My pagan days ended long ago.

I once pursued knowledge of the Earth. Not the earth sciences but those carnal things which embody the realm of wicca and doing that which was elemental and sometimes very dark.

The term given to me by some was warlock. I never used the apellation myself.

Yes, I was once a student of those earthy rites of passage, legend, and lore but abandoned these for what I believe to be a more correct path quite early on in my journey.

Though I am far from perfect I strive to do better each day.

Today is the Summer Solstice.

Today is the "official" start of summer. The Northern Hemisphere of the planet is angled closest to the sun for the duration of the season.

This tilted alignment results in the longest day and shortest night of the calendar year.

Cultures throughout time immemorial are known to celebrate the sun with rituals and holidays corresponding to the advent of the seasons.

Me, I prefer just to sit back and observe. The universe is well beyond my abilities for anything more and I've done my time pursuing avenues better left untraveled.
 

I really like sushi. It's a penchant I've cultivated over the years and you can sometimes catch me sitting at the sushi bar wowing them with my palette for all they do.
 

I have been known to enjoy the sushi of Ryo Watanabe of Inakaya Watanabe on Jamil Road in Columbia.

Lately, though he has been choosing a Gaijin serving staff and this has forced me to go to Inakaya O'Neil Court for a more authentic experience ... not that the O'Neil Court location doesn't have it's share of Gaijin going on as well.

In the old days the staff was totally Japanese. These days appear to be gone forever. I used to love to go and be treated so special by the pretty little Japanese ladies.

This situation has not diminished my respect for Mr Ryo nor my enjoyment of his restaurant.

Nonetheless, my friend at O'Neil Court, Mr Moru is very skilled in his own right and he understands that I know my way around the menu as well.

So today is International Sushi Day.

Sushi has become a favorite with more in the area than just me.

The thought of raw fish used to give me shudders but from my first taste, I knew it was going to be alright.

My chopstick skills are superior with only a few snafus anymore and I anticipate a nice plate of Unagi, Saba, Sake (Salmon, not the wine), and the absolutely required spider roll I will be good to go once again !

Happy International Sushi Day.
 

Yeah, I'm supposedly in "retirement". All it presents is a lot of boring nothingness.

Rather than allow the lamer leadership to impose their microsoft inability mess on me I chose to leave my job.

While I maintain that I prefer this boredom to that sharepoint stupidity the microsoft lamers pursue it is a far cry from the busy day with which I once occupied myself.

While everyone was SO congratulatory I anticipated the reality up front. I'm one of those guys who needs somewhere to go.

I went to the want ads and searched out "work for retirees" on the google shitbox and got an indeed.com page full of a bunch of skill less nothing. It seems from these threads that the vast bulk of retirees are stupid and only good for helping others dress and bathe.

What useless nothing of a company is the pitiful indeed.com from a standpoint of practicality.

So all I do is watch teevee and collect a check when I would prefer to be out there earning much more and being bored much less.

Now I tool around with my server cluster but that's it. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't do at least THAT much but it doesn't provide much beyond routine maintenance and the opportunity to produce a few graphics and various elements of prose.

It's all a travesty of feeble human resource people in charge of things about which they know nothing.

They might as well pack up and move to the City of Columbia and stay with the rest of the no vision can't take care of business area dummies.