Alexandra Soroca 🎹 @SeventhMagpie@mastodon.art

Dear neighbours. Anyone else, operating phrases like "Russian trolls", "kremlinbots" and other general dehumanising concepts, please step forward, so I could block you. Thank you in advance and sorry for the inconvenience. I'm not having this shit again here. There's Twitter for that.

Now, suppose it's time to make #introduction :)

I'm an amateur classical #pianist. Started learning properly at 34 and cannot imagine stopping any time soon. Love Fryderyk #Chopin. Admire Arthur #Rubinstein and Emil #Gilels, and am trying to model my playing on them (extremely arrogant, I know 😅).

I love #cats and am enslaved to two of them. Love #sea, #sailing ships & books about sea adventures. #NaNoWriMo enthusiast. Love fountain pens. :)

I speak #Russian, #English and now study #Romanian

Excellent thread on where Google puts its money and whom it supports financially.

Spoiler: it doesn't align with what they claim to support. (surprise!)

RT // Google's June filing for political donations is up, and surprisingly, the $203K the company donated to politicians substantially aligns with its stated values of inclusion and respect for employees from all backgrounds.

LOL, I'm just messing with you. Let's go through the worst:

https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/1141838179936243714

I feel so stupid.

Out of all Cirque du Soleil shows I've seen, "Kooza" still stays my favourite.

Maybe that's because it's the only one I've seen live. :)

Oookay... now #PayPal demands a copy of my passport. Again.

I think I'm done with PayPal.

This is truly humiliating. I'm not a criminal, I'm not a terrorist. Why would they want to "identify" me for every small transaction is beyond me.

Yes, I know they are required to identify me, because that's what my government demands from them. But once should be enough! Once! Not every time I want to spend 13 dollars!

Enough of that bs. I'll get a digital card from my bank.

PayPal can go fuck itself.

#PayPal keeps letting me down.

Last time I paid with them (this winter), they put the transaction on hold for almost a day. Okay, I thought, maybe that's because I was billed in Euros.

Now they outright decline my payment and won't even explain why, citing their security algorithms. It's a payment of $13 to a big American domain registrar, which I've been making payments to via PayPal for several years.

Makes me wonder what exactly triggers their "security algorithms".

Out of 25 pianists in #Tchaikovsky Competition this year there are only two girls. :(

See schedule here: https://tchaikovskycompetition.com/en/schedule/#piano

There will be livestream.

Why do people feel the need to validate themselves at my expense? Squeeze a shaky consent from me just so that their conscience would not bother them. Why is it always me who has to step back, to move aside, to make peace. Is it fair?

In Russia, nationalistic & pseudo patriotic folks often use a term "Gayrope". This is supposed to highlight an assertion that Europe is morally rotten and has lost all traditional values.

So. Yesterday I saw an interesting sarcastic comment on Twitter.

If there is Gayrope, then surely there must be Lesbasia somewhere as well?

Hmm... :)

I've spent all my current savings from since January on the piano restoration. Also had to borrow some money from my father. After that I had about $160 equivalent left, and my next paycheck is next Monday.

Then I went and spent about $75 on tickets to a Lucas Debargue concert.

@pollomostro Maybe those people have privacy level set to unlisted?

And what is it this time? :) I swear, fediverse is digging its own grave. People should stick together, not fight over every small thing.

Himalayan bear didn't appreciate being filmed by a hidden camera. *gg"

RT @Leopard_land: Гималайский медведь «станцевал» перед камерой и попытался скрыть «компромат» на «Земле леопарда» 🐻 Любопытство зверя обернулось плачевно для одной из фотоловушек 📸
↘ https://t.co/BbFvmJDAhY ↙ https://t.co/hOXllPoJJH

And I almost forgot to share!

My #piano has been restored. Not to the state of new, of course, but very serious work has been done.

Turns out, previous owners often neglected it and maybe didn't even play it. Which is nonsense, really, it has very beautiful sound!

The downside is, it has cost me more than I expected. About twice as much. So... I won't be eating for the next couple of months, I suppose. *gg*

There's one thing that often annoys me.

I have no issue understanding spoken English when it's Brits speaking.

However, it's quite a different thing with Americans. Rather often, almost half of what they speak is difficult to decipher.

This hurts my self esteem, seriously. :) I start doubting myself, thinking I'm not that good with this language etc. So annoying.

I probably need to listen to American speech more to start understanding it better.

My sister gave me her old 8 inch tablet she didn't need anymore. Now I have something to read #piano magazines on. :)

I need to finish those two old drafts - from March! - on my blog. I really need to finish and publish them.

And it's not like I cannot write anymore (although there's this feeling of rust, yes). I just need to procrastinate less.

Aarghh!

If I died, nobody would know it. Nobody would start asking questions. Nobody would notice. Even my family would start getting worried only in about a week, maybe.

That's what saddens me most. That the first ones to realise that I'm not there anymore would be my employer.

The really sucks.

Isn't life supposed to be more than that?

I have a feeling I'm being gaslighted.

Every time I'm getting ready to board a plane, I secretly hope that a romcom thing happens, and my yet-to-be-met love will turn up in the seat next to me.

Guess what happened this time on the first flight leg?

Empty seat beside me.

Is that a sign? I've always suspected that I will end up alone, but that was rather harsh, dear Fate.

Upgrade to #Fedora 30 took about 15 minutes. Um. I wanted to be surprised at first, but then remembered that I replaced the stock HDD with an SSD last year. :)

So far, only two issues. Dash to Dock extension had to be removed to start working again (maybe it's been included in the core system and it created a conflict?). And #Firefox just *had* to start acting up, didn't it?

Short haircut has one drawback. In cool weather like now the back of the head gets a bit cold. *gg*