July 4, 2023 – Hail Science
- Brush: Omega 40033 24mm #oldworld #hollow
- Razor: Gillette Superspeed
- Blade: Gillette Nacet (2)
- Lather: Talent Soap Factory – Wild Flowers
- Post Shave: Stirling Soap Co. – Bergamot Lavender
- Fragrance: Chatillon Lux – Yuzu/Rose/Patchouli
Ah spring, season of renewal. A time to come out of the doldrums of winter. This is perfect timing actually as I’m still working to come out of the doldrums of my stupid mistakes day two. Perhaps, this theme day will provide the renewal I need to get out of the ~~dog~~ Airbud house.
Wildflowers seems appropriate, did you know wildflowers are the first thing to return after a fire and some flowers require a fire to grow? May I rise from the ashes of stupidity like the flowers. I will keep hashtagging and #FOF the scent progression seems somewhat obvious here, bergamont lavender (playing on lavender being a flower) and Y/R/P. Y/R/P is, per Shawn, based on the Missouri Botantical Garden, a place well known to all St. Lousians. While we may not go every year, we often make it out every few to see the flowers. My earliest memories of it are of going into the “Climatron,” a giant geodesic dome that holds an artificial rain forest. The humidity was a lot even for us Midwesterners and so you’d always get a punch to your breath when you walked in. Then go looking for the banana tree, because who doesn’t live bananas? (Soap to make appearance later.) Back when I was younger it seemed an expansive area, now it seems so small. We’re members now, but mostly for the butterfly house (which is much closer and more my kids style.) But (bringing us full circle) a little known piece of the garden is “Shaw Nature Reserve” out in Grey Summit, a massive property maintained as mostly natural land with…you guessed it! Wildflowers galore. It’s about a 35 minute drive and we go out a few times a year to let the kids run around in the prairies and play on the nature scape playground.
For the challenge: As I told u/merikus on the discord, I cannot go full shit post. It’s not my style. So I’ll be competing as much as possible still by trying to hit every challenge to the best of my abilities. As a former lab jockey, this one was right up my alley. But Beer brewing is where I devote my science skills. As a current research administrator I’m familiar with many aspects of the NIH many people can’t seem to care about. For example: Did you know the NIH has an Office of Alternative Medicine?. It changes names every few years to make sure it stays up to date with the most current technology (and out of the reach of people who may criticize it.) But to me it will always be OAM, shelling out millions a year test the boundaries of traditional ways of healing. And in the vein of a study designed to test “energy Chelation" on rabbits I present a study to test my ability to transfer my negative emotions to my stubble, ultimately to my soap, and down the drain.
Step 1: Find a quartz crystal. I am to understand quartz is essential for this project. However I have no quartz. Until I realize my bathroom counter is “artificial granite” which is basically ground up quartz held together by epoxy. I now have a 6 foot long emotional resonator.
Step 2: Choose brush. The Omega will do, the hollow handle provides a place for the negative emotions to build up and transfer to my lather. But wait you say, transfer to the lather? That goes on your face! Yes, but the emotions are inside me, so to the lather and ultimately down the drain. Step 3: Choose a lathering method known for attracting powerful emotions. GUTL it is.
Step 4: Build lather, during this process as I add water I imagine my emotions being poured into the lather.
Step 5: Shave, while shaving push your emotions into the stubble, causing them to be severed from the body.
Step 6: Rise away emotions. Repeat 5 and 6 for 2 more passes.
Based upon initial results I can report that I feel significantly better. I’m now only 30% pissed at myself. More importantly, this experiment can serve as preliminary data that, based upon my fairly substantial knowledge of the NIH granting process and OAM’s thresholds, would provide a serious chance an R01 devoted to the study of the mediative practice of shaving. I believe there’s enough here to propose the ApplIcation, appRopriateness and Benefits of Using Dedicated grooming thinking to help emotional wellness (AIRBUD) trial. I’ll have to see if u/cowzilla3 feels up to being Co-Investigator. R01 grants run about 700k/year plus F&A (Overhead).
On to #photocontest: Listen, I was serious about being able to only hold that schtick for so long, so here’s a picture that hits the SPACE theme, with our solar observing telescope. There’s a partial eclipse in October, and a full eclipse in April, and we’re preparing. Later we’re going outside to continue documenting sunspots, so my daughter can see how the sun changes over time. (The reflector scope was too damned big for the picture.) But also, please stop funding the OAM.
Am I DQ’d from #ROTY Unsure. But I’ll keep putting the hash all month long just to be safe.
Edited: Fixed some markdown. I hope this worked this time.
Edited again: effing hashtags. This isn't a bit I'm doing I just fuck up this much. Which is why being caught in the spam filter killed me.