Tomorrow's Rainbows

Good morning Dreamwidth.

I hope you're all well. I've been a little unwell the past couple of days - sickness, diarrhoea and a temperature. All a little worrying as they're symptoms of the delta variant of COVID-19. The good news is I've had a negative test result so that's a relief. A.N.Other stomach bug. I'm mostly over it, still running a little bit of a temperature, fatigue and a general 'unwell' feeling. However, due to the industry I work in and the nature of my job, I can't return to work until I'm 3 days symptom clear. So, honestly, just going to take a long weekend and head back in on Monday.

I'd planned on heading down to the coast for the weekend to see some friends, but now I'm not sure if it's a good idea or if I'm physically up to it.

I also had plans for posts this week. I actually wrote a list of things I could write about, so now I'm trying to decide whether to bundle them into one post because they were day specific memes like Music Monday or the sunshine_challenge prompts, or just start again from today. That's actually quite the hard decision.

[insert thinking and chewing on pen here]

I think maybe a mixture of both.

I don't know if it's still a thing but back when I used to blog, I loved Music Monday - after all, who doesn't love discovering new music? I'm mostly into country and southern rock right now, but a few years ago I had a fairly decent fling with southern gothic. For anyone who doesn't know, southern gothic is a genre of acoustic-based alternative rock and Americana music that combines elements of traditional country, folk, blues, and gospel, often with dark lyrical subject matter. You can see how I got there from southern rock, yes? Well, a couple of days ago while I was exploring the Sunshine Challenge, someone (I don't remember who, sorry!) mentioned southern gothic in their response to the Hecate prompt and posted a little clip of Jace Everett's song Bad Things (also known as the True Blood theme). I had forgotten how much I loved that song and fell into a little Spotify hole listening to some more of his stuff and rediscovering my love for Delta Rae. It was very enjoyable and so because of that, my first (belated) post for Music Monday is

The book I'm currently reading is The Zoo Job by Keith R.A. DeCandido. It's the second of the Leverage tie-in novels that were published back in the 2010s and the blurb reads

Marney Brillinger is in trouble. The zoo that has been in her family for generations is failing, and when she makes a deal with a Malanian priest to loan her two exotic black rhinos for a special exhibit, they never arrive. Now, she’s on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars to the priest, who was planning to use the money for sick children.

Desperate, she turns to Nate Ford and his team for assistance. But finding two very large lost animals is no easy feat when the search involves duplicity—both international and close–to–home—and the unwelcome arrival of Nate’s nemesis, Interpol agent James Sterling.

With Sterling around, if the team isn’t careful, they just might end up in cages of their own...

It's not a bad book, for a tv-tie in. I've just finished reading The Con Job and I'm planning on re-reading the Bestseller Job next. I really am on a total Leverage kick at the moment!

Prompt 1: Hades
Hades is the god of the dead and the king of the Underworld with which his name became synonymous. Despite modern connotations of death as evil, Hades was actually more altruistically inclined in mythology; his role was often maintaining relative balance between the realms. He was often depicted as cold and stern in his judgement, and he held all of his subjects equally accountable to his laws. Above all else, Hades ensured the finality of death and that none of his subjects ever left the Underworld.

Bonus Prompt: Cerberus, the Hound of Hades

Please feel free to respond in whichever way comes naturally to you, be it thoughts that you share or a work that you create. If you’d like a more specific idea to kick things off: share a poem or drabble that reminds you of the Hades theme.

I've been thoroughly enjoying reading everyone's answers to this, and all the different interpretations of the prompt but I'd been racking my brains trying to think of an answer. I don't play video games and I don't know anything about Mythology so I didn't have this instant lightbulb inspiration on how to respond. So I turned to the internet, and I looked up Hades and the underworld to see if anything that was being written about them would trigger anything. And, of course, (and to my great relief), it did! According to Wikipedia, one of his symbols is Mint.

And mint... now, mint is something I can work with. Aromatherapy is a passion, so I'm going to talk for a little while about benefits of both peppermint

Peppermint is classed as a top notes and has a stimulating, cleansing and uplifting effect on the mind and body.

Peppermint (Mentha piperita). The oil is extracted from the leaves and flowering tops, and has a clean, fresh fragrance. It has cooling, detoxifying, antiseptic, deodorising, decongestant, nerve tonic and calmative properties. As a nerve tonic, peppermint helps with apathy, palpitations and nervous vomiting. It's analgesic properties help with headaches and migraines, and it can aid concentration.
However, it shouldn't be used in pregnancy and some people may experience an allergic skin reaction.

Spearmint (Mentha spicata. The oil is again extracted from the leaves and flowering tops, and has a minty and fruity fragrance. It has anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmodic and digestive properties.

Now, this is not where I expected a blog post based on the prompt of Hades to go, but it's making me feel a little more comfortable about blogging. I do have things I can talk about - natural healing, aromatherapy, herbal remedies, massage, meditation, yoga, spirituality etc. So now I'm even more excited to get going!

I'm trying to get back into journalling, it's been many years and I've never really settled with short-form social media like twitter, and Tumblr I find far too difficult to connect with people. So I'm here at Dreamwidth after learning that Livejournal imploded and something to do with Russians.

I'm also feeling a little pressured by the blank page and flashing cursor. And what am I supposed to write for my first post? I know there's no such thing as 'supposed to' when it comes to this kind of thing, which is also a little stressful for me. I'm used to there being 'right answers' or 'wrong answers', and I don't want to mis-step and do the wrong thing at the first step.

An introduction can't be a bad thing and I'm going to try not to over-think it.

Hi. I'm Kennedy Lennon and welcome to the machinations of my brain!
Kennedy and Lennon are both first names. I answer to Kennedy, or to Lennon, or to Kennedy Lennon. I went through a period (and kind of still like it actually) where I was K. Lennon [last name]. I have friends that call me KennLenn as well.

I am a 35 year old, gender-fluid, asexual, autistic scientist with adhd in England. I am a virgo and I am very serious about it.
😍 rainbows, unicorns, glitter, crafting, tarot, candles, baking, meditation, diet & health, reading, learning new things
My current fandoms: Leverage, Christian Kane & Supernatural

I also love walking outside in the sun, meeting up with friends for coffee, wandering around a museum or gallery and taking a yoga class.

And, of course, rainbows and pineapples!