Gel pens and toasters
The gel pens i ordered arrived in the post today. Did i pay too much for them? Yeah. Are they indisputably better than 95% of ballpoint pens? Also yeah.α I’d say it’s a worthy trade-off.
Also, i swear my record player is always, like, 5% too fast — just fast enough for me to notice it but also wonder if anything is really wrong. Hmm…
Othernewswise,β i’ve been glacially hammering away at the fourth edition of Toaster, my (allo)historical colour scheme for cartography. This time, instead of having to faff around with it manually, i’ve decided to offload the work to a Python programme that generates HTML code, turning this—
The Nordic countries // Hans Gude / Winter afternoon / 1847
= Scandinavia proper
#358FBF Nordic Union, Kalmars, Scandinavian Realm
#00FFFF Denmark, North Sea Empire
#CCCC1F Bornholm, Christiania, Secondary Denmark, {Mermaids, ASB Nordics}
#2AB9C8 Jutland, Jutes, Tertiary Denmark
#001A7C Sweden, Svealand, European Technocracy
#4C65B1 Scania, Gotland, Danish Sweden
#663399 Goths, Götaland, Southern Sweden
#AD139D Jämtland, Norrland, Lule or Swedish Sámi
#759FA3 Norway, Vikings, Old or Pagan Norse
#9070BF Sogn, Trondheim, Northern Norway, Southern Sámi
#66CCCC Hordaland, Western Norway
#87C030 Rogaland, Norwegian Pretenders
#0A0040 Agder, Quisling Regime, Fascist Scandinavia
= Other Nordic countries
#5E599C Åland, Ostrobothnia, Norse Finland
#BB98BB Finland, Western European Finno-Ugrics
#DE3163 (Northern or Finnish) Sámi, Socialist Nordics
#3F3F00 Karelia, Nordic Eastern Europe
#5B82DC Iceland
#ACD4FB Svalbard, Jan Mayen
#C3C3CC The Færoes, Other North Sea Islands, {Arendelle}
* For Greenland, see (*The Far North*)
–into this:

On that note, i’ve not made a proper map in forever; i’ve got an idea, but, as with all things, giving myself the kick up the bum to get started is the most painful part. I’m no good with vector, but i worry that i might find myself wishing i'd chosen a different size if i do it in raster — maybe i should just split the difference and hand-draw it?
AMA answers coming soon™.
Your irregularly-scheduled dose of links
- Tower Hamlets Council: Destroy the Bethnal Green Mulberry Tree (via a private forum who i’m not sure would want the exposure)
- The $39 Experiment — How many companies will send this guy free shit? (via Wiby)
- Postbox Garden, an image board where posts have to be physically mailed in to the postmistress (via Peelopaalu)
- Similarly, Bus Stop, where posts disappear after 24 hours (don’t remember where i found this one, sorry)