I think that’s a great way to put it, “Platonic ideal love.”

And I somewhat agree that there is a use for distinguishing from romantic love, but I think it would be even more helpful if there were more descriptions for the different kinds of love, like one for companionship love, loving a family member, loving a passion, etc. They somehow all get lumped together to “love.” Maybe that’s a limitation of English as a language too.

I agree, meanings change throughout time. I guess I should have asked should it mean something different? To say platonic love only means non-romantic seems like it belittles the richer meaning of Plato’s views of love as being able to love a passion or eventually beauty itself. How do fully realize to love the concept of beauty itself without first experiencing romantic love? I don’t think a person needs to experience romantic love to experience beauty initially, but to achieve the most developed version of love that Plato describes, how could a person appreciate that without experiencing it?

Reading more about Plato’s thoughts about love, I think I understand what you mean; most of what he described was about the love of questioning and thought. I guess I’m just trying to read between the lines that even if Plato did not value romantic love as highly, is it not a part of “beauty itself”?

I’m not sure what you’re using it for, but I use an ebook reader called eBoox. It’s free with no ads, not sure if open-source. I had bookmarks but I don’t think annotations. I like it because it can open my epub, mobi, and pdf books, change the font and font size, sepia and night modes, has many options for how to change the page, and fairly simple UI. The creator markets it as a cutesy cat thing, but that is only present on the initial setup and then it’s just a regular e-reader app.

Oh man, I have many many written down. I quickly found out that there are many schools of thought for approaching woodworking, so it’s helpful to think about what you want to make and what you like or dislike as you try different things. I decided I wanted to go the sharpening route, as opposed to continually buying electro-hardened blades, and I wanted to use as simple as tools as I can learn how. This ends up being axes, chisels, saws, and I did get a hand-crank grinder from 1910 for those heavy grinding situations.

I almost always have the Mortise and Tenon podcast on as I’m doing things. Joshua and Mike’s discussions really resonate with me and the philosophical elements really prompt some introspection. Joshua has two books that I’ll probably get soon. Otherwise, I bought Sharpen This and the Anarchists’ Toolkit; anything from Lost Art Press is probably worth the money.

As far as channels, Matt Estlea has many great videos for the essentials of sharpening and good form for chiseling and sawing. He also has other videos that I would consider “optional” but I did end up making his sharpening block stop, because it makes sharpening quicker. I may try to do free hand honing though, since the heavy cambre is difficult with a honing guide.

Paul Sellers has so many great videos. I especially loved him making a bench without having a bench. So many people show you how to make things already having many other tools and setups.

James Wright (Wood by Wright) has some really good videos and offers honest opinions. Beavercraft has some nice simple ones for getting started with carving. I haven’t explored one for tool restoration yet; if you have any that you suggest, I’d be happy to hear them. I eventually want to just make my own wooden planes.

That sounds like a unique experience. When I had a running coach for a short while, he said I should curl my toe down as I pull my leg back. The lack of exercising that bottom foot muscle often contributes to flat-footedness. This wasn’t probably an issue when people walked barefoot because we naturally dug into the earth for traction.

Do your feet ever get sore?

I can relate with the passion for learning. I think that is so invigorating. Since you like physics and reading, if you haven’t already, I would highly recommend Project Hail Mary and Artemis, each by Andy Weir. He is an astrophysicist, so his works occur how they would likely physically happen as we understand physics currently. Super neat but different plots for each.

Thank you. I wholeheartedly agree, learning to work with nature such as wood, instead of imposing our will on it definitely gives me perspective on considering our connection with nature. In the modern era, much of how we connect with nature is removed or sterilized.

I’m really glad to hear you sing. There are so many ways music and rhythm weave through our lives. I expect a follow up post if you Snow White like 20 birds onto your arms!

I have tried a few. Duolingo seemed to be good for making it fun to get interest but a lot of it was semi-random vocabulary. Try the Mango app for more practical conversation practice. It has flash cards that remind me of Anki that are nice for reinforcing memorization. It is free but I think has a premium option now.

Also, Tandem for practicing conversation with real people that speak the language via text, voice message, call, or video call.

Thank you for the list of suggestions; that’s really helpful. I haven’t been on Android in a while, is the Gcam app noticeably better than a stock camera app? What sorts of things would it do better? Low lighting or blur reduction?

I agree about the ROM. I’d really like to have something that is simple and looks to have continued support when necessary for security and other major updates. I also agree about the camera. It seems to be a deciding factor for smartphones. The last I checked the Pixels had excellent sensors but had some camera software issues that I believe were eventually resolved. I’m hoping that isn’t an issue if I’m just using a basic OS.

All spot-on advice above. I don’t work in IT but just wanted to add that I learned that the hard way, many managers are simply not good at their job and know they can pull a bait-and-switch with newer employees. It takes a little bit of experience to feel confident enough to say “That’s not what I agreed to.” In the nursing world they call that someone’s nursing voice.

What helped me and might help you is reassuring yourself that what you’re currently doing is not what was originally discussed, and you are looking for a role doing X. It’s nothing personal toward them, it’s simply “I am looking for this certain role and quality that is not available in this current role.” I personally hated confrontation, so sticking with objective aspects helped make that uncomfortable change.

There is a really cool motivational speaker that talked about how people have the idea that “success will lead to happiness,” but it’s actually the opposite, “happiness fuels success.” That doesn’t necessarily mean more money, but he said people that can find happiness around them instead of waiting for it are more fufilled. What I took away is that it’s good practice to dig deep and think about the good things in our lives instead of waiting for X to happen to be happy. It’s difficult to explain, but I think he means not to put the control of our fulfillment with an external factor (job, money, etc). I think where people get sucked in is a little success gives you that high for a while, until they need to find another success, and keep needing to fuel that happiness machine.

That must have been a cool experience. There was/is an r/iwantout that was nice to get some local experience of some expats. I’m sure every place has its pros and cons. Id love to visit more places and get a feel for the culture and lifestyles.

But I agree, making time for just doing something that give you that spark of joy is pretty important. It seems too easy to get sucked into the cycle of bills, life tasks, credit, etc. Does anyone think of that on their deathbed? From I gather, people think of the important people and experiences they have had.

I’ve never heard of those. I looked them up and they look super fun! Like a skateboard and rollerblades had children.

…and he says, “I can bearly stand up!”

Sure, small groups of closed-minded people can easily become echo chambers. For everyone else, safe spaces can be a way to support thoughts or feelings that may not otherwise be expressed and discussed. I guess the question becomes “What percentage of safe spaces are made up of mostly close-minded people?” If you assume that most people are close-minded, then you are correct.

I would definitely have to say my wife. She inspires me to be a better person and my life has been exponentially better since I have known her. Don’t get me wrong, the relationship has been a LOT of work. But every ounce is worth it. And I would not have had the chance to be with her without my dad teaching me a solid work ethic. That with my patience/persistence/determination has gotten me to so many better spaces. I’ve definitely learned to highly value those good people around.

الحَمدُ لِلّه

I’ve had a good experience with an old Kindle 3G and the Calibre program. You can get the old Kindles pretty cheap and they don’t have the built-in ads and some of the slightly useless features of the new ones.

That, or like the16bitgamer mentioned, an iPad has good options for free ebook apps without ads or tracking. I found this one called eBoox that has great usability and no ads. It’s weirdly marketed as a “cute” ebooks app, but it’s honestly better than the stock one and doesn’t actually have cats or those pictures that are in the description in the actual app.

Yeah I wish my doctor would check my prostate using lube, or at least a glove.

Kidding, kidding. My doctor actually said the best practice is no longer to routinely check prostate via digital rectal exam (DRE) because it doesn’t indicate prostate issues any earlier or more accurately than checking a blood PSA level.

I can only imagine that a cervical exam is very uncomfortable. And being that I work in the medical field, I have assisted obtaining cervical swabs. I will say that some providers are pretty focused on getting a good exam or swab and seem to forget that it is a person they are working with. I would definitely mention that it was especially uncomfortable last time and see if they can go slower or anything. If not, maybe get the exam from a different provider, if possible. Some people’s technique just does not include the comfort of the patient.

I currently journal and think an anonymous blog would be a neat idea, but I’ve never actually blogged.

Do any of you have a recommendation? Medium? Self host? I think the ability to search, reference, and download a copy would be ideal.