Libb

Are you satisfied with your writing?

Nope, which is another motivation to try to do better. Beside the relentless desire to write, I mean.

How often do you write?

Daily.

What is it about?

Some attempts at fiction (short stories and plays, for the most part). A mix of philosophy/sociology/history. Journaling, too.

Do you dream of people finding out about it eventually?

Nope. I just don’t think it’s interesting enough (nor good enough). Also, since I don’t publish it anywhere and since it’s not even stored on a computer (I write longhand, using actual pen and paper, or I type on a good old typewriter), there is very little chance for it to be accidentally leaked online.

A failed democracy.

I could have been confusing seeing somebody on Linux using the Command Box thing as more intricate coding, but for somebody in my shoes, with limited tech knowledge, it all looks like coding and is a little intimidating.

It is, I will agree with you. But it’s not that complex . It’s just… different and require we learn to use it, like when one learns a new foreign language of some sort…

And, btw, I did learn to use it that command prompt… not because I was forced to but because I realized how effective it was. It’s incredibly useful even though I barely use it at all, compared to experts. I run some scripts to prepare content for my website… First, I was doing everything by hand, which was a real pain, but it’s so much simpler and faster to let a script do all the work. And, like I said in my previous comment, I’m anything but a coder ;)

‘bla-bla-bla’ (French).

More spelling are available: ‘blabla’, ‘bla-bla’, ‘bla-bla-bla’.

11 - I avoid it as much as I can ;)

More seriously, I will often be the one people around ask for help but it doesn’t change that I also learned to absolutely distrust tech.

All tech, be it corporate-owned as well as free/Libre… I’m using Linux and have no issue (I like it) but I’m also terrified by the many ‘social code of conducts’ that have been popping out in many communities. Not necessarily because I disagree with their core values, that would not even matter much, but because it’s stating a precedent to allow a group to remove any user they don’t like/disagree with the right to use a tech… and that power will be used even when not ‘the good guys’ will be in charge.

Hence me slowly falling back to analog as much as possible…

Edit: typos, clarifications

We do miss a few things but not that much as my spouse and I are much more into works that will challenge us, not make us feel right/validated or whatever along those lines that seem to be so trendy.

Plus, there are so many great things to watch on DVD and books to read, more than enough to occupy every second of whatever time we have left on this planet would we ever want to do just that ;)

A bit like there are many paintings I will never have the opportunity to see IRL, that’s fine. I can appreciate so many already.

I’m a bit older too. I started older than you are ;)

There is a lot of things I decided to move away from digital/online, including actually meeting people. The only social I still use is here.

Did the same things (my iPhone is the dumbest one can imagine, no social, no apps, no games, there is not even email configured on it). Including reading print newspapers and printed books… not just for the peace of mind but also for privacy and ownership reasons.

Also got rid of all subscription streaming and services and never looked back. If I can’t buy/rent a DVD I won’t watch whatever it is I’m interested in, simple as that. The same with music.

Because it’s much more pleasant, so much quieter and simpler (no update, no Notifications, no menus, no nothing) and relaxing I also went back to writing longhand (I don’t need to be constantly fast, but I need to enjoy writing) , using fountain pens/pencils and paper.

My agenda is a paper one too which can sometimes be an excuse way to trigger unexpected conversations with people that are surprised to see you using such a strange tool ;)

I’m a 50+ years old dude.

And now they(1) will tell us we don’t really our own urine, it was just leased to use and we now need to pay premium monthly sub to take a leak?

1: some capitalists/corps owning IP on the process.

When should parents stop parenting and just let the kid fail/ thrive on their own? I just feel sometimes the parents are the problem,

In what you described the issue is shared, imho. I mean, the parents are… doing what they probably have been doing during all teh childhood of their son, which is not their ‘kid’ anymore if he is that old: he is an adult. And, as an adult, I would say it’s more than time for him to put limits. If parents/family can’t respect those limits, it’s up to him to help them, more or less gently, understand it’s not for them to fix those boundaries.

I left my family, and their advice, and their morals, and their hypocrisy (things 'like when we were your age/we would never have done/and so on), the second I was able to. We all have a single life to live and I realized at a young age I did not wish for my parents to get a say in how I chose to live mine, they already did enough damage during my childhood.

32, most of them being spammers or serial posters, with the occasional bad faith and/or too hostile or angry person that I simply do not wish to read in the future.

I don’t block entire instances because my feed only shows me what I’m subscribed to (meaning I don’t see much of those communities that are the most likely to trigger shitty/low effort content posting) and I’ve not yet felt the need to censor a whole instance no matter how many morons, or worse, are thriving in it… simply because I’m not forced to read them.

BTW, when I moved from Lemmy to piefed the block list was one the two things I wished to bring with me. I could not bring the other one (my posts/comments) but, hey, at least I was able to keep spam and trolls at bay ;)

Edit: clarifications.

wonder how age factors in.

+1

I never felt like electrocuting myself out of boredom. Like, wtf? Shouldn’t that be considered a symptom of some mental disorder?

I also have zero issue being with left alone my thoughts, and never had even younger. Quite the contrary it is something I’m looking forward to.

But I’m also well into my 50s and even though I’ve been using a computer of some sort since the early 80s it was just a tool, next to many others, in my personal toolbox next to many other tools.

The most used tool in my toolbox is the humble notebook + pen, not the computer and certainly not the smartphone as I’m one of those abnormalities that doesn’t need to check my phone’s notifications every odd second. Heck, I don’t even Notifications turned on, and have not installed any social apps either… I even uninstalled the email app.

I wonder if this allergy to being left alone by themselves could (partially at least) explain the fact younger people don’t read anymore, or read a lot less than we used to at their age, and younger?

Wine. Red wine.

I was still a little kid and tasted it from my granddad’s glass, just a sip. I begged to be allowed to taste it, as I wanted to do like all the grown ups were doing. I hated the taste. That changed as I grew older.

Nowadays, approx the same age my granddad was back then, I don’t drink wine anymore but I certainly don’t hate the taste ;)

The only coding I ever did was like, some very light HTML on stuff like LiveJournal 20 years ago (because I’m ancient in internet years, haha) and even that I barely remember.

Hi,

Fear not: I switched to Mint when I was already in my 50s… and before that I had been a lifelong Apple user (got my first Apple computer back in the early 80s).

I tried a few distro before settling on Mint and the only reason I picked it up was because, back then at least, it was the only one that would let me use my… Airpods, seriously. Fast forward a few years, to this very day, and you can be assured I would not want to go back to Apple. And I still am using Mint, as I never had any issue with it, not a single one (beside me doing stupid things, but hey that’s how one learns :p). It works perfectly well for me.

Not saying that as way to push you to use Mint. I mean, like others have already suggested there are plenty excellent GNU/Linux available and Mint is just one of them, but to let you know there is no need to be an expert in order to use it.

BTW, Mint is based upon Ubuntu (which is based upon Debian), the hate towards Ubuntu is because they force certain tools/choice onto their users which, unlike with Apple or Microsoft, is not something a lot of people in the Free Software world will agree with (I certainly don’t, as that’s the main reason I quit using Apple ;). Ubuntu is still an excellent distribution, just their policy doesn’t sit well with the freedom & choice Linux is supposed to be promoting.

1. Mass of people stop learning/being taught how to deal with their emotions (and frustrations).
2. Instead of being in control of their emotions (it’s ok to disagree with anyone, to no like them or not be liked by them, that doesn’t mean we should want to kill them or fear them to kill us) they let their emotions control them.
3. They elect the one (who has been pushed forward by highly educated people, mind you) that is promising them all they wish for which, more often than not, revolves around giving them more money/power and a free pass to make hell out of the life of some other group(s) of persons they have long been hating on without any mean to meaningfully hurt them.

Education, or the absence of it, is key im_v_ho.

Which is why, this kind of news should worry and trigger urgent and radical answers from any country in which this happens. I’m not US, I’m French but we have the exact same tragedy that’s unfolding here too and, beisde an few individual/isolated attempts, we have an almost exact copy of a total absence of nation-wide reaction. Everything is fine…

(How many US citizens have read the Project 2025? It’s a book (not a cheap book, sure but the PDF is officially available for free)? I’m willing to bet not that many, as most people can’t be bothered to read at all (they believe scrolling some headlines and tweets, and to have feelings and emotions, is more enough to understand and be the expert they are on absolutely any subject—which is another huge weakness that the lack of of working educative system is helping spread in the general population, one that is over-exploited by highly educated people). And they will even less so be willing to read a 900+ pages brick… even if that book may help them better understand who/what they may be about to vote for.)

Education, self-education at the very least, should be a top priority in a working democracy.

Best answer ever.

Thx for sharing the quote. I did not know about that dude but you can be assured I’ll do my homework :)

That’s not embarrassing anyone. Check the definition of that word embarrassing is something that causes distress. I don’t know about you but I certainly don’t think putting someone I care about (or anyone, for that matter) in distress is a funny thing to do.

What you describe is being silly which can be real funny too, and hopefully is something we all do from time to time—even those seemingly joyless persons like myself… I will ask my wife, after almost 30 years together she must have had time enough to appreciate my lack of humor and my sad company I suppose, and let you know what she thinks.

Edit:

Since I, too, am not in a joyless relationship,

I should told you how my ex and I met and sympathized while I pretended to be a (drunk) German filmmaker (I was not a filmmaker, but I was drunk), that happened in some film short movie festival decades ago, so I could get for free the drinks I had no money to pay for. I was speaking in my absolutely not German-like worst German and well, I got the drinks I wanted, and I met the girl. We chatted and we laughed quite a bit for quite some time. But not once I tried to embarrass her, if anything I was the one who should have feel embarrassed (no one believed I was German).

Spare me the stupid lectures

The moment you spare her the stupid pranks. Do we have a deal?

and stop assuming the worst.

Not sure you said anything that could convince me I was wrong to assume the worst here, quite the opposite reading your reaction to my remark. So, instead of giving you the benefit of the doubt, what about this: I will, gladly not assume the worst the moment I see you stop trying to do your worst?

It’s a bit like handling a gun. One better be assuming the worst and be cautious because handling a gun carelessly rarely ends up with in ‘and they lived happily ever after’. More often than not, it ends up in tears and tragedy.

I also don’t intend to be completely joyless and uptight, because my relationship would be over very quickly.

I suppose this is your way of trying to be ‘embarrassing and funny’ at the same time at my expense? Fingers crossed you will do much better with your girlfriend.

Or are you just trying to be mean with me? That would be cute but if that was so, I beg you to stop wasting your time with me. I was just trying to help but if you feel insulted and if this helps you feel reassured about yourself: I’m old and, quite obviously, I can’t understand the finest subtilties that are going on in younger people’s much smarter minds. I must be wrong and you must be right: that will be hilariously funny. Now, if you would allow sad-me to go back to my never ending hole of joyless uptightness (did I got it right?), the same hole in which my spouse is living with me and has been doing so for almost 30 years now.

Thinking about it, that’s odd! WTF is wrong with her? Could it be that my spouse is such a sad person too? Or worse? I mean, we have been together for so long! Worse than that, we have no TV at home which means that for the last 30 years or so every minute we have spent together we had no excuse to help us blissfully ignore the presence of the other. Meaning that we had to be and to do things together? Things like talk to one another or have activities (some more intimate than others), for 30 years? What the fuck is wrong with that girl I live with? She must be utterly stupid to be willing to live with such an uptight sad moron as I! Thank you for helping me understand that. I will divorce that worthless bimbo asap!

Or maybe not? Maybe we have reasons enough to appreciate the company of one another and to be willing to stay together for more than a fortnight of intense crazy sex? And just maybe, despite all that wisdom of yours and your undisputed gift for profiling people you have never met, you could be wrong?

I certainly can’t tell. Instead, I will leave it to your girlfriend to decide, after you purposefully chose to embarrass her in front of her/your friends, if that was a really funny idea. Or if that was that shitty idea I hinted at.

Meanwhile, my boring self (and my supposedly at least as boring spouse) will be wishing you the best in your endeavor.

Edit: typos/clarifications.

fun & embarrassing?

I’m not your girlfriend, I’m not even a girl (I’m a 50+ years old dude that has been married for almost 30 years and counting) but I can easily say that I can’t think of anything that I would find embarrassing and funny at the same time. Because, well, being embarrassed is not fun, it’s… embarrassing. What would be one thing that you would find at the same time to be real funny and real embarrassing if it was done to you on purpose by someone close to you?

That’s just my 2 cents but, luckily for one of us, it is not I you wish to harmlessly embarrass.

This is the way. And same here. I don’t use the mask of pseudo-anonymity to be a jackass. Anyone I know who discovers my online accounts will find I interact online and IRL exactly the same way.

One can use ‘pseudo-anonimity’ without being a jackass, we all better not forget that.

I mean, the issue with someone being a jackass is not their willingness to (try to) be anonymous, it’s them being a jackass.

Us forgetting that is akin to us allowing those people telling us that we should all let go of any notion of privacy and freedom of speech because ‘think of the children’. Freedom and privacy is the wrong issue, and their suppression is an even wronger solution to what’s the real problem.

Disclaimer: I use a pseudonym (the same one everywhere, even on my personal website), if you want to find any ‘jackass’ content be my guest.