According to Shaie’s Honey article on WebLife.org,
...if a person has allergies to the natural environment they are in (grass, trees, ect...) if they take a spoon of honey everyday (honey from same region) it will gradually reduce their allergic reactions.
So turn off your processed air, eat local, and re-realize your connection to the environment.
Live in it. Accept. It’s part of you, and you it.
Sleeping cold is a better way of life. It forces your body to burn more calories throughout the night. It tunes you to the natural environment around you. It lessens the shock of cold nights spent under the stars.
This Fall and Winter, I’ve challenged myself not to use heating. The past week has been tough – my glasses frost over in the morning, the inside of my window blankets itself with ice. Today, I can still see my breath, but for the first time since returning from New York, the apartment is above freezing.
Many thanks to the sheep of New Zealand.
Faust has been sitting on my bookshelf for close to two years now, waiting for me to read it. I had kept neglecting the book, but promising to read it eventually, since finishing The Magic Mountain. Finally, I decided to throw it in my pack for New York.
Kaufmann’s translation includes the German on one page and the English on the opposite, allowing one to view the original work in conjunction to what you’re reading. A novel and appreciated addition, even though the only German I know was learned from killing Nazi zombies in Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
Goethe is full of wit and humor – twisted, sexual humor that would make Tipper Gore gorge out her eyes – that comes across well in Kaufmann’s translation. I found it quite enjoyable. It inspires you to push through the somewhat more confusing scenes that lack the entertainment of Mephisto. (Like those angles up in heaven. Why would anyone want to go hang out with those boring, drab, self righteous egotists when you could be with Mephisto and his wenches during Walpurgis Night?) I think a great many more people would enjoy the book, if they would only give it a shot.
The temperature was about 60°F when I left NYC yesterday. I’m told it normally hovers around freezing this time of year.
My flight landed to find snow on the ground, and the temperature in the mid-30°s – a good 10°-20° colder than usual. It rarely snows here.
What’s with that?
My train home was delayed about an hour. The power switches weren’t working, so the crew was forced to manually switch. The old fashion way. We pulled in at about 10:30PM.
It was 31°F, with a foot of snow. My walk home was doubled in length.
Now it’s 15°F outside and a bit warmer inside. The sidewalks and roads have been cleared, exposing thick ice underneath.
Tomorrow, I fly to New York. I don’t know if I’ll be online during the trip, but if I am, you can contact me at: vagabond at pig dash monkey dot com
I was awoken at 3:54AM last Sunday by another ruckus out my window. A group of perhaps 6 college kids were walking down my street, being followed by a middle-aged man, screaming variations of “He threw jam in my face!” and “I’m not the mother fucker to fuck with!”
It appeared he was angry with only one of the kids, and that unlucky fellow was there with only one other. The rest seemed un/lucky bystanders. The friend of the target was walking to his car and began to unlock it when the middle-aged man threw one, maybe two, punches in the face of the jam-thrower. The old man was promptly shoved away while the two friends got into the car. They sat there for a couple minutes, I assume dialing 911, while the old guy beat the car with his bag and continued yelling.
By this time, three of the onlookers were taking pictures and video, and another was on her phone. (One girl forgot to disable her flash. I wondered if she was packing.) The angry guy started to walk away, and the rest of the kids jumped into the waiting car to drive away, except the girl on the cellphone who yelled at them to wait for 911.
The only somewhat related police report is this:
Reported: Nov 19 2006 3:58AM Offense: MALICIOUS MISCHIEF Case #: 06B49724 (A1) was cited for malicious mischief for smashing the window of a vehicle. Arrested: BROWN, MARK ALBERT Age: 40 (DOB: Feb 27 1966 )
I imagine he could have busted a window of the car while hitting his bag against it, though I think the assault part would be slightly higher charges. I went back to sleep before the police arrived.
Robert Young Pelton’s Licensed to Kill is the definitive post-9/11 book on guns-for-hire. From Baghdad’s Route Irish to the Afghan/Pakistan border, RYP is able to enter the closed world of mercenaries, PMC/PSC, and other contractors in a way that academics and reporters cannot.
In a world where Blackwater is deputized, this seems an important book for all. Like the guns they wield, mercenaries can be used for good or evil.
(Those interested in the EO/Sandline mercs of the ‘90’s would do well to add Three Worlds Gone Mad to their reading list.)
It was recommended to me last summer that I read Lonely Planet’s Travel Writing. I expected the book to be about the art, but instead it focused more on the details of how one enters the travel writing and scene and how to get published – something I have little interest in. If you’re serious about making travel writing a profession, particularly if you’re interested in writing for guide books, then this may be a worthwhile read. For the rest of us… just write.