It's the witching hour soon, how about a #ghost story to welcome it?'nRead my short story, #Seafoam at my website: https://hpkomics.com/2025/01/seafoam'n#amWriting #horror #halloween #haunting
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It's the witching hour soon, how about a #ghost story to welcome it?
Read my short story, #Seafoam at my website: https://hpkomics.com/2025/01/seafoam
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Gli ultimi otto messaggi ricevuti dalla Federazione
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Gli anarchici Manuel e Nathalie (M. e N.) sono stati rilasciati. Revocata lāordinanza di custodia cautelare in carcere (Germania, 22 settembre 2025)
@anarchia
Gli anarchici Manuel e Nathalie (M. e N.) sono stati rilasciati. Revocata lāordinanza di custodia cautelare in carcere (Germania, 22 settembre
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@TerryHancock @HumanServitor Apropos of nothing, "Human Servitor" is a dope handle. šš¼
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Thought liters
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Birthday Inventory 2025
Itās become a ritual for me to take a personal inventory on my birthday. Iāve done it in 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017. Iām in Montreal today, at home with my son Stavro and wife Maj. (Daughter Amita June is on her way home from a Thanksgiving weekend with her boyfriendās grandparents.) I have some time before we start our supper (Mon Ami Korean BBQ) and evening birthday celebration (Jardins de lumiĆØre at the Botanical Gardens followed by cake and presents). I donāt usually refer to previous yearsā inventories before I write, so some of this might be dupes of long-lasting issues. Apologies for long-time readers! Anyway, here we go.
Health. The last year has been pretty rough on my health. After my car accident in Jun 2024, Iāve had a pretty straightforward recovery, but some parts of me are just never going to be the same. Iāve taken a long time to recover my level of exercise, though, and it shows in my weight. Iām carrying more weight than I have in the last 15 years ā itās starting to feel like a lot to carry. What Iāve previously done to lose this kind of weight ā an hour or more of exercise per day, plus tightening up my alcohol and food intake ā seems really hard to imagine. On the plus side, Stavro and I just started lifting weights again, four nights a week, after several months away from the gym. Itās great to spend time with him, and crush some iron together.Teeth. I think I talk about my teeth in these inventories sometimes? Regardless: teeth are great. I had some fillings replaced this summer that had been slowly breaking down in the back of my mouth for 45 years. Theyāre now brand new and set to get me through the age of 102, I guess.Family. I think I mentioned my time working out with my son Stavro; I also have been getting time in with him while he practices driving. Itās been a good year of engagement. My daughter Amita is a little more distant; sheās been out of the house for about a year and a half now, in her own apartment. But she still sends us a good night on our family group chat almost every night, which is sweet. She just started at McGill this year, which was a really good compromise between our duelling goals: I wanted her to get a window to a wider world, and she wanted to stay here in Montreal. I have fingers crossed that sheāll be doing a semester abroad next year.Relationship. Itās great. Weāre probably more in sync than we have been in a long time. We are very close, talk a lot, and purposefully spend time together. Maj has her own work and her own life, but we seem to be relating really well.Extended family. Itās OK; Iāve been doing calls with my parents and brothers and their families less frequently than in previous years, but we still connect about once per month. My uncles, aunts and cousins are harder; theyāre usually on Facebook and Instagram, but I didnāt get down to New Jersey or out to California this year to see them. Iām realising recently that my generation is the one to deal with family issues like deaths or crisis; itās hard coming to the understanding that weāre the adults in the room for now. Work. For the first time in a few years, āworkā and ālifeās purposeā are aligned in my inventory. Last year, just before my birthday, I finished my book about the distributed social networking protocol I helped create, ActivityPub. Itās been doing pretty well in sales, and Iāve done some events to promote it this year. I also co-founded a non-profit to promote the use of the protocol, the Social Web Foundation. Iāve been working on projects for the SWF for the full year, including further developments of the protocol, promoting its use at conferences, and writing reports about legal, technical or social issues with the protocol. Itās been exciting and fun. Maybe best of all, the efforts I put into standardisation at the W3C Social Web Incubator Community Group are now part of my work at the SWF, so it doesnāt feel like Iām spending all my nights and weekends on a side effort.I continue to do my work for the Open Earth Foundation as Director of Open Technology, leading a team of 10 (!) developers building software to help cities fight climate change. Iāve been working here for 3-1/2 years, which might be a record for me. In the last year, weāve used the software to provide emissions inventories, risk assessments and climate action plans for 50 Brazilian cities, and weāre working on expanding that effort to all 5500 municipalities in the country. It feels like we have traction and product-market fit, which is really powerful and exciting. Over the summer, I promoted two technical leads to become engineering managers, so that I currently only have 4 direct reports, not 9. Itās relaxed a lot of my efforts, giving me a chance to concentrate on more strategic technology work and deep process engineering.Iāve been working less on CoSocial than I did in previous years, but thatās a sign of the projectās strength. CoSocial is the cooperative social media service for Canadians that I helped get started a couple of years ago. Last year, I was re-elected to the board, but wasnāt chosen as President. Iāve done work in the Trust and Safety Working Group, and I still go to board meetings, but I really like seeing things take off at the org.I also got asked to join the board at the North American Native Plant Society this year. Native plants have been an obsession of mine for a few years, and itās great to get a chance to focus on them in a formal setting.School. I continue my remote Masterās degree in Computer Science at Georgia Tech. Itās been an amazing experience ā Iāve loved the work in databases, software architecture, software engineering and computer networking. I know that after 35 years in the profession, I shouldnāt have anything more to learn, but the classes Iāve been taking have been really enriching and engaging, and theyāve really helped with my professional work. I am taking one class per semester, on top of my 1.5 jobs and other responsibilities, so it feels like a lot, but I really am enjoying it. I havenāt done the credits math lately, but I think Iām on the back half of the program, and should have a degree in a year or two. And, yes, Iām seriously considering applying for Ph.D. programs. Why not keep the party going?Home. Our house in Montreal was starting to feel crowded over the last few years, with four adults in a small townhouse footprint, but Amita June moving out has alleviated some of that pressure. On top of which, Stavro has been much more active in the world, working on music and playing in two bands. I often get the house to myself during the day, and some evenings I even eat on my own. The house is 100+ years old, and thereās way too many repairs that need doing for me to ever put time into, but it still feels like a home we can go into empty nester mode with.Our country home is a source of a lot of joy. Located in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, it has rooms for everyone, plus dedicated offices for me and Maj, plus a basement and other usable spaces. The big back yard is full of native plants that are really coming into their own; I germinated some perennials inside this spring, and theyāve done pretty well when they were transplanted. The vineyard has bounced back from a year of neglect, with a lot of wood building up on the trunks. I think it should be ready to make wine next year (year 5).Travel. Travel has mostly been for OEF and SWF work ā Iāve gone to Brussels for FOSDEM, Austin for South by Southwest, Brazil for our OEF all-hands, Vancouver for Fedicon, and New York for HOPE. I have more travel for work this fall. Itās been nice to see places I havenāt gone before, but I do feel a little over-stretched.Hobbies. My hobbies have suffered this year, as so much of my āspareā time is taken up with my second job and my masterās degree. But as mentioned above, Iāve taken time for gardening, winemaking, cooking, and making jams. One of my big hobbies, my daily Minecraft habit, has been put aside since BDS asked us to boycott it. Instead, Iāve been playing Stardew Valley on my phone. Itās a fun game, too, but a little more closed-world than Minecraft. Iāve also been to see a lot more live music this year than in previous years; Stereolab and the Mutek festival are two highlights.Friendships. Theyāve been OK! Iāve spent more time with friends than in previous years. One thing that has been nice is having a number of visits by friends from the US or other parts of Canada or Europe who stayed at our house. I love showing people around, having meals out, and letting people get to know my family and friends here in Montreal. If youāre a friend whoās considered coming to Montreal, please reach out. I still need to put more time into friendships State of the world. The genocide in Gaza has been a constant concern for me this year. Iāve been participating in protests, BDS, and online groups as well as pressuring my political representatives here in Canada and in the USA. This very week marks the second tenuous ceasefire, with a halt to the bombings, an exchange of hostages, and a release of much-needed humanitarian aid. I want to keep up the pressure to make sure the killing doesnāt start again like it did last time.Other politics have been eclipsed by Gaza. I have found it a reasonable litmus test to see if politicians share my values and concerns for the world we are in or are thinking about the world that will come after. I havenāt been as active in US politics, and the contributions that Iāve made have been filtered through that Gaza lens.Working in the climate change space has made it, coincidentally, less of a focus in my political interests. But it is still the most important issue facing humankind today, and I am very worried by regressions in climate action, big and small.Thatās about all I can think of for now, and itās time to go get supper, so Iām going to hit Publish and go eat. Thanks for reading this far!
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@evan talks about the "Big Fedi" and "Small Fedi" agendas/factions to describe this, I think.
I"m mostly on the "Big Fedi" side, myself. But I can understand the benefits of the Small Fedi. Google+ was like that, too: you were on with a bunch of computer experts, and if you were a computer person, those are largely "your people", so it's kind of nice.
But it's still a bubble. I try to live in the "real world". Sadly, a big chunk of my "real world", particularly in my geographic area, is it's fully of MAGA people. Who keep saying absolutely batshit things that they think are true, because the regime says so. š¤¦
It's hard on the sanity.
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@lgsp che spreco buttarli, anche se i nuovi non sono resistenti come una volta, mi pare too much usarli come usa e getta.
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@gubi al momento chi compete con il colosso Adobe non ĆØ nel mercato open source. Stufa di pagare abbonamenti su abbonamenti sono felice passata ad Affinity che ti vende la vecchia cara licenza, ma ha solo 3 programmi, gli equivalenti di Photoshop, Illustrator e Indesign, che parlano benissimo tra di loro. Il resto del colosso Adobe non so chi lo intacca in qualche modo.
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I occasionally miss wider chaos of larger platforms but I suspect most people here would say that filter is working as intended.
We could probably do a better job of communicating that being proactive with hashtags and examining and following interesting people you see boosted is the fastest way to fill that early silence that new refugees run into.
