heya!

its a blog for the posts i like! ...but i think its mostly cats ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ

[fullcravings]

Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

[rigelmejo]

Subscribing to Spanish Boost Gaming was like the single most effective thing in helping me learn Spanish.

1. Martin is just so entertaining to me.

2. He was entertaining when I barely understood anything, and watching him I learned more, and he's still fun to watch now.

3. If I see his videos in my recommended, I am always tempted. Which means even if I don't watch when I see, I save to watch later, and so I have "built in" Spanish practice/learning time every week even though I'm not planning it or trying hard to make time. (I also like JuegaGerman for similar reasons)

4. There's a common advice of like "make a language part of your life" to help you learn it. And while I like a lot of other Spanish resources, and Spanish Boost Gaming is definitely Not the most thorough or ideal resource (I think maybe its the ideal resource for say Upper Beginners amd Lower Intermediate learners to practice what they know and be exposed to more, with other supplemental materials to learn and reinforce broader vocabulary to move solidly into Intermediate - Martin makes stuff for intermediate learners and its good reinforcement but there's not Enough broad repetition to probably pick up expanded vocabulary as using say textbooks or intermediate learner podcasts that delve into a variety of focused topics). But it IS a resource I could kind of understand from very early on (literally the first few hours I started learning Spanish, partly why I started learning - however I can read French so I'm sure that helped), there's a ton of videos useful from beginner to intermediate, and there's some videos that have some broader vocabulary and faster speed (to the point I can now branch out and watch some regular Spanish lets players for fun). As far as "fun distraction entertainment" stuff I watch goes, I learn a lot from the videos just relaxing and having fun.

5. Mila makes a ton of videos on the Spanish Boost Patreon (she also has a youtube channel Spanish Boost with Mila). And I got into her videos too. (Their whole patreon is lovely).

Like despite having many resources I found and decided on with deliberation, most of what is causing me to gradually learn Spanish is:

Spanish Boost

JuegaGerman

And when I try to be more well rounded, the podcasts: Chill Spanish, Espanol Al Vuelo

I don't know how much I've learned? I only can say I knew very little before 2025, and now I understand enough Spanish to watch JuegaGerman and Alex Tienda on youtube while relaxing (following what they mean is not mentally intensive to me). (I should try reading and see where I'm at).

A side note on my Mandarin progress:

for the past few months I've pretty much ONLY been listening to 镇魂 audiobook (chapter 1-60 so far, understand is frustratingly hit or miss but now that I've read the whole novel's English translation I can figure out which scenes/parts I'm listening to most of the time), Dashu Mandarin Podcast (I've listened to episodes 1-41), 声东击西 podcast (I've listened to 3 episodes, its kind of hit or miss but listening to this has been exciting because I follow the discussion topics sometimes and I've never been able to follow a regular podcast before recent months, this podcast sort of highlights to me how much I've improved since when Dashu Mandarin felt Hard to me a few months ago, because Dashu Mandarin episoded now usually feel Okay to me, and listening to 声东击西 feels like how listening to Dashu Mandarin felt a few months ago).

Also? The past few months of half assing it have really reminded me doing Something (even imperfectly) is better than doing nothing. Makes sense, right? Of course, any language practice and exposure is going to help you improve compared to nothing. But like. I really have just been putting on Dashu Mandarin podcast, most days, in the background as I work or do chores or drive. So at least 50% of the time I'm not paying much attention and my ability to follow their topic goes in and out (as I switch focus to say reading English emails or doing math). When I started listening a lot to Dashu Mandarin a few months ago, even if I paid full attention (like when walking) I could follow topics but didn't understand a decent amount of phrases and words and I had to put in considerable mental effort to follow them (not exhausting amounts, but enough mental effort I'd get tired quickly if I tried doing multiple things).

Just listening by throwing it on, while doing whatever I was doing, I noticed over time I've needed less mental effort to follow topics, and recognized more words when I *was* paying attention, and now I understand enough that I am starting to get picky about which episodes I listen to (some of their interview learners episodes follow the same pattern, and I get bored, so I've been trying to pick episodes where just the hosts talk on a topic, or interview About a specific topic like life in X location).

Anyway. It kind of "proof of concept" makes me realize I could just try listening to AS MUCH Mandarin as possible in a day, as many days as possible, and maybe make a leap in progress. (Probably in the same number of hours, but those hours fit into less days). Alas, I still have mental fatigue issues and migraines from mental fatigue post brain surgery so like. I can't multitask as much as I used to. Just listening to something While doing something else exhausts me way faster. So I am not really feeling up for "listening in the background" like that. It feels twice as fatiguing to do 2 stimulating things like listening And looking at my work computer. So. :/ ... still. I am excited about seeing progress even from listening how I have been. So I hope eventually, if and when I feel like I CAN do more in a day, I could listen in the background/paying partial attention more and maybe fit in learning hours in less days.

I've also been listening to the MoDu audio drama. Of which I understand maybe most words, but only 85% of all scenes? The scenes I understand I understand pretty Well, enough to enjoy most lines. Then there's scenes I can't totally place, and I catch most of the lines but since I'm not sure who's talking or what setting (since its an audio drama) I'm not sure what scene its supposed to be. It's been fun, but slow going. I only listen to this when I'm walking during some lunches, and I can pay full attention to it without any distractions. Since I want to enjoy it and follow along. And its been so so hot, too hot to go outside in the middle of the day.

[homura]

net zero information

[souplover13]

image: sign outside of a store that says "if it is in stock we have it". end ID.

[samuelmrtn]

The trail up to the summit was covered in wild blackberries that were just turning ripe. We stopped and ate for a while before continuing the climb.

[loveridden1999]

person (non-practicing)

[adurot]

I have just learned that Mountain Goats are NOT, in fact, actual Goats.

[adurot]

I have never heard of this band. I AM in fact referring to the animal.

[adurot]

But wait, there’s more!

[adurot]

[dragon-in-a-fez]

genuinely wild to me when I go to someone's house and we watch TV or listen to music or something and there are ads. I haven't seen an ad in my home since 2005. what do you mean you haven't set up multiple layers of digital infrastructure to banish corporate messaging to oblivion before it manifests? listen, this is important. this is the 21st century version of carving sigils on the wall to deny entry to demons or wearing bells to ward off the Unseelie. come on give me your router admin password and I'll show you how to cast a protective spell of Get Thee Tae Fuck, Capital

[bigmann-mclargehuge]

Share the knowledge

[dragon-in-a-fez]

Okay, here we go! I'm gonna try and put this in order from least to most technical knowledge required. I'm not responsible if you accidentally create SkyNet etc.

Level 1: browser extensions

This one is basically impossible to get wrong, or at least to get wrong badly enough that it causes any problems.

Get Firefox, or a Firefox fork like Waterfox. If you use a fork, make sure it's one that will let you use add-ons. On a PC, pretty much any Firefox fork will take add-ons, but on mobile devices, many don't. Iceraven is one that does.

Get the add-ons uBlock Origin, YouTube Sponsorblock (if you use YouTube), and FBCleaner (if you use Facebook).

uBlock Origin comes with a built-in list of filters to block ads and trackers, but you can add your own filters to block any specific element of a website you don't like. You know those goddamn floating frames on fandom.com sites that block half the screen? Now you can zap 'em.

Sponsorblock uses crowdsourced timestamps to automatically skip sponsor spots and self-promotion in YouTube videos. Never listen to anyone say "hit like and subscribe" or "Raid Shadow Legends" again.

FBCleaner hides all content from your feed except posts from people, groups, and pages you've actually chosen to follow.

Level 2: leaving enshittified services

The software that's become standard over the years in a lot of fields is steadily selling more of your data, showing you more ads, and pushing you to buy more expensive subscriptions. Time to tell them to get fucked.

Dump Adobe apps for Affinity or Krita. Drop Microsoft for LibreOffice. Change your default search engine from Google to DuckDuckGo or Qwant. Use OpenStreetMaps instead of Google or Apple Maps.

Level 3: network-level DNS fuckery

DNS, or Domain Name Service, is the thing that tells your computer where www.website.com is actually located. By hacking your network's DNS you can force it to tell your devices that ad-hosting domains don't exist at all. Some of the steps on this one can get pretty technical, but because you're doing all the difficult stuff on a dedicated device, you can't really fuck up anything that seriously.

Get yourself a Raspberry Pi (a cheap older one like a model 3B will work just fine for this purpose), and follow a guide like this one to get it set up running AdGuard Home. AdGuard, like uBlock, has built-in filter lists, but you can also add your own if there are specific domains you want to block.

Once it's up and running, you'll need to change the DNS settings on your router to point to your AdGuard service. This is different for every router but will always start with logging into the admin panel with a password printed on a little sticker somewhere on the router.

With that done, every time a device on your home network looks for ads.website.com, it'll get back a message that says "sorry, can't find it", so it won't be able to load any ads.

Level 4: Android-specific DNS fuckery

Because AdGuard runs on your home network, it can't block ads on your phone when you're away from home - and what's worse, your phone will sometimes remember the addresses it got when you were out and about, and ads will get past your AdGuard wall even when you're home.

To avoid this, get AdAway for DNS-based ad-blocking directly on your phone. The easy, but less seamless, way of using AdAway is the "local VPN mode", which doesn't require you to do any mucking about with your phone's operating system.

Level 5: automated media piracy

The best way to stop seeing ads on all your streaming services is to stop using streaming services. There are loads of ways to do this, but the best ones involve setting up what's called an "arr stack" (Google that for setup guides) along with nzbget and a usenet account. Most of the time you'll want to set this stuff up on a dedicated device - an old laptop gathering dust in the closet is a great option, or you can grab something used from a charity shop or a local electronics recycler.

The great thing about usenet is that unlike with torrents, you don't have to do any sharing from your computer, so you're in a lot less legal jeopardy - legally speaking, distributing pirated content is waaayyy more serious than accessing it. I pay about £3 a month for a secure, high-bandwidth usenet service.

Once you start getting your own collection of media on your own computer, use the open-source media library manager Jellyfin to browse and play things from basically any device.

Oh, and don't be a dick. Pirate all you want from big corporations, but please pay independent small-time creators for their work.

Level 6: fucking with Android

Android phones are a lot more locked-down than they used to be, but depending on the device you own you can still do a lot of messing around under the hood. Note that if you get something wrong while doing this, there is always the possibility that it will turn your device into a paperweight.

Before you buy a device, check where it sits on the Bootloader Unlock Wall of Shame. Once you've bought it, check the xda-developer forums for guides on how to unlock it and "root" it (gain admin access) with Magisk.

Once Magisk is installed, you can add modules to do all sorts of cool stuff, including using AdAway in "root mode" which makes it basically invisible.

You can also install YouTube ReVanced, which will do all the ad- and sponsor blocking stuff we took care of in your Windows browser a few paragraphs ago. Be careful: there are a lot of fake sites out there pretending they're associated with the ReVanced project which might be injecting malware into their downloads. This Reddit post has the official instructions and links.

Also, try out the modded version of Facebook from APKmoddone, which will block most of the same shit as the FBcleaner add-on from earlier. There's always a possibility that modified apps like this are doing something dodgy, but I've never had any issues with this one personally.

Level 7: fucking with Windows

This one is scary because it can seriously fuck up your shit if something goes wrong, but some really cool people have actually made it very simple to strip all the bloat, ads, and spyware out of Windows. The tool I use is ReviOS. Start reading at https://www.revi.cc/docs. Basically, you'll need to download a tool called AME Wizard and the ReviOS "playbook" that tells AME what to do. Read the documentation before you do any of this.

Level 8: switching to Linux

I'm not going to pretend this is an option for everyone. Half the software I use on a weekly basis isn't available on Linux. But if you can switch? Do it. These days, Ubuntu - one of the most popular flavours of Linux - is built with people switching from Windows in mind, and a lot of things will be pretty intuitive. It also has great documentation and a huge community you can go to for help if you're confused about stuff.

And that, friends, is a comprehensive approach to banishing the demons of capitalism from your home!

[klymilark]

Something I want to add:

You don't even need a pihole for it anymore. You can throw "dns.adguard-dns.com" into your android phone under Network (or Connections) > Private DNS > Private DNS Provider Hostname in your Settings app. You can also set your router up to use it via the IPs:

94.140.14.14

94.140.14.15

Link to to source for that:

AdGuard DNS — ad-blocking DNS server

Create your ad-blocking DNS server that will protect your personal data, prevent tracking and allow you to control access to specific conten

That will depend on your router, just search "How to set up custom DNS for (router name & model)". You can usually find that info on a sticker on the router itself. The model name is often nonsense like CM1000.

For switching to Linux:

If you're worried about software not working, and the software isn't something with work-related requirements attached, you can usually find alternatives. Alternativeto.net is a good place to start with that.

AlternativeTo - Crowdsourced software recommendations

AlternativeTo lets you find apps and software for Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android, Android Tablets, Web Apps, Online, Windows Tab

If you're a gamer, protondb.com will let you see how well your specific game runs on Linux. Ranks are from:

Borked - Does Not Work At All, or works so poorly that you cannot play the game at all

Bronze - Sort of works, but with glitches that don't exist on Windows that affect gameplay

Silver - Works, but requires tinkering, and has glitches that don't affect gameplay, or requires heavy tinkering to get running

Gold - Works, requires mild tinkering (usually just selecting another proton version from the drop down)

Platinum - Works out of the box

Native - Is made for Linux

Other common alternatives:

Spotify: I've heard good things about Tidal, but haven't personally used it (I use a cloud storage service and local files for music)

Google drive: Nextcloud. You can find free servers on their website

Google office: OnlyOffice has a desktop/mobile app, and most of the features

Gmail: Free providers aren't common, but disroot is one of them. They also offer quite a few services. Personally I use mailbox.org, but they do cost $36 a year minimum

Google search: Disroot has a searx instance, startpage.com exists, and you'd be surprised at how far you can get by setting your default search engine to Wikipedia. Marginalia's also good, but selective about what they index (mostly indieweb stuff)

I, admittedly, run almost everything through Emacs nowadays, so there may be better alternatives now.

(Directed generally) Also remember that in most cases the problems are Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft. If you find a small project that isn't perfect, remember that those five companies are probably worse in every way imaginable. Look for an alternative, but for the love of whatever you hold dear, Google is *not* a better alternative.

[vrabia]

today i learned that the finnish word for ‘hazardous waste’ is ongelmajäte, which can also translate as ‘problematic garbage’ and my roommate and i immediately agreed this is a word that belongs on tumblr.

[callmebliss]

Your fave is ongelmajäte

[you-had-me-at-e-flat-major]

in german it’s Sondermüll which means special trash and that too belongs on tumblr

[pyrebomb]

One man’s ongelmajäte is another man’s sondermüll.

[fullcravings]

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

[divorce-enjoyer]

ice water is awesome because you get more water in your water

[divorce-enjoyer]

you think youre out of water but then you check back in five minutes and woah! theres more water! the world is so beautiful

[wingkink]

btw it's so fucking stupid you can be anxious physically in your body even after you've decided mentally you don't care. I'm supposed to be in charge here

[africanaquarian]

I thought I needed a new laptop but nope, youtube is slowing down your PC if you have adblock on on any open tab...

[astraltrickster]

To be very clear about this: CPUs aren't magical devices that can operate forever. They generate heat. They wear out over time. This happens faster when they're operating near capacity. This is not just an attempt to inconvenience you; this is an attempt to damage your property.

For the "crime" of not wanting to be tracked/have ads pissed into your eyeballs 24/7.

Even if you've paid for the "privilege" of the latter.

Fuck Google, and I hope they get sued into oblivion over this.

[fernwah-funzone]

i see everyone in the notes talking about newpipe but nobody's talking about youtube alternatives for desktop

IF YOU USE A DESKTOP PC OR LAPTOP, TRY INVIDIOUS

https://invidious.io/

it is a free, open-source alternative YouTube front-end. in addition to not having ads, it has other great QoL features like a download button. try one of the several instances on that link up there ^^^^

[saintjosie]

so i was super pissed and concerned about this but i have just discovered that while this is true, it is apparently only true for google chrome users. i just tested this by having ten tabs open in firefox playing ten different youtube videos at the same time and my cpu usage spiked to 25% as the videos were loading and then dropped back down to 10% as they played.

if you ever needed another reason to switch to a different browser, this is it.

[depsidase]

[the-gummy-worms-have-me]

Idk if its not that deep btw. I have a shovel and too much time on my hands, so its as deep as I want it to be.

[sawed-on-shotgun]

the human body when you use it and exist in it

[sludgebitch]

"🥪" is shorthand for "🍞🧀🍅🥬🍞"

[sludgebitch]

can you people stop reblogging this my notes look like lunchtime

[famouspainterwombat]