There’s a lot of free things happening in my town. Okay-to-excellent concerts, art event openings, always something at the library, (bring/pay for materials only) FabLabs, screenings of weird old/foreign movies. I’d take more advantage of them, hopefully with friends and family. If no friends and family to embarrass, become politically active. Rest and read more.

Tarkoitin tasoryhmillä jonkinlaista vaikkapa luokan sisäistä etenemistahtia pienryhmittäin, jossa ne hitaammin oppivat saavat enemmän/parempaa tukea vaikka kouluavustajan kautta ja ne nopeammin etenevät saavat kuitenkin riittävästi haasteita eteensä etteivät tylsisty.

Tuosta samaa mieltä, tukea ja haasteita pienryhmittäin.

Itse ajattelen tasoryhmillä jaettuja luokkia. Omina yläasteaikoinani 90-luvulla oli ainakin matematiikassa joko puhetta tai toimia siihen suuntaan että luokat jaettiin eri tunneille, osa “lahjakkaiden” ja osa “normaalien” matematiikkaan. Jo silloin ajatus tuntui itsestäni jotenkin painostavalta (ehdottomasti otin peruskoulusta mukaan “fiksun” identiteetin, paineet ja putoamisen pelon) ja jotenkin pahalta “B-ryhmän” suhteen. Tällaista en haluaisi yhtään nuoremmille, tai oikeastaan lainkaan ennen lukiota.

Tarkkiksia valitettavasti varmaan tarvitaan, mutta en sellaiselle ihan ensimmäisenä tai kolmantena keinona lasta lähettäisi. Tasoryhmien suhteen olen vielä kriittisempi. Siinä helposti tulee lapselle “fiksun” tai “tyhmän” leima osaksi identiteettiä, mikä sitten helposti kostautuu tulevaisuudessa. Ennemmin lisäisin yksilöllistä tukea ja/tai haasteita tarpeen mukaan. Ja me ollaan jo ihan tarpeeksi kuplaantuneita, olisi ihan kiva että edes koulussa joutuisi kohtaamaan erilaisia ihmisiä.

Muuten olen sitä mieltä että lisää (iänmukaista) pervoilua kouluihin, vaivaton suhtautuminen seksuaalisuuteen olisi hyvä asia.

I want to see Cats, on stage, live, again.

Re-visit some places. Prague, Tartu, Kyoto come to mind.

And I would kind of like that “new love” feeling again, except it would either get messy or be preceded by unpleasantness or tragedy.

I’m intentionally avoiding these discussions for my blood pressure and mental health, and this is WAY wrong a forum anyway, so I’ll just address your points in as good a faith as I can, and then you can have the last word.

2014 […] raised gas transit fees through Ukraine to extortionist levels

Gas transit through Ukraine has been wrought with disagreements since forever, so much that it even has its own Wikipedia page (the contents of which one can be of many opinions), with accusations of unpaid debts on both sides, Russia cutting off gas several times, and so on. In 2014 we’re talking of the two most corrupt countries in Europe, one of which has just annexed part of the other and claimed part of their fossil fuel company. (And no, corruption is no cause for invasion.) Perfect time for negotiations! Russia raised their gas price to Ukraine to extortion levels (up to $480 per 1,000 cubic metres), so they paid it forward in transit fees, looks to me.

In late 2024 they chose to cut off all Russian imports, mostly out of meanness to Moldova and Slovakia.

Sure. Not wanting to be involved in business with a country they’re at war with certainly had nothing to do with it.

Nazi […] nazi […] Ukrainian nazi evil

God I miss the old Internet, when pulling nazi comparisons was considered gauche. Which one is it for you, a nationalistic and antisemitic historical figure, neonazis in the armed forces, or demanding that native speakers of russian also offer services in ukrainian? I’m not aware of Ukraine having ghettos or marks for jews or Russians, much less camps.

NATO is wrong direction for EU, and especially if they want the US to stay in it so badly that they destroy themselves in sycophancy.

NATO is a framework in which to develop collaborative defence and have a nuclear umbrella without every country having nukes. It’s got value with or without the US, but of course it’d be nice to have them and their military force. Preferably without them threatening a fellow alliance member over Greenland, but if Greece and Turkey can be frenemies then sure, why not 🙄. All alliances require compromises, and that’d be true even without the US. E.g. Finland, Greece and France have very different opinions on what the primary threat is.

Best path for EU is to stop the Russia derangement syndrome, and return to peaceful relations they had in 2010s.

Hard to return to the previous normal after seeing someone assaulting your neighbor, no matter how great their cookies are, don’t you think?

[Pacification of Russia] only happens with Ukraine neutrality

We know how much the uncertain tightrope walk of necessary neutrality for survival sucks. Unless the Ukrainians themselves choose it, helping them resist that fate is worth it, almost as much as helping them resist direct annexation.

[Every EU leader’s enthusiasm] for a draft to go diminish Russia further

Citation needed. Citations. From actual leaders, not “experts”, not noisy members of parliament. Macron has mentioned the possibility of maybe sending troops in the vague future (and been blasted for it), and some countries are considering (re?)instating mandatory military service, which is not a draft; the servicemen are being taught, not recruited for working in/for the military.

current levels of US sycophancy has significantly diminished EU during this war

Having to respond to this war started by Russia has revealed our weakness, and our inner squabbles don’t help, US has very little to do with it.

Even if your reality bubble is that Russia wasn’t forced to neutralize Ukraine, you cannot claim that it was the one who refused to sell energy to Europe. War is primarily over nordstream and US capture of EU energy.

And in your reality bubble Ukraine posed a threat to Russia. The gas pipe projects were as much about building a mutual dependency to prevent war (again), as mutual financial benefit. Clearly it didn’t work. So capture of EU energy by Russia or US, either’s bad. And mind you, the last intact Nordstream pipe isn’t working because of Russia (yea yea, “turbine problems, can’t accept replacement because reasons”).

Key to dealing with Trump threats is to maintain that progress above all else, but hatred for Russia will likely cause more desperate US sycophancy.

It’s perfectly possible to hate both. 😅 (A little and in jest! I just meant I value European and national independence on all levels like you seem to want us to, with the “pull your own weight in NATO” talk and such. Please US CBP let me through to see family on this already-ESTAd-and-booked -trip.)

I want to like Russia. All the people I’ve met have been nice if closed off (just like home), ivan chai and samovars are awesome, they dared to try a new scary political/ownership system (massive respect for people trying on weird things even if it doesn’t work out), the language sounds cool, and even russian orthodox christianity has that strange aestetic appeal. But they keep being a piece of shit to their neighbors.

1. Oil companies sponsoring Trump are not in it to make energy cheaper.
2. The policies/EOs announced directly make energy more expensive, with Americans more dependent on the extortionist oligarchs.

From the inauguration speech: “We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top, and export American energy all over the world.” Okay, the prices down probably is empty words aimed at the domestic market.

3. US energy is always more expensive to transport to EU than Russian or middle east energy. EU in fact is importing oil/gasoline from India which imports it from Russia, as a sick joke on its citizens for supporting war on Russia.

Oil is a fungible product. If someone buys American rather than Middle-Eastern or Norwegian oil, the price of Middle-Eastern or Norwegian oil goes down to meet the demand that exists.

Yeah, the import of refined Russian oil from India is ridiculous. That’s not “EU importing” as much as “companies in EU importing”, though. Business gonna business. ¯\ (ツ) /¯

4. Russian economy is strong and independent such that more people/resources are being allocated to domestic needs than expanding FF exports. They myth that sanctions work on Russia who has enough allies to thrive is a delusion for war, and that Europe is winning the war instead of a US victim of it.

You’re kind of making my point. The energy trade was supposed to be a kind of a mutually benefical MAD doctrine. Apparently it wasn’t, just an extortion tool by Russia, so bloody well time to cut it. Hopefully we’ll be able to cut the replacement soonish too. Really, going green is our best bet, not just for climate change or other environmental damage, but sheer energy independence.

Even ignoring the environment for a moment, I’m sceptical of the long-term wisdom of tying the US to a limited resource with a diminishing EROI as easy access is already exhausted. 🤔

Also export markets will hopefully diminish soonish, for environmental and energy independence reasons. 🤔

Then again, if access to cheaper American oil drags down Russian economy further, there’s at least a silver lining. OPEC would probably have something to say about it though.