The story goes like this: we needed a tablet for Sasha to use for a month. She goes to Iceland for 2 months. First month she will do this workaway so she will stay with a family there and help out, so she needed a device that she can use at times to watch videos, browse the web, write, etc.. Because the phones are ridiculously small for most such tasks.
She won’t take the laptop since it is too big and expensive and she will hike the month after the stay, so imagine having to hike with your laptop.
Now the tablet would serve her well even for the hiking month since she can use it to read books (offline as pdf, epud, etc.), but also as a second device for navigation (offline maps) in case her phone dies.
A tablet that is! One that we can sell or give away when she comes back!
We found a Samsung Tablet SM-T550 from 2016 or so. 34€ second hand with case and keyboard. Perfect! We grabbed it.
Now see the video for more info:
Ok, so how did I do it?
Took around 2 days.
First of all, this ONLY works for this specific tablet, but the approach is similar for other tablets.
Our tablet: SM-T550 gt510wifi.
You need to download these files. I will reference them in this tutorial.
1. Erase the SHIT
You need Windows. I installed it in Gnome Boxes (I use TROMjaro Linux). This is going to take time and it is annoying. I forgot how much of a piece of shit Windows is. But well.
In Gnome Boxes you can select Preferences and enable external USB devices to be recognized in Windows. Like:
I’ve put all files on a USB stick from Linux, then had them accessible in Windows via the Gnome Boxes.
Now install the Samsung Drivers in Windows (SAMSUNG_USB_Driver_for_Mobile_Phones.exe).
Prepare the Tablet.
Do a factory reset. Then enable the Developer Mode. If you do not know how to do these maybe do not move forward because you will break the tablet.
Make sure the USB Debugging is set in Download/Media file mode.
You can watch how this guy does that:
You then need to put your tablet into Download Mode. See min 3 of that video how to do it.
Connect it now to your computer. In Gnome Boxes allow it to be shared with Windows like I said above.
Let’s Wipe!
Next extract Odin3-v3.14.1.zip. Then open Odin3-v3.14.1.exe. Click ok.
It looks like this:
See if it detects your tablet. Then click AP. Select the file twrp-3.6.2_9-0-gt510wifi.img.tar. Before you click START, go to options and uncheck AutoReboot:
Click Start. Like the guy from the video does.
Now you have installed the WIPER!
Tricky part comes next.
You need to reboot the device into recovery mode. On the model I have I had to press the Power and Volume Down (or could be UP) until the screen turned back then immediately press the Power + Volume Down + Home button and keep press till it boots into the WIPER which looks like this:
Took me many attempts to make this work. If it boots normally you have to start the process again and put the tablet in Download Mode, open Odin and so on….
Now to Wipe it properly just watch the same video to see how the guy wipes it clean and follow exactly.
2. Install eOS
If you managed to do all of this congratulations all of the hard part is done. I recommend putting the e-3.2-t-20251106-UNOFFICIAL-gt510wifi.zip file on a MicroSD card and insert into your tablet. Then select it for install. Again watch that video.
That should be it.
I went with eOS instead of Lineage just because…I like that they keep it simple and you do not need to do much after the install.
Anyway took me a long time to figure what files I needed for the job.
I hope this post can help others too…
Unbelievable that you have to do this….but is not people’s fault. Not even Google or Samsung. It is out trade-based society that is at fault here.
For the past months life was not easy for me. Many health issues or concerns, mainly with my father that also affects my mother and us. He had another stroke a month or so ago. Had difficulty talking and moving his fingers. Now he has recovered more or less.
But the entire experience has traumatized us a bit especially since my parents retired and went back to Romania, where the healthcare system is a world apart from Spain, where they worked for the past 2 decades.
In Romania it is a hassle…especially in small towns. Understaffed hospitals, nurses that get their diplomas just by paying some money…very bad. You have to go to the private clinics that want to suck every penny out of you. Call this doctor, call this relative, call more people, make appointments…is a total disaster.
I cannot even start to explain to you.
But basically now my father has a ton of health issues that need to be managed with many pills and he walks a thin line between fainting often and having his kidneys destroyed, or having another stroke or a heart attack. My mother is a 24/7 caretaker for him and is very hard for her.
Anyway, this entire situation has a big impact on me since I feel sorry for my mother mostly. She has to deal with a lot. My father has some brain damage and maybe because of that he does not seem to be that affected by the entire situation.
My health problems.
I also had to deal with health issues. Lower right abdominal pain since June last year. Comes and goes, and feels kinda bad. A combo of someone twisting your right testicle + punching you in the gut + having a mild food poisoning. Not fun.
Luckily I have access to a very good and trade-free healthcare system here in Spain. But my problems seem complicated. They thought it is inguinal hernia. I was sent to the surgeon to be told it is not a hernia. I was sent to the urologist to check my testicles. Not much was found. Maybe is a muscle or bone issue. I will be sent to see a specialist but can take up to a year for that. I have another appointment with the hernia surgeon next month for more checkups…and I can insist to go to a gastroenterologist the following months.
I am fine I think. But all of this time I have also thought about what bad things I may have. What if I have cancer for example? That is a stressful thought. I think it is for sure something to do with a muscle/bone since I can kinda feel that when I do some movement, but it does not explain all of the pain I am having. Of course cancer is rare for my age, but cancer is also a deadly motherfucker. Honestly I do not seem to have any symptoms that point in that direction but I had these thoughts before I went for these checkups. I think it is normal to get worried about these things…
Currently I am not too stressed but it is something I had to deal with and still have to deal with….
Motivational problems.
It is already hard to motivate yourself in this shithole society to do anything good or interesting. I tried and tried and I will try more. I was fantasizing about buying this DJI Pocket 3 camera with a good mic and start to make videos for TROM.
My only camera is my Pixel 6a which is shit in low light and I was planning to film inside the motorhome at night when it is more quiet…
I watched pretty much every review about this little camera. I think because I also liked to be distracted by that to not think about my health issues or my parents…. But it seems like a really great and useful camera, tho I know is not the camera that matters, is to be motivated and do something that matters.
In any case I’d love to be able to transform the drafts I wrote recently into videos. We will see. I may make a donation campaign for that Pocket 3 to buy it second hand.
I did have some sparks of wonder these past days when I felt alive again planning some amazing videos, cool project ideas, etc.. Just like back in the days when I was active. It seems I still have that inside. That is good.
Money problems.
I have around 1.300€. Monthly I barely get around 380€ from donations a month and from Webape.site around 330€. I have to pay for our servers around 100-150€ a month and for Webape around 130€. Maybe I am left with 400 or so euros. Now try to live with that every month….
The savings I have are getting lower each month. I would like to have 1.000€ put aside in case something bad happens with the motorhome and needs fixing, since it is my only home.
The gas is now so expensive that it makes me not want to drive anywhere. Change the oil, filters, do the car inspection twice a year, insurance, etc…add up to quite a bit of money too.
Not fun.
But it is the best alternative for me, so it is what it is.
Luckily I share the costs with Sasha or at times she pays for these big expenses…else idk what I would do.
(we cleaned the trash again – feels good to see a nature place without garbage)
Future?
These days we will go for a little adventure somewhere in Spain around some mountains and lakes. In 2-3 weeks we will come back to Estartit. I have a doctor appointment and Sasha will go for a big adventure on her on in May and June. I am very happy for her. She is one of the most humans of humans. She loves nature and she goes to meet nature. No matter what :). I wish I had the same drive.
But in this time when she will be gone I will try to perhaps make some videos for TROM. Something that seems impossible to reach but at least I will try.
I am deeply concerned about the situation with my parents. Any day can become worse. Today my father fainted in the kitchen and lightly hit his head on the floor. My mother got very scared because she thought could have been another stroke. She lives in a sort of terror all the time. Idk what will happen if my father would have another stroke and won’t be able to walk or who knows what….I may have to go there and help them.
That would destroy my soul but I would always help my parents when they need help.
The future for me is unstable. I will try to do my best to stay calm and happy. My health issues may not be too bad, but is indeed uncomfortable to live with that pain. The money situation was always bad for me, so will see how it goes. And if I may not do anything new for TROM, so be it.
But I am not done trying. I will try more. There is a lot of wonder out there to be wondering about. The night sky, the other worlds, the amazing creatures here, the atoms and cells. Life is finite anyway, it only matters how you live it. You may die in your 90s or 30s…you never know. All you can do is make the best out of now. And that is hard, but keep trying.
For the past two years I’ve been trying to create new content for TROM and I failed. I don’t have to do it, but I want to. Else I feel lost and I will explain why.
I have never been trapped in such a suffocating situation before.
I remember people telling me how they envy my drive and how I am like a “rock” in a storm, I keep on being the same, create stuff, engage, be active. That was my “activism” activity online. So many projects, websites, books, videos, I was a machine really.
Even I was thinking how good that my only problem is money and not some mental struggle. Because if I have money I know what to do.
Now I still don’t have much money, but money is also not an issue currently. I don’t think much about it because this is my home:
I am typing this article from inside this little thing we call Tortuga (Tortoise). Because it is slow but resilient :). But living in this way allowed me to live with a lot less. 5-600 Euros a month is enough for me to live, travel, eat and pay for internet. Half of what I needed before.
When I started my “activism” my immediate environment sucked. Living with my parents, we were all poor, stressed, my family was slaving to a job in Spain. I had no money and no way to take care of myself. Everyone I knew was a total zombie, trapped robot citizens, mushed brains, livestock meat. I HATED it! I was and felt alone.
The outside world was the same mess. I was disgusted by it. Buy, work, be trapped, be an idiot. Destroy, lie, deceive. Compete, don’t give a fuck, be a dick.
I felt trapped but I mentally untrapped myself.
I found some hope online. My blog was reaching some people, so I felt like someone is listening. Then came across organizations like TVP/TZM and realized there might be a hope to this bullshit society.
It was a path that I was seeing from my dark place to something. Something…I don’t know what, but something.
And this path gave me hope. This world can be a paradise if we are scientifically minded and understand that the society we live in is a human invention, so to not let this invention stay in our way of creating a better society. Money, social statuses, countries, ownership, all that is fantasy! If only we can make people see that, then we can use our science-brain and solve problems without being stopped by these fantasies.
We have food, let’s feed people. We have cancer treatments, let’s treat people. We want to build a museum, let’s build it. Not via monetary limitations, but volunteer organizations. If we have NOT, then we must at least have NOT enough resources or knowledge. I cannot accept that we have NOT “money”. That is bullshit.
My mission: come with me on this path out of this bullshit human society, and things will emerge. We just need to make people see the world for what it is.
After all if I were to realize that we live in a computer simulation I would FOR SURE react strongly to that and would want to get to the bottom of it!
Imagine if I were to just say: hm yeah, but I still have to eat and survive in this simulation so…is nothing I can do…
I thought now the main focus is to make people realize that we live in a simulation. A human fantasy simulation.
So I was like a machine gun, firing videos, documentaries, projects, blog posts, books, articles, memes. I was managing 8 social networks at once. Post everywhere. Podcasts? Yes! Debates? Yes! A new documentary? Yes! More websites? YESSS!
And I was firing them in my immediate environment and the outside world.
And so I spent the past 15 years! In this intense way.
I started to get donations so my immediate environment became better. Less stress, more comfortable.
The Rupture.
After so much effort I realized some hard truths.
Reaching people with these messages is an infinite struggle and has become almost impossible recently. Everyone is consumed on idiotic platforms. No new content can easily reach them. My machineguns were kinda obsolete. I do not have the energy and motivation to make TikTok videos or click baity content…I cannot. And without this you do not exist.
Even when you reach people their heads are a mush because of so much content online. Too many things people have to deal with. How my message dissolves in these brains is tasteless. They scroll to the next thing.
Even when the content dissolves in some brains in a tasteful way, these people are also trapped with jobs and other issues.
The world has become a tsunami of problems and stupidity. From the COVID pandemic with its mental conspiracies orbiting it, to Russia going at war with Ukraine, Israel mass murdering people in Gaza, Trump being a shitshow clown, people murdered, loud political debates, anger, more idiots, more consumerism….
Organizations and movements like TVP, TZM and the like dissolved.
I realized the outside world is far bigger and more problematic than I thought. And for the past years it expanded infinitely into the stupid, moronic, and violent.
I felt the path leads to nowhere. There is no path. I felt locked into my immediate environment. Friends, family, Tortuga.
I finally have amazing friends and my family is ok. I have a fucking Tortuga! I feel quite safe. I am on my own kinda and can take care of myself. I can go see super nice places out in the world.
I am fine. In that sense. But…
I see no path forward, nothing to look up to. No escape from the outside world. I find it impossible to live in my own nice bubble and ignore it. But I also cannot see a path forward.
And this has destroyed me inside. For the first time in 15 years I feel lost. I do not feel motivated to fire up anything at this world: no more books, content, projects. I don’t feel like it is going to have any impact.
I am still super happy to keep our projects alive and relevant. And I hope to also create new content. But it is hard. Even more so when my new lifestyle forces me to interrupt my work every few days. I need to move move move…get water for the motorhome, buy food, get gas, etc..
On the other hand if I were to stay in one place for longer, I would perhaps get even more depressed since I cannot find much joy and hope into creating new stuff and being actively active in my “activism”.
So maybe when I am forced to go from one place to another, is a way to keep me distracted and to allow me to continue, whatever that “continue” means.
I know this is a depressing post. And I have made several like this in the past. But this is the truth. And the truth also is that for the past 2 years or so I could not find a way out for me. Mentally that is.
So at times I am super happy and relaxed, then next day I can be totally down. I fluctuate a lot. And that is bothering me.
There are good things to look forward in my green bubble. A total solar eclipse this year and for that I will meet up with the rarest of humans, those who are smart, sane and kind. Cannot wait for that. I am also enjoying this Tortuga earthship and I look forward to see where she will take me. It is my little bubble and I still fire up some stuff into the outside world via TROM.tf, VideoNeat or TROMjaro. Maybe more will come. IDK.
But I have tried and I am either demotivated to throw content into a blackhole that this world is, or always get interrupted by life.
For now I will try more. And if nothing works, at least I still have my green bubble and I may accept to be comfortable with only that.
And don’t worry I am fine, is perhaps a normal reaction to a shithole society. Maybe I need to go through a rough road of acceptance that there is nothing there in the outside outside world that is hopeful.
We will see. At least making this post helps me a bit.
I will eat something. Take a nap. And maybe when I wake up I can even “fire up” some content for TROM. Update my never ending drafts that are meant to become books or videos one day. Because I know that I cannot just stay. I need to do something, even if it goes nowhere.
When the problems are inside of your mind, and you need your mind to fix them, it is harder than climbing the tallest mountain. But it is doable.
Half a year update. Fun. Depressive. New. Terrible. ?
We left mid February towards the central South of Spain to meet with some wonderful friends.
We then went more to the South, then back to the North via the West site of Spain, and back to Estartit (where we left from), at the end of May. Kinda like this:
We got used to the motorhome life quite quickly. I LOVE IT! It is my tiny home. But honestly HUGE inside. I have my own space to work on the computer (the main table), we have a big top bed, a full bathroom with hot water and a great toilet. A kitchen where I can cook the food I want and can eat, a small but very spacious fridge, and a lot of storage space.
We visited the most wonderful places. Click these compilations to see them close up.
We saw a weird “volcano” on the map and we went there. It was not a volcano but a weirdly shaped hill 🙂
We saw two mind blowing caves:
We did two out of this world hikes through some mountains/canyons:
And visited an alien place I saw in a documentary with Brian Cox:
And these are just the places we liked the most. We visited a lot of nature. A LOT! And we stayed in some wonderful parkings for motorhomes.
Best is to follow us on Peertube or via our website.
In all it was an amazing experience. I got so used to this lifestyle. Something very wildly different from my previous lifestyle where I was spending most of my time in my room, in one place, on the computer.
BUT.
I missed a lot my brain. Yes cool places, yes cool lifestyle, but my brain is my best sensory organ that can look at the stars, read about atoms, and project about the future. Something no fingers, noses, or ears can detect or understand. I miss reading, watching lectures, putting my brain to work. To understand the world, to explain it. To debate, talk, engage.
I MISS IT!
Perhaps the motorhome life was too brief for now to be able to get back into my TROMmood. But combining both is for me the perfect lifestyle. And this is my mission.
Money no more. Back to Estartit.
We knew we will not have money and we have to make some. We came back in Estartit at the end of May so that Sasha can start another season in diving to make some money. I hate this, she hates this. We hate it. But what can we do?
I tried to make more websites for WebApe and see if we can get more donations for TROM, but it is damn hard. I get some money a month, perhaps 60% of what we need, but I seem to be stuck at that. We spend very little money when living in the motorhome. Around 900-1.000 Euros a month all included: food, fuel, insurance, internet, etc.. For 2 people, traveling over 1.000km a month, it is very very low.
I feel very frustrated when I see Sasha work as a divemaster instead of focusing her brain on her book, website, herself. But I do not know how to help. We are fucked by the trade-based society like everyone else. At least Sasha loves diving so if it weren’t for the forced diving, she enjoys it. Underwater, creatures, calmness.
I hope this is the last season for her. We can save some money and see where we go from there.
I went to Romania to build a house and lose my mind.
My parents retired. They went back to Romania. They also bought a 2.000 Euros prefab wooden house to put in my grandma’s garden. All of my grandparents are long dead, but we have some relatives living on the property. I said I should go help them put it together since it is a lot of effort to do that.
I thought I would stay for a month and I ended up staying for almost two.
We started to build the house the second day I came there. Little by little in less than 2 weeks we manged to build the frame of it.
Overall I really enjoyed going there and working on the house. No more internet bad news, no other plans, just this. I like doing these sort of things. To see it taking shape and all that. Many times I would be stressed because of my father with who I could never really get along, or anyone else for that matter. Very inpatient, angry, and he could not help much. Hard to explain to anyone how difficult this man can be, but for a few years now I suspected he may have some cognitive issues, maybe a brain tumor or idk, because he is “too much”…. he can trip on his own shoes and curse and punch something. He sneezes and then swears. He is many times unable to understand simple tasks, and if you disagree with him over anything he makes a huge drama out of it.
Communication with him is impossible.
He is not always like that tho. At times he switches 180 degrees and is very calm and friendly.
Weird. But you will see that my suspicions may have some ground in truth…
Anyway I loved this little house and it was taking shape rapidly. Inside just 4×4 meters, but very spacious. However before I came to Romania they put the foundation wrong (my father…) and without going into too much explanation it was too wide, too crooked, tilted…so when it was raining, the water will go inside the house under the frame.
Took me a long time to fix this. Had to lift the entire house and level it. Then paint the wood with a special paint, wrap it in plastic, and put foam under it. To keep it in place and not ruin the wood. I had to learn a lot about wood, concrete, damage to these materials, etc.. Basically you cannot put the wood directly on concrete and so forth.
I had to use a special paint afterwards to seal the entire frame at the bottom. Now the water wont come in. We had to level the inside of the house too – but we paid someone to do it.
In all a huge amount of work.
We even bought a metal roof and I put it myself. I used the wood pieces from the box the house came in, so that we do not waste anything. I cut it with a very old saw but I managed it eventually.
Made a frame on the roof from this wood, then I put the metal sheets.
Now house complete:
Of course I added 2 solar panels, 180W each, and a 780Wh Bluetti battery that is the main power source in the house.
Inside there is a couch that transforms into a bed, a little fridge, a sink with a water pump, a little stove…so it is fully offgrid.
You see my parents live at the 4th floor in a building with no elevator. They are in their late 60s and already find it difficult to go up and down the stairs. This house is a place for them to stay at times. At least go there, plant vegetables and fruits (which they already do). Maybe have a dog since I made a gate from the wood leftovers and put a little fence around the house.
I worked a lot. Every day almost. But I am very proud of the result. I really like this little place surrounded by nature. Calm. Quiet. I am also happy for my parents. My mother loves it so much!
BUT.
That environment in Romania is what made me want to kill myself in highschool. I hate it. And I find it difficult to explain the extent of my hate. It is the normality there, the detachment from reality that is so deep. I feel trapped in a bad zombie movie, or a horror dream. It became so depressing for me I started to watch movies again. And for those who know me this is a very bad sign. But I could not sleep anymore, I needed to distract myself from reality while I was there.
I feel so ashamed to even admit I was watching some silly old comedies to get myself out of the mess. I felt like I failed after so many years where I kept myself alive and awake. I even wrote a very dark blog post which I decide not to post because I did not want to bother the few close people to me who would read it.
But just so to make it clear, I was in a very dark place, so dark I thought at times that maybe is not worth continuing being alive. I left my little room some 20 years ago, and when I came back the world in Romania was the exact same, even worse. So what is the point!?
I do not know if anyone understands me, but nothing makes me more depressed than the normality of people. You know galaxies, atoms, evolution, atoms, all that real shit that was discovered very recently, and it had ZERO impact on people’s lives. People are the same: jobs, family, money, watch tv, bullshit like this. I get really angry and frustrated at this situation, and in Romania this contrast is so obvious.
All in all, I LOVED the little house project, and I felt like I was losing my mind while in Romania.
Time to leave. Finally! BYE!
FUCK!
It is the end of July. I decided to come back to Spain with my parents who were already planning to come back there for a month to relax and deal with some paperwork.
I could not have foreseen the shit we went through.
Plane was taking off at 06:30. No one slept. We took a bus from 00:30 to 04:00 to Bucharest. In the airport around 06:00 we were waiting in line. In the corner of my eye I see my father dropping down like a heavy rock. On his back. A big loud sound, that kind when your head hits the pavement. Really bad.
I jumped to help. He was lifeless on this back. Eyes wide open. No breathing. People were gathering around. I was sure he died. I thought he had a heat attack. He is also overweight and has some health issues.
Checked his pulse and his heart. They seemed to be working. Suddenly he wakes up. Very confused. Very! I thought ok at least he is not dead, but for sure he had a stroke.
Took us a few minutes to wake him up. Lift him. Put him on a chair. He had a bad bruise on his head.
Doctors came, romanian style with their shitty attitude. Did some tests on him. We almost missed the plane. Decided that he is ok to fly and when we arrive we go to the hospital in Spain.
My parents had seats in the front of the plane. Me in the back. I spend 2 out of 3 hours keeping an eye on them. I was scared because I thought something bad is happening with him and in the plane wtf can you do? I was so tired. I decided to try and take a short nap since there was 1 more hour flying. In my head I thought: I fucking hope I won’t wake up with my mother near me asking for help. And FUCK IT that happened!
My mother was crying waking me up. People in the plane were a bit scared. My father fainted again. Took them more time to wake him up. I went there and stayed with them trying to keep my father awake (alive?). Felt like ages to land. The crew made an announcement in the plane saying they have a medical emergency. Called for anyone who is a doctor to help. A doctor came, helped a bit. An ambulance waited for us in Barcelona when we landed. They did more tests they said all looks ok but needs to go to the hospital.
I was holding my father’s arm the entire time to make sure if he faints I can catch him. The bus was coming in 4 hours and we decided to pay for an Uber to go back in order to go faster to a hospital.
In the Uber my father fainted again and I struggled to wake him up. He seemed to have difficulty breathing. That Uber ride was one of the most awful moments in my life because it took us 2 hours to go to a hospital near Estartit and I was constantly trying to keep my father awake. We had no idea what was wrong and what if he “shuts down” and cannot come back to life?
We arrived at a hospital 10 minutes from where we live in Estartit. They sent us to the family doctor in Estartit. The doctor was very worried and sent us immediately to another hospital 40 minutes away. I drove them there. They decided to keep him for 4 days under constant monitoring connected to all sorts of machines.
We stayed with him in the hospital the first day and a half. Me and my sister.
By this time I did not sleep at all in over 40 hours, almost 2 days. I was so tired and stressed. My mother too.
Anyway.
After 4 days of monitoring and tests (so many of them including a brain CT scan), the only big issue is that his heart drops from 60-80BPM (Beats Per Minute) to just 20-30. Which is terrible and random. And the doctors are clueless why this is.
Now he is home. He is doing well. But we have no idea how bad his health issues are. We have to go back for more tests and if he faints again I have to take them to the emergency room.
Side note: the healthcare here is kinda trade-free. We paid nothing for any of this. And the care was fantastic. When he was in the hospital he had access to nurses 24/7. His own room. Food 3 times a day. TV. AC. Fantastic help that everyone should have access to.
What worries me the most.
Remember when I said I felt that my father has cognitive issues? Well they also discovered that he had mini strokes in the past (lacunar stroke) and they created tiny holes in his brain. The doctor said that YES this can impair the cognitive function and all that. Finally I think this explains his terrible behavior for the past years.
He drives very dangerously and last December we had a car crash because of him. I nearly escaped a terrible injury. He also drove on the wrong side of the road at one point, or in the 2nd gear on the highway, and so on. He forgets things, asks the same thing over and over again sometimes, etc..
I told the doctor, she did not seem too interested since we have to focus on his heart issue first.
I learned that these strokes can be because of the heart which fails to pump enough oxygen into the brain, so the tissue dies. I also learned that Dementia means brain damage in general, and I am afraid he has early stages of dementia. But since there is nothing you can do about this, except deal with what causes the brain damage (in his case likely high blood pressure and the heart BPM drops), then let the doctors continue the investigation and deal with it.
It was a terrible week for me. Now I am better. I feel sorry for my father but I am also tired of dealing with his behavior to be honest. I also have a life to take care of. Of course whatever help my parents need I am always available.
What next?
For the past month since we arrived here I have been staying in the motorhome in a parking lot near the building where my sister and my parents live. It was crazy hot and uncomfortable. At night it was ok with the fans and I was able to sleep decently.
I was planning to only stay for a week or two in this region then go to a colder area, like mountains. But because of what happened to my father…I had to stay a lot longer.
I managed to do a lot of work on the motorhome at least. I fixed our showertub that was getting scratched up over time by whatever we put on top of it. So from this:
I transformed it into this:
I redid the entire electrical part of our main battery and added a new bigger solar controller. I will showcase in our TROMhome videos at one point but look at the mess I made while working on it:
I even built my own cinema (another video that I will make for TROMhome)
I also did the car inspection and fixed a few other things.
So at least I did some work on the motorhome.
BUT.
I need my TROM time. When is that coming?
In a week or so I will be finally leaving with the motorhome by myself. I don`t really care where I go as long as it is not so hot and I can focus on TROM. I need my brain fucking back. And I will try to reboot myself and TROM this year, or die trying.
Everyone is sucked into the system. Understandably so. And if I get sucked into it I will be as good as dead. So I will do my best to stay away from this fuckery. Life is short and I don’t want to miss the opportunity to let my brain understand and wonder about reality. I don’t want to be one of the billion humans who lived a fake fantasy, a simple one, that of citizens, workers, labeled simplistic creatures who did not realize what was truly true.
My “perfect” life, considering the limitations I(we) face in this society, is to travel with the motorhome to nice nature places, while at the same time create more content for TROM. Maybe the sparks of this combo could be going to some events and present TROM, do some screenings, etc.. Live with little, kinda detached from society, while keeping my brain active and engaged. And scream and do!
I will try to spend even less money and survive from the donations I get from TROM plus WebApe. It will be tough but this motorhome is my escape, without it I would be totally fucked. I need to get away from people for a bit, from normality, and get my brain back.
A week or so ago my Dell laptop started to not charge from time to time until it stopped charging. The laptop has 2 USB-C ports for charging and both died. I checked and only one worked for data transfer. I could not find a solution. You know I am the “computer repair guy” normally and I fix people`s laptops but this time I could not fix mine.
Look at this:
No way I can fix these and not destroy the laptop. They make these impossible to repair for normal folks and too expensive to send for repair anyway. Likely would have cost me hundreds of euro in Spain and would take a long time.
So frustrating since it works just fine with the battery but I CANNOT charge it! WTF.
So I decided to drop this laptop for good and go for a much cheaper one. You see this 1.200 Euros Dell laptop that I had for the past 3 years had a bunch of issues anyway
1. From the start the trackpad did not work. I had to solder a wire inside of it to make it work. Insane!
2. The battery dropped to some 50% capacity in less than 2 years.
3. It was hard to open and overall not very well built (I realized that in time because in the beginning I thought it was very well built).
4. Lately some keys on the keyboard stopped working unless you really press down on them hard.
6. It was getting crazy hot. In the summer I could not hold it on my lap. And it was designed by a moron who thought sharp corners are cool…
I feel bad that I spent so much money on it. Overall I was happy with it, especially the screen, but the above issues were not easy to accept.
ThinkPad P1 Gen1
I have very little money and I thought why not buy a cheap ThinkPad. My sister has a small ThinkPad Yoga that she bought second hand a few years ago from ebay. And I LOVED it. The build quality, THAT keyboard….how easy it is to open and upgrade.
I was in a rush since I had no laptop anymore and after 2 days of searching I found the ThinkPad P1 series. 15.6inch screen, great keyboard, and very good specs. I was lucky to find it for 300 Euros on Wallapop (second hand store).
Here is why I LOVE this laptop and why it is better than that Dell.
Build quality.
This is properly built not a gimmick like that Dell that had a metal chassis but inside all plastic. This one has a metal alloy inside. Feels a lot more robust. And no sharp corners. I can easily handle this laptop.
It is the same size and weight as that Dell. It is quite thin and has all of the ports you need.
I also like that it opens flat like this. IDK why but I always hated when laptops only open half way through.
Overall it feels very well made.
Easy to upgrade.
Which one looks better organized inside?
Clearly the bottom one, ThinkPad. 2 fans that keep this laptop a lot cooler than that Dhell. I could easily add my 64GB of RAM and it has TWO, THWO M2 slots! Wow. Dell only had one. I added my 4TB on one slot and kept the 512GB it came with for system backups. I always wanted to Tmeshift my system backups to a different drive and now I can do it easily.
To open this ThinkPad you only need to remove 7 screws that are held captive to the bottom chassis “plate”. With the Dell it was a bit awful. Tiny screws that you can lose and a lot of sweat to lift that base. Noises, cracks…bad.
Multiple charging options.
Their proprietary charger port plus 2 USB-C. In case any stops working (DELL!!!) you have another way to keep the laptop charged.
That keyboard!
Wow. You have to use these ThinkPad keyboards to understand what a good fucking keyboard is. Most laptops wanna be thin and have almost touch-based keyboards. They suck. This one feels like you gave your fingers a comfy chair. For someone like me who writes a lot, a keyboard is more important than other things.
LOVE IT!
Performance?
Everyone is obsessed with numbers and names. This new CPU X12Nm V2! Bla-bullshit. Marketing nonsense.
Ok look at the numbers. The Dell had a Core i7-1260P with 12 cores and 16 threads. This ThinkPad has a Core i7-8850H with 6 cores and 12 threads.
On paper the Dell is some 40% better than the ThinkPad.
In practice I notice NO difference. Yes I only got the ThinkPad for a day, but the only CPU intensive tasks I do are multitasking (doing now, no difference), compiling the TROMjaro ISOs (now takes 10-20 minutes longer), and video editing in Kdenlive where I use proxy videos anyway so the CPU is barely used. Perhaps when I render videos it would take a bit longer. But just a bit.
The rest is total BS – just marketing. I do a lot of things including VMs, and my CPU is bellow 6%.
Where I was held back a bit was the video card from Dell. An Nvidia MX550 with just 2GB of RAM. ThinkPad uses an Nvidia Quadro P2000 with Max-Q Design. Kinda similar but it has 4GB of RAM. I could not run some Language Models for translating stuff in Kdenlive with the 2GB of RAM GPU from Dell, so this one should help.
What I need is a lot of is RAM. And I am using the same 64GB from the Dell. Also same M2 drive.
The screen is indeed better from the Dell one. That OLED…but this one is not at all bad. After a few minutes you cannot tell one from another. You simply adjust.
So I bet performance wise I will notice no difference, and this is the key. All of those CPU and GPU names make no difference. The real use is important.
Cheap is better!
When this laptop released some 5 years ago it was selling for around 2.000$. Now you can grab a good second hand one for around 3-400 Euros. In a way the advantage of this endless consuming society is that they release so many new models making the “old” ones very cheap very fast. So you can buy them second had and in very good working quality.
Before I was very concerned for my laptop since I paid so much money and I thought if I lose it I am fucked. But now, is fine. If I lose it or it breaks, I can get the same one for a few hundreds of euros.
Not so much stress as before.
Linux rocks!
The fact that I simply put my M2 driver with TROMjaro in the new laptop and booted into it, and all worked as before, is pure Linux magic. I had to do nothing except reinstall something for the finerprint reader. It means I can take that drive of mine of 4TB and put it into any machine really, and have my own stuff there. Making it my own.
Fucking amazing!
Overall
The speakers are decent, I managed to make the finerprint reader work which is fantastic, the keyboard is sane and in English, no nonsense keys, and the webcam is decent for a laptop.
(when you are prompted to use the fingerprint a little light turns on – neat)
In BIOS you can also change the FN and CTRL keys since for some reason ThinkPad Thinks it is a good idea to put the FN key where most laptops put the CTRL key. At least is easy to switch.
So overall a very cheap laptop and very good. If this one breaks at least I know I can cheaply buy another one like this, put my drive and RAM into it, and that`s it.
THANK YOU!
I made a donation campaign for this laptop and raised the money within hours. Thank you to those who donated. Thank you very much. My laptop is so important for me – allows me to do all of these TROM projects.
Many thanks!
UPDATES 1:
After a week I still love it :). I love how they use these little lights to tell you if your mic is on mute, your FN key is active, audio on mute as well, and so on. Really handy honestly.
And the little red dot from the lid, on the back. When it goes on and off slowly it means the computer is in standby mode. SUPER HELPFUL for my needs since at times I felt like my laptop wont go into standby when I close the lid. Now I know.
The typing is great. But the letter G on the keyboard needs to be pressed a bit more to work…tried to fix it but likely nothing to do…is ok. I am getting used to it.
The battery is quite ok, and the screen….well it is fine but I miss the OLED a lot….the colors on this one are washed out, like on most laptops. But well…is fine.
I started to video edit on it. So far seems like before in terms of speediness. Made a new TROMjaro ISO, super fast as before. I cannot tell the difference.
So I can fully say that this 300 Euros laptop, that was actually 260 Euros and the rest taxes and transport fees, is as good as that 1.200 Euros Dell I had. This is fantastic!
Oh and I finally feel like I have a laptop that I can carry around with me….no sharp edges and a bit lighter. Love it!
Before I explain why, here is how you can still use these curated sources in ways that are more sustainable.
The Videos.
Over 100 Youtube channels. Grab the list from here.
The Problem:
There is no easy way to grab the Youtube videos and showcase them on your website. Yes Youtube provides some RSS support but for one you can get your server IP banned for requesting so many videos, and second with the Lives and Youtube Shorts you will get a stream of nonsense even from these curated channels, especially because of these stupid “shorts”.
So we used RSS Bridge to grab the videos without the shorts and lives. That means using an instance. Our own at https://rss.trom.tf/ was banned into oblivion so we used https://bridge.easter.fr/. However ALL of our videos relied on it. What would happen if that one got banned too? All sources would be gone!
Actually MANY videos from these channels were not even posted on TROMnews…maybe their instance hit limits or something. So you would miss on many videos that were posted by these channels yet not displayed on TROMnews.
Another problem is that you click a video and are sent to the Youtub blackhole. Unless you have adblockers you would have your brain bombarded with ads.
I have been using FreeTube exclusively for the past 1-2 years and the watching experience is on another level. You simply watch videos. No ads, no bullshit. No account needed to subscribe to any channels. Runs locally so likely no ban. Very rarely the videos may not work temporarily but the people from FreeTube are fixing these things quickly.
Keep it updated!
In TROMjaro you can easily find it in Add/Remove Software.
There are so many cool settings in FreeTube. Like hiding the comments, likes, recommended videos, whatever you want to control. Or skipping the sponsored content, changing the title of videos into non-clickbaity ones, and so on.
So grab all of those Youtube sources one by one and subscribe to them via FreeTube – no account needed!
For the Peertube channels in the list, you either create an account with a Peertube instance like ours, or grab their RSS (because they are not cunts like Youtube and they make it easy to do so), OR follow these channels from your Federated account. Like I follow Be Brave To Act from my Friendica account.
There is also this new GrayJay app that is like Freetube but also lets you follow Peertube channels too. It is in Aplha but looks promissing.
When we grabbed these news items from their RSS and into our website they insert either the excerpt or the full article. Plus you have to grab a proper featured image. For this we needed 2-3 plugins. At times the featured image was so low quality the news looked awful on TROMnews. At times when you clicked a news item it would redirect you to a post on our website with the excerpt of that news, and then you had to click one more button to read the news…
Overall grabbing news from many sources, putting them in their own categories, and all that, was not easy.
Plus these news items were basically posts on our website….thousands of posts over time…
I had to install yet another plugin to delete old posts on a regular basis….else we would end up with millions of posts.
Not to mention that the media for every post was saved in our Media folder locally, taking about 20GB of storage space. I had to manually delete some folders with old media (could not automate this). That…if I did not forget.
To backup TROMnews it would take a long time and a lot of disk space.
Overall it was a mess and a very bloated website because of the news….
The Solution:
The best way is to use an RSS Reader. I use Newsflash because it looks nice and I am familiar with it.
You can even grab the entire list (OPML) from here and import it in pretty much any RSS Reader, and that’s it. You will have all of the TROMnews News sources.
The cool part is that you can read most news directly in the reader. No need to navigate ads-infested websites. You can also save articles, take notes, or browse based on news source. And more of course.
The Photos/FInteresting and Illustrations.
You can see the list here. We mostly used Reddit to grab these posts. They can be very interesting since they are curated by many users.
The Problem:
Reddit is yet another cannibal of the Trade Society, protecting their “own property” created by their users. And so in 2023 they decided to not let outside sources “grab” “their” content (cough…created by users, not themselves), unless people pay for that. They would eventually rate limit these “grabs”.
And so we started to struggle to grab content from there. We used the same RSS Reader instance to do so after ours was again rate limited…We added some extra options that this RSS Reader allows you to, such as only grab posts with more than X votes, and so forth.
Truth is MOST posts were never posted on TROMnews because of this Reddit rate limitation. Lately it was getting worse and worse. Unsustainable.
For the Illustrations the main source didn’t even provide an RSS so we were using a 3rd party to create an RSS feed…
Overall a mess that was so difficult to fix and manage
The Solution:
Unfortunately for Reddit there is no good solution. The best right now is to either use Reddit with an adblocker, or use this Libredirect. Install it as a browser addon. Then in the settings for Reddit choose Redlib and Auto Pick Instance.
At least you will get redirected to a clean and trade-free interface for Reddit every time you visit it.
For how long this would work is hard to tell.
Alternatives like Lemmy lack the content that you can find on Reddit, in the same way that Peertube lacks the content that is on Youtube….but the more we will use these alternative platforms the more content will be there.
Conclusion
I have been struggling with TROMnews for the past years. Truth is the Internet, same as the world itself, is mostly run by traders. People who trade data/content. And so they have no incentive to make it easy for you to display this content somewhere else. So I struggled enormously to provide a website of curated news/videos and interesting things.
But it has become too much.
Today I realized that the main plugin we use to grab the RSS sources stopped working 2 days ago….and it is not the first time doing that. I honestly do not want to fix that anymore. Other errors like the pagination for News did not work, and the above issues I described, made me decide to finally give up on TROMnews.
Truth is probably almost no one was using it….people get their “news” from Facebook feeds, or even worse TikTok….a website seems like an abstract notion for many people today. It is very unfortunate.
But for those who are still strong enough to resist the wave of idiocracy you have better options. It is much better to get used to watch videos on FreeTube without the ads and nonsense of Youtube. Even better, if you can follow interesting Peertube creators, do so!
Also much better to get used to an RSS Reader and read the news like that, and not be distracted by all sorts of ads and nonsense “recommendations”.
And maybe use Reddit less…hear me Tio!? 🙂
I started TROMnews in 2014 because I want for me and the rest to have an easy access to relevant and true news. This is crucial if we want a better world. The website went through several iterations and it survived a lot longer than I thought. I feel a lot of nostalgia and sadness letting it go. But I tortured myself enough with it.
Today the internet world is so different from the one in 2014 when I released TROMnews. Back then it seemed not so busy, and you could still find a lot of positive and scientific news. But now, the amount of digital shit is exponentially worse. Webites like TROMnews will not make any dent in this landscape.
At least I am willing to save myself, my brain, from becoming a mush. And so with FreeTube and NewsReader and these still good sources of content, I hope to keep myself sane.
Bye bye TROMnews….you have been my daily friend for more than a decade. I will continue to keep myself sane without you.
Maybe you can start it first per tribe, then expand globally.
Goal: humans should not have to trade in order to survive in this society. Since this creates a tsunami of problems for people and the rest of this planet. (source)
Plan:
Basic needs trade-free.
Make the most basic needs services trade-free. Healthcare, transportation, shelter, basic food, access to Internet (information and communication). You can do that through taxes, through volunteers, through all sort of means. Many tribes already provide some of these as trade-free, like in Europe a lot of the healthcare systems are like that. Not difficult!
Basic Income.
Since this world still relies on trades (money), and people may have different sort of needs and definitely wants, give everyone a basic income (say 1.000 dollars a month) with no strings attached. You can do it again through taxes, via the removal of so many institutions and resources dedicated to track people and check if they are eligible for benefits, and all of the paperwork nonsense that has been created around this. No more “benefits”, no more “pensions”. Forget about labeling people as employed or unemployed in regards to who should be helped.
That is it!
Now you will have a bunch of humans who KNOW they are taken care of. They KNOW that if they get sick they should only worry about that health problem and not a financial problem. They KNOW that they wont starve or end up on the street. They know they are SAFE.
On top of this, with the money you give them monthly, they can have some power and focus on doing some useful things in this society. At least some will, if not many.
This can grow up over time into a saner society of humans who can refuse to work for bullshit companies, or do any bullshit jobs. A world in which humans have the time to decide what to focus on, who to “vote” for, stay informed and properly inform others.
A world where scientists or journalists should not worry about their livelihood. So they can do their “jobs” properly.
We deserve and need this world. Else there is no intelligent species on this planet.
I am originally from Romania but never considered myself a “romanian”, but a human. More so now when I moved to Spain and my best friends are from all around the world.
I went to Romania a few years ago, and I was always stressed about going back even for a few weeks, because I know too well the toxic environment there. The competition, corruption, pollution and garbage that you can see everywhere. The stupid people and dangerous drivers. The fact that most of them are religious and superstitious. Everyone is for themself, there is no feeling of “community” there. Everyone talks about money, cars, and houses. Stuff, that’s all they know. At least that’s my experience of Romania, in the little town where I grew up.
Of course there are many wonderful people and organizations in Romania, like everywhere, but I am talking here about most of these people. And most are like I described them, from my own experience.
But now, a few years later, things are even worse. And quite scary.
My parents worked in Spain since 2007 and retired this year. They moved back to Romania, a move that I think is terribly bad. Lack of money and integration made them unable to stay in Spain. They bought a car in Spain and had a lot of stuff to transport to Romania so I and Sasha agreed to drive 2.500 Km from Spain to Romania to deliver their car and stuff. We drove no more than 5 hours each a day and stopped for a few nights along the way.
First thing I noticed is the infinite line of trucks. Absolute insanity of trucks after trucks on any highway in any tribe. A huge line of them almost like a train. Hm…trains…I wonder if people forgot about trains…is all about cars and trucks today, but if people and goods would be transported by trains, it would be far more efficient and safe.
But this train of trucks is a sign of an overconsumerist society. The trade society. And it is increasing at alarming rates.
Another thing I noticed straight away was when we arrived in Slovenia. I went to a gas station. I put gas in the car and went inside to pay. I asked in English if I can pay there. A young girl looked odd at me, she said something in Slovenian to another guy there. He came to me and said, with a very angry tone: “You put, you pay!”. Sure dude….I “put” but where do I pay? What the hell!? In Spain people are usually quite nice and relaxed but the more you get into the Eastern Europe the less friendly people are.
You put, you pay! became the slogan for what we would experience form there on.
Late that day we went to a restaurant in the same Slovenian tribe, in their capital. We almost never eat out but it was late, we were tired….we just wanted to eat something.
We were surprised that they had no menu in English, the most international language on Earth. Also no one spoke English there. I really felt like a stranger on another planet in the way they kinda treated us. At least that’s how I felt…maybe I am wrong, but maybe something else is happening here and I am right after all.
Listen.
For me this is sad and predictable. Knowing an international language is a big advantage for a species that dominates a whole planet. We have common issues and common needs. But in the Language book I wrote a few years ago I realized that tribes are getting more and more tribal. They copy the american shows and make them in their own language. From news organizations to youtube videos, they are creating their own culture based on their own language, but again based on the american culture, the dominant one, in the end. Same retardation.
So now less and less people know English as a result. They do not have to watch the idiot Joe Rogan talking nonsense, every tribe has a few of their own idiot podcasters and influencers.
But now I suspect the enforcement of this disease called nationalism is mostly a result of politicians using it as a bait to get more votes and so more power. Since Trump, a simple minded billionaire TV personality, became the chief tribe of USA by promoting this nonsense “America First” with Tshirts and Hats made in China, everyone is copying the moron.
Politicians are screaming with a loud and angry voice that the “outsiders” are the problem and how we, the locals, the tribe members of this tribe, need to be put first. Our nation, language, customs. The evil comes from outside! They are killing our culture and nation!
They are doing it on TikTok, Facebook, or Youtube, platforms created and owned by other people from other tribes of course. Doing so while wearing clothes made in China, phones made in Taiwan, and eating imported food. Their cars, houses, their stuff, is made somewhere else or at least the materials are. And this will never change because even these “nationalists” understand that they must go for the lower price, regardless how much they “love” their tribe. Not to mention how all of these are complete hypocrites who steal from the same “country” they love, and will only give a shit about their own personal wealth.
In Slovenia I felt this “nationalism” somehow. Maybe a kind of distaste for the “outsiders”. Maybe it was just in my head, but that’s how I felt. Tho considering that this disease of nationalism is quite wide spread in Europe too, I won’t be surprised if I was right.
A tribe later and we arrived in Romania. We had to drive a few hundreds of km there too before reaching my town. I knew that the traffic in Romania is terrible. The roads, awful. Everyone knows that!
But I was wrong!
Before getting my driving license in Spain (just last year), I only experienced the Romanian traffic as a passenger. But now that I got to drive in Romania I realized that are not the roads that are awful and dangerous, it is people!
The roads themselves were not too bad, but people driving there are absolute idiots. They drive as if they are jerking off watching Fast and Furious. If the speed limit is 50, for a reason since there’s a village you are crossing, then god forbid you go 60 or 70. That’s too slow!! And everyone behind you is peeking left and right to overtake you. They get so close to you and constantly searching for a spot to overtake.
This is just an example (not filmed by me) of what I mean. And this is very common in Romania:
As a driver this is a lot of stress to constantly watch your side mirrors for these idiots. At one point a huge truck was trying to overtake me on road with incoming traffic, a 70 Km speed limit, and I going with around 80. Since it was unable to accelerate that fast to overtake me, being a fucking small train, it was ending up in my left side on the opposite lane. If a car would come from the opposite direction it would have been a disaster. And what if the moron truck would have tried to go on my lane too soon, bumping into our car since trucks have many dead angles?
I also could not slow down since cars were coming fast from behind me trying to also overtake me. I had to speed up and not let the moron play deadly games with everyone.
Here’s another video from Romania speaking about trucks:
It is astonishing how everyone is so eager to overtake in Romania. They do not respect the speed limit at all. And not wear seatbelts. They don’t give a flying fuck.
I remember being a passenger in Romania how scary it was. I could not relax. Like a rollercoaster with cars coming from the opposite direction. Narrow curves? No biggie, the driver would overtake hoping that the Virgin Marry icon he had in the windshield will protect us all. No wonder everyone was of the opinion that driving in Romania is dangerous….since they all drove very dangerously. Romania ranked the highest in Europe in terms of car accidents and fatalities for many years. Only this year was overtaken by a single point by Bulgaria. (source) Therefore, this is not my impression that the traffic here is dangerous, it is a fact.
What made me terribly depressed is to see how people in Romania react when I tell them about this. They have this attitude of like “Dude you are a pussy for driving so slooooow….”. When I ask them why the rush, their excuse is that “Well, you arrive 5-10 minutes earlier to the destination”. “But you also put yourself in danger no? Is that really worth it?”. “C’mon man you are a pussy.”. That’s kinda how it goes.
Someone even told me that it is me driving dangerously because I drive too slow. “But I drive 10 or more Km above the speed limit.”. “You drive too slow man!! And because of you there are many people behind trying to overtake, so you put everyone in danger.”
Imagine that. I’ve heard this argument several times. This is so fucked up I have no words…. I drive legally, even a bit over the speed limit, and it is MY fault that the morons behind me want to go super fast and I stay in their way….Unbelievable.
But anyway, we managed to arrive without getting into a car crash. Actually the drive in Romania was 938 times better and safer than anything I have experienced driving in Romania. And that’s because we both drove NORMALLY. LEGALLY. And not like idiots. So those curvy roads that everyone thinks are deadly and so dangerous, were actually beautiful and fine when driving with 30 when it says fucking 30, and not 80!
Of course the stress of driving with so many idiots on the road makes driving in Romania really terrible.
Why this situation?
I think it is because Romania is a poor country where everyone is for themselves. You see a building that is fucked up, but 10 luxury apartments in it. Because those people are rich, not the rest. Who cares how the building is, you only care about your own flat. You see luxury restaurants but in front of them terrible roads and half built buildings. No proper infrastructure, no proper services, but who cares?!
And so the happiness in Romania comes a lot, if not only from STUFF. Since everything else is a mess. If you got a new TV, you show off with it. Brag about it. A new car, phone, whatever…everyone here is obsessed to tell you what stuff they have and how much they paid for it.
And so the car for a Romanian is not a vehicle to transport them from A to B, it is a HORSE. THEIR HORSE. Beautiful horse!!!
People here pay money to change their license plates to something that resembles them. Alex wants ALX, the guy owning the company Neci wants NCI, and the mafioso guy who sells drugs and tries to hook up with high-school girls wants CIA. And this is not a joke, people here may not know these other ones, but they know their cars by the car plates and car type. They put money into buying fancy headlights, cool steering-wheels, led lights and big displays, but never changed their distribution belt or tires, unless they buy cool tires.
Anyway we arrived.
Our apartment in Romania is very nice and cozy. Nothing fancy, just cozy. Warm, quite big, last floor so no neighbors basically. My mother waited for us with presents like she always does, and some nice food.
First days we went to visit some natural parks near by. Very nice nature in Romania. Still some left. Here is a big cave where only Sasha and Georgi adventured in. Romania is full of bears and I decided that I want to live longer so I didn’t go inside.
But we also saw the exploitation of these forests and mountains…
And we did find a cool toy:
Of course Sasha had to climb it:
Saha had to leave. She was going to Russia to visit her family for a month. We drove her to the bus station, 40 minutes away. Left her. Said goodbye. Me and my parents should drive back now. I decided to let my father drive their car back. He struggles for the past year or so with this driving thing. Very insecure, rushed, he is not paying attention. We were always scared when driving with him.
But hey, it is their car, the way back I thought he will know the way. I was also hungry eating something in the back. They also wanted to stop nearby to see some of the holiday lights. Ok, do it.
The moment we left the parking lot, he went straight on the opposite side of the road. I was unsure then, but later I realized that. Then he drove very badly and I thought the moment we stop for that lights show thing that should be 5 minutes away, I will drive back.
Too late, we crashed. Less than a week after we drove thousands of km to bring to Romania…
It was of course his fault. He went left on an intersection and someone went straight into the back right side. I was in the back right side….I saw that car coming with a lot of speed, the romanian way. That woman did not press the break pedal. I was lucky. A bit earlier or speedier and would have crushed exactly into the right back door where I was. In that situation the seatbelt is useless, and the airbags are there to hopefully help you not die. But if she went straight into the door I would have at least broken some bones, if not my neck or maybe die?!
Was a very fucked up situation.
Of course the woman who hit us screamed at us, and all that. I stayed calm and managed the situation. We agreed not to call the police and the insurance for my parents’ car covered hers. I drove back with the car like that…
I came back home and said I will not go out anymore. Especially with the car. One month inside. It is warm, cozy, and safe.
There are 2 “events” or things that made me realize how much of a dystopia this place is.
1. The Pretenders
It is a big deal in Romania now with the recycling of plastic bottles. In short they put these recycling boxes and give people money if they bring there plastic bottles. At least some kind of them.
It says “The future is being made today!” or something like that. Encouraging? Not so when in the right side you already see trash.
Wanna see how the trash disposal situation looks for the apartment building we live in?
Wanna see how the hills (nature) nearby (20 minutes walk) look like?
I got so depressed after that walk I didn’t want to know that this place exists.
And look how the main bridge in this town looks like, a bridge that is being crossed by many trucks every single day:
BUT you can recycle your plastic bottles for a little cash!
And this is a sign of dystopia for me. The combination of fancy useless shit (you can order exotic foods in this town or have access to fancy services) and this pretend to do something (recycle, bioshit, whatever), combined with the reality that is in compete and utter mess. So it is a pretend game. We pretend to do something and care, while in reality we fuck everything up. All because of companies who push for these non-solutions to get away with producing more useless shit.
Romania is an extreme example of this, but the entire world does the same. They likely take that “recycled” trash and dump it in a filed somewhere. Plus instead of putting resources into making people recycle (like give them money if they recycle plastic bottles and such), why not make sure they have access to good drinkable water in their homes and make them get used to drink from there ha? At the same time ban the sell of plastic bottled water! Easy!
These are solutions, not to recycle those plastic bottles that are made in abundance. And I bet they don’t even recycle them anyway.
This is the world we live in, the play pretend. And this had muted the conversations about real solutions. This is indeed catastrophic.
2. The Truth has Died
I came across a high-school friend while I was out of my bunker to go buy some stuff. We exchanged phone numbers. He called me one day to meet up. I said sure, it was in the beginning of my Romanian experience for this winter. I was still a bit naive. I went. We met with yet another high school friend there and her cousin.
To keep it short, it is like I came across antimatter for the first time. Or imagine you end up in the Big Foot club and people talk seriously about seeing Big Foot, and how the government is covering up this big monkey story and all that.
A shock to the system.
Politics, war, astrology, conspiracies….I was truly overwhelmed and terribly depressed. So much bullshit I found no reason to try and push that much against it.
You know Russia had to defend against Ukraine and it is NATO’s fault for the war, Putin is a great leader, Trump is a tough and smart guy, the 7/11 attacks were a false flag, COVID was not real, God exists of course, and astrology (the stars) dictate your faith.
I know most people on this planet are crazy, but now I feel they have become very vocal. Like everywhere, politics in Romania is a tsunami of vomit. Again to keep it short it is this “new guy” who wants to become the president of Romania and most people voted for him.
He thinks the same crazy things that all of the crazies believe. Or vice versa?! hm…
Several media articles criticized Georgescu for his pro-Russian statements, describing him as a Russophile and demonstrating how he used his social media platforms to spread information sourced to Russian state media. He has also praised Russian president Vladimir Putin as “a man who loves his country” Georgescu does not believe in the human Moon landing.[37] In a podcast, he also mentioned that carbonated juices contain nanochips, which “enter you like into a laptop”, and considers climate change “a global scam”, which “has nothing to do with reality”.
If you don’t believe Wikipedia for some reason, here with English subtitles, the guy saying these stupid things:
This guy makes Trump look sane. Millions voted for him. Including these “friends” I met apparently.
My friend took me back home with his very expensive car while leaning in one side to not trigger the beeping sound the car was making since he was not wearing the seat-belt. Quite a struggle to avoid driving safe…. Don’t be a pussy!!!
Anyway.
Now the elections in Romania have been canceled because the previous leaders said Russia pushed this guy’s face and voice in the online world, illegally. Anyway, point is, there are millions who have voted for someone who thinks carbonated drinks contain chips to control you.
He pedals the same nationalism bullshit that so many have started to do for the past years. Maybe Trump inspired them all.
It is true this situation comes from the fact that people are sick of the “normal” politicians who lie, are fake, are corrupted. Couple with the fact that normal people have shitty lives, especially in Romania, and then you start to understand why they want to shake the politics with this “new guy” who says weird and new things, and brags about how he wants to put Romanians FIRST and take care of ROMANIANS, and all about ROMANIA ROMANIA ROMANIA. Just like Trump and his Make America Great Again bullshit.
But it is working….not for the people, but for these leaders. They become popular, rich, powerful. The people remain poor, confused and misinformed.
The problem is that this turmoil has degraded people’s relation with the truth. The aftermath is a big layer of humans who have no tools, time, and willingness to check what is true and what is not. Even worse, this layer thinks that they know what is true and what is not, despite all of that. And that’s the catastrophe.
And so, this society is going downhill at speeds I for one did not anticipate, even with my extremely pessimistic views.
Dystopia
Romania seems to me like a cartoonish version of reality in the sense that it showcases better the message, in a more simple to understand manner. It is like a drawing of our solar system:
You get the idea of how our solar system is without having to dig too deep to “get it”.
That’s what Romania is. A cartoon drawing of our global society. Romania shows you very clearly how and why the truth has died, and it shows you very clearly how we play pretend in this world about fixing our problems.
This is why I recorded this video some 2-3 years ago, and published last month…
In this video I explain why this entire situation is also a result of our trade-based society. And how, in theory, we could fix this, despite the fact that in reality it would be nearly impossible for such a big change to happen.
What now?
Life is short and we are very small.
In Romania we have this big balcony that I can access from my room’s window:
I made it nice there. Put a monitor, some candles, and Christmas lights. I would go there and watch documentaries. The ones made by real journalists and vetted by other independent journalistic organizations. Like, you know, how documentaries and information should be.
I would make some food, buy some sweets, and watch. Learn. Understand. Be angry or amazed. But be so due to real information. If I get angry, I want to get angry because of real things, not illusory nonsense some weirdos vomit online.
That felt very cozy and I enjoyed it a lot. I had many interesting conversations with Georgi, my sister, the only sane human I know around here :)).
I want to keep myself sane in this insane world, and I want to enjoy doing that so to not feel like I “have” to do it.
Tomorrow I leave Romania. I go back to Spain. I cannot wait to meet with Sasha again. I am so lucky I have to share my life with her because it seems so rare to find sane humans in this world. Humans who understand what science is and how important it is, how journalism works, how to find what is true and what is not, but also curious about how this world works in general, or why this society is fucked up.
From there on we will start our adventures with our motorhome. I miss our motorhome! But I have started to make a lot of videos so follow us via – tromhome.com.
In February we go meet more of these sane humans in the South of Spain. I cannot believe these sort of people still exist in this boiling soup of crazies that this world has become.
I will continue to create saner projects, promote science, write articles/books, and do good things. All, despite the fact that hope for a better world, for me, is just a faint scent that I almost cannot detect anymore.
But it is fine, we are small, the world is big, and life is fast.
Social (friendica): we have 1.100 users and this year it was a record of sane registrations. Still the majority of accounts are likely not active. Our database is around 50GB in size and we store 23GB of files.
Files (nextcloud): we have 100 users and 81 of them are active. We store a total of 370GB of files. We are still able to provide trade-free accounts with 10GB storage space for each.
Chat (matrix): around 500 users, 22GB of files stored and a 200GB database (too big, needs optimization). Unsure how many of these users are active but we are using this for our own TROM chats every single day.
Videos (peertube): 1.400 users, 2.800 videos stored with a total of 400.000 views and 1TB in size. Unfortunately only a few users are active and uploading but this is our main TROM hub for videos and we will do our best to keep it alive and grow it.
In total our TROM.tf provides 17 services and is around 2TB in size. We do daily backups of the system with Timeshift (some 1.2TB) plus daily backups of our files and services to Borg.
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TROMjaro : This year we have coded from ground up our own custom made Layout and Theme Switcher apps and made them better. We are still managing a library of over 600 curated trade-free apps and have released a new ISO almost every single month!
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TROMnews : This year we did a major upgrade to the website. We made it a lot better, more diverse, and relevant. Every month there are thousands of items that are posted to this website.
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VideoNeat : Since 2012 we kept this website relevant and updated. We have over 1.300 documentaries/courses available trade-free!
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Trade-Free Directory : We have over 750 entries in the directory, manually added and reviewed. A must have database of wonderful projects that we will use more in the future. We are trying to add more to the directory whenever we have time.
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TROMSite : Do not forget that we are still providing 2 huge documentaries, over 30 books, and many videos. All trade-free, all full of relevant information. The hope is that we will start to create new content soon!
Lastly, we are almost half way with the support we need to keep these projects alive and relevant! 94 out of 200 people are donating 5 Euros a month! https://tromsite.com/donate Thank you so much!
If we are not going to fight for a different kind of world, offline or online, and walk the talk, then nothing, for sure, will ever change. We are trying to change the online landscape bit by bit, by providing trade-free, saner services, and scientific content. We need this more than ever in today’s idiotic society.
We’ve been living in the motorhome for the past 2 days. We worked so much these past weeks on the motorhome, and moving out of the old house and all that….it was so tiring. But from now on things are all about getting used to this new lifestyle. We will be staying in Spain for a week or so in the motorhome then we have to go to Romania for a month. Only after that we will start the “tromhome” living properly.
There are ups and downs, advantages and disadvantages. On one hand you get amazing views and to be able to go anywhere basically…and still have your home, is amazing. We slept last night in this nature place, so cold outside, stars crisp, quiet, amazing. Inside warm and cozy.
But then we do not have enough solar power and batteries so I can barely use my laptop. The internet is limited too. This is a completely different lifestyle for me.
You have to go to the bathroom, you also have to “manage” the waste. When you park you have to not do it in the shade so you get some solar. Also, make sure you are allowed to park where you want to. You have to fill up your water tank, also empty it. 😀
Many things to do. But life is short and I want to try new things 😉
It will take a bit of time to get into some kind of routine with my projects and lifestyle. But I am sure it will work out.
To have this earthship and go places is an amazing thing. A dream I had since I was a kid :D.
Anyway, not much time for TROM for the next 1-2 weeks, but after that the entire December I will focus on it, updates, videos, things, plans.
