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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • There was this guy who started college when I was chairman of the study association for IT. He was a bit of a geek even by IT standards, but all in all okay guy who brought a lot of enthusiasm.

    He was never really understood by his surroundings, had a tough childhood with some trauma. Went into special needs schools and working his way up to study IT at a good school. He was like 26 when he started, the more usual age being 18 or even 17.

    He was of course always welcome at our study association and everyone accepted him for who he was. He ended up also doing board work for the study association.

    Couple years later, I’d already graduated, we met at a general meeting for the association and afterwards he took me apart to say that he’d graduated. He said that it was because of me giving a speech to all first-years that he’d felt more or less at home, felt confident enough to join the association, found friends and that that helped him get his diploma. He said it was because of me he got where he was.

    I told him it was not because of me. He got to college before even meeting me. I was just there along the way to nudge him, unknowingly, towards a group of positive people who were always happy to help.

    He’d had tears in his eyes and I have him a quick hug. I then told him this study association did a lot of good for me too. Sometimes all you need to do is step into something to generate great change in your life.



  • I read that you did, indeed. I think it’s commendable and a whole lot better for your personal wellbeing than just lying back and taking it. Thing is that the best case scenario is that they’ll say they never realised how their actions have affected others. It’s however far more likely that they think you’re being overly sensitive and that it can never be that bad. It’s sort of similar to having a spouse who snores. You can tell them they snore all you like, they’re not hearing it and they really won’t know what impact it has on you. Short of you recording them, or them moving into your place while you go stomp around upstairs.

    Your neighbour possibly already thinks that she’s being as considerate as she can be, in the sense that not blasting music or watching movies, or walking around in heels, is limiting her in her freedom. She’s not going to stop doing stuff she wants because someone else is hindered by it. It’s the same type of person that blocks the aisle of the supermarket whilst having conversations with others. Those who run elbows first through a crowd to get a place up front. Those who talk through movies. They are oblivious to what effect their actions have on others.


  • I have neighbours like that. I’m usually very self conscious about being the one who’s noisy but they can get it, I don’t care. Their kids, barely teenagers, are still up when we go to bed, screaming at each other in their bathroom where we can hear them verbatim. Or being out in the evening on their trampoline in the front yard, we can pretty much join the conversation.

    I’ve been in the situation where I heard people moving their furniture around almost daily. It’s usually not what you think it is. Most people have no idea how their noise affects others. It can just be someone falling in their seat on the couch that can make it sound like they’re moving the couch. This is why our couch is up against the wall, so it doesn’t move. We have those little felt things under chair legs to prevent scraping noise. We take our shoes off inside the house. And if we do watch movies, tv or listen to music, even when having a modest party, we keep the music at a reasonable volume so we can still have a conversation.

    It’s common decency that loads of people don’t do because they are inconsiderate. Not because they’re inherently bad people, they just haven’t been taught to take others into account. And they get away with it because those who do, usually avoid confrontation.



  • I’m not your target demographic but it’s not really a stretch to say that pretty much everything that’s happening today has happened before and will keep happening. Like others say it’s mostly because there is more coverage (and maybe some more nuance causing more opinions). Back in the 50s the US started fighting in Korea and pretty much the entire US could see why and supported it. Then when Vietnam happened, there was a bit more coverage which also caused more dissent. Since then I think petty much every 5 years or so the US has been fighting wars in the Middle East. The fight with Iran is nothing new (look up Iran-Contra for instance).

    Environmental concern has been around for well over 60 years and yes, we are a lot further along but by now the smart money is on people will never be able to steer it in a positive direction so it’s pretty much damage limitation where possible.

    In the end it’s not really about how fucked up global events are, it’s more about finding the light in when they all seem a bit less fucked up than it used to be.










  • I was more or less forced to contribute at home. It was not just cooking, but the whole process of dinner. It started with me having to set the table, clear the table, do the dishes and when we got a dishwasher, load it. Then I also had to peel potatoes, cut vegetables. The older I got, the more responsibilities I got. At some point I had a dedicated day in the week where nobody would be able to cook for me and others would eat later than I would. These days were initially just me and my dad, so my dad showed me literally once how he made pasta bolognese. The next week, it was my turn. I was given feedback on my cooking and the next week I could try again. I kinda liked doing it so in due time, I also had to cook on another weekday. My mom would show me how she handled certain things and after a while, but the time I was 16, I could make a couple of dishes and did so at least twice a week. My sister was gearing up to be a professional athlete (sadly she never made it that far) so she rarely cooked but once she stopped her sport, she would also cook twice a week.

    This is less the story of how I learned to cook and more the story of how my parents trained their servants to cook for them.




  • I never ‘dated’ in the traditional sense of the word. When I started college, I was about 19 and met someone when I went on a trip with my study association and was in a relationship with her for 8 months. It was sort of love at first sight.

    After that I would meet people through my study association which was all fine but never really turned up anything serious.

    The day I met my wife, I just got out of the relationship I mentioned before. It still took well over a year for us to start anything romantic. We were just okay friends, although at some point she started hanging out at my house more and more so that also kind of just happened.

    I don’t regret not having to go through all the dating things. It might have been nice to meet some more new people, but I’ve always lacked confidence in these situations so I’m not sure I’d be at all comfortable with it either. If there is no click right away, might as well call it a day and stop wasting time.