Time is often on my mind. The fact it’s the most precious resource we have. How time is the great equalizer: it doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, a malevolent billionaire or an unpaid volunteer: you have the exact same amount of minutes and hours available in any given day. We’re all the same in this respect. (Sure, single parents who need to have 2 jobs for basic survival have a great deal of stress compared to a wealthy retiree, but let’s not nitpick for this exercise, ok?)

Earlier this morning I posted this message to Mastodon:

To people despairing about the state of the world, let me help put things in perspective, time-wise. As the mom of a child turning 4 this week, I know very well how long 4 years feel.

Friends who are parents would tell me: “the days are long but the years are short.” It’s absolutely accurate.

I say: make this time matter.

In 4 years my child learned to walk, talk, became fully fluent in 2 languages and is now a LEGO wiz.

How will you use these next 4 years?

When the worst people in the world are running a large, powerful country, with mainstream media normalizing their horrid behavior, it is normal to feel despair. Even if, like me, you’re on the other side of the Atlantic. There is a natural sense of powerlessness taking over.

This morning I was thinking that I’m a little envious of my daughter because she’s completely shielded from these events. She’s a French/Italian little girl growing up in Paris. She has no idea about what is happening and she cannot read yet or put events in a historical context.

The next four years – dreadful for us adults – hold exciting opportunities for her. At the end of the current kakistocracy, come January 2029, my child will be 8 years old. In the four years to come she will learn to read and write. The time span from 4 to 8 is one of expansive learning. I’m privileged to be by her side, guiding her. And I’m also taking this time to learn.

Last month, on December 5th, I published the blog post “Introducing: my so-called sudo life“, discussing my plans to rebel against oligarchs and tech barons.

I wrote:

In the days following November 6th I sketched a plan – for my own self care: set 4 goals for the next 4 years – 2 internal (self-improvement) and two “external” (helping others).

Goal number 1 was “learning Linux” so I could eventually self-host my own Fediverse instance. I wrote this on December 5th, signed up for a virtual private server (VPS) on December 17th, installed the federated microblogging software GoToSocial on December 22nd, and I’ve been running my own Fediverse instance for a month now. Last week I started self-hosting photos via the platform Pixelfed (an alternative to Instagram). So: goal 1 has been already accomplished! I thought it would take at least 3 years, but all it took was less than 3 weeks. All credit goes to YunoHost, a system that allows people with little to no technical knowledge to self-host, with crystal clear, easy to follow guides.

Goal number 2 was learning a new foreign language. I’m already fully fluent in Italian (my mother tongue), English and French. In my blog post I hesitated between Spanish and Japanese. Well, earlier this week I made my choice. For MAXIMUM impact I’m going with Spanish, a language spoken by 500 million people. Japan will always have a soft spot in my heart, so I may pick up again learning hiragana, katakana and kanji, but Spanish could really help with my Fediverse evangelism.

Goal number 3 is preparing presentations about the Fediverse for schools – and making those widely available for others, in case they wanted to tweak/re-use them. I have yet to start that, but it’s my big goal for 2025.

Goal number 4 is: “help make the Fediverse a more diverse place, safer and more welcoming for people of color.” GoToSocial and its granular settings have been eye-opening when it comes to creating a safe space for oneself online. Naturally I will keep on working and advocating for this goal in the coming years.

A MIM system

I’ve created a very simple system to keep track of my progress: I call it my MIM (make it matter) system. What is it? It’s just a calendar printout on which I write my actions. This is a powerful reminder of the things I have done and the progress I’ve made. I like how tangible and empowering it feels to be filling it out (instead of having an electronic version of it). I’ve color-coded it so items in yellow refer to my self-hosting efforts, pink ones are related to the books I’m reading and those in pastel blue are articles I have published.

It looks like this:

What about you, what do you have in store for the next four years?

– Elena

P.S.: I’m now hosting all my links here: elena.social

elenarossini.com/2025/01/my-so…

#activism #learning #linux #mySoCalledSudoLife #MySoCalledSudoLife #resist #resistance #selfHosting

Elena Rossini ⁂

2025-01-21 06:19:10

To people despairing about the state of the world, let me help put things in perspective, time-wise. As the mom of a child turning 4 this week, I know very well how long 4 years feel.

Friends who are parents would tell me: “the days are long but the years are short.” It’s absolutely accurate.

I say: make this time matter.

In 4 years my child learned to walk, talk, became fully fluent in 2 languages and is now a LEGO wiz.

How will you use these next 4 years?