The Forge

I'm currently reading Opened Ground, a collection of poetry by Seamus Heaney. His poetry is very different in style from the ones I've previously read, though most of the poetry I've read has been written before the 20th century. The subjects of the poems are mostly focused on country life.
My current favorite from the collection is "The Forge". The poem is simple, just describing the forge and the blacksmith at work. However, the language used in the poem is absolutely stunning. The imagery is vivid and clear, and its amazing how the poet paints such a clear picture with just a few words.

"All I know is a door into the dark.
Outside, old axles and iron hoops rusting;
Inside, the hammered anvil's short pitched ring,
..."
- Seamus Heaney, The Forge

Thinking about things

Success can be defined in many different ways, and the word success often means different things to each of us. To me, success in life means having a ordered, neat life where nothing is rushed and everything is neatly planned out. That is my goal in life, and something I unfortunately have trouble achieving. Deadlines don't really seem to exist unless I'm staring one right in the face. That makes a life with plenty of stress and late nights trying to finish a project right before the deadline.
Mistakes can be cumulative, and a lot of little mistakes added together can be some pretty serious consequences.

Political Satire

The untrustworthiness of a politican's promises

The University of Chicago

This is an university I would love to go to, but the difficulty of getting accepted and the high tuition makes it very unlikely. The University of Chicago is a private research university founded in 1890. The school has a great academic reputation and ranks among the top universities in the US. It also has a good reputation for scientific research, which is a field I might want to go into in the future.

Dr. Heidegger's Experiment by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Dr. Heidegger's experiment is Nathaniel Hawthorne's take on the ancient archetype of the search for eternal youth. In the story, Dr. Heidegger invites four old friends to partake in the experiment. All four of them were old, miserable and dissatisfied with life, having squandered their youth. Dr. Heidegger offers them the chance to drink the water from the Fountain of Youth and return to their youth. However, when they drank the water, they did not value their regained youth; they kept doing the same things that the did when young.
We may laugh at how they keep on making the same mistakes, but many of us behave similarly. When we're young, we feel as if we have infinite time, so we act as if we would always be yound. However, once we're older and look back, many of us realize that we've just been wasting our youth.

The Middle Passage

Listen to us! The voices of the deep

Forgotten, but

Chained no longer by your lust

Poisoned no longer by your avarice

You imprison us with your hopes

For riches, for wealth

A life of leisure

No toil, nor sweat

Tossed overboard

Are the lucky ones

Whose souls sail free

From the wails and sickness that surround us

Are you the scale

Weighing heavy coins

Feather light souls?

Forgetting where

Your soul silently rests.

On Baking Bread

Working with yeast to make bread has often been an intimidating endeavor for people. Unlike baking powder, baking soda and other chemical leavening agents, yeast is living and more difficult to control. Before the advent of commercial yeast in the 19th century, people used naturally occurring yeast to make bread. A medium of flour and water was used to culture the yeast and the symbiotic bacteria, this was called a sourdough starter or levain. The acidity of the sourdough starter kept harmful bacteria from growing it and enabled the yeast and bacteria to live without much competition. Bread made with levain is more flavorful than bread made with commercial yeast, however it takes more time and is more challenging. You need to allow the dough to ferment sufficiently in order to have enough flavor, but you can easily end up fermenting too long and end up with bread that's as sour as vinegar.
I was inspired by the beautiful blog Tartine Bread Experiment to try and make my own sourdough bread this summer. One summer of experimentation has convinced me that we are constantly learning new things in life. When you think you finally think you've got the handle on something, you fail or the results come out differently than what you thought they would be.