+1, MASH has wonderful theme/song. It’s also a type of series we probably need to watch today more than ever.

You mentioning MASH made me think of another oddball movie: Kelly’s heroes, the 70s one with Sutherland/Eastwood and Savalas. As a young boy in the 70s, this was one of my favorite movies. It still holds a sweet spot in my heart now almost 60 ;)

• Space 1999
• The Persuaders
• The Avengers

And also, the French version of the Ulysses 31 anime. Well, from the album, the intro is probably the weakest part of what remains to this day one of the best anime OST. Even more so considering it was supposed to be a young kids TV anime. Link to full album <- this is not your usual anime for kids type of music :)

Not a TV show, but still best theme ever (and the best anime ever maybe too)? The original Ghost in the Shell.

And yes they’re all old stuff, like me. Sorry youngsters, you were left out of the loop ;)

non-paywalled: https://unwall.app/www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01113-7?error=cookies_not_supported&code=dbe0a3a5-b3e0-438e-9dcb-0900af57920c (no endorsement of the service)

Is that the new McCarthyism? Once again, 100% proudly made in the USA.

What a fucked country. A country I used to admire and respect so much when I was young.

My pleasure. I hope you will a space that suits your needs .

As a side note regarding the Fediverse/Lemmy/Piefed/etc. as a publishing space: be aware that you can create your own community (say, one dedicated to your type of erotica) but my remarks remain valid: you will need an instance (aka, the server on which lives your community) that is ok to host potentially offensive content (or worse). Or you can host your own instance (aka, the physical server on which your community lives) but then you need to be yourself, as a person, ok to face the potential legal risks of publishing offensive content (or worse).

Ignoring smut and the shitload crap that is being written just for making some money out of people feeling an irrepressible need to… scratch an itch (which is a legit business, don’t get me wrong it’s just not a quality product), erotica can be great literature. Sadly, a bit like poetry I’m almost tempted to say, most of the time erotica is frowned upon or ignored out of fear of being shamed for reading it. Imho, what makes the best erotica, beside the author knowing their craft, is the author willingness to outsmart the limits they’ve been imposed, be it by the law and/or by pubic morality and also, it is at least as important, all the limitations they imposed on themselves. The desire to play with those limits.

Fantasy or not, I reckon incest is probably illegal (aka punished by law) in many regions, and even if one manages to stay away form the most obvious/illegal forms of incest it will still often be frown upon, hard enough, for people to not be that willing to openly publish/host it for anyone to read. At least, not without some serious safeguards, say, to prevent minors from accessing it and to prevent the most deranged type of stories to ever be published (no webmaster/host is that willing to risk getting sued for some nasty story a random weirdo decided to publish on their platform).

Imho, if you’re into writing erotica your best bet is to find a community of fellow erotica writers and discuss that with them. They must certainly know where it will be ok to post and share the kind of stories you’re into. And they should be able to tell you what is ok, and what is not.

<3

:)

I can assure you when I speak English everyone instantly knows I’m French, my accent is quite French ;)

Parlez-vous français?

I’m French ;)

La foule is a great song, like many of Piaf.

For Brel, if I had to pick a single song… I would never do that but say for some odd reason I had to… it would be one of those two. One of which is indeed among my all time favorites, the other not as much but still touched me very deeply at a rather young age, and stayed with me: La quête, or Orly.

I have not a single one, so my apologies for the longish reply ;)

A few of my all time favorites non-English are from French (like me) singers. Older ones, like me: people like Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens, Serge Gainsbourg, Edith Piaf,… And so many more. I’m nearing my 60s and I’ve been listening to some of them since I was a very young boy, aged 7 or 8, on my parent’s HiFi (who also introduced me to classical music, my absolute favorite type of music).

What follow is anything but a full list of my favorites. It’s a very limited selection among those I consider my lifelong companions:

• A few from Jacques Brel: Rosa about kids and school and about learning Latin (back then kids used to learn Latin in schools, lyrics are absolutely filled with French word plays so if you’re not fluent you probably won’t get it but it’s a real smart song). Another one Amsterdam of which David Bowie made an excellent English version. Ne me quitte pas, Quand on a que l’amour… but this is merely scratching the surface as he wrote countless amazing songs, funny ones, deep, sad and even absurd ones like, say, Vesoul. One I deeply disliked when I was a kid/young teen and now consider one of his greatest song: Les marquises.
• Brassens: La mauvaise réputation, his Chanson pour l’auvergnat ou encore Le temps ne fait rien à l’affaire (about being a moron, at any age ;) or (probably considered NSFW in our so modern days) Le gorille. To be honest, I don’t know many of his songs I’m not a fan of.
• Gainsbourg: Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais, La chason de Prévert, or (NSFW) Je t’aime, moi non plus (a huge slap in the face the first time I listened to it, and still an amazing song all those years later imho).
• A few other French singers in no order: Barbara L’aigle noir, Yves Simon, whose best know song was probably the title song for the eponymous movie Diabolo menthe but he wrote quite a few popular songs like say, Au pays des merveilles, Juliette. William Sheller Un homme heureux or his Je cours tout seul (Sheller is an incredible song writer), Alain Souchon J’ai 10 ans, Sous les jupes des filles. Niagara La ville dort or Je dois m’en aller. As a teen barely younger than the singer, Muriel Moreno, back then I was secretly (from my girlfriend at least) in love with her and I could not imagine nay one moving or looking at me more… sensually.
• And a last one but certainly not the least important singer: Gérard Manset: Il voyage en solitaire “Mais il est seul, un jour l’amour l’a quitté/s’en est allé faire un tour de l’autre côté/d’une vie où y avait pas de place pour se garer”.
• There are so many more!

If anyone has managed to reach that point, listening to all the songs, and is wondering: yes, I also listen to much more contemporary French (and non French) artists. In many various genres.

French language always was and still is about telling a story, about playing with words and with sounds, exactly like poetry. Which is most I care about as a reader/listener. Contemporary French singers do understand that as well as their predecessors did. They just don’t use the same rhythms anymore and don’t share the exact same stories (well, fundamentals remain unchanged: love, hate, sadness, fun,… but how they express it changes), and they’re certainly not less talented! But no matter how much I appreciate the work of some of them, and I do, they are not the singers I grew old with so I would not call them my favorites ;)

… I would even less dare call them favorites in our over-chastised sad times, populated with countless self-entitled white knights always looking for an opportunity to tell everyone else what they should and should not do, what they should like and not like. Because what would those people say of an almost 60 years old dude openly admitting he do enjoy listening to, say, the young (Belgian) singer Angèle? Bruxelles, je t’aime, J’entends or Tout oublier? A bit like, nearing my 60 I enjoy as much as I enjoyed it in my teens, if not more, listening to 16th century French music, or reading 15 and 16th century French poetry too.

What are your thoughts on someone who has a mental age of 22 at 32 and hangs out with people in their 20’s?

Like the saying goes, ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ to which I would add, so is the creepiness.

My thoughts is that unless you are one of the adult person concerned, their age (like their gender, religion, skin color, and so on) is none of your business.

Adults spend time with whomever they fancy. That’s why they’re legally adults: they’re considered old enough to be responsible for their own actions and decisions. They don’t need your (or anyone else, not even mine) permission.

I mean, are you some kind of moral police on a crusade to force people to only spend time with people born the same year? If you are I would suggest you focus you next crusade on a much more worrying issue than their age, which is: the way they spell Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. That, we will all agree, is the surest way to spot creeps.

That, or enroll into some local class, if you live nearby some campus check if there aren’t students offering private tutoring for their own native language.

Also, if you already speak French, get an Assimil book for whatever language you want to learn. The older the edition the better (pre-80s) but even the more recent ones remain a good self-learning method, they’re just not as great as the older editions which were really great. Those books can be purchased (with or without accompanying audio recordings, highly recommended) or they can be had for much cheaper on the used market (also, most people have no idea how much better the older editions are so they can be found for even cheaper but the audio files (LPs) will often not be available). These books are 100% privacy-respecting: you’re alone without any tracking happening, there is no ‘login’ required either. Just you and your book (plus the audio files, if you want them)

And they would be right this not merely interesting. This is fascinating ;)

Or hanging out and talking about the same topics over and over and over, with never a new or novel thing to say, drinking the same beer/wine/cocktail over and over.

We were his two students and, very early on, while we were practicing in his backyard (he had no school, he had just agreed to teach us) we asked our martial art teacher what was the interest in repeating the same move over and over again instead of learning different ones. He told us that if we were really feeling that we were repeating the exact same move this meant he was failing as a teacher. That day, I realized how deeply ingrained and how wrong my very own preconceptions could be.

Obviously, martial art is not endless chatting but you get the idea: there may be something valuable to get out of seemingly repetitive and monotonous activities.

On a more general note, like already mentioned in the comments, doing repetitive things is an easy way to relax.

My health being what it is, I’m much less into intense physical activities than when I wanted to learn martial art, but I still do enjoy long walks, daily long walks. Walking is a very repetitive task, it’s just putting one foot in front of the other, sometimes for a couple hours or more. Still, doing it helps me feel so much better than not just putting one foot in front of the other for a few hours. I would not want to stop doing such seemingly boring and uninteresting task ;)

As for chatting with friends. It’s called socializing, provided one keeps it under tight control (it should not become the end-all be-all of one’s activities) it’s also an important part.

But this idea of an Aristotelian understanding of ethics vs morals is fascinating. Thank you for the link :-D

You’re more than welcome.

Also it is not obvious from your original comment that English is a secondary language for you <3

Thx (here you might want to add a blushing emoji, if there is such a thing)

French is on my bucket list, but I want to learn basic German first. Both for etymological reasons primarily

This would make sense.

Plus, ignoring any other consideration, German language has produced quite a few remarkable authors/poets/philosophers that are more than worth (re)reading. I would not want to have to decide between French and German (or English) but I can understand the desire to prioritize one above the others.

I’m gonna be a pedant here. I understand (I think) what you’re trying to express and differentiate. It’s just the words aren’t perfectly accurate.

English is obviously not my first language, but reading the good old Wikipedia it seems to me the two are rather different (like they’re in my own native French, btw ;): ethics and moral

Welcome.

Are there moderators like Reddit (The stupid ones)

Stupidity is not exclusive to any platform. It’s also not exclusive to its moderators.

What are the DOs and DON’Ts here?

Instances (the servers) can be very different from one another, and so can be communities (the subs or forums, if you prefer), each with very different type of users and very different rules. Some instances have a reputation to harbor very… radical users, so they would be better avoided unless you share the same values as they (you can block them entirely, if you want to). As for communities, take some time to read their rules and just follow them, this should keep you safe from most issues.

What’s great is that if you disagree with a community rules or with its moderators, you are freely create your own community and try to make it as popular as the one you just left. Also, unlike with Reddit, you’re free to create your own server/instance.

Cette communauté, comme la plupart des communautés de niche, est justement, trop niche pour le moment.

Pour le journaling, elle aurait peut-être sa place dans une communauté plus générale type [email protected] , qui regrouperait tous les hobbies “non digitaux”

Ou alors une communauté dédiée au papier, carnets et autres instruments d’écriture analogiques, pas juste au journal. Mais, oui, je pense que tu as raison: se contraindre à publier dans un espace commun et partagé, pour un temps du moins, histoire de fédérer, de créer de l’activité et de générer un peu plus de masse…

Ce qui reste surprenant, pour moi, c’est que le nombre d’abonnés semble avoir été multiplié par presque 10 après que je l’ai reprise en mains… mais pas le taux de participation.

Interesting question.

I have (personal) ethics, I don’t have any morals: I don’t believe in good vs evil). My ethics help decide on a case by case situation what I should (not) do as there is no predefined rule in regards to earning money, nor on how to use said money once it’s earned.

I mean, would you consider it ‘moral’ to use, say, the million of dollars one may have earned speculating on Meta or Tesla stocks, or any other ‘immoral’ company like those, to support a ‘moral’ non-profit like the EFF, or the FSF?

100%. C’est un retour à la réalité, passé l’enthousiasme des débuts.

Développer une communauté, un groupe d’utilisateurs actifs demande beaucoup de patience et d’efforts et beaucoup… d’echecs aussi, car la plupart des efforts sont voués à ne rien donner.

Ce sont des choses que, malheureusement, relativement peu de personnes sont prêtes à accepter et du coup, presque paradoxalement, ça amplifie ce phénomène d’abandon/rennoncement… cette attitude du “à quoi bon s’embêter?”

Je pense vraiment que cette “paresse” (pour le coup, j’ai pas de meilleur mot mais je ne l’utilise pas comme un jugement moral ou péjoratif) est une des choses sur laquelle tablent les gros réseaux proprios pour ne pas s’inquiéter des velléités d’indépendance de cette poignée d’entre-nous qui ont décidé de chercher ou de proposer une alternative.

Tu parles d’une communauté dont tu déplores la mort mais, dans la logique du Fediverse, la mort d’une communauté pourrait être vue comme l’opportunité de la relancer, relativement facilement, ailleurs et autrement. Bien sûr, il faut s’en donner les moyens et il faut que quelqu’un fasse le boulot (voir ma remarque précédente).

Et, non, je ne m’exclus pas de cette critique : j’ai tenté il y a peut-être 2 ans de ça de relancer une toute petite communauté qui me tenait à cœur, le démarrage a été encourageant mais, pour pas mal de raisons, je n’ai pas eu la capacité de poursuivre mon effort. Résultat ? Elle est à nouveau moribonde. Je ne sais pas quand je pourrais à nouveau m’en occuper mais j’espère toujours voir quelqu’un d’autre commencer à l’investir et, pourquoi pas, me contacter pour que je lui en file les rennes. Là encore, ce n’est envisageable que si nous disposons d’assez de participants… ce qui n’est pas le cas, loin de là.

Car, à mon avis, le vrai souci du Fediverse ne change pas : la faible masse d’utilisateurs qui s’investissent sur le long terme. Il y a des vagues d’inscriptions,a près chaque nouvelle conneries des gros réseaux… suivies d’une vague presque aussi importante de désinscription après quelques temps.

Et, par rapport à ce problème spécifique, mon avis ne change pas lui non plus: un des gros freins à l’accroissement du nombre d’utilisateurs c’est le militantisme excessif, pour ne pas dire l’extrême (et souvent abracadabrante) politisation de certains participants/communautés/instances. C’est une des choses qui fait que pas mal de nouveaux se décident rapidement à laisser tomber leur expérience avec Lemmy/Piefed/etc. et retournent dans les prés plus familiers (et sensiblement plus peuplés/animés) des réseaux sociaux des GAFAM.

Du moins, c’est que j’en conclus de mes discussions avec le type de personnes avec lesquelles je suis susceptible de parler des alternatives aux GAFAM . C’est-à-dire des gens plus âgés, comme moi, mais aussi des plus jeunes : le moralisme/prêchi-prêcha militantiste leur casse les c…astagnettes.

Nous ne sommes pas assez nombreux à participer. Et, en plus de ça, nous nous allons souvent stigmatiser le moindre contenu ou type de personnes avec lesquels nous nous sentons en désaccord. Ca n’encourage pas à participer et encore moins à poser ses bagages pour s’installer dans la durée.

First thing first, check with an eye doctor if you don’t need glasses. I would not be surprised if you needed those.

I’m so tired of TV shows and movies that I’m willing to force myself to read,

Don’t force yourself to read. And I say that as an intensive reader. Reading should not feel like a chore or something someone has to do. It’s not homework. It needs to remain fun, engaging, and exciting.

Let reading slowly become a habit, let it become progressively stronger in your activities. It’s a muscle one needs to exercise. Exactly like one would develop any new skill, progressively. No one ever learned to walk by running a marathon ;)

Edit: as suggested by others already: you may also want to consider reading print more than on screen as screens (even e-ink, but to a much lesser extent) can really become tiring for some readers.

I’m so tired of TV shows and movies that

My spouse and I have not owned a TV set since the early 00s, so you may imagine I understand how you feel about TV: we don’t miss any of it. But we also don’t force ourselves to read, ever.

I do read a lot more than my spouse, every single day (and often at night too), but we have other activities. Sketching, craft, writing (as important as reading, imho), listening to carefully selected music (by hand, not through an algorithm), spending time with one another and with people we appreciate, and so on. Edit: we also watch DVDs of carefully selected movies and series (we watch them on a computer, since we have no tv).

BTW, among those other activities there is one that should help rest your eyes a lot and rather quickly: going out for a walk. This forces your eyes to focus on a different focal point/distance than the one you usually hold a book at. It also give your eyes to get some quality light that should also help rest them (daylight is still the best light we have access to)

Try to make walking as much of a habit as reading. For me, it’s a great help to reflect more calmly on what I have just read. Thinking about the book you’re reading is at least as important as actually reading it and, sadly, is very often overlooked (books being binge read without much time left in-between to let our brain assimilate them what we just read. That part is so important in my own reading that, no matter the type of book I’m reading, I always read pen in hand to take notes and then re-read those notes/reflections to help me summarize the book and my impressions of it.