It has been a long (though rather short compared to some) and difficult road paved withdreamsandfailures, with delight when my stats boomed up one day but also the desire to quit as soon as they raced down a few days or weeks later. I expect it will keep being challenging, yet I find this challenge most exciting. As our community has reached its first milestone, I would like to show you my gratitude by answering some questions you may have had.
Question Time
1. How long have I been blogging ?
Not long, actually. I began in March of this year.
2. Why blog ?
To be honest, I did not expect blogging to turn out as one of my major passions. I had simple goals in March. I merely wanted to write in a different way. I did not even care so much about my readership at the time. That has changed. I see blogging as a way to express myself, but also to combine all my interests whilst being of help to anyone who may have a question I can answer.
3. Do I intend to get a social media account soon ?
I have a YouTube account, and a Good-reads account. I do not intend to create another social media account. I do not believe in Facebook, nor Twitter, nor Reddit, or whatever you like to call it. They are all the same to me. I see Good-reads and YouTube differently, since they actually offer a service which has the potential to make the world a better place. Do not mistake me however. Social networks all have that potential, but I do not believe that we, humans, can handle their firepower (if you take my meaning).
4. Will I ever have a newsletter ?
I am thinking about it but I am not yet sure. Would you be interested in one ? What news would you like to hear from me ? Tell me in the comments below ! ;)
5. Will I write more in French in the future ?
Yes. I have not made up my mind about a fixed publishing timetable yet but I am currently experimenting on what works best for me (and you). I believe I will soon switch to 2 or 3 articles a week : 1 or 2 in English, 1 in French. It should leave me some time to publish at least a video a week and work on my other projects. Since I need to make some money to survive, I believe my freelance activities will have to take most of my time at some point. I am not there yet, though...
6. What are some of my projects for the future ?
Youtube : One my my priorities for the future is to develop my YouTube channel. My skills are still pretty sketchy, to be honest, but I am so into it that I don't believe it can go wrong. I just need to put in the work, and everything will be okay :)
Blogging : I have been designing a publishing schedule, for both my YouTube channel and this blog. It is not yet set in stone, but I want to do a few articles, and one or two videos a week. This will of course depend on how much time everything else takes, but I will only deal with that when the time comes.
Teespring : I don't know how many years I have been dreaming about having my own T-Shirt designs, but it has been a while (and that is a euphemism)... I have not created any designs yet, as this blog has been keeping me busy, along with other personal things. However I am most excited to the prospect of doing it.
Amazon.com : It has not been very successful this month but I have partnered with amazon. You may know if you read this post.
Patreon : If you wish to support my efforts, it is still time to be the first to do it. Patreon is a platform I believe in, since it allows creators and their audiences to share what they love.
Freelancing : I have heard about many French and English websites, and despite how hard it may be, I am determined to try and become a successful freelance writer. Since I have other skills, it is possible I do other things, such as teaching, consulting or even building websites... Not that the latter thrills me the most but I am open to what the world will offer to me.
Publishing books : I have been writing for so many years, writing books is an obvious step to take. I am still working on most of my projects however. I see myself more as a Tolkien (I wouldn't pretend to have his talent, but it may take me 20 years to write my first epic-fantasy trilogy...) than a Sanderson, if you see what I mean. ^_^
World building rules !
7. Am I still motivated to get going ?
Some of you might consider it bad taste to quote Hannah Montana (but I don't care, I'm the writer here!), yet I will do it anyway :
Sometimes blogging is difficult and I wonder whether it is worth my time. However I love it more than I have ever loved most activities I have been given to practice. It allows me to combine all my extremely diverse skills, and I am not sure anything else could do that. Plus, I want you to remember something else : everything sucks, some of the time.
Whatever you do, there will always be hardships and things you would rather not do, however passionate you may be.
Signing Off
If you liked this post, you may like this post too. If you have any more questions for me, feel free to ask in the comments or to shoot me an email. I do my best to answer to everyone of you with the shortest delay possible.
If you want to be among all the amazing (and proudly mad) people in this community, you only need follow this blog (via email or WordPress). If you aren't following this blog yet but trust its future content will rock as the one which preceded, subscribe and get notified whenever I publish a new article. I am not yet a superstar on YouTube, but you may still subscribe to my channel to support me. I am working on some new content, which I hope you will enjoy.
I would like to make a short post today to show you how simple it is to create YouTube thumbnails, in an era when almost everyone dreams of becoming a video-making celebrity. I have shot a video about it, and I will let you decided whether I have improved since my past videos or not. I am aware I still have quite a bit of work ahead of me to make videos of a higher quality but I am having a lot of fun and it is a challenge I am motivated to see through to the end !
By the way, if any of you knows a ffmpeg command to film my screen and use my webcam at the same time, I'd be really grateful if you could write the solution in the comments (since my research has yet proven unfruitful).
Here is my latest video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PguN6seBxUA
If you have any comments for me to improve, feel free to tell me here in the comment section :)
Signing Off
If you want to be among all the amazing (and proudly mad) people in this community, you only need follow this blog (via email or WordPress). If you aren't following this blog yet but trust its future content will rock as the one which preceded, subscribe and get notified whenever I publish a new article.
I am not yet a superstar on YouTube, but you may still subscribe to my channel to support me. I am working on some new content, which I hope you will enjoy. Also, I recently posted a short article about my future Q&A and that'd be so great if you took the time to participate in the comment section :-)
I also have a Goodreads account, by the way, for those of you who are interested to follow me there or add me as a friend.
Stay safe,
Phil.
PS : Thank you canva.com for making it so easy to modify images !
J'aimerais aujourd'hui partager avec vous les souvenirspoétiques que j'ai de la randonnée que j'ai fait récemment. J'espère que vous passez une excellente journée !
Le soleil sourit.
Le vent souffle, lui.
Sans plume, sans feuille,
privé d'encre, en deuil.
Ce temps mitigé
agite mes pensées.
La terre et les graviers
glissent sous mes pieds.
Nos bâtons frappent.
La pierre se plaint.
On garde le cap.
On poursuit notre chemin.
Je crois que la leçon à tirer de cette première strophe est qu'il ne faut jamais se déplacer sans un carnet et un stylo pour noter toute idée potentiellement importante. Autrement, je crains que vous ne fassiez encore de la poésie perdue...
I would like to share my personal configuration files with you (akadotfiles). If you are not running GNU/Linux, it may give you an idea of what dotfiles are, but even if you are, beginners and some more advanced users may appreciate to find some model to inspire them. Of course, all my programs are not fully configured but some are riced to my liking and I am eager to present them to you !
What Are Dotfiles
Since this blog aspires to be as accessible as possible, I can hardly picture this article without some sort of definition making the word dotfiles more clear to non-initiates.
In a nutshell, it is not rocket science. Dotfiles are hiddenconfiguration files for specific programs (which names begin with a dot). Your shell has its dotfiles (.zshrc for zsh, for instance), Thunderbird and Mozilla have their own too, to name but a few...
Do you need to have dotfiles ? Yes, but you don't have to be an expert if you don't want to have anything to do with them and still run Gnu/Linux. Some people use Linux as their main OS without being aware of their existence.
If you open a terminal and run ls --all, you will see dotfiles. If you see a directory called .config/, you now know it also contains dotfiles. All the files and directories beginning with a dot are dotfiles. Another example : .moc contains my config for my terminal music player (which happens to be called moc).
How They Can Help You
Dotfiles are essential to customizing your environment however you like it. Without dotfiles, Linux would not be synonym to freedom, but stone age. You should have a look at the video below, it should give you an idea of what you can do with such files. I have customized Qtile (a Window Manager : don't worry, I will explain what it is in a later post for those who are not familiar with those) as much as I could and it now reflects who I am much more than any others' configs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TBL1EXT5Cs
Here is a link to my dotfiles on GitHub: https://github.com/Soimuen11/Dotfiles. You may find this link on my about page too, as well as several others redirecting you to my Good-reads profile or my professional email (madlibrarian@yahoo.com) if you wish to contact me.
Some of these dotfiles are configured in a very common way but you may still find a few gold nuggets.
My dmenu is more customizedthan some, yet less than many (I have a bigger border and it is centered in the middle of the screen, which I deem enough). Its center position may remind you of rofi :
I run zsh as my main shell and I am most happy with its config. I have kept it simple but it is already more than enough (so do check it out if you are curious). If you are looking for a pretty vim config, you are also looking in the right place (at least it looks pretty to me) !
My Scripts
There may not be much for you to take away, but I do have some nice scripts in .local/scripts (which I usually symbolically link to .local/share/ to be able to invoke them with a single command from anywhere I like). If you have ever had your mouse pad stuck when turning off sleep-mode, I have a script called mouse which turns it back on. I also have a mysterygame, which I coded in bash for practice, as well as some others to mount devices or generate quotes. Many of my scripts are still on the work but some may turn out helpful, so I decided to make them more accessible to you and everyone else who may need them.
My WIKI
I maintain a wiki with issues I have had. In it, you will mostly find commands, since I have not thoroughly explained everything I have been doing in it (being its main user, it was not necessary up until now), but I am doing my best to keep it as crystal clear as possible. In the image below, the file you are looking for is wiki.md. It doesn't contain all the issues I have had in all the years I have been running Linux as my main OS, but it may already turn out helpful for many of you. It might give you ideas of programs to install (like game emulators?) or fix an issue you have no clue how to fix, or even provide you with some fancy commands to, who knows, film your screen and become a YouTuber...
Signing Off
If you want to be among all the amazing (and proudly mad) people in this community, you only need follow this blog (via email or WordPress). If you aren't following this blog yet but trust its future content will rock as the one which preceded, subscribe and get notified whenever I publish a new article.
I am not yet a superstar on YouTube, but you may still subscribe to my channel to support me. I am working on some new content, which I hope you will enjoy. Also, I recently posted a short article about my future Q&A and that'd be so great if you took the time to participate in the comment section :-)
I also have a Goodreads account, by the way, for those of you who are interested to follow me there or add me as a friend.
Today, I would like to discuss something that is most dear to my heart. Independence ? Yes, but more generally, freedom. I don't have a clear and complete answer to this interrogation but I want to attempt and find one with you.
Shall We Define Independence
The ability to live your life without being helped or influenced by other people
Source : The Online Cambridge dictionary
If one should trust this definition, here is what one may understand : one is independent if one fulfills several conditions. One has to be capable(or able) to live one's life (which means a life that suits one's aspirations) without assistance of any sort from any other party or being influenced by them. This implies that you not only need to be financially and physically independent, but you also have to have your own mind.
Otherwise you shall never be entirely free.
Are You Mentally Independent ?
Do you feel independent ? Are you mature enough to claim to be independent ? Are you mature enough to realize what consequences being independent entails ? Do you feel responsible for your decisions and do you fully accept them ?
I believe it is necessary to answer these questions to know whether you are independent. If you cannot, chances are you have not reached a mental state of independence yet. I think it is essential to have your own ideas, and for that you need to be curious.If you let others influence you, you cannot be free from others' opinions.
Are You Financially Independent ?
Do you have the means to be independent ? Have you ever had a 9 to 5 job ? Can you live on your own however small or lonely your apartment may feel ? Can you pay for your own food ?
Again, these questions need be answered if you want to know whether you are independent or still relying on somebody else. Honestly, I find these questions quite limiting since they only apply to our current social and political systems. I believe they should rather be : Can you provide for yourself ? If money did not exist, there would not be such a thing as financial freedom. There would only be the issue of finding food and shelter. I suppose this is what I mean by financial independence : Can you survive on your own ?
Are you Physically Independent ?
Do you have a driver's license, a car ? That's not what I mean by physically independent but it may contribute. The idea is that you are capable to go from point A to point B without relying on anybody else but yourself.
I do believe that using transportation systems such as buses count as being independent. After all, we're all interdependent, even with a car. When you have a car, you depend on gas suppliers and mechanics. Roads need to be maintained, and you aren't doing it (except if it's your job). If you have a bike, you may be able to maintain it yourself but it does not mean that you could build a new bike if yours ever needed to be replaced.
Conclusion
I am not certain anyone is 100% independent in our current society. We have grown used to completing tasks for others, which makes us all interdependent. However good and well-intentioned it may be, I believe we should all strive to be as independent as possible from one another. The more you know, the fewer are the odds to be manipulated or influenced in a way which you might regret.
So rise people !
Educate yourself, and become free as the air whilst you still can!
Signing Off
If you want to be among all the amazing (and proudly mad) people in this community, you only need follow this blog (via email or WordPress). If you aren't following this blog yet but trust its future content will rock as the one which preceded, subscribe and get notified whenever I publish a new article. I also have a Goodreads account, by the way, for those of you who are interested to follow me there or add me as a friend.
