Dear Folks,

Have you ever dreamed of living in your own library, full of musty old books of your own choosing?  Most people have, obviously.

Yet, actually having a library of musty books is not so easy.

Oh, to barricade oneself in a library of one's own making, for the rest of one's life...surely must be the next best thing to heaven on Earth.

Here is my chosen vid which shows what such a wonderful life might be, if one most of us had the time.

I highly recommend ALL TV-Members watch this uplifting video, from beginning to end, and then watch it again.

Just out of idle curiosity, what books, perchance, might you add to your library, besides some of those featured in this video?

Personally, I would add a few FIRST EDITIONS, if I were the creator of this vid.

At the very least, one could sell a few First Editions, when times got tough.

I love books.

But, did you know?

There are major Internet Companies which are burning our books…!!!

Such travesty, all in the name of profit.

Same with American Healthcare, except that the LaoBaiXing are being burned, insteasd of the books.

We live in a CRAZY WORLD, do we not?

Certainly we do not live in a Cool World.

Based on my peculiar lifestyle, if I do not read my books, then I watch films featuring Brad Pitt....what say you?

Poor Brad, I think he has recently lost his mind.

So, then:  What is the POINT of reading so many books, if one is surely destined to lose one's mind, and all knowledge one might have gained from reading said books?

Life is a mystery, surely.....maybe....

I highly recommend that ALL TV-Members watch this uplifting video, from beginning to end, and then watch it again.

Enjoy.

Best regards,

Gamma

Note: If only one could easily fund such a life as this without resorting to REAL WORK…..then life would be even GRANDER…..

NOTE (IMPORTANT NOTE): Today's FAHRENHEIT 451....is ONGOING.....did you know?

FORM FOLLOWS FICTION....FOLKS.....!!!!!

And, i would guess....SAMMY BOY must love the DESTRUCTION of our Books, and the destruction of our Culture.....too.

Most psychopaths care nothing for what is important to humans or humanity.

They have NO Appreciation of Beauty or our Natural World, since they are UNNATURAL....DEEP DOWN...at heart.

For sure, Sammy is Unnatural.......

Have you ever thought of doing a one-man. stand-up live show?

1 minute ago, simon43 said:

Have you ever thought of doing a one-man. stand-up live show?

What do you think I am doing....NOW.....????

41 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Here is my chosen vid which shows what such a wonderful life might be, if one most of us had the time.

Here is my chosen vid which shows what such a wonderful life might be, if only most of us had the time.

And, how wondderful it might be if we could do away with TYPOS on TV.....Too.....!!!!!!

Note: Alliteration is the spice of live.....obviously.....

LIFE....I meant......of course.

MOST IMPORTANT NOTE: Would you prefer to read KIM BASINGER, in her heyday, rather than read any book....TODAY.....????

OR....Would you prefer to read......

HENRY KISSINGER.....????

And.....FOREIGN AFFAIRS.....????

Edited August 3Aug 3 by GammaGlobulin

Speaking of BLACK COMEDY, which has NOTHING to do with color:

"Freddie, the thing is, the General is in the powder room right now. Could you tell me what it's about?"

But, one would not know, if one had not read a book, or two.....so obviously.

This is the CATCH-22, in that one must ESCAPE the world, into a library, in order to UNDERSTAND the world.

Am I right?

Edited August 3Aug 3 by GammaGlobulin

1 hour ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Here is my chosen vid which shows what such a wonderful life might be, if only most of us had the time.

And, how wondderful it might be if we could do away with TYPOS on TV.....Too.....!!!!!!

Note: Alliteration is the spice of live.....obviously.....

LIFE....I meant......of course.

MOST IMPORTANT NOTE: Would you prefer to read KIM BASINGER, in her heyday, rather than read any book....TODAY.....????

OR....Would you prefer to read......

HENRY KISSINGER.....????

And.....FOREIGN AFFAIRS.....????

Buck Turgid. <laughs>

47 minutes ago, connda said:

Buck Turgid. <laughs>

The one and only.....Gen. 'Buck' Turgidson....

"I told you never to call me here, don't you know where I am?"

"Of course it isn't only physical! I deeply respect you as a human being. Some day I'm gonna make you Mrs. Buck Turgidson!"

"A big plane like a '52... varrrooom!.... Its jet exhaust... flying chickens in the barnyard!"

FLYING CHICKENS in the BARNYARD.....

"Chickens flying everywhere around the plane":

THOSE were the days.......

Edited August 3Aug 3 by GammaGlobulin

By the way, Folks.....

Concerning this 10.66 hour video on YouTube which I linked in the Original Topic.....

There are definitely a few GEMs you will find, if you are persistent enough to watch from beginning to end.

This video is NOT a Joke, by any means, if that is what you might have thought.

This guy has saved a lot of interesting information, from his own life, in his library.

I have great respect for his dedication to his interesting project.

a. For example, he includes a printout he did using an "ancient" line printer on some IBM printer, from some mainframe, maybe, together with some of his handwritten calculations which he made using one of those old fountain pens we once loved so dearly.

b. Actually, the line printer he is using is probably NOT an old IBM mainframe printer, since the quality is not as I recall it to be, back in the day.

c. I commend this guy for his rather beautiful handwriting, in ink.

d. Obviously, he must have a Beautiful Mind, in some respects.

e. In this segment of the video, he is showing his work from the year 1970. Quite interesting if you are old enough to relate to being similarly involved in academics in the year 1970....and here is the link at that point in this video:

f. This is one of the few times Google YouTube has sent anything to my feed which intrigues me. Is the YT algorithm improving, I wonder?

This is not a vid to be discounted lightly, I must say.

For example: a + b = b + a

This is NOT trivial....please believe me.

NOTE: i appreciate this dude's willingness to share important private information which is of interest to so many of us.

Some guys dream of building their own library....

Few do.

This guy has......

So...kudos, one must say......

NOTE2: Fortunately, this guy most deffo does NOT seem to be the UNI-BOMBER type personality.

Edited August 3Aug 3 by GammaGlobulin

Some of you might wonder why I went to the trouble of posting this atypical topic, this evening.

Really, though, I am the one who should be wondering…

I wonder why TV-Members are satisfied, or seemingly so, with the usual fare, the repetitive…same old, same old.

I do not say that I am dissatisfied with the mundane topics that most members enjoy posting…

Neigh!!!

I am not dissatisfied.

I only complain, here, since I find myself unsatisfied.

Unsatisfied in what way, you might ask?

Reading the Topics that many members repeatedly post on this SUB-forum leaves me unsatisfied, just as I might feel if I were to return to one of my old girlfriends, asking for one of her same old, same olds.

Far better for me, and for you, to consider something more intellectually interesting than a return to one of our less-stimulating squeezes…..

Or, am I wrong?  And, why?

Are you able to say?

Do you even have an opinion about anything?

Edited August 3Aug 3 by GammaGlobulin

By the way, in case anyone might argue that this is not EXACTLY an Academic Topic.....

Here is a list of only a few of the books mentioned in the VID attached to the Original Topic.....courtesy of GEMINI:

1. 50 Meditations on the Passion

2. 555 Latin Verbs

3. A Monk in the World

4. A Primer for Calculus

5. An Imaginary Tale: The Story of $\sqrt{-1}$

6. An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics

7. Beginning Greek

8. Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia

9. Biblia Vulgata

10. Black Code

11. Calculus (Salas and Hille)

12. Categories

13. Chicago Manual of Style

14. Compact Oxford English Dictionary

15. Computability and Logic

16. Creative and Critical Thinking

17. Crime and Punishment

18. Cyberspace in Peace and War

19. David Copperfield

20. De Bello Gallico

21. Dictionary of Disagreeable English

22. Div, Grad, Curl, and All That

23. Elements of Typographic Style

24. Exploring the Universe through Binoculars

25. First Guide to Prisons and Concentration Camps of the Soviet Union

26. First Steps in Prayer

27. Foundations of Mathematics

28. Fundamental Astronomy

29. Fundamentals of Physics

30. Game of Language

31. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

32. Handbook of Physics

33. He Leadeth Me

34. Journal of a Soul

35. Kalevipoeg

36. Lewis and Short Latin Dictionary

37. Liddell and Scott Greek-English Lexicon

38. Linear Algebra

39. Living Latin

40. Love or Perish

41. Loved As I Am

42. Madame Curie

43. Man's Search for Meaning

44. Mein Kampf

45. Metaphysics

46. NightWatch

47. Notes from Underground

48. Principia Mathematica

49. Prolog Programming for Artificial Intelligence

50. Proofs from THE BOOK

51. Putin's People

52. Republic

53. Secret Service

54. Secret Wars

55. Set Theory

56. Sin, Sex and Self-Control

57. Spycatcher

58. Surviving Depression

59. Teach Yourself Latin

60. The Age of Reform

61. The Battle of Britain

62. The Big Gold Book of Latin Verbs

63. The Catholic Study Bible

64. The City That Would Not Die

65. The Communist Manifesto

66. The Complete Sherlock Holmes

67. The Concept of Truth in Formalized Languages

68. The Day After World War III

69. The Death of Ivan Ilyich

70. The Emperor's Codes

71. The Fellowship of the Ring

72. The Gathering Storm

73. The Governance of Britain

74. The Gulag Archipelago

75. The Historical Jesus

76. The Idiot

77. The Inner Life

78. The Little Prince

79. The Making of the Middle Ages

80. The Measurement of Starlight

81. The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes

82. The Refrigerator and the Universe

83. The Rule of Benedict

84. The Rule of St. Benedict

85. The Science of the Cross

86. The Song of Hiawatha

87. The Spiritual Combat

88. The Stars Are for Everyone

89. Their Finest Hour

90. Think Like a Monk

91. Time Management for System Administrators

92. Total War 2006

93. Treffpunkt Deutsch

94. Truth and Justice

95. Understanding Variable Stars

96. University Physics

97. War and Peace

98. With God in Russia

99. Works of Plato

100. Years of Victory

Thankfully, Crime & Punishment made the list coughed up by Gemini.

Note: GEMINI stopped at 100, just because Gemini is an idiot robot. There are plenty more books mentioned in the VID. But, Gemini, being a ROBOT, thought it appropriate to stop at 100, when asked for a total list.

NEVER trust a Robot to do a Man's Job......obviously.

Excuse me, everyone. I’m looking for one of those threads where the OP starts with a giant wall of nonsensical cyber babble, asks dozens of tangential questions that nobody is going to answer, much less read, and then replies to himself another five or ten times before anyone else can even get a word in.

Does anyone know where I can find one?

The OP is supposedly a seventy year old hermit living in Chiang Mai, originally from Pennsylvania. He used to work in academia in computer science before retiring.

If nobody has seen one recently, never mind. Probably he'll mysteriously reappear one of these days.

Just now, Alpha84 said:

Does anyone know where I can find one?

Look no further,......

19 minutes ago, Alpha84 said:

Excuse me, everyone. I’m looking for one of those threads where the OP starts with a giant wall of nonsensical cyber babble, asks dozens of tangential questions that nobody is going to answer, much less read, and then replies to himself another five or ten times before anyone else can even get a word in.

Does anyone know where I can find one?

The OP is supposedly a seventy year old hermit living in Chiang Mai, originally from Pennsylvania. He used to work in academia in computer science before retiring.

If nobody has seen one recently, never mind. Probably he'll mysteriously reappear one of these days.

One thing, though...

Did I ever tell you that, when I was young, and at school, writing in my blue books, I used a Parker 75 Sterling Silver Cisele Fountain Pen with a 14K Gold Nib?

I always carried extra ink cartridges in my shirt pocket, without pocket protectors....of course.

Such a beautiful pen, back in the day, maybe around 1967.

These days, if you want to buy one, you will probably need to pay about USD300.00, or maybe more.

MADE IN U.S.A.

Such a beauty....really....for a young teen, at that time, about 60 years ago.

According to REDDIT:

The Student Experience

The 1960s classroom was entirely analog, meaning students relied on fountain pens or early ballpoint pens. Taking a blue book exam meant hours of furious, nonstop writing that frequently resulted in hand cramps, ink-stained fingers, and messy cross-outs. If a student ran out of space, they had to raise their hand to request a second or third booklet from the proctor, stapling them together at the end of the period.

======================

NATURALLY, I always ran out of space, and always raised my hand.

During one Blue Book exam, I used up THREE Parker Ink Cartridges....

NOIR is the only acceptable color....IMHO....for a BLUE BOOK.....

11 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

One thing, though...

Did I ever tell you that, when I was young, and at school, writing in my blue books, I used a Parker 75 Sterling Silver Cisele Fountain Pen with a 14K Gold Nib?

I always carried extra ink cartridges in my shirt pocket, without pocket protectors....of course.

Such a beautiful pen, back in the day, maybe around 1967.

These days, if you want to buy one, you will probably need to pay about USD300.00, or maybe more.

MADE IN U.S.A.

Such a beauty....really....for a young teen, at that time, about 60 years ago.

According to REDDIT:

The Student Experience

The 1960s classroom was entirely analog, meaning students relied on fountain pens or early ballpoint pens. Taking a blue book exam meant hours of furious, nonstop writing that frequently resulted in hand cramps, ink-stained fingers, and messy cross-outs. If a student ran out of space, they had to raise their hand to request a second or third booklet from the proctor, stapling them together at the end of the period.

======================

NATURALLY, I always ran out of space, and always raised my hand.

During one Blue Book exam, I used up THREE Parker Ink Cartridges....

NOIR is the only acceptable color....IMHO....for a BLUE BOOK.....

PLEASE NOTE: You really do not need to pay too much....IF you are willing to settle for a high-quality CHINESE Fountain Pen....

Last time I was in ChengDu, I found a store that sold me a DOZEN fountain pens, which worked great, plus a bottle of Chinese Black Ink, for a pittance.

The pens leaked a bit, though, I must admit.

Still, the ink was exceptional, and completely black.

Here is a link to a few fountain pens coming out of China...

https://www.bottleandplume.com/blogs/learn/the-5-best-cheap-chinese-fountain-pens?srsltid=AfmBOookcNnHf0vcUYA-rFjl3VkIexDEPckH4P0e2nEoOC7KXXQzK91x

Such Nostalgia.....you would not believe.....

Still, the PARKER 75 is a beauty, and it was less than USD100.00, in 1967, or so...

Who knows where it is now.

Cheap at even half the price.

(good for kids of that era)

Edited August 3Aug 3 by GammaGlobulin

Just in case anyone might be wondering why the ink used by the HERMIT-LIBRARIAN in the VID was....BLACK.....

I can tell you, based on my own experiences, and also through the aid of GEMINI:

Mechanistic Principles of Exam Ink Standardization

The regulation of ink color in American private school Blue Book examinations between 1940 and 1970 was driven by three functional requirements: legibility against standardized paper, differentiation of original manuscripts from reprographic copies, and the strict segregation of student responses from instructor annotations.

Capillary Action and Early Institutional Mandates (1940s–1950s)

The primary writing instrument of the 1940s was the fountain pen, which relied on gravity and capillary action to deliver liquid ink to the page. Private educational institutions uniformly mandated blue, black, or blue-black ink.

• Contrast and Legibility: Blue and black liquid inks provided high optical contrast against the absorbent, off-white paper and light blue ruling characteristic of standard examination Blue Books.

• Technological Resistance: Upon the commercial introduction of the ballpoint pen in the 1950s, preparatory schools actively resisted its adoption. Early oil-based ballpoint inks were prone to smearing and erratic flow. Institutions maintained strict mandates requiring approved fountain pens and traditional liquid inks to preserve formal penmanship standards.

Viscosity and the Codification of Color Rules (1960s–1970s)

By the 1960s, advancements in the viscosity and buffering of ballpoint pen ink resolved earlier flow and blotting issues, leading to its functional dominance over the fountain pen. Consequently, private schools codified standardized ink rules that persisted into the late 20th century.

• The Blue/Black Dichotomy: Examination proctors uniformly required blue or black ink. Blue ink became highly favored as an authentication mechanism; its presence immediately distinguished an original student manuscript from black mimeographs, carbon copies, or early photocopies.

• Instructor Annotation Segregation: The standardization of blue and black for student input established a rigid visual hierarchy. High-contrast colors, specifically red and green, were strictly prohibited for students to reserve them exclusively for grading and instructor editing.

• Visual Fatigue Reduction: Uniformity in student ink color minimized visual processing strain for examiners grading high volumes of Blue Book essays.

=======================

All the above is accurate, to the best of my knowledge....BUT......

I do have just one question for TV members....

Are are any member here who recall the TASTE of ballpoint-ink, while sucking on their pens, between the years 1959 and 1969...???

Do you recall that sweet taste, same as I...???

These days, kids just don't realize what they are missing.

Ok, Gamma is talking to himself again! Awesome! Right in time for my coffee break. :-)

4 hours ago, Gottfrid said:

Ok, Gamma is talking to himself again! Awesome! Right in time for my coffee break. :-)

I agree; 11 replies to its own topic!

Not of course that I have read any of them!

21 hours ago, scottiejohn said:

I agree; 11 replies to its own topic!

Not of course that I have read any of them!

Maybe it´s gone so far, he thinks he starts a new topic for every comment. 😂

I love libraries. The accumulated wisdom of the world by Homo Sapiens. The library of congress and the internet as the peak of knowledge.

Sadly, even with all this overwhelming wisdom, Homo Sapiens has not managed to solve THE major problem affecting everybody:

HOW TO AVOID WARS.