Magicarcherylessons - Wellbalancednerd

reblogging cos I really want this little critter on a shirt or something. fantastic work, artist 👍

acorn

>First, we’ve discovered that about a quarter of all the internet connection in or out of the house were ad related. In a few hours, that’s about 10,000 out of 40,000 processed.

>We also discovered that every link on Twitter was blocked. This was solved by whitelisting the https://t.co domain.

>Once out browsing the Web, everything is loading pretty much instantly. It turns out most of that Page Loading malarkey we’ve been accustomed to is related to sites running auctions to sell Ad space to show you before the page loads. All gone now.

>We then found that the Samsung TV (which I really like) is very fond of yapping all about itself to Samsung HQ. All stopped now. No sign of any breakages in its function, so I’m happy enough with that.

>The primary source of distress came from the habitual Lemmings player in the house, who found they could no longer watch ads to build up their in-app gold. A workaround is being considered for this.

>The next ambition is to advance the Ad blocking so that it seamlessly removed YouTube Ads. This is the subject of ongoing research, and tinkering continues. All in all, a very successful experiment.

>Certainly this exceeds my equivalent childhood project of disassembling and assembling our rotary dial telephone. A project whose only utility was finding out how to make the phone ring when nobody was calling.

>Update: All4 on the telly appears not to have any ads any more. Goodbye Arnold Clarke!

>Lemmings problem now solved.

>Can confirm, after small tests, that RTÉ Player ads are now gone and the player on the phone is now just delivering swift, ad free streams at first click.

>Some queries along the lines of “Are you not stealing the internet?” Firstly, this is my network, so I may set it up as I please (or, you know, my son can do it and I can give him a stupid thumbs up in response). But there is a wider question, based on the ads=internet model.

>I’m afraid I passed the You Wouldn’t Download A Car point back when I first installed ad-blocking plug-ins on a browser. But consider my chatty TV. Individual consumer choice is not the method of addressing pervasive commercial surveillance.

>Should I feel morally obliged not to mute the TV when the ads come on? No, this is a standing tension- a clash of interests. But I think my interest in my family not being under intrusive or covert surveillance at home is superior to the ad company’s wish to profile them.

>Aside: 24 hours of Pi Hole stats suggests that Samsung TVs are very chatty. 14,170 chats a day.

>YouTube blocking seems difficult, as the ads usually come from the same domain as the videos. Haven’t tried it, but all of the content can also be delivered from a no-cookies version of the YouTube domain, which doesn’t have the ads. I have asked my son to poke at that idea.

Y'all better reblog this one cause it took a while to make

into my soul is not deep enough, he 【ｓｔａｒｅｓ　ｆｕｒｔｈｅｒ　ｂｅｙｏｎｄ】

WHERE DO YOU FIND THIS MANY COOL ANIMALS?!?!?!

ALL OVER THE WORLD!!!

Here's a cool animal friend for you...

Northern Boobook (Ninox japonica), family Strigidae, order Strigiformes, Philippines

photograph by Jopet Sy

so i study decolonization, as in i studied it as part of my degree, and i thought I'd make a list of some readings/films that might offer additional insight about decolonization (it also helps if you're tired of the christian moralistic thinking)

occupation 101 (can be found on youtube i believe, it's about the history between isreal and palestine, it focuses on palestinians and it is quite comprehensive. there's live footage, there's interviews with palestinian children, etc. it's a must watch i think, regarding palestine. it points the finger squarely at the united states.)

the wretched of the earth, franz fanon. fanon is really well known in the decolonization sphere because he writes about it in a very succinct and clear way. to him, decolonization can never occur peacefully, and i think that's a really important key lesson. he also talks about how colonizers don't just take land, they reframe ideas, they take language, art, thoughts.

the battle of algiers, 1966. this is a fascinating film, it's sort of a documentary, they got the actual people to play their parts. it describes and interviews the main individuals involved in the fight for independence within Algiers. i think understanding how a nation can gain independence over its colonial forces is really important in the grand scheme of decolonialism.

unthinking eurocentrism. if you can get your hands on it, i love this text. it's so poignant and it lays everything out so clearly and it really shows how we center our worlds around eurocentrism and westernism.

Dark Souls advice x Elden Ring

this is the big relate I have with kaladin, the difference being if I was in his physical health I'd definitely be at least a little less depressed

so. Kaladin. my dude is a bit self-obsessed.

which is not necessarily a bad thing! (admittedly his particular brand of not even acknowledging it grinds my gears a bit in a bad way but he is far from the only stormlight character who thinks they are the center of the world lol. I'd go so far as to say that *not* thinking you are the special little main character of the cosmere is more of an exception than the opposite lol)

but I actually do really appreciate this aspect of his character specifically because like. it's true. mentally ill people do tend to be more self-absorbed. (and kal has canon depression. shocking. I know.). we *do* tend to not realize how we come across or affect others due to being too focused on our own personal black cloud. we *do* tend to sometimes purposefully choose to stay miserable because it's just more comfortable. we *do* tend to kinda ignore the troubles from the people around us and put everything in relation to our own feelings (because *I'm* feeling like shit so *I've* earned it). and sometimes we don't even really realize it.

and to have Kaladin also do all that explicitly in the text (which i feel is an aspect that isn't touched upon that often in media in general?) and still be bound to the *honor* spren. I don't know. I find that really cool tbh.

(and also to hc shallan as having covert npd in wok only for her spren to be all about truth and lies and illusions in the following book,,,,,, sorry i know this is a kaladin post but i can't just not talk abt my beloved)

hhhh I need to do a formal ranking of my fave birds cos Lyrebird is *up there*. I get to glimpse them every now and then when I go out bush. closest encounter was outside camp after a hike at the Cathedral Ranges, but I'll most reliably come across one over Mallacoota/Genoa way visiting family. exceedingly cool creatures.