Are there any renters unions in your area? Getting the tenant involved with them might help them legally or practically. In the UK, we have Acorn which do a mixture of direct action (ie literally blocking Landlords from accessing the property) and supporting tenants with navigating the legal system and understanding their (somewhat limited) rights as renters.

If there’s something comparable in your local area, perhaps approach them with the consent of the tenant? If there’s not then perhaps there’s similarly minded people which you can help to start organise and bring into the fold?

Ah thanks comrade, it was indeed a cosy day!

My partner and I are on the last few days of our Summer Solstice holiday. We hiked up a local mountain with a friend yesterday and today we’re recovering on the sofa from a week of hiking, hill walking, and slightly-too-much food.

I’m alternating between reading some sci-fi on my e-reader (currently reading Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks), writing some psuedo-code for a single-user headless ActivityPub server I’m thinking of implementing for fun, and brewing tea. I might watch a movie later, if I get the urge.

Earlier, as part of a bonus Solstice gift, I set up my partner’s laptop with an N64 emulator, a USB N64-like controller, and some old games she enjoyed as a child so she’s on the other side of the sofa full of nostalgia and smiling, engrossed in her games.

Our cat is curled up on my feet and stretched out onto my partner’s lap; her favourite cuddle position.

Mostly just through using it, and via being somewhat passionate/interested in open source stuff at the point I was discovering it, and I continue to learn by just slowly pushing against my comfort zone in certain areas.

My first Linux install was back 2008, Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron”, through wubi which meant it easy to bail out if I needed to. I played around with it, got various things working like making sure I could watch YouTube videos (via Flash!), access files on my memory sticks, use OpenOffice, listen to music, torrent stuff etc.

Eventually I swapped out Wubi for a “proper” dual-boot when I was settled and began living in Ubuntu full-time, other than needing to use Windows XP for syncing my iPod with iTunes (I’ve never really bothered with gaming on PC so it was never a draw to keep Windows). At some point the Windows XP install just seriously borked, no idea why but it ground to a halt. Synced my iPod one last time and wiped it for a full Ubuntu install.

Ever since then I’ve been a Linux user all through university and into my job. I’ve just gradually learned more and more about doing things in a UNIXy way, picking up bits of the commandline to the point where I’m much more comfortable with keyboards than I am with using a mouse, learning about various system utilities etc.

I usually think about what problems I have or perhaps what I’ve seen other people do, and then try to find out different ways to achieve that or solve the problem. Usually that takes me on a nice little journey where I get intimidated for a bit, then I digest it and read around, and then I start trying things, and then it clicks. Eventually it’ll get integrated into whatever workflow is appropriate and then it’s on to the next thing when I get that itch or have the headspace to learn some more.