I'm feeling marginally better than yesterday, despite the fact that I'm still roughly the same color as hospital bedsheets. Still not eating much, though, even though the bulk of the nausea has passed. I'm not running like a faucet, and I sound a little less like a transvestite-- all in all, this is a good change. Let me just say this much: calendula ointment is wonderful for raw, red noses.

Instead of going out for our one year anniversary last night, Sky and I stayed in and watched TV. I spent the bulk of the night freezing my ass off and trying to stomach little bites of the Miso soup that he went out and got for me. I was pretty bleary the entire time.

Though this morning, I did wake up to a massive BPAL update. ( Thoughts!Collapse )

Overall, I'm not going to place an order today. All of the GC stuff isn't going away, and I can easily arrange for decants of the LEs. I still have quite a few TALs I want more than anything else, but Jacques's trip to the emergency clinic effectively drained my mad money until my next paycheck. I think I'll save up for a bit and order lots of GC imps with the next update.

If there was any question about whether or not BPAL is a bona-fide fandom, well. It is. It's made it to Fandom Wank around four or five times by now. The most recent episode is actually kind of thought-provoking.

Some of you might remember that I posted on the opening of the Twilight Alchemy Lab preview site. All TAL oils come pre-consecrated. In other words, they are created with ritual in mind and are not to be used solely as perfumes.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, the perfume division, houses some oils that can either be purpose-oriented or perfume oriented. For instance, the "Excolo" section houses oils that pay tribute to specific Deities. They can be worn just because they smell pretty, or, if you wish, they can be used in ritual because they are also aligned to each Deity's correspondences. Technically, any oil can be purpose-oriented if you charge it to be so, but these were created with that versatility in mind.

Earlier today, a rather large update was made in which several Orisha oils were introduced. Some of these had existed solely as TALs to this point, and are now available in perfume-oriented blends, as well.

All hell breaks loose. Highlights include:

"White culture is appropriating my religion,"
"I'm going to make cryptic comments and not explain them,"
"You can ask me to clarify, but I'm not going to answer,"
"If you're an African-American woman, you should know what I'm talking about,"

... and, most amusingly, BPAL/TAL creator Beth's reply of "'Scuse me? I'm training to be an Iyanifa." As it turns out, the one being accused of commercializing the Orishas by creating tribute/attuning oils is actually a dedicant of Oya. Also, she ain't white. Oh, snap.

At any rate, there is all sorts of interesting discussion in the thread, despite the wank. BPAL draws some intensely spiritual people, and indeed introduces spiritual concepts to those who would otherwise not have known about them. I've definitely had my interest piqued on numerous occasions, and it's led to me being more knowledgeable about different religions/spiritual paths in general. I mean sure, it smells great and all-- but the community, the fandom, that comes with it goes so much deeper than that.


And as a side note, how funny is it that a good chunk of Fandom Wank's posters have been turned into BPALers because of BPAL wank? It amuses me to no end when wank threads de-evolve into comparing perfume notes!