Thomil's Random Ramblings

“May you live in interesting times” This statement, often and apparently incorrectly attributed to be a Chinese curse, nevertheless reflects a rather sobering point: Times that are interesting to read up on are rarely as enthralling for the people who actually have to live through them. Humanity is getting a taste of this as I’m writing this. The planet is in the grip of a pandemic unlike anything before in the network age. COVID-19, while only affecting a miniscule percentage of the human population at present, has effectively brought this planet to a standstill and shut down large parts of the global economy. Air travel has effectively ceased, as has most retail activity, while tourism has pretty much suffered a terminal existence failure. Many people are likening the current events to 9/11. While certainly an apt comparison for many of those who lived through it, it doesn’t quite capture the enormity of what is currently happening, nor of the future implications.  From my per...

It will come as absolutely no surprise to the readers of this blog that I write a lot! Even when I’m not publishing posts here, I’m either working on something in Word, or taking notes in OneNote, even if only to capture a particular idea, or to catch a train of thought before it derails. What you see here and on my German blog is maybe ten percent of the total notes I have in OneNote. Bear in mind that this doesn’t even include any “legacy” notes saved in other applications. So yes, I write a lot, which also means I type a lot, and I almost always carry my iPad with me as a writer’s notebook, together with an external keyboard. For years, this was my trusty Microsoft keyboard , but that has recently been showing the telltale signs of prolonged use, with components becoming lose, and cracks appearing in the casing. It was time to replace it. I wasn’t originally going to go for a Logitech keyboard. While they had been my go-to brand for peripherals for over a decade, both in Germa...

Ah yes, the great Vegan/Carnivore debate. There’s no better way to turn a civilised conversation into a Saw-like slaughterfest. So of course, I’ll have to jump into that debate as well, there’s no better way to generate clicks after all ;) Seriously, this is something that I’ve been thinking about for quite some time, and since I’ve finally managed to beat that latest bout of writer’s block, I might as well get around to it now. Hell, if my blog is to commit suicide, it might as well go with a bang instad of a wimper! Now just to make things clear, I’m not going to get into the ethical aspects of this debate, as I find them to be partially misleading and surprisingly anthropocentric. Likewise, the logistics and environmental impact are only going to be touched on in passing, as both are of partial, but limited relevance to the topic at hand.  My focus is rather on the way the discussion is being led by both sides. For one, I’ve noticed over the last few months that there appe...