A florentine diary from 1450 to 1516 By Luca Landucci

About 

This is what it sounds like a diary written in late 15th to the early 16th century written by a regular citizen. Landucci was an apothecary in Florence. This isn't a day to day account and was clearly collected at a later point there are notes that reference details that wouldn't be known until later. 

My impression was that he was middle to upper middle class. Its a bit hard to tell since there isn't that much personal. For example there are no notes about his children being born though some of them are mentioned later but not until they are adults. Most of the notes are news the fluctuation price of grain or goods, the politics of the city, or other countries. Crimes that happened and wars between various Italian countries and with France. Along with several plots involving the Medicis.

Also way more people getting hanged from windows. Like this seems to be something that happened at least every few years. 

My thoughts

How this has been preserved is interesting when so many other books has been lost to time.  I can see this being very useful for historians. Not so much for mentioning events. But about taxes and the price of various food stuffs. The reason the events might be less useful is how little information there is about anything that happened. The book is quite short considering how much time it covers. Some years are described in as little as half a page though some some others have 30 pages. There are so many times when I wanted more information about things mentioned. A revolt against the Medicis but Landucci says that he doesn't know why. I might have to find some history book about the renaissance Italy and read that.

Landucci was a contemporary of Machiavelli and I read this looking for any mentioned of him. Alas there were none but there was plenty about the Borgias. Interesting he expressed no opinion about the pope having children. even though he had much opinions about other sins committed by the people he talked about. 

He was very religious and quite naive in a way that I found tiring. Of course the French aren't going to conquer Pisa for you there is no benefit for them to do so. Then the 11 January 1495 he writes about a preacher who refutes accusations against himself, claiming letters showing his support for the Medici was a forgery. Landucci ends this with saying he has always stood by the community's unity. Has he because this is the same person that has categorically forbidden women from being present at his sermons.

All in all it is an interesting read if you are interested in history but don't necessarily need a narrative.

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you can check it out here:

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Improving a cat bed

My cat Tösen likes to sleep in her carrier and with winter here I moved it next to the radiator to keep her warm. This, however, also moves it into my eye-line form the couch and since it's quite ugly I decided to make a cover for it. 

I spent quite a long time looking up if there were any thing I could buy and use but nothing quite had the measurements I needed so DIY it is. I considered quite a few materials and methods but in the end I decided to make the base out of cardboard- Mostly because I had some left over from when I bought a bookshelf and it's easier than some of the other ideas I had. Also if it doesn't work then at least I haven't spent too much money for it.

My idea was to cover three sides of the carrier, leaving the front open and covering the long-, short- and a bit of the next long side. Measuring it I then added a bit just in case and because i plan to fold it and that will loose me a bit of length. All in all this comes to 100 cm long and 40 cm high. Luckily one of the pieces I had were large enough. So measuring carefully I drew it out on the cardboard then cut it out. This is a horrible material to cut. It's hard and folds and doesn't want to be cut neatly. Using an x-acto knife I could do parts but it can only really cut through one or two of the layers. 

A thing about cardboard is that it folds easily (too easily) but only in one direction, so to make it not do that except where I want it to I took more pieces and glued them on crosswise. Leaving gaps for where I wan't to fold it. I then used some books to weigh down the edges while the whole thing dries and I had a lunch break. 

Now comes the difficult part deciding on what I want it too look like. Painting it blue would be the easiest way. I have some paint left over and it would match other things in the room. Maybe too much, there is a lot of things in that general blue shade and I hesitate to add more. Another problem is the edges, which despite my best attempt are still a bit ragged. They would need to be covered with paper first and if I'm doing that I might as well do it properly and cover it with fabric. 

For now I'm doing a little test. I covered the longest side with a pillowcase. This lets me see how I like it and lets me easily try a few different colors. 

I tried black (slightly faded), pale blue and red these colors mostly because these are pillow cases I'm willing to sacrifice for this. 

Clearly black looks the best. But questions remain. Do I care to make the inside nice, I feel like I should but I don't want to. Do I want just black or should I add a pattern. Do I want decorative corners. Do I leave it just black clothe. I like the thought of using leather or metal to decorate and reinforce the corners. Luckily on the way back from the library I walked past a thrift store and found a large piece of faux leather. I plan to use it for the corners, the question is will the black leather look good with the black/dark gray fabric.

I decided that it will and so I'm going to try dark fabric and black edges. So I seam-ripped the pillow case and draped it over the cardboard, securing it with binder clips. I leaved it there for a few weeks making sure I actually like it. In the mean time I turned to other projects and to making a paper model of the edges.  

Once I decided this is something I can live with long time I used a staple gun to attach it. I laid the fabric out on the floor and laid the cardboard on top. Folding the edges over and pulling it tight as I went along. The staples aren't the most solid, if I try I can pull them out with out to much trouble. But hopefully it's enough since they wont take any pressure. For the corners, I cut them out using the templates then glued them on folding them over the corners. I then securing them with clips while it dries. 

Now for the big question will I bother to do the inside properly. Unfortunately I will have to. As you can see in the pictures the back part of the inside will be visible. I realized while testing that the fabric wasn't quite wide enough so despite most of the inside being hidden a sliver of cardboard would be visible. I just know it'll annoy me if I leave it like this. So I measured the visible cardboard on the inside and cut out a piece of the pleather that matched plus some extra for over lap and glued it on. I did this in sections letting the glue dry under weights before doing the next part. I also made sure the sides were held at the angle I wanted them to be later so the pleather helps reaffirm the 90 degree corners. 

Results

And this is how it ended up. It looks good so long as one doesn't look to closely at the inside, where some of the staples are visible. I did realize that I made the back part just a little bit to short so the short side gets pushed out of the right angle I wanted it to be. I could have added a centimeter to every side. but it works. Though some of the carrier is still there it's just mostly covered. 

This picture is a lie though. I had also moved a cat tower to stand by the radiator and Tösen immediately abandoned her carrier for the tower. I then moved the carrier into the bedroom where my other cat Mischka decided it was his so at least it's being used. But it's kind of hidden behind a shelf so its not really visible. Does this kind of make the whole thing unnecessary. Yes but that's life.  

God Emperor of Didcot by Toby Frost

 This is the sequel to Space Captain Smith. It's not really necessary to read it to understand this book but there are several recurring characters from that book.

Plot

Since Smith and his crew succeeded in their mission in the last book someone considers them competent enough to be given a new mission. Meeting the spymaster W (yes it's a James Bond reference) they are told about the vital importance of tea to the war effort. When combined with milk it's apparently the source of moral fiber. 

Now it's threatened by a religious zealot, the grand Hyrax. He is gaining a following on Didcot 4 (also known as Urn) the empires main tea producer. With backing from the Republic of New Eden, the religious fanatics that tried to kill Smith in the last book, this could be a real problem. Clearly they are going, it doesn't hurt that Didcot 4 is the planet Rhianna is on, receiving training to use her Vorl heritage. Getting there they meet up with Ws agent on Urn to start their investigation.

I But Rhianna isn't the only person on Urn. Gilead is not as dead as they thought and neither is 462. They are once again plotting planing to invade urn and breaking the morals fiber of the British.

My thoughts

Clear dune references, with tea instead of spice, the order of saint Camilla the tactile instead of the Bene Geserit. And dragons instead of sandworns. And crusades instead of a jihad. That's mostly where it ends Hyrax is the Paul analog but the Teasmen are on the side of the empire. Which is good I have read Dune and a re-skinned copy would be boring.

Like the first book there are still plenty of references but they are more considered for the plot. More woven in to serve it. The James Bond references at the beginning when they get their mission and are gathering information about the Hyrax. Of course it's still a bit of a everything and the kitchen sink but the plot is more straight forward. With less detours and the ones makes sense for the over arching plot. But I did enjoy the trip to see Suruks family even though they are a bit of a continuity error. Mostly Suruk is a predator (like the movie) and live for fighting and collecting skulls, the ones we meet in the first book were the same. Now we find out that Suruks family and supposedly all the other M'laks on Didcot 6 are living in middle-class suburbia. Of course the M'laks there aren't all there is but still it's a big change for just a few years. 

There are still blink and you miss them references like when they land on a planet for repairs and run into a mix of Lovecraft and Enid Blyton. I did like the Lovecraft one since it focused on the exact things that annoy me about his writing.  

The tea puns are a bit much though like Sam O'varr the tea priestess of the Teasmen. 

The smith Rhiannan ....romance? is something. Smith constantly thinks of having sex with her but also runs away when she tried to kiss him. I don't particularly think they would be good together but not to any point that it bothers me. Apart from sex I'm not sure what either sees in the other. 

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you can check it out here Didcot.

Tips to save money #1 defrost your freezer

 I plan to make this a series with various tips the aim of them is to not only save you money but also help you live a little more environmentally friendly. 

Defrost your freezer

This is something that should be done regularly and I found that once a year to be sufficient. Doing his will make your freezer work more efficiently, using less electricity and so extending the freezers lifetime. This might seem like a small saving but every little helps and it's not like this is a large job. 
As a bonus it also give you more room to store your food. That permafrost can take up a lot of space. Most importantly cleaning out and putting everything back in will let you take inventory and organize what you have. This means you will have an easier time using it and you don't need to double buy things. 

Taking my own advise

The best time to do this is in the winter when the food can be stored outside on a balcony without thawing. Unfortunately I don't have a balcony anymore so it will need to be stored in the attic. My attic has bad insulation and with outside temperature dropping to just one degree it lies at 3,7. Cold enough that my food wont thaw. Especially since I put it in a thermal-bag.

A good advise is to, in the days, week or month leading up to this to prioritize using the things in your freezer. Limiting the amount of things to move and store. I have been doing this for the last month and it takes a surprisingly long time. I have a tendency to cook too much stew and not enough pasta or rice to go with it so as a result I have weeks worth of chili and Stroganoff and lentil stew to go through before I can even begin on the raw ingredients. There's was also some cake but that disappeared quickly.

I had some trouble getting things to line up, mostly the weather has been relatively warm for a while and when it dropped last week I took my chance even if it means that there is more food then there could be. my thermal bag is not that big hopefully it will all fit. (spoiler alert it did not).

First step in this is turning off the freezer which is harder than I feel it should be and I ended up  checking the instruction manual to make sure I had done it correctly. It was confusing since turning of the freezer also turns of the light in the fridge.

This picture is mostly for me, so I know what to do next time.

Donning some thick gloves because cold makes my hands hurt. I emptied the freezer. Despite everything some things didn't fit and I had to get my smaller thermal-bag as well as put some things in the fridge. Those are things that I wouldn't mind if they thawed. A half empty ice-cube tray I just put in the sink. I had to move things around a bit in the bags, food in Tupperware are difficult to fit efficiently even more so since some of them were half empty.

I then carried it all up to the attic and left the freezer door open, put some plastic on the floor to protect it, fixing the runoff spout and placed a bowl to catch the meltwater. I then pulled out the trays/boxes and put them upside down in the bathtub. There is some ice in them but mostly it's to improve airflow. 

13,30 I was done with the preparations and left it to melt. It was only 10 minutes later that I could hear it start dripping. There are things you can do to make this go faster. Placing a bowl of hot water in it or turning on a space-heater. I just poked at it randomly, breaking the loose bits of ice and removing them.  

Remember to keep an eye on it just to make sure it isn't dripping water everywhere. I had to empty my bowl of water three times. I also noticed that there had formed a puddle on the plastic and that it had overflowed onto the floor so that got replaced by a towel.

19,30 and I finally got rid of the last Ice. Most was gone after an hour or two apart from a thick layer of solid ice at the top. I probably could have let it thaw by itself but I fear that would have taken several more hours. So I ended up pulling out chunks by hand. 

Now all that's left is to dry of the water. Start the freezer and once it has cooled down some bring my food back in.

The Library a fragile history by Andrew Pettigree

 Why did I choose to read this? I didn't this is one of my textbooks. But since I have to read anyway it and it's mostly interesting I might as well write a post about it also writing notes about a book while I read it might help remember it. 

About

Despite the title this is about the history of books and book collections more than libraries. Libraries as we know them (free for all and supported by taxes) is a very recent thing, and only really appeared in the last hundred years or so. 

Libraries were mostly private collections of prestigious books as a show of wealth and culture. And so people bought the expensive ones. Book collecting as a status symbol didn't change only the measure used. From the medieval manuscript with pretty illuminations and gold foil, to 1500 when the newest editions of classic works was all the rage to 1700 when like to day the first editions has the higher price. Again and again libraries and collection were made, at great expense. Made as a show of power until the next generation decided there were other status symbols they wanted more leaving them to rot forgotten in a cellar or an invading force stole the choicest titles for their own collections.

Although the collection size were modest by today's standard, hand copied and jewel encrusted manuscripts were rather more expensive than paperbacks.

My thoughts

The more things change the more they stay the same. Today, libraries are often either architectural marvels or showed into a unused room somewhere, threatened by budget cuts. An interesting recurring theme is people donating there collections to people or institutions that never wanted them in the first place. A collector handing it over to an uninterested heir, moralizing Latin sermons given for the improvement of the masses, masses that neither read Latin or wants to be moralized to. Plenty where taken as booty after conquest then left to rot in a storeroom hoping someone would take the time to catalog them. And so on again and again through history.

There is an unfortunate egocentricity to the book Italy, German the Netherlands, England is predominantly the history that is told. The middle east is mentioned but only during the ancient Mesopotamia, and the rest of Asia only as it relates to colonialism which really doesn't count since they'd had literary and scientific golden ages of their own. 

It is interesting how it wasn't until the 17th century that collections were becoming, what we today would call large. 500 books was considered a large collection for most of history (for reference I have 270) 

Reading about a time when the university library was smaller than a single professors. Of course without a budget to buy any, only getting books through donations, I can imagine that it was not the books they wanted and there is a lot of work to suddenly have a pile of a thousands of books to catalog. but you can't feel too sorry for them considering the amount of books were thrown away simply because they didn't fit the current fashion. 

In a way its odd how it didn't get boring considering how repetitive most of history were. Collections built and destroyed book-markets moving with the economies. This might have been because it was a textbook I probably wouldn't have read it otherwise and certainly not at the pace I did.

A bit of a pet peeve for me is that while there are many mentions of the cost of books. But only a few explanations. I don't know how much 1000 ducats where or how they relate to an average income. 

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you can check it out here Library.

Trying a witchy bleach dye

A few years ago I bought a number of cool t-shirts I then rarely used them because I need long sleeves to avoid freezing. I could wear them under the sweaters but that seem like a waste. At the same time all my sweaters look a bit dull, most are just a single color and I want a bit more pattern. 

But mostly I just want to try out bleach dyeing so that is what I'm going to do. 

Test 1

Since I haven't done this before I will start out experimenting on some old clothes that would otherwise just go to recycling. First I tried it out on an old work t-shirt that I don't mind if it looks awful.

I have bleach at home but its quite thick so I tried diluting it 1 to 2 and spraying it on. This made no difference but in the place where I'd put a drop  of it undiluted there's now a slightly paler spot.

Test 2 

Spraying it on undiluted. The bleach I have it quite thick so I did add a few drops of water just so I could actually spray it. I then smushed the fabric together to make it more evenly uneven. Using gloves of course. 

Leaving it to act for 3,5 hours, I'd meant it to be less but I honestly kind of forgot about it for a few hours. This did change the color it but it's barely visible. If I didn't know I might not have noticed and even so it doesn't look good.

At this point I tried checking various blogs about this. This was less helpful since they all say to dilute the bleach. I'm assuming they are using bleach at a higher concentration but if so they aren't telling that.

Thinking the problem was the fabric I tried it on an old hoodie the results were the same it loses some color when I rinse it but you can't tell looking at it.

Test 3

I tried another brand of bleach and finally it worked. With in a minute I could see the difference and just a short while later I could rinse it of. This does however show that you never know what color you will get. The shirt I used is purple and I thought it would become lavender or just paler purple but it became blue almost turquoise. 

Final attempt

I want a witchy pattern with a pentagram magical circle. Now I could just make things up in a way that looks nice. Or I can spend hours looking up alchemical signs, hieroglyphs and Latin words before arranging them on a way that makes sense if magic actually worked. 

Naturally I chose the second option making a warming spell. I ended up trying a few different methods for making the finer lines necessary for the alchemical symbols but between a steel tipped calligraphy pen dipped in bleach, a sacrificed highlighter pen and a simple paintbrush I think it will work.

For this I bought a sweatshirt at a thrift store. To try out the pattern I took a picture with it on and then drew it on using my tablet.

I finally decided on a solar eclipse on the back and a pentagram in the front with some tie-dye spray on the shoulders.

Starting with the eclipse. Since it should be the easier part. the plan being to do the parts one at the time and evaluate before doing the next.

To keep the bleach from bleeding through and staining the front I placed a piece of cardboard inside. I then put a stone mortar where I wanted the pattern to be. My hope is that its weight will stop the bleach from seeping in there by creating a void in the pattern when I sprayed the bleach around it. Wearing gloves, apron and face mask to protect me and my clothes. 

I left the bleach on for four minutes to work then I rinses it off. 

The pattern worked out well but not the color. It's a brownish rusty color and I was hoping for more a more fire looking one. I ended up adding some more streaks with a paintbrush later. It worked well and I now know that 15 minutes to half an hour is a better bench mark.

For the tie-dye pattern on the shoulders I gathered up the fabric using binder clips on the inside and rubber bands to keep it together. I then sprayed and dripped bleach on it. Another cycle of rinsing and drying and it was time for the last part although this too was done in parts. I first drew out the circle and pentagram with a fabric pen. Using the same mortar to draw out the circle and then using a ruler for the pentagram. once the pattern was to my liking I drew it in with a bleach highlighter. 

The highlighter wasn't as clear as I'd hoped and I filled them in with the paintbrush. I then used a calligraphy pen for the symbols. This worked much better than I had hoped.

Results 

This is my new favorite shirt it's warm, it's soft and I like how the pattern turned out. The only problem is the color. Everything I read about Bleach dye said that a higher cotton content is better since it can't do anything to polyester. This shirt is only 65% cotton and thought it changed color the results is a rusty brown rather than the burning orange I was hoping for. Maybe when this is worn out I'll try to redo it but for now I'm satisfied. I have a few other patterns I'm considering trying out but that will be for later. I don't need any more sweaters right now. Also sweatshirts without any pattern that are somewhat unworn are surprisingly hard to find in thrift stores and I don't want to buy a new sweatshirt just to potentially ruin it with bleach. Because unlike coloring a fabric you don't really get a second try.

Lessons

During this I ended up trying a few different things to apply the bleach for the fine pattern. 

• A pipette can be used but mostly does drops. 
• A thin nibbed bottle also tend to drop at least at this viscosity. I could make fine lines but not entirely consistently. It worked better when the shirt was at an angle rather then laying flat on a table. 
• A steel-tipped calligraphy pen worked well in getting good lines but it did get stuck in the fabric. So long as one use the lightest of touch it is probably the best.
• A highlighter pen where I had replaced the inc with bleach. Works well though the lines aren't a solid color.
• Paintbrush also worked well though not as thin lines as the calligraphy pen. Use a brush that you don't mind destroying. I noticed my brush, after not rinsing it properly, has a lot shorter bristles now.

Apart from this different products has different bleach concentration the two I used both said >5% but the results were very different. But in general leave it to work for 15 minutes. 

Quantum Physics and life by Ingemar Ehrnberg and others

About

This book is written for the general public so no math or too many technical terms.

As the title suggests this book is about quantum physics and explains it through how it intersects with biology. We only perceive a fraction of the world. The spectrum of visible light is only a fraction of the electromagnetic radiation that exist. The same is true for physics, the classical physics of gravitation and movement is only parts of the forces governing the world the rest is the weird mess that is quantum physics. 

But just because it's weird doesn't mean it doesn't affect us or that evolution cant use it. Like how geckos use nano-hairs under their feet to stick to walls and ceilings. How birds can see the earths magnetic field to find their way home. Or how chlorophyll catches light. 

My thoughts

It is a short book with only 150 pages. Actually less since each chapter has three pages just for the heading and a quote. A bit ridiculous especially for chapter 2 that's only 4 pages. It brings to mind the times I had to reach a specific page count but didn't have the text for it.

I've read books and watched documentaries about quantum physics before, so for me there were parts I already knew but also a lot of new information. Still I would have liked it to be slightly more advanced or maybe just have another 50 pages and try for a deeper explanation. A lot of the quantum physics parts are a bit glossed over, on the one hand I understand the decision these are difficult concepts that doesn't work the way anything else does. But I would like the opportunity to at least try to understand. 

But that's maybe just me in general it's a good first introduction for anyone who is interested. And relating it to familiar things is a nice addition rather than just using metaphors that never quite work.

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you can check it out here quantum.