A 50-something French dude that’s old enough to think blogs are still cool, if not cooler than ever. Also, I like to write and to sketch.
https://thefoolwithapen.com/

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: November 26th, 2023

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  • Libb@jlai.lutoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.worldBlock US within Lemmy?
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    11 days ago

    Same. I would have left long ago if that was not for that setting and without a careful selection of whatever community I subscribe to ;)

    My only blocked content is a few people who I can’t be bothered reading again. I also have two words blocked: Trump, Musk just to make sire 99.9% of the shittiest content is filtered out.



  • There are ALLOT of people

    You lost me right there. ‘a lot’ is purely subjective and is not much of a fact. I mean, there are 8 billions of us on the planet. So, what is a lot? How many ‘people on the Internet who adhere to almost a religious orthodoxy to Left Wing values’ have you personally met ? 10? 100? 1000? 10000? 100000? More? And how (what criteria) did you count them?

    Have you guys ever considered going an opposite direcrion?

    Have you ever, and why would that be different for anyone else that is not you?






  • I don’t think I need to spend that much money on my current hobbies. But I obviously could

    • A real lot of pencils, a lot of Bic and a lot of paper to write with (and to make paper planes, too). Like a good chunk of a lifetime worth of supply :p
    • A lot (but already a little less) of top quality watercolor paint (that I don’t need to enjoy my hobby watercoloring), too many top of the line watercolor brushes (that I don’t need for my hobby either) and a lot of excellent watercolor paper (that I may enjoy using but still don’t really need for my hobby ;)
    • The entire line of Caran d’Ache ‘Luminance’ colored pencils and the entire line of Faber Castell ‘Polychromos’ colored pencils, in multiple examples. But why would I need that many colors when I use maybe 10 or 12 regularly?
    • I do a lot of scratch building also using… cardboard. SO, a 1000€ would buy a few decades, centuries?, worth of cardboard and fresh hobby blades too. But since I mostly used recycled cardboard from old packages and parcels… I won’t need to buy those.

    Back when I was making scale models (plastic planes and tanks) I could have easily spend that In a couple hour in any hobby shop worth shopping at, buying a few fancy model kits, too much paint and some of the fancier tools, plus reference books. Or on a single camera lens, but that is another hobby I quit practicing. Or on some rare books… which I also quit collecting. It looks like I won’t be able to spend much money :p



  • I’m real sorry for that.

    It may not be what you were looking for for but have you considered writing about those lost pictures that were dear to you?

    I mean, you may not have the pictures anymore (and like you I would think it’s best to not ruminate too much about that but also to start doing backups now, not some day in the future), but you may still remember some of those pictures? And that may be worth writing that down because those memories can also vanish with time and age, unless you put them down on paper (or in a computer file, if you prefer a keyboard to a pen).

    Don’t try to make literature, not yet a least, just put down (your memories of) the images as they pop into your mind, without order but with all your emotions and the memories they trigger of related events and persons. Let it flow freely, it will always be time to put some order into that later on… or to not put any order at all. The idea being to help your brain dump things without filtering anything, as this should help you get a lot more memories than what you may think you had.

    Photography, the technique of taking pictures, is 200 years old but people have managed to keep memories of their long gone friends and families, or of events, since… almost the dawn of humanity which has been around for a tad longer than 200 years have I been told. Writing said memories down is one way to do that. As is sketching and painting, which could be other options for you to explore, maybe?

    I know too well how bad one can feel because they lost all their important stuff because of no fucking backups, believe me. Hope this suggestion can help in any way.




  • I’m not hardcore anything but I quit using Reddit and have not looked back. I also don’t use any other social, even tough I own other accounts I have not logged into for many years.

    Why I don’t see myself hardcore? Because there is no hate, or anger and no desire to preach anyone to switch either. I respect people’s choice. I disagreed with a few of reddit decisions & their policy change back then and took my decision accordingly. I posted a goodbye note explaining why I left reddit and switched to Lemmy. The same with X, Facebook, or whatever: when I realized I could not trust those services, I told people around me and moved away.




  • Like mentioned in another comment there is a difference between patriotism and nationalism.

    I would add to that there is a difference between loving one’s country and being a fetishist of its flag or its national anthem.

    You will find flags in all countries. The question is more what proportion of the population is obsessed with them?

    I’m French and I can tell you that beside the far-right, who loves waving flags and singing the first few lines of the Marseillaise (most of them, like the rest of the population probably have never taken the pain to read the entire song, even less so to memorize it, too much of a hassle). For the most part, you will find flags on public buildings and offices. Seldom on private home/office.

    Also, it’s visible during special celebrations, say, each year for the 14th of July (France’s birthday) some streets and stores will be decorated and, at least where I live (Paris), public transit will also have a little flag waving in the wind.

    Last but not least, you will mostly see the French flags waved, this time en masse, during sport events. People will also proudly wear french colors on their clothing and on their face, or on their head (I fucking love this stupid hat, but Io don’t own one). But then you will also see the other countries flags being waved by their own supporters, and most of the time they don’t end-up killing one another ;)

    Like I said, people barely know more than the first few lines of our national anthem, kids are not required to swear allegiance to the flag either at school. Some people are discussing about bringing that back but I’d rather see them bring back some traditional reading and math lessons, like in the ‘good old days’… when kids actually were taught something useful. Because we’ve been suffering from the same issue you have with your US school system: it’s falling apart, badly. Our kids aren’t taught much if anything. More and more of them can barely read or write, and they can’t do simple math. Let’s not mention getting any notion of civic education, history, philosophy (which would all help make a more informed & better-equipped citizen, which is not that silly in any country that is supposed to be a democracy).

    That being said, even without a flag, we’re many to love our country, despite all its flaws, even those of us who criticize it vehemently. We just don’t need to show that by waving some cheap piece of fabric, or glue a sticker on a some car.

    I have bookshelves filled with books on French (and European) politics, history and philosophy. Sure those are not flags I can wave on the street or glue on my car to show what a true patriot I am but, imho, their non flashy content represent France (and the many other EU countries) a little better than any cheap piece of fabric put on a mast.

    That being said, I have a pair of socks with a french flag on them. Could that count a patriotism? ;)


  • I’ve never dated a woman wearing false nails. The same with botox.

    Also, I’m not seduced by make-up. Contrary to false nails, I don’t mind it, I find it useless. I like to look at actual people, and I may even feel attracted to some of them. I’m not interested as much in looking at the fantasized image people may have of themselves.

    I’m also not obsessed with a person looking young, meaning I don’t mind grey hair and wrinkles. Why would I? I do wear my own wrinkles with no worries, alongside those (short) grey hair I would have on top of my own big head if I was not completely bald.

    Not considering the body itself, there is a ‘sexy’ thing that always left me wondering what was so hot about them: high heels.

    I mean, I get it they help shape the legs. But they’re also quite obviously less stable to walk with and they seem rather uncomfortable to wear for hours. I would tend to favor the company of a woman able to go out for a long walk with me, be it in nature somewhere or to visit some art gallery or museum in town.


    • You look for alternative. I’m not what you mean by awful but I would go to another one. So, I would start by searching where they are located and when they’re open. Here where I live I can call a number in tow town and get someone to come pick a few cubic meters of trash, for free. That’s limited (in volume and type of stuff they will collect) but it works well and it should be easy for you to check with your own city if they offer such a service.
    • Also: you can try to donate stuff, thrift stores, yard sales,…
    • If that does not cut it, you need to focus. I mean, don’t try to get rid of everything at once. It won’t end well. And be fine with trashing stuff. Work one box/bag/closet/drawer/room at a time. Make sure to put aside the things you really need to keep and then put the rest in trash bags. Since you made sure there was no alternatives to trashing them, you should not feel bad… use that as a reminder to not buy crap anymore after that.
    • If it’s too much work for you it should be easy to hire some youngster/teen you may know or from the neighborhood willing to help you and earn some cash while doing so.

  • Libb@jlai.lutoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.world...
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    21 days ago

    Young people aren’t angry? They look quite upset to (old) me, and rightfully so. I probably would be a lot more than they are, to be honest.

    One remark, maybe:

    The few old people around you does not represent a valid statistical sample for ‘old people’ in general. You need a lot more data.

    No offense intended, maybe it’s like that because you’re living in a family that is keen on hating and insulting one another? The only thing I would feel ok to conclude from that is they may very well be dickheads, every single one of them, but that doesn’t mean all people their age are the same. Don’t generalize ;)

    To help you realize how… too fast such conclusions can be made, and no doubt how wrong they can be, consider this simple observation one may want to make reading your question:

    The only constant in your interactions with older people is yourself. How come you may ask? Well, they’re all different (old) people that don’t share the exact same age, sex and personality (taste and preferences), maybe they don’t even live all at the same place. Meanwhile, you’re the exact same person. You do not change and you’re not different, they are. So, if every single one of those different and older persons you meet is hating on you shouldn’t I conclude that you’re the most likely cause of their hate?

    See how easy it is to come to some nutty conclusion out of mere ‘observations’?

    To be perfectly clear, I 'm not saying it’s you that’s causing anything. Far from it. First, for the simple reason that I never met you and then because you probably are not the cause of anything here. Like I said, there is not enough data to conclude anything. Still it’s so easy to conclude that it’s your fault and from there that if it’s your fault it’s all younger people’s fault—it’s not ;)

    To share my own personal experience, as a child (I was young, once) I knew very early on my mother hated my guts. I started by wondering why adults where such assholes towards kids up until I realized that was not ‘all adults’ nor ‘all mothers’, it was her. That unique person she was for reasons that were her own that certainly would not allow me or anyone else to generalize her behavior to all mothers.

    All of that to say there could be a lot of reasons and factors unrelated to their age.

    every grandparent or elderly relative always have insulting remarks about me

    I have been young myself (promise I really was, and one day you will be old too) and my grand-parents never insulted me. Not once. And as an older person myself nowadays I tend to not insult… not too often ;)