When Snowden showed us the NSA leak, When Putin’s exposed by Navalny the “prick”, When COVID-19 hits hard like a brick….
The active of us, they scream and they try The rest of the world, observes and goes by, The climate, the plastic….we’re going to die? Scientists tell us, there is no more time: the bees they are dying, the ocean is hot, the corals are bleaching, the people are fucked;
The voices of all who tell us the truth, Became like a music, repeating on mute.
And who has the time to care or to act, When Putin decides it is time to attack: bombs and guns, dead people in slums; fake news, fake clues, fake people, CONFUSE! Remember Iraq and Afganistan? The Syrian migrants, the sound of a gun? Remember the lies, remember the dead? Remember the suffering and the tears you shed?
Now go back to bed! These problems you see, they will never end.
And when you wake up, just use your “smart” phone One thumb is enough to scroll all alone, And read yet again, how others still scream, And how nothing changes, the future is grim.
A scandal, a war, corruption, or all, They roll day by day, tiktoking away, What’s new for today?
You’re busy all day, consuming, consumed Confused and abused, your anger diffused I hope you’re amused!
If you call a software “free” then you should not trade for it. It means, it is given to you without any conditions attached to it. You should not give your data to them, your attention (ads), your currency and so forth. You can’t say “free software” and sell it.
That’s not free in any universe, and the language is confusing. Call it Software with the Source Code Open (public). Public Source Code Software. And then you can talk about what you are allowed to do with it, such as you can modify it, copy it, distribute it, etc..
If say Mozilla calls their VPN as “free” as in “the source code is open and you can ‘fork’ it”, but they charge money for the service….it makes 0 sense. I can “fork” the code, ok, but can I use it with their VPN servers? No. Then what is the point of that!? Call the VPN client as “Public Source Code Software” that can be Edited/Shared/Copied or whatever “license” you want to attach to it. And call it a day. I am not saying they do that, but I see in their FAQ this:
Weird to say their “competitors” are “free” VPNs. Anyhow…
Imagine if I say “We have free applepies come and get some”.
You come to my place and I say “It costs you 15$ a pie”. Because you see, the recipe for the applepie is free, you can come and get it and make your own applepie, if you buy the ingredients and cook it yourself….
This would be ridiculous. I can call my applepie as “free applepie recipe” and I’d be a lot more clear. But that’s how they are doing with many “free and open source software” that are sold. Imagine the fuckery.
I am quite annoyed by this “free software” as in “freedom” but not “free beer”, whatever the bullshit. Look, if this X piece of software is called “Free Software” but I have to trade my data, or currency, or attention to it, then it is EVERYTHING but free.
Insane how the word “free” makes 0 sense nowadays.
At the end of the day, if humans were not to forcefully live under a trade system where ownership and the accumulation of stuff is important for trading reasons, they would not give a shit about these. They would make some software and whatever, forget about licenses. Take it, fork it, share it, who the fuck cares. The only reason they care about it today, is because they can lose their trade advantage. If you take my shit (software) and trade it, I will lose. ’cause I also have to trade for food and stuff. So this system forces us to be scumbags with each other.
I created a lot of books, all are available here https://www.tromsite.com/books/ – are they “free”, what license are they under? People ask.
Fuck this nonsense. I do not trade them so I do not care. They are there and are trade-free for anyone, you do not have to give me anything in return. Do what you want with them. That’s how we all should be. And I had to invent this trade-free thing/idea simply because the “free” had no more meaning in today’s world.
The struggle is real, companies, charlatans – well merchants of all shapes and forms – are gonna maximize their trade advantage and skills, and in doing so they are abusing, raping, concepts like “free”.
If a software is only available to you for a limited amount of time, then you have to trade currency to use it, IT IS NOT FREE.
If a software locks certain features unless you trade currency to unlock them, then IT IS NOT FREE.
If a software puts ads into it, so you have to trade your attention, then IT IS NOT FREE.
If a software mines your data, IT IS NOT FREE.
Got it? 😁
We have a trade-free library of hundreds of apps here https://www.tromjaro.com/apps/ – these are properly “free” apps. That’s the difference.
Humans…wasting their time on this planet with licenses, rules, laws, fuckery….focus on solving cancer, explore other worlds, understand the nature, etc..
Around 2005-2007 I was swimming in the online world. I had my own blog, and I was following other blogs too. Seemed genuine. You were following brains, and some were interesting. Others followed your brain. It was nice.
Even when it came to videos I was using at least 3 platforms, one of which was Youtube. Posting on Youtube could get you random views and lots of engagement, out of nowhere. It was more real. At least that’s how it felt.
In 2011 I was able to release an Internet documentary. It went a bit viral. Others released similar documentaries/videos back then and they got a sort of reach. We were screaming about how fucked up our society is, and some of us also about what we could do to change that.
It kinda worked.
I remember those “activists” who would go out on the streets trying to make the rest aware of similar things. Like these guys:
And I was thinking….man they have no chance to make anyone stop and listen. Because they were in the middle of a movement. Like a physical movement. People moving from their places to other places. Jobs. They were out to trade. Trade their skills, time, energy in order to be able to have a roof over their heads, access to food, healthcare and so forth. Mostly via the currency called “money”.
These zombified people had no time to listen and think. Imagine a subway full of these workers….they NEED to go to their job. Are obliged to. They cannot stop.
So I thought it is pointless to intervene in that environment. That’s why I chose the Internet. The Internet felt more like a park. A place where people went in their free time from their jobs, to explore new things. it was new. And not so busy.
That’s why it worked to create new things and have others pay some attention to them.
Not anymore!
The society we live in is based on trades as I keep on saying and as it is so obvious. You trade, I trade, your mom trades, your dad trades. Everyone is forced, compelled, and incentivized to do that all of their lives. This has created a rat race, inequality, and overall shitty behaviors, zombifying all humans.
And now the park has become the subway.
The trade world took several years to fully migrate from the offline to the online. Now we do not have blogs anymore since Facebook provided humans with an easy way to share their thoughts, photos and videos, at the expense of trading for that. They lied that their service is free. Humans had to trade their data, attention (via ads), and currency to reach more people. But Facebook took off and no one would bother having their own blog.
Youtube was not a video sharing platform anymore, but a video trading platform. You could convert your views into currency, and youtube inserted ads into your face to make you a better consumer. You traded again your attention and data to youtube.
Facebook became a place where you trade with them, but also where people did not simply post their thoughts there, they used their reach to trade for currency or products. What posts? There you see ads with ads. Youtube ironically called their users as “creators”, while these zombies all they cared was how to make more views (again) to trade for a new car, a new house, paying the rent.
Google, Facebook, and a few more companies started to orchestrate the Internet. What you search, what you see, what you do not see, what incentivizes you to post a video or to write a post….all directed by a few companies that all they wanted was the same old thing: to trade.
What was once a park, it is now a subway full of zombies that go somewhere, to trade. Attracted like a powerful magnet, the idiots go to TikTok, Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, and the like, all because they are sucked in by a combination of tremendous power and influence from the part of these companies, coupled with the non-interesting life that most workers have, and lastly the fact that on these platforms many can become traders themselves.
The Internet is not a park, is a subway. Even worse, it is a bazaar. A place mostly full of useless shit where the sellers harass you to buy their shit.
That’s the Internet now. All of those Youtube “creators”, Instagram “influencers”, Facebook Pages, and so on, are most, if not all, merchants. Most of the online content is shit, for the sake of trading it. Most of the platforms are bazaars. There is no more park anymore. Most care about the views, the engagement, the likes…platforms care to optimize for these, for ads, for money making. It is an ugly place.
So now if I want to say something important to humans, and I want to do it online, I feel like those people in a subway practicing their “activism”. Seems pointless. Everyone in the online world is going somewhere: check the Twitter, check Youtube, watch Neetflix, see what friends posted on Facebook…there is no more casual walk in the Internet world to discover new things, to stop and listen for a bit.
But yeah….despite this I am continuing my work. I will release a new documentary this year, even if I know very well that it won’t have any big impact. I continue with the 30+ projects that we have. I see no alternative. I could choose the Online over the Offline in 2007. But now what can I choose?
It is ok, this species will disappear eventually and our trace in the Universe won’t exist. At least that makes me more relaxed to think about. 😀
Now I am in pain. A lot of. Right side of my throat hurts like a hundred big needles got stuck there. I had a look. I see white spots. Throat ulcers very likely. I had this for about a week. I woke up so many times last night simply because of so much pain. Eating is something I hate right now because it hurts the most. Sleeping makes my throat dryer and in about 1h I wake up with tremendous pain. Talking is very uncomfortable. I want this to end.
This is me and my pain now 😀 :
Only warm tea is helping me alleviate the pain. I’ve been to the doctor. She looked for 15 seconds and said it is a virus infection and to take ibuprofen if it hurts. Now go home. Fuck them, today I have another appointment and I will make sure to insist to give me some pain killers and more explanations for my situation. I had COVID and this started after that COVID episode. I also took a lot of ibuprofen when COVID hit since I had fever for several days. I’ve read that ibuprofen can also cause such mouth ulcers. I also fucked up since I did some gargling with water and salt (usually this helps me when in such pain), but I exaggerated and put a ton of salt in the water. Hurt like a bitch.
Then I also used another spray that was for infection+pus….and that also fucking hurt. Now I bought something for canker sores and the doctor said is fine to use it. Hurts less but still…I also tried several painkillers. Nothing works.
This is me having a tear:
Man it really hurts and it is so uncomfortable. Even my ear hurts. Painful pains that last for many days, or longer, are (of course) the fucking worst. I had kidney stones and here’s a post I did about it. That was way worse, tho what I experience now it is getting closer to that experience if it keeps on lasting. I forgot about that kidney stone event. And that’s normal. And that’s my point.
It will go away.
That I know for sure. May take days or a week or so, but eventually it will go away. And this is the point of this post. You know when you are in a lot of pain and your health sucks balls and you think: fhuck, I’m gonna die! You won’t. Except in very rare cases if you have a terminal illness, in which case this article won’t help you at all 🙁 .
I remember when I was 11 or so. I had a pain over here: (again this is still me at age 11, deal with it!).
Even now I remember how awful that pain was. I could not lift up my leg, and took months to go away. I had to learn to kick the football ball with the other leg because the right one was hurting. It is funny that I did not give up football tho, despite the pain 😁.
Several years ago I had a constant pain here: That would not go away for 2-3 fucking months. I thought I am losing my mind it was so awful. Not that painful, but fucking constant. I thought there is no life without that pain, that it will be there forever.
But eventually it went away. Took me weeks to get rid of the ghost pain tho. It got tattooed into my brain.
I also had a skin rush on my face that period of time (as you can see in this photo 😀 ): And hurt and was uncomfortable. Took me months to get rid of it.
We all have these moments. And it seems to me like that whenever we have them we feel like dying. I dream about the day when I won’t have that fucking pain. To then forget about it the next day I feel ok.
So this is a message for all of those who suffer in pain. Don’t worry, it will go away.
I cannot wait to read this post when I will have no more throat pain.
This is a show from a few days ago from the little town I live in:
It used to be this:
So messy.
Great! It seems that the world is starting to replace fireworks shows with drone shows. No more noise pollution, smoke, waste from the burned fireworks, and so forth. Sounds much much better!
Here’s a more advanced and cool example:
But I am concerned they will use them to also display some ads, like brands and promote shit…
Oh wait, they already do it!
FUCK.
Above Sydney so that everyone can see them…and loud music….so still noise pollution. What about those batteries and components for these thousands of drones that are used for such shows? Where do they go after not working anymore? Probably land-fields…
Ok ok….I know, nothing can end up well in a trade-based society. Everything gets traded, and thus marketed. Nothing is what it seems. A drone show is not just a drone show, it is an opportunity to advertise. A book is not just a book, it is an opportunity for the author to buy a new car. A piece of software is not just a piece of software, it is a way for the developer/company to collect more data, to then transform that into currency, to then transform that into holidays, houses, and fancy shit and so on for themselves.
This is the most fundamental thing that everyone should understand about our society, that we are forced and incentivized to trade. Very few people can afford to, or are willing to do things for the sake of doing things. And of course this creates a very messed-up society when you do something in order to get something else. We did that in school where the goal was to get good grades to pass the exams. Most kinds would cheat, not learn anything, because the goal was not to learn. And so it goes for our society…the goal is not to write books, do drone shows to protect the nature, create a PDF converter or whatever. Nah….
So we should not be surprised that everything goes to shit. Pollution, waste, bad products, scammy services….
Apparently today was my birthday. I have become 34 years old. Sounds old to me, but also uninteresting.The only time I still enjoyed celebrating my birthday was when I was 14. 20-bloody-years-ago. But after that I hated it. I don’t like to be put in the center of attention, especially for such a shallow thing. Then, why should I celebrate the fact that I get older?!
This is me when I was 14. Waiting for my friends to come for my birthday. Lots of them came.. They gave me many perfume bottles… It was fashionable in 2002.
Anyway. My parents still force me to semi-celebrate it because they buy me a cake and such. It is fine. I am ok with this. But I really hate these events overall. Weddings, birthdays, baby showers, new year, I hate them. I think it is because they are mainly a mindless and consumerist events. Why drag these into today’s world? Why don’t we celebrate the first time we discovered exoplanets? Neutrinos? The theory of evolution? These are the events we should celebrate every year.
In any case, I wanted to share some things about me that I think are mighty weird for today’s normality, now that I am saying I do not like celebrating my birthday nor do I care about that.
So. Here are some facts about me:
I do not celebrate anything. I do not care. But I like to have fun of course. I was/am usually the one having more fun than the rest.
I do not “go out”. I’ve been to bar/restaurants maybe 100 times in my entire life. I hate these places. Expensive, shallow, fake, annoying. I do not care about them. I love “going out” tho, in nature, for a walk, with the bike, for a swim, at the beach, mountain, etc..
I do not drink alcohol. I never did. I tried it tho. I do not like the taste or the side-effects. Actually I only drink water for the past 4 or so years because of my stomach issues.
I never did any drugs. But I am ok with trying some in the future. But just trying.
I rarely listen to music and I do not like a particular genre, tho I sometimes prefer to listen to “soundtracks” from documentaries or movies. Hans Zimmer and the like.
I do not watch movies. None. I cannot. I used to be a movie addict but then I discovered “reality”. Tho I watch tons of documentaries that are a lot more fun and interesting, and real, than movies.
I do not pay for any subscription to anything. No Netflix, Spotify, no anything like that. Except paying for the servers we have for TROM.
I do not use Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Tiktok or anything of the sort. And youtube I watch through Invidious. I use Friendica and Peertube tho.
I rarely if ever use my phone. My phone is a 2015 Samsung S7 and I see no reason to change it. It was my 2nd smartphone ever. I use it to check the weather and pay with it. That’s all. Well and for Signal to talk to my parents. Else is like a credit card with a watch and a weather app. A thick one.
I do not have a driving license.
I rarely if ever had a girlfriend. Thanks to @Sasha now I have a great one haha. I never felt the need. I was always happy with being alone. Even now, being alone is fine for me. I never mind that. I am never in need of having people around me really….
Speaking of that I do not like meeting people that much. I prefer avoiding that. Except when it is for TROM-friends :P. I also do not like small talk, and I am not interested in people’s stories…
I only lived in 2 places. I never traveled. And I am fine with that. You think the world, not feel the world anyway. However Sasha will probably take me out there in the nature world because I’d be curious to see some stuff.
I only eat a few types of food because of my stomach…. Chicken, eggs, potatoes, tomatoes and bread. That’s mostly it. I eat at least 2 eggs a day. I feel like I am 24% chicken by now. I used to eat lots of different foods…but my stomach can’t handle most.
I never ever had any job. But I worked a lot for TROM and similar projects.
I do not have any vices, except maybe that I buy some specific sweet things for like 2 euros every other day.
Video Games. I do not play them. At all. I used to when I was in school. I see no point now. Waste of time. I do like to play some “offline” games tho. Involving balls 🙂 and rackets and such.
Although I am from Romania and know Romanian, I really don’t like talking Romanian. It has become more difficult for me to express myself in that language. I feel like English is my main language now.
I hate scheduling things. I never do that. I hate calendars for that reason. My perfect day is to wake up and have no plans. And then I’ll do stuff. Because I do not lack ideas or motivation.
Ok I will add this to my Tinder profile. In the weirdos category.
But well, I like my life. I am really happy as long as I have enough money to support a basic life for myself and Sasha. Actually money is my only problem. If I had 1k Euros guaranteed a month for the rest of my life, I’d be the happiest and most engaged human out there :). Because I do not need much. I don’t want any new gadgets, go to any fucking paris-nonsense-thing, expensive shit, and such. The natural world is an amazing place to think about and admire. And the projects I am doing are my babies. I love them.
I know people who have plenty of money but have no clue what to do with themselves. That is scary to me. I am happy that at least I am not like that at all. I know what I want to do. I do not get bored or confused. So yeah….trying to make some money now to support my trade-free work and my very basic lifestyle.
Phones, clothes, houses, cars, online fame….are a scam. Happiness is a state, not an object. Chase the state, not the object(s).
As for celebrations….whatever….if you like them I am not there protesting against you. And I can be part of some, is fine but not that comfy for me. But I would not be the one initiating them. I wish humans would become a saner and smarter species and celebrations would have some bloody meaning, more than let’s buy more shit, or let’s celebrate someone’s “name”, or any crappy idea.
This is the list of the apps I use the most on my Linux machine.
1. Firefox.
I have multiple windows, each with multiple tabs, on different workspaces…This is what you’ll see on my computer if you were to look at it, a Firefox window or two. Inception: I have it heavily customized and I won’t tell you how but it is quite the same as we have it default in TROMjaro. So if you are curious install TROMjaro :D.
I tried many browsers but Firefox is still my favorite as long as I keep it tweaked as I do. I see no ads, I use Libredirect to not even visit the popular websites like youtube, twitter and the like. I therefore use trade-free instances of those. Anyway, Librewolf seems to be a candidate for me in the future, but for now I’ll stick to Firefox.
I tried so many notes apps, but I need one that can sort my notes in folders and sub-folders that are easily accessible. Plus support basic text formatting/lists + code. Zettlr supports Markdown and a WSYIWYG editor for it so all looks neat. The fact that I can add the type of code, is useful because it automatically uses the proper colors for it, making it easy to understand it. Since it saves everything as individual markdown documents then it is easy to backup and move to another Notes app if needed.
Because it is so easy to use, and is p2p. So no limitation in terms of how much you can share and with whom. I share files with my friends like this, and it is so fast. The only difficult part is setting up the Send and Receive folders between you and your friends, mostly because you may get confused by that. The way I do it is to create a Sync folder. There I make another with the name of the friend: Sasha. And then inside this 2 more: Send and Receive. I share them both with Sasha and the Receive is set as “receive only”, the other one as “send only”. DONE. Now copy the files into the Sasha-Send when you share with her, and look in Sasha-Receive when you get files from her. Easy and reliable.
I screenshot a lot. To showcase bugs with the software, or for posts like this, and so on. I cannot find anything close to Flameshot. Press one keyboard key then drag the area you want to screenshot. And you also have access to quick tools for blurring parts of the image, add arrows, and more. Then CTRL + S to save or CTRL + C to copy it. Done! Cannot live without this app.
If you customize it a bit can look sleek. I absolutely love and need the “open in new tab” feature because many times I want emails to be stored in tabs so I can reply later. I cannot do email without this feature.
1 file with all of my passwords. Encrypted with a master password. Stored locally. Perfect. KeePassXC simply works…stores all of my passwords. If I lose this file I do not know any passwords. But is fine I have it backed-up in multiple locations. The integration with Firefox is decent and at times fails. So is not ideal when you want to save new passwords when you register on some websites….but is fine….
I have a mouse with 18 buttons. I use them all. But I also use global mouse gestures and it makes things so much easier. People who do not use this, have no idea what they are missing :D.
The default SMPlayer looks like crap. But installing some skins and tweaking it a bit and looks like this: Everything I throw at it, it plays. You can tweak the seekbar as you want (easily), and setup it any way you want. Has hardware acceleration, and a ton of features. I have been using it for so many years and I tried so many other video players. For me nothing beats SMPlayer.
Such an amazing project. Plays any song from lots of sources. All trade-free. Easily make playlists even download any song you want. You can even use it as your local music player.
Out of all image optimization tools nothing beats Imagine. Not very well known but damn good. Easy to use and reduces the size of photos while keeping the quality. The best of any I have tested, by a lot!
The other notable mentions are: Blanket because I need some background sounds when I sleep… :D, Element + Signal as my chats; I use Gnome Boxes to test TROMjaro or other distros, and Meld to check between versions of files; I use Shotwell for my photo albums, Inkscape and Krita for image editing, and Kdenlive for video editing. Lastly, Private Internet Access is my default VPN, Vorta + Timeshift is the way I backup my files, and Peek helps me video record my desktop when I need to make a short video.
That’s it! 🙂 If you want, tell me what are your top apps that you use. I’d be curious to try them out.
I and Sasha. I am 1.8 meter tall, she is a meter and a half. She is quite short, but I really like that. Together we are 3.3 meters tall. Not that it matters but we are also more than that. We want to reach higher and higher. I spent the past decade fighting in the online world with this society. Trying to make people aware of the fuckery of this world, but also showcase how to perhaps think differently about this society, through the perspective of trade. Then how we can do awesome things via this trade-free approach. She spent that time traveling and learning a lot about the world, the offline one. And writing about it on her very interesting blog. She gathered so much knowledge that she also wrote a 300+ pages book about….the world basically. And again how to approach it differently.
So she has a massive book ready to be published (currently 2 people are proofreading it), and I have tons of active projects (tromsite.com plus tromsite.com/tools) and have finished 2 hours out of 4, for the TROM II documentary that can be a really interesting one. Cannot wait to release it.
So, we are very active. As much as we can.
We are also financially fucked because in this society it does not matter if you are engaged and try to be informed, and be a good human overall. It does not matter if you want to do, and do good things that are valuable for hundreds or thousands of others. Does not. And we are very aware of that. The focus is always how to be a better trader. Chase the trades!
But we can’t give up! And we try not to!
Because we have so little money and we live with my parents, we can’t continue not to make any money. The donations for TROM are dropping and dropping for the past many years. So we decided to take the matter into our hands and try to trade ourselves a bit in order to support these projects of ours, together with the help we still get from donations.
So this is what we are doing and we hope to “succeed”:
UNO – I have launched a new project: WebApe. I am trying to make websites for money. I can build pretty much any sort of website (this is my “skill”) and I have a decade plus of experience with that. I charge monthly but provide a lot. If I manage to get some 10-15 websites then we are saved! I will make enough to support both of us. Because we need very little. We spend less than 300 Euros on food a month. We don’t eat out ever, we do not use drugs or have other bad habits :D. So if we can get some 1k Euros a month then we should be fine.
So far, thanks to @Alexio who is a long time TROM friend, I managed to get 3 long term projects. And my “mission” for these next months is to get more.
DUO – Due!? I don’t know. On top of this we are trying to work in cleaning in weekends or any other “gigs”. The retarded part is that @Sasha is willing to get a summer job here, but no one can employ her because she does not have the right papers. She is from USA, married with me (having a Spanish residency), but she cannot get the papers because I (the husband – I hate these words) am poor. I need to make over 1k a month for Spain to allow he to work…. So we do not have money, and the gov in Spain is like “then she cannot work”….but if she worked we would have the money….
This world is so retarded. So we are trying to make money but it is difficult as you can see….
TRES – WebApe + summer gigs + donations. Donations. They are super important. If we can get at least some 300 Euros or so a month, and with our savings (around 2k now) we can survive till February when Sasha can get the papers. Here’s another retardation: so Sasha cannot get the papers because I am poor. She cannot work to make us not poor, because she has no papers. BUUUUT if she can manage to survive in Spain for 3 years WITHOUT leaving Spain, she can get the papers!!! haHahA. Stay here! But you cannot work! If you want papers, you need to have money. But you cannot work here to make money. Also cannot leave if you want the papers. This is me jumping very high: If you think that this photo-insertion makes no sense now, it is the same with this system. Makes no fucking sense.
Anyway, if we know that she can get the papers in February when she will have completed the 3-years-stay-without-money-in-spain, she can then work to make some money….
Basically we need to be able to support each other until February/March so then to be able to try and keep on supporting each other….
My hope is that I can make enough websites to support us, so that then I can reach a point when I only manage these websites and have enough time for TROM. So that I can finish that documentary, so that I can scream more, louder and better.
Also at the end of this year I will have to make a donation campaign to help me pay for all TROM servers + backups. That’s around 1k Euros a year. Not that much considering that we provide so many tools and content.
So TROM donations + WebApe + summer gigs + a yearly campaign for the server/backups + getting Sasha’s “permit” to live and work in Spain in February, is what we need to be able to “make it” in this trade bullshit game. If we do not see any drop in donations we can make it. We try folks. It is difficult. We should not be forced to do any of this. We were already engaged and active and doing good things….but our situation is the perfect proof to support our work, because it proves that this trade-based society is the root of most problems and fucks things up.
We are at war with this society. And we know that.
I just tested it and posting from Friendica to my WordPress blog seems to work now. This is amazing and it is yet another set of amazing features Friendica has. My blog is my own personal place. My home. My thing.
But Friendica has become like a backyard with neighbors. A place where I can keep in touch with others, with the news, and so forth. But also a place where I can share my thoughts in seconds. No need to visit my blog, log in, and create a new post. It is a lot easier on Friendica. Coupled with the fact that I can add inline media on Friendica, and it makes it easy to create simple posts. I can have some basic text editing such as: bold, italic, underline. And I can even add markdown
Links are of course a thing, and quotes are handy:
Like so
Our Friendica instance has custom designed themes so that it makes it look more modern and easy to navigate. I am using the Dark Purple one:
Ok. So how do you post form Friendica to WordPress?
Go to your Friendica Settings – Social Networks Then add your WordPress URL and the /xmlrpc.php after it. Add your user and password and click save.
Then, when you make a post, click the Permissions tab and select to post on WordPress:
You can even select to auto-post on WordPress by default via the same Friendica Settings – Social Networks setting.
In any case this is so awesome! Thanks to the Friendica developers. I keep on Saying Friendica is super underrated. #tromlive
I am very active on the fediverse but when it comes to more important posts I will still use my blog for that.
Because I do not have money I will have to pause the work on TROM II and try to make some money.
So.
TROM II is going very well. I made 2 parts already, a bit over 2h long combined. But I will have to add some 20 minutes to each + very likely make 2 more parts. Everything is setup and ready to go.
This is the first part in the editing program:
What is in red I have to add to it still. First part is about us and how the environment shaped us as humans. It explains the role of culture, movies, music, school, and so forth. But also the scientific evolution of the universe and the creatures on this planet.
Second part:
Again that red thing needs to be added to the documentary. Here we talk about the evolution of human societies and with the focus on trade. We talk about our personal situations with university, money, jobs, and so forth. It is what introduces the viewers to what trade is and how it is the core of our society.
Third and fourth parts (in the making):
Left is the third part, right is the forth. They are kinda done in terms of the storyline. I had to cu through around 30-35 hours of footage and bring it down to this. The third part is about detailing what problems we have in the world today, from biodiversity loss to climate change or waste. And how trade is to blame for that. Fourth part is about solutions and a new way of looking at all of these. How to move beyond this awful society.
Now I’d say there will be 4 parts, each around 1 hour 20 minutes long. So….it will still be a long documentary. It is a different approach that I am taking with this one. I am making it more personal, but it is still packed with facts and hard science.
I think it will take me some 2-3 weeks to merge the leftovers into the first 2 parts so I am fully done with them. However to finish the 3rd and 4th parts it can take me some 3-4 months. Maybe less idk.
This being said.
Here is the current situation. I have around 1.800 Euros. All of my money. The monthly donations for TROM are at about 350 or so Euros a month. I and Sasha live with my parents and my sister in spain, in a rented house. Our spendings here are around 900-1.000 euros a month in bills and rent. I and Sasha spend some 300 euros or less on food a month, and contribute some 200 euros to the monthly expenses. We can’t contribute more. I also pay some 60 euros a month for the servers and backups. In total we try to survive with 500 euros a month, 2 people.
My parents worked in Spain for some 15 years now and this year they are forced to retire. My mother gets some 300 euros a month in retirement money, my father needs to see….but he worked with shitty contracts in spain (being forced to do so), and his 15 years of work only count as 6 for example…both of them try to save and then in November go back to Romania for good and try to survive there if they can.
My sister is going to move to another rented apartment here in the same town.
I and Sasha?
That’s the dilemma. We cannot support ourselves right now. We would need at least 1.000 Euros a month to survive on our own.
My parents and my sister will have to do a lot of gymnastics when they move because of stuff…and we also have stuff, tho not as much. We will also help them move to Romania so either way we will go there in the winter.
So what to do?
We won’t be homeless of course since we can go to Romania and live with my parents. I have a small room there. But for me to finish the documentary I need to be relaxed and focused on it. Romania is not that sort of environment for me. We also have some stuff so where can we put that!?
It is very tricky and the following months will be very busy for us.
My plan.
Finish with the 1st and 2nd parts of TROM II. Add those leftover bits. After that is done (hopefully not more than 2-3 weeks) pause the documentary. I hate this, and I want to work on it and finish it, but I have no better alternative.
As soon as I finish with those 2 parts, I will start the “MAKE MONEY” operation. I need to. There is no way around this. People’s donations are amazing and super helpful but nowhere near enough to support myself. Donations are not working unfortunately. With the money we have now I hope to be able to support us for 4 or so more months. Until August. If there will be more donations that would be amazing, but I can not rely on this at all.
So I will focus on making money. I was never good at this but I need to try. I have some ideas. We will also try to sell our stuff, whatever we have. We have a TROMjaro tablet, a heater, a not-very-functional electric scooter 😀 and so forth.
So from at least June on, we are focused on making money. If a miracle happens and we have enough money by October, then we can rent a place here and move and I can continue the work on TROM II. But likely that won’t happen, not so fast at least. So likely we will end up in Romania and try to make money somehow. Maybe I can still work on TROM II this year, but we shall see.
I will try to work in cleaning this summer, also will release a website for my webdesign-money-making plan, so I can try and make websites; a TROM friend may also help me find a job in some IT company….not that excited about that tbh :D.
No worries, TROM and TROM II are happening and being supported.
TROM II will be finished. But I want to make it very well and not rush with it. The info there is relevant for the many years to come, maybe centuries. As for our websites and projects they will continue uninterrupted. New TROMjaro releases and a few improvements and fixes as usual, trom.tf services will be maintained; VideoNeat will be updated; we may even do some TROMcasts if I have the time. And so on.
It is unfortunate but this post is not about complaining. I did a lot of that and now I need to take care of myself in order to take care of these projects. It is me and a few wonderful people who support these projects financially or volunteering their time. It is very hard. But if it wasn’t, then we might have been wrong about bitching how bad this society is. This is, in fact, a proof of how fucked up this society is, where you can’t even focus on doing good things. You have to trade yourself all the time.
We are the pioneers.
We are doing trade-free projects and try to make humans aware of how fucked up this society is, while doing so from inside the monster itself. We face a lot of hurdles. We struggle. But whoever is against this society, has to face those. Big changes come on a horse called “Suffering”. And this horse has a long journey ahead. And it gets tired, and depressed, and scared at times. But we need this horse to go where we want to reach.
Not long ago we met with this human who was perhaps quite normal. But because “we”, the ones who have this (let’s say) TROM mentality were outnumbering the human, the human started to see what we talked about as normal. We were the normality. I felt like the world flipped. Suddenly the other side was smaller, and ours was bigger. And of course we agreed that is fucked up to force people to slave for even their basic needs, all of their lives; of course we need to provide trade-free stuff for people. Of course trade-free makes sense and is such an important approach. Of course. But we had to bleed to reach that point, that situation. If there will be more of us talking about these things, and doing the things we do at TROM, then that could become normality, at least in pockets and groups. And that has a tremendous power because what we talk about is backed up by facts, so when it becomes normal, it also becomes stronger and stronger.
Don’t worry. Really.
I will feel a lot better if I could build and manage some 10-15 websites and get paid monthly and make enough to have a good life on this planet and support TROM, than seeing a handful of people trying so hard to support TROM and me financially. And having to complain that I have no money all the time. I’d feel so good if I could sustain myself and TROM financially. I have some plans as I said and I will put them into practice very soon. We will see how this goes.
Of course it would be amazing if I would get enough support for the tons of work I am doing on these projects. I am busy enough with these. And it worked for a few years and who knows in the future, if TROM becomes more known, may work again. But for now I am beating a dead horse and the poor horse can’t go anywhere, if I were to try and rely fully on donations.
I keep everyone posted on the Fediverse and of course, if anyone wants to still donate this is the place to do so https://www.tromsite.com/donate/ but don’t sweat over it. In the long term I have to anyway make money somehow. Because projects like TROM may never get enough donations anyway. We are too odd of a project for that :).
Ok friends. Will try to finish the first two parts of the documentary. And as soon as I can get back to work on it I will. We could even release this year, if not for sure the next year.
