December 16, 2002--Still alive over here! To continue the topic from the front page, I just have to add one last thing...with the exception of when I went to college, I've lived in North Carolina all my life. I can't remember a single year that we had a winter storm this early...and before winter officially begins, too!

I really don't have anything special to say today except that I'm still alive but very busy lately. I've managed to put in a lot of work on the new site, but it's nowhere near done yet. I keep wanting to post new material here, but there's so much that needs to be finished first. Not to mention, I need to finish doing some present-shopping for my family!

Speaking of which, the Mithramas ornaments are SOLD OUT. There are still other great items with the same logo left for sale. These are dated and intended to be keepsakes. If you're still looking for a present for a Pagan friend, act quickly while you can!

Me? I have other work to get to now....

December 4, 2002--Do some holiday shopping for all your Pagan friends! Got a little Charlie Brown Yule tree that's looking a bit bare? Maybe you've acquired a new familiar and need a stocking for it to hang at the mantlepiece. If you're wanting to give your holiday a little Pagan touch and haven't found much to satisfy your needs, fear not! The College Wicca webstore is open!

Right now I have some holiday goodies at *GREAT* prices to help with your Midwinter blues. Give a sweetheart a cute little bear to remember the season, or send cards to friends. The beautiful, yet tongue-in-cheek image stating "Merry Mithramas" will bring smiles to the faces of your Pagan friends.

Click the ornament to see that and other products! All thanks to Cafepress.com!

December 4, 2002--And THANK YOU, too! Another sneak peek for all your patience as I work on updates: the new logo for College Wicca. It's not the most spectacular, but I'm pretty proud for two reasons--1) hunching over the computer again to delete any extraneous pixels around the angels took a LOT of time, and 2) I've never had a logo before to begin with! See, Ater Corax? It's moving right along! *L* I'm keeping with the same theme, but making things a little more simple. Best of all...no more frickin' frames! They never seemed to look like how I envisioned them, so back to the KISS method!

December 4, 2002--Where did the rest of the year go? I can't believe it's December already! On one hand, it scares the dickens out of me that the year is quickly ending. On the other hand, it's been quite a good year afterall. Thanksgiving was great...K'Tok picked me up after work on Wednesday and we rushed up to his parents' place. We began Thursday morning cooking up a mad storm, then stuffing ourselves on some of the best food I've tasted in a LONG while. Better yet, his mom sent us home with lots of leftovers. We rushed back home on Thursday night because, for obvious reasons, I had to be at work on Friday. The shortened retail season can be just as stressful as it can be enjoyable.

And since it's the season to show our thanks, I've been mulling around a few thoughts lately (when I'm not bloody exhausted!) about the topic. According to the version of the story they told us back in kindergarten, the Pilgrims came to America for religious freedom. Religious freedom...imagine that! I have to admit that sometimes we don't seem so free, but then when you think of the progress we've made as Wiccans, Pagans, Witches, Heathens, Magicians, Shamen...there really is a lot to be thankful for. Before anyone starts firing off e-mails to me about how the Burning Times continue today, well, perhaps they do to a point. But do you have a desire to live as a victim for the rest of your life, or do you want to take the progress we've made even further?

When I began this site just under five years ago, the Pagan Web was much smaller. Sometimes I think that the quality was higher, but then again I was just blossoming out of my newbie stage as well. "Blossoming"? More like getting hit with the Comet cleanser to dissolve that sugar-coating! Anyway, time and time again people talk about how Pagans really found their niche on the Net. We could talk to others anonymously, yet learn from people on the other side of the world. Ideas spread, people piggybacked their creativity off of one another, and we became more bold when we discovered *gasp!* there are others out there just like us who understand what we're going through!

Let me put it another way...again, I began this site because I didn't find much, if any, information on how to deal with practicing Wicca in college. Beside me right now is a list of internet hostnames that were identifiable educational institutions, plus a few military hosts. There are over 50 different hosts on this list, and I've only been keeping this particular list since August. I have about 40 more in the blank book I use to jot down notes and rough draft essays for this site. Some of those may be repeats, but when you think that these are just the people who have hit this site over *only* the past year, I have to wonder how many have slipped by because people used a program like AOL, came to this page first (skipping the counter on the front door), or their IP addresses did not resolve to their host names.

We continue to grow. When you consider even the social leaps we have made over the past century, from suffrage to desegregation, yeah, I'd say we're pretty free. For that, I am thankful!