Spinning Uncensored

AND…

Please, a tall americano, light on the water.  Oh yeah, that’s good caffeine there.

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do…. Speak what you think to-day in words as hard as cannon-balls, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.” –Emerson

Thanks Andrea.

Read Drop City by T.C. Boyle. Better yet, listen to the audio book while reading the book. The experience is even greater. Lots of pot smoked, acid dropped, factions formed and misguided hippie thinking. (I get to say this, as I work in an alcohol and drug research library. If you need to know the truth about toad licking or Freud, I know the right books.)

Also, thank you David Silver of Silver in SF for the amazing Web 2.0 lecture and discussion. Which reminds me, library students, you must read Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger (Hardcover – May 1, 2007). This should be a required text in any information organization and/or cataloging class. Both Weinberger and Silver have overlapping discussions about the idea of Web 2.0 and what it offers but from different angles. Weinberger discusses new ways of controlling and organizing information and Silver, in his lecture this evening, focused on the facilitation of conversation. Both addressed the economic and political implications. The discussion that took place during Silver’s talk was animated, though not heated. Most of us were librarians after all!

And all of you Googlers out there looking to push buttons had better look out. I’m doing my research for the next debate about value of libraries vs. the internet. And there are a total of five libraries in Berkeley serving over 100,000 people. NOT nine. Nor do all of them offer the same service. One is a tool lending library. Check your stats and figures before complaining that there are too many libraries for the people.

11 days and counting to the HONEYMOON! Mahahual here we come!

The overwhelming desire to write. But I think this easily translates into any creative outlet and right now, I have the overwhelming need to sew. I spent all day yesterday working on this baby and I’m rather proud of the end result. Rar. My beach bikini part one. Today I’m working on the top.

And for kicks, here is my ancient sewing machine. I cost me five dollars at a flea market. While it has its quirks and its bad days, I have made this thing (literally) produce a couple of quilts, a major installation piece, numerous shirts and pants, and now, a bathing suit. I think I got my money’s worth. HA!

And not to neglect the title of this post: the condition of hypergraphia is explored in this book called The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain, by Alice W. Flaherty. Flaherty is a neurologist/writer and discusses the physiological aspects and literary history behind creativity and writing. So far, the book is intriguing–five pages in. Damn this need to sew.

I’m not doing a lot of reading right now.

Catfish and Mandala by Andrew X. Pham ; Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger ; Ursula, Under by Ingrid Hill

I don’t really want to use this site for personal highs and lows or for tracing my growth as a human being. But somehow, I feel that it is necessary to say here that I am doing okay. Not all the time, but that’s how it goes.

What is really bugging me is this utter Karma imbalance. Check out what I did to my leg:

(6/16/2007 here’s a better picture.)

It is much worse than this photo shows but I couldn’t seem to capture that. My bike and I had an entanglement. My leg is getting uglier as it is getting better. Funny how that works. I still need to figure out what happened with the gears on my bike though.

Recipe!!!

Alright. I have been experimenting with a basic recipe for gluten free crepes/pancakes/crumpets and I think I have found a combination of flours that are perfect. The recipe originally was for a wheat flour crepe from an old book I got at a thrift shop. I loved the recipe. And it has adapted well for different flours.
2 eggs 3/4 cup soy milk, rice milk or milk (less or more depending on whether you are making crepes/pancakes/crumpets
1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup rice flour 1 tsp apple cider vinager

1/2 cup tapioca flour (buckwheat flour is a good alternative)

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 tbsp oil (although I usually forget this)

Mix altogether and use a whisk . Batter shouldn’t be lumpy.

And my wonderful egg/pancake rings. I love them.

Jake the lovable!

Yes, another one of you brushing your teeth. But this time it’s for public consumption! Bwa Haha!!!

Somehow, writing this post finally makes it real. Perhaps this is why I have put it off. But I promised to do this, so here goes…

My brother, Tim Kemp Jr., passed away on May 19, 2007 at the age of 25. His funeral and memorial service was held the following Saturday, at the Ridgeview Presbyterian Church in Davenport, IA.

I wrote the following for his service:

Memories of Tim Jr.

I went to a Maker Faire recently, which is a celebration of the do-it-yourself movement in electronics and crafts. Everywhere I turned was a reminder of the hours I spent with Tim as a kid and the things he loved—the Lego exhibit, various computer science booths, bottle rockets, and so on. My own creativity, I realized, originated in the hours that he and I spent experimenting, building, drawing, painting, and making messes and gifts. Tim was one of those brilliant kids who took things apart in order to figure out how they worked. Sometimes the parts were reassembled into other things.

We never fully leave our childhoods behind us and as with all siblings, most of my memories of Tim are of the many hours we spent together as kids.

One of my favorite memories involves Tim’s stuffed pooh bear that endured all sorts of adventures that only a kid could devise. One of which involved being thrown from the window onto the roof of our house. Pooh, having found himself in such a strange place indeed was very lonely and sad. Pooh’s best friend was also distraught, and thus Dad was called upon to rescue the poor bear. Tim took Pooh everywhere, and as with Christopher Robin, the yellow bear was there to keep Tim company through all of the scary storms and exciting adventures.

Other memories include summer nights chasing lightening bugs and inspecting stream water through a microscope with our mother wondering over the existence of such tiny creatures. Tim and Dad built a model train set together and spent chilly nights exploring the stars through the telescope. When Nintendo came out with it’s first game system and Mario Brothers (Bro.s), Tim spent many hours on the quest to save the princess and beat the evil boss kings.

This isn’t a situation where saying the right things makes his passing easier. Inevitably we carry many regrets, sorrows, and anguish. I will never forget when he told me that he just wanted to be heard. Then and even now, I did hear him, and I knew well the pain he carried inside. I wish him peace and rest.

I’d also like to honor my Dad who has sacrificed so much to care for Tim and help him down the road of recovery. This is the greatest gift a parent can give to their child and I find comfort in the fact that Tim had Dad at his side through it all.