Day: May 7, 2005

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A note for “Alfie”

“What’s it all about?”
 
I do have a few regular readers.  And some few one-time or occasional visitors.  (BTW, that’s what I like my stats engine for: seeing where my visitors come from—who referred them and where they live, which pages they viewed, etc.  It’s gotten so I can tell when some of my “regulars” have visited by place, ISP and computer config, even if they don’t drop a comment.) But I also have folks who’ve expressed interest of a sort in my blogs who don’t even use a computer…
 
heh
 
Recently, an offline acquaintance asked me, when I’d made mention in her presence of something I’d blogged, what my blog was about.
 
Hmmm…  I’m not a news blogger, although I do frequently note newsy items and comment on them.  I’m not a social critic blog, although I do that, too.  I’m not a chatty family-type blog or a diary/journal blog, though there are times when that comes through. 
 
So what is my blog about?
 
Whatever is going on in this maelstrom that is my thought processes. There’s very little (well, apart from the manufactured crap that is put out by Hollyweird and big recording labels) that I don’t find interesting in some way.  And I like looking at things from different angles, playing with ideas. 
 
So, this blog is a kinda real world “Being John Malkovich“-type experience, without John Malkovich, John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, et al, and featuring just glimpses inside the head of an often curmudgeonly resident of America’s Third World Countyâ„¢.
 
Food, coffee, music, poetry, current events, education, personal experiences, the weird and eerie—whatever.  I fit no real niche, and this blog is pretty much just like me: comfortable juxtaposing the profound and the foolish, the vulgar and the sacred; you know, like life itself.
 
Formative experience relating to the juxtaposing of apparently contradictory things in life: my Baptist preacher grandfather was a truly great man.  Seriously.  His life revolved around the Holy.  But he was as common as dirt. I once heard him (in the late 1950s) answer the parsonage phone, “(His Name) Mule Barn.  Head Jackass Speaking.” (It was one of his deacons on the other end of the line… )
 
Why, I asked him, had he answered the phone like that? (At that age, I knew there were some words I was not to use and “jackass” referring to a person was one such.) His answer:
 
“If the Lord could speak to a prophet through the mouth of an ass—and a hinny ass at that!—it just doesn’t take much to be a preacher.”
 
(N.B. Numbers 22:28-30* Balaam’s ass was female; women preachers were unknown in Southern Baptist circles at the time of this incident—and are still rare today.)
 
It took me a long time to “get” what he was saying, but part of it was coming to grips with apparent contradictions (such as “jackass” in the mouth of a preacher—and not just any preacher at that, but The family patriarch, as it were).  Another part was finally just not taking myself so seriously.
 
So, whatever happens on this blog, it won’t (I hope) be me taking myself too seriously, nor will it be locked into one set pattern.  It’ll be pretty much whatever’s going on in my head.  Maybe silly, maybe profound, probably some mix of the two but rarely over the edge.  OK, I lied about that last.
 
*28 And the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” 29 Then Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a mockery of me! If there had been a sword in my hand, I would have killed you by now.” 30 And the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I ever been accustomed to do so to you?” And he said, “No.”
 
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Sentimental Condiments

When I saw this, really saw it, I knew…
 

Sentimental Condiments 
 
First, let me state the conditions under which I post this (deliberately non-attributed) pic. I cannot reveal where I got it or whose fridge door this is a pic of. 
 
You know, when I saw what appears to be a jar full of pickled beets in the upper right hand corner of this pic, I wondered… “How long has that been there?  And who really eats those things, anyway?”

 
Now the question: how many of us, if we were to be honest with ourselves, at least, have fridges full of “sentimental food remains”?  You know what I mean.  The Miracle Whip that’s of indeterminate age, but which remains in the fridge door because, well, we’ve grown strangely attached to it… That kind of thing. 
 
This is just a passing pickle pondering.  Any takers?  What “sentimental condiments” are clogging your fridge door?
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Reset! Reset! Reset!

heh
 
I get all these nice folks visiting cos of Blogmothers Dayâ„¢ and  “O Blessed Holy Caffeine Tree” and Carnival of the Recipes #38, and then I finally notice that TTLB’s Ecosystem tracks stats with Sitemeter…
 
*sigh*  And here I’ve been using a (very detailed and info-dense) “invisible” stats engine from another source all this time, so…
 
Reset! Reset! Reset!
 
Oh. Well.  At least I reset after traffic had kinda died down for Mothers Day weekend.  *LOL*
 
Now you know why I’m a “slithering reptile” in the TTLB Ecosystem: it’s an evolutionary thing.
 
🙂
 
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OK

Carnival of the Recipes #38   is up at Techno Gypsy’s and I’m certainly gonna have to get some extra exercise!
 
I mean, whoa! I saw Too-Easy Chocolate Brittle over at Blonde Sagacityâ„¢ and started drooling.  If anything’s gonna bump Javascript Cookiesâ„¢ off my plate for nibbling on with a cuppa joe, it’d be this stuff!
 
And then there are recipes for “Stroganoff or Mother Hubbard’s Pantry”, Andouille Guiness Chili (habañeros! nice!) and Chicken Broccoli Au Gratin (for a little comfort food). 
 
Ahhh! There is a lot more.  Just go browse before doing your weekend grocery shopping, eh?
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A simple recipe

When you’re brewing a pot of The Holy Bean in honor of your Blogmother (for Blogmothers Dayâ„¢, of course, silly)…
 
…Keep in mind these simple tips (below).

It’s a simple process that always yields a reliable brew.  I’m not a “great” coffee brewer.  Not quite anal enough, I guess.  I don’t roast my own beans or anything like that, and I’m not a fanatic coffee gourmand. But I like good coffee and prefer drinking coffee to sludge, so:

 
1.) ALWAYS use a CLEAN pot.  No, cleaner than that. And filtered water, please.
2.) Use fresh coffee.  Your fav, depending on taste; whole or pre-ground, whatever.  But fresh. (And of course in amounts to your taste.)
3.) A pinch of non-iodized salt on top of the grounds and
4.) Pre-wet the grounds with just enough brew-temp water to swell them.  Let it sit for just a bit to swell, then brew. (If using a French press, skip this.)
Works for me.
 
Oh, and for tutorials on how to use arcane coffee paraphernalia, Morning Coffee and Afternoon Tea is developing some links.