Summer Time Blog Lag

Sorry I haven't been updating and providing more stuff for everyone to chew on over the last month or so, really it hasn't been intentional. I have been busting my ass in the backyard again.

But I really must say, we now have a nice large patio and gazebo that looks damn good. I will have to swipe a camera from somewhere and get a picture of it one of these days when it is not overcast and rainy here. Oh, I might wait until I get the five cubic yards of dirt out of my driveway and around the patio where it is supposed to be before I start taking pictures.

Needless to say, I have been a tad tired at the end of the day, and been starting the day after just enough coffee to get the crusties out of my eyes. Thus, the lag in the blog entries. But, that is all gonna change here shortly and I will be back in full force.

A Memorial Day Tribute

Memorial Day really should be a bigger holiday than it is in this country. Or maybe it is just that we ought to get back to what Memorial Day is supposed to be about.

Memorial Day is supposed to be a day on which we stop and honor the men and women that serve, and have served, our country around the world and specifically to remember those that gave their lives to protect what we hold dear. Without these men and women, our brothers, sisters, children and parents, this country would not be what it is today. I can sit here in Massachusetts all day long talking about what we should be doing, but the fact remains that they are the ones that end up "doing" while I am merely "talking" from somewhere completely safe and out of harms way.

I was born in 1972, and have spent most of my life living in a time when Memorial Day has been more about backyard BBQ's, long weekends from work and school, and vacations than it has ever been about honoring our service men and women and veterans. It really is a shame.

We live in a climate where it is easier to take our frustrations about policy out on the military rather than on the politicians who make them. We did it after Vietnam by ignoring the troops that were lucky enough to come home. We minimized Desert Storm, Panama and Grenada because they simply didn't last long enough and not enough of our men and women died to call them a true "war." We are doing it now by bitching about the war in Iraq. It is a hard distinction to make all the time between the policy makers and the people who carry them out, but it is one that must ALWAYS be made. Be pissed all you want at the folks in Washington who are safe and sound in their backyards and country clubs this Memorial Day, but say a prayer for the ones that they sent into harms way and who have gone with hardly a complaint because it is their job.

It was my grandfather who taught me that I couldn't really depend on history books to tell the whole story. His stories about World War II and what he actually experienced drove home the difference between the realities of military service and what history chooses to remember. It is because of him, and other veterans I have had the priviledge and honor to meet and talk to, that I realize the magnitude of the sacrifice military service so often brings.

For all the people serving in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard: All I can say is THANK YOU! It is because of you that I feel proud to be an American, it is because of you that America is something to be proud of. Whether you served during peace time or war, this day is for you and most importantly this day is for those who gave everything so the rest can have their long weekend and BBQ.

I Need a Bigger Desk

I am sitting here this morning trying to find someplace to set my coffee cup that is somewhat level. I think I need a bigger desk! The one I have has a surface area of about three feet by two feet. It's not a bad size, in a perfect world, considering everything I do on this desk is done on a computer. I don't have to have space to write on paper or anything like that. When I have something that can't be done on the computer I move over to the table that sits behind me. However, this isn't a perfect world, it is my world and now I have to hunt for a place to set my coffee.

Memorial Day Treat

Yeah, I'm supposed to be working, and I will once I get done with a couple of chores that need to be done. For those that don't work at home, lemme tell you the "chores" can absolutely ruin a workday. But that is another story.

So this is Memorial Day weekend, and the official start of the BBQ season. Actually, BBQ season around here started the night I could get outside without a down coat and gloves. I do nearly all of my cooking out on my BBQ during the spring, summer and fall. I have learned over the years that anything I can cook inside, I can cook outside and make it taste even better. Plus, less dishes (always a plus)! Now, I'm by no means a chef, I would barely be considered a "cook" by most. But hey, I haven't killed anyone yet by cooking for them, and everyone seems to like the stuff.

So, if you are looking for something to do different for this Memorial Day cookout, here's a couple things that seem to work around here.

BBQ Spuds:

2 Medium white onions
5-6 Medium Russet potatoes
4 tablespoons of butter
salt
pepper

Peel the spuds and onions. Slice the spuds into medallions (a mandolin slicer works great) about 1/4 inch thick. Split onion in half through the root end, then slice each half into four or five parts so you end up with half rings of onion.

Lay out about two and a half feet of heavy duty foil, shiny side up, and spray with Pam or other cooking spray. Pile sliced potatoes and onions in the middle, add butter to the top in 1 tbs. slices, salt liberally, pepper to taste. Fold foil into pouch by gathering the edges together (short end to short end) and folding them over themselves three or four times. Then do the same for the ends. You should end up with a rectanglular pouch about 2-3 inches thick.

Cook on the BBQ over medium heat. I have a gas grill, with three burners and I just use the one on the end turned to medium. Makes things easy. Flip the foil pouch every ten minutes and they will be done in about an hour. If you are cooking something else, letting the spuds cook longer won't hurt them, just keep turning. During cooking, depending on how tightly you made your pouch, it may begin to balloon, just poke a couple of vent holes in the foil.

Feeds 4-6 people

Corn on the Cob:

Shuck the amount of corn that you want to cook, cut off the top and shorten the stem to your liking. Remove most of the corn silk.

Using regular foil, pull out sheets about a foot long for however many corn cobs you have. Butter corn liberally, salt to taste, and roll into a sheet of foil. Twist the ends closed.

If you have an upper rack in your BBQ, lay the corn on it, turning it about every 10-15 minutes. The corn will cook in about the same time as the potatoes above, or about an hour. When you open the BBQ and can smell the corn, it is done. Take off BBQ, even if it is early. It will stay hot in the foil for up to an hour.

Honey Mustard Porkchops:

Porkchops are hard to do on the grill since they tend to dry out. Here's a great idea to avoid eating pork flavored sawdust. The chops I use are ones that I cut about an inch thick from a pork loin so they are boneless, but any thick cut chop should work.

Combine 2 parts spicy brown mustard to 1 part honey. I like my sauce to be on the sweet side with a little bite on the back end. You can play with the ratios to your taste.

Over low heat on the BBQ, start cooking the chops. Turn them every 2-3 minutes to keep charring down. Once they are about 2/3 done, start coating them with the honey mustard sauce. Re-coat them with each turn until done.

Serve with leftover sauce on the side.

Do I REALLY Sit Around Thinking This Up?

Sometimes I just gotta wonder about my brain! I mean, do I really sit around all day thinking up all this shit? How does my brain run from a comedy movie to some of the biggest challenges our government faces to how many dandelions I have sitting out in the front yard that I have to go pull up?

Well, first, yeah I do sit around all day thinking about this shit. I have always done so. I know there is medication for this sort of thing, I have been on most of them. But you know the funny thing? As long as I can still function and get my work done, I actually prefer to have my brain wandering all over the place. I know not all of it will ever get onto this blog since I would have to write nearly constantly (and that would kinda kill the idea of getting my work done and functioning, wouldn't it?). So maybe that explains why I seem to post all at once on a variety of different things. I post when I have the time to sit down and let my mind wander and it wanders right out the end of my fingers.

I guess the real proof of this whole thing is when I first met my girlfriend face to face and after about two hours she said "Holy shit, are you OCD and ADHD or what?" Oh yeah, and then some!

More adjustments from my end are in order I think. I have another blog doing dvd movie reviews which I mentioned in a previous post. I started it damn near a year ago, but I could never find the ambition to keep up with it. Then I reorganized it, and now I still don't want to go over there to post to it. What the hell is wrong with me? I like movies, I like my dvd player, I like blogging, I like everything about the concept...

So, I sat down for a bit and thought about it. Yes, I actually do think every once in a while... And I believe I have discovered the problem. What I like about movies, other than the entertainment and escapism values of them, is when I find my mind going off on threads of thought that might have been mentioned or insinuated. I love things that make me think, and that is the part of the movie thing that I am most interested in handling. I mean, let's get real, how many times can I say a movie was good bad or indifferent months after it's initial release? Gets pretty boring for me writing it, can't imagine what it does to the reader!

So, here's the adjustment. I will still sorta do reviews, but more importantly I will explore where my mind goes after watching one. Oh, and they will all be posted here under the label of GBR. Should be an interesting ride and hey, at some point I might even find out more about how my damn brain works right along with you!

Now I Can Post This

Hmm, working on the fourth VO and Coke (I'll leave it up to you about how much VO and how much Coke is going into these drinks) for the evening, and feeling pretty good, so if my typing gets slurry, you'll just have to forgive me. I was planning to post this last night, but thought I might tell the person it concerns before she reads it on the blog.

You know that time when you first wake up? Before your mind has the time to contemplate all the things that will make you want to stay in bed for the day. For me, this period of time lasts about two seconds. After that, my brain goes into overdrive about who's home today, what kind of mood are they going to be in, what I have to do that I just as soon not, and all the other things that goes through my brain before swinging my feet onto the floor.

I consider myself lucky that most mornings I at least wake up to the most beautiful sight in the world to me. It's not the trees in the backyard, I don't have a water view from the bedroom, and it's not the dogs and cats. It's my girlfriend that I usually see when I first open my eyes. Because of our different schedules, she is usually coming to wake me up, and for that two or three seconds I get reminded every morning that there is something to get out of bed for.

So, I know I told her this today, but here it is to the world, me saying "thank you" to Eva for being the most beautiful thing in my life and sticking by me when even I don't want to stick by me!

Who Said Bloggin Was Easy?

Today was a lesson in how things in the blog world that should be easy sometimes just don't work that way.

You see, I started a blog project in August of last year, and while I really, really liked the concept and idea of what I was doing, I set it up wrong. That blog, or series of blogs, is done on WordPress. I don't have any trouble with WP, but I split the content of what would have been essentially one blog (for most normal people, at least, and we are getting an idea here just how not normal I can be...) and split it up over 6 different blogs. Ooops...

All I managed to do for myself was create an administrative mess, and not enough content going into any of the blogs to get any kind of critical mass going for the readers to respond to. Double oops...

Well, I procrastinated all winter under the guise of "thinking" about what I was going to do with it and how I was going to fix it. I knew I needed to combine everything back into the main blog, but I just didn't have the energy since I had a feeling it was going to be a job and a half. So I got up this morning, and after getting back into the whole writing thing again with this blog set out to finally do something with the other one and get it back in the public's view. And guess what? I was right about it being a job and a half! I am exhausted! (oh wait, the exhaustion may be from the cubic yard of rock we got today for the greenhouse, but that's another story)

So now it's midnight, and I don't know if I have the job completed, but it is presentable and as good as it is going to get for tonight. The other blog is called Gotta Be Reel and can be found at http://gottabereel.com. Basically, it's authentic reel reviews from the peanut gallery, and where I let my more sarcastic side out while giving the scope on the new products from Hollywood. Go check it out!

About The 93 Prophet

It occurred to me the other day that using an archaic greeting, and the word "prophet" as the title to this blog may need some explaination. Don't worry, it's nothing painful, and hopefully will make those with misgivings a little more at ease.

The "93" is simply a greeting that members of the Thelema religion use as a "shorthand" for the longer greeting of "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" (used for Hello) and it's customary response of "Love is the law, love under will." Without getting too terribly mystic on anyone, the number 93 represents both Love and Will when you are working with Thelemic numerology. If you want more information on Thelema (and it's founder Aliester Crowley) please visit here.

Which brings me to Prophet. No, I do not see myself as some sort of prophet for the masses, either in the religious sense or in the sense of being the next Nostradamus. I do, however, believe that all of us are our own prophets in the sense that with Love and Will combined we have the power within ourselves to become whatever we wish. We also have the power to create the society we wish to live in. To me, a prophet is nothing more than a person who sees their world, and lives within it accordingly, through a different lense than most. That is an apt description of my life so far.

So, if you had any misgivings about what this blog was about, just remember that the title of it literally translates to "The Will and Love Prophet." I might have actually used that, but seems a little too mushy for my tastes.