Is that so?

Twenty-something Fem / Somewhere from SEA / Just a silent reblogger

[fragranticareviewers]

[bogleech]

This is one of those true, declassified government things that always sounds made up but one of the things Henry Kissinger did with his career was use the CIA to help turn small, prosperous socialist nations into fascist dictatorships just to keep those nations powerless and possibly to keep socialist systems *looking* doomed and futile to the American public, like maybe just to scare Americans out of demanding better infrastructure or universal income. Yes it sounds like an insane conspiracy theory a maniac would invent. It also happened multiple times and several generations of people around the world are still living in misery because of it.

[luxflora]

[pfaugh]

Operation Condor - Wikipedia

[xeansicemane]

Remember folks, the two types of conspiracy theory are "Things the CIA or FBI has admitted to doing" and "Antisemitism"

[memeuplift]

[tothemax04]

There's a specific subcategory of the "tumblr language", developed through years of online isolation and negative social exposure that, though not that different from the usual Tumblr languages patterns, is distinct from the rest by means of being overly hostile, blunt, and characterized by presenting and safeguarding one's own morals and values at all costs

[amorphousbl0b]

The tribes of Tumblr appeared to worship Apollo as their primary patron deity, most often under the epithet Apollo Sphairahemon ("Apollo the Ball-Thrower") as a god of prophecy and sport. His name was typically invoked to celebrate a user blessed with uncommon prescience. Moments of prophecy were considered highly sacred and were often recorded, and such texts are sometimes accompanied by an artistic depiction of the god — either his traditional masculine image or, unusually, in the form of a young woman, which appears to have been an earlier style before a conservative shift toward more conventional iconography — preparing to cast a round rubber ball that our scholars believe was used in the sport known as "dodge ball". Much as other cults regarded his arrows as bringers of disease and health, this community believed that being struck by this ball would bestow prophetic visions.

Some icons are reproduced below:

An earlier depiction (c. 2020) of Apollo as a girl clad in a simple tunic and playing with other children. Figures are smiling and the image is brightly colored, indicating a celebratory outlook toward knowledge of the future.

A later piece (c. 2022) that resembles the traditional appearance of Apollo. References to childhood and play are omitted, and the god carries a more frightening aspect; perhaps this icon represented grim omens rather than good tidings.

[wathav]

I'm just gonna drop a few things here...

Patch functionality in (or out) of apps: https://revanced.app/download.

This includes getting rid of ads and (essentially) giving yourself premium. The default YouTube patch also skips sponsored ad reads.

Spoof the Google Play Store APIs and libraries with ReVanced (you'll be prompted to download this anyway): https://microg.org/

Convert bundled .apkm to .apk for use with ReVanced: https://github.com/AbdurazaaqMohammed/AntiSplit-M

(You'll probably need this if you want ad-free Tumblr with ReVanced)

Find .apk and .apkm to patch or escape the app store: https://www.apkmirror.com/

Pre-cracked Spotify .apk if you don't want to find and patch the vanilla .apk: https://bestforandroid.com/apk/spotify-premium-mod-apk/

NewPipe, a client for YouTube, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, ect, with no ads or data collection: https://newpipe.net/

[Not going to list any specific piracy sites because that's really, really dumb but you can find them yourself. Anna's, 12ft, Sci-h]

Find whatever you're looking for, including pirated content: https://yandex.com/

Return to the old Google search engine: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/google-searchs-udm14-trick-lets-you-kill-ai-search-for-good/

(just set your default search engine to "https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14")

Block ads on your entire network, regardless of device: https://pi-hole.net/

(I did this in like forty five minutes for $20 [$15 Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and a $5 32GB micro sd card. You can also use a cheaper 16GB].

You can fully customize it and find more ad sites to block with the very supportive community. You can also whitelist sites if you find your lists are too strict, or even just block content you find objectionable.

Does not block YouTube ads because of how YouTube serves ads, but it does block ads and trackers on things like smart TVs, Roku, mobile games, ect.)

Flash Linux onto your router for extra customization and privacy: https://openwrt.org/

(This can include ad blocking across your entire network with https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome)

Block ads on Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/

Block specific sites on Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublacklist/

Block a whole lot of AI content: https://github.com/laylavish/uBlockOrigin-HUGE-AI-Blocklist

Skip sponsored ad reads on YouTube: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sponsorblock/

(Included in the ReVanced patch of YouTube)

Get rid of clickbait thumbnails on YouTube: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/dearrow/

(Can be included in the ReVanced patch of YouTube)

Send fake tracking data on Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/privacy-possum/

Block trackers on Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/decentraleyes/

Learns to block trackers on Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/privacy-badger17/

Spoof or customize User-Agent on Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/user-agent-string-switcher/

(useful if some sites refuse to serve content based on web browser)

There are already quite a few resources floating around on how to remove AI, trackers, and bloat from Windows, so I'm not going to bother with that here, though I would recommend using Geek Uninstaller (https://geekuninstaller.com/) to uninstall Microsoft Edge and permanently kill Cortana.

Open source office suite to replace Microsoft Office: https://www.libreoffice.org/

(you can run it from a thumb drive)

Of course you can always just bite the bullet and switch over to Linux. There's a million distros, they're pretty user friendly, and easy to set up. They're also significantly more light weight than Windows if you've got an old computer.

And yes, you can run Windows applications on Linux AND dual boot Linux if you want to run Linux alongside your original operating system.

Bonus: play those old flash games you used to love: https://flashpointarchive.org/

[blueflyingturtleontheway]

Tubular is a fork of Newpipe which includes Return youtube dislike and Sponsorblock, definitely recommend

[nikoco11]

my recipe for drawing hands!

(small note that this is a shortcut that is more abt style and ease than anatomical accuracy. it helps to take time to really properly study hands, makes it easier to bend the rules a bit like this and have it still look good!!)

(learn rules b4 u break them or whatevah)

[riacte]

Unconventional format / mixed media / meta / epistolary fic ideas:

Script format but the characters slowly break fourth wall until they grow self aware and scream to leave but the script confines them.

Mock up notes of an author's fic outline only for a "fan favourite" / "author's darling" character to gain sentience and influence the story. The character changes the outline to suit their own agenda, and their changes are marked with a different colour whereas black text means it's the author's will. Maybe another character using another colour gains sentience. The different colours fight for dominance. Mom says it's my turn with the keyboard hey what the fuck man excuse me I'm literally trying to save my family can you guys let go and let me write your character arcs in peace OH FUCK OFF

Recipe fic. The story is told via those unnecessarily long backstories on a recipe blog in which you learn about someone's grandma or a breakup or literally anything. Bonus points if the actual recipe deals with worldbuilding (what ingredients are available? What utensils are used? How to serve this meal? Woohoo Dungeon Meshi) or in-cheek recipes (eg. "Recipe for making up with your estranged mother - Step 1: Mix patience, nostalgia, and filial piety and let it marinate for ten years. Step 2: Throw that shit into the trash because you're better than that")

Travel fic. A character is lost and trying to find their way somewhere. GPS directions, googling "x place to x place", tickets and dates, train station maps, leaflets. It gets weirder and weirder. You never get closer to your destination. You're walking around in circles. It's always 10 meters away. Where are you going and where have you been?

Receipts. Try to infer what a character is doing judging from the weird things they buy together. Also yipppee inflation tracker. On the other side, maybe it can be about a cashier/ shop owner getting to know their customers and what they order.

Written from the pov of an non-native English speaker, all the English words are italicized whereas their native tongue are the only words not italicized. Inspired by Kupu rere kē by Alice Te Punga Somerville. This is because I got salty about people from Ao3 Reddit saying they won't read a fic in all italics.

Murder mystery / "Among Us" style impersonation fic strictly using the chatfic format. Characters and readers will have to figure out which character has been killed and replaced from the way they text and use emojis. This is also because I got salty about Ao3 Reddit being a wee bit pretentious about emoji usage in fics. Maybe emojis can be important plot devices! Some people prefer to sign off messages with a heart emoji of their signature colour, so won't it be weird if they use another coloured heart? How about someone using lapslock suddenly using proper capitalisation and full stops? Can you tell if someone's phone has been stolen? What if someone's mother is pretending to text like their child? Why is someone suddenly only using UwU speak? Is it a bit, or have they been replaced?

Innocuous second person POV until the last line where it's suddenly revealed to be first person POV all along and the "I" has been stalking and narrating "you".

Other fun bits / Easter eggs / secrets to hide:

Decoding within the text itself. Maybe we get given instructions to find a word in x chapter on page y on the nth line. And when we as readers collect all the words, they form a sentence that spells out an important fact which the characters are oblivious to. Or maybe the in-universe characters find a book with the same title as the irl fic with a bookmark in it, and if you go to where the bookmark is stuck irl, you'll find the murderer plainly stated. The rest of the fic is about the readers having hard confirmation of who the murderer is while characters don't know.

A phrase is subtly repeated throughout the text of the fic and is spelled out with the letter that begins a sentence. It gives off the effect that the narrator is screaming and crying into the void (to the readers in the fourth wall) while trying to avoid detection. Bonus points if the same word is repeated for pages and pages to the point the lack of sentence variation feels weird and clunky.

Morse code!! I love morse code! Using onomatopoeia to convey the dots and dashes! The sound of rain pattering on the tin rooftop— drop, drop, drop. A low whistle of a train rumbling in the distance. He slowly sharpens his knife, creating a shiiing sound. A lengthy, high pitched squeal from his kettle. A dog barks. A sharp knock. His heart thumps. Dot dot dot, dash dash dash, dot dot dot. SOS. Maybe a character's death scene spells out the name of their mysterious murderer. Maybe a character is reminiscing their deceased loved one and the scene spells out what the deceased person would've wanted to tell them— "LIVE ON" or "I LOVE YOU" or something.

[chryza]

Dear video essay creators. A video analysis is when you analyze a piece of media. No no look at me. A summary, no matter how thorough, is not an analysis. An analysis requires you to draw conclusions about the media such as authorial intent, real-world parallels, discussion about themes/worldbuilding/character motivation, and so much more. You have to stop summarizing something and saying that’s analysis. The Gaylors are doing more critical analysis than you. Is that who you want to lose to? The gaylors?

[gaybichon]

this is the full video of patti lupone breaking the sound barrier at the 1988 tony awards btw

[gaybichon]

it's patti lupone's birthday have you listened to her breaking the sound barrier at the 1988 tony awards?

[gaybichon]

@bloodanna i'm stealing your tags bc it's a good explanation of what's going on!!!

[flamboyantly-understated]

maybe this is just me idk

[cerastes]

Rock Lee vs. Gaara went SO hard and was so memorable, it unintentionally tricked an entire generation into thinking Naruto's underlying theme was that effort and hard work ultimately triumph over natural talent. Naruto was, in fact, not about that. It was the opposite, in fact.

[sparrowlucero]

your dark fantasy novel doesn't need a logic-based magic system it needs a bear with a human face

[sparrowlucero]

the human-faced bear principle of storytelling: the amount of people who will remember the exposition about the rules of magic or the history of elf culture inherently pales in comparison to the amount of people who will remember the scene where someone gets mauled by a bear with a human face

[sparrowlucero]

this isn't a call to necessarily include a literal bear with a human face (though you should at least consider it. obviously.) but pointing out that, while a lot of sf/f writing advice places heavy emphasis on fleshing out the small details of a fictional world as much as possible (which can be fine and valuable for many stories), there's often little attention given to the value of including effective "bear attack scenes", for lack of a better term; tense, scary, shocking, weird, or otherwise visceral scenes or concepts (the pale man, the chestburster, the sunken place, the raptors in the kitchen, artax in the swamp, the annihilation bear, the parasite basement, the blood test in the thing, etc) despite those having a significantly higher hit rate of making a story striking and memorable and recommendable to people

[kurtwagnermorelikekurtwagnerd]

sickens me to my stomach. how dare this guy get to live my dream.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

"tumblr is how i find out the pope kicked the bucket" ah! you deplorably little cherry tart! you clueless coquette. you simple-minded siren. i want to tickle your cheeks and your foolish belly. every single forlorn day i login to tumblr and am unwillingly informed of the extent to which my civil rights have eroded. you too will live through this indignity

[hopelessvalentines]

“you’re my best friend, now i’ve got no one to tell i’ve lost my best friend.”

….

[andthenyourealizethat]

I'm a human like you