Hey there.

you’re doing a journey through the internet, i suppose? let me make you some tea.  

Lara Beins balancing on a bike. December 2018.

who am i?

Michael. Read more about me on my about page.

what is this?

This is basically my personal notebook that represents me in the internet. I am not a fan of modern social media. It is toxic, boring, and is very likely one of the main components that detiorates our mental health. More criticism here.

content

Everything I guess? It should work as a wiki, a Zettelkasten and a photo gallery (a personal instagram if you go by modern terms).

I originally wrote content on German, but I decided to switch to English. Maybe I will also start translating some content to Esperanto earlier or later.

A person attempting a 'Unicrank' on a unicycle in front of a wall. August 2019.

academia

You can find my Zotero here (click!). Publications (in Geography) will be listed here (click!).

development

I’m definitely not a programmer, in fact, I’m terrible at coding. However, I have a public codeberg account with all my repositories.

mdbenning - codeberg.org

another important stuff you should consider

license

the page content is licensed with the CC-BY-SA 4.0. The code is licensed with LGPL. More information here.

Some personal thoughts on the Russo-Ukrainian war

In the following, I have summarised a few of my theses and opinions on the currently raging war in Ukraine. I guess we all don’t understand what is happening at all anymore and are watching it with a lot of emotions. Be it anger, sadness, despair or speechlessness. I think that being emotional in such a situation is more than valid – however, we should not lose our rational perspective. Right now, I am especially watching the development of security policies, as well as our “information culture” (e. Read more...

Notes on socialism

Two queer persons kissing in front of the Berlin Wall painting of Brezhnev and Honecker Even in leftist circle, the discourse around socialist theories is constructed around weird, and frankly said, wrong definitions. Most of the times, people arguing in context of certain ownerships of the means of production that always involves the state. In the end, people argue for or against production modes that were found in the USSR or GDR. Read more...

Indie Web collection

A collection of gems, obtained from a hidden, more beautiful side from the internet. https://yesterweb.org/ A community made out of everyday internet users that acknowledges today’s internet is lacking everything related to creativity, expression, and meaningful social infrastructure. https://www.kickscondor.com/ Kicks Condor personal website. https://barnsworthburning.net/ A digital Zettelkasten, cultivated by Nick Trombley https://sadgrl.online/ The personal website of Sadness https://href. Read more...

Photo management

Rules for basic photo management Never put files on the working machine. Organize by date and event ideal format: yyyy-mm-dd (2019-12-16) Categorize by catalog, raws, and edits Catalog for every individual shoot 2019 ↴ 2019-05-23_luxembourg ↴ raws ↴ catalog ↴ edits ↴

thinkingmachine

thinkingmachine is my stationary desktop workstation. It is an old computer originally built in 2015 and gifted to me by a friend. I’m using it for most of my works. It is using an old, inefficient AMD CPU, yet, it satifies all my needs for a computer.

Paruline

2020– Paruline is my current on-the-go workstation, a ThinkPad T480. It is used and originally from a business stockage. I use it for different tasks while on the go/not at home, but it is mostly used for studies and writing for my university. I made some minor tweaks, such as replacing the plastic trackpad with a glass trackpad, switched to a more powerful battery, extended it to 16GB of RAM, and underclocked the CPU. Read more...

Linux

Linux is a monolithic operating system kernel, a small component of a larger system. In its open devirates, it is accompanied by GNU packages, and building the GNU/Linux environment. Linux kernels come in many different distribution, serving different needs. Linux is not for everybody In my experience, the GNU/Linux environment is not for everybody. This is caused by the fundamental problem that computers were oversimplified and its operating systems adjusted for maximal profit. Read more...

hirondelle

2016-2020 hirondelle was a workstation powered by a Apple MacBook Pro from 2015, running macOS Catalina. I sold the laptop in August 2020. Specifications Laptop: Apple MacBook Pro 13", 128GB Headphones: Beyerdynamic DT990 250 Ohm Keyboard: Unicomp Model M Mouse: Logitech G402 Microphone: RØDE NT1-A hirondelle in July 2019

About

Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more. - Oscar Wilde Me in June 2020 — est. 2001. — My name is Michael, and I am a 20 year old geography student, currently in my second year. I mainly live in Bonn, no question one of the many beautiful cities of Central Europe. Read more...

In the now.

status: Feb 27th, 2022 I finished all my exams for this semester. Currently I aim to ameoliorate my daily habits, i. e. reading more, writing more, visiting museums and exhibitions, trying to disconnect myself from mainstream social media platforms, and taking care of my own health. Furthermore, I work on a GIS project, in which I create maps for my mother to support her in her genealogical research. I also began to learn Russian again. Read more...