What personality type are you? Find out at TypeLogic and/or The Personality Page. A good online test is at HumanMetrics. (Note: I'm INFP)
Spirituality is one of the most important considerations in my life. A few places I frequent are
The Order of St. Benedict, The Cistercian Order, and The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). Other good resouces include The Holy See, USCCB, EWTN, Our Sunday Visitor, New Advent, and the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
Study of St. Thomas Aquinas can be found at Thomistic Philosophy.
The Thomas Instituut, in Utrecht, Netherlands, is a co-op of theologians, philosophers and historians specializing in the study of the works of Saint Thomas Aquinas.
The Jacques Maritain Center, at the University of Notre Dame, is an excellent resource for Thomistic studies as well as studies in the works of the site's namesake.
The Center for Thomistic Studies, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston, is a special program focused on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas.
The Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas in the Light of Jacques Maritain.
For information on Thomas Merton and religious contemplation check out Firewatch, The Thomas Merton Society, The Thomas Merton Foundation, and The Thomas Merton Center. It's obvious that I have great respect for this individual and the path of life that he chose to follow.
Other good resources include The Roman Theological Forum, Internet Medieval Sourcebook, The Society of Christian Philosophers, ErraticImpact's Philosophy of Religion.
In my view, science is the modern method by which God shows us the wonders of His universe - thus science is religion. Some good places to keep up with the latest discoveries include
Astronomy,
Sky & Telescope,
Scientific American,
Discover,
Smithonian,
Nature,
National Geographic,
Physics Today,
Science Magazine,
Science News,
ScienceDaily,
Popular Science, and
Discovery Channel.
Genealogy is very important to me, as is the study of the cultures from which my family came. My last name is Thompson (note the -p- in the spelling), which originates with the MacTavish clan of the west of Scotland. If you wish to explore your Scottish ancestry, Gathering of the Clans is the place to start. Another good site is Scotland's Clans. For those of you who are MacTavish/Thompsons, our official webpage is MacTamhais (send my regards to Dugald MacTavish, our clan chief). The MacTavish lands, no longer held, are located in Argyll. Interested in tartan? Check out Tartans of Scotland, and The Clans and Tartans of Scotland. For those of you, who like me, are masochistic enough to twist-tie your tongue with the gàidhlig, check out The Scottish Gaelic Learner's Association, Speaking Our Language, Gaelic and Scot Languages, and Scot Gaelic. If you think you can speak the tongue, Akerbeltz will test your knowledge.
I am also Czech, Irish, Cherokee, French, German, Russian, Spanish, and Scandinavian. Being 1/4 Czech, however, and having a wonderful amount of genealogical material on the family, I have begun to study Czech Bohemia, where the Hrabe family originated. Bohemica, My Czech Republic, the Czech Cultural Center in Houston, TX, the Ministry of Culture, Cz, and Kultura (in Czech) are good places to start.
Environmental concerns play a major part of my life. My favorites include
The Sierra Club,
The Nature Conservancy, and
Bat Conservation International. Other resources can be found at
The EnviroLink Network,
EarthTrends,
Eco-Portal,
eNature.com,
Eco-USA,
GreenNet, and
Care2 Environment Supersite.
Politically, I am a rabid - almost fanatical - middle-of-the-road, non-partisan moderate. I avoid any and all politicians and political concepts that stray beyond the boundaries of both midstream conservatism and liberalism, seeing those who do as radical and uninformed into the reality of peace and security for the world and its future. Some good sites to assist in staying informed are Judicial Watch, the Harvard Political Review, the Yale Political Quarterly, FactCheck.org, and OpenSecrets.org.
In the recent past - i.e., the past decade and a half - I have striven to determine the lesser of two evils when it comes to the crop of politicians, regardless of political affiliation, that we are afflicted with - trying my best to see through the incessant bi-partisan bickering and dickering that they have endorsed (whether by intention, stupidity, or ignorance). I vote based on my conscience about what affect a given candidate will have on the local, state, national, and international level, and whether their policies are fiscally, judicially, and (not or) socially sound. Also, if a given politican is entirely unwilling and/or incapable of accepting that his or her political opponents might just have some good ideas, then I refuse to acknowledge that the politician in question is capable of governing constructively.
I'm sure my political views will offend someone out there, and those so offended are entitled to their own opinions. However, please don't assualt my sensibilities, via e-mail, with opposition and anger to what is the main significance of this webpage, namely to let people know how I feel and believe. Thus, I end this particular rant.
I study history and archaeology passionately, but most especially Ancient Egypt.
Guardian's Egypt is a fantastic starting place to immerse yourself in the land and people of KMT. Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, has an excellent webpage called
The Plateau. The
Theban Mapping Project provides a much needed resource for research into one of the most important sites in Egypt. If you are interested in scholarly research, as I am, you might consider becoming a member of one of the following professional Egyptology organizations:
The ARCE,
The SSEA, or
The EES. In my opinion, the best publication is
KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt. Noteworthy academic publications include the
Journal of Near Eastern Studies, and
Near Eastern Archeaology. The best overall general publication is
Archaeology Magazine.
I am a fanatic Tolkien fan, first reading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in 1981. The Silmarillion was tackled in 1983. Anything and everything else written by and about Tolkien soon followed. I can honestly state that I have read through my library more than 20 times. I tend to frequent the following sites:
The Tolkien Society,
Tolkien Online,
TheOneRing.net,
Skies of Rohan,
The Cambridge Tolkien Society,
The Mythopoeic Society,
The Elvish Linguistic Fellowship,
Ardalambion, and
Other Hands.
Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though we pass them by today,
Tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden paths that run
Towards the Moon or to the Sun.
A friend of mine is the proprietor of Sweet Bouquets. Check it out and see what goodies she creates. Tell her that her wayward son says "Hi."
Music of a darker nature, such as
Abney Park,
The Strand,
Audra,
Mors Syphilitica,
Mira,
Faith and the Muse,
El Duende,
The Cruxshadows,
Bella Morte,
Corpus Delicti,
the Machine in the Garden,
The Dreamside, and
Switchblade Symphony,
keep me entertained in place of television and mainstream radio. More can be find at
Projekt, Middle Pillar, Metropolis Records, Nilaihah Records, Equilibrium Music, and Soleil Moon.
I am currently working on a webpage project for the gothic community and for our own Ravenwood, those of us who are at the forefront of promoting the music and culture in NWA. Check back! I hope to have it up and running soon...
There's no greater pain,
Than a love that's not returned.
There's no greater need,
Than affection that's received.
A failed love is a wicked sight,
Torrential pain and sleepless nights.
For broken hearts there is no cast,
Eternity is a time long passed
- The Strand, "Cleanse"
And, of course, I wouldn't be so completely oblivious to reality if it weren't for
Traveller,
D&D,
GURPS, and
Fuzion, and other roleplaying games that I have subjected myself to for the past 23 years.
And to add to the chaos, I have started the tradition of attending the Kansas City Renaissance Festival and the Oklahoma Renaissance Faire each year, in fall and spring respectively, with a group of friends and family. Also, although lapsed for many years, I once belonged to the Society for Creative Anachronism, as a member of the Kingdom of Calontir, more specifically in the Shire March of the Grimfells.
Online shopping: Amazon.com
Need to send an e-card to someone?
Hallmark /
Webshots /
Fun-E-Cards /
CrossDaily /
HamptonRoads /
Annie's /
Beautiful Free Ecards /
eNature
Crosswalk.com /
AmericanGreetings /
Greetings Depot /
Catholic Greetings /
Greeting Cards
On an honest note, I - like millions of others - suffer from depression. If you face it, too - please keep your chin up and don't let it get the better of you. Some good resources include Dr. Ivan's Depression Central, Wings of Madness (without the negative connotations!), NIMH's Depression website, and Have-A-Heart's Depression Resource.
Kansas City RenFaire 2003
DJ Francis Marek, Ravenwood
(a.k.a. Al T.)
E-mail:
fmarek2002@yahoo.com
I am divorced and living single again - but certainly not looking. For those of you who might raise an eyebrow at this statement, the answer is simple.
After years of believing that I knew what love was all about, I learned in Fall of 2002 that I knew nothing. True love is complete and total devotion to another human being, regardless of whether you share in that person's life or not. And you don't necessarily have to understand the person or get along with him or her when you are together and/or communicate. When true love does strike, it doesn't promise that the person loved will in turn feel the same for you. But what it does promise is the realization that there is absolutely no possibility that your heart could ever belong to anyone but the beloved. It makes the happiness, health and welfare of the beloved the most important thing in your life.
Regardless of what you feel yourself, and whether it brings you happiness or not, you find yourself putting the beloved first, no matter what. Unlike obsession, there is no objectifying the beloved - there is no desire to possess and/or control him or her. It doesn't matter if the beloved gives you a moment of his or her time, or tells you to take a flying leap off a cliff. It doesn't matter if the beloved loves another, because if that is what makes the beloved happy then how can you even consider destroying that happiness by interfering with the beloved's life. Just as true love can promise a deeply wonderful life together, it can also promise that you will have no choice but to stand aside and totally let go of the possibility that the beloved could ever return that love. True love is often pain in disguise, and loneliness.
True love demands that you accept what is, and makes impossible the thought of expecting the beloved to reciprocate anything in return. It makes you sick to your stomach at the thought of ever doing anything that might even remotely harm the beloved. It forces you to understand that you can't demand or force the beloved to love you, no matter how much you desire to be loved back. True love burdens with the knowledge that it may go unrequited for all time. True love is not about you - it's about the beloved. True love is you loving the beloved only, not the beloved loving you.
There is a very special, beautiful, and intelligent woman, who owns my heart and always will for the remainder of my life. She knows who she is, and we have been friends since a particular party in the fall of 2002. And she knows that I love her more than life itself. I am certain that she and I will never share our lives together in anything more significant than friendship, because her heart doesn't belong to me in return. Therefore, I have chosen to live the rest of my life alone - in order to honor the love I have for her. Thankfully, God has decided that my time should be much shorter than the usual life-span of fellow humankind, so I won't have to "suffer" the burden of His gift for long. But, I don't regret for an instant the decision I have made. And I am truly thankful that God granted me this gift of true love before my time has come. Many people never experience true love, or die thinking they have found it, when they haven't, or go through life feeling that it has skipped them by, when in fact they found it and tossed it carelessly away. Such is the way of life.
Last Updated: 24 Jan 2004, 18:00 CST (North America).
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