Lmst

Prompted by their thoughtful program manager, Ezra, the conversation blossoms.

The prompt: share a time when you stumbled into a new interest.

Bernd's story unlocks a floodgate—Wanda recalls her flute, while Susan recounts how clay sparked a love for ceramics.

My daughter , SIL, Monty and I went for a 4.5 mile hike yesterday, through mud and ferns and trees and things. Never let someone tell you small dogs can't hike! But they tend to get distracted by fearsome horses!
#LifeStories #PNWSlogs

...that all started with the Big Bang

https://my-notes.dragas.net/2025/04/14/that-all-started-with-the-big-bang/

A door closed, but something stayed. Memories, echoes, and an episode still unwatched.

#Blog #MyNotes #Memory #Reflections #Home #LifeStories #SlowWeb #Nostalgia

What shocking confession has altered your view of trust?

#Confessions #Secrets #LifeStories Hey there, friends! 🌟 Have you ever been on the receiving end of some truly wild confessions? I mean the kind that really makes you go, “Whoa, I wasn’t expecting that!” 🤯 I’ve had my fair share of interesting conversations, and it got me thinking about just how revealing people can be […]
https://mymetric360.com/question/what-shocking-confession-has-altered-your-view-of-trust/?fsp_sid=52399

What shocking confession has altered your view of trust?

Juan, Artist • Austin, Texas, USA

Rolleiflex 3.5 MX-EVS • Kodak Tri-X 400 • 2024

#FilmPhotography #Kodak #TriX #Film #Camera #Film120 #MediumFormat #Rolleiflex #BWfilm #Monochrome #Photography #ATX #TX #East #Austin #Texas #Outdoors #Juan #Artist #Abandoned #Piano #Audio #Recording #LifeStories #November_30_2024

A black and white film photo. Juan, an artist, is recording audio from an abandoned piano in East Austin, Texas. Saturday, November 30, 2024.

Abandoned Garage Raided • Austin, Texas, USA

Rolleiflex 3.5 MX-EVS • Kodak Tri-X 400 • 2024

#FilmPhotography #Kodak #TriX #Film #Camera #Film120 #MediumFormat #Rolleiflex #BWfilm #Monochrome #Photography #ATX #TX #East #Austin #Texas #Outdoors #Abandoned #Garage #Raided #LifeStories #October_16_2024

A black and white film photo. The personal belongings that were stored inside an abandoned garage are now scattered in front of it with its garage door wide open in East Austin, Texas. Wednesday, October 16, 2024.

It's chilling because of the way he says it. He’s just like, "I've never had experiences like the ones I've had while being homeless." It's understated, right? #RealTalk #LifeStories #Awareness #HomelessnessMatters

Abandoned Memories • Austin, Texas, USA

Rolleiflex 3.5 MX-EVS • Kodak Tri-X 400 • 2024

#FilmPhotography #Kodak #TriX #Film #Camera #Film120 #MediumFormat #Rolleiflex #BWfilm #Monochrome #Photography #ATX #TX #East #Austin #Texas #Outdoors #Abandoned #Memories #Photos #LifeStories #October_16_2024

A black and white film photo. Old photos and other personal items cover the outdoor steps of an abandoned house in East Austin, Texas. Wednesday, October 16, 2024.

Paul Du Rove (founder of Telegram):

#lifestories 🐶

Exactly 18 years ago today, I launched VK—my first large company. Below is the story of how it happened.

I graduated from Saint-Petersburg University in the summer of 2006. I wanted to keep in touch with my former classmates, but I knew it would be hard without a website where everyone could find each other. So, in late August 2006, I set a goal—to build a social network for university students and graduates in four weeks.

I was pretty good at coding. At 12, I built web-based games with vector animations and sound effects. At 13, I was already asked to teach older kids Pascal (a computer language) in summer camps for programmers.

And yet, planning to build a fully-fledged social network in four weeks was overconfident. To make it worse, I decided not to use any ready-made third-party modules. I wanted to create everything from scratch: from profiles and private messages to photo albums and search.

The task seemed too large to grasp. Where do I even start? Back then, my brother Nikolai lived in Germany. Nikolai is a brilliant mathematician and algorithmic programmer, but he’s always considered web development beneath him. At that time, he was focused on his Math thesis at the Max Planck University in Bonn. He refused to help with the code but gave advice: “Write the code for user authorization first,” he said. “You’ll get through.”

This made sense. I started with a login page that generated session IDs. Sessions could then be used to identify users, show them their profile pages, and allow them to edit them. Even the sign-up process could wait: I prepopulated the entries for the first few users manually in the database.

That's when I first understood it clearly: Every complex task is just a combination of many simple ones. If you split a big project into manageable parts and arrange them in the right order, you can get anything done. In theory. In practice, you also encounter all kinds of technical obstacles that test your persistence.

In September 2006, I typically wrote code for 20 hours in a row, had one meal and then slept for 10 hours. After a day of work, I’d boil myself a bucket of pasta and eat it with a generous amount of cheese. No other food was required. I didn’t care whether it was day or night outside. Social connections stopped existing. All that mattered was the code.

I tried to make each section of my project flawless, and that took time. Obsessing over details didn’t help to get everything done in four weeks. But being the only team member allowed me to minimize time spent on internal communication. And since I knew every line of the code base by heart, I could find and fix bugs faster.

On October 10, 2006, I had a beta version of the social network up and running. I called it VKontakte (VK), which means “in contact”. It took me six weeks instead of four to create it. But the result was worth it. Users that I invited from my previous project—a students’ portal I’d been building since 2003—signed up by the thousands and started to invite friends.

I kept adding new features quickly, and competitors struggled to catch up. A few months later, I hired another developer. By that time, VK already had a million members. Within seven years, VK would reach 100 million monthly users. At that point, I was fired by the board of VK, so I left the company to focus fully on Telegram.

That experience of single-handedly building the first version of VK in 2006 was so valuable that it defined my career. As the sole member of the product team, I had to do the work of a front-end developer, back-end developer, UX/UI designer, system administrator, and product manager—all at once. I got to understand the basics of all these jobs. I learned the tiniest details of how a social network works.

I also learned that there are no complex tasks in this world—only many small ones that look scary when combined. Split a big task into smaller parts, organize them in the right sequence—and “you’ll get through”.

https://t.me/durov/355

Scots family

It's day 13 of 60 day series of a track/day each year of my life. It's hot & dry '76.

My Scottish g'andpa A G Walker who lived with us died. Western Isles & Stirling heritage.WW1 survivor.

In tribute Scot, Al Stewart -The year of the cat. I'm glad Grandpa had 9 lives #musictrax4life #music #lifestories #Lifestory

https://open.spotify.com/track/2ucErIqIw0e8eD614KT7kK?si=yRSwx5thQIe6YvhB37flAA

Day 11 of the 60 day tour of a music track/year of life. Its 1974 and Newcastle lose the FA cup sadly while Germany win the World Cup against the swashbuckling Dutch and I saw the Cruyff turn.

In a hot summer we went on holiday in Peterborough. 'Billy don't be a hero' Paper Lace was a favourite then to a romantic kid.

Neil Young's 1974 Album On the beach has been a lifelong love though and we needed rain.

#musictrax4life #history #Lifestory #lifestories #music
https://open.spotify.com/track/4tYPrKSZJQTocvTiPkA87i?si=vwQwAGu9TDCaE58qfv629g

I still remember some guy from the University of Indianapolis, dressed in a red-and-white striped barbershop quartet jacket and hat, scolding me for saying "yeah" instead of "yes" at a college fair 25 years ago. I guess saying "yah" doesn't ruin your prospects.

#LifeStories #LifeLessons #Throwback

For all of us who wish we could now interview our grandparents.

#bookstodon #LifeStories #FamilyHistory #LifeStoriesInLiterature

The Questions We Don’t Ask Our Families but Should https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/11/learning-family-history-questions-to-ask-relatives/672115/

Life is a tapestry woven with threads of joy, sorrow, love, and loss. In Tangled Threads, each character’s journey is a delicate strand, intertwining in unexpected ways to create a complex narrative of human connection. Set against a backdrop of a bustling city, the novel explores the lives of individuals whose paths cross by chance, revealing how a single encounter can unravel or bind the threads of destiny.
#TangledThreads #LifeStories #InterconnectedLives #LoveAndLoss #RedemptionJourney

The last time I fell asleep, I was woken up by a policewoman yelling that I couldn't sleep there and needed to get up immediately. #UnexpectedMoments #LifeStories #StayAlert

Feeling so SO angry at blinkered people on some FB groups which get algorithmed to me (is algorithmed a word? Anyway) because they are so unrelentingly nasty about trans people. And, of course, it's always a 'problem' of trans women. No matter how long ago, no matter the permanent endocrine and physical changes someone has gone, they still say someone is male.

It's so much vitriol and general nastiness. It upsets me both because it exists but also because I can't speak out about it without putting myself in the firing line.

#IWasATransChild but back in the 50s there was no way to know such a situation was valid. There was no internet, no way to know that I was just 'differently normal', so I kept absolutely quiet about my internal monologue.

When I went to the grammar school I didn't tell but somehow the other kids knew. They gave me a female nickname and though maybe for the first month it was antagonistic it soon became just my name. And every lunchtime I'd be with the other girls chatting. I came out as bi at 13. I hated my body but because I knew of no other option I just tried to survive. At least in the 70s having long hair was acceptable.

At 17 I first told someone else. It went ok.

... (cut for length) ...

At 26 I told my GP and got a referral to Charing Cross and Russell Reid. Every six months another visit. Once I went along with my then girlfriend and we sat waiting for my appointment. Reid came out and called _her_ in, thinking she was AFAB male and I was his girlfriend! I became the women's officer for my Party's constituency and the first out bi and trans person in another organisation.

The final people to be told were my parents. I told my mum, who immediately phoned my dad at work and just said "Get home. Now." and wanted to know why I didn't say anything when I was young (I'd never been sporty but had done things more usual for girls). My response was that I was afraid of what might happen and had nothing indicate that I wasn't crazy in my teens. They were supportive though and my mum paid for my subsequent surgery.

At 30 I had SRS/GCS privately with Dalrymple. It went fairly well and though I've never been happy with the visual appearance it's been fine physically. I first had str8 sex (my V their P) on my 31st birthday. It was great. Although I was very out for a while, even doing radio interviews, I realised my history was nobody else's business so stopped being public.
...
I'm now in my late 60s. Few people know, and whilst some may suspect I won't confirm anything, after all why should I? My so-called life back in my teens and early twenties is irrelevant now.

You can't be a little bit pregnant, people talk. Live your own life, you've earned it.

#trans #GirlsLikeUs #LifeStories #WasNeverMale #CassReport

In celebration of my father's 75th birthday today...I cooked up a little surprise for him...and you! Please help me show my dad some love for his birthday! (3/27)
#ExpressionsInLife #HarveyDKing #AfricanAmericanPoetry #BlackPoetry #BlackPoets #BlackAuthors #BlackMen #BlackFathers #Inspiration #LifeStories #HarveyKing #PoetryBooks #BookOfPoems #AmericanPoetry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3AEJgBqmVI

Today is March 13th, which makes it the anniversary of my bottom surgery (#GCS or #SRS depending on your age)
Yes, 37 years ago I was on the slab. It would be an overstatement to say it changed my life but it certainly made a difference and was the final step in a process started many years earlier.
#trans #GirlsLikeUs #LifeStories

Fantastic work by the young people living with #HIV with help of #lifestories #thebritishlibrary #Chiva on #WorldAIDSDay 🤩👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

#LifeStories

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