This mustn’t register on an emotional level.

Not who you responded to.

It’s like saying you need and app in order to use Instagram

That’s exactly what your Instagram app is: An application to use the Instagram “service”. The only difference is that the app is developed by the same people who develop the Instagram service.

it needs to be an integrated app

In some cases, an app is even just another design of the same web page you visit with your browser. The Netflix app you have on your Windows PC is just the web page wrapped in a certain way so that it looks like a program you find on your computer.

That list up there are what you call “integrated apps”.

I listen to Bach’s “Weihnachtsoratorium”/Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) every year. I play it specifically on December 24th when my kids, my wife and I do the decorations. I don’t even like the Christmas Oratorio that much. But at least my wife knows why I excuse myself at times.

When I was little, on the evening of Dec 24th, we used do decorate the Christmas tree and my parents were adamant on playing the Christmas Oratorio at full volume when we did so. None of us are/were religious in any way, quite the contrary, but both of them were huge classical music fans. Especially my father used to be a massive Bach fanboy.

As a child who grew up learning to sing and to play several instruments, I hated this thing of theirs with a passion. I couldn’t stand this music genre. It was so far removed from what I liked and what life entailed for me; it was the sound of getting me the fuck away from home. I couldn’t deny it was a part of me, but it was a part that I despised.

Then, when I was in my early 20s, my Dad came down with aggressive cancer. After his last Christmas, we tried one last therapy which the doctors admitted was kind of experimental because the medication hadn’t been tried on patients with cancer of that type or that far advanced.

We don’t know what exactly happened. But this dear man, who had collected several dozen CDs of his favorite versions of Bach’s pieces, who had been searching and saving for rare editions just to get all the “right” recordings, he suddenly… didn’t understand his favorite music. And if you know baroque music - it takes some understanding to fully appreciate it.

He just didn’t get it anymore. Something in his brain got rewired during those last few months. “They’re playing it wrong!” he shouted angrily. It didn’t matter that this was the same CD he had listened to for ten years. My sister tried singing folk songs with him - which he used to enjoy - and while he himself sang pitch-perfect, he was perfectly sure that “nothing was right”. Have you ever seen a bed-ridden person go beserk? He winced when he turned, but he was infuriated. Eventually, we all gave up. There was no saving his love for music, it just… up and left him. One of the things which used to define him as a person was simply gone. All joy for any of it, evaporated, poof, without a trace. Cancer finally broke him, broke us. We buried him a few weeks later.

This one, minuscule, thing that he had saved to enjoy when he was old… he couldn’t. A part of what my father was, in the matter of a few days, just vanished. There was little left for and left of him. I can’t blame him for leaving before saying goodbye.

But I will never forgive the god I had never believed in for taking that last bit of joy away from a dying man.

Verily: “Jauchzet, frohlocket! Auf, preiset die Tage! Rühmet, was heute der Höchste getan!”

one side is saying how shit you are and how you deserve nothing. it’s only women who are worthwhile and you should just fuck off and die.

Except this is a right-wing talking point and a misrepresentation of what left-wing ideals encompass.

the other side is saying ‘do this and you’ll be successful’, it sucks right now but you will get there if you try.

Except that’s not what they communicate, because while they offer “solutions” (mostly towards a rather suppressive and overly strict understanding of gender stereotypes) they immediately find in and shift the blame for young men’s problems towards an out-group, such as the “radical left” and LTBGQ people.

In fact, I find it’s the right that actively hates me for just being me because I don’t conform to their idea of what a man is, even though I’m a cis-hetero white male.

“Don’t try to find your own way because this is what you need to be, and everything else is degenerate and shameful.”

I know which I find more appealing.

🎼 “debugged the stack in anger” I heard you say… 🎶

Yeah, no. You’re misrepresenting the claim of the person you responded to.

Nobody is disputing the rise of the far right in Germany, nor the increasing police brutality. We experience the same authoritarian tendencies as other countries.

This article, however, paints the country as an already authoritarian police state where expressing the wrong opinion will get you jailed. That’s not happening (yet).

I’m sorry. I’m pulling your chain, it’s all good. It’s supposed to be a joke on myself. I tried to give well-intentioned advice and tried to play it up by “doubling down”.

Edit: Damnit, I’m making it worse! Your joke was fine! I couldn’t handle it well! There! Gawd!

You did… What? Make me angrier? Good job! Stop interrupting an old man who’s yelling at clouds!

(… and start appreciating, for fuck’s sake. I know what it looks like.)

The post alone makes me angrier than the cooking result, and that’s saying something.

It looks like student cuisine. Is it really so reprehensible that someone improvises with limited resources? To me, it shows a lot of potential because the good will is there.

People have different skill sets and levels. So, instead of looking down on it, maybe next time you should cook with him instead of arrogantly posting a photo for praise from people who, unlike this person, have no influence on your life?

Pro tip: Cooking together is a fantastic date.

This makes me happy! But please, do share your results.

Oh, get off your high horse.

You do know that when Germans use the German flag when protesting they commonly support Nazis causes, right?

We all know you never wanted one.

Edit: I’ll note that almost every reply here is just insulting me.

No, they’re not. We all know you’re getting the reaction you wanted and expected. Stop playing the victim.

Dr Johnny Ryan said “Today’s court’s decision shows that the consent system used by Google, Amazon, X, Microsoft, deceives hundreds of millions of Europeans. The tech industry has sought to hide its vast data breach behind sham consent popups. Tech companies turned the GDPR into a daily nuisance rather than a shield for people.”

That sounds refreshingly direct.