Libb

I thought it was about to close... definitively?

I write from 4-5 AM to 7-8 AM every single day of the year, while my spouse (and the whole city around us) is sleeping. I'm 50+ and have been doing that for almost 30 years now. Younger, I used to write at night.

I like to sit in front of a small table (whose height I adjusted toi fit my own needs) placed in front of the windows in our living room, and just write while the sun slowly rises and light up the roofs of Paris. As cliché as it sounds, it is as great to watch today as it was 30 years or so ago when we moved in. And we're not even living in one of those 'pretty' spots people can see in movies ;)

No electronics to distract or blind me (I write longhand), no music as I prefer to work in complete silence beside a few birds waking up and saying 'Hi!' from nearby trees. Or maybe they're saying 'why is this complete moron not sleeping like all the others?' who knows. When the weather is nice, I will move onto the balcony so I can better listen to them. Birds have become much rarer, alas. The real issue is cars, trucks and motorcycles but I would say up until 6.30 there are barely any in our street. They become real annoying fast though and at 7 you can forget any notion of 'quiet'.

No drinking beside a glass of water or a tea up until breakfast time, which is somewhere around 7.45 when I hear my spouse has woken up and is showering. I quit writing and go buy some croissants or some other pastries (I know, another cliché but that's what it is) to the small bakery at the corner of our street (with so many clichés, we will soon have a full photo album), which sells 100% handmade stuff that are so fucking good (people start queuing at 7.30, the moment it opens).

After breakfast, we spend some time together with my spouse and then she goes to work (from home) and I go do whatever the fuck I fancy as I consider my work day done (only bothering with the mandatory financial stuff later in the day)

It's all about choice. And choice, aka diversity, is great.

It's like not having to eat a banana if you don't like them and having the ability to grow the fruit you would love the most instead. That's also why I've now (in the last 5 or 6 years) mostly switched from Mac to GNU/Linux. This Mac Mac Studio I'm writing on right now is the last Mac I own and I see very little chance for it to be replaced by a newer Mac when time comes to replace it. I like the freedom of choice and to do what the funk I fancy on my computer. Not just what some designer at Cupertino (or some wannabe designer, at Redmond) decided I should be permitted to do.

Also, where is the standard between incompatible different macOS versions or different versions of Windows? Or between incompatible versions of the same apps running on those systems? I'm not saying it's wrong, nor that it's great, just that we should not neglect all those 'standardization issues' that exist in every single system. Marketing should not be blindly trusted — Imho, marketing should never be trusted, and not even listened to but that's just me deeply allergic to bullshit ;)

I was still a kid when my dad brought home a brand new Apple II. Before that computer appeared in his home office (and in my live, as I used that Apple so much more than he ever did ;)), I learned to type on my granddad's typewriter.

100%.

Less people using public libraries (and reading books to learn stuff) around me because 'who needs to read books when there is everything on the Internet and I can Google anything'?

And, at least as saddening and frightening to me, seeing more and more people willing to censor whatever book, author, or idea, they hate or even they just don't agree with (most often, without even reading it). It's even worse when I see librarians supporting that — it doesn't matter how 'good' their motivation is, censorship's only success is in the promotion of stupid ideas (if not of sheer ignorance), hate and fear.

Masking tape and a pen

imagine people can't afford to watch all the movies produced in a year — crazy supposition I know, but let's say a ticket has become so expensive people need to pick the film they will watch — would you rather have them pay to see a movie featuring living actors (and while doing so giving those new actors an opportunity to start their career and become the next stars?) or have them pay to watch a product made out of dead actors (and greed) that will only enrich the studios?

Dying is part of the life cycle. Once you're dead, you've become a legit part of the past. And you're supposed to stay gone, so the younger people have their chance too. Sure, those young will not be a clone of Bogart or Bacall but they could become... themselves. That is, as long as Studios don't focus their attention (and greed) on dead actors (and AI-powered scenarios, while we're at it).

Plus, as a 50+ dude myself, imagining an instant I was an actor, I would not want anyone getting the idea that they can inherit my 'image' once I'm dead and use it however they fancy. Money and stuff, help yourself but let my image — my effing face — let it disappear with the body it belongs too. I'm not a product, I'm someone — even if I was an actor.

Also, it makes me wonder is their face what people really miss from dead actors? Are Bacall and Bogart just their face?

And then, I imagine neither Bogart and Bacall would smoke in their new movie? Smoking is such a bad habit, we certainly would not want to give kids such a poor example, right? So what the remastered version of Bacall and Bogart would do, instead? I know, stare at their phone screen (and rage on X or share images of their last meal on Instagram), so modern viewers can identify with them even more easily. That sure would be a much better example for kids.

Not the OP, but that's a great idea.

Like the OP, my spouse and I have become quite tired of those (overpriced) full-plastic pseudo brands that are worth shit, and we're also not that interested in connected robotic battery-powered vacuums either. I will check around if I can find some good old school wired vacuum, and also ask my local thrift store owner if they have any idea where I could find some around here.

Thx a lot, much appreciated :)

Well, except Telegram isn’t a good tool for privacy.

That's not the point. The hunting down on tools and their creators (and on our right to privacy) is the issue here. At least, imho.