Opposed by Tyrants

A feature preceded by a short today.

The short is founded on two things– my personal interest in getting an electric vehicle, and the arrival last weekend of snow. Loads of it. About 30% of what we got in the whole of the previous winter.

Although joining in the ribbing of those who insist “you’ll never get one of those started in the winter,” I quiver with seething jealousy. This is tempered by my willingness to wait for the VW van to appear in a year or so.

The feature is something I’ve wanted to see for ages and could never find, and then like a bolt from the blue, there it sits, trembling in the clutches of the YouTube algorithm. You probably won’t be able to get through it in a lunch break.

The cunning simulation of tens of thousands of troops was achieved by borrowing tens of thousands of troops from the Soviet Army (who, having not gotten mired in Afghanistan yet, were at loose ends) and training them in early 19th century drill and maneuvers.

I was also frequently struck by how much Christopher Plummer looks like Peter Cushing. I kept expecting a formation of Draculas to wheel across someone’s flank.

Today’s pen: TWSBI Classic
Today’s ink: Jentle blue-black

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What? Again?

 

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
18 May 19 May 20 May 21 May 22 May	Slothful Victoria Day Lounging Getting a submission out Second draft of “Ancestral Curse” (working title). Another submission to prep This nonsense, and considering the next submission	Buckets of it One Away! 352 typed words, and ready for the next phase. Two Away! Standing by on Tubes 3 and 4!	Pelikan th.INK Montblanc 32 Pilot Vanishing Point Parker 75 Sheaffer Balance Statesman	Herbin Poussière de Lune Diamine Bilberry TWSBI Blue-black Edelstein Olivine Skrip Black

It’s Victoria Day that did it to me. On a count of straining effort for The Regular Job, instinct insisted yesterday was Wednesday.

And with that out of the way, let me now present today’s educational video– how to live in the future!

It’s 2020. That’s the future. Smartphones exist. FUTURE.

 

The Car Goes Vroom Vroom!

You may recognize the title– if not, treat yourself to a viewing of Madagascar 3, which might be the best comedy of its decade.

What really prompts the film today is some encouraging news that’s hardly appeared in major outlets. There is, it seems, a push to get some publicly-accessible car chargers set up across Canada. Some argue that electric cars just shove the emissions elsewhere, but that “elsewhere” is almost always more efficient than a car engine.

And speaking of inefficient car engines…

I will admit a vague interest in being taken for a lap in that brute… but not enough to overcome a terror of being thrown out, caught in a roll-over, or Isadora Duncan-ed into the grave.

Today’s pen: Retro 51 Tornado
Today’s ink: Herbin Lie de Thé

Shiny New Things

Not really part of my brief, but I find this all VERY hopeful for the future because it’s mostly “in production in 2019” rather that “perhaps sometime in the next decade but one.”

I just hope I’ll be able to afford the VW van when it makes its appearance… in a couple of years.

Today’s pen: TWSBI Mini
Today’s ink: Skrip Black

Electro-Quick Car-o-matic!

A possible side-light to my (apparently) retrograde political notions is an interest in non-combustion vehicles.  Had I but the money for a PV roof, a Power Wall™, and an electric car, I’d be revelling in the quiet joy of driving about town on the back of harnessed lightning.

But I wouldn’t expect to go quite this fast:

Today’s pen: Faber-Castell e-motion
Today’s ink: Herbin Pousièrre de Lune

Self-criticism.

Because I’m not doing as much as I’d like environmentally, and because it’s Earth Day, I’m just offering some links to things I wish I could introduce into my own living arrangements. They’re not endorsements, mind you, but more of a kid looking in the Christmas catalogue and shouting, “Oh, NEAT!”

Solar air heating, although the season is more or less over for such things; there’s always another winter on the way.

A ground-source heat pump, which can both heat and cool a house.

Some on-site electricity generation— sun and wind, as we generally have plenty of both around here.

An electric car– a new one would be super cool, but I’m not proud.

The house is already crammed with 13 watt light bulbs, we recycle and compost, and I walk so much as I can. And yet, I feel as if I’m disappointing David Suzuki.

Today’s eminently reusable pen: Parker IM
Today’s water-based, neutral-pH ink: Noodler’s Van Gogh Starry Night.