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2023-06-26 (Week 2273): With a Machete
It's been another busy week, and I've had difficulty clearing my electronic shoebox. I've written more prose and have kept my current notes (the last two weeks) streamlined relatively well, but going back through the archives is still daunting.
I've realized that anything which isn't past creative work is a distraction and can go. I have so many remnants left over from all the different interests I've explored over the years that it's annoying to see how many other things I was searching for meaning with. Whether it was seeking meaning by labeling myself as a musician, gamer, record label owner, martial artist, brewer, or writer - all these labels were limiting my potential.
I don't want to label myself anything anymore. I want to follow my "read, write, publish" credo and move forward. Outside of posting these weekly entries, I know it will be a while before I get to the "publish" part of my doctrine, and that's okay. I have a lot of internal and external work to do before I get there, and I can't race ahead, even though I'd like to.
I can also get rid of some of my past creative work. Old brewing recipes for a brewery I no longer work for can go. I do not need to recreate most of them on a homebrew scale, and I remember those I may want to brew again. There's only one, and it would be easy to recreate on a homebrew scale. I'll make time in the fall when I have more time, and it's cooler.
I'd also like for my Jun project to finish fermenting first. It's going, but very slowly. In the past eight days, the specific gravity has only dropped .11 points (from 1.051 to 1.040). I either underpitched the mixed culture or should have used some yeast nutrients to strengthen the yeast. Honey has more complex sugars to ferment than cane sugar, which is likely why the mixed culture had difficulty taking off. Hopefully, it will work faster for my next batch.
Even when trying to strip things away, I make time for new creativity. In the instance with Jun, I needed to make it to see the result of old whimsy. Now that it's made and is fermenting, it's one more thing off my plate. I want to make it again with chamomile tea instead of green tea to see how it tastes. It only takes a little time, but I must first know how this batch tastes.
It helps that I'm doing this for myself and not trying to prove myself to the marketplace. As has been documented, the marketplace is full of falsehoods, and trying to endear yourself to that is a fool's errand, one which I embarked upon for far too many years.
Until next week!
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