Standard reply to the question of, "How Dare you Criticize the Vegan Movement from Within?"

June, 2019, Financial Report: How Much Do I Earn From Youtube?

As you can see, the money I made from youtube amounts to just under $200 in 30 days ($196.15), and this is, indeed, a significant increase over the month before.

Virtue begins and ends with a refusal to compromise.

Virtue begins and ends with a refusal to compromise; but people do not regard "being uncompromising" as a virtue.

(I could have, instead, structured this sentence around defiance and apathy: virtue begins and ends with defiance in the face of apathy, but to be defiant isn't perceived as a virtue.)

Question from a viewer about learning Greek (Ancient Greek & Modern Greek)

[My reply to the question from a viewer, shown in the image above.]  I started learning Greek during a very sad, very memorable time in my life: while my marriage with my ex-wife was in-the-process of breaking up, and while I was taking care of my infant daughter 24 hours per day.  However, infants do sleep for many hours of the day (even if unpredictably) and so I would put my daughter down in the crib, and study Greek at a table in the same room with her, where she was napping/sleeping.  As "everyone" will tell you: Greek (ancient and modern) is fundamentally similar to Pali (and Sanskrit).

Yes, the "everyone" being alluded to is a pretty erudite circle, but hey, you know you're talking to a snob.  ;-) 

There is indeed a "What if?" question, for "What if I had continued to study Greek?"   Instead, as you know, I've been through tremendous misery with Chinese and Japanese since then.  However, I have zero faith in Greek culture: I honestly do not think I could ever have a job in Greece, and I do not think I'd have friends in Greece —I have one Greek friend now (internet-only, we've never met) who very much rejects my understanding of the modern culture, and who insists I'd do very well in modern Greek culture, and with the modern Greek language.  If my daughter does actually move to Bulgaria, I would indeed consider moving to Greece, and learning Greek (again).  And yes, the years I spent studying Pali actually do make it easier to learn Greek (ancient or modern: they are really, IMO, the same language to a greater extent than the British ever want to admit, i.e., because the British insist on pronouncing Greek words with a British accent that they pretend is "authentic" ancient Greek).

逃往雲南: 老爸老媽的浪漫史 (我真實的故事)

Or, "How I met your mother": the true story of a peculiar journey from Laos to Yunnan.

1.
在二零零七年，我突然必須離開寮國，有如晴天霹靂。逃往雲南，結果認識一位奇怪的人類學博士學生，她後來變成我的妻子，再後來變成我的前妻。

2.
我假定你知道了，這個災以前，我在寮國的北部有特別工作幫助窮人。

3.
一些共產黨官員們對我說他們會殺我：在這個時候，我真的不感覺害怕，相反，這個情況引起很多大笑。

May, 2019, Financial Report: How Much Do I Earn From Youtube?

As you can see, the money I made from youtube amounts to just over $100 in 30 days ($101.15), and this is, indeed, a modest increase over the month before.

Dao-De-Jing (道德經), the Hopeless Mess of the Modern "Received Text".

[Torn from the pages of our Vegans Learning Chinese Facebook group.]

You might find this interesting, @Damien.  There's a long and difficult to read essay over at Victor Mair's Sino-Platonic Papers reflecting on (among other things) the extent to which the translation of the DaoDeJing (道德經) is still an absolute fraud (and the evidence from comparative study of manuscripts has generally been ignored).  One example discussed is the image of this fish that should be kept in its pond: nobody (in Chinese or English, apparently) knows what the (overtly political) point of this parable/image in this passage was supposed to mean.

———
J Legge (Translator)
The soft overcomes the hard; and the weak the strong. Fishes should not be taken from the deep; instruments for the profit of a state should not be shown to the people.

J H McDonald (Translator)
This is called the subtle understanding
of how things are meant to be.
The soft and pliable overcomes the hard and inflexible.
Just as fish remain hidden in deep waters,
it is best to keep weapons out of sight.

Lin Yutang (Translator)
Gentleness overcomes strength:
Fish should be left in the deep pool,
And sharp weapons of the state should be left
Where none can see them.
—————
Link to the article mentioned: http://sino-platonic.org/complete/spp199_laozi_hanfeizi.pdf

April, 2019, Monthly Financial Report: How Much I Make From Youtube.

The quality of the videos may be going up, but the revenue is continuing to go down: last month's report was $78 (in 30 days)… and this month's report is down to $69.52.  ⚠️😂

A Peculiar Quotation from My Father.

A quotation from my father: "'Time' of itself will change nothing, except as men use it to make changes. People make history, not time."  Unfortunately, the context for this quote is a bizarre "Anti-Revisionist" (i.e., Maoist) encomium in a Communist magazine (in 1967).
Link: https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ca.firstwave/cuba.htm

March, 2019, Monthly Financial Report: How Much I Make From Youtube.

IMO, if you're going to ask for donations, you should provide this type of clarity: as you can see, the youtube channel generated merely $78 in the last 30 days (!) and the actual amount I'd earn would be less than this.  With both Youtube and Patreon, some portion "evaporates" before it reaches the content creator's bank account.  With this caveat (about "evaporation") having been stated, the amount I earn from Patreon is publicly visible on the front page, and that is now $155 per month: https://www.patreon.com/a_bas_le_ciel/