Hast thou a hat?

I have recently logged into my old youtube account and found this, a video that I made when I was messing around after getting a webcam during my first year of university. Here...is...that...video.




Over and Out.
ED

The Tarot and the Thief.

Most people that I ask have said that they play video games in their spare time or watch tv, which I do but I decided that I wanted to do something mystical, gain a skill or read more books than I do. I came to the decision that I would learn how to read the Tarot after buying a set from the Waterstones Store in Derby where I go to university. The cards were beautiful, the pictures were amazing. I could even recognise some of the symbols on the cards. I typed Tarot card reading into youtube and the first video I came across was one person who said that they had been learning about Tarot for about five years and they still considered themselves to be a beginner... frickin' icky thump mate.
I returned home for the weekend and my mum happened to have a book on Tarot cards that she had got from a friend which she gave to me to look at. Tarot card reading is incredibly complex. Not only do you have to learn the meanings of the cards but there is a whole universe of information that you have to know.
One thing that surprised me most is that the book said that if the person you are giving a reading to is forty then you have to change the reading slighty...so why are forty year olds different to the other ages. What's with the discrimination?
There are four suits in Tarot cards; cups, wands, pentacles and swords. There are also cards called higher arcana. If you draw four kings in one reading then you have to adapt the reading slightly...bla bla bla...there is loads to learn.
BUT
I WILL learn the Tarot because not many people nowadays know how to do it and it's pretty fun so far. It looks like you need quite some skills to do a reading but the day will come when I will be able to do it.
Oh yeah and the reason that I am posting the picture below is because it looks cool...slightly mystical

Ramble on.
Over and Out.
ED

P.S--- I do not necessarily hold a personal belief in Tarot but in the words of someone I recently interviewed for my dissertation,

'There are many forms of storytelling, there are very many varied ways to reflect on oneself, through identifying with characters in books or through using symbols. The mystical is looking into the complex, organic world of yourself.'

Proof of my Gypsy Ancestry (In Bullet Points)

• My Mum has curly black hair and has tanned skin even when it is winter. My Grandpa also had black hair and tanned easily...pretty Romani if you ask me.
• During the weekend I was given a charm by my mother who said the trick was to rub it in order to get luck...
• When my Mum and Dad were going out before they were married my Dad would stay at the Pick house for the weekend (Pick was my mothers maiden name). My Grandad made a traditional meal from the remnants of the Sunday meal, making all the left overs into a stew. Guess what the stew was called....yep.....it was called Jippo.
• My grandmother told me about gypsies that live near to the house where she lives.
• My Dad was working in his office one day when an actual gypsy came in and asked to read his fortune. I can't remember the whole story but she said that my Dad would live until he was ninety two.....coincidence...well yes but I just wanted to mention it.
• The Pick family attraction to the mystical. There are certain traits like putting 20 pences under Buddha statuettes to get good luck, having a general interest in the mystical type things.
• My uncle travelling around in a canal boat, going around the country.
• Uh...I like gypsies.

One day I am going to look at both sides of the family properly. I bet you I will find gypsy blood somewhere. The evidence is out there.


Over and Out.
ED