From the The Universal Household Assistant or What Every One Should Know (1884):

Lamps — why they explode. — Many things may occur to cause the flame to pass down the wick tube and explode the lamp.    1. A lamp may be standing on a table or mantle, and a slight puff of air from the open window or the sudden opening of a door, cause an explosion.    2. A lamp may be taken quickly from a table or mantle, and instantly explode.    3. A lamp is taken into an entry where there is a draft, or out of doors, and an explosion quickly ensues.    4. A lighted lamp may be taken up a flight of stairs, or is raised quickly to a place on the mantle, resulting in an explosion. In all these cases the mischief is caused by the air movement -- either by suddenly checking the draft, or forcing the air down the chimney against the flame.    5. Blowing down the chimney to extinguish the light is frequently the cause of an explosion.    6. Lamp explosions have been caused by using a chimney broken off the top, or one that has a piece broken out, whereby the draft is rendered variable and the flame unsteady.    7. Sometimes a thoughtless person puts a small-sized wick in a large burner, thus leaving considerable space in the tube along the edges of the wick.    8. An old burner with its air drafts clogged up, which rightfully should be thrown away, is sometimes continued in use, and the final result is an explosion.

From the The Universal Household Assistant or What Every One Should Know (1884), posted at the request of kitsunekaboom

Ringworm — remedy for. — When the disease does not come from direct contagion, children are generally in a poor state of blood, and good living, sea air, and tonic medicines are of great benefit. The following application will frequently be found of much service: Wash the part effected with a little lemon juice; then rub in with the finger a little gunpowder which has been bruised in a mortar. Do this gently about twice a day. Be very careful not to make the skin sore.

Happy Solstice

Today, I thank Sol for providing the light that has guided my days, kept warm the air I breath, allowed grow the food I eat. The center of our spinning system, our little plot in the Universe. Your glory will continue to shine billions of years after I'm gone.

Though there are many others of your kind, you are the caretaker of my world and therefore I honor you above your siblings. You hold a place in our sky and our hearts. Thank you.

Is God benevolent or malevolent? Does God love us? Is God wrathful?

These questions are fitting to ask of some man with a flowing grey beard that lives in the sky, but they are unanswerable as to God as All.

God is not only the sky above and the ground below and all that dwells in those places. God is not only everything we can touch, God is more.

God is all creation all destruction. God is life and and God is death. God is the bleeding wound and the passionate kiss. God is the roar as well as the silence.

God is all beliefs and doubts. God not just the concept of heaven and hell, but the concept that there is an above and below. God is the ideas we think as well as the air we breathe.

God is all emotions. God is all love and all hate. God is all benevolence and all malevolence. God is all wrath and all forgiveness.

God is our mathematics and our law. Our fears and our courage. Our arts, our poetries, our languages and the metaphors behind them. The truth as well as the lie.

God is energy and matter. God is the motion of the falling rock as well as the rock that falls.

God is the Happening that is the Becoming. God is what was, will be, and has been. God is even that which is not, has not been, and will never be; if what is not, has not been, and will never be is but thought.

God is the All of Everything, the Universe of Universes. This is why there can be nothing greater than God. No threat needed, no coercion. There can be none greater than All that Is, because anything else is simply part of the Everything.

I finally understand death and I am no longer afraid of it. Even though I have no reason to expect to die in the near future, the idea of not existing has disturbed me to some degree for as long as I can remember. The idea of reincarnation brought little solace, because if even if my "soul" would go on, my memories and my experiences wouldn't. That hardly seemed like a continued existence, I still felt as if I were facing the nothingness.

It took something from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad for me to really understand the process of death and reincarnation:

When body and mind grow weak, the Self gathers in all the powers of life and descends with them into the heart. As prana leaves the eye, it ceases to see. "He is becoming one," say the wise; "he does not see. He is becoming one, he no longer speaks, or tastes, or smells, or thinks, or knows." By the light of the heart the Self leaves the body by one of its gates; and when he leaves, prana follows, and with it all the vital powers of the body. He who is dying merges in consciousness, and thus consciousness accompanies him when he departs, along with the impression of all he has done, experienced, and known. As a caterpillar, having come to the end of one blade of grass, draws itself together and reaches out for the next, so the Self, having come to the end of one life and dispelled all ignorance, gathers in his faculties and reaches out from the old body to a new. As a goldsmith fashions an old ornament into a new and more beautiful one, so the Self, having reached the end of the last life and dispelled all ignorance, makes for himself a new, more beautiful shape, like that of the devas or other celestial beings. The Self is indeed Brahman, but through ignorance people identify it with intellect, mind, sense, passions, and the elements of earth, water, air, space, and fire. This is why the Self is said to consist of this and that, and appears to be everything.

My fear of death was founded on my fear of letting go of my worldly memories, knowledge, and ideas. That somehow letting go of these things was letting go of me. But these things are not me. Letting go of these things is deconstruction. I've gone through deconstruction in life, why should I fear it in death? Why have I for so long clinged to the idea that I must be defined by what are essentially mortal things. Death is simply a change, a paradigm shift. There is nothing to fear in death, and I shall worry on it no longer.

i felt myself drifting into the unlookingness a bit. i fight it. i got up and walked around and reflected on what is. I went to the window and saw two crows on a tree looking at me. I breathed in and felt the air in my lungs. The All is here. Always has been, always will be, I just have to remember to remind myself to keep looking.

bathofblood came over
we had a good time
it's good seeing her
we went down to spy pond
i take just about everyone to spy pond
it's so beautiful
and so close
i love it

i want to get to the great meadow sometime soon
i miss that place
and i have something i want to do there
a mischievous thing
i'm a mischievous being

the air coming in the window is wonderful
it is another beautiful night
in a series of beautiful nights
this summer has been wonderful
only a couple hot days so far
very lucky
hopefully the luck will keep up

i don't know where i am
but do i need to know where i am?
is that really necessary
i don't know where i'm going either
again, do i really need to know
can't i just have faith that where i am is where i need to be
and i'll end up just where i need to end up
the universe has a way of working things out
everything happens for a reason
that's all utter bullshit
i don't have faith
i've seen enough shit that was pointless
the world is falling apart
but, we'll all go to hell together
isn't that nice?

i just walked to purpleglitter's house
the night air felt so refreshing
it was so wonderful to be outside
i want to spend more time outside
sitting at spy pond
exploring mount auburn
go back to the great meadow
i want to do all these things more

ropes are pulling my neck at an odd angle
i feel my body as crooked
i am now melting into the chair
i hear many sounds
the fans going
the computers hum
the refrigerators low groan
my eye has a slight twitch to it
the fan in the air conditioning unit is blowing in it
does this count as being creative?

i'm flying through the air
in loops above the ground below
stars flashing in my eyes
i am flying
it's quite high up here
i'll remember no to look down for too long
looking out is much nicer
i sit
on my chair
my flying chair
i swing down.
gently touching the ground
it bounces
the ground is bouncy
my chair bounces on the ground
i move against the table
bouncing off it
holding on to it
i need to hold on so i can keep typing
i am wrapped up in words
words all around me
punctuation
everywhere
but not here
no punctuation here

there is so much here. words cannot describe it right. this place. i am not in your reality. mine's changing. i'm in a bubble. there are streaks in the air. raining. raining. dancing. moving. bliss. this is my reality, because i make it such. i can edit reality. everybody does it. everyone edits their reality. it's just what's the template. pressed by memories. that tells us how to edit reality. change the template. it's that simple. reality can be anything you want it to be. your reality. not everyone else's. you don't have to be part of their reality. if you choose not to. it's just a matter of ignoring it. block it out. stop paying attention to their reality.

who is "i", the reader or is the author?
who is "you", the reader or the author?
what does this all mean?

Just got back from a walk around Arlington and Spy Pond. I have been taking these walks the last couple of nights, and plan to make them a regular habit. I start out around 3:00am and get back around 4:30am. The night air is so free and calm and peaceful. Little interference in the energies. I love it. It refreshes me. Calms me. Carpe noctum.

Walked down to Spy Pond and fed the geese with merryperseis today. Swans and ducks joined the geese this time in surrounding us. After we ran out of food, we walked around the pond looking at the beautiful blossoming trees. Flowers everywhere. Spring is in full force and glory today. The air is happy and alive.