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buccigang-headcanons · 4 years ago

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La Squadra Backstories!!!! Stream of consciousnesss style!

So literally I just sat down and wrote down exactly what I thought. I have not edited these at all lmaooo. But I made long drawn out backstories for our underrated assassins so enjoy!!

T/W + C/W - idk I talk about people dying in a lot of ways. Child abuse, drugs, severe illness, dead cats. This stuff is a mess I really didn’t censor it. But nothing is described in detail cuz I’m too lazy for that.

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Prosciutto cuz he’s at the top of my mind. Mmkay he and Pesci are brothers but not by blood. Pro was an orphan, I still wanna make him Russian, and pesci’s extremely kind and gentle family adopted him when he was like 7. They were like literally a garden catalogue family. Perfection. The parents died when pro was like 15, Pesci was 13?? Idk the age difference I’m just making shit up now. And Pesci had no fucking idea what to do, they didn’t have any other family, and pro was like “I’m still basically a hardened criminal from living on the streets of russia most of my childhood, so joining the local mafia should be a piece of cake”. It was.

Risotto..... fuck it. Polpo is risottos dad. I’ve seen that so much and fuck it I’m here for it now. Idk how I feel about the whole Mariah from part 3 being his mom that seems too coincidental. But either way, he is half Spanish. I don’t think he’s ever been in touch with his Spanish roots at all, but that’s what he is. Polpo had too much fun on vacay in Spain. But it was a once night stand and polpo, a skinny king back in the mid 70s, fucked off to do mafia stuff and didn’t know about this kid. Risotto never knew his father. Time goes by, about the time he’s 10, rizzo’s mom moves to Italy to find the man she once loved. Since the 70s, she has been married and divorced 4 times, disowned by her entire family, and she speaks only of Polpo, the man who swept her off her feet and then disappeared into the night. Leaving only this child with his matching eyes. So they live in Italy, risotto is about 13 now and his mom has been searching seriously for polpo for about 3 years. One day, she gets too close, mafia takes her out. Risotto is all alone in a country he has lived in for less than 3 years. So he decides to take revenge against the mafia. He goes to hunt them down. (I’m too lazy to write out how. Gets a gun. Basically the scene in part 5 where the kid is like “you killed my father and now I’m gonna kill you!!” But he chickens out???) yeah except rizzo didn’t chicken out, he stood firm and killed 2 of them. The other 2 surrendered, and immediately asked rizzo to take polpos test. He did. And he unknowingly met his father, the man his mother had died looking for. He stared into his fathers eyes, black sclera reflecting each other, and passed his test with ease.

Wowwwwwwwww alrighty then that was something. Let’s shake out those jitters because fuck that was intense and let’s move onto some happy shit.

Melone!! Always a bottle of joy. He was a phenomenal student, a perfect child. Perfect grades, perfect attitude, perfect looks. Onlyyyy tiny thing is he murdered cats and buried their heads in the back yard. But that was his only flaw. Aaaaaaaand mayyybe trying to use his extensive knowledge of molecular biology and genetics (even at as young as 11) to asexually breed said cats.

But, apart from that, absolutely perfect specimen of a young boy. And he kept that up until college. Until the rape accusation. Melone had no interest in having sex with her, he swore under oath in open court, he only wanted to “extract her essence” in the hopes of making her amazing genetics stay pure for centuries.

Due to his previously amazing school record, he was allowed to plead not guilty by reason of insanity (because the justice system is bullshit) and was released to his parents. During this whole process, Melone’s mother had begun to grow suspicious of her son, wondering if there was something wrong with him. This led her to explore the crawl space under the garage, more commonly known as “Melone’s childhood laboratory”. The cat skulls alone were enough to set her off. They allowed him into their home long enough to fool the court, but parole officers don’t pay attention, and they kicked him to the curb a month later. Broke, alone, and with no real skills other than his genius mind and gorgeous body, he became a prostitute. It was only a few months before he wandered up to a gigantic white haired man with angry eyes and asked if he wanted a date. Instead of declining, our good ol rizzo just knocked him out cold and brought him home. The rest is history. Literally because I can’t think of what would happen between that and Melone joining the mafia. I assume he was just their house pet for a little while before he decided he wanted a stand too.

Oh good lord these are getting insane. Better keep going. Okay I have no idea what’s about to come out of my head for ghia but oh Lordy. Might as well start. Ghiaccio wasn’t always quite as angry, but it’s actually gonna be a sweet story. Kinda. He used to act perfect, even tho he always felt the anger inside. He was forced to bottle it up and put on a happy exterior always. His mother was Belgian. (From experience, Belgian mothers (Flemish in particular) will beat you until your ass is raw if you talk back). Italian father, they lived in italy. He had 4 sisters, he was the middle child of 5. Around high school, he started acting out. Of course this was due to all of his bottled up anger from the past 15 years. 4 shattered sinks, 16 holes in the drywall, and one classroom fire later, Ghiaccio was expelled from school. His parents were too busy brimming with joy about the success of all his sisters that they didn’t take much notice to him. “If you’re going to behave in such a manner you might as well leave” his mother said. She was past the point of caring enough to beat him. So he left. 16 and with no where to go, he wandered the streets. After a year or so, Ghia had gotten used to that life, and was angry at everyone, sometimes when he wasn’t even angry. Anger had become his coping mechanism. Screaming was easier than talking. Until one day, he screamed at a blonde man in an intersection. Prosciutto was driving back to the squads hang out, boxes of takeout in the back seat of the car. He had chosen to not stop at the red light, just for fun, and nearly ran into our blue haired teenager. Ghia proceeded to cuss him out for a good 4 minutes in the middle of this intersection before pro cut him off. “Get in the back. “ he said, with his own special brand of brotherly love. “I know how you can put that anger to good use”. Ghiaccio, having no real reason to object, got in the back seat. Prosciutto was silent the rest of the drive and Ghiaccio yelled about all the take out food, now splattered on the backs of the seats due to the sudden slam on the brakes.

Y’all I don’t even remember the other la squadra members. Let’s do sorbet/gelato because they have zero backstory or personality so I can just ramble. *Clears throat* let’s begin. These fuckers. Friends since birth. Grew up together, always really close. They were both dirt poor, but because the only school nearby was a decent public school, when were able to slightly experience middle class living. They liked it. They wanted to see upper class, and once they did, they wanted to be there. These two were money grubbing bffs, I’m talking josuke and okuyasu, but like waaaaay more intense and also violent. They both left home around 14, together of course. Gelatos father had left them a few years prior, and his family were on the brink of starvation. Figuring they didn’t need another mouth to feed (and completely abandoning his post as family patriarch lol) he left with sorbet, who’s family had all died in various ways over the years. Most recently, his older sister being taken by some illness that was probably easily treatable, but with no means for a doctor, she died in days. The boys left home and school, and made a living by pickpocketing tourists and occasionally launching into larger heists. They made a decent living for themselves, but eventually started spending their money on drugs. It’s was sorbet first, heroin was really good to him for awhile. Gelato was against it, knowing it was the reason sorbets family had been so poor to begin with. His father was an addict, and despite holding down a job fairly well, spent all his earnings on drugs. Eventually he became too dependent, lost his job, and OD’d. But around this same time, when the boys were 16/17, they were starting to realize their feelings for each other. Confused teenaged minds full of budding love led to Gelato giving in, and soon their days were filled with heroin fueled ecstatic sex. They lived like this for awhile, existing in half reality, until one day they chose to set their pickpocketing targets on a short man with close cropped gray hair. The plan was perfect, sorbet bumped into the man and gelato passed by to grab his wallet, and suddenly they were the size of mere ants. In an instant, they were returned to size, left to wonder if it was real or just a hallucination from long term drug use. But they didn’t run. Formaggio introduced himself, with a loose handshake and a pause to spit out some tobacco, and promptly invited them to a “party”. Although, Formaggio was honest in his promise, this party did have drugs.

Cheese boys turn!! Seriously who am I forgetting??? Illuso my mirror man! Am I forgetting someone else too?? Idk. But shut up Kel it’s cheese boys turn.

So. Formaggio. Probably the most chill childhood. Lower middle class, pretty average, but he was quite gifted with sports. Soccer was his main, and also a fantastic competitive swimmer. (Okay I have a separate hc that Bruno is really good at soccer so hol horse up a moment so I can imagine those 2 playing soccer together in friendly competition. In my lil au where Bruno is in la squadra because I say BruPro exes rights please and thanks.) but anyway, he got really good at soccer and was offered a scholarship to play at a fancy pants private high school when he was 14. Of course his parents made him go, this has been the family’s dream for years, and formaggio’s as well. So high school is amazing, he’s starting to attract attention from universities even tho he’s barely in grade 11 by this point. And it’s all really amazing until he realizes. This isn’t what he wants. And it’s just that. He doesn’t want to play soccer anymore, he doesn’t want to potentially be famous. He just wants to be a kid. So he leaves school, he leaves home, he wants to start over. And he wanders into a diner and sees this small group of weirdly dressed men. At this point, it’s rizzo, pro, Pesci, and ghia. And he’s staring at them because they’re dressed like circus clowns but their aura is so murderous. And then the one who looks like a giant pineapple starts staring back. Pesci gets up and walks over to Formaggio. “I know you! You’re that amazing kid soccer player!!” And he just goes on and on about shit he read in the news (70% of it was false) until pro comes over and yanks his idiot brother away. Pro starts asking Formaggio questions, thinking he could be a good target. Stupid little rich kid. But to prosciuttos surpise, Formaggio is just a down to earth kid with no more money to his name than he needs to pay for this meal. Prosciutto takes him home after that. He doesn’t really offer any explanation.

(The rambling at the beginning of this paragraph actually happened lol so I paused for like 4 hrs oops)

Alright we are back. Had to leave to go to therapy and then scream at my mother and cry to my boyfriend but we are ready to go! Illuso and I really hope he’s the last one and I’m not forgetting one. Illuso was raised in an orphanage from infancy. No idea who his parents could even be. Fun fact: one of the nuns at the orphanage (cuz it’s an orphanage in Italy in 1980, they’re catholic.) nicknamed him Illuso because he was always pointing at things that weren’t there. As a tiny baby and a child, he would always be looking at things no one else can see (yes illuso is a natural stand user fight me). The nuns called him illuso as an insult, hoping to shame him into stopping. He never did. When he outgrew the orphanage, he decided to join the priesthood. He was 19, a priest in training, when the mafia came to the orphanage. They were collecting, and illuso knew they didn’t have the money this month. He tried to talk the mobsters down, but that went about as well as planned. 4 bullets to the chest, 3 open heart surgeries, and half a dozen resuscitations later, Illuso was released from the hospital. The orphanage had been shut down, and no one knew what had happened to the children or the nuns. With no where to go, illuso knew of one place that could use talents like his. The talents of steadily stealing money from the starving children of the church for a decade. It was during polpos test that illuso’s stand manifested. Not due to the arrow, but to protect its user from the other stand. Illuso was able to avoid Black Sabbath by hiding in his newfound mirror world until it was time to return the lighter to polpo (kinda cowardly but whatever.) he was assigned to risottos group by chance and was the last to join excluding Melone. But they loved him as if they had found him themselves.

#jojo's bizarre adventure #vento aureo #golden wind #la squadra #Melone #ghiaccio #Formaggio #illuso #sorbet #gelato #risotto Nero #prosciutto #Pesci #jojo part 5 #jjba

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freaktography · 6 years ago

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Top 10 List Strangest Things I’ve Found While Urban Exploring

In recent weeks I have seen many people posting photos of strange things they have found while Urban Exploring in abandoned places. This is also one of the most asked questions I get when I meet people or when people message me.

So, here is my first ever Top Ten Blog Post of the “Strangest Things I Have Found While Urban Exploring”

1 – An Abortion Chair in an Abandoned Psychiatric Hospital

It was November of 2012 and I was still very new to the hobby, I took a long road trip into New York State to explore an abandoned mental asylum. I knew very little about this facility and only knew of a handful of photos I had seen online from others. When I found this chair, I knew it was for female examinations but it wasn’t until years later that someone saw these photos and mentioned that this was an abortion chair.

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2 – A Frog Specimen in an Abandoned High School

In the Spring of 2018 we had traveled up to Northern Ontario to explore an abandoned high school. Not long ago this school was in pristine condition but very quickly the bad guys got inside and ransacked the whole place. Just outside of a science lab, in front of a locker on the floor I found the mummified body of a frog specimen that used to live in the science room. I opened the locker where the from was laying and inside I found a whole slew of other specimens and oddities!

3 – Human Specimens/A Jar Full of Teeth

This one is a tie, two strange finds in two different locations.

First, the Human Specimens: It was January 2016 and my first explore of the year, we had gone to explore an abandoned hospital that we knew had a great autopsy room and much more. What we did not know was inside the autopsy room there was a small fridge that no one had yet looked inside. I opened the drawer and pulled out a medical bag full of specimen jars each containing different human specimens taken during autopsies that were to be sent to the lab. They were labeled with things like “stomach contents”, “liver”, “fetal …..”, I couldn’t make out that last one.

Second was in November of 2017 and we were on our way to explore all weekend in Kingston Ontario but our first stop was an abandoned Dentists office in Scarborough, Ontario. I had explored this location a few days earlier and spotted this jar in a supply room/lab room and it was full of extracted human teeth in some kind of a green solution.

Human specimens left behind in the fridge of the autopsy room in an abandoned hospital. The labels said “Liver”, “Stomach Contents”, “baby liver” and they all smelled just terrible

The Tooth, The Whole Tooth and Nothing Buut the Tooth, So Help me God. Human Teeth left behind in an abandoned dentists office. I’ll be posting this video as my 100th YouTube video next week, see the teaser video at https://youtu.be/nYbhCDdJ7Mo

4 – A Grenade in a Safe

2015 was a great year for exploring, there were many solid locations all unique in their own way. One of these homes was simply titled “Somewhere House” by the person who discovered it, but in my circles and amongst my followers it has come to be known as the Mid Century Time Capsule House.

This home was a time warp right back to the 1960’s and 1970’s with very little done to the decor since that time period. In one of the rooms there was a safe with a yellow envelope that read

“DANGER MK-1 HAND GURNAID INSIDE. THIS IS NOT A JOKE. BOB JR.”

Sure enough, take a look inside!

5 – False Teeth/Dentures

This one is quite simple, it’s March of 2014 and i am exploring an amazing abandoned house in the middle of a snowstorm. At the time, only a handful had been here and much had not yet been discovered. I enter an upstairs bedroom and find a great antique dresser, I open up a drawer and find a white box, I open that white box and find a perfect and used set of dentures inside!

So, I do what any good explorer would do and I removed them from the box and took photos of them. Some years later some strange explorer or treasure hunter stole those teeth.

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6 – A Photo of a Woman in a Casket

Also in 2015 I explored a home in South Western Ontario with just enough stuff left behind to keep it interesting, including photos of an old dead woman in a casket. As I am exploring I find an old box that says “The Spirit Lives”, inside this box were dozens of photos taken of an old woman, lying dead in her casket along with cards of well wishes, photos of the funeral home and a program from the funeral service. I would come to learn that this was a tradition to send loved ones living abroad photos of the deceased in their casket and other items from the service so they could mourn as though they were in attendance.

A sad find in a home that has been abandoned a very long time.

7 – Giant Pokemon and Pikachu Costumes

In the summer of 2018 I spent a full week exploring almost every night with a friend who was in town from New Jersey along with another local explorer,we explored drains and other spots and at the end of a long night full of failures the local explorer suggested we try the local abandoned theatre. She noted that we won’t be getting in as it is always sealed up very tight! We approach the building and after some inspection we all agree that her assumption was true…..and then we spotted something. After some time and effort we found ourselves inside this large beautiful old theatre, we explored in the dark with flashlights and I proceeded into one room only to be met with an entire cast of human sized Pokemon characters.

8 – Televisions with Bullet Holes in Them

As if it’s not strange enough to find one television with bullet holes in it, I have found TWO televisions that have been unfortunate victims to domestic gun violence! The first was in 2017 in a very small abandoned house in Ontario where there were TV’s stacked on top of each-other, one with a few holes shot in it. The second one was in 2018 as I explored the dining room area of an amazing abandoned time capsule house in Ontario and there it was, a TV with bullet holes shot in the screen!

9 – Used Needles and Drug Paraphernalia

This is nothing new to explorers, we all come across the remnants of drug use as many people use abandoned buildings to shoot up and get their fix. These photos are from an abandoned candy factory that is well known to explorers and druggies alike! I’ve found use needles more times than I care to say

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10 – Forgotten MONEY!

Perhaps my most famous discovery and the craziest thing I have ever found would have to be a bag full of abandoned and forgotten money stuffed behind a mattress in an abandoned Ontario house. Ultimately, we would learn that this money belonged to an older man who lived in this house and ran a fruit stand near the highway in a town not far from the US border. Each roll had a note attached with the date it was counted and how much was there.

Thanks for reading, I have surely found many more interesting things in my explores and adventures but i wanted to keep this to a top ten list.

Show some love and follow me at these links: https://www.youtube.com/c/Freaktography http://www.freaktography.com http://www.instagram.com/freaktography http://www.facebook.com/freaktography http://www.twitter.com/freaktography

Top 10 List Strangest Things I've Found While Urban Exploring This is one of the most asked questions I get when I meet people or when people message me. Here are my top ten strangest discoveries found while exploring abandoned places. Top 10 List Strangest Things I've Found While Urban Exploring In recent weeks I have seen many people posting photos of strange things they have found while Urban Exploring in abandoned places.

#abandoned #abandoned photography #Abandoned Places #top 10 #top 10 list #top ten #top ten abandoned list #top ten list #urban exploration #urban exploration photography #urban exploration top ten list #urban exploring

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drannafrost · 7 years ago

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40 Years On, Why We Don’t Know Much About Lyme Disease

As you may or may not know, Erwin Schrödinger examined not-knowing and truthfulness in what is commonly referred to as the “cat paradox experiment” (Barad, 2007, p. 275; Lindley, 2007, p. xi; Schrödinger, 1980/1983, p. 152). In this famous thought experiment, Schrödinger created the problem of a cat in a box with a radioactive source and a Geiger counter. In the course of 60 minutes, one radioactive atom may or may not be released. At the one-hour mark, the observer may actually witness a cat jump out of the box and appear to be alive and well. But is it? Direct observation does not and cannot tell the whole story.

Though some misunderstood the principle of the experiment as a kind of “blurring,” Schrödinger’s experiment instead suggested the presence of an unclear or contradictory reality, according to Barad (2007, pp. 275-278). Barad suggested that this unclear or contradictory reality did not mean that the cat was either: alive or dead; alive and dead; or partly alive and partly dead. To perceive the cat paradox in this way would be to engage in a binary affair. Instead, the cat’s fate was literally in an entangled state: the fate of the cat was entangled with the fate of the atom.

Further, what Barad (2007) found “most disturbing” (p. 280) about the cat paradox experiment was that it illustrated the nature of the transition of the state of the cat during the process of observation. The value of the object, therefore, was no longer one thing or another, but rather what Colebrook (2007) called “a becoming” (p. 78). When one can liberate lived experience from concept, reality becomes less about time and more about iterative transformation (p. 78).

This understanding of transformation in relation to time, reality, and being is an excellent way to think about and transcend the binary affairs in lyme studies. The issue of serological testing is one binary affair that can subsequently lead people down a rabbit trail of other binary affairs, such as diagnosis, treatment protocols, and the issue of chronicity. Focusing on testing for now, serological tests look for antibodies, which is considered to be a sign of active infection. Therefore, some members of the lyme community interpret a negative test result to indicate that no active infection exists (Lantos, 2011, p. 790). To many in lyme studies, the case would be closed and patients “crying lyme” are actually suffering from another illness. However, physicians who disagree with the conclusion of these negative results may go ahead and diagnose and treat lyme disease anyway. They cite uncontrolled studies with high reporting biases for the reason why they cannot exclude the possibility that patients have lyme disease (Lantos et al., 2010a, pp. 3-4; Johnson & Stricker, 2010a, p. 1109). Ironically, those who interpret negative test results to be not-lyme point to those same studies as sufficient evidence—despite simultaneously believing case studies, anecdotes, and patient testimonials are sloppy and unscientific practices.

In any case, what many members of the lyme community from both sides of the issue of serological testing may fail to remember is that lyme disease in itself is untidy. For instance, consider one of the main sticking points surrounding diagnosis: active infection. Recalling Schrödinger’s cat paradox experiment, imagine that the cat is the lyme body and the radiation atom is a lyme pathogen. If the fate of the lyme body is entangled with the fate of the pathogen, naturally many questions arise: What exactly is active infection? How does active infection manifest or not manifest as observable sickness? Do the contents of a vial of blood drawn at one particular minute of one particular hour of one particular day indicate a definitive presence or absence of infection? Moreover, what is one to do with evidence that indicates that different labs yielded different results from the same specimen (Luger & Krauss, 1990, p. 762)? And what is one to do about evidence that showed the same lab can yield drastically different results from the same specimen (Bakken et al., 1997, p. 537)? Also, how do experiences, traumas, medical treatments, naturally aging biological bodies, sex, geographic location, environmental factors, and so forth, intra-act with the lyme pathogen over time? Like the cat in the box, at any given moment, the fate of the lyme body is in an entangled state with the fate of the infection.

To help flesh this out a bit more, it helps to explore one aspect of quantum physics known as a “quantum leap.” These leaps are not jumps in the sense that an electron moves from one orbit to another on one continuous trajectory; the electron does not move from a here-now to a there-then, as Barad (2007) put it. Instead, what makes the quantum leap “queer” (p. 182) is that no determinacy exists as to when and where the electron jumps, which makes “continuity and discontinuity . . . crucial to the open-ended becoming of the world,” Barad said (p. 182). In this way, lyme studies would flourish if it kept an open-ended attitude towards the lyme body and even the pathogens that infect it. Though technology and observation will help mysteries emerge, the body will always be there to lead the way through and make sense of them.

For instance, if one were to take a clinical history of a typical lyme body, one would often find a history of symptomatic flare-ups (U.S. Senate, Committee on Labor and Human Resources, 1993, p. 37). In my observations, many lyme sufferers experience on average about 10 years of illness with many flare-ups scattered throughout that time. Because the symptoms vary in intensity and length and appear as other diseases or illnesses, both medical practitioners and sufferers tend not to perceive all those episodes being part of a single disease. Usually, around the 10-year mark, these sufferers no longer have episodes of perhaps a week or maybe a month or more. Instead, their flare-ups become one, long continuous bout of symptoms. Having exhausted all other possible etiologies, bank accounts, physical strength, and relational capital, somehow they find the last-known person who seems to listen to what their body is communicating: the lyme-literate doctor.

In conclusion, transformation and quantum leaps in spacetimematter challenges the expectations about the certainty of lyme knowledge. As such, that a person can be suffering from lyme disease in spite of the pre-arranged script determined 40 years ago should be all the validation one needs for the insufficiency of current lyme knowledge.

References

Bakken, L. L., Callister, S. M., Wand, P. J., & Schell, R. F. (1997). Interlaboratory comparison of test results for detection of Lyme disease by 516 participants in the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene/College of American Pathologists Proficiency Testing Program. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 35(3), 537-543.

Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Colebrook, C. (2008). On not becoming man: The materialist politics of unactualized potential. In S. Alaimo & S. Hekman (Eds.), Material feminisms (pp. 52-84). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Johnson, L., & Stricker, R. B. (2010a). Final report of the Lyme disease review panel of the Infectious Diseases Society of America: A pyrrhic victory? Clinical Infectious Diseases, 51(9), 1108-1009. doi:10.1086/656690

Lantos, P. M., Charini, W. A., Medoff, G., Moro, M. H., Mushatt, D. M., Parsonnet, J., . . . Baker, C. J. (2010a). Final report of the Lyme disease review panel of the Infectious Disease Society of America. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 51(1), 1-5. doi:10.1086/654809

Lantos, P. M. (2011). Chronic Lyme disease: The controversies and the science. Expert Review of Anti-Infective Therapy, 9(7), 787-797. doi:10.1586/ERI.11.63

Lindley, D. (2007). Introduction. In W. Heisenberg, Physics and philosophy: The revolution of modern science (pp. vii-xxi). New York: Harper Perennial.

Luger, S. W., & Krauss, E. (1990). Serologic tests for Lyme disease. Archives of Internal Medicine, 150, 761-763.

Schrödinger, E. (1983). The present situation in quantum mechanics (J. D. Trimmer, Trans.). In J. Wheeler & W. H. Zurek (Eds.), Quantum theory and measurement (pp. 152-167). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Reprinted from 1980, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 124, 323-338)

U.S. Senate, Committee on Labor and Human Resources. (1993, August 5). Lyme disease: A diagnostic and treatment dilemma (S. Hrg. 103-265). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

#intra-action #lyme disease #lyme studies #karen barad

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kaenarebelled · 8 years ago

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Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the site of a lightning strike at a local cemetery. Based on the opposite branching pattern and bark, I am led to believe the jolt touched down on an ash tree. The find came to my attention after viewing a video of the smoldering tree that was shared in a Facebook group focused on occult subject matter.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PDuXr8QxHHw

A L’il Bit of History Repeated…

STS Peter & Paul Cemetery located on the south side of St. Louis is where the strike took place. Established in 1864, the graveyard is home to a large chapel mausoleum and tandem crypts, as well as many burial plots that were originally purchased by the STS Peter and Paul parish for interment of its German parishioners.

Huge chapel mausoleum just inside the entrance to STS Peter & Paul Cemetery

Greeting The Gatekeeper

I pulled up to the open gates of the graveyard and noticed a sign just beyond the entrance that said the cemetery closes at 5PM. A quick glance at my car’s dashboard told me I was 39 minutes past that point. But the gates were still open, there was quite a bit of daylight left, and I am ever the opportunist.

Rum and pennies in hand, I exited my car and arranged the liquor and coins in front of the stone portion of the gate. Having done this somewhat on auto-pilot (because I usually leave a similar entrance offering whenever I enter such a place; I store tiny bottles of rum in my glove box for such an occasion), it was only on the short walk back to my car that I noticed the pattern of the pennies: Four of them, tails up, formed a circle around the small bottle of spirits at cardinal direction points, with the fifth heads up and directly underneath. It has not become apparent to me if this particular set up means anything. It’s just a detail that I recalled that struck me as interesting, really. My aim with the whole act was to respectfully acknowledge that I was entering a place inhabited by others that did not belong to me, much in the same way that I would knock and be granted entrance into a living person’s home; and with the intention to locate, observe, and collect. *

Access Granted. Now What?

With my offering to the gatekeeper of the hallowed grounds* out of the way, I proceeded to drive through the cemetery with the intention of locating the tree I’d seen in the video. When I tell you there were trees upon trees in every direction, mingled with headstones and winding roads, lol. It was then that I realized that I might have a problem finding this tree. I focused my intention on locating the tree as I rounded bend after bend and tried to key in on any inklings my intuition would have on the matter. My eldest son (he’d rescinded his initial declination of my invitation to join at the last minute after finding out his younger brother had excitedly planned to attend) asked me to turn the radio up, but I refused, as a token of respect for the dead, but also so I could hear any mental messages that would come through.

After mistaking several trees, I had the idea to review the video from Facebook for any clues that might lead me to the location. The name on the video’s nearby visible headstone was clear enough (Kaspar), but there really was no telling the difference between it and the headstones that were actually in front of me without a look at each single one. I re-reviewed the video and settled on scanning the tops and trunks of the trees for the large burn stripes, still unsure but hopeful. I rounded a third or fourth turn that took me near the back of the cemetery and came across a lone goose* among the graves to the left of the path I drove upon. We regarded each other in silence for a bit. I said, “Hello Goose” as I meandered past him, while his gaze tracked the movement of my car.

I continued to scan the trees, with my cell phone resting on my left leg, video open but not playing, both hands on the steering wheel. Suddenly, the video started to play again on its own. Not incredibly unusual given the known jankiness of Facebook and cell phones in general. But, I’m never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and since I knew there was no way I could have started the video up again on my own, I took that as a sign to pay very close attention to the scene around me. Looking to my left again, I spotted a tall tree with stripes, and upon driving closer, I positively identified the tree as the one from the video. I was elated and excited to finally behold, in person, the awesome specimen.

At this point, words will not do a description of the site justice. Here are bunch of photos I took. Enjoy!

A Few Observations

I was nervous about stepping inside the ring left by the absence of the burned wood that was now a pile of ashes, hoping that somehow the ground wouldn’t give way beneath me and that I wouldn’t be transported to Narnia or just underground even. Perhaps and irrational fear, but don’t judge me. The ground was soft like sand near a river where the ashes rested, and it really made me feel like that horrible thing could happen.

As I observed the area from various angles, at one point I got the feeling that there was movement behind me. Of course, when I turned I didn’t see anything, but I got the sense/mental impression of playful running behind me. And a sound that seemed a lot like laughter.

I fully intended to light the candle and incense seen in the 17th pic, but the lighter stopped working. There was a bit of wind, light but quietly persistent. After a while of trying, I gave up, and figured that the tree was not interested in more fire. The impression I got was that the items left were sufficient in their un-burned state, given the circumstances.

At one instance, I placed my left (receiving) hand upon a burned part of the tree, and meditated for a moment. I let the window blow around me, and allowed myself to revel in the experience of just present in that moment, the charred bark hard and cool beneath my palm. I began to radiate thoughts toward the tree, and I let it know that I was sorry for it’s pain, that I wished it a speedy recovery and peace. Calmness continued to descend like an airy blanket around me, and I noticed a tingling in my left hand. The feeling then turned into alternating sensations of hot and cold that coiled around my wrist and upper forearm.

One grave in particular stood out to me, but I have not included it’s picture here. I was going to add it, but my intuition indicates I should not. It was the same one with the large headstone visible from the front in the video.

I left my ankle socks in the graveyard, by where my car was parked. Another intuition thing, lol. Weird, but I didn’t see how it could hurt. Now that I ponder it, it felt like a another show of respect, somehow, and it definitely felt like the thing I was to do. I had a flash of thought of not bringing the dirt I’d tracked around in as I stepped through the graveyard and around the strike site into the car or back home with me as a way to ensure no one/ no thing followed me home. I’d taken my shoes off once I got to the tree, and I put them back one before I left. My socks were filthy. At the very least, it will be an interesting find for someone to stumble upon, I suppose.

I had no idea how many people just strolled through cemeteries at dusk. Singletons, couples with pets, someone pushing a stroller even.

Good thing I’d left when I did. As I made way for the gate, I approached a small-framed woman in a pink sweatshirt and jeans. I just assumed she was another wanderer until she began to flag me down. I was leery because, for one, I was in a graveyard (hello!), and, two, I had my sons with me. I stopped long enough to hear her say the gates were closed and she would be there soon to open them and let us out. She was the groundskeeper! Just imagine if she had not known we were there. I’d like to think she would have found us and told us to leave, but there’s a chance that wouldn’t have happened. She was already nearly back to the exit when we came upon her. We’d have been stuck inside, since those gates are the only entrance and exit to the whole place.

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Magickal Properties of Lightning Struck Wood

Lightning is associated with thunder and thus is linked to deities such as Shango, Oya, Indra, Zeus, Thor, Marduk, Set, Ba’al, Bel, Thunderbird, and Tlaloc. This is, by no means, an exhaustive list. Chinese tradition has over 120 thunder deities alone!

By context, lightning is associated with the element of fire, which lends it’s energy to a fiercer or even faster working. Lightning struck wood can be added to any working for a boost in power, regardless of the type of spell, to harness the power of fire to transform, either by creation or destruction.

Different cultures have different beliefs about trees that have been struck by lightning. According to Navajo beliefs, for example, it is not wise to burn lightning struck wood as a source of wood burning fuel as it can cause illness and bad luck. Lightening struck wood is considered the property of the Spirit of Lightning and so it is avoided…

In Chinese folklore, a special divination system called lingqijing uses lightning struck wood as the material from which to make the divinatory objects. The word lingqijing consists of three characters – ling means ‘magic’ or ‘spirit’ or ‘supernatural’, while jing is simply ‘book’ or ‘classic’. Traditionally, the disks are made from wood taken from a tree that has been struck by lightning.

In Southern Hoodoo, wood from a tree that had been struck by lightning can be used in uncrossings. It can be added to mojo bags and gris gris, and it can also provide a serious boost to candle magick.

(Data harvested from various sources)

*I have a few other standing rules that apply to entities/deities/ghosts/spirits/whatever:

Don’t fuckin’ creep me out. I’m skittish. I’ll run. If you want to say hello, or you need something, just say it. No need to pull my hair or kick me.

Don’t follow me home without my express conscious and willful consent. No stragglers allowed.

Leave my family out of it. The adults will need to give their own consent, and the children (who both see/sense spirits) are off-limits, period.

*The identities are different in many traditions, but the idea is the same. These are the watchers of the gates of the cemeteries, they who are believed to guard the paths between the living and the dead. Whatever your reason for visiting the graveyard, it is quite customary to pay some sort of homage to a gatekeeper, out of respect and to ensure a successful mission. Baron Samedi (Haitian loa of the dead along with his other incarnations/aspects Baron Cimetière, Baron La Croix, and Baron Kriminel); Legba/ Eleggua or Elegba/ Eshu/ Exu (Haitian loa/ Yoruban orisha/ Yoruban orisha/ Quimbanda spirits); Oya (Yoruba orisha); Lucero Mundo (crossroads mpungo of Palo Mayombe), just to name a few that I am personally aware of, though I’m sure there are many more.

*Interestingly enough, the goose is magickally symbolic of quests, guidance, safety, synchronicity, and treasure hunting. http://www.spirit-animals.com/goose/; http://www.auntyflo.com/magic/goose; http://www.universeofsymbolism.com/goose-symbolism.html

Ash Tree Correspondences

Element: Water, Fire, Air

Tarot: The World, The Hanged Man, The Sun

Theme: As above, so below.

Celestial bodies: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Neptune

Deities: Orunmila, Oshun, Inanna, Thoth, Isis, Ganesha, Saraswati, Eostre, Frigg, Hel, Minerva, Nemesis, Poseidon, Odin, Neptune, Meliaie, Enki, Erishkagal, Venus, Athena

Medicinal properties: astringent/ disinfectant, cure for warts, relief of gout and arthritis, diuretic, laxative, relief of kidney and urinary tract infections, expelling of intestinal parasites, treatment of liver disease and malaria

Types of workings: cleansing/ clearing, protection, love, sex, divination, spells that require the power of fire, water, or air, crafting of magickal items (staves, wands, talismans, amulets, etc.)

The Ash tree also has meaning in many cultures. For example, it is associated with Yggdrasil, the World Tree that connects the nine realms of Norse cosmology (the same tree Odin hung from for nine days to learn the secret knowledge of the Futhark Runes). It is also considered to be linked to the Divine Feminine and represents the creative, secretive Yin energy, a compliment and counterpart to masculine Yang energy. The ash in the presence of an oak and hawthorne is said to be the home of faeries. In Druidic themed astrology that corresponds to the Oggam Wheel of the Year, the tree is associated with the energies of the sign of Pisces and the month of March. In Celtic lore, the tree is associated with the Welsh Magician-God Gwyddion, who carries a staff made of Ash, a symbol of healing, transformation, and empowerment in matters of destiny.

Interesting fact: The Ash tree is historically known to draw lightning.

Graveyard Loot: Lightning Struck Wood Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the site of a lightning strike at a local cemetery.

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