astrology

astrally schizophrenic

2007-01-02T03:15:26+00:00

What's the fun of fulfilling expectations, anyway? Since everyone else is using the date of 1 January to look forward, I thought I'd do the very definition of a 180 and look back in the opposite direction, knowing I'll end up revealing just as much about myself but in my usual thoroughly underhanded manner.So let's look backwards, to the day of my birth.

I know that several of my friends find astrology fascinating or deeply meaningful. I greet it with a healthy dose of skepticism—was the ephemera of my personality cemented into an ever-fixéd mark from the moment the obstetrician set my mother's C-section date? I don't know. It's the eternal question of destiny and free will. What is 'me'? Are personalities fluid or rigid constructs? Can we, fundamentally, change? Or do we spend our entire lives becoming what we were meant to be all along?

(And if that's the case, who chooses the meaning and can I have this entity over for dinner? Should it exist, I have questions for it.)

Nevertheless.

So this, according to the stars, is me: (click the photo below for a larger version)

I've gotten odd reactions to that chart in the past, but only recently asked some friends why. It was explained to me that such a chart is an exercise in diametric opposites: a sign that ostensibly indicates a person of balance, order, and logic (Libra) being whacked over the head by lots of things pointing toward passion, intensity, and impetuousness.

I am apparently astrally schizophrenic.

I should consider blaming it all on the stars.

(Has anyone seen my to-do list? I don't know whether I should cuddle it or scare it.)

Friday Five: birthdays

2002-02-22T04:10:53+00:00

Courtesy of Heather and fridayfive.org:

Hey, baby, what's your sign? Do you think it fits you pretty well?

I'm the most mercurial Libra you'll ever meet. On the other hand, I'm married to the stereotypical steady Libra. It's a good thing. We balance each other out.
What's the worst birthday gift you've ever received?

Oddly enough, most people are terrified to buy me birthday gifts. They think I'm picky or something. But there was that year that my roommate left me a copy of Playgirl under my pillow for Christmas….
What's the best birthday gift you've ever received?

Actually, I bought it for myself. I spent a week in Washington D.C., and spent my birthday in Manhattan. I saw Rent, and stood on top of WTC1 on October 20, 2000.
What's the best way you've celebrated your birthday thus far?

See above. Manhattan. Rent. WTC1. It was, simply, magnificent. My perspective from during the vacation, written almost immediately afterward, is available here, and my reflections a year later—after September 11—are available here. Even immediately after it happened, it was wonderful—but the events of 2001 give the joy of that particular day a particularly bittersweet taste. In some ways I will always associate my birthday with the World Trade Center.
What are your plans for this weekend?

Coding. Lots and lots of code. I'm working on a project for myself—a change, since I"m usually working on projects for others—and I expect that it's going to gobble up a good chunk of my time. Other than that…I'm thinking of starting to read Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie.

A birth chart? Heh.

2001-06-05T23:52:53+00:00

While talking with a cable company phone rep this afternoon, I read a post on a weblog that pointed to astrology.com, and for the sheer amusement value I decided to pull up whatever they had to say about me.

(see full version on flickr)

Read on to see what they had to say about me:

You are very strong-willed and proud, but intensely private and not easy to know well. Behind your quiet exterior lies a great deal of emotional depth, sensitivity, complexity, and also fierce determination. When you want something you go after it rather quietly but insistently and wholeheartedly—and you usually get it.

You are not a person who lives lightly or superficially. You want to live passionately and intensely and are not averse to challenge, danger, or to facing the darker side of life—human pain and struggle. You function well in crisis situations and often seek them out, for you enjoy the feeling of living at full capacity.

You are very intuitive about other people and especially about their unspoken feelings and hidden motives. You usually have strong, immediate gut reactions, either positive or negative, which prove to be correct. You approach life very instinctively and are not always fully conscious of why you feel or act as you do. You also have a very strong affinity with animals—an acute sensitivity and a nonverbal kind of rapport with them.

In relation to others, you are rather cautious, sometimes even suspicious, until you get to know and trust them—and trust doesn't come easily to you. When you commit yourself emotionally to someone, be it friend or lover, you are intensely loyal and devoted to them and you also expect the same kind of unwavering, undying loyalty in return. If you are ever betrayed by someone you care deeply for, you are capable of hating and retaliating with as much fervor as you once loved. Nothing is done halfway. In fact, you are intensely involved and often jealously attached to whatever you care about, be it person, idea, or cause. There is definitely a streak of emotional fanaticism in you.

Because of your natural reserve, others may see you as something of an enigma. You are quite self-protective and often defensive. You are also very magnetic, especially to members of
the opposite sex. (*giggle*—a.)

Accurate or not? commentsdomesticat [dot] net (Cast your vote.)