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Well, I’ve been gathering stuff I need to get my Canadian Passport got the photos done this morning.
I go into the photo place, and I’m told Canadians are not to smile for their passport photographs.
Instead, applicants must submit pictures showing their neutral expressions. The Canadian Passport Office says that means no smiling, frowning, glaring or grimacing. For crying out loud they’re applying for a passport to get the hell out of Canada how can they not help but smile over that?

So I’m looking at my photos after they were printed, and I wasn’t allowed to smile, they had to retake the picture after I had a glare off my forehead.
Yup, a sure sign you’re getting older.

I look at the photos and decide; it’s a good thing I am going on this trip, because man, I look old!

Going to Aruba??? COOL!
So, I’m leavin’… on a jet plane… on February 10th at midnight… taking a red-eye to Toronto… then straight to Aruba. I’ll be back on or about February 18th.

Had to laugh the morning I found out about going to Aruba… Had to bitch-slap ManofSteel in order to go… but well worth eventual reprisals.

First thing out of my mouth was “Where the hell is Aruba?”. Then I Google Earth and see this tiny ass island flying up toward me, and I say to ManofSteel… “oh… I am sooo there!”

ManofSteel is going to Warsaw Poland in March for a couple months… so I thought it was a pretty good trade.

Anyway… I’m planning on taking my webcam with me and setting it up on the balcony in my room at the hotel Aruba Marriot Resort & Stellaris Casino

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So when I get there… I’ll post an entry here with a link to the Webcam. You should all be able to click the link and get streaming video which can be played in Windows Media Player.

Remember… the time difference is +3 hours to Calgary MST.

I was asked today what exactly is being a Pagan? When I tried to edu-ma-cate them, I told them the major differences in Paganism is Wiccan and Druid.

What is a Druid?
A brief response would be “Druidry is a spiritual path that honours the ancestors and the spirits of nature and celebrates individuality and creativity.”
Blah Blah Blah….That is but one description of druidry.

A friend of mine, xMuX, who hasn’t even decided/announced or the balls to admit that he is in fact Pagan (in spirit), being annoyed with someone stating that this definition wasn’t simple enough, he defined Druidry as:
“Druidry is a nature religion of white-robed tree-huggers who like to drink mead or Smirnoff.”

So, modern Druidry is rooted in the ancient Celtic past. Before we go any further let’s explore a bit about the Druid past.

Who were the Druids?
The word “druid” comes from the Celtic root word “druwid” (that’s Phoetic for all you Christians out there) which means – oak knowledge. From “dru” meaning oak and “wid” meaning “to know” or “to see”.

Reading several books, (that xMuX just happens to buy me for my birthdays etc.) and even fiction (like Morgan Llewellyn’s “The Druids”) the overwhelming impression that we have is that the Druids were a priestly type class – Ritual leaders, Healers, Maintainers of lore, Keepers of the Law and the Repository of Tribal History.

Druids were Bards, Priests, Herbalists, Musicians, Judges, Historians and Magicians.
Druidry is not limited to men, women are also Druids. To become a Druid took many years of dedication towards learning all the lore by rote. Nothing was written down. There have been some theories as to why the Druids didn’t write anything down – since the Celts as a people did travel throughout Europe they were exposed to Greek and Latin. Why didn’t they write anything down?

It is believed that words have power – by writing them down they lose power. What little written documentation that we do have about the Druids has been written by those who conquered the Celts – the Romans.

This is a very long lesson… so I’ll end this here for now

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Don’t get any funny ideas Lansow or Yawlyer !:D