Anomnomnomaly

Reminds of the old story that I heard (unsure if it's true or not) about Torpenhow Hill in the UK.

Over centuries... various invaders and conquerors had come to that place and asked what it was called... First it was called Tor later on invaders added the word 'Pen' which was their word for Hill... later, more invaders came along and added the suffix 'How' which was their word for Hill.... and finally... it was named in more modern English as Torpenhow Hill.... which literally translates as Hill, Hill, Hill, Hill.

I don;t know if that's 100% true or not... but it's an amusing little story and given the oddities of the English language... I'd like to think it was.

Especially given there's a species of bear out there that's name is literally translated as Bear, Bear, Bear.

I absolutely DO NOT have a mediaserver in my own home with a BDrom that can rip movies from physical media for my own personal use... I do not scour charity shops and car boot sales for music, movies and tv shows to put on there and I do not have around 70TB of storage and I am certainly not looking to expand the HDD's in the new year.

I was converted from a pirate to a subscriber about 10-12yrs ago... But the enshitification of everything makes me yearn for my old hat once more.

The Olympics used to be for amateurs only and athletes who were professional and earned their living from a sport weren't allowed to compete. I remember reading about the UK's Torvil & Dean figure skaters who after their win at the olympics in the 80's went pro... and a couple of olympics later there was massive debate and changes to rules to allow them to compete again.

All the modern olympics of the last 30-40yrs are about is faux national pride and money... same for the bodies of all sports... they're all corrupt and they're all about stockpiling as much cash as they can for bribes and kickbacks... some of them like FIFA have hundreds of millions of cash reserves... But they don't pay countries to host the world cup, the countries pay them, pay for the construction, pay for the infrastructure and FIFA reaps in the sponsorship and TV money.

'Tried' no Forage... you succeeded you racists, grifiting, fascist, Putin's dick sucking cunt

Drugs... it's where I kept my drugs.

G.O.P. Gross Old Pedophiles

Make public transport, cheap and frequent through the country, along with a cheap reliable car share/hire scheme... and you'd see the need for cars dwindle.

It's easy for certain types of people to claim the high ground, when they have no idea what it's like for everyone else... they live in gilded cages in cities with cheap and easy to access public transport... so they have no need for a car... and thus no one has a need for car either... they're so blinkered, they might as well be blind... and the ignorance that goes with the preachy mentality is even worse.

So when I can walk to the end of my road and catch a bus to the next town over... without it taking over 2hrs to travel 6 miles... via a 16 mile trip in the opposite direction and changing buses that means sitting around in the freezing cold for 40 mins... I'll consider giving up the car... But the chances of that happening are ZERO because 'capitalism' dictates we must CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME... there is no will with govts or the rich to do a damn thing... and the rich account for around 49% of ALL individuals emissions.

So take the preachy bullshit and shove it somewhere dark and stinky.

I grew up in a city that has hundreds of miles of cycle paths, you could ride anywhere without ever having to ride on a main road, only the occasional first/last section to get to a house/shop. The nearest path to my old house was 150 yards down the road and when I was growing up before I started driving at 17 (mid 90's), we used to ride everywhere. It was about 8 miles from corner of the city to the other.

As I got older and relied on a car... I found myself missing cycling. So in 2017, I got a 21spd hybrid city bike... Alas, I discovered that injuries and post op limitations restricted me to at best... 5-6 miles and I was exhausted.

So in 2022, I got myself an e-bike. A Haibike Trekking with the bosch mid drive system. I can now ride with ease once more.

Alas... I also moved from that city with hundreds of miles of cycle paths a few months after getting it... Now I live near to the sea and mountains... and there are 2 cycle routes near me. One I can do a 9m round trip, it would be longer but for some daft reason they never finished the path around the reservoir and it's boggy and muddy for 5 months of the year or any time it rains in the other 7 months. The other route means riding about 1/2 mile through town to pick up the nearest path and then you've got about 7 more miles of pretty flat, open countryside next to a river... but also next to flood planes. So at this time of year, it can flood a section about 1/2 a mile long at the 2.5m mark (from my house). Oh and that first route, also floods long before you ever get to the reservoir restricting your ride to at best 4 miles in total there and back... it's only 9 miles without the flooding.

I can do an 8 mile trip to an estuary and add another 1 mile I'm on the edge of a huge forest... 2 further miles through the forest and I'm at the beach... making it a 22 mile round trip... But the stony, gravel roads aren't exceptionally suited to my city bike. I've bought reinforced tyres and puncture proof tubes... so maybe I'll give it a shot next year.

For now, it's unlikely I'll be getting much riding done until March.

That's the option I take... deleted FB in 2012, Twitter in 2018 (not that I actually used it, posted maybe 20 things in 7yrs) and have never used any of the others. I'm on mastodon and lemmy, I use signal & telegram and have to suffer whatsapp for immediate family.

I told everyone else that I was only going to make an effort with people who made an effort with me... and that solved the fake friends side of the problem... Because all I got for years was 'but you're not a facebook' as a reason for their laziness and entitlement that I must bow to their convenience as it's far more important that protecting my mental health.

If you have a hobby... that hobby is legal, it causes no harm to others and it brings you enjoyment... and anyone... ANYONE... puts you down for it, berates you, mocks, makes out your enjoyment is purile, childish... that person is a wanker... plain and simple. They think they everyone else must live their life according to their standards, their idea of fun and anyone who doesn't conform to their beliefs is a lesser person who deserves to be ridiculed.

There's only 1 real rule in life.

Don't be a wanker.