book titles and reading list for the year and the subconscious art of generating things through the paradigm of a million monkeys

Just thinking about a possible reading list and to do activities for the next year.  what do you think I should read next year? or at least start again this year?
this would of course exclude all the fluff we read in between like the beer brewing and recipe books and other general informational stuff..
I think in the light of the previous post yesterday where I mentioned the Viking ceremony, “we”, most probably I, possibly need/Feel that it is time again for another stock take, we have been here a little over 3 years and  time drifts and waits for no manman or woman or manwoman or womanman or others.  So at this point to re-enact this I would need a chalice or preferably a drinking horn, maybe i need some mead or some farm ale.
I must apologise, I did not complete this on time yesterday? But in a way I don’t feel bad about it because  at this stage there is only 1 or are2 or 3 people who actually read this on the blogosphere, and to be honest it is not really life changing? And there is little or no feedback or response on the page anyway?
I got to thinking yesterday they day before about possible abdication or removal of my self from the social media world, but realised after a it of thought that there are actually a few people who I sincerely do keep active contact with and it perform as fairly well as a format to share information and interesting things with, But I do feel a rather wholesale culling coming on.. Think this has a lto to do with certain delusions of friendship that I have with others while actually being a near complete loner.
Another strange thing I was thinking about was funny things you remember as a child to this day which actually mould or form the way you live, things you like and other oddities.
In this list immediately to mind the items that come to mind are Persian carpets, cat gut, black cats, survival, cataclysm, back tracking of vocals, and many more. In some ways, maybe I should not debunk my own myths? Or maybe i should get a better understanding, well this is being written in real time without a script or thought of the eventual outcome? I had to get up from my desk and my thought process ahs changed once again..
maybe something to look into the future at this stage all you will get is a short list of some of the quirks inside my brain In no particular order whatsoever, also please note i don’t actually follow up on all of them.. some of them I do, however follow up on.
Persian Carpets all have an intentional flaw built into them and you have to find them to truly appreciate the mastery fo the carpet, that si over and above the normal artistry
Black cats cause you bad luck if they run out in front of you (this is duplicitous because it could be bad luck or even triplicitous  * yes grammar and word police that is NOT a word YET *)

subtext: _{this should not be confused in anyway or means with a singel,dubbel, trippel or extra strength trippel I am not a trappist writer It cannot be thus confused, we have to keep this clear and not get confused here, i not have authority to do that or say things in those terms.}

It is important to always have safety equipment with you at all times (well living in Wellington where the world really Rocks .. maybe?)
A small pyramid will, when placed over a blunt razorblade, of specific dimensions and ratios, will sharpen it and or keep fruit fresh.. hey something i remember from my childhood, it could however be from the back of a chappie wrapper? and yes  * the anti-wikipedia police keep those thoughts to yourself *
vernuncular was actually a word, this is vernacular .. so we toted the term that vernuncular is the vernacular of vernacular .. silly i know
the poisonous nature of certain things, plants etc etc.. of which many were not and others are.. especially small harmless animals or fish or other like beasts, like dragon tails or teeth
religion, i will leave that uncontested other than adding in the prefix of all..
you can cook an egg on the bonnet of a car if it has/had been standing in the sun.. never did this? suppose this is not to dissimilar form cooking a chicken in the manifold of your big six or v8 towing car on the way to your holiday destination.
some peoples singing can actually shatter glasses?
you can outrun a wild animal, and other similar items
One favourite one is that a VW golf can be ridden through a freshly ploughed maize field and it will feel like a boat going through waves? Or did that happen
I think there are many others, some include you for a possible candidate for the Darwin awards
lest not forget the yeti, bigfoot, UFO’s the illuminati and all the other paranormal crap?
In the same vein it might actually be time to put pen to paper especially around the Clive and George saga? maybe we have waited long enough to protect the innocent as they have gone from innocent to who gives a f..
strange things memories?
I suspect maybe by scanning some old photographs from the past it may well up some huge pieces of memories from the past? well is supect it will but so far one thing that is apparent, that even over time my photographic skills sic! *disclamer* have improved in my own eyes some of the aspects have remained the same over the years, especially in the primary and basic way I perceive things around me? I am not sure if this is good or bad or normal, is it possible to actually change your perspective, from a visual documentation perspective, other than the obvious dalliances on the side, or not? I wonder? I think I may just have to give you an answer over some time, possibly by adding in some photographs from now then and look and see how I see things the same and differently. I wonder if it is possible to actually change the way we view things, without changing who we are, or possibly only if we mimic the way others see things, then are these still a reflection of our artistic interpretation of the world around us, or do we just become cookie cutter individualists who are just very good copies of others who are very good copies of others? I suspect much of what i do and see is fairly boring in some ways because there may be a clinical observational aspect to my psyche which originates from having studied biology for so long, then int eh same vein there is a flicker, almost as if it is a glitch in the matrix where things are different and not as they seem or the same when they should be different? Either way there is an aspect which is not as it should be and in those moments there is another side which leaches through, there is no knowing where this leaches from, it could just be all the residual memories and reflections that do not make sense in my somewhat boring and observational mind and they have to be expressed in their native format and not as the literal observational mind sees them.. These images tend to burst out rather than develop, and not in a way that you can predict and plan for them, they are part of a scattergun approach, possibly i am applying the subconscious art of generating things through the paradigm of a million monkeys .. now that would make a fantastic title for book.. now that I have the title I only have a few hundred thousand words to go, or not?
I may have to rather complete some of the other tasks as not put out in the previous days topics? the things I did not write down yet, But i think i might just have to keep thsoe for my postmodern celtic  viking style celebration that I am  planning, but I think all the scene has to be set and I have a number of things to get ready before i can rush into something as serious as that.
I also think that the future is to nebulous and at this short juncture I would say I am committed to do stuff and not stop doing stuff and to not stop dreaming and planning and hoping to do stuff in the future ..
that is enough for now, the rest will have to leach out later..

thanksgiving and the weekend and heavenly beer

We had our first thanksgiving,

 

 

 

and it was interesting a non secular Christmas day without the gifting, generally a good experience with our Germerican friends. In general we are still waiting for summer.  as you can see I am re-enacting the pilgrim claiming his land and receiving food from the Natives. I can see why it is such a popular holiday in the US of A. It is a non religious holiday that can include all those of different faiths, denominations and likewise to give thanks for that there is to give thanks for.

More importantly thanks to a beer book, written by a Woman … Yes can you believe that No seriously.. yes a beer book written by 2 not 1 women. It is fantastic, it is called “ The Naked Pint” and I bought it new.. It is a Fantastic read, it gives a an unadulterated guide to craft beer.  What amazes me the most is the variety of beers that are made around the world, this is mostly written about barley/wheat based beers and not about other fermentable though, so nothing about sorghum beer.  To return to the book, it gives a refreshing view on all the worlds different beers and their histories. I think it is well worthwhile reading if you are a fledgling home brewer to learn about the depth and breadth of the beer varieties world wide. There are a plethora of beer styles with an insane tapestry of history woven into them. One of the most intersting, well i will poke into at least 2 for now are the Trappist beers made by Monks and the Lambics. Both interesting for different reasons, and if I dont run out of stream the sour beers (wheat beers fermented with a combination of yeast and Lactobacilli) . Firstly the Trappist beers, they are only brewed by 7 9 6 monasteries (varying number), and only by monks and for no financial gain and only with specific age old recipes.. damn interesting.

from wikipedia :

• The beer must be brewed within the walls of a Trappist monastery, either by the monks themselves or under their supervision.
• The brewery must be of secondary importance within the monastery and it should witness to the business practices proper to a monastic way of life
• The brewery is not intended to be a profit-making venture. The income covers the living expenses of the monks and the maintenance of the buildings and grounds. Whatever remains is donated to charity for social work and to help persons in need.
• Trappist breweries are constantly monitored to assure the irreproachable quality of their beers

Nonetheless, the long and short is this is amazing, and apparently the beers are heavenly on a number of levels. This Does not include the Abbey beer which is similar but not quite as strict but also a limited pathway to heavenly delights . I see now there is a plethora of new semantics to learn and become fluent in when it comes to the world of beer and more specifically craft beer. It seems as if there is a beer for every possible day or celebration. I wills top now before I wax lyrical, but it is inevitable after the bread commith the wine beer.

 

One thing that it does give me is something else to obsess about in my spare time, one more thing to do, make beers, wines, meads and the likes. It returns me to the thought of the Viking new year celebration or at least the colloquial or version i have in my head from many years ago, the details have most probably changed a lot. All I can remember is that it involved drinking mead and then telling the world about “how cool you are in front of your Peers and country folk” a fantastical idea. I will have to investigate the origins of this. I have after looking found what i had heard many years ago, it is vaguely as I recollect : “In Theodism or Anglo-Saxon neopaganism in particular, the symbel has a particularly high importance, considered "perhaps the highest rite" or "amongst the most holy rites"^[11] celebrated. Symbel consists of rounds of ritual drinking and toasting, and invariably takes place within an enclosed space of some kind.^[12] It is usually inaugurated by three formal rounds, as determined by the host; often led by toasts in honor of the Gods, then ancestors and/or heroes, and then a general or personal boast. Other boasts may take place as necessary. Symbel is always formally closed once the formal boasts are completed, in order that the symbel might maintain its dignity and not degenerate into "mere partying".^[13] The two types of boast are the ȝielp (pronounced 'yelp') and the beot (pronounced 'bayawt', but as one syllable). The former is a boast of one's own worthiness, such as one's accomplishments, ancestry, etc. The latter is a boast of an action one plans to undertake. In order to protect the luck of the hall, such boasts are subject to challenge by the thyle, whose job it is to make sure that unlucky boasts do not contaminate the luck of all present.” --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbel 

 

After reading a few more of these articles on the sumbel it appears that one of the key things is that it is a praise and a ritual toast to Gods/Godesses (you can chose and insert your own deity here), dedication to friends/heros/ancestors others, some form of boasting and oaths. So it does seem that there is alcohol involved and that it is a slightly sombre even and that it is about giving praise and giving some self praise, But very importantly also about making an oath about something you will do? Possibly a historical origin of new years resolutions? Wild leap there, but is is possible. I suppose what this does point out is the way we remember a piece of something in a way we want to remember it. We make it our own and remember what struck as being important.  The human mind in its absolute fragility only remembering limited things of a limited scope that does take history and things into consideration.

 

and yes, I know Wikipedia does not constitute research, these are just nice summary pages on the topics for you to wet your lips on, and i do like including something that is actually half way factual based on what i read in other sources, I do not want these to look like a journal reference, this is a rambling and is not always accurate as it is my musing and not reality.

On a slightly different note, I was thinking a few days back I wonder what books I have that I still want to read and possibly reread and why?

I might go through my book shelf and evaluate them and consider what and why, also possibly what books and authors I would like to read? Here I am more than willing to accept possible suggestions of books and authors from any of my recent and current and future readers?

There are always those books you buy. borrow, steal, get gifted or just mean to read, should read, possibly I need to go through the good Prof’s reading list and start again?