Notices by Srijit Kumar Bhadra (srijit@shonk.social), page 2

@aral@mastodon.ar.al

This is good news.

It would have been nice if the blog shared the Mastodon accounts of all the Board of Directors.

#Mastodon #Fediverse

A nostalgic reflection of my past

Yes, almost!You should date a girl who reads.
Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes, who has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she has found the book she wants. You see that weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a secondhand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow and worn.She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.Buy her another cup of coffee.Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry and in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.She has to give it a shot somehow.Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who read understand that all things must come to end, but that you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.Or better yet, date a girl who writes.~ Rosemarie Urquico

If you have reached this far, then let me tell you that I know two of them very closely.

#Book #Books #BookLover #Booklovers

@notesnook@fosstodon.orgI hope you'll give Notesnook another chance once v3 is out!What is the expected release date of v3?

One has to keep learning how to regulate emotions throughout life due to continuously changing environment and ecosystems around us.

I found Nawal Mustafa's tips to regulate emotions useful.

#MentalHealth #Wellness

cc: @srijit@mas.to

Calmness, amidst adversities, is a human superpower. This is not an innate ability. It has to be mastered. The earlier this realisation comes, it is better for our mind and health.

I am still struggling to master this propensity. This link is worth looking into for help.

#SelfEsteem #SelfWorth #SelfConfidence #MentalHealth #Wellness

cc: @srijit@mas.to

Journalist Jason Koebler reaffirms my thought that an instance of Fediverse is not difficult to sign up and use. Though he talks about Mastodon here, it is applicable for Fediverse.So, Mastodon:

1. Not difficult to sign up for
2. Not difficult to use
3. Has an app like every other social media network
4. Not owned by world’s richest man
5. Not owned by a company whose main platform has been credibly accused of facilitating genocide by the United Nations
6. Not funded by the guy who made the last place, which sold itself to the world’s richest man
7. Doesn’t have a crypto thing going on
8. Free and open source
9. Administered by a crowdfunded nonprofit
10. Decentralized, portable, and interoperableI have been contacting Indian media outlets and journalists via email and private conversations for the past few weeks, asking them to publish their work on Fediverse. They most likely know everything there is to know about Fediverse and Mastodon. Since I value their work and thought that having them in Fediverse would have been advantageous for them in the mid term, I made the requests. My requests were met with silence and nominal response. They prefer Facebook, Instagram, X and Threads since they believe that they can connect with their audience better than those few in Fediverse.

Now, after reading Jason Koebler's article, I have a better understanding of this context.Anyways, I am using Threads, and I will continue to use Threads, because I am a pragmatic person who wants to connect with readers wherever they are because my livelihood and my reporting relies on it. If Threads "wins," I will submit and use it daily, probably for the rest of my career. Right now, I feel like my brain is falling out of my skull at all times because in order to spread the articles we publish on this upstart website, I need to think about the slightly different ways in which I will share it on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Instagram, LinkedIn, BlueSky, TikTok, etc. All things considered, I’d like to pick one and stay there, but that will result in fewer people reading our work and not meeting our readers wherever they are, which isn’t a smart move at this juncture. So, I’ll keep using Threads, but I will not become an evangelist for one of the biggest companies in the world because it is slightly less bad than the alternative, when an actually moral alternative with none of that baggage exists.#MastodonIndians #MastIndia #India

cc: @mastodonindians@a.gup.pe

@petergleick@fediscience.org

Bengaluru, home to nearly 13 million people and a global IT hub, is experiencing a severe water scarcity now.

Reference: https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-climate/what-caused-the-water-crisis-in-bengaluru-9223131/

#ClimateChange #Climate #Water #India #Bengaluru #NammaBengaluru #MastodonIndians #MastIndia

cc: @mastodonindians@a.gup.pe

@aditi_muses@mastodon.social

I look forward to your posts, in Fediverse, from you and like minded journalists like you.

Continue your excellent work.

My solitude

I like to have coffee or tea alone in small non-branded outlets of Bengaluru. My favorite choice is a small table, in a non-smoking zone, with one or two empty chairs, while I occupy the other one. I want the other tables to be full without being too noisy. If the music gets louder, I request for the volume to be lowered. A hot cup of filter coffee or cold coffee with either a book or newspaper or any reading app on mobile becomes my best companion for the next one to one and half hours. Sometimes I prefer tea.

On a weekend, it is fun to tour the neighborhood and discover a new coffee and tea shop. A couple of them deliver quality that exceeds expectations.

As I continue to read or do my own work, I enjoy seeing facial expressions and gestures from a distance without violating their privacy. Some of those are like nano stories.

Sometimes I see partial reflections of my own past. The other day I went down memory lane when a college going person got up from their seat, fetched a paper napkin from the counter and dumped it in front of their friend while feigning anger. I smiled to myself.

I also have a tendency to nod asleep while reading. It seems like the owners don't appear to care.

#Solitude #Alone #NammaBengaluru

TL;DR is that I should not give anybody the ability to make me feel less valuable, smile less, have a bad attitude or ruin my day. No one can have that much control and power over my life.

#SelfEsteem #SelfWorth #SelfConfidence #SelfHatred #SelfPity #Silence

RE: https://shonk.social/notes/9osvy168qgvu00tn

I wrote earlier that the presence of Indians, from India, in Fediverse is insignificant as on today. I don’t think the situation has improved during the last three months.

Recently I came across an article in Mint Lounge where journalist Shrabonti Bagchi shares the following regarding Mastodon.I do have an account on Mastodon but even signing up for it feels hard and difficult to understand (what are “instances”?). I don’t want to be on Github, I just want my daily dose of LoLs and fights with men’s rights activists.It is unfortunate and surprising that Shrabonti Bagchi found Mastodon challenging to understand and signup. She is a senior journalist and her opinions will obviously influence readers in India. It seems likely that her ideas on Mastodon are not isolated. I read and appreciate many of her columns or reports on Mint Lounge.

The best analogy of Fediverse, including Mastodon, is email. If we understand Gmail, GMX mail, Proton mail, Tuta mail, Outlook mail, Yahoo mail etc., then we should understand Fediverse. Fediverse is a collection of interconnected servers, also called instances, that run software compatible with a set of open protocols. Isn’t that similar to email?Fediverse is a common name for social media sites that cooperate instead of competing. One can sign up for just one site, and follow anyone in the world, just like sending them an email.In my opinion, the sign up process, in any Fediverse instance, is much simpler compared to X, Instagram, Facebook etc. All one needs is a verified email account, username and password. What further simplification is required?

This article also provides excellent clarity regarding what is Fediverse and how it might affect creators. I will be glad to help anybody get started with Fediverse.

#MastodonIndians #MastIndia #India

cc: @mastodonindians@a.gup.pe

@Theorem_Poem@mstdn.social

Thank you for sharing this interesting note.What took Singh a long time to accept grudgingly was obvious to my father from day one: some children don’t react well to fear or pressure and cannot, therefore, be scared or browbeaten into academic excellence.This true not just for academics. This is true for sports, music, arts and every other pursuits in life. No child can be browbeaten into excellence in any field.

Dry scalp? Blocked ears? Crusted eyes? Our bodies produce many different unusual, sometimes repellent secretions, and their function doesn’t always seem entirely clear. But each has their own important role, which often goes unappreciated.Many of us may not be aware about what bodily secretions like blood, wax and tears can tell us about our health.

#Human #Health #HealthAndWellness #HealthCare

There Will Come Soft Rains

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white,

Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.~Sara Teasdale

Reference: https://poets.org/poem/there-will-come-soft-rains

#Poem #human #Humanity #Nature #Disillusionment

@klaremitte@troet.cafe

Thank you for sharing. This unambiguously explains the difference between freedom and privilege in one line.

#Freedom #Privilege #Humanity #Caring #Society

Privacy definition for a school student

Privacy is the right to keep personal information and activities protected from others without permission. It allows you to control who knows what about you. Others can include family members, friends, strangers, organizations and companies.

The right to privacy is referenced in Article 12 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

#Privacy #Surveillance #DataProtection #HumanRights

@puppygirlhornypost@transfem.social

After markup and taxes, 1 € ~ 94 ₹ (Indian Rupee). I wish the rates were lower for donations from India to be more effective.
😮💨

#Sigh #Rant

@kingslyj@mas.to @mastodonindians@a.gup.pe @nammabengaluru@fedigroups.social faux open non-community eventThis is an interesting observation. Let us appreciate the fact that, to the best of my knowledge, Linux Bangalore and later FOSS.IN were pioneers in creating awareness of Free and open-source software in Bengaluru and, to some extent, rest of India. Also Atul Chitnis is no longer with us, since last eleven years, to pariticpate in such discussions. That chapter is closed and we have moved on.

#MastodonIndians #MastIndia #India #NammaBengaluru

Dear Bengalureans,

Ever since FOSS.IN, Bengaluru has always been a home of Free and open-source software developers, evangelists and enthusiasts. I believe that is just a matter of time before Fediverse is lovingly embraced by Bengalureans.

ActivityPub (a W3C standard) based Fediverse provides several benefits compared to traditional centralized social networking platforms such as decentralization, user choice, reduced risk of data breaches and misuse of personal information, enhanced user control, increased resiliency, greater leeway for content creation, alternate monetization models, self hosting etc. Nearly all Fediverse platforms are free and open-source software.

I look forward to you, Bengalureans, joining The Fediverse and actively participating with vibrant posts using the hashtag #NammaBengaluru. However, in reality, many of us are not using hashtags. So I created a new Fediverse Group.

If anyone mentions the address !@nammabengaluru@fedigroups.social in a post, it will be boosted to everyone who follows the Group. (Note: adding ! at the start of the address will not boost the post). For now, I have chosen to add a restriction of approving new followers. Only public posts and replies are boosted. Private messages to the group are rejected.

Let's hope both the hashtag #NammaBengaluru and the Fediverse Group !@nammabengaluru@fedigroups.social will be popular.

#MastodonIndians #MastIndia #India

cc: @mastodonindians@a.gup.pe

@hello@fedigroups.social
It will be nice if you help me to understand how are you different from https://a.gup.pe/ and https://chirp.social/? Both seem to work well with Mastodon, Akkoma, Sharkey, Iceshrimp, Misskey, Firefish etc. What am I missing?