Current State of Stuff

I haven't written anything substantive in awhile (and I am not exactly promising that now), instead leaning on fun and interesting videos in order to entertain or expand your mind. I hope you were entertained and/or expanded. A great deal of stuff has gone on in this world (the general world and that more internal one which takes place inside the boundaries of this country's wet Northwest and my own mind) and I can say things about that stuff. Let's go through some things.

Muammar al-Gaddafi

Libya is a goddamned mess and so are we. Gaddafi (or Qaddafi) is still alive and NATO's concerted efforts to cease his heartbeat have resulted in many other stopped pulses. I think they should go after him, personally, but for a coalition of futuristic military forces the attempt seems rather sloppy and dangerous (like all those special secret wars of the Clinton era). Now, don't get me wrong, I'd rather we all, worldwide, dumped our collective weapons caches into some well-contained blackhole to be effectively dismantled, molecule by molecule, but we don't live in such a world where this could be the case. We are a rather unevolved species for all of our loud celebration of technological supremacy. Give up your cell phone and be a bonobo. Yet, to live in the world we do, we must think about the world we live in and work at things from what's there. This isn't to say that we can't aid our own evolution by fostering progressive ideas and tossing those which obviously lead to dead ends. We can. Certainly. I won't get into what those dead ends are as I hope they are obvious.

We are a mess, as was said before. Here the "we" I unfortunately automatically use is to mean the United States of America. This is a large country with wildly divergent and polarized political beliefs (which I think are a result of a mostly worthless though otherwise motivated news media and an incredibly dumbed-down electorate). Political wins from these polarized points are more prized than the enactment of legislation which will help the people as a whole. This is a country where a politician's sex life is more damaging to them than the awful things they do in the name of their constituents. I know that the temptation of writing a Weiner headline is tremendous, but we are adults here. Can we not get over the fact that men have penises and women have vaginas? A good politician was brought down by some silly personal thing which the public shouldn't know or care about. Shame on us all.

Debt ceiling? Yeah, really stupid. China is even telling us to raise it. How ignorant can the GOP be on this front (let alone all the other fronts)? I will leave it there.

At least we saw American progression recently in New York. Men are welcome to join in matrimony with men, and women with women, in that state's legal eye. This is wonderful. Another stepping stone towards real equality in a world somehow mystified into thinking they are already free and equal. I am sure Pat Robertson will soon be shaking violently in prayer for some natural disaster to befall that small state. What a small and ridiculous old man. Anyway, congratulations to the many gay of New York.

More personally, I have been recently enthralled with Neil deGrasse Tyson, poetic astrophysicist. This is to say that recently I have been becoming a science nerd, and as a result, there was Tyson.



I volunteer at the Space Travel Supply Store in Seattle and we carry many science books which are fairly digestible by the not-so-astrophysicist. We carry two of Tyson's books, the last of which is called Death by Black Hole, and I am super excited to read them both. I am now reading Brian Greene's The Hidden Reality, which deals with the field of quantum physics and the insane implications of these theories. It is thoroughly blowing my mind. That is all I can say semi-intelligently about the subject. In keeping with my earlier hope that people would take responsibility for our species' evolution (and that said evolution must first take place in the realm of ideas), I am doing my damnedest to flood my gray matter with the particulars of our physical universe, domestic, extra-terrestrial and intra-cellular. This education of self must also take into account all that came before us and thus I am itching to better inform myself on the science of evolution. I am tasking myself with reading On the Origin of Species in the next year if all goes well and accompanying that with a side of Richard Dawkins. OK, enough science nerd stuff.

Notice the fancy new wheels

Bike nerd stuff. In the past few months I have been riding my bike to work and going on occasional "big" rides just outside of the city (the quotes around big meaning that twenty to forty miles isn't anywhere near a big ride for some particular readers). My bike is thoroughly vintage, and though this has an allure for a certain type of rider, it means to me that my bike is old. In fact, the whole thing looks to be from the mid-seventies, perhaps 1976 if you are to believe the internet. I have begun to augment my ride, starting with new wheels. All that should remain of the seventies by the end of this will be the old steel frame, a beautiful maroon ordeal that calls itself "Shogun". It is exciting for me. I can understand if it isn't for you.

One week in, spicy and delicious

Food nerd stuff. Not too much on this front, though I am now an entirely free man in my vege-/pescatarian world, roaming the naked streets of Seattle in search of yeast-risen buns and cloudy dry-hopped grain fermentations. I will soon be biking to wine country in order to further indulge. Things are good, for the most part, in that way. My culinary pursuits, however interesting, have mostly been toward the simple function of pleasantly sating the hunger of me and mine. I have, though, started the lacto-fermentation of some jalapeno peppers to start the fermentation season in a real spicy way. This was easy and anyone with a mason jar can play. A pound of peppers, half an onion or less, 1-6 garlic cloves, a tablespoon of sea salt and a few tablespoons of whey (or the juice from some previously fermented concoction) will do the job. I added some carrot and sugar to the mix for a little sweetness. All things go into the jar, sprinkling salt as you go, and then some spring water (no tap water!) until about an inch from the top. I left it out with the lid screwed down just a little so that gas could escape. Then you just watch it over some days. Sniff it. Be a tactile creature. This is an ancient practice. Soon you will have pickled jalapenos, but not sooner than me.

That's the state of some stuff as I know it right now. Hope it was worth reading.