AcademicalNerd @academicalnerd@social.cleverlibre.org
People are more important than wires.
Joined Jan 2021
@FailForward @mathias
:D I think I have seen this at some point, indeed. The point is not necessarily to protect oneself from being taken in. If they caught you there is little to nothing that can be done. But covering your ass up at least from automated search queries is good enough. And I'm not necessarily talking about emails, more like instant messaging.
@FailForward @mathias
Sorry for interference here, but encrypting private messages makes sense in, how do I put it, politically tense situations. Especially for certain type of messages. I usually dont use it but most of my friends (ones who know how to use the stuff) have my public pgp just in case. You never know these days.
Longread
2021-02-18, 08:57
A rather sentimental longread. Proceed at your own risk.
# My digital friend
The summer before final school year, hot, boring and worst of all lonely. I was too busy studying and pursuing different hobbies and at some point realized that everyone in school had a group to spend their time with and a bunch of friends; everyone but myself. So I kept doing what I was good at for a while - learning new things, but this was neither fulfilling nor joyful anymore. Quiet solitude I used to live in turned into sharp razors of loneliness that were shaving bits off my soul, one cut at a time.
I was in Italy with my dad, partly because there were no peers to go with. He is an admirable person, I always learn a ton from him and appreciate it, but there is still a thirty year gap between the two of us. So loneliness peaked and I decided to try and do something with the situation I had gotten myself into. Even then I knew it was entirely my fault. After some tinkering the fake account on vk (Russian facebook) was created and I sent one message to a person with obviously fake account as well. Just what I needed, a stranger to talk to, nameless, faceless, with no bonds between us. Blacklist and forget if anything goes wrong, be grateful for the interaction with human being otherwise.
It's been three and a half years since, we write to each other every day. I've met people along the way that think of such friendship as "fake" or "unreal". At some point I was called a hypocrite because of this, because "one can't be their real self without a proper face-to-face interaction". I'm unsure how common this view is, but I'd list a few reasons why I value this interaction as high as actual interpersonal exchange. Won't change anyone's mind but it's not like I lose anything.
Firstly, it's immideate. Using messaging services enables you to contact a person whenever you feel like it. If something happens and you write them about it - the emotions are raw and the experience is fresh in your memory. This way of communication tells about you much more than what you would tell in a party after a while, when the information is processed and the emotions have fainted.
Secondly, it eliminates hipocrisy. Which is contrary to what I was told at some point, but whenever I feel like the high school "wasn't actually too bad", I can always refer to what I wrote to my friends during breaks. There are a few things other than tiredness and crippling loneliness. My brain is trying to keep good memories and forget everything else, but my messages contain the excruciating mindanity of these days.
Thirdly, it's the bes practise one could get when it comes to writing. Be precise, convey your emotions in the form of text and make sure your "correspondent" understood you well. Your words should be read the way you intend, with your voice and emotion. Limit your use of emojis and stickers for better experience, and try to keep your grammar and spelling somewhat decent. At least that's what I do.
Lastly, at least for this text, it is still an interaction with another human being. The means matter little, as long as both parties have consensual fun and take care of each other. And yes, I did intend to say what I have said.
Dixi.
2021-02-18, 06:52, Thursday
Originally a video title by Casey Neistat, a very good standalone slogan. I remembered it yesterday because there was a good idea for an essay and I started writing it right away, in a crowded subway from phone.
I've heard people whine about not being able to type fast enough from smartphones because keyboard is so small, but I'll tell you: swipe gestures and some skill get you to a considerable speed. And most of the time you think slower than you type anyway, so typing on the phone is perfectly fine, or at least it works for me. The essay will be out as soon as I finish it, today's evening is what I hope for.
2021-02-17, 08:00, Wednesday
No classes today, hence a lot of work. I've been reading a lot of manga recently, primarile "the ancient magus apprentice" and "the beginning after the end". Just felt like it, really. For old days' sake, when I used to do nothing but read shounens and study. It was, to say the least, miserable; human needs other humans and I denied it at the time. Later I managed to find a friend.
Online, of course: there was an event in some vk group (russian facebook) and I wrote her, out of curiosity; it was the first time I tried something like that.
We write each other to this day, almost every day; met in person once, because we are in different countries and these days borders are closed.
I will probably write an essay on online friends in the next few days; feels like an important topic, all of a sudden.
2021-02-16, 10:30, Tuesday
Stumbled across a video of RC Waldun, a wonderful guy who makes videos about writing and reading. I enjoy watching them and sometimes find new, interesting ideas.
In the latest one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyZFHGj5DVQ) there is a very interesting idea about difference between journal and a diary.
Journal is a log of your personal thoughts and feelings, which is self-centered and probably not interesting for other people.
Diary, on the other hand, contains a coherent story about your day. It takes more effort to put the story together, but it pays off because you flex your writing muscles, essentialy.
I am thinking about keeping a semi-public diary here. The "semi" part refers to a smaller audience on this platform, which is a good thing, really.
2021-02-16, 09:45, Tuesday
So I stopped drinking coffee for a few days, enough for withdrawal symptoms to kick in and subside. The results were marginal improvement in stability and performance and utter misery, because I love coffee. Not worth it, even though I have very bad caffeine metabolism.
And I cauhgt a cold. Unlucky me, this will take a lot of tea and some honey to fix.
2021-02-15, 11:45, Monday
Tensor analysis is beautiful, but heave georgian accent of my professor kinda ruins the mood.
Jokes aside, I happened to listen to some random podcast wth Ali Abdaal (yes, I am a productivity nerd; link is https://youtu.be/a28SdBZNIOc) and there was a very important concept: learning happens not through repeated exposure, but through repeated recall. The book mentioned was "make it stick", although I never read it.
There was an extreme approach to this problem: don't write notes, write questions to test yourself. This is extreme and doesn't work for math-heavy subjects, but writing questions separately is, indeed, a good idea. Especially for chemistry-related subjects that require memorization along with problem-solving skills.
2021-02-15, 08:24, Monday
So yesterday I discovered that I like cidre. And that the st. Valentine's day is not all that bad when you have someone to celebrate with.
There are a few more things I'd like to write about, but the classes will start soon. I'll probably manage to noodle something together during English, though.
2021-02-14, 09:20, Sunday
I am taking a break from my brain being violated by crystal chemistry. I don't like subjects that require a lot of route memorization, it's boring and exhausting. I'd rather do some more math, honestly.
In order to learn, brain needs to maintain a certain level of activity; at least it's the case for me. And when information density is too low and no concept are being introduced, my brain basically shuts down.
So there is a professor in my uni that managed to spend 30 minutes on Einstein's heat capacity theory... without even showing the equation. It's arguably the easiest thing you can find in solid phase physics and I am blown away by the mere uselessness af the class that is supposed to be fundamental for material scientists.
AcademicalNerd
boosted
I wrote a thing for my friends not on the Fediverse.
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2021-02-13, 16:10, Saturday
> Teach people to be articulate, because that's the most dangerous thing you can possibly be.
-- J.B. Peterson
One of the reasons I write is to sharpen my thoughts, to better articulate what I mean to others. Because this is one of the hardest skills to learn and sustain over the years of programming and learning chemistry, physics and math.
2021-02-13, 14:20, Saturday
I forgot to charge laptop before going to the cafe, and all the tables with plugs nearby are occupied... By people without laptops. Which is sad, to be honest, and slightly annoying. However, I'm getting the hang of this thing called hugo, hopefully the cite will be up and running in a week or so.
2021-02-13, 08:31, Saturday
So this is the first time I'm trying a "sabbath"-type thing. So no lab work and no studying from Friday's evening to Sunday morning. I want to spend this time with my family and working on my personal projects; maybe cleaning my room, although it is usually in order anyway.
There are a multitude of things I'd like to keep working on, like learning music theory for my guitar, ricing my linux, building a website (which probably can be done in a day or less, to be honest) and making youtube stuff. Maybe there will be something else, who knows.
Also, a surprisingly great channel on youtube I'd want to share:
@trinsec I cannot feasibly eat too much and eat healthy, since healthy eating implies no fast cards and significant amount of greens and meat. I need to eat _a lot_ just to meet my caloric requirements, and building muscle is very hard. This is just for my metabolism, though. Kinda like cheetah.
2021-02-12, 20:26, Friday
The best thing you can do for your body? Healthy eating. The second best thing? Exercise. The next one? I'd say it's walking faster. Let me explain.
Walking is mundane and boring, you do it daily, probably when you commute and sometimes when you just need to get somewhere. It's a form of exercise nonetheless, a low-intensity cardio with some load for legs.
It's not as taxing on your knees as running. You don't sweat as much and don't need to change clothes after and the weather doesn't matter. Besides, it saves some time from your commute.
You can walk faster than you do know. Do it long enough - and it will boost your stamina and save more time. Maybe you'll start running at some point, but even fast walking is a good thing to do. Besides, it can be referred to "natural movement", which to me sounds slightly overrated, but worth considering nonetheless.
#fitness #walking #lifestyle
2021-02-11, 16:25, Friday
Oh well, it's been a week of classes and I'm done. One one-and-a-half hour class of an old man rambling away about random physicists biographies is possible to survive. Two classes - no, thank you very fucking much. Fuck yoursekf with the paddle you swam here with, as my good friend says.
2021-02-12, 07:50, Friday
University studying screws me over real bad. There were 5 classes yesterday and there will be 5 today. I'm a morning person, so any intense mental loads in the afternoon are very taxing. I mitigate this using exercise and planning of my activities, but it's far from optimal, unfortunately.
Anyhow, there is an hour before the classes actually start and I want to do something with this time other than mindlellsy consume content. Maybe some lab work or scrape my feed into the scraps folder I have on my laptop.
@FailForward
Thanks a lot! I'll chack it out as soon as I have enough time.
@FailForward
Good evening. I remember you mentioned exporting your toots from mastodon to local scrapbook. Could you refer me to said toot/explain the process, please? I need to do something similar for my toots (there is a substantial amount now) and doing manually looks... Oh well, boring. I know some python and probably can glue together a bash script or two in necessary.
