Flowers Make a Nice Gift
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For the guys, always have a vase on hand at home. It doesn't matter much the quality/price. Whenever inviting a friend over, throw some flowers in it. Even if its a bundle from the grocery store. The impression it makes is well worth it. If you really don't like having the flower, give them away at the end of your get together. 2nd good impression from the same source.
As someone else pointed out, the type of flower and the color of the flowers have meanings that you might be unaware. FYI
Some flowers are more fragrant than others, and some have longer "shelf" life. Roses tend to wilt quickly, and aren't the most fragant (to fill a room). Lillies (stargazers, etc) will last a lot longer, and their fragrance can fill a room. ProTip: Once the lilly blooms, pinch off the stamen which is covered in pollen. They will drop off naturally even if you don't, but when the do the pollen dust gets on everything.
Keeping flowers cool prevents them from opening, so if you are buying something in advance you can clear out space in the fridge to help prolong them.
If you need flowers to bloom faster because you forgot and bought last second, you can try using a hair dryer to encourage them to bloom. There's a method to this, so you can read up on it. Bright light is your friend as well. A sunny window is perfect. Avoid the cold.
If the flowers came with a bag of powder as flower food, use only half of it or less. Use more when you change out the water. You should change the water out every couple of days at the longest if not daily for best results.
At some point, flowers were something we appreciated in nature. (It is interesting that we appreciate part of another life form's reproductive cycle in a relatively non-utilitarian way). Then flowers were something you could enjoy seasonally, and with a connection to the land and seasons around you.
But at some point, we decided that it made sense for jets to move flowers sometimes between continents, so you could buy roses any month of the year. And that's a little amazing and a little ridiculous.
Flowers make no demands on the recipient to enjoy other than that perhaps, they shouldn't think too much about where they came from.
- The Good Place Season 3, Episode 11
[1] https://tvline.com/2019/01/10/the-good-place-recap-season-3-...
Flowers evolved to attract insects to aid in reproduction. Accidentally it also turned out that humans would also be attracted by them and aid in their reproduction by farming them.
Is this really a hard thing to think about? Flowers brighten up any room. If they are fragrant, they can even liven up a room with their fragrance. It could have also been some sort of show of wealth. You had to have money to have a nice enough garden to have flowers available to cut. The oils from flowers have been used for perfumes for centuries. To me any room with no plants feels dead. Just something in the corner that is green and leafy makes a huge difference. Flowers also add color to that. There's lots of reasons for people to want flowers.
Unless you are super sensitive with allergies, you kind of have to be a little dead on the inside to not see the appeal.
I have dahlias and roses growing right now. It's not that I don't experience the appeal ... It's that I'm curious how flowers initially became appealing. I think it's a failure of imagination to just claim that flowers are intrinsically attractive and not ask any further questions.
I think you're begging the question, as someone who enjoys flowers and descends from many many generations who have enjoyed flowers. When do you suppose the earliest ancestor who gathered flowers for aesthetic appreciation was? Chimps don't do it, so far as I know. Other great apes don't. The rest of the animal kingdom doesn't use them as we do. So a whole long chain of ancestors didn't care about flowers from an aesthetic perspective, and then perhaps there was a transitional period, and now modern humans really like them. What happened?
The idea of flowers as a display of wealth or the appeal to cultural use of oils from flowers all seem too late as explanations, in that they presume that flowers in particular were already appealing.
For color and fragrance, why don't we value other natural sources in the same way? Beetle carapaces or bird feathers can be colorful and all sorts of organic matter can be fragrant. But we aren't drawn to use them in the same way, for the most part.
Um, people have been using feathers for a long time. The native people of the "New World" used them to the point of it being a stereotype. Also, how much of this other organic matter have you collected because of its fragrance? As far as hard shells go, there are also historical evidence of people using them primarily as protection more than a trinket to display at home.
>When do you suppose the earliest ancestor who gathered flowers for aesthetic appreciation was?
I guess it would be after we figured out how to not live in a cave. After developing ability to communicate. After we weren't the ones being hunted. Then again, how in the world am I to know when/if the first Mr Neanderthal didn't pick a daisy to bring to Miss Neanderthal in an attempt to woo her affection.
>in that they presume that flowers in particular were already appealing.
I'm really shocked that you just cannot fathom or imagine someone looking at a flower and thinking "wow, that looks really nice. i'm going to investigate it." then realizing, "wow, this smells nice too. i'm going to pick it to share with someone". then, they take it home, and they see the response it has. The Mrs says "ooh, that is lovely." Then Mr FlowerPicker says, hey, I should do that again.
>Chimps don't do it, so far as I know. Other great apes don't
The list of things that humans do that chips/apes don't do is long, so I'm curious why this one in particular has peaked to your interest to make this point. Apes don't talk and write. Apes don't drive cars. Apes don't cook food. Apes don't cut down trees and build structures to live in. What's your point?
Which is not to say that this is in fact how it came about, but it's plausible enough that I wouldn't be comfortable asserting "it's pure coincidence".
(By the way, David Deutsch asserts that flowers are, in some sense, objectively beautiful. I think he's wrong, but The Beginning of Infinity contains quite a bit on this subject.)
I recall some UK study claiming that even purely in terms of carbon footprint it's more effective to fly in greens from south rather than heat up greenhouses to grow them locally during winter.
We ship a lot of animal products (I think medium sized fish and chicken were some of the examples) to entirely different countries to have them processed and then sent back to us.
I've been completely amazed at seeing assembly lines in things as simple as sardine canning factories. Dozens upon dozens of workers literally just shoving sardines in cans, and they aren't sold for much. The tins actually cost more than the sardines going in them. Absolute dirt cheap wages, quite depressing to think about as somebody from the US
That said though, the domestic US flower industry could be potentially ripe for disruption if somebody wanted to front the money to do so.
BTW, fish are mostly canned right in the sea on board of fishing vessel or on a bigger factory ship nearby.
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2014/03/chicken-from-china-yo...
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-seafood-industry-vulnerable...
https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2016/12/05/tale-fish-two-cou...
https://boingboing.net/2018/09/14/usda-approves-shipping-sla...
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/china-chicken-reshipped/
https://weuseit2.com/blogs/we-use-it-2/shipping-live-hogs-po...
I'm unfortunately still not able to remember for the keywords of the one good reputable article I know of that details most of what is shipped for processing and back to multiple countries and the margins involved, but it's out there if you ever feel the need to dig into it.
I am aware of the fish being canned on board vessels and factory ships. There are still a large amount that aren't.
Here is one video demonstrating a large amount of people being involved in the simple canning of cheap sardines... It's definitely much better and more orderly than another video based out of a somewhat open-air assembly line in Portugal I believe.
I could however be completely wrong about all of this. There is some information on the internet that is not amazingly easy to find and verify. When you think about the fact there are many countries with large populaces that are still treated as literal slave labour though and also lesser quality standards involved, so more ability to quite literally cram a shipping container to the brim with whatever they want, margins are incredibly slim, but still money is being made.
Random link to establish some basis facts for kenyan rose industry: https://aishaflowers.com/blog/30-why-roses-from-kenya-stands...
DDGing "Covid flower industry", there also newer articles talking about the state of the it as lockdowns in Europe eased.
Do you like fresh fruit in the winter? Do you like bananas? All of these things are not normal for most people in northern latitudes, yet we all now get to enjoy them.
This is probably not what you meant. But, if you did, I would absolutely love to read the data you gathered this from.
A service was created, and it got customers. Only they didn't have to pay a bot farm to create fake users to hype up their service, so that may be confusing to this crowd of readers.
>But ... it's crazy that we created giant international supply chains to rush around flowers
The GP's comment made it sound like capacity was made specifically for flowers. I responded that growers were just using existing shipping capacity, and then stated shippers specifically did not increase capacity for flowers.
Where's the disconnect?
Her cat chewed on a few of the flowers, and died of renal failure a few days later.
Don't send flowers that might include lilys
to anyone who might have a cat!
I also consider it completely unforgivable that florists don't mention this to every customer who is purchasing lilys (often in arrangements where the customer doesn't even know the contents).
Computers can be used for evil, do computer sales people mention that to any potential customer? Do car sales mention that you can murder people with the item you are purchasing?
One could flip it and say you are a bad pet parent for not knowing things are dangerous to your pet.
But people categorize information that is/is not relevant to their lives. Friend in question was a long-time cat owner, but not a flowers person, so it wouldn't be unusual for the vague knowledge to have faded.
The florist was the only one that knew 100% for sure that lilys would be included in the gift, and should have known that they were highly toxic to cats. A simple "does the recipient have a cat?" question would have gone a long way to preventing a lot of pain and anguish.
I do consider it unforgiveable that the question is not asked as a matter of course.
But yes, there were a few people who could have prevented this problem, and only one who was ultimately responsible.
This is just ridiculous. Should the florist ask if the recipient has allergies? Why not ask if there are other pets, why are you calling out cats only? Flowers can also be toxic to dogs as well.
I think you are looking to blame someone for something that happened, and assing the blame to the wrong person. My thoughts are no less valid than yours wanting to blame a florist.
However, it's 100% reasonable for the florist to offer a warning. We give warnings in all sorts of situations, all the time. A warning to prevent the death of a pet, due to a very common oversight, is completely appropriate.
I would consider it my moral responsibility to give a warning, if I were a florist. Any florist who does not consider it a moral responsibility of theirs, I consider immoral.
You don't like that, but that's fine. I hope you never become a florist, or another person who can influence fallible humans' lives.
My whole point here is that specific flower toxicity to cats is a very common oversight. Maybe you were born knowing, maybe you're better at reading the posters which (now) are common at vetrinarians' offices. Maybe you bought "Cats for Dummies" when you turned 18. Maybe you're just awesome.
But lots of people who own cats do not know, and I would prefer those people to not have dead cats, more than I'd prefer to pronounce responsibilities from some perch of ridiculous absolutism.
I'd recommend a simple search using the engine of your choice. It's not like this is a new topic that nobody has thought about. It is well documented. To the point, Home Depot's website has a search filter for Pet Safe Plants.
If you asked 100 people who came through MetroCat in Boston whether they could name a common flower in floral arrangements, which would cause renal failure and death in their pet, how many would answer correctly?
And how many would get the whole list?
And how many could identify those flowers from photographs or samples?
Those are the interesting questions. I'd bet maybe 50% for the first, dropping quickly for the rest. And the cat owners who come to MetroCat specifically are probably among the most aware groups.
This lack of awareness is, of course, the real problem. And that's why I made my initial comment.
Florists have this awareness but not the full context of the environment where their product will be used. Flowers don't come with warning labels, but even if they did I would say that the florist has a responsibility to inquire. For the benefit of the customer, if nothing else (who wants to be partially involved in the death of their friend's cat??).
You eat it, enjoy it, and it's over. There's nothing to occupy space in your house.
If you don't like it, just pass it on.
And as you say, if you don't like them, then pass them on!
I said "oh I really don't mind. Something practical probably, like a potato."
He brought a sweet potato. It was great!
We get along very well.
Crystal is a common brand; I doubt the brand matters. My pack was so big I wouldn't use it up for years so I split it up and gave most of it away. I haven't tried but presumably you can mix up a batch of sugar and bleach powder yourself, be careful handling chemicals etc.
See for example Victorian flower language, etc.
Although, personally speaking, I associate red roses with romance and passion, but even this is tenuous nowadays. You can give red roses to anyone.
But I dunno. I still wouldn't give a single red rose to anyone I wasn't interested in romantically.
Re: the article I too have learned to appreciate flowers. They bring beauty. Not everything has to be useful. After spending years walking through smelly cities it really is a blessing to stop and smell a rose or jasmine or, my personal favorite, lavender.
Probably it's similar in other Slavic languages.
It's worth noting that on 七夕 popup flower stalls appear everywhere. Flowers are an expected gift to your Chinese girlfriend. You should give her 11 of them.
Avoid Chrysanthemums, white lilies, and white flowers in general.
why does this sound, off... maybe it's just me
Mentioning races is not racism.
I personally can't think of something OTOH I'd less want in my home. (I am a notorious weirdo, however.)
I was 24 and working at Tandem Computers in Cupertino. I would describe myself as someone who didn’t understand the giving of flowers.
I had finished a big corporate marketing project (Tandem Channel Development Kit—-da-dum). The ‘client’ lead surprised my manager and myself with flowers in our cubicles. So imagine walking through the sterile office, with Holiday Inn meets xerox machine decor, to find a lovely natural bouquet. From there evermore I understood giving flowers as a gift.
Once can instead see the beauty in both the act of giving a gift as well as in the flowers themselves.
Beauty is a mark of the highest worth, definitely not worthless.
You can appreciate beauty of the tail while knowing why the bird has it.
Same way you can appreciate beauty of gifted flowers while knowing what purpose gifting them serves.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26541280
>compiler-guy 5 months ago | on: Richard Stallman is coming back to the board of th...
>His inappropriate behavior toward women is well documented. One example where women traded advice on how to keep him away.
https://mobile.twitter.com/starsandrobots/status/99426727746...
>DonHopkins 5 months ago [–]
>>Star Simpson @starsandrobots Replying to @corbett
>>I remember being walked around campus by an upperclassman getting advice during my freshman year at MIT. "Look at all the plants in her office," referring to a professor. "All the women CSAIL professors keep massive amounts of foliage" s/he said. "Stallman really hates plants."
>Star is correct: RMS really hates plants, and is afraid of trees.
This sounds like an instantiated rumor. In fact it appears to have been added and then deleted to Stallman's Wikipedia page, specifically being removed due to lack of a source.
I've known RMS since the early 80's, crashed in his house when visiting the MIT AI Lab, had him crash in my hotel room at science fiction conventions, and I'm friends with numerous people who have worked and lived with him, one of whom he let stay in the largest bedroom of his house because it had a menacing tree outside the window that he was afraid of.
And I know Star Simpson personally (the freshman who quoted the MIT upperclassman who said female CSAIL professors kept plants in their offices to repel RMS), and we have discussed RMS's antics.
And RMS has personally asked me to hold the branches of bushes that were leaning into a sidewalk out of the way so that he could pass by.
So yes, I'm pretty sure first hand that RMS is afraid of trees and bushes and foliage, among other quirks, and it's pretty widely knows around the people who have lived and worked and hung out with him.
Here's a photo I took of RMS holding a gerbil wrapped in duct tape, just before he asked, "I don't know, why do you wrap a gerbil in duct tape?" (Google it!)
https://www.donhopkins.com/home/catalog/images/jsol-rms-gerb...
And here are a couple photo of my brave friend Devon, who was his housemate for many years, fearlessly climbing up to the roof of his house on the evil tree that RMS was afraid of, so you can judge for yourself how menacing it was:
https://www.donhopkins.com/home/catalog/images/devon-climbin...
https://www.donhopkins.com/home/catalog/images/devon-landing...
And here's a true story about a funny joke that RMS made about my other friend Mike and I burning down his house, the one in that photo:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26113192
>I worked at UniPress on the Emacs display driver for the NeWS window system (the PostScript based window system that James Gosling also wrote), with Mike "Emacs Hacker Boss" Gallaher, who was charge of Emacs development at UniPress. One day during the 80's Mike and I were wandering around an East coast science fiction convention, and ran into RMS, who's a regular fixture at such events.
>Mike said: "Hello, Richard. I heard a rumor that your house burned down. That's terrible! Is it true?"
>RMS replied right back: "Yes, it did. But where you work, you probably heard about it in advance."
>Everybody laughed. It was a joke! Nobody's feelings were hurt. He's a funny guy, quick on his feet!
Yes, his house actually did burn down, but we didn't set it on fire, hire someone else to do it, or even know about it in advance.
And here's an excerpt from a September 1986 email from my eloquent friend who he let stay in the biggest room of the house with a menacing tree outside the window:
>RMS as God (or, why isn't the world made out of decayed slugs?)
>What can I say? All three of us moved out of [address redacted] because there was no way in hell to get him to move. This is a man who has created an operating system people worship slavishly as a "perfect environment", but who claims he must continue to use everyone else's towel because he doesn't know where to buy one himself. This is a man who talks about immorality and considerate-ness, and claimed it was a "special favor" to take his boots off at the top of the stairs like the rest of us and not track mud through the living room where we all roamed barefoot. This is a man who let me have the best bedroom in the house because there were trees outside the window and he was afraid of them. He has mentioned to a few people that he thinks it would be neat to have a daughter by some willing female and raise her up so that he could have sex with her when she was old enough. This man says he will never be happy until there is no more purchased software, until copyright laws are totally trashed. He will accept no lesser events as conditionals, and disqualifies any other good things/feelings that happen to him as "false happiness" or simply things that don't count.
>Yet I still hear people I love and respect talk about him as if he were some kind of deity, as if his Free Software Foundation were the noblest effort in the world. It is admirable, yes. But to glorify the thoroughly sick human being behind it into some sort of whole-life messianic figure is unconscionable. Meeting RMS groupies was yet another contributing factor to my punting of the computer world for the time being. So many of the "hackers" out there (hackers, not crackers/urchins/destructoids) seem to have their external values totally fukt. Sure, we're all entitled to different values. Fine. But it grieves me to see good people withering away behind a self-imposed wall of lonely techno-perfection, their frantic efforts to acquire friends and lovers made all the more poignant by the desperation in their eyes, voice, manner. Most of them know that they are lacking something important, but don't know what it is, or how to get it, or who to ask for it. Many can see themselves alienating people or spurning offers of friendship and affection, but don't know how or why they're doing so. They just look impassive and bored and in control, and damn themselves silently in their minds, self-inflicting the rejection and pain that they feared from the outside.
[She goes on, but I'll stop quoting here... And you can decide for yourself if what she wrote about RMS in September 1986 is accurate and authentic, and aligns with other stories you've heard about him in the intervening 35 years.]
And here's a transcript of a bunch of people telling RMS to fuck off because they didn't appreciate his pointed joke about the Evils Natalism, which I then fed to Doctor in Emacs to psychoanalyze him:
https://www.donhopkins.com/home/catalog/text/rms-vs-doctor.h...
Have you seriously consider that he could be worried by something that could be in that foliage, like ticks for example?
> fearlessly climbing up to the roof of his house on the evil tree that RMS was afraid of
again, have you consider that he could be worried by how easy would be for a stranger to break into the room climbing the tree and maybe steal his computer? Most people like to have a sense of security and private space when sleeping.
Edit: A science fiction convention is not a workplace, and as the butts of his joke about burning down his house, Mike and I (who he also calls "Evil Software Hoarders" because we worked for UniPress on his enemy Gosling Emacs) are in the unique position of deciding whether it's offensive to us or not, not you. And we both thought it was hilarious, as he meant us to take it, especially his without-missing-a-beat dead-pan delivery.
Also we weren't co-workers, we fought on opposite sides of the Emacs Wars, but we hung out at science fiction conventions and at each other's homes, and were friendly and civil in person (at least enough to know if he accused us of burning down his house, he was only joking, and that if he asked me to hold a bush out of his way, he really meant it).
And I was taking photos of the guy you rudely accuse of being a creepy spoiled brat while you lectured me about making fun of people, because he is my friend, and we were having a fun time climbing the trees at his house, not mocking RMS or even thinking about him at the time. It just so happens that was the roof of the same house that burnt down later, and the same tree that RMS was afraid of, and somebody asked for proof, so I gave what I had. Do you need more proof? (Gumby: I'm sure you have some stories! ;) )
Just come out and say you don't believe the women, and stop lecturing me on civility while baselessly calling my friend a creepy spoiled brat, m'kay? ;)
Making jokes in the workplace about burning the home of somebody is funny and acceptable activity to you? Seriously?
And what was the purpose of taking the photo of the creepy guy climbing the tree, except to mock RMS? Your friend looks like a spoiled brat in that photos.
I had seen before this pattern of coworkers teaming against the smart, different guy in the room, releasing rumors about people, and all the stuff that I see in your post... all while pretending to be friendly. And I think that they are really disgusting people, to be honest.
You must refer to the post written by CameronNemo. Those aren't neither "my demands" nor my comment.
Yep, I believe totally in those hypothetical women putting plants in their room because "Stallman can't stand being in the same room as plants". The trick is working great it seems.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/Eg...
http://blogs.laprensagrafica.com/litoibarra/wp-content/uploa...
Is also obvious that the man is afraid of trees and nature in general
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stallman_Jadwisin_9....
Real phobias are serious medical problems causing a lot of anxiety and pain in people that just can't avoid being afraid. Is not funny stuff to gossip about it. I think that spread the rumor of somebody having a phobia is, if not malicious, at least of very bad taste. Specially when several documents show the opposite behavior.
And if you say that this wrapped thing is a gerbil, well... Solid evidence. All packages with that shape contain a live gerbil inside. The more expensive Tesla cars even have four squirrel units inside for feeding the battery.
That said, it now seems both of you have gone massively off the deep end becoming very involved and abusing the edit function to further arguments where you talk past each other, so I both regret saying and reading anything.
Defending RMS's love of trees isn't the hill I'd choose to die on. If you really don't believe her, re-read what that wise woman wrote 35 years ago about RMS groupies, and tell me that it doesn't apply to you today:
>Yet I still hear people I love and respect talk about him as if he were some kind of deity, as if his Free Software Foundation were the noblest effort in the world. It is admirable, yes. But to glorify the thoroughly sick human being behind it into some sort of whole-life messianic figure is unconscionable. Meeting RMS groupies was yet another contributing factor to my punting of the computer world for the time being. So many of the "hackers" out there (hackers, not crackers/urchins/destructoids) seem to have their external values totally fukt. Sure, we're all entitled to different values. Fine. But it grieves me to see good people withering away behind a self-imposed wall of lonely techno-perfection, their frantic efforts to acquire friends and lovers made all the more poignant by the desperation in their eyes, voice, manner. Most of them know that they are lacking something important, but don't know what it is, or how to get it, or who to ask for it. Many can see themselves alienating people or spurning offers of friendship and affection, but don't know how or why they're doing so. They just look impassive and bored and in control, and damn themselves silently in their minds, self-inflicting the rejection and pain that they feared from the outside.
Nobody should believe "the" women. Not more that we should believe "the" men. Everybody can have hidden agendas. Being a woman is not a proof that somebody is not lying. Moreover. In fact, nobody should believe "me", or "you". Specially when there are a pattern of dissonances between what somebody claims, the quality of the proofs shown and the easy to find facts that don't match what is claimed.
> re-read what that wise woman wrote 35 years ago about RMS groupies
To start, she seems to have a poor and 'holier-than-thou' opinion about all [male] hackers that describes as "fu*d people", and this is not a good sign in my book.
I doubt also that RMS would have a lot of "groupies" or fame in 1986, five years before the first Linux. If something was proven with time is that he was right, and that the "such smart woman" was clueless as a blind chicken about the future impact of the FSF. Your example would be like talking about how disappointing was the impact to Bill Gates to our society at 8 years old.
> called my friend a creepy spoiled brat
Maybe is a great guy, but in this two photos it surely looks like one. You are not doing him any favor showing them here.
Devon just created an account and replied above. It turns out I was mistaken about the particular tree: it was actually the tree around the corner of the house that was outside the bedroom window. But Devon confirms that people of all genders at the AI/LCS lab hung ferns in their offices to keep RMS away.
You probably want to interrogate and insult him directly if you still believe he's a "lying" "creepy" "spoiled brat" (although I have no idea how you so "surely" inferred those specific labels from the photographs -- did you use Facebook's computer vision AI?), at the risk of being banned from HN for antisocial behavior, but I suggest you remain civil, since you're the one who's hypocritically defending RMS's behavior while lecturing other people about civility while incorrectly labeling and insulting them and their friends, based on your imagination and no evidence or first hand experience whatsoever.
https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-apologizes-artifici...
And yes, RMS did have many groupies in 1986 and long before, and he was quite well known even in the 70's, in certain circles. He started working at the MIT AI Lab in 1971, with Gerald Sussman in 1975, and he and Sussman published an early widely cited paper on AI truth maintenance and dependency-directed backtracking in 1977. It was openly known by many people on the ARPANET that his password was "rms", and he welcomed people to log in and use his account. And the ARPANET was a very small tightly knit circle, were everybody knew each other, back in the days of NCP, when host numbers were only 8 bits, so there could be no more than 256 hosts, and homosocketuality was prohibited, before "Flag Day" in 1983 when they switched to TCP/IP with its 32 bit addresses.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Control_Program
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14178653
So it's supremely ironic, ignorant, and insulting that you would mistakenly short measure the temporal extent of RMS's fame by the young age of "Linux", instead of saying "Gnu/Linux". Obviously you have never met him personally and triggered him by saying "Linux" instead of "Gnu/Linux" in his presence, and that shows you know very little about the history of FSF or the personality of RMS. He'd probably be furious with you for what you said about his fame following the success of the first "Linux".
Richard Stallman when you call it Linux instead of GNU/Linux:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8VgjZUel6M&ab_channel=DullB...
> You could trigger Stallman! is a bad man!
I'm not worried by that possibility. Maybe Stallman should be worried by my answers. Dunno.
If is a problem to you, can I suggest to call it LiGNUx as a compromise solution and end this old war? Feel free to also use Stallmanix, or Stallpple if you use Hurd. As long as it works, I don't care about the name.
By the way, "Sorry it was ambiguous to you" is a classic non-apology apology, blaming somebody else for their mistake of misunderstanding you, without admitting you were wrong, which you were. I understood you just fine. You owe Devon a much more specific and sincere apology than that for calling him names, directly stating what you did that was wrong, showing your remorse, acknowledging that you were wrong, and promising that it won't happen again. Here's some help with that:
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/how-to-apologize.htm
> You should apologize to everybody by your flagrant misconduct, and promise that you will not do it again, blah, blah, the fires of hell, blah, blah, cancel culture, blah, blah...
Hem, nope. That would feel like being in a cult. I'm free, adult and able to stand my own ground, not a ticktoddler easy to impress to follow the brilliant lights. "Promise that would not do it again [something that you opinate but has annoyed me]" looks totally like returning to witch hunt, public humiliations of dissidents, and totalitarism. Is not acceptable.
[By the way, I kindly suggest you not to use the passive aggressive mode with me. I don't have a lot of patience anymore with this people and those that tried the trick before felt my burnt to the root. Be happy].
I stand corrected, then. Thanks.
You're an RMS groupie and apologist for his bad behavior that you emulate without any of his positive attributes, skills, humor, or intelligence, and my friend's analysis of RMS groupies that she wrote 35 years ago describes you perfectly to a tee:
>Most of them know that they are lacking something important, but don't know what it is, or how to get it, or who to ask for it. Many can see themselves alienating people or spurning offers of friendship and affection, but don't know how or why they're doing so. They just look impassive and bored and in control, and damn themselves silently in their minds, self-inflicting the rejection and pain that they feared from the outside.
/s
Get in the habit of buying flowers regularly (weekly). You can rack up enough points to stay in the bonus round with your SO.
But I am sometimes reminded that it's Mother's day (the actual Sunday), when I'm in a Walmart on a Sunday morning (maybe I parked there the night before) and see a few men that need a shave, looking over the flowers, often with a kid or two tagging along.
No amount of money in the world could have caused that picture to exist.
So from that perspective, decent gifts are exactly those that you would like to have but in an ordinary situation would not buy; like something that's nice instead of the "best price/performance" option that you might buy otherwise if you'd have the cash, something a bit extraordinary (even if it's a small thing) for the celebration.
Giving money is basically completely giving up on the curation part, which makes the gift extremely impersonal. It's marginally better than a very bad gift, but to me it would not qualify as a good gift in any case
If you are not searching for the semantics of the gift you received, then you may be missing out on the most important part of the gift.
...that said, I think the best gifts are still consumable so that they do not burden the gift receiver, and/or are handmade or cleverly devised by the giver.
Perhaps ask the opinion of others in a similar situation first?
There are a lot of overtones to money, perceived status signalling being an ugly one. I have more than one friend that really needs money, but they would definitely feel hurt if I did the simplest thing and just gave them money, so I have to be more creative to find ways to help that are joyful.
Yes, the flowers that are cut are going to wither and die, but they would do this anyways if left attached to the plant. The mere cutting of the flower is not going to kill the plant.
Thanks for that comment, this makes sense. They're still being grown for this purpose so it's still resources being used, but yeah it's not necessarily just ripping plants out of the ground which is how I (without thinking it through, stupidly) pictured it. I should check how it compares to other gift-type items, perhaps they're not a bad generic gift at all. (Of course a gift that someone wished for and will use for years is always better, but that's far from always possible.)
Or does PETA stand for People for the Ethical Treatment of Asparagus?
You're trying really hard at something, just not sure what it is
For someone’s hobby or passion, they generally have quite specific taste on what they want, and it is very difficult to pick something they will actually like (unless carefully asking them, undoing part of the pleasure of a gift).
If everybody knows someone loves plants, they will often get plants as presents, and the person is likely very practised at feigning pleasure at receiving a plant they don’t need or want. An example would be a kid who knows you like tools buying you a cheap nasty screwdriver - you grin and appreciate the thought.
> Flowers don’t take any effort on your part to be enjoyed. [...] Flowers come without any obligations.
Just like the article says.
If I buy her flowers, she seems to really appreciate it.
Other suggestions, such as dumpster diving for flowers may not be appreciated as much.
Make of that what you will.
It's a solved problem and a courteous touch.