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It chooses you."
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Why "The Aviary"? Isn't that a cage where birds are kept?
Well yes... I suppose. But I don't see my aviary so much as a cage to keep birds in as a cage to watch them from. We're all caged in our own way - bound to this earth by our weight and lack of plummage (not to mention a general lack of wings). Airplanes can transport us across the skies, but they can't gift us with the power of flight. Instead, we look out at the birds as they soar through the heavens, and our imagination soars with them, defying the limitations of this earthbound form.
Ah, whatever... that's my florid prose quota for the day. Welcome to the Aviary.
This page used to be on my Freenet account, but since my theoretical maximum web-page space was .5 megs, and I was well over that, we've relocated to Shades-of-Night.com. Shades-of-Night is my domain name, and right now its just a virtual domain... but who knows what the future holds?
Not Frontpage, not Pagemill, not PageMaker, not even Netscape Communicator's web page editor. Nope - this is all by hand, using PICO. Yep - Raw code. Much more fun than doing things with a web page editor, IMHO. Of course, I'm only human... so I do occassionally make foolish errors (but that's part of the fun, isn't it?). Please forgive me if things don't quite work right - or better yet, email me, and I'll fix it! I can't learn from my mistakes if I don't notice them, after all.
I've also tried my best to make the page Lynx-friendly. There's alt tags on pretty much every graphic on this page, with the possible exception of the image gallery, where the descriptions are directly under the images. (Besides, if you're using a text-browser, what do you want with an image gallery?)
Oh, and if you're interested, the font which I used for the main page and the category logos is 'Visitation'... one of my favorite fonts. If you find it ugly or awkward to read, well - suffer. Its one of my favorite fonts, and I enjoy using it. If you like like it too, I'm glad. If you like it and want it, but don't happen to have it, just click here and download Visitation for yourself.
The Aviary has grown since then, from a single page document, to a 3 page web site with facts, fiction, and photos, to a somewhat sprawling collection of pages, images, and sounds. I installed a counter not too long ago and was pleased to discover over 500 people visiting the site every month. I guess there are other people out there interested in this sort of thing too. (By the way - I used counters which have a tracking page accessible to the public. If you click on the icon or the counter number, you can see the statistics for my web page. I figure that if I can find out that sort of information about you, there's no reason you can't see it, too).
My own interest in ravens began long ago. My mother read E. A. Poe's classic poem "The Raven" to me, and I fell in love with the imagery. I'd memorized the poem by the time I was 15. I also enjoyed Raven's reputation as a mischief maker in Native legends. And when I came across literature on totems, including the phrase "You don't choose your totem, it chooses you" I immediately understood the feeling. I'm still not sure I understand or "believe in" totems... but that doesn't seem to be a problem for Raven. Nor do I find that it conflicts with my other religious beliefs -- I don't worship Raven, I merely learn from the lessons he can teach.
One of those lessons is to find joy in life. Even in the dark, brooding aspect of the raven, there is laughter. There is an unqualified and unquantified Joy in Being. A boldness, a zest for life, a light in the darkness, a ray of hope in the midst of despair...
This unrivalled joy is apparent in the whole corvidae family, not just its figurehead. Crows, Jays, and Magpies too, have a bright eye, a sharp mind, and a spark for mischief - even in the most contrary circumstances. I love watching them, I love learning about them, and I love sharing in their joy.
So, whenever I've had the opportunity, I collected information about them (Corvids are avid collectors, too). Facts, fiction, poetry, prose, photos, drawings, illustrations... everything I could sink my talons into. I snatched up all these tidbits and stashed them (as a friend of mine would say) in my nest of shiny things.
And here they are for your perusal.
Welcome to my nest.
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