In which I rave randomly

I fixed my profile summary.

So... looking out at the wide horizon, what do I see today?

There is a train wreck coming - I predict June, but it could be sooner if I lose my job and cannot find another. It fills me with constant fear.

I have not heard back from the Capilano Suspension Bridge, though they did give me a phone interview. I messed it up in my usual odd manner of interpreting everything too literally. They asked if I could wear and maintain a Victorian hairstyle for the season, and of course, taking 'a' to mean 'any specific', I pictured my hair done inappropriately, and hesitated. But of course all they want is that it not turn into a green mohawk anachronistically. I wrote back with excellent language skills explaining my hesitation and including photos, but I think it may have been too late. Or my behaviour is unpredictable, or some such. In any case I have not given up but hold out less hope there than I had done. I would be perfect at these things. But perhaps too perfect.

There was a new book out about JHH in December. I am trying to afford it. 336 pages. Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone. It could be someone finally wrote without paying lip service to Boyer. It could be the real book. There is another due out in April. It is almost certainly the real book. It is published by Wiley and is, I think, the book the U of Arizona Press refused when they accepted Karen Tanner's book, which had a ton of good information, but some bad influences and I believe some outright lies, as a result thereof. I ordered the April book with book certs from Indigo. Thanks, Ipsos-Reid. After the certs and the pre-ordering discount and my i-rewards card, it was $2. It is over 450 pages. It is terribly spooky. What will I find in these books, in so very many pages? There are a number of mysteries... I found a letter recently about JHH leaving Wyatt, for instance, and am not sure what to think - to believe it real or not. These books will likely mean my working so hard on a history will be redundant. I guess that is reasonable. Though I have worked very very hard at it, I cannot afford to travel to look at real documents. Damnit all, though. I always want things that are impossible. You can only do so much without money and contacts. No matter what you think. I can at least work on the Socratic Dialogues, as it were. They were my original plan, until I saw what shocking liberties had been taken with JHH's history, and what incredible dichotomies of information had amassed. Aw, but I have been working so very hard at the history now! And I still might have a couple of new ideas...

I am reading mightily about dentistry. It is just great and makes me happy. I scaled the tartar from my teeth, following instructions. It turns out the filling I did was quite proper, according to 1870s dentistry. It lasted eight years, and 'osteo-dentine' was only temporary, even back then, so I can feel good about that. So many surprises. Some things about dentistry were astonishingly advanced. Some were astonishingly backward. There are many descriptions of 'diseases' as a result of such things as the use of mercury in medicine, and pleas for this to stop, despite its beneficial uses. They actually still believed in inherent 'temperaments' of people which governed their constitutions. Sanguinous, bilious, lymphatic, nervous, and melancholic. Just like the old humours of Shakespeare's time. But they had all manner of tools and techniques and anaesthetics. Many of these as well as filling materials seem the same. They had tooth-brushes and dental floss and good advice about nutrition and cleanliness. Anatomy seems solid - bones, nerves, vessels, tissues, etc. There is no concept at all of biological organisms in the mouth or anywhere, however, and no penicillin or antibiotics to arrest critical symptoms.

I was reading about consumption in 1865 also. The same sorts of things could be said. They were very involved and careful and seemed to have good advice about managing symptoms and bringing about remission of the disease. They had observed thoroughly with all the powers they could bring to bear. At this time 1 in 6 people died of consumption. But no knowledge at all of contagion, and they liberally made the assumption a medical or medicinal cure would never be found.

I am making 1870s dental equipment in SL. I got the apparatus done for manufacturing and administering nitrous oxide, so far. It is very fine, though I say it myself, and quite to spec. It is even scripted, and I did it all myself! I shall make a drill and a chair and some had tools and a (alright I'll say it) patient-operated saliva pump. Then I will have a little office and have a random card-dispenser that will describe for visitors an 1870s dental procedure. They can sit in my chair and I will look like I am working on their teeth and tell them a story.

I learned two new songs - Gamblin' Man and The Man that Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo.

I think card tricks are going well. I learned a new one that I can do most of the time. I missed the Magician's Union banquet for the new executive last night. I couldn't afford it. I got a lead on some flash cotton, but it didn't work out. I must endeavour to contact our Librarian soon. He is willing to teach me the very hard traditional tricks I want to learn and have been working on with little success. Most of the guys at the club told me not to bother. 'Seven years and maybe not then.' But diligence will do miracles, I am sure.

Work is monstrous. My co-worker was accused of stealing money. Not a chance! The boss (my ex-friend) suspects (but has at least not outright accused) Me of stealing money. I would sooner cut off my leg and dip the stump in acid. If it were legal and accepted, I really would challenge her to a duel. I've chosen my second and he has accepted. There have been other accusations - such as that I am not officious enough and people (she sends in spies, and this is not paranoia on my part...) 'think I don't like them'. In actual fact I am at all times a picture of Victorian courtesy and gentility. I fully suspect my work will last only a few more days. My mama and papa say that is good, because then I can go visit them, not realising the meaning of the loss of even that small amount of money. I came in to help her and take what I could from her shoulders, as I knew it was too much for her and she was not well, but she is so not well she has turned on me also. Why am I surrounded by and under the power of the insane, always?

My papa turns 75 in two weeks. I am thinking of going to visit the stark and bleak prairie. You may think stark and bleak is good, as it is with the desert, but the (Alberta) prairie has just enough squalid marshy vegetation to mitigate the hard purity of the desert, except in the south. At least I will be able to rest.

I had a brilliant dream where I had a pet balloon animal. He was marvelously complex though he was made of balloons. He had a fine many-bubbled mane, and looked a little like a horse though he was a dog - maybe one of sushidragon's drawing done in balloons. He moved very quickly and nibbled you with his lips. He was smart and could deliver messages to people if one asked. But he was an animal and a pet and sometimes sat down and ate said messages. One had to be very careful, because he was careless and could pop if he leaped up on the couch or wanted to run about outside... He was very friendly. He was about 8 inches long and 5 inches high. He was bright green (and of course balloon translucent), but if he got excited, he turned orange.

I want to see Brokeback Mountain. I want to see it quite badly, and it is at the Van East Theatre. Is there anyone who would go with me, and maybe discuss it and so forth - whiskey afterwards?