On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 3/5. Justification: Kmo had time to do a reasonably complete and (within the framework of the version 2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.0.3, ... process) reasonably polished job, BUT seemingly lacked the time to turn his pointform outline into coherent sentences.
Revision history:
- 20170328T0406Z/version 2.0.0: Kmo more or less finished polishing his pointform outline. He suspected that there was no real point in turning the outline into polished prose, since the writing is of a utilitarian, as opposed to literary, character. Kmo did reserve the right to make further minor, not-very-substantive, pretty-much-just-cosmetic, tweaks to this outline over the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented versions 2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.0.3, ... .
- 20170328T0000Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo managed to upload just a (partially polished) pointform outline.
[CAUTION: A bug in the blogger server-side software has in some past weeks shown a propensity to insert inappropriate whitespace at some points in some of my posted essays. If a screen seems to end in empty space, keep scrolling down. The end of the posting is not reached until the usual blogger "Posted by Toomas (Tom) Karmo at" appears. - The blogger software has also shown a propensity to generate HTML that is formatted in different ways on different client-side browsers, perhaps with some browsers not correctly reading in the entirety of the "Cascading Style Sheets" which on many Web servers control the browser placement of margins, sidebars, and the like. If you suspect "Cascading Style Sheets" problems in your particular browser, be patient: it is probable that while some content has been shoved into some odd place (for instance, down to the bottom of your browser, where it ought to appear in the right-hand margin), all the server content has been pushed down into your browser in some place or other. - Anyone inclined to help with trouble-shooting, or to offer other kinds of technical advice, is welcome to write me via Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com.]
__a new development calls
for a sort of emergency blog posting
__I learned in the evening of 2017-03-20
that my present
(_eminently suitable)
living arrangements
come to an end on 2017-04-30,
with my
(_eminently helpful and reliable)
landlord now planning
on selling his house
__he will start a process
of painting my present flat,
and performing plumbing
or other maintenance,
on or soon after 2017-05-01
__what should I do?
__it will be necessary for me,
as an unattached (austere) individual
privately active
in maths, physics-of-radio, astronomy,
technology-of-radio,
aspects of computing,
with also some amateur
literary and practical-philology activity,
to find (austere) new living accommodations
from 2017-05-01 onward
__this envisaged 2017-05-01-onward accommodation
would serve as a stopgap measure
until
my contemplated move away
from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA),
very likely back to the Estonia
which my parents fled in 1944
__the envisaged "Big Move"
could usefully be taken as marking the
end of World War 2 for our family
__I was myself born in Canada in 1953,
and Dad and Mum died in Canada (in 1991 and 2011,
respectively)
__I am assured by the Estonian consulate
in Toronto that I hold dual citizenship,
and that it wold be fairly easy for me to
take out an Estonian passport
__I presently (a) travel on my Canadian
passport,
and (b) vote from Toronto in Estonian
elections with my Estonian-citizen
identity number
(_the approximate Estonian equivalent
of Canada's "SIN Number")
__I am hoping to make the
transatlantic, final-end-of-the-Hitler-War,
"Big Move" in 2018
__but I may have to make it
a year or two or more after 2018,
should the 2018 state of the
troubled David Dunlap Observatory
(DDO) heritage conservation case
make it advisable for me
to stay within 40 kilometres of DDO
(_some DDO background can be had from
__I discuss my own conservation casework at
http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/,
in many of my 2016 and 2017 blog postings)
__at the moment, I am 70%
of the view that (barring major crises,
such as a fresh Baltic-region war,
or private medical complications)
I will be
able to leave the GTA
for Estonia at some point in 2018
__at the moment, I am 30% of the contrary view
that barring major crises,
I will have to delay my departure
from the GTA
until 2019 or 2020 or so
__here one possible phasing of the
possible 2018 move:
* preliminary reconnaissance visit to Estonia,
for about 4 weeks, in the 2018 summer
__in this period, I continue to pay rent to my
new post-2017-05-01 landlord
* final departure for
Estonia in the 2018 late autumn
__here is one possible eventual
(2019 onward?) Estonian scenario:
* basic living accommodations
(_single room, with shared washroom?)
rented within the municipal boundaries
of Estonia's de facto academic capital Tartu,
and therefore within easy
reach of Tartu University
* a private office somehow established,
through purchase or rental,
either within the boundaries of Tartu
or on cheap land just outside Tartu
(_conceivably on an industrial-park
"brownfield") -
in the case of actual purchase
perhaps
either
(a) in a refurbished shipping container
(_a feasible general concept is perhaps suggested by
or
(b) in a modular portable office
(_as in the Estonian "garden office" concept
discussed at http://www.easyhome.ee/en/modular/info/)
* a modest, unpaid, working
relationship established in the longer term
(2019, 2020, 2021, 2022?)
with Tartu Observatory
by analogy with my happy
1998-through-2008 relationship
with DDO in Ontario
__I would hope also to develop
some kind of modest liaison
with the "Physicum" tower at
Tartu University - one of the loci of activity
in Estonia's current tiny space programme
__I would hope to continue
to serve in Estonia as the unpaid lead author
of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
annual _Observer's Handbook_
bright-stars article
__since this _Handbook_ reaches
around perhaps 8,000 purchasers or subscribers,
my own ongoing commitment to it
is not to be abandoned lightly
__I would also hope
to resume amateur-grade observing
with my private 20-centimetre Dobsonian
telescope
__I used this occasionally on the dark lawns of DDO,
before the unfortunate 2008 DDO sale
by the University of Toronto
__a positive aspect of
my post-2017-04-30
situation
is the ready availability of extra rented
GTA locker space,
to supplement my current
rented locker space if necessary
__I checked this point
in the afternoon of 2017-03-23,
getting the good news in
a face-to-face chat
in the vendor's front office
__I can put a small portion,
or a large portion,
or even most,
of my current extensive
books and papers into
this GTA locker
space, as my circumstances
after 2017-04-30 may require -
if necessary modifying
my current rental by taking on
more space a few days before 2017-04-30
__eventually,
some small, or large,
or even dominant,
part of the (2018 late autumn?)
pickup for the "Big Move" to
Estonia would be not from
my austere new living accommodations - wherever
in the GTA
they might after 2017-04-30 prove to be -
but from this rented GTA locker space
****
__I blog here
with a description
of the type of austere accommodation I seek
as I surrender my current
living space on 2017-04-30
__anyone with advice to
offer is asked to contact me
rather urgently - preferably
on my cell phone (647-267-9566;
usually reachable live, but
with mere voicemail on Sundays),
or as a second-best communication
channel by e-mailing
Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com
****
__here is an overview:
* I seek accommodations
as simple as possible,
(_being under some financial strain
after my strenuous
2012 and 2014 financing
of unsuccessful efforts, by the Richmond
Hill Naturalists
at the Ontario Municipal
Board,
to save at least some of the
threatened DDO urban forest,
and in any case leading
an austere bachelor-scientist
lifestyle)
* ideal would be some
unfurnished basement
space equivalent to two
small rooms - with a
totally unfinished basement being
from my austere perspective every bit
as good as an unfurnished
finished basement
* my move into new accommodations,
and also the storage of chattels
in a rented locker,
is simplified by my construction,
over the period from 2009 the the present,
of many "stackerboxes", as explained
in a separate blog posting tonight, 2017-03-27/2017-03-28
__as at UTC=20170323T235959Z,
my inventory of stackerboxes
was the following, if
my records from that instant are accurate
(_I am 65% certain that
each UTC=20170323T235959Z figure is accurate
to within plus-minus a count of one):
* 81 stackerboxes in my current place of residence
* 8 stackerboxes in my currently rented locker
(_but the total capacity
of this particular locker is 72 stackerboxes)
* 2 stackerboxes in a state of partial construction
* 13 or so stackerboxes awaiting construction,
with their hull plates cut to size at Home Hareware
in 2015 or 2016,
but with the necessary hole-drilling and
glue-and-paricleboard-screws
assembly to be performed by
me over the approximate period
2017-03-25/2017-04-15
__my inventory has now improved somewhat -
with, I think,
the deployment
of 12 boxes in the locker
as of UTC=20170327T2130Z
__I am proposing to put many,
and perhaps even most, of my
chattels into the rented locker space
__it may also be advisable
to donate some of my books in philosophy
and linguistics to Our Lady
Seat of Wisdom Academy
(_in rural eastern Ontario) before
my envisaged 2018-autumn
move to Estonia
(_but I have not yet,
as of 2017-03-27, opened discussions
with Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy
__anyone needing particulars
on this minor tertiary-sector
institution
(_the Government of Ontario
has just given it,
or else has just promised it,
degree-granting status)
can check
__a complication:
if Our Lady Seat of Wisdom,
in our eventual to-be-opened
bilateral diplomatic dialogue,
were to wish me to assist them
academically,
then I would have to forego
the envisaged move to Estonia,
proceeding instead to rural eastern Ontario
(_this would actually make some sense,
given my conservative Catholic
convictions, and additionally
my strong Latin,
my four degrees (two from Oxford),
my background - with relevant publications -
in logic,
my current Hebrew studies, and so on
__but the complication has at present to be
regarded as only a remote contingency,
of present subjective probability
just 1/20, or 5%)
__what chattels remain
would fit into modest accommodations
__best, from several
practical standpoints (notably cost)
would be basic unfurnished
basement accommodations
__a possible, and in fact pleasant, scenario:
I take
unfurnished basement accommodation,
and also take one meal a day as a boarder,
with the landlord upstairs,
and make (modest) use of washroom upstairs,
and thereby become in the eyes of the law
a resident-member-of-household
rather than an independent basement tenant
__such a room-and-board arrangement would be particularly
suitable for an old-age pensioner landlord or
landlady now living
on his or her own, and therefore feeling the need
for an occasional helping hand, with a bit of daily
social companionship, at meal time
***
__in the detailed discussion
of chattels which follows,
I divide the chattels
into (I) "Core" and (II) "Periphery"
****
__(I) the Core comprises
a complex U- or L-shaped desk,
with its computer,
its small and plain chair,
and other accessories
__in the optimal, U-shaped configuration,
the desk area has a footprint
of 2.1 metres by 1.8 metres
(_6.9 feet by 5.9 feet;
6.9 feet is just a couple of fists less
than the internal width of a standard
"40-foot long" intermodal shipping container)
__in the suboptimal,
L-shaped configuration,
the Core has a footprint
of 1.6 metres by 1.8 metres
(_5.2 feet by 5.9 feet)
__(1) I use a naval metaphor to describe
the optimal, or "U",
configuration, of the Core
__in this description, I take it
that one normally faces the bow
as one sits in the chair
__in terms of this metaphor:
* the bow arm is used
for pencil-and-paper work
(_very notably in mathematics)
* the port arm is presently a table for
poorly sorted papers,
but should very soon
(_perhaps even as soon as 2017-04-25 or so,
just before I leave my present landlord)
be becoming a radio table,
reflecting my Industry Canada
radio license status as VA3KMZ
__on the radio table
will be quite a lot of equipment:
two general-purpose
shortwave communications receivers
(already operational),
1960-vintage ham radiotelegraphy gear
in a receiver-transmitter pair
(_awaiting repair,
perhaps in 2017 or 2018
or (in Estonia?) 2019 or 2020),
1985-vintage ham
radiiotelegraphy/radiotelephony gear
in an integrated transceiver
(_awaiting detailed inspection,
and possibly repair,
perhaps in 2017 or 2018 or (in Estonia?)
2019 or 2020),
and minor auxiliaries
(_antenna analyzer;
a 1960-vintage "Q-multiplier",
or receiver-tuning
auxiliary box;
and eventually also
(_2017? 2018? or (in Estonia?) 2019 or 2020?)
a laboratory-grade power DC supply)
* the starboard arm houses a full-tower
Debian GNU/Linux computer,
with its keyboard and monitor
(_assembled by me
from components early in 2013:
Intel dual-core CPU,
2 GB SDR3 RAM
(_even though the motherboard
is capable of 8 MB),
two internal hard drives
(_a camera exists for Skype,
but is not (yet) configured))
* occupying a bit of the stern is a computer printer,
on a box base
__readers curious about
the Core, in its "U" configuration,
should examine the
graphic which I shall eventually
be placing at the top of this present
blog posting
__(2) I likewise use a naval metaphor to describe
the suboptimal, or "L", configuration, of the Core
__here the bow arm,
the starboard arm,
and the stern
are arranged as in the "U" case,
but there is no
port arm
__the "L" configuration
might be used if, for instance,
space in my new accommodations
were to prove tight, and it
were therefore to prove necessary to
have nothing but a basement wall at the
Core operator's left shoulder,
when the Core operator is writing
on the (bow-arm) mathematics surface
__under whichever of
the two configurations is selected,
the bow arm is made
cosmetically attractive with
a bevelled-glass surface,
such as perhaps decorates the desks
of some high government officials
and some high commercial executives
__under whichever
of the two configurations in slected,
the bow arm has a wooden
hutch of twenty-four pigeonholes
__this hutch rises
from the desktop on four wooden legs,
of height 0.45 metres (i.e., just under 18 inches)
__the pigeonholes are
arranged in an array of 6 rows
and 4 columns,
with each pigeonhole capable
of taking 500 USA letter-sized sheets
__the entire array
is secured at its lower level
(_at 0.45 metres,
i.e., at just under 18 inches, above the desktop)
by dowel-and-borehole mating,
without glue
__the array is secured at its upper levels
by a kind of sliders-and-ridges mating,
without glue
__under the array is a 40-watt fluorescent tube,
of the kind used in greenhouses,
providing a strong and
even and spectrally balanced illumination
for the entire (glass-surfaced) bow-arm desktop
__the hutch is of my own design, from around 1984,
under the general design guidance of Dutch (Phillips)
electronics engineer Vladimir Stibic
(_in his 1980-era book _Tools of the Mind_)
__the Core, in whichever configuration is selected,
is designed to be flexible, being implemented
in pieces which I can dissemble and carry with
almost no assistance
__one qualification is needed
for this assertion of
"almost no assistance":
the starboard arm
is currently implemented
with a visually attractive brown-stained
plywood slab resting not on
stackerboxes but on a
conventional two-drawer metal
filing cabinet, probably
too heavy for me to lift unaided -
unless, indeed, I
manage to borrow a moving-van trolley
__by 2017-04-30, the Core will be composed
almost entirely of stackerboxes, plus the just-mentioned
two-drawer filing cabinet,
and of plywood panels or other timbers
(_the panels-or-other are already
in a visually attractive dark brown),
resting on the stackerboxes
__as at 2017-03-27, however,
the design is still suboptimal
__I use stackerboxes correctly on the port arm,
but still use a
conventional cheap-and-battered desk,
which I may well have to donate to someone
before 2017-04-30, or even to convey into
the municipal waste stream,
for the bow arm
__it will be appropriate for me from 2017-04-30
onward to replace the cheap-and-battered desk
with a total of four stackerboxes,
arranged into two
columns of two stackerboxes each,
(_retaining my current
horizontal on-desk plywood,
with my current on-plywood
decorative bevelled glass),
and also
(_should time in the period
2017-03-23/2017-04-30 permit this)
to build visually attractive
internal partitioning into the each of the four
envisaged desk-function stackerboxes
__connections are as follows:
* the Core can run on a single outlet
of AC power, although two outlets,
whether on the same or on two different
wall-or-baseboard faceplates,
wall-or-baseboard faceplates,
would be
slightly more convenient
* the normal maximum power draw
is 170 W
(_full-tower computer, as I measured it
at around UTC=20170324T013411Z
with a "kill-o-watt" (TM) meter,
is 110 W;
the main desk lamp is greenhouse-quality
a fluorescent tube,
as already discussed, drawing 40 W;
and
there is
auxiliary fluorescent
adjustable-desklamp lighting,
drawing on the order of 20 W;
and
there is also at present
a starboard LED task lamp,
drawing 10 W,
used only a few minutes per day)
__if I were to bring radio gear
into full operation
on the port arm, power
consumption would be increased
by on the order
of perhaps 30 W at times of reception,
and by on the order
of perhaps 150 W at times of
reception-with-transmission
__however, transmission would
in my case hardly occur
for more than an hour a week
__it is in some ways advisable,
and yet is not essential,
to leave the computer running
24 hours a day, 7 days a week
__I hope at some point
in 2017, subject to
availability of residential
Internet, to make this computer
a processing node in the SETI-at-home
search-for-extraterrestrial-
intelligence project
(_https://en.wikip
edia.org/wiki/SETI@home)
__if this hope is
realized, then it will be
advisable to have the computer running
24 hours a day,
letting it perform a good part
of its SETI-at-home
processing through the night
__persons not familiar with household
electricals should note that this power
consumption is modest: a typical spaceheater
(I do not own one) draws on its "medium"
setting around 1000 W, and on its "high"
setting around 1500 W
__it is only when one draws appreciably more than
1500 W or so from a single circuit - as when one
rashly plugs in the space heater on its "high"
setting, and then also plugs in,
at the same wall or baseboard faceplate, an electric kettle -
that one begins risking the tripping of a
circuit breaker at the house-and-public-powergrid
interface
__persons not familiar with household
electricals should note that this power
consumption is modest: a typical spaceheater
(I do not own one) draws on its "medium"
setting around 1000 W, and on its "high"
setting around 1500 W
__it is only when one draws appreciably more than
1500 W or so from a single circuit - as when one
rashly plugs in the space heater on its "high"
setting, and then also plugs in,
at the same wall or baseboard faceplate, an electric kettle -
that one begins risking the tripping of a
circuit breaker at the house-and-public-powergrid
interface
* the Core can run with
or without landlord-supplied
telephone landline
__I am independent of
landlord telephone arrangements,
since I have a shirtpocket cell phone
* the Core can run with
or without a landlord-supplied
Internet connection
__if the landlord arranges
at my expense for a telephone
landline jack near the Core,
then the Core can reach
the Internet via phone-jack splitter,
with modem-router
__if the landlord has his or her
own modem-router with WiFi
(_such a modem-router is these days common,
perhaps in Ontario almost universal)
then I believe I can eventually link
the Core to this modem-router wirelessly
__if the landlord does not
supply a telephone landline jack
near the Core, and also
(_this is perhaps in Ontario unusual)
lacks his or her own
modem-router with WiFi, then
I can
either
(a) connect the Core
to the Internet by
purchasing an Internet-on-a-stick
solution from Bell Canada
(or from a similar vendor)
or
(b) forego use of the Internet,
making my infrequent, though operationally essential,
Internet
connections at public terminals
in libraries
****
__(II) the Periphery involves arrangements for cooking,
relaxing, and sleeping
__for cooking, my current arrangement
(_which I would be happy
to continue)
is minimalist:
* bar fridge
* 1980-vintage microwave,
on the top surface of
which is additionally a collection
of food-useful laboratory glassware
(_the microwave is of
heavy-duty construction,
with a purely mechanical timer,
and without a turntable
__I think of it as a
"quasi-military" microwave)
* small crockpot
* wide-mouthed thermos,
with laboratory 300 mL beaker and Petri dish
to fit inside
* laboratory balance, for the occasional weighing
of foodstuffs - notably of dry spaghetti
* minor accessories - most notably
a grater, two wooden bowls,
a wooden spoon, a ceramic bowl,
one large kitchen knife
and two small kitchen knives,
and a single-cup drip filter for coffee
* some shelving, to
give the effect of a pantry
__I prepare all meals without a stove,
favouring simple foods
that take a minimum of cooking
__an example: for lunch on 2017-03-23,
I prepared spaghetti
by raising a spaghetti-water
mixture in a 300 beaker
to nearly 100oC in the microwave,
and then placing this beaker,
covered with Petri dish,
into the wide-mouthed
thermos for about 10 minutes,
by way of energy-efficient
"retained heat" cooking
__accompanying the 2017-03-23
spaghetti was a salad of spinach
with raisins and granola,
dressed with a home-made
vinaigrette (olive oil,
apple cider vinegar, ground ginger)
__following the 2017-03-23
spaghetti was an orange, with
chocolate fruit dip
__a second example: for 2017-03-23 dinner,
I had rye crisp bread, vegetable dip,
cold fish (cheap Alaskan pollock,
crafted in some factory
to look and taste like crab),
peanuts, and several dry biscuits
dipped in yoghurt
__I keep no meat or chicken in the bar fridge
__I do, however, sometimes keep
in the bar fridge a
tofu product that looks and tastes
like ground beef
__I currently operate without a blender
(_even though healthy-diet
arguments can be made
for acquiring a blender)
__I currently forego stoves and ovens,
and I prefer not to begin using them
__the power consumption of an electric
stove is high
and I prefer not to begin using them
__the power consumption of an electric
stove is high
__in my cooking area I currently keep also
electronics-lab gear and other tools:
* oscilloscope
* RF signal generator
* antenna analyzer
* two containers
for tools (both electronics
and woodworking) and electronics components,
each rising to about
waist height,
and one of them also presently
with some superstructure ("small-parts drawers")
rising above waist height to face height
* two columns of stackerboxes,
with a mixture of electronics items
and other items
__it might well be
necessary to move the electronics-lab
gear into rented storage
a little before 2017-04-30,
and to leave this gear
more or less untouched
until my envisaged
2018-autumn move to Estonia
(_at that 2018 point, it would be realistic
to take my electronics
work further, by setting up
in Estonia what has
eluded me in Ontario -
namely a small,
but properly functioning,
electronics lab,
as appropriate for a radio amateur
engaged in physics-of-radio
__for relaxing, my current arrangement
(_but I can abandon it easily)
is
(a) to keep two wicker chairs,
a heavy old (prewar?) floor lamp
(_around 15 CAD in a yard sale,
but in reality possibly an antique
worth well over 15 CAD),
a small coffee table,
and an accompanying
small, cheap, fake-Persian carpet,
in synthetic silks (this was on sale
a few years ago for 20 CAD or 25 CAD),
a few years ago for 20 CAD or 25 CAD),
and
(b) to spend a part of the day
in this part of my accommodations,
in reading outside
my work topics of mathematics,
physics, astronomy,
computer technology,
and radio technology
__I often additionally
relax by viewing YouTube materials
on the computer in the Core,
with headphones for audio
(_a prospective landlord might
care to know that
I like BBC thrillers, such as
the 1970s Royal Navy "Warship" episodes,
and snippets from
operas or classical concerts)
__I forego television,
as (a) superfluous
to my lifestyle,
and (b) liable to induce boredom
or other undesirable states of mind
__in my present living arrangement,
I have a visitor "ABC" for 90 or 120
minutes about three times a month,
and a visitor "DEF" for 90 or 120
minutes about twice a month
__the visitor sits
in one wicker chair,
and I sit in the other,
and some tea or coffee is often consumed
(_I might imagine "ABC" continuing to visit,
perhaps once a month, if I end up
from 2017-05-01 in some part
of GTA outside Richmond Hill,
and "DEF" finding in such a
GTA-outside-Richmond-Hill scenario that the
distance is too great to make visiting feasible)
__for sleeping, my current arrangement
(_which I would be happy to continue)
is minimalist:
* memory-foam mat,
raised on a platform, made of my
self-constructed wooden boxes,
to very roughly 30 cm
(24 inches) off the floor, with
old (flat) sofa cushions
between mat and platform,
for extra softness;
conventional sheet, pillowcase,
and duvet at night;
dark brown bedspread in daytime,
to keep everything looking tidy
__I currently forego a conventional bed
****
__in my current accommodations,
the relaxing area is in a
small carpeted room
separate from the Core room,
and I suspect used
in the past by other individuals
in my landlord's house
as a snug one- or two-person bedroom
(_the house is from 1970s,
and landlord acquired it around 2004
__the detailed pre-2004 history of house
is not known to him and me)
__this small carpeted room
I have lined on three sides with
stackerboxes, housing books
(_on the east wall are 4 columns of 5 stackerboxes each,
for a wall total of 20 stackerboxes of books
__on the north wall are 4 columns of 4 stackerboxes each,
for a wall total of 16 stackerboxes of books
__on the south wall are 3 columns of 4 stackerboxes each,
and 2 columns of 5 stackerboxes each,
for a wall total of 22 stackerboxes of books)
__this presently yields a
visually attractive booklined room,
reminiscent of a tiny municipal (village) library,
with books running pretty much from floor to ceiling,
with an all-walls total of 20+16+22 = 58
stackerboxes of books
__I have also presently
hung my small art collection in this
small room, with an arrangement
of supports on the
stackerboxes (so that I drive no hooks into
my present landlord's walls)
(_the artwork hangs in two gaps
between stackerbox columns):
* 1899 Oxford Almanac, framed under glass
* two antique Edwardian or Victorian maps
(_Australia, and Straits of Malacca), framed under glass
* 1948-vintage map of Estonia, framed under glass
(_this was a present for my late Mum's thirtieth
birthday, on 1948-09-04, when she was
living in Sweden, toward the start of her long exile)
(_this was a present for my late Mum's thirtieth
birthday, on 1948-09-04, when she was
living in Sweden, toward the start of her long exile)
* a London etching by
Russian émigré William Walcot
(1874-1943; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walcot),
framed under glass - this I bought when still at Oxford,
under a sudden inspiration, in 1978, for the surprisingly
modest sum of 35 GBP
__I have also a headphone-equipped
and speaker-equipped solid-state
1968-era stereo hi-fi
sound system
inherited from Mum
(with tuner-amp and CD player;
its (strobe-equipped) vinyl-record
turntable is in storage now,
turntable is in storage now,
and I should in future sell it)
__the system is in two stackerboxes,
at the respective bottoms of the two
stackerbox-column
gaps which display
my small art collection -
and therefore separate from the just-mentioned
58 stackerboxes of books)
__however, I only play this sound system
for a few minutes per week
__YouTube, with headphones,
turns out to be a more convenient
means of musical relaxation
__I currently have also,
on an easel in this same area,
large-format unframed imagery from DDO,
with a large crucifix
__it might be best to donate the DDO imagery
either to the remnant DDO
(which is eventually going,
to be under the management
of the Town of Richmond Hill,
in a sadly reduced state)
or (this might be more prudent)
to Tartu Observatory
****
__apart from displaying my small art collection
in the relaxation room,
I currently find it useful to keep my washroom
decorated with pinecones,
dried vegetation, and other botanicals
__this is currently easy,
because I do not share this
washroom with my landlord
(_if in my new living arrangement
I were find myself
sharing a washroom,
it might well be advisable
to toss out the present decorative
washroom botanicals,
or else to donate them to someone)
__I likewise keep some botanicals
(_including window-ledge
pots, of a self-watering design
I adapted from the Internet
around roughly 2012)
in the relaxation room,
and elsewhere,
and elsewhere,
to help make my quarters attractive
****
__minor supplementary details:
* being somewhat impaired in vision
and coordination, and being in any case
philosophically averse to private transport,
I do not run a vehicle
__I also do not currently own a bicycle
__I am on the whole rather disinclined
to start riding a bicycle
(_although I did ride significant
distances in late boyhood,
in Nova Scotia,
I consider
GTA streets not fully safe for cyclists)
* I keep no pets
* I do not smoke
* depending on the nature of the
post-2017-04-30 accommodations,
I would be liable to be
spending significant time away from the house -
perhaps spending a typical day
working at my maths-and-physics in some
convenient local municipal library,
and perhaps spending a full day once or twice a week
at the University of Toronto downtown campus
[This is the end of the present blog posting.]
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