Andy Lowry @AndyLowry@qoto.org

@gothamgirlblue
Thank you very much! I'm really surprised that this isn't getting major-emergency levels of attention here and at newspaper sites. This is not a small thing. I'll try to continue to watch for more reporting on it, if that happens.

A little over a week ago, I wrote a post about how much I enjoyed using Moleskine pocket notebooks for everyday jotting. I noted how much pleasure I managed to get out of such a simple, though well-designed, product.

Ms. AB, @galand2dogs, replied to ask if I'd ever tried the similar Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks, and I hadn't, so I went in search of those to see if I could get my hands on one. It turned out that I could, so I did, based on little more than her mention that it had TWO silk bookmarks. TWO, can you believe it?

So now that I've been using one for a couple of days, I can safely say that these are undoubtedly a step above even my beloved Moleskines. Not only does it have two bookmark ribbons, the pages are pre-numbered and the front contains an index to fill in. It also comes with a pen-holder loop should I choose to install it (not something I need) and label stickers for both the front and spine so that one can title the collection before putting it away on the bookshelf. That is AMAZING. The spine is nice and flat, so the sticker will attach well when I need it.

I like it well enough that I'm copying one of my existing daily records books over from a softcover Moleskine, even though it will take a couple of hours.

Thanks, Ms. AB! You have improved my life in a small way, and that's the best way. 😉

@jeffmartins@masto.ai
Just BBC World Service. It's basically what you get from the World Service if you have a radio that can pick it up, which I don't.

@SecularJeffrey @nlarson830 @vitaminsludge@mastodon.ie @jeffmartins@masto.ai
Aaaargh. Now I'll spend the rest of the day staring at that.

@jeffmartins@masto.ai @SecularJeffrey
There was one in the neighborhood when I was in Junior High and I have always, always wanted one ever since. I was never able to achieve that goal and I'm a little sad about that every time I see one on TV (I watch a lot of foreign TV so it happens often).

That and the Citroen DS are the two that I let get away, to my regret. At least I was able to drive MG's for quite a few years, along with a number of American cars from the 50's, so I'll have to settle for those memories.

@janrosenow
That IS amazing, and in the early days of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, newspeople talked about various places in Europe finding it impossible to do what some have actually now accomplished.

@briankrebs
Well golly, that's a surprise. I guess phone number assignment is some kind of totally random thing.

@Kashalot@mastodon.world
I know that feeling.

@SecularJeffrey
It's really cool to see all these cars that I've never once seen in real life. I was born in '56, so am familiar with the general style of some of these, but many of the non-US examples are new to me. Peugot was not a common brand where I lived, though there were a couple around .

Though American, I've been listening to BBC World Service for about thirty years. Maybe more. Today, when I opened the streaming application on my phone, I was presented with an ad for some phone game, and couldn't even figure out how to make that go away. So I deleted it from my phone, which makes me a little sad. I felt like I kind of knew some of those presenters.

@grimethorpeband@mastodonapp.uk @mcmullin
See if you can't have a chat with Bach about that, won't you?

@jayarava
I've seen what it can do to steel and iron. But, perversely, the body seems to depend on it. I'm certainly treating it with care; I remember a demonstration of thrusting a glowing straw into a tube of oxygen and watching it nearly explode. There are open flames in the house, so I have to make sure there are never any leaks anywhere.

@alanthwaits@noc.social
👍

You would not BELIEVE the level of detail that legal regulations go into when allowing the placement of oxygen in the home. it has to be so far in distance from this and that, any concentrator must be plugged directly into a wall outlet rather than an extension, can't be near a heater of course, tanks must be stored thus and so. Our house has both a gas stove and water heater, which made for even more things to have new-to-me laws about. 90% of the oxygen man's initial setup and delivery process was spent going over all of these laws I must now learn and follow, with the rest of the time explaining the actual complicated delivery systems. I do understand why this must be so, but was a little surprised at how thoroughly the law had addressed the issue.

#cancer

I was permanently put on oxygen today. It's hard to describe, though you can probably imagine, the adaptations that are made when being at home on a 25-foot tether that's on the floor being dragged around by your face and really shouldn't be stepped on much, dragging along behind you, trying not to tie a knot as you travel from place to place.

It was really impressive how thoroughly the decision is carried out and how quickly. The doctors said very early this morning that from this time hence, it shall be thus, and so it was. I was supplied a tank on wheels to get me out to the car and home. A couple of hours later, a friendly man arrived with a home oxygen concentrator, small travel tank in shoulder bag with a half-dozen tanks, a full walkthrough of how everything works, and more hoses than an aquarium shop.

I do remove the cannula for some maneuvers that are too complicated or inconvenient to quickly perform, but other than that,
I've not been off my new breathing mixture for more than a more than five (brief) times. My new breathing mixture includes 3 liters of oxygen per minute, which is 1 liter above the average prescription of 2, so at least I remain above average. (This is still not extremely high, though, my regulator goes up to 6 and there are people who need even more than that.)

For reasons too complicated to get into, I now know that for the week before being put on oxygen, I would have been committing a crime had I driven a car, as my average blood oxygen was running about 75%. (My usual reading before that, and again now, is 95 or 96.)

It all makes me want a cigarette for the first time since 2004, which is how I got here in the first place.

#cancer

@Doreen32128
I don't see a way out that doesn't involve deadly violence of some kind. I'm not saying that because it's something I want, but we're right at the edge of splitting into two forces. The good news is that we're the majority. The bad news is that the majority is less like to want to engage in the violence. I am now officially a bundle'o'fun and great to be around at parties.