Bonjour les Funsters !
How are you this week? I see it’s cold in the UK, wet in France… what about where you are? How’s the weather?
It’s been a busy and tiring week for me. Lots of things to do but I’m also still very, very tired all the time - this soon shall pass.
Anyway, this week, we will talk about :
Voting
Crisps
You
…and much, much more!
Strap in - it’s time to get this show on the road!
Have a great week!
James x
Open Door
As you will remember, I left Twitter over a year ago and, based on the stories since, that was probably one of my better ideas.
I’ve tried a lot competitor/successor social networks since and have left some, stayed in some and called out some.
T2, sadly, was a bit disasterous - sadly, because it had a good vibe but it just became very chaotic before, inevitably, closing down due to lack of funds as the investors left.
Mastodon, which, fundamentally, it quite good, is hampered by being a bit too complicated to sign up to and, also, from being a bit quiet. However, I’m still there… up to a point.
Bluesky is the stand-out for me. I have found the Bluesky network to be the most stable, with the most interesting content and the most engaged group of users. However, up until now, it has been invitiation only - but that changed two days ago, with the result that almost 2 million new users have signed up. Over there, I am @jamesmb.bsky.social Bluesky also has an interesting element in that the development team is engaged and interested in what the users think. People like uberdev Paul Frazee and. of course, the excellent CEO Jay Graber are fantastic additions to your feed! Also, a special shout out to Bluesky’s Rose who helped me out with my students. Thank you!
There are other options out there and I will cover them in a different email - as well as trying to explain the fediverse more generally! But, at the moment, you don’t need to know - just get yourself onto Bluesky and delete Twittter!
Chicken
This is one of our chickens. She came to say hi the other day when I was dismantling the chicken coop door.
Today, one of them gave us an abnormally large egg. For context, the egg on the left is a normal, large egg…
Of our 9 hens, about four or five are laying and the rest are retired.
VOTE!
If you are reading this newsletter, the chances are that there will be an election in your country this year! 2024 has a surprising number of national and local elections around the world.
In Europe alone, there are elections in…
Austria
Belarus
Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatia
Czech Republic
Finland
Georgia
Germany
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Lithuania
Malta
Moldova
North Macedonia
Portugal
Poland
Romania
Russia
San Marino
Slovakia
Spain
United Kingdom
…along with European Parliament elections.
But to vote, you MUST register and if you leave it until the last minute, you might lose you right to vote.
If you are an EU citizen living in another EU country, you can register to vote either in your home country or in your country of residence. You may only vote ONCE.
If you are an EU citizen in France, you can register to vote in France here. It is very easy and it takes just a few minutes. You can register to vote in your local commune elections at the same time.
If you are a UK citizen voting from abroad, you can register to vote here. THE 15 YEAR LIMIT HAS BEEN REMOVED.
If you are a US citizen voting from abroad, you can register to vote here.
If you are a citizen of another country and would like to highlight how citizens from your country can vote from abroad, please just send me a message and I will add it to a future newsletter!
And there’s also Eurovision but you don’t need to register for that!
Co-pilot’s Norway Dyslexia Project
Marko (my son - known to regular readers as the Co-pilot) is off to Norway soon as part of an Erasmus+ project. As a dyslexic student, he is particularly interested in looking at how Norway supports students with dyslexia and the idea is that he will bring back this information and share it with his lycée here in France.
Beyond the normal Erasmus experiences of living and learning about another culture, this is a particularly important and personal journey for Marko to better understand that dyslexia is not a barrier to success and for him to be able to help others.
The plane tickets are booked and we are now looking at some of the practicalities. One of the things he needs is a tablet and keyboard case.
He’s set up a Gofundme to raise some money towards this. Any contributions would be gratefully received and help him not only get the equipment to make the experience better but also understand the support that is out there.
Also, if you could share either this newsletter or the direct link to the Gofundme on your socials, that would be amazing. Thank you!
He will be providing some updates that we’ll share on here for you during his time in Norway!
Crisps
A long time ago, there was a discussion about crisp flavours on social media (Twitter, seeing as you asked - but before it became all Nazis and porn). I just noticed that I’ve been taking lots of photos of various flavours over the years - and here are just some!
Also, I can confirm that these, from Germany, are one of the worst things I have ever eaten…
So now you know.
Hi you!
I am a bit obsessed with metrics and stats. It’s a bit OCD, to be honest.
When I was messing around with the Substack stats the other day, I found some maps showing where you all come from! Unsurprisingly, most of you are from the UK and France - and then the USA.
But I find the maps really upsetting! And I need your help!
This is the Europe map.
And those grey countries are where there are no readers! :(
And here is the US map…
Each grey state has no readers. :(
So, dear reader, if you know someone in one of those states or European countries, please could you help me find readers there by sharing the newsletter with them?
It’s great to have feedback and ideas from different people in different places - it enriches the things that I write about.
So, please, help me fill those gaps! :) Thank you!
Question
Does anyone know if these are good?
Genuinely, I can’t apologise enough. 😂
That’s it for this week! I hope you all have a great one!
See you on Bluesky!
James x