ImPerceptibility

Posts Tagged ‘blog’

Hey, I’m back and I’ve kinda missed you. I know, I haven’t posted in almost a month. But I’ve been busy. No, not with the holidays. They came and went. We had a good time. Ate too much. Gave and received a bunch of stuff we didn’t need or want. Made memories. They’re over. Moving on to what really happened.

You may or may have not figured out by now that I tend to go off on tangents. About a month ago I realized that I really missed my sourdough starter. This was when it all started. I use to have the most awesome sourdough starter ever. I started it with a cup of white flour, some water, and some yeast. As time passed I fed it and stirred it. A little bit of buckwheat. A little bit of rice flour. Maybe a little cornmeal. One day I added some left over pumpkin puree. It began to take on a life of it’s own. I nurtured it and it bubbled. It was good stuff. I used it to make bread. Really good bread. But time passed and I began to take it for granted. After a few weeks of neglect I found it stinky and molding in the back of the refrigerator. I buried it in my compost pile. It deserved a proper burial.

Time passed and I had almost forgotten my sourdough starter. I focused my time on growing tomatoes and baking plain ole bread. I thought I was happy, but I wasn’t. I was lying to myself.

So, I started a new batch of sourdough starter. I was determined to rekindle the passion. It took a few days but before long I was once again baking scrumptious rolls and tasty loafs. The joy of baking was mine. I was a fully satisfied woman once again. Life was good.

But then, I started to want more. The yeast in my fridge was teasing me with its fermentation possibilities. I knew it could take me to new height of culinary bliss. It started out simply enough. I did a quick Internet search and my screen was filled with possibilities. I began to download recipes and read page after page of suggestions and advice. I wanted more. I needed more. It became almost an obsession.

Before I knew what was happening to me, I started to look at other fermentation possibilities. The sourdough starter I once loved just wasn’t enough. I spent every free minute with one hand on the keyboard and the other on my yeast container. I did things in my kitchen I am not proud of. I’ll have to live with that for the rest of my life.

It was a twisted crooked road I traveled. When it was all said and done I ended up with a gallon of mead fermenting on my kitchen counter. I like to watch it as the little raisins float to the surface then fall back to the bottom. It’s like a little dance. A mead fermentation dance. It makes me happy.

If it all works out, this time next year I’ll have some fine mead to celebrate the New Year. I’m looking forward to it. I’m also looking forward to catching up with you. I hope you had a happy holiday and I send you my best wishes for the New Year. Bring on 2009.

I spent most of Wednesday in a foul mood. Hurt hearts, the tears of loved ones, my upcoming birthday, and a bunch of other little stresses and disappointments left me feeling undone. By Wednesday evening I found myself listening to Pete Seeger, Leadbelly, and Bob Dylan. That is never a good mix.

I tried messing around with my blog but nothing was working right and it made me angry. I was tired of the mess of unorganized files strewn around my website. I was sick of wasting my time checking stats and feeds. I felt like I had enough to worry about without trying to keep up with all the people I try to keep up with on-line. So I deleted everything. My entire site was gone and it felt good. I was no longer ImPerceptible. I was extinct.

Then I deleted my FeedBurner account, my StatCounter, and MyBlogLog. It felt even better. Like an empty room. A clean slate. An end.

I woke up Thursday morning and scoffed at the blinking light on my laptop. Today there will be no ‘spank me’ or ‘see my rack’ searches. No dumb asses asking why their potato plant is growing tomatoes. Not one person will come by my site wondering if they should color their hair with cinaberry hair color. Instead of pondering the ignorance of the universe, I could put my time to good use. So, I downloaded some music, and for good measure a little porn. My attitude started to improve.

By Thursday afternoon I was feeling like myself again. I sat and ate a bowl of vegetarian chili and thought it would taste better with some bacon. It did. Then I started re-building my blog. The time I spent as a sys admin made back-ups an obsessive compulsive habit. That made it a lot easier to put everything back where it belonged. But I made some changes.

I removed my homeschool label and unpublished most of the posts. I won’t be writing about homeschooling anymore. I feel that term homeschooler has become a label that divides people, even homeschoolers. Public, private, home, unschooling, classic, christian, secular, blah, blah, blah. Just like everyone else, I’m a parent that is doing everything she can, the best she can, so her children can grow up healthy, happy, and ready to take on whatever the world throws at them. Fuck the labels. I’m not playing anymore.

No more stats. I no longer have a FeedBurner account or a StatCounter. Unless they want to discuss a post I don’t care who stops by. I don’t care why people stop by either. If you stop by here wanting to know what happens if you have ‘too much caffeine’ or ‘pictures of dogs that fuck people’, that’s your problem, and you won’t find the answers here. I did put the MyBlogLog widget in the sidebar. I like that because it helps people find other blogs that might interest them and I like having a face (or image) to put with the names.

So now my website is nice and organized (Except I still don’t have a front page). Kinda like a long overdue spring cleaning. I’m also messing around with some new programs. I had a lot of fun re-doing my blog. I’m not bragging, but I’ve had many blog templates.  I think this is the best I’ve ever had. I can change the graphic at the top but I’m leaving it for now. It’s for a little boy that finally decided to grace the world with his presence. Happy birthday little guy. Congratulations new Mommy and Daddy!

And that’s that. How was your week?