Farewell, 2004

So, 2004 is almost over. Let’s see…

World War III did not happen as predicted, but then again, neither did
it in 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002 or 2003. Dear prophets: Please shut the
fuck up in 2005.

In other news, homeopathy still doesn’t work, but maybe the water will
change in 2005. Dear homeopaths: Please shut the fuck up in 2005.

Sorry to break it to you, but astrology is a scam. However, the stars
look good for 2005. Dear astrologers: Please shut the fuck up in 2005.

We’ve had our fair share of scandals and immoral behaviour, be it the
War in Iraq, Food for Oil, Ukraine, Russia, or simply all the people
still dying in Africa, be it from hunger, landmines, or AIDS. Dear
World Leaders, dear Pope: Please help innocent people instead of
killing them, for a change, in 2005.

People are still as careless as ever, and that’s just because I don’t
want to call them all stupid. Oops. Dear general populace: Think, and
check your conscience before you speak, drive, accept money, give
money, shoot people, sue people, buy Snake Oil, promote scams, lie or
betray. It’s quite easy, you don’t even need religion for that. Ethics
not included.

There’s hope. There always is.

Everyone can be strong. Really.

Everyone please love each other. In which ways is up to your interpretation.

Buy My Prints
because they make great gifts for your loved ones, and give me money to
buy gifts for my loved ones. Next year. Or maybe just booze and
hookers, this year. You didn’t hear that.

Thanks to my watchers and everyone who commented or faved. I haven’t
been very motivated to reply lately, but I can change, I can change!

Call to all deviants: Report miscategorized deviations and plain crap.
Photojournalism will be grateful, and so will the devMeet, deviantID,
and the rest of the smaller galleries. Give the gallery admins a hand.

dAmnhack has become quiet, but I have something up my sleeve. If I gave you details, I would have to kill you. However, Bringa has something that might give you a clue.

Also, dAmnhack might bring some nifty dAmn integration to various IM clients in a while. However, we should give mccann some breathing room between fulfilling his CTO duties and jumping at
him with new hacks. If you feel like being in the holiday spirit, you
can send him a note to tell him he’s doing a good job. Even if you
don’t know, just believe me, he does.

dA took away my Pornographic Connoisseur tag after they discovered the
joys of sanitizing input. Everyone reading this could note an $admin of
their choice and beg them to give me back my Pornographic Connoisseur
tag, because I was so nice all year and didn’t make myself an admin
(not for more than a few seconds anyway). Luckily, I can still be a , or feel .

I will be splitting things up to different accounts. My photography will be moved to mattness, my writing (of which there isn’t much yet) will be put on mattah,
and under this account, I’ll act completely indeterministic and lump
everything together. Since that might include completley random poetry
and experimental photography, you might want to adjust your watch lists.

Mysterious remark: Search engine.

Giving of gifts, feasts, singers walking from house to house. What holiday are you thinking of now? Correct, Zagmuk, the festival to assist Marduk (the Sumerian god) in his struggle against Tiamat and the forces of chaos.
Also, the “corn king” ritual first surfaced here, where a criminal is
made king and all his commands are obeyed, until finally, he is
gruesomely killed to assist the gods, or make the crops grow. The
observant reader will note the resemblance to the death and rebirth of
Christ, dying to cleanse from sin, etc.

The Romans celebrated Saturnalia,
a festival to – you guessed it – Saturn, god of fertility and
agriculture. It also included the giving of gifts and decorating green
trees with candles. Since those stubborn Romans refused to stop
celebrating Saturnalia (lovingly nicknamed ‘Orgy’ by Christians of the
time), Bishop Julius I of Rome – practical as ever – declared December
25 Christ’s birthday, and ordered the celebrations to be in his honor.
Oh, he also ordered a “mass”, on that day. Go figure.

The Mithrans also had a holiday on December 25, the birth of Mithras.
Mithras was supposedly created by Ahura-Mazda, the chief deity of
Iranian polytheism, to save the world from its own excesses. By a
strange coincidence, he was also born to a virgin, and died after a
last supper with his disciples. He then ascended to heaven. Unlike
Jesus, followers were baptized in the blood of a bull instead of water.
Then again, water is easier to come by. By the way, followers also ate
bread and wine to represent Mithras’ body and blood, and held Sunday
sacred. Need I say that Mithraism was influential in the Roman Empire,
and the Christian church at the time would have had an interest in
luring Mithras’ followers?

And since you made it this far: Merry local pseudoreligious holiday, and a very british New Year!