Glory | Glory All Around

Free Base, 1982

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 13:43:23 GMT <== Glory ==>

I spent the last two months of 1982 making and imbibing free base cocaine, later named "crack" due to the sound it makes while being cooked with baking soda.

I used a different method. A gram of cocaine hydrochloride (the white powder you snort up your nose) will dissolve in a gram of distilled water (about an inch high in a test tube). A few drops of ammonia in that liquid will cause the base cocaine to drop out of solution, as a powder at the bottom of the test tube. Cocaine base melts at a lower temperature than water boils, so you can aim a torch at the bottom of the test tube to cause the base to form a liquid puddle at the bottom of the test tube. Cooling causes the base to solidify, giving you a glob of base to lift the water from with blotter paper.

This gives about 10 hits of free base.

1. heat up a spoon, vice-gripped to the table, to red hot, with the torch.
2. break off a hit.
3. Drop the hit on the hot spoon.
4. It instantly liquifies, and vibrates more as it approaches boiling temperature.
5. Prepare a turkey baster, with a couple of inches of wide tube coupled to a couple of inches of narrow tube.

6. Just before the base evaporates, breathe over it with the turkey baster.
7. The lowered pressure causes the base to instantly evaporate into the turkey baster.
8. The smoke cools as it expands into the larger diameter of the turkey baster.
9. The entire hit goes into your lungs, causing an intense rush that lasts about 10 minutes.
10. The other nine hits are used trying to reproduce the initial rush, without luck.
11. Then you crawl on the floor on hands and knees looking for the hit you didn't drop.

There goes $150 (in 1982 money. I got really good coke).

It is best to have only one gram of cocaine hydrochloride in your house. Otherwise, you risk doing them all, and causing your heart to stop.

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Music Week

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:48:01 GMT <== Glory ==>

Tonight is the dress rehearsal for tomorrow's Knoxville Choral Society concert, at Central Bearden Church. Looks good for bicycling there tonight (but possibly wet getting home tomorrow night), on my newly-revived Super73 (I got a new charger yesterday).

But before then, Accuweather forecasts a little sun appearing behind the clouds shortly after noon. I'll be there (inshallah).

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Dave Winer Lost Access to His X account

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Tue, 17 Feb 2026 12:59:07 GMT <== Glory ==>

Dave Winer, who I consider the inventor of the weblog, can no longer log into X.com. His account has also been switched to private. He's had me blocked since I dared to disagree with him, but I still devoted an X Pro column to him. No longer useful. Sigh...

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Elmlog continues

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 15 Feb 2026 20:18:52 GMT <== Glory ==>

Having fun writing Elm code for elmlog.org.

Itching to get outside, but it's going to rain for the rest of the day.

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Bike Battery is Toasting

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 06 Feb 2026 10:46:03 GMT <== Glory ==>

I've wondered how I managed to ride with the same pair of batteries for four years. Well, I didn't. My battery usually lasts until the indicator is on 1/4. Now it dies at just under 1/2. Maybe this battery DID break the charger. It always blinks red when you plug it in now, instead of showing steady green. New charger on the way. I think I won't plug it into the more-used battery.

Fortunately, I have a back-up bike that I can use when the primary is down.

Hey Bike

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Elmlog is Alive

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 05 Feb 2026 15:01:18 GMT <== Glory ==>

https://Elmlog.org is up. It doesn't say much, yet, but that's coming.

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Glory. All around.

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Tue, 03 Feb 2026 22:09:08 GMT <== Glory ==>

I've decided to use this as my primary text editor for posts (those that don't need Emacs editing capablities). I'll post them here on the blog, first, then copy to or link from elsewhere.

Hoopla! Oink! Oink!

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It's cold and the roads were snowy

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 01 Feb 2026 21:51:30 GMT <== Glory ==>

Had a couple of days with no high above freezing, and lots of snow on the bike paths. People don't realize that cold snow is only as slippery as any similar crystal powder. Except when it melts or gets wet. The water will refreeze, and be VERY slippery. But there were lots of dry spots today, so I expect the sun to do its work on them tomorrow, too, even from behind clouds.

People make big holes in a frozen snowy surface. Hundreds of them make for a very bumpy bike path.

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Elmlog FTW!

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 28 Jan 2026 14:10:07 GMT <== Glory ==>

I already missed yesterday. Sigh... Blogging every day will be hard. But it will get easier once I write Elmlog.