Mad as a Hatter

The Nantucket Gazette was a newspaper that existed in the 19th century. This year, someone decided to start it up again. Sort of. It's a free paper with one edition per year. The middle is the usual stuff you'd find in a free paper in tourist season: maps and an events calendar. The first and last few pages, however, are clippings from the original paper. Ads, silly columns, news stories, and other random things the current publishers thought would be interesting.

Someone offered a reward for any part of the piano lost at sea during a recent shipwreck. The paper advises, with great sagacity, a cure for cholera which, if you follow the instructions gives you... plain chicken broth. There's notice of people going around as living traveling exhibits - albinos from Europe touring the US and Native Americans touring Europe. Someone wants to sell a four year old cow "of the finest recommendations." Others are looking for an apprentice or a boy to work in the house. A listing of numbers from Paris claims there were 22,612 births, 8,976 of which were illegitimate. There's the story of a man in Berlin who died of starvation, was estranged from his brother (his only family) because he wouldn't pay for postage to mail him a letter, spent his evenings begging on the street... and was found to have 20,000 crown coins under his floorboards.

The one I found most interesting, however, is this:

DRAWING ROOM VIEWS

The Washington Papers contain a discussion of the Drawing Rooms at the President's house. It appears that Mrs. Munroe has adopted a new arrangement in this business. Mrs. Madison was in the habit of returning all requests of visits of her company. With the great increase to the population of the city Mrs. Munroe cannot follow in the example of her predecessor. She has, therefore, very properly caused it to be announced that she cannot return calls made upon her.

The following arrangements have been arranged at the President's House:

Mrs. Munroe is at home in the morning to receive all those calls the Ladies of the District or strangers.

The President receives, the Head of Departments and Members of Congress &c. at all hours of the day, and strangers and citizens between one and two.

In these receptions there will be no display of unnecessary ceremony or etiquette but everything to prove that the attentions of their fellow citizens are grateful to their feelings and unostentatiously desired.

Nantucket December 27th 1817

So anyone could just wander over to the White House at the appointed time and drop in to chat with the President or First Lady. No formality. Just tell the President what's on your mind, have a little talk in the Drawing Room, and wander off about your day.

This a mere 5 years after the War of 1812 (not to be confused with Napoleon's invasion of Russia, in commemoration of which the cannon-blasting 1812 Overture was written), wherein (in 1814) the British sacked Washington, DC and torched everything, including the White House and the Capitol Building.

Hard to imagine, especially if you've ever waited in line and gone through security for a tour of the public areas of the modern White House.

New vlog entry! (Hopefully, after all the issues I had today with cameras and multiple video format conversions, it's actually watchable. Sorry about the lighting. And the camera positioning. Best I could manage at the time, and there are things going on with the family this week so I didn't want to fuss around too much.)

( Video under the cut )

So, I was in the Soulless American Monolith's Club (coined that acronym on the way home), innocently looking for a frickin huge jug of hand soap to refill the various dispensers around the house when I happened to look up and see this¹:


(Click for larger image.)

And I was all like DUDE!!²

And so I went over and checked the price. 10 bucks. At which I was all like DUUUUUUUDE!³

Turns out they also make a TIE fighter and the Milennium Falcon. All 3D.

Oh, and the spool? A (simplified) lightsaber hilt.

Of course, I also have this pirate ship from the same company:



And I still haven't actually flown it. Haven't flown a kite in several years, truth to tell.

But someday I shall. And that day shall rock.

In the meantime, I have an awesome 3D X-Wing kite!

¹Kid not included. And not hanging from the rafters. I mean, even WalMart isn't that evil...

²Except I think I actually said "whoa," but never mind that.

³Except I think I actually said, "Okay, yeah. I'm getting it." But again... not the point.

Dreamwidth update:

New post has more info about beta launch, account info, etc.

There's also more info on the mailing list, starting with this message.

Also... I need a new username. pgwfolc was good back when I was an active FoLC and so were the vast majority of my friends. Now it just seems more like a head-scratcher.

I could go with HatMan, I guess. Or MadHatter. Don't feel like using zennerd or calm_smile. Any suggestions on something better? Or a way to come up with something better?

Signed up today with Kiva. It's a microlending site. People in third world countries need money to start businesses and improve their lives. You, via Kiva (which works through carefully chosen local banks and lenders around the world), can provide that money by making $25 loans. (Using PayPal.)

You look through the listings of who needs what, choose the ones you want, and lend them money. In time, they pay it back.

It's not charity, because you get repaid. But it can make a big difference in their lives. And you don't make any money off it yourself. (The local lenders charge interest - they have to cover their costs and make some money, after all. But Kiva screens out the ones who charge rates that they feel are out of hand. And they are considering ways to allow users to get some interest, as well.)

When you do get repaid (and though there is some risk of default, 99.70% have so far been repaid), you can take the money back or relend it to someone else.

There are also teams. Just for fun and socializing and such. I've joined up with a dozen of them. LJ/Fandom, FSM, Jews, MIT, Colbert... I'll spare you the full list. But some of you may be interested to know that there are teams for Browncoats, X-Philes, NaNoWriMo, and Homeschoolers, among others. There are over 4000 teams for schools and places and ideas and families and just about anything you can name. And if you can't find it, you can start it yourself.

It's pretty cool. A way to touch lives and help change the world. $25 at a time.

This is freaky. And awesome. And many other things. At that price, I may just have to get one. And they have bulk discounts! Hmm... but what would I do with the others...?

ETA:

1. I'm wondering about the site. I found it off of Cnet, and they do have VeriSign and stuff. And they seem to have a good number of happy customers and businesses that use them. So they should be okay in that sense.

But they're based in China. Which means shipping isn't cheap. And they say the recipient is responsible for any import taxes the government chooses to impose (which is what I've found with other packages I've sent overseas). So it's not as cheap as it looks.

And - this part is kind of sketchy/worrisome - they have notices all over the place that you must not, under any circumstances, try to update the firmware on anything they sell. Doing so voids the warranty.

2. There are a lot more options than I first realized. They have 21 of them. And I found another site with a selection of 17. A few other sites, too. Plus some offered on Amazon and stuff. One of the ones on the second site lists amongst its features "firmware upgradable." (Now I'm wondering about the others.)

3. Right now, this one is looking the coolest. Still reasonably priced. Still 4GB (which seems excessive, really, but I suppose if you want to start putting movies and stuff on it...). And it has an FM radio. And recording features (microphone or radio). And you can change the time display. And the USB cable tucks in to the watchband. And it comes in pretty colors. The other site has it too, but they want nearly twice as much. Slightly better shipping price, but not nearly enough to make the difference.

4. One thing which is even freakier (and which I am not planning to get) is the one that also works as a touchscreen cell phone. It's like a wristwatch iPhone. (Except that it only does SMS, not email and internet.)

I don't know. It's not like I really need one or anything. Or that I could really see myself wanting to squint at a little 1.5 (or, in some cases, 1.8) inch screen. But it would be (pardon the term) handy to have. As a storage device. As an MP3 player. As a radio. As a nifty little gadget. And maybe, from time to time, as a video player. Oh, and, of course, as a watch. (I've worn a calculator/data watch since 7th grade, but nowadays I use my cell phone for that stuff.) At this price (probably about $90 by the time you're done with shipping and taxes), it's hard to resist.

Well, I'll think about it for a week or so. Not going to place any orders until I get home.

But... anyone else interested? Base price and shipping are slightly lower per unit if you order a few at a time. And mailing within the US (and probably Canada) shouldn't be too expensive...

Thanks for the comments last post. Sorry I haven't responded individually, but they are appreciated.

Today's test seems to indicate that it's not the heart, after all. But now we have no idea what's going on with the lungs. So... more testing. But at least it's a good sign, mostly. Whatever it is, it's probably more easily treatable than the heart condition we thought he had.

And he's been better lately. Coughing less, less fragile. Still not nearly 100%, but better than he was. Hopefully, he'll continue to improve.

Meantime, shortly before all this started, we switched him over to a new food: Pet Promise. Came across an ad while going through the click2donate sites (I start off with Global Warming and click my way through. I do The Hunger Site family, too). Checked it out, seemed worth a try. Stuff costs twice as much as his old Pedigree stuff, but man... he absolutely loves it. And it seems to be clearing up his long-standing digestive issues, too. So at least he's had some good stuff happen this past week.

(And yes, we asked the vet if switching foods, even gradually, could have done it, and he said no.)

So... we'll see what the bloodwork says. And just keep treating him carefully. Hopefully, he'll continue to improve.

Anyway, just wanted to update you guys. Thanks again for the support. :)