Artist ~ Writer ~ Furry ~ Random Spazzy Fangirl

keep AI off my blog, Tumblr! I don't want them stealing any of my stuff!

[walk-up-songs]

Bought my uncle a burger and milkshake in exchange for letting me disrupt the holiest day of the week, NFL Sunday Football, so I could install a Pi-hole and free the household of ads...the thing abt the specific boomers I live with is they told me not to trust people on the Internet but they do not understand the algorithm or online advertising and think that Facebook has their best interests at heart. And every time I have tried to explain to them that no, blorbo from my dashboard is not selling my kidneys on the dark web but Google from your capitalism is definitely selling your web searches to every advertising company on the planet, they think I am paranoid. How could their personal friend Mark Zuckerberg want anything bad to happen to them etc. I am fighting battles I did not know existed!!!

[walk-up-songs]

Update I have had Pi-Hole successfully installed for two (2) hours and have since learned that 40% of the web traffic in this household went to advertisements. FORTY FUCKING PERCENT. We live in hell. This is the greatest gift I have ever given my family that they will not understand or acknowledge or feel any gratitude for.

[walk-up-songs]

Update #2: it was rising all night but the number it finally settled on was...60%. 60% of the web traffic in this household went to advertisements. I can't tell if this high number is bc I live in Silicon Valley and probably am subject to the Algorithmic Internet in ways people outside of Silicon Valley are not or it is normal to have 2/3rds of your web traffic be ads, but it did make me set up a recurring donation of the EFF lmfao.

[walk-up-songs]

Okay I have had multiple people ask, so here are the useful websites that me and Beryl used to muddle our way through:

Using Pi-hole and Raspberry Pi (on the Raspberry Pi website, really good overview of what Pi-hole does)

Tumblr-archived Twitter thread about one household's experience with Pi-hole (this is what sold me on it. Also the tweets were published in 2022 and Pi-hole is actively being developed, so I think some of the teething problems he mentioned might have cleared up or are at least being addressed.)

Pi-hole website (gives broad strokes of the software and imho is not actually that helpful, however this proves that I am not making shit up)

Pi-hole documentation (read prerequisites carefully, you do NOT need the newest model of Raspberry Pi to run this thing!! You don't even need a Raspberry Pi at all, you can run it on a bunch of Linux systems however I'm very stupid when it comes to Linux and when my options are install and learn a whole ass new OS or spend $$ on a Raspberry Pi and hook it up to my TV with a wired mouse and keyboard I will unfortunately be spending money)

Privacy International's guide to setting up Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi (bro this one saved our asses)

You guys can ask me questions if you want but I guarantee I will not know the answers bc I don't know shit about fuck, I just followed the directions and reaped the rewards. It did take us 2 hours to set up bc I'm bad at following directions (and it's kind of complicated if you've been out of the software game for a while like I have), and you do have to be sososo brave about fucking around with your internet provider's configuration. So make sure you eat before you do it!! However it has been so worth it for me so far, given that now all my devices at home are running faster and I'm not seeing any ads while web browsing. We will see what complaints my family comes up with, but I love it so far.

Also!! if you've never heard of Raspberry Pi, which I realize are not all of my followers are lost in the Silicon Valley sauce so you might not have, here's is their website and their page for using Raspberry Pi at home.

(And here is the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that fights for digital privacy, free speech, and innovation, if you, like me, were presented with cold hard data about your personal internet usage and suddenly realized that our internet is fully a dystopia. haha.)

[acquitarte]

After a few months with pi-hole, I recently switched to AdGuard Home. It was recommended/is co-promoted in a pi-hole discord server, and it seems to be blocking a bit more successfully/consistently for me than the pi-hole did.

I also use Blokada on my phone when I'm not home and have the Windscribe browser extension which includes 10GB of free VPN traffic and has uBlock integrated into it. (AdGuard does technically make things that do this but I like those better; ymmv).

It all takes some setup and tinkering, but I highly, highly recommend taking steps to clear out some of the internet garbage and protect your info.

[groutjoint]

imagine what the aliens would think if they saw the governance of the earth right now. like. okay youve divided yourselves into groups based on geographic, ethnic, and cultural differences. some of you have formed groups to work together. alright. most of you want everyone to have a say in how they're gonna be living, so they get to choose a leader. what do you mean your leaders are consistently selfish and focused on profits. what do you kean the most powerful countries only became that way from oppressing the others. what do you mean you have a united council for the world but it does nothing. what do you mean in some places people are starving to death and have nowhere to live and nothing to their names and in some places people waste so much that it formed an island. what do you mean you make compounds that kill the planet even though you know the consequences. what do you mean you discriminate so harshly against some people that you kill them and you make their lives hell. what do you mean the most powerful people in the world are the most selfish, unethical ones. what do you mean the way the world works has made a species of animal so completely isolated and depressed and pent up that people are struggling to be happy, all for profit. what do you mean you regularly, consistently and ,on a daily basis set society backwards in a hundred different ways? for what? money?

they'd never even come here

[navy-leader]

Have been trying out new methods of shading and it's actually pretty fun, but it also makes me feel like this

[anarchetypalarchive]

i saw this post earlier about therapists and it reminded me of my old therapist paul, who in my opinion is one of the greatest men alive and who did not put up with my bullshit for even one second

anyway i go in to see paul one week in the summer of 2016, and i’m doing my usual bullshit which consists of me talking shit about myself, and paul is staring at me, and then he cuts me off and says that he’s got a new tool for helping people recognize when they’re using negative language, and gets up and goes over to his desk

and i’m like alright hit me with that sweet sweet self-help article my man, because i’m a linguistic learner and whenever paul’s like here i have a tool for you to use it’s pretty much always an article or a book or something

paul opens a drawer, takes something out, and turns back around. i stare.

i say, paul.

is that a nerf gun.

yeah, says paul.

i say, are you gonna shoot me with a nerf gun in this professional setting.

he happily informs me that that’s really up to me, isn’t it. and sits back down. and gestures, like, go ahead, what were you saying?

and i squint suspiciously and start back up about how i’m having too much anxiety to leave the house to run errands, like it was a miracle to even get here, like i’ve forgone getting groceries for the past week and that’s so stupid, what a stupid issue, i’m an idiot, how could i–

a foam dart hits me in the leg.

i go, hey! because my therapist just shot me in the leg. paul blinks at me placidly and raises an eyebrow. i squint again.

i say, slowly, it’s– not a stupid issue, i’m not stupid, but it’s frustrating me and i don’t want it to be a problem i’m having.

no dart this time. okay. sweet.

so the rest of the hour passes with me intermittently getting nailed with tiny foam darts and then swearing and then fixing my language and, wouldn’t you know it, i start liking myself a little more by the end of the session, which is mildly infuriating because paul can tell and he’s very smug about it 

anyway i leave his office and the lady having the next appointment walks in and i hear what’s all over the floor? and paul very seriously says cognitive behavioral therapy tools.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

a guardian angel who comes down from heaven to shush me everytime i’m about to say something stupid 

[sk8miya]

gaud, whatever you do, don’t try to eat the angel.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

*mouth full of feathers* THEY KEEF INFERRUPTING ME 

[ghostigoods]

GAUD SPIT THAT OUT

[rooksilver]

Gaud: *quietly chewing in the corner*

Us: Gaud, what are you eating?

Gaud: *freezes, then chews faster*

Us: wHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU EATING GAUD

[toskarinfr]

[princessslea]

Using this as a spell to keep tumblr alive at least until this post is accurate

[ihitthat-sexually]

[podcastwizard]

are you ever about to put on a movie but you realize you don't really want to watch The Movie, you want to be eight years old on a rainy saturday, and under your favorite butterfly blanket, and mom made hot chocolate and popcorn with extra butter, and you're watching The Movie for the first time ever? what are you supposed to do then

[podcastwizard]

couple different options here

[shimmerytimbers]

one subtle detail in the book that i absolutely love is that the Hail Mary crew's names are written in their native language instead of being Americanized or transliterated. Grace is written as "Grace", Yáo is written "姚" and Ilyukhina as "Илюхина".

Its such an insignificant detail but i think makes the crew feel more diversified and also respects their cultural identity.

[gurkawai]

[tinyyellowflowers-blog]

Went to the grocery store with my kindergartener. We weighed some bananas: 2 pounds even. We weighed a watermelon: 4 pounds even. We weighed some mangos: a little over 1 pound. We weighed the watermelon AND the bananas: 6 pounds even.

“That’s funny” said the child “because 2+4=6 and two pounds and four pounds is six pounds. It’s like the same as math!”

“What happens if you add 6+1?”

“SEVEN”

“What if we put one pound of mangos on the scale?” <mangos added>

“IT’S THE SAME!!”

“OK, what’s 7-4?”

“Three?”

“What if we take the four pound watermelon off the scale?” <watermelon removed>

“Mama! Are you telling me math works In Real Life? Think of all the things you could measure!!”

[neatlymanifolded]

[enthyrea]

i miss you, and the summers have returned.

original poem by sara kleijn 🪐

[galileosballs]

The 'ingredients you can pronounce means it's healthy' line implies a world in which the kind of nutrition a person requires scales with their biology education and grasp of phonics. Which isn't true, of course, but sure would imply some interesting worldbuilding if it were

[lemonsweet]

The other day my nephew described something as being "like if Slenderman was stuck in a little car" and I yelled YES!!!! bc I thought he was referencing this image I like but then I showed the picture and he was like how do you have an image for that where did you get that

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

The Buff-Tip Moth: this moth's unique resting position all0ws it to mimic a broken birch twig, and the buff-colored patches on its head and forewings even resemble freshly-snapped wood

Phalera bucephala, otherwise known as the buff-tip moth, is a remarkable mimic that can easily disguise itself as a twig. This moth has a unique resting position that makes its body seem narrower and more cylindrical, and its wings are covered in silver patterns that resemble tree bark, while the buff-colored patches on its head and forewings mimic the appearance of freshly-snapped wood.

Above: three actual twigs and one buff-tip moth

This type of camouflage is also known as a "protective resemblance" -- a form of mimesis in which an animal can avoid being preyed upon by mimicking an unremarkable or inedible aspect of its environment. Many other moths are able to disguise themselves in similar ways, often mimicking dead leaves, twigs, moss, and/or tree bark.

Above: more photos of Phalera bucephala

The buff-tip moth is particularly adept at disguising itself, however, and the fact that it so strongly resembles such a specific object (not just a dead leaf or a piece of foliage, but a broken twig from a silver birch tree, in particular) makes this disguise seem even more impressive and unique.

Above: the photo at the top shows a buff-tip moth in its resting position, while the photo at the bottom shows the same species with its wings unfurled

It also tends to look like there's a weird little smiley face in the setae surrounding the moth's head, which is arguably even more striking, but for some reason none of my sources seem to mention that weirdness.

Above: the weird little smiley face on the back of the moth's head

This species is distributed throughout the British Isles, mainland Europe, and parts of Asia, with its range extending into Eastern Siberia.

Sources & More Info:

Wildlife Insights: Buff-Tip Moth Identification Guide

Butterfly Conservation: Buff-Tip

Wildlife Insights: Phalera bucephala

The Wildlife Trusts: The Buff-Tip Moth

Moth Identification: Phalera busephala

Encyclopedia of Life: Global Map of Known Occurrences for Phalera busephala

Insecta: Phalera bucephala

Lepidoptera and their Ecology: Phalera busephaloides and Phalera busephala

Journal of Ecology and Evolution: Strong Foraging Preferences for Ribes alpinum in the Polyphagous Caterpillars of the Buff-Tip Moth

Dickinson County Conservation Board: Protective Resemblance and Other Forms of Mimesis and Mimicry

[digitalmyyth]

use your bestie as a table #mytable

[alexmey-does-an-arts]

MY STUPID FUCKING CAT WONT STOP TRYING TO TOUCH THE BEEHIVE

EDIT: the stupid as fuck son here has done something stupid and got jumped by raccoons. He's going to make a full recovery but the emergency vet is Expensive. https://ko-fi.com/alexmey

featuring: zonked out of his gourd