Early Impressions on BlueSky

Follow me: https://bsky.app/profile/surenity.bsky.social

I’ve been on BlueSky since about January, after becoming fed up with Facebook’s new AI direction and its new commitment towards forcing users to doom scroll and get into arguments with AI bots. I still can’t afford to just up and leave but I’ve been on it a lot less. I felt like just voicing some of my opinions on BlueSky for anyone else thinking of jumping over there. I had never been on Twitter so it was like a foreign country to me for a while but I think I’m finally getting the hang of it. 

The Good Aspects

One thing I like is how customizable the feed is. While it’s perfectly possible to doom scroll on BlueSky too, you aren’t forced to. There’s a general feed where very sad democrats and leftists bemoan the state of American politics, but there are other feeds dedicated to whatever interests you are into. So the doom-scrolling isn’t inevitable on BlueSky like it is on pretty much every other social media site. When I don’t feel like seeing the Orange Ogre or the Elongated Muskrat’s punchable faces I can go to the art feeds or the astronomy feeds, where you can (usually) avoid the news. In fact you can mute certain words in your feed so that they’re censored. I have “Trump”, “Musk”, “Republicans”, and other words muted; it doesn’t stop me from seeing them in shared screenshots but I see them maybe 75% less (you can’t even bury your head in the sand if you want to these days it seems). You also don’t have advertisements stabbing your eyes every other post either. I haven’t seen a single ad on BlueSky and I hope I never do. You also use hashtags on this site, which you can click on and see who else made posts on a particular topic. Facebook had that too I think but no one really used them much. 

The rules are more lax than on Facebook so you might see nudity in the art feed unless you specifically tailor your preferences not to see it, just to forewarn. I don’t usually care, but if you’re scrolling in public it can potentially be embarrassing, and you might see things you don’t want to see as well. You’re as likely to see a tasteful nude as you are a morbidly obese furry. 

The crowd on BlueSky are more my type of people really. A lot of artists, leftists, scientists, pagans, goths, and my good friends in the LGBT+ community (I may be straight but I get along well with them, maybe because most of us have autism in common). Conservatives tend to get blocked and shamed on BlueSky. Politicians and corporations have begun to weasel their way onto the site but I just block them. I’m probably on the older side of the user base, but I don’t feel too old for it.

The Negative Aspects

BlueSky isn’t a complete utopia, unfortunately. Most of my problems come from just how it’s built as a Twitter clone, and most of the things I disliked about Twitter are present here too, just without the toxic community. For instance, the character limit on posts. I like to post essays on Facebook, you see, but here I am limited. I have to link to this blog if I have something I want to say that’s more than three sentences or so. Why does it have to be this way? Do they not have the technology? I don’t know. Another thing is that it doesn’t let you edit a post once you post it. If you notice a typo afterwards, or if you forgot to add hashtags because you never used Twitter, you either have to just tolerate it or delete the post and rewrite it. 

On Facebook, and on MySpace before it, when someone adds you (or follows you as is the case on BlueSky), it’s normal to drop them a message and say hello. But if you do that in BlueSky it seems like people treat you like some creepy online predator, a scammer, or an AI bot or something. At least that’s been my experience thus far; might have to do with the fact that my profile picture is me standing in front of a Neighborhood Watch sign wearing the same kind of coat and hat depicted on the sign, and my name is written in Armenian letters, but I digress. It might also be because there are a lot of people who follow you only in hopes of getting something out of you, either just for you to follow them back, or worse, to rope you into some kind of scam or pyramid scheme. These profiles will usually disappear after a couple days, probably for being bots or violating some kind of terms of service. I had someone offer me money to make artwork out of my aforementioned profile picture only for them to vanish, and had someone choose me at “random” to receive an exclusive free tarot card reading, again only to disappear later. Facebook is full of AI bots and scammers too but at least they stay on the feed and don’t usually try to message you. A lot of people on the site will write on their profile not to message them unless you know them in real life. So even though the crowd might seem friendly, you still can’t let your guard down. 

Another thing I miss from Facebook is groups. You can comment on people’s posts and they have feeds for different interests but they aren’t really as interactive, so it is more difficult to make actual friends on the site, especially when people treat you like a weirdo for private messaging them. I can’t really meet and share thoughts with other goths, Armenians, pagans, fans of the Oz books, etc. That’s one thing I don’t see another social media site having a viable alternative to. The closest is Reddit but even then that’s more anonymous so it’s harder to build an actual community. 

A lot of the issues BlueSky has were inherent to Twitter too, which is why I was never on that website, but if they’re going to be a Twitter clone they could at least fix some of the issues Twitter had. It’s at least less of a toxic cesspool than Twitter, and their CEO doesn’t seem to be a Nazi billionaire piece of shit, so there’s that at least. 

Making a Homemade Sistrum

 

Above: A historic sistrum, art from the tomb of Nefertari

My wife and I have been hard at work over the past few weeks making a homemade sistrum, an ancient Egyptian rattle-like percussion instrument used often in rituals. I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. You can get historically-accurate ones with Hathor’s face on the front online but they typically cost quite a lot. We followed a guide to making a homemade sistrum in the book “Ancient Egyptian Magic for Modern Witches” by Ellen Cannon Reed. 

We started by finding a sturdy forked branch on the ground. We sawed it down to size and used sandpaper on the outside to make it nice and smooth. Then I used a soldering iron to burn in the hieroglyphs, accidentally burning myself in the process (not fun). After this, we painted it gold and applied a coat of mod podge to seal the paint job and help so that the paint won’t start to flake off through use. Next, we drilled six holes to fit some wire through which we got from a coat hanger. We adorned the wires with a few small discs with heart-shaped holes, and some soda can tops. 

Adorned on the sistrum itself is a small image of Hathor, the words “Dua Hathor” and “Dua Ihy” on each side, nd my son’s name in hieroglyphs on front. I also noticed one part of the wood had an eye-shape on it so we turned it into an Eye of Horus. There is also the name of the Urartian Goddess of Art and Creativity Arubani written on it in Armenian, an Armenian eternity symbol, and an Incan cross from my wife’s heritage. 

It has a lot character to it, I’m hoping it pleases the Gods. The next step is to use it in a rutual. I would like to perform the Rite of Blessing a Child next, working out of the same book. This is an open-ended ritual unlike a baptism, and the participant can decide to follow whichever Gods he wants when he’s older.

𓋹֍֎𓋹

~ Siamanto the Foreigner

 𓋷𓅁𓈖𓏏𓍯𓀭𓈖𓐎𓏺𓈉𓏏𓅂𓌙𓀀

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Opinions on AI, and Social Media These Days

So starting January 1st, Facebook will be amping up mining data for their AI, and creating fake AI accounts for whatever evil scheme the Zuck has planned, probably to fuel the culture wars and redirect people’s anger at rich people to minorities. Over the past year I’ve enjoyed being on Facebook less and less, as it is already polluted with stolen AI “art” (aka slop), not to mention 2024 being an election year which always sucks to be on the internet for, and Tangerine Hitler won, so things are probably going to be even worse this year. I hate politics. We live in a dystopian oligarchy, in a country where the majority of people are brainwashed morons. Voting doesn’t change a damn thing, at least not on a fundamental level. What can one do but either seethe over issues beyond your control, and let it take a toll on your mental health without having the power to do anything about it, or stick your head in the sand and embrace escapism. I try to stay somewhere in the middle, but it really requires deciding what and what not to care about. Selective apathy is the only way I hold myself together. 

During and after the disastrous Artsakh War in 2020 I had to decide to either follow Armenian news and be an emotional wreck and never sleep, or, unsubscribe from all Armenian news Facebook pages and YouTube channels, and leave the r/Armenia subreddit. I’m not proud of it, but I chose the latter, for my own mental wellbeing. I know the refugees don’t have that luxury. Before the war I was glued to Armenian news. The loss of Artsakh emotionally destroyed me at the time. I was hurt that nobody seemed to know about it or care. Then the Palestine genocide began, and I came to the sad realization that no matter how many people care about something like that, it’s not going to do anything to stop it. No one talks about that US soldier who set himself on fire for Palestine last year anymore, and the genocide resumes. It’s a cold comfort, that the results of the Artsakh war probably would have been the same regardless if non-Armenians cared about it or not. Social media doesn’t have an influence on that. Doomscrolling all just amounts to pointless self-torment.

It’s a lot harder to shut out the news in a country you live in, however. And in the US, your choices are to be either misinformed or uninformed. The other news channels besides Fox are centrist at best. No matter how “left” they might seem they’re all owned by corporations and they will never bite the hand that feeds them. And they profit off fear and rage. I’m not giving them that. I haven’t trusted the US media since they lied about weapons of mass destruction as an excuse to invade Iraq. But the people in this country have goldfish memory, or assume that was just a one-time goof up or something. “Oopsie daisy, there weren’t any weapons after all and millions of people died for nothing, but you can continue to trust us!” And it’s been nonstop Trump for almost ten years, and I am really sick of seeing “honorary president” Elon Musk’s punchable face on every other post, he seems even more ubiquitous than Trump these days. I don’t even care if it’s a post making fun of the guy, they’re still giving him the attention he so craves. I am just so sick of seeing his ugly mug. Something about him just makes me want to beat his ass. I’m not even on Twitter and I still have to see the fucking human Scrooge McDuck everywhere. So whenever I see him at all I leave the Facebook group or the subreddit. This is my litmus test, because I want to see less political crap on my feed. I won’t go as far as to unfriend people over it, unless of course they’re in support of the guy. 

Now these were just my problems with social media before all this AI nonsense began. As an artist, I have to decide how I am going to coexist with AI going forward. I have been uploading my artwork to Facebook since beginning my webcomic Alcatraz High School. When I heard about AI stealing people’s art, my only hope was that my art really isn’t “good” enough to steal, I know that sounds self-deprecating. I wasn’t expecting to make money off my art anyway, but now that AI is around it’s even less likely. Do I want to continue posting my art on this website so that the Zuck can steal it? I need to answer that question for myself. This all seems like a big scheme to force anyone actually making a living off their art to get a “real” job and go be slaves to the system, along with being some kind of overly-complex psy op to keep the working class at each other’s throats. And I don’t know why it takes a nuclear reactor to generate a stupid picture where the people have 12 fingers. In the beginning, when people were just using it to generate silly images, have funny conversations with the chat bots and make new Nirvana songs with Kurt Cobain’s voice, I admit I liked the novelty. This was before I understood the ramifictions of AI. The novelty was short-lived, because of course, the technology quickly was used for evil. The oligarchs at the top of the hierarchy have always hated artists for not being bootlicking slaves. They’ve been trying to figure out how to get rid of them for a while now. But I’m going to keep drawing, writing, and living life on my own terms regardless. I know I am privileged to be able to do that. Even some professional artists are having to work at fast food joints because of this. 

I have to ask myself, why do I even bother with Facebook and social media at all? Well, it’s to stay connected to family, meet like-minded people and make friends, follow some educational pages and show off my creativity. So my plan is to use it only for those things. No more doomscrolling. I need to get back to how I was before Facebook. I used to read books, play video games, write and draw more. I waste too much time on social media. Not posting my art anywhere isn’t going to stop AI. So I suppose I will keep doing it, if only due to the fact that I wasn’t trying to make a living off it anyway. I was thinking about making the leap to BlueSky too, maybe for the audience. Like I said I was never on Twitter anyway so I don’t need a replacement for it, I may just use it to post my art and blogs and such. That’s my plan for now, subject to change if things get even worse.

The Pantheon of Urartu

 The Pantheon of Urartu

Pictured: My Khaldi figurine I got when I was in Armenia 

The ancient Kingdom of Urartu, also known interchangeably as the Kingdom of Ararat, Biainili (as they called themselves) or Van, was a kingdom to the north of Assyria, stretching across the modern borders of Armenia, Turkey, and parts of Iraq and Iran, existing from about 860-585 B.C. “Urartu” was a name given to them by the Assyrians, their arch-rivals throughout their history, and what the kingdom is most known by today. It’s best understood as a proto-Armenian kingdom, directly preceding the Orontid dynasty of Armenian rulers under the authority of the Median Empire. The earliest verifiable mentions of Armenia, from Persian sources in the 500’s B.C , use it interchangeably with Urartu. The language they spoke is of Hurrian-Hittite origin, and basically the only living language distantly related to it is modern Armenian; an Indo-European language, but with a lot of old loan words that can be traced back to Urartian. The Urartians used a cuneiform alphabet, much like Assyria.   

The Gods of Urartu were a mixture of imported and local deities, some coming from the Hittites, Hurrians, and Assyrians, among others. When Urartu conquered a new area they would often adopt their Gods into the state pantheon, which grew very large as a result. Near the modern day city of Van is a door-like carving into the face of a cliff, with the cuneiform names of 79 deities and what to offer each. Later Armenian legends call this the Door of Mher, and it is said that when the world ends, the door will open and the old Armenian hero Lion Mher will pass through it on a fiery horse and pass judgment on the enemies of his people. No one deciphered the cuneiform until the 1800s. 

When I went to Armenia in 2015, I visited Erebuni, an ancient Urartian fortress located outside Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, several times while I was there. At one time I was going through a library and found an archeology textbook about Urartu. I wish I knew the title and author now, but I sadly neglected to save it. It was one of the only books on Urartu I found in Armenia that was in English. It had a few Urartian words, phrases and names of deities in it. I do still have the notes I took though. As far as I have been able to gather, these are the names of some of the Gods in the Urartian pantheon. With some of them, all that we have is a name. If I have a tidbit of information about Them I will include it. 

𓋹֍֎𓋹

Adaruta - God of Birth 

Adia/Aia - Goddess of the City of Adia

Ainau

Airaini

Apaltushini

Anapsha

Ardi

Arni

Arrinna - A Hittite Solar Goddess, aka Huba/Hepat

Arshibedini 

Arsimela

Aui

Atbini

Araza 

Artinis - Son of Arubani and Khaldi, might be an alternate name for Shvini

Artuarasau - God of the Unnia Plain

Arubani - Goddess of Art and Fertility, consort of Khaldi

Baba

Babaninaue/Babania - Goddess of Mountains

Bagmastu - Another name of Arubani, as she was known in eastern Urartu

Bagvarti - Consort of Khaldi, possibly another form of Arubani

Barshi

Diduaini - God of Herding 

Dvininaue- Goddess of Water and Seas, an earlier form of Tsovinar 

Ea

Eiduru - Mountain God  of Sipan

Elia’a 

Elipuri - A Hurrian God

Eliwre

Epaninaue - Goddess of Land and Earth

Erina 

Gula

Hara

Huba/Hepat - Solar Goddess, Wife of Theispas, related to Arinna 

Hutuini - God of Luck, Fate and Victory

Ilu Aluše Uruliliue Šiuali - God who Accompanies the Dead 

Iphari - A Goddess 

Innuani/Innuannau - Mother Goddess; also the Urartian word for ‘Goddess’

Iubsha/Iarsha - (Իուբշա); Had a temple at Erebuni 

Irmushini - God of Healing who cures illness,  had a temple in what is now modern Cavus Tepe 

Khaldi - Supreme God of Warfare, possibly a deification of Hayk. Has three forms:

Iniriashie - Khaldi as Youth

Aluishie - Khaldi as Man

Dirushie - Khaldi the Elder

Kilbani - God of Mountains who ruled from Mt. Varaga overlooking Tushpa

Kuera - God of Earth and Water

Kumanu

Marduk - God of Babylon, imported from Assyria

Nala-ini - Goddess of the Nala Mountains

Nergal - God of War, Disease and Death, imported from Assyria 

Nusk

Quera - God of the Underworld 

Qumenu - Storm God, Kumme in Assyrian, related to Hurrian Teshub

Sardi/Saris - the Urartian form of Ishtar, later developed into Astghik 

Selardi - Moon Goddess, daughter of Khaldi and Arubani

Shebitu - God of the Unnia Plain (like Artuarasau)

Shiniri

Shvini (𒀭𒅆𒄿𒌑𒄿𒉌 in Urartian) - Sun God, pictured with a winged solar disc

Shuba

Silia

Sinuiarda - An unspecified Goddess 

Sumaliu

Suqamuna

Talapura

Taraini

Teysheba/Theispas - God of Storms, son of Khaldi and Arubani

Turani - God of Rainbows, son of Teysheba and Huba

Tushpunia - Winged Goddess of the Dawn and of Tushpa

Ua

Uia - Solar Mother Goddess, “She Who Looks Down Upon Us”

Unina

Ura - God of the city of Ur

Ziuqini 

Zubabu 

Zuzumaru 

𓋹֍֎𓋹

The Loose Urartu-Egypt Connections

There was probably very little if any direct contact between Urartu and Egypt. Yet a distant connection can be found. They did both have to deal with the Assyrians invading them, and distance-wise were only about as far apart as Italy and Scotland, or Texas and Wisconsin. Their being in the same general geopolitical neighborhood, and being invaded by a lot of the same empires over the centuries, lead to Urartu and Egypt sharing at least one deity, the Goddess Astarte, known as Sardi or Saris in Urartian, and Ishtar elsewhere. Astarte is one of Set’s consorts. Sardi would later develop into Astghik in the Armenian pantheon, who maybe not coincidentally is the consort to another storm God, Vahagn, who like Set battles chaotic reptiles in the form of dragons in the mythic Chaoskampf trope. Vahagn can be traced back to similar storm deities from the area, such as Theispas in the Urartian pantheon, the Hurrian God Teshub, Tarhunt in the Hittite pantheon, and Ba’al, who would have been known to the Assyrians. So the connection is there; there is a Set-to-Vahagn pipeline if you know where to dig for it. 

Another fascinating deity of Urartu is Shivini, a winged solar deity sometimes depicted with the head of an eagle, whose symbol was a winged sun disc. It’s basically  the Urartian Ra. I can’t say how directly they might have been inspired by Egyptian symbolism, but ideas have a way of traveling, and the ancient world was more interconnected than modern people often give it credit for. The winged sun disc was a motif in Sumerian art too, although they might have gotten it from Egypt; so it most likely was brought to Urartu via Assyria rather than straight from Egypt.

Khaldini ishmasini - By the will of Khaldi. (A common end to an inscription.)

Khaldini kuruni - Khaldi is strong. 

Sutekhi Kuruni - Sutekh is strong. 

Works Cited

The book People of the Hills: Ancient Ararat and the Caucasus, by Charles Burney and David Marshall Lang

https://studfile.net/preview/16501883/page:60/

https://www.worldhistory.org/Urartu_Religion/

https://www.urartians.com.tr/alticerik/61/gods.html

(A partial list of what is written on Mher’s door.)

https://sunofchedorlaomer.fandom.com/wiki/Urartu?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR05rPNDqVk9yuuMiOacEj6jp_h-Th_PhZJOBzE4zYC80rNSRuQ2_kUUI9I_aem_jy6kU_HlJwVMHgXXKJEG-g

(Yes, Fandom wikis are an even worse academic resource than Wikipedia, but it had the most complete list of the Urartian pantheon I’ve ever seen online, and I can confirm at least some of it is accurate.)

~ Siamanto the Foreigner

 𓋷𓅁𓈖𓏏𓍯𓀭𓈖𓐎𓏺𓈉𓏏𓅂𓌙𓀀

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