T was almost 14 years ago that I created this gallery (using Gallery, the software) for us to upload our photos after the main page mostly contained this dreary long list of photos to be shared. Sharing lots of photos by E-mail is just poor netiquette, E-mail is not a file-sharing protocol.

One point to make was, we “don’t need no stinkin’ Facebook” (or similar). It’ll soon clock over 8 million views.

Yes, on average it’s less than a million a year, but we don’t update that gallery much anymore (got better things to do).

think we now have 3 flocks of birds we can regularly feed and easily find. They almost chase us, even before any clapping (to get their attention).

Today I opened a new jar for Bottle’s Friend, the biggest of the birds. I enjoy seeing him eat. This mix is more premium than the typical premium, there are some very expensive seeds in it.

It is kind of sad that, at least the way it seems to us, many young people and kids (young adults sometimes still act like kids) waste their live away at skinnerboxes and “apps”. They could derive so much more joy from birding. And these are living things like us, with emotions, sometimes hunger, sometimes fear.

If we teach people – preferably when they’re still young and gradually form leanings – to be kind to animals they will also learn to be kinder to other human beings. Societies thrive in empathy and collaboration.

At the park, Rianne and I sometimes teach very young kids to feed the birds instead of chasing them. We say, “they are like friends…”

ast month I began (or resumed rather) regularly blogging in this site. I had done a lot of that 20+ years ago, before Techrights existed.

As a result, many people visit this site again.

This site is personal however. It’s a personal site and I don’t want to make myself the story.

Sister sites do a better job covering various issues, but keeping the blog in this site active means I can offload more personal anecdotes, improving s/n ratio in those other sites.

Everyone has something one can contribute to society

think it’s fair to say that this year’s summer vacation is still the best I’ve had since I was a teenager. Vacations are always fun, but this year I feel very productive and this coming Monday we plan to do a long journey for Rianne’s birthday, then we’ll enjoy another week of this 3-week vacation.

We are not keeping idle, as being too idle leads to boredom and boredom can lead to misery. Sitting in front of the TV all day long, for instance, was never associated with contentment. Many old (elderly) people do this as they have limitations on their movement and motoric activity, plus they’re retired.

Contrary to what IBM and GAFAM want us to think (because they can barely pay salaries anymore), retirement at 40 isn’t feasible.

have just taken a look at 12-month trends in Clownflare. It’s not hard to see how in the past year GNU/Linux steadily gained. Another year or two like this and the international average might show 10% or more for GNU/Linux.

In statCounter it already says 9% or more.

think it is fair to say that climate change is accepted by the vast majority, even some former sceptics, who cannot recall summers this dry and shortages (of water, food etc.) so severe.

It’s not because of “Iran” or “fertilisers”, it is due to human activity, the human population doubling in half a century, as well as pollution, industrialisation, overconsumption and so on.

Climate change and global warming are more urgent issues than ever before.

“Days continue to lengthen from equinox to solstice and summer days progressively shorten after the solstice, so meteorological summer encompasses the build-up to the longest day and a diminishing thereafter, with summer having many more hours of daylight than spring.”

ianne’s birthday is 4 days away (ahead) and we plan to go travel to be merry. A week later it’s Bank Holiday, then it’s end of summer and end of our holiday based on the “meteorological summer” definition.

We won’t let inappropriate communications interfere with our holidays, we’re instead getting on with our lives while keeping productive.