2023-07-07 Spice it Up
- Brush: Yaqi Metal Timberwolf
- Razor: Rockwell 6S
- Lather: House of Mammoth - Damocles
- Post Shave: House of Mammoth - Z
- Fragrance: House of Mammoth - Damocles
- Blade: Personna Super (3)
Relevant Other stuff:
Keeping it in-house. House of Mammoth, that is.
The razor so chosen because it is steel, thus matching a scent "note."
I chose the metal-handled brush for a similar reason. The horse brush from
the other day would have also been
thematically relevant, but it doesn't really fit aesthetically and chrome
is objectively hideous.
Lather/Fragrance:
#FOF
From the marketing description:
"You smell spices and wine up front, from the king's feast before you."
Hey, how'd you know? Actually, this one took me a while to figure out.
My nose really couldn't decide what it was picking up, but my vague memory of
the scent description led me to conclude that it was something fruity, as I
imagined great bowls of fruit on a king's banquet. My nose apparently doesn't
know the different between fruity and spicy, but I think that's because this
literally comes through as a spicy fruitiness. Or a fruity spiciness.
One of those. The incense/resin and violet, assuming that they're there, blend
in subtly with the spice and wine (respectively). If I really focus, I can
make out the leather underneath it all, unsure if I'm actually smelling it or
if my brain tells me I am.
I don't mean to question the scent notes, by the way. This wonderful scent
from the masterful creator of such favorites as Tobacconist, Santa Noir, and
Shire stands strong alongside those. However I do mean to question
the reliability of what my brain tells me I perceive. Senses cannot be trusted,
because the brain quite simply makes shit up.
#photocontest
Photo: Royals
The fable/allegory/parable/apocryphon of Damocles is one that some may
consider to be part of general knowledge, but at the same time I wouldn't
hold it against anyone if they weren't familiar with it. If you are one of
today's lucky 10,000, allow me to spin you a yarn
while I ponder how clever it was to say "yarn" just now.
So Damocles was some dude sucking up to King Dionysius of Syracuse, going,
"By golly, being a king sure must be swell! Your life is super peachy keen!
And, bonus, no one ever secretly plots to kill you in your sleep!"
Dionysius, unimpressed, was like, "Try it out!" and set up Damocles as king for
a day, with all the fruit bouquets and blowjobs he could ask for. Provided,
anyway, that he enjoyed said fellatio and edible arrangements from his throne,
above which was a badass and super-heavy sword just kinda hanging from the
ceiling or something, suspended by a single horse hair.
Damocles, upon discovering the precarious sword (I leave it to the reader to
decide how the enjoyment of his luxuries led him to tilt his head back to look
directly upwards), said, "Fuck this shit!"
For the purposes of how Royals is represented, I'm calling the setup in this
photo a model; I don't think that's a stretch, but it would be a stretch to
go with image/drawing (what, the mammoth skull thing? Side note: purple is the color
of royalty!). Or we could call the knight—which I might guess would be considered
a part of the royal court—the model. Damn, too bad I didn't call upon
u/sirkravsalot to be in the shot. Which brings me to...
Challenge Accepted:
This challenge is literally calling upon us to talk about stuff, so I cannot
be held responsible for the length that it contributes!
It still seems weird to me that we call this a hobby. I'm not saying it
shouldn't be considered one, but I tend to think of a hobby as something that
someone does to occupy much of their off-time, whereas shaving takes but a
small amount of time. Unless you're a face-latherer, but the rest of us spend
those extra 7 hours doing other things!
Time was when I wasn't really sure of how to answer the "hobby" question,
anyway. Last year, though, I picked up something that I briefly dabbled in
some 10 years prior and now do for no less than an hour/day 5-6 times per week:
krav maga. If you're unfamiliar, it's a
fighting system developed by the Israeli military that borrows from various
martial arts.
The people at the studio/dojo/kravery that I go to are very disparate people,
all with very different motivations for being there. Some want to learn how to
defend themselves. Some want to become martial arts masters! Some just want
to get into better shape. As for me, I like that it's a pretty fun (usually)
way to stay active while programming some pretty nifty muscle memory, and it
doesn't hurt that it helped me get into better shape than I've been in since
I was like 20.
Do I ever expect to actually use anything I learn there? No. Absolutely not.
Aside from just general vigilance/self-awareness kind of stuff. I am reminded
of an interaction I had with one guy there while we were drilling a simple gun
disarm. He was like, "Do you ever have to do this?" Not "Have
you ever had to," or "Have you ever been in this situation," but "Is this
something that you do?" No, man, I do not routinely find myself staring down
the barrel of a gun wielded by someone so intent on murdering me that I have
to RCAD that shit!
Redirect, control, attack, disarm/takeaway. There's a bit of jargon for ya.