Au Cochonnet Marin

Today, unless you are a hermit, you own a smartphone. The apparent purpose of this device is to facilitate messaging between people. But the problem is that many individuals use different frequencies trying to do this. We kind of live in a Tower of Babel environment, where everybody tries to communicate in a different language.

Let’s suppose that you want to quickly share something with a friend. You grab your phone, open the WhatsApp application, and send a message to your buddy. But this person usually passes information with Messages and pays scant attention to anything else. He/she will probably never get the message.

And to make matters worse, the “notification” of a new message is often a single, discreet (way too discreet for me) tone that is easy to overlook, especially in a busy environment.

We all are creatures of habit. The minute we become acquainted with a particular application, we generally stick with it. If you usually use e-mail to communicate with your friends or associates, you will continue to do so, regardless of what the others are doing. You feel comfortable with it, so why would you switch to another convoluted app?

The obvious problem is that we now have an embarrassment of choice when it comes to messaging, and this leaves everybody a little bewildered. It seems that nobody is looking at the same partition at the same time anymore.

So, what is one to do? You probably will have to adapt and start using a different app because “If you don’t change with the times, the times are going to change you.”

If you want to stay in the loop, yes, you will have to learn how to use new applications.

For kids, it is natural; the newer the stuff, the cooler it is. Their little thumbs fly effortlessly on the phone display (yes they all have a phone) but for older folks, it is highly disturbing. It means that they will have to beg their grandchildren to teach them how to cope with this new infernal app. That’s probably what grandchildren are for; to teach their outdated grandparents how to deal with a smartphone.

To paraphrase John Green, breaking a habit “is like a good book in that it is very, very hard to stop once you start.” 

To survive, you probably will have to improvise a system to call various people. Maybe entering a specific emoji after a name on your contacts list to identify the right application to use…

The main thing is to have a method to put everybody in synch and prevent future recriminations.

Hoping that the above will be of help (especially Tamalous).

Alain

After a short illness, Roger Mattei, a well-known member of the Bay Area French community passed away this morning April 4, 2022, at 8:45 am. He was 85 years old.

Roger was born in 1936 in Marseille France. Along with his mother, he moved to San Francisco in 1953. He later served in the US Navy during the Korean War and was awarded American citizenship for his commitment.

When he returned to the Bay Area, he and his mother Ginette opened Le Montmartre, a famous watering spot located on Broadway in San Francisco. They had a very successful run for 25 years, before moving to Lombard Street and finally closing shop.

In his later years, Roger became a commercial salmon fisherman. He enjoyed that life very much and was very good at it. He was so good that many other fishermen asked him to fish with them when they were not successful. He would, and they eventually would be successful again. This was known as “getting the skunk out of the boat”. He was affectionately known as “Frenchy” by all the captains of the commercial fishing boats.

Roger was a man who was always willing to help, and he was known as a fellow that you could count on.

He was a loving husband and father and he is survived by his wife Sabine, and his two sons Richard and Roger.

 

PS: You can view 2 separate albums of Roger’s photos by clicking on “My photos”.

When there is a conflict, there is dissension. Both sides always submit different, conflicting versions of the same event, and this is what we are presently seeing regarding Ukraine. The Russian side has a vastly different version of the war “military special operation” from the Ukrainian side, and it is often very difficult to know the truth.

This fratricidal war, in conjunction with field operations, is above all a media war. The press on both sides has gone into overdrive to convince the masses of the righteousness of their cause. So, who are you going to believe?

If you want some sincerity, I suggest independent vloggers. They are on their own and broadcast short videos of what they see… and believe. To me, they seem more believable than the big network reporters.

I came across such people while watching some videos on YouTube. I was particularly impressed by a young fellow named Niki Proshin. He lives in St Petersburg, speaks almost flawless English, and broadcasts regular vlogs about life in Russia.

But like all Russian citizens, he must presently be careful about what he says, because Big Brat is watching. The Russian word brat (брат) by the way, is pronounced almost exactly like the English word and amusingly means “brother”; so, the Russian Big Brat is as much” ill-mannered and annoying” as George Orwell’s character.

If Big Brat does not like what you say, you might be arrested, heavily fined, or even go to prison.  This is why you see so few protesters in the Russian streets. It is cold and very inhospitable out there, and you have to admire and cheer the few courageous people who dare to confront the authorities.

But no matter how much censure there is, the truth will eventually seep through all the obstacles. And often with the help of these plucky young vloggers.

Russians are now prevented from communicating with the West, but the smart set is using VPN (Virtual Private Network) to get around the censure. VPN is “a secure private network using encryption over a public network”. You can download a phone version of this app on the Internet, and it costs about $7 to $10 a month.

You might be wondering why I am so interested in the Ukrainian conflict… Well, I have some Slavic roots, and I sympathize with the terrible plight of the Ukrainians… and the lied-to Russian citizens.

Tune in to Niki’s vlog. It is worth watching.

Alain