#home tutorial services

[darrylhudson86]

SEO Plain and Simple 🌞

🎶 SEO Symphony - Elevate Your Digital Presence! ✨

1/ Ever wondered how Google knows exactly what you're looking for? It's not mind-reading, it's SEO! 🕵️‍♂️ Search Engine Optimization is like the digital wizardry that ensures your content shines like a beacon in the vast online ocean. Let's dive into the SEO wonderland! 🌐✨

2/ 🧠 Fun Fact: SEO isn't just about keywords; it's a strategic dance of algorithms! Google's bots are like super-smart detectives crawling through the web, indexing pages, and ranking them based on relevance. It's a quest for the most accurate search results! 🕵️‍♀️📊

3/ Meta Tags are the unsung heroes of SEO. Think of them as your content's backstage pass. 🎤 Crafting catchy titles and meta descriptions isn't just for show; it's the key to grabbing attention in the search results! 🌟✍️

4/ 🔄 The SEO game is a dynamic tango. Regularly updating your content tells search engines that you're the cool kid on the block. Fresh, relevant content is like a VIP pass to higher rankings! 🚀📅

5/ Backlinks are the OG influencers of SEO. Imagine each link as a vote of confidence for your content. 🗳️ Quality over quantity is the mantra here. The more reputable sites vouch for you, the higher you climb in the SEO hierarchy! 📈🏆

6/ Page Speed is the also important for user experience and SEO. Slow-loading pages are like a suspense movie with a never-ending plot twist – frustrating! ⏳⚡ Optimize your speed, and you'll make users happy to browse your website! 🌞

7/ Mobile-First Indexing is the superhero transformation of SEO. With mobile usage soaring, Google prioritizes mobile-friendly sites. 🦸‍♂️📱 If your site isn't mobile-ready, you're missing out on a heroic opportunity!

Unlock the SEO secrets and skyrocket your digital presence! 🚀 Dive into our step-by-step guide to SEO success! Your journey to the top starts here:

#seo #seomarketing #seosecrets #seoguide #seotips #seotactics #seotutorial #seocourse #seotraining #seostrategy #seomarketing #onpageseo #offpageseo #backlinks #freetraffic #organictraffic #websitetraffic #boostyourtraffic #searchengineoptimization #onpageoptimization #offpageoptimization #affiliatemarketing #digitalmarketing #internetmarketing #makemoneyonline #earnmoneyonline #onlinemarketing #onlinebusiness #homebusiness #workfromhome #passiveincome #digitalmarketer

[pttedu]

Knockdown Texture Drywall Guide: Compare Popular Wall Finishes & Styles

Learn how knockdown texture drywall can transform your space by concealing surface flaws, adding character, and offering a simple DIY solution. This guide compares knockdown with orange peel wall texture to help Philadelphia homeowners make the best choice for their interiors. Discover tips on using a drywall patch sheet to fix damaged drywall and improve the look of your home drywall with minimal cost and effort. Whether you’re remodeling or repairing, this resource gives you everything you need for a successful wall finish project.

[susmita12385]

Pramanik Group Of Education 

Born with a passion for education, Mr. Santanu Pramanik founded Pramanik Tutorial, now known as HOME TUTORS, in 2012 with a vision to provide quality education and healthcare services to students and patients across West Bengal.

With a strong determination and an unwavering commitment to his vision, Mr. Pramanik established HOME TUTORS as one of the oldest tutorial & pathology labs and diagnostic center in the country. Under his leadership, HOME TUTORS has grown exponentially and is now operating in more than 10 districts in West Bengal.

Mr. Pramanik's dedication and hard work have been instrumental in establishing HOME TUTORS as a leading name in the education and healthcare industry. He has been an inspiration to his team and has always encouraged them to strive for excellence in their work.

As the founder and CEO of HOME TUTORS, Mr. Pramanik has been involved in every aspect of the company's growth and success. His hands-on approach and leadership skills have played a key role in the expansion of the company's operations.

Today, HOME TUTORS is recognized for its exceptional education and healthcare services, and Mr. Pramanik's vision and leadership continue to guide the company towards greater success. His unwavering commitment to excellence and his passion for education and healthcare have earned him the respect and admiration of his peers in the industry.

With a commitment to integrity, empathy, and accuracy, Pramanik Group Of Education has been able to establish itself as a trusted service provider in the education and healthcare industry. The company's headquarters are located in West Bengal Kolkata, and it is currently functioning in more than 10 districts in the region.

As a Google-certified private limited company, Pramanik Group Of Education provides Class I-XII & College level education and also offers blood, urine, and COVID-19 testing services. The company's official website, https://linktr.ee/home.tutors, provides comprehensive information about its services and facilities.

Mr. Pramanik's leadership skills and entrepreneurial spirit have been instrumental in the growth and success of Pramanik Group Of Education. His official website https://linktr.ee/santanu.pramanik, provides further insights into his life and work.

[ectogeranium]

deleted my new gen wizard101 account since I recovered my old one. held a funeral service for the wizards lost in the deletion, and put headstones in my main's garden in memoriam. huh? crying? never heard of it tbh.

[gittutors]

Best Math Tutors In Dubai

We believe that every student has the potential to succeed in math, and we are committed to providing the personalized instruction and supportive learning environment they need to reach their full potential with the assistance of a dedicated math tutors in Dubai.

Our Math Tutoring Program

Our comprehensive math tutors in dubai program is designed to cater to a wide range of student needs, from those seeking to grasp fundamental math concepts to those aiming to ace advanced calculus courses. We offer tutoring for a variety of math subjects, including:

Arithmetic

Pre-Algebra

Geometry

Algebra 

Trigonometry

Pre-Calculus

Calculus

Statistics

Expert Math Tutors

Our team of highly qualified math tutors in dubai brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the table. They possess a deep understanding of the mathematical concepts and teaching methodologies required to help students of all levels succeed. Our tutors are passionate about teaching and dedicated to helping students overcome their math challenges and achieve their goals.

Personalized Learning

We recognize that every student learns differently and has unique needs. That’s why our math tutoring program is personalized to each student’s learning style, pace, and academic goals. Our expert tutors take the time to assess each student’s strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement, designing a customized curriculum that addresses their specific needs.

Effective Teaching Strategies

Our math tutoring program utilizes a blend of effective teaching strategies to ensure that each student receives comprehensive and engaging instruction. We incorporate:

Interactive Explanations: Our tutors provide clear and concise explanations of mathematical concepts, using real-world examples and visual aids to enhance understanding.

Practice Problems and Exercises: We provide ample practice problems and exercises to help students solidify their understanding and apply concepts to real-world scenarios.

Regular Assessments and Feedback: We conduct periodic assessments to track student progress and provide personalized feedback, identifying areas for improvement and celebrating achievements.

Technology Integration: We utilize technology to enhance learning experience, using multiple platforms and interactive tools to provide additional practice opportunities and encourage children’s engagement.

Empowering Students for Mathematical Success

With GIT Tutors as your guide, you can unlock your mathematical potential and achieve your academic goals. Our comprehensive math tutoring program will empower you to:

Master fundamental math concepts: Gain a deep understanding of the core principles of mathematics, building a solid foundation for future learning.

Develop problem-solving skills: Learn to approach mathematical problems with confidence, using effective strategies and techniques to reach solutions.

Enhance critical thinking: Develop necessary thinking skills, enabling you to analyze complex problems and formulate logical solutions.

Boost test-taking skills: Master test-taking strategies and overcome exam anxiety, maximizing your performance in math assessments.

[herespaaa]

Transform Your Hair From Drab to Fab : HereSpa At-Home Blowouts and Heat Styling.

Ever wished to turn your everyday hair into a stunning masterpiece that exudes glamour and sophistication? Look no further! HereSpa At-Home Blowouts and Heat Styling services are here to elevate your hair game, giving you the fabulous locks you've always dreamed of within your reach. From voluminous blowouts to sleek silk presses and trendy beach waves, our skilled professionals cater to your hair's unique needs, bringing a touch of luxury to the comfort of your own home. 

In this blog post, we'll explore the at-home blowout and styling services offered by HereSpa, as we guide you on a journey from drab to fab, where your hair transforms into a masterpiece of beauty and elegance.

Here are Blowout Options that HereSpa offers:

Standard Blowout: Our classic blowout technique leaves your hair looking sleek, smooth, and full of volume. Say goodbye to frizz and hello to effortlessly chic hair with our standard blowout option.

Blowout for Extra Long or Thick Hair: If you have long locks or thick hair, fear not, as our skilled professionals are well-equipped to handle it. Our blowout for extra long or thick hair ensures your tresses receive the care and attention they need, resulting in a flawless and lasting blowout.

Blowout with Extensions: For those looking to add length or volume to their hair, our blowout with extensions option is the perfect choice. Our experts seamlessly blend and style your natural hair with extensions, creating a look that appears natural and effortlessly glamorous.

Silk Press Blowout: Achieve silky smooth, straight hair with our silk press blowout. Using specialized tools and techniques, we ensure your hair is left looking sleek, shiny, and utterly luxurious.

Classic Round Brush Blowout: The timeless classic round brush blowout adds volume and bounce to your hair, creating a look that is both sophisticated and stylish.

Here are the Styling options that HereSpa offers:

Beach Waves: Embrace the carefree, beachy vibe with our beach waves styling option. Effortlessly tousled and textured, beach waves add a touch of effortless glamour to your everyday look.

Loose Curls: For a softer, more romantic look, opt for our loose curls styling option. These cascading curls add a touch of elegance to any occasion.

Straight and Smooth: If sleek and polished is your go-to style, our straight and smooth option will not disappoint. Achieve a glossy, straight finish that exudes sophistication.

Simple Updo: For special occasions or days when you want your hair off your shoulders, our simple updo styling option offers a chic and elegant solution. Whether it's a classic bun or a trendy top knot, our experts ensure your updo is picture-perfect.

At HereSpa, we believe that fabulous hair should be accessible and achievable for everyone. With our At-Home Blowouts and Heat Styling services, we transform your hair from drab to fab, leaving you feeling confident, glamorous, and beautiful. Whether you're looking for a classic blowout or a trendy beach waves look. 

Let HereSpa be your go-to destination for all your hair transformation needs, bringing the salon experience right to your doorstep, and turning every day into a celebration of style and elegance. Book an at-home appointment today through our website at www.herespa.com or call and text us at +1-234-437-3772

[phoebejaysims]

Taxes & Benefits Mod + New Active Career - DOWNLOAD

One of my sims was earning a little too much money and somehow this spiralled into me developing this mod. Introducing a very configurable tax and benefit system alongside an all new active career!

The tax and benefit system is modelled after the system we have here in England. All tax and benefit options are configurable and sims will only be opted in if you want them to. See the included documentation for a proper feature breakdown.

There are three types of taxes:

Council Tax (a property tax)

Business Tax

National Insurance (an income tax)

Register sims for each type of tax through the city hall.

There are four types of benefits:

Universal Credit

Housing Benefit

Child Benefit

Job Seekers Allowance

Register sims online, through social interactions with the all new Civil Servant, or at a HSRC communications booth.

Civil Service Career

Work for the HSRC in this fully functional active career.

There are 36 jobs which can be completed: 27 are custom career opportunities (like in the private eye career), 9 of them are custom active jobs (like in the interior decorator or firefighter career).

Jobs include: checking benefit eligibility for sims around town, attending job fairs, auditing, community outreach, responding to council house repair requests, and things of that nature.

Communication Booth

Civil Servants are given communication booths which can be placed anywhere in the world. This object has 2 geostates and can be set up or packed down when not needed.

Council Houses

Properties that are not owned by a sim are council houses. There are some unique interactions for these homes. For one, they can be more susceptible to pests (if enabled in the tuning, that is).

Complain to the Council

Depending on the type of property the sim lives in, they can complain to the council about housing issues such as overcrowding, broken facilities, or vermin.

Social Interactions

There are 12 new social interactions found under Friendly, Funny and Mean.

Help Understand Welfare System – Civil Servant Only

Complain About Taxes

Accuse of Benefit Fraud

Suggest Part Time Job – Civil Servant Only

Joke About Fraud

Talk About Benefits

Talk About Career History

Hand Out HSRC Leaflet – Civil Servant Only

Warn About Fraudulent Behaviour – Civil Servant Only

Offer Council House Repairs – Civil Servant Only

Including 2 autonomous only interactions:

Talk About Shared Career History

Talk About Shared Benefit Claims

Some interactions are only visible after doing things such as paying taxes. Some interactions are specific to the Civil Service career.

Required

Ambitions EP

University EP

Optional

Seasons EP – adds tax refunds, tax fluctuations and council house scenarios

Showtime EP – adds extra interaction to communications booth

World Adventures EP- adds extra active job

My Boutique Mod, Hairdressing Mod, Go to Court Mod – adds extra work opportunities

My social clubs mod – adds extra work opportunity and some optional integration with Bronzo banking

My functional printer mod – makes use of buff

Olomaya Smoking & Private Clinic (optometry module) mod - illness buffs taken into account with trying to claim some benefits.

Uninstallation

You can use cheat ‘uninstallTaxesBenefits’ in order to remove all mod related objects and data before uninstalling.

Download: Simblr.cc - Taxes & Benefits Mod

If you would like to donate as thanks, please feel free to do so at my ko-fi! :)

ps modders: this code for this mod is up on GitHub, plus a WIP active career tutorial (emphasis on the WIP but I hope it's helpful). Link included on the last page of the documentation.

Please enjoy all!

~ Phoebe <3

[blackynsupremacy]

CLARK KENT HELPING

YOU TAKE OUT YOUR

BRAIDS HEADCANONS

pairing: henry cavill!clark x blackfem!reader

fandom: DC

this was brewing in my head while actually taking out my braids today. plus, i wanted to give my baby henry a shot at this.

summary: it’s that time again! time to take down those 1-2 month old braids to prepare for your next fresh set. the only problem is, it’s raining, you’re tired, and you know it’s gonna take forever. yeah even getting your hair taken down, washed, detangled, and dried can be a hassle. fortunately, your fiancé, clark kent, is always happy to help with the process.

contains: lots of words, some things are based on true events, self insert, fluff, romance, established relationship, you and clark are simps, you and clark being fine, nudity but no smut, clark being a green flag, cuddling, kissing.

taglist: @rosiestalez @afrowrites @afrogirl3005 @simply-the-best23 @jkr820 @zombiehe4rt @elitesanjisimp @sabrinasopposite @gxuxhdjdu @tryingtograspctrl @ellethespaceunicorn

(i know i didn’t ask if ya’ll wanted to be tagged, but y’all are mutuals that consistently interact with my posts, so this is how i’m showing my appreciation! thank you! let me know if any of yall want to be tagged in my next blurb. again thank yall and i love my mutes)

• work was work today.

• it’s raining like hell.

• but good news, you’re getting your hair done this weekend! ain’t nothing like a fresh set of braids.

• the bad news, you gotta take out the old braids, wash/condition/detangle, and blow dry your hair all before your appointment. (yk how these new hair stylists be)

• girl, you’re dead tired, but you know you need to start asap!

• good news again though! your man clark kent is already home and you know he’s always down to help with your hair.

• ya’ll have been dating for 4 years before he popped the question a month ago on your anniversary.

• one thing about clark kent, he’s gonna hype up your hair no matter what style.

• he believes you’re stunning whether you have braids, twists, a lace front, locs, a slick back ponytail, a silk press or, your natural. he loves it!!

• he loves to watch you style it on your own or if you’re following along to a youtube tutorial.

• you’ve taught him a thing or two like taking down braids, detangling, applying edge control, and even helping you to wash and condition it!

• he catches on pretty fast and follows your instructions to a tee.

• his love language is acts of service and when it comes to your hair, he wants to make sure he does it properly.

• he told you he wants to continue learning because he can see himself helping out with your future daughter’s hair, so why not start with his future wife?

• this man is going to be the death of you.

• you see clark sitting on the couch with his laptop. as soon as he hears the door shut followed by your sigh of exhaustion, he’s already putting that to the side and zooming in your direction to take your bag, umbrella, and jacket off your hands.

• this man is teeth rotting sweet. how’d you get so blessed?

• he greets you with a warm embrace and plants a kiss atop of your head. he peeps that new growth, but he won’t mention it until you do.

• you both take a seat on the couch and have a brief conversation about each other’s day. you sigh again and run a hand through your hair one last time.

• “it’s about that time, clark. i’m getting my hair done soon and i need to start taking my braids down, but i’m so tired!”

• you whine and lean your head on his broad shoulder before you peer your “please help me” doe eyes into his blue ones that were hiding behind his glasses. he doesn’t hesitate to keep that eye contact either. it’s so intense yet intimate. you almost look away because even after 4 years, clark can still get you a bit flustered from time to time.

• “baby, would you like to help me out again? i promise you’re not gonna have to do all the work. i just need some assistance to get this done faster.”

• you playfully pout and bat your lashes. you already know the answer, but this brought you joy. you knew he was waiting for an opportunity to help with your hair again.

• he shows off those pearly whites before he enthusiastically responds, “i’d never thought you’d ask. you go change into something more comfortable, i’ll handle the rest, and we can get started.”

• he lays a chaste kiss to your lips and pats your behind to signal for you to handle your business and you don’t hesitate to do so.

• by “handling the rest”, clark gathers the necessities: 2 pairs of scissors, a detangling comb, 4 hair ties for sectioning, a plastic bag from that one drawer in the kitchen, your satin bonnet, and an order of chinese takeout placed on doordash.

• clark was waiting on the couch and he gleamed when he saw you come back clad in a white tank, no bra, grey cotton shorts, and one of his oversized, plaid flannels.

• as soon as you found yourself comfortable on the couch, clark handed you a pair of scissors and ya’ll got to work at cutting the braids shorter before you both section off your hair into 4 parts and start unbraiding from the front.

• you started on the right side, while clark took over for the left.

• you obviously know of clark’s abilities, his extraterrestrial heritage, and his intense duties as superman. he makes sure his powers can be of help in the most important areas of his life, one of them being your relationship.

• he’s had some practice with unbraiding and his fingers moves like clockwork. he moves at a delicate, quick pace and uses his keen eye to make sure your hair doesn’t get tangled or pulled, so there’s no unnecessary breakage. braid by braid, each one is removed out of your head and into the empty, plastic grocery bag that’s placed between you two.

• he’s seen you sometimes get it tangled and you would be quick to just cut it off, but with his aid, you’ve been doing that less frequently.

• after about 30 minutes, clark can already hear the doorbell ring and footsteps walking away. the food’s here.

• he opted for contactless delivery this time because he knew he just had one more braid….and done!

• he urges you to give your hands a break from unbraiding your side and to wash them because your dinner has arrived. he chuckled as you perked up hearing that because you were hon-grey!!

• he also takes it upon himself to gently place your satin, royal blue bonnet on your head.

• it’s his absolute favorite because it’s patterned with his iconic red and gold family crest!

• you have a friend who owns a small business of designing bonnets, durags, and head scarves with the cutest patterns imaginable for black nerds like you.

• they got some with superheroes, anime characters, hogwart house symbols, disney, you name it!!

• 2 years ago, you asked them to commission a bonnet to match his heroic attire.

• this was to show him that you’re proud of his kryptonian roots and that you 100% support him being one of the world’s most selfless heroes along with the other members of the justice league.

• you sometimes worry for his life, but he always tries his best to make it back to you in one piece.

• but girl, that bonnet had him geeking when you showed it to him!! his face heated with a bright hue of pink before he plants a billion kisses all over your face. his voice never ceasing his appreciation and eternal love for you.

• you both chill for a few minutes to eat and watch some tv.

• you stretch your hands, placed your bonnet on the coffee table and resumed to unbraiding the last strand on the front before sectioning it off with a hair tie and starting on the back of the right side. it seems that time moves slower (or faster) as your fingers meticulously unravel each braided strand.

• clark is half way done with his entire side. his brows raise at the sound of your soft groan of what seemed to be pain and exhaustion.

• “babe, my fingers are starting to cramp and so are my arms.” you gripe and pause your movements to massage out the stiffness in your fingers.

• clark also pauses what he’s doing. he delicately grasps your hands into his, sprinkling tiny pecks on each aching knuckle. his pink lips lingers on the rock that adorns the fourth knuckle of your left hand before those baby blues gaze into your own eyes.

• you could clearly see your worn reflection in his pupils, but you lovingly smile as you know what he’s about to say.

• “c’mere, beautiful. let me take care of the rest while you sit and relax. it’s just a few more and it’s nothing i can’t handle, so it’ll be my pleasure.”

• that’s true. clark’s an invincible kryptonian. unless your hair was laced with some green k, a cramp within the joints of his digits wouldn’t be possible. if you ask, he would one day take out your braids all by himself without you having to lift a finger and he’d be in pure bliss of taking that burden off your plate.

• he spreads his thighs apart. the large palms of his hands encircle around your waist to shift your body in between his legs before his fingers get back to tenderly remove the last remaining braids.

• as he does so, you simply enjoy each other’s presence. ya’ll would be cracking jokes, planning suggestions for the wedding, your jobs, and a myriad of other topics to kill time.

• about 30 more minutes pass by and your braids are finally out! he leans back feeling accomplished and marvels at how much your hair has grown over the month.

• “may i?” he politely asks. his expectant eyes glancing into yours for approval.

• “of course, kal.” you grin. it’s like seeing a child light up in a candy store, he’s so elated.

• you feel more at ease and lean into his touch as his fingers lovingly caress through your natural hair and scalp.

• you know that he just wants to feel your hair in it’s natural state. it’s not out of a fetish, but out of pure fascination, so you let him!

• you love that even though you’ve been together for 4 years and he’s helped you with your hair on multiple occasions, the curious kryptonian wonders why he always has to ask you before touching your hair.

• as a journalist, he’s gonna conduct his own research.

• he educates himself and he understands the history of that one boundary in your community, so he always asks you before touching your hair or he waits for you to offer.

• he’s not even human and he understands the basic human decency of not to reach out and touch someone’s hair out of nowhere.

• you sigh in relief and thank clark with a kiss before you go to dispose the plastic bag of worn out braids to the kitchen and into the large garbage can. you turn around and lean up against the sink.

• now it’s time to wash, condition, detangle, and dry.

• clark already knows the next step. he stands from his position on the couch and stretches his back muscles. he moderately saunters to the arched threshold that separates the kitchen and living room. his tall stature works in his favor as he casually raises his arms with his hands gripping the arch that’s a few inches above his head.

• you know exactly what pose i’m trying to poorly describe to the best of my ability. it happens to be one of those non-sexual turn ons that men do without them realizing.

• you go into a bit of a hypnotic state as you stare at his bulging biceps. you also take notice of how his white t-shirt raises up to expose a small section of his sculpted abdomen. the raven tresses on his skin that perfectly matches the messy curls on his head form a trail straight down to his—

• the trance is broken by the baritone voice of your fiancé.

• “my eyes are up here, angel. were you even listening to me?” he flirtatiously quips and tilts his head with a playful smirk curving on his lips, lowering his arms to cross them over his chest.

• like some suave lady killer, he approaches you and places his index under your chin to shift your gaze to his.

• girl, not you getting caught in 4K! you know that man is fine, but you got to finish off your hair. there’s no time to waste when it comes to that, so you must stay focused.

• you can’t help, but feel the heat of embarrassment rush on your melanated cheeks and giggle nervously before you confess.

• “i’m sorry, clark! after all of these years, you still get me sprung. now, what were you saying, boo? ”

• “it’s no worries, (n/n). don’t doubt that you’ve got the same effect on me too.” he blushes himself, beaming at the compliment and pecks your forehead, nose, and lips before he resumes his question.

• “would you like to wash in the sink or shower?”

• he bursts into a joyous laugh as you don’t hesitate to choose the shower.

• of course he was hoping you’d say that, but you shut down the idea because you just want to kill two birds with one stone, wrap this up, and cuddle in bed.

• he understands where you’re coming from and it’s no pressure at all. you both love when you two get down in the bedroom, but you share a common belief that spending quality time is the key to true intimacy.

• he takes your hand and leads you both to your shared bathroom.

• he puts his glasses on the sink, switches on the shower and checks for the perfect temperature that’s not too hot for your scalp, but not too cool for your body.

• you go to obtain large drying towels, african net wash cloths, and disposable shower caps. you then seek out the shampoo, conditioner, and detangling cream to nourish and clean your hair.

• you return to the bathroom with the items and clark gets your second opinion on the water temperature. you get a feel and let him know that it’s just right before you both strip of your clothes until you’re both completely naked. you make sure your engagement ring is placed in the velvet box it came in and set it on your drawer before you both step under the running water.

• clark reaches up to detach the shower head. before making a move, he asks if you need any further assistance in this step and you gladly accept, closing your eyes as he handles the shower head to pre-rinse both of your heads for a well deserved cleaning.

• as he puts the shower head back where it belongs, you let him know that you want to do the shampooing for both you and him.

• yep, clark uses your products on his hair!

• one time after your fifth date, he hugged you and his sensitive nose stealthily picked up on the natural, sweet, and intoxicating scent of the hair lotion that seeped into your scalp. he thought at first it was your perfume, which he loves too, but he was mistaken!

• “my god, you smell amazing.”

• clark takes you out to dinner and feeds your ego! okay, kal-el!

• he couldn’t get enough of it!

• this aroma— it was like something fresh and made from natural ingredients without any harsh chemicals.

• it reminds him of the homegrown warmth and love that his parents, jonathan and martha raised him up in back in smallville.

• if it wasn’t so soon (or the fact that he hasn’t told you his secret then), he would literally fly you out there in 10 minutes.

• when you moved in together, he would sometimes sneak a bit of your shampoo and conditioner in his hair routine once or twice a week until you finally caught up to him!

• you scolded clark a bit for using your products without permission because you would’ve let him use a little if he’d ask and plus, that stuff was expensive!

• he looked genuinely remorseful and apologized. “i’m sorry, (f/n). it was wrong of me to sneak like that, but i just wanted to use it because it’s like i’m taking a part of you with me everywhere i go. that way even though we’re apart, i don’t feel so alone in this universe anymore.”

• that almost had you crying and throwing up. he’s as big a simp for you as you are for him, so you couldn’t stay mad at him!

• you had an agreement to share or double up as long as you both are putting in for it.

• it was definitely no problem for clark because besides it’s sentimental value, it does wonders for his hair! it looks healthier, shinier and it feels softer compared to those 2-in-1 shampoo/conditioner concoctions that he’s been using since high school.

• he loves your weekly beauty supply store excursions. he doesn’t care if the 6 items in your cart is $35, he’s paying for it all!

• clark’s aqua pupils observes from behind as you pour a generous amount of shampoo into your palm, rubbing the other against it, and massaging the bubbly, white substance through your scalp. your fingers work to make sure every single hair on your head is lathered in the coconut scented liquid and he notices that you’re careful not to tangle it.

• his own trance is broken by a “your turn! now lean down a bit, my love.” you’re now waiting for him to follow through, leaning his head down and forward to make his now drenched, dark hair right in your view and in your reach.

• he exhales at the contact of the cold shampoo descending on his scalp. as your fingers massage through his hair, his eyes close and a smile of ecstasy plays on his lips.

• your touch, the scent of the product, and the fact that if he opened his eyes again at this very moment, your breasts would be right in his face is clark’s idea of his personal heaven.

• you both take turns to rinse your own hair and each others to double check that all of the suds of the shampoo are gone.

• you repeat the process again, but this time it’s with conditioner. once that’s applied, you both put on the shower caps to let it rest and do its thing.

• you both use that time to talk some more and thoroughly clean your bodies of the filth of the work day using the african net wash clothes and aromatherapy body wash.

• after one last rinse of ya’lls hair, you cut the water off and grab the towels set out to wrap around your soaked bodies and dripping hair before walking to your shared bedroom.

• fortunately, you and clark have your own respective hair dryers, so that step doesn’t take too long before you take on the final boss: detangling.

• still clad in your towels, you and clark apply the detangling cream through your scalps. as he uses his comb to effortlessly rake through his noir mop, you just kind of stand and stare at the detangling brush in your hand.

• if you’re tender headed, you’ve probably lived the nightmare over and over with your heavy handed mother tugging the comb through the knotted ends, jolting your head and neck forward as you whined in pain. of course she got mad at you for that and said that it didn’t even hurt.

• you’re grown now! with your own bills, home, car, job, and man. there’s way more stressful things in the world than getting some knots out.

• you start the teeth of the comb from the root of your hair and hear the wet stickiness of the detangling cream as it glides to the end.

• okay, we’re getting somewhere! no pain or the pulling of knots for the next few strands near the front. now let’s start on the back. comb one, comb two, comb three—

• “ow, ugh!” you yelp. cringing as you hit a knot at the end.

“ woah! sweetheart, are you alright?”

• clark immediately halts his actions and puts his comb down. he takes one step behind you to examine the situation.

“please, lord, don’t tell me it’s tangled that bad.”

• you attempt to comb without breaking your hair out and the more you try, the more painful it gets. your arms and hands started to stiffen again.

• you lowkey wanted to cry because you just want this to be done and sleep peacefully in clark’s arms for the rest of the night.

• you immediately ask clark for help and he once again, comes to the rescue. he was gentle and comforting, but straightforward when it came to getting those knots.

• he talks you through it to make this a little easier.

• “i’m so sorry, honey. this is gonna hurt a bit, but we’re gonna knock these out and go straight to bed in no time, okay? i love you.” he kisses your temple before he proceeds with the task.

• several minutes of detangling are over! clark gets a second shower of kisses all over his face as you thank him again.

• you discard your towels and replace them with your nightclothes. clark’s shirtless with his sweats and you’re comfortable in another one of clark’s shirts with a fresh pair of cotton shorts.

• you put your hair in an afro puff ponytail and as always, you let your fiancé do the honors of placing your superman patterned bonnet on over your hair like a king crowning his queen.

• he looks at you with such pride and joy. seeing you happy feels so good it hurts. it makes him feel as weak as when he’s around green k. maybe even more.

• clark wouldn’t feel too comfortable to wrap his hair up just yet, so you suggested he uses a satin pillowcase instead.

• speaking of pillows, you look at the clock and realize it’s gotten late. you and clark shut off the lights and retire your exhausted bodies into your bed.

• you lay in a fetal position and turn to face him. kryptonians don’t usually need that much sleep as humans do, so you weren’t surprised that he was still awake.

• you both gaze and admire each other in comfortable silence. your hand reaching to his jaw. your brown toned fingertips caress the pale yet angelic face of the man you love. he closes his eyelids and leans into your warm touch.

• like a magnet, you drew closer to his face until your, full yearning lips rested on his. it doesn’t take him a second to melt into it, his hands clinging to your waist to rest your figure on top of his. your palms find themselves to rest on each side of his jawline.

• between each kiss, the moonlight illuminates the wide smiles you exchange to each other.

• after you two get your fill of each other’s affection, you lay your head on clark’s chest with his arms still acting as a shield around your back. he pecks your temple and is pulled in by the music of your steady heartbeat. he looks down to see your eyes pointed toward his and your hands folded flat on his chest.

• “thank you, clark. thank you so much for your help, your patience, your kindness, your love, and your compassion. not to mention that you are so fine, you still get me giggling like a schoolgirl at my big age! whether you’re superman, clark kent, or kal-el, i just thank you for being you. i love you, clark kent and that’ll never change.” your lips curve with a beaming smile.

• “(f/n), you need to know that everything i do, i do it for you and i’d do it again. you’re the most beautiful person and i’m not just talking about your stunning beauty. your heart is golden. despite everything that we’ve been through, it’s always been you. you understand me, you give me grace and hold me accountable, you still believe in me when i don’t even believe in myself. that’s how i knew i had to ask you to marry me, so i love you more, (f/n) kent and that’ll never change.”

• “look at us! we’ve only been engaged for a month and it sounds like we’re exchanging vows already.”

• “that sounds like a great start to me.”

• you both laugh and he gives you one last lingering kiss on your lips. your heads drop and your eyelids close before you take your peaceful slumber in each other’s presence.

[fayelero]

your writing and characterization is so good man (๑﹏๑//)

was wondering if you could write for katsuki - specifically, how physical affection would start with him ? like first time cuddling and allat

thank you !!!!!!

ⓘ 02. KISS ME MORE !

⤷ FLUFF ﹫ katsuki bakugo x fem!reader ﹫ thanks for this req that’s so sweet!!! and thank you <333

⚠︎ fluff, none .ᐟ.ᐟ

Katsuki Bakugo had always been good at two things: blowing shit up, and pushing people away.

He wasn’t bad at feelings—he just didn’t speak their language. Where others opened their arms easily, Katsuki crossed his. Where others confessed with flowers and flustered smiles, Katsuki confessed with a fight—literally. You’d been arguing about something so stupid you couldn’t even remember it, and then he just… blurted it out.

“I love you, okay?!”

Like it was a curse.

Like it was your fault.

Like you’d made him say it with your stupid face and your stupid smile and the way you always waited—like you knew he had it in him if you were just patient enough.

And maybe you did.

Because that was how it had to be with him. Slow. Careful. Measured. He wasn’t a guy you could rush, not unless you wanted to send him sprinting in the opposite direction. He didn’t trust easy. He didn’t touch easy, either.

So you gave him time.

And, god, it took months.

You remember the first time he held your hand like it was burned into your skin. You were walking home together after a late dinner. He was grumbling about the service —“Took too long, they messed up my rice, next time I’m cookin’”— and you just smiled, bumped your hand against his.

Once. Twice. Like a dare.

He jerked away at first, scowled at the sidewalk. But then—five whole steps later—his fingers brushed yours. Once. Then again.

Then he grabbed it.

Tight. Like he was afraid if he didn’t squeeze hard enough you’d float away.

You didn’t say anything. You just smiled, let him have the silence, let him have the small victory like it was the biggest damn thing in the world.

And for him?

It was.

⸻

Cuddling came later.

You tried a few times. Scooted closer on the couch. Threw a blanket over both of you. Laid your head on his shoulder until he got so tense you could practically hear the gears grinding in his brain.

You didn’t get upset. You just adjusted. Gave him space.

Until one night—cold, rainy, thunder rolling in the distance—you were curled up on his couch in one of his shirts and a pair of fluffy socks, flipping through a dumb movie while he cooked dinner.

You must’ve dozed off. Just a little.

Because the next thing you remembered was warmth. Heavy, awkward warmth. The kind that smelled like sweat and spice and him.

Katsuki Bakugo had sat down beside you—not at the other end of the couch, not in his usual space, but right up against you. His arm was draped stiffly around your shoulders, like someone had given him a five-second tutorial on how cuddling worked and he was just trying it out.

You blinked at him. He didn’t look at you. Just stared straight ahead, expression stormy.

“…You okay?” you whispered, voice scratchy from sleep.

“Don’t make this weird,” he growled.

You fought the smile threatening to curl on your lips. “You’re literally cuddling me.”

“Shut up.”

But he didn’t move away. If anything, his arm tightened slightly, pulling you in closer like he was afraid you’d point it out too loud and ruin the spell.

You nestled into his chest and heard his heart thudding like it was trying to punch its way out. He was warm. Strong. Smelled like fire and cedarwood shampoo and the faintest trace of caramel from the sauce he’d been making earlier.

“…You smell good,” you murmured, mostly to mess with him.

“Jesus fuck,” he muttered, squeezing his eyes shut.

You laughed, breathless, and leaned into him harder. “I like you like this.”

“Like what?”

“Soft.”

“I’m not soft,” he bit out.

You kissed his shoulder. “You’re the softest.”

⸻

The first time you really kissed him—kissed him, not those shy little pecks you snuck in when he was distracted—it happened by accident.

He’d just gotten back from a long mission. Exhausted, dirty, too tired to be angry about anything. You’d met him at his door, towel in hand, lips parted with something warm to say—and he just stared at you.

Something changed in his eyes. Like a wire snapped. Or maybe like something finally clicked.

He grabbed your wrist. Not rough. Not panicked. Just firm. Sure.

Pulled you inside.

And kissed you like he’d never be brave enough to do it again.

It wasn’t smooth. There was a little too much teeth. His hand fumbled awkwardly against your jaw. He kissed like he fought—hard, passionate, a little reckless. But behind the tension was something that broke your chest wide open:

Desperation.

Because Katsuki didn’t give easily. So when he did, it meant everything.

When you finally pulled back, dizzy and grinning and out of breath, he was flushed scarlet. “Don’t—don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you’re proud.”

“I am proud.”

He groaned and buried his face in your neck. “You’re such a pain in the ass.”

You giggled, fingers in his hair. “Yeah. But I’m your pain in the ass.”

“…Tch.”

⸻

Katsuki Bakugo would never be the boyfriend who said “I love you” every day.

But he would bring you coffee exactly how you liked it. He’d tie your shoelaces for you when your hands were full. He’d fight villains with one hand if it meant he could keep you behind him with the other.

He wouldn’t cuddle you in public—but if you were tired on the train, he’d scowl at anyone who looked your way while letting you lean on his shoulder.

He wouldn’t ask for kisses—but if you kissed him, he’d kiss back like he needed it to breathe.

And if you teased him about it?

“Shut the hell up,” he’d growl.

But he’d still let you crawl into his lap that night, tuck your face into the crook of his neck, and whisper that you loved him.

And maybe—maybe—he’d whisper it back.

Voice hoarse. Quiet.

Like it burned him.

Like he meant it with everything he had.

Because he did.

He always had.

[desiree-uk]

A new script mod by fantuanss12!

I got to test this mod out and it's another fun but more interactive way of buying groceries! - desiree-uk fantuanss12! mod notes:

What does this mod do:

This mod added a grocery delivery service. Shop and wait until a delivery sim come with a bag. Accept delivery and open the bag, Get the items inside it.

How to use:

There are two way to access this service: 1. Select grocery store rabbit hole --> Request Grocery Delivery Service -Combo rabbit hole will be in Grocery Store... Pie menu

2. Select cellphone or home phone --> Services... --> Call for Grocery Delivery -If there's multiple grocery stores, a dialog will pop up and ask to select one -Can't shop if there's no grocery store in the world

Shop as usual and buy items. Wait until a delivery service sim come and ring the doorbell. Accept it like pizza delivery service. Sim will be charged 30 simoleons for the service.

The grocery bag is from The Sims 4 Cottage Living.

Others:

If the delivery didn't come:

-Use MasterController to check whether there's 4 pizza delivery service sim. Two for pizza, two for grocery (Game needs time to generate sims to fill the spot)

-Since the delivery system is almost the same as pizza delivery, try to order pizza to see whether they can reach the lot.

-There's report that in worlds with no roads, service sim may not show up but the grocery bag is somewhere around the lot. Try to search around the house.

Credit: Big thanks to twinsimming for phone coding help! Simmers on Discord and tumblr for testing Battery's script mod template CmarNYC's SimOutfitter tool ILSpy Visual Studio 2022 Multiple modder's tutorial. EA for the bag

Download from MTS!

[darrylhudson86]

This Is How Google Works! 🔥

🌐 Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes when you hit that search button? 🤔 Buckle up, 'cause we're about to take a wild ride into the fascinating world of search engines! 🕵️‍♂️✨

1️⃣ **The Web Crawlers 🕷️:** Imagine tiny digital spiders crawling the web, exploring every nook and cranny. These web crawlers gather info on websites and their content. It's like Google's own version of a web safari! 🌐🕸️

2️⃣ **The Indexing Game 📚:** Once the web crawlers have their treasure trove of data, it's time to organize it into a massive digital library – the index. Think of it as a well-organized bookshelf where every website has its own spot. 📖🔍

3️⃣ **The Algorithm ! 🕺 This is where the search engine's brain kicks in. Complex algorithms analyze your query, assess the indexed data, and perform a magical matchmaking dance to present the most relevant results. It's like a digital love story! 💖

4️⃣ **Ranking Matters 📊:** Ever wonder why some websites top the search results? It's all about the ranking game. The search engine evaluates factors like relevance, content quality, and user experience to determine who gets the spotlight. It's like a website popularity contest! 🏆

5️⃣ **Constant Updates 🔄:** The digital world is ever-changing, and so are search engine algorithms. They evolve to keep up with trends, user behavior, and technological advancements. It's like giving your favorite app a regular update, but for the entire internet! 🌐🔄

6️⃣ SEO Secrets 🤐: Want your website to shine in the search results? Enter the world of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It's like the roadmap that guides your website to become more noticeable, boost organic traffic, and outperform competitors.

Hope this sneak peek into the search engine universe got you excited! ✨ If you're hungry for more, dive into my SEO guide and unlock the secrets to ruling the search game. 🚀📈

#searchengines #seo #serachenginebots #crawling #ranking #indexing #webcrawlers #searchengineoptimization #seo #algorithm #googlealgorithm #seoexpert #technicalseo #seoagency #seosecrets #seostrategy #seomarketing #digitalmarketing #contentmarketing #affiliatemarketing #seoexecutive #makemoneyonline #onpageseo #earnmoneyonline #passiveincome #workfromhome #homebusiness #onlinebusiness #onlinemarketing #internetmarketing #seotools #seosoftware #organictraffic #freetraffic

[novy2sirius]

JUNO KEYWORDS IN NATAL

- asteroid tutorial

ᰔᩚ જ⁀➴ Juno in the 1h

good looking spouse, important life lessons surrounding marriage and commitment, marriage is a focal point in your life, spouse will approach you first, spouse will help you discover more about yourself, spouse will change your life direction, marriage will cause you to have new outlooks on life, passionate marriage, dominant spouse, masculine spouse, confident spouse, spouse makes you feel like you’re fully yourself, love at first sight/upon first impression when meeting your spouse, being committed to yourself

ᰔᩚ જ⁀➴ Juno in the 2h

spouse spoils you, stable and peaceful marriage, shares similar values with spouse, laid-back/chill/easy going spouse, financially stable spouse, trauma bonding with spouse, spouse is your emotional security in life, spouse improves your self worth, very protective or possessive spouse, needs a safe space to wanna be with someone long term, needs someone who protects them, being committed to your finances

ᰔᩚ જ⁀➴ Juno in the 3h

healthy communication with your spouse, shares a lot of similar interests with spouse, similar opinions to your spouse, charming spouse that has a way with words, outgoing spouse, possibility of spouse living in your neighborhood, meeting your spouse on social media, going to school with your spouse, aren’t afraid to speak your mind to your spouse, sharing the same political views as your spouse, needs a spouse that’s constantly showing them love through words of affirmation, being committed to your siblings or literature

ᰔᩚ જ⁀➴ Juno in the 4h

spouse is your comfort zone, spouse feels like home, shy spouse, immediate sense of comfort when meeting your spouse, spouse is sensitive to your emotions, having the desire to feel emotionally secure with your partner, spouse helps you heal your inner child, having a lot of similar childhood experiences to your spouse, growing up with your spouse, sensitive to your partners emotions, being committed to your family

ᰔᩚ જ⁀➴ Juno in the 5h

popular spouse, talented spouse, spouse that brings out the most creative side of you, flirtatious spouse, playing video games together a lot with your spouse, being interested in similar hobbies to your spouse, spouse with a fun and positive child-like energy, really pleasurable sex with your spouse, going on lots of vacations with your spouse, losing your virginity to your spouse, generous spouse, meeting your spouse through a hookup, being committed to romance or your children

ᰔᩚ જ⁀➴ Juno in the 6h

fit and healthy spouse, marrying a close friend, marrying a coworker, spouse loves animals, spouse is constantly working on improving themself and marriage, trustworthy spouse, needs consistency in a relationship to be happy, being clingy/wanting to go everywhere with the people you’re in relationships or marriages with/wanting to always be with your spouse, innocent spouse, spouse shows love through acts of service, being committed to your hygiene and health

ᰔᩚ જ⁀➴ Juno in the 7h

happy marriage, attractive spouse, charming spouse, hopeless romantic spouse, loyal in relationships/marriage, marrying your best friend, will have important life lessons involving relationships/marriage/commitment, thrives in relationships with loyalty, spouse will protect them and have lots of concern for their well being, may meet their spouse while their in a relationship or their spouse is in a relationship with someone, possible enemies to lovers dynamic with spouse, doesn’t like being in flings/situationships or having one night stands, has multiple very long term relationships, spouse is your business partner, becoming attached to lovers very easily, being committed to long term partners or your spouse

ᰔᩚ જ⁀➴ Juno in the 8h

wealthy spouse/marrying wealth, mysterious spouse, seductive spouse, really good and intimate sex with your spouse, spouse bringing major transformations to your life, quickly forming a deep connection with your spouse when meeting, loving the people you’re in relationships with more even after knowing the dark parts of them, keeping your love life and marriage very private, spouse helps heal trauma, becoming attached to lovers really easily, being committed to people you have close connections with

ᰔᩚ જ⁀➴ Juno in the 9h

marrying someone that’s very intelligent and wise, adventurous spouse, optimistic spouse, meeting your spouse while traveling, meeting your spouse in school (usually college), having similar beliefs to your spouse, foreign spouse, sharing similar viewpoints to your spouses, lucky spouse, spouse will bring lots of luck to your life/positive abundance, would never enjoy being with someone that’s close minded, being committed to college/school

ᰔᩚ જ⁀➴ Juno in the 10h

successful spouse, marrying a celebrity, meeting your spouse through your career, spouse is possibly your boss, dominant spouse, spouse helps you gain many achievements, responsible spouse, career-oriented spouse, spouse will remind you of your father figure, ambitious spouse, never settles for less, marrying someone of higher status, marrying someone that helps you achieve your long term goals, being committed to your career

ᰔᩚ જ⁀➴ Juno in the 11h

marrying someone who isn’t your ideal partner or someone you would have never expected to marry, unique spouse, marrying your soulmate, wealthy spouse, same hopes/wishes as your spouse, marrying a friend, meeting your spouse through social media or friends, spouse that parties hard, deep desire for marriage, manifesting your dream spouse, spouse is a humanitarian, friendly spouse, intellectual spouse, being very committed to friends

ᰔᩚ જ⁀➴ Juno in the 12h

marrying someone who is interested in astrology/the afterlife/the unknown, shy spouse, spouse and marriage will heal you and your traumas, spiritual spouse, selfless/self sacrificing spouse, psychic spouse, marrying someone you have lots of karma with (can be good or challenging karma) and have known in multiple past lives, spouse that helps you fulfill your karmic debt, hidden enemies/secretly hating each other before marriage, good sex with your spouse (the 12th house rules over bed pleasures), secretly having a crush on your spouse for a while before pursuing them (or vice versa), immediate fascination with one another when meeting your spouse, being committed to spirituality

© novy2sirius

[donjuaninhell]

How I ditched streaming services and learned to love Linux: A step-by-step guide to building your very own personal media streaming server (V2.0: REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION)

This is a revised, corrected and expanded version of my tutorial on setting up a personal media server that previously appeared on my old blog (donjuan-auxenfers). I expect that that post is still making the rounds (hopefully with my addendum on modifying group share permissions in Ubuntu to circumvent 0x8007003B "Unexpected Network Error" messages in Windows 10/11 when transferring files) but I have no way of checking. Anyway this new revised version of the tutorial corrects one or two small errors I discovered when rereading what I wrote, adds links to all products mentioned and is just more polished generally. I also expanded it a bit, pointing more adventurous users toward programs such as Sonarr/Radarr/Lidarr and Overseerr which can be used for automating user requests and media collection.

So then, what is this tutorial? This is a tutorial on how to build and set up your own personal media server using Ubuntu as an operating system and Plex (or Jellyfin) to not only manage your media, but to also stream that media to your devices both at home and abroad anywhere in the world where you have an internet connection. Its intent is to show you how building a personal media server and stuffing it full of films, TV, and music that you acquired through indiscriminate and voracious media piracy various legal methods will free you to completely ditch paid streaming services. No more will you have to pay for Disney+, Netflix, HBOMAX, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Peacock, CBS All Access, Paramount+, Crave or any other streaming service that is not named Criterion Channel. Instead whenever you want to watch your favourite films and television shows, you’ll have your own personal service that only features things that you want to see, with files that you have control over. And for music fans out there, both Jellyfin and Plex support music streaming, meaning you can even ditch music streaming services. Goodbye Spotify, Youtube Music, Tidal and Apple Music, welcome back unreasonably large MP3 (or FLAC) collections.

On the hardware front, I’m going to offer a few options catered towards different budgets and media library sizes. The cost of getting a media server up and running using this guide will cost you anywhere from $450 CAD/$325 USD at the low end to $1500 CAD/$1100 USD at the high end (it could go higher). My server was priced closer to the higher figure, but I went and got a lot more storage than most people need. If that seems like a little much, consider for a moment, do you have a roommate, a close friend, or a family member who would be willing to chip in a few bucks towards your little project provided they get access? Well that's how I funded my server. It might also be worth thinking about the cost over time, i.e. how much you spend yearly on subscriptions vs. a one time cost of setting up a server. Additionally there's just the joy of being able to scream "fuck you" at all those show cancelling, library deleting, hedge fund vampire CEOs who run the studios through denying them your money. Drive a stake through David Zaslav's heart.

On the software side I will walk you step-by-step through installing Ubuntu as your server's operating system, configuring your storage as a RAIDz array with ZFS, sharing your zpool to Windows with Samba, running a remote connection between your server and your Windows PC, and then a little about started with Plex/Jellyfin. Every terminal command you will need to input will be provided, and I even share a custom #bash script that will make used vs. available drive space on your server display correctly in Windows.

If you have a different preferred flavour of Linux (Arch, Manjaro, Redhat, Fedora, Mint, OpenSUSE, CentOS, Slackware etc. et. al.) and are aching to tell me off for being basic and using Ubuntu, this tutorial is not for you. The sort of person with a preferred Linux distro is the sort of person who can do this sort of thing in their sleep. Also I don't care. This tutorial is intended for the average home computer user. This is also why we’re not using a more exotic home server solution like running everything through Docker Containers and managing it through a dashboard like Homarr or Heimdall. While such solutions are fantastic and can be very easy to maintain once you have it all set up, wrapping your brain around Docker is a whole thing in and of itself. If you do follow this tutorial and had fun putting everything together, then I would encourage you to return in a year’s time, do your research and set up everything with Docker Containers.

Lastly, this is a tutorial aimed at Windows users. Although I was a daily user of OS X for many years (roughly 2008-2023) and I've dabbled quite a bit with various Linux distributions (mostly Ubuntu and Manjaro), my primary OS these days is Windows 11. Many things in this tutorial will still be applicable to Mac users, but others (e.g. setting up shares) you will have to look up for yourself. I doubt it would be difficult to do so.

Nothing in this tutorial will require feats of computing expertise. All you will need is a basic computer literacy (i.e. an understanding of what a filesystem and directory are, and a degree of comfort in the settings menu) and a willingness to learn a thing or two. While this guide may look overwhelming at first glance, it is only because I want to be as thorough as possible. I want you to understand exactly what it is you're doing, I don't want you to just blindly follow steps. If you half-way know what you’re doing, you will be much better prepared if you ever need to troubleshoot.

Honestly, once you have all the hardware ready it shouldn't take more than an afternoon or two to get everything up and running.

(This tutorial is just shy of seven thousand words long so the rest is under the cut.)

Step One: Choosing Your Hardware

Linux is a light weight operating system, depending on the distribution there's close to no bloat. There are recent distributions available at this very moment that will run perfectly fine on a fourteen year old i3 with 4GB of RAM. Moreover, running Plex or Jellyfin isn’t resource intensive in 90% of use cases. All this is to say, we don’t require an expensive or powerful computer. This means that there are several options available: 1) use an old computer you already have sitting around but aren't using 2) buy a used workstation from eBay, or what I believe to be the best option, 3) order an N100 Mini-PC from AliExpress or Amazon.

Note: If you already have an old PC sitting around that you’ve decided to use, fantastic, move on to the next step.

When weighing your options, keep a few things in mind: the number of people you expect to be streaming simultaneously at any one time, the resolution and bitrate of your media library (4k video takes a lot more processing power than 1080p) and most importantly, how many of those clients are going to be transcoding at any one time. Transcoding is what happens when the playback device does not natively support direct playback of the source file. This can happen for a number of reasons, such as the playback device's native resolution being lower than the file's internal resolution, or because the source file was encoded in a video codec unsupported by the playback device.

Ideally we want any transcoding to be performed by hardware. This means we should be looking for a computer with an Intel processor with Quick Sync. Quick Sync is a dedicated core on the CPU die designed specifically for video encoding and decoding. This specialized hardware makes for highly efficient transcoding both in terms of processing overhead and power draw. Without these Quick Sync cores, transcoding must be brute forced through software. This takes up much more of a CPU’s processing power and requires much more energy. But not all Quick Sync cores are created equal and you need to keep this in mind if you've decided either to use an old computer or to shop for a used workstation on eBay

Any Intel processor from second generation Core (Sandy Bridge circa 2011) onward has Quick Sync cores. It's not until 6th gen (Skylake), however, that the cores support the H.265 HEVC codec. Intel’s 10th gen (Comet Lake) processors introduce support for 10bit HEVC and HDR tone mapping. And the recent 12th gen (Alder Lake) processors brought with them hardware AV1 decoding. As an example, while an 8th gen (Kaby Lake) i5-8500 will be able to hardware transcode a H.265 encoded file, it will fall back to software transcoding if given a 10bit H.265 file. If you’ve decided to use that old PC or to look on eBay for an old Dell Optiplex keep this in mind.

Note 1: The price of old workstations varies wildly and fluctuates frequently. If you get lucky and go shopping shortly after a workplace has liquidated a large number of their workstations you can find deals for as low as $100 on a barebones system, but generally an i5-8500 workstation with 16gb RAM will cost you somewhere in the area of $260 CAD/$200 USD.

Note 2: The AMD equivalent to Quick Sync is called Video Core Next, and while it's fine, it's not as efficient and not as mature a technology. It was only introduced with the first generation Ryzen CPUs and it only got decent with their newest CPUs, we want something cheap.

Alternatively you could forgo having to keep track of what generation of CPU is equipped with Quick Sync cores that feature support for which codecs, and just buy an N100 mini-PC. For around the same price or less of a used workstation you can pick up a mini-PC with an Intel N100 processor. The N100 is a four-core processor based on the 12th gen Alder Lake architecture and comes equipped with the latest revision of the Quick Sync cores. These little processors offer astounding hardware transcoding capabilities for their size and power draw. Otherwise they perform equivalent to an i5-6500, which isn't a terrible CPU. A friend of mine uses an N100 machine as a dedicated retro emulation gaming system and it does everything up to 6th generation consoles just fine. The N100 is also a remarkably efficient chip, it sips power. In fact, the difference between running one of these and an old workstation could work out to hundreds of dollars a year in energy bills depending on where you live.

You can find these Mini-PCs all over Amazon or for a little cheaper on AliExpress. They range in price from $170 CAD/$125 USD for a no name N100 with 8GB RAM to $280 CAD/$200 USD for a Beelink S12 Pro with 16GB RAM. The brand doesn't really matter, they're all coming from the same three factories in Shenzen, go for whichever one fits your budget or has features you want. 8GB RAM should be enough, Linux is lightweight and Plex only calls for 2GB RAM. 16GB RAM might result in a slightly snappier experience, especially with ZFS. A 256GB SSD is more than enough for what we need as a boot drive, but going for a bigger drive might allow you to get away with things like creating preview thumbnails for Plex, but it’s up to you and your budget.

The Mini-PC I wound up buying was a Firebat AK2 Plus with 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. It looks like this:

Note: Be forewarned that if you decide to order a Mini-PC from AliExpress, note the type of power adapter it ships with. The mini-PC I bought came with an EU power adapter and I had to supply my own North American power supply. Thankfully this is a minor issue as barrel plug 30W/12V/2.5A power adapters are easy to find and can be had for $10.

Step Two: Choosing Your Storage

Storage is the most important part of our build. It is also the most expensive. Thankfully it’s also the most easily upgrade-able down the line.

For people with a smaller media collection (4TB to 8TB), a more limited budget, or who will only ever have two simultaneous streams running, I would say that the most economical course of action would be to buy a USB 3.0 8TB external HDD. Something like this one from Western Digital or this one from Seagate. One of these external drives will cost you in the area of $200 CAD/$140 USD. Down the line you could add a second external drive or replace it with a multi-drive RAIDz set up such as detailed below.

If a single external drive the path for you, move on to step three.

For people with larger media libraries (12TB+), who prefer media in 4k, or care who about data redundancy, the answer is a RAID array featuring multiple HDDs in an enclosure.

Note: If you are using an old PC or used workstatiom as your server and have the room for at least three 3.5" drives, and as many open SATA ports on your mother board you won't need an enclosure, just install the drives into the case. If your old computer is a laptop or doesn’t have room for more internal drives, then I would suggest an enclosure.

The minimum number of drives needed to run a RAIDz array is three, and seeing as RAIDz is what we will be using, you should be looking for an enclosure with three to five bays. I think that four disks makes for a good compromise for a home server. Regardless of whether you go for a three, four, or five bay enclosure, do be aware that in a RAIDz array the space equivalent of one of the drives will be dedicated to parity at a ratio expressed by the equation 1 − 1/n i.e. in a four bay enclosure equipped with four 12TB drives, if we configured our drives in a RAIDz1 array we would be left with a total of 36TB of usable space (48TB raw size). The reason for why we might sacrifice storage space in such a manner will be explained in the next section.

A four bay enclosure will cost somewhere in the area of $200 CDN/$140 USD. You don't need anything fancy, we don't need anything with hardware RAID controls (RAIDz is done entirely in software) or even USB-C. An enclosure with USB 3.0 will perform perfectly fine. Don’t worry too much about USB speed bottlenecks. A mechanical HDD will be limited by the speed of its mechanism long before before it will be limited by the speed of a USB connection. I've seen decent looking enclosures from TerraMaster, Yottamaster, Mediasonic and Sabrent.

When it comes to selecting the drives, as of this writing, the best value (dollar per gigabyte) are those in the range of 12TB to 20TB. I settled on 12TB drives myself. If 12TB to 20TB drives are out of your budget, go with what you can afford, or look into refurbished drives. I'm not sold on the idea of refurbished drives but many people swear by them.

When shopping for harddrives, search for drives designed specifically for NAS use. Drives designed for NAS use typically have better vibration dampening and are designed to be active 24/7. They will also often make use of CMR (conventional magnetic recording) as opposed to SMR (shingled magnetic recording). This nets them a sizable read/write performance bump over typical desktop drives. Seagate Ironwolf and Toshiba NAS are both well regarded brands when it comes to NAS drives. I would avoid Western Digital Red drives at this time. WD Reds were a go to recommendation up until earlier this year when it was revealed that they feature firmware that will throw up false SMART warnings telling you to replace the drive at the three year mark quite often when there is nothing at all wrong with that drive. It will likely even be good for another six, seven, or more years.

Step Three: Installing Linux

For this step you will need a USB thumbdrive of at least 6GB in capacity, an .ISO of Ubuntu, and a way to make that thumbdrive bootable media.

First download a copy of Ubuntu desktop (for best performance we could download the Server release, but for new Linux users I would recommend against the server release. The server release is strictly command line interface only, and having a GUI is very helpful for most people. Not many people are wholly comfortable doing everything through the command line, I'm certainly not one of them, and I grew up with DOS 6.0. 22.04.3 Jammy Jellyfish is the current Long Term Service release, this is the one to get.

Download the .ISO and then download and install balenaEtcher on your Windows PC. BalenaEtcher is an easy to use program for creating bootable media, you simply insert your thumbdrive, select the .ISO you just downloaded, and it will create a bootable installation media for you.

Once you've made a bootable media and you've got your Mini-PC (or you old PC/used workstation) in front of you, hook it directly into your router with an ethernet cable, and then plug in the HDD enclosure, a monitor, a mouse and a keyboard. Now turn that sucker on and hit whatever key gets you into the BIOS (typically ESC, DEL or F2). If you’re using a Mini-PC check to make sure that the P1 and P2 power limits are set correctly, my N100's P1 limit was set at 10W, a full 20W under the chip's power limit. Also make sure that the RAM is running at the advertised speed. My Mini-PC’s RAM was set at 2333Mhz out of the box when it should have been 3200Mhz. Once you’ve done that, key over to the boot order and place the USB drive first in the boot order. Then save the BIOS settings and restart.

After you restart you’ll be greeted by Ubuntu's installation screen. Installing Ubuntu is really straight forward, select the "minimal" installation option, as we won't need anything on this computer except for a browser (Ubuntu comes preinstalled with Firefox) and Plex Media Server/Jellyfin Media Server. Also remember to delete and reformat that Windows partition! We don't need it.

Step Four: Installing ZFS and Setting Up the RAIDz Array

Note: If you opted for just a single external HDD skip this step and move onto setting up a Samba share.

Once Ubuntu is installed it's time to configure our storage by installing ZFS to build our RAIDz array. ZFS is a "next-gen" file system that is both massively flexible and massively complex. It's capable of snapshot backup, self healing error correction, ZFS pools can be configured with drives operating in a supplemental manner alongside the storage vdev (e.g. fast cache, dedicated secondary intent log, hot swap spares etc.). It's also a file system very amenable to fine tuning. Block and sector size are adjustable to use case and you're afforded the option of different methods of inline compression. If you'd like a very detailed overview and explanation of its various features and tips on tuning a ZFS array check out these articles from Ars Technica. For now we're going to ignore all these features and keep it simple, we're going to pull our drives together into a single vdev running in RAIDz which will be the entirety of our zpool, no fancy cache drive or SLOG.

Open up the terminal and type the following commands:

sudo apt update

then

sudo apt install zfsutils-linux

This will install the ZFS utility. Verify that it's installed with the following command:

zfs --version

Now, it's time to check that the HDDs we have in the enclosure are healthy, running, and recognized. We also want to find out their device IDs and take note of them:

sudo fdisk -1

Note: You might be wondering why some of these commands require "sudo" in front of them while others don't. "Sudo" is short for "super user do”. When and where "sudo" is used has to do with the way permissions are set up in Linux. Only the "root" user has the access level to perform certain tasks in Linux. As a matter of security and safety regular user accounts are kept separate from the "root" user. It's not advised (or even possible) to boot into Linux as "root" with most modern distributions. Instead by using "sudo" our regular user account is temporarily given the power to do otherwise forbidden things. Don't worry about it too much at this stage, but if you want to know more check out this introduction.

If everything is working you should get a list of the various drives detected along with their device IDs which will look like this: /dev/sdc. You can also check the device IDs of the drives by opening the disk utility app. Jot these IDs down as we'll need them for our next step, creating our RAIDz array.

RAIDz is similar to RAID-5 in that instead of striping your data over multiple disks, exchanging redundancy for speed and available space (RAID-0), or mirroring your data writing by two copies of every piece (RAID-1), it instead writes parity blocks across the disks in addition to striping, this provides a balance of speed, redundancy and available space. If a single drive fails, the parity blocks on the working drives can be used to reconstruct the entire array as soon as a replacement drive is added.

Additionally, RAIDz improves over some of the common RAID-5 flaws. It's more resilient and capable of self healing, as it is capable of automatically checking for errors against a checksum. It's more forgiving in this way, and it's likely that you'll be able to detect when a drive is dying well before it fails. A RAIDz array can survive the loss of any one drive.

Note: While RAIDz is indeed resilient, if a second drive fails during the rebuild, you're fucked. Always keep backups of things you can't afford to lose. This tutorial, however, is not about proper data safety.

To create the pool, use the following command:

sudo zpool create "zpoolnamehere" raidz "device IDs of drives we're putting in the pool"

For example, let's creatively name our zpool "mypool". This poil will consist of four drives which have the device IDs: sdb, sdc, sdd, and sde. The resulting command will look like this:

sudo zpool create mypool raidz /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sdd /dev/sde

If as an example you bought five HDDs and decided you wanted more redundancy dedicating two drive to this purpose, we would modify the command to "raidz2" and the command would look something like the following:

sudo zpool create mypool raidz2 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sdd /dev/sde /dev/sdf

An array configured like this is known as RAIDz2 and is able to survive two disk failures.

Once the zpool has been created, we can check its status with the command:

zpool status

Or more concisely with:

zpool list

The nice thing about ZFS as a file system is that a pool is ready to go immediately after creation. If we were to set up a traditional RAID-5 array using mbam, we'd have to sit through a potentially hours long process of reformatting and partitioning the drives. Instead we're ready to go right out the gates.

The zpool should be automatically mounted to the filesystem after creation, check on that with the following:

df -hT | grep zfs

Note: If your computer ever loses power suddenly, say in event of a power outage, you may have to re-import your pool. In most cases, ZFS will automatically import and mount your pool, but if it doesn’t and you can't see your array, simply open the terminal and type sudo zpool import -a.

By default a zpool is mounted at /"zpoolname". The pool should be under our ownership but let's make sure with the following command:

sudo chown -R "yourlinuxusername" /"zpoolname"

Note: Changing file and folder ownership with "chown" and file and folder permissions with "chmod" are essential commands for much of the admin work in Linux, but we won't be dealing with them extensively in this guide. If you'd like a deeper tutorial and explanation you can check out these two guides: chown and chmod.

You can access the zpool file system through the GUI by opening the file manager (the Ubuntu default file manager is called Nautilus) and clicking on "Other Locations" on the sidebar, then entering the Ubuntu file system and looking for a folder with your pool's name. Bookmark the folder on the sidebar for easy access.

Your storage pool is now ready to go. Assuming that we already have some files on our Windows PC we want to copy to over, we're going to need to install and configure Samba to make the pool accessible in Windows.

Step Five: Setting Up Samba/Sharing

Samba is what's going to let us share the zpool with Windows and allow us to write to it from our Windows machine. First let's install Samba with the following commands:

sudo apt-get update

then

sudo apt-get install samba

Next create a password for Samba.

sudo smbpswd -a "yourlinuxusername"

It will then prompt you to create a password. Just reuse your Ubuntu user password for simplicity's sake.

Note: if you're using just a single external drive replace the zpool location in the following commands with wherever it is your external drive is mounted, for more information see this guide on mounting an external drive in Ubuntu.

After you've created a password we're going to create a shareable folder in our pool with this command

mkdir /"zpoolname"/"foldername"

Now we're going to open the smb.conf file and make that folder shareable. Enter the following command.

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

This will open the .conf file in nano, the terminal text editor program. Now at the end of smb.conf add the following entry:

["foldername"]

path = /"zpoolname"/"foldername"

available = yes

valid users = "yourlinuxusername"

read only = no

writable = yes

browseable = yes

guest ok = no

Ensure that there are no line breaks between the lines and that there's a space on both sides of the equals sign. Our next step is to allow Samba traffic through the firewall:

sudo ufw allow samba

Finally restart the Samba service:

sudo systemctl restart smbd

At this point we'll be able to access to the pool, browse its contents, and read and write to it from Windows. But there's one more thing left to do, Windows doesn't natively support the ZFS file systems and will read the used/available/total space in the pool incorrectly. Windows will read available space as total drive space, and all used space as null. This leads to Windows only displaying a dwindling amount of "available" space as the drives are filled. We can fix this! Functionally this doesn't actually matter, we can still write and read to and from the disk, it just makes it difficult to tell at a glance the proportion of used/available space, so this is an optional step but one I recommend (this step is also unnecessary if you're just using a single external drive). What we're going to do is write a little shell script in #bash. Open nano with the terminal with the command:

nano

Now insert the following code:

#!/bin/bash CUR_PATH=`pwd` ZFS_CHECK_OUTPUT=$(zfs get type $CUR_PATH 2>&1 > /dev/null) > /dev/null if [[ $ZFS_CHECK_OUTPUT == *not\ a\ ZFS* ]] then IS_ZFS=false else IS_ZFS=true fi if [[ $IS_ZFS = false ]] then df $CUR_PATH | tail -1 | awk '{print $2" "$4}' else USED=$((`zfs get -o value -Hp used $CUR_PATH` / 1024)) > /dev/null AVAIL=$((`zfs get -o value -Hp available $CUR_PATH` / 1024)) > /dev/null TOTAL=$(($USED+$AVAIL)) > /dev/null echo $TOTAL $AVAIL fi

Save the script as "dfree.sh" to /home/"yourlinuxusername" then change the ownership of the file to make it executable with this command:

sudo chmod 774 dfree.sh

Now open smb.conf with sudo again:

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Now add this entry to the top of the configuration file to direct Samba to use the results of our script when Windows asks for a reading on the pool's used/available/total drive space:

[global]

dfree command = /home/"yourlinuxusername"/dfree.sh

Save the changes to smb.conf and then restart Samba again with the terminal:

sudo systemctl restart smbd

Now there’s one more thing we need to do to fully set up the Samba share, and that’s to modify a hidden group permission. In the terminal window type the following command:

usermod -a -G sambashare “yourlinuxusername”

Then restart samba again:

sudo systemctl restart smbd

If we don’t do this last step, everything will appear to work fine, and you will even be able to see and map the drive from Windows and even begin transferring files, but you'd soon run into a lot of frustration. As every ten minutes or so a file would fail to transfer and you would get a window announcing “0x8007003B Unexpected Network Error”. This window would require your manual input to continue the transfer with the file next in the queue. And at the end it would reattempt to transfer whichever files failed the first time around. 99% of the time they’ll go through that second try, but this is still all a major pain in the ass. Especially if you’ve got a lot of data to transfer or you want to step away from the computer for a while.

It turns out samba can act a little weirdly with the higher read/write speeds of RAIDz arrays and transfers from Windows, and will intermittently crash and restart itself if this group option isn’t changed. Inputting the above command will prevent you from ever seeing that window.

The last thing we're going to do before switching over to our Windows PC is grab the IP address of our Linux machine. Enter the following command:

hostname -I

This will spit out this computer's IP address on the local network (it will look something like 192.168.0.x), write it down. It might be a good idea once you're done here to go into your router settings and reserving that IP for your Linux system in the DHCP settings. Check the manual for your specific model router on how to access its settings, typically it can be accessed by opening a browser and typing http:\\192.168.0.1 in the address bar, but your router may be different.

Okay we’re done with our Linux computer for now. Get on over to your Windows PC, open File Explorer, right click on Network and click "Map network drive". Select Z: as the drive letter (you don't want to map the network drive to a letter you could conceivably be using for other purposes) and enter the IP of your Linux machine and location of the share like so: \\"LINUXCOMPUTERLOCALIPADDRESSGOESHERE"\"zpoolnamegoeshere"\. Windows will then ask you for your username and password, enter the ones you set earlier in Samba and you're good. If you've done everything right it should look something like this:

You can now start moving media over from Windows to the share folder. It's a good idea to have a hard line running to all machines. Moving files over Wi-Fi is going to be tortuously slow, the only thing that’s going to make the transfer time tolerable (hours instead of days) is a solid wired connection between both machines and your router.

Step Six: Setting Up Remote Desktop Access to Your Server

After the server is up and going, you’ll want to be able to access it remotely from Windows. Barring serious maintenance/updates, this is how you'll access it most of the time. On your Linux system open the terminal and enter:

sudo apt install xrdp

Then:

sudo systemctl enable xrdp

Once it's finished installing, open “Settings” on the sidebar and turn off "automatic login" in the User category. Then log out of your account. Attempting to remotely connect to your Linux computer while you’re logged in will result in a black screen!

Now get back on your Windows PC, open search and look for "RDP". A program called "Remote Desktop Connection" should pop up, open this program as an administrator by right-clicking and selecting “run as an administrator”. You’ll be greeted with a window. In the field marked “Computer” type in the IP address of your Linux computer. Press connect and you'll be greeted with a new window and prompt asking for your username and password. Enter your Ubuntu username and password here.

If everything went right, you’ll be logged into your Linux computer. If the performance is sluggish, adjust the display options. Lowering the resolution and colour depth do a lot to make the interface feel snappier.

Remote access is how we're going to be using our Linux system from now, barring edge cases like needing to get into the BIOS or upgrading to a new version of Ubuntu. Everything else from performing maintenance like a monthly zpool scrub to checking zpool status and updating software can all be done remotely.

This is how my server lives its life now, happily humming and chirping away on the floor next to the couch in a corner of the living room.

Step Seven: Plex Media Server/Jellyfin

Okay we’ve got all the ground work finished and our server is almost up and running. We’ve got Ubuntu up and running, our storage array is primed, we’ve set up remote connections and sharing, and maybe we’ve moved over some of favourite movies and TV shows.

Now we need to decide on the media server software to use which will stream our media to us and organize our library. For most people I’d recommend Plex. It just works 99% of the time. That said, Jellyfin has a lot to recommend it by too, even if it is rougher around the edges. Some people run both simultaneously, it’s not that big of an extra strain. I do recommend doing a little bit of your own research into the features each platform offers, but as a quick run down, consider some of the following points:

Plex is closed source and is funded through PlexPass purchases while Jellyfin is open source and entirely user driven. This means a number of things: for one, Plex requires you to purchase a “PlexPass” (purchased as a one time lifetime fee $159.99 CDN/$120 USD or paid for on a monthly or yearly subscription basis) in order to access to certain features, like hardware transcoding (and we want hardware transcoding) or automated intro/credits detection and skipping, Jellyfin offers some of these features for free through plugins. Plex supports a lot more devices than Jellyfin and updates more frequently. That said, Jellyfin's Android and iOS apps are completely free, while the Plex Android and iOS apps must be activated for a one time cost of $6 CDN/$5 USD. But that $6 fee gets you a mobile app that is much more functional and features a unified UI across platforms, the Plex mobile apps are simply a more polished experience. The Jellyfin apps are a bit of a mess and the iOS and Android versions are very different from each other.

Jellyfin’s actual media player is more fully featured than Plex's, but on the other hand Jellyfin's UI, library customization and automatic media tagging really pale in comparison to Plex. Streaming your music library is free through both Jellyfin and Plex, but Plex offers the PlexAmp app for dedicated music streaming which boasts a number of fantastic features, unfortunately some of those fantastic features require a PlexPass. If your internet is down, Jellyfin can still do local streaming, while Plex can fail to play files unless you've got it set up a certain way. Jellyfin has a slew of neat niche features like support for Comic Book libraries with the .cbz/.cbt file types, but then Plex offers some free ad-supported TV and films, they even have a free channel that plays nothing but Classic Doctor Who.

Ultimately it's up to you, I settled on Plex because although some features are pay-walled, it just works. It's more reliable and easier to use, and a one-time fee is much easier to swallow than a subscription. I had a pretty easy time getting my boomer parents and tech illiterate brother introduced to and using Plex and I don't know if I would've had as easy a time doing that with Jellyfin. I do also need to mention that Jellyfin does take a little extra bit of tinkering to get going in Ubuntu, you’ll have to set up process permissions, so if you're more tolerant to tinkering, Jellyfin might be up your alley and I’ll trust that you can follow their installation and configuration guide. For everyone else, I recommend Plex.

So pick your poison: Plex or Jellyfin.

Note: The easiest way to download and install either of these packages in Ubuntu is through Snap Store.

After you've installed one (or both), opening either app will launch a browser window into the browser version of the app allowing you to set all the options server side.

The process of adding creating media libraries is essentially the same in both Plex and Jellyfin. You create a separate libraries for Television, Movies, and Music and add the folders which contain the respective types of media to their respective libraries. The only difficult or time consuming aspect is ensuring that your files and folders follow the appropriate naming conventions:

Plex naming guide for Movies

Plex naming guide for Television

Jellyfin follows the same naming rules but I find their media scanner to be a lot less accurate and forgiving than Plex. Once you've selected the folders to be scanned the service will scan your files, tagging everything and adding metadata. Although I find do find Plex more accurate, it can still erroneously tag some things and you might have to manually clean up some tags in a large library. (When I initially created my library it tagged the 1963-1989 Doctor Who as some Korean soap opera and I needed to manually select the correct match after which everything was tagged normally.) It can also be a bit testy with anime (especially OVAs) be sure to check TVDB to ensure that you have your files and folders structured and named correctly. If something is not showing up at all, double check the name.

Once that's done, organizing and customizing your library is easy. You can set up collections, grouping items together to fit a theme or collect together all the entries in a franchise. You can make playlists, and add custom artwork to entries. It's fun setting up collections with posters to match, there are even several websites dedicated to help you do this like PosterDB. As an example, below are two collections in my library, one collecting all the entries in a franchise, the other follows a theme.

My Star Trek collection, featuring all eleven television series, and thirteen films.

My Best of the Worst collection, featuring sixty-nine films previously showcased on RedLetterMedia’s Best of the Worst. They’re all absolutely terrible and I love them.

As for settings, ensure you've got Remote Access going, it should work automatically and be sure to set your upload speed after running a speed test. In the library settings set the database cache to 2000MB to ensure a snappier and more responsive browsing experience, and then check that playback quality is set to original/maximum. If you’re severely bandwidth limited on your upload and have remote users, you might want to limit the remote stream bitrate to something more reasonable, just as a note of comparison Netflix’s 1080p bitrate is approximately 5Mbps, although almost anyone watching through a chromium based browser is streaming at 720p and 3mbps. Other than that you should be good to go. For actually playing your files, there's a Plex app for just about every platform imaginable. I mostly watch television and films on my laptop using the Windows Plex app, but I also use the Android app which can broadcast to the chromecast connected to the TV in the office and the Android TV app for our smart TV. Both are fully functional and easy to navigate, and I can also attest to the OS X version being equally functional.

Part Eight: Finding Media

Now, this is not really a piracy tutorial, there are plenty of those out there. But if you’re unaware, BitTorrent is free and pretty easy to use, just pick a client (qBittorrent is the best) and go find some public trackers to peruse. Just know now that all the best trackers are private and invite only, and that they can be exceptionally difficult to get into. I’m already on a few, and even then, some of the best ones are wholly out of my reach.

If you decide to take the left hand path and turn to Usenet you’ll have to pay. First you’ll need to sign up with a provider like Newshosting or EasyNews for access to Usenet itself, and then to actually find anything you’re going to need to sign up with an indexer like NZBGeek or NZBFinder. There are dozens of indexers, and many people cross post between them, but for more obscure media it’s worth checking multiple. You’ll also need a binary downloader like SABnzbd. That caveat aside, Usenet is faster, bigger, older, less traceable than BitTorrent, and altogether slicker. I honestly prefer it, and I'm kicking myself for taking this long to start using it because I was scared off by the price. I’ve found so many things on Usenet that I had sought in vain elsewhere for years, like a 2010 Italian film about a massacre perpetrated by the SS that played the festival circuit but never received a home media release; some absolute hero uploaded a rip of a festival screener DVD to Usenet. Anyway, figure out the rest of this shit on your own and remember to use protection, get yourself behind a VPN, use a SOCKS5 proxy with your BitTorrent client, etc.

On the legal side of things, if you’re around my age, you (or your family) probably have a big pile of DVDs and Blu-Rays sitting around unwatched and half forgotten. Why not do a bit of amateur media preservation, rip them and upload them to your server for easier access? (Your tools for this are going to be Handbrake to do the ripping and AnyDVD to break any encryption.) I went to the trouble of ripping all my SCTV DVDs (five box sets worth) because none of it is on streaming nor could it be found on any pirate source I tried. I’m glad I did, forty years on it’s still one of the funniest shows to ever be on TV.

Part Nine/Epilogue: Sonarr/Radarr/Lidarr and Overseerr

There are a lot of ways to automate your server for better functionality or to add features you and other users might find useful. Sonarr, Radarr, and Lidarr are a part of a suite of “Servarr” services (there’s also Readarr for books and Whisparr for adult content) that allow you to automate the collection of new episodes of TV shows (Sonarr), new movie releases (Radarr) and music releases (Lidarr). They hook in to your BitTorrent client or Usenet binary newsgroup downloader and crawl your preferred Torrent trackers and Usenet indexers, alerting you to new releases and automatically grabbing them. You can also use these services to manually search for new media, and even replace/upgrade your existing media with better quality uploads. They’re really a little tricky to set up on a bare metal Ubuntu install (ideally you should be running them in Docker Containers), and I won’t be providing a step by step on installing and running them, I’m simply making you aware of their existence.

The other bit of kit I want to make you aware of is Overseerr which is a program that scans your Plex media library and will serve recommendations based on what you like. It also allows you and your users to request specific media. It can even be integrated with Sonarr/Radarr/Lidarr so that fulfilling those requests is fully automated.

And you're done. It really wasn't all that hard. Enjoy your media. Enjoy the control you have over that media. And be safe in the knowledge that no hedgefund CEO motherfucker who hates the movies but who is somehow in control of a major studio will be able to disappear anything in your library as a tax write-off.

[beersangel]

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* ˚ ✦ matt sturniolo’s love language is acts of services!

Matt Sturniolo x reader 💗

༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•༶

Your head rests on Matt’s chest as you talk about how expensive the drinks in LA are, especially your favorite – a sweet iced matcha. You rant about how hard it is to find a good one that doesn’t cost a fortune.

As you speak, an idea pops into Matt’s head. He’s seen people making iced matcha at home on TikTok before, using those little matcha kits. He figures he could do that for you, especially since he knows how much you love drinking it.

When you drift off to sleep, Matt pulls out his phone, determined. He starts searching for everything he’ll need. He looks for the best matcha powder, paying extra attention to find a sweet one, just like you like it. He adds the matcha kit to his cart, checks everything over, and places the order. Once he’s done, he puts his phone down and pulls you closer, kissing the top of your head before falling asleep with you in his arms.

A few days later, while you're hanging out at a friend's place, Matt gets the package delivered. Excited, he opens TikTok, finds the tutorial he saved, and gets to work. He knows you’ll be home soon, so he hurries, making sure he follows the instructions carefully. He wants this to be perfect for you.

You come home just as Matt is whisking something in the kitchen, his back to you. You frown a little because baking isn’t exactly his thing. Quietly, you walk up behind him and wrap your arms around him, surprising him. He jumps but quickly relaxes when he realizes it’s you.

You peek over his shoulder and your eyes widen in surprise.

“Is that—” you start, and he turns to face you with a proud smile.

“Yes,” he grins.

“Matt…” you say, your heart swelling with appreciation.

“Don’t get too excited yet. You still have to try it,” he laughs. “Sit up on the counter, give me a couple of minutes. I’m almost done.” He kisses your cheek before turning back to finish the drink.

You watch him pour milk into a glass filled with ice, then carefully add the green matcha. He stirs it gently and pops in a metal straw. With a nervous but eager smile, he walks over to you, holding the drink.

He hands it to you, eyes full of hope. “Go on, give it a try,” he says, biting his lip.

You take the straw and stir the matcha with the milk before taking your first sip. Your eyes widen at the sweet, familiar taste.

“Well?” Matt asks, leaning in a little.

You swallow and look up at him, shocked. “Matt… this is so good!” you say, a huge smile spreading across your face.

Matt’s face lights up. “Really?”

You put the glass down next to you and grab his face, pulling him in for a kiss. “I can’t believe you learned how to make my favorite drink,” you say, kissing the corner of his lips softly.

“Anything for my girl,” he whispers, his smile soft and full of love. He presses a few kisses to your cheek, leaning in to press his forehead against yours.

༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•༶

[bitchlessdino]

Imagine boyfriend!Wonwoo wanting you to cut his hair at home. He sees you cutting your hair just fine and he doesn’t think that his should be any harder. You remind him that just because you follow a couple of tutorials and perfect your bangs for the first time after multiple tries does not mean you were licensed to cut his hair no matter how low maintenance he thinks it is.

“It’s not even that long. It’s actually at a really cute length,” you argue as you rake through his dark locks that now reach his shoulders.

“You’re not giving me a whole new style, it’s just a trim. I trust you with a trim.”

There was no way that you trusted yourself, but if it’s what he wanted, you were willing to give it a try. You sit down on a dining chair placed in the middle of the bathroom in front of a mirror. You take deep breath as you flex the blades of the scissors between your digits, mustering up whatever courage you have.

Your boyfriend turned client seems to be calmer thanyou are, despite the fact he would face the harsh consequences. Instead he softly strokes your back, letting you know that whatever happens it will be okay. It calms you down only just a little bit.

You asked him to remove his glasses, placing them aside where they wouldn’t be a bother. You reminded of his pretty brown eyes that stare back at you in amusement, joined with his soft smile that perks up when he sees your face.

Breaking out of he trance, you finally snip the side of his hair and you were able to breathe again. The snips slowly gradually grew more confident finally seeing potential in this spontaneous new project until you’re met with an obstacle. “Dammit, this chair is too low.”

You bent your knees, but still, it was not enough for you to reach the end of Wonwoo’s the way you want. You move closer towards him, his thigh bordered by either of your legs, and there is a glint of something in his gaze. You exhale softly, snipping off more of the hair you placed between your fingers.

Focused on the task at hand, you didn’t notice how your weight shifted into Wonwoo’s thigh, almost leveraging him as a seat while you did him the favor he asked. Cutting off the bit of hair left in front of his eyes, you smile in contentment until you realize that you were in Wonwoo’s direct line of vision and slowly you settle into the warmth of his body.

Holding the scissors at arm’s length, you’re lost in his longing and cannot get a word in edgewise as he captures all of your vocabulary in a gentle liplock that heats up every passing second. He bites into your moan like an apple, crisp and sweet, while his hands goes up your back to press you closer towards him until there is room to even breathe.

When he parts, it’s bittersweet, but you catch the mischief in his eyes before he says, “Does this mean I have to give you a bigger tip?”

You ignore the obvious innuendo and lightly smack him against the apple of his cheek to which he winces exaggeratedly. “It not that kind of service, sir.”

“But if I can afford it?” He grins.

“Then you shouldn’t be getting haircuts at home cheapskate.”

[kingkaisen]

𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐁𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐔 𝐆𝐎𝐉𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐕𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐄!

𝐁𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐝, 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐯𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐲𝐨𝐮 . . . 𝐮𝐧𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞, 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐬?

𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓 (𝐌𝐃𝐍𝐈) — ♛

𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐋𝐄!

⎯⎯ ୨ ♡ ୧ ⎯⎯

· ✧ · 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒

➙ THE GOJO FAMILY || you & gojo have a family consisting of biological children as well as your adopted sons, megumi & yuji.

· ✧ · 𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐒 & 𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐓𝐒

➙ AFTER WHAT HAPPENED // PART II // PART III || after what happened to his family, gojo can’t stop drinking.

➙ SEE YOU SOON || you’re in a coma, and your nurse finds gojo at your side.

➙ ALONE || yuji asks gojo for relationship advice, not knowing that you, his only love, passed away.

➙ SHY & CLINGY || gojo doesn’t understand why you love him.

➙ SUNDAY DINNER || you feed gojo a home-cooked meal.

➙ I’D LOVE TO KILL YOU — ♛ || you want to kill gojo. gojo wants to have sex.

➙ THE FANBOY GUIDE — ♛ || gojo’s goal in life is to have sex with you, his favorite celebrity.

➙ FULL RECOVERY — ♛ || an injured gojo returns home to a few things: love, care, & sex.

➙ SEX TUTORIALS! — ♛ || gojo teaches you how to ride & blow him.

➙ “WELL, WE SHOULD PROBABLY FUCK, RIGHT?” — ♛ || after getting trapped in the prison realm, you and gojo decide to have sex.

➙ DESSERT DRAMA — ♛ || gojo couldn’t taste the dessert, so he tastes you instead.

➙ “IF WE’RE GOING TO FUCK, WE BETTER DO IT NOW.” — ♛ || gojo wants to hook up with you, his rival.

➙ BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE — ♛ || gojo teaches the rude cashier a lesson.

➙ “WHERE IS MY WIFE?” — ♛ || you get kidnapped by gojo’s enemies.

➙ PERSONAL SPACE — ♛ || gojo doesn’t believe in personal space.

➙ REUNION — ♛ || you & gojo are childhood friends who reunite after taking different paths in life.

➙ CRUEL — ♛ || gojo’s dying wish is to talk to you one last time.

· ✧ · 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒

➙ FERAL || gojo gets angry whenever someone disrespects you.

➙ BREAK UP WITH YOUR BOYFRIEND! — ♛ || gojo hates your boyfriend.

· ✧ · 𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐁𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐒

➙ HABIT || gojo puts your needs above his own.

➙ BLUSHING || gojo is a blushing mess around you.

➙ TEXT || gojo stops fighting when you text him.

➙ HEART || gojo breaks your heart on purpose.

➙ TRUST || gojo cannot bring himself to trust you.

➙ SHY || gojo is shy around you.

➙ HIS || gojo loves to call you his girl.

➙ PERFECT || gojo as a father.

➙ DRUNK || gojo is drunk and doesn’t recognize you. you’re sitting right in front of him.

➙ PRINCE || gojo is a prince who falls for a prisoner.

➙ SEALED — ♛ || you & gojo have sex in the prison realm.

➙ LOVE — ♛ || gojo loves you so much.

➙ PISSED — ♛ || angry sex.

➙ BLINDFOLD — ♛ || gojo puts his blindfold on you.

➙ MESS — ♛ || gojo is a whimpering, moaning mess.

➙ COVER — ♛ || gojo covers your mouth during sex, even though he’s the one who gets loud.

➙ ENEMY — ♛ || you ride gojo.

· ✧ · 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆

➙ “NANAMI, GUESS WHAT?” || FT. NANAMI || you’re dating gojo, but nanami is your ex.

➙ SHARING IS CARING || FT. GETO — ♛ || both gojo & geto have sex with you.

➙ RULES, RULES, & RULES || FT. GETO — ♛ || there are rules geto must follow when having sex with gojo’s girlfriend.

⎯⎯ ୨ ♡ ୧ ⎯⎯

𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐘-𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐄?