Curious_Canid

I’ve played various instruments over the years, but guitar is the only one I still pick up sometimes. I am basically an advanced beginner.

Meanwhile, I have recently taken up the recorder, tin whistle, and ocarina. I’m very much a beginner, but having a blast. My wife and a friend are also learning. We’re working on various baroque and early classical pieces.

I used Lemmy for a few years, but switched to PieFed recently. They offer very similar functionality. PieFed suits me slightly better. I would be happy with either. And I’m still using Voyager.

You’re right, but a lot of apps work the same way, and only serve ads to unpaid users. I’m hoping for the best.

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If they stick with ads only for unpaid use, I’m okay with that. Software authors need to make a living.

Overall, I’m happy to see Nova Launcher getting support again. I’ve tried a half-dozen other launchers without finding one that really does everything I want.

I am also a software developer. The interview process in our industry has become increasingly offensive over the last 30 years. That started out with high-prestige companies who provided exceptional pay and benefits. Some people were willing to put up with that, so they mostly got away with it. Now most companies assume they have all the power and can demand whatever they want from applicants.

Refusing to participate is perfectly legitimate. It may keep you from finding a job, at least in this industry, but that may be better than giving up your self-respect for basic survival. And there are still decent software companies to work for, although they are hard to find. Changing careers is also a viable option.

Our overall economy is so broken in favor of the super rich and their corporations that individuals really do have very little power. Organized actions, of various types, give us some counter-leverage. Collective bargaining, strikes, and political efforts to push for better regulations all have the potential to improve things, at least in the middle- to long-term.

We all need to keep the big picture in mind while we do what we need to get by individually.

I have always expressed my emotions, to some extent, but I think I’ve gotten more comfortable with it as I’ve gotten older. It goes along with a general trend of worrying less about being disapproved of by others. I take negative feedback seriously, but I feel that negative judgments say more about the people making them than they do about me.

It can completely ruin my mood. External noise doesn’t both me too much, if it doesn’t include actual words. Anything with words disrupts my concentration badly. It keeps me from reading. It even makes it hard for me to follow a train of thought. It feels almost like a physical assault, to me.

I’m amazed that there aren’t frequent murders over this.

I still use a mixture of both. I am not actually opposed to proprietary software, as long as it comes from small, employee-owned companies. Whatever the business model, people deserve to be paid for their effort if they are delivering something useful. I also donate to FOSS projects that I use.

I have been steadily moving away from corporate software for several years. There are still a few specialty apps I need, but I have very little of it left.

There are multiple reasons for being vegan. Animal cruelty is an important one, but there are also significant medical benefits associated with eliminating animal proteins. Milk, butter, and cheese are still based on animal proteins. Look up “Whole Food Plant Based” if you’re curious.

I’ve been trying to eat vegan for several years now, after being mostly vegetarian for decades. Cheese is the one thing I just haven’t been able to give up entirely. It’s my single favorite food and the substitutes so far all fall under “better than nothing”.

Does anyone not?

I hold conversations with my pets all the time. And sometimes I sing to them while sometimes I sing with them. Doing harmony with my husky is tricky, but fun.