Wings Over the Pyre

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Billy Joel - Complete Hits Collection, 1973-1997: Limited Edition, The - River of Dreams, The (Squid

Off to see Six Flags Over Georgia and ride a dizzying array of roller coasters and such today. Hopefully, the sunlight doesn’t kill me and I won’t feel an overwhelming need to take a nap.

What? Sunlight puts me to sleep. I don’t get it either.

Current Mood: loved
Current Music: Various Artists - Pavement / No More Kings (Squid's Redoubt)

Morning, one and all. It's Christmas, and you know what that means!

Yes, greed runs rampant and destruction rains on the weak. In signification of the event, I played some Black & White 2 this morning and used my godly powers for pure evil. Oh, yes, and took the Cow as my Creature.

Is there anything more terrifying than an evil Cow?

That said, I've absolutely and undoubtedly found exactly what you good folks should band together and purchase for me next year around this time:

Techno and military tours:

TANK RIDE

Testing runs of armored vehicle as a member of crew.

You have a chance to pass a special route on a tank as a crewmember of combat vehicle. The crew consists of operator and tourists (in accordance with number of combat crew).

You can test soviet tanks of the following war conflicts of the 20-th century: World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Afghan War, Middle East Wars, Egypt-Israel War, Iraq-Iran Wars, Gulf War etc.

TOP POPULAR

• T-34, IS-3, T-70 (WWII, the Red Army)...1 or 2 visitors included in the tank crew

• T-IV , T-38, Assault Gun "Hetzer", (German Army, WWII) ..1 or 2 visitors included in tank crew

• T-55, BMP-1 ("Afghan war")

• T-64, T-72 (T-84 Serbian) ("Cold War" Soviet tanks, the Iraq and Chechen wars)

• BTR-80 ( "Cold War" Soviet carriers) ...

That's right. I want plane fare to Russia, hotel fees, and $1200 to drive and fire a T-72, one of the most important weapon systems of the modern era. Surely you guys love me enough for something that small, right?

Right?

I promise that if I break lose and go on a rampage through the Russian countryside, I'll only use my newfound might for good. Or evil. Something like that.

Please?

Current Location: 30045
Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Lordi / Monster Show, The / Icon Of Dominance

Bags all packed, GBA charged, and body all exhausted from 30hrs awake or so, I'll be leaving town 'til the night of the 5th. Laptop is all updated and slotted, so if I can find a wireless feed on the secret island nyxsis is dragging me to, full of sun and sand, I'll try and get off the occasional post.

Camera, of course, is coming along with a happy chuckle.

If anyone needs me, my Gmail address is the place to transmit.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Ghoultown - Worm, The

Thank you, Rue Morgue, for reminding me of one of the many reasons I want to travel the world and see the wonders it contains. The Ossuary in Kostnice:

A cistercian monastery was founded near here in the year 1142. One of the principal tasks of the monks was the cultivation of the grounds and lands around the monastery. In 1278 King Otakar II of Bohemia sent Henry, the abbot of Sedlec , on a diplomatic mission to the Holy Land. When leaving Jerusalem Henry took with him a handful of earth from Golgotha which he sprinkled over the cemetery of Sedlec monastery, consequently the cemetery became famous, not only in Bohemia but also throughout Central Europe and many wealthy people desired to be buried here.The burial ground was enlarged during the epidemics of plague in the 14 th century (e.g.in 1318 about 30 000 people were buried here) and also during the Hussite wars in first quarter of the 15 th. century.

After 1400 one of the abbots had a church of All -Saints erected in Gothic style in the middle of the cemetery and under it a chapel destined for the deposition of bones from abolished graves, a task which was begun by a half blind Cistercian monk after the year 1511. The charnel-house was remodeled in Czech Baroque style between 1703 - I710 by the famous Czech architect, of the Italian origin ,Jan Blažej SANTIM-Aichl. The present arrangement of the bones dates from 1870 and is the work of a Czech wood-carver, František RINT (you can see his name, put together from bones, on the right-hand wall over the last bench). Our ossuary contains the remains of about 40 000 people. The largest collections of bones are arranged in the form of bells in the four corners of the chapel.

The most interesting creations by Master Rint are the chandelier in the centre of the nave, containing all the bones of the human body , two monstrances beside the main altar and the coat-of arms of the Schwarzenberg noble family on the left-hand side of the chapel.
Thank you very much for your visit and best wishes for a pleasant stay in our country.

Yes, the entirety of that Catholic monstrance in the picture is made of human bones. Its absolutely stunningly beautiful, albeit my sense of the asthetic might be somewhat questionable.

Go check out more of the site to see more of the stunning interior.

There are places of equal stark and humbling beauty all over the world, from the Catacombs of Paris to dirty villages of filthy outcasts in India full of those who eat the flesh of the dead in the Ganges. Places where the Dark stands beside the Light and makes faces at the terrified things in between. Caves of wonder and mountains where lightning dances.

I will, eventually, take these places with my eyes.