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

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: November 26th, 2023

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  • Libb@jlai.lutoFedigrow@lemm.eeCommenters in other communities
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    1 day ago

    If you have regular commenters that you like in your community, but you see them being kinda shitty in other communities, does that affect you?

    It’s only an opportunity to remember that we’re people, with many flaws. And that’s true for every single one of us. No exception.

    I don’t know if I should just ignore it, but I don’t feel there Is really any ideal way to discuss

    My approach is that if a message is not addressed to me and if I have nothing nice to say (or if I feel like being judgmental, like you said), I’d rather say nothing. And if the message is addressed to me, well, it’s more or less the same: if I have nothing positive to say, I will not reply and ignore it. If the person insists a little, I will say ‘sure, thx for sharing your opinion’. If they insist more, I will block them.

    as I don’t want to alienate people from my content.

    I don’t worry about people disagreeing with me. In fact, I quite appreciate diverging opinions as they can be opportunities to learn new things and to revise my own certainties. But I also don’t care at all about alienating anyone that I would consider a pain because I don’t think there is much (new) to learn from that kind of pain.



  • what do you folks generally do to optimize beddy-bye time?

    Most of the time, I don’t look at any screen.

    Instead, I read (paper book, a journal or a magazine), chat with my spouse, sketch and journal. Earlier in the evening, we may decide to watch a DVD together, but that’s not everyday. No coffee and seldom any tea late in the evening (or something herbal, then).

    And almost without exception, the moment I put my head on the pillow I fall asleep. There have been many exceptions to that rule, mind you. That was back in those days where I was trying to escape my own personal daemons instead of facing them (like not getting rid of my own addictions and bad habits).

    Like already suggested in the comments, if you have hard time sleeping melatonin is an option but on the short-term only. Don’t make it a long-term habit. I also consider the extra sleep it may give you not the best sleep, no surprise you may feel groggy.

    To the insomniacs, what are some things you do in the wee hours/early morning for a relaxing start to your day?

    Since I don’t need much sleep and I do my best work early in the morning, most of the days I wake up very early, around 3-4 AM and… I don’t look at any screen either. Imho, it’s even truer to realize that screens and online content are pure poison to the mind and to the soul early in the morning, like they’re in the evening.

    I drink a large glass of water and appreciate the quietness for a few minutes. I may flip some pages of a book but most often I just sit or stand still breathing slowly. It probably is the closest thing to meditation, for me.

    After I shower and dress, I’ll sit at my desk and start writing longhand—no screen remember, and no music either. Nothing but the still sleeping city around me with its otherworldly quietness, and me slowly scratching some paper with my fountain pen. (In summer, I’ll open the window next to my desk or even go sit on our balcony so I can better appreciate that magical quietness, and a little later start enjoying the company of the earlier-riser of the few remaining birds, the ones that start singing their songs well before car/bus/motorcycle engines overrun their voice for the rest of the day.)

    I will write up until we’re getting close to the time my spouse usually wakes up @ 7-8AM (btw, we both work from home) at which time I’ll prepare breakfast and, while she is getting ready, I often will go grab some fresh pastry for her at the local bakery (they’re handmade and she loves them). We have a quiet but also chatty breakfast together. When she’s ready to start working I will go out for my first walk of the day, in order to get my body moving.

    Now, the normal day is allowed to start, with its constant noise and its unexpected and very often less than pleasant events. I’m ready ;)




  • a few days ago I tried browsing the All feed from my alt account and was… quickly back to my ‘Subscribed’ only mode ;)

    There was so much porn/erotic and bizarre stuff, not even mentioning low effort content. I did not remember there had been that much porn last time I checked. Don’t get me wrong, people are more than welcome to share and enjoy whatever they fancy but now even more than before I still think the ‘All’ timeline should come with an explicit and very visible warning saying that unlike with more centralized social media there is almost no filtering and no control of the type of content that is shared and that one will be exposed to stuff they don’t like.


  • A few people have posted in [email protected]. So, it’s not just me posting new content anymore, and that’s a huge step in the right direction. Yeah! (edit: and it’s great content, btw ;))

    The subscriber count is also slowly growing (we’ve reached 280, I have not noted the base numbers but I would say we’re 50 more subscribers if not more), which is great too.

    I still would love to see more activities going on. I mean more comments and new posts non-authored by me. Obviously, that would be easy for me to write more posts but I really don’t want to give people the false impression I ‘own’ the community—I don’t, I try to encourage more activities that’s all. I know Lemmy is much smaller than Reddit; in their s/journaling they have around 2 millions subscribers which is a little more than our grand-total of 282 subscribers ;) but I would say one new post a week or every couple week would be great.

    A few days ago, like I announced, I replaced the old banner/icon with new ones to celebrate the beginning of a new year. Beside one person that commented on my first proposal a couple weeks ago (after which I almost completely changed said proposition) there has been no reaction beside very few likes. I even mentioned I kept the old set so I could easily put it back in case they preferred it to the new one. I’m no designer, so maybe it’s just trash and people are too kind to let me know, or they simply don’t care? It’s hard to tell without feedback.

    Happy New Year !

    Happy New Year to you, and everyone here :)


  • Hi,

    I’m a Windows user of all life

    I was a Mac user for 35+ years (still am, partly). It took me a little while to get used to new names/commands in Linux but that’s to be expected. And it is not much an issue anymore ;)

    I am those persons that has bad times remembering names, words… imagine commands… Even after using it so much I remember some basics but I’m struggling a lot and I have to go back to notes constantly to do some basic operations. Even worst after trying multiple distro from from different upstreams that commands are … Different

    What kind of commands exactly? I mean, I don’t know that ‘commands’ are different from one distro to the other’ as they all use the same apps. So, beside the name of a few specific ones (like, maybe the app installer).

    What would be your recommendations to help me. Are there tools to help this issue ?

    My two sole advice:

    • don’t try to remember too many commands. Instead, focus on the ones you use daily or very often. After you get those memorized you can always decide to memorize more… or not memorize them at all. I don’t bother remembering them, why would I when I can easily use Ctrl+F and instantly find them the moment I need them?

    How do I do? I keep a text files in which I store all the stuff I seldom use but still want to be able to find in case I need it someday. To make finding them easier, I put descriptive titles and comments with each command. And that’s what I’m searching for, not the command name ;)

    • If you’re talking about Terminal commands, learn to create your own aliases they will let you remember a short name instead of full commands. I have a few lengthy commands and some scripts (for example, to compress/convert images) that I I regularly use. I don’t remember them. I’ve saved them in a .sh file that I can either call through a Terminal or simply by a right-click in my file Explorer (it’s Nemo and they’re called ‘Actions’, on Linux Mint)

  • I do check their profile when I receive a DM from someone I don’t know. If only, to get an idea who is trying to reach me, what I can expect, and how I should reply. My profile tells people where I’m from and how old I’m, stuff like that. So, anyone checking it will at least understand why my English can be lacking, and why I may not be that interested in stuff or questions younger people consider important. I also share my blog url in that profile but so far I don’t think anyone ever contacted me there coming from Lemmy ;)

    I don’t mind a blank profile, but it won’t help me feel… connected to the person. So, my reply may not be as complete or personal as it could have been.


    • Like every day, long walks.
      For the last few days, the weather was really not great and if I don’t mind the rain or the cold, everything constantly being dark and dim made my daily walks less enjoyable. This morning the sky is bright blue, there is not a cloud to be seen and the sun is shinning. Happy.
    • Read more of Proust A la recherche du temps perdu.
      Seriously, after many failed attempts in the last… 30 years or so, I opened the first volume one more time this evening to give it a shot and, somehow, I was able to get into it and appreciate his prose. Being French, one would think I should be able to better appreciate his style but for some reason I never was, like the book would fell off my hands. No idea what changed this evening (and after so many years) but reading the first 40 pages I was fucking blown away by what I was reading and how well it was done.








  • I guess my end goal is to be able to comfortably install and use arch Linux with my own customization’s and be able to fix it when things go wrong.

    What tips/ideas do you have for getting better at navigating the terminal, and getting a better understanding of how the os works. What is a good roadmap to follow? And how did you, advanced Linux user, get to the stage your at now?

    You learn by doing and by failing. Like we learned to walk, to write, to drive, to kiss, to speak a foreign language, or even to lace our shoes (and, yep, even that was a heavy trial and error process for toddler-us back then).

    • Install Arch (in a VM, maybe) and while doing so read the Arch Wiki to understand each step, each action and the role of each app you’re asked to install. The Arch Wiki is an impressively well done documentation.
    • Be fine knowing that it will take time to learn anything new (not just Arch, anything), you won’t get good at it the first time. Don’t rush it, take your time.
    • Be fine knowing that you will face issues and will most likely fail at some point, be it to instal Arch or in doing whatever new. There is no other way to learn, for all of us, than by failing and then trying again, over and over. Once again like we learned to walk (by falling on our butt), to lace our shoes (by making a mess) or to kiss (by not doing it great at first).

    Learning takes time and efforts. Perseverance, and humility. There is no shortcut to learning anything that is worth learning, not just Arch. But the reward is also so much worth it. Einstein had to learn calculus, Da Vinci had to learn how to hold a paint brush, and Tolstoy like Flaubert had to learn to write and I’m willing to bet they all made mistakes while they were learning their respective craft.

    Even without referring to geniuses: the first time I tried to install Arch I ran away screaming and swearing I would never touch that thing again. The second time, I had already managed to read a good chunk of the relevant part of the wiki and used it constantly at each step of the process. I still failed at it but at least I understood why I failed and I felt incredibly more… in charge, despite me failing. The third time, I managed to have it running, and to install most the packages I wanted. That was great. There was no fourth time as, as much as I love Arch (which is a lot), I quickly realized using it that constant updates were not what I wanted from my OS and apps (I’m an old-ish user with very basic needs, I’m not even that much of a geek to be honest). So, I switched to the complete opposite of Arch (Debian, another great love of mine I must say). Still, learning and using Arch taught me a lot about Linux in general and about… myself.


  • Libb@jlai.lutoLinux@lemmy.mlHow to distrohop!?
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    13 days ago

    I don’t distrohop but I do backup my home folder which also contains most of my settings & tweaks. I also keep a simple list of all the apps/packages I have installed in a text file.

    I had to reinstall a few weeks a go (new SSD) and it took me maybe 10 minutes to make the base install + all my apps ( ‘sudo apt install’ with a copypaste of my list of apps), and then the time required to copy my home folder too (which was fast). Add to that the couple apps I have to manually install (like Filen for the cloud, Bitwarden for passwords) and that’s it. It’s really one of the things I appreciate since I switched to Linux (coming from Mac where a fresh install now takes… a lot of wasted time).