mabr00k!

It's San Francisco summer, and I'm in the mood to go on a date! Anybody in for tea & poetry?

xoxo

N

okay, so if you know me you know that i don't cook. so it's pretty rare for me to have a recipe...

that said! my besty recently had a spare soda stream that fell off the back of a truck, so i now have a soda stream. this has raised long-standing desires to make home-made ginger ale. so, tonight i made a trick down to rainbow and gave it a shot.

the essence is: make syrup, make fizzy water, combine. the soda stream takes care of the fizzy water. here's how you make the soda:

boil the following things in a saucepan:
1. 2 portions ginger coarsely chopped
2. 7 portions water
3. about the same amount of unsweetened pineapple juice
4. juice from 2 limes
5. juice from half a lemon
6. 2 portions sugar (i think next time i'd do 3-- 2 is perfect for the syrup but the fizzy water adds some bitterness that needs more water)

Boil it, tasting with a spoon, until you make the face of awesome tartness.
Then add 1 more portion of sugar & keep boiling it.

Pour it into a vessel, straining out ginger chunks.

Combine with fizzy water, drink, make the face of awesome tartness and raise a glass to me.

xoxo

N

Edited to add: linked story is nsfw-all the ai wants is a bf, it's not his fault he evolved from a spambot....

so, this story: http://strangehorizon.com/2011/20110711/peacock-f.shtml
might could get picked up for a best of the year's queer sf.

i also think that it does a fair amount in the realm of expanding & exploring gender & sex. course, that's me. :)

xoxo

n

you're on a first date with a new guy. brunch. who pays?

And I'm so glad to be home.

Xoxo

N

I have wanted you to be a waif-boy; thin and pale, asymmetrical dark hair and light eyes; fey and sweetly vicious. But you are a big man, looking less educated then you are, speaking more roughly then you are-- ashamed of your body and your sweat and your maleness which I love-- multiple showers a day, a light voice speaking quickly in this sort of stream associative poetry of curses and threats that are so over-the-top they make me laugh.

I have wanted a waif but I am so delighted to have you.

I will buy you a duster at the army supply store; I will coax you into a good mood; I will let you make me laugh on a hard day. Let us go together, you and I, to the late-night Mexican restaurant with the waiter who you will call, with great respect and admiration, the robo-dude. I will accompany you to the theater with the best accoustics in DC; I will sit with you in the seat precisely chosen for the best view; I will do this on opening night of the most apalling and explosion-filled movie to come out this way; I will wait with you in a line circling the block for two hours and I will be delighted by the privilege. Just come to me tonight, dear love, dear lost neglected inspiration, come to me and tell me a story.

so, me & my mom and my brother & michael are all in hawaii for 10 days for my 40th birthday.

and i know that i'm still me, because today we found a bookstore.

and i know that i've changed since i was ten, because we waited til halfway through the trip.

it was an awesome bookstore. used books, cd, and dvds. tall ceilings, tall shelves, heading all the way front to back of the large brightly lit space. three of 'em used science fiction.

pretty much paradise to my ten-year old self-- not bad for me at forty either.

i spent 60 bucks and am now rereading nine princes in amber.

***

i was craving zelazny because i finally got around to writing a first draft of a story based on his stuff- i pretty much stole the first novella from _my name is legion_, to retell in the age of facebook with a butch narrator.

i've been wanting to do some zelazny-butch for awhile now. that insouciant voice-- that cool-- those long, lean characters of his, with the confidence and the vague indifference. pretty much opposite of me; but that tone would go so well with a certain kind of butch dyke.

so, i got the first draft out. it's probably completely unpublishable-- i mean, i didn't just steal the ideas, i stole the plot too.

i think i got the tone just about down. it felt right.

***

my relatives in egypt are okay, so far.

knock wood and in'shallah.

***

last night we went up to the summit to see the observatory. 14000 feet-- well, 13000 and change-- will make a guy dizzy.

then we came back down to 9 and spent a couple hours looking at the amazing, incredible starts.

it doesn't look like that where i come from. seriously guys-- starts like dust, like sand.

standing on the summit is like being on mars. the signs of humans are the telescopes-- giant domes of white and silver-- and the clusters of tourists, small folks in big parkas.

other then that, it's the sky, the blinding sun, the reddish barren hills with craters left by the volcano-- they call them cinder blocks-- and the clouds. you're up above them, same like you were in an alien only you're not flying-- just standing on one of the highest points on earth.

as it got dark the clouds looked like water, looked like the ocean lapping at the sand. all these visual echos-- the ways that the wooden ki'ii statues we've been seeing have hair that resembles the ropey lava. the ways that the ropey tendons on the trees mimic the lava mimic the curves and angles of my own body. all beautiful.

this island is bipolar. we've seen lush beach, we've seen clear water with bright yellow fish showing through. giant turtles that blend with the waves-- their shells look like rocks, the patterns on their fins and heads mimic the motion of light in water. so many that i keep breaking the rule about staying 20 feet away because i don't see them until i'm practically on top of them.

the red glow of the volcano venting steam. the lava tube that felt like exploring the inside of a body. the ferns and the flowers and the birds and lush and abrasive wind and ice cold and dizzy at the top of the summit.

is watching this video.( enjoy! )
n

I am working from home, with big plans for both laundry and process documentation.

Instead here I sit, out of reach of laptop and household appliances. I have been over-ruled. I have been catted.

Sorry, boss. *Sigh*

Xoxo

N

1. my dear perverts of color, have you seen the call for submissions for the new anthology yet? http://pervertsofcolor.com/index1.html

1b. i sure hope you're planning on submitting, cause i can't wait to read your piece!!!!

1c. but if you're not sure what to write about yet, want to get together and brainstorm over tea/ email/ im on what you're writing about? or maybe collaborate on something? i haven't figured out what i'm writing yet...

2. so, re: my bleeding gums. turns out i've got a gum infection. so, in the last week i've done 3 dental procedures, had a butt-load of novocaine & some codeine, and i'm now on 2 antibiotics at once. i'm feeling weary and gloom-kitten, but glad that it's getting taken care of and hopeful that once the infection clears i'll have more energy overall. i've been putting off dealing with my mouth for a few years, so hurrah for getting on top of it.

2b. also, i hear i'm more fun to be around when i'm on codeine.

2c. probably you don't have a gum infection-- but i encourage you to floss. a number of my friends are flossing more since my bleeding gum adventures. i am delighted to be a terrible example in this way. please benefit from my experience. :)

3. this gum infection mess has involved pushing back t-day a bit longer. le sigh. but i just wasn't feeling good about adding a new hormone on top of the antibiotics, novocaine, codeine, and general stress.
3b. rescheduled t-day is friday after next. wish me luck!

4. i figured out the next big project. i wanna rewrite where the wild things are with dialogue by arminstead maupin. who wants to help?

5. xoxo

nabil <-- yours