Monday, August 31, 2009

The best job in the world!!

I'm gonna explain my job and then you can tell me if you wouldn't like to be in my shoes.

I'm in charge of manufacturing salvia extracts at our lab in Black Hat Botanicals since 2 months ago.

It was a little bit difficult to learn everything because the steps to follow looked easy, but you know what they say about things that look easy. Well, I already learned them, some of them the hard way.

Today I was talking to my boss, brainstorming new ideas to continue with our success in the herbal extract industry, and I popped up a question that I've had in my mind for a month or so.

I told my boss that I was afraid that the quality of our products could diminish a bit with this change of manufacturer, since he used to be in charge of that part of the process from a long time ago, at least on the supervision area and we always had good reviews from our customers.

Now he's into other things and he let me in charge of salvia extracts and other herbs production and I had that doubt. I told him that I would like him to check the product like a "quality control" test.

He was ok with that, he told me to get him some product I've done lately. I get him a container for our 10X and he got a glass pipe, I asked him what he was going to do with the glass pipe. He said that he was going to test the quality of the salvia. I said that I didn't mean that, I was just asking him to take a look to the extracts I made and compare it to the one he used to do.

He said he could do that, but it was better to smoke it and compare the quality of the trip itself.

Well, as he is the boss, What could I do, right? I told him I'll be the sitter. He took one of our new glass pipes and put some 10x in it, then he lighted it.

I was worried because it was the first time I see someone smoking salvia next to me, I've just watched them in Youtube and it looked like fun, but in reality I was a little nervous about my performance as a newbie sitter.

And yes, he was there going up on the trip and I was telling him to pass me the glass pipe and the lighter, which he forgot to put in the floor, and I had to tell him at least a couple of times before he finally did it.

To be my first time as a sitter it was a busy one, he stood up once, so I had to say: "sit down" he did it, then said something like: "What did I smoke, what did I smoke?" I said: "Salvia" and he said: "oh!" then he stood up again and I said "sit down" again, fortunately for both of us, he understood what I said, even if he didn't seem to be listening at all, so he sat down again.

He started to say: "Do we sell this thing? It's awesome!" I was focused on watching him and to prevent any accident so I didn't answer.

Then, when I thought everything was settling down he stood up for the third time, I told him to keep sat down but he didn't listen this time, he said he was ok, and I believed him at first, but then he start's laughing at me, he said: "Yes, I'm ok, but you look like a doctor and you're watching me" (I was wearing my lab coat) It didn't make sense at that time, I had to stand up and ask him to sit down again, which now he did.

Then the effect passed out, he stood up and looked out the window, and said: "man! this is good $hit!" So, what's better quality description for a product than that? Specially if said by the man who pays you to manufacture it.

But it didn't end there, while he was recovering from it, I told him that I envy him because I tried salvia before and I've never got a good trip. So he said: "ok, do it now" but I was like unsure. I told him that I don't like to do it with so many distractions surrounding me (daylight, street noise, and specially him looking at me).

After a lot of thinking I finally decided to do it, my boss lowered the blinds and he told me he would be in the other room just in case. I agreed and smoked some of it, he told me it was too much and I let some smoke go. I kept it in my lungs around 20 seconds and waited but I didn't feel anything. I went to my boss and told him the bad news, he told me that I didn't smoke enough and I should try again. I did it again but nothing happened, I just felt a little drunk.

Both of the experiences happened in less than 1 hour but I learned a lot. Specially by being a sitter. This is what I learned:

When you're a sitter, you should never think you know what the smoker is going to do, it happened to me with the pipe and lighter and after that with the standing ups. It's better if you talk about what to do with the pipe/bong and lighter/matches minutes (to put them in the floor, table or hand it to you) before the person you're taking care of starts smoking, he or she is gonna have some seconds of awareness to do this before the experience starts.

When the person stands up, at least with my boss, he understood perfectly when I told him to sit down the first couple of times, but in the third one it took longer to respond.

This tells me two things: as a sitter you can try to talk, warn or yell in case of a danger as a first resource. But you must not get too confident that the smoker is gonna listen all of the time, like he didn't that third time.

I was impressed that he always talked coherently, something that most of the people I've seen on youtube videos couldn't do.

We talked about our experiences some minutes after and he told me that he felt he was swinging back and forth, and that he was passing through 3 different realities, back being one, the middle another and the front another one, which it was the one I was in. He said that he felt he could choose any of the three to be in. Then he told me what he was seeing when he was standing up the third time laughing at me. He said that I looked like a doctor, and when I stood up and told him to sit down, with my body ready to catch him up in case he tripped or run, I looked like one of those nurses from mental hospitals trying to catch the crazy guy to prevent him to hurt himself. That was to a certain point true and after he told me that I also laughed about it.

Then we discuss about why I couldn't have the same experience he had using the very same product. My thought is that my lifestyle is not the same than his. He's way more spiritual than me, he keeps some special diet and prays, and don't drink too much, and on the contrary, I drank last week when my girlfriend came to spend her vacations here, and I eat anything that moves. I read that sex and drinking habits among other food choices had to do with the outcome of Salvia experiences. I'll read more about this and make some experiments with myself to let you know what's the best way of having the best Salvia experience ever.

And finally, he told me "what other job can you have where the boss smokes up with you? in fact, orders you to smoke!"

Yes, I completely agree. Too bad that I'm not working at Porsche's, I'd be driving like crazy on some race track against my boss!!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Live Salvia Plants

This is one of our new products, Live Salvia plants, you can use the leaves to grow your stash, for shamanic purposes, to make some extract, or just as an ornament.

We'll be posting tips on how to grow salvia plants in this blog and at our forum.

Here's an introduction to our new product.

"So, you've tried Salvia Divinorum leaf, perhaps even experimented with our Salvia Divinorum Extract, but have you actually held a live Salvia Divinorum plant in your hands, nurtured it with tender care, and snipped just what was needed for the freshest experience available short of a trip down to Mexico? For the true Salvia connoisseur we are proud to offer large, live Salvia Divinorum plants that have are fully grown and well branched.

These are not the fragile, sickly young seedlings sold elsewhere. These hardy, well rooted plants have never known a basement dungeon, nor faced the frigid chills of winter's wrath. A lot of time, effort, and love has gone into raising these beauties, and it shows. Reared in a sunlit greenhouse, with plenty of water and gardening expertise."

More products are on their way. Please comment.

Monday, August 3, 2009

New product: Argyreia nervosa

Black Hat Botanicals is not just Salvia extracts, we just added new herbal products to our website, this is one of them:

A cousin of Rivea corymbosa and Morning Glory, Argyreia nervosa, commonly known as Hawaiian Baby Woodrose Seeds (HBWS), is quite well dispersed around the globe. Used in traditional medicines from India to Ghana, Australia, Madagascar and Hawaii, HBWS have recently been growing in popularity.

We've been able to obtain two high quality supplies of HBWS - one Indian, the other Hawaiian. Lovers of HBWS will tell you that the Hawaiian variety is more prized. Still our Indian strain is well respected and provides a lower cost alternative to those less picky in such matters. Whichever strain you choose, you'll be thanking us later.