The Light of our Flame Burns On

Dear Claws,

Here I sit in front of a beautiful fire surrounded by blue and bronze candles, thinking of all of my Ravenclaw brothers and sisters and how close I feel to my Ravenclaw family.  Ian Eagerbeagle is curled up beside me, and ChesterKitty has usurped an entire armchair.  Peck has already gone to his nest in the Merry Beasts' Tree, having given up waiting for me.  I have been making a hat in solidarity; I only have about 2/3 of a hat so far, I'm afraid, but I do hope to be able to add it to the Hat Tracker by tomorrow.  Before the Hat Challenge began we had 23 hats in the tracker; do you think we can double it?  How about before the end of the month? I think my hat is going to go to Tangledskein's mom.  I'm going to make others for my church's knitting ministry, and one for a friend who is beginning chemo, but this first hat is for TangledMom--I hope she likes green tam o'shanters.

This last couple of weeks have been rough for a bunch of Claws.  The Candle List has been heavily attended, and as many of you know, we've been combating a major case of Common Room Grumpies with lists of Happy Things--and a night of rolling potatoes and dancing and singing... I had no idea the Head of House and Head Girl were so talented!

It's been making me think about the Candle List, though.  I've coordinated it for several terms now, and I love having it as its own thread in the Tower.  We had it here in the blog, but it feels better in the Tower, and there's more room for it.  Still, I've been discussing ideas to improve the list and make it a bit more user-friendly with some of my fellow staff members, and so I'm here to let you all know that the Candle List will have a couple of changes, beginning tomorrow at some point.  I'll post an announcement in the Announcements Thread when it's ready.  In order to make it work, I'll have to close the current Candle Thread and begin a new one.  The first two posts will be two different lists of candle requests.  The first list will be for long-term requests.  The second will be for short-term requests.  I would like you, when you make your request, to designate it as a long-term or short term request.

Nevelyn's request for Queensland and other parts of Australia deeply affected by flooding is a great example of a long-term request, because we don't know how long the flooding and its effects will go on.  I will leave long-term requests in the first post until the person who asked me to post it PMs me and says it's okay to take it off, or posts in the Candle Thread.

Short-term requests can be anything.  If you're having a bad day, please, request a candle!  If you're worried about a friend or family member, or just need a hug, please post and ask for a candle!  I know I hesitate to ask for candles for small things; but, for example, I really should have asked for a candle these past three weeks when I was feeling icky.  I will delete most short-term requests on Friday evenings, unless the poster specifies a date for deletion or posts a request after noon on Wednesday (after all, two days on the list may not be long enough!)

I'm going to begin listing the week's short-term requests and new long-term requests on the blog every Saturday, so that everyone will have a chance to see those requests even if they don't habitually check the candle thread.  I'm also going to start linking post numbers next to the requests, instead of trying to summarize the requests in a pithy statement.  The only exception to this will be the occasional request submitted to me by PM; often people do this because they don't want tons of detail listed, and so I will write something appropriate in those cases.

Goodness, I've gone on.  I only have one more thing to say.  It'll probably only take me a couple of paragraphs, so don't lose heart!

Sometimes, we have a need to rant.  I know I do.  And I like to talk over those rants with my fellow Claws sometimes, too.  I learn a lot from all of you, and when your opinions differ, I learn even more.  But it gets overwhelming in the Common Room, and sometimes it makes people uncomfortable (they write to the staff and tell us! so I'm not making this up!).  No one wants anyone to feel uncomfortable in the Common Room.  It's our happy place.  So last summer I decided that when I need to rant, I'm going to do it in my personal blog.  But, but, Soprano1, you say, then, how can my fellow Claws join me in my rant, commiserate with me, tell me I'm not completely insane?


Please take a look to the left of this column, in the sidebar.  See that list of blogs?  Mine's Knit the Raveled Sleeve of Care, often featured up there in the top because I've been updating regularly.  If you have a blog and you would like it listed in the sidebar with many other Claws' blogs, please PM me, and I'll add it!  And I, for one, will read your blog if you update it, and I'll even comment on it!

Thank you for listening.  And a big, huge thank-you to the Ravenclaw Aerie Bloggers, who've been bringing you daily updates, news, projects, libraries, silly stuff, and Common Room Recaps.  They are: HapticTraveler, Rambunctiousky, Ali123, TriGirlJ, and Jayannell, and they make this blog happen.

Love love love you all!
Soprano1