Language: English

Just as it is almost proverbial that, if you want any business done for you, you should ask a busy man to do it, and not a man of leisure, so it is the laborious scholar, who is working hard at languages, who picks up, nay, actually reads and studies more of other subjects than the rest of his fellows at school or college. – Reverend W. J. Kennedy

There’s a saying in Romanian: “La pomul lăudat să nu te duci cu sacul”. This could be translated to: “If someone is praised a lot, don’t set your expectations high, they might be too busy to help you, or the praise might be fake”.

Somehow, I think the two sayings are related one to the other.

On one hand, if someone is busy, it means that they have lots of experience. But it might also mean that they are overwhelmed.

The solution – pick your battles. Choose a busy person for an important person, but calibrate your expectations.

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When I was a child, there were quite some kids outside our flats.

During those times there were much fewer cars, and lots of free space to play on.

Nowadays, the children don’t seem to go out anymore.

I watched some kids playing with skateboards – they were good with this.

Probably, these kids are much better with computers and technology than our generation.

They might take some classes, which in my days it was generally unheard of.

I remember a winter with lots of snow, I live on a street that has a bit of an angle, and it’s a long block of apartments.

The whole street was a place to either slide (it had some ice), or to go via sleighs.

I remember sometimes going to the countryside, to my grandparents.

Back then, I didn’t appreciate nature that much, I was much more in favor of watching cartoons and playing with the computers of the day.

Now, I’m quite happy that my childhood also involved cows and sheep.

What’s the solution? If no parent lets their child/children outside, then the solitary ones might be in danger.

I would just say – consider letting the children play outside and see nature. I’m not saying it’s an ultimate solution, this is just what I would do, as a parent.

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There might be several hats for a person – when you make a sale (optimistic, pushy, presenting the positive) vs. when you do an audit (critical, negative, holding your stance, trying to prove things).

It’s a different thing to be with a friend and with a family member.

With a stranger in your country and with a foreign one.

With someone your age vs. someone with a totally different age.

Hats are good – they force you to become flexible.

That’s why I consider, generally, that traveling is good for the mind.

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Inflexibility – older people tend to become inflexible and not listen carefully.

I guess after you see a lot of things happening in life, there’s no more “this is the first time I…”, there’s more courage “I know I’m worthwhile”, there’s less caring “I don’t care what people think”.

The biggest problem is, in my opinion, the lack of flexibility. “I know what’s right, and I don’t care what others think of it”.

There’s also the counter-balance – when you are older, you might actually gain some flexibility. This is the opposite of what I said earlier.

Paradoxically, when you are young you have principles and values, but also inflections; at a certain age, you can accept some things more easily.

I guess it varies – you become more flexible in certain areas, less flexible in others.

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WhatsApp is not fine – a lot of times, there are no links to content, the videos you get in there are taken out of context (you don’t know the author, you can’t see additional details), you don’t know who originally put a certain picture online (there’s no author).

On Facebook – you don’t have a reverse image search – again, you can’t search.

Facebook’s groups are annoying me, everything is lost in a few days, for active groups.

In a month, you won’t find anything from the past.

You post something today, some people will view it in the following hours, in a matter of days you might get some additional views, and that’s it.

Searching on Facebook is rarely used.

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There’s this ringtone:

夜に駆けるをiPhoneの着信音にしてみた【YOASOBI】 – YouTube.

At first, I liked it. Quite a lot.

Then, I put it on my cell phone. I didn’t like it anymore.

Now I like it again, after listening to it a few times with pleasure.

It all passes.

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