Happy Mothers Day

Gemini is browsing through some messages in her tablet. Her
sort-of-stepbrother sent one with a picture of Mom. There are messages
from her offspring.
She gets extra-comfy in her comfy chair, and sets to work on replies.

Skatha drops into a nearby couch with a sigh. "I had my mother in town for Mother's Day, but I think I've lost her to the wild world of conspiracy theories. I love my mother, but I'm always happier when I have my home to myself again."

J Peters

2021-05-13 15:50:26 UTC

Gemini is browsing through some messages in her tablet. Her
sort-of-stepbrother sent one with a picture of Mom. There are messages
from her offspring.
She gets extra-comfy in her comfy chair, and sets to work on replies.

My mother is in assisted living. They're strict about visits, with
scheduled visits allowed recently, and only on weekdays, after all
residents were vaccinated. Fortunately, Mom is a fan of science, and was
glad to get her jabs.

Mom and I connected by phone, under the circumstances.

My son brought me pizza for Mothers Day. It was good. And his gf
brought flowers. We hugged. It was a good day.

lkosov

2021-05-17 23:46:01 UTC

Post by J Peters
Gemini is browsing through some messages in her tablet. Her
sort-of-stepbrother sent one with a picture of Mom. There are messages from
her offspring.

"Tablets?" Leo asks from a chair in the corner, mildly misconstruing
things. "Does the USPS let you send carved tablets Media Mail?"

(The FAQ *is* insistent that this is a 20th-century coffeehouse...)

J Peters

2021-05-18 17:08:28 UTC

Gemini is browsing through some messages in her tablet. Her
sort-of-stepbrother sent one with a picture of Mom. There are
messages from her offspring.

"Tablets?" Leo asks from a chair in the corner, mildly misconstruing
things. "Does the USPS let you send carved tablets Media Mail?"
(The FAQ *is* insistent that this is a 20th-century coffeehouse...)

Folio?

lkosov

2021-05-18 18:36:56 UTC

Post by J Peters
Folio?

"Quarto for your thoughts?"

Skatha

2021-05-19 10:48:23 UTC

Post by J Peters
Folio?

"Quarto for your thoughts?"

"Personally, I send all my most important mail via cuneiform tablets," Skatha replies with a chuckle. "After all, if everyone relied solely on electronic mail, what on earth would we leave behind for anthropologists to study in a thousand years?"

J Peters

2021-05-19 16:10:43 UTC

Post by J Peters
Folio?

"Quarto for your thoughts?"

Gemini raises an eyebrow, Spock-like. "I feel for your letter carrier."

lkosov

2021-05-19 17:05:13 UTC

Post by J Peters
Folio?

"Quarto for your thoughts?"

"Personally, I send all my most important mail via cuneiform tablets,"
Skatha replies with a chuckle. "After all, if everyone relied solely on
electronic mail, what on earth would we leave behind for anthropologists
to study in a thousand years?"

"I've heard about businesses who still do that," Leo says, a twinkle in
his eye. "Hand-stamped clay, to give that personal touch to dunning
letters and other correspondence with customers. I think nowadays most
just photocopy them for their files, but I know it used to be common to
coat them with lampblack and press them against lightly dampened pieces of
paper, because those paper carbon copies took up a lot less room in the
filing cabinet than duplicate tablets."

He tries for a moment to remember Terry Pratchett's quote about "I save
about twenty drafts -- that's ten meg of disc space -- and the last one
contains all the final alterations. Once it has been printed out and
received by the publishers, there's a cry here of 'Tough shit, literary
researchers of the future, try getting a proper job!' and the rest are
wiped.", but fails, and shrugs philosophically.

"I've noticed that CD-Rs left outside--presumably flung by motorists at
stray pedestrians like low-budget Xena chakrams--delaminate very quickly,
leaving behind a clear, blank, polycarbonate disk, whose purpose would be
unguessable by someone twenty-five years ago... or twenty-five years from
now. If history is any indicator, anthropologists a millennia from now
will most likely be cheerfully labeling them 'unknown objects of likely
ritual significance'."

Skatha

2021-05-21 03:06:17 UTC

Gemini raises an eyebrow, Spock-like. "I feel for your letter carrier."

"It's fiiiiiiiiine," Skatha replies with a casual wave of her hand. "The trick is to carry them one letter at a time."

"I've heard about businesses who still do that," Leo says, a twinkle in
his eye. "Hand-stamped clay, to give that personal touch to dunning
letters and other correspondence with customers. I think nowadays most
just photocopy them for their files, but I know it used to be common to
coat them with lampblack and press them against lightly dampened pieces of
paper, because those paper carbon copies took up a lot less room in the
filing cabinet than duplicate tablets."
He tries for a moment to remember Terry Pratchett's quote about "I save
about twenty drafts -- that's ten meg of disc space -- and the last one
contains all the final alterations. Once it has been printed out and
received by the publishers, there's a cry here of 'Tough shit, literary
researchers of the future, try getting a proper job!' and the rest are
wiped.", but fails, and shrugs philosophically.
"I've noticed that CD-Rs left outside--presumably flung by motorists at
stray pedestrians like low-budget Xena chakrams--delaminate very quickly,
leaving behind a clear, blank, polycarbonate disk, whose purpose would be
unguessable by someone twenty-five years ago... or twenty-five years from
now. If history is any indicator, anthropologists a millennia from now
will most likely be cheerfully labeling them 'unknown objects of likely
ritual significance'."

"Personally, I'm hoping that someone will mistake them for the scales of a fantastic beast, and create some kind of 'period accurate' armor from them. But you're probably right - they'll be misconstrued as religious tokens for the alien/UFO-worshipping cults that run rampant in our times." Skatha pauses, thinking. "Or perhaps they could be interpreted as a handheld, lightweight mirror."

lkosov

2021-05-21 06:10:05 UTC

Post by lkosov
"I've noticed that CD-Rs left outside--presumably flung by motorists at
stray pedestrians like low-budget Xena chakrams--delaminate very quickly,
leaving behind a clear, blank, polycarbonate disk, whose purpose would be
unguessable by someone twenty-five years ago... or twenty-five years from
now. If history is any indicator, anthropologists a millennia from now
will most likely be cheerfully labeling them 'unknown objects of likely
ritual significance'."

But you're probably right - they'll be misconstrued as religious
tokens for the alien/UFO-worshipping cults that run rampant in our
times." Skatha pauses, thinking. "Or perhaps they could be interpreted
as a handheld, lightweight mirror."

Why not both?

---

Without Identity: The Quest For the Loss of Self in 22nd-Century New
Religious Movements

Dr. J.T. Conclusions, B.Arch.(Terrestrial) and I.M. Intern, Mare
Tranquilae Community College

Synopsis: Based on underwater archaeological surveys of pre-inundation
Terrestrial urban environments, the authors attempt to prove that the
hitherto-unexplained polycarbonate discs with holes in the middle, found
with some regularity in approximately 22nd-century contexts, were mirrors
used for ritual purposes by an interconnected planet-wide network of new
religious movements. Using a combination of pre- and post-inundation
popular psychology, they posit that the center-less mirrors were used as
meditative tools, allowing an adherent of a new religious movement to
reflect--and reflect upon--the world around them while simultaneously
removing themselves from that same world, or at least its reflection. The
second part of the paper explores the psychological implications of such
acts and ties them to the much-debated "loss of identity" that (some say)
occurred in the 22nd-23rd centuries...

---

-lkosov

Skatha

2021-05-21 12:29:25 UTC

Why not both?
---
Without Identity: The Quest For the Loss of Self in 22nd-Century New
Religious Movements
Dr. J.T. Conclusions, B.Arch.(Terrestrial) and I.M. Intern, Mare
Tranquilae Community College
Synopsis: Based on underwater archaeological surveys of pre-inundation
Terrestrial urban environments, the authors attempt to prove that the
hitherto-unexplained polycarbonate discs with holes in the middle, found
with some regularity in approximately 22nd-century contexts, were mirrors
used for ritual purposes by an interconnected planet-wide network of new
religious movements. Using a combination of pre- and post-inundation
popular psychology, they posit that the center-less mirrors were used as
meditative tools, allowing an adherent of a new religious movement to
reflect--and reflect upon--the world around them while simultaneously
removing themselves from that same world, or at least its reflection. The
second part of the paper explores the psychological implications of such
acts and ties them to the much-debated "loss of identity" that (some say)
occurred in the 22nd-23rd centuries...
---
-lkosov

*Chef's kiss* "Nice!"

"One may suppose that the prevalence of shattered discs indicates violent interactions with non-believers - or perhaps even between different geographical sects - but what of the rare unearthed dwellings adorned with these shattered pieces? Obviously they were reserved for religious leaders, but for which side?"

lkosov

2021-05-21 15:26:33 UTC

Post by lkosov
Synopsis: Based on underwater archaeological surveys of pre-inundation
Terrestrial urban environments, the authors attempt to prove that the

lkosov holds his head in his hands and sighs. "I write that off-the-cuff
at midnight, before going to bed. I woke up at three in the morning with a
pained scream, realizing with horror that I'd missed a perfectly
cromulent, once-in-a-lifetime chance to use 'antediluvian' in a sentence
and completely whiffed on it."

Skatha

2021-05-23 13:39:18 UTC

Post by lkosov
Synopsis: Based on underwater archaeological surveys of pre-inundation
Terrestrial urban environments, the authors attempt to prove that the

Skatha nods in understanding. "That's it, the cumulation of all of your skills and experiences were meant for that one moment, and you missed it. Pretty sure that happened to me back in high school, and I don't think I've ever recovered."

J Peters

2021-05-23 18:43:31 UTC

Gemini raises an eyebrow, Spock-like. "I feel for your letter carrier."

"It's fiiiiiiiiine," Skatha replies with a casual wave of her hand. "The trick is to carry them one letter at a time."

Hmm... If it's transported one letter at a time, how are the letters
kept in the proper order? Or does the receiving party have to do an
anagram with the message?

Gemini's eyebrow is still raised.

lkosov

2021-05-23 21:08:37 UTC

Post by Skatha
"It's fiiiiiiiiine," Skatha replies with a casual wave of her hand. "The
trick is to carry them one letter at a time."

Hmm... If it's transported one letter at a time, how are the letters kept in
the proper order? Or does the receiving party have to do an anagram with the
message?

"Imagine how much more importance and significance we'd place on our
epistles if they required careful de-anagraming," lkosov says to the
patrons of the Eat Myths Coffeehouse. If nothing else we'd all probably be
forced to learn brevity."

"And scenic noses," suggests Darwin from behind the counter, a twinkle in
his eye.

J Peters

2021-05-24 14:30:35 UTC

Post by Skatha
"It's fiiiiiiiiine," Skatha replies with a casual wave of her hand.
"The trick is to carry them one letter at a time."

Hmm... If it's transported one letter at a time, how are the letters
kept in the proper order? Or does the receiving party have to do an
anagram with the message?

"Imagine how much more importance and significance we'd place on our
epistles if they required careful de-anagraming," lkosov says to the
patrons of the Eat Myths Coffeehouse. If nothing else we'd all probably
be forced to learn brevity."
"And scenic noses," suggests Darwin from behind the counter, a twinkle
in his eye.

A precursor to Twitter?

lkosov

2021-05-24 16:35:10 UTC

Post by J Peters
A precursor to Twitter?

Potentially a precursor to the telegraph and newspaper classifieds, which
engendered peculiarly concise styles for financial reasons.

I'm not sure any were ever made as anagrams, but there were dozens of
commercial codebooks for telegrams, and enciphered newspaper ads were
evidently once fairly common. Also postcards, come to think of it.

--lkosov, brevity soul of wit stop consequently humourless bore stop

J Peters

2021-05-25 15:35:34 UTC

Post by J Peters
A precursor to Twitter?

Potentially a precursor to the telegraph and newspaper classifieds,
which engendered peculiarly concise styles for financial reasons.
I'm not sure any were ever made as anagrams, but there were dozens of
commercial codebooks for telegrams, and enciphered newspaper ads were
evidently once fairly common. Also postcards, come to think of it.
--lkosov, brevity soul of wit stop consequently humourless bore stop

Gemini thinks back to singles classifies:
SWF sks SWM in DMMA 4 srs rshp. Must love dogs.

lkosov

2021-05-25 17:33:09 UTC

Post by J Peters
SWF sks SWM in DMMA 4 srs rshp. Must love dogs.

Oh, I'd forgotten all about singles/personals ads! I was originally
thinking of the auto ads, which in some papers used to be charged per
letter, which led to a weird, cryptic shorthand. "98 chv sbrn wht no rst
347k m lth upst 5s mt nw trs cln ttl 8k obo phn aftr 4 555-1212"

I remember singles ads used to have so many two-letter abbreviations the
paper here always had a key, and it seemed to go on forever.

I guess that sort of thing reached its peak (nadir?) with the Geek Code.
Thank goodness *that* fell out of fashion.

--
GCS D- s:+ !a C++ UL++++ L+++ P E--- W- M+ w PGP+ !tv b++
gopher://tilde.town:70/1/~lkosov/

Skatha

2021-05-26 01:25:37 UTC

Post by J Peters
SWF sks SWM in DMMA 4 srs rshp. Must love dogs.

Oh, I'd forgotten all about singles/personals ads! I was originally
thinking of the auto ads, which in some papers used to be charged per
letter, which led to a weird, cryptic shorthand. "98 chv sbrn wht no rst
347k m lth upst 5s mt nw trs cln ttl 8k obo phn aftr 4 555-1212"
I remember singles ads used to have so many two-letter abbreviations the
paper here always had a key, and it seemed to go on forever.
I guess that sort of thing reached its peak (nadir?) with the Geek Code.
Thank goodness *that* fell out of fashion.
--
GCS D- s:+ !a C++ UL++++ L+++ P E--- W- M+ w PGP+ !tv b++
gopher://tilde.town:70/1/~lkosov/

"Hmm...more of a precursor to Scrabble than Twitter," Skatha muses, "Though after the first letter, I'd imagine people would switch over to characters or hieroglyphs for greater efficiency. Otherwise it would be like waiting for a Ouija board to finish spelling out someone's full name. A-L-E-X-A-N-D-GET ON WITH IT!" She grins. "Still, it pains me how much of that auto ad I can still decipher - like smashing a typewriter to the floor and pulling out Hamlet from the wreckage."

lkosov

2021-05-26 16:17:47 UTC

"...like smashing a typewriter to the floor and pulling out Hamlet from
the wreckage."

"I guess either typewriters were rather larger, or Danish princes much
smaller, in Shakespeare's time than ours. Can you imagine the noise? No
wonder he wanted to off his nuncle."

--
O what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous that this DING!
player here, but in a fiction, in a dream of passion, could force DING!
his soul so to his own conceit that from her working all his visage DING!?

Skatha

2021-05-28 11:34:07 UTC

"...like smashing a typewriter to the floor and pulling out Hamlet from
the wreckage."

"I guess either typewriters were rather larger, or Danish princes much
smaller, in Shakespeare's time than ours. Can you imagine the noise? No
wonder he wanted to off his nuncle."
--
O what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous that this DING!
player here, but in a fiction, in a dream of passion, could force DING!
his soul so to his own conceit that from her working all his visage DING!?

Skatha laughs. "To be honest, though, I miss the sounds of typewriters. They were just so mechanically *satisfying* to listen to! Except, of course, when you went too fast and got the keys tangled up in a bind."

lkosov

2021-05-28 12:30:34 UTC

Post by Skatha
Skatha laughs. "To be honest, though, I miss the sounds of typewriters.
They were just so mechanically *satisfying* to listen to! Except, of
course, when you went too fast and got the keys tangled up in a bind."

"There are still typewriter-repair shops, believe it or not. Even still a
couple companies left that recover platens. I bought a nice little
portable at a thrift store a few years ago, had a local place clean and
oil it."

lkosov laughs nostalgically. "I learned to type on one, in middle school.
At the time it seemed strange, and I really resented it, but it honestly
made me a much better typist, looking back. You really need good form,
good cadence, with a typewriter."

"It was still such a weird progression, though. We learned to use
computers, PCs, in the fourth grade, in elementary school. Then in seventh
grade, in middle school, we had to take a semester of typing, on
typewriters, before we could take computer classes on Apple IIs. The
really weird part was that the typewriting class wasn't about
touch-typing, it was about how to use a typewriter. Centering text,
setting tabs, line spacing... how to format a letter properly. Learning to
type properly was just a sort of beneficial side-effect."

"You look panicked; don't be! I'm not the kind of monster who brings a
typewriter to a coffeehouse. Honest."

J Peters

2021-05-28 15:22:19 UTC

Post by Skatha
Skatha laughs. "To be honest, though, I miss the sounds of
typewriters. They were just so mechanically *satisfying* to listen to!
Except, of course, when you went too fast and got the keys tangled up
in a bind."

"There are still typewriter-repair shops, believe it or not. Even still
a couple companies left that recover platens. I bought a nice little
portable at a thrift store a few years ago, had a local place clean and
oil it."
lkosov laughs nostalgically. "I learned to type on one, in middle
school. At the time it seemed strange, and I really resented it, but it
honestly made me a much better typist, looking back. You really need
good form, good cadence, with a typewriter."
"It was still such a weird progression, though. We learned to use
computers, PCs, in the fourth grade, in elementary school. Then in
seventh grade, in middle school, we had to take a semester of typing, on
typewriters, before we could take computer classes on Apple IIs. The
really weird part was that the typewriting class wasn't about
touch-typing, it was about how to use a typewriter. Centering text,
setting tabs, line spacing... how to format a letter properly. Learning
to type properly was just a sort of beneficial side-effect."
"You look panicked; don't be! I'm not the kind of monster who brings a
typewriter to a coffeehouse. Honest."

Gemini chimes in. "I received a small portable typewriter for high
school graduation. It was a European model, with the tilde and umlaut,
which was handy for Spanish papers. Most of my college classmates
arrived on campus with electric typewriters. A few had some type of
early PC. I was the only one who could do papers outside on a bench or
a picnic table. Or sitting on the grass under a tree. You get the idea."

Skatha

2021-06-06 21:39:15 UTC

Post by Skatha
Skatha laughs. "To be honest, though, I miss the sounds of
typewriters. They were just so mechanically *satisfying* to listen to!
Except, of course, when you went too fast and got the keys tangled up
in a bind."

"There are still typewriter-repair shops, believe it or not. Even still
a couple companies left that recover platens. I bought a nice little
portable at a thrift store a few years ago, had a local place clean and
oil it."
lkosov laughs nostalgically. "I learned to type on one, in middle
school. At the time it seemed strange, and I really resented it, but it
honestly made me a much better typist, looking back. You really need
good form, good cadence, with a typewriter."
"It was still such a weird progression, though. We learned to use
computers, PCs, in the fourth grade, in elementary school. Then in
seventh grade, in middle school, we had to take a semester of typing, on
typewriters, before we could take computer classes on Apple IIs. The
really weird part was that the typewriting class wasn't about
touch-typing, it was about how to use a typewriter. Centering text,
setting tabs, line spacing... how to format a letter properly. Learning
to type properly was just a sort of beneficial side-effect."
"You look panicked; don't be! I'm not the kind of monster who brings a
typewriter to a coffeehouse. Honest."

"The high school typing classes ended the year before I started, thankfully, though I am jealous they never got replaced by useful programming classes. Imagine the leet hacker I could be now!" Skatha strikes a dramatic pose. "Instead, I'm the crazy person with three - THREE - typewriters lurking in a closet, not to mention an Ascent of Man-like array of Apple computers given to me when they went out of date. I *should* probably check to see if my Mac IISE still turns on..."

lkosov

2021-06-09 02:58:45 UTC

Post by Skatha
"The high school typing classes ended the year before I started,
thankfully, though I am jealous they never got replaced by useful
programming classes. Imagine the leet hacker I could be now!" Skatha
strikes a dramatic pose. "Instead, I'm the crazy person with three -
THREE - typewriters lurking in a closet, not to mention an Ascent of
Man-like array of Apple computers given to me when they went out of
date. I *should* probably check to see if my Mac IISE still turns on..."

lkosov makes what he hopes is a sympathetic expression. "Three seems like
a perfectly reasonable number of typewriters, to me. The crazy people are
the people who just see 'three typewriters', rather than one with elite
type, one with pica type, one with tab stops and a bicolor ribbon... or
whatever the case might be."

"I've never owned an Apple, out of date or otherwise. I do have an
extremely outdated Sun workstation, though. Twenty-five megahertz, with I
think thirty-two megabytes of memory. And an accursed old SCSI drive. It
probably powers on, but I'm not sure I remember my password on it."

Skatha

2021-06-10 12:47:26 UTC

lkosov makes what he hopes is a sympathetic expression. "Three seems like
a perfectly reasonable number of typewriters, to me. The crazy people are
the people who just see 'three typewriters', rather than one with elite
type, one with pica type, one with tab stops and a bicolor ribbon... or
whatever the case might be."
"I've never owned an Apple, out of date or otherwise. I do have an
extremely outdated Sun workstation, though. Twenty-five megahertz, with I
think thirty-two megabytes of memory. And an accursed old SCSI drive. It
probably powers on, but I'm not sure I remember my password on it."

"I'm afraid my prowess with identifying typewriters ends with: I have two that require electricity, and one that can be adequately utilized for blunt force trauma or an anchor. I remember my grandparents had an old PC that I had started writing a story on, and I was heartbroken when it crashed and took all my data with it..." Skatha sighs. "I appreciate modern autosave features, they just came decades too late to save my childhood dreams."

lkosov

2021-06-10 15:30:51 UTC