content First issue is launched. Oh boy, here we go…

So hobbies, right – the way to fertilize the kid inside your senile heart of years and dust. In this issue we will take a look at a line of cool hobbies like the one of Don Ritchie (may there be peace on his angel soul) as well as some strange collections and things people do in their free time. Later, we will make pen pals with a dozen of inmates from the US. We will also create a couple of worlds – оne you may have already seen on our YouTube channel, and the other is flourishing on a block of white cheese. Okay, let’s just…

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– Best hobby ever –

On the afternoon of 20 April 1936, Meta Truscott and her uncle Christopher Dunne shared a bench with the well-dressed, middle-aged William Albert Swivell.

As the three watched a ship sail through the Sydney Heads, Christopher asked the man if he knew its name, to which William replied: “The Nieuw Holland”. Soon after that, the man stood up, climbed to the top of the cliff and jumped to his death.

This is The Gap. It is a cliff in Sidney, Australia, that faces Tasman Sea and the South Pacific Ocean. People often come here to end their lives.

I think you all know who that man is. He is Donald Taylor Ritchie.

When Don spotted some who wants to take their life, he used to cross the road from his property and engage that person in conversation, often beginning with the words, “Can I help you in some way?” Afterwards he would invite them back to his home for a cup of tea and a chat. Some people would return years later to thank him for his efforts in talking them out of their decision.

Don saved 164 people. His story is more popular than we would have here, but we can’t pass the man whose hobby was saving lives. Btw before he retired Don used to work as a life insurance salesman.

The Gap is very similar to Beachy Head in England.

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content And also to Aokigahara forest in Japan. Now, the forest is the most popular site for suicide made even popular by the disrespectful gynecomastia cringe king Logan Paul. But the place is also associated with the ubasute ritual. Ubasute literary means “abandoning an old woman”; sometimes it’s also called oyasute meaning “abandoning a parent”. It is the custom allegedly performed in Japan in the past, whereby an elderly relative was carried to a mountain or some other remote, desolate place and left there to die. The western word for this is “senicide” although in Serbia may call it “lapot” – mythical practice of killing the elderly family members when they become a financial burden. You see. Even in its sadness Life can be interesting. If you have suicidal thoughts or know someone who does, next is a list of suicide hot lines in some 60 countries. Find yours and call it!

content Argentina: +5402234930430 Algeria: 0021 3983 2000 58 Argentina: (54-11) 4758-2554 Armenia:(2) 538194 or (2) 538197 Australia: 131114 Austria: 017133374 The Bahamas: 322-2763 Bangladesh: 999 Barbados: (246) 4299999 Belgium: 106 Bolivia: (005914) 4254242 and 75288084 Botswana: 3911270 Brazil: 212339191 Bulgaria: 0035 9249 17 223 Canada, Montreal: 5147234000 Canada, outside Montreal: 18662773553 China: 85223820000 Croatia: 014833888 Cyprus: 8000 7773 Czech Republic: 222 580 697 Denmark: +4570201201 Egypt: 7621602 Estonia: 655 8088 (ES) and 655 5688 (RUS) Finland: 040-5032199 France: 0145394000 Germany: 08001810771 Ghana: 2332 444 71279 Guyana: 223-0001, 223-0009, 223-0818, and 600-7896 or 623-4444 by cellphone Holland: 09000767 Hong Kong: 2382 0000 and 2896 0000 Hungary: 116-123 and 116-111 India: 8888817666 Indonesia: 500-454 Iran: 1480 Ireland: +4408457909090 Israel: 1201 or 972-9 8891333 from abroad Italy: 800860022 Japan: +810352869090 Korea: click Latvia: +371 67222922 or +371 27722292 Luxembourg: +352 45 45 45 Malaysia: 03-79568144 or 03-79568145 Mauritius: (+230) 800 93 93 Mexico: 5255102550 Netherlands: 0900-0113 New Zealand: 045861048 Norway: +4781533300 Philippines: 028969191 Poland: 5270000 Portugal: 225 50 60 70 Romania: 0800 801 200 Russia: 0078202577577 Slovenia: 116 123 Spain: 914590050 South Africa: 0514445691 Singapore: 1800-221 4444 Sweden: 46317112400 Switzerland: 143 United Kingdom: 08457909090 USA: 18002738255

– Reading minds on paper –

Graphology looks like a fun thing to do. It is the technique that reveals the traits of personality of the person whose writing we are looking at. Check it.

content This is the evolution of Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s signature from the age of 5 to 21. You can see, as the man said, how young Francis went from experimenting with different letters and in the end it tighten up as it lands on its own mature confident identity. An evolution that traces the writer’s creative growth from uncertain but passionate youth to disciplined artist. It is demonstrated that the human being writes in the same way he walks, moves, talks, gesticulates: He writes according to how he really “IS”.

For example:

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There are a lot of books on the subject [link]. It’s better to have a book because you can always refer to it rather than a lecture or a video, right. Plus, it looks better. We recommend these books:

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In the end of last year we took a pen to the hand and wrote to 12 inmates from USA. These people, should they choose to accept it, will be our pen pals and in every new issue we will publish their letters to us. But more about this later.

– Going into the woodwork –

If you feel that graphology is too sweet for you – then woodwork. It is really undervalued hobby. And you can build some pretty neat things from wood.

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Great objects, right, very attractive and smart. But the best thing about woodwork is putting a log in the spinning thing and carving it. The rotating thing, you know. The thing that spins the wood while you touch it with the… the sharp thing. Okay, here is a song – give me a sec.

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So the wood spinning log rotating thing is called woodturning lathe. The bad side, you may think, of carving wood is you need a big shed. Well, no. You can build a small station on the balcony of your flat or something.

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Of course there are a lot of finishes and tools you can have and you may think you need but again – you don’t. All you need in the beginning is a simple lathe and a chisel, maybe a saw. Check those two out. Combined they are under $200:

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– Do you like models? –

content In the music video you watched while I was googling the lathe and chisels, Amaro and Walden drive a Tamiya ‘1982 Wild Willy 2’ RC car. Nostalgically it is named after Topanga Lawrence – the first girl they both fell in love with. The car’s spec is perfect for unnecessary wheelies, umpteen donuts and straight-up, cold, hard cruising. It’s customised with a matte black paint job, front headlights, a passenger seat and logo graphics. Remote Control models are a neat hobby. There are some great… just look at the clips.

You may have heard about PowerUp since it is a couple of years old. You may also have heard Elon Musk saying that it usually takes 3 generations for a technology to become easily obtainable for the masses. Well, PowerUp is at its version 3.0 – so it should be safe for the common man to fiddle with it.

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Unfortunately the VertiGo project is over. Verti-Go, Verti-Go, does whatever VertiGo does… Still it is a cool thing though.

Remote Control models are a neat hobby. Even if they are not remote control.

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This beautiful picture is from the 1960’s. It was taken in the Clapham Transport Museum by by an unknown photographer.

There is a community of tram enthusiasts called Tramway & Light Railway Society. Like any other serious hobby group they have 2 things. A magazine called “Tramfare” that is available every two months for 3,50 GBP or for free after you become a member of TLRS.

And a festival – The Festival of Model Tramways. This year the Festival will be held on 21st & 22nd April at the Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester, Boyle Street, Cheetham, Manchester, M8 8UW.

Trams usually have this thing above them that connects to the wires. It’s called pantograph. That pantograph doesn’t really “graph” anything, so why is it called that? Well, because it used to.

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The left thing is pantograph. And the right thing is pantograph. It’s used to make a bigger copy by tracing an image with red pen, which produces identical but bigger movements in the second, green pen. You can go the other way around and make a smaller copy too. It looks like an old man’s tool and it is but I doubt that you turn down Cleopatra even if she is 2000+ years old.

This, my friends, is called sophistry – “the use of clever but false arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving”. It can be learned and I feel like it’s my duty to tell you how. But I won’t.

– How to avoid work –

Old people can be savage. A couple of years ago the news told us about a man, a postman, that has over 1,300 illegitimate children.

That bloke. Story is – he was a postman and “Contraception wasn’t very popular in those days. The 60’s were the good old days and I did a great Johnny Cash impression…”

That story was unfortunately fake. The gentleman on the picture is 97-year-old World War II veteran. Work and pleasure is hard to be mixed. Mainly because of the work part.

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Maria Popova from Brain Pickings wrote about a book called “How to avoid work”. Her post starts with a quote:

There is an ugliness in being paid for work one does not like quote WcMgcq

The book is from 1949 and we manage to find it on Amazon [click] for a not so healthy price. Paradoxically, you have to make some nifty dough to learn how to avoid work.

One way to avoid work is to turn you hobby into a business. Or at least many people may think like that. But there is a problem with this: Let’s say sex and cocaine are the best thing on Earth, right, we can agree on that. Now, I guarantee you that the moment snorting powder and getting nasty becomes your job, you will hate it! The moment your boss makes going to the bar after work mandatory for your position, the bar will turn from divine to infernal in a snap.

But what if…

– Land of the bright –

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In 2006 a volcano in the Pacific Ocean erupts leaving a 10 424 mi2 (27 000 km2) floating island. It’s uninhabited as of right now and it most likely will continue to be. The thing is thought: the island is new land on this football called planet Earth, unclaimed by anyone. Until Vladimir Balanov, an economist, claims the land and on 22 may 2015 becomes the prince of the nation of New Atlantis. The man is a prince now! Geologists that went there made an estimation that the land alone can cost up to $5 trillion due to the raw materials.

This is without counting in the 15 mile territorial waters and 200 mile exclusive economic zone. Everything found in those waters belongs to the state of New Atlantis.

For now prince Balanov has decided to make it a country exclusively for intelligent people – thus the name, the mythical Atlantis was the most advanced civilization before it seized to exist and all of the its population spread across the world. Any member of Mensa International can just fill in an application and if his/her country allows for dual citizenship they are now a citizen of New Atlantis.

So what if.. you have your own country without the burden of actually having the responsibility for other people. What that be a acceptable mixture between a job and a hobby – a jobby?

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Although we are now monitoring underwater volcanoes across the world finding another such opportunity is rare. But we found much simpler and not really real way to make a country of our own. It’s called Nation States.

* Placeholder for a Video we are shooting as of now *

The game is based on the book “Jennifer Government” by Max Barry [link]

From now on in every issue we issue there will be an update on what is going on with our great nation.

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– Pen pals for life –

We wrote to 12 inmates – 6 women and 6 men. Those letters will be published with the inmates’ explicit knowledge and approval. Our address is

Bulgaria, Sofia 1000 PO Box 133 quote WcMgcq

And to answer your burning question – yes, we know what they did to get in jail but we are not telling you. At least not for now. One of them did some financial shenanigans which we may explore in Money issue a couple of months down the road.

Here’s the letters we sent to our new pen pals.

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Hi Kristiana, See you are originally from Eastern Europe; can I ask which country? That is very interesting 🙂 Tell me about your travelling experience – where have you been, a couple of fun stories maybe?… You also say that you cook and study. That’s what I find most curious. What do you study? What book are you reading right now?

content Hi La’Shyla, So Hawaii, huh… now that’s a great place, I kinda envy you for being born there. Can you tell me more about it – is Hawaii the way they portrey it in the movies? I’m from Europe and we have some nice, sunny beaches too. And “La’Shyla Schoonover” –that’s an interesting name, can you tell me something more about it?

content Hi Mariah, You like bikes? I am thinking of buying one myself – can you give me an advice about that? Another thing I got from your profile was that you read and write. What are you reading right now? What is you favourite book?

content Hi Regan, So what’s up? You say like music – let’s talk about that. Recommend me an artist, a song. Can you freely search for music so I can give you an artist? I think we may find something to talk about, something to laugh about, something to argue about…

content Hi Rayahna, Your profile made an impression on me because you state what you are in prison for. Almost no one did this. You seem to embrace your mistakes and I salute you for that! The thing is though I couldn’t pick up on your current activities. So what do you do now? What are you interested in? What do they let you do?

content Hi Alexis, So you like to read, let’s start with that. What do you like to read, what was the last book you read? What did you study in college? I would recommend Russian literature from early 20th century. If you can get your hands on some in prison, that would be great for you, I guarantee! By the way – cool tattoos! I myself have one of a bird riding a motorbike. It’s majestic!

content Hi Mario, So you were a cowboy! What does a typical cowboy do every day? You also draw I see. Can you draw something for me on your letter?

content Hi Francisco, You look like an intelligent person with a lot of ideas! I wonder what are you thinking about lately? What are you reading? We can begin from here, right 🙂

content Hi Brandyn, I see you were a painter – let’s start our conversation from there. Tell me something interesting about these times, please. What were you painting? Can you draw something for me on your letter – that would be great?

content Hi Brent, What made me write to you is that you are working on a book. Can you tell me more about that. Maybe a snippet? That would be a good start to our conversation.

content Hi Omar, Your number one passion is writing you say. That sounds interesting – what do you like to write about? Can I you sand me any of your work? I will be thrilled to read it. Also what are you literary inspirations? And crocheting?

content Hi Eric, Your paintings are great! Can you draw something for me on your letter? You say you used to travel a lot. Do you have any interesting stories form your travels?

Since we live in Narnia and only paper mail is allowed, communication is going sadly slow. Their answers will be published in next issue.

If you too want to write to us and stuff: