When I read somewhere online that I could make liquid handsoap out of bar soap, I knew that's what I would do with the old hardening remains of bars that I had been desperately trying to get the most out of instead of throwing them away. I didn't get immediately on the task, but this impowering knowledge gave me justification for retiring the sad little bars into a drawer and replacing them with fresh ones that are easier to get sudsy. The drawer pile built for some months before I decided it was time.

The process of making liquid hand soap is extremely easy and costs almost nothing. I used a recipe that called for a small amount of vegitable glycerine, which I already had on hand for making extracts and toothpaste. Using my patend-pending Wondershreder (antique cheese grater I inherited from my maternal Grandmother), I turned the hard little pieces of soap into "soap flakes", or in my case a blend of soap flakes and soap dust depending on which bar I was working on and how hard I pressed. Obviously, an old hard bar of soap is going to take more muscle to run across a grater, but it doesn't take much to make a batch of liquid soap:

• 1/2 cup grated soap
• 4 cups water
• 1 1/2 tsp vegetable glycerine

Put all the ingredients in a pot over medium-low heat and cook, stiring occationally with a whisk, until the soap flakes are disolved. Let cool overnight. The following day, I poured the goopy liquid into a food processor and blended until smooth before funneling it into a refillable bottle. Since I made enough to fill the bottle at least three times, I stored the remaining soap away and I still have a pile of leftover soap bars.

Different soaps will have different results with thickness. After it's cooled, you can add more water in the processing if necessary to get a thinner consistancy. You can also use an electric hand-mixer or blender instead of a food processor.

I've read recipes online that turn a whole new bar of soap into a gallon of liquid soap. Even with such a splurge, you would yield a savings of over 90% (a $4 bar of soap makes over $40 in liquid soap ). To make a quantity like this, use 1 bar of soap and 2 Tbsp glycerine for a gallon of water. I think in the future I'll try adding essential oils to give mine a fragance.

A flock of turkeys cruised through my neighborhood today, rooftop-hopping.

“Let go and give away the past. Share your gifts with generosity. Feel the freedom gained.”
Medicine Cards: Turkey

A “sigil” is a magick symbol made up of letters systematically selected from a word or statement of intention, that are graphically designed into a talisman. The sigil is “charged” with energy, taken into the creator's subconscious while in a state of “gnosis”, and then as the meaning of the sigil has become subliminal, it is consciously forgotten or even destroyed. The step of charging the sigil is actually the process of infusing it into the creators deep, unguarded mind by focusing on it while in meditation, trance, ecstasy, or peak exaltation. With the intent planted in the subconscious mind, the conscious mind or ego, which is unable to perform magick, can not interfere and the sigil is left to do it's work.

Sigils have been used for spellcasting for thousands of years, since at least Neolitic times. In modern times, it's a method also used to create logos or personal insignias based on one's name.

A sigil based on a desire must be carefully formulated. It should not be phrased as “I want” because your subconscious hears that as an intention to have desire, not to have that which is desired. It must be written as if it will be at some time, or even better, as if it already is. Since the subconscious hears everything as positive, the intention must be worded with precise, positive, strong, and unambiguous terms. A negatively phrased desire, such as “I don't want...” is heard without the “don't”.

The form below will perform the basic functions of preparing words or statements for sigilization by removing vowels, duplicate letters, and any unnecessary characters. The letters that remain should be drawn or pictorially or abstractly arranged together, overlapping or merged whenever possible to futher simplify the symbol. Letters that are contained in another letter can be removed or worked within each other in the drawing. For example, an N is contained within M so the N can be removed... C within G, L within H, P within B, a W is the same as an M, etc.... More information about sigils.

enter your intention

sigil helper with character & word counter

Over about a year and a half this tobacco plant grew to be a monster of a thing. Giant leaves, bunches of pretty pink flowers, all of it intensely sticky. I couldn't maneuver in my garden around it without pieces of it sticking in my hair or on my arms. Though I read about what it would take to harvest and cure the leaves, having quit smoking over a decade ago, I didn't have much motivation for such a lengthy and complex process. A bit of dried leaf did get burned in a ceremonial way, an acknowledgment of abundance this harvest season between my Love and I, and honoring it as the sacred plant it is.

The flowers dried into little seed vessels that, when turned upside-down, poured hundreds of tiny seeds out. After realizing that the piles of brown granuals on my worm box were not from terminates, but were in fact from the tobacco plant towering over it, I began collecting them. With minimal time spent and collecting at most maybe 5% of the one plant's seeds, I filled a pint container.

If the seeds cause volunteer tobacco plants to grow next year, I may harvest some of the leaves and try some curing. It could be fun to make a homemade cigar or some vanilla flavored pipe-tobacco....

Photos of me taken by Rick:

In August I submitted a poem to Harbin Hot Springs' poetry contest and was announced as one of the winners of a $140 certificate toward camping and hot springs use for two nights.

Silently Flow Between

falling trickling through fig roots
into pool rock and stream
below bridge and buildings
honoring a sacred place

a meditation
a prayer of gratitude to the waters

warm hot cold

from sky
from deep earth
it finds itself and unites

we seek it

hot cold

collect it into pools
held by one and then another, we silently flow between
worshiping of self-all

a swim
a misty fall rain touching our faces

hot cold

from minerals
from hot steam
soften, cleanse, expand, contract

we find ourselves

balanced

cozy pillowed tiers
darkened evening entertainment
relaxed deep and sleepily connecting hands
falling melting through dream

We arrived the day before the festival to camp out in cue in a cow pasture in Quincy, California, and wait for the gates to open in the morning. There was still snow on nearby mountains, possibly just from the night before. But the day was beautiful and warm.

Photo of me by Rick

Rick

Mia Dyson

One-man-band: Zach Deputy, and the hula hoopers who joined him on stage.

I loved seeing the kids at the festival, especially when they were enjoying the bands and wearing ear protection!

There was a daily parade through the festival grounds which I managed to catch one of the days.

The Brothers Comatose

Cellist and loop master: Zoe Keating

Escaping the hot sun by resting in the solar-powered mist room made the weekend survivable! We took an afternoon to swim in a nearby river.

He's My Brother, She's My Sister

Neko Case

Rick, Steve, Melissa, Shaky, Allie, Tim, & Chrissy ready to see My Morning Jacket.

Robert and Heidi

People enjoying the band (?) playing atop an RV.

Weekend headliners: Ween

Robert, Rick, and Steve after break-down, pack-up, and clean-up is over.

A few more photos over on Picasa.

While mingling with mostly strangers, I came across a couple ladies drawing on what looked like a piece of paper folded into thirds. I excitedly asked them if they were playing exquisite corpse, the French Surrealists' game of folding a page into thirds and drawing on one third, then passing it around to have the other thirds completed by two other artists without seeing what's on the other parts. They asked if I wanted to fill in the bottom third of one. It's one of my favorite games, so I gladly did. I really enjoy the unfolding and discovery of the whole drawing.

August 2010 Work-Day:

Simon with nieces Emily and Clarista.

An important part of any work party is the soundtrack...

Especially if you are mixing mud with feet!

Myself with younger sisters Alicia and Erica with Simon in the background on drums.

The circular stone base contains gravel fill, layers of mud, a layer of glass bottles, more mud, and a layer of fire brick.

November 2010 Work-Day and Scorpio (Dad and I) birthday celebration:

Missy (Rochana's BFF), my niece Bella, and sister Rochana mix sawdust and sand into clay and water with their feet while sister Erica and her man David stand by.

Simon applies a layer of mud on the oven. The inside of the dome was formed with sand, then newspaper, covered with multiple layers of mud.

Rochana and Bella washing the mud from their feet.

June 2011 Work-Day and belated Father's day celebration:

Before getting started on the oven work, dad and mom at their appropriate tasks: coffee making and flower arranging.

The oven as we left it to dry after the last work-day. The dimples were made by fingers to help the next layer stick. To prepare for this work-day, the sand was scrapped out from the inside leaving a hollow, open oven chamber. A lizard basks on the top.

Three reverend sisters mixing mud (Photo by Hamilton). The incantation: "On this day and in this hour we call upon the ancient powers to bless this earth beneath our feet that will bake healthy food to eat"...

Hamilton, Simon, and Mom mixing sand, straw, and mud.

Two photos of me (taken by Rochana) using a board to shape and smooth the final cob layer.

The trick to drawing spirals is to attach the drawing implement (a nail in this case) to the end of a line wound around a cylindrical stick. Hold the stick still and unwind as you draw.

Simon and the rest of the team put on decorative cob spirals Mom and I rolled out. Alicia brought us a feast, including tuna, chicken, and steak Dad BBQed, fruit salad and potatoes, to eat as we worked.

Dad checks the sound inside the oven.

Finished except for a protective coat of glaze or paint to be applied after it's dried and a door to be made, on another day.... A fire was lit inside to burn off the newspaper.

In February I organized and hosted my first surprise party. With the help of a couple friends of the honored guest (my sister Alicia), we managed to gather a few dozen people in my house, and get her there without her having any idea what was going on. It was fun and the effect was totally worth the effort.

Pictured above is the banner I drew, as she saw it entering the surprise, and as she got to take it home after it was added to by the guests (including her two children who she didn't know would be there).

A couple old friends crashed at my house and the next morning we joined back up with a few others from the party for brunch. Above is writer/composer Nicholas Dobson, the birthday girl the morning after, and drummer/artist/inventor-of-words Eric Wilson. Hangover brunch with them was mind-blowing. The words "astrosophy", "eyebagpipes", "membory", and "Tamilpias" Hindu Brahmin were invented and used in conversation among dozens more.

Photos taken with my iPhone.