Do the Clam.

[reddragdiva]

This afternoon, arkady and I went out to Xenu's Secret Lair to meet up with Andreas Heldal-Lund of Operation Clambake, who was over from Norway, over pintage. Of course, I brought the CAMERA and got a shot of him for the Wikipedia article. We have some fun lined up, not the least of which is the simple yet devastating act of writing in a neutral and factual manner about them. Which has led to such widely-referenced works of popular entertainment as Xenu and Space opera in Scientology doctrine.

We came back and gothed up for B-Movie: Scream of the Wolf. Despite having cooled down a bit outside, it was its proper saunalike August self and I sweated like a piglet. I must get a mesh top that's sleeveless. Howdy to the millions. I got one zillion shots on the CAMERA, which was widely admired for its stealth looks. flickgc is engaged and ridiculously smug about the Shiny Thing on her fourth finger. minigoth was over from Sweden with her ridiculously pretty boyfriend. ali_anarres is back from Math Camp and seems to have become an Insane Mathematician. cookwitch was ridiculously pretty. cyberpunkgrrl is now fitting clothes she last fit ten years ago and is as pleased with suddenly having a body as I am. We had one drink and left a bit after midnight because we was proper shagged — I was wishing at times that I'd thought to bring some freeze-dried instant conversation to sprinkle as needed. Blame Norway! My darlings have both said I am getting the shots up before next B-Movie.

Tomorrow was pre-booked for a hangover (rather than, e.g., housework), but I probably won't have one. Damn.

Update: B-Movie pics here.

Comments

[hazejam.livejournal.com]

Thankyou for nearly squashing me on the stage ^_^
One of these days I'll actually say hello.
Meep *hides*

[cookwitch.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I feel I should be dancing about singing "I Feel Pretty" now. :))

[reddragdiva]

ahem! You looked very cute ;-)

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

I'm totally obsessed with scientology now, thank you. Currently reading Dianetics, and I'm struck by how obsessed L Ron seems to be with abortion. As much as he brings it up, you'd think babies born to mothers who wanted them were an overwhelmed minority.

[reddragdiva]

Have you seen the Salon review of Dianetics? It hits the nail on the head.

[arkady.livejournal.com]

The problem I have with Dianetics is that LRH nicked about 80% of it from other people and made the rest up himself. This has the effect that a large amount makes sense - and then you get to the bits where he veered off in totally the wrong direction and you find yourself screaming in frustration at him - "Hmm, uh-huh, that makes sense.. that's good... that's - NOOO! Where are you going?? Come back here!"

There were self-help books a-plenty back when LRH produced Dianetics, but the point of Dianetics was that you used it to teach someone else how to audit you and allow you to audit them in return. Talking therapy as such didn't really exist then; the people who were attracted to Dianetics and the early Church of $cientology were, for the most part, lonely unhappy people who just needed someone to talk to who would listen sympathetically. And $cientology promised to help; and for a lot of people in the early days it did help. But those same people would have been helped now just as well with a few sessions of counselling or talk-based therapy.

There's a good reason why $cientologists hate psychiatry so intensely; modern psychiatric medicine is the biggest enemy of $cientology. With modern mental health care available to all and the whole "if you're not in therapy you must be in denial" attitude of much of America, there's no place for half-baked pseudo-science like Dianetics any more. People are leaving the Church in droves, and there's no fresh blood to replace them.

$cientology is dying, kicking and screaming desperately all the way. And Tom Cruise right now is screaming the loudest and the most desperately.

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

It's hard to believe I fell for it, way back in my foolish youth. Never did even manage to do anything, I'm sure the insane prices of things would have had me walking away anyhow. I'm re-reading it and noticing a lot of things that are just batshit crazy, like the obsession with failed abortions.

And I totally get your comment about modern scientologists/psychiatrists. So many of the objections to psychiatry in the book are to things that were done 50 years ago, like lobotomies and such.

I do think he was onto something with the "reactive mind" stuff, and absolutely spot on when he talked about "dramatization". Not that I think any of the talk about reactive minds and engrams is anything but pure fantasy, but I suppose it's one way of looking at and talking about conditioning.

Funny thing though, since I got on anti-depressants I've felt very "cleared".

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

Reading now. I love this stuff!

[vagabonds.livejournal.com]

If you need a sleeveless mesh top making- give me a shout!

[reddragdiva]

Oooh, thank you for reminding me to check your site — we're both in the market for gothery!

[vagabonds.livejournal.com]

If you cant see what you want, just email me describing it- or if you see a piccy somewhere else or whatever.
Im finding it hard to keep up with updating stock atm!