@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

bobthomson70

@bobthomson70@mastodon.social

Glaswegian who left for The Dordogne at 50, devopsing remotely for Euros for a job. Likes many things outside work and STEM, writing, drawing, synths, dogs. Living with chronic illnesses since 2007, Crohn's from a dodgy pizza, chronic kidney disease from the Crohn's medication. So it goes.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

mekkaokereke , to random
@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io avatar

Some of my friends that are convicted felons are 100% innocent of what they were accused and convicted of. Some of my friends that are convicted felons are guilty, and absolutely did what they were accused of. I don't make fun of people for being convicted felons, and I don't ostracize them. Instead, I don't let bad people around me. My definition of bad focuses on the choices that a person made in the past, and the choices that they make now. Some of the worst people, will never be felons.

1/N

bobthomson70 ,
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@craignicol @mekkaokereke nah man, they will double down, x10 on woke/deep state/whatever other abject shite they spout, mark my words.

bobthomson70 ,
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@Ringtheory @craignicol @mekkaokereke aye, these folks just have no bottom to their barrel.

Being 54 now, I look back and think how us UK folks laughed at Reagan then we saw Dubya, and Trump and then Bawjawz and Truss and Sunak at home; It's just a descent into a hole of never-ending charlatan, grifters, and we need to pull out of the dive somehow on both sides of the pond.

bobthomson70 , to random
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@pluralistic had to link to enshittification for my blog post on the state of IT work, looking back over my 30 years doing it, would love it if you gave it a read. https://medium.com/@bobthomson70/the-real-skills-shortage-in-it-tech-186fd4d08ef1

rbreich , to random
@rbreich@masto.ai avatar

Wall Street tycoon Stephen Schwarzman endorsed Trump yesterday.

He joins a growing list of billionaires who once condemned the former president but are now flocking to his campaign.

Never underestimate how quickly billionaires will sell out our democracy for tax cuts.

bobthomson70 ,
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@rbreich billionaires have no truck with democracy as it is one person, one vote and they prefer it like it actually is: Where they get to buy influence, and a hearing for what they want, making them even more money.

There is no true democracy as long as there is no real control over money donations to politicians, as it is now in the US and U.K.

It’s an illusion.

rbreich , to random
@rbreich@masto.ai avatar

Amazon squeezed sellers and jacked up prices.

Apple used its power to kill off challengers.

Ticketmaster/Live Nation leveraged its dominance to jack up ticket costs and tack on massive fees.

Each company is facing an antitrust lawsuit from the Biden admin.

This is a big deal.

bobthomson70 ,
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@rbreich the problem with those legal processes is this: by the time the fines and measures kick in, the profits made illegally have already been distributed to those who benefit years before.
It needs to not be allowed to get to this stage.

ElleGray , to random

so. in January I was in a bad car accident. fractured spine, ruptured discs, cracked pelvis, broken arm. last 4 months have been v hard. tonight though I'm going back to my adult dance class for the first time. I wasn't sure I'd ever even walk properly again so this is a moment for me. a good one

bobthomson70 ,
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@ElleGray someone in that recovery is going to love to read this. Glad you got back to what you loved.

mastodonmigration , to random
@mastodonmigration@mastodon.online avatar

Really disappointed in Biden today. Believe given climate crisis we should be doing everything we can, including buying inexpensive EVs from China, to hasten the transition from carbon based fuels.

That said, certainly international relations are complex and we don't have all the information or know all the constraints he is wrestling with.

In any case, would never threaten to withhold electoral support. These issues pale measured against a Trump win and the incumbent end of democracy.

bobthomson70 ,
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@mastodonmigration @Lassielmr the fact that the GOP and orange man boy, portray Biden as a “radical left wing Marxist” says more about how they see themselves than him. As a European it seems a totally laughable characterisation.

bobthomson70 ,
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@mastodonmigration @Lassielmr preaching to the converted there mate. If I were a U.S. voter it’d be a no brainer for me.

To me, the longer term issue in the US is the same as in the U.K.: Long in the tooth democracies, with voting and election setups that no longer work well in the current times, and legal setups that no longer work well enough, nor speedily enough, when confronted with bad faith actors of the worst sort, as is clearly evident now.

TatianaIlyina , to random
@TatianaIlyina@mas.to avatar

An incomplete list of inappropriate comments I received from my male colleagues recently:

  • You look furious.
  • You have a quiet voice. A woman from Ukraine in our department also has a quiet voice.
  • You look nervous.
  • You gave me an angry look at the elevator and I didn't dare to discuss a project with you.
  • You are so modest.
  • You don't have to get so confrontational.

They reduce our professional interactions to an imaginary emotional state of mine.

Do men talk like this to each other?

bobthomson70 ,
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@TatianaIlyina to me it clearly comes from rigid gender role expectations. Men get a free pass on any emotion related to anger, or stoicism, but not empathetic expressions or being openly sad or such. Women get the exact opposite, expected to be empathetic and easily upset but never quiet or angry, which is forbidden.

ElleGray , to random

this is mars’s moon phobos eclipsing the sun. this is what passes for a total solar eclipse there. second-rate planet. just sad

bobthomson70 ,
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@ElleGray Make Phobos Great Again!

lowqualityfacts , to random
@lowqualityfacts@mstdn.social avatar

That's crazy.
https://patreon.com/lowqualityfacts

bobthomson70 ,
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@lowqualityfacts might as well just have a few then 🤷‍♀️ 🍻

skaeth , to bookstodon group
@skaeth@writing.exchange avatar

What are your thoughts on DNF (Did Not Finish)-ing books? Do you feel guilty about it? Do you worry you missed out on something? Or are you confident in dropping a book and reaching for the next one?

At what point are you most likely to DNF, if ever? What sorts of things cause you to DNF?

My friend, book blogger Kriti, was musing on these questions a while back, and it sparked this new post: https://armedwithabook.com/dealing-with-dnf-the-practice-of-did-not-finish/

@bookstodon

bobthomson70 ,
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@skaeth @bookstodon latest ones I quit on were the 3rd Jack Reacher book (Creepy fixation with young woman Reacher met when was a girl). The Business (Iain Banks, just didn’t much care about anyone in it).

bobthomson70 ,
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@skaeth @bookstodon I am not great with fiction books and often find them a struggle. Read a lot more in youth and reading short amounts of work material made me favour non fiction for years. Fiction was just sporadic. 1/2

bobthomson70 ,
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@skaeth @bookstodon In lockdown I restarted the fiction habit with those first two Reacher ones. Easy page turners. Then set about reading Banks’ books I missed. Read 2 of the non SF and 2 SF ones. Trying to get into the habit again. Works best for me if I leave the phone out the room or away from the bed / bed side table and read instead. 2/2

bobthomson70 ,
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@skaeth @bookstodon the last thing I really enjoyed and ploughed through was Robert Llewelyn’s Gardenia trilogy which hardly anyone seems to have read.

bobthomson70 ,
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@skaeth @bookstodon it’s a trilogy of what if novels about a privileged cishet white guy who gets transported into 3 different possible futures of the world dealing with climate change. One is kind of pastoral communal subsistence farming but with some high tech transport. One the global weather is so astonishingly violent folks live at altitude off the surface and the last folks conclude it’s men who fucked up the world and it’s sexist but matriarchal.

bobthomson70 ,
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@skaeth @bookstodon it was just very readable and speculation and world building is always interesting to me.

bobthomson70 ,
@bobthomson70@mastodon.social avatar

@skaeth @bookstodon and right up your street, it was self punished on Unbound.

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