Libb

we don’t have a TV in our home. So, no TV in our bedroom either ;)

I would not.

Even if the law made it my duty to do so, I would not comply (aka the law can go fuck itself). It’s family. Family is at the base of everything else, including civil society (with all its laws, and all its crimes). There is no way I will report any member of the family, for anything.

It doesn’t mean I blindly agree with anything stupid my family could do (certainly not) nor that whatever ‘bad’ they may do shouldn’t be dealt with. It just means that it’s not (civil) society’s business.

Actively ruining the ecosystem and the climate, two things we probably cannot survive as a species without them working smoothly, so we can all buy new phones and clothes and help less than a handful of us to become even richer than they already are.

Imho, that’s an impressive demonstration of our stupidity and one of the most impressive species-level suicide I can think of. Even dinosaurs were not that stupid and they needed a meteor to hit the planet for them to be wiped out from its surface. Something we humans are working real hard to manage doing all by ourselves.

To our credit, I should say those few already very rich people will indeed be reaching unheard-of levels of richness. And while helping them do so we will get our new shiny phones and new fashionable clothing. Yeah, I suppose.

I understand. Hopefully someone will be able to suggest something more useful ;)

When I go some place I tell my spouse I’ll be there. Are you looking for something more specific in ‘sharing you location’?

We use desk and reading lamps, most being 24w LED a few 12. We don’t use much ambient light… beside the sun, coming by the windows ;)

Depends when (do I have enough money) and to whom.

I’ve donated all my adult life, for me it’s a way to contribute back, to support, or just to say thank you. But I must also say that in the last decade or so I’ve started donating less to some of them, and have also completely ended my support to a few. Why? Because many charities have started too hard to push their political/ethical/moral agenda.

Among those I constantly support: the French Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, local food banks too. I will give them money for as long as I’m able to. Like I do to a few other local charities too. I’ve also started donating to my local catholic church (if anyone is wondering, I’m not a catholic I don’t even believe in god) because I think they’re doing real cool stuff to help people that need help and they do it without forcing them to adopt their faith, or whatever.

Wikipedia too, just not yearly. I donated the kind of money I used to spend on print encyclopedia before Wikipedia was a thing just not yearly exactly like I used to not buy a new encyclopedia every year ;)

I also donate to Free/Libre Software projects and devs too (I don’t care much open source itself, it’s the promised freedom that seduced me as a user) provided they don’t ask to adhere to some sort of moral code of conduct in order to use their app or code or whatever. I know this is unpopular stance and that’s fine with me. To make it clear: it doesn’t matter if I agree (or not) with those moral values they’re promoting. My issue is that I think freedom (of usage) is about freedom (of usage) and it should not be freedom (of usage) as long as the dev is ok with what one is using it for, or who one is, or what one thinks, or what one likes. So, if that’s what they’re promoting I won’t oppose it but I certainly will not be supporting it.

Given the volume of writing I do, I don’t think hand-writing is feasible.

I write everything longhand. Many people have been writing entire books longhand, and have been doing it for centuries. And a few of us still do ;)

The last few years average out to about 2000 words a day, and most of it is done on computers where I can comfortably type for long periods, and much faster than I could write by hand.

Depends what you want to write, but speed may not be the key elements. Obviously, with tight deadlines from your publisher it may be a valid point but (I’m 50+) along the years I realized I would save more time by writing slowly but then spend less time rewriting/editing (less, as editing is still an essential part).

All of that to say: sure, digital technology may be a great help but it is not a necessity (unlike what big tech want us to believe). Tolstoy did not use a computer, neither did Flaubert, Shakespeare and Dostoevsky, nor did Nietzsche or Plato (to name just a few authors that have written a lot). It’s mostly a question of habits, aka developing the hand, arm and shoulder muscles used to write, and of endurance: the more you will write by hand, the longer you will be able to write without feeling too much fatigue. And of organization—aka, how you take your notes and maybe how your organize them. When I draft a text or take notes on the go, something I do every single day of the year, I use my own shorthand which helps me saves a lot of time. I also organize all my notes (research and personal alike) in an analog system that has been formalized many years ago: Zettelkasten. It works wonders and, in its way, it’s easily ‘searchable’.

One last suggestion: using the right writing tool may help a lot in reducing fatigue too. Have you tried using a decent fountain pen (with good quality paper)? But enough about handwriting :p

If you’re using iCloud, have you activated the optional Apple’s Advanced Data Protection? It ensures that no one, supposedly not even Apple can read your files on iCloud.

For anything digital (I draft longhand but I still need to type the final version), the moment I became privacy-conscious, my solution was to switch from Mac to a Linux PC, with full disk encryption. With This Linux PC there is no tracking and no telemetry (I was horrified to realize the volume of data that was send back to Apple by my Mac, it’s easy to test it: install LittleSnitch and tell it to not let apple’s services connect to the web. Sure most of it is probably fine. But probably was not enough for me) and I can use VSCodium (a Microsoft-free version of VSCode) for Markdown and LibreOffice Writer for word processing. For cloud storage, I would suggest Filen.io a small German company that offers zero knowledge end-to-end encryption.

I think many dedicated journaling apps (like DayOne on iOS/Mac) do offer password-protection but I have no idea how reliable it is. I would rather trust some Free/Libre software and the community to tell me what is safe.

BTW, feel free to come say hi to our small !journaling@sh.itjust.works community (I’m the admin). As an analog user myself, I would love to have more digital users participating. Well, to be perfectly honest I would love to have more people participating, digital or not ;)

Well regular soldiers also get hired to do that, the big difference is the employer, as a regular soldier you’re employed by the state, as a mercenary by a private entity.

Mercenary business is always at least a little shady, since they often get used for shady stuff.

I will quote myself:

It’s not a regular soldier (belonging in some nation’s army) but like more like a private contractor, hired by some nation, a private corp, a private group or even by wealthy individuals.

hired to do military activities (more or less openly, more or less legally)

I think we agree, right? ;)

it’s someone that is getting hired to do military activities (more or less openly, more or less legally). It’s not a regular soldier (belonging in some nation’s army) but like more like a private contractor, hired by some nation, a private corp, a private group or even by wealthy individuals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenary

spouse is a great help ;)

Like the others: don’t. It will most probably be too much of a burden, for him most certainly (he already told you not to do that, it could be a costly mistake to ignore that explicit demand) and, I would imagine, It will be painful for you too even though you may think otherwise, for now. Believe me: you don’t know.

(old fart mode ON)
Being in a couple does not mean being together all the time, imho that would be the surest way to shorten the life expectancy of most couples. And that’s coming from someone that has been with their partner for 25+ years and counting.

Also, like already mentioned in other comments if you want him to grow and become an adult, let him have experiences and make friends on his own. It is is essential and, yes, that also undoubtedly includes a fair share of bad and harsh experiences too… For him, as well as for both of you as a couple.

Our own couple is holding nicely not because we’re perfect my spouse and I, we are not. Quite the contrary. And certainly not because I (over) protect her from the outside world. She would massacre me if I tried to act like that. We’re sticking together because we know we can work (better) together to make things work no matter what’s happening and because we enjoy being a couple, aka we appreciate being together without constantly being glued together all the time or constantly trying to tell the other what they should do ;)

Really, don’t be afraid to let your friend get hurt and feel lost. Like a baby learning to walk or anyone learning to ride a bike… feeling afraid and falling down (and getting hurt) is a legit part of the teaching/learning process. There is no other way to learn… anything that is worth learning.

(old fart mode OFF)

Clicking the link should not say anything special when you land on the page (which is rather dumb) but once you create your account you should get double the base free storage (20 instead of 10). I don’t recall them announcing any change in that policy.

That’s the fundamental problem with your post,

If you say so. Thx for the useful insight.

As a student, I would not have offered 100$ + chocolate + flowers to anyone. I was too broke :)

First, I would check with her brother if it’s expected you should make her a gift? I mean, in today’s society, getting too close to a teenager, even for her birthday or as a way to be polite, may be very ill-understood.

Then, probably I would have written them a nice personalized note, with a little silly sketch or something, along with some flowers. Say an encouraging note for a young girl/woman. Or maybe I would have offered her a book. To write the note or pick the book, I would have needed to know the girl a little more (worst case, ask her brother). By default, without any specific info, I would pick a nice poetry anthology, the nicest edition I can afford so the person would see it’s no just some random shit I have picked up on my way to her party (and would not discard it without even looking at it).

Poetry can be an amazing gift… provided you can get the person to open the book and start reading the poems with interest (appetite), which is not a given with those younger generations. It may help if you already noticed a poem you think she might enjoy more in that book and decided to put a (nice) bookmark at the corresponding page?

Yeah, I’m that old that I like to offer books (including poetry) to people… as well as to myself ;)

If I was to summarize it (which I would normally not do) I would say empathy is the ability to smile when witnessing some random person being happy, and to cry when seeing some random person crying.

It’s being able to feel emotions without any, personal or physical, bounds between those two persons that may not even know each other. It’s recognizing oneself in that other, a stranger, despite all the differences. Something along that line.

Glad to know. Like I said, it’s a complex question but a very interesting one. Do not hesitate, if you want to discuss it further. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always considered it a huge boost, I was about to write ‘a blessing’ but that would certainly not have been a smart choice of words ;), the ability to have articulated discussions about even the most… delicate questions.

I appreciate the thoughtful response. My main takeaway, and what i wanted to make clear: the opinions your parents inbued to you were just that, opinions.

I would not have considered it like that back then, and maybe I would not even today but I completely understand your point of view. And that’s true. There is certainly a huge difference between the way I was raised by my parents, no matter the other issues, and the way I would have been raised in believing in… something so out of of reach and unquestionable I should fear and bow to.

Still, they were highly destructive in their own way and, my live getting closer to its end than to its beginning I still have not managed to overcome a few of the damages… without any god involved in the process of damaging those things in me. That’s what I think is key: it’s too easy to think that by not preaching some religion/faith or another one is a better person. That’s not as simple.

I hope that clears up some of my first comment.

It does. Thx a lot for taking the time.

This is the thing I was praising. I wanted to point out how much of a benefit that is to you, even if it doesn’t feel like it.

Agreed and make no mistake: I fully realize that (it’s part of the education I mentioned I received) and for that I’m deeply grateful to them. But my gratitude will end there. For all the rest, I’d rather express no feelings of any kind at all as they would uselessly and mostly be negative. That would serve no purpose.

I hope you’re having a great weekend, and I’d be happy to chat in dms if you wanted to discuss more.

The same to you. It sure feels great to have a quality exchange. It’s not my habit to reach out (mostly because I’m shy), but don’t hesitate to reach out if you ever want to discuss anything further.

It seems like a subtle thing on the surface, but it’s not.

Indeed, it’s not. So many large US corps have been instantly shifting their so-called support like good little soldiers…

The kicker? I need this job.

Unless one is Musk or one of his close friends, don’t we all need money?

It’s up to you to decide what to do. I mean, I know what I would do but I also know I’m not in your shoes and that would not be fair for me to push you one way or the other.

What I can say is that you have all my sympathy. That new US president has created some real mess. I imagine most US citizens won’t be aware of that but that US president also reached out to those foreign non-US owned private corps (like, here in France) that are doing business with the US gov telling them they should stop their local, non-US inclusive policy if they wanted to keep doing business with the US gov. That’s the new version of the ‘Land of the free as long as you agree with the boss’, I suppose?

I saw that article about illiterate college kids too. Worrying.

Indeed. We have the same issues here in France, btw. It’s an absolute failure of our educational system (and of too many parents persisting in wanting that failure to be used) that will cost dear to all those kids, and then will cost to the society as a whole: that’s our future ‘elite’ that’s being uneducated.