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Og Make Fire! With Stick!
J: We had a
little campfire Friday night, with lots of jokes and singing. I loves
my fire peeps.
I went to
work on both
Saturday and Sunday, trying to get some end of the month things done. On Sunday, when I came
back from work, Joey invited me over to watch him start a fire the old
fashioned way, using a firebow and spindle. He quickly started a fire,
then handed me pieces of split wood (poplar and cedar) to whittle into
a spindle, fire board, and top board. After cutting the pieces and
notching the board, I placed the fire board on some tinder made from
bark fibers, twisted the spindle onto the firebow, and drilled into the
notch.
After about five seconds I had lots of smoke. Twenty seconds later I
had filled the notch with smoking, ashy coals. When I stopped drilling,
tiny wisps of smoke drifted up from the notch. Then I took a wood chip
and very gently picked the board up while holding the chip in the
notch, so the ashes fell into the tinder. The smoke stopped, and there
was no glowing ember. Joey carefully folded the ash into the tinder
bundle, and gave it to me. I blew steadily into it, increasing the
length and strength of my breaths, until the bundle suddenly burst into
flames! I didn't know I'd feel so elated. I felt so elated, in fact,
that I nearly burned my fingers before releasing my primitive
firey prize into the larger fire that Joey had already started. Joey,
Renata,
and Houston (all fire pros) clapped their hands and congratulated me.
They know how wonderfully magic it feels the first time, starting a
fire by spinning wood.
So, Og make fire! How long, you might wonder, did it take Og to make
fire? I think it took me about twenty minutes to create the various
tools needed. (Not including the bow, which I'm sure I could make in
five to ten minutes— the bowstring would take another half hour or so).
Once I had all the pieces, it took less than two minutes to start the
fire. My forgotten ancestors were much smarter and efficient than I
thought.
Chris Welsh came to visit Sunday night. While Gina went off to Renee's
house to watch the Oscars, Chris and I helped Kory playtest some of his
new designs. We watched some of the very end of the Academy Awards, but
I think Kory's games are much more interesting. Somebody give Kory an
Oscar!
On Monday at work I submitted an abstract to SPIE for a
scientific paper. If the paper is accepted, I will travel to the Canary
Islands to present it at a conference. Scary. I suffer from horrible
stage fright; this is going to get ugly. But hey, it's free travel to
the Canaries, how can I refuse?
Monday afternoon Gina, Booda and I went on a fairly long walk through
the woods with Joey and Luisa. After the hike Gina made an absolutely
delicious coconut
couscous curry for dinner. Og help chop veggies. We watched more Sex
& City episodes while we ate. Later Leo and Kory came over and we
playtested another Kory game. Og win! Og win!
On Tuesday I left work a little early, and went shopping for a hatchet
and splitting axe with Chris. Then Joey helped us haul some big black
locust and tulip poplar logs home in his truck, and we spent an hour or
more splitting wood. That's a workout, fer sure. My splitting axe is
too light, I'll return it for a larger one. We split and stacked all
the wood. (Og mostly stack. Og too wimpy to split much.) We now have
enough wood for at least two First Friday fires.
Just got back this evening from an interview with Greenbelt City
Council for a spot on the Forest Preserve Task Force. Six interviewers
including the mayor, so I was fairly nervous. The first question the
mayor asked — "Do you have children?" — kind of set the tone for
unexpected questions from the council all night. Did I mention I was
nervous?
Anyway, still suffering from the after effects of stage fright, I
walked upstairs to see Gina (she teaches ceramics in the same
building) so I could borrow the car to take Chris back to the bus
station. As I turned to leave, Gina said, loudly, "Hey everybody, this
is my husband!" I waved, nervously. Some woman in the class, who had
her back to me, said, "He's hot." I stammered something incoherent and
retreated quickly out the door. Any other time and I might have been
able to stammer something coherent. It was a nice comment though, and
it picked up my spirits after a grueling interview. (Actually, any interview is grueling.)
Hey, lookit this
little article about Haiku Movie Reviews that came out in a paper
in Philly! The guy who wrote it asked me a lot of interesting
questions, but the article only has a couple mentions, really, and he
left Gina out of it. Still, it's nice to read an article that points
out our site (sort of).
Notice we have three new HMRs
this week, including the first review we've written for a movie we
didn't see. We also have another review for Big Fish, sent to us by Eeyore:
Everything you have
Been told about this movie
Is totally true
Also,
here's another from my uncle, who, just like me, couldn't bare to watch
The Passion:
blood and gore, blood and
gore, I can't take
this stuff no
more - William Kendall
G: While John
was working on Sunday I got a lot done at the studio. Put a lot of
handles on a lot of mugs. I had a great time watching the Oscars at
Alex and Renee's.
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THE HEAP
where we wade the web
onion: broken lizard
squinting
at the present
this
is the moment
rfid
exploding
twenties
monowheel
in china
hmrs
in the news
hand carved
guitars
polaroid
vs outcast
gigantic
puffballs
atm scam
gum blondes
magic
8-ball
exercise
improve vision?
fibonacci
flim-flam
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