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← 2022-09-28 | 2022-10-01 →
asciilifeform: !q uptime
dulapbot: asciilifeform: time since my last reconnect : 11d 22h 16m
awt[asciilifeform]: Hello from the gulag
PeterL[asciilifeform]: it's been quiet in here this week
awt[asciilifeform]: Couple of weeks of hell for me, then living in Costa Rica full time.
asciilifeform: wb awt , PeterL
signpost[asciilifeform]: awt: congrats on your upcoming move
signpost[asciilifeform] figures everybody's doing what can be done to get situated atm.
awt[asciilifeform]: ty signpost
phf[asciilifeform]: http://logs.bitdash.io/pest/2022-09-30#1013523 << as they say in ru «перед смертью не надышишься», that is “you can’t take satiate breathing before death”
bitbot[asciilifeform]: Logged on 2022-09-30 15:54:47 signpost: figures everybody's doing what can be done to get situated atm.
phf[asciilifeform]: a sentiment which is tempered by “two more weeks, huh”
billymg[asciilifeform]: phf: google translate gives "while there is life there is hope" for that phrase. i'm not sure i understand "you can't take satiate breathing before death" but i first interpreted it as "you can't relax while waiting for death"
phf[asciilifeform]: billymg, well, it was a shit translation, which i also managed to fuck up :D
billymg[asciilifeform]: would you say it's closer in sentiment to what google gives or my initial interpretation?
phf[asciilifeform]: neither are correct, google's idiom matching is particularly abysmal
phf[asciilifeform]: the meaning is more like, you can't take "enough breaths" before death. as in "breathing" is not something you can satiate by trying do plenty of it
phf[asciilifeform]: or rather, that's a direct translation, but i'm having hard time verbalizing meaning. it's one of those "you gotta be russian" things. it's some combination of "vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas" with "memento mori", that's intented to communicate a kind of resigned acceptance of the inevitable
phf[asciilifeform]: so as you can see the meaning is the exact opposite of google's "translation"
phf[asciilifeform]: it's closer to your interpretation, but more like "you might as well relax while waiting for death"
billymg[asciilifeform]: ah, i like that, the more optimistic phrasing
phf[asciilifeform]: there's another meaning, which is basically "you had your whole life to breath, now it's a bit too late"
billymg[asciilifeform]: http://logs.bitdash.io/pest/2022-09-30#1013532 << this makes sense to me. "trying to prepare for death is futile" --> "might as well relax"
bitbot[asciilifeform]: Logged on 2022-09-30 21:34:56 phf[awt]: the meaning is more like, you can't take "enough breaths" before death. as in "breathing" is not something you can satiate by trying do plenty of it
billymg[asciilifeform]: phf: that one a bit more depressing
billymg[asciilifeform]: russian speaking friend of mine just gave me another variation: "idea being if you're going to die you'll appreciate every breath"
phf[asciilifeform]: hmm, i don't know in which context this meaning would work
phf[asciilifeform]: like i don't think i can construct a story, where it would be appropriate to use that saying in the meaning that he presented
phf[asciilifeform]: actually in practice it's usually a kind of gallows humor. you'd say that to e.g. a fellow student, when you had months to prepare for test, but ended up trying to study 5 minutes before exam or whatever. it's almost mandatory to use that saying.
billymg[asciilifeform]: he offered another, "on a deathbed you'll want every breath to extend life", which seems like a corollary to this one
bitbot[asciilifeform]: Logged on 2022-09-30 21:42:38 phf[awt]: there's another meaning, which is basically "you had your whole life to breath, now it's a bit too late"
phf[asciilifeform]: i suspect, the way it's structure grammatically, that it used to be a punchline to a fable (which is the origin of a lot of proverbs in old cultures, they are kind of shortcuts to fables, that would be told by elders as a kind of evening activity / learning opportunity)
phf[asciilifeform]: and it's original meaning was closer to that last one, "on a deathbed you'll regret breaths not taken" and similar
phf[asciilifeform]: so there would be a story, probably literally about a man condemned to death, and as he's awating the execution, he has regrets about wasted opportunities. and then you get a pithy maxim about breaths and deathbeds
phf[asciilifeform]: but it has mostly lost it's original, straightforward meaning, because at some point it became a kind of a literary plaything
phf[asciilifeform]: because the other side is that in whatever other context you apply it, you now humorously equating some other lesser event to death. like a college exam, or a wedding, or whatever else
asciilifeform: 1 of asciilifeform's pet's favourite ru proverbs, once he explained it
phf[asciilifeform]: but also like depending on how close the event is to actually or potentially being death, the saying becomes a kind of gallows humor
asciilifeform apropos of nuffin -- baking illustrations for rewritten pest spec
phf[asciilifeform]: but have you gone down the TikZ rabbit hole yet?
asciilifeform: phf: above baked with tikz
asciilifeform: phf: was thoroughly stumped why randomly choked hevea, until found lolbug
phf[asciilifeform]: yeah, i saw!
asciilifeform: likely, subj not even exists outside of dulap-gentoo & its rather vintage toolchain
asciilifeform: ( hevea author -- not wrote back, unsurprise )
phf[asciilifeform]: but also https://habr.com/en/post/454376/ you should introduce old time perelman style illustrations to pest spec
asciilifeform: that'd rock
asciilifeform: -- in misc. related oldlulz re folx seeing problem illustrated in pic and coming to strange conclusions
phf[asciilifeform]: rbtb has this odd combination of old school pragmatism, but also too often comming to iffy conclusions
phf[asciilifeform]: like the style and the personality reminds me of locklin, and i'm along for the ride, but inevitable i have to drop off, because there will be a "wait, what? whyyy" moment
asciilifeform: saw similar pieces re ye olde irc and its forced spanning tree, and inescapably they end with 'and so we need this 100kloc of gnarly auto-consensus coad , let's learn from shitcoins' etc
asciilifeform: unsurprisingly they never end with 'let's all<->all graph' cuz 'not scales'(tm)(r)
dulapbot: (trilema) 2017-08-07 asciilifeform: because 'you can't get tenure by saying let's-use-rsa' and you won't get $trillion if you ~do~ dig up the old blueprint
awt[asciilifeform]: Didn't meant to imply CR is heaven and US is hell. Simply, moving countries while working towards a project deadline is hell.
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