A few of my fave things

As I drove my daughter to school this morning, I started thinking of things I enjoy...

Substances

I enjoy my nicotine. I have vaped since 2009, and still enjoy the ease of this delivery system. However, when I cannot engage in vaping, I like the occasional pinch of Levi Garrett between lip and gums. As a daily treat I also enjoy smoking my pipe. Currently I have a bag of moist vanilla tobacco. It is relaxing and tasty.

When I was in the oil field, I was a caffeine junky. I have slowed waaaaaay down on this drug. However, I still start the day with an 8oz Red Bull. Sometimes for an evening treat, I'll brew up a cup of coffee with a couple of shots of amaretto added.

Music

I love metal music. Black metal is my jam. Death, thrash, doom, and trad are also favorites. I have personally recorded about 100 albums, and designed the cover art for hundreds of cassette releases on a French underground label. I also enjoy old school Punk from the time before most bands adopted a leftist ideology (if you think this was always the case, you are likely younger than me and should do some exploration). As I type this, I have 20,000 songs on shuffle. Currently playing is classic Obituary. In this room, I am surrounded by musical instruments -- many guitars, basses, mandolin, violins, autoharp, banjo, drums, accordian, recorders, trumpet, saxophone, harmonicas, keyboards, even mbiras...

Music is more than background noise. It sets the tempo of thought. It forms memory that can be replayed when you are out and about. It ties itself to times and places. It influences mood, and not always in predictable ways -- Dying Fetus' For Us or Against Us, for example, always brings joy with it. Wereas, I find Jimmy Eat World's The Middle always brings melancollie as the time it is tied to...

Hermetic Philosophy

I went on a search around 2007. I have read the Christian Bible cover to cover over a dozen times, in different versions and translations. A deep dive led me to gnosticism (a vague catagory, I leaned towards Valentinian material). Then to Freemasonry (which I left as a 32nd degree Scottish Rite mason due to my inability at the time to believe in a diety, a violation of the landmarks of American [and British] masonry). Then to Laveyan Satanism, which I renounce as a selfish ideology. Then to Hermetics. Then to a hybridization of Hermetics and Odinism (the Romans referred to Odin as another name for Mercury after all, an odd designation for the All-father unless one considers the lore).

I see Hermeticism everywhere. It absolutely pervades the west. It was the basis of a large portion of western spirituality (even if sometime it was called something else). The Catholic Church was heavily influenced by the Corpus Hermeticum as well. St. Thomas Aquinas was a fan. The 19th century occult revival drew heavily from the font as well. Blavatsky and Crowley, are both in debt to Hermes Trismegistes. I have "The ALL is MIND," a phrase from the Kybalion tattooed on my right hand...

Bushcraft

I love the outdoors. I love making my own gear. For me, the craft involves woodcarving, sewing, concocting (spice mixtures, chemical mixtures for water proofing, etc.), reading, and just plain being outside. My youngest daughter and I cook breakfast outside every weekend. Last weekend we made breakfast burritos on a twig stove in a juniper forest ten minutes from our house. When winter is in full bloom, we plan on switching to a local park as I do not own a truck.

Reading

I like to read. I mainly read nonfiction -- bushcraft treatises, spiritual texts, history. However, fiction such as the Conan stories, Prince Valiant, and 1930s sci-fi have a place in my heart. I haven't watched TV or movies for a decade, but lately I have developed a YouTube addiction. I need to currtail this as I find myself reading less than I used to. Mindless consumption of media is a lesser activity compared to the theater of the mind engendered by books.

Driving

I love road trips. I love driving more than the destination most times. My wife does not share my view of this. It takes some cajoling to get her to agree to getting in the car most times. I am ashamed to admit I have lied to her about the distance involved to get her in the vehicle before.

Vintage Devices

Back in my day, we just called them "devices." I was in my twenties during the heyday of the PDA. In the before times, before 9/11 mutated our world into an Orwelian place. Possibly this ability for objects to transport you mentally to another time has contributed to my adoration? I have a large collection of PDA devices, mostly Palm OS. I also have old 1990s laptops (486, pentium, transmeta, etc.) and laptop-like devices such as the Apple Newton eMate 300.

In front of me on the table my 43" monitor sits on, lies an Alphasmart Dana. I often use it and other Palm devices to write my Gopher log. I am writing this on a wireless keyboard in vim instead as I am still finding the feel of this gemlog. If it were to be the same as my phlog, then I would just link to it...

Conclusion

I think that is a sufficient subset of my likes for the time being. What are some of your favorite things?