Welcome to my LJ, Astartiel's Expressions. Who am I? I am a poet, philosopher, writer, singer, songwriter, photographer, future cinematographer, future film director, reiki master, eft tapper, new ager, daydream believer, computer wizard, daughter, mother, sister, lover and friend - just to name a few things.

I have left a few of my posts open, so you can have an idea of the type of person I am, but most of my LJs are friends-only, so if you really want to get to know me, you'll have to let me know by emailing me or leaving a comment here and letting me know.

Expressive Location: In The Tardis

I just want to let my friends know that I'm going to be moving most of my posting to my other LJ, astartiel to try and get a different focus on my reasons for blogging in the first place. Perhaps if I can get a focus on my blogging, I can get more focus on what I'm doing with my life! Well, that's the theory anyway... ;-)

So, if you still want to be my friend and want to keep track of my comings and goings online, please add astartiel to your friend's list! Thanks! I've already started to add some of you!

Tags: blogging, lj, moving journals

This is what happens when you veg out on the Kindred: the Embraced episodes even if there are only eight! If you're anything like me, you have Kindred vampire dreams.

For example, I awoke to dreaming myself as taking over Julian's job even though I was newly "embraced" myself. Also, in the dream, I made Frank Kohanek into a vampire. And part of the time I seemed to be him, seeing myself through his eyes and hearing his thoughts of his new situation in life (or is that unlife?).

One thing I remember is myself ordering everyone out and setting Frank up as my guard. Then I saw things as him and he felt some vampires near (kind of spidey-sense vampire sense). It turned out a few out-of-town mobster vampires (yeah, Brujah probably) came to welcome the new head of the clans, me. Frank recognized these vampires from before but found it interesting to see them through his new eyes as a vampire himself now. Frank pretty much treated them as criminals, the same as he would if he was still just a human cop. They kind of made a few veiled threats to myself and my leadership and Frank made a few threats back in my favor. And of course, both Frank and I were both Ventrue. ;-)

I don't remember much else because I had to wake up and get my daughter ready for school. But what a bunch of strange and interesting images to start out my day with!

PS - I know, I know, I don't post for months and when I do I come up with this kind of shit! Sorry! ;-)

Tags: dream events, dreams, vampires
Emotional Expression: amused

I like to watch Stargate: SG1 & Stargate: Atlantis not only because they are great shows but also so I can see the name Jennifer Johnson - Associate Producer and pretend it's me, since "that's my name too!" ;-)

Tags: associate producer, jennifer johnson, jenny johnson, stargate
Emotional Expression: amused

10 Questions for Viggo Mortensen

Well, my question to Viggo didn't get picked but 10 other people's questions did:

You're famous for your multilingual talents. Which language are you most comfortable with? A. Patrick Watts MARYVILLE, TENN.

I was raised speaking English and Spanish. And I also speak Danish. And I can get by in French and Italian. I've acted in Spanish and English, but when something has to do with emotions, sometimes I feel I can get to the heart of the matter better in Spanish.

This was my question:
Thanks to your career success, you have traveled all over the world. Are there any places you haven't been to that you would like to visit or places you have been to that you would like to explore more? If so, where and why?

Follow the link to read the other nine:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1867124,00.html

Tags: interview, viggo mortensen
Emotional Expression: curious

Viggo Mortensen posted a note on Perceval Press tonight setting the record straight on his opinions of the German people that was getting misreported pretty badly in interviews! I wondered if he would have anything to say about this and am glad he has posted this instead of just letting the misquotes stand as they were! Here's what he posted:

Message to citizens of Germany:
I have recently been doing interviews in an effort to promote the new Vicente Amorim movie "Good", a movie our film-making team is proud of, and in which I am proud play a German. It has come to my attention that, when I spoke about realising I had certain prejudices about Germans and their spoken language as I was preparing the role of the professor, 'Halder', it was not always reported that I admitted this in order to explain that playing the part had helped me get past these stupid prejudices of mine. There is always the risk that one's statements will be misconstrued when not reported in their entirety. If the partial reports of what I spoke about have in any way offended Germans or anyone else, I am very sorry. Hopefully, Germans and anyone else interested in this matter will avail themselves of the complete record.
Viggo Mortensen.

Tags: germans, good, misquotes, viggo mortensen

I've been getting a lot of hits lately to my "Love of Viggo" crush page on my website with search terms having to do with Viggo Mortensen dating Ariadna Gill. If all these recent searches are any indication, I would venture to guess those two have been spotted together in a few places around the world. Either that or gossip about them is circulating around the globe. Either way, I must say I envy Ariadna if she is experiencing a real-life romance with Viggo...

So, does anyone know if Viggo and Ariadna are dating? I know it's none of my business but I still really want to know!

Tags: ariadna gill, dating rumor, viggo mortensen
Emotional Expression: curious

So many mentions of my LJ friends guys (or lack thereof) that I thought I'd post a little note saying, with my 35th birthday a few months away, I'm really feeling the sting of being guyless.

I used to like single life, to a point, but by this time in my life, I thought I'd have found someone to spend the rest of my life with. The closest I've come is an obsession over an actor who's too old for me and doesn't know I'm even alive (yes, I'm talking about Viggo Mortensen again), which is worse than a high school crush any day! ;-)

I realized the other day that I'm almost exactly double the age I was when I got my senior high school photos taken! Now that's a bit shocking! At least I still look close to the same. I get mistaken for a twenty-something girl all the time, lol. ;-)

Now, where to find a twenty-something-looking guy who also happens to be about my age and yet is somehow very mature for his age and of course absolutely right for me? Anyone seen this guy? And is he single too? If so, send him my way!

I need a guy in my life to buy me roses and fast food and to put up my Christmas lights! Where is this guy already! ;-)

Tags: being single, single life, viggo
Emotional Expression: lonely

I'm spending way too much time on Twitter.com (@astartiel) and playing with Google Desktop and Vista Sidebar gadgets! HELP!!!!!! ;-)

Tags: gadgets, twitter

If you haven't heard, OJ Simpson was sentenced today for 15 years to life, with a minimum of 6 years till he is eligible for parole.

(Does a little happy dance) If that didn't clue you in, yes I think he is guilty - of many crimes. And I'm obviously not alone in that opinion, by the unbiased opinions of many a news reporter on tv today and a few people in the crowd that got on tv, including the guy wearing a tye-dyed t-shirt holding the OJTalk.com sign up for the camera.

Another sign I saw briefly by someone who obviously was a fan of OJ's said something about the political abuse of power by judges, human trafficking and demon possession, humorous enough, which made me laugh. It also gave me an idea for a story:

The "real" OJ story: The judge in this case is really possessed by a demon and wants to send OJ to prison as part of her human trafficking business in which she uses high-profile "celebrities" as sex slaves in prison. My mom Pixie thought up the title, "Blow OJ Blow." Don't you love it? Should I write it? ;-)

Tags: humorous story, oj simpson case
Emotional Expression: justified

I finally went to see Twilight tonight. The film was wonderful! Yes, they left alot out and changed many things but overall, the same story was told and the main characters were portrayed very well! I can't wait till they film New Moon! And they better also film Eclipse and Breaking Dawn!

After watching this film, I have been wondering a few things. I know that the books have brought alot of attention to the towns Forks and La Push in Washington State as well as to the Quileute Nation. I wonder if the Quileute and the residents of Forks are prepared for the attention they are going to get from the national exposure these films are going to bring? The books alone have brought a huge influx of tourist fans to the area so I can only imagine what the films will do!

The other thing I wonder has to do with people with the same name as the main characters, especially the Swans and Cullens. I wonder how many people who happen to be named Edward Cullen are getting ribbed and teased because of these books and this movie? I wonder if anyone with these characters names have found they have new problems (ie: crank calls) because of their names? For example, on a whim I typed some of their names into WhitePages.com and found over 140 listings for variations of the name Ed Cullen. Contrarily, I only found one single listing for the name Esme Cullen, for a young woman in Connecticut. I wonder if she likes sharing her name with a vampire? ;-)

So, these are just a few of the strange thoughts that are wandering about my head after watching the film Twilight. Also, I'm really hoping that Stephenie Meyer is going to put out book five of the Twilight Saga before the end of this decade!

PS - Watching Twilight only served to make me want to have even more Twilight related things in my life. Hmmm, as an afterthought, perhaps I should not have read all the books before I saw the movie. Perhaps then I wouldn't have Twilight Fever so terribly bad!

Tags: edward & bella, edward cullen, forks, la push, stephenie meyer, the cullens, twilight
Emotional Expression: happy

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Watching Macy's Parade with family and awaiting our Turkey dinner later today with a bit of good cheer! ;-) Whether you celebrate this day or not, I hope it's a good one!

Tags: thanksgiving

Meme grabbed from orbie.

If you saw ME in a police car, what would you think I got arrested for? Answer me, then post to your own journal (if you have one) and see how many crimes you get accused of.

Since I can't send an actual letter to Stephenie Meyer, I'm writing this here instead in hopes that she finds it while doing one of her own searches online:

Dear Stephenie Meyer,

I'm a newcomer to the Twilight series, thanks to the trailers showing the movie coming out, but I have already finished all four novels after just getting them a week ago. I wish you had written twelve books instead of four because I still haven't had enough of Bella and Edward after reading these books.

( Read Entire Letter Here )

PS - I just love that Bella's birthday is on my half birthday, Sept 13th. My birthday is thus on Bella's half birthday, March 13th.

Tags: stephenie meyer, twilight saga

Now that Barrack Obama has been elected President, Viggo Mortensen can't help ranting poltically (and I love him for it). Since he said so well what I'd love to say, I'm just going to repost here what he wrote:

Viggo Mortensen at Perceval Press:

And how does the government pay for universal tax-payer funded healthcare and universal tax-payer funded education? You might say it is only a utopian dream, that it is naïve to ask for the government of the United States of America to provide free comprehensive healthcare and education for all of its citizens. I say that it was not dreaming to expect Barack Obama to become president, and it is not dreaming to expect the United States of America to behave like a modern, civilised democracy. Where does the money come from? For one thing, it comes from not bailing out the privileged few who have, through willful mismanagement of their financial institutions and through corporate piracy, raped and pillaged the nation's economy and robbed the U.S. tax-payer blind with the encouragement of the government officials whose campaigns they continue to fund. It does not come from continuing to make a lucrative business of war-profiteering and military-backed corporate imperialism, from perpetual armed corporate robbery around the world, largely funded by U.S. taxpayers of today and tomorrow.

Barack Obama received considerably more campaign funding from "Wall Street" than John McCain did. Does this mean that he will automatically bail out the rich who continue to steal from the hardly-as-rich vast majority of U.S. citizens and their children? Ask him. If he tells you that it is just too complex an issue, that bailing out these for-profit failed capitalistic institutions and corporations is a necessary stop-gap measure to save the economy, I would venture to say that the answer is "yes". I would venture to say that he is as bought-and-paid-for as George W. Bush, Bill "Nafta" Clinton, and every other president in memory. Sadly, this would mean that "Change", that word Mr. Obama so eloquently used - if often vaguely - as a rhetorical cudgel to win the presidency and a chance to really make a difference, is worth nothing more than a handful of pennies to the economic future of the average citizen and to the hope of a socially-responsible democracy. If the answer is "yes", then those who have stolen Big will be richly rewarded and the profitable (for the privileged, amoral few) military-industrial empire will thrive and prosper as the noble dream of a just society suffers ever greater set-backs. Let capitalism function as a responsibly-regulated system, not as a costly welfare safety-net for billionaires and their capitalist enterprises. We have a dream. It need not be further compromised by the next U.S. administration. Sometimes the picture is quite clear.
Take a stand.

Viggo Mortensen

-----
PS - I would love it if some of the "Changes" Barrack Obama plans to create include helping the economy for all us "little people" in the country, which make up the majority of people after all. It will be amazing if that actually happens but I'm not going to hold my breath.

PPS - While not looking at Viggo's site, I've been spending most of my time in Twilight land with Edward and Bella Cullen. I'm finally reading the third section of the fourth book, Breaking Dawn. Wow, it only has taken me about a week to read the entire series. That has to be a new speed-reading high for me. And to think, I'm almost finished and there are no other books about them published yet. Hurry up and publish another vampire novel Stephenie Meyer, we all need our Edward and Bella fix!

Tags: barrack obama, edward & bella, politics, vampires, viggo mortensen

Viggo changed his post a bit today, so here's the new version of his letter to our new President-Elect, Barrack Obama:

Dear President-Elect Obama,
Please do all that you honestly can to bring to justice Dick Cheney, David Addington, John Yoo, William "Jim" Haynes, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Condolezza Rice, Colin Powell, George Tennet, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzalez, Karl Rove, and numerous other members of the Bush administration since the start of 2001 who have either been directly responsible for or complicit in the almost countless acts of treason, human rights violations and other crimes in the United States of America and abroad, including in but not limited to Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, and Lebanon. There have been many violations of domestic and international law by the Bush/ Cheney regime, but the use of torture by this administration, in blatant disregard of long-accepted international and U.S. standards, is on its own enough to see many U.S. officials prosecuted and jailed. The energetic promotion and white-washing of torture by U.S. interrogators are not only reprehensible and damaging to the reputation of the United States, but have undoubtedly placed all of its citizens - military as well as civilian- in increased danger from reprisals and acts of terrorism for years to come. The fact that a good part of the torture has been conducted by U.S. citizens not just in Saddam Hussein's former house of cruelties in Abu Ghraib, but also in the lawless confines of Guantánamo's Camp Delta and in numerous secret sites around the world tied to U.S. government use of "rendition", only makes it harder to forgive and forget these acts of savagery. These and other war crimes and the clearly-impeachable misconduct of the Bush/Cheney administrations cannot go unprosecuted and unpunished if citizens of the United States of America are to move forward with relatively clear consciences and the hoped for restoration of their country's standing in the community of nations. This is about moral responsibility, common decency, and historical legacy. Thank you in advance, Mr. Obama.
Viggo Mortensen

-----
PS - And still I find I agree with him and hope Obama does somehow read this and and take it to heart because over half of our nations citizens feel the same way.

Tags: barrack obama, impeach bush, viggo mortensen

Viggo Mortensen posted this, which I agree with 100%, on Perceval Press recently:

Dear President-Elect Obama,
Please do all that you honestly can to bring to justice Dick Cheney, David Addington, John Yoo, William Haynes, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Condolezza Rice, Colin Powell, George Tennet, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzalez, Karl Rove, and numerous other members of the Bush administration since the start of 2001 who have either been directly responsible for or complicit in the numerous acts of treason, human rights violations and other crimes in the United States of America and abroad, including in but not limited to Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Colombia, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, and Lebanon. There have been many violations of domestic and international law by the Bush/ Cheney regime, but the use of torture by this administration, in blatant disregard of long-accepted international and U.S. standards, is on its own enough to see many U.S. officials prosecuted and jailed. The energetic promotion and white-washing of torture by U.S. interrogators are not only reprehensible and damaging to the reputation of the United States, but have undoubtedly placed all of its citizens - military as well as civilian- in increased danger from reprisals and acts of terrorism for years to come. The war crimes and clearly-impeachable misconduct of the Bush/Cheney administrations cannot go unprosecuted and unpunished if citizens of the United States of America are to move forward with relatively clear consciences and the hoped for restoration of their country's relatively good standing in the community of nations. This is about moral responsibility, common decency, and historical legacy. Thank you in advance, Mr. Obama.

-----
PS - I really loved the poem House Viggo posted recently as well. I really wish he'd post some more of his own poetry on Perceval Press though, perhaps another love poem...

Tags: impeach bush, president bush, viggo mortensen

For the last several days I've been engrossed in a new series of books, thanks to one of them being made into a movie. I've been watching previews for the movie for awhile and the film looked so good, I had to go out and get copies of the books so I could find out if the story was as good as it looked. And I discovered the story was even better than I imagined. The story in question is the one told by Stephenie Meyer, the author of the Twilight book series which has recently been made into a movie (well the first book anyway) and is coming out in theaters later this month.

So I have been reading, no devouring these books for the last several days, unable to hardly pull my eyes away from the pages, wanting to read more and more and never wanting it to end. I have fallen absolutely in love with the story of Edward and Bella and I can't wait to see if the film does the first book justice. I can already see from the trailers that they did change a few things to make the film a bit more action-packed. I don't mind that, as long as the essence of the story is maintained and if the two main actors pulled off the depth of feeling the characters feel for each other. If those two things are done right, I'm sure I will love the film as much as I am loving the books! I must admit, the Edward in my mind does look a bit better than the actor they found to play him, but I suppose our imaginations are always better than reality, in the long run.

I find myself wanting to write to the author Stephenie Meyer just to thank her profusely for writing such an amazing story with such unforgettable characters that I find myself wishing they were real. I'm sure I will not be the first to write her such a letter though. I might do it anyway, just to express my gratitude for lighting up my imagination and heart with such a wonderful and amazing story. Well, that's all for now. On to the third book...

Tags: edward & bella, stephenie meyer, twilight
Emotional Expression: enthralled

Tomorrow is Election Day, so if you haven't voted yet then get out there and vote! I plan to vote for Mickey Mouse for President, lol. Well, maybe I'll write in Hillary Clinton instead, with Dennis Kucinich for Vice President. ;-)

Tags: dennis kucinich, election, hillary clinton, jenny johnson's political views, vote

It's been a long time since I've posted on here. I guess I wasn't in too much of a sharing mood this summer and fall. I hope I still have a few friends left!

I had a good Halloween. I took my daughter Trick-or-Treating around our small town and also to the annual Halloween party put on by the Boys and Girls Club. My daughter now has a plastic pumpkin full of candy that should last her till Christmas at least! She dressed up as Princess Aurora because that is also her name. She wore a beautiful dress and crown, as you can see from the picture.

      

I tried my best to pull off a Mrs Lovett look with what I had at hand.

Ironically, if you do a search on Yahoo for "mrs lovett's world famous meat pies" my websites come up first, second and fifth in the search. Google has me placed fourth and sixth. What an honor... I guess that makes me a real Sweeney Todd fan then, at least of Tim Burton's version, anyway. ;-)

I hope you all had a great Halloween as well and I hope you are all having a good Samhain and Day of the Dead.

I have sad news to report along with the fun of yesterdays festivities. Tonight, this Samhain, my mother's mother passed away. My mom had a feeling it would happen last night but she was off by one night. I'm not really sad though. I know my grandmother is off someplace in the afterlife with my grandfather now and that is a good thing. He went before her eight years ago and now they are together again. Since I see death as just a transition from one form to another, I really can't be sad for the one who has died. I'm sadder for the ones who live on and must be without that one who has gone. I mourn for those who are mourning because they have the harder time of it.

So, in honor of both my grandparents who are no longer physically among us, I post this poem:

Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep (1932)
by Mary Elizabeth Frye

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die!

Tags: day of the dead, death, halloween, samhain
Emotional Expression: somber