Curious Origins

Melinda Bosen, Owner of #CuriousOrigins. Aspiring #Artist, #Writer, #Director. #ENTP. Lover of all stories, TV addict. Sometimes political. Maker of bad jokes, puns + dry wit. Looking for the Supernatural stuff? My Supernatural only blog is "here".

[fozmeadows]

Watching my toddler figure out how to language is fascinating. Yesterday we were stumped when he kept insisting there was a “Lego winner” behind his bookshelf - it turned out to be a little Lego trophy cup. Not knowing the word for “trophy”, he’d extrapolated a word for “thing you can win”. And then, just now, he held up his empty milk container and said, “Mummy? It’s not rubbish. It’s allowed to be a bottle.” - meaning, effectively, “I want this. Don’t throw it away.” But to an adult ear, there’s something quite lovely about “it’s allowed to be a bottle,” as if we’re acknowledging that the object is entitled to keep its title even in the absence of the original function.

[legit-writing-tips]

Another good post to read for those writing small human characters. 

[jennytrout]

My son was about three when he came to me in the middle of the day and said, “Mommy, there’s a knight behind the bush.” I thought he meant a toy knight or something. So I follow him outside and he goes, “Listen. Do you hear it? It’s night behind the bush.” It was a cricket. A cricket was standing in the little patch of shade under the bush, chirping. So, my son saw this dark area with accompanying nighttime sounds and decided, okay, well, that is a night right there. Their brains are incredible.

[deleted20211121]

My little bean knows she’s two, constantly saying proudly ‘I’m two!’ And the other day she saw this very frail old lady who looked one foot in the grave, pulled a face and said ‘oh shiiiit. She’s three.’ I almost screamed.

[cantnotknope]

I live in Korea and have a lot of international friends, and the same is true with language barriers in adults. 

*Looking at a bowl of pears* “Can you please pass me the… apple’s friend?” 

[masterofbirds]

OH SHIT SHE’S THREE

[ovenroastedtwerkey]

the two year old bean is now 11, that’s how long this post has been going around, and I STILL bust out laughing like a maniac whenever I read ‘oh shiiiit. She’s three.’

[elodieunderglass]

Yeah, I’m not ready for foz’s kid to be a teen….

[curiousorigins]

My nephew was the first to witness a broken pipe in our basement. He knew that it wasn't normal and got me. I couldn't understand him because at the time he had the habit of only saying the first half of words. Finally he said clearly, "It's raining downstairs."

[the-quasar-hero]

Somewhere right now, there’s someone writing a fanfic where the characters are on a gameshow with the same rules and structure as Jeopardy except the winner gets to fuck the contestant with the lowest score

[the-quasar-hero]

Sorry, @newbarktownalumni we need that in the form of a question

[tartrazeen]

It should really be the host, or else you've incentivized people to race to the bottom

The host provides a neutral prize that all can fairly compete for

[the-quasar-hero]

I’m sorry actually the answer was “who is Toni Morrison” you lose 200 bringing you down to 300. You have control of the board.

[tartrazeen]

GODDAMMIT THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A MERITOCRACY

(⁠┛⁠✧⁠Д⁠✧⁠)⁠)⁠┛⁠彡⁠┻⁠━⁠┻

[the-quasar-hero]

Okay for 500 in Meritocracy which Chinese philosopher is that said “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it”?

[tartrazeen]

UHHHHHH

UMMMMMMMM

what is UHHHH

what is who is that 😭

WAIT ASK THE AUDIENCE, ASK THE AUDIENCE

[the-quasar-hero]

This isn’t Who Wants to be a Millionaire but Contestants get to fuck ppl for help. You have ten seconds left to answer

[tartrazeen]

I don't even remember applying to this show 😭😭😭😭😭

[the-quasar-hero]

I’m sorry, the answer was Confucius, that brings you down to -200. You can pick again.

[tartrazeen]

I'll pick People with Usernames Ending in "-artrazeen" for $1000

[the-quasar-hero]

For 1000, tumblr user @tartrazeen once forgot the proper art term where characters are posed in dramatic ways to tell a story under a Tears of Xivo post

[tartrazeen]

Well, well, well. 😌 If it isn't the consequences my actions.

🤔 It's not a diorama.

I'm pretty sure it's not just a freeze frame 🤔🤔

Unless it is a freeze frame 👀

OH WAIT HOT DAMN I KNOW THIS NOW 😍

"what is a

Tableau"

omg i can't believe i actually remembered that. Is that it? Is that right? I was fully scraping my brain for this 😭

[the-quasar-hero]

Tableau is correct, your score is now 800. You have control of the board.

[tartrazeen]

HELL YEAH

Let it ride to Meritocracy for 600! :D

[the-quasar-hero]

What sociologist popularized the term Meritocracy in his dystopian political and satirical book The Rise of the Meritocracy in 1958?

[tartrazeen]

My hubris will be my undoing.

Who was the other guy that gets paired off with Kant? Is that John Locke? I'm gonna go with John Locke.

WHO IS WAS IT JOHN LOCKE?

[the-quasar-hero]

Sorry the correct answer was Michael Dunlop Young. We move into Final Jeopardy with the category: Tumblr Lore. You can bet your remaining total of 200. Make your wager and you’ll get the final question

[tartrazeen]

I will bet exactly 199 so I don't end up being last if everyone else bets everything 👏🏽

[the-quasar-hero]

Okay if you get this correct, you’ll have $399

What sparked the outrage that resulted in the phrase “listen here cumslut” to enter tumblr vernacular?

[tartrazeen]

Oh fuck

I wanna say it's the human pet guy

But I feel like it has something to do with chocolate, and that's either the infinite chocolate glitch or... well, the chocolate guy came after.

🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

I don't remember any rants about the infinite glitch itself. But I don't think it's the human pet guy either.

It's not the weed-smoking girlfriends. That was a different rant. It's obviously not the Navy Seals copypasta.

I am gonna go with "WHAT IS CHOCOLATE," final answer, 'cause that's the vague flicker of context I have going on in my mind. It's related to chocolate in some way.

[the-quasar-hero]

Correct, it was this clip from a movie posted as a screenshot that brought about the phrase! Your grand total is $399 putting you in second place! Congratulations 🎉🎊 🥳

[tartrazeen]

NO GETTING FUCKED FOR MEEE 🥳🥳🥳🥳

[probablyasocialecologist]

Study finds nearly every pre-2010 video game is unavailable

Games from older consoles are being made less and less available to the point so much of the industry's history could easily vanish without

[gay-jesus-probably]

Vimm's Lair: Preserving the Classics

Preserving classic videogames from consoles past.

I'm just gonna slide this on in here for anyone that is interested in preserving old games. They take it very seriously too, they want an archive of every single game. Like, they have lists of every game ever released for a system, and once that system gets old enough, they add it to their archive and start collecting. Their latest addition was the Xbox 360, they opened that vault up in September 2022, and proudly announced they'd finished their collection of games for it back in April.

Also, while their game archives are almost entirely complete, they've got another project of archiving the manuals that came with those games, and that is... considerably less well filled out. Their collection of Xbox 360 manuals is especially rough, they've only gotten manuals for three games. So if you've got some Xbox 360 games kicking around, and the manual's still with them, please consider scanning them and submitting them to the site!

Game preservation is important, but people rarely consider preserving the manuals as well; I really respect Vimm's Lair for being so thorough in their archival work.

[anachronic-cobra]

I've been using Vimm's Lair for years, I have yet to see a single bad link or virus on the entire site. It's arguably the safest and most comprehensive archive of video games in existence. Preserved history

[azspot]

“Rich kids should go to public schools. The mayor should ride the subway to work. When wealthy people get sick, they should be sent to public hospitals. Business executives should have to stand in the same airport security lines as everyone else. The very fact that people want to buy their way out of all of these experiences points to the reason why they shouldn’t be able to. Private schools and private limos and private doctors and private security are all pressure release valves that eliminate the friction that would cause powerful people to call for all of these bad things to get better. The degree to which we allow the rich to insulate themselves from the unpleasant reality that others are forced to experience is directly related to how long that reality is allowed to stay unpleasant. When they are left with no other option, rich people will force improvement in public systems. Their public spirit will be infinitely less urgent when they are contemplating these things from afar than when they are sitting in a hot ER waiting room for six hours themselves.”

— Everyone Into The Grinder

[go-learn-esperanto]

Hey. If people aren't aware, Microsoft admitted they know who you and where you are at all times and will give your info to the police.

They have a Global Device Identifier (GDID) Tracker that functions as a fingerprint for your PC that can surpass VPNs, proxy servers and countries. Although it can't survive a clean reinstall of Windows (it can survive updates), because Microsoft forces you to go to the internet and log in into a Microsoft account, they will be able to get to you.

Microsoft kept it secret and it was only found out when the FBI tracked a hacker thanks to the information Microsoft gave them.

You should be paying attention to this, and possibly consider moving away from Windows. If a government, especially the US government, doesn't like you for some reason, this could be seriously concerning.

This article specifically notes:

For journalism, activism, or domestic abuse situations, skip Windows and use Linux routed through Tor instead of a commercial VPN. A GDID doesn’t care which VPN you use, only that it’s still the same Windows installation.

Microsoft admits Windows 11 has a GDID tracker with no off switch, first documented publicly in an FBI hacker complaint

GDID is the persistent Windows ID that helped FBI trace a Scattered Spider hacker despite VPNs. Here's how it works and how to limit it.

Other important quotes:

What has researchers uneasy is everything else the case reveals. Costin Raiu, a well-known malware researcher, asked on the Three Buddy Problem podcast how much of this exists on other platforms, and whether it is linked more permanently to hardware. Matthew Hickey, another security researcher, called Windows “surveillance software”.

Two things back that up:

There’s no consent screen. A GDID gets assigned when you sign into a Microsoft Account. Apple’s advertising identifier needs an App Tracking Transparency prompt and a visible reset; Android’s works the same way. GDID has neither, and a Windows reinstall only gets you a new number Microsoft can still get back to the same account.

Then there’s activation. Massgrave, the group behind Microsoft Activation Scripts, notes that Windows setup sends hardware info to Microsoft and gets identifiers back, the same tokens later used for Store access and licensing: “It’s impossible to prevent Windows from getting a GDID without breaking activation and UWP app[s].” Anyone who lost a license after swapping a motherboard has already met a smaller version of this.

Here's the complaint filed to the court, the primary source for the case mentioned in the article. You can find mentions of GDID on page 30 of the document or 34 of the PDF.

Thank you @just-call-me-zinnia for finding it!

[pics-that-make-you-go-hmm]

[fluff-a-fluffs]

Omg this looks like some sort of Fairytale Horror; like, a town with trees that have missing pets or people etched into them- coming off naturally enough to be dismissed as bark/tree discolouration

[questions-within-questions]

The framing of this image is just perfect subtle horror. 

[squareenix-official-deactivated]

Chill it’s a pole

[spider-hands-mannos-deactivated]

you missed the tree entirely didnt you buddy

[squareenix-official-deactivated]

HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK

[worldheritagepostorganization]

World Heritage Post

[himbodiaz]

would y’all ever date someone with the same name as you?

[hmslusitania]

I’m sorry for adding directly to a post but I went to a wedding once where the groom’s name was Loren and the bride’s name was Lauren and at the end the officiant was all “introducing Loren [surname] and Lauren [surname], husband and wife” and the entire assembled lost it

[tevankinkley]

also sorry for adding on but at my high school there was a Dominic and a Dominique who were dating and everyone just called them “Dom and Dommer” which is honestly the funniest shit ever

[faerytale-wings]

My parents are both named Terry (spelled differently) but I’m pretty sure that’s one of the reasons my mom never changed her last name.

People would call and ask for Terry and child me would be like “boy or girl?” And they’d panic and hang up. My mom found this endlessly amusing.

[tungledotfuck]

Why would you leave this GOLD in the tags??

[faerytale-wings]

Had to submit it to the tags for peer review

[noah-wyles]

all i want for 2026 is that gigantic rancid AI bubble to finally burst in such a catastrophic way that the consequences will be so good and i'll never have to see another AI generated image ever again

[fluoritegalaxy]

Like to charge, reblog to cast.

[definitely-zen-browser]

Microsoft bans LibreOffice developer's account without warning, rejects appeal

A LibreOffice developer has shared his experience of having his Microsoft account banned, and how the company has been uncooperative in help

Sure would be a shame if thousands of people saw this...

[artphobos]

After having gone thru acct recovery a couple times early in the days of OneDrive, I got the vibe that saving ANYTHING to a propriatary service was a huge mistake, ESP anything MS. Nice to see that vibe continues to check out.

MS does not care how many years of your life you have backed up to their cloud- they can take it away/delete it for any reason at any time. Keep your stuff local on an external drive.

[elfwreck]

This is your reminder that "cloud" is short for "someone else's computer" and that "someone else" may not have your best interests in mind.

Backup your content somewhere that you control.

[heywriters]

No, Google Docs, there is a distinct difference between "cussing" and "cursing."

[strawberrykapricorn]

Calling google ‘googie’ is such a power move imo

[heywriters]

Tis indeed! Thank you for this addition. Here are some photo examples of the Googie style.

[tribeofthedrunkenweasles]

IT HAS A PROPER NAME?!

[geardrops]

posts that provide surprise knowledge, balancing out posts that provide net zero knowledge gained, what a rich ecosystem we live in

[thememedaddy]

[sorreleater]

“it’s also good to learn that life isn’t fair!” i don’t WANT children to accept unreasonable discipline from adults!! i don’t WANT children to expect the adults in their lives to punish at random and ignore their explanations!! the world isn’t fair but we could sure work to make it fairer

[anti-parent]

[kosmogrl]

[thememedaddy]

[raaat-bastard]

I agree with this. Let kids be kids! But teach them to think for themselves and shit, yn?

[cyphir-spacerobot]

Victor Frankenstein after achieving the impossible and building a fucking person from scraps of the dead: Oh god, ew, ew it's ugly! Yucky! Yucky! Gross! Ew! Ew! Yucky! Yucky! Gross! Ew!

[koiagain]

[fuck-customers]

[stuffedeggplants]

Wisdom boundless as the oceans

[littleplasticrat]

My favourite quote from him is something along the lines of

"there is no power in these points and no point to this presentation"

and I think about that every time I have to look at a shitty PPT from my dickhead boss

[the-haiku-bot]

“there is no power

in these points and no point to

this presentation”

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[aromanticduck]

Free service with ads: Well, if I'm not paying for it they have to foot the bill somehow.

Paid service with no ads: Well, if they're not funding it with ad revenue, they need to charge us something.

Paid service with ads: Well that's bullshit.

"We used to be a paid service without ads, but now we're putting ads in it! If you want the ad-free version you have to pay more for preeeeemium": Fuck you fuck you fuck you

[juststarsandthemoon]

Free service with no ads: Okay so these guys are stealing my data