Forgiver" or "heavy-handed militarism" and "turn-the-other-cheek pacifism." I suppose Gatekeeper is as good a term as any for that "middle of the road" [...]

Part of a quick "reflection" written for my aikido class. Huzzah! My aikido class has a list of recommended readings. The first of those books, which I requested at the library, has come in and is now successfully in my hot little hands. I'm the proud new borrower of Richard Strozzi Heckler's "Aikido and the [...]

This is an invite to the Open House being held for the Master's program I'm in. It has been, quite frankly, life changing for me, so if you're at all intrigued, please come out to hear more about it. Open House & Information Session Saturday, January 23, 2009 at 12:00 p.m. with Co-directors Judy Grahn [...]

I don't know if this is common knowledge, but I'm an Amazon.com Associate. In my postings here, I put links to all the books and movies and things I review, so people can easily purchase them from Amazon if they so wish. I figured that would allow my readers and friends to get a nifty [...]

Well, after giving it the old college try, I think posting former papers from college in this format is way too much bother! If I refer to them in future reviews or Firestarters, I'll upload them here as single, very long pages, rather than a kabillion short blog entries. That being said, as promised, here [...]

Possible Solutions It is a simple but appealing answer to say all that needs to be done to solve the problems delineated and explored above is to restructure the societies in the readings. Were this to occur, then by definition women and minorities would not be repressed any longer, but would instead be hegemonically considered [...]