#and some it's just like 'wtf did you forget to upload a file'

[greyias]

I have gone down a rabbit hole trying to figure out what on earth is going on in 7.6's reflection maps. (C2-N2 looks like he's been spray painted with a matte finish, when he used to be SPER DUPER SHINY), meanwhile, my beloved blue boi still looks like he's been dipped into a vat of oil. No changes there. Odd.

Also, thanks to @keldae being the absolute best ever--

--this raccoon of a man finally has his officially official spelling of his name. No weird mangling, mispellings, or apostrophes needed!

[sexycontainmentprocedures]

Apparently there’s a lot going on in the SCP community, so here’s what I suppose some people are waiting for from me. I didn’t want to speak too quickly these last few weeks and say the wrong thing, so I pray this is the right thing. I’m going to log right back out of Tumblr afterward, because I’m starting to notice that I honestly do alright mental health-wise regardless of ongoing events unless I am on Tumblr specifically. Hope y’all are also doing alright and keeping a distance from current events if needed. 

My new author page is https://thescpfoundation.com/agent-trauss. I’ll be adding more content in the coming months. In this recording, I talk about why I bought that domain, why I encourage other SCP creators and groups to buy similar domains and do similar things, and I explain the full context of an apology that I felt I owed to the SCP community; the full context includes the grooming I experienced at the hands of authority over the years as I grew from a teen to an adult in the inner circle of the SCP wiki and became an openly sexual public figure, thus contributing to and furthering the wiki’s dangerous subculture which had originally pulled me in. I believe this full context was necessary before I could say what I felt I needed to say and do what I feel is the right thing to do.

Something I mention in the recording -- that I afterward found out was already somewhat known to some people in RPC -- is something the entire community should know. SCP wiki administrator Roget had a pet project with his fiance to fake a relationship with the administrator of RPC, with the explicit purpose of destabilizing his mental health. It worked completely and that administrator left RPC. Roget entrusted me with this information in summer 2018, well before I got thrown out of the clique. In the recording, I do mention the shame I feel for having supported them and for keeping it a secret when I knew it was wrong -- I do not consider myself innocent in the machine that is the SCP wiki inner circle, I want that to be clear. All the relevant proof, including proof that the other administrators knew all along, is in this Google Drive folder. The captain of Disciplinary has repeatedly tried to gaslight me into thinking it was not a big deal: that Roget’s fiance was “trying to help RPC,” that I was not actually forced to keep it a secret -- all asinine, obviously, but I briefly fell for it when the discussions were ongoing.

In case it’s not clear, regardless of who you support or what you think of me or any other Super Controversial People, you need to understand that the administration of the SCP wiki is intelligently manipulative and completely willing to make complex schemes to destroy people they don’t like or who they see as a threat to their control over the community. They have done it before to CFO as you see above, it looks damn well like they did it to me and might still be trying, and they’re going to do it again. They also have absolutely no safe or mature regard for the power they have over their users and how that can be -- and has been on many occasions -- misapplied sexually. 

Remember that if the community ever makes one of these giant posts jerking them off for all they “do” again. And remember that they have 150,000 dollars to their names now, with donations apparently never closing. THEY ARE A THREAT.

Sic. Semper. Tyrannis. Seriously. ALL power corrupts; if it takes the money element to make you concerned, then that’s better than nothing, but they’ve always been like this. They’re bureaucrats and they don’t care about you. Now they have corporate-level money in the bank.

The time to stop trusting them is yesterday, it’s a year ago, it’s two years ago, it’s now. The SCP Foundation does not belong to SCP wiki administration. It belongs to the community. That is what Creative Commons licensing is. The SCP Foundation is not the SCP wiki and vice versa. We are free. Do not forget that.

EDIT: Fuck it, even though it’s embarrassing for me I think I should probably link to the letter I sent administration in December so that anyone who feels the need to spend a lot of time understanding how I’m involved can do so. In case it’s not clear, the way I feel about and talk to administration in this letter is FAR FROM the way I feel about (and, hopefully, talk to) the community itself.

Edit 2 made 04 Feb 2020: The above Google Drive link had some issues where I thought it was public but wasn’t, I ended up debating letting it be public again (especially because of how quickly the peanut gallery on Kiwi Farms started trying to access it the same day I posted, and also because I started to worry about the inclusion of non-staff users’ names), and in the end I decided to censor everyone’s names in it but still release it. Ultimately, the issue was with so many admins that it doesn’t really matter if I of all people give specific names, which is why I had tried to keep it anonymous in that voice recording. So here is that version. I know people may think I’m shitty to them in this letter, and I agree that I am shitty to them in it, for reasons that I think are apparent in the text and situation. I am aware that I’m an asshole, just trying to be a necessary whistleblowing asshole, at the least -- they’re a group of people who scheme against and knowingly harm individuals, not one individual.

Edit 3 made 06 Feb 2020: Turns out I’m just super bad with Google Drive I guess?? Removed the link to the first version entirely, because for some reason it was still showing up even though I deleted the file upload (wtf Drive) for having non-staff names in it. Anyway, I bolded the link to the correct version of it in the above paragraph. Sorry for all the confusion on what should’ve been a simple thing, there, oof

[gundampilot]

Inspired by @dialup2002 to post some more old stuff. :) This is a desktop screenshot I posted on my DevART account January 2005. Kicking it with Windows XP, but I loved/preferred the classic style that I was accustom to (95-98-ME). I made the wallpaper used, but I’m having trouble finding a copy of it. I’ll prob try to remake it in non-1024x768 resolution lmao. Not sure if this is from 2005. It might have been from 2004, but I hadn’t posted it yet. I did that a lot. Some fun notes about some of the software icons pictured (lots of info):

Firefox - THE FIRST BROWSER TO DO TABS OMG. I was a huge advocate for Firefox, especially in its initial releases. They were doing things on the internet nobody had really seen up to that point, and made it popular! Since I had so many issues (as most people do) with Internet Explorer, I was shopping around for a new browser at the time of this shot. Google Chrome didn’t exist yet. (Can you imagine??)

IE - As stated above, I disliked IE. It was kept for various reasons, however. Such as testing website layouts, since the mass-majority of people used it and things looked different in browsers when you were coding.

Opera - While giving Firefox a try, I also managed to snag a very, very early copy of Opera. I’ve always been the type of person that loved to try out new stuff as early as possible, and this was a very special piece of software that I wanted to give a go. The reason that it was special? You had to send away for a CD for it. That’s right, kids. They snail-mail’ed me a CD because it was considered “commercial software.” I paid to get that browser lmfao. I was super super hyped later in 2005, because it became “freeware” and I was able to more-easily push my friends to try it out. The devs were (and still are) seriously awesome. This is why I still use Opera as my main browser today! Ya’ll should try it if you aren’t already! You can even use your most-beloved Chrome extensions on it. :)

Soulseek & WinMX - Holy crap, you guys! lmao Is anyone here old enough to remember these programs?? XD This was basically where most people went after Napster bit the dust. This was when we were all scrambling, trying to find a new P2P sharing program. This was right in-between the eMule/Donkey phase and before the Limewire/KaZaA fiascos where people’s computers were being overloaded with viruses from companies trying to stop pirating. Ahh, the wild, wild west... Days were so exciting when you spent hours downloading something that could potentially ruin your computer lmao

WS_FTP - Still one of my favorite FTP programs for Windows! Works like a charm! These days I use Transmit 5 for Mac, but this was my first program ever for file transfer protocol. It’s basically a tool for uploading files to my website’s server, because back when I first registered it, there was no web uploader for that kinda stuff. Now I stick with that because it’s easier and I’m used to it lol

Veo Digital Studio - Used to use this for my webcam back before webcams were built into laptops, and before they were common enough to have amazing freeware available for them.  (Also this is hilarious.) The quality was horrible, but I was hella excited to take pictures and share them with friends and on my blog at the time. From what I remember, there was something I used after this that was some type of South Korean selca software. Haduri? Something like that. It was really cute and even let you do little animations. :) 

Animation Shop - Okay. So... from what I remember, this might have been owned by the people that made Paint Shop Pro? I think it was Corel. I honestly don’t remember where I got this from, but this is what I used to use to make animated gifs (because Photoshop just....didn’t for some reason? I had to use PSP at some point, I remember that. I just don’t remember why lmao. It might have been my copy didn’t allow it, or my computer was just too shit to run it good enough, or just stopped working because....Windows). 

Adobe Photoshop 5.0 - I originally got this rip from a friend of mine, whose dad got a CD from his company that he worked at. It was an official/real license, which was really awesome! I think this was the first version of Photoshop I ever owned (!!), which is pretty amazing to think about about! I had that CD copy for a few years. I initially was gifted a copy of the CD around 2001-2002 or so. I know for a fact I had newer versions (7.0 was legend before CS suite came around), so I’m not sure why I was using this one at this point lmao. My guess is, like mentioned above, something happened with my computer and I didn’t want to format it and reinstall everything lol or because it was the fastest version I had installed to boot up and do a quick photo edit.

Adobe Photoshop 7.0 - I do remember this took a long time to start up. I can only imagine this was like a bad pirated copy or something, or was so bloated with new stuff in it, and that’s why I kept 5.0 for a quick boot. I know I used this majority of the time, though. Most of my backups for brushes and fonts are from backups that include 7.0 as a zip. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  My computer wasn’t the most powerful at the time, despite what I pushed it to do, so this is prob why.  But hell yeah! Photoshop represent! lol I still use it today, and its still one of the first things I install on a fresh OS install. Enjoying CC 2017 these days.

Nero Start Smart - I was so excited to make mix CDs and share them! Back in the day before you had stuff like playlists that were sharable on YouTube/Spotify, etc, you had this to share music. Or play in your car. Or CD walkman. Nero was a software you could burn your CD-Rs and make your own laser-etched album art! I begged for years to get a CD burner lmao. Back when casette tapes were still around enough that my parents were like “but why???” lmao. They were not common back in the day like they became over time, just, like, included on your computer. Back then you had to buy one and install it into your computer tower yourself! I got mine I believe.....in 2001? It was the year after the Playstation 2 was released. The first one I got was just a very standard burner. Did a very specific type of CD burning at a low (slow af) speed. It was $700 lmfao. Let that sink in for a minute because my parents didn’t let me forget about it for the next four years lmfao. I saved up birthday and Christmas money and went halves on it. Then I upgraded to the one that this one was! c: Which did the laser etching, and DVD burning! (And you better believe I was burning DVDs of stuff I was downloading online lmfao this was the golden age of the internet where everything was just available everywhere as long as you had the patience to download that shit, because it took forever to download)

Volume Control - My dad and I messed with the wires on all of these random computer speakers and stereo speakers that we had collected over the years and hotwired our own version of a 5.0 surround sound in the room, which was mounted to the ceiling corners and above the computer station. It was lit. I needed Volume Control easily accessible because sometimes the speakers needed redirecting, or I needed to turn the beats down because my mother was tired of my fifth time playing the Gundam Wing OSTs and Miyavi. (It was metal, okay???)

Windows Media Player - I did not use this to listen to media. Let me reiterate that. I did not use it to listen to media on. lol this was specifically used to rip tracks from CDs that friends lent me, because it was the easiest software I was able to use to change the KBPs for quality control and the ID3 tags so I could save it and organize it for use in Winamp and know wtf I was listening to lol. Nobody used WMP for listening to music.... xD 

Winamp - The best music player. Period. Still. Nothing beats it. Pls, pls, Nullsoft! Come back and make a native version for MacOS. :’((((  I would buy it! Doesn’t even have to have new features or look different. Classic look, pls pls! 

Media Player Classic - Do people still use it??? This player was amazing! Paired with k-lite codec pack, it played everything. It was like VLC before VLC. And it looked good. Clean. Small. Could be installed anywhere which was nice. And the codec packs just made everything look and run fantastic! 

Recycle Bin - .... Trash XD 

Magnifier - This was for my dad because he had bad eyes and couldn’t remember CTRL +/-/0 to increase the text on pages that he wanted to read.

My Documents - Where I saved all the stuff I downloaded. Not the real My Docs. Just a folder that I named as such, with a custom icon. I don’t know why I wanted it there lol. I think to just have a uniform square on my desktop haha

Journal - I renamed this. I forget the original name of the client, but it was the official client of LJ. It was basically a program that let you write up posts for Livejournal and you could format things, draft them, etc, and post without uploading to your journal/blog. I liked it because sometimes I couldn’t post right away, and it made making drafts a lot easier for me to go back and edit. It also let you edit past posts, which was really convenient instead of looking for it on the web version one post at a time.

AIM+ - I loved AOL Instant Messenger, but over time the ads became too much. I invested a lot of time in 3rd party clients. I was constantly switching between AIM+, Adium, DeadAIM, Pigeon, Trillion, etc. Depended on what I wanted to do that day. Want to clone a SN? Want to skin the colors of the chats? Need transparency? Want to customize your lists? Want to log into more than one msg system at once? They all had their strengths. This was my msg service of choice. Back in the day you were either on this, MSN, or Yahoo!. Some people rocked ICQ and there were a few others, but these were the most common from who I knew/hung out with. I miss those days. <3 

You can see WinMX running in the taskbar lmfao so I was prob downloading something at the time of snagging this quick shot. I also had DevART open (prob because I was gonna share this on there). I really wish I had more programs open at the time of this! XD It’s wild to look back at some of the software changes over the years!

Anyway, that’s one of my oldest screenshots that I can find that I’m able to share right now. :) I’m going to be posting a remake of that wallpaper that I did later today for those of you that want that, too.

If you read this far, thank you!! Hope you had fun reading about old stuff! 

[roamingmom]

You finally made it to Tokyo. Where do you possibly start?

The Japanese capitol is swimming with a whopping 38 million people. You’re likely overwhelmed and tired. So tired. The jetlag is a painstaking reality after your 12 hour (maybe longer) haul.

Depending on the time of day you arrive – you might want to take a power nap. I did and it saved me. After a quick disco nap – I could face the glorious mania that I came to see.

Shibuya Crossing

No other place in Tokyo highlights the sheer madness of the city better than Shibuya Crossing. Some accurately refer to it as the Shibuya Scramble.  People literally seap from every imaginable angle.  Picture Times Square on crack. Each street light has an estimated “2500 people crossing” at any given time.

Shibuya Crossing

Shibuya Crossing

Shibuya Crossing

Shibuya has lots of night life: restaurants, clubs and izakaya (informal Japanese bars).

Kobe Beef (a quick lesson).

We had our first dinner in Shibuya.  Of course, we went straight for the mouth watering Kobe beef. Not to be missed. The infamous Wagyu (meaning: Japanese Cattle) is good but Kobe (a strain of Wagyu) is a whole other off-the-chain level of goodness.

To be labelled Kobe, cattle must meet the following criteria:

Bullock (steer) or virgin cow.

Tajima-Gyu born within Hyogo Prefecture.

Fed on a farm within Hyogo Prefecture.

Meat processed within Hyogo Prefecture.

Marbling rating (BMS) of 6 or higher on a 12 point scale.

Meat quality rating of 4 or higher on a 5 point scale.

An overall weight not exceeding 470 kg.

Source my: Steak University

Mouth watering Kobe Beef

Kobe Beef in Tokyo

Just eat it. Once it melts in your mouth, you’ll forget the price tag.

Tsukiji Market

You have to hit the fish market when in Tokyo. If you’re a sushi aficionado – it will blow your mind. If you’re not a sushi lover – then you might be in the wrong city.

To be clear – Tsukiji Market no longer holds the famous tuna auction. Tsukiji is a sprawling outdoor street market. The tuna auction has moved to the brand new Toyosu Market (indoor). If you want to watch the tuna auction – you must apply to the online lottery.

Time your visit so you can have lunch at Tsukiji. It’s teeming with all types of traditional Japanese food but it’s best known for sushi.

Tsukiji Market

Tsukiji Market

WTF, right? – scary fish?

Delicious Sushi – Tsukiji Market

Lots of Temples

Zojoji Temple

Nestled amid sakura (cherry blossom) trees in the heart of Tokyo is where you’ll find this little gem.

The temple is the burial ground for six Tokugawa (Edo) shoguns. The shoguns ruled through the Edo period (1603 to 1867), the final era of traditional Japanese government, culture and society. The long reigning shoguns (supreme military leaders) ruled for over 250 years.

Next to the Temple is a garden rowed with small stone statues called Jizos. The sweet faced Jizo statues wear little red knit hats and sometimes bibs. They are beautiful – some are adorned with beads and others have trinkets and flowers next to them. Sadly, the Jizo represent miscarried, still born, or children who died young. In general, the Jizo is said to protect over all lost souls.

The Daibonshu Bell

Cast in 1673, it weighs 15 tonnes and tolls 6 times twice a day.

Daibonshu Bell

The Zojoji Temple is also beside the Tokyo Tower. 

Seisho-ji Temple

Not far from Zojoji is Seisho-ji Temple in the heart of Tokyo cloaked by skyscapers. This is a peaceful place of medidation and seems to be off the tourist radar.

Roppongi Hills

A short walk from the Tokyo Tower and the downtown temples will put you in Roppongi Hills.  A trendy urbanization with apartments, cafes, restaurants and shops. Also, a great place to view the sakura blossoms in April.

Sakura Blossoms

Sakura Blossoms

Sakura Blossoms

Takeshita Street

Takeshita Street is an pedestrian shopping street in the Harajuko District of Tokyo. It’s known for it’s colourful whimsical shops – popular with teens. It’s also a haven for sweet lovers. Candy shop after candy shop adorn this zany strip.

Take 5 on Takeshita Street in Tokyo, Japan

Yoyogi Park

Near Shibuya Crossing is Yogogi Park. A sprawling park with loads of green space and lots of people. Also home to the Meiji Shrine, a Shinto shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji and his wife.

Senso-ji Temple

Tokyo’s oldest Buddhist temple dating back to the 7th Century. It was heaving with people so I took a pic from across the street.

Oldest Buddhist Temple in Tokyo

Honourable Mention

Akihabara – “Electric Town”

This is a shopping street with every electric gadget you can dream up.  Sorry, no pics.

Where to Stay

We stayed in Tokyo Bay which was perfect. It’s a little removed from the madness of say Shibuya and other downtown areas. Yet it’s walking distance to Tokyo Tower, Zojoji Temple, and Tsukiji Market.

About Tokyo

There is very little English spoken. If taking a taxi, have the name of your destination on paper and present it to the driver. Note: d/t the upcoming 2020 Olympics – English street signs are being put up.

  The taxis are clean, drivers are well dressed and typically wear white gloves. Taxis are reasonable if travelling en masse, as we do.

  The subway system is meant to be really efficient and reasonable. But see above: 38 million people in the city. I didn’t go anywhere near the subway.

  Tokyo is clean. I found myself carrying around my rubbish (sometimes for blocks) before finding a bin. A bit inconvenient but it works. The streets are spotless.

  Traffic is not that bad. Most people don’t seem to own cars and travel by subway. You can actually move around the city quite efficiently in a taxi.

  You must have an International Drivers License to rent a car. Not something you likely want to do in Tokyo, but we ran into problems later in the trip.

  The currency is Japanese Yen. Quite a few places don’t take credit cards, and International ATMS are found in all 7/11 stores. Weird, I know.

  Despite the tens of million of people  – your personal space is respected.  Nobody pushes or crowds and somehow pedestrian traffic flows without mayhem.

Japanese 101

It’s important to know a few words in the language of the country you’re visiting. Simple manners go a long way – wherever you are.

A few simple words that will win a smile every time:

Hello – Konnichiwa

Good bye – Sayounara

Thank you – Arigatou

Please – Kudasai

Good morning – Ohayo

Good night – Oyasumi

Excuse me – Sumimasen

I hope you liked this post.

Pleaes stay tuned for….

Confessions of a Geisha Stalker

How to Eat like an Okinawan

Still here? Drop me a note. Or read more below. x

The Bag On The Train

Paradise Lost

A Fiver for Australia.

  3 Days in Tokyo You finally made it to Tokyo. Where do you possibly start? The Japanese capitol is swimming with a whopping 38 million people.