You sound just like your mother.

Oh, that book is so good. Yes! I really need to get myself a copy and re-read it.

A few years back, during Covid lockdowns, I stumbled upon Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed and liked it a lot. It was fascinating to read how people reacted to the plague back then.

I liked BoFIII a lot, but I loved BoFIV. BoFIII re-release would be awesome, but unfortunately it never had a PC port, so it’s a bit unlikely.

Mandriva is gone, but there’s a couple of projects carrying its legacy. OpenMandriva is one of them, obviously. Mandrake was my first distro too, so I have a soft spot for it.

From my perspective, OpenMandriva’s biggest strengths are that it’s independent, non-derivative, community driven, and based in Europe. Unfortunately it’s also small, but the people behind it seemingly do a lot with very little, so the community is passionate about the project.

Personally I’m just happy that there are smaller, non-corporate distros still out there providing alternatives. And OMLx seems like a pretty solid distro at that.

For their selling pitch, you can check their FAQ.

CDs are better than vinyl.

I eventually decided on openSUSE Tumbleweed for a few reasons: rolling release, because I like to stay up-to-date; non-derivative, not a fork or dependent on other underlying distros; European, for (perceived) privacy reasons; a relatively well known and large distro with a decent community, for troubleshooting reasons; backed by a company, though that has both its ups and downs; lastly, support for KDE Plasma.

I actually had trouble finding a distro that suited all my criteria at the time, but openSUSE is good enough for now and I am pretty much satisfied.

Sometime in my early 20s I realized I was starting to dread social interactions. It was gradual, but for a long time I could feel myself getting worse and didn’t know what was happening or where it would end. Those were scary times.

Evacuation in my ass? Sounds about right.

The Matt Parker? Of Parker Square fame?

I can sometimes see auras around people. It’s fascinating stuff, but the strain of it can cause debilitating pain.

Western medicine calls it “migraines”, but what does science know?

Of those two, I think Fedora is the better choice since the packages are more up to date. Fedora with Plasma is a great choice anyway. It’s also a large distro with lots of online support. Try it out!

For me it’s about letting go. The depression is telling me to slow down and no matter what my plans were, I have to respect that. If I don’t, it’ll just get worse and stay longer. This can be a hard pill to swallow with my personality, but I’ve learned that I don’t really have any options. If I feel I need to lie down on the sofa, or even the floor, I do that. I know I’m at my worst when I only have the mental and physical energy for lying down and listening to a podcast. From experience, forcing myself is the worst thing I can do.

I agree. From the article:

“If we can make a really fair deal and a good deal for the United States, not a good deal for others, this is America first. It’s now America first.”

This is such an insane thing to say and it reveals a lot. Why on earth would anyone enter in to a trade deal, or even negotiations, if the other party only accepts one sided benefits? Any sane actor not under duress will reject any such notions out of hand. A good trade deal benefits both sides. This should be elementary.

Now, I’m no professional, but it looks to me that none of this is about the best interests of the USA or it’s citizens; this is all to serve one man’s ego. Trump’s thinking is so disordered he views any concessions as a narcissistic injury. Anything but complete domination is out of question, since it breaks his carefully cultivated sense of omnipotence, of being the biggest and strongest man in the room. His ego is so fragile it cannot sustain the slightest challenge to the false self. All of this, the trade wars, even becoming the POTUS, it’s all about one thing: trying to silence that nagging voice that tells him he’s worthless. Nothing will ever be enough to quell that inner critic, which is why he always escalates.

There is no room for any deals with this guy and his sycophants. They will just demand more.

And what guarantees does Europe have he won’t just flip the deal on a whim? This guy and these tactics deserve no quarter.

I’m reading The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan, the fourth book in The Wheel of Time series. I’m starting to get a bit sick of the characters, frankly. Petty, angry, dishonest liars most of them, looking to make the worst decisions for any given situation. I still like the book, oddly enough, but I wish the characters like, grow up sometime soon.

Thanks, now I’m depressed.

Honestly, guys, gals and others, Microsoft is making it crystal clear they don’t want you to use their OS. It’s not your OS, it’s theirs. Stop trying mangle it into something it is not. If you need registry edits just to make the OS usable, it’s not worth it. It’s not for you. Please, please, please look at alternatives that respect you, your intelligence, your privacy and your data. One day Microsoft will push an update that will lock you out of your machine unless you create an account. Jumping through these hoops is just delaying the inevitable. Using an OS is not worth all this effort and stress.

The president of the United States of America is angry that starting a trade war has started a trade war. I would be appalled, if this wasn’t just par for the course at this point.

I landed on Claws Mail myself. It does look a bit dated, but the UI is functional and the client works. I’m content with it.