A 50-something French dude that’s old enough to think blogs are still cool, if not cooler than ever. I also like to write and to sketch.
Mullvad are like a drop of hope in humanity in a sea of shitty and shady business practices.
Alas, VPNs are quite high on the endangered species. Largely thx to countless clueless, when they’re not plain full dishonest and working in their very own interest, representatives doing their best to make our societies a much shittier place for the rest of us.
A smart idea and a smart attempt at creating something useful, wishing them the best.
I’m only reacting (which is what commenting is about) to
expecting crickets or apologies
I will let anyone decide for themselves how to read that, including the OP.
Today is May Day, for those in the US.
… It is May Day in many countries outside of the US you know
Edit:
expecting crickets or apologies
And what are _you_doing today? Me? I’m reading about workers right movements history in my country (France). Not a bad pick if I dare say so myself. I’m also editing my comment to your post wondering if it’s worth it… but that’s just me being pessimistic.
Thx for the links.
Also, unlike Proton Drive, Infomaniak KDrive works great with GNU/Linux.
I did not know about Soverin. You may want to add Infomaniak to your list of alternatives. It’s Swiss-based/hosted (like Proton), offer some kind of encryption (I don’t think if it’s E2EE but don’t quote me on that). One can either get a free email account, with limited storage, or a paid plan for their KSuite that is online office suite + cloud Storage and email, available for both personal use as well as businesses at a reasonable price, imho.
Subscribed only, sort New.
Haven’t many people experienced that? It’s called scrolling on social media, right?
I do.
Some of the works I admire the most have been written (or painted, or composed,…) by people I don’t like, to say the least.
Humans are complex beings.
Culture, social norms (good vs bad) and historical background (what was considered legal and illegal) are also very complex. And the can be very different from one region to the next, and even in the same region from one time period to the next.
While, on the other hand, the action of judging someone else (or some past time) is often lazy as fuck, based on nothing but personal emotions (hate, anger, sadness,… or their exact opposite), distaste (I don’t like to see/hear/taste this or that) and preconceptions (I think people should (not) be allowed to do this or that).
You don’t believe me? Well, you’re absolutely right to not believe anyone, me included, but then just go ask a few racists out there how easy it is to judge (and to hate on) someone based on their race or skin color, or even on their culture and social norms being different from ours… Do we really want to act like racists? I certainly don’t, even when it’s for other reasons than race, even for ‘moral’ reasons. Which, btw, is in itself a very changing notion.
I also think no one, me included, is perfect. So, how come should I be allowed to judge and to condemn anyone based on their own imperfections and faults?
Judging should be the job of the judges: people that been educated to fairly be judging (aka by accepting as a fact that anyone accused of anything should be considered innocent until proven otherwise) people’s actions based on a set of arbitrary rules (that is the law) and when deemed necessary by punishing anyone that has not respected said rules. Judging should not be my job as an individual, filled with my own emotions and personal biases, nor as a citizen with my own set of values, and it is even less so as an amateur of art (no matter how deeply I may (dis)like some artists).
RIP the little that was already left of my brain, after I figured it out :p
Depends what you’re interested in?
Poetry, I would suggest quite a few poets. If I had to pick one it would the French Paul Eluard… which is not even the greatest poet in my opinion, just the one I first fell in love with as a young reader. If not him I would pick Baudelaire (another French poet) or maybe René Char. In English this time, the amazing Emily Dickinson. Those wrote verses I would love to read one last time when time comes.
Philosophy? Here again it all depends the languages you can read. Spinoza, Nietzsche, Plato, Aristotle. a few selected pages from Marx. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Diderot are way too often not read by too many people that so poorly speak of them and their ideas. Which is kinda sad but also very telling our days. I would consider re-reading Emmanuel Levinas.
Spirituality? I mean, the New Testament is a great text whether you believe in a god or not. So is Marcus Aurelius, or Saint Augustin.
Novels? Tolstoy ‘War and Peace’ and his ‘Anna Karenina’ (the best novel that was ever written), or my dear Flaubert ‘Madame Bovary’ (or his “La tentation de Saint Antoine”), Marcel Proust “A la recherche du temps perdu” (but here one would need to die real slow to be able to read it from start to finish ;)
Plays? The complete work of Molière, which is still the best playwright ever along with Racine, Shakespeare and the Ancient Greeks.
Or maybe get a taste of the root of all Western literature? Read Homer. Or a personal lifelong companion of mine: Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’, a book that quite literally…metamorphosed my life.
Or maybe some comics? Watterson’s “Calvin & Hobbes” would be my first pick. Then some Asterix (from the time their original creators were both alive, not their modern reboots)
(from France)
My phone is not rooted. I barely used it, like barely at all (I only have the required apps I need to access to, not a single app more), so I don’t need to tweak it in any way.
I show my ID when I’m required to.
Sorry I cannot help you more than that.
didnt expect to see “phone bad, book good” on lemmy
(edit: Your) Expectations do say a lot more about you than they say about me.
I would suggest you re-read my comment and if you can’t find any reason to reformulate your answers by all means feel free to block me. I won’t mind at all because it’s more than likely that your expectations about my person will not be met. And I would not want for you to be disappointed, obviously.
With the two recent posts and my long day keeping an eye on these, i decided to update the community’s rules.
I was a bit out of the loop (preparing our move from one apartment to another) but I’ve noticed a few… angry posts and some comments too.
We need more nuances.
This, 100%. Which is closely related to what I’ve be saying for a while now: we need to be more… open to whatever/whomever we disagree with. That is if we want the fediverse to become… more than a niche thing. We need to be fine with the fediverse not being ours, not being a perfect reflection of whatever our own values and preferences are.
Thank for reading this long post,
Thank you for working hard to make this space a better place. Much appreciated :)
because most (or at least too many) people do believe they become wiser getting older. Which is… a bit optimistic, to say the least, and at least as simplistic.
screen time is just a limit on time to learn if the kid is using it for the right purposes which you should teach them to
That too is a bit simplistic.
Screen time is (supposed to be) a teaching/control tool. Like school used to be about teaching kids limits and the value of hard work. Screen time is supposed to help kids learn there is a life outside of that phone… a very worthy motivation that completely fell flat when those kids can see adults around them waste their entire life on said phone, doing more or less stupid things like some junkies do their drug things.
But no matter how stupid adults can be around kids, the idea of giving kids some help in learning selfcontrol is great…A bit like putting safety wheels on a bike is a great idea when a kid first learn to ride a bike.
As far as “the right purpose” goes, like we would all agree that learning stuff would be one such right purpose, I would be devastated to see kids only get their knowledge through a phone. Even more so realizing kids can’t focus on a single task much anymore. Here in France, the gov recently published a study revealing that something like 40+% (if not 50+, I can’t recalll the exact number) kids that are reading books (on their phone or on paper) also use their phone at the same time to do other things (social, or videos like TikTok, or even play games). And then one will wonder why school results are collapsing…
Think about it for a moment: it’s a lot more frightening for them… As most of the time we’re a much bigger creature compared to them. How much bigger are you than a mouse or some small bird? A 1000 times? 2000? More? you are frightening them when you’re getting close, they are not frightening you ;)
But please, do keep in mind that wildlife doesn’t need to be ‘catched’ or even ‘touched’ to be appreciated or observed (or just to be liked), they’re living creatures that should be respected, not fluffy toys to play with. Touching a young bird for example could make it so that its parents won’t recognize it anymore and will stop feeding it. Which won’t end well for said birdy.
Observing them is much safer (for them and also for you if you’re really that afraid ;) and not less exciting if you’re asking me.
Birds, for example, can be watched from afar. It’s even simpler as they won’t notice you. Which is made easier using binoculars (and, yes, when I’m going out I always carry a tiny pair with me just for that). Depending the binoculars you use, pick one pair that has a real close focusing distance, you can also use them to easily watch plants and tiny insects. Which is at least as exciting imho ;)
If you want to get your kids interested in nature, maybe a great starting point could be what’s called “nature journaling”, aka the practice of keeping a notebook filled with notes and drawings, sketches, painting of the little things they do notice, whatever (there is nos silly subject, even a mere stone can make for a great sketch/watercolor, one of the last ‘silly’ sketch I did was of small foot prints of pigeons made on a fresh slab of concrete).
Nature journaling will help them learn to look at the world around them, even in the most mundane places: go draw some vegetables from the fridge, or fruits or say an onion from the kitchen top. Flowers are also amazing subjects than can easily be found… everywhere. It will also help them appreciate the world, its richness and its endless variety (instead of being afraid of differences and be willing to get rid of them). Nature journaling can work great even with very young kids (old enough to know how to write/sketch): it doesn’t need to be a work of art (imho, it certainly doesn’t need to be, let them express themselves freely, just be there to encourage them not to judge, but that’s just my opinion).
There are quite a few great how-to books on the subject but if you want advice from someone I consider a master in the field, look no further than John Muir Laws YT channel, this is the intro episode to a series where he explains what it is and how to do it, but his channel is literally filled to the brim with amazing content (and sketches and notes), oftentimes hidden in his longer videos. Take some time to explore them. BTW, his books are much better and easier to navigate than any videos. They are among those rare books I would recommend to anyone wanting to get started or even to get better (a lot).
Here, a very short intro by someone else that tells you you don’t need to spend a lot of money to do nature journaling, which is true (some colors, a pen/pencil, a notebook): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kVmzeeK0ZM.
In this one a mother is commenting on some pages made by her 7 year old son.
Encouraging kids to look around them and then to make something out of it, I can’t think of anything better to encourage them (and also have some great time ;))
A name is just a name to me.
But if I was to hire someone, I would not trust a person that so badly needs to identify to some fictional ‘super-hero’ that think they’re above the law and they can do what the funk they want or, as a reader myself, to anyone needing to identify to any famous fictional novel character either.
I do recognize a few names and avatars whose (nuanced and articulated) participation I appreciate… even if we don’t always agree.
But to be honest, most of the time I browse without much consideration for the name of who posted or commented, and it is only after I’ve read a fine post/comment that I will check the user name to see if I know them and if so, what I can recall of our previous exchanges.
The people that get to really irk me they quickly end up being blocked, so I very quickly completely forget about them.
Nah… I’m waiting for the Freemium 3.0, coupled with its AI powered Hobbes, it will be so much better.