Editing

The 5 cousins are gathering here in Miami, but I feel the feel to edit. Thus with this flash drive, I can take the novel and other vital papers anywhere. Editing now, as we speak.

Phoenix Feelings

"There is no good that does not come from bad." - Old Spanish Saying

Divorce sucks. Especially if the act is handed to you on a platter without a choice. At the very least it made me see who my real friends are. They came out of the woodwork to rescue me from my worst enemy- myself.

The greatest thing about this is that I am editing the hurricane novel. Written years before Katrina, it is difficult to revisit those old friends sitting on the Porch facing Bayou St. John.

It is not easy editing something that a 'past-self' has written- especially with a sprained thumb (yes the right one, the one I use on the space bar). But among the true friends that I have discovered are the fictional ones as well. I had given up on the novel because I thought I was no longer the man that wrote it. Alas perhaps that man is returning.

It is dificult to be thankful in the face of such loss. But alas I have survived a very serious roll over car crash where a hit and run car slammed into my hatchback yaris head on. You have not lived until yo uhave been in a roll over, it is quite the inspiring event.

Driving casually, going to have a lovely day in uptown New Orleans. A red batmobile slammed into us and did not stop. I do not know what the man could have possibly been driving that he kept going after broadsiding us.

I have no idea if they will find him, but as soon as the insurance either gives me the finger or gives me a new car I will be posting the license plate number here for all to see. To go out there into the world and smite he who almost took our lives.

I feel the loss of the car, perhaps the only car I have ever enjoyed driving. And after what insurance companies have done here in Louisiana, I am rather skeptic that I will get what I have been paying for. If you ask me I think the money I pay the insurance company should all be put in the trunk of my car and I use it when I need it.

If all goes well, I will get a new one, the very same thing I had before. Afterall, that one was just a year old.

The Patience of Odin

Legend says that Great Father hung for perhaps millennia upon the World Tree, with only a bag of runes to keep him company. Sacrificing one eye for higher knowledge, for infinite intellect; Odin spent his time waiting and pondering the existence in this universe. Upon the branches of Yggdrasil, the Father of the Gods witness the eternal wheel that is Ragnarok; where Gamr consumes the sun and moon itself.

For to Him time moves so slowly, that the future is the same as the past all under the eternal clock that is the present. For Odin there are no hands of time, no bindings of age or reason, the minutes reach an absolute zero that mortals can never know.

That is how I feel as I wait for my honey to bloom into the nectar of the gods. As the instant world gratifies around me I sit and stare at the eternal drink, hoping to sip it one day. Will this be the Mead of Suttungr? The Mead of Poetry, its white milk pushing the boundaries of senses and sense? Suffocating in Intelligence?

I do not know, I cannot know, for mead is beyond rushing, beyond perhaps time itself. While we wither and decay, die slowly by the kiss of Hela, mead only becomes better with time. Like Merlin, our golden ambrosia ages backwards, improving in all its senses as we step upon step into the grave.

I sit up, spending way too much time looking at my mead, and wonder what to do with the fermenting time. So what does everyone else do to pass the time between honey and mead?

Meading of the Minds

Now my life is about mead- mostly. That magical drink that came at the beginning of time. If none of you know it is fermented honey, turning it into a rather sweet wine. Mead is incredibly easy to ferment and it is a recipe that consists only of the the following- more or less...

*2.5 pounds of honey
*1 lemon juice
*1/4 pound of raisins
*(spring) water to fill a gallon glass jug.
* yeast of your choice (champagne yeast appears to be the best)
*stopper
*airlock.

Combine ingredients, mix well in warm water, put lemon and raisins. Prep yeast, and pitch in at room temperature, intall airlock. Let stay until fruits fall (should be about a month) siphon off into a secondary vessel and let age for a bit. Though it is not the simple, it is easier to make than beer, wine, or heavens liquor.

Mead came before beer or wine, simply because Honey provided sugar without the need of agriculture. Easiest fermented beverage to make. Charles, the owner of 'La Casa Cigar Shoppe' right by my house, got bitten by the along with myself and we are both bubbling mead at the back of his shoppe. Yes, damn New Orleans for not having good cellars and suitable storage space for such time and space- consuming hobbies.

There is a primeval connection in making mead, of connecting back through the centuries. I find it comforting to be doing something that man has been doing for so long. And as I say to everone, DO try this at home.

For more info, because my recipe was quite basic go to Gotmead.com

Coffee

Perhaps it is just me but one of the great things about being a teacher is that I have the mornings for most of the year. It is all about coffee, I sit in my den and type on the computer, watching the Nine Worlds and having some java.

I am a firm believer in a slow morning, a morning that allows you to think and not rush away with a mug in your hand. That is the luxury that I have now. For that I ponder and move and work so hard during the rest of the year. To be up here with my laptop, my forums, my coffee, and my sleeping dog at my side.

Where I have been: The Nine Worlds

It has been some time since I dusted and pounded the pillows on this porch. Some time ago, long ago, when I sat and virtually contemplated. Work got in the way, as it always does. I know alot of you have come by and called this a 'slacker's blog but know at least that I have been quite busy as of late.

Since I was 14 I have been into Role-Playing Games. My life has turned away from the dice, the tables, the people, the rulebooks that cost WAY too much money. Plus I live in a city that LIVES its fantasies, does not just play them out. We ar just emerging from a month of fantastical revelry. While that is great, the actual rping that is done here is slim compared to places up North.

But while my DM Screen is long gone my need to role-play has not. I have resorted to serious archchair adventuring. Living on the internet are my adventures and I have visied a million sites and played in someone else house. The thing is that there comes a time when you just want to have your own place. I created:


The NIne Worlds is a collaborative story-telling project to keep me in the ink. There I have started stories that allow me to explore those little-known universes that exist in my mind. The thing is I have invited others to do the same. Things appear ot be moving quite fast, thus I invite you all to join me there.

If you cant find me on the porch, then I am at 'THE NINE'