Ask Lemmy

I own a Curta Type II calculator.

i have a clock made from nixie tubes

I collect books and have a number signed by people who are no longer with us. :(

One of the Wheel of Time books signed by Robert Jordan.

Martian Chronicles signed by Ray Bradbury.

X-Men #1 signed by Stan Lee.

The early Rocketeer appearances signed by Dave Stevens.

A Contract With God limited edition #33/125 signed by Will Eisner.

Thieve's World graphic novels signed by Tim Sale.

I use a sound mixer for my computer audio. So I have real faders to control discord, YouTube, games... It's surprisingly great.

1998 sun micro system graphics workstation with complete driver set and user Manuel’s, original monitor and keyboard

I have a bunch of weird stuff, but I rarely show it off.

Tooth from a dinosaur, not sure what kind, it was found by a herder in a remote area, but some sort of preditor as its pointy.

Two 19th century swords that were from both sides of the French colonial expeditions in West Africa. One has magic powers (or, so the guy that sold it to me said). A number of other supposed enchanted items and charms.

Jar of sand from the Sahara outside Timbuktu and the Playa at Burning Man. Stones from I guess around the middle of Mt Olympus, and bunch of giant quartz crystals from southern Africa. A pin given to basically every Soviet citizen that was alive during (and therefore coined as fighting in) WWII.

Ticket to one of the Obama election night parties.

I have a gallon of methylene chloride.

I have a bottle of gin I distilled myself using botanicals that only grow in Patagonia.
And a set of early modern period plate armor.

I have a small rock from Antarctica.

I have a necklace with a piece of 6,000 year old bog oak on it.

I have tiny pieces from three different meteorites: one from outer space, one from the moon, and one from Mars.

I went to the Ghibli museum and watched a short while I was there. The ticket to the short was a film strip from one of the movies. I have it framed.

I was in a book club as a kid so now I have a first edition of Game of Thrones.

I have a kaleidoscope for the blind.

One of only 150 or 250 made (I forget which). The artist (Reinhold Marxhausen) got Alzheimer's in his final years, and is probably dead now. It looks like a metal blob, but the inside is hollow and it has are springs that vibrate and make tones to the slightest touch and heat change. Just shake it and hold it to your ear. It makes different and unique sounds depending on who is holding it, the weather, the air temperature, and so on.

I got it from a kaleidoscope collector, who sold it to me because the small handmade box it came in was damaged in shipping, and it wasn't worth as much without the box. I keep it in a handmade suede bag.

Edit: I made an Imgur post about it: https://imgur.com/gallery/kaleidoscope-blind-Ab8Xz

Either the wizard staff or the didgeridoo. Not sure which.

I have some computer memory I'm still learning the the right terms to describe. It's a criss-cross of wires with spinning ferro magnetic beads. I also know it's not only volatile (the information gone on power down) but destructive (information gone on read). It's about the foot print of an index card, with a ton of connections on every side, maybe 1.5-2cm thick.

Neat little bit of how it used to be.

Signed copy of “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” by Ian Fleming. Not really worth much. Maybe $60? But as kinda a James Bond fan I think it’s cool.

A pre-prohibition bottle of creme de menthe shaped like a giraffe.

It's a bit higher proof than creme de menthe typically made today, not that you should drink it because it probably has dangerous chemicals coloring it green.

A round wall plaque of Mao Zedong. My Dad found it buried in a garden he was working on here in the UK. It was in great shape. No idea if it's Chinese or a copy.

2.5 MEGA65s (R3A, R5 and R6), several vacuum tube oscilloscopes (including a 535A I restored), and a Vectrex.

Some of my favorites are sailmaking tools, like the lignum vitae seam rubber, or the ebony fid. Even the rest of the ditty bag is fun—the sailor's palm, the tarred marline, the triangular-shank hand needles, et cetera.

I'm currently building a Guzheng out of wood from the cherry tree I used to hang out in as a kid that got destroyed in a fire with only part of the trunk remaining. Maybe only 4/10 interesting but if this were a fantasy setting that's at least a +2 magic instrument right there for the backstory its got.

i have a replica PDP-11 that i built from a kit. i think it's very cool looking.

i also have the first version of the espruino. it's a tiny microcontroller (a computer on a chip) that can only run javascript (the thing you build websites with). and not modern javascript either, the wonky 2010 kind. it's completely useless.

Can't think of anything too outrageous. I have a 24U server rack in my garage which fits with mm perfection under the stairs.

I got no idea what exactly it is besides some sort of decorative mask thing that I got from my Grandpa's house after his partner passed and their house had to be sold. No idea on backstory or anything.

I have a container of spring water that was left to me by the shaman that collected it

I have a coprolith.

It's part of my bathroom's decoration.