In many ways I’m an easy-going and tolerant person; but I can also be rather sharp-tongued and intolerant too, when things start to get my goat, having built up for some time. I’m a logical-thinker, and may at times appear to suffer from overindulgence in my own intellectual-prowess: Nevertheless I try to stay on a level and retain an heir of consistency and competence.

There are a number of things, though, that make me see red fairly quickly; although I usually successfully contain any over-emotional reaction to a certain degree in most cases. Here are a few of them: -

1) Drunkenness and associated inarticulate vulgarities and depraved fuckwittery: Everyone likes a drink but nobody likes a drunk; particularly me, if the drunk in question happens to use it as an excuse to behave in a delinquent and irresponsible manner. Very very occasionally I get drunk myself; once or twice a year at most, but I tend to just shut up and do and say nothing, as there’s probably nothing sensible to say if my head’s swimming, and as I already know, if there’s nothing to be said some idiot usually has to go and say it: I just don’t want it to be me.

2) Huge sales letters: Do marketers honestly think that I’m going to read all 30,000+ words covering an equivalent of 48 single-sides of A4 paper? The way I see it; there are several points to be made: -

1. What the product is.
2. What the product does.
3. How the product will help the customer.
4. Why the customer should buy this particular product.
5. What other people think of the product and/or the vendor.
6. The money-back guarantee of satisfaction.
7. Re-affirmations and closing remarks.

That’s it; no more is needed. While touching on how using the methods or whatever contained within the product has helped the vendor personally is a very good thing, I honestly don’t want to spend an hour reading about how much money the vendor has had since birth, and how they are now the greatest marketer in the history of the internet because they have been bringing in $20,000 a day in the last 3 months using the “secret formula to success” that is only and exclusively contained in their publication. (The “secret formula to success” that they mention is, usually, set up a website/blog and sell the “secret formula to success” to everyone else.)

(A video-presentation helps too; because it’s more interesting than reading reams of multi-coloured typeface, as well as the fact that it can eliminate the need for all the said typeface.)

Don’t get me wrong here, though: There are some genuine products out there from genuine vendors and authors that don’t claim that they’re going to make you an instant success overnight; but sometimes do nevertheless: It’s a matter of knowing how to filter golden-nuggets these out from the detritus. – and that’s what I attempt to do with regard to anything I offer via this blog, before I advertise it. – I’m just nearing the end of the Blog Masters Club course by David Risley myself; so yes I do buy and try some of the products before I offer them here. If they are no good then I ask for a refund and forget them. If I benefit from them then I advertise them here. (Yes; I will be promoting the Blog Masters Club; because it’s an excellent product.): This includes physical as well as online products too.

At times I’ll see a product and get a gut-feeling about it, after which I’ll do a little research and then promote it if the gut-feeling remains. Also at times I see a product that makes me curious, but after looking into it I can say “No” to it and move onwards.

3) Spammers – That includes Twitter-spammers, email-spammers, and every other kind of spammer out there.

Now, surprisingly, I actually do admire the tenacity and dedication of some spammers in a way, in that they have the persistence and unerring dedication to continuously flood the market with their dodgy offers of dodgy goods, and that, even though any spammer has a bad reputation by designation, people still, nevertheless, buy their goods: Well you don’t think that spammers would be spamming if it didn’t work do you? Some people even if only 1 in almost a million, buy from a spammer: Therefore, if the spammer sends out 100 million spams a day, or get 100 million views a day, then they make 100 or more sales a day.

Don’t get me wrong, though; spammers annoy me just as much as they annoy anyone else, and I definitely don’t condone or encourage spamming: It’s irresponsible and selfish; it puts a vital public utility; namely the world wide web, in jeopardy by consuming too much bandwidth, it’s usually a criminal activity supporting other criminal activities, and it’s illegal: There are 3 good-enough-reasons not to do it.

But the public; even if it’s just 1 in a million people, keep the spammers in profit, because they buy from them: therefore there will always be spammers because there will always be dodgy or criminal or stupid or any combination of the three members of the public who use the internet.

4) Brainless egocentric men. Please note that I intend no sexism here: I mentioned “men” rather than “people” because brainless egocentric women don’t annoy me; they actually entertain me to some extent, despite the fact that I treat them with the contempt that they deserve in many cases. I have creased up so many times because of this that I’m surprised I still have all my ribs intact. I have a knack of making such females appear and feel 1/2 inch tall.

Men with this trait, on the other hand, bore me to tears, and if I ever manage to get a word in edgeways through their mindless, brainless, senseless drivel about how big they are, how they scare everyone else, who they’ve beaten up + stories of fights from the past, and how they always make a perfect sexual conquest of some poor victim-girl afterwards who is amazed at their macho-ness… zzz, it usually angers them because the comment I make out of sheer intellectual-unbelievability, boredom, and tedium, is guaranteed to be pointed with a poison-tip and hurts their inflated male-pride.

5) Christmas – Yes Christmas; a time for giving, a time for sharing, the season where we show our love and compassion towards our fellow humans… OK let’s cut the BS:

Christmas; take 2, and action: A time for some people to get as much as they can, no matter what the cost; particularly if they’re a teenager. A time for being bored to tears by the in-laws and having to listen to their boring tedium of an excuse for conversation again. A time for drunkenness and gluttony…

Enough! – That’s the negative bit.

On the positive side; a time for stores and other retail outlets to do a roaring trade and balance their books against any losses accrued at lean-times in the trading-calendar. A time when the year’s profits can be estimated fairly accurately from the season’s overall profit when run against projected losses in the coming post-Christmas lean-time.

I don’t intend to labour this: There is one winner from Christmas: Commerce – Everyone else loses at the end of the day.

It’s not about Christ, other than the token “away in a manger” stuff as performed by schoolchildren, nor is it about anything religious any longer; be it Pagan, Christian, whatever.

Me? I hibernate: Not literally; I mean I hermit-ise. – I lock myself away with a computer and an internet connection and a coffee machine, and before I know it the day’s over. Relief! ‘Only another 250 or so days to go before everything starts gearing towards the following damn Christmas again… and before that we have Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween… Now I don’t mind Halloween, but all the Christianisation and the Westernisation and the Hollywood influence, etc, has detracted far away from its real meaning…

Enough of this: It’s coffee-time. Bye.

…For two reasons if you live in the Northern Hemisphere; for one if you live in the Southern Hemisphere: -

- Because, in the Northern Hemisphere, the nights are getting shorter from this point onwards; whereas, in the southern Hemisphere the reverse is true. (You’ll notice very little difference if you live within 500 miles of the equator on either side.)

- And because, since it’s Yule today for Pagans, and Christmas on Friday for Christians, I’m giving away a couple of products with PLR rights – meaning you can customise them and even sell them as your own work- as Yule/Christmas presents to all of my readers, or any who want them.

So then; without more ado, I present you with: -

• Auction-O–Matic:  Automatically create Auction Ads that really hit potential bidders between the eyes without ANY programming!

And…

• 55 ClickBank Review Articles: Custom reviews for each of the top 55 ClickBank products including the upcoming ones. All articles already have hoplinks to the Clickbank product, so all you have to do is to insert your own nickname, rather than having to go the marketplace and finding the product link.

Both of these products have PLR rights, and you’re all welcome to either or both of them.

Blessed Yule / Merry Christmas

…And what would this post be without the customary adverts?

- Cue the adverts: -

This is the last Public Newsletter of 2009. The next Public Newsletter will appear on this blog on Friday 15th January 2010, in just under a month’s time; 4 weeks to be precise. There won’t be a Public Newsletter on New Years Day, unless there are exceptional unforeseen circumstances that the public need to be notified about.

In this final Public Newsletter of 2009, I’d like to draw your attention to a few new features on this blog: -

The first of these is the poll, which is happening in the sidebar. Although I appreciate that a number of my visitors only come here to get what they want and then as soon as they’ve got it they disappear, and don’t seem to care if the blog vanishes or blows up so long as they have what they want, (This doesn’t apply to all visitors by any means; but I’m certain that a number of visitors have this attitude.) I’m actually trying to reach out and interact with everyone. – So if you’d be so good as to participate I would be grateful; considering I provide this service.

If the poll’s not working for any reason at any point then I’d be grateful if someone would let me know: This brings me on to the next newly-added feature of the blog; that being the “Send Me Your Feedback” page, on which is a form, with which you can communicate with me. (Horror of horrors!) – Well if you’ve read what I have to say then, unless you’re totally brain-dead, you’ll obviously form an opinion as you read. Use the form to tell me your opinion, and do let me know which article you’re referring to when you do so. – Also tell me if something like the poll isn’t working, or anything at all: Surely somebody must have something to say? Surely you don’t hold me up as a goddess and obey my every word unquestioningly? This is also good for people who don’t like the Disqus comment system that I’ve installed, as it provides an alternative way to comment. – No your comment isn’t automatically published; but I will publish the comments made in this way as I see fit.

There is another product on offer too; which I haven’t yet got around to advertising with banners as I appear to have currently run out of room for any more banners; therefore I’ve dedicated an entire small page to it, with a clickable link or two to the product’s main page. You can find it by either clicking this link or clicking on the link under the header banner titled “The WordPress Classroom” (Those links aren’t there for my benefit only you know.) – As in the place where you go to learn all about using WordPress as a platform for your blog and generating an online income from it, etc, etc…

You may have noticed that some of the links in that block under the header-banner that were there before aren’t there now: This doesn’t mean that the respective pages have vanished though; just that I’ve once again run out of space to display everything: A matter that I’ll be addressing during 2010, or perhaps before.

Here’s a display of all the page links that are currently displayed, followed by a list of links to all all active pages that are not currently displayed: -

• Send Me Your Feedback
• Help Me Out
• Blog Contents
• About Shazza
• Objective of This Blog
• Graphical Symbols Used in Electronics
• Testimonials
• kkomp.com Privacy Policy
• The WordPress Classroom

• Get a Free pdf Report
• Additional Comment
• Pagan Links
• Tech Humour
• SEO Elite: The Proven Optimiser – Review
• Get Yourself a Better Browser Today
• Encrypt-Stick: Keep Your Data Safe – Even if Your Laptop’s Stolen

… And for the convenience of my visitors I’ve just this second put those extra page-links in a widget in the sidebar too.

… And for my next trick I bring you the standard listing of all the posts published since the last newsletter; just in case you missed any: -

I Want to Move a Program From my Old OS to Windows 7…

December 17, 2009

When you’ve lost the installation program and/or the product-key; you could be basically screwed… But it’s better to spend to save in the long run.

Onwards and Upwards

December 14, 2009

Come on people: Scrooge is dead – At least I thought so…

Encrypt-Stick: Keep Your Data Safe

December 12, 2009

Over 600,000 laptop thefts annually, resulting in a $5.4 billion loss of proprietary information: Put an end to this crazy financial loss with Encrypt-Stick.

Coming Soon: Christmas Discount Shopping Arcade

December 10, 2009

It’s a kind of discount – starting next week. Roll up, roll up: you have less than a month to grab a few bargains!

The arcade is still there; and will be until 5th January 2010; so I suggest you take a visit.

MaxBlogPress Christmas DEAL is LIVE…

December 9, 2009

An amazing deal; that is never to be repeated: Get MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate plus 3 other top products for less than Ninja Affiliate usually retails for!

‘Sorry; but it’s now too late to catch this one: The offer is now closed.

Just a Quick Note…

December 8, 2009

As title: Just a quick note… As in: ‘Note; of the quick variety’.

Microsoft Security Essentials Rated Top Free Anti-Malware Solution

December 7, 2009

Microsoft’s free Security Essentials anti-malware package is getting great publicity; and now it even stands up well to vigorous testing too.

Apology for Technical Fault

December 5, 2009

Apology for the unexpected technical issue that this blog has encountered.

… And that’s just about it for 2009: If you’re doing Christmas this year, have a good one: Merry Christmas. – And for all fellow Pagans; blessed Yule. … & Happy Hanukah for Jews, and blessed be for any other religious festivities, here unmentioned, that you may or may not be engaging in.

The Public Newsletter returns in the New Year, so also have a Happy New Year, and I wish you all tech success and happiness & prosperity for 2010.

Namaste’.

There are two main things this week: -

Firstly I’m reigning back on free-content-creation; at least for the time-being: I’ve been writing and writing and writing; and the result of that is that the creation of new (pillar) content has begun taking over totally; leaving very little room for anything else. – That means that development and enhancement had, basically, gone out of the window.

Whilst it’s true that this blog has had rather a lot of work done on it with regard to design-enhancement of late; I found that this plus creating all that daily-or-more new-content was wearing me out: I worked two 36-hour-days in one week just to get the design bettered, on top of content-creation. I still have the dark-rings under my eyes to prove it too.

So until at least a couple of weeks into January 2010 I’ll be producing maybe considerably less free content than I have been recently doing. – Although having said that if the writing-bug takes over, as it does from time to time, there may be the odd sporadic burst of increased-output.

Shop via Kkomp.com – Beyond.

The thing is that I don’t want to be producing free-content at the expense of things that could make this blog-venture a self-financing or profitable exercise: My current project, which is already delayed due to various circumstances, is my shopping-arcade, which is hopefully going to be open- at least in a limited sense – for the post-Christmas-sale-period and hopefully from then onwards. – However I may well run into further snags and not be able to open until later into 2010. – I’ll have to see how things go on that before making any promises.

Whether this project is going to actually work as intended, or just look like a mini-mall in Times Square, is what I’m going to find out when I get it up and running. – However the project is underway, and more will be revealed as and when. I’m hoping that the next revelation will be its opening, but I know that if I rush it then it’ll just fail, crash, and burn – So I’m taking my time with it to bring value and a decent product which will give the customer a good experience to the table, rather than something that looks like it’s been bodged in a rush. – So maybe I’ll end up missing the deadline, but at the end of the day I’ll have something that’ll last. – Christmas 2010 is only 52 weeks away after Christmas 2009 anyway, and by that time I’ll be hoping to have become an established online affiliate-and-otherwise-retail-outlet, in addition to being a technology-information-and-reference-library. – Those are the current plans anyway.

I’m quite serious about the monetisation of this blog; as a self-financing or profitable blog is a blog that it going to last the test of time, rather than going under and vanishing or not being updated due to financial-pressures brought about by x-circumstance(s).

- There will still be free-content here then, as there is now, and some more. There will also be paid-for content of a higher-quality nature, and in a different type of format to that already available, such as maybe membership-site sections providing coursework on a paid-for basis, etc.

Moving on…

Moving on: The next main issue in the spotlight with regard to this blog recently is the move of the mailing-list; hereinafter known as the ‘Kkomp.com – Beyond community’ from FeedBlitz to AWeber. As you’ll no doubt have noticed; the mini-forms displayed to join the community have already been switched to AWeber ’s forms from FeedBlitz, and as a result all new entrants into the community, having confirmed their wish by clicking on the confirmation URL in the email sent by AWeber, will instantly go onto the AWeber list rather than the original FeedBlitz list.

As for those already on the original FeedBlitz list; well the FeedBlitz list is still operational and those concerned will continue to get the usual level of service that they’re used to for the time-being. When, in the near-future, I’ve ensured that the new AWeber system is configured properly and working optimally, I’ll be importing the FeedBlitz membership to AWeber, and they’ll probably receive a confirmation email from AWeber, before going onto the AWeber list, having thus clicked the confirmation URL.

Following on from that the FeedBlitz list will remain open, although I’m unsure how long for, but any new people joining the community will go onto the AWeber list from the outset.

IF anyone currently on the FeedBlitz list wishes to get onto the AWeber list in advance , then they are welcome to fill in the currently-displayed AWeber mini-forms now. – However they should expect glitches, etc, on the AWeber side, until I get the new list configured exactly as it should be and confirm that. – Therefore it may be an idea if people switching to AWeber in this way also remain on the FeedBlitz list for the time-being.

In short; everything is a little behind-schedule, but it’s all happening.

21 Days to Christmas

It’s 3 weeks that can’t go fast enough to me. I’ve been hearing about bleemin’ Christmas since the end of September. I find it sad that most of the Human Race dedicate at least 1/4 of their lives, or more in some cases, towards 1/365th of their life; which at the end of the day only brings them debt, poverty, a hangover, bellyache, and lots of other negative things which take up to a year to recover from. – How sad!

So it’s a sorry-time for consumers, in reality. As far as manufacturer’s, retailers and a lot of businesses are concerned, however, the massive amount of consumer-glut brings massive bonuses: So in a way the gullibility of the consumer partially-drives the world economy to a large extent. – That can’t be bad then: It’s a balance of yin and yang: From negativity comes positivity; from inertia springs productivity, and, as always, someone’s loss is someone else’s gain.

But wasn’t there meant to be some religious significance to Christmas?

From a Christian perspective, it can’t possibly, for a number of reasons which I won’t go into here, be the time of year that Jesus (Latin) (Hebrew=Yeshua.) was born. Also the 4 differing records available in the well-known Gospels are fairly dubious and contradict one another in a number of places. Even the other Gospels from the Nag Hammadi Library  cannot in any way unite the separate accounts, and in many ways further contradict one another. The fact is that they were written well after the events by people with their own differing political agendas and mostly in varying states of consciousness; courtesy of wine, myrrh, and whatever other potent concoctions were available at the time.

From a Pagan perspective, it’s the date of the Feast of Mithras; the Legend of Mithras as taught by the Roman all-male Cult of Mithras is in fact the source of most of the Biblical New Testament teachings, with Jesus substituted for Mithras in a lot of cases. There is no longer a Cult of Mithras, and there hasn’t been for well over 1000 years. (At least I’m unaware of there being any, although it was a very secret cult from its inception.)

Christmas is also very near the Yule sabbat, marking the return of the sun and rebirth of the Mother Goddess. – But that’s the 21st December, the darkest day with the least sun, rather than Christmas Day itself.

- So from whichever religious perspective you look at it, whether you see Jesus as the Son of God, a Witch, or just a political insurgent using religion to get his message across, as all political insurgents did at the time, it’s a blank, a farce, a dud: Something invented to fill a void in otherwise empty lives.

To me; living as I do in England, this time of year is just darkness, cold, short days and long nights. Barren and lifeless soil and bare trees and shrubs, devoid of any foliage and in a state of growth-suspense.

Next year I’ll be hoping to cash-in on the consumer-glut though, I hope, if things go according to plan. That, in itself, will hopefully pay for my heating and lighting bills; although as far as lighting economy is concerned you might like this article from a while back.

While we’re at it; let’s take a customary look back at the articles published since the last Public Newsletter, in reverse-chronological-order: -

I didn’t get as many responses as I’d hoped to get; but all-in-all those responses that I did get were favourable: -

In response to Question #1 (Multi-choice.); “Overall; do you like this site?”: -

Around a third of respondents said that “the design sucks, but the content is good.”

Since then I’ve improved the design a lot, although I’m sure that there’s room for more improvement.

A couple of people said “It’s brilliant!” – Thank you to those people. – I now know that a tiny section of my readers are compulsive liars. (Joke.)

Around a third said “Yes. – It’s reasonably good all round.” – That’s encouraging to hear.

… But almost two-thirds said “It could be better.”.

- Fair comment; what couldn’t? – Having said that though, I’ll not get complacent about things. – I’ll keep striving to make this blog better and better as time goes by.

Question #2 (Multi-choice.) asked “Am I providing what you want and expect from this site?”.

Around a third of respondents answered “Yes; I’m satisfied.”.

Around two-thirds, however, answered “Yes; but ‘could do better.”

Before I start getting big-headed about it, though, the fact was that almost a third said, before the latest design changes were implemented “The site’s layout needs improvement.”

I didn’t get anyone responding in this way after the improvements were made. – Possibly because nobody could stand the sight of the blog any further from that point; however I’ll gauge the effects of those and any subsequent changes in the next survey, if I still have an audience.

Question 3 asked “How do you feel that this site could be improved? (Be as specific as you want.)”.

This asked the respondent to enter text into a text-box. Many people skipped this, but among the responses I got were: -

“I would only say aesthetically.”, “Sometimes post topics are a bit cryptic”, and “More photographs instead of ‘cutesy’ Fairy-Doll graphics”.

As you may have noticed; I’ve been working on the aesthetics, and will continue to do so over time.

It is true that some titles are cryptic: That was deliberate and designed to give a tabloid-feel to certain articles. I’ll make an effort not to be over-cryptic if I can help it.

As for “’cutesy’ Fairy-Doll graphics”; I think the last time I used such graphics was in June 2009 in the kkomp.com birthday post, which was deliberately done – although if it’s not liked generally I could desist from using them at all in future. The question is whether or not it would be seen as politically incorrect to not exclude them on the grounds of undue feminism. I’ve no idea why that should be the case; but someone’s bound to think of it: A man of course.

Question number 4 was the same style of question as number 3.

It asked “What, specifically, would you like to see on this site in future?”

One of the answers I got was

“More Pagan/Witch stuff, a, extra traffic for you, and b, you’re good at being forthright, it’d be great to use it that way too. Just be polite.

In answer to that I could also do a piece on the role of Lenin in the Russian Revolution; however neither would be particularly good subject-matter for a tech-blog. Whilst it’s true that I very occasionally do a piece on Pagan belief, timed to coincide with a major Pagan Sabbat; such as Litha (Midsummer), or Samhein (Halloween), generally I tend to avoid this type of article, (Despite being a Pagan myself – but not a Russian or a Communist.) as it has very little to do with technology. – However if anyone can invent a prototype for an anti-gravity device that can be fitted to a broomstick and is capable of levitating a Witch on said broomstick, I’ll make a definite point of including it as well as marketing it.

Other, serious, comments included an in-depth build-your-own-computer article from more than a single perspective. – Perhaps that’s one for the future? Also somebody suggested a reader-forum: That’s a long way off at this point. – About 3000 miles away in fact, in Florida, USA currently; on PCMech.com – which is possibly where the idea germinated from.

I have, in the past, thought about setting up a reader’s chatroom, but anything of that type is currently only a pipe-dream and is possibly something for the future. Before I start on projects such as that I have to be able to start generating the resources to fund such a project. Things of such a commercialised nature will come into effect on this blog in the near future. – However for that sort of project to work properly I’ll need to change the nature of this blog in order that it isn’t just used as an online reference-manual as it currently is, but, rather, a socially-interactive piece of technically-oriented media as I intend it to be. Judging by the poor response to the survey by approximately 1000 original-readers per week, I have a lot of work to do and a fair way to go on that yet. – So that is, in my opinion, something to consider for the distant future perhaps.

Maybe I should lead the way and my readers will follow; but judging from the amount of responses via this blog to my previous advertising campaigns, I am wondering about the willingness to follow in the first place. – My Quantcast profile for this domain indicates that less than 10% of my readers are regulars; the rest are casual visitors. Of those regulars there doesn’t yet appear to be a significantly numerous loyal following currently to justify such a huge expansion in such areas.

Question #5, a multi-choice question, asked “Would you recommend this site to a friend, colleague, or associate?”.

I’m pleased to see that everyone who responded answered either “Yes; definitely!” or “Usually, yes.”. The other choices were: –

At times, maybe. – Occasionally, perhaps. – Rarely, if ever. – and; You’re joking; right!?

- I must be getting something right.

Questions 6,7, and 8, were to do with my mailing-list, and have been omitted from this article as it is thought that their answers may help to personally identify people to others.

Question 9 was a question that required text-entry. “Is there anything else you’d like to add: Anything at all?”.

Generally the response was fairly positive, and the theme of most of the responses was to “keep it up”.

Question 10 asked “Did you find this survey easy to complete?”

It appears that nobody had any problems with that, other than somebody who indicated that they loved doing it and hated doing it at the same time.

Concluding remarks

My thanks to all who took the survey. The results of this survey will go some way towards guiding the direction that this blog takes in future.

Those people who didn’t take the survey: Well it’s now closed; and you had your chance. There’ll be another survey at some point in the future, so you’ll have to wait until then to have your say.

Enjoy the rest of the week.

My online friend, Lisa Jackson, who is a very good and talented You-Tube artiste’, and who makes some excellent and beautiful instructional and location-based videos, has made a rather humorous video for this Halloween.

I thought, that just this once, I’d go right off-topic for this blog and include it: It really is rather good.

Enjoy; and why not share your viewing with the local ghosts while you’re at it. – I’m sure they’d appreciate it. – My lot did.

Skeletons rule.

Make no bones about it.

It’s Wednesday 24th June 2009 and it’s kkomp.com’s first birthday today. It feels like I started this blog aeons ago, (Really, it does. It feels like I’ve been blogging for a number of years; yet it seems like only yesterday I had my 40th birthday.) and also only a few days ago too. In the year since this blog started I’ve made about 430 posts in 24 categories. – That’s not to mention the pages. My initial intention of enough content creation to place this blog on the blogosphere map has to all intents and purposes come to fruition, and some.

A year ago the world was facing the fact that we were in a global recession courtesy of the greedy international banking system. From what I hear lately, the UK appears to be pulling out of it: The economic growth report for March 2009 appears to indicate that GDP and growth returned to a positive figure in the case of UK. Although one leaf doesn’t make a summer; it appears that there are definite signs of a recovery on the way for Blighty.

- But; as some prominent bloggers have asked; where exactly is, or where exactly was, this massive economic downturn? More than not it appears to have been largely created within the minds of negatively-biased individuals by a media-led frenzy. The press will do anything to sell newspapers. A few businesses disappeared, true: That can and does even happen in times of economic prosperity though. Were there people claiming that the end of the world is nigh, that the commercial system as we knew it was going into meltdown? Of course there were: ‘Probably the same doom-mongers who did the same thing in the last recession, and the one before that too. – But the car-parks are still just as full at the shopping-malls as they always were, the traffic still flowed as per usual on the highways and byways, the world continued turning.

I accept that the world financial institutions made crazy speculative investments which lost them billions: perhaps they’ll now learn that putting spotty teenagers with a constant hangover and greedy out-of-control excuses for businesspeople in charge of the world monetary system is a definite recipe for its doom.

As we hopefully begin to emerge from this major economic turbulence we find that the world is still changing in our favour: By “our” I mean those of us who are building our world online. Social networking and global communication has, and will most likely continue to, cause the storm-clouds to depart and to build bridges of co-operation and opportunity for businesses globally. The remainder of the commercial entities will be forced to follow suit. Unfortunately for those of the old-school; opportunity and inter-corporate/interpersonal connectivity will continue to elude them, and they will fade away to be replaced by those who are operating under the new electronically-connected socio-commercial framework that has arisen from technological and societal advancement and the evolution of civilisation that has ensued as a result of that progress.

As I pointed out earlier, during the last year this blog has accrued around 430 posts, mainly of late technologically-orientated material dealing with basic practical and theoretical electronics and/or computer hardware and software, punctuated here and there by a news item or two which stood out to me, along with the odd mystical/Pagan-themed post.

Like a human child; this blog started without form, just a cell of an idea, fertilised and conceived a year ago on a whim, following a suggestion from someone who was already a blogger. Having no womb to mature within, it slowly took form in the wild, evolving with the mainly indirect assistance of a number of professionals who advised and directed with regard to its construction, renovation, changes, layout, and to a limited extent its content.

My naivety during the first couple of months of managing this blog was a little more prolific than I’d imagined it would be. I remember my first move as my brainchild came into existence was to announce on the social media channels, which I’d only recently become familiar with and had managed to pick up 1 or 2 followers, that I now have a blog: here’s the URL; please come visit. Well 1 or 2 people did visit, for about as long as it took to hit their back button on their browser.

I’d heard of people making fortunes on the internet; but somehow connected it with the dot com boom of the turn of the century, and regarded it as a thing of the past. Spring 2008 turned to Summer, my web 1.0 website at kustomkomputa.co.uk didn’t appear to be attracting much if any business, and I was starting to become extremely despondent. – Then a pro-blogger by the name of David Risley suggested I start a blog using WordPress. – Well what I was doing at the time wasn’t working; so in for a penny… Why the heck not?

I had been using Word 10 as an html editor to build kustomkomputa.com: It was difficult, cumbersome, and the resultant pages were full of so much unnecessary html that they took quite some time to load even with a broadband connection. Despite this I’d become used to Microsoft Word, and I even understood most of the crap html in it.

WordPress was a totally different kettle of fish though. I downloaded it, looked at the files and their contents, and screamed inside. .php – I’d never learned any php. .css – I had even less idea about css. Html: No problem; even Microsoft Word. – Especially Microsoft Word. Php and css, though, looked like Chinese to me.

By the time I’d installed WordPress on the server my head was so drenched in sweat I thought I’d just washed my hair! – But I’d done it. – And it didn’t work. Check: Had I done everything right? Yes. I’d triple checked everything before I started, and triple checked it again after every stage while I was doing it. having triple checked everything afterwards I eventually discovered that fasthosts.co.uk Windows servers were no good for running WordPress on. I’d specifically asked them beforehand: -

“Are your Windows servers able to run WordPress?”

Answer: “I don’t know. Nobody’s ever run WordPress from our servers before.”

- When pressed: “Well I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work on a Windows server. If you install it and it doesn’t work properly then we can always put you on a Linux server instead. The transfer won’t cost anything, our Linux servers cost exactly the same price to use as our Windows servers, and it’ll only take a few minutes to swap over.”

It didn’t work on their Windows server. – As promised they transferred me to a Linux server, and I installed WordPress again. This time it worked straight off and without problem.

Advice:

1) If using fasthosts.co.uk as your host for a self-hosted WordPress blog; always choose their Linux servers as your server.

     1a) Always use a Linux server wherever possible: Linux is a much better server platform than Windows.

2) Don’t use fasthosts.co.uk, unless you want to be wound up in red tape.

I hope you like reading; There’s more: -

To start with I didn’t really bother too much about presentation as far as the pages were concerned, which was my first mistake: After a false start earlier in June 2008, where it ended up that I took the entire blog down and restarted from scratch due to some kind of major problem. – I can’t remember what exactly, I downloaded and used a pre-built theme, threw up a Welcome page – almost literally by the previous look of it, and concentrated on turning out content.

I decided to break the mould of how most blogs were operating early on, by having a Welcome page initially, which visitors not linking from a link to an article would arrive at, rather than having the entire content of my posts appearing in chronological order on that initial page. Unfortunately the element that was missing was a contents listing, other than a table of the ten latest posts in the sidebar. This was a matter that wasn’t remedied until 2009, which was another major mistake I made. I agree that it would have been more sensible to attend to the matter earlier, but as things turned out it didn’t happen that way. We live and learn.

Although I’d written a number of papers over the past few years; I didn’t then classify myself as a writer, and maybe it showed. A few of my articles at the time were articles featuring content throughout that I’d created myself, but they were mainly seemingly less than quality content. In the main I concentrated upon relaying news items that I found to be of interest more than anything else.

Quite obviously, since there were an almost infinite number of alternative and better-known sources of the news that I was relaying; people stuck with what they knew, and other than a few visits sent by Google I didn’t get much traffic at all. Also, although I’d downloaded and installed the tools for search-engine-optimisation, I hadn’t configured them properly, (- As I actually wasn’t aware that they required further configuration in the early days, and I also didn’t know how to do it anyway, had I even been aware.) which didn’t help either.

During July 2008 I’d started to introduce advertising via advertisments that I’d created myself with links back to Clickbank. This however generated very little, if any, revenue.

By September 2008 I’d started to relay the news items whilst also including my personal take on them. Although this helped, it still didn’t have that much upwards-effect on my traffic figures. Despite having trained in electronics, as well as having a number of years of experience with computers, I felt at the time still very naive and vulnerable when it came to blogging, pretty much throughout 2008. Despite this though, I noticed that this blog was nevertheless ranked 5-million and-something-th at the time.

In October 2008, I think it was, I began to properly configure my SEO plugins, such as All-in-One-SEO-Pack, Google XML Sitemaps, etc. This did begin to have a positive effect, and the number of unique visitors began to increase somewhat. I also began utilising further free tips from David Risley, which also helped.

By December 2008 the blog was attracting a more realistic audience figure, and I set my attention upon the blog’s homepage, as well as the header and footer.php files, with the intention of tidying it up and making it look more attractive. Php still worried me, as although it was quite easy to understand, I was constantly having issues with the syntax of anything I wrote. Also most of what I wrote clashed with the style.css file of my theme. Although my effort eventually improved the page considerably, the resultant page was too crowded, not designed well, and the colour scheme failed to convey the theme of the blog. Many female readers liked it; but since the blog was attracting a mainly male, older, audience, I felt that it wasn’t a sensible option to allow things to continue that way.

I worked on and designed an entirely new home (Welcome) page, in addition the the header and footer, and implemented in during January and February 2009. I also edited and redesigned the theme to be more in tune with the central subject material of the blog.

Previous to this, although the subject matter had been mainly of a technical bent, I hadn’t really had a theme for the blog as such, nor had I used the blog’s design to clearly indicate the subject matter to my readers; which probably left some readers in somewhat of a quandary as to exactly what it was that I was trying to convey herein.

Also the footer, (footer.php) at one point during 2008 had a serious php error in it which caused a number of problems. These issues were rectified when I almost totally rewrote the header using a lot of html in addition to attending to the php already present – which was enhanced, and also in addition I repaired and enhanced the footer.

In doing so I introduced a header banner, which I enhanced over a number of weeks. I’ve since moved the RSS link into the header, and provided the mailing-list-subscription link high in the sidebar, above the fold, by writing its script into the sidebar.php file. I also introduced a contents page,clearly linked to from the header as well as the Welcome page.

A lot of the inspiration for the redesign came from Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick’s “Becomeablogger” course, which I bought into earlier this year, admittedly a little late. Whilst I haven’t yet implemented all of the suggestions within the course material by any means yet, it has nevertheless helped me out no end. The Becomeablogger course will be having its second run soon, and the enrolment window will be between 29th June and 3rd July 2009. As soon as the window opens I’ll be advertising it in the header of this blog, so if you’d like to join up you’ll have the opportunity to do so via this blog.

One of the biggest issues for me over this past year has been avoiding clutter, both in the sidebar and on the Welcome page. The sidebar is an area which I’ve particularly concentrated upon in this respect, along with its appearance, as the sidebar appears along with almost every page and post. My intention has been to not let it detract the reader’s attention overly from the main article. I hope I succeeded in that.

That’s summed up some of the main points of the blog’s evolution over the time since its creation. No doubt it will continue to evolve further with time; hopefully in a positive manner.

The Future

So what will I be doing on this blog in the future? For the immediate future nothing much is scheduled to change. I’ll be writing more free content fairly regularly, plus making the odd tweak to the theme perhaps. I’ll be adding further advertising of top-quality products from other bloggers and online businesspeople, plus also I will probably be writing more reviews of a number of them.

At some point I’m hoping to be adding podcasts to the mix – Maybe followed by video too. I don’t have a schedule for doing so planned out at this point, so I can’t be any more definite than that at this present moment.

A year has passed, and the blog is still up and running. I have the feeling that the following year will contain many profitable and beneficial additions; both for you the visitor as well as for me the blogger, plus any help in the form of people that I take on in the future.

That’s about it for this post then: A year older and wiser.

Enjoy the rest of the Summer if you live in the upper Northern hemisphere. If you live in the lower Southern hemisphere you can take heart in the fact that midwinter has passed. Wherever you are, enjoy the rest of the year, and don’t forget to return regularly to kkomp.com to see what’s new. If you happen to be in space or on another planet then enjoy the break, and if you aren’t part of the Human Race from Earth and you actually live on another planet then I invite you to make contact with the us Humans. – We’re a peculiar civilisation, but most of us still have some semblance of normality left I believe.

If you’re not on the mailing list then it would be a good idea to subscribe to it and get notified by email. You might also like to subscribe to the RSS feed for notification too.

Finally I invite comments/constructive criticisms/remarks… You know the drill.

I want to cover two main issues with this impromptu post:

The first; a minor issue, is that a couple of people asked me why I didn’t cover the Summer Solstice in any way whatsoever on this blog; being a Pagan and this blog being of a Pagan disposition they assumed that I would be doing so. Maybe I should have done so; but I really didn’t have time what with one thing and another. I utilised what little spare time I did have this solstice to cleanse my home, office, and the area directly surrounding it of negative spirits and energies.

As you may or may not know; I have been, up to this last weekend, producing blog posts by writing and publishing them on the same day. – Sometimes within the same afternoon or evening. Whilst this method of posting always ensures a totally fresh distribution of published posts; I find that the posts I produce can at times be of better quality if I return to them a day or more later and re-edit them.

Bearing this in mind, I remembered this from some years back with regard to the papers I used to write when I pre-wrote the first draft of the kkomp.com birthday post on the 15th June 2009 in lieu of publication on the 24th: This blog’s first birthday. Between than and now I have somehow managed to put in a special effort to write almost an entire week’s worth of posts, all of which are scheduled for publication this week. (This may mean that the posts are published but not added to the Blog Contents page until a later time, as I am still using a system of manual activation in order to have new posts listed on the Blog Contents page. Eventually I will get round to writing a script that lists the new blog titles automatically as and when they are published, but for the time being I’m using the manual method.)

The upshot of pre-writing, editing, re-editing, and publishing post entries at a later date will hopefully be that the new posts as you the reader sees them will be of better quality, more informative, and containing less grammatical and spelling/punctuation errors; although I do strive to keep the latter to a minimum as things stand now. (This post has been typed in draft, edited, and published within a few hours on the same day, therefore,,, apollogeeze 4 any errorsx that wood otherwhyse hav bean editted out.) </font></p>

Next; a more major issue, in implications for the Windows world at least, and a return to the subject of computers and the internet. This section of this post from hereon is, basically, an advisory: -

Microsoft appear to be taking too long to produce some patches pertaining to various vulnerabilities in their operating systems: So long in fact that by the time the patches are released on Patch Tuesday, the exploit code used to exploit the security hole has been released into the wild and is finding its way into systems globally; despite on a more minor scale in comparison to some attacks.

One such still-unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Windows XP and Server 2003 is reported by Symantec to have been added to an attack kit that lures people to use a phishing site, then the phishing site redirects visitors to another URL that hosts some DirectShow attack code, which exploits a security hole in Microsoft’s Direct X that Microsoft issued a security advisory for in May 2009, at the same time confirming evidence of “Limited attacks” even back then.

The code is in the form of a malicious .avi file. Multiple malformed .dll files are loaded onto the system under attack also. Those malicious .dll files load an .exe payload that downloads and installs a Trojan horse. The Trojan then adds the compromised PC to a growing botnet.

This attack code affects Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003. Windows Vista and Server 2008. are unaffected, as is the so-far-unreleased Windows 7 RTM. (I believe that the Release Candidate that is currently on many computers is also unaffected.)

Ben Greenbaum, a senior research manager with Symantec, is reported to have said that this attack is of limited distribution rather than a targeted attack.

Microsoft suggest that users disable QuickTime parsing on Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 machines. Apple’s QuickTime itself is not flawed; however the QuickTime parser in DirectShow, a component of DirectX, is flawed. Microsoft have issued instructions for editing the Windows registry, as well as issuing a tool that automates the process. The effect of running this tool or editing the registry is to disable Quick Time content playback. Microsoft have also issued an antidote for the automated process tool which resets the registry back to how it was. These tools and instructions are downloadable from this link.

It would appear that Microsoft have no intention of issuing a proper patch until next Patch Tuesday on 14th July 2009. Until then we have to hope that the issue doesn’t escalate to crisis level.

If you’re Pagan; especially if you’re a techno-Pagan, interested in Paganism, or even just browsing, then please do visit this site. I very much doubt you’ll regret doing so.

What I am going to say is that I stumbled across it today; not for the first time, and had time to have a better look at it. I was quite amazed to be honest: So much so that I’m giving it a page of it’s own at no profit to myself whatsoever. – In fact I haven’t even notified the owner; who I have known online for a while, that I am doing so.

Why am I doing so? Because I like it: It’s a very good site in my opinion. I appreciate that you might not all be as enthralled with it as I was; but it’s well worth a visit.

This year I’ll be recommending a number of sites: Pagan, technology-oriented, individual; anything that really stands out to me. Some I’ll do for no profit: Some I’ll charge to recommend.

Feel free to submit your URL for consideration if you like. If I decide to review I’ll let you know along with my price, should I decide to charge. Drop me a line at urlsubmit at kustomkomputa dot co dot uk. if you want to submit your blog or a blog.

It’s Christmas Day 2008; and in view of that it just doesn’t seem right to post about technology today. – In fact most bloggers probably won’t be posting at all at this time. I’m my own person though; so as such I’m posting on Christmas Day 2008.

I write the odd Pagan article in this blog every now and again; because I can, and because I want to. Largely this is a technology-related blog; and as such it shall remain largely that way. As a Pagan, though, I see things from a Pagan perspective, and I therefore relate things from such a perspective. Although the subject of technology is very much identical despite whatever one’s religious beliefs may be; I do like to use this blog to focus, at times, on areas only loosely related to technology: Even at times I post the occasional article unrelated to technology, and this is one of those times:-

It being Christmas Day I thought I’d post about Christmas Day – And why not? Behold the following ramblings:-

I was watching the church service on BBC1 that interfaced Christmas Eve with Christmas Day: Yes I actually find even the Christian chants melodious; in a few cases even more so than a lot of the Pagan chants. – Anyway I was thinking of the Christian message at this time of year. A virgin birth? Yes it’s possible. There is a syndrome around even today, known as Turner’s Syndrome, where in certain women, unfertilised eggs can develop into embryos. Here’s an excerpt from a piece I wrote on Turner’s Syndrome in 2003, the content of which was sourced from a publication on the subject:-

"All such births are female and have a condition known as Turner’s Syndrome; signs of which include raised capillaries near to the dermal surface, sometimes causing vivid birthmarks and intermittent dermal haemorrhage, especially during periods of exercise and stress. Also breast development in these subjects is limited, however the rib cage is large in proportion to that of other females.

Despite having fully-formed female genitals; menstruation is uncommon in women with Turner’s Syndrome."

But Jesus (Latin) or Yeshua (Hebrew) was a man wasn’t he? Well allegedly so yes; but factually we have in reality no idea exactly what he looked like, or for that matter what sex he actually was. Note I said what sex he actually was: All indications from the Bible are that he was a male; but the validity of, in places contrary accounts written by a number of different men over 40 years plus after his death, does not in any way appear to constitute believable evidence. On the contrary in  fact; it would appear to be drawn from local memory and from hearsay more than from fact. Could he not just as easily have been a non-menstruating Turner’s Syndrome female posing as a man?

All we have are seemingly-erroneous accounts from a few of his friends written a long time after he died, plus further accounts of a similar nature written by people who never actually knew him in person. I refer here to the Gnostic Gospel writers as well as to the four Gospel-writers in the Christian Bible as it is today.

The Biblical accounts are all synonymous with one another in their claim that this person was the "Son of God". The first question is; which god? Well from the Jewish belief we can safely assume that the writers mean Yaweh, the Jewish god. Once again, though, there is little if any, solid concrete evidence for this claim. He could just as easily have been a Witch; after all he did have a coven of followers. Yes; the Biblical account says that he talked to his father, god (Yaweh).- But we’ve already had ample cause to dispute the validity of those accounts which were written years after his death.

I don’t mean to go much further with this article; and I’m not going to do so, other than to point out in summary that we can’t be sure, without at least a shadow of a doubt, that Yeshua was even male; nor can we be sure that he was the son of the Jewish god – or for that matter any god. What we can be sure is almost certainly wrong is that Christmas was not the time of the birth of Yeshua, but rather the time of a Pagan festival that was adopted by the church.

Although I don’t myself celebrate Christmas itself out of personal preference, preferring instead to celebrate the Winter Solstice or Yule on or around the 21st December only; I see no reason why it should be against Pagan beliefs to do so; bearing in mind its Pagan origins. There’s certainly nothing un-Pagan or anti-Pagan about doing so. It’s the Feast of Mithras after all, and all of the symbolism contained therein as regards the "Christian" celebration has Pagan origins:-

The Yule-log, the tree, the baubles on the tree representing the Sun; indeed Santa himself, have Pagan roots probably stretching back millennia.

Whether you’re Pagan, Christian, Jewish, Atheist, whatever; enjoy this festive time of year. This is a truly multi-theistic celebration that pretty much all faiths or non-faiths can celebrate. Enjoy it and season’s greetings to you all.

If you’d like to comment I’d be interested to know your thoughts on this.

- And don’t worry: I’ll be talking tech again very soon; so do drop by again for more in the line of geekery.

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Joy to the world; the Sun’s to rise; let’s hail the newborn light.
On every hill, in every glade.
The shining Sun pervade, heat, shadow, life is made.
The Earth goddess awakes.
No longer the long dark night.

Joy to the world; the darkness fades. The Holly King deposed.

Soon night will fade away, in the lasting light of day.

There’ll be warmth and light and joy. Ev’ry girl and ev’ry boy;

The sun shall rise from rest, to happiness attest.

In long days – and short nights.

The dark disposed.

Hail to the Sun; the light has come.

The dark nights are no more.

We welcome in the spring; bringing life to ev’rything,

And buds and chutes appear; as the Winter’s end draws near.

In the growing light of the Sun.

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A break from the usual tech-related subject matter.

A blonde phoned up a video-hire shop:

"Hello: I rented a porno-film yesterday to spice up me and my boyfriend’s lovemaking, but when we played it there was nothing on the cassette at all. It really let us down, and I’d like compensation when I bring it back later."

The store owner replied:

"I’m so sorry madam. We did receive a few faulty videos in our last batch; and it seems that you’ve accidentally managed to pick up one of them. I understood that we’d checked all the videos on display and removed all the faulty ones. You say this was a porn video. Do you have the title of it to hand?"

The blonde replied:

"Head Cleaner."

I was having an extended blonde moment today; so I started writing a post about blondes. I deleted a lot of things. It’s unfair to judge a person’s IQ level by their hair colour – There are a lot of hair dyes available these days.

I’m trying to introduce this video I found on You Tube. The artiste’ is Damh the Bard – A very famous performer amongst the Pagan community. You can visit his website at http://www.paganmusic.co.uk. If you like his music then why not buy his album(s)? All the recorded tracks are self-produced, and the money from sales of his albums funds the next album.

Enjoy.

Feel free to comment. Have a good week.

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As a Pagan I’d be failing if I didn’t mention Halloween; which is only a week away now. Basically all religions afford it some significance of a kind; particularly the mystic and Pagan religions.

I received the following video today from Lisa Jackson, a Pagan friend of mine, on the subject of-. Lisa always manages to combine the artistic with the informative. Her creativeness seems to be somewhat unbounded. I’ve even told her that she should be producing documentaries for the BBC in the past. I just know that she’s going to present the Pagan view of the festival so much better artistically than I ever could verbally.

Surprisingly she’s a You Tube artiste’; but unlike some of many she’s a real artist and a good one at that. I’ve featured her work on this blog more than once before – Not solely because I want to do her a favour but because I truly believe in her talents and abilities. There is no point in putting crap on this blog as a favour to someone unless I want to achieve audience figures of zero: If I didn’t truly think there was talent there I’d give it a miss.

Take a look at the latest Lisa production; even visit her You Tube page and view some of her other works why not?

This time of year is when the Celtic year draws to a close. Most Pagans see this as the ending of an old and beginning of a new cycle of nature’s wheel – Ever turning, repeating year in, year out. For there to be plenty there must be also depletion: That is the balance of nature. The winter is the time of lean; when the supplies no longer come in, and we live from what we have gleaned in the summer of plenty that has just gone by.

We live in the knowledge that the Sun god will be reborn on the Winter Solstice and will rise up in the sky day by day to warm the barren frozen wilderness that has transpired from the luscious fields of plenty. We live in the knowledge that the wheel will turn again and the lean will become the fill of the earth, the harvest, and then it turns again.

We also see Samhein (pronounced sow-een) as a time when the worlds collide; when just for a short time the realms of the three paths entwine: When the lair of the dead, the emptiness of the future unfulfilled; the unborn not yet conceived, joins with our world and becomes a part of our dimension just for that fleeting moment; those few precious hours.

We use this as a time to reflect upon the year that has been and to remember our departed ones: Ancestors we may have never known and loved ones that we still hold dear alike. We are ready to embrace the new year and plan for the times ahead. First we must let the world of those passed take the remains of the old year to its final resting so that we can move on unobstructed.

The great goddess is withering and in solitude from the loss of her lover. We bid the old cycle farewell and all must die to be reborn.

Enjoy the video:-

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A large amount of the following material was written some years ago by myself, and I’ve attempted to join a number of partially-rewritten paragraphs together in this post, mixed with some newly-written sentences to make a more-in-depth article on this subject. Whilst I have covered a lot, both from writings I made several years ago and from new additions, I am unable to do full justice to this huge matter without writing a rather large book on the subject.

Whilst there is a lot of standard doctrine within Paganism; there is also a very deeply personal side which is unique to all Pagans individually. At this point I’d better mention that Paganism has nothing whatsoever to do with “Devil Worship”: The “Devil” concept is a myth of Christian origin; through which they attempted to discredit and demonise Pagan belief by colouring and utilising the image of the Horned God; partner of the Mother Goddess, as the archetypical representation of all evil within their own religion. – However this Devil character, referred to in the Christian Bible as Satan, is a relatively recent character in mythology, and has no relevance to original Pagan beliefs and doctrine; nor for that matter modern-day neo-Paganism.

No; it’s not “Devil worship”: This “Devil” is a Christian myth rather than a Pagan one – How can anyone worship something that they believe doesn’t exist?

So what would one do in order to become a Pagan? Of course there is no checklist.  : My experience of becoming a Pagan is most likely different to others; as all things are naturally individual and unique. : Organised religion has attempted to unify and simplify understanding of the spiritual to such a vast extent that it is now neither proper understanding, nor is it really spiritual. Certain religions have succeeded in producing programmed clones carrying a payload of a few simple viruses of belief, with which they seek to infect others who don’t use the firewall of discernment, the anti-spyware of education, and the anti-virus of intelligence.

Firstly in becoming a Pagan one will come to develop the understanding that all natural things are unique, and that all life is sacred; human, animal, and vegetable. As a result of this understanding one will not be unnecessarily discriminatory of others, and will recognise the sanctity of all life, regardless of nationality, race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.

There is no way of making oneself believe it, or forcing oneself to do so: Either you do or you don’t – But it’s no rigid doctrinal requisite though as such: There is no set structure that one has to adopt to the letter – All things are not equal just as all things are not deserving: Therefore favouritism can be an emotional outlet, but nevertheless favouritism in the light of recognising that no matter what one’s preferences may be, both the preferred and the partially-shunned are nevertheless unique and sacred

I personally found it helpful to study about, and often even to meet the deities; remembering that all spiritual deities are simply an aspect or sub-aspect of Divinity, whilst bearing in mind that Divinity is such an infinitely massive and supreme being – the union of all that exists, all that ever has and ever will exist, on this plane of existance as well as others, that it would be impossible to come to know all of Divinity in its entirety within a single lifetime; possibly even within infinity. (Imagine Divinity as a huge diamond with millions of different cut faces to it: Each deity is the aspect of each of those faces or aspects of the unfathomable whole of the one Divinity: This is where many err; seeing the entirety of Divinity as a single being with a single personality embodied in a master-god such as Yahweh. – (Who is a three-faceted god.) The fact is that Yahweh is a single aspect of Divinity rather than Divinity itself. (The idea of the Trinity was itself borrowed from the Sumerian Tri-Une Goddess legend.)

Whilst proceeding as above one will eventually and inevitably, as a result, at the same time as and by default, come to know oneself, and understand the personal unique individual nature of one’s own being, as well as seeking one’s own wills, desires, and aspirations. This requires a huge amount of individual honesty with oneself, as in doing so one must also confront and accept one’s own inadequacies and failings in addition to one’s assets and attributes, before seeking to deal with them. Once one has come to the understanding of who one is, as well as the true nature of one’s own individuality, one will respect oneself and others more, and also will reach a higher understanding of the reverence for the spiritual uniqueness of all things.

So what’s the best way to go about finding out more about Paganism?

You want to know about Paganism and Witchcraft; therefore, quite logically, you go to Google and type “Witchcraft” into the search bar: Google presents you with thousands of websites; a lifetime’s worth of study; but you didn’t want to spend a lifetime studying it; you wanted to glean the basic truths and make a decision on whether it was a path you wanted to follow – So you start on page 1 with the first site; http://www.witchcraft.org/ – ‘Good site; but maybe this site is a little too, shall we say, commercial and glossy, for your current needs. So you proceed through the listings, selecting sites at random, and studying those that you feel comfortable doing so with. 100 or so sites later you have learned a number of conflicting views; all backed up by other sites, yet seemingly contradicted by still others: One site may tell you that Witchcraft/Paganism, is all about love, peace, dropping out and becoming a “fluffy bunny”, being at one with nature, and displaying unlimited love for all things, while another informs you that there is no need to change a thing, as the divine resides within you, and bringing that out will give you all you need. Yet another site tells you that you should adopt a moral code based upon your newly-found Pagan ethics; while yet another seems to indicate that no moral code is necessary by the words “‘An it harm none, do as ye will.” Following this you stumble upon a Christian-edited website regarding Paganism which tells you that all Pagans unknowingly or secretly worship the Christian “Devil” and have been cleverly duped away from the “One true path that leads to salvation.” – Supposedly the Christian path; although that path probably has as many or more variations than the individual paths of Paganism.

Confused and mentally battered you ponder, and feel like giving up. So many sources and so much information; seemingly in disagreement with itself and each other depending upon its source. Which is the correct piece of information? Apart from the Christian view of Witchcraft; which is simply a method of gaining converts by denouncing any and all other paths, in a way they all are: Each individual has an individual understanding and path to Divinity which is in some way a variation of sorts upon others.

I’m going off the point here. The point I was trying to make is that one cannot use such a widely-defined search term as “Witchcraft” to find a single path within Paganism. There are many different “denominations” of Witches or Pagans. However unlike the case with regard to Christianity; nearly all, if not all, Pagans, interact peacefully with one another; whatever the denomination, whether Wiccan, Druid, Shaman, Buddhist, Hedge-Witch…Whatever. (Having said that though; there can be factious rivalries built up between male Pagans – The usual male sociality issues…) Uniting us are three major principles; firstly the universal Pagan belief that all paths lead to the same goal. : If you’re all climbing a mountain you all get to the identical summit eventually if you make it to the top, no matter which route you take. Second is the universal Pagan principle that all life is sacred and is a part of Divinity. Thirdly the Rule of Three, which is not exactly universal in its entirety, but appears in a similar form throughout Paganism; that being “Whatever you give out will be revisited upon you three times in this or future lifetimes.”(Similar to the Christian version; “What a person sows; this they shall also reap.”.) : So in short, then. : 1. We’re all going to the same objective “event”; that being ultimate enlightenment. 2. We don’t want to harm life, as life is sacred no matter whose life that is. 3. If we do harm others then we will get three times that harm back, yet if we do good to one another we get three times that good back.

What are the Paths up for choice as regards Paganism? Well there are many more than one could imagine; depending upon the individual who takes that path. The best path is the path that’s right for you. There are no “Book religions” in Paganism: (Genuine)Pagans are knowledgeable and responsible people as a whole, and we are fully aware that it is ours to bear the responsibility for every reaction resulting from our own actions. (That’s not saying that we never get it wrong or make major cock-ups.)

Auntie Sharron doesn’t have all the answers, and I’m speaking from my own personal experience of my own personal path at all times; although everything I write is in agreement with Pagan doctrine as far as I am aware. I’m not advising everyone to become a Pagan, unless it’s right for them. I have no insecure desire to “convert” people to my way of thinking. I’d just like people to start thinking; thinking for themselves, rather than blindly following blind halfwits like the proverbial sheep to the slaughter. When people have decided upon their path for themselves, using their own reasoning with a totally unbiased and fully open mind and without any coercion or brainwashing whatsoever, then their opinion is a valid one as far as that person is concerned at a personal level.

Having gained this understanding one also gains perception of the energies and powers available to one, and learns over time in tandem with Spirit and deity how to use and manipulate those energies both for the good of others, of the earth, of the universe, as well as for the good of oneself. As a consequence of this one becomes empowered with true spiritual understanding, and receives one’s “awakening”; learning how to perceive using one’s third eye, gaining intuitive insight and perception of things both seen and unseen with one’s physical eyes: One therefore gains further knowledge and understanding, contributing to the overall enlightenment of the soul, deepening one’s understanding of all of the above; and from there is an upward spiral of enlightenment, with the added bonus of “sight beyond seeing”, (Which I actually asked for at an earlier stage, and was granted: Since I was at that time much more physically routed than in the spiritual, I saw the wiring under the board, the invisible structure, of modern society; and believe me it was pretty ugly, (I love these sensible oxymorons!) and shocked me to the core from the insight into the corruption, intrigue, mass subterfuge, and intrusion form virtually every facet of the politico-religious framework of the mass-hysteria we call a “free-society”. In fact a so-called “free society” is about as free as a high-security prisoner under 24-hour guard; but it could be worse, indeed it has been in certain places at certain times throughout history.)

Coupled with the action and implementation of true positive wholesome magick within one’s life, and the knowledge, joy, peace, love, and understanding which flows from Divinity through deity to one, and returns to Divinity charged with the power of the circle, to flow out once again on its journey invigorating, empowering, renewing…Just a tiny part of the universal whole which is a mere dot within all of existance. – But that’s another story.

Peace.

Namaste’

Your beliefs are the building blocks of reality -
the very foundations of your world.

They are the most potent manifesting ingredients
in your consciousness tool box.

The question is, are yours serving you?

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Monday

I AM as powerful as the lightning, as necessary as the wind, as beautiful as a rainbow and as open as a beautiful waterfall.

Tuesday

I AM committed to honouring myself to create complete success in healing my life, and my environment. I love myself as Goddess loves me and I set an example for others to know their truth NOW.

Wednesday

The resources I need to complete my project are brought forth now. The individuals I require to assist with this endeavour are ready now. Our lives and hearts join forces to manifest this new and exciting adventure – which will positively affect the hearts of mankind forever!

Thursday

I AM claiming joy in my life as I ascend into my higher self to see with enlightened perception the right action in all situations. I willingly perform this action without hesitation.

Friday

I have transformed my desire for abundance into an openness to receive this abundance on all levels and in all areas of my life now.

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the very foundations of your world.

They are the most potent manifesting ingredients
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As far as I am aware this is the most part of one of many versions of the “original” Moon Goddess Incantation, allegedly taken from ancient Hebrew traditions and writings stretching way way back before Biblical times, before the Hebrew monotheistic culture, maybe even back before the formation of the Genesis myth itself; to a time when the original gods, the Elohim that the early untranslated writings of Genesis refer to, were worshipped: A time when the tree of life was held sacred and symbolised with its roots in the unfathomable soil of the past stretching from the beginnings of the universe and emerging at the wellhead of the spring of the waters of life in the Garden of Persephone’. This sacred tree was guarded by an immortal serpent who was later to become the symbol of the downfall of humanity in the later Hebrew mythologies; the personification of the root of evil; a fallen angel in the guise of a snake in a different garden – That of Eden.

The Hebrews bastardised their ancient legends at the uprising of monotheism and the exclusive worship of Yahweh, son of the Elohim; leading eventually to the formation of Christianity: Another bastardisation based upon an original bastardisation of ancient legend.

Here is the incantation of the Moon Goddess: She whom even the gods call beautiful:

I am She who ‘ere the earth was formed –

was Rhea, Binah, Ge,

I am that soundless boundless bitter sea

Out of whose deeps life wells eternally.

Astarte, Aphrodite, Ashtoreth –

Giver of life and bringer of death;

Hera in heaven, on earth Persephone’,

Diana of the ways, and Hecate.

All these am I, and they are seen in me,

The hour of the high full moon draws near;

I hear the invoking words, hear and appear

Shaddai El Chai and Rhea, Binah, Ge –

I come unto the priest who calleth me.

Oh Isis veiled and Rhea, Binah, Ge,

Lead us to the well of memory,

The well-head where the pale-white Cyprus grows,

By secret twilight paths that no-one knows.

Diana of the ways and Hecate,

Selene of the moon, Persephone’.

The high full moon in the mid-heavens shines clear,

Oh hear the invoking words, Hear and appear!

Shaddai El Chai and Rhea, Binah, Ge.

Sink down, sink down, sink deeper, and sink deep.

Into eternal and primordial sleep.

Sink down, forget, be still, and draw apart

Into the inner earth’s most sacred heart.

Drink of the waters of Persephone’,

The secret well beside the sacred tree.

I am that secret queen, persephone’,

All tides are mine, and answer unto me,

Tides of the airs, tides of the inner earth,

The secret silent tides of death and birth –

Tides of men’s souls, and dream, and destiny –

Isis veiled and Rhea, Binah, Ge.

I am the star that rises from the sea,

The twilight sea.

I bring men dreams that rule their destiny

I bring the moon tides to the souls of men,

The tides that flow and ebb and flow again

That flow and ebb and flow alternately.

These are my secret, these belong to me.

I am the eternal woman, I am she –

The tides of all men’s souls belong to me.

The tides that flow and ebb and flow again;

The secret silent tides that govern men;

These are my secret, they belong to me.

Out of my hands he takes his destiny;

Touch of my hands bestows serenity.

These are the moon tides, these belong to me.

Isis in heaven, on earth Persephone’;

Diana of the moon and Hecate’,

Veiled Isis, Aphrodite from the sea,

All these I am and they are seen in me.

The high full moon in the heavens shines clear,

I hear the invoking words, hear and appear –

Shaddai el Chai and Rhea, Binah, Ge,

I come unto the priest that calleth me.

Sink down, sink down, sink deeper and more deep.

Into eternal and primordial sleep.

Sink down, be still, forget, and draw apart

Sink into the inner earth’s most secret heart.

Drink the waters of persephone’.

The sacred well by the sacred tree.

Waters of life and strength and inner light –

Eternal joy drawn from the deeps of night.

Then rise, made strong, with life and hope renewed,

Reborn from darkness and from solitude,

Blessed with the blessing of Persephone’,

And the secret strength of Rhea, Binah, Ge.

—-

This has been further parodied and set to music thus:

“Thou art the soundless boundless bitter sea;

And all things in the end shall go to thee.

Thine is the kingdom of Persephone’;

The inner earth where leads the pathways three”

“Thou art the star that riseth from the sea;

In all things thou bringst men their destiny.

The tides that ebb and flow and ebb again;

These are thy secrets; they belong to thee.”

With the chorus line added:

“She who drinks the waters from that well;

She shall see things there she dare not tell:

‘Shall tread the shadow path that leads to thee;

Isis, Ictii, Persephone’.”

In the onsite newsletter I published yesterday I stated, in a round-about way, that I’ll be taking this blog in many directions in addition to tech and electronics etc, introducing new categories and subjects: Well here’s the start of a new category; that being poetry:-

(I’m a girl of many talents.)

And where else to start than my poetry…

In the past I’ve turned my hand to poetry; with at times, although I say so myself – others agree too, some fairly good results. That was back during the 1980s, 90s, and earlier this century. My adoption of Pagan beliefs  in 2003 led many of the works I’ve since written to have a mystical edge to them.

At the time I wasn’t a blogger, didn’t have a blog, and therefore had no platform to share my poetry from other than among a few friends. I now have a blog, a worldwide audience, and so I may as well use it.

(I’m actually wondering which adverts would be fitting to use with this particular blog, and looking at my repertoire of available ads the answer seems to be none: But that doesn’t mean that you’re getting away with an ad-free post today: Oh no by jimminy or however-you-spell-it you’re not. There’s one at the bottom – And for the sake of keeping this blog going you might just consider clicking the link or even buying it?)

My “signature poem”, if you like, is one I wrote back in the early 1990s: I did at one point publish it somewhere under a pseudonym, in a periodical; but the publication it was published in was the edition after Xmas; a thin edition lacking content and I don’t think many people even read it.

It’s called “Wonderpoet“:-

I am a poet, you see, and I know it: I must be you see, as I write poetry.

I consider’ a crime when a poem don’t rhyme;

But a rhyme interspersed with some lines of blank verse is quite clever at best and confusing at worst.

A poem that confuses has no further uses, than to use as a tool to upset stupid fools; or to teach to the pupils in modern day schools;

So to hell and a curse on confusing blank verse, as confusing blank verse is abusing the rules.

I am a poet; my poetry, though it may seem rather strange, or even deranged, how the words are exchanged and arranged.

Lyrics so terse, arranged into verse, cleverly interspersed with others that rhyme, to a beat-steady-time, so that reading them’s fun, and when you are done; start again.

I am a poet – You see, and I know it: A poet who writes of the sounds and the sights;

Of the brightness of days and the darkness of nights; of the blackness of darkness, the brightness of lights:

My poems are brilliant – All right?

Now as the eagle lands on rubber bands, she spreads her talons higher; we move our poetic desire up a gear as we aspire to have no fear of things much higher. We take a feel  of astro-wheel:

The sign of Capricorn the goat; ruled by the planet Saturn: A cold and harsh place where learning is by bitter experience and lessons come with a price to pay. Saturn teaches us the bare truth; no frills – no spills: Encounter the Capricornian learning curve and you’ll leave with all your stamina drained but your wisdom and experience enhanced no-end.

This is “Capricorn Sun“:

Goatshine light of Saturn’s learning. Cold and harsh with bland emotion.
Knowledge sprouts from out of yearning, missing out on deep devotion.
Far away the distant giant; dragging motion, slowly shifting.
Serve the curve from which we gather; lesson learned and veil lifting.
Solarbode the house of sunsign lies within the sixth placed power.
Snail of the astral skies counts time in years discounting hours.
Teacher from celestial plane of heaven’s lights forever burning.
Reach into the deepest voids to keep this thirst forever turning.

Around 2004 I hung out online at times with a group of mainly American girls who I classify as neo-witches: Eclectic “Pagans” who seem as much at home with the traditions of Christianity as the Pagan festivals, sabbats, and esbats. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to discover them at a Pentecostal church in the US Bible-Belt on a Sunday, after which they switch on the computer and claim to be totally Pagan – Which I suppose there’s nothing particularly terrible about as even Adolf Hitler was a ChristoPagan; each to their own.

(Don’t get me wrong here; I’m not anti-Christian, although I suppose I would like to shake some sense into some of the more tunnel-visioned charismatic-Christian people I know.)

Anyway I actually had a visible premonition in a dream of falling out bigtime with this crowd, as well as what would happen to certain members of their ranks following that; and it all happened exactly as the premonition foretold. One thing that I really couldn’t figure out about them was this strange fascination with keeping ferrets. If it were in the North of England and they were middle-aged blokes then yes it would be a fairly regular thing to happen; but young-ish to middle-aged girls in America keeping ferrets, talking constantly about them, swapping pictures of them online…?!

The bitch in me came out and I put pen to paper:

This is the “Pickled Ferret Limerick“:-

When NASA sent probes to the stars,
They pickled a ferret on Mars,
To provide an example preserved as a sample;
And sent back to earth in a jar.

The bitch in me always comes out in a limerick for some reason: It must be the Irish blood in me.

Well that’s yer lot for today. I’ll leave you with a relaxing piece:

This one’s called simply “Sleep“.

Sleep well on wings of dragonfly,
In the gossamer light from the hue of your dreams.
May your rest be recharging subconscious,
Rebuilt by the Moon with her beams.
Let your life from the Goddess be blessed,
And your smile a refraction of light.
Your heart beat steady time in an absolute rhyme;
May you sleep well this nighttime: Goodnight.

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