u/seculartropical

I know I don’t have the best camera quality, but I spent 7 hours making this and I just wanted to show it off 😭 I wish pictures could prove more justice to it cause it’s so good oh my god.

By far one of my most prized possessions. I won’t go too much further into this book as I don’t want to spoil it. My friend gave it to me in 2019 and he moved and never asked for it back. Around 6 months ago I thought I had lost it and found it and wanted to read the last 30 pages I left on. After I finished I was astonished at how much they had predicted 7 years from then.

I wont go too much into the politics of this book, the cost, etc. it’s rare, it is pricey, and there is someone that had this in their library that, well. Starts with an Lui and last name Man. I’ll let you put the pieces together.

But if you like podcasts but hate listening to them and you enjoy a podcast format in a book that discusses economics, philosophy, government, the pros and cons of the internet. Give this a read. 900000000000000/10 recommend.

This was my last and favorite piece I made in school for my associates as my last elective. I hope I can do more electives with ceramics for my bachelors. I used to go to school for art education but dropped out 12 years ago and went back at 27. So hopefully now that I have my associates and I’m going to university for my bachelors I can do ceramics again this year :) I was never the best at visual arts but ceramics I love with all my heart.

This is how I did it: Throw on the wheel, while it’s still wet crimp the rim, let it bone dry then bisque fire, cover in copper bearing raku glaze, fire it again in a kiln at 1560 Fahrenheit. While it’s firing dig a hole and start a fire with wood in it when there’s around two hours left of the kiln to fire the piece. Wait until it has embers, once the piece is done in the kiln with the new glaze grab tongs and carefully bring it to the hole outside throw crumpled newspaper into the pit and with fire proof gloves wrap newspaper around the piece as well, then place it in the hole. You should see it catch fire. Then we covered it with a metal lid and waited till it’s not longer hot so we left it overnight. Then we took it out filled the hole back up with dirt and rinsed the piece with lukewarm water and voila!

I adore this piece I made. Too bad it’s fucking toxic and I don’t think I can even use it for flowers but oh well raku pottery is too beautiful for me to care.

Sorry for the second post about Barr Hill Gin. It’s just my favorite. I still need to try this but I have never heard of or seen a dark gin before. I think it’s so cool that they barrel aged it to be a weird in between the flavor profile of gin, whiskey, and rum. I have to try this when I get paid.

Okay, so to not be controversial at the least I am purely going to discuss this drink for its uniqueness. Someone I know who is from Iran and was in the military told me about a drink that translates to “Dog Water” and it is not supposed to taste good AT ALL. But since there was an alcohol ban many years ago lots of people especially in the military would make their version of moonshine which is made from raisins. He encouraged me to try it out one day laughingly saying to put some hair on my chest 😂 I was also telling him about the prominence of moonshine where I live and that’s how we got to talking about this. The white bottle is the one that he said would probably be the closest thing to the real thing since it’s nearly non existent now. But I’ll post a photo of what it looked like decades ago. He told me to put it in the freezer and NEVER drink it warm. He warned me it tastes terrible but I’ll be dammed if I don’t at least try it and if I like it hey maybe I’ll make a cocktail with it. Who knows. Any ever drink Aragh sagi aka عرق سگی?

Chill your coupe glass in freezer or fill with ice while you make this then toss it before you pour. 2.5 oz of Barr Hill gin, .75 oz Wild Moon Lavender liqueur, .75 oz lemon juice, 2 bar spoons of simple in a a shake mixer with whole ice cubes, shake for 15 seconds, strain it into the coupe glass, take a twig of fresh thyme and slap it on your wrist or palm, lightly rim it along the glass and place the twig and twist it and place inside the coupe with the drink.

My absolute favorite drink in the world.

If you don’t enjoy dry gin try Barr hill. They do not distill or infuse the honey into their gin and the add a small amount of honey directly into the batch after it is made. It is still shelf stable. They do not use any other ingredients aside from juniper in the distillation process so it’s not too herbal and is juniper forward but not strong at all. It’s not too sweet either. It’s a perfect balance in my opinion.

Enjoy!!