Alexandra Soroca 🎹 @SeventhMagpie@mastodon.art

Revised #introduction to reflect the state of my languages. 😋

I'm an amateur classical #pianist. Started learning properly at 34 and still going strong. Love Frédéric #Chopin. Admire Arthur #Rubinstein and Emil #Gilels, and am trying to model my playing on them (arrogant, I know 😅).

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

I speak #Russian, #English, some #Romanian, and now study #Italian.

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.

If modern media is to be believed, love and happiness is meant mostly for the young & good looking.

This makes me feel like a waste. :/ Like I'm late for this feast of life and nothing can be done about it. *sigh*

#StartPage search has stopped working for me on mobile connection. Says too many requests come from my ip (it's a mobile carrier!). Neither search string in Firefox Focus, nor from their start page.

Hence, looking for another decent #search engine. Please advise. Just not the Duck service, unless they change their awful name and even more awful logo. The Western presentation of ducks triggers me badly.

So. Any ideas?

Today I messaged I. and asked her to tell me something nice. 😊 She immediately responded with several niceties about myself (although I didn't ask for that, I rather meant maybe something nice in general).

And then she asked: "What happened?"

It both amused and upset me a bit. I liked what she said. 😁 But... do I really merit this kind of thing only when something has happened, when I'm supposedly feeling down?

I wish people would say nice things to each other more often and just because. :)

My upstairs neighbours have finally decided to take revenge on me for #piano practice sessions and put a television into their bedroom (which is right above mine).

I hate television.

So, this is basically forcing me to stay longer in my living room, where the piano is.

And you know... I cannot just sit when there's a piano next to me. Which means more practice? 😆

@lapis I don't know. :) But I can offer my opinion?

I gather that Columbus Day marks the day when he arrived to America?

Seeing how this was basically the day when Europeans started robbing and murdering local people, I'd say it's not the best idea to call it a Native American Day.

Basically, I personally don't see any reason for celebration. There must be other more worthy dates in the American history.

But, like I said, I don't really know. :)

I wish... I just wish that somebody would someday... at least think something like this about me.

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

You're flying away
You're flying away
Over a chestnut brunch
Inside Murakami tomes
I love you with an enormous sky
I want to love you with my hands

My #piano teacher cancelled the lesson yesterday. :( She was unfortunate enough to fall victim to an autumn flue, so of course.

I really hope she recovers soon. She's too nice a person to suffer from stupid illnesses, and besides I really need her to guide me through the music world. :)

As an introvert, I value my privacy.

But I really dislike the kind of individualism, when some office boy comes to the canteen, takes up a table meant for four, and actively demonstrates his displeasure when somebody else sits at it.

It's a factory canteen, for crying out loud! Many people, not so many tables, and often even less time for a lunch.

If you wish to dine all alone, go book a table at some fancy place in the city. Don't make other people's lives difficult.

My new Pixelfed account is here: https://pixelfed.social/SeventhMagpie

I will be gradually reposting everything from old account (there was not much).

New photos will be added in no particular or chronological order. :) But I will note the time of creation in description, of course.

There probably won't be much of realtime photos right now, because the summer is gone and I'm not going to travel much. :( Or at all. But I have lots of earlier photos I'd like to share. :)

It's nice that pixelfed.social has opened up registrations again. :) Moving there.

I don't like the website address, tbh. My previous host had more interesting domain name. Alas, the instance was as good as dead, because Pixelfed kind of fails at social at the moment. This will probably change over the time, I think. But... :)

The most difficult part of #Italian so far is articles.

They do not behave like in English, especially with possessive pronouns.

I'd say, Italian definite articles' use case is somewhat similar to #Romanian.

But!

In Romanian a definite article is actually a suffix. :) Which just... doesn't feel quite the same to rely on.

l'orso mio vs. ursul meu

@pixelfed

Could you please clarify one thing? :) Are there any plans to add ability to communicate with other instances? Some sort of OAuth, or something?

I mean, right now I can only like/comment on an external post only if: a) I'm subscribed to the user, and b) the post has appeared after I've subscribed to the user.

I'd like to be able to like/comment on any posts on other instances the way it is possible in Mastodon webapp.

Are there any plans?

That was a near miss just now. :) Same old love triangle: me, piano and the morning bus.

In Yakutia a bear killed an ex-MP, who came there to hunt and had shot another bear.

I'd say, serves him right. Bears and tigers should definitely clear the taiga of the fuckers that come there with rifles.

One thing I terribly miss in #Pixelfed is the ability to communicate with people on instances other than own. To open someone's profile, look through images, like some, comment on others etc. Not possible at the moment, alas. :(

@InvaderXan
I need your expertise, please. :)

Could you identify this plant? It's a gift, and I don't know how to care for it. And am kind of shy to ask the person who brought it.

I still feel a bit shy about coming with my own box to take food for later noms in addition to having a normal lunch at the canteen, though.

I mean, people do it all the time, because the canteen closes at 16:00. Yet I've only seen one person bring their own box for that purpose. Most people just pay for the throwaway boxes and don;t think much of it. :/

And that's sad. :( Too much plastic all around as it is, no need to add more.

When I started bringing my own reusabe box to the canteen, they started putting more food into into compared to what they did with their own thin plastic takeout boxes. :)

And now I'm even paying less, because their throwaway boxes are not free. So it's benefit all around. :)

Today a woman I spoke to on the phone kept calling me "Anastasia", despite having asked twice. As in: "Alexandra, is that you? Alexandra, we spoke earlier, okay... So, Anastasia, listen, here's this thing..."

Although I guess it's not that bad. I've had someone repeatedly address me as "Denis" in emails. :)

I'm looking at Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark II, and am tormented by its price. :) Trying to convince myself that I don't really need it. 😅 Unsuccessfully so far, but I'll keep trying. :)