Joys of the Victorian Age

You bozos think we're living the cushy life here in the 21st century huh? Well let me tell you they had it all sorted back in the 1880s. Take a look for yourself if you don't believe me:




Now look me in the eye and tell me that doesn't seem like luxury. Soap! Now there's a Yankee Notion if ever there was one.

This post, by the way, is one way of saying that I've invested in a scanner over here. Using it is something of a lottery since all the software is in Japanese and most of it won't display at all. It all comes up as question marks, which means I'm often clicking randomly on pop-up boxes with the options "???? (???) (E)", "??? (T)", and "???? (S)". I'm getting images off it though, and that's all that counts. It let me take these scans from an old book of Victorian era US engraved plates that I've had forever, and which I now fully intend to start strip-mining for ideas.

Also, it snowed for the first time in Sapporo today. Not enough to take a picture of but still... oh yeah.