Seasonal floods transform the large, dry surfaces of the world’s largest salt flat into one of the biggest mirrors on Earth.

Salar de Uyuni, near the crest of the Andes in Bolivia, is made up of the remains of dried-up prehistoric lakes. The unusually flat and reflective salt crust gives visitors the illusion they are walking on.( Tomas Rawski )

The Venus symbol is meant to symbolize a hand mirror because the Goddess of Love is vain and imperishable.

For all you with hangovers, all I can say is haha, you should have stuck to the weed.

I just watched Flight 666, by Iron Maiden–wow.   You know you are the world’s most badass band when your band cruises around on world tour with its own 757–flown by your lead singer. 

Anyway, that inspired me to to want to look at all their album covers, which were hard to find in good resolution all in one place.  So here’s my personal top 10.

All these albums are by Derek Riggs, whose name should be as household as Iron Maiden’s since a good chunk of Maiden’s initial and lasting appeal is the intensely detailed fantasy work of their covers.  These can really only be appreciated on an album cover–CD covers don’t cut it.  I’ve used the highest resolutions I could find.

10.  Aces High. This one is actually the cover of a single–but it’s classic and much better than the 90s Iron Maiden album covers.

9. The Trooper.  This one is also a single, but it’s still one of their best.  Bruce Dickinson dresses up like this in Flight 666 at one point.  Awesome!!

8. Piece of Mind (1983)-  Ah now we are getting into it….  Eddie’s lost his mind! Who ate it??

7.  Iron Maiden’s debut in 1980.   Eddie, created by Derek Riggs, appears in top form, sporting a punk look.

6. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988).  Classy, surreal album cover.  That cool blue color was a relief from their other album covers as well.  

5.  Live After Death (1985).  This is a full fold out from the double album.  Classic horror theme of returning from the grave.  Note the H.P. Lovecraft quote.

4.  Iron Maiden took it to the future in Somewhere in Time.  A highly successful attempt at a sci-fi album cover.

3. Iron Maiden’s Number of the Beast (1982).  What can you say about the album cover that still horrifies the meek of heart after 27 years.  Also notable as the debut of Bruce Dickinson.

2.  Killers (1981) — No Bruce Dickinson, but this album is still one of their best, albeit quite a bit different than what followed.  Eddie never looked better before or after.  This album cover is so perfectly classic it was a contender for the number one spot.

1. Best Iron Maiden cover goes to Powerslave (1984).  Eddie dies and is entombed in his own pyramid.  This is also a contender for best Maiden album of all time.

Enjoy the detail!!  If you’ve only seen these in CD covers before, they will blow your mind!

xoxo,

Izabael

p.s. Here’s the back cover to Powerslave:

This is a artist rendition of Ardi, a small-brained, 110-pound (50-kilogram) female (Ardipithecus ramidus.)   She’s not only our ancestor but an ancestor to chimps!  What a cutie, right?  What??  No??  Well just imagine what you MEN looked like…:-(

xoxo,

Iza

p.s. Full National Geographic story here.

Excerpt: “This find is far more important than Lucy,” said Alan Walker, a paleontologist from Pennsylvania State University who was not part of the research. “It shows that the last common ancestor with chimps didn’t look like a chimp, or a human, or some funny thing in between.” (Related: “Oldest Homo Sapiens Fossils Found, Experts Say” [June 11, 2003].)

I have lately been attempting to back up certain Geocities sites that have useful information on them, since as you know Geocities is going down soon, and I have no ideas if the owners are going to move or back up any of that information. 

In the spirit of October coming, I’m going to reprint the History of the Necronomicon, the best darn little book of evil ever written   I took this from Official Dan Clore webpage:

History of the Necronomicon by H.P. Lovecraft (1927)

(There has been some difficulty over the date of this essay. Most give the date as 1936, following the Laney-Evans (1943) bibliography entry for the pamphlet version produced by the Rebel Press. This date, as can easily be ascertained from the fact that this was a “Limited Memorial Edition”, is spurious (Lovecraft died in 1937); in fact, it dates to 1938. The correct date of 1927 comes from the final draft of the essay, which appears on a letter addressed to Clark Ashton Smith (“To the Curator of the Vaults of Yoh-Vombis, with the Concoctor’s [?] Comments”). The letter is dated April 27, 1927 and was apparently kept by Lovecraft to circulate as needed.)

Original title Al Azif — azif being the word used by Arabs to designate that nocturnal sound (made by insects) suppos’d to be the howling of daemons.

Composed by Abdul Alhazred, a mad poet of Sanaá, in Yemen, who is said to have flourished during the period of the Ommiade caliphs, circa 700 A.D. He visited the ruins of Babylon and the subterranean secrets of Memphis and spent ten years alone in the great southern desert of Arabia — the Roba el Khaliyeh or “Empty Space” of the ancients — and “Dahna” or “Crimson” desert of the modern Arabs, which is held to be inhabited by protective evil spirits and monsters of death. Of this desert many strange and unbelievable marvels are told by those who pretend to have penetrated it. In his last years Alhazred dwelt in Damascus, where theNecronomicon (Al Azif) was written, and of his final death or disappearance (738 A.D.) many terrible and conflicting things are told. He is said by Ebn Khallikan (12th cent. biographer) to have been seized by an invisible monster in broad daylight and devoured horribly before a large number of fright-frozen witnesses. Of his madness many things are told. He claimed to have seen fabulous Irem, or City of Pillars, and to have found beneath the ruins of a certain nameless desert town the shocking annals and secrets of a race older than mankind. [The Rebel Press edition adds this editor's note: "A full description of the nameless city, and the annals and secrets of its one time inhabitants will be found in the story THE NAMELESS CITY, published in the first issue of Fanciful Tales, and written by the author of this outline."] He was only an indifferent Moslem, worshipping unknown entities whom he called Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu.

In A.D. 950 the Azif, which had gained a considerable tho’ surreptitious circulation amongst the philosophers of the age, was secretly translated into Greek by Theodorus Philetas of Constantinople under the title Necronomicon. For a century it impelled certain experimenters to terrible attempts, when it was suppressed and burnt by the patriarch Michael. After this it is only heard of furtively, but (1228) Olaus Wormius made a Latin translation later in the Middle Ages, and the Latin text was printed twice — once in the fifteenth century in black-letter (evidently in Germany) and once in the seventeenth (prob. Spanish) — both editions being without identifying marks, and located as to time and place by internal typographical evidence only. The work both Latin and Greek was banned by Pope Gregory IX in 1232, shortly after its Latin translation, which called attention to it. The Arabic original was lost as early as Wormius’ time, as indicated by his prefatory note; [the Rebel Press edition adds paranthetically: "there is, however, a vague account of a secret copy appearing in San Francisco during the present century, but later perished in fire" -- a transparent reference to Clark Ashton Smith's tale "The Return of the Sorcerer". Indeed, Lovecraft says in a letter to Richard F. Searight (1935) "This 'history' must be modified in one respect -- since Klarkash-Ton's 'Return of the Sorceror' (pub in Strange Tales 3 yrs. ago) tells of the survival of an Arabic text until modern times."] and no sight of the Greek copy — which was printed in Italy between 1500 and 1550 — has been reported since the burning of a certain Salem man’s library in 1692. An English translation made by Dr. Dee was never printed, and exists only in fragments recovered from the original manuscript. [This sentence does not occur in the first draft of the essay. It was added later, after Frank Belknap Long had quoted from "John Dee'sNecronomicon" in his tale "The Space Eaters" (1928).] Of the Latin texts now existing one (15th cent.) is known to be in the British Museum under lock and key, while another (17th cent.) is in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. A seventeenth-century edition is in the Widener Library at Harvard, and in the library of Miskatonic University at Arkham. Also in the library of the University of Buenos Ayres. Numerous other copies probably exist in secret, and a fifteenth-century one is persistently rumoured to form part of the collection of a celebrated American millionaire. A still vaguer rumour credits the preservation of a sixteenth-century Greek text in the Salem family of Pickman; but if it was so preserved, it vanished with the artist R.U. Pickman, who disappeared early in 1926. The book is rigidly suppressed by the authorities of most countries, and by all branches of organised ecclesiasticism. Reading leads to terrible consequences. It was from rumours of this book (of which relatively few of the general public know) that R.W. Chambers is said to have derived the idea of his early novel The King in Yellow.

Chronology

Al Azif written circa 730 A.D. at Damascus by Abdul Alhazred
Tr. to Greek 950 A.D. as Necronomicon by Theodorus Philetas
Burnt by Patriarch Michael 1050 (i.e., Greek text). Arabic text now lost.
Olaus translates Gr. to Latin 1228
1232 Latin ed. (and Gr.) suppr. by Pope Gregory IX
14… Black-letter printed edition (Germany)
15… Gr. text printed in Italy
16… Spanish reprint of Latin text

This should be supplemented with a letter written to Clark Ashton Smith for November 27, 1927:

I have had no chance to produce new material this autumn, but have been classifying notes & synopses in preparation for some monstrous tales later on. In particular I have drawn up some data on the celebrated & unmentionable Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred! It seems that this shocking blasphemy was produced by a native of Sanaá, in Yemen, who flourished about 700 A.D. & made many mysterious pilgrimages to Babylon’s ruins, Memphis’s catacombs, & the devil-haunted & untrodden wastes of the great southern deserts of Arabia — the Roba el Khaliyeh, where he claimed to have found records of things older than mankind, & to have learnt the worship of Yog-Sothoth & Cthulhu. The book was a product of Abdul’s old age, which was spent in Damascus, & the original title was Al Azif — azif (cf. Henley’s notes to Vathek) being the name applied to those strange night noises (of insects) which the Arabs attribute
to the howling of daemons. Alhazred died — or disappeared — under terrible circumstances in the year 738. In 950 Al Azif was translated into Greek by the Byzantine Theodorus Philetas under the titleNecronomicon, & a century later it was burnt at the order of Michael, Patriarch of Constantinople. It was translated into Latin by Olaus in 1228, but placed on the Index Expurgatorius by Pope Gregory IX in 1232. [Note that this does not appear in the final version of the essay. The explanation is that the Index did not exist at this time, as further research must have revealed to Lovecraft.] The original Arabic was lost before Olaus’ time, & the last known Greek copy perished in Salem in 1692. The work was printed in the 15th, 16th, & 17th centuries, but few copies are extant. Wherever existing, it is carefully guarded for the sake of the world’s welfare & sanity. Once a man read through the copy in the library of Miskatonic University at Arkham — read it through & fled wild-eyed into the hills …… but that is another story!

In yet another letter (to James Blish and William Miller, 1936), Lovecraft says:

You are fortunate in securing copies of the hellish and abhorred Necronomicon. Are they the Latin texts printed in Germany in the fifteenth century, or the Greek version printed in Italy in 1567, or the Spanish translation of 1623? Or do these copies represent different texts?

Note that this is not entirely consistent with the accounts given earlier.

Annotated Version

From Kendrick Kerwin Chua’s Necronomicon FAQ with further annotation by Dan Clore.

(Note: I have substituted the corrected text for the older, corrupt text used in the FAQ. — D.C.)

“History of the Necronomicon“, by H.P. Lovecraft, written in 1937 with footnotes and references by Kendrick Kerwin Chua, 1993.

See above for the date of this essay.

Original title Al Azif — azif being the word used by Arabs to designate that nocturnal sound (made by insects) suppos’d to be the howling of daemons.

Composed by Abdul Alhazred, a mad poet of Sanaá, in Yemen, who is said to have flourished during the period of the Ommiade caliphs, circa 700 A.D. He visited the ruins of Babylon and the subterranean secrets of Memphis and spent ten years alone in the great southern desert of Arabia — the Roba el Khaliyeh or “Empty Space” of the ancients — and “Dahna” or “Crimson” desert of the modern Arabs, which is held to be inhabited by protective evil spirits and monsters of death. Of this desert many strange and unbelievable marvels are told by those who pretend to have penetrated it. In his last years Alhazred dwelt in Damascus, where theNecronomicon (Al Azif) was written, and of his final death or disappearance (738 A.D.) many terrible and conflicting things are told. He is said by Ebn Khallikan (12th cent. biographer) to have been seized by an invisible monster in broad daylight and devoured horribly before a large number of fright-frozen witnesses. Of his madness many things are told. He claimed to have seen fabulous Irem, or City of Pillars, and to have found beneath the ruins of a certain nameless desert town the shocking annals and secrets of a race older than mankind. [The Rebel Press edition adds this editor's note: "A full description of the nameless city, and the annals and secrets of its one time inhabitants will be found in the story THE NAMELESS CITY, published in the first issue of Fanciful Tales, and written by the author of this outline."] He was only an indifferent Moslem, worshipping unknown entities whom he called Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu.

(9) Note already how Lovecraft skirts the fine line between campy parody and seriousness. In Lovecraft at Last, Conover writes that Lovecraft wrote the history in order to allow people with any understanding of Arab studies to see through the mock scholarship. Note also the inconsistencies here with the description of Al-Hazred in the Simon Necronomicon. Al-Hazred there supposedly witnessed the horrible rituals at Masshu, a mythical island at the mouth of the Euphrates upon which Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah, supposedly still resides today. Whereas Lovecraft describes the Crimson Desert as the place where Al-Hazred witnessed much of what he wrote down. Note also that in the Simon version, Al-Hazred warns against worshipping “Iak-Sakkak” and “Kutulu”, whereas Lovecrafts claims he did just that. Note also the improper use of the A.D. prefix until the next paragraph. KKC

In A.D. 950 the Azif, which had gained a considerable tho’ surreptitious circulation amongst the philosophers of the age, was secretly translated into Greek by Theodorus Philetas of Constantinople under the title Necronomicon.

(10) Another inconsistency. Simon claims that Al-Hazred rendered the Necronomicon in Greek first, rather than Arabic. KKC

I haven’t been able to find this claim in Simon’s text, but he does claim that the manuscript he translated is a Greek version. As noted below, Lovecraft states that the Greek version was lost.

For a century it impelled certain experimenters to terrible attempts, when it was suppressed and burnt by the patriarch Michael. After this it is only heard of furtively, but (1228) Olaus Wormius made a Latin translation later in the Middle Ages, and the Latin text was printed twice — once in the fifteenth century in black-letter (evidently in Germany) and once in the seventeenth (prob. Spanish) — both editions being without identifying marks, and located as to time and place by internal typographical evidence only.

(11) Interesting to note that Lovecraft does not say outright that someone in our time had apparently found and identified these renditions of the book. KKC

The work both Latin and Greek was banned by Pope Gregory IX in 1232, shortly after its Latin translation, which called attention to it.

(12) The archivist has thusfar been unable to find Al Azif, Necronomicon, or anything even remotely similar on any of the forbidden book lists of the era. But do consider that paper records from the 13th century are incomplete and unpreserved, to say the least. KKC

The Arabic original was lost as early as Wormius’ time, as indicated by his prefatory note; [the Rebel Press edition adds paranthetically: "there is, however, a vague account of a secret copy appearing in San Francisco during the present century, but later perished in fire" -- a transparent reference to Clark Ashton Smith's tale "The Return of the Sorcerer".] and no sight of the Greek copy — which was printed in Italy between 1500 and 1550 — has been reported since the burning of a certain Salem man’s library in 1692.

(13) Again, Simon claims to have translated a Greek edition. KKC

An English translation made by Dr. Dee was never printed, and exists only in fragments recovered from the original manuscript.

(14) An internal Lovecraft inconsistency. In his short story “The Dunwich Horror”, the old wizard called Whately utilizes a Dee translation of the Necronomicon in order to produce children for Yog-Sothoth. A
complete listing of John Dee’s books reveals none titled Necronomicon. KKC

This is not an inconsistency, as old Wizard Whateley uses an incomplete manuscript of the Dee translation. Wilbur Whateley, Yog-Sothoth’s son, requires the complete edition housed in the Miskatonic University Library to fill in the gaps in the fragmentary Dee version.

Of the Latin texts now existing one (15th cent.) is known to be in the British Museum under lock and key, while another (17th cent.) is in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. A seventeenth-century edition is in the Widener Library at Harvard, and in the library of Miskatonic University at Arkham. Also in the library of the University of Buenos Ayres.

(15) Other than the Harvard copy, which the archivist knows for sure does not exist, and the fact that Miskatonic University is totally fictional, I cannot say with absolute certainty that the other locations Lovecraft lists do not have some copy of a book they may call the Necronomicon. Interested parties may contact the archivist to confirm or deny posession of the book, if they wish. KKC

They don’t.

Numerous other copies probably exist in secret, and a fifteenth-century one is persistently rumoured to form part of the collection of a celebrated American millionaire. A still vaguer rumour credits the preservation of a sixteenth-century Greek text in the Salem family of Pickman; but if it was so preserved, it vanished with the artist R.U. Pickman, who disappeared early in 1926. The book is rigidly suppressed by the authorities of most countries, and by all branches of organised ecclesiasticism. Reading leads to terrible consequences. It was from rumours of this book (of which relatively few of the general public know) that R.W. Chambers is said to have derived the idea of his early novel The King in Yellow.

(16) Much of the latter part of this paragraph is in fact derived from Lovecraft’s own short stories, most notably “The Picture in the House”, which featured the sadistic Robert Pickman character. Also, Lovecraft repeatedly cites Chambers’ book as his main inspiration, although he created the Necronomicon before he first read Chambers. KKC

The story featuring Robert Upton Pickman is, of course, “Pickman’s Model”, not “The Picture in the House”. See above on Chambers. I am unaware of any serious statement by Lovecraft attesting to any significant influence from Chambers’ work.

xoxo,

Iza

How can I find you not just in a stolen kiss…but in the crushing drones of the broken heart as well? 

Show me, my starry distant yearning goddess, where in my secret dark debauch I should find transcendence.

Teach me, Nuit, to enjoy the sense of death and rapture in Ra-Hoor-Khuit’s punishing embrace. 

Incinerate my brain with brightness. 

Shine upon the way and I will walk it. 

Open the window and I shall crawl through. Heh?  you ask. 

I say no, nay, nein, nunca máis. 

Never again? 

Shall I doubt thee.  

Punish me with the searing joy-spokes of your stooping starlight. 

Burn away my dross. 

Enlighten me, and I shall burn for the world to marvel at.

…

“Now ye shall know that the chosen priest & apostle of infinite space is the prince-priest the Beast; and in his woman called the Scarlet Woman is all power given. They shall gather my children into their fold: they shall bring the glory of the stars into the hearts of men.”

I am cursed by my one and only true Master, the Magus pAmphAge, forever, until I completely submit to do the Will I have sworn to do.  I sold my soul to a demon, took upon her powers, and I now I squander them in hedonistic waste and squalor.  I have turned my back on Magick and on Love, and so shall my weapons turn against me, and all my spells shall backfire or turn to naught.  And as a Babalon, RA-HOOR-KHUIT shall cast me out from men: as a shrinking and despised harlot I shall crawl through dusk wet streets, and die cold and an-hungered.

So Mote It Be.

Izabael

43. Let the Scarlet Woman beware! If pity and compassion and tenderness visit her heart; if she leave my work to toy with old sweetnesses; then shall my vengeance be known. I will slay me her child: I will alienate her heart: I will cast her out from men: as a shrinking and despised harlot shall she crawl through dusk wet streets, and die cold and an-hungered.

I, Izabael DaJinn, swear to transcend to higher levels of passion and dedication as a voice of Thelema, as a Babalon, and as a genie-girl-woman-demon-wife-angel-lover, sent to Earth to spread the word of infinite joy…in this often shallow, callous little World that knows not yet what it is capable of.

44. But let her raise herself in pride! Let her follow me in my way! Let her work the work of wickedness! Let her kill her heart! Let her be loud and adulterous! Let her be covered with jewels, and rich garments, and let her be shameless before all men!

I swear to place nothing higher than my Love, my Will, and my Magick.  I devote myself to the betterment of mankind–and not to the false tower of ego.

45. Then will I lift her to pinnacles of power: then will I breed from her a child mightier than all the kings of the earth. I will fill her with joy: with my force shall she see & strike at the worship of Nu: she shall achieve Hadit. — Liber AL

I submit to Babalon.  I submit to Nuit.

If I fall short in these things, may Ra-Hoor blast my false tower and crumble it to dust.  Then can my Will once again go aright.

Sote mote it be,

Izabael DaJinn

WARATAH BLOSSOMS

Seven are the veils of the dancing girl
in the harem of It.
Seven are the names
and seven are the lamps beside Her bed.
Seven eunuchs guard Her with drawn sword;
No man may come nigh unto Her.
In Her wine-cup are seven streams of blood
of the Seven Spirits of God.
Seven are the heads of The Beast whereon She rideth.
The head of an Angel: the head of a Saint:
the head of a Poet: the head of an Adulterous woman: the head of a Man of Valour: the head of a Satyr:
and the head of a Lion-Serpent.
Seven letters hath Her holiest name; and it is:

This is the Seal upon the Ring that is on the Forefinger of IT: and it is the Seal upon the Tombs of them whom She hath slain.

Here is Wisdom. Let Him that hath Understanding count the Number of Our Lady; for it is the Number of a Woman; and Her Number is
An Hundred and Fifty and Six.

(from The Book of Lies, by The Master Therion)

I’m a disobedient and faithless demon.

Now I will burn

burn

burn

for my sins and transgressions.

I will suffer in torment as my Master  intones these words:

OEL LARINUJI ILASA PEREJE DO TOZA DASA I QO A AL ILASA OD TOFAJILO TOLTOREGI:  MIRE IALPON QUASABE GAHE IZABAEL PAID SOBA UL IPAMIS: OEL ADAPEHAETA ILASA DO BALZODIZODRASA EKA DO BALATIME ILASA GAHE IZABAEL BAJILENU IEH TOTZA DASA JE DAREBESA NANAEEL OD JE DAREBESA DASA OHORELA ENAYO MADA, OD JE DAREBESA SAPAHE OD JIJIPAH, DASA OEL VAVINI, DASA GOHOOSA: NIISA, OEL, DASA ZODIREDO NOCO IAIDA TABAAUNU ENAYO IADA MIKALAZODO, IEHOVOHE, OEL DASA ZODIREDO ELANUSAHE DASA ZODIREDO MIKALAZODO DO TOTZA ELONUSA VORESAJI, ILASA DASA JE NIISA DALUGA ADANA GONO IADAPILA DASA HOMETOHE.  EKA GOHOOOSA BALZODIZORASA: OEL AMEMA ILASA OD QUASABE DOOAIN IZABAEL OD EMTAJISA IZABAEL DASA OALI DO VAUNALA FAOREJITA FABOANU OD OEL IALPON ILASA DO PEREJE SOBA UL IPAMIS OD ADRPAN ILS PIADPH MIR SOBAM VORS ILS GE TORZUL CACRG NIIS PUJO OOANOAN F ETHARZI ZORGE CAOEL ASAPETA KOMSELAHE DO IVDU OLE OANIO AZODIAZODORE OLALORE JE KIAFI NOREMOLAPE, TOLTOREGI, Q-TOFAJILO VORESA ADOIANU CAOSAJO. DAREBESA NAEEL MAREBE COREDAZODIZOD, DAREBESA IJJIPAH, OHORELA DASA GOHOOSA.

Over the last year, I have received hundreds of emails regarding me or my site.  I’m happy to say none of them were hate mail   I tried to have time to answer all the emails, especially the ones where people showed genuine interest in learning or evolving through magick.  I also thank all the fans who tell me how hot I am, but that probably just goes to my head

At any rate, thanks to all my fans who read and take time to write me.  And extra big kisses to everyone who writes comments on my blog or posts on my forums! 

I hope to inspire, amuse, and enlighten at an even higher standard in 2009.

Thank you all.

I love you all.

Izabael DaJinn

93 93/93

       QUICK FIX
By WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS, JR.


To put it country simple, Earth has a lot of things other folks might want...
Like the whole planet.
And maybe these folks would like a few changes made...
Like more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere...
And room for their way of life.

We've seen this happen before, right in these United States.
Your way of life destroyed the Indian's way of life.
You gave them reservations, didn't you?

But my own position is ticklish:
I'm with the invaders, no use trying to hide that.
And at the same, I disagree with some of the things they are doing.

Oh, we're not united anymore than you are.
Oh, we're not united anymore than you are.

Conservative faction is set on nuclear war as the solution to the, uh,
"personnel problem"; others disagree.

Others disagree.
Others disagree.

I don't claim that my motives are one hundred percent humane.
But I do say, if we can't think up anything quieter and tidier than that...

We aren't all that much better than you Earthlings.

There is no place else to go
The theater is closed

There is no place else to go
The theater is closed

Cut word lines
Cut music lines
Smash the control images
Smash the control machine.

Look as these two people.  Do you know them?  Do you trust them? 

Out of nowhere they rise from a small post in our most remote state to being within a “heartbeat” of having control over the little red button.  You know…the one for nukes?  Yeah, THAT one.  We don’t talk about it much lately.  It’s not in vogue.   But never fret.  We will live in the shadow of the Manhattan Project forever.  You might not think about it, but every single political process taken far enough eventually leads to including the possibility of nuclear war.  It is the shadow over every political argument, and the shadow over every world leader.

So this button.  Is it safe for these two to have?   Do you think it is safe for this rootin’est tootin’est of sassy, spunky, yet ultimately air-headed women to have?  I don’t know.  When there is a successful couple, one usually has the brains and the other the beauty.  Look at Hillary and Bill.  (clue: Bill had the beauty).  In this case Palin is a pretty face with a tape-recorder inside.  She can spew out anything and make it sound pretty good.

So this guy….this guy in the background who is an oil field production operator and fisherman.  See him?   He may very well be the true next president of United States.  Know what I mean?  You want this guy right here making Commander in Chief decisions under the sheets with a (defeated) beauty queen? 

Seriously scary, but so many people don’t seem to notice or care. 

The surreal world of life is so frightening to those who see the truth that one can only laugh madly–or else cry.

When forced to decide, I choose to laugh while Nero fiddles and Rome burns………..tears only make me look older.

xoxo,

Izabael

I’ve been too busy with real life for video games since last winter, but luckily now that fall is coming in I have a little more free time for games!!!  Yay!!

However, if I don’t get to this now, I don’t know when I will because Fable 2 is coming out tomorrow—-a game I’ve been excited about for months.

So back to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

First of all, can I just assume anyone who bothers to read this review already knows what World of Warcraft is like?  Good, let’s start from there then.

Warhammer is World of Warcraft’s PVP on steroids and with most of the annoyances smoothed out.

Instead of only 3 battle grounds (as WoW had when I was really into it awhile back.  I didn’t care much for the new ones they added in BC) this game has 3 battle grounds PER tier–that makes PVP progression a lot more exciting than the grind it turned into in WoW. 

I ‘ve only played into the 2nd tier since I have barely any free time, but it’s been pretty fun and easy-going to level AND PvP at the same time. The item rewards flow along as well.

Coming from WoW to this game is welcoming and satisfying to all PvPers.  They know their target audience–which is basically anyone who liked PvP in WoW even a little bit.  The only people this game isn’t for is people who detest PvP in any way shape or form, but even to them I’d say:  The punishments in this game are extremely light for PvPing, which makes it fun.  Even if you think you hate PvP you might want to try  how it’s done here.

The players so far seem several notches above the average on WoW—thank God.

Graphics are OK, but not that huge of a leap forward from WoW.  Mainly they are more realistic.  The sound is immersive and gives the feel of being more inside a real war torn area than WoW does.

My only complaint is that it seems too familiar in a lot of ways, and not just because of the gameplay mechanics so handily lifted from WoW.   It’s the setting and characters as well.  Warhammer came first as far as the essentials of the fantasy archetypes, but that doesn’t keep some of this game’s aspects from seeming stale after all these years of WoW domination. 

Graphics: 8/10

Sound: 9/10

Gameplay PvE: 8/10  (“Public quests” are cool!)

Gameplay PvP: 9.5/10

Overall: Definitely a fun game for MMO fans and those really burned out with WoW.

(Here is a picture of my Witch Elf, Ichthia in a scenario.  )

The Hall of Fame football star, O.J. Simpson, was convicted of kidnapping, armed robbery and 10 other charges for gathering up five men a year ago and storming into a room at a hotel-casino, where the group seized several game balls, plaques and photos. Prosecutors said two of the men with him were armed; one of them said Simpson asked him to bring a gun.

The verdict came 13 years to the day after Simpson was cleared of murdering his ex-wife and a friend of hers in Los Angeles in one of the most sensational trials of the 20th century. (AP story)

Now he can finally track down Nicole’s real killer from the inside.

Let the good times roll. 

xoxo,

iza

I swear I wanted to smack Sarah Palin every time she winked at the camera during the VP debates.  Is she Mike Myers now? 

Seriously, should we move the cast of SNL into the Oval Office or move the entire executive branch into Studio 8H?  I can’t tell the difference where one ends and the other begins any more.

I admit I can’t wait to see what Tina Fey does with Sarah’s stubborn refusal to answer questions she doesn’t know the answer to.  Should be a hoot, dog-gone-it.

xoxo,

*iza

Los Angeles Party Rentals, huh? 

Last night in Santa Monica some guy driving one of their big semi-trucks backed over my car while I was parked.  They apologized profusely (after the guys quickly threw something into the garbage cans…alcohol?) and said their company would take care of it.  I got all their information.  But then the other guy said that the information just given was not up to date and gave me another set.  He even tried to grab back the first set.  Turns out the second set was bogus information.

The first information they gave me was correct, but now the company has changed its tune and is saying they won’t pay, and that in fact it was my fault and I owe them money.  For what?  A smudge on the tire that almost squashed my little Honda?  I don’t think so.

My insurance company can take care of it from here, but I want this to go on search engine record what kind of company LA Party Rents is and how they conduct business. 

L.A. Party Rents, Inc. is dishonest, manipulative, and a completely shady operation.  Do business with them at your own risk. 

This is LA Party Rents web address: www.lapartyrents.com

Here’s all their contact info:

Address

Telephone and Fax

L. A. Party Rents, Inc.
13520 Saticoy St.
Van Nuys, CA 91402
Map and Directions

1-877-LA Party
310-785-0000
818-989-4300
818-989-3593
818-904-0460

E-mail

General e-mail:
Sales e-mail:

info@lapartyrents.com
sales@lapartyrents.com

When Captain Kirk was assembled at Tyrell corporation, his box had “More Alpha than Alpha” etched along its side.

…is not wanting it too badly.”

–izabael

You might remember her from the photos I took at Descanso park.  This photoshoot was a little more private.

Turns out this is the first time in front of a camera for any type of naughty or tease photographs.  Not even for ex-boyfriends had she taken nude photos! 

She was a shy at first, but once I got her giggling we had a lot of fun.  Here are a couple shots from the shoot.

I’ll upload more to my flickr when I get a chance. ttfn.

xoxo,

*iza

“In Norway there’s no tradition for fireworks arranged by the city. It’s too cold in January to gather downtown for the celebrations, so everyone just go out into their gardens or a nearby open spot, launch their rockets and then head back inside. The result is a view like this, with fireworks shooting up from absolutely everywhere at midnight on January 1.”

That’s the way to do New Year’s.  Home & Cozy with a little pizzazz at midnight.

Happy New Year!

Izabael

Laughed?  Cried?  Outraged?  Discuss this blog at my forums.

Don’t expect an X-mas theme here on Dec. 25!  But here is something to keep you entertained regardless

kisses & bites,

Izabael

$7777.00

This site is pretty cool and will tell you how much your dead body is worth, but it should have some links to somewhere you can sell your body while you are still alive!

Some people say I’m too cute and sexy–that I’m not evil enough to be a true Goetic demon!  Say you so?!  Fool!  Peer upon my day rates:

List of services: 

Concrete shoes………………………………………..$1000

Cyanide…………………………………………………$900

T.N.T…………………………………………………. $5000

Neckties……………………………………………….$1000

Contracts…….$100,000 per B-list celebrity, $1 mil for A-list

High voltage………………………$777 introductory special

Deeds by Izabael, Done dirt cheap.