First 2 days in the motorhome
We've been living in the motorhome for the past 2 days. We worked so much these past weeks on the motorhome, and moving out of the old house and all that....it was so tiring. But from now on things are all about getting used to this new lifestyle. We will be staying in Spain for a week or so in the motorhome then we have to go to Romania for a month. Only after that we will start the "tromhome" living properly.
There are ups and downs, advantages and disadvantages. On one hand you get amazing views and to be able to go anywhere basically...and still have your home, is amazing. We slept last night in this nature place, so cold outside, stars crisp, quiet, amazing. Inside warm and cozy.
But then we do not have enough solar power and batteries so I can barely use my laptop. The internet is limited too. This is a completely different lifestyle for me.
You have to go to the bathroom, you also have to "manage" the waste. When you park you have to not do it in the shade so you get some solar. Also, make sure you are allowed to park where you want to. You have to fill up your water tank, also empty it. :D
Many things to do. But life is short and I want to try new things ;)
It will take a bit of time to get into some kind of routine with my projects and lifestyle. But I am sure it will work out.
To have this earthship and go places is an amazing thing. A dream I had since I was a kid :D.
Anyway, not much time for TROM for the next 1-2 weeks, but after that the entire December I will focus on it, updates, videos, things, plans.
Blabbing.
I will probably close the gofundme campaign for TROMhome soon. It was likely not a good idea and we are getting no support anyway. We are going to buy the motorhome ourselves and manage the money situation somehow. Problem is after we buy it we will have around 900 Euros all of our money and at best 400 Euros a month from then on. It is a mystery how we will move forward with that, but we've been in a lot of financial shit over the years so we will find a way. I hope.
The best support is the 200 for TROM tromsite.com/donate/ - just 5 Euros a month max per person, to distribute the financial pressure on people and make this sustainable. It is damn hard to reach any of these goals that are stretched at the extreme low end of the needed support, but at this point I am tired of it all, so I accept whatever it is. If we cannot support ourselves financially I may shut down some of the TROM.tf services and move the project to a cheaper server. Will see...
So I am bouncing around in my head these days between extreme excitement about the motorhome, and terrible concern about what we do after we buy it.
I am also very eager to create more stuff for TROM, content wise, but well these next months I will be busy with the motorhome life.
I am trying to not let these failures with the gofundme campaign or 200 for TROM destroy my thin layer of motivation that has been getting thinner and thinner over the years. In a way I feel like an old man retiring after many years of work. In the sense that TROM had a lot of traction in the beginning, then I pushed a lot with TVP, I made books, articles, videos, managed many "social" networks, whatever, and now for the past few years I got tired of being fucked by these "social" networks who won't even show your posts to your followers, so I retreated myself into the fediverse. Friendica, Peertube, and the like. Losing even further the little reach we had. But I love these places, they are cozy and sane.
However I have no clue if anyone is still interested in TROM or these sort of projects. Even the few people who got to be active and involved and we became good friends because of TROM, got sucked into the system.
I have great friends now, super exciting plans with the motorhome, but I don't have TROM that much. TROM is a side dish, after it was the main meal for many years between me and the people I got to know online.
As you can see, the "old man retiring" blabbing about the past. But the thing is that TROM is as relevant as it was 10 years ago. The "trade as the origin of most problems" I think is one of the most important ideas out there. The content that we've made, the projects that are still alive, are all very relevant. It's just that this society sucks everyone in. Jobs, netflix, wars, elections, money, stress, day to day bullshit, consume, ads....hard to focus on TROM-like things.
But anyway, I will let the TROMhome project become part of my life, or vice-versa, and I am not giving up on TROM anytime soon. I have a lot more to do, but at times it helps me vent, so I let my brain share bits of my frustration into the interweb, almost like a modern prayer :D - maybe someone is listening, or cares, or doesn't. I certainly don't care, it simply helps me to write :D. I used to keep an offline journal years ago for such reasons, and this is similar, but well....public since it has a lot to do with the many public projects I am doing.
Ok.
Two things scare me the most....
Two things scare me the most, personally. First is death or health related issues. It is normal, if I die I'm fucked for eternity :). I think this is easy to understand for many people.
Second thing that scares me so much is to slip back into the fantasy world that humans created and forget about the amazing reality discovered for the past hundreds of years. To become too normal, even if that can mean to laugh, have fun, enjoy. I am scared of this. I battled this for all of my life trying to inject myself with reality bits and info (atoms, galaxies, evolution, stars and everything real) in the hope that my brain can understand the value of reality. It is hard. It is so hard and it is something I feel not many, if any, understand. It is also something that you can lose very fast, when you "get it".
I wanted to put a printed Hubble image of the Andromeda galaxy on the ceiling in my room when I was in college so that when I wake up it will remind me of how reality is mind blowing and the human invented one is a simplistic, myopic and colorless at best.
Most humans are today as they were 400, 1.000 , or more years ago. Let's have a beer, a chat, get married, fuck, have kids, gossip, have fun or war. Not saying some of these are not good or reasonable, but isn't it mindblowing that not much has changed in the core of our global society and the day to day life of humans for the past 400 years considering in this time we discovered cells, atoms, galaxies, evolution, and everything in between?
To me, this is so odd it creates a turmoil in my head. I think I have an explanation why this is the case tho: an aggressive trade-based society where everyone is a working ant. No time to even know about reality, let alone absorb it.
Reality is shocking, mind-blowing, fabulous, scary, infinitely complex and amazing.
Day to day life in this society is simplistic and almost parallel to reality.
If you don't fee like losing your mind when you think about this contrast, I don't think you understand.
#society #trade #capitalism #andromeda #science #TradeRuinsEverything
@Tio
I sometimes think of death as an external sleep and it makes it seem less frightening, except the pain of death and health issues ofc - those are still scary.
As for humans not changing in any fundamental ways over many centuries it doesn't feel that surprising to me - isn't this the case for most creatures on earth? 🤔 But yeah I do still wish for some things to change, things like wars and environmental destruction, or the fact that humans are still forced to be like working ants - that sucks because it takes away their precious time.
If you think about it the universe also feels stagnant sometimes, the moon rotates around the earth and the earth rotates around the sun - it has been like that for millions of years. I've heard that the Andromeda galaxy will one day collapse with the Milkyway to create a new galaxy, but the time it takes for that to happen is so long that my lifespan feels insignificant in comparison. Hell most of us don't even notice the trees growing around us because it happens very slowly lol 😄 But the one thing that has had significant changes is our understanding of the universe, we sent humans to space, rovers to mars, etc so that we could study it. We made a giant foldable telescope and sent it into space just so we could see distant galaxies more clearly! 🤓 Hell we photographed a black hole! 😃 So in the end it is still about humanity, the leaps and bounces we make in trying to understand the universe 🙂
Well doesnt scare you the thought that you will never wake up or dream? :D - To me this realization that I will disappear forever is really frightening.
As for humans not changing in any fundamental ways over many centuries it doesn't feel that surprising to me - isn't this the case for most creatures on earth?
No because I am talking culturally/mentally change. No other creature can imagine like humans do. And to find out that you are made up of cells, or atoms, or are other solar systems out there, but not change in any fundamental way how you see your image, is weird to me.
Those missions are not just "humans exploring out of curiosity" - there are many people involved who just "do their job" as an engineer, scientist, etc.. I remember seeing videos from ISS with "scientists" wearing a cross, and being so "christians"....to me that's so weird. Also celebrating the SuperBall and I bet many watch Netflix in space.
My point is that if we were to discover that inside our skulls there is a green little man pushing buttons....and we have photos of that, and so on, but you tell to people about it and they are like "hm, ok, yah" and move on with their life....this is WEIRD :D
Rokosun likes this.
@Tio
Well doesnt scare you the thought that you will never wake up or dream? :D - To me this realization that I will disappear forever is really frightening.
Yeah it is kinda scary to think that you'll never be able to experience the world again, but once you're dead you're also not conscious anymore and without that you cannot miss what you had before. But yeah ofc it's normal to be scared of death, we all are to some extent.
No because I am talking culturally/mentally change. No other creature can imagine like humans do. And to find out that you are made up of cells, or atoms, or are other solar systems out there, but not change in any fundamental way how you see your image, is weird to me.
I think the discovery of these things actually did have an impact on our culture, but perhaps not as pronounced as it should've been. I remember the first time I learned about atoms as a kid, that was a mind blowing experience for me! And I remember discussing about these ideas with a friend who was also blown away by these things. The crazy thing is that it almost feels like science fiction, and I know people have theorized about this idea centuries ago that maybe all matter was made out of some fundamental particles - those were just theories back then, until we discovered through science that it was actually real! Over time I got used to the idea of atoms and it doesn't excite me anymore like when I was a kid first discovering it, but this is pretty normal - it keeps me wanting to learn new things so that I could feel like that kid again 🙂
Those missions are not just "humans exploring out of curiosity" - there are many people involved who just "do their job" as an engineer, scientist, etc.. I remember seeing videos from ISS with "scientists" wearing a cross, and being so "christians"....to me that's so weird. Also celebrating the SuperBall and I bet many watch Netflix in space.
Religion and science is a weird mix for sure, but I don't know maybe it works in this weird ant worker society we got going lol 😄 Stuff like SuperBall and Netflix could be argued as a waste of time (if someone's spending too much time on it), but at least these are not fundamental beliefs like religion and likewise not as harmful.
My point is that if we were to discover that inside our skulls there is a green little man pushing buttons....and we have photos of that, and so on, but you tell to people about it and they are like "hm, ok, yah" and move on with their life....this is WEIRD :D
Oh yeah I get what you mean, I don't understand people who don't have any curiosity man 😅 It is sad to see people being apathetic to these things. Sometimes when I learn about something really cool and wanna share it with others I have no one around me who could understand it or share that excitement with me, sometimes when there is someone they'll be too busy to have the time for it - experiences like that does make me feel alone sometimes.
but once you're dead you're also not conscious anymore and without that you cannot miss what you had before
The missing part is for the alive ones :P like us. So ofc it is frighting to think about it.
I think the discovery of these things actually did have an impact on our culture, but perhaps not as pronounced as it should've been.
I do not see that impact. People's lives are the same as they were hundreds or thousands of years ago: work, consume, get married, have kids, gossip, and all that. These discoveries didn't even make us feel like one species. We are still divided into tribes.
Sometimes when I learn about something really cool and wanna share it with others I have no one around me who could understand it or share that excitement with me, sometimes when there is someone they'll be too busy to have the time for it - experiences like that does make me feel alone sometimes.
Yeah exactly....as I was saying since people are so busy to trade mostly. It sucks and it destroys curiosity. It really sucks.
Rokosun likes this.
Mmm, depends what you mean by "core of our global society" I guess.
Most people are always going to want to concentrate on things of immediate relevance. I mean, yes, cells and galaxies are wonderful and all, but how does that change anything you can do in your day to day life ? For most people, unless you're a doctor or an astronomer, it doesn't.
On the other hand... a lot less people are involved in manual labour today than they were even 40 years ago, let alone 400. How many people even earned a living from website design 40 years ago ? In some ways the changes have been profound even at the practical level, let alone the subtler realm of world views (which have changed beyond recognition).
In Stephen Baxter's novels he refers to all the accessories needed for manned spaceflight collectively as plumbing : we need to bring along a hell of a lot of stuff just to keep us going. Likewise, what have we learned that prevents the need for sex, trade and beer (not necessarily in that order) ? Nothing, really. We still need to do all that stuff. It's just that now our conversations are about different things and proceed from different assumptions. The shift is subtler than changing our gross behaviours - except where technology or other developments make this unavoidable - but no less powerful for that. You don't find people worrying about miasma anymore, but actually disinfecting things properly.
The other factor is that frequent consideration of our place in the Universe on scales both large and small is likely a quick route to insanity. :)
Most people are always going to want to concentrate on things of immediate relevance. I mean, yes, cells and galaxies are wonderful and all, but how does that change anything you can do in your day to day life ? For most people, unless you're a doctor or an astronomer, it doesn't.
Probably "immediate relevance" means whatever they are made to focus on in this society: iphones, gadgets, stupid tv shows, events, consume, drama, etc.. Cells and galaxies and the rest are something one can use to change the way they see themselves and others. Like we are all humans, all connected, no need for artificial separations like borders, nationalities, color of the skin, etc.. These are also wonderful discussion topics and may make people buy a telescope/microscope rather than a new phone. There are many implications resulting from such a scientific mind set.
On the other hand... a lot less people are involved in manual labour today than they were even 40 years ago, let alone 400. How many people even earned a living from website design 40 years ago ? In some ways the changes have been profound even at the practical level, let alone the subtler realm of world views (which have changed beyond recognition).
This has nothing to do with the way people are. A webdesigner today and a house constructor from 600 years ago have a lot in common. Probably both want to get married, have kids, want to buy stuff, trade, not curious about the scientific world, etc..
Yes, but most scientists also want to buy stuff, get married, etc. We don't spend the whole time pontificating on the nature of reality because, as I said, it would drive us mad.
I think the general mindset of the modern world has changed, substantially, from where it was centuries ago. Social attitudes have changed radically from where they were even a few decades ago : compare the role of women in the workplace in the 1950s, or how homosexuals were treated in the 1980s. There isn't full equality yet, but good lord there's been a colossal shift in that direction (interestingly of course, if you go back further through history, you often find shifts in both positive as well as negative directions compared to the modern era, e.g. homosexuality in ancient Greece).
Yes, lots of people use gadgets and whatnot for watching stupid TV shows and the like. But they also use them for watching educational stuff.
I dunno, I just think there's no one right way to live one's life. I'm an astronomer, but I'd no more want to force astronomy on those unwilling to do it than I'd appreciate being forced to, say, play basketball. I honestly haven't got a clue what people get out of playing sports but if that's what they like, so be it.
I do wish we could stop the utterly vacuous stuff though : Keeping Up With the Kardaashians, endless celebrity gossip and the like. But I'm not sure it's possible. We seem hard wired to be very interested in judging each other, and no amount of cosmic mystiwisdom seems able to change that.
It is not about "pontificating" about atoms, galaxies, and what-not, is about how these fundamental truths that were only discovered recently seem to have no impact on the vast majority of people. And that is very strange.
I am lucky to be around people who are excited about these real things so we often talk about these, we go with the telescope and watch some planets, or look at things through the microscope, etc.. I cannot even watch movies anymore, I watch documentaries. Reality is the most mindblowing and interesting and complex thing, so if you get it, you can't be excited by simplistic human-made stories I guess. And we are far from losing our minds :)
I agree some social attitudes have changed a lot, but many have not in my view. The attitude towards work, the notion of family, the view of us as one species (which is scientifically accurate) does not seem to be a thing in this society - I see a lot more division every day. We have the same core trade-based society where the purpose of pretty much everyone is that of trade. To trade themselves or the stuff they have, for something else. The attitude towards consumerism has become more insane, and so forth.
I also agree that anyone should live their lives as they wish to, I am just observing some facts: how for the past hundreds of years mindblowing things have been discovered about reality, and this had almost 0 impact on the day to day life of people. Imagine if we proved we live in a computer simulation and all scientists agree and we can verify. But yet most people would be like "Yeah, cool..." and move on with their simulated life. Wouldn't that be bizarre?
We seem hard wired to be very interested in judging each other, and no amount of cosmic mystiwisdom seems able to change that.
I disagree that we are hard wired for anything really. We become whatever the environment pushes us to be. Even the way we walk or talk is created by the environment we are raised into. And we can change, never forget that.
Georgi likes this.
Well I do agree that we aren't hardwired for anything very much. In large part, I think, we are society; we are our own environment. Yet there are behaviours like family bonds which, if not truly constant, don't seem to vary nearly as strongly. Hence I interpret some attitudes and behaviours, at least, to be hard-wired, maybe not fully so but much more than others.
I'm fascinated by how other cultures have interpreted reality in very different ways. The modern scientific world view is really very recent indeed and nowhere near complete, or even wholly accurate. I would agree that this hasn't really changed any of the basics like the need for family, trade, socialising, but on the other hand, why would it ? The big ideas don't filter down to that level much except as nth-order effects. There is a deep-seated need to talk to other people, to have friends, to have material goods... whether reality is the atomic waste of stellar explosions or we're actually all living inside the eye of a giant duck wouldn't make any difference to that. In a way, all conceptions of reality are equally astonishing (Pratchett, as often, said it best).
On the other hand... nobody goes to the local Wise Woman for medicine anymore (well, with some unfortunate exceptions...), or sacrifices a bull to bring the rain. Some basics haven't varied much but differences of detail are huge. The things that don't vary, I think, are the fundamental "plumbing" and likely will never alter very much at all.
And the thing is, discoveries filter through slowly. We have time to adapt; there isn't much "shock value" in most findings. Even when there is, what seemed revolutionary yesterday becomes normal very quickly indeed. We are extremely flexible. Possibly there's a state of maximum excitation beyond which things are so radically different that they just can't be understood at all, but below which pretty nearly everything becomes normal.
I suppose it might be "scary" in the sense that maybe we aren't as humbled as we should be. On the other hand, being in a state of permanent astonishment and surprise would be debilitating. Flexibility has its advantages.
I looked a lot into this hard-wiring "theory" of behavior and I could never find anything of significance especially since humans can always change. So the outside pressures are always the ones capable of changing the behavior.
I would agree that this hasn't really changed any of the basics like the need for family, trade, socialising, but on the other hand, why would it ?
Well take climate change. It is a huge issue. All scientists agree about that basically. But not much is being done because something else overwrites it: the pressures in this trade based society to seek for profit.
In the same way people are more incentivized and made to watch some silly netflix series than say documentaries (due to ads for example), or find it easier to have chit-chats about nothing things than more interesting conversations because most people are tired due to work. And so on. The notion of a family is quite stagnant and promoted by the same media that everyone consumes.
Most boils down to this trade-based society where people are incentivized to promote and consume whatever sells best, where most people are busy and consumers, where reality is not really sold/advertised in any way, and so on.
Why would notions like the family, or the idea of work, and so forth be changed by whatever we discovered so far? Because what we discovered shows us we are one species on one planet, and same as with the climate change we should change the way we do things on this planet because we are not doing so well. And where there is no issue that is uncovered by this reality, like climate change, then the view of yourself in this universe should change if you find something new about reality, no?
There is a deep-seated need to talk to other people, to have friends, to have material goods... whether reality is the atomic waste of stellar explosions or we're actually all living inside the eye of a giant duck wouldn't make any difference to that.
It is so strange to think this way. Are you saying that if tomorrow we discover that all is a computer simulation, and everyone agrees, wouldn't it be weird if people would have the same lives as before?
I do not think there is a "natural" excuse for this state of numbness about reality. Whenever I show others the Moon or other planets through my telescope they don't even have a clue what these are. And they are fascinated when I tell them. I think the information doesn't reach most people to begin with. You can't be curious if you don't even know.
We could be very different beings if we were to take reality more seriously.
Georgi likes this.
Well, the notion that we live in a simulation is essentially Berkelian idealism, which has been floating around for at least a couple of centuries and arguably a lot longer (certainly everyone has wondered at some point, "what if it's all a dream ?"). We've already had plenty of time to get use to the idea, so if it was somehow thought to be actually true, nothing much would happen.
Same as discovering aliens. When we actually do detect an alien signal or some microfossils, or even actual living microbes, I predict the reaction will be... not much. We've been writing stories about it since basically forever - it isn't a revolutionary concept anymore. Shock value is extremely hard to maintain. Sure, discovery of aliens would cause a big press hoo-hah. But unless we actually get an alien spaceship landing on the proverbial White House lawn (or equivalent), it isn't going to change anything fundamental on the long term. Anything we can't actually interact with becomes an abstraction.
Climate change is also a good example. Here's the rub : what can any of us actually do about it ? In the case of aliens or simulations, nothing. I can't see why that would make me like or dislike my friends and family any more than I do already : what bearing would it have on anything ? I'm stuck with the reality I have before me. Knowledge of what it "really" is doesn't change anything at all for me : I still experience the same pleasures and pains, so I can't see what difference it would make practically (this is not at all the same as saying I wouldn't find it hugely interesting, however !).
(In the case of climate change, this is a bit tangential, but the answer is still "not much" individually - real differences require different power generation, farming techniques, societal structures, etc. none of which any individual has any real influence over)
It's not numbness, or even indifference. It's just that these things are orthogonal. I think you're taking it for granted that knowledge of reality should fundamentally change behaviour, but I cannot really see why this should be the case. Atomic theory hasn't altered family dynamics - I think it would be extremely strange if it did !
Culture changes enormously, as I said, and I agree that this is largely due to external factors : I'm not disagreeing with you on that one significantly. I further agree that the world would be a better place if more people were more concerned about the bigger issues than the humdrum superficial stuff. It's disappointing and, yes, even a little weird that they're not. But I can't see why any sort of discovery would, or even should, change something as fundamental as the nature of friendships and families. Material concerns could and should be mitigated, but I would think the chain of thought from "what is the nature of reality ?" to "how many eggs do I need to buy today ?" is so convoluted as to make these essentially unrelated questions. Likewise, why would knowing that you're made of atoms or dreams affect whether you fancy someone or enjoy playing tennis or having a beer ? I can't see why it would.
It is one thing for fictional ideas to be around for ages, another to prove one of them is real. The example was to show how a shocking discovery should shock people.
Shock value is extremely hard to maintain.
I am talking about the initial shock value that does not seem to happen to begin with in many cases in regards to the contrast between reality and society.
Anything we can't actually interact with becomes an abstraction.
I bet is not about interaction as it is about stimulation. There are many people in awe and shock about galaxies, or cells, or biology, or maths, or other parts of reality, as they are about celebrities, movies, fantasy stories and other things they cannot touch, interact with. It is all about what you stimulate people, culturally, to be interested in.
Like climate change, there are many who react to this bad piece of "news" and are active about trying to do something about it. Where is that motivation coming from since they seem to have no impact on the course of it anyway? It comes from whatever these people have in their heads. That motivates them.
If you don't feel like doing anything about the climate issue then it is all because you may not realize the importance of it or whatever makes you think is not worth your energy. But in the end is all about what we have in our brains, and that comes form the environment (culture). And this culture/system is a lot, if not most, about consumption and stupid things, so that's what people have in their brains. Of course they cannot get too excited about galaxies or atoms, but they get a lot of excitement when Prince H marries with Princess A, or about some fictional TV show. These are advertised to them a lot.
Atomic theory hasn't altered family dynamics - I think it would be extremely strange if it did !
People used to get married with their cousins or even closer relatives not long ago. It was normal. I think even Darwin married his cousin. Now because of some cultural shits and knowing that it is a bad idea (genetically speaking) to mate with closer relatives, this notion seems disgusting for many. Discoveries, bits of reality, can change and should change the way we think about mundane things.
Knowing that we are all made out of atoms should make us rethink our culturally inherited values such as fictional borders, human behavior, man made laws, and so forth. Why? Because we are part of a greater story and we are all part of the same system. A planet, an ecosystem, dependent on nature, and so forth.
But I can't see why any sort of discovery would, or even should, change something as fundamental as the nature of friendships and families
Simply because there is no nature about these things.
Even today there are tribes where children are raised by the entire community and have no notions of parents. Or their relationships are vastly different from the rest of the "civilized" world.
Humans are like plasticine molded by their environment. It is simply that our culture/system is the same for thousands of years: trade, have jobs, mate, have kids, retire, die. Humans are busy at least 8h every day, and when they finish work/school they are so tired that at the best they can chew is simplistic and dumbed down media produced by the same system of trade (workers) trying to sell stuff. It is a self propelled idiocracy that makes people unable to know and digest the complexity of reality that science is discovering. I think that's a better explanation of this situation.
Imagine you take a fish from the sea and the fish could suddenly talk and understand you. You explain to him about the world, the planet, the water, the evolution. If they fish is not even curious, let alone shocked about what you enlighten him with, then I think we should probably consider the fish as non-intelligent, or incapable of understanding. No?
You put the fish back in the sea and he goes on about being a fish for the rest of his life. Why would anything change for him no?
To me this makes the fish look "stupid". Primitive. Incapable of grasping a greater reality.
With humans is different since we know they have the capacity to wonder about greater things that they cannot touch or even see. They are capable. So when they are not touched by mindblowing discoveries about reality, then it is a different explanation as of why that is, rather than "it is normal" or they are "incapable" of grasping. Again, looking at the system of trade, this society we live in, I think we can understand, as I explained, why they are not touched much about reality, but are very touched about all sort of things: fictional stories, movies, consumerism, etc..
Georgi likes this.
Updates, updates. And future plans.
Unfortunately I may not be able to start any new video series for TROM anytime soon, due to the circumstances I am in. I have tried but it is kinda impossible.
Driving school madness.
For one I am too busy with the insane driving school - here in Spain it takes ages to do it and they are so draconian when it comes to these exams. You have to drive so perfect and the vast majority will fail the exam the first time. Funny part is NO ONE drives like that here or anywhere else in the world. And everyone knows that, but these people have jobs so they continue to teach you like this....as usual on this planet. Nothing surprising.
My instructor wants me to do more and more lessons, which means more time and money wasted. If she "thinks I am ready" for the exam, I will do it in July (next month). If not I'll have to wait till September....and based on statistics I am more likely to fail it the first time. So I'll probably have to wait a few more weeks after the first exam to try again.
This is so absurd it is hard to imagine how fucked up it is. If I knew I would have gone to Romania and get the driving license there in less than 2 months. Mind you I have started the driving school in Spain in December last year. Already some 7 months in...nuts!
I will make an article/video about the entire experience because there is a lot to learn from it. In a TROM-sense.
Summer madness
I live in a very small town that is 100% touristic. 3-4 months a year, from June/July to September tens of thousands of people come here and everything is a fucking mess. Noise, everything busy and kinda dirty, insanity. My family is working all day, they are stressed, they come and go, it is a terrible environment to be able to do anything creative. Add into the mix the extreme temperatures that are coming with the tourists, and it is really impossible to do anything like a video series.
For a video series I would have to first be motivated and have the space to "think" and come up with ideas. Write the scripts, fact check, etc.. Then to record - and when can I? I do not have the space/env to do that. And then to edit....Every summer is like that here, and every time I felt quite lethargic because of it.
Even while I write this article I have to put my headphones on with a white noise to be able to focus because I am sick to hear the noise coming from outside or inside the house. Every night I also put my speakers at maximum volume with an artificial thunderstorm, as loud as I can, to "cancel" the noise that comes from everyone getting up in the morning getting ready to work.
Else I could not sleep. I've been doing this for years now. Luckily it works. But this is not an environment that can allow me to do anything creative at all. I managed to do it somehow over the years but am too tired now....something needs to change, and it will!
Make money, buy a motorhome.
We will buy a small motorhome somewhere at the end of this year or beginning of the next. We want to live in it full time. One like the one in the photo.
But this puts a pressure on us to make more money now. Sasha is working a lot as a divemaster and I honestly do not do much. That makes me quite frustrated and depressed. I want to help in that regards but I was always terrible at making money. I can write books, make documentaries, and a lot of projects, but I am unable to make money.
I have tried with Webape.site but I cannot get any new "customer" who wants a website....
Unfortunately the donations I get from TROM are not enough at all to support my work. You know if the 200 for TROM campaign was successful and I knew we have enough money to survive, I could find a way to start a new video series for TROM and do more.
Unfortunately we are barely 40% funded. This is a constant struggle and a motivation killer for me after so many years of doing what am doing.
Motivation.
Speaking of getting support, it has become more and more difficult for me to keep myself motivated in this situation especially when you see that you can't even get 200 people to support all of our projects with the bare minimum of contribution. It means whatever I do for TROM does not reach that many people. And that is true. So without a proper support how can I push it forward? Projects like TROM are quite impossible to survive in this society....
I've been active since 2007, that's some 17 years. It is tough. But I am not giving up.
The best anyone can do now to help the project is to subscribe to our 200 for TROM campaign. 5 Euros a month, 200 people, make it sustainable. Unfortunately we need money else idk how I can work full time for TROM and keep this project relevant and alive.
Future?
I've said for months now that this year will be a bit insane for us. We need to move and do a lot of changes to our lives, make money, put up with a lot of stress and so forth.
The plan is this: suffer for the next few months and make money as much as we can. I have started to also sell some of our stuff that we do not need. And after the driving bullshit is done probably I'll work some days in cleaning. I will also try to get myself motivated enough to perhaps write some articles for TROM since that can be easier than making videos. I just have to find some quiet place/time (say from 00:00 to 06:00 in the night when everyone is asleep) and write/do research. Maybe later I can transform them into videos.
I will also try to film some stuff with the tourism here and other things "incognito" to then later on make some videos about.
In October we have to plan and see what money we have. We will have to bring my parents to Romania in November, so we will drive their car from here with their stuff since they move back for good. They will retire. We will stay a little bit in Romania to try and solve some more paperwork bullshit if we can - imagine this: Sasha has a driving license from USA, but she is only allowed to drive in Spain for 6 months with it. After that she needs to change it into a Spanish driving license. Easy? NO! She would have to go through the same bullshit driving school and exam like I am now....imagine that shit! She already knows how to drive but she will be forced to do again the theoretical and practical exam and take "driving lessons".
This world is such a load of nonsense it is not even funny anymore.
So we may try to see if we can exchange her driving license into a Romanian one, then exchange it for a Spanish one without doing the exam.
Hey Spain are you fucking mental?!
Anyway. We hope the madness will be over at the end of November. We will spend no more than a month in Romania (I hope). Then come back to Spain to buy a motorhome. Move into the motorhome and go fuckin away from the stupid parts of the world as much as we can.
We won't have enough money to buy the motorhome + pay the monthly expenses.....so we will also make a campaign if anyone can help out considering all I am doing for TROM is free and the motorhome is a house for me as well, of course, so that's a help for TROM basically. We will make the campaign towards the end of the year. We have the vast majority of the money we need to buy the motorhome already, but what do we do after we buy it when the only monthly support i get now is around 3-400 Euros?!
So it is going to be a bit rough for us to do the move.
The motorhome life.
Hopefully at the beginning of the next year we will be in our motorhome (TROMhome) and start a completely new life. We will make videos about our "adventures" and how it is to live in such a tiny mobile space with limited resources. Perhaps it is interesting for some. I want to put a big TROMhome logo on the motorhome, and to eventually go meet with interesting communities or projects and make videos about them.
In parallel I will keep our projects alive and relevant and I still hope to start a new video series whenever I can.
Ideally we would be able to travel and meet interesting projects and people and make videos about all of it, and also keep TROM relevant and alive and create new content. Meet our TROM friends, take them for a week or so with us, and try to live a very minimalistic life, enjoy it, and see where it goes.
Final thoughts.
I am terribly eager to make new content for TROM. I have a ton of ideas and notes. I feel quite depressed and frustrated to not be able to do that. But it is what it is. If it wasn't such a struggle to live in this society, perhaps I'd be wrong about this society when I describe the awfulness of it through our TROM materials. That's the paradox.
Maybe a miracle will happen and I would somehow start the video series soon, but I can't see that to be very likely. It is a terrible situation to want for the time to pass by faster, considering that our life is so short, but that's how I feel now: I want for these next months to be over! I want to see Sasha free and focusing on real important stuff not be trapped working 10-11 hours a day. I want us to not live in the same place anymore and be on our own. I want to start a video series that I can keep producing for the many years to come. I want us to keep on fighting but also have a relaxing life. And it is very doable!
This is a cake my family bought for my "birthday" recently haha. Me and Sasha, and TROMhome :). We will make this happen ;)
That's all for now :)
That's a total bummer to see you struggling with this fucking world so much, my friend 😔 I hope it'll soon pass for you, even though, you're absolutely correct that our lives aren't that long. I feel myself unmotivated and tired all the time from my job as well and I can't figure out how to squeeze in anything more sane and useful into my life. It's sad we have to fight for it, even though we have so many ideas and real passion to do beautiful things..
But I'm glad to see that you aren't giving up and it gives me hope too 😌 You aren't alone in this and I'll help you whenever I can. Awesome that you're considering a campaign for the TROMhome, I'll gladly participate, you can count on me 😉
Stay strong my brother, and hope this fucking nonsense will end for you soon 💪
Thank you my best friend Roma :) - we will pierce through this, us all. For you too this year is going to be difficult, but like with us after the struggle good things may come, finally :) . We will help and take care of each other as much as possible ;).
Patience! You will detach yourself from the BS society soonish I hope. And we will see each other soon! :)
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It's hard to keep yourself sane when the world is full of such insanities. Sorry to hear these few months have been a struggle for you, hope it passes..... Sending love
On a more positive note, that cake looks so cute I hope it becomes a reality
Not a TROM meeting, meeting.
This month a bunch of "trom" people visited us and we had such a wonderful time together.
We had an Amber party looking through the microscopes at 40 million years old creatures...
Something most people in this world probably consider as boring and "lame". But if you understand the mind-blowing reality we live in, then you would understand why an amber party is a super fun and wonderful party :).
We also looked at the Moon through the telescope...
And we enjoyed the nature around, we had interesting discussions and a lot of fun.
I always hated to meet with "friends" because that usually meant lets get drunk or talk about boring shit, or brag about the stuff you have and all that. Or just eat and do nothing. Hated it. But now with these people I LOVE it. It feels natural and sane, and so much fun. And relaxing!
These are wonderful people who care about this world and have very interesting minds. And there are so many more like them. And I want to "harness" them all haha. We will organize a yearly event for sure and do more than just have a fun meetup. We will have fun but also do some important things for TROM and in general for pushing ahead with TROM-like ideas.
I am so happy that I have these creatures as my friends :)
Rediscovering amber!
This is the coolest thing on Earth! -- videos.trom.tf/w/oQ9amzYkm8FgT… (recorded by me 10 minutes ago)
Amber! Or stuff that the trees leak, then insects get trapped inside, then somehow it becomes super hard and survives for millions of years. It becomes transparent (lots of it) and we can look inside and see these creatures that lived millions of years ago and they look the exact same as they did when they got trapped.... Can't believe this "thing" exists on Earth!
My friend Agata game me a BAG full of amber. Her father was a scientist and amber was one of his main focus. He passed away and Agata gave a lot of his collection to museums but kept some.
Now it was the best time to buy a microscope! I spent only 50 euros on this one and it was well worth the money:
I spent ours tonight looking at every one of them and I can't stop it haha.
I HAVE to start the video series that I keep on talking about! We need not only to inform people about our global issues (cough trade!) but also inspire people to look at the important stuff. To know that the natural world is billions of times more fascinating and complex than any bullshit they are mesmerized to buy due to the aggressive marketing campaigns that happen everywhere.
We need to make this consumption craze obsolete. And reality (science/nature) is by far the best substitute. Often free, mindblowing, and more importantly real!
I wish i would start to make the video series now! But mentally can't. I need to adjust my enthusiasm and think about money/trade, at least partially. I will do it tho!
Anyway, amber deserves a video. Amber is fabulous. So precious, but not in terms of money, in terms of real value: to see how the past was. To learn about the tiny creatures and other things. To, in the end, know more about who we are.
#amber nature #microscope #insects
amber
A trade-free video hosting platform for science/technology/nature videos in the English language. You do not have to trade your currency, data, attention, freedom or anything else, in order to use it.videos.trom.tf
Wow that looks amazing! 😃
I remember you talking about buying a microscope a long time ago, is it now that you finally bought it? 😄
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I finished reading Sasha's book
I finished reading @Sasha 's book after reading a rough draft some 2-3 years ago. I wrote a review when she released the book but now that I finished it and it all is fresh in my mind I want to briefly say some condensed atom-sized thoughts about it, without spoiling it for those who have not read it.
This book can be deceiving. You may think it is about a small cute girl traveling around the world with very little money. And that is part of it, but the unique aspect of this book is the overall mental growth for Sasha. This is what I LOVED about it. To see how a human grows to understand how the world works and how that makes her react. All of the crazy and wonderful (at times scary) adventures are not just that, are part of the ingredients that create the cake.
And she is a wonderful cake.
The places that Sasha saw and got to experience make me feel like I lived in a cave my entire life. I bet many people will think that Sasha invented some of these stories because it is insane in a few years time to jump from tribe to tribe, meet locals, go live with them, have extraordinary experiences with them, have no money, then work a few months make a shit load of money, buy a car, live in the car; hitchhike the entire Europe, sleep in the middle of Australia, go and snowboard for free or little money on so many tall peaks from all around the world, become a divemaster, surf awesome waves in Hawaii, drive your car across the entire USA and swim with dolphins, sharks and manta rays.
Fucking shit! This human lived 55 lives in 15 years. You either get depressed at that, thinking like me that you have not experienced even 1% of what she experienced, or make you motivated to go see the world and free yourself from this trade based society (which also makes me want to do).
Sasha did a WONDERFUL job describing all of these places and experiences. No photos needed! And many of these adventures and places will forever live inside of my brain as if I was a close observer.
Best of all, in my view, is that now she signed a "contract" with me with this book, to join me in my battle! :) A battle of TROM vs Society! Her book is her contribution and there is more to follow!
With that she sandwiched her book perfectly - the beginning bun (prologue) that will give you a taste of what is about to come; in the middle are the many flavors of ingredients stacked neatly and chronologically on top of each other - some 300 pages of life; and lastly the top bun that perfectly brings it all together in a perfect taste, connecting the dots and making all of the ingredients and the bottom bun part of one big thing.
Big World.....Small Sasha...
Congratulations for this huge amount of work!
Grab her book from here bigworldsmallsasha.com/book/
#trade #capitalism #travel #trade-free #adventure #hike #book #bookrelease
NEW BLOG POST:A book years in the making
Read it on my website (recommended):
tiotrom.com/2024/04/a-book-yea…
Or read it here:
This is @[url=https://fosstodon.org/users/sasha]Alexander[/url] and her most valuable project to date:
A book. But a book is not simply a lot of words or a pile of paper. It is memories, emotions, worldviews, and a lot of work to put them all together. Her book is a story that spans over 15 years. But these years are hardly what most people experience on this planet.
She was born in Russia but at age 8 had to move to the United States and deal with a new world. New language, new culture, new people; her mom, her bother, and some pets. Her father went back to Russia, and that affected her a lot.
A mountain of changes to absorb as a kid which led her to a world of drugs and anger.
She details these struggles which at times feel like hard to believe stories – a 17 year old girl selling drugs in New York, crazy mushroom trips and adventurous thefts.
But she managed to pull herself together and change her life for the better. She was not impressed by the imaginary borders humans create and call countries, so she went on flying like a free bird :). From Canada to Mexico, Australia to Europe, Russia to Thailand. 15 years of adventures with almost no money. Because money won’t stop Small Sasha :).
A way to discover the world and yourself.
When you get to experience so many cultures and places, you can understand much better what humans are, and what makes them who the are.
The places she saw and the people she met are extraordinarily described in the book, in a way that you feel like you are there. No photos needed. You’ll laugh, wonder, or feel uncomfortable reading some of her uncensored experiences.
It is a galaxy of stories that she had to put together using notes from the past, photos, and her own memories stored in the mushy pile of cells we call the brain.
She managed to compile this massive story in a way that it is super fun to follow, but also to get a feeling of how she grew a mind in all of these years.
That mental growth and her experiences, made her realize how fucked up this society is and how much we are destroying this environment and the creatures in it.
She started to volunteer for some organizations over the years, eventually getting closer to the project I made, TROM. And so here we are, a book later, spending our lives together.
I cannot describe how wonderful this book is, how emotional and funny. So much fun, but also a lot of reality check for many people who are going to have their values challenged.
She crafted this book so much, that at times you feel like Carl Sagan, David Attenborough and George Carlin contributed to the book :).
A wonderful read! A massive CONGRATULATIONS to Sasha for the immense work she put into this. I know too well how for the past 4 years she worked so much on this book that it almost put our relationship under a big question mark. I never saw anyone putting so much effort into anything. It was too intense!
But now it is OVER. Finally! I thought I will never see this happen. Wow!
After so many years of work, and almost no money, she is putting the book for free on her website bigworldsmallsasha.com/ in digital format, despite us not having much money to make a life for ourselves on this planet. But of course, if you want to support her (us) you can buy the physical copy too. Or donate if you can.
I helped design the entire cover and I am quite proud of it :).
Go read it! I know I will read it again. This time the physical copy, in a hammock somewhere in nature.
Sasha you fucking did ti!
PS: The book was made with trade-free software. LibreOffice, Krita, Inkscape.
#nature #traveling #society #capitalism #trade #book #bookrelease #foss
Big World | Small Sasha
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022-2024 2007 Freed from slavery (finished high school). Drove across North America 3 times. Lived in Whistler, Canada. 2008 Lived in Canada and California.Big World | Small Sasha
Thank you so much Tio, that was such a nice review that I don't even know what to say 😊 I'm so happy that you enjoyed my book and that you found something important in it. I'm so happy that you could feel my growth as a human- that was something I hoped to achieve in this book, but was difficult because there are so many stories, people, and so many things happening. Thank you for all your kind words and for the huge amount of support you've given to me and this book over many many years.
Sorry if I made you feel like you lived in a cave 😬 But you were actually doing much more important things than me in that "cave". You were growing your brain and making the important and inspiring content that brought me to you 😊 And this in turn grew my brain and the brains of many others 🙂
Thank you for your contribution to this book- the design, the emotional support, and even the content. Without you, this book would not have been the same (and neither would I 😉) 🙂
I already feel like living in a cave, lol 😄 Maybe reading your book will inspire me to go out more often 😁
> But you were actually doing much more important things than me in that "cave". You were growing your brain and making the important and inspiring content that brought me to you 😊 And this in turn grew my brain and the brains of many others 🙂
This is so true, Tio might be physically in a cave but he travels around the whole damn universe with his mind, haha 😂
This is so true, Tio might be physically in a cave but he travels around the whole damn universe with his mind, haha 😂
hhahahaha thank you that made me feel a little bit better :)
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BTW, noticed a few typos in your post, just letting you know:
> because it is inane in a few years time
I think you meant to say "insane" here.
> the begging bun (prologue) that
Did you meant to say "beginning bun" here?
A book years in the making
This is @Sasha and her most valuable project to date:
A book. But a book is not simply a lot of words or a pile of paper. It is memories, emotions, worldviews, and a lot of work to put them all together. Her book is a story that spans over 15 years. But these years are hardly what most people experience on this planet.
She was born in Russia but at age 8 had to move to the United States and deal with a new world. New language, new culture, new people; her mom, her bother, and some pets. Her father went back to Russia, and that affected her a lot.
A mountain of changes to absorb as a kid which led her to a world of drugs and anger.
She details these struggles which at times feel like hard to believe stories - a 17 year old girl selling drugs in New York, crazy mushroom trips and adventurous thefts.
But she managed to pull herself together and change her life for the better. She was not impressed by the imaginary borders humans create and call countries, so she went on flying like a free bird :). From Canada to Mexico, Australia to Europe, Russia to Thailand. 15 years of adventures with almost no money. Because money won't stop Small Sasha :).
A way to discover the world and yourself.
When you get to experience so many cultures and places, you can understand much better what humans are, and what makes them who they are.
The places she saw and the people she met are extraordinarily described in the book, in a way that you feel like you are there. No photos needed. You'll laugh, wonder, or feel uncomfortable reading some of her uncensored experiences.
It is a galaxy of stories that she had to put together using notes from the past, photos, and her own memories stored in the mushy pile of cells we call the brain.
She managed to compile this massive story in a way that it is super fun to follow, but also to get a feeling of how she grew a mind in all of these years.
That mental growth and her experiences, made her realize how fucked up this society is and how much we are destroying this environment and the creatures in it.
She started to volunteer for some organizations over the years, eventually getting closer to the project I made, TROM. And so here we are, a book later, spending our lives together.
I cannot describe how wonderful this book is, how emotional and funny. So much fun, but also a lot of reality check for many people who are going to have their values challenged.
She crafted this book so much, that at times you feel like Carl Sagan, David Attenborough and George Carlin contributed to the book :).
A wonderful read! A massive CONGRATULATIONS to Sasha for the immense work she put into this. I know too well how for the past 4 years she worked so much on this book that it almost put our relationship under a big question mark. I never saw anyone putting so much effort into anything. It was too intense!
But now it is OVER. Finally! I thought I will never see this happen. Wow!
After so many years of work, and almost no money, she is putting the book for free on her website bigworldsmallsasha.com/ in digital format, despite us not having much money to make a life for ourselves on this planet. But of course, if you want to support her (us) you can buy the physical copy too. Or donate if you can.
I helped design the entire cover and I am quite proud of it :).
Go read it! I know I will read it again. This time the physical copy, in a hammock somewhere in nature.
Sasha you fucking did ti!
PS: The book was made with trade-free software. LibreOffice, Krita, Inkscape.
#nature #traveling #society #capitalism #trade #book #bookrelease #foss
Navalny
No surprise that Alexei Navalny died....unfortunately the situation in this world is not like a movie, where the bad guys are defeated. It seems to me like we've built a society that encourages villains and give little chances to anyone who wants to do anything in a more just way in this society.
Navalny had a huge following and was able to pierce with his campaign through the thick and foggy blanket of propaganda that the Russian government is so good and persistent at. And Navalny may not have been a saint or may not have changed much in Russia, who knows considering the level of corruption that infected all governments around the world, but for sure he was attacked, silenced, and eventually killed (directly or indirectly through a lot of abuse).
Many journalists have been imprisoned or even killed, and now we can see these publicly and so clearly. It is naive to think that pretty much anyone who challenges Putin drops dead or in prison and this has nothing to do with Putin. But probably these wannabe dictators do not even mind to cover up anything anymore.
We are noticing the modern public beheading of those who challenge the status quo. But these modern dictators do not have yet the courage to admit that they did it. They only make it very obvious that they did.
Russia seems to have become an authoritarian regime, the old school one. And this is increasingly concerning. Silencing the protesters, killing the political opponents, and infecting the media with terrible propaganda.
"make no mistake" (to quote the chief of USA), the other tribes are flavors of the same medicine. USA, EU, and the rest, are abusive in their own way, and have killed, and still killing, many innocent people. Russia is just worse. So don't let the degree of "doing bad things" take away from the fact that the other tribes are also abusive. USA may not kill the political opponents, but it is damn good at giving no chance to any radical change in the good direction of their tribe.
Anyway.... it is a sad and scary world. Humans, what a deplorable species.
I am making the documentary about Navalny freely available on our Peertube videos.trom.tf/w/b17jsjV11Khxv… and will be featured on the homepage. See how obvious it is that the guy was targeted and almost killed not long ago. Terrible.
Are we ever going to be an "intelligent human species", floating in space on a marvelous ball of wonders that we can take care of? Exploring the in and outs of it? Or are we going to continue as tribalistic and primitive creatures, exploiting and killing?....
Navalny Documentary
The film tells about the events related to the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the subsequent investigation into the poisoning. On 20 August 2020, Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent,[6] falling sick during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow, and was hospitalized in serious condition. Navalny was taken to a hospital in Omsk after an emergency landing there, and put in a coma. Two days later, he was evacuated to the Charité hospital in Berlin, Germany. The use of the nerve agent was confirmed by five Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) certified laboratories. Navalny blamed Russian president Vladimir Putin for his poisoning, while the Kremlin has repeatedly denied involvement.
Being trapped in the bullet train of nonsense and ugliness
Even I forget that I released a massive documentary some months ago...and that I worked so hard on that. I honestly forget about that quite often and deep down I feel a bit frustrated and sad that I do not do more. But maybe I just forget that I have put so much effort into that and perhaps that drained me of energy. Of course I am crazy busy with the driving license now and am doing other things in the background for TROM, but I need to remind myself that I've done a lot to scream, and I will do more, but I cannot be always like a machine that never stops. So I need some more time to get myself back on track and create new things, scream more and in different ways, and so forth.
I am trying, but the world in which we live is like a bullet-train of nonstop things happening. Most of them are idiotic and ugly. So most people are trapped in this race. Myself included many times. That's why I forget about the documentary.
Wars, disasters, debates, problems, noise. Too much noise. And not much progress into any saner direction.
I ponder sometimes if I should stop trying, and live a quiet and simple life and not give a shit. I don't know...it is hard to imagine that "me". I started my "online activism" back in 2007 or so. That's a scary 17 years ago. And the world has only gotten worse. So why continue I ask myself....
Maybe I just need to recharge myself this year and change my personal life quite a bit. To then have some new energy and motivation to do more, and newer. But also different.
It is also really difficult to try and manage all of these projects and the stuff that I do, with 20% of what I need financially in this trade world...if at least I had enough support to keep me afloat, I could have the confidence of doing more, and doing other things too in this direction.
For now I will be busy with the retarded driving test for the next 1-2 weeks. Then if I manage to pass the exam, it should be easier. I will have to wait a few months for the practical test (driving) but I am quite sure I can take that one. So let's see how I organize myself and the TROM projects for the next months. I will post updates on my Friendica if course.
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Adam ruins the social networks conversation
Video:
In this video Adam Conover argues that people cannot leave Twitter because everyone is there and Mastodon is hard to use. He thinks that the best is to transform Twitter into a nationalized, gov-owned public good platform.
Well...
He may be right that people are not going to leave Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and the like since "everyone is there". Which, let's be honest, is an indirect way of saying that humans are mindless sheep who will go to the popular party regardless if they are fucked in the ass all day. So let's not brush this aside. Humans are mindless idiots, at least most of them. And busy for that matter. That should scare the shit out of us and to make us try to find a solution for that, not a solution for Twitter and the like.
Second, Mastodon is not the fucking "fediverse". The fediverse is a big network made up of many different platforms. It is like calling the mail, GMAIL. As if it is only Gmail. Also, if Mastodon is hard to use, and for that matter other platforms like Friendica and so forth, then humans must be true idiots because it takes you a minute to understand how these work. They are as "complicated" as Twitter, Facebook and the like. The people who think that using Linux or a federated platform is "hard", are those that need any little excuse to not change their habits. When people start to use new platforms like Zoom, TikTok and the like, they put up with whatever new interfaces they have to navigate, just to use them because "these apps are trendy and everyone uses them".
Lastly, a gov owned social network is not like a gov owned educational network like PBS....PBS produces specific content that it controls. A social network is made up of the content that people produce....if the gov would control that, it would be censored like hell. Terrible idea!
The solution is decentralization. Else you have a giant company or gov that decides what we are allowed to post. Therefore, small instances of locally-moderated groups of people, that create a giant network. Welcome to the Fediverse.
Now let's continue to educate people about it rather than dreaming about the gov taking over a multi-billion dollar ad-based company and making it usable and free for all of us.
Why We’re Still Trapped on Twitter
It's no secret that Elon Musk has absolutely tanked Twitter, so why haven't we all left? Despite the site becoming an apocalyptic hellscape, there's a surpri...YouTube
Divorcing myself from this retarded society
I need to divorce myself more from the society/politics/conflicts part of our world. It is insane what it has become. When Russia put hundreds of thousands of troops on Ukraine's border and were accused of preparing an invasion, they said that's entirely false. Then they invaded, then they called the war against Ukraine as a "special military operation".
They bombed hospitals and schools and residential or public spaces, killing so many innocent people...
UK, USA, and EU were "horrified" at these atrocities, while China was "on the fence" and Iran and the like were kinda cheering up for Russia and helping them.
Day by day, people dying, politicians lying. People were crying...
And now Israel drops thousands of bombs on Gaza, killing again so many innocent people. Creating a total disaster.
So much suffering, just like in Ukraine. And yet USA, UK and EU are cheering up for Israel.
Even helping them...
Suddenly there is no more genocide....
Israel says they only kill the bad people, despite the videos and photos showing the contrary. They say they are saints and are fighting against evil, because you see Hamas killed over a thousand innocent Israeli people and that's EVIL, so they must go and kill thousands more innocent people....because that's GOOD!
Not to mention what Israel has done to palestinians over the past decades....trapping them in an open prison basically...
Then Russia is like: Oh my god, this is genocide! Unbelievable! To drop bombs on hospitals and kill entire families. This is terrible!
And China speaking up against what Israel is doing, more than what Russia is doing. And Iran talking about "human rights"....
And Ukraine not putting any blame on Israel for doing what Russia is doing to them....
Add to the mix the Hamas and other groups that create a lot of misery and terror, and the values of the so called "Arab countries" that are full of shit, and the primitivism of religion overall.
Ukraine is also not an angel, or any other tribe for that matter. Politicians are lying, propaganda is a daily news, and people continue to suffer while at the same time we have problems like cancer killing so many people, tuberculosis that is treatable killing the poor by the millions; diseases, climate change, pollution....
But the thing is, many of these situations are still a result of our trade-based society. The destruction of our environment, enslaving people, making humans into consumers, and so on, are a result of this society.
But even when it comes to wars they are a result of boiling trade-interests on a high flame. Where politicians say all sorts of stupid things, create propaganda through social (ad) networks that also rely on trades, promoting nationalism and patriotism to get more votes, to then have these politicians rule over others, and have luxurious cars, do all sort of businesses, and gain more power.
In other words do you think the "head of states" really care about their tribe when they are almost always caught avoiding taxes, doing shady businesses, and stealing form their tribe?
They care about them and their families, but then they start to promote "patriotism" and "us the tribe" stupidity, to gain votes to be elected as "heads of states". And they use these platforms that care mostly about you paying them to promote your posts. The cycle of vomit.
The thirst for power comes mainly from humans being trained to trade to acquire, because the more you have the more power you have, and vice versa.
And then starting wars is part of the power thirst and the need to get more "support" from the "nationals".
A mix of rich people who lie and have power over others, and the others who are confused patriots, busy workers, and idiotic consumers. Going at war is easy.
And these things are not new at all. For thousands of years these things have existed. From the Roman empire to the Iraq war....
Conclusion.
This is a totally insane society, full of lies and idiots. A horror carnival. And I think the sanest way for me is to force myself to ignore this side of our society. Ignore everything that any politician says (I already do this anyway), ignore these conflicts that I cannot do a thing about and are wrapped in propaganda and misery; ignore this society and focus more on the natural world.
I want to try and do astrophotography to reveal what my eyes can't see. To go more in nature, to grow TROM and its many positive projects, to live a less stressed life, because the society is too retarded and chaotic to even make sense of it, let alone do anything about it.
#Israel #Palestine #ukraine #TradeRuinsEverything #astrophography #war
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What is the r word? haha
Edit: uh you mean "retarded"? Anyway...that's retarded :D
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Best notes app
I rarely change my Notes app because I have a lot of notes and I need to use them. I can't afford to switch often, plus I could never find anything better than Zettlr for the past years. Until now.
That's the one I've been looking for.
Supports markdown but has a WYSIWYG so it is very easy to use. Text formatting, links, headings, tables, text colors and highlights, paste images, man it has a lot and yet it is so simple!
I add many code snippets and its code blocks are awesome and simple, with auto recognition for the code type:
And you simply hover a piece of text and have all of the options you need to edit, or add blocks via / or a button.
You can even create kaban-style pages:
And if you click on any entry there you get a popup where you can add more details via the same text-rich functionalities like any notes:
WOW! Just WOW. It means that I am replacing not only Zettlr but Vijunka too, in one single app! And it is all local.
And it has a lot more, so give it a try.
They are working to add a search function (a must) and more features!
Yeah they added a ChatGPT integration for those who want to use it and add a API key to it....idk how to feel about that but I proposed to them to at least use GPT4all, the open source and locally run language model.
Anyway, I love this notes app! Give it a try. Trust me, it really is amazing how much you can do with it!
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I was looking for a good note taking app. #appFlow looks good. I will definitely give it a try.
I did find another open source app, but it's a bit overkill at first glance.
GitHub - siyuan-note/siyuan: A privacy-first, self-hosted, fully open source personal knowledge management software, written in typescript and golang.
A privacy-first, self-hosted, fully open source personal knowledge management software, written in typescript and golang. - GitHub - siyuan-note/siyuan: A privacy-first, self-hosted, fully open sou...
The wannabe activists
I am quite sure that what prevents me from going into a deep depression is my workaholism. I am always busy with things, some new, some old, some experimental. I always want to do new projects, write, create, enable. The fact that soon after I released TROM II, a 3 years work, I jumped into new adventures, says a lot. Many would fucking retire for a few years after working so much on a project, or drop dead.
I always do stuff. And that keeps me away from thinking about many truths. Some that really piss me off are these wannabe "activists" and "organizations" that bitch about this society and then have pompous motivational vomits about how we should do something, and help, and fight, and all that. Yet none, or almost none, of these motherfuckers that I know have ever helped TROM and the many projects that we have, even with a share or something.
We have so many tools that people can use, so many books, a new documentary, and more. I am always available for any podcasts, debate, presentation, wheteverthefuck. I am here screaming for more than a decade, but if I think how ignored TROM is, especially by these cunts :), then I could go into depression mode quite fast.
That's the truth.
Better to keep myself busy with my TROM work, else I may realize how hypocritical many people are. I will always share whatever is important in regards to TROM, regardless of the source. And we do daily on tromnews.com and such. And I've helped other projects whenever I could.
What just triggered me is this video by TVP . Ok made, but the message of: "We should change the world by getting involved. You can do something even from behind the computer!" Is so hypocritical coming from an organization that will NEVER share anything from anyone else. They will NEVER help those people who are active and fight.
TVP has some online reach so hey go ahead share TROM II, or TROM.tf, or other orgs from our Trade Free Directory! They won't! They never did. I worked with them for years. They just talk. Bullshitters. Many bullshitters out there.
Ok rant done.
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Google wants to end adblocking
Did you ever realize that the most popular browser in the entire world, is made and controlled by an ad company? And the most popular search engine....Same goes for the most popular "social networks". And mobile operating system....
Insane....
And now Google, who has the power to change the internet for the worse, is trying to do something that I had anticipated many years ago. You see, we think that we fooled these companies by using adblockers, or some interfaces like invidious and the like, but the truth is that we could do that because they allowed us to. As soon as these will threaten their existence they can throw massive amounts of money at it and make it difficult if not impossible to bypass these.
Example: since Google owns the search, the mobile operating system, maps, the most popular video platform and so on, AND they own the most popular browser in the world, they are trying to introduce some technical things into the browser and some of their websites to block the adblockers and more.
Basically if you visit Youtube.com via Chrome, then Youtube first asks Chrome about you. Like...are you using an adblocker? If Chrome says yes, then Youtube can refuse you. Therefore you cannot visit Youtube.com unless you do what Youtube says you should do. In this case deactivating your adblocker.
They call this the "Web Environment Integrity API" and are working on it already github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-…
Here's a snippet from their proposal:
Users like visiting websites that are expensive to create and maintain, but they often want or need to do it without paying directly. These websites fund themselves with ads, but the advertisers can only afford to pay for humans to see the ads, rather than robots. This creates a need for human users to prove to websites that they're human, sometimes through tasks like challenges or logins.
And this is their first point in their explanation. Of course they will fight for this. It will get harder and harder, if not impossible to block ads and trackers.
This is easily predictable when you understand that the main goal of humans on this planet is to trade. This for that. An evolution that results in big companies doing this sort of shit, even when they have more than enough.
I have been screaming about this for more than a decade. But most people do not listen. Do not want to talk about this. They make it look complicated (ad-based economics, surveillance capitalism, blah blah blah). In truth it is the same practice and incentive for Google as it is for the guy who owns a small grocery store. Stop thinking that this is an issue with big companies and billionaires. It is not. We are all, or most of us, scammers, charlatans, tricksters. On small or big levels.
What can we do about it?
First understand it. Understand why these things happen, because if you do not at best you can make some politicians approve some laws to try and stop these big players. And this does not work. We made a big book and a huge documentary all about this.
Second, try to use trade-free alternative platforms. See trom.tf/ - the ones that we offer. Or visit the Trade-Free Directory and search for some directory.trade-free.org/
We need to understand where the problem originates (trade) and inform people about it, but also try to use alternative platforms and software, so we don't depend on this motherfuckers.
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Opera is a multi-platform web browser developed by its namesake company Opera.[11][12][13] The browser is based on Chromium, but distinguishes itself from other Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge, etc.) through its user interface and other features.
@rotfarm my knowledge about this is very limited, but from what I understand Google is proposing a method for web developers to verify the integrity of users who visit their websites, so if this proposal becomes a success and people started implementing this verification on their websites then you won't be able to access those sites from firefox, unless firefox also implemented this thing in their browser.
I really hope I'm wrong here and that it won't affect firefox users.....
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Webkit browsers. Epiphany, Midori, Safari...
Edit: apparently Midori is no longer among them, switched to Electron.
How I cool down my laptop and why?
I bought a Dell Inspiron 7620 2-in-1 (mouthful) some 6-7 months ago. Took me many months to choose a laptop and this one was the best for me. It is a 16` 16:10 with a powerful CPU and a good GPU. The screen is amazing, the keyboard is very good, and the chassis is aluminum.
In these months I had to fix the touchpad because it was not working anymore, and that was a massive issue, but the worst is that the battery capacity dropped to 83% capacity in only a few months time.
Luckily the battery is big, 87W, but this rapid drop was unexpected.
You see, this laptop is really thin.
Almost as thin as a USB A port. Couple that with a powerful processor and video card, plus just 1 fan, and an aluminum body and you get a hot pancake.
When I stress the laptop a bit it is so hot you can barely touch it. 80-90C. And I had to render the TROM II documentary on this laptop. Got crazy hot, for many weeks on end.
Therefore, I highly suspect that the battery capacity dropped because of the heat. I cannot see any other reason.
But now is July and I am in Spain. Thus, it is hot as fuck. This is tomorrow:
So hot it is difficult to keep my own body cool, let alone this laptop.
So I decided to buy a laptop fan. This sort:
But the fan was barely creating any sort of air flow. I ordered two more...All under 20 Euros because I don't feel in the mood to spend more than that on a fan for the laptop....considering it has one inside-the-fucking-chassis!
After two weeks of use the temperature of the laptop would not go above 80-85C when I'd stress the laptop. So a 5-10C cooler. But I was not happy!
I said let's try something else. Let's order a fucking fan....you know a normal one. But a small one. And cheap as fuck. I spent too much time looking for one, but I eventually bought this one for 7 Euros:
Plus a metal laptop stand for around 10 Euros:
And guess what? With that setup my laptop is always cool. Even when I stress it it will stay at around 60-65C max. That's a massive improvement!
And I have to say that I never thought I'd be excited about a fucking fan. But this one, for 7 Euros....is my favorite fan ever. Why?
First the way it is designed. You can put this fan in many different ways.
You can put it sideways, upside down, or flat on the table.
You can even hang it on the wall...
And so it allows me to position it anyway I want. Like directly bellow the laptop:
Or behind it:
So it is extremely handy.
Best part? It has a rechargeable battery inside so you can use it for 1-3 hours on the battery alone. This is useful because now it is so hot I take it with me when I move with my laptop. Like put it in bed to blow air on the laptop while I hold it on my lap. It has 5 speeds and it is more powerful than you may think :). Plus it has a USB C connector so it is easy to find a replaceable cable when you need one.
Actually I was so impressed that I ordered one more, to blow air on my USB C dongle that is metal and I noticed it got extremely hot. I use one single dongle to connect my laptop to the charger, external monitor, projector, mouse, speakers, LAN, and more. I love it because I can plug/unplug with ease. But because it was getting so hot my LAN connection will drop several times a day.
Now that I got that cool fan, there is no drop anymore :).
Conclusion.
These special laptop fans are bullshit. At least those under 20. I tried several and they were very inefficient. And no, is not because they try to keep them silent and thus less powerful....the small fan that I got is also very quiet....but at least it works! Also, fuck you people who design such thin laptops and do not care much about the heat dispersal. Why the fuck you put a fan inside if it is so inefficient anyway? I guess they have to sell these laptops based on looks....I see....
Anyway, if your laptop gets hot, invest some 20 Euros and buy yourself a metal stand for it plus a mini fan. You can always repurpose that fan. And you can get a nice laptop stand.
Share the waste!
I donated my old laptop to a dear friend who also helps with the TROM project. I used this laptop for many years but I needed a more portable one and luckily others helped me buy a better one for myself. I am happy to know that my dear friend the laptop, that helped me make 80% of the TROM II documentary, and trom.tf, and tromcasts, tromjaro, and so many books, and so on, now has a new home :)
Others helped me, I am helping others too. We should all help each other. We should share the vast amount of stuff we have in this world, rather than keeping that stuff around and not use it, or throwing it into the garbage.
I too often see these in the town I live in:
Massive waste of stuff. Unacceptable!
BUT:
- We are incentivized to buy and buy and buy; every day bombarded with such messages. And thus people buy even when they don't have to.
- There is no sharing platform that is useful enough, or some place where you can put these things to then be repaired and shared with others.
- People have no time to take any initiative. If people had the time to get involved they can create all sorts of sharing platforms and places. Like for the place where I live: imagine if some people can have the time to take the stuff people put at the garbage bin, repair and clean, and have a central place in the town where anyone can pick that stuff.
So. Yeah, anyway, I am super happy I could send my laptop to someone who will likely make good use of. I have 1 more laptop and a tablet that I want to give to others. I don't like to have much stuff anyway. I will try to get more and more involved with this physical-stuff sharing in the future, like sharebay.org/ that's made by our friend Colin. I will try to share stuff on that website too after TROM II is released.
It's all about that trade.
When I scream about how trade is the origin of most problems, some people think that I am crazy and I exaggerate. Well either read the thousands of pages I wrote so far or watch the tens of hours of videos that I made, or here's another clear example:
I and Sasha. Much love. Love love, you know. We are together for the past 3 or so years. All we want is to stay on this planet somewhere. Can we? The answer is no. It is yes. It is maybe. It is confusing. Is it any answer?
After going through the bullshit of the marriage ritual, and went to lawyers here in Spain and all that, we still didn't figure that out until today.
Ok so listen. If you want to be able to stay in Spain, 2 humans that is, one of you is a resident in Spain and an EU citizen, one an American citizen, here's what you have to do:
- Prove that you are together and you love each other.
- That's it. Now you can live here and we (Spain) will take care of you to make sure you won't end up in the streets, or doing bad things.
See how easy that was!?
Oh wait....that's just my imagination. Hold on. Hmmm....Sorry, actually no one cares if you love each other, can take care of yourself, or you are a good human. Sorry, that was a different planet.
On Earth here's what you need:
- Be "married" (the ritual) with a resident/citizen of Spain.
- The resident/citizen has to prove that they have a job for the past year (so at least a year contract) and make at least 1.000 Euros a month.
- A bunch of other IDs and documents.
OR:
- Does not matter if you are with someone or not, you just have to stay in Spain for 3 consecutive years. Illegally.
- Do not get into any sort of issues with the police.
- Get a criminal record from your country of origin.
- Do a course (at least 40 hours) for the local language, in our case a dialect....
- Get a job offer.
- A bunch of other documents.
Alright Planet Earth, I see you are so kind with your hoomans.
So, a tribe (say Spain) will give 0 fucks about love, relationships, health, being a good human and such. But they will give 100% to TRADE. If you TRADE in their tribe, that's all they need really. If you invest money into a tribe, guess what, they will let you in no problemos - see. How many rich fucks that have been in jail or did so many illegal things are traveling all around the world!? Countless.
Fuck the "morality, ethics", equality, human rights, being a good human, and all of that crap. Or being a Christian, a Muslim, a whateverthefuck. These do not matter in our society. All it matters is that TRADE.
SO. It's all about that trade, 'bout that trade... - sing with me!
Why I hate smartphones.
My mother has a Samsung Galaxy J5 that she bought several years ago. The phone is in great condition physically. However it only has 16GB of internal storage. Problem is she uses 99% of that space, making the device extremely slow and 0 updates possible or the ability to install any new app.
Only 10 apps out of perhaps hundreds on her phone can be removed, since the rest came pre-installed with the phone. Bloatware. Google + Samsung apps that are 100% useless. And they cannot be removed.
So, we cannot uninstall/remove anything. Now what can she do? Buy a new phone probably.
And this is how you create a massive amount of waste. On these phones you have no control over your OS, so if your phone is a few years old you can say bye bye to system updates. You cannot remove the bloatware. You cannot change the battery or any other components. And yes probably you can do some of those if you have a ton of time and skills to install a custom Android and have the guts to unglue your phone and change the battery. But most people will never do this.
I tried to make the SD card of her phone part of the system to expand the storage. Worked. But then what for if I cannot move 99% of apps there? I then enabled the developer mode and enabled the "force move the apps to the SD card". That allowed me to move a bit more apps but still 80% cannot be moved.
However when these moved apps update, they are reinstalled on the internal storage again. Basically 'd have to move them to the SD card all the time....sucks. Not sustainable...
I eventually managed to install adbmanager and luckily that allowed me to remove any bloatware I wanted.
Problem is you have to know the exact name of these apps and they look like "samsung.android.visioncloudagent" so you have to figure which app does what.... I found some websites where they list this bloatware like this or this. But it takes time to remove because you have to be VERY careful not to brick your phone.
After doing all of these she has some 1.7GB of free space. Which is fine for now but still unsustainable. I wonder if the next Android update will add back all of that bloatware....after all when I got some updates years ago Samsung decided to install Facebook and Instagram for me, without the ability to remove them.
So, her laptop uses Linux and not Windows, despite having Windows pre-installed when we bought it. Why not install a sane Android OS on her phone?
With laptops is a ton easier, especially for older models, to install an OS. My mother could do it if I gave her the instructions. With the phones it is a different world. People are already googlefied so you can't just install a new Android without connecting it to their previous account since everything is tied to that. You need to root the phone and hope that it won't brick it. That's something that can make your phone useless. Plus all of these custom Androids that have removed the bloatware only support a tiny fraction of all phones.
LineageOS for example, the one that supports by far the most models - wiki.lineageos.org/devices/ - does not support that phone.
The rest support mostly the Pixel phones, namely the newer ones. And that's another issue...even these custom OSes will support this or that device for a bit, then bye bye. Therefore you still have to buy newer devices even when you want a custom Android that is bloatware free.
Some of these even add their own bloatware like https://e.foundation/e-os/ - with their own subscription models.
I was considering to compromise on buying a second hand but newer model Pixel and then install one of those bloatfree Androids, but then if you buy such a phone second hand and the battery is crap and you can't replace it....what can you do!?
Linux phones, if anyone wonders, are an experiment at best at this stage. Plus they only support a few models too.
It is such a different world when it comes to computers. This Microsoft tablet is more than 10 years old:
And it still works with TROMjaro Linux. Granted to make the bluetooth and wifi work I had to install a custom kernel and do some gymnastics. Easier than installing a custom Android on a phone. But this tablet receives constant updates. And this was a special case since these tablets used some weird hardware for the bluetooth and wifi. Most decade old laptops/computers work just fine with the latest Linux.
So you can bring to life old computers but not old phones.
That's one major reason why I hate smartphones. They are disposable. They come bloated with a ton of crap. It is hard if not impossible to block ads on phones. Plus they are with you all the time so notifications and all that crap will make your life a hell.
Even a Linux phone would not be something I would use much since I do not want to always be trapped in the digital space.
In this trade based society companies are incentivized to release newer model of phones constantly. They support each model for a few years then bye bye. They pre-install a lot of crap to make more off of you. Trades: attention, data, subscriptions. So we end up with a world full of disposable ad-devices that people call as "smartphones". The irony of using the word "smart" for those devices.
And I get it, these devices if they were Linux based only, and supported indefinitely, could be useful in certain circumstances such as navigation, keeping in touch with close friends, etc.. But the rest seems to me like just a tool for consuming, trading. Your life being sucked away from you by companies and individuals who want your currency, your attention, your data.
UGLY.
I will eventually install a custom Android on my own personal phone, a Galaxy S7, 8 years old. To put some life into it. Just so that I get rid of the pile of shit that the software is on all phones nowadays, even if I only use my phone for GPS, maps, and such purposes.
Do people have thoughts anymore?
Yesterday I went to the dentist. I didn't have to go for the past 4 or so years so that's the positive side. I used to go there for 3 or so years almost weekly, not long ago, because I had braces. I had really fucked up teeth and it took 3 years to fix them.
Anyway, I go there and they tell me to wait in the waiting room. I enter and I see a few C's. Some young, some oldish. By C's I mean people. Why C? Because that's how they look to me, like the letter C when they sit down and are bent over their phone screens.
I said a timid "Ola", and I think an older dude said "Ola" on just 5% volume.
I remember not long ago when I was going to the same dentist, waiting in the same waiting room, that most people were just sitting around. They had some magazines there and some were picking them up and browsing through them.
So I sit down and look around like I normally do. I could see through a big glass door how strongly it is raining outside. It was pouring. My mind shifted to the TROM II documentary, the stuff that I want to do next, my plans for the next months, and so forth. My mind drifted towards the scenery for a bit and I was thinking how weird that this water falls from the sky and how it sounds....those rain droplets falling on the pavement make a lot of sound. And sound is basically energy. The atmosphere, the stuff around, shaking, and the vibrations reach our ears. How cool.
I remember waiting in this waiting room for many hours when I was going for my braces. And had a lot of thoughts. I like to think about stuff.
I then look around me and the C's are still C. I am thinking "Do they think that I am a weirdo...the only one here just sitting like that and not bent as a C? Am I more like an L when I sit down?" - but then I thought.....are these people even thinking about that? Or thinking in general?
Not to be mean, but it seems to me like pretty much everyone nowadays has no more "free time" to think. That time is completely eaten by the phones and the computers and the tv....
Like....if they go to school/work, then they have to solve all sorts of issues they may have, then they have to buy food, cook, drive, take care of family members (like the soft-brained kids they may have), have homework.....then they are nonstop on their phones....Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Youtube.....Netflix....Amazon....shop, take photos, consume, like, share, chit-chat.
Honestly, does anyone nowadays have inner thoughts? Because even when you sit in your bed, before going to sleep, probably most humans are on their phones. They wake up with their phones in their faces too.
I was amusing myself thinking that in the near future people would go to a psychologist and be like...
Patient: I hear voices in my head!
Psychologist: What do they say?
Patient: idk....like words at times...
Psychologist: Do you hear them loud?
Patient: At times yes....
Psychologist: How often and when mostly?
Patient: Not that often, and usually when I do not do anything for some reason...
Psychologist: Ok, you may suffer from ITD.
Patient IDT?
Psychologist: Inner Thoughts Disorder. A lack of outside stimulation of the brain can cause the brain to shoot random thoughts. It is nothing to worry about. Back in the days people managed to deal with that on a daily basis. I recommend you these apps to keep your brain more engaged, and take one of these sleeping pills an hour before you want to go to bed.
:)
That's how I was amusing myself.
You know, I used to spend at least 2-3 hours in bed before going to sleep, thinking about stuff. And it is damn fun. At times I would spend 5-6 hours or more, staying in bed, thinking. Actually this thinking time allowed me to create TROM, the documentary. The many books I wrote and projects I created. Heck yeah, this article was created last night while I was sitting in bed, in darkness, just with my brain. Now I too have reduced the night thinking to say 1-2 hours for some reason, but I still think every single night before I go to bed. :)
These moments of you inside your brain are, I think, essential to get to know yourself and the world around you. To plan ahead, to talk to yourself, understand yourself and your relationships. And the world that is out there. Without it you are like a Rumba cleaning robot. Or other sorts of robots. You observe and are pushed by the stuff you are observing. But have no time for self-reflection. Your brain is a read only software by you, and read and write for the big companies that are keeping you busy.
People have become robots. And there is a good reason why. An explanation that have predicted that. TRADE.
The same way that humans became physical robots for the past centuries, working 8 to 12 hours a day, same way today their minds are being trading assets. Facebook, Google, Netflix, TikTok and the like, they NEED your mind to trade. Your attention and data are so valuable today. So they do all they can to transform you into a livestock animal, milked daily, because that's all they want.
It is a very ugly society we live in. Driven by the same force of trade.
When the printing press was invented some said that humans won't even think because they will spend time reading other people's thoughts. Wasn't true really. Newspapers and the invention of the TV, others said, will make people dumber by keeping them glued to those media outlets. Not entirely true, but to some degree truer than before. The "smartphone" and the internet era is on a different level tho. They do keep people busy most of the time, because it is run by a cancerous invasion of companies and individuals who want BRAINS. Mindless consuming BRAINS. And you carry that consumption device with you non stop, and rely on it.
I too rely on a phone....to keep in touch with my parents and because they require one when you have a bank account, go to the hospital, the dentist, and so on. But I decided to only use the phone for that. And for the weather at times. Plus GPS. The rest I do not care. Although I spend a ton of time online, I do so only on my laptop. On my phone I rarely even have credit. And on my laptop I do a lot of work for TROM. Besides that I do scroll through reddit at times, but mostly I use our own tools like TROMnews, I watch documentaries and so forth.
But man.....this is a scary world for me. I see most humans as zombies who are not alive, but simply are automatons that are fed and milked non stop for an endless trade society.
And I genuinely wonder if people still have inner thoughts nowadays....what do they dream at night about....what do they think when they are not C's....? Are they L's, I's anymore? idk....
One thing I am 100% sure is that if I did not spend a lot of time with myself, in my head, I would have been lost today. It is what allowed me to get rid of my suicidal and depressive behavior, what allowed me to change, what made me make TROM, write books, make videos, and so forth. Without these, there is no me.
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@Tio
Wow you have such interesting thoughts, mine always feel like just random noise that I have to get rid of, lol 😂
Also this might be shocking for you if you don't already know, but not everyone has an inner voice/speech, there are non-verbal thinkers too. This video explains it pretty well -
So I don't recall having an inner voice when I was a kid, or at least not significant enough to notice, but later in my teenage years I somehow developed one. I don't exactly remember how I used to think before developing an inner voice, but if I had to explain it then I'd use words like emotions, feelings, intuitions, pictures etc. I remember the first time I intentionally said something inside my head, it felt so weird.... like talking to an empty room that echoes, I felt very silly doing it because I already knew what I was gonna say and so what's the point of saying it to myself when no one else can hear? If you've lived your entire life having an inner voice then this might sound very strange to you, haha 😄 Anyway, that conversation with the therapist on your post reminded me of this, we humans are so similar but yet so different from each other in how we experience things.
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