From the Winding Valley

👉😎👉

[cryptidize]

Fuck It, Internet Guide

Hey there! As social media becomes more and more inhospitible for the local user, I wanted to post some useful/fun links to just about anything I can think of! Enjoy! Also, if you'd like an invite to the P!rated Games discord, lmk! ^_^

I AM CURRENTLY STILL UPDATING THIS POST AND I WILL REBLOG IT WHEN I ADD TO IT! Feel free to comment things I've missed, I'm sure there's way more than this came from!

WEB CENTRIC

CURLIE: THE COLLECTOR OF URLs (Curlie strives to be the largest human-edited directory of the Web. You can save sites and create your own mini webring!)

Internet Archive (A collection of over 818 Billion websites, books, movies, music, and more. Hosts the Wayback Machine, which can be used to access a multitude of sites, given they were indexed in time.)

Wiby (Human submission search engine for older webrings, as well as a how-to guide on how to develop your own search engine)

Unicode Text Converter (Easy way to make your text illegible to Google but be warned, it will make screen readers malfuction)

Embed Responsively (Easily convert links and embeds to work responsively within your site - perfect for neocities!)

Generator Land (Generate a list or prompt for just about anything!)

GifCities (Part of the Internet Archive, a special project done as part of the 20th anniversary in an effort to save data from GeoCities. Find a gif for just about anything!)

Animated Images (Another gif repository, though this one is easier to search and includes small animations.)

Gifs-Paradise (Another gif repository. I swear I collect these. Searchable and categorized.)

ASCII Art Archive (Database of ASCII Art, also known as text art)

Christopher Johnson's ASCII Art Collection (Another, arguably larger, ASCII Art database)

MelonLand (A web project and online arts community that celebrates homepages, virtual worlds, the world-wide-web and the digital lives that all netizins share, here at the dawn of the digital age. See their thoughts and the WEB REVIVAL they're starting.)

Sadgrl Webrings (Webrings brought to us by Sadgrl.Online - 60+ different ones to be exact) and Sadgrl Links (70+ links just like the ones in this post)

Districts at Neocities (Remember neighborhoods on Geocities? Imagine that but for Neocities!)

Neocities Banners (Banners from all across neocities. Blinkies, banners and more leading all over the web. Mostly 88x31, though there are bigger ones too. Technically counts as a webring.)

Blinkies.cafe (Site for blinkies where you can even make your own! I get most of my blinkies here and off DeviantArt.)

88x31 Collection (Possibly the largest collection I've seen for 88x31 buttons)

90's Cursor Effects (Want a funky cursor for your blog or website? Wanna be able to realtime preview what cursors would look like? Come get some code!)

The Malware Museum (Interact with malware and viruses from the 80s and 90s through emulation! No nasty virus interactions needed :D )

KNOWLEDGE BASES

Library Genesis - LIBGEN (Scientific journals - dedicated to archiving every science journal and their articles in existence.)

Information Mesh (A web platform celebrating the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web that explores social, technical, cultural and legal facts throughout different interactive timelines.)

Web Design Museum (Over 2,000 sorted websites showing web design trends from '96 to '06.)

The History of the Web (A twice monthly newsletter about web history, and the incredible people that built it. Goes from 1989 to present.)

Field Guide to Web Accessibility (Principles and applications to every day web scenarios in order to make the web a more friendly place!)

CARI - Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute (an online community and collective association of researchers and designers dedicated to carrying on the important work of categorizing "consumer aesthetics" from the late midcentury, when work on the subject somewhat trailed off, through today.)

The Eye (Archive consisting of 140TB of books, websites, games, software, or anything else you can really think of.)

The Uncensored Library (A project from Reporters without Borders, where they use a loophole using Minecraft to distribute information.)

National Gallery of Art Public Domain (The National Gallery of Art has an open access policy for images of works of art in their permanent collection which the Gallery believes to be in the public domain. Images of these works are available for download free of charge for any use, whether commercial or non-commercial.)

Library of Congress Public Domain (Features items from the Library's digital collections that are free to use and reuse. The Library believes that this content is either in the public domain, has no known copyright, or has been cleared by the copyright owner for public use.)

Public Domain Review (an online journal and not-for-profit project dedicated to the exploration of curious and compelling works from the history of art, literature, and ideas.)

New York Public Library Public Domain (Our digitized collections are available as machine-readable data: over one million records for you to search, crawl and compute.)

Official articles from NASA (PubSpace is NASA's designated public access repository. It is a collection of NASA-funded scholarly publications within the STI Repository, aiming to increase access to federally funded research in accordance with NASA Public Access Policy.)

Universal Hint System (Wanna get some vague help for an older video game without getting spoiled? Check out these awesome hints!)

Smithsonian Open Access (Download, share, and reuse millions of 2D and 3D digital items from their 21 museums, 9 research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.)

Instructables (Wanna know how to make just about anything? Check here!)

QZAP Zine Archive (Archive of LGBT+ Zines, began in 2003 with zines dating back all the way to the 1970s. NSFW AT TIMES, BROWSE AT YOUR OWN RISK.)

P!racy Masterpost (Tumblr-based masterpost of game piracy, last updated 2021. A bit old but some of the stuff there is still good. If this link breaks, please contact me.)

P!rated Games Megathread (masterpost created by r/P!ratedGames includes required components as well as anything else you need. NOTE: PLEASE HAVE SOME SORT OF PROTECTION WHEN NAVIGATING THIS SITE)

Geocities Gallery (A website hosting a working archive for many abandoned Geocities Sites.)

Snipplr (Code Snippet repository. Great for coding issues.)

GeoCities (Archived) (Great for searching ancient webrings for gifs and website ideas. Not so great for downloads.)

Freeware Guide (Archived) (The Freeware-Guide died sometime in 2021 [we think March] but it's still full of VERY valuable information. Links are broken pretty much all the way through, but the names of software as well as what they do can be useful in finding them elsewhere thru some google searching)

Peelopaalu (Where I got a good handful of these links - AND THERE'S MORE!!!)

The Simple Site (More links to so much more cool stuff!)

ART TOOLS

Untitled - Paint (An in-browser version of classic Microsoft Paint!)

KidPix (In-browser version of classic KidPix for the public domain!)

Pixel Logic - A Guide to Pixel Art (Comprehensive guide to making cool art for $10 USD, updated semi-frequently and you get all new versions for free)

SAI - Bootlegged (A version of SAI with a multitude of brushes and textures pre-installed. Quite literally the only thing I use to draw aside from Clip Studio Paint.)

Stripe Generator (Need some easy stripes for an art piece? Can't be bothered to try and space stripes evenly? This is for you!)

Photopea (Free online photo editor supporting files for Adobe Photoshop, XCF, Sketch App, Adobe XD, and CorelDRAW, as well as many more!)

blender (A FOREVER free and Open Source software for 3D Modeling, full of tutorials and assets. I feel like most people don't know it's completely free to play with)

Vertex Meadow (A web-browser tool that renders 2D images as explorable 3D terrain. With it you can create detailed and unusual 3D environments to explore using a 2D paint-program-like interface.)

OpenGameArt (Need art for your game but you're not an artist? Consider checking here first [or just hire a real artist looking for work on here!])

MUSIC TOOLS AND DISCOVERY

BandLab (Social music platform that enables creators to make music and share their creative process with musicians and fans. Completely free with an option to set up stripe where you get 100% OF PROFITS. Available for apple/android/desktop)

JummBox (Free online beat-maker with a very simple interface that runs on your browser)

Mydora (Mydora is a continuous streaming player that gives you a deep dive into the lost archives of Myspace Music, based on some recovered data called the Dragon Hoard, with some additional metadata (most notably the locations and genres) from a different scan of Myspace conducted back in 2009. Contains 490,000+ songs, only a fraction of what was wiped out.)

Radiooooo (A place where people are able to play hit songs from the decade of their choosing from whatever country they wish.)

WFMU (Independent freeform radio broadcasting. Currently ongoing.)

Gnoosic (A sort-of music search engine that finds you songs/bands based off of your music taste.)

Khinsider (3.1 TB worth of video game soundtracks)

Radio.garden (Listen to thousands of radio stations all around the world.)

FUN STUFF

FrogLand (The purpose of Frogland is to show that the Internet can indeed provide a wealth of useful information and still be fun. Mainly, this site is dedicated to the many teachers out there who are finding new uses for the Internet as a tool for educating youngsters. Hopefully, it will inspire some young minds to find new interest in herpetology, biology, and environmental issues...not to mention providing some inspiration for young future computer "wizzes"! No longer active but still useful.)

Windows 98 icon Viewer (Want clear jpgs of all the Windows 98 symbols and icons? They're all here!)

GifyPet (Create your own embeded pet that people can play with and feed when they visit your page! See my version HERE [only works on desktop tho])

Ultimate Mushroom (Like the idea of picking mushrooms in your area but no idea what to look for? Check out this info hub!)

Gif Gallery (Another gif repositiory, only sorted by being numbered 1-100,000. Fun and silly, not so much useful unless you're looking for random gifs. Part of the MelonLand Webring)

Interesting DOS Programs (A host of DOS programming, guides and links.)

Internet Archive: MS-DOS Games (8,000 games right in your web browser! Your browser can play DOOM!)

Tiled Backgrounds (Need some small jpegs for easy website bg tiling? Browse this collection sorted by color.)

cOOl & EMO tEXt cOnVERTer xXX (Flashing warning. Wanna type like you're in the 2000s? Need a funny Green Day lyric as a caption? This is probably the best place for you.)

0x40 (Flashing Warning. Anime images synced with music. Fun for parties, lol)

WebGL Fluid Simulation (In browser fluid simulator, great for art backgrounds and desktop wallpapers.)

Flashpoint (The biggest collection of preserved Flash Games and Animations)

NCase (Free games and open source projects from Nicky [THESE ARE REALLY COOL AND FUN, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND])

Your World of Text (A huge interactive text doc that anyone can add to anonymously.)

Text To Speech (TTS in more than 30 languages and over 180 voices.)

ASCII Art Generator (Make ASCII Art from any image.)

Petit Tube (Random Youtube videos with less than 10 views)

Noclip Website (Noclip around various video game maps in your browser!)

Monster Mash (Create and animate some monsters in browser! You can also download their files.)

[theprofessional-amateur]

Oh hey, do you know what time it is? It is highly specific resource time!

Today we have the Royal School of Needlework Stitch Bank! There are HUNDREDS of stitch types in the RSN Stitch Bank.

And more added regularly, let’s look at a recent addition

I picked the first one in the 25 recently added Elizabethan stitches, the Elizabethan French Stitch

The stitch bank provides written and photo tutorials as well as a video option to learn to do it yourself. There are examples of the stitch in use, resources, references, everything but a needle and thread!

RSN Stitchbank

rsnstitchbank.org

[stuckinapril]

I have seen posts on Palestine get thousands on thousands of notes. If each person who engaged with them donated one dollar—literally just one; no more, no less—thousands of dollars would be raised to humanitarian aid in Gaza just like that. I understand there’s the whole bystander effect going on. People are probably like “Well there’s likely someone out there donating right now, so they can probably do without my one puny dollar” wrong. One dollar makes a huge difference. Any amount you can afford can make a huge difference.

I’m not going to say every single person on here can afford to give up a dollar, because that’s absolutely insensitive to people’s individual situations—but if you can, please donate. So many of us on here aren’t swimming in money, but we still make it a point to donate, regardless of how little or how big a sum it is. I promise it adds up.

The PCRF could use every last penny. Don’t be a bystander in a world of bystanders. It matters.

[dilshaped]

what's your red flag?

[nixcraft]

[punkinspicelattes]

Adding on to this lovely infographic:

Any "Tell me about a time when..." question can be answered using the same formula called the STAR method:

Situation: briefly (in a sentence or two), set up the conflict. Task: tell what your responsibility was in the overall work environment (i.e. were you a manager?). Action: list out the steps you took to resolve the conflict. Result: give the ultimate outcome.

For instance, "tell me about a time when you had a problem with a coworker."

Situation: At my previous job, I joined an already well-established team in my first year, and started coming into conflict with my manager over task management. Task: As a first-year associate, I previously hadn't had a ton of control over my own deadlines, and I assumed it would be the same on this team. However, this manager put a high priority on autonomy and was a bit more hands-off. Action: I took the initiative to meet up with my manager and discuss what her overarching priorities for the project were, and how my pieces fit into the larger picture. From there, I set up a rough estimate of a timeline for my major tasks, and checked in with her. We were able to tweak the timeline to make sure that one piece of my project would be complete in time for the senior associate to review effectively. I then broke that timeline down even further for my own reference, and sent weekly email updates to my manager to discuss my progress and keep myself on track. Result: Communication vastly improved, and we were able to finish the project with plenty of time to spare. I also developed a timeline template to provide to our intern, which helped her stay on track too.

[cannilyuncanny]

[ID: Interview Questions (Translated): The interview process can be confusing because interviewers expect you to answer completely different questions than what they've asked. Here are a few translations for ASDers on the job hunt.

What they ask: Tell me about yourself

What they want: Give me ~3 sentences on your relevant experience, and then something complimentary about why you're interviewing there specifically.

What they ask: Why are you interested in this company/position?

What they want: Reiterate something (not a perk) from the about us page or job description and say that it is very important or interesting to you.

What they ask: What are you looking for in a new position?

What they want: Reiterate something that the company brags about on their website (not a perk) e.g. the opportunity to work with x technology or career growth

What they ask: Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a co-worker

What they want: Tell me about a time when there was a minor, non-offensive disagreement with a co-worker that you resolved in a positive way.

What they ask: Tell me about the latest project you worked on.

What they want: Tell me about a successful project you worked on, that is relevant to the work we do here.

Job searching is frustrating! But with a little bit of practice, you too can mask your way to a position that extends your survival in this capitalist hellscape we call home. end ID]

[dreamsatdusk]

How to Disable Ad ID Tracking on iOS and Android, and Why You Should Do It Now

The ad identifier - aka “IDFA” on iOS, or “AAID” on Android - is the key that enables most third-party tracking on mobile devices. Disabling

[birdblogwhichisforbirds-deactiv]

This was incredibly easy

[knithacker]

Yes, That Pretty Peacock Blanket ... It's Two Afghans In One! Get the Crochet Pattern! 👉 https://buff.ly/3fa8t0m

[gaiabamman]

Using the appropriate vocabulary in your novel

It is very important that the language in your novel reflects the time and place in which the story is set.

For example, my story is set in Italy. My characters would never “ride shotgun”, a term coined in US in the early 1900s referring to riding alongside the driver with a shotgun to gun bandits. 

Do your research! A free tool that I found to be very useful is Ngram Viewer. 

You can type any word and see when it started appearing in books. For example…one of my characters was going to say “gazillion” (I write YA) in 1994. Was “gazillion” used back then?

And the answer is…YES! It started trending in 1988 and was quite popular in 1994.

Enjoy ^_^

[storiesintheashes]

This is really important, especially because language can change in very unexpected ways. 

For example, did you know that before 1986 people never said “I need to”?Instead, they were far more likely to say “I ought to”, “I have to”, “I must”, or “I should”.

Don’t believe me?

Anyway, most people won’t notice subtle changes like that. But your reader will notice and be confused when characters in your medieval world use metaphors involving railroads and rockets.

One of the things you can do besides use Google Ngrams is to read books or watch movies written in the time period you want to set your story. The key here is that they can’t just be set in that time period, they have to have been made in that time period.

Also, there’s a Lexicon Valley episode on this very topic which I highly recommend. It’s called Capturing the Past. 

[still-intrepid]

SEE ALSO Etymonline.  Word origins and when they’re first recorded. So, say I wanted to find out when a “coffee break” became a thing – around the 1950s, as seen in magazine adverts – or characters might talk about more genrallly “taking a break” from the 1860s…

[writingquestionsanswered]

SUPER useful!

[headspace-hotel]

I think part of the reason why we feel so sad is that we’re too far away from raw, numinous experiences. Like you know that post with a picture of the unpolluted night sky where people are reacting in terrified awe not realizing that’s what the stars really look like?

I think it’s like. You need vivid experiences that can’t be easily repeated. You need elemental things. I don’t mean this in a crunchy hippie just-try-yoga way I mean this in a way that’s like…we’re inside all the time and most things we experience are scheduled ahead of time. When there are sidewalks, we follow them, and there’s always some boring place to go. You need things that no one has any control over and that no one can sell for money.

You need to be outside in a storm and see lightning strike very close to you. You need to meet a wild creature and have to stand very still and almost not even breathe and watch before it vanishes. You need to be alone somewhere very big. You need to go to a place because it looks interesting and be at the wrong place at the wrong time. You need to climb over a fence instead of going in by the gate. You need to hear the exploding sound of a huge flock of birds flying. You need to watch live theater performed by kids on a low budget. You need to be lost somewhere. You need to be barefoot somewhere. You need to sing with other people who are singing. You need to get soaking wet with all of your clothes on and come inside shivering.

[catilinas]

agamemnon was killed with a sword vs agamemnon was killed with an axe…… neither of these are correct. the only source i trust is this etruscan funerary urn where agamemnon is killed by clytemnestra bashing him on the head with a chair

[arthropodboy]

Free LaKeith Smith

In 2015, LaKeith Smith was charged for the murder of his friend A'Donte Washington, who was shot by a police officer. LaKeith was 15, and charged as an adult. He was sentenced to 55 years, for a crime he did not commit. For 8 years his family has been fighting to free him while he has grown from child, to adult in prison. During the 2020 George Floyd protests, they were able to hire a new attorney with the money raised from LaKeith's Change.org page.

On December 2nd, 2022, LaKeith will be attending a post conviction hearing. This may be the only chance he has to escape imprisonment for the rest of his life.

Please, watch Vice's documentary about LaKeith and A'Donte.

If you live in Alabama, please contact your DA, there is a pre-written email and link to the DA's email in the above link.

If you live anywhere else, please sign LaKeith's Change.org. That is in the above link as well.

LaKeith should be living his life right now, he should be spending time with his family and loved ones, he should not be behind bars. Please, help him.

[wayward-delver]

“DEATH TOME,” The Simpsons DEATH NOTE Parody (FULL)

It is animated by DR Movie who also worked on the original series.

[sunshine-tattoo]

this is absolutely incredible

[generallemarc]

Yeah hi this is just the latest Treehouse of Horror. What the fuck.

[werewolf-cuddles]

why is this actually kinda amazing though?

[modern-politics111]

Lauren Boebert defeat could cost Republicans the House. Colorado voters: You have 8 days to see if your ballot was rejected and correct issues with it. Spread the news!

Ways to check:

⁠https://www.coloradosos.gov/voter/pages/pub/olvr/regVoterDetail.xhtml

https://colorado.ballottrax.net/voter/

If there is a problem you can take steps with Txt2Cure: https://www.coloradosos.gov/pubs/elections/FAQs/TXT2Cure.html

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

The only thing that could make me happier than this worthless nazi cunt losing this election would be if her loss also meant that the disease that is the Republican party as a whole utterly failed in something they were attempting to achieve so I am keeping my fingers crossed here :D

[afronerdism]

I think we’ll begin to have a more productive conversation when we start to understand that white supremacy IS their own interest. They’re not voting against their own interests, they’re voting for the interest that supersedes all others. When we accept that white women are not fighting for equal rights but rather equal access to white supremacy, we’ll stop being surprised by this.

[allhailthe70shousewife]

Hey 18 - 29 year olds,

THANK YOU! You made a difference. You may not see the overwhelming, immediate, desirable results. Please do not be discouraged. But you stopped more really horrible things from happening. Times are hard. So many people are struggling. But you showed up! Please keep showing up. Please become leaders. Please keep voting in EVERY ELECTION. You are a huge generation full of love, light, equality, and determination to see justice for marginalized people. Use your voices, lead, and VOTE😺💗🌸

[prismatic-bell]

What you have done is prevent fascism from spreading unchecked. It may not feel like much, it may feel like you’re shoveling shit from a sitting position (so much of politics feels like that), but I promise you, I PROMISE YOU:

Showing up like this, in a giant bloc, is how Republicans managed to go from “we disagree but we’re sane” to absolute unfettered madness in the space of 40 years. They pushed the Overton window so, so far right.

Keep showing up. Because that is how we push it back left, and make all those things we want—universal healthcare and housing assistance and trans equality and disability rights—HAPPEN.

Y’all did good. Y’all did so, so good. Thank you. Now please, please—keep it up. It’s a long fight and feels endless. But you just showed IT CAN BE WON.

[whatbigotspost]

Not that anyone needs this rhetoric the day after the midterm elections, but I can't help but think about how I see voting as a basic necessity as long as we're all stuck in this system. Like, I really understand leftists who are in the "fuck it all" place and/or sit it out specifically as their political practice, but for me, I could never just NOT vote.

I think of this as in the same vein as very basic self care that's been discussed a lot lately. We all fucking know that drinking lots of water, moving your body however you can, and getting outside are good for us. Are they enough to ensure health and happiness? FUCK NO. They won't solve medical issues nor will these acts be sufficient alone for you to be happy. But when everything in your life is on fire and in shambles and you feel out of control and on the verge of catastrophe and you know you aren't tending to these things, they are the "low hanging fruit" actions you can take to try to build your way toward something better. Basic self care is a prerequisite "must do" AND you build other actions on top of them as the foundation. That's how I see voting. It's my basic self care of my political life in the US. It's something that I've GOT TO attend to, but it's deeply insufficient in itself, for me.

[headspace-hotel]

Yesterday, voters in Kentucky (possibly the most reliably anti-abortion state) defeated a amendment to the state constitution that would have said there is no right to abortion in Kentucky.

It was by a slim margin, only a few percentage points, but we did it.

Kentucky is one of those states where it's easy to feel that your vote doesn't matter, but this matters.

[zenosanalytic]

Also:

18-45 yos, Zoomers and Millennials(ie US and TikTokers), are the folks who kept the Dems above water last night. Our votes defeated abortion bans and passed abortion protections. Our votes kept total scumbags like Oz and ghouls like Kari Lake out of office. WE did that!

So yeah: dont ever let anyone tell you that voting doesnt matter, and get out there, everytime, and vote your conscience.

[asfgjfkgjnfkjgnkfjg]

Welcome to Tumblr, Twitter users!

Don’t worry, we don’t have Elon Musk here… 

But hipsters beware, you’re in for a scare!

*GOOSEBUMPS THEME INTENSIFIES*

This isn’t Twitter. This isn’t your average every day site. This is Tumblr. We’re crazy. We’re weird. We don’t fit in. We’re the fangirls, the fujoshis, the Superwholockers, and the Steven Universe Critical bloggers. We forgot what “normal” was. So if you’re expecting a normal website…

[gandalfthemorallygrey]

This is the tumblr equivalent of those silhouettes of dogs people put out to scare away wildlife

[midnight-sloth]

YOU SON OF A BITCH YOU DID IT

[eufonius]