How much "magick" must one use to get results in this world, and how little to escape it?
What most people call "magic" amounts to nothing more than psychic parlor tricks. The real power is the ability to direct energies. Not for the faint of heart, believe me.
Why does my church say that God doesn't have magic and isn't a shape shifter? How come when I believe in this so strongly, it's wrong, but when they say God is peace, they're right?
This is all very simple to explain. Do you remember the riddle about the man that had more than one wife? He wanted to know which wife he would live with in heaven. Some people want to know why some children have to suffer with some terrible diseases. Some people wanted to know if they would go to heaven since they had beat their wife. (you should not do that even if you are a heathen)If we would only learn to study about the world and how it works that would help with some of these questions. For instance, there are no Aliens until there are. You need to see these aliens yourself and shake their hand. There are no ghosts until you see some yourself. You want a big one? There is nothing supernatural unless you see for yourself.Gods do not have any magic. Gods cannot interact with the material earth. Gods cannot make Lazarus of Bethany come back to life. Gods cannot do anything. There is no difference of there being a God and there not being a God. Supernatural things are not real. Real things are real.Neither the man nor his more than one wife will go to heaven. There is no heaven to go to. All of you will return to stardust. Dust to dust.
Although recent concessions have been made to women in Saudi Arabia, is it true to say that it is still one of the most restrictive Arab countries in this respect?
Despite so-called concessions, Saudi Arabia remains the most restrictive country in the world regarding women’s rights.The recent lifting of the ban on driving for example, was purely the Prince’s publicity stunt to appeal to the West.While images of ‘liberated’ women behind the wheel were seen across the world, those women who fought for the right to drive were locked up in cells.
What do you think about when writing a song?
No. 1: Feeling the emotion of the moment. Songs are like time capsules for the songwriter, when you feel strongly to something, the words just pops in like magic and you just can’t stop writing about it. It could be because of your love one, a movie, a phrase or anything that moves you in the moment and you want to encapsulate it and preserve that feeling by way of a song.No. 2: Pondering a topic. It’s not everyday that your emotions will be moved but there will be some days that you are itching to write a song but you don’t know what you want to write about. So you start pondering on what to write. Usually, my way of doing it is by creating a chord progression and what the harmony brings in. There are chord progression where it is happy yet fierce or chill yet active and basing those tone, you would like a topic that fits in perfectly. Though, there are some songs where the lyrics are too dark yet the melody is so happy and jumpy and light, depends on what you want to convey. Pondering for a topic is usually the go to.No. 3: Other people’s stories. There will be times where you want to write base on other people’s stories and feelings. It is like putting yourself in their shoes and write about it. I’ve been single for a long time now so writing songs about love and relationship has been hard but luckily, for me, I have friends who would share their experiences to me and I try to encapsulate their feeling by putting myself in their shoes and feel strongly about their experiences and then I write about it. It’s a good way of getting another way of writing a song.
Do scorpios hate cancers more than pisces? generally speaking..?
I wouldn't use the word hate either, but I do think that Scorpios seem to like Pisces more. They have to give Cancer their way a lot more than Pisces who make a lot more concessions for a Scorpio and don't have as many demands as Cancer does. Pisces are a lot more reliant on the Scorpio which gives them a greater sense of power and control---both things that can be highly appreciated by a Scorpio.
What is the difference between a "detainee" and a "hostage"?
There is no difference in the words other than their connotation. "Detainee" means that the United States has a "justified" reason for kidnapping another country's citizens. "Hostage" means that the United States has had a dose of their own medicine.
World History: French Revolution Questions?
Louis XVI called the estates general because he needed money. he wasnt getting enough from the third estate and needed to tax the first two. but the estates general had to ok it, which they didnt. crowds stormed the bastille because there was fear running thru paris and peasants were starving. they were looking to arm themsleves and thought there was ammunition there. the national assembly adopted the declaration of the rights of man, basically giving everyone basic freedoms.
What do you look for when reading fantasy set in present day (as I’m writing one now)?
I’m not a huge urban fantasy fan, but I do read it occasionally. The stories I keep going back to are the ones that portray the tensions between modern day values/ common sense against the more fantastical/ old-fashioned sensibilities of traditional mythology really well. Neil Gaiman is really great at this.I think one thing to keep in mind as you write your fantasy novel is that urban fantasy readers are in love with the idea that a strange, magical world order is lurking right under our noses -a kind of shadow world that is steeped in its own culture and is often a mirror for our current one. It’s important to keep that sense of wonder and magic in your world-building while also trying to make room for practical concessions (the difficulty of being a magical creature with a certain diet in the modern world ie. vampires, zombies etc). We’re a tough crowd because we want the magic but we also want the magic to fit into what we know about the ‘real’ world, and my favourite moments in fantasy are often the little details of how each author chooses to explain and reconcile the modern and the mythical. (This doesn’t say much about my sense of humor I guess, but I really love those moments when, say, a werewolf, laughs at a naive human for thinking elves exist in the same breath as when they explain why their favourite meal is pixie.)In the end when I’m looking for urban fantasy books I’m really just looking for a fresh, interesting imagining of mythology and its place in the present. I’m looking for that moment when I go, “Oh, that makes sense, of course faeries would dedicate a lot of their lobbying power to opposing iron subsidies” or just “That’s so cool I want to be part of a werewolf pack they really support each other.” When I choose urban fantasy over traditional fantasy or over realistic fiction I’m looking for something that’ll be a bit of an escape from real life, but that’s not too dense in new terminology and exposition that I need to put too much effort into it. I want a good story like I want from any other genre -great characters, an interesting plot- just with a little bit more imagination involved.
Harry Potter questions?
1. Hermione feels none too comfortable being around Luna, so her demeanor is rather awkward. 2. They can't see them, actually. They don't use brooms because they're not readily available, being that Umbridge wouldn't have her students skulking about in the middle of the night. 3. Like Hogwarts, Gringotts had Anti-Apparition wards, so they couldn't apparate or disapparate. 4. They are Vanishing Cabinets, through which a person may enter one and exit the other. Seeing as how Hogwarts had Anti-Apparition wards and a number of other protective spells, there were many limitations to Draco's ability to help Death Eaters gain entrance. In order to complete his task (killing Dumbledore) Draco had to find a way to get Voldemort's followers into the school. The Vanishing Cabinets in the Room of Requirement proved to be the only feasible way. 5. Snape didn't have much of an option in this predicament, really. If he turned Narcissa down, then Bellatrix, who already questioned his loyalties, would have had even more reason to do so. Regardless, he didn't know the full details of the mission that the Dark Lord had assigned Draco. He promised to protect the young Malfoy without knowing at the time that he would need to murder his true master if need be. 6. Given that Dolores Umbridge worked for the Ministry of Magic and was therefore very much out for the head of Sirius Black, Harry couldn't simply tell Snape where his godfather was blatantly in front of her. Padfoot was the nickname given to Sirius's animagus form by his friends, the Marauders. Knowing that Snape would recognize this nickname and Potter's subtle reference to the Prophecy (which Snape was very much aware of), he decided to take a chance and inform his Potions professor of his godfather's whereabouts in the most secretive form possible at that given moment. 7. Wormtail lived with Snape simply because Voldemort has ordered him to do as much. Undoubtedly, the Dark Lord didn't want to put up with his petty ***-kissing and cowardly behaviour. Snape, the opportunist that he was, used him quite the handy servant.