Same, my first reflex was to quickly search for NATO

I hate that so much. “Oh, this hobby only brings you joy and happiness? Don’t you know you could make money out of it?”

Never heard it either. Missed opportunity to quote “The English are landing” (“Les anglais débarquent”, referring the Redcoats) though

I’m sure there are plenty of activities that you could enjoy but never thought of. Try joining a sports club that isn’t a gym, or a board games club, or a book club, anything really. It doesn’t have to be something that you currently do or that you already enjoy, you can also try expanding your hobbies by thinking of cool stuff you’d like to do but never got around to try

My father was an Arab muslim, and was involved in the fight for Palestinian rights for as a long as I can remember, until he died of cancer a few months before the October 7th attacks. I never really thought much about his activism and was never curious enough to ask him questions about what he was actually doing.

When he was on his death bed at the hospital and I was staying with him, we got visited by members of his town’s Jewish community. They told me he was a great guy, and that throughout his years as an activist for Palestinian rights he has always strived to build bridges between Muslim and Jewish communities and always made it clear that the palestine-israel conflict shouldn’t be an excuse to antisemitism or islamophobia. They also told me he took part in a humanitarian trip in Palestine with them, as a translator, and was instrumental in bridging the gap between them and their Palestinian contacts. I never knew he did all that and it really made me proud.

What sometimes still keeps me up at night is to think that, should he have lived to see the current events, he would probably have been called a raging antisemite by the assholes we see all over the media.

You know, I can somewhat understand how some people that have been exposed to Israeli propaganda can think Israel isn’t in the wrong. I don’t excuse it, mind you, because all the evidence is right here to disprove it if they bothered to check, but ultimately it just shows how effective propaganda can be in the information age.

What I can’t wrap my mind around is how a seemingly smart person can say they saw all the evidence, talk about the “carnage” going on and how “powerful people are hurting the weak”, and still come to the conclusion that the real victims are those same powerful people responsible for the carnage. I really can’t understand what must happen in someone’s brain to be like that

I’ve just asked my partner to “grab me by the scruff of the neck and force me to take an appointment”, as soon as possible. Thanks for your message, it actually gave me the momentum I needed to get moving

Same, but I’m still stuck in the “I sent an email to an ADHD specialist 6 months ago to get an appointment but he hasn’t replied yet, I should probably look for another one” phase.

I mostly do messer (based on Leckuchner’s treaty), a bit of arming sword and buckler (based on the 1.33 manuscript) and recently started 19th century sabre (based on Waite’s manual). They’re all really fun but my heart goes to messer, it’s such a fun weapon to use and the period really interests me.

What’s keeping you from getting back in?

So in May or June this year I had this idea about crafting myself a scabbard for a sword I use in HEMA. I bought power tools, plywood, wood glue, wood varnish, linen sheets, leather, a shit ton of leather making tools. Then it made me want to try out wood carving so I bought tools for that, as well as for wood whittling “to try my hand with smaller scale projects”.

6 months later, all I have to show for it is an unfinished knife sheath I tried to make to train myself and then lost interest in finishing

How is that asshole STILL getting richer? If there ever needed a proof that the system is broken, there it is

Ireland is another European country that speaks English, but I’ll grant you that it’s not super relevant in this case considered it’s geographical position behind the UK

Honestly I don’t think it’s that complicated. I’m convinced he just threw a temper tantrum because his ego couldn’t handle being let go of his position has head of DOGE, and since Trump’s ego is just as big as his things just escalated from there

Oh, I couldn’t find words to describe it to my friends but “digital art student Summer projects” is exactly what it looks like!

I remember the “They hate us for our freedom” line from the bush-era. I was still a kid at the time and I clearly remember asking my parents about it because it seemed like such a weird thing to say.

Of course, as a french kid, this was also the time when I kept seeing Americans on TV pouring wine in the sewers and calling us surrender monkeys because we refused to join the Irak war, so that might have influenced me a bit

“Why should we solve the world’s problems for free? The rest of the world should pay us!”

France says hi

I think that’s part of the feeling of injustice and betrayal. Europeans put up with all US shit for decades because hey, they’re imperialist that only act in their own interest but at least they’re somewhat tactful about it. They made the entire world revolve around them, but at least they pretended we were on the same side so we didn’t protest too loudly.

And now they’re suddenly acting like they’re the fucking victim of this system they created themselves to benefit them? That basically broke the illusion the West reluctantly chose to believe in, and all that remains is the bad and the ugly

Saying Paris is an “immigration nightmare” tells us more about yourself than the state of France. And I’m saying this as someone actually living there

I wonder what’s the point of these hyperbolic articles everytime Trump gets slightly rebuked by someone. Best case scenario we all get a giggle out of it and move on, worst case scenario the world’s oldest baby throws a tantrum and starts a war with France over his bruised ego