What do you think is great about smolnet?

A:As an introvert, the intimacy of small, minimalist electronic spaces is more welcoming. No trackers, content delivery networks, or ad banners, no algorithms to restrict users based on false positives or

flimsy poorly thoughtout business rules.

What could we do better on smolnet?

A: Portals to detailed help documentation for beginners would be great.

How do I use RSS with my gopher feed? How do I use colour and emojis with gemtext? Show me where the tutorials are on the smolnet.

Do I see other people use them? Yes, therefore I know it's possible. I have used web-based search engines for this info.

How and why did you start your monthly Five Questions?

A: The Five Questions concept I nicked from a letter-writing forum. At the beginning of each month forum contributors would post five questions to which readers would respond via snail mail. Snail mail responses to my questions were irregular.

These questions on Gemini promoted interactivity, without need for scripting skills, and posting the URLs to respondents' answers gives their gemlogs exposure. Gemtext doesn't suffer the character limit on many web-based microblogging platforms, allowing questioners and respondents full expression.

Q: I notice you’re a bit of a cuisine buff. What would you tell us about how food informs culture, enriches life? How does fasting for Lenttide fit into that?

A: Whole, minimally processed foods, whether they come from soil, sea, or stockyards, are nutritionally dense. They aren't cleansed with hexanes, coloured or flavoured with carcinogens, given longer shelf life with additives. They aren't packaged with splashy designs and manic-eyed mascots and placed where children grab for them. They don't, regardless of what activists and diet dictocrats claim, contribute as much to degenerative disease as the foods boxed and jarred in the supermarket aisles. If it benefits global corporations it's generally at the detriment of our health.

Home processing of foods, for example sprouting of beans and grains, and fermentation break down proteins difficult to digest. Fermented vegetables contain lactobacilli, which enhances the vegetables' digestibility and increases vitamin levels. These beneficial organisms produce numerous helpful enzymes as well as antibiotic and anticarcinogenic substances. Lacto-fermentation is a world-wide practice. Peoples of Japan, China, and Korea make pickled preparations of cabbage, turnip, eggplant, cucumber, onion, squash, and carrot. Lacto-fermentation is an artisanal craft that does not lend itself to industrialization. Life is enriched in that fewer visits to the doctor are needed, the likelihood of chronic disease is reduced, the immune system is strong enough to keep people out of the hospital.

How does fasting for Lent fit into culture and food? Fasting is common to many philosophies and major religions. As I type this, it's Ramadan, Islam's fasting period. Fasting is an ancient traditional method of restoring health, based on the principle of sparing the digestion through greatly reduced food intake so that the energies of the body can be directed toward healing and rebuilding. Fasting may be likened to applying mops and brooms to the body temple. All buildings, even the human body, need an occasional cleaning. Fasting on bone stock or vegetable broth or on lacto-fermented vegetable juices allows our enzyme-producing and digestive mechanisms to rest so that other enzyme systems can work at repair, detoxification and healing. Healthy body --> healthy mind --> healthy soul. Or, clean body, clean mind: take your pick :)

Are you involved in any other projects you’d like to talk about?

A: I'd like to be involved in a project. I feel as cut off from the world and reality as Major Tom. My

projects right now are finding trustworthy, capable custodians in my home country for my assets, and finding new ways to postpone the awful business of decluttering. If I knew what organizations took what, or had good places for auctioning items like signed Neil Gaiman hardcovers and boxer shorts signed by Eric Idle, this would be much simpler.