these ramblings are what happened to me between september 2000 and august 2001.
(you don't really -do- much in life, life does things to you.)
this year the fragmented thoughts were still pretty bad, but they're getting better, i think..  as time progresses.

sept 14 - "it doesn't mean anything, it's just the slogan."

well fort smith was weird..   hmm, ok the trip there
first.  they lost my bags but i was ok with it..  i
got to ft smith 2 hours early strange for greyhound..
i caught a bus from albequerque that was 3 hours late
and they made most of it up between there and OK city.
 i got my bags the next day..  they caught the normal
schedule.

i just removed a really bad declaration of the lesser
qualities of fort smithy to say that i went swimming
several times in a river and got to jump off a 20 or
25 ft cliff.  bad things still are less than
desirable.

here i am in fayetteville arkansas.  it is a clean
city.  and very unarkansas.  i've been ehre for a few
days with some friends i met a year ago..  i got a 24
hour flubug which i didn't mind cause i'd not had the
flu in many years (that i can remember).  i went and
visited with a friend i met at the gathering who lives
here in fayetteville this evening.  we didn't get to
visit long but we did for a bit and it was good.

the sun just came up.
it's 6:51am  i've not slept yet.  my bus leaves at
8:25.  i'm hoping to do most of my sleeping ont he bus
but who knows..  i'm really excited right now.  i was
asked to construct a series of kayaks.  i plan to
experiment wiht a variety of designs do some artsy
things as well, but we'll see, this may end up being
harder than i anticipate..  (i doubt it, everything is
easy if you try)

perhaps you'd liek an explanation for the subject as
well..  i went to a restraunt today..  i never go to
them because they are expensive for the food you get.
this was a typical restraunt and had a typical slogan
on it's typical menu. "georgia's: hits the spot"  what
spot?  i asked.  the guy was new and they hadnt' told
him where the spot was yet so he went to ask and "it
doesn't mean anything, it's just the slogan."  all of
a sudden a part of america made sense to me.  i
laughed, as i am apt to do on such occasions.

i have to go write in "the book" now. (ominous piano)

peace
ksckscpaaf
 

sept 18 - beginning to play the kazoo

i got here whatever day i got here..  friday i think
and sat around al day in wills house.  he got home at
night and we went out and partied until 3am* and then
came home..  woke up and spent the next 2.5 days
working on the roof of a house.  it's interesting
work..  poor guy had a 12x8 hoel of rotted wood int eh
front and a couple others in back..  we reroofed the
front and will be doing the back soon i think..  it's
tarped off now..  hopefully it won;t rain a lot inthe
near future.  i'm trying to convince him to let me
shingle his roof in 3 colors and make a mosiac or
something but who knows.

*i'll give you the party story too.  i went to a bar
called bells.  now i'm not a big bar prson, they're
noisy and smelly and well noisy mainly.but bells is a
brewery and i don't like beer, but this was the best
beer i've ever tasted.  and they closed so on to the
next bar and trhen a small apartment in a persons
apartment.  it was alltogether a strqange experience
but it introduced me to the college town sort of
scene.  it's cool, but at the same time i need my
quiet time to do my own thing.

i guess we have to pour concrete inte h basement
before i can build a kayak but i'll start on a model
within the week.  will doesn't like the idea of a
model cause it's not functional, but it's what i'm
going to do so yay me.  i'll also build large whne we
get the space prepared.  wills brother needs his roof
reshingled too (no holes just keeping up on
maintanence) so that'll be fun and i can probsbly make
ok money at the same time so that's good.

when i got here i had it in my head that i'd get a job
and pay rent and blahblahblah..  well i told will that
and he talked me out of paying rent at least.  h said
i can work it off by working around the house, and
there is a lot of work that needs to be done..
driveway needs to have stone put down and the front
walk needs something and holes AND A RETAINING wall
built..  (freaky capslock)  and all of these things
are things i would enjoy doing, so huzzah.

hmm..  and i get my own room..  there were 6 people or
maybe just 4 but a group a month or so ago and now
it's just will and i.  but there's cool neighbor kids
too and that's good.  so hmm.. enjoy yourselves and
remember to do something you've never done before.

ksckscpaaf
 

oct 6 - rainy days and chainy ways

hmm, i've not started a boat.  that's ok.  i'm stuill
reading slowly.  boat building is book reading.  i
decided to learn lofting.  this is basically making
drafting lines of the boat projected into real size.
it still doesn't make sense to me but i can get it.
after all it's just a concept.

i've been making some chgainmail recently..  i have
less than a hundred rings to put into the roof of my
house.  i should have pics up soon.  the guy who's
roof we're (still) working on is a photographer, and
recently got a digital camera..  and we got pics of my
chianmail.  they're up at
https://sakredchao.tripod.com/930.htm   don't they look
pro?  i dig the lighting..  i got to hold reflective
white pieces of cardboard.  ad he used a flash that
looked like a rocket launcher, with an umbrella.  (all
rocket launchers need umbrellas you know)  so anyway
check out the diggity fun on the website.

will has a breadmaker.  it makes loaves that look sort
of liek loaves.  (the open side is the long way not
the narrow way..  and it has 2 turny things instead of
one)  i enjoy making bread out of veggetables.  wills'
fish eat dogfood.  whole.  now this doens't seem that
amazing, but really it is. ormph.

that's pretty much it.  i dont do much with my days
but just try to be productive, have fun, make stuff,
and flirt with the neighbor girl.  simplicity itself.
it is the season for catching leaves up here...  or we
are encroaching on the season.  yay leaves.

hmm..  oh yea i saw a show a week or so ago.  i saw
ekoustik hookah, whiel the rest of the kids i live
near went to try to see phish in chicago and didnt'
get in.  anyway, it was a good show.  upbeaty music..
and a bluegrass band opened up for them.  it was
pleasing.

yep, that's it mostly.  hope you all are having fun.

enjoypeace
ksckscpaaf
 

oct 11 - spot the gathering

spot is a dog.  a gathering is not a dog.  a gathing
is several hippies.  they usually have an odor de la
hippy after a few days.  they were 'up north'.  up
north is a michiganary term for the top of the lower
peninsula.  the hand if you will.  we were near
traverse city from saturday to tuesday.  it snowed.
it hailed.  it sunned.  it was a mite bit chilly.  i
loved it.  we made a t0n of noise, and i made a lot of
friends..  including seeing the chai walla from the
montana gathering, benjamin.  that was really great..
all in all the michigan family is one of the tightest
families i've experienced.  i got to help out with
cleanup.  and i find cleanup almost more fun than the
gathering itself..  so next nationals, if i go, i'm
only going for cleanup.  anyway, that's the story..
we brought back 6 hippies.  one is leaving..  making
the total population of this house 7.  it's packed.  i
still have a room and a hammock so there is some
solace.

will is planning to go on the road in his milk truck
right now, but we have some stuff to take care of
first, so it'll be a little bt before we leave..  we
have a roof and a half to do, as well as some minor
construction here att he house to prepare it for
winter.

well, that's jsut about it..  i'll leave you with a
song benjamin taught me at montana that we got to sing
here in michigan.

we are circling, circling together
we are singing, singing our heartsong
this is family , this is unity
this is celebration, this is sacred

repeat ad nauseum

does anyone know what the etymology of the word
"procrastinate" is?  obscure reference man to the
rescue?

well, peace all
ksc
 

oct 14 - spot for president

26 days to the white house.  now 25.  i am in ann
arbor (aka treetown aka A^2) michigan.  we are running
a campaign to elect spot president..  he's the leader
you need, if you don't need a leader.  he doesn't
believe anything.  he doens't believe that nader
should be alowed to debate.  he does not believe that
he should be allowed to debate.  he also doens't think
the other candidates are master debaters.  he does not
believe that the government manufactures crack cocaine
and distributes it in the inner city to keep the
common man down.  he does not believe that the vietnam
war was fought over heroin fields.  he also does not
believe in leash laws.

so, in summation, we are headed to washington dc.

i must be crazy to follow these nutcases on this
adventure, but people seem to be supportive.

vote for bob

reverend kickspa
 

oct 20 - spot tucks his tail and charges home.

well, it didn't start out that way.  we tried to go to
ohio.  we WERE heading south.  somehow we were on a
road going to kalamazoo.  we stayed on it till we
returned here.  they are finally getting around to
pouring the basement and paving thre driveway with
bricks now.  it looks really nice so far.  on monday a
fellow is going to pay us to reroof a house.  yay for
income.

i'm glad we didn't continue to go to dc.  those kids
are out of control.  but i'm glad i went to ann
arbor..  i got to hand out wish leaves (leaves that
you catch while they're falling before they hit the
ground).  "would you liek a wish?  smiles are
perfect."  i'd say that to everyone regardless if they
took the leaf or not..  i didn't like the people i 2as
withs' tactics to blow minds but i had fun all the
same and i remembered something important.  i
remembered that i'm beautiful..  i forget that
sometimes, i think everyone does.

i've read a couple of books the last week...  the
first was "the metamorphosis" by franz kafka.  it has
to be one of the most depressing dark morbid books
i've read in a long time.  i also read "watership
down" by robert adams.  it's a powerful book..  it's a
gruesome book.  it's a childrens' book.  i fdont think
it's very children, but i guess i'd read it to my
kids.  it's about bunny rabbits for thsoe of you who
haven't heard of the story (like myself before a year
or two ago).  i bought the books for a guy selling old
college novels on a street corner in ann arbor for 2$
a piece.  i also picked up "jitterbug perfume" by tom
robbins, and the tolkien reader and the silmarillion
by tolkien.  i already own them but i wanted to have
them here to read at leisure.

well, that's the story.

have fun and break plans liek a mofo

peace
ksc
 

nov 11 - personal divinity and onion cheese bread

i almost moved out of the house.  i tried.  i really
tried.  living with people with questionable mental
stability is difficult.  i've read a few books.

jitterbug perfume is a grand book.  i wont go into it.
 but there is a quote from it that i find interesting.
 "the highest function of love is that it makes the
loved one a unique and irreplacable being."  yesyes.

i started rereading the silmarillion..  and it's
amazing how much i missed when i read it before.  he
says many things on many levels.

i also started reading a book called "ramtha" about
personal divinity.  it tells of one path to
transcendental illumination.  i've decided to
transcend in this lifetime..  i think i go through my
life feeling like an alien for a reason.

i think i started reading ramtha for a reason right
now..  i was having many difficulties with my roomies,
and i was trying to put much of it on them, when
really i need to take ownership of my frustration.

i got a job too, washing dishes at a place for 7$ an
hour cash daily.  i work 2 days a week and get a free
meal per shift.  it's the best job i've worked for
someone other than myself.

we've taken to painting the walls with art.  perhaps
i'l be able to get digital pics up on my website of
the walls..  after the painting party i'm throwing
this sunday.

well, that's the bulk of it i think.

have fun.

ksc
 

nov 18 - snow spider

it snowed.  i made a snow spider..  the head part is a
2 ft diameter ball..  and the thorax is 3 or 3.5 ft..
it's coolio..  grass for antannae and legs..  i dont
know if spiders have antenae.

i finished ramtha, great book..  great lessons..  but
it's written for mehums (mere humans) but i still
learned a lot from it.  i suggest it if you're int hat
mode..  back to the silmarillion.

i ate an icesicle.

chainmail can be used to decorate dreadlocks.

habeneros are goodly.

that is all..  the most important thing was the snow.

bai~!
>.<

ksckscpaaf
 
 

dec 11 - michigone

i get on a bus tomorrow for new mexico to spend some
time with my family.  i'm not sure where i'm going to
head from there, but i figure it'll all work itself
out.  i worked 6 days in a row.  4 dishwashing days
and 2 construction days with the next door neighbor.
the first construction day i knocked down a wall..
yay destruction!  and we made a form and poured a
concrete pad.  uhm.  yay me yay mud!  and then we took
straw off a big concrete pad.  yay straw.  then he
starter broke on the truck.  yay tractor pulls.  yay
poping the clutch.  yay driving through the snow to
some podunk garage past a bunch of amish carriages to
sit for 2 hours waiting to find the right ratchet head
to replace the starter with.  it was a 17 hour day.
the next day i went to a diferent town and moved
things..  every paper printed in coldwater michigan
since 1923 or some suchness.  and ppreceeded to tear
up the carpet.  after this working fiasco was over i
was glad to sleep in, let me tell you.

it's been snowing a lot but it's really powdery.  so
not too much you can do with it.  well, i'm going to
ocntinue to get some things done before i leave.
enjoy yourselves.  i'll try to write a fill in the
blanks email when i get to NM, about the things i've
done and not written about..

peace
ksckscpaaf
 

dec 16 - this bort found a mission

when i got to the kalamazoo bus terminal i got to play
with some kids..  it was good..  i gave them some
dice.  polyhedrons..  a tetrahedron, a dodecahedron,
and a..  whatever 20 is.  i'm sure there's many of you
out there who know this. (my grampa just informed me
that it's an Icosahedron.  thank you gramps!)  anyway,
i went to chicago and the bus i was supposed to catch
was full so i sat down for a wait.  for 5 hours we
heard "we're trying to get you on a bus in the next 30
minutes."  i made a couple friends..  (maybe 4 or 5)
and i got the eye from a girl.  yay eye.

we got on the bus and instead of goign to denver i
went to omaha (somewhere in middle america), and then
off to  cheyenne.  now on the way to cheyenne i
started showing off my chainmail on the bus, as i'm
apot to do with a captive audience.  and the girl who
was giving me the eye was sort of near me and she saw
it and we started talking.  it turns out she's from
jakarta (a city on the island java in indonesia) and
is going to travel around between now and mid
february.  and then will be studying marketing in LA.
breaking story and continuing trip.

i waited in cheyenne for 4 hours and got on a bus to
denver (titin, the girl, was off to utah within an
hour in cheyenne) i got to denver and waited for a
good 5 hours for the next bus to take me to espanola.
(and a bus driver tried to tell me that the bus didn't
exist and i should go to albequerque.  i'm glad i knwo
what i'm doing. or the trip would have taken 12 hours
more than it did.)

in pueblo we picked up a mom with a couple of 11 year
old twin girls.  they were fun to talk to for a bit..
energetic little monsters.  i gave them mobius balls.
they were pleased with them.  in taos we picked up a
hippy who sat next to me and we talked about lots of
things in the hour we were sitting next to eachother.
he told me about building an adobe house and living in
the woods outside of taos and snowboarding every day
in the winter.

so i got home (it was supposed to take 36 hours and
took 50) and visited with my mom and sister. and i
realized that leaving michigan was the best thing i
could have done for myself..  i want to spend my days
building adobe houses and traveling the world and
doing things i've never done before..  or things i
have done before and really enjoyed.

so titin and i have been emailling each other a bit..
she invited me to stockholm, sweden..  but she leaves
in 4 days or something soon liek that.  then she
invited me to tour asia wiht her..  going to variosu
indonesian islands, japan, korea, vietnam..  she
listed off some 12 or so countries.  again i had to
decline due to a lack of a passport.  but i will be
working on a passport so that i have one whenever i
want to leave.

it is my goal to leave the US this next year and see
another culture or twelve.  america seems to be quite
contrary to my personality.  american girls aren't too
into me.  and forien girls are, so i'm out.

well, right now i'm trying to work out a summer trip
to indonesia with titin, and perhaps spend late winter
early spring with her in LA.  we'll see i suppose. my
life is a ball of chaos and i might end up in peru
next week.

ok, now all of this travel offering and beautiful
woman business is dandy, but the kicker is this:  when
she travels around she looks for things just liek i
make.  art and decorative things.  her family in
stockholm has a store that sells decorative art.  she
also has some family in iran that does similar things.
 she's really excited about marketing my work, and
making me rich. hehe..  she talks about stock and
franchises..  but i have no interest in those things.
 

well this is the basics of the bus trip and the last
day or two here at home.  it's great to be around my
family again and especially good to see my sister, as
we tend to miss each other in our travels often.

so i'm gonna let you go now..  some day i'll try to
sit down and write about the missing pieces of
kalamazoo..  i dont think all of it has settled in my
mind yet and there's a lot of emotional blindness
around it.  the basics are this: i was very unhappy
there and was stagnating.  i feel like a flower after
the rain now.

salam & cinta
ksckscpaaf
 

dec 25 - kim in africa

i wrote a story for titin.  it is a very naughty story
about a very naughty boy named kim.  it is not me, as
you will see.  i am not naughty.  i am a good boy.

_____________________________
 

once there was a boy named kim.  not me mind you..  so
this boy he was very afraid of elephants..  that's why
it wasn't me..  i'm not afraid of elephants..  so the
boy he went on a walk..  and he ended up in africa..
now this was a silly place for kim to go..   there are
many elephants in africa..  he went for minutes and
minutes and didn't see anything but lions and trees
and birds..

in case you forgot the story up until now, kim is in
africa, and afraid of elephants..  he sees nothing but
lions and trees and birds.

so he saw the lions being lions and he said, "hi
lions, how are you?"  \
and the lions said to kim, "hello kim, we are doing
welly good, we don't nibble on boys heads if they do
us a favor."

and this interested kim so he payed attention.

"the favor we would want a boy to do for us to not
nibble his head off is to find for us an elephant ear,
still on an elephant."

now kim was very afraid of elephants, as you all know.
 (again i must reitterate that this is not me.)  but
he is also not fond of having his head nibbled off, so
he told the lion, "yes mr. lion i will bring you the
ear of an elephant."

"good boy.  and remember that lions are crafty and
cunning and very good hunters."

kim nodded, turned and left, keeping half an eye and a
whole human ear out for the lion.

he walked for an hour and he found a pickle.  it was a
big pickle.  most likely that he, in his young
kim-life had ever seen.  he sat down and looked at
this pickle.  he thought about the elephant ear.  he
shuddered.  he thought about the lions' nibble.  he
shuddered.  he thought about the bird that was saying
hello to him.  he said hello back.

"can i have some of your pickle?" the bird asked.  now
kim thought about it.  it was a very big pickle, and
he could very easily share some of it.

"you can have some of my pickle, but you have to do
something for me..  i need to bring the ear of an
elephant to yonder tree.and the elephant must still be
attached to the ear."  he pointed at a yonder tree.
now, yonder trees are much larger than normal trees
and very bushy at the bottom..  but at the top of
their bare trunk (which towers hundreds of feet in the
air) there is but one single nut.

the bird, wanting some of this big pickle, and having
many elephants as friends told kim, "yea i can bring
an elephant ear still attached to an elephant to this
yonder tree."  and with that set out.

kim knew his time was short so he ran back to the
lion, and said, "mr lion, i could not bring the ear of
an elephant to you."  now thre lion became grumbly at
this news, but kim continued, "but if you follow me
then the ear of an elephant will come to you."

the lion, thinking this just as good as kim bringing
him an ear set off after him..  when they got to the
yonder tree kim bid the lion lie in wait in the low
foilage of the tree.  and he himself started to climb
the tree.  he told the lion, "when the elephant ear
gets here then i will drop the nut at the top on you."
 

the lion agreed that this was a suitable plan.  kim
climbed the tree..  it took much strength, but he made
it to the top, and stayed there watching for the bird
and the elephant.  he spied them a ways off.  he
waited.  and waited..  they got closer.   and closer.

finally the elephant got to the yonder tree and sat
down.

"MORRR!" came the muffled cry from under the elephant.
 the elephant, wondering at this new noise, continued
to sit, as whatever it was wanted something more.
that something was just as likely sitting as anything
else.

kim became afraid.  now the lion was under the
elephant and his ear. and it was between him and the
ground.  also, the bird was now wanting his fair share
of the agreed on pickle, which was nowhere in sight.

the elephant leaned back on the yonder tree and shook
it to it's very tip..  kim lost his grip and slipped
down the barky trunk onto the other, more trumpety,
trunk.

in a panic he excaimed, "mr elephant!  what are -you-
doing here?"  and the elephant just flapped his ears.
africa is hot and he was interested in cooling himself
off.  kim climbed down from the elephant and looked
around for the bird.  it was there, lounging on a
nearby rock.

"hello, mr kim.  i have brought you the ear of an
elephant, that is still attached to an elephant.  may
i have my pickle now?"

kim was not very comfortable around this big elephant
and this bird who wanted some of his pickle.  he
thought for a moment and said, "mr elephant, you look
like a fine outstanding citizen of this area.  you
look like you've been around for awhile..  have you
seen my pickle anywhere?  this bird is looking to have
a bit of it."

the elephant did not answer.

kim repeated himself.

so did the elephant.

"mr bird, i asked you to bring the ear of an
elephant..  this elephant is deaf."

"but he has an ear." the bird contested.

"well, if you can get the elephant to get up then you
will find your pickle..  i am off.  have a grand day."

kim walked off and the bird worked twards getting the
elephant to move.  when kim was well off her heard a
ruckus and thought to himself, "hmm, a mighty big
pickle indeed."

kim was a naughty boy indeed for all of his trickery.
but the lion got what he wanted, so he didn't nibble
kims' head off.  and kim got away from the elephant.
so he was pleased.

yay kim!!!!!
 

dec 28 - colo spgs
 
 
 
 

-
i got to colorado springs tonight with my friend
jeff..  i'll be here for a few days..  i'm not sure
exactly how long.  have fun doing all your fun things/

salam & cinta
ksc
 

jan 4 - new year new mexico.  again.  didn't i do this already?

well the visit to new mexico was good.  i made a
couple sales that will be directly reinvested into
more chainmail supplies.  mainly sterling silver
wire..  and maybe a soldering iron if i get spunky.

my bro and i climbed a mountain i hadn't climbed
before.  may's peak, altitude 9k or so..  nothing too
impressive..  but it was good to be up there.  we saw
some guy plotting trails on a gps there as well.  we
were all supprised to see others ont eh peak inteh
middle of winter.

i saw a lot of people i hadn't seen in years while i
was back in the springs.  it was overall a grand
journey.

i caught a bus back to new emxico today.  i sat next
to sn old cowboy/gold prospector for most the way.  i
can't wait till i'm old and think i know everything.
(as opposed to being young and thinking i know
everything)  he told me stories about gold buried up
in the hills and about cold water giving me a heart
attack.  i will still jump in in glacial runoff
streams, after all, the cold is in my blood.

we got in to town 30 minutes late.  it could have been
avoided if the driver was on the ball.  but i'm here
so yay for me and yay for here.

have a grand new year.  i have a single resolution.  i
rarely make them, but it is: leave the country.  if i
come back that's cool..  but i want to leave the
country at least once..  experience differnet
cultures.

you cats make any resolutions?

enjoy this number
ksc
 

jan 11 - visitor to visitee

well titin left today after 3 wonderful days visiting
me in espanola.  i taught her to crochet, which she
seems to enjoy.. she's made a thing.  hehe..  when i
teach people to do art i try to convince them to just
do it without thought for the final result..  if you
just do it, it will always turn out perfect.  i'm
working on a flower, out of crocheted wire..  i wish i
had done it in silver, but o me it was "an educational
piece".  and so i used steel..  i'm going t invest a
couple hundred in wire as soon as i can get tot he
store and the bulk of that will be silver.  there will
be pictures soon, by monday if all goes well..

next thought to start on and then tangent off of as i
always seem to do.  titin went over my wegsite and
showed e some changes i could make that would help
with clarity..  many hings i say on my site do not
explain fuly to someone who does not know me or my
art.  also i need to double the price i quote on
there..  (at least double)..;  we also went over some
other people's sites to see the things they did that
worked well..  i used the x nihil's site mostly, which
is far more organized that i ever aspire to be.  (
http://thexnihil.tripod.com/maille2/main.htm  if
you're interested in seeing some of his work..  he
does some things similar to the art i make as well as
things of his own design)

titin and i went up to echo ampitheater, which is
between abiquiu and chama, just past the ghost ranch,
on the chama highway in carson national forest.  it is
a natural ampitheater, and i hadn't been there for a
long time..  (since i was 6 or 7 i suspect)  i didn't
stay at that part of the forest for long..  we
experienced it and decided to walk around..  finally
we worked our way around to the backside of a canyon..
 (walking around not over) and we looked up and...  or
rahter i looked up and said..  "hmm..  want to climb
that?"  titin agreed.  up we went.  titin made it up
the mountain very well and down very well..  all
despite the shoes she had on which were not typical
mountaineering shoes.  now what blew my mind was that
the cliffs on the opposite side of the ampitheater are
twenty three times more majestic than the ampitheater
itself.  the lines in the cliffs were amazing..  it
makes me want to go up there wometime alone (or with
someone who can run up a mountain) and explore a
little further.  it was a little chilly, but overall
grand forest experience.

ok next part of the story.  we leave espalona at
6:45am on a greyhound..  on the bus is some old
feller, who started talking to me..  he said, "are you
rainbow?"  and i said i was.  and he told me about
some of his gathering experiences and i told him some
of mine.. then we talked philosophy and spirituality
for awhile and soon as can be we were at the
albequerque airport.  some things happened that are
pretty uneventful and then we went through the metal
detectors.  now i had a box of chainmail with me..
the crocheted flower..  and a backpack full of sewing
equipment and a pocketknife.  they let it all
through..  i offered to open the chain box and let
them look through it and threy pawed it a smidge and
let it go..  they didn't evel look through the whole
box..  or see the bottom..  wonder what else i could
get through..  i dont think i want to find out that
bad.  we wait for a plane.  titin gets on a plane and
i go outside to wait for my cousin grace to come pick
me up..  i ended up making..  or getting the bulk
finished, of a chord carrying holster thing for my
chainbox.  it has some macreme and basic
netting/warpping techniques on it..  maybe i'll get s
pic of it when i have more done on it..  i'd like to
get more chord..  as it is i'm dissecting my
waterbottle carrier for more chord.

so, now i'm staying with my cousin or a couple days
and just hanging out... hopefully i get my website
updated between now and then..  i'll let you cats know
when i get back to espanola.

peace&love
ksc
 

jan 13 - books & chainmail

i updated my webasite today with wonderful new
pictures of my creations.
https://sakredchao.tripod.com/11301.htm

i also read a book yesterday, the bhagavad gita.  or
the "song of the lord"..  it is a handbook on how to
live life, similar to the bible, and many other
religious/spiritual texts..  this one is pretty to the
point..  moreso than any other that i've read other
than the principia discordia.  hail eris.  it probably
takes less than 5 hours for the average reader, and
comes highly recommended.  good wisdom.

i also bought 'the upanishads' which is a companion
book to the bhagavad.  and much longer as well.  i
plan to start it soon.  i bought them at a store in
albequerque called "page 1 page too" which is a new
and used book store..  my cousin brian's favorite
store.

i also recieved a book as a gift: a cronological
bible.  i have tried to read the bible (NIV and king
james) several times starting in genesis.  i'd get
somewhere around the tower of babel and lose
interest..  but i am bound and determined to get
thorough it this time..  and this one is organized by
day..  supposedly you read it in 365 days if you
follow their path..  i go at my own pace, however, as
most of you know.  i am eager/interested to read it..
and will probably read about genesis...again...this
evening.

i am really interested in teh new testament now, and
the life of jesus.  many things in the recent past
have turned my attention to his life and
philosophies..  so, maybe you'll get some of my bible
study thoughts in here as well..  (i plan to reread
the bhagavad gita as well and you'll probably get
passages from that as well..  in fact, i can think of
one right now let me try to find it.

this isn't it, but it's very good wisdom..  basic
wisdom.  it is sri krishna talking to a man named
arjuna.

"be fearless and pure; never waver in your
determination and dedication to the spiritual life.
give freely.  be self controlled, truthful sinscere,
loving and full of the desire to serve.  realize the
truth of the scriptures; learn to be detached and take
joy in renuncation.  do not get angry or harm any
living creature, but be compassionate and gentle; show
goodwill to all.  cultivate vigor, patience, will,
purity; avoid malice and pride.  then, arjuna, you
will recieve your divine destiny."

so basic...  things you know in your head, but to know
them in your heart, so that they are a part of your
everyday life, that is difficult..  heinlien used a
word to describe that sort of knowledge, "grok".

krishna, again talking to arjuna:
"strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world;
by devotion to selfless work one attains the supreme
goal of life.  do your work with the welfare of others
always in mind."

now it is good to remember that the origional text is
in sanscrit, and translations lose much of their
meaning, but still, it is beautiful wisdom.

it was amusing to me, last night i ate a big dinner
and i said to grace, "i'm going to set this plate here
and go read this book. [the gita] and i'm sure it will
warn me against overeating.  then i will go get
another serving."  lo and behold.....  that serving
was pretty good too.  ;)  can't beat fish. well you
can.  we used to knock salmon out with a stick of wood
with a hook on the end..  a belaying hook maybe?
anyway..  you can beat fish.

salam & cinta
(suh-lam & chintah in phoneticland)
ksc
 

jan 16 - god lives in a box

i'm back in espanola now..  and there is enough new
stuff to warrant a new message..  i went to church.
grace woke up and felt compelled to go to the early
service, so we went..  the service was about the house
of god being a cube, and "being inside the box"...  it
was an interesting sermon..  the minister said that
the dwelling of god, which was a cube with sides of
14,000 miles, would descend to earth and that the
angels of the lord would descend up and down a ladder
or stairway..  something..  it was strange..  and
appearantly the bible says this, i read it and it
looked liek it to me..  we'll see when  get there..
isaac just died, by the way, at the ripe old are of
180.  this cronological bible is a lot easier to
follow than the king james or NIV..  it has prefaces
every few chapters or so, so it's like reading it
twice..  hmm, but thn you get other connotations of
things that the writer implied..  but it helps wiht
the story, that's for sure.

ok there were tangents there, sorry..  so then partway
through this service a friend of graces walks in and
sits down.  after service she came up to me and told
me, "i was compelled to come to the early service, i
knew i didn't have to be on time but i had to be
there..  and i was supposed to bring this book, mark
chapter 5 and give it to the person i was shown.  i
walked in and new it was you..."  ok, interesting..
the book was titled "return from tomorrow"..  i'm
going ot read it after i finish genesis..  egad that's
a long book..  it's not the beginning anymore.

i saw 2 movies for the first time while i was with
grace..  the first was men in black.  it was silly..
it had some fun ideas in it.  i also saw alien mine.
that is a damn good movie.  i highly recommend it to
anyone who watches movies.  and i saw a strange show
on crop circles.  the geometries in the crop circles
are pretty strange.  hehe..  in teh show it said that
some guy wrote "talk to us" on some hill the day after
a crop circle was formed, and the next day there was a
a marking that appearantly was an old hebrew text that
the freemasons used that they translated to mean, "we
are opposed to cunning and deciet"..  thta's a little
interesting..  maybe all hogwash and malarkey.

i had such a grand visit with grace and scotty..  we
spent hours just talking about whatever came up.  and
all those cats are soo good..

well i got on a bus..  the lady on teh phone told me
23.10..  the lady who made the ticket (a waitress at a
cafe) charged 26.30..  i disputed it but she and the
driver told me i was wrong..  we got to albequerque
and i asked the counter and it was 23.10.  i was
pretty upset about it for a few minutes..  and over
what, a couple dollars that i really dont need
anyway..  money is very strange, weird juju about it.
so i sat down and read about abraham and ishmael...  a
fellow came up to me, he wasa black kid about my age
from la, and said, 'i see you're reading the word'.
he started to tell me his story and how he was broke
and hungry..  and he seemed pretty nice, and just in a
bad circumstance..  i said to him, "i dont have any
money to share with you, but i have some food i can
share."  i gave him some things to eat and we sat and
talked about the bible, and about how it related to
what he had just gone through.  he was wearing a hat
that said "i'm not rassafan" or something.  he didn't
know what it meant.

i made it here..  about 10 minutes after i got home my
bro jeff called me and said he'd send my pack i left
in his car when i went to colo spgs to me soon..  i
hadn't talked to him since the springs and he didn't
know i had been gone for a few days..

i reinstalled windows on my computer..  that took far
longer than it shoudl have, but i filled the time with
wire crochet..  that flower is -almost- done now.

the minister from the church called me too, he seemed
really nervous talking to me, but he siad he wanted ot
sit down for a cup of coffee.  i suggested email and
he said he probably wan't good at it..  it would be
interesting to tlak to him more indepth.

ok so here's the news.  i'm moving to new jersey..  a
town called edison thta's pretty near to newark, but
it's not too bad for being int hat area from what i
understand, talking to a friend of mine inteh area.
i'm moving htere because titin quit her job and got an
apartment there.  she's not attached to living there,
and has a car now so we could drive to anywhere and
everywhere in the united states if we wanted to.  i
leave in 2 weeks.

so:yay stuff
cinta
ksc
 

jan 24 - the future of the pasture

well..  i spent a lot of time making a new website
that hopefully will be better to show off my work and
get some sales generated.  i got a fatty url now..

http://www.theringlord.com/chao

hmm, what else./.  i've done a lot of playing wiht
chain recently..  and i crocheted a mushroom..  and a
figure of a woman...  i'm really good at it..  well,
i'm getting a lot better now.  my stitches are even,
but my control over the shape isnt' as good as it
could be..  wire knitting is soon to learn.. i hope.

i'm going to get rid of all my galvanized steel and
replace it with more valuable metals..  i'm ordering
some titanium, and some stainless steel, as well as
stocking up on silver.

i got some liquid silver too..  which is basically
silver tube beads..  it's fun stuff, but takes almost
no skill to do..  the only hard part is making the
silver cones and clasp look pro, but that shouldnt' be
too hard..  (2 failed attempts, and they're simple
things that i can fix next time..)

i get on a bus for NJ on monday, so i'll get to nj on
wednesday.

i just deleted a long rant that disregarded respect.
i'll summarize it in saying this.

i'm reading exodus now.

i'm in teh process of linking to as many art sites out
there as i can..  so if you know of any online
galleries that might want to present my site, let me
know.

enjoy your day.
peace
ksckscpaaf
 

jan 28 - over the mountain ranges and far away

well i get on a bus at 8am in the morning to go stay
with titin.  i guess we're goingot chicago pretty soon
after that too..   much runnign around, but it's ok..
i enjoy that sort of thing.  i'm goignto learn to
druive, even tho i despise it..  i suppose i should
anyway..  i feel sort of bad not helping withthe
driving on road trips.

ok.  i read a book called, return from tomorrow by
george ritchie.  it was short and interesting..  it
was a jesus book about a guy who died for a little
while and goes and hangs out wiht jesus and it changes
his life.  it's presented as a true story, but what do
i know about that.  the last paragraph of the book is
the best.

"god is busy building a race of men who know how to
love.  i believe that the fate of earth depends on the
progress we make-and that time now is very short.as
for what we'll find int he next world, here too i
believe that what we discover there depends on how
well we get on with the business of loving here and
now."

true as true can be.

i'm reading numbers in teh bible now.  i must admit i
skipped the instructions for the individual levite
families.  cause it summarize at teh end anyway..  and
all that about making things out of gold in specific
ways..  i skiped that too, since i'm not crafting a
temple for god i figured it was unimportant to me.

let's see, what else.  i bought a bunch of wire.  i
spent several hundred on silver, brass, copper, and
even a couple feet of gold.  and pretty soon i'll be
getting some titanium and stainless steel, as well as
bronze, another couple hundred.  i'm tryingto cut
galvanized completely out of my maille.

i got some sterling silver tubing that i'm making
windchimes out of..  i spent the afternoon cutting it
down to length and filing hte ends smoothe with my
dandy new needle files.  and i didn't break a single
sawblade!!!  yay me!  last time i used that saw i
broke 4 blades.

i got so many toys i dont knwo what to do wiht them
all.  i got these pliers that twist 2 pieces of wire
together in an even spiral.  i won;t even try to
describe it other than it looks like a sharpie marker
mated with a pair of 10" linesman pliers.

i've spent the afternoon listening to "poi dog
pondering" a hawaiian band.  swank as swnak can be.

it snowed last night!!  we got 4 inches..  and i saw
icesicles that were angled.  a good 20 degrees off
from their normal vertical hanging..  i didn't
understand..  maybe the snow onteh roof shifted and
they did that....but there was a row of them that were
tilted.  5 or so.

i watched part of gone wiht the wind this evening wiht
my mom.  that is a weird movie.  and long as the earth
has sides..

ok here's a weird story.  i ws onteh internet the
other night (big change) and this guy sends me a
message.  i hadn't talked to him in around 9 months,
and then he was in colorado.  he is living in new
jersey right now, about 40 miles from whrer ei'll be
living.  that's pretty trippy.

then a few days later, one of my rainbow friends told
me thta she was moving to little egg harbor, NJ..
which is where a couple of my good friends live.  very
strange..

it all tells me that goingto NJ is the right move for
me..  it's still scary, but i'm going anyway.  i've
never lived wiht a girl before (other than my
family)..  i mean girlfriend..  but, i think it'll be
good.  the place where we're staying the woman who's
renting titin the room has 2 kids..  1 and 3.  i'm
excited about that.  i love kids and miss them when i
dont live wiht them..  they keep me from swearing all
the time and --they still know how to play--..  unlike
most adults.  and they're so much smarter than most
adults..  they know what's important.

so, think good things for me with your heart.
(thinking wiht the head just doenst' work as well.)

peace & love
ksckscpaaf
 

jan 29 - the frog and the post

on a potato farm a ways away
a frog croaks on and on all day
and it seems ot him that he is lost and confused
cause what the hell's a frog to do

ribbit he sings
rumble in his belly and
ribbit he sings

not too far away the frog spied a post
and he hopped as fast as his legs could go
till he reached that post and looked it square in
the...knot
and told it "ribbit!  go home"

the post sat there with it's nerves and knots
and was undaunted by the frogs mean ol taunts
but the frog kept it up and the post still stayed
till the frog was unhappy with the situation

ribbit sang the frog
grumbling dissatisfaction
ribbit sang the frog

now the post wasn't used to this harsh treatment
and so it ignored the frog for lack of a better plan
and the frog doubled his efforts to drive away the
post
bu tthe post didn't care one little bit

     sang the post
not a single word he spoke
     sang the post

the frog, in his troubled state
looked around for some help with this case
far off he spied a cricket singing happy songs
and he hopped over to tell his sad tale

ribbit mr cricket  the post won't move
ribbit mr cricket i dont knwo what to do

the cricket in it's kindly way
just kept on singing hoping the frog would go away
but to no avail was the crickets song
that bothersome from stayed all day long

the cricket stopped his singing and told the frog
i'm trying to b pleasant, go bug the dog
the frog thought this was an insolent thign to say
so he ate him.

the end
 

feb 1 - safe and sore

well i was supposed to arrive on wednesday at 1:30 at
newark..  i got there on thursday at 9ish?  i dnt
know..  and it is..  sometime now..  maybe about
11am..  i'm so lost..  I70 was clsoed out of denver so
we slept ont eh bus at the greyhound station..  it was
interesting i met some cool people..  but it made the
bus trip that much longer.  and people started
gettting 'uppity'.  but that's ok..  i rode a train
from newark to edison.  hadn't ridden a train before
and i think that the seats were more comfy but i'm
generally sore in every place there is ot be sore, so
it's hard to tell.  i'm going to go home and not carry
things for a few.  (150 lbs up and down the stairways
6 times sucks)  ok, so have a good day.  i'm safe.

peace
ksc
 

feb 3 - crowded house

i am living with 2 children, and 6 adults, not
counting titin and i.  but i'm not sure whre they all
sleep, it's not that big of a house..  it seems like 3
rooms upstairs and maybe 3 downstairs?  not exactly
sure, but it's good.  i like all of them, very nice
people.

communication is sometimes difficult, cause they're
all from indonesia and have various levels of english
speaking ability..  it's all better than my bahasa..
i'm learning a little bit at a time..  the basics and
so forth..  but it's a slow process.

i've eaten rice and fish every day since i got here,
but that's not a complaint..  more of an exclamation
of yay!

i'm going to try to contact the local colleges about
teaching my chianmaille, as well as a tatoo shop that
has an email address to see if they'll carry my work.
it's difficult cause everything is 50 miles away here
in NJ, cause it's one big city..  i dont knwo how they
get away with calling it the garden state.  they
should call it the city state.

hmm, if anyone in the NJ / NY, or surrounding areas
knows of a good place that might be interested in
carrying my maille work drop an email and let me know.

thanks
peace
ksc
 

feb 7 - bahasa

i'm still here..  it snowed.  really wet snow that
started to slush that night..  reminded me of home in
alaska..  i made a snowman that slowly tilted to the
left throughout the next day unbtil he made a leap for
the ground where he lays now.  i may turn him into a
mushroom patch if the snowballs freeze.

i'm learning bahasa.  i decided to translate a book on
dream intrepretation..  i'm still on the introducion
page, (about halfway through).  it's a much simpler
language than english.  all of the vowels are
constant.  a sounds like a.  e sounds like e.  not
liek english where a sounds like a, e, o, i, and y.

a couple of the people i'm living with told me
american english is confusing..  they said, "we
learned european english.  here they say 'gonna go'..
we learned 'going to go.'.."  they also didn't
understand 'goddamn'..  i told them it's cause
americans are lazy in action and speaking.

i'm looking for a regular type job right now to hold
me over until i get the chain thing going..  but i'm
still working daily ont eh chainmaille.

i should go i still need to do some passport research
on here.

peace
ksc
 

feb 9 - catch 22

well, tomorrow i turn 22..  it's not that big of a
deal for me, but i dig that my age is palindromic.

here's an interesting bit of information.  "bangor" in
bahasa means 'insolent, naughty'  there was another
word that they gave as example too, but i forget what
it was.

i got some mystery wire from indonesia..  i need to
run some fire tests and compare it to the kinds of
wire that i already have (and know the types of) to
see if i can determine what it is.  i've sent the last
few days dismantling old chain projects that i was not
pleased with and reassembling them into sculpture..
i'm working on a chainmaille vase that will probably
be 6 - 8 inches tall.  it's nitce being able to just
throw together a large sculptural piece in a couple of
days of casual work, instead of it taking many many
hours of solid work to do.

i'll keep it brief here, cause time is short, but have
a grandiose day

salam dalam
ksc
 

feb 13 - fnordly

well, my time now is short but i'll give the guts..

my birthday was pleasant..  i got taken to a dandy
restaunt..  and it was tasty...  i'm making a lot of
chianmaille and still working on learning bahasa..

i also found one of the only english books in the
house..

the coimplete works of robert frost

so i'm reading it..  the meter is hard for me to
follow sometimes, but i'm getting it.

i'm still looking for a job, it's dirty work, i say..

also, far fewer people live in the house than i
suspected..  many of them only visit often, which is
good, they are all very kind friendly people..

have a great day

peac
eksc
 

feb 16 - good news and chainmaille

chainmaille is always good news.

but this is good news too.

the local library here has agreed to host a display of
my art during the month of april, in a locked display
case.  i'm excited and am going to spend the next
month preparing some new pieces for the display,
including a large sterling silver turtle, and the new
vase i'm working on.

also:  in juneau where i grew up, we have an
overabundance of dandelions.  you couldn't pay people
to take them.  at the asian food market they sell
dandeliions for 99cents a pound..  just the leaves..
i thought a few people might get a kick out of that.

peace
ksckscpaaf
 

feb 24 - m.a.i.l.

well, i'm working with a grouyp of people on an
organization called "maille artisans international
league"..  it's pretty hip and has some good places to
go..  i look forward to my almost daily library
visits..

i'm still working on the vase..  as well as some other
ideas that i'm kicking around.

still no job and thaty's getting bothersome, but what
can you do..  i've contacted some local art gfalleries
about carrying my work and have an appointment on
tuesday to show it to one..  they do mostly foriegn
art but we'll see what they think.

i'm still reading the robert frost book..  and i read
a poem that grace recited to me as well as the poem
they discuss in the movie "the outsiders"..
everything gold must fade, i think it's called..

life is weird.

and in the meantime, "stay gold, ponyboy."

peace
ksc
 

feb 27 - chillun an movin heavy stuff

well i went on an adve4nture and visited with my
friend erin last night nd had good talks till late int
eh evening..  and then i was brought to my friend
michaels' house..  (well his uncles)..  and i got to
play with kids all day and we moved a printing press..
 those things are heavy;.  in case you've never moved
one before (like myself before today)..  and this
particular one required dissassebly (and thusly
reassembly)..  so as to fit the 30" wide unit through
a 28.5" wide doorway.  but it's there and yay.

also:  i am soonly going to michigan to make some
money as i'm running out just sitting around jobless.

well cat stevens is playing and the kids are running
rampant. so i'm gonna sign off.

peace
ksc
 

mar 14 - michagain

well i hope i remember everything..

whil i was still in NJ a fellow from amsterdam met
titin and saw some of my chain pieces..  really liked
one of them and offered '2000 cash'..  he just
emailled me so we're negotiatingnow..

i'm in kalamazoo now.  i took a car with james and his
friend to gary indiana from piscataway..  and then
caught a bus to Kzoo.  jamesa too me and the other kid
to a strip bar ont eh way out..  i wasn't really
interestd in going but i went in anyway..  and drank a
beer and saw a couple of girls waggle around.  i tried
to give one of them some advice, "find a dream and
persue it like it's the only star int eh sky."  but
they have the music up really loud so you can't talk
tothe girls easily.

gotta send this is about to turn off..

eace and love ksc
 

mar 20 - star of david syncronicity

so i'm back to reading the bible.  i have a bookmark
int eh old testament and one int he new.  i'm reading
about david..  and he's not king yet,
ok and i was at a preparty last weekend and met a guy
who wanted to buy a star of david inset in a cirrcle..
 like the peace sign i did.  so i made that yesterday.

thought it was strange they showed up together.

someone told me they thought that the star of david
symbolized meditation.
your legs form one triangle and your arms the other.

i'm still talking to the aryt dealer.. so it may
happen.

i may have to go to the netherlands to sell it but oh
bummer for me.

i found out that i'm making about 15 an hour at least
for the pergola project.  so yay for that.

i've been teaching a few people..  taught some
chainmaille./.  and i tasught the josephine knot to a
person.  yay teaching,

oh yeah and i traded the chain shirt i made for a
bunch of titanium and surgical steel..  and a titanium
annodizer.

so that's good..  i just have to find the right person
to send the annodizer to, causre i urely dont want the
thing.

well ythat's my life for the last week.

peace
ksckscpaaf
 

mar 28 - learning still

well i've been spending a lot of time crocheting
wire..  and making chainmaille.  i started working on
a gazebo.  the base is about 8 or so inches across.
it shouldn't take TOO long to complete if i can focue
on making things for it.. ;)  gazebos are all empty
space.

i've been reading the bible as lot recently.  i'm just
about to where solomon takes over the kingship of
isreal.  and i stopped reading the old testament.
solomon was one of the people who i was most curious
about int he bible, but i stopped reading the old
testament to go on tot he new.

jesus and the apostles do a lot of really sane things.
 it sayd that they didn't consider material
possessions as their own, and shared all they had.
there's good wisdom.  and jesus said several times,
'the kindom of heaven is within you'.  hmm.  and 'your
faith has healed you'  and when peter (i think) tried
to go out to jesus when he was walking on the water,
he walked at first, on it, but then he doubted, and
begain to sink.. jesus said, "oh, you of litte faith,
why did you doubt?"  who did he doubt?

so here is what i have seen, i already knew these
things, but it's interesting seeing them in this book
that, for so long, i hav ignored.  jesus was saying
that all of us are just like him, or have that
potential.  that we are all 'sons of god'  and 'sons
of  man'..

anyway, give it a read and form your own opinion about
what he said.

ok so there was an interesting experience i had the
other day.  i went to a party.  i dont really like
parties, but i went cause i knew a few of the people
who were there.  well it was a chaotic party.  the
attic was full of drums and guitars and singers.  and
the other floors were far less in tune with each
other.  twards the end of the party i tried to get all
of the floors to make the same noise.  turn off all
the electronics, and have the people all make the same
noise.  sing or humm, drum, whatever, but in unison.

we tried with a couple of songs, but people didn't
know the songs..  i realized too late that if we could
have gotten people to 'ohm' that was the noise..
something simple enough for anyone to do.  oh well the
moment was past.

i came home and worked on things all day.  as well as
making myself a part of 'circus spontaneous' which is
a ministry of maddness. will was concerned about
people turning it into a religion.  i said that would
be good.  "we should worship..  we should
worship..god."  i never realized it before.  i believe
that i am god.  and will is god.  and the trees out
back are god.  everything is god.  and at that moment
i knew that we should worship it
reverently..respectfully.

so, that's where i'm at.  in a couple days i go to new
jersey to set up my art show at the library.  and in
the mean time i'll just spend my time tryignt o make
giant windchimes or something.

oh yeah.  and i'm going to save the world.  i've known
it since i was a little kid.  just thought i should
tell you.

now that you all think i'm suffeciently crazy, have a
grand day

ksckscpaaf
 

mar 31 - i won the setup game

the display is up and displaying..   and i met a guy
that i think i'm going to teach to make chainmaille
this afternoon.  i'd seen him before when i was coming
to the library..  but we hadn't really talked nmuch at
that point.

i've gotten a lot of compliments on my stuff..  i'm
curious to see what pans out from this.

yay for me.

peac
eksc
 

apr 1 - antarctica

wow, so i got this crazy offer.  after i was done
setting up the chainmaille someone approached me and
offered me a plane ticket to antarctica!  i'm going to
count penguins..  they started talking to me about it,
and when i told them that i knew there were 17
different species of penguins they thought i was the
right guy for the job.

as i understand it the "summer" seanson is ending
soon, but there's still enough time to do a
'prewinter' headcount..  (or crestcount, as it were)

wow, you -know- you're doing something right when
things like this happen.  i'm so excited about this i
can't even remember all te other stuff that happened..

i helped my friend rocky paint his new room
yesterday./.  he moved into it today.  i told him that
i liked the origional wood finish, but he wanted to
paint it white to lighten it up.

i found a song that i know in the bible.. i looked for
it and then i stopped looking for it and then i found
it.  psalm 137

by the rivers of bablyon, where we sat down
and there we wept, when we remembered zion
oh but the wicked, they carried us away, captivity
and required from us a song
but how can we sing our lords' song in a strange land.

yeah, in the bible version there's more verses..  i
plan on translating the rest of the bible version into
the "time" that the version i know is in.

here's the rest as i know it for those of you who
care.

so let the words of our mouths,
and the meditations of our hearts
be acceptable in thy sight, over i

that's somewhere else in the bible, but i don't
remember where.

ok so i'm in the book of acts right now..  keep in
mind that it's a cronological bible, i'm through
galatians and about to start in on thessolonians.

ok, well talk to you soon.. wow am i excited about
this antarctica thing..  did you know it's the most
mountainous continent ont he earth?

wow, ok so yeah, peace
ksckscpaaf
 

apr 7 - crafti

Hmm..  stories stories..  ok antarctica was a joke..
I had internet access on april fools day and decided
to put that out there..  eheheh..  let's see..  after
I set up the art show, I visited with my friend rocky,
and helped him pain his room in his new house.  A
shame to paint the good wood, but he wanted it done so
I helped.  And the next day I went to visit wih my
friend erin, and I have pictures of me making
chianmaille now..  so perhaps my website will see
those posted sometime..  I had a lot of good
conversations while I was in nj..  and I learned a new
crochet stitch..  hmm..  and I learned the goodness of
putting a bell pepper on a baking sheet and cooking
it, as you would roast chili peppers.  Mmmmmm.

The bus ride back to kalamazoo…  I sat near this
fellow who was "saved"  or "born again"..  he was
christian all his life, but when he was 35 or so he
understood what it was about..  I don't fully agree
with everything that he said, but that's ok..  he
doesn't agree fully with everything that I said.  Hmm,
I met some other cool people on the bus..  and when I
got to the detroit bus station I met a fellow that had
been wanting to learn to make chainmaille for a couple
of years, so I taught him.  I think he'll keep it up.
He's already working in leather, cloth, and a little
bit of plate  metal too.

Hmm..  I got to kalamazoo, and the day I got here we
cleared the space we're moving the water heater to..
and I started some windchimes.  The windchimes are cut
from old boat railing and variuos other junk I found
around the house..  right now they're big and loud, I
hope to do things to them to make them quieter..  I
don't want to make people hate me for my creative
endevours.

Yesterday I finished the windchimes and built some
shelves..  the shelves are made but I still need to
attach the back to it so it doesn't break..  it's
amazing how much stability can be added by a 1/8"
sheet of wood.  Hmm, the shelves are made out of junk
wood, but they work just fine.

What else..  I'm going to start hollowing out a log to
make a drum sometime..  maybe today or tomorrow.

Hmm.  In my reading the bibleconquest I have read
several of pauls letters..   I've almost read all of
them, maybe one or two more to read.  And then peter,
john, and revelations, which I have done some skimming
through.  I've read a little more about solomon too,
but that's not my focus right now.  I decided to set
the bible down for a book or two.  I am now reading a
hindu book called "the upanishads"  which mostly talks
about connecting with what they call "the self"..  I
believe that this is what jesus called 'god' or
'eloi'..  basically the everything..

Anyway..  what else..  will and I are supposed to
start this pergola and arbor this next week..  I'm
interested in seeng what needsto be done..  especially
after my shelves..  but  the pergola should be a
little easier to do..  I cutthe shelves freehand with
a backsaw, so thhings weren't as good as they might
have been, if you know what I mean..

Hmm..  last night I was at my friends house, and a
band was over..  I got to play a drumset for the first
time.  It was really good experience..  really easy.
I like all the diffferent sounds you can make with a
drumset..  all right there for your tingy
reverberating pleasure.

Ok well I wrote this in MS word, in the hope tha the
computer won't freeze on me..  I guess we'll see in a
minute.

success is mine!  peaceksc
 

apr 10 - almost on the road to detroit

we are so close to leaving..  i've been doing a lot of
work..  the truck is loaded..  and the plans are
drawn..  and the estimates are made.  YAY!  i'll only
be working for 10$ an hour, but i set that price and
i'm really ahppy about it..  i stand to make a couple
thousand in a month and a half, so that's good.

we did some yard work yesterday and are still working
around the house..  cleaning the porch and such..
(disaster area)

i started the drum..  hollowed it out, and it was
really wet so i'll let it dry out for a couple weeks
and then i'll burn the rest out with coals.

i but the backing ont he shelves and will hang them
tomorrow probably.  and the windchimes are hung, but
they still beed an hour of work or so to make it so
they make noise, but not too much noise..  right no
thye're dampened so no noise is made..  they're a few
feet tall, so that's better than too much noise on the
gusty nightss we've been having..

i also wrote some articles for the chainmaille group
i'm involved with..  and a couple book reviews too.

hope you're all doing well.

peace
ksc
 

apr 24 - does it work?

it does.  we are in..someplace.  southfield area..
around detroit.  i haven't seen much but a street, i
was asleep when we pulled up.  we have the tools
organized and the shop space prepared.  we'll get
lumber later today and then start making archways
tomorrow.  yay!  we're sleeping in a little apartment
above the shop. (in a not so directly above sort of
way)  it's a good little space.

what is new.

we tilled the backyard and are going to plant it
sometime.  i made a star shaped patio, out of old
chunks of cement set into the ground, like flagstones.
 and a stairway that goes from the yard up into the
cemetary.  and i made and planted a garden for
myself..  even though i won't be here to tend it
probably. :)  hmm, i'd like to not harvest very much
and let it go from year to year, see if it's self
replinishing.

i went to work at labor ready for a day.  i swept up
little metal shavings from lathes.  easy work.  when i
was walking home i got stopped by a cop..  he took my
info, and i told him, "hey since you're taking my
information you should give me a ride hom."  so he
did.

hmm..  we think we might have 2 or 3 roomates. but
we're not quite sure.

hmm, oh yeha and the local tattoo shop is talking to
me about having me make gold body jewelry (for
piercings) for them..  and stainless too...  but i'd
rather stay in the precious metals.

any thing else?  yes, but i shouldn't tell you.. ;)

rock out
peace on
ksckscpaaf
 

apr 30 - detroit baked beans

well we're on a daily working nonschedule.  sometimes
we start really early and sometimes we're at it really
late.

the shop is set up and functional..  we had to build
some things..  like an in-feed/off-feed table for the
table saw..

we found out how to make baked beans in a crock pot..
here's a recipie.

1.  put in way too many beans
2.  add sufficient water
3.  curry
4.  cayenne peppers
5.  a lot of sugar

let sit until finished.

as a kid i despised baked beans.  now they're good...
but i dont think i'd make them really often.

what else?  i'm working on my gazebo again...  and
reading the bible more too.  almost through paul..
that was one longwinded fellow. (hey kettle, you're
black.)

hmm..  i can't think of anything else interesting that
i've done...so.

oh yeah.  i goty a r5aise to 12$ an hour too.  so, yay
me.

peace
ksc
 

may 6 - spring vision council

ok so will got an email about a full moon drum circle.
so we went.  yay for drums.  and the next day michigan
family spring vision council was going to meet for 2
days.  so we went.

ok from the beginning.  we got a ride to council from
a girl named beth who was at the drum circle, in ann
arbor.  we slept in ann arbor that night and the next
day slowly got up and moved ourselves back to
southfield (the jobsite).  we packed our stuff and
headed off, again with beth, to the vision council,
which was half way across the great state of michigan.
 we arrived and it was not what i expected.  i
expected a more formal setting.

it was on some peoples' land, and there were chickens
and a rooster (which works).  there were a few dogs
there(including the godly spot)..  but the highlight
was the number of kids..  hmm, maybe 7 kids of various
ages, out of a little over 50 people.

formal..  well it was simply a rainbow gathering..
and i saw a lot of faces i knew and a lot of faces
that were totally new.

we had drum circles and "turtle calls"..  turtle soup
is the name of the michigan kitchen, and they yell,
"ONE! TWO!! THREE!!!" and say "turtle call" several
times under their breath.

a council circle was called today..  they say it
always has to get down to the wire beforecircle is
called.

hmm..  you know every time i see gfamily i remember
how silly all the things that i do in babylon are.  i
wish that i could find a way to show you the love that
you get around the rainbow family gatherings.

it would save the world.

go there, please

www.welcomehome.org
or
www.greatlakesrainbow.org

ok enough of that.  while i was there i met a girl
named sprite, she has 2 kids, one who's almost 4 and
another who's 15 months.  they're both just grand.  i
taught her to make a little maille, and we talked a
lot about god.  it's not common that you find people
to discuss god with, i've found.. or can discuss the
bible's picture of god, at least...in an educated
manner. (i'm still far froimm being done wiht the
bible..  i only have a couple new testament books left
that are pretty short and then i have half the old
testament to read still.

well, she gave me a ride back across the state to
southfield where i am right this instant.

there's a lot more stuff but, such is life.

find the rainbow
ksc
 

may 6 -  i forgot puppy!

ok.  i got commishioned to make a harness for a
domesticated racoon named 'puppy'.  he's a fun little
creature.  i've never been that close to one before.
he was fat and waddled around..  and wsa playful, and
made a silly huffy noise when he was displeased..(i
only heard it once).  he lived with a fellow and slept
with him at night.  he was hit by a car when he was
really young and ray cared for him..  he tried to send
him back to the wild, but he nearly got killed byt he
other coons.  so he's a homeboy now.  until i make a
harness, then he's as mobile as anything is with a
harness and a leash tied to it.

and here's a little rainbow round.maybe i already sent
this, but watch me care.  (care)

we are circling
circling together
we are singing
singing our heartsong
this is family
this is unity
this is celebration
this is sacred

love
ksc
 

may 10 - tiedyes and potlucks make kim a.....

well yesterday we went to a tiedye party and it was
funly fun.  i tiedyed a shirt that i got from the
landscaping company that we're building the pergola
for.  it's groovy.

afterwards we went on a walk to a dam and sat and sang
songs..  and drank a little wine.  so here's one of
the songs i learned..  it's irish if you can't guess.

drink boys drink
an' drink if ya say ya will
for if ya dunna drink, ma' lads
i'll have to say i will

repeat ad nauseum
_______________

and here's another one...  it's probably a catholic
chant from back in the day..  not really sure, but the
guy who taught us these songs is pretty irish and
pretty catholic.

cor mundum
crea en mei deus
pauper service et humilis

it means, i believe..

create in me the clean heart of jesus
a pauper serving in humility.
___________
when we got back fromt eh dam we were invited to a
potluck, so we went and ate good food and i met some
coolio people.

and today we got 5 archways assembled and routered.
yay for productivity..  and then i got to visit with
my friend dru who lives in the4 next city.

people are a grand thing.

love
ksc
 

may 11 - disclosure project

ok so i understand that on may 9 (happy birthday,
sara) some people came out and told some interesting
stories.  these stories are about flying craft, and
ets and like ilk.

the people telling these stories are military people
and nasa people and whatever..

everything should be taken with a grain of salt, and a
measure of bullshit..  <shrug> form your own opinion.
i only read through a few of the articles but they
seem realistic enough for me to believe..

like an et running back to hir craft and being shot in
the back by military people..

or ets being held in los alamos at the labratories.

and nuclear weapons being disarmed and removed from
space cause i guess they don't like nukes.  good for
them.

it also suggests that they may not allow us to explore
space until we advance more spiritually.  yay for
aliens!

anyw2ay, here's the url
http://disclosureproject.org

hehe..  those of you who have interesting jobs should
forget about this email.. ;)

i'm interest4ed in hearing what you all think about
this topic and the site.

happy reading
love
ksc
 

may 13 - oh, canada!

well, sprite and her beautiful children came down
yesterday to visit.  we decided to go to a lake called
"kent lake".  now i am either lysdexic or guided by
spirit...  but in navigation i said, "ok, take 696
east."  kent lake was west.  so a couple of hours
later sprite said, "9 miles to canada."  i thought she
was kidding.

so we got to the canadian border, and went across..
(of course we went across, we were guided there.)  we
crossed and followed the information signs, which were
big brown questionmarks.  it sort of sent the message,
"befuddled? -->"  so we went.

the canada information center is an ice cream shop.
now if that isn't a tourist trap i dont know what is.
i asked a fellow that came out the door, "there's
information in there?"  and he responded, "well,
she'll talk to you."

we went in and the lady sold us some ice cream.  we
were responsible tourists.  and she pointed us to a
park that was a feww miles away, on the coast of
lake...huron?  i dont know exactly, but i think it's
huron...  it was sort of chilly there, but we had a
lot of fun, playing in the sand, making sand castles..
 the4 sand there was perfect for drip castles, but it
was too cold to be putting my hand in wetness.

after a few hours we came back to the untied states.
so, goal accomplished,...  as you may recall, the only
goal i had for the year was to leave the country.

when we got back to southfield we came in and hung
out..  talked with will, (who had stayed home to
rebuild a carbeurator, only to find it was the fuel
pump that was wonky, or some suchness..)  we sat
around and talked about god, as we are apt to do..
and we read some bible verses out loud..  ecclesiaties
(i botched that spelling)..  we read the first 3 or 4
chapters of it..  this is a really good book..  you
know the song, "for every season, turn, turn, turn..
there's a time to laugh, etc.."  and we read second
kings..  the first 3 or 4 chapters.  that's where
elija was taken up in a whirlwind to god, after
chariots of fire showed up..  can we say aliens?

hmm, then we cooked some pastqa, which was yummy
considering our lack of ingredients.  (pasta, monterey
jack cheese, black pepper, tomato, salt.)

and we stayed up talking about lots of things..  we
saw the sun come up.  well, the sun came up..  we
didn't really notice it until it was up.

hmm..  sprite gave me a bone bead for my hair..  oh
yeah i'm growing dreadlocks..  i dont think i
mentioned that before.  she also made a necklace for
me out of hemp with some hip beads on it..  silver i
think but i don't really know..  since i dont wear
necklaces i have to find a different use for it, but
whatever the use is, i'm sure it will work perfectly
for it.

hmm, when she and the kids left, pacific asked if i
could go with them, that felt really good..  it's
always wonderful to be accepted by children.

hmm..  what else has been happening..  we're almost
done with the archways..  the one that's almost
completely assembled looks really good..  it's amazing
what you can do with wood..  i feel honored to be
working with will on this project.  i'm learning a lot
about constructing jigs for consistancy..  and i
learned how to calibrate a tablesaw.

what else..  well i've already been longwinded enough,
so i'll leave you with a portion of a song.

_________________________________
i haven't seen all there is to see,
but i've seen quite a bit
i've seen things i'll always remember..
some things i wish that i could forget..
i haven't quite been around the world,
but i've been around a lot.
i know that distances are meaningless
like the hands that move around the clock.
and i know that love is everywhere,
always safe, always true
and exactly where it comes from
is where it's going to
your heart to mine
my heart to yours
talk about opening windows
talk about opening doors
my heart to yours
your heart to mine
love is a light that shines from heart to heart

-john denver...'heart to heart'
__________________________________

love
ksckscpaaf
 

may 15 - middle finger technology

typ[ing today is slow.  i don't have the use of my
lefthand middle finger, as i impaled it with a nail..
from a nailgun.  it was weird, i just looked down and
there was a nail in my finger..  i pulled it out..
that fel;t pretty strange.  and then i wrapped it in
toilet paper and electrical tape and kept working. :)
will says that he's the only carpenter he knows who's
never shot themselves with a nailgun.  luckily it
didn't break a bone or anything..  and it wasn't
rusty.  but if i get lockjaw, i'll tell you. ;)

hmm.  what else?  the archways are almost done..
haven't i said that several times already?  well
they're takign a lot more work than i anticipated..
but the archways alone are works of art.

i'm almost done reading revelations.  the bowls of
wrath that the angels pour out sound like
environmental catastrophy, more than miraculous
things..  which i find interesting.

mey, mi mot mockmaw..  j/k

oh yeah..  i don't have a regular internet connection
now, cause we were using netzero, and the time limit
is used..  so i found the closest library.  which is
also a police station.  i guess people steal books a
lot or something.

well, life is otherweise really good.  i should go, i
think..  there's a 30minute time limit.

lovin all of ya
ksc
 

may 18 - familiar newness

well, we left for kalamazoo in the truck..  which we
got running that day.  and we went to ann arbor and
hung out for a little while.  when we left ann arbor
the fog was really thick..  maybe 50ft visibility.  we
drove around for awhile, and i was getting scared..
i;m scared of cars anyway..  and i wanted qwill to
slow down..  eventually he did..  and we saw a meijers
sign (grocery store)..  but couldn't see the
building..  we drove in, and saw the building, but
thought it was closed...  we parked, and went
shopping..

i got 2 bananas, 2 ears of fresh corn, 1 loaf of
bakery bread and a thinbg of strawberries for $3.83.
and it was a [pretty big thing of strawberries.  so we
ate, went to sleep, and woke up to a clear day..
(well, a little overscast)...  bought 5 more things of
strawberries, and drove to kalamazoo.

that afternoon we were talking t0o the neighbor and
something ran out at us.  i jumped out of it's way and
it ran up tot he neighbor, tim..  he picked it up, and
passed it to me..  i was holding a baby squirrel.

now there was a big hollow tree that had been cut down
a few days before, and we're pretty sure it was hir
home..  we let hir wander around wherever it wants.
it always tries to climb up my leg, but it's really
little, so it can't quite climb my skin.

will says that if it's mom was still around that she'd
have it in a safe plavce..  that makes sense to me,
cause i've never seen a baby one.

we're feeding it strawberries, and this rice babyfood
stuff fromt he neighbors..  and i have an eyedropper
for water.

my goal is to raise it till it's old enough to live in
the yard.  squirrels int eh neighborhood are wellfed.

well, that's all for now, have a grand day
peace
ksc
 

may 18 - and another thing...

my friend palyn sent me an email reminding me that i
had shot myself with a nailgun.  just thought i'd let
you guys know that it healed already.  i can bend my
finger fully, and barely feel that it was there..  the
nail was galvanized too so there wasn't too much
danger.

pweace
ksc

may 21 - broken

well, the truck broke a u bolt, whatever that is..  (i
can sort of picture it...)  and we're still in
kalamazoo.  we were suposed to be back saturday.  oh
well.  we got the garden planted, and the squirrel is
doing dandily too.  is there a point to this email?
no.  however, i'm writing it anyway.

it rained today.  yay rain.

ok sending and all.

love
kim
 

may 25 - back to work, hippy

so i left kalamazoo.  i got on a bus ad went to
saginaw, michigan to visit a wonderful sprite girl and
her family.  we decided to give the squirrel a room in
the house, with an open window ad some food.  we'll
see how it works out fr him.  so i spent 3 days here
in saginaw, and i'm headed back to southfield to wrk
fr a week, and then i'm off to new jersey and my
cousins' wedding in coneticut.

anyway thought i'd drop a line.

life is grand.

so are children.

love
kim
 

may 26 - *

i got back to the workplace, and the truck was there,
so it made it back somehow (with lumber)..  and the
little car was there.  will wasn't there.  i still
haven't seen him.  i'm sure he's just out partying.

ok so i think i'm done now.

i'll try not to update until i'm in new jersey. (next
friday..) or after if i can't get access easily.

"great explanation, kim"
"thank you, kim"
kim
 

may 28 - feelin like a hippy in a yuppie campground

well, perhaps cause i was.  i got back witht he
intention of working..  and when i finally did meet up
with will, we decided to go camping.  it sprinkled and
drizzled last night, which was ok..  and it was nice
and sunny for our walk around the lake today.

last night we were givensome fried fish and some
potatoes that were just succulent..  and some cole
slaw that was pretty yummy too.  some all american
campers in their all american camper gave it to us.

well, i should go, the rest of the human just got back
and i think that we're going disc golfing now.  disc
golfing, for those of you who've never been..  is
throwing a frisbee, across a course, and the "hole" is
a baskets with chains on it to stop the frisbee if
ytou hit it.  it's a pretyt fun game as long as you
remember that it's just a game, and leave the
competition somewhere else.  like corporate america.

ok..  i know i said that i woulnd't do it yet.  but i
just keep doing fun things.  "i appologize for the
inconvenience." (god's last message to man, according
to douglas adams.)

love
kim
 

june 1 - melting pot

ok it just kicked me off..  back to the world.

after the camping trip, i went to southfield and
sprite came down to visit me.  (there was a couple of
hours between these two things happening..)  and we
went hiking in some semi woodsy polluted river place..
 i got to carry sunshine for a little while, and
gained a whole new respect for sprite.  she has to be
stronger than,..  i dunno, but my arms were sore after
a short time, and sprite carried that baby around for
hours.  tuff chick.

anyway, the next day sprite was getting ready to go
home,..  i asked if she wanted company.  when we got
to saginaw we went to her moms' house, and i had a
good talk wiht her mom..  and we went and played in
the park..  i got to play with a merry go round for
the first time in a couple years..  i learned how to
really get those things going once while i was out
walking on my own..  wat else..  we made a sand
sculpture..  well sprite did..  and i spent my time
undermining it..  i always did like digging holes.

the next day we took some time getting ourselves up
and moving.  we sat around crafting and enjoying the
day..  and right before we went tot he bus station we
walked through an art fair thing.  it was fun..  a lot
of painting, but some wire art too, and other jewelry
stuff...  and we were approached by a NORML guy
looking for signatures..  i didn't sign seeing as i'm
not going to be in michigan at the time of the
voting..  sprite had signed a month or so earlier.

ok so i just heard about this tonight..  has anyone
else heard of some federal bill that makes it illegal
to prescribe medical marijuana?  appearantly a federal
bill overrides the state legislation that has passed
in places..  this bill is supposedly only a couple
weeks old.

here's a simple solution..  well i'll give a couple.

1.  ignore the government.  they only have power over
you if you give it to them.

2.  plant your seeds.

i'm not sure who said it..  perhas it was jefferson..
or franklin?  obscure reference man?

"if you sacrifice freedom for security you get
neither."

will uses that quote a lot.

ok so i got on a bus on thursday.  (and had a talk
with a nurse about medical marijuana too, but i was
unaware of this new legislation at the time.)

when i had made it here to NJ erin picked me up and we
drove down to south jersey...  we went to this middle
school and had a dinner theater thing, presented by a
"self contained classroom".  that is PCspeak..  the
house i'm staying at, the older boy has down
syndrome..  and his class had a potluck..  it was so
good..  we had around 15 dishes to choose from..  all
of some different culture..  and about 8 different
deserts.

i had the french onion soup, some pierogi (mashed
potatoes inside a pasta shell..  like the dumplings my
sister made when she was a dumpling queen..) and sweet
potato casserole..  with baklava for desert.

then the kids did a play on the history of america
from after the end of the civil war..  (no talk of
emancipation and all that, but went over womens'
rghts)  and they sang songs.  one kid did the most
moving rendition of "brother can you spare a dime"
that i've ever heard.  it was the only rendition of
the song i've ever heard, but...  <shrug>  he did do a
really good job.  and that booogie woogie bugle boy
from company b song was sung..  a lot of songs..  they
played the tape in the background, but still it was a
lot of fun..

and at the end they handed out lyric sheets and we all
sang neil diamonds' "coming to america"..  all in all
good show!

well, we made it home and people spent a couple hours
playing wiht chianmaille..  and one kid wanted to make
some..  not the one i came here to teach, but what the
hey..  i started teaching one, and 3 more joined in..
one of which was the one i came ot teach..  it was
great..  all of my pliers were in use..  and i even
used a couple pairs f tweezers...  it was heavenly.

so, that was my day.  i also got a really good email
from my cousin, but that is a whole nother email, in
case you don't want to hear about bible talk things..
you can just hit delete.

ok.  love you.

kim sc ksc pa af
 

june 1 - bible thingery

"Now Jabez was more honorable than his
brothers."   The preceding verse (1 Chron. 4:9)
------------------------------------------------------The
Prayer (1 Chron. 4:10)
And, Jabez called on the God of Israel saying,
"Oh, that You would bless me indeed,
and enlarge my territory,
that Your hand would be with me,
and that You would keep me from evil,
and that I may not cause pain!"

So God granted him what he
requested.                (NKJV)

______________________
my cousin grace sent this to me, and it was a grand
thing to recieve..  so i looked it up in my NIV bible.
 totally different prayer..  listen to this.

"oh that you would bless me and enlarge my territory.
let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so
that i might be free from pain."  - 1 chron 4:9+

that last line..  it goes from a....generous..
thinking of others mentality to a selfish mentality..
i don't know which is more accurate tot he historical
texts, but the king james version seems to be more
holy to me, in this case at least...  it makes me want
to sit and read verse to verse..  one version then
another..  are you game for that ms sprite?

so hmm..  i read a bit more of the bible..  read the
book of obadiah..  read about the child king, joash..
read about the mom who was complaining tot he king
because her neighbor convinced her to eat her baby,
with the agreement that they'd eat her baby the next
day and then hid her baby..  so the first mom started
complaining..  well, silly wench, don't eat your
progeny.

mm..  oh yea, and sprite read the book of job to me
too..  that was a goodness.  i had read parts of it..
but i didin't read all of it..  it's a lot longer than
i realized.  job was in some unpleasant situations..
but still remained strong..  how goodly.

hmm, ok i'll let you all go.  talk to you again soon

love
kim
 

june 2 - big kid tantrums

well..  the morning started with bagels..  and a
shower.. which is about as regular as bagels for me..
and then a bunch of people came..  and we went in
search of chainmaille suplies..  we went to lowes..
and sent money..  and lowes wouldn't let us use their
vices to bend the rods we were going to buy there..
so we left..  and went across the street to home
despot.  we couldn't bend the rods there either, but
we bought more stuff.  and then we went to ace..  and
couldn't bend the rods there either, but we bought
them there anyway..  along with a bunch of other
stuff..  the plier selection is as good as nothing..
they all carry the same pliers..  bah..  stupid
people.

well, we came home and there was a group of people
already here and they were stripping wire..  they had
gone dumpster diving to get wire.  now i have respect
for young kids dumpster diving for wire for maille.

the day was full of chainmailly goodness...  and a lot
of peopel did a lot of really creative things ..  a
dreadlock hackysack..  (maille)..  and a person..  and
a peace sign.

well, eventually someone suggested that we bend the
rods at a gas station..  so we went..  and met
"tommy"..  now tommy let us bend the rods..  and even
said he'd come over to learn..  but hasn't come over
yet.  but the whole reason that all the hardware
stores had incompetent people setting up the vice
displays was so that we'd meet tommy.  yay universe.
(they said we couldn't use the vices at home depot
cause they were mounted on really weak material.  says
something about competence to me)..

well..  later one while the adults are out yarn
shopping, i hear a guy yelling about calling the
police..  appearantly some of the kids i was supposed
to be watching were being punks and lobbing water
balloons at cars..  now i didn't expect them to do
this..  but they did none the less.  i went out and
told the kids to get off the roof and go inside and
talked tot he guy..  i said, "now, there's a lot of
ways we can deal witht he situation, we don't need to
get the police involved."  he just got more upset and
walked off to the police station.

now how is this for the state of events in america
that a man can't even maturely handle a simple
situation like this..  the right way to deal with it
is to come in and talk to the parents and have them
discipline the children.  problem solved.  but no, he
went off and talked tot he police..  that's what
people often do..  instead of handling a situation
calmly, by themselves, they get the government
involved because they just can't figure out what the
good, responsible thing to do is.

this was several hours ago, so i guess the police
laughed at him and probably told him to go talk tot he
parents.  go figure.

well..  now people are -still- making chianmaille..
and i think we're about to take a walk to get ice
cream..  but i think they called it "water ice"..
what a bizarre, redundant thingery..

well, this evening i'm pretty relaxed, regardless of
the frustration that i created for myself about the
differnet hardware stores..  and the threats of police
talking to me (whom i generally despise, unless i am
in no position to be screwed with by them..)..  i
would mostly attribute the relaxation tot he glass of
evan williams that i'm sipping on.

go life!

i love you all
kimschatfieldkeeperofthesacredchaoprofessionalartisanamatuerfool
 

june 4 - oy, melba, them crabs be wonky

hmm..  well i finished my weekend in northfield, NJ
and departed to little egg harbor, NJ..  and had a
wonderful time yesterday talking to therese and
getting to know freya again..  (she was a bit younger
when i saw her last..)  we played int eh sandbox, and
fed the seagulls. (searats)  it's a weird experience..
 there must have been 20 or so seagulls all hovering
around us, and they catch bread in the air..  skillful
little buggers.  and their poop was brown..  i guess i
accociate bird poo with the color white, but what a
silly thing to do.

yesterday was my friend jill's birthday, and we sang
freya's favorite song, 'happy birthday'.

today we went tot he park and played..  it was great..
 i guess the playgound was just put up this winter..
they have that plasticene playground equipment but it
was fun anyway..  they have a merry-go-round
(amazingly metaly)..  and a tire-swing (amazingly
plasticenely).  and i found myself saying the words,
"maybe i'm too old for these toys now."  i got a
little nauseus feeling..  but i recovered pretty
quickly..  the tire swing was cool..  i haven't been
on one of those in awhile...  the merry-go-round was
fun too, but i was on one of those a week or so ago in
saginaw.

freya offered me a "cup of pie"..

we also went to the beach today (where i just came
from) and we saw these things called horseshoe crabs,
which are a prehistoric crustatean..  the first 2 i
saw were alive..  and mating.  we left them pretty
well alone..but looked at them until we stopped.  the
next few we saw were all shells and carcasses..  which
was cool cause i got to get a closer look at them.

they have a tail..  the tail varied in length from 4
inches to 8 inches..  and the shell looked like one of
those world war 2 helmets.  on the sides of the shells
there were these little movable inch long things that
i guess were feelers, but they were made out of the
shell stuff.  it had 12 (or so) legs, all with
pincers..  and the legs were covered with little
spikes..  i've never seen anything quite like this
before..  now, jake tells me that there are 2 nuclear
power plants near here.  one 20 miles to the north,
and one 25 miles tot he south.  so they may not really
be prehistoric.....

in the middle of our horseshoe crab experience we saw
a little 'thingie' and went to investigate.  it ended
up being a planter made from an old tire..  and there
were flowers in it..  along with a wooden garden duck.
(a rather flat one, about an inch thick)..  and there
was a little yellow sign that said "the mystic bull".
this sign was cleverly located near a stump that did,
in fact, look like a bull.  there were alos trails
leading from this spot, which we followed..  that led
to a pond with a grand view of an apartment complex.
we went back.

now the beach probably eats people..  but doesn't
digest shoes too well.  there was a parking lot full
of cars..  and one person walking around..  (there was
a mom and 2 kids as well, but they left rahter
shortly..)  but along with the one person there were 2
pairs of shoes and a straggling shoe lying around.  i
hope that missing shoe didn't give the beach
indigestion.  therese says that they were all womens'
shoes..  so, perhaps the beach only likes to eat
women.

i'm having a great time..  therese and i have been
spending a lot of time talking about religion (it's
nice to have talks with someone with a negative view
of christianity for a change..  and she's educated
about it, which makes it doubly nice.)..  and we also
talk about childrearing..  teaching..  whatever it's
called.  and i've learned a lot from her..  have a lot
of things to think about when i'm around pacific and
sunshine again.

well, i should go as the dinner things is happening is
short order.

love
ksc
 

june 7 - byebye eggies

well i get on the bus today to take me to the bus to
take me to the bus to take me to the wedding.  i had
forgotten a couple of stories that i would like to
remember when i'm old and boring.  (i use this list as
a journal)..  okay here we go.

first i may ghave said before but i'll say again..  in
sweden they refer to down syndrome children as angel
children.

when i was in northfield i was exposed to a rather
ecclectic library.  the fellow who owned the library
(william j gilmore) passed away and in his will asked
that the books be given to people wo will appreciate
them.  these are the books i got to enjoy.

god blewss you mr rosenwater - kurt vonnegut jr
a portrait of the artist as a young man - james joyce
mencius (a confucian text)
the rubaiyat of omar khayyam

so far i've read through the rubaiyat in a skimmingly
manner.  it is full of poetry..  short 4 line poems,
each wth a full page illustration..  i enjoyed it.

hmm..  ok in little egg harbor.  i had gone to the gas
station to get a phone card and i found a golf tee ont
he floor..  i was spinning it around in my fingers and
the lady behind the counter said, "i'd put that away
if i were you."  i showed it to her, and this other
lady nearby sauid, "it's a golf tee."  i chuckled and
replied, "yes, it's not a joint."  perhaps she was a
little distracted by something.

i got a photo essay about how i make chainmaille about
to be posted to the world..  when it's ont eh internet
i'll let you know the url.

wow, so i am going to go from being around a young 2
year old to being around much family..  i'm really
excited about this family reunion.

ok that's all for the time being.  i don't know what
the email situation in conneticut will be, but i'll
try to let people know what's going ont here..  (i
have been asked for frequent updates while i'm there,
but i don't know if it'll happen as time is pretty
crunchy when family gets together.

anyway..
love
kim
 

june 10 - sun of a beach, they did it.

ok so the bus ride was interesting..  we had to take
back roads, cause I95 was stopped.  the bus driver
needed to use my road atlas..  and i was a ground
guide when he backed up once..  (they had all of these
short overpasses that we couldn't go through.)

when i got to where i was going, my aunt was there
(unexpectedly) and we went out to dinner..  and i got
taken to the hotel (after a visit)..  i played in the
water, and on the beachg for awhile and then my dad,
nore and my sister showed up.  the next6 day was spent
lounging around int eh sun..  we made a big sand
castle, maybe 10 or so people helped..  we put
starfish and crab skeletons and a horseshoe crab
exoskeleton and a stingray on it..  it was pretty
neat.  we all went to bed pretty early that night.  i
also had my first cuban cigar on thi fine evening
(from cuba..  i won't go into details.. ;) )

the wedding was the next day..  and i had a chance to
read this big thick bible with some extra books in it
called "the apocrypha"  neat stories..  i didn't get
too into it but i read a little, and now feel the urge
to seek that out to read it.

the wedding was beautiful, and smoothe..  my uncle
played the organ.  after the wedding i had a chance to
talk to the minister a little more and he told me tha
the god of the old testament is a different god than
the one in the new..  and that the OT god was the same
as the god of the ammonites and the philistines..  a
god of a warlike people.  that's heresey in some
places you know..  he alsoo gave me some things to
read if i want more of the whole aliens in the bible
stuff for my brain..  and some good psalms..  and this
bit of info..  when jesus cried "oh lord why have you
forsaken me" on the crowss..  that is the first line
of psalm 22.  they used to memorize that sort of thing
by the rabbi saying the first line and the peopel say
the rest..  so it turns that cry from a cry of
desperation to one of victory and rejoice.
interesting to me.

the reception...  well i danced.  normally i don't.
but i was really drunk.  we had some really good food,
and they even cooked 2 vegetarian plates for me and my
sister..  how wonderful is that?  i got to dance with
a bunch of beautiful bridesmaids..  and they played
some bob marley for me.  (yay)

after we got to the hotel again (and i got out of
tyhose wretched dress pants and back into a dress..)
things didn't improve much..  we steadily drank all
afternoon, and reached a pleasant state of
stumblingness..  except my sister, she was wholley
sober.  yay her.  and later ont ehat night we had an
impromptu poetry reading in our room wiht some peopel
we'd never met..  (and weren't part of the wedding
family dynamic)..  great times..

after my everyone went to bed my sister and i went on
a walk onteh beach..  well..  she walked, i stumbled..
 and we met some people and tried to show them not to
kill starfish, but we weren't rude about it.  that
might be a good way to enlighten people is just
example..  it takes awhile but when they get it, they
own it.

today we switched rooms and came to a picnic (which
i'm mising right now to write you this, so love me for
it)..

i have had such a good time..  the hotell it right on
the beach, and i've done nothing but see family for a
few days.

oday i'm about to go give away a bunch of maille..  so
i should let you go.  i'll send another sometime.

havea great day
much love

kim

(leaving you with a poem)
 

two giant fat people
___________________
god and me
are like two
giant
fat people
on a tiny boat
and we
keep bumping
into each other
and
l
a
u
g
h
i
n
g

-hafiz
 

june 11 - a man a plan a canal panama

well i forgot to mention yesterday that i opened up my
toe at the picnic..  it bled a lot.  i stubbed it on A
 cement step.  its ok now..  but the tip of my toe
could have fallen off..  or could in the future..  (my
father tells me).  i feel blessed that there were so
many people with medical knowledge around me to help.
(including jane, one of the bridesmaids, who gaveme my
initial advice.)

hmm, i gave away a bunch of chainmaille, but somehow i
have heavier stuff than i did when i left.  how did
that happen?  oh well.

last night was reggae night..  and i got out there and
danced on my bloody toe..  (and made the bandaging
bloodier.). still never felt the thing..  and we met
these kids from sweden.  (sara had met them a few days
earlier)..  one's name was alex and one was ingegred,
i think..  and one was a boy named kim, with
dreadlocks.  that was a pretty interesting
experience..  we just hung around and talked for
hours..

then colin, sara and i went for a walk on the beach.
yay beach.

during breakfast we discussed palindromic sentences.
was it a cat i saw
madam in eden i'm adam

now most of the people are gone..  and more are
leaving soon..  i may be one of them but i may stay
for a couple more days too.  we'll see i'm not very
particular.  ok, that'senough for awhile.  have great
days

love
kim
 

june 13 - no mo tippy toe

well, i cut it off.  not the toe, but the tip of it,
cause the skin underneath had healed enough and the
flap would have only damaged it more..  but first
things first.

i took a train to new london from westerly.  and
almost didn't get off..  i tried and tried to get the
door to open, and came to find out thatthere's only
people posted every 5 doors or so, but i made it off
just in time.

then on the bus the driver got lost (along side almost
hitting several cars and people) and got us into NYC
an hour late, making me miss my bus.  i read the
bible, so no loss there.  then i took a bus to
cleveland and met a kid who was going to visit his
fiance.  he was broke so i gave him some change and
bought him some food.  and went to wait in line.

in line i met this girl rachel, who was traveling back
from the gay pride parade in washington DC.  i gave
her some chainmaille (she watched my stuff for a few
minutes.) and while i was showing it to her a little
boy came up and began to play wiht us..  we ended up
playing wiht a hackysack in a toss, slid around ont he
floor sort of way.  he giggled and giggled and giggled
like nothing else.  his grama told me he was on
ritalin.  i hate that shit.  that kid was so bright
eyed and interested in life.  why fuck him up with
pharmacutical drugs.  before we left he came up and
leaned against me in the cutest way imaginable.

anyway, on the way to detroit i sat next to rachel and
talked the whole way there.  she's thinking of either
joining the peace corps, or the coats guard, or going
to bali..  and we talked about child development and a
ton of other stuff.  the bus driver said the second
funniest thing a driver has ever said to us when we
stopped.  "that's it, i quit!  welcome to detroit.  if
this is your final destination then you're money's
up."  he said other stuff too, but that's the most
enjoyable.  (the first funniest thing was the hand
holding thing back in the spring of 2000.  which is
documented.)

when we got to detroit we went our seperate ways, and
the little boy was in my line..  he came up and gave
me a hug, which was as sweet as you can ask for in a
bus terminal.  we sat near each other on my way to
southfield and i gave him a chain ring.  (i had to
convince his grama to let me)...

when i got off the bus, there was a cab waiting for
me..  well..  i guess it must have been waiting for me
cause i got in it and it took me here to the office.

i got inside and saw the boss, and asked where will
was (his truck was gone)..  and he was fired
yesterday.  but i still have a job if i want it.  and
i do, despite this wretched heat..  cause will owes me
a couple hundred, which i don't really expect to see.
(it's okay, he has been really generous to me in the
past.)

so now i'm working under the guy that was brought in
to replace me when i went on my recent vacation, as a
historical courtyards and gardens employee..  (which
is a lot safer moneywise)

i went to a middle eastern market today and bought
some neato stuff, one think was some baklava that
looked like shredded wheat with pichstacios..  it was
tasty as tasty.  then i came home and tried to make
chinamialle and was mildly successful..  i say mildly
cause the sun is out..  it's as hot as it is.  blech.

so i'm composing a poem called

the sun sucks
_____________
i don't say "fuck you" to the sun

that's a subtitle, not the poem.  i expect that it
will be finished within the next few days and i'll
post it then..  it's actually far less profane than
the title suggests..  and i tried to stay sort of in
meter and it's got some sembalamce of form and rhyme.
yay me.

ok, my photo essay on how i make chainmaille is up ont
eh internet ont he m.a.i.l. website.  the url is
https://www.angelfire.com/art/mailorg/articles/article/making.htm

my other articles are listed at
https://www.angelfire.com/art/mailorg/articles/index.html
under the author "sakredchao"..  if'n you're
interested.

so, i leave on the 18th of june for nationals.  life
is good.  i'm so exstatic i could go outside.

i love you all
kim
 

june 16 - almost on the road

well, we worked in southfield for 2 days..  well, a
day and a half.  first day i was working the other
carpenter was fired, and racchi and i worked onteh
stairway..  and the second day the owner lady asked us
to leave the site cause she didn't want it.  that was
ok too.  we left and got paid and went to ann arbor.
we stayed there last night and relaxed and then went
to kalamazoo today and picked up the remaining things
i had left there, and now are in battle creek.  (the
town's namesake is now called 'battle creek river'.)

my toe is almost all healed..  just soft skin now, but
callouses will appear, i'm sure.

i've been without a stove for quite awhile.,..  i miss
potatoes and onions.  tonight i will have success.

love
kim
 

june 19 - national inclination & inspiration

we're supposed to leave today.  well, i hould start at
the beginning.  the other day racchi (who i met at a
rainbow gathering last november.  the "spot teh
gathering" massmail.)  and i picked strawberries in
his garden..  there's aa 15x25' patch of berries..
yay for berries.

and yesterday forrest and sherry showed up.  two
excellent people.

i also tried to mail my titanium annodizer to canada
and it was going to cost over 120$(us) and i had to
type out this thing for hazardous chemicals.  and 80$
if i didi't send that chemical..  anyway, to make a
short story long, i didn't send it and they guy is
bummin.

i also went into  a christian bookstore and they
didn't have the apocrypha..  or anythng with it in it.
 what a farce.  those farceheads.  i told her, "i
guess there's a different copy that's tryingto get to
me."  and it's probably true.

ok, here's the deal with rainbow..  if i get picked up
by aliens i probably won't be able to write to you
anymore.  if the aliens come and visit wth us, but
don't take me up, i'll tell you all about it. :)

here's what there is of my poem..  i don't think it's
finished.  but i don't think it ever will be either.
it was slightly renamed to fit the thing that it is.
 

the sun sucks
____________________________
i don't say 'fuck you' to the sun.   *

the heart is warm by sacred fire
and as such it would be my desire
to burn in the coolth,
rather than in the sun perspire.

it's purpose to send out hot little beams
which make people sleepy or grumpy or mean
and doubtless while walking, or driving a car
it hits you direct, or reflects, and blindingly gleams

a bright glowing ball up in our sky
hitting every inch of our earth, intent: fizzle fry
yet folks think it safe to go out
because of layers of lotion religously applied
 

*  from the words of a child:
   "i don't say fuck you to the birds,
   i say please be quiet birds."
_______________________________
another slice of goodness
from your local hopi nation.
 

Recent message from the Hopi Elders- January 2000

" You have been telling the people that this is the
Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the
people this is the Hour. And there are things to be
considered...

       Where are you living?
       What are you doing?
       What are your relationships?
       Are you in right relations?
       Where is your water?
       Know your garden.
       It is time to speak your Truth.
       Create your community.
       Be good to each other.
       And do not look outside yourself for the
leader.

Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said,
" This could be a good time.There is a river flowing
now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are
those who will be afraid. They will try and hold on to
the shore.  They will feel they are being torn apart
and will suffer greatly.
    Know the river has it's destination.  The elders
say that we must let go of the shore, push off into
the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our
heads above the water.
    And I say, see who is in there with you and
celebrate.  At this time in history, we are to take
nothing personally. Least of all, ourselves.  For the
moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey
comes to a halt.  The time of the lone wolf is over.
Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from your
attitude and your vocabulary.  All that we do now must
be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
    We are the ones we've been waiting for."

Oraibi, Arizona
Hopi Nation

__________________________-
so, see you after the gathering.

always much love

kim s chatfield
keeper of the sacred chao
professional artisan
amatuer fool
 

july 7 - turtle call

well, the gathering was (and still is) a dandyfine
thing.  i'm dirty, as usual.  when i get to a more
stable connection i'll try to remember all of t6he
cool stories..  right now i'm in stanley idaho.  i'll
probably leave the 9th or so.  well, other than
rainbow stories i don't have a whole lot..

so i'm doing great, and i'll talk to you cats later.

love
kim
 

july 11 - mistory

the left battle creek and drove to madison wisconsin
in a day..  we camped at some state park just outside
the city.  i never even saw the city..  but the woods
were pretty.  lots of strange foilage.  we paid to
sleep int he woods.  can you believe that?  i9'd
probably choose a rtest area over that sort of thing.

anyway, we got up and left the next afternoon..  (
people were going into the city.  they bought cheese.
that night we were in minnesota, about to camp at
another state park, and they were goping to charge us
$48 (opposed to the 36$ fromt eh night before.)..  we
left and went to a rest area in "blue earth"
minnesota.
hmm..  now i'm not sure about how many people were in
the caravan before this rest stop, but the 2 VW
microbusses that were following us at full speed
caught up to us that night..  bringing our total
vehicles up to 5.  and our people up to 22 (including
the children)

we left blue earth and drove along back roads..
stopping frequently at gas stations..  (which took
awhile..  it's hard to coordinate 22 hippies into
doing the same thing.)  it was fun to go to towns and
unload the vehicles..  it was a lot of fun to go to
the stores and make them go from dead to really busy..
these little towns had probably never seen anything
like it.

we'd have cops drive around us a lot, but for the most
part left us alone.  (except for one instance)

that night we slept at a pay campground ont eh
missouri river..  it was the night of the solstice,
and we cooked some food and drumemd into the night..
well..  i slept..  but they drummed.  we got all the
vehicles into one space..  and didn't pay.  that
morning we had a ticket for 6$.  the price of one
spot..  we happily paid them. (ask and ye shall
recieve?)

we left that areaand went through the badlands..  it
was pretty strange looking, but we went the short way
through and didn't see much.  we headed for the black
hills, and avoided mt rushmore..  we slept int he
forest there..

the next morning we found a gas station and stopped
for about an hour (as we are apt to do)..  and we
found a person there..  he joined our caravan.  one of
our people got pulled over.. for having 'sage and
stuff'..  now these officers, when they thought they
had 2 hippies to deal with, had 22..  and were heard
saying things such as, "i know that, i'm not
ignorant..  i'm educated."  needless to say they left
us alone..no one was searched. (know your rights)  we
had the populous on our side..  (the store owners that
were right next to where we were pulled over.) we
drove on twards billings montana..

at this point we found it made sense to just meet up
at rest stops, so we didn't have to coordinate
everyone.  and somehow we lost 2 of our cars, but we
picked up another one, so it was okay.  we slept in a
rest area outside of billings.

we continued on through montana..  getting supplies
(food and such) in butte.  and we headed for idaho..
we slepot in a campground..  and the next day we were
off to rainbow.

7 days later we were home.

well, this rainbow gathering was unique for me..  i
tried to do as much work as i could.  (except cooking
cause i'm not nearly sanitary enough for all of
that)..  most of my work included hauling supplies
into the gathering, and digging various things
(shitters and compost & grey water pits).  these were
fun fun fun tasks.

the kitchen i ws traveling with i9s really neat in
that they don't get food from "main supply".  they
independantly finiance themselves..  and they are an
almost entirely vegan kitchen. (we served egg noodles
one night, but we had the vegan alternative)..

while i was there i traded a lot of my lesser wanted
maille off..  and i taught a lot of people.. maybe 12
or so in the 3 days i was teaching. (i had limited
tools to work with)..

i wish i could articulate a gathering..  the unity and
the love that everyone feels twards everyone else..
it's hard to remember when you're not in the middle of
it.  and when you are in the middle of it it's hard to
remember what it's like in babylon.  all i can suggest
is, go..  find a regional or drum circle in your area.

www.welcomehome.org

hmm..  the last day i was there, we were hayuling the
kitchen out of the woods..  (the oven and the tables..
the grill and the grittle..  the pots and woks..  the
spices and all sorts of things..  but no food, we gave
that away to other kitchens.) i saw some kids walking
around and heard, "too bad you're not going the other
way, everyone's going that way."  i looked and they
were headed to arizona, and looking for a gas rider..
(someone to help pay for gas)..  we talked about it
over a map and decided on 100$ (what i'd have spent on
a bus ticket anyway)..  we left that day.

we slept outside of boise the first night..  i was
there last year so i knew where to go and that sort of
thing which was convienient..  (especially since all
the streets are one way there, and they aren't
parallel..)

utah was beautiful.  SLC stunk in more ways than 5.
we stopped in ome forest and walked around.  it
smelled like tadpoles.  that night was spent in utah,
just north of moab on I70.

the next morning we went twards arches NP, and found
out it cost money to go in.  we left.  we drove down
highway 666, uneventfully.  and after getting off,
when we were almost to shiprock, NM we ecided to go
explore some navajo land.  it was pretty deserty..
it's hard for me to imagine people living there,
without babylon.  but i guess people were made of
different stuff back then.  after sitting next to a
couple of oil wells for awhile, and being offered a
beer by a guy who was looking for his lost horse we
decided to leave. we drove to echo ampitheater, and
got out..  watched the sky grow dark..  and the stars
and satalites come out.  and made yelpy echo noises.
then we drove all the way to espanola, where i am now.

this morning i did the first cooking i've done in 3
weeks.  it was deiscious.  and i took a bath..  the
water was brown when i got out...  and i dont' think i
got all the dirt off yet either.

hmm..  well..  my plans for the future are still
solidifying, i'll let you know as i do things i guess.
:)  i'll leave you with a heartsong from rainbow.
 

earth my body
water my blood
air my breath
and fire my spirit

and so ad infinitum

you know i seem to want to say more..  but i'll leave
it for a different longwinded post.

love
kim
 

july 21 - minimum wage! he-yaw! *cracking whip*

well, my friend autumm got here, and has been here for
a couple days.  we've spent hours and hours talking..
i taught her to crochet.  we've had fun cooking foods.
 we made potato pancakes and potato/green chile/cheese
bread (in the cheating breadmaker)..  as well as a
really good pesto soup, with a carrot base. mmmmm.

my mom got a satalite dish installed yesterday.  2
people came.  1 of them recognised autumm and i from
the rainbow gathering.  he was camped just up the road
from us.

a lot is happening in the chainmaille world..  a new
weave pattern has been discovered about every other
day for a week.  and a lot of interest is forming
around the MAIL organization.  i emailled colorado
state university, and the head of the metalworking
department says shes "interested to know more and
participate in our activities."  who knows if she's
serious, but hey.

well, we're going up to santa fe today to apply with
labor ready, so we can go to worm monday.  we may drop
by the shidoni bronze foundry, and walk through their
sculpture gardens..  and cavort around the galleries
in santa fe, so i can get rejected some more. :)

well, yay for stuff.
love you
kim
 

july 23 - 23

well, we left and went to shidoni.  we saw them pour..
 and we saw a sculpture fall on a little girl.  she
loked like she'd bruise, but be okay.  we got to santa
fe and parked in a church parking lot..  and walking a
mile or two into the plaza..  we didn't meet anyone.
they had osme dancing thing on a stage..  break
dancing and modern dance..  we got tired and went
camping.  this was really just parking and sleeping
near the car, in slaaping bags on a sheet.

i go tup the next day and made a plethora of maille.
we wen tot town..  at the grocery store a couple of
ladies from kosovo were really happy to see "flower
children".  they said we made their day..  yay us!  we
then parked back in the methodist parking lot..  went
to service.

first thing they did was try tot get us to buy
mortgage bonds or something..  i thought we were in
church, not an investment meeting.  they talked about
knowing what you wnated out fo life, and what you were
persuing.  good sermon..  i htink most people didn't
know what he was talking about..  i transcribed a song
called "lord of the dance" it's coolio.

we hung otu in town and met a guy and talked for quite
awhile about various things.. checked email..  went to
camp again in a different spot and got up at 6am to go
to labor ready.  that was today.

labor ready was slow, but we made maille all day and
talked to cool people and met other people.  and we
were told about a church that fed every day at
11:45ish..  we went down and helped clean pinto
beans..  and ate a grande meal...  then helped wipe
down tables and put up the chairs..  and helped empty
the half full of food garbage can (cause they fed so
much..  i didnt' get meat and i was full afterwards)..
 the can had no liner, so that was interesting.

after this we went to check mail again and were about
to leave santa fe when we met a local girl..  we hung
out with her at a coffee shop she took us to for a
bit, and we taught her to make chainmaille.

we then came home and here we are.  yay!  we're gonna
focus on chainmaille to sell at an upcoming SCA event.

love kim
 

july 27 - there's still hopi

let's see..  we've spent the last few days preparing
for the sca event..  i did osme work on my maille
houise, as well as other pieces that i wanted to get
to a more complete state of existance.

the night before last my friend sent me to a website
(www.truthbeknown.com i think) that was about how
jesus was a myth compiled from a ton of other myths.
i dont know how i rfeel about htis yet, but she brings
up some really good points.

in that page i found a reference to hopi prophecy.  so
i researched that.  it is so incredibly amazing how
their beliefs parallel my own, almost to an exact
amount.  they believe that things will get really bad,
and out of that will arise a people who heal the land
(i'd heard this all before).  and after that happens
and people have reached an enlightened space then
aliens (skymen) will come down and take up some of the
pure ones to go to other worlds.  this was a little
bizarre for me to read.  i've believed this for awhile
now.

the next morning i woke up and decided to go to the
hopi reservation, and take with me a gift for the hopi
nation.  it is halfway completed.  it's a circle with
an equal armed cross, and in each quarter section is
another circle.  it's their symbol for the unity of
the brotherhood of man.  each small circle is a
different color to represent the differnet people,
black, white, red and yellow.  and i used stainless,
silver, copper and brass..  i love the symbolism of
the whole thing being constructed out of little
circles.

well, autumm and i are leaving today to go to an SCA
(society of creative acronism) event outside of los
alamos.  i think it should be fun.  we're goping to
vend at a booth with someone who already has one set
up.  i plan to teach people maille.

after the event we're driving out to the reservation
in arizona.  i go there with no ideas of what will
happen.
well, see you on the flipside.
love
kim
 

july 30 - the scadian tribe

we got there rather uneventfully.  we parked.  we
paid.  they gave us stuff, right away..  we got paper
stuff and a little bell on a string (which i put in my
hair.)  it took us about 30 seconds to find the
merchants that we were with.  they were part of "the
college of St. golias"..  an independant group with no
"baron". they answer directly to the king.  all sorts
of people.  their common thread was that they are
attending or had attended "tech" college in soccoro,
NM.

i made mroe friends than i can count on all of my
digits.  it reminded me a lot of a rainbow gathering
with fighting..  and port-o-lets..  and less earth
concious people..  but they still had the family
concept down.  very fun people..  and do they ever
know songs!  and how to drink..  i had more
interesting types of alcohol there than i have ever
had independantly.  unfortunately i had them all int
he same night, at a toasting circle.  (you have to
toast, but you don't have to drink.)  advice that
perhaps i should have followed.  i also found the next
morning that just because i'm concious enough to make
chainmaille does not mean i'm concious enough to carry
on a multi syllable conversation.

i was given a woolen blanket, and an interesting vest,
that isn't my cup of tea, but is still pretty neat..
and a belt that will go as a strap on the drum that
i'm going ot trade for.  (a snake belt for a drum that
was handmade by a fellow from nigeria, who spoke
little english..  and appearantly thinks that it
sounds like it's supposed to.  i'll find out soon
enough.)

what else?  oh yea, we left the sca event and went to
los alamos, and fed the ducks at "pond pond"..  well,
it's really the ashley pond pond.  but pond pond is
more fun.  the sca people unloaded a ton of bread and
apples onto us, so we went and gave the bread to the
ducks. (what we didn't keep)..  i guess we didn't give
it all to the ducks..  we gave most of it to small
kids to give to the ducks..  and i guess the stuff we
gave to the ducks we didn't really give to the ducks,
we gave to the fish and the ducks..  there are some
freaky huge fish in that pond.  bigger than there were
when i was a kid..  (i used to partake in this same
activity with bread ends during the 2nd grade
timeframe.)

we're headed south tomorrow to go to the reservation.
the gift is almost done, only a little bit left to
make..  and i just decided today what to make it out
of.  so, yay!

life is swanky.

love
kim
 

august 4 - almost oraibi

we're leaving for the hopi reservation today.  we will
go to albequerque..  trade for that drum that i
mentioned..  and then go to a rest area off of I40..
drive into the reservation tomorrow..  and then who
knows?

there is a rainbow potluck that we may or may not
attend on sunday in flagstaff.

hmm..  we've been filling our days with goodness.  and
a lot of it fits together, oddly enough..  where to
begin.  i looked up sacred geometry..  also known as
kabbalah..  which is a study of spirals and
polyherdrons.  how did i get there?  i forget..  but
when i read the names i said to myself, "i know these
names..  i've heard them before.. all of these."  i
had never studied the hebrew system of geometry
before.

i also regained interest in the mer ka ba meditations.
 awhile back when i was still living in a house for
long periods of time (in colorado springs) my mother
was going to take a workshop on this meditation..  we
watched a bunch of videos..  never took the class..
but that information just sat there and germinated..
i've found the meditation instructions online.  i'm
starting to learn the first couple steps..  it's
relaxing, but that's meditation for you.

i got the new tool album from my friend..  it is full
of references to all of these things that i'm studying
now..  and oddly enough, got the album after i began
my study.

i began to reread the illuminatus! trilogy.  remember
how i got that book when i was in taos.  each
"chapter" is organized by a kabbalah polyhedron, as
well as 2 other titles per section..  this is the 6th
time i'f read the book.  i have never read it twice on
the same copy.

it was bizzare, all of these things fitting together
like they did.  i have been told many very strange
things by many people recently.  i won't go over them
here, as i dont know if that kosher or not..  but it's
amazing how people know what to say sometimes.

i don't know if i'll be able to tell you about what i
hear while i'm on the reservation..  they ask people
to not take pictures..  to not take notes..  and to
not publish what they see while at the sacred rituals.
 i will ask.  maybe there is something that is
important for you to hear.

oh yeah, i also got a beautiful knife that my friend
made for me in trade for some Titanium rings.  it is a
handforged damascus blade.  i'm about to use it to
make breakfast.

i love you
kim

Swirling round with this familiar parable.
Spinning, weaving round each new experience.
Recognize this as a holy gift and celebrate this
chance to be alive and breathing
chance to be alive and breathing.

-tool..  from "parabola" on _lateralus_
 

august 10 - peace, love and hopiness

let's see..  we went to visit my friend wolfe, and
traded the snake belt for the drum..  it's a neat
drum..  great sound.  rings like a bell.  we visited a
bit and then went to our friend kats' house.  (the
other silk road merchant from the sca event.) and
visited with her for a bit.  she made a vresst
(vest/dress) for autumm in trade for a maille necklace
that autumm had made.  we got to see peacocks.  we got
feathers.  we left..  (i fell asleep for a bit.  heat
makes me comatose.)

we drove all day and got to a rest area ont eh other
side of winslow, AZ.  we got out and played drums for
a bit.  and then ended up talking to a few different
people going to various places..  one of which was a
treasure hunter/junk collector..  he had some fun
stpories that i won't recount here.

next morning we got up.  ate breakfast and left for
the reservation.  the hopi reservation is surrounded
by navajo reservation on all sides..  for a long way
on every side.  we saw a man walking the same way we
were driving, so we picked him up.  he was a navajo
man going to church.  he made a few comments about us
being white..  and a few comments about the hopis.
that's ok.  he's allowed ot be ignorant if he wants
to.  he told us that he used to follow the old ways
but when he went to school he learned about
christianity, and has followed it ever since.  his
father was a medicine man, and did not approve of
this.

after dropping the man off on his turn we headed for
old oraibi..  all we found there was a gift shop and
some old houses (and some new ones..)  we asked if it
would be okay if we picked up garbage.(there was a
sign asking people to not pickj things off the
ground.)  the lady at the gift shop said, "you should
probably leave that for the people, it would be
appreciated though." <shrug>  it is her mess.  she
then told us about social dances that they were
performing up at first mesa.  so we went there.

on our way we stopped at a fruit stand and got some
yummy yummy cherries, a seedless watermelon, 3
nectarines, 3 peaches and 3 lemons.  when we got on
top of the mesa we parked, and signed in.  we were
told that we had to wear pants and shirts with
sleeves, much to my dismay,...  but i worked through
it.  (probably good i had to wear this clothing for
the things to happen that happened..)

we saw half of one of the dances and went to wander
around.  eventually we worked our way to some older
men sitting by the road.  we stopped to talk, and
ended up sitting with them.

they told us stories about the indian schools, where
they weren't allowed to speak their language..  and
they had to cut their hair and go to church..  the
talked about the dances a little, told us that they
were rain dances.  told us that -all- the dances were
rain dances.  i don't believe a word of that..  but
i'll beleive that those dances were rain dances cause
it rained every day, all week long.

the older man who we talked to, his nephew invited us
to stay with him..  first for "a couple of nights" and
then (a few minutes later..) for a week.  this man,
the nephew, was a grandfather.  we stayed with him,
his wife, their daughter and her 2 kids.

oh, i dont know how to fit everything in..  this is
out of sequence at this point, but that's ok.  i got
to learn about the corn.  and work a bit in their corn
field.  i would liek to go back next spring for
planting..  maybe help them prepare their back yard
area for farming as well.  hmm, what grows there..  a
few variety of corn was all this family had.  but
watermellons, zucchini, yellow squash, green chiles,
beans, string beans, peaches, onions..  hmm..  maybe
other stuff?  also grow in that climate.  usually very
deserty..  it was unusually wet whiel we were there.

let's see..  they were very tight lipped about their
spiritual beliefs.  i can understand.  i guess a comic
book had depicted one of their katchinas wielding a
chainsaw at oen point..  they closed off all their
ceremonies to the public.  they were only opened up
last fall.  so we had to show knowledge about
something in order for them to talk about it.  i
picked up some new info about it all tho.

hmm..  the runners.  right whyen we got there some
runners left fromt he taos pueblo (taos, NM) to run to
al the pueblos between taos and hopi.  this is to
commemmorate the revolt.  when the spaniard
missionaries came, the taos indians warned the other
indians about them.  when they arrived they (the
missionaries) were slaughtered.  take that!  heh.  so,
every year they make the run, in commemoration.  they
got to hopi today and we saw them running on second
mesa.  we went to the final destination for a bit, but
autumm and i decided it was best to go early rahter
than later, so we didn't see them arrive at the vetran
memorial center.  when the run was first made it was
made by 1 group..  now it is done relay style.

let's see..  food.  i got to eat pika, which is blue
corn flour, poured over a hot rock and polished with a
bare hand (ouch)..  and then rolled up.  yumyum..  but
i'm a sucker for blue corn flour.  i had fresh fry
breas..  and learned how to make it!  yay for womens'
work.. ;) (in their culture there are gender roles..
more onthat later)  i had fresh tortillas.  i also ate
meat for the first time in awhile..  i had all 3..
chicken, beef and pork (very little of this)..  i did
this as an experiment.  (the same reason i stopped
eating meat in the first place.)  and this was my
discovery.  the meat made me more aggressive, and
tense..  as well as doing weird things to my digestive
tract..  i had really smelly farts after eating meat.
so, i think thta i will continue to cut it from my
diet.  i dont feel bad about eating it..  in fact
sometimes i smell it and crave it, cause it tastes
good.  but i dont like what it does to me emotionally
and phisiologically..

the trash..  i was shocked at the amount of trash
there..  soda and beer cans..  plastic baskets..
trashtrashtrash..  i guess if they want to live in
filth they have a right to..  at least they treat
their yars the same way that they treat their highways
and open land..  it's sort of hypocritical for peopel
to make their lawns pristine and then throw garbage
ont he roadside.  yay for consistancy.

lifestyle.  there was a lot of soda drinking..  more
than water, although they have really good well
water..  best tasting aquifer that i've ever drank
from. (pumped by a public windmill no less..)  they
have a cell phone and a satalite dish for their tv,
which they use every waking hour.  (well, the females
do..  he only uses it part of the time..  he perfers
the radio.)  there is no running water in the house.
hot water comes from the microwave.  and they have an
outhouse out back.  they cook with propane.  i would
LOVE to live in these conditions. barring the satalite
and soda, of course.

income.  they get what little income they need from
his kachina sculptures.  i got to watch him work..
he's been carving dolls for 30ish years.  he's quite
skilled.

hopi radio.  they have the best radio station in the
country, hands down!  look it up ont he net..  if
you're lucky they have a netcast..  no commercials..
and the news was REAL news, not sensational crap.  the
talk radio hour (or is it 30 minues?) has interesting
topics.  and the rest is music...  they play all sorts
of things, traditional music from all sorts of native
american tribes, country, contemporary rock and tons
of reggae.  and the best part is that they play it all
right next to each other.  they don't partition it out
and have reggae hour and country hour..  they have
music.  and the djs are always so happy about
everything.  the station is only about 3 months old so
it may not be on the net yet, but boy are they cool.

oh yea gender roles..  i found this interesting..  the
women would defend their gender roles.  men aren't
supposed to do certain things, like make food and make
baskets and pottery..  and women aren't supposed to
carve kachinas..  there's a few other things as well..
 but i forget exactly..  but ther'es a big controversy
about a hopi woman who carves..

drums..  this was weird.  drums aren't very prominent
in their cerimonies..  mostly bells..  and the first
night i was there we (autumm and i) had a drum jam
with the 2 young girls..  that night some voices asked
me not to play the drums there..  and a few days later
the wife told me that you weren't suposed to make loud
banging noises at night..  didn't explain it to me,
but that's how they are about their beliefs.  the
voices said other things to me as well.  very strange
experience.  i definitely believe in the reality of
kachinas.

they were really into the host scene..  but we still
tried to help out where we could..  withthe garden,
and with housework..  i made chainmaille while i was
there for them.  we gave them the gift we made before
we left as well.

ps..  i spent the rest of my time there in sarongs.
yay for not overheating.

oh yeah!  i've been meditating on a daily basis since
the day i left new mexico.  i have felt great.  i'm
doing a specific meditation that will, when i get to
that point, activate an energy field called the mer ka
ba.  i'm  working step at a time cause you have to
juggle several things in your heart/mind/body at once
to get it to work..  but i've progressed pretty far
with it in the week i've been working on it.  i think
that even if i don't keep up with this meditation i'll
try to keep up with daily sitting..  after my mer ka
ba breaths, i just sit and breathe..  and sometimes
the only thing that i'm concious of is breathe in
breathe out..  and the cars and the radio fromt eh
trailer and everthing else jsut fades out..  it's
short spurts but getting longer..

yay for life.

love you
kim