#remember to use ad blocker

[agendratum]

hey!! sorry to bother you, do you know where i could watch between us online?

hi! i'm watching it with russian subtitles on a russian pirating website, which is probably not what you're looking for, but i'm sure that if you put these exact words "watch between us online" into google you will get exactly the results you need

[wat-zu]

Absolutely love your art. I want to nom it.

Also, Hollow Heads Siblings my beloveds,,,

Theyre the doomed siblings ever its not even funny

[makiswirl]

where are you watching 03?? I can't find it anywhere

..................................piracy sites..........................................

[lizziestudieshistory]

Well, the YouTube app is officially unusable and I refuse to pay for any form of music streaming... So I guess it's time to dig out my MP3 player.

[foxlightwill]

OK is there a way around disabling the audio for ads on the tumblr app anyone’s figured out yet? these are getting REALLY bad, like i can barely scroll anymore.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Demon-haunted computers are back, baby

Catch me in Miami! I'll be at Books and Books in Coral Gables on Jan 22 at 8PM.

As a science fiction writer, I am professionally irritated by a lot of sf movies. Not only do those writers get paid a lot more than I do, they insist on including things like "self-destruct" buttons on the bridges of their starships.

Look, I get it. When the evil empire is closing in on your flagship with its secret transdimensional technology, it's important that you keep those secrets out of the emperor's hand. An irrevocable self-destruct switch there on the bridge gets the job done! (It has to be irrevocable, otherwise the baddies'll just swarm the bridge and toggle it off).

But c'mon. If there's a facility built into your spaceship that causes it to explode no matter what the people on the bridge do, that is also a pretty big security risk! What if the bad guy figures out how to hijack the measure that – by design – the people who depend on the spaceship as a matter of life and death can't detect or override?

I mean, sure, you can try to simplify that self-destruct system to make it easier to audit and assure yourself that it doesn't have any bugs in it, but remember Schneier's Law: anyone can design a security system that works so well that they themselves can't think of a flaw in it. That doesn't mean you've made a security system that works – only that you've made a security system that works on people stupider than you.

I know it's weird to be worried about realism in movies that pretend we will ever find a practical means to visit other star systems and shuttle back and forth between them (which we are very, very unlikely to do):

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/09/astrobezzle/#send-robots-instead

But this kind of foolishness galls me. It galls me even more when it happens in the real world of technology design, which is why I've spent the past quarter-century being very cross about Digital Rights Management in general, and trusted computing in particular.

It all starts in 2002, when a team from Microsoft visited our offices at EFF to tell us about this new thing they'd dreamed up called "trusted computing":

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/05/trusting-trust/#thompsons-devil

The big idea was to stick a second computer inside your computer, a very secure little co-processor, that you couldn't access directly, let alone reprogram or interfere with. As far as this "trusted platform module" was concerned, you were the enemy. The "trust" in trusted computing was about other people being able to trust your computer, even if they didn't trust you.

So that little TPM would do all kinds of cute tricks. It could observe and produce a cryptographically signed manifest of the entire boot-chain of your computer, which was meant to be an unforgeable certificate attesting to which kind of computer you were running and what software you were running on it. That meant that programs on other computers could decide whether to talk to your computer based on whether they agreed with your choices about which code to run.

This process, called "remote attestation," is generally billed as a way to identify and block computers that have been compromised by malware, or to identify gamers who are running cheats and refuse to play with them. But inevitably it turns into a way to refuse service to computers that have privacy blockers turned on, or are running stream-ripping software, or whose owners are blocking ads:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/02/self-incrimination/#wei-bai-bai

After all, a system that treats the device's owner as an adversary is a natural ally for the owner's other, human adversaries. The rubric for treating the owner as an adversary focuses on the way that users can be fooled by bad people with bad programs. If your computer gets taken over by malicious software, that malware might intercept queries from your antivirus program and send it false data that lulls it into thinking your computer is fine, even as your private data is being plundered and your system is being used to launch malware attacks on others.

These separate, non-user-accessible, non-updateable secure systems serve a nubs of certainty, a remote fortress that observes and faithfully reports on the interior workings of your computer. This separate system can't be user-modifiable or field-updateable, because then malicious software could impersonate the user and disable the security chip.

It's true that compromised computers are a real and terrifying problem. Your computer is privy to your most intimate secrets and an attacker who can turn it against you can harm you in untold ways. But the widespread redesign of out computers to treat us as their enemies gives rise to a range of completely predictable and – I would argue – even worse harms. Building computers that treat their owners as untrusted parties is a system that works well, but fails badly.

First of all, there are the ways that trusted computing is designed to hurt you. The most reliable way to enshittify something is to supply it over a computer that runs programs you can't alter, and that rats you out to third parties if you run counter-programs that disenshittify the service you're using. That's how we get inkjet printers that refuse to use perfectly good third-party ink and cars that refuse to accept perfectly good engine repairs if they are performed by third-party mechanics:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

It's how we get cursed devices and appliances, from the juicer that won't squeeze third-party juice to the insulin pump that won't connect to a third-party continuous glucose monitor:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/

But trusted computing doesn't just create an opaque veil between your computer and the programs you use to inspect and control it. Trusted computing creates a no-go zone where programs can change their behavior based on whether they think they're being observed.

The most prominent example of this is Dieselgate, where auto manufacturers murdered hundreds of people by gimmicking their cars to emit illegal amount of NOX. Key to Dieselgate was a program that sought to determine whether it was being observed by regulators (it checked for the telltale signs of the standard test-suite) and changed its behavior to color within the lines.

Software that is seeking to harm the owner of the device that's running it must be able to detect when it is being run inside a simulation, a test-suite, a virtual machine, or any other hallucinatory virtual world. Just as Descartes couldn't know whether anything was real until he assured himself that he could trust his senses, malware is always questing to discover whether it is running in the real universe, or in a simulation created by a wicked god:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/28/descartes-was-an-optimist/#uh-oh

That's why mobile malware uses clever gambits like periodically checking for readings from your device's accelerometer, on the theory that a virtual mobile phone running on a security researcher's test bench won't have the fidelity to generate plausible jiggles to match the real data that comes from a phone in your pocket:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/01/google-play-malware-used-phones-motion-sensors-to-conceal-itself/

Sometimes this backfires in absolutely delightful ways. When the Wannacry ransomware was holding the world hostage, the security researcher Marcus Hutchins noticed that its code made reference to a very weird website: iuqerfsodp9ifjaposdfjhgosurijfaewrwergwea.com. Hutchins stood up a website at that address and every Wannacry-infection in the world went instantly dormant:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/10/flintstone-delano-roosevelt/#the-matrix

It turns out that Wannacry's authors were using that ferkakte URL the same way that mobile malware authors were using accelerometer readings – to fulfill Descartes' imperative to distinguish the Matrix from reality. The malware authors knew that security researchers often ran malicious code inside sandboxes that answered every network query with fake data in hopes of eliciting responses that could be analyzed for weaknesses. So the Wannacry worm would periodically poll this nonexistent website and, if it got an answer, it would assume that it was being monitored by a security researcher and it would retreat to an encrypted blob, ceasing to operate lest it give intelligence to the enemy. When Hutchins put a webserver up at iuqerfsodp9ifjaposdfjhgosurijfaewrwergwea.com, every Wannacry instance in the world was instantly convinced that it was running on an enemy's simulator and withdrew into sulky hibernation.

The arms race to distinguish simulation from reality is critical and the stakes only get higher by the day. Malware abounds, even as our devices grow more intimately woven through our lives. We put our bodies into computers – cars, buildings – and computers inside our bodies. We absolutely want our computers to be able to faithfully convey what's going on inside them.

But we keep running as hard as we can in the opposite direction, leaning harder into secure computing models built on subsystems in our computers that treat us as the threat. Take UEFI, the ubiquitous security system that observes your computer's boot process, halting it if it sees something it doesn't approve of. On the one hand, this has made installing GNU/Linux and other alternative OSes vastly harder across a wide variety of devices. This means that when a vendor end-of-lifes a gadget, no one can make an alternative OS for it, so off the landfill it goes.

It doesn't help that UEFI – and other trusted computing modules – are covered by Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which makes it a felony to publish information that can bypass or weaken the system. The threat of a five-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine means that UEFI and other trusted computing systems are understudied, leaving them festering with longstanding bugs:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/09/free-sample/#que-viva

Here's where it gets really bad. If an attacker can get inside UEFI, they can run malicious software that – by design – no program running on our computers can detect or block. That badware is running in "Ring -1" – a zone of privilege that overrides the operating system itself.

Here's the bad news: UEFI malware has already been detected in the wild:

https://securelist.com/cosmicstrand-uefi-firmware-rootkit/106973/

And here's the worst news: researchers have just identified another exploitable UEFI bug, dubbed Pixiefail:

https://blog.quarkslab.com/pixiefail-nine-vulnerabilities-in-tianocores-edk-ii-ipv6-network-stack.html

Writing in Ars Technica, Dan Goodin breaks down Pixiefail, describing how anyone on the same LAN as a vulnerable computer can infect its firmware:

https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/01/new-uefi-vulnerabilities-send-firmware-devs-across-an-entire-ecosystem-scrambling/

That vulnerability extends to computers in a data-center where the attacker has a cloud computing instance. PXE – the system that Pixiefail attacks – isn't widely used in home or office environments, but it's very common in data-centers.

Again, once a computer is exploited with Pixiefail, software running on that computer can't detect or delete the Pixiefail code. When the compromised computer is queried by the operating system, Pixiefail undetectably lies to the OS. "Hey, OS, does this drive have a file called 'pixiefail?'" "Nope." "Hey, OS, are you running a process called 'pixiefail?'" "Nope."

This is a self-destruct switch that's been compromised by the enemy, and which no one on the bridge can de-activate – by design. It's not the first time this has happened, and it won't be the last.

There are models for helping your computer bust out of the Matrix. Back in 2016, Edward Snowden and bunnie Huang prototyped and published source code and schematics for an "introspection engine":

https://assets.pubpub.org/aacpjrja/AgainstTheLaw-CounteringLawfulAbusesofDigitalSurveillance.pdf

This is a single-board computer that lives in an ultraslim shim that you slide between your iPhone's mainboard and its case, leaving a ribbon cable poking out of the SIM slot. This connects to a case that has its own OLED display. The board has leads that physically contact each of the network interfaces on the phone, conveying any data they transit to the screen so that you can observe the data your phone is sending without having to trust your phone.

(I liked this gadget so much that I included it as a major plot point in my 2020 novel Attack Surface, the third book in the Little Brother series):

https://craphound.com/attacksurface/

We don't have to cede control over our devices in order to secure them. Indeed, we can't ever secure them unless we can control them. Self-destruct switches don't belong on the bridge of your spaceship, and trusted computing modules don't belong in your devices.

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/17/descartes-delenda-est/#self-destruct-sequence-initiated

Image: Mike (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/stillwellmike/15676883261/

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

[ohbo-ohno]

I’m feral and need more of your a/b/o thoughts. Like I need to know your thoughts on alpha!141 snatching omega reader to keep for themselves

yknow i was gonna say that i haven't touched abo in forever, but then i remembered the gaz thing i just posted the other day lmao

(btw i wrote alpha 141 here but i think abo poly 141 would have alphas price/ghost and betas soap/gaz. probably. maybe. idfk.)

cw for noncon and kidnapping below the cut

i find poly 141 x reader really difficult to write outside of porn, since there's already so many interesting dynamics in regular poly 141. i have a hard time adding in a FIFTH element, yk? especially when that fifth element has to be a reader insert instead of some sorta OC or smth

anyway, i think the best dark poly 141 x reader idea is basically reader being used as a sex toy for the guys. like, she's there for them to relieve their stress in. but in an abo au i could totally see them using her as an element of softness in their lives. with 4 alphas in one home, you need an omega to soften things up a bit

and there you are. soft and sweet and small (compared to them at least) and just so perfect. you're the unlucky bastard who happens to smell appealing to all of them, and you're whisked away before you really even know it

they'd have to be sneaky, probably. you'd have a positive reaction to their scents too, so maybe johnny or gaz gets you to go on a date with one or both of them and then kidnaps you. maybe price or ghost just grabs you one day. something like that, i think, but there's much higher angst potential is kyle and/or johnny lulls you into a false sense of security first (and you know i love a good betrayal)

they'd push and prod at your instincts to force you into a heat before anything else. lock you in their den (soon to be their nest) and surround you in their scents, make low purrs to convince your instincts that you're safe

and as terrified as you are - and oh boy, are you - there's only so much you can actually fight your instincts. lets say you're either not on heat blockers, or maybe the blockers are weak, but for whatever reason you're very susceptible to all of their little pushes

they've got you knotted and mated by the end of the week

it's odd, coming up from that heat. your neck aches all the way around, to the point that it's painful to even turn your head. despite the unfamiliar room, your brain screams at you that you're safe, that you're in your nest.

it doesn't take long to put together the pieces. it also doesn't take long to become very very upset

thing is, it's too late to do anything now. you can't break a bond, and they're not giving you any opportunities to get away. you're stuck with these alphas who have performed the greatest invasion possible on your body and soul. it's crushing

cue lots of attempted comfort. soap and gaz would be the softest with you, always trying to tempt you into realizing how good it is to be with them. soap is rougher when he fucks you, but they're both equally soft outside of that. they bring you nesting materials, constantly make sure you're covered in their scents, and bicker over who gets to cuddle you on the couch

ghost isn't willing to coddle you. he's sweet (in his own right) but he's not nice. he doesn't try to make you feel better - you're meant to be with them, why should he apologize for making it happen? all they did was skip the courting process, this is always where you were going to end up. he refuses to apologize for that. but he also doesn't want you miserable. he holds you close at night, soaks with you for long hours in the tub, and is always making sure you clear your plate

price is... weird. i'm never sure if i should make him the meanest or a softer kidnapper. because i could absolutely see a version of price whipping your ass raw every time you scream at them and call them names, but i can also see a version of price who just levels you with a disapproving stare and locks you in a small dark space when you get like that

regardless, they all smother you. you help balance out their dynamics a bit more, but they're always fighting each other for your attention. especially with the bond making it so they always know what you're feeling. and your instincts scream to trust them (and you can feel their emotions too, know that they really meant for the best, as sick and twisted as it is).

[dreamsinombre]

And they're done!!

first post about these socks

second post about these socks

What an intensely enjoyable knit! I've never done so much colorwork before, and certainly never with 3 strands! What a challenge, but also highly engaging. These socks felt like they took no time at all! They're also quite soft and pretty darn warm, so I'm very excited to add these to my closet come fall & winter. Thank you to Oakwood Knits for a fantastic sock design!

Like the first attempt, I tracked my daily progress, but I started doing so after I caught up to where I stopped from my first attempt, which took half the time to do this attempt!

These still need to be blocked, and I have a set of sock blockers on the way, but I didn't want to wait to share because I just am so pleased with them. I learned a handful of new things making these, namely continental, to hold the secondary color, and how to better tension strands of color. I knit these both at the same time across two circulars, and the little onion* skeins of Palette actually made it so I could use only one skein at a time for both socks! I did make a little ball for each sock for the third color rows, however. But ultimately, it worked out great. I also did Eye of the Partridge heels and toes, because I know my feet and those are the spots that need the most reinforcing, and I also added in a single row of purls on the top at the toes because I like how it looks on socks.

Bonus: the start of the spring socks, since I missed the KAL for them and was so jazzed by the summer socks I want to knit more!

*I don't know of they're really called onion skeins, but I can't remember if they have an official name and they look like onions to me, so there you go

pattern: Oakwood Knits

yarn: Knit Picks Palette

[sunset-peril]

Picrew Maker Masterlist

So you did it again. 

The character that you oh-so-need a visual for is up to par with your writing skills… just not your art skills. 

Have no fear! Picrews and doll-makers are here!

Feel free to bookmark this page, or make your own!

Tag list - @gracefulchristiangirl (I found two you may like)

What is Picrew?

Picrew is a Japanese website that focuses on a genre known as “doll-makers”. Remember in the Flash era, all those dress-up games? Picrew is a website with thousands of those.

A note from Sunset - Perhaps due to the large amount of anime based content, I have found erotic ads to be very common on the site. You may want to use an ad-blocker if you don't already have one installed. 

AzaleasDolls and DollDivine are non-Picrew options that have a wide selection! (I'm personally fond of Azalea's elf dollmakers) These sites are still functional, even though Flash is lone gone. (Thanks, @kindlythevoid!)

Legend 

Bust - Clear shot of head and neck only

Halfbody - Clear shot of everything above the waist. If arms are not clearly visible, I marked it as a bust instead (except in one case where everything was visible *except* the limbs)

Fullbody - The entire body is clearly visible 

Feel free to show me other picrews to add to the list! (Exception being for any erotic picrews.)

Humans/Elves

https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/231305 (Halfbody)

https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/9889 (Bust)

https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/92646 (Bust)

https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/458801 (Bust)

https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/197122/ (Halfbody)

https://picrew.me/image_maker/707090/ (Bust)

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/610761 (Fullbody)

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1553437 (Fullbody)

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1469769 (Fullbody)

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/2384161 (Bust)

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1754067 (Bust)

Dragons

https://picrew.me/image_maker/388762 (Fullbody)

https://picrew.me/image_maker/10095 (Bust + Wings)

https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/495118 (Halfbody without hands)

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/46578 (Fullbody)

Animals

Anthro

https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/125168 (Bust)

https://picrew.me/image_maker/446210 (Fullbody)

https://picrew.me/image_maker/375087 (Bust)

https://picrew.me/image_maker/32145 (Halfbody)

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/898935 (Bust, no color, but can be filled in with MS paint or similar)

Feral

https://picrew.me/image_maker/53053 (Fullbody, bunny)

Fandom 

https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/124060 - MLP (Halfbody)

https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/234172 - TLOZ (Halfbody, can only make Hylian characters with golden hair)

https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/1472643 - Genshin (Halfbody,although I’ve never used it for this fandom)

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/143336 - Hollow Knight (Fullbody)

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/440055 - Percy Jackson (Fullbody)

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/2186664 - Percy Jackson (Halfbody)

[cityof2morrow]

Bonne-Fortune Grocery Set

Published: 9-26-2023 | Updated: 9-28-2023 SUMMARY “The Bonne-Fortune series is the latest hit from Freezer Time Industries, receiving top honors at both FridgeCon and the ShinyThings, Inc. Expo. Give your store some retro-futuristic flair and bring all the customers to the yard!” This is a set of 13 moderately priced objects for grocery stores and other retail spaces. Shelves are designed to help you maximize space in/around displays, including a shelf (endtable OMSP) which holds objects at an angle. The set is intended to be modular but not too complicated – some assembly required (see below). Fridges function like shelves – so they won’t keep spoilable food from going bad. They have space for sale items and additional shelving but need to be shifted upward once. Several maxis-themed recolors and an invisible recolor (in case you need it for the carousel display) are included. Additional recolors are available on this site under the #ts2recolors and #co2recolors tags.

DETAILS Requires All Eps/SPs. §100-500 | Buy > Surfaces > Shelves Buy > Deco > Sculptures Buy > Lighting > Standing/Floor Lamps Everything is repo’d to one of the following objects: Carousel Display End, and Fridge 001– these items are REQUIRED for textures, etc. to display correctly in-game. The Bonne-Fortune Carousel Lite uses whatever recolors you have for the EverGlow Plutonium Rod (Nighlife EP), including THESE. **Since the invisible recolor was made first, the game may reference it when regenerating thumbnails. This doesn’t impact the look/use of objects in-game at all. ITEMS

3 Fridges Bonne-Fortune Refrigerator 001 (1328 poly), Bonne-Fortune Refrigerator 002 (1323 poly), Bonne-Fortune Refrigerator 003 (~1400 poly)

Modular Shelving & Deco Bonne-Fortune Shelf 001 (572 poly), Bonne-Fortune Shelf 002 (534 poly), Bonne-Fortune Shelf 003 (572 poly), Bonne-Fortune Carousel Lite (pictured with a default neon recolor; 1048 poly), Bonne-Fortune Carousel End Shelf (572 poly), Bonne-Fortune Carousel Center Shelf (580 poly), Bonne-Fortune Area Signs 001-002 (576 poly)

Carousel Display Bonne-Fortune Carousel Display End (1940 poly), Bonne-Fortune Carousel Display Center (383 poly), Bonne-Fortune Carousel Lite (pictured again with one of my Nightlife Neon Recolors applied)(1048 poly) DOWNLOAD (choose one) from SFS | from MEGA *A known game bug may disable some OFB shelf slots. Not all players experience this bug in the same way, but if you do – there is a long-standing fix for it. If you cannot access more than 2 slots on shelves, download ONE of these fixes: MORE_Custom-objects-placeable-on-shelves (Numenor, 2006) MORE_Custom-objects-placeable-on-shelves+LOCKEDTILES (Numenor, 2006) Object Freedom 1.02 (Fway, 2023) SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED

1) Place a refrigerator (remember to shift upwards once) or Carousel End/Center pieces (the carousel parts are deco; place end/center parts on the same tile). Use “move objects on/off” and/or “snap to grid true/false” cheats to add the second End piece to the carousel.

2) Use the same cheats to place shelves but make sure to add your sale items to them first. Adding items first makes things easier because if you try to put objects above a shelf with empty slots, the game may think you’re trying to put it on that shelf (including other shelves).

3) For the Carousel End Shelf (use it with the curvy part of the Carousel End), place an item on the shelf,  and shift it in place until the item looks like it is sitting on the carousel.

4) Take advantage of the invisible recolors OR use the OMSP Controller (select SilentLucidity OMSPs) to make this shelf invisible/visible as needed. Do NOT use the invisible recolor if you’d rather use the OMSP controller.

5) You may need the Tile Blocker to keep sims from walking through parts of the display (i.e. the carousel). It is included with the meshes and in the collection file. Just be sure that you place it between/behind whatever shelving you add to the carousel – don’t accidently block those shelves.

6) The Carousel Lite is OPTIONAL deco – place it on the same tile as the Carousel End/Center pieces. It is repo’d to the EverGlow Plutonium Rod (neon light) from the Nightlife EP. As you can see in the pics above, the default recolors emit colored light. Custom recolors will emit a soft glow, but no bold colored light.

7) Area Signs 001-002 are optional deco as well – place and shift them as needed.

CREDITS Thanks: ChocolateCitySim and the Kit Kat Crew. Sources: 33 Degree Endtable OMSP (SilentLucidity, 2009), AL Woods (EA/Maxis; HugeLunatic, 2013), Any Color You like (CuriousB, 2010), Beyno (Korn via BBFonts), EA/Maxis, Great Groceries Display (Balkopat, 2020), IKEA Lack Woods (EA/Maxis; Michelle, 2016), Kitchen Basic (BuggyBooz 2008), Kitchen Basic Extras (BuggyBooz, 2010), Offuturistic Infographic (Freepik), Uranium Rod Neon Floor Lamp (PineappleForest, 2022), Wire & Soldier Metals (AlfredAskew, 2013).

[jealousmartini]

Yall know how youtube has been working they ass off trying to shove ads down ythroats and they seriously hate adblockers.

Like they literally made them against their terms of service and I giggled my little master manifester heart out at that, knowing that I can just make a lifa ad blocker using the lifa app and get passed every single ad no problem.

Cus remember guys, as far as the world is concerned, lifa doesn't exist. So that means there's no way of them getting passed the lifa ad blocker.. because it isn't a thing

[emeritus-fuckers]

Trans Copia headcanon

Copia is a bisexual trans man.

He's always felt trapped in the body he was born it. He'd cut his hair with scissors just to keep it short. He'd keep trying to ruin anything girly clothing he was given. Anything to feel more like a boy.

And while Sister Imperator tried not to get involved in her child's life to keep Copia's existence a secret, ever since she gave up her newborn baby to the Ministry Orphanage/Nursery, she'd keep a close eye on him growing up, claiming she just wanted to be a bit more hands-on with the future generation.

And one night, when Copia was eight, she saw him cry and cut his hair. From then on, everyone was expected to treat him like a boy as she took on the role of his legal guardian. It was then that Ministry became really protective and caring about trans issues.

She made sure he would get anything he required. Proper puberty blockers/hormones, surgeries... Anything he required to feel right in his body. And she made absolutely sure nobody dared to say a single word.

Thanks to Sister's protection, he socially transitioned before the age of ten, so many people either don't even remember he was trans. Only those closest to him know - Sister and his Ghouls.

While he did get proper care pretty soon, he still feels dysphoric sometimes.

This is why he used to copy Terzo's on-stage behavior so much, to ensure he would be viewed as a man.

This is why he got plastic surgery on his face when he became Papa. To look more like a Papa. Like a man.

Because sometimes... He's still insecure. He's still scared he'll wake up and get ridiculed by the other kids for how he ruined his clothes and hair just to be a boy.

And while he's now way more comfortable in his body, while he feels good with his body aside from the brief moments his dysphoria gets to him, he understands what it's like to feel wrong in your own body. Be it trans or simply insecure in any other way... He understands. And he cares.

In the Ministry, he is known as the Guardian of the Trans Siblings. He organizes any help he can get for them. He does his best to help the LGBTQ+ people or even Ghouls in the Ministry.

~

And here at emeritus-fuckers we want all the LGBTQ+ people, especially the trans people, to know that we care as well. Our hearts go out to you. Stay strong and take care of yourselves. The world is scary now, but please remember you have our support. We're here for all of you and we love you.

- Jez, a trans person

Taglist: @sirlsplayland @firefirevampire @mamacarlyle @thatoddboy @lightbluuestars @mybotanicaldemise @emo-mess (send an ask if you'd like to be added! read the pinned post before asking!)

[awakefor48hours]

Don't forget that as you donate to Palestinian blogs to do your daily click. You can use multiple devices (phone and laptop) with different browser (firefox, chrome, edge) and remember to turn off your ad blockers.

[theshadowrealmitself]

Thinking about the post I made about an omega getting transported to a universe without the a/b/o dynamics (unfortunately can’t reblog that original post with this addition cause both posts are gonna be scheduled) and I think a situation like that would really help give me what I want out of omegaverse

What I really want out of omegaverse is all the world building stuff, how a society and its people would function in that situation, but most of the time it’s a reimagining of intense misogyny, which is not my cup of tea

But I think a situation where a person goes from a society like that (without the omega hate) to a society where a/b/o isn’t a thing, would really highlight how different things would be

Technically the omegaverse society is different depending on the author, so I’m making up my own version, and adding in aliens:

Heats and ruts can cause health problems, the stress it puts on your body every month can lead to a ton of issues down the road, and honestly you just don’t wanna have your life be disrupted that much, so going on suppressants is common, especially for people who are single

But going off of suppressants can be deadly, and sometimes your suppressants can start being less effective as time goes on, so calling out of whatever to make sure you can go to the doctors and have that all figured out is not only normalized but also encouraged

(But now you’re suddenly in a universe where Humans don’t go through all that and you’re running out of suppressants and you’re just hoping the scientists, Vulcan ones who are strangely extremely interested in your heat suppressants and keep asking you about rut suppressants?, can quickly figure out how to make more)

Depending on the situation, scent blockers can be used (mostly in the maternity ward, so the medical staff don’t accidentally get their scent on the kids and accidentally cause the parents to instinctively think they’re trying to take away their kids), but it’s more of a personal preference

Alphas, omegas, and even betas can scent mark things, but alpha scents are usually just more noticeable because they tend to be more territorial and aggressive, doesn’t mean that omegas and betas aren’t scent marking things for the same reason, so just because you can’t smell an alpha around, doesn’t mean you aren’t encroaching on someone’s space, you can also tell people’s emotions from their scent

(You hate that in this new universe, no one can smell that you claimed stuff and you have to remember to verbalize it, you also hate that the only ones who can smell you are aliens who have to be weird about it because they aren’t used to Humans smelling like that)

I can never think of anything cool for betas and I hate that it’s usually just like “betas are usually just how Humans are irl”, so what, they don’t have cis guys that can get pregnant and cis women who can sire kids? boring! but I can’t think of anything fun for them!

Claiming bites are a thing, but mostly a thing of the past, still, you never touch go near an omega’s through without explicit consent

(If another fucker tries to go near your neck again you’re losing it at them >:/)

Nests are a big thing, even outside of heats, and kids, and stuff, it’s just really beneficial to an omega to have a safe, soft, place they have complete control over, their instincts demand it

(Apparently nesting isn’t a normal fucking thing for Humans in this universe?? you can’t find the round mattress with the round frame that has a headboard that goes around a majority of the bed to kinda cocoon you anywhere, that’s like, the most basic thing you’d used to find in stores, and now you keep having to find specialty shops that cater to extraterrestrials to find anything remotely similar, or figure out how to replicate it yourself, this is so frustrating!!! you’re gonna be so much more frustrated when you try to find the other supplies needed for nesting)

Instead of heats and ruts being quick things, there’s still a lot of time and clarity before it hits them, so like, let’s say if it’s a default alpha/omega, the omega will obsess over their nest and get it just right while the alpha get their scent on everything else in the room to let everyone else know to fuck off (if it’s any other pairing, then whoever feels the most comfortable fighting if a trespasser comes by, [even though that almost never happens, but there’s always that instinctual worry that if will happen] is the one who gets their scent on everything else and makes sure the room they’re in is secure)

(I love the idea of this omega getting a temporary Vulcan partner because their heat came on quickly, and Vulcans understand their predicament, so the omega is stressing over their nest while the Vulcan is walking around, methodically trying to scent everything because they know that also serves to make the other person not scenting feel secure in that scenario, and then, because I feel like Vulcans are a little bit of control freaks (lovingly) the Vulcan goes over to fuss with the nest as well and the omega is strangely content with that)

That’s what I have for now, may add stuff later

[maypop-the-dragon]

PSA: Free Software

Reading this may really save your time, privacy, and money! Reblog or share to spread awareness!

Folks often use software that’s expensive and sometimes even inferior because they don’t know there are alternatives. So to those unfamiliar: basically, free and open-source (FOSS) or "libre" software is free to use and anyone can access the original code to make their own version or work on fixing problems.

That does not mean anyone can randomly add a virus and give it to everyone—any respectable libre project has checks in place to make sure changes to the official version are good! Libre software is typically developed by communities who really care about the quality of the software as a goal in itself.

There are libre alternatives to many well-known programs that do everything an average user needs (find out more under the cut!) for free with no DRM, license keys, or subscriptions.

Using libre software when possible is an easy way to fight against and free yourself from corporate greed while actually being more convenient in many cases! If you need an app to do something, perhaps try searching online for things like:

foss [whatever it is]

libre [whatever it is]

open source [whatever it is]

Feel free to recommend more libre software in the tags, replies, comments, or whatever you freaks like to do!

Some Libre Software I Personally Enjoy…

LibreOffice

LibreOffice is an office suite, much like Microsoft Office. It includes equivalents for apps like Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, which can view and edit files created for those apps.

I can't say I've used it much myself yet. I do not personally like using office software except when I have to for school.

OpenShot

OpenShot Video Editor is, as the name suggests, a video editing program. It has industry-standard features like splicing, layering, transitions, and greenscreen.

I've only made one video with it so far, but I'm already very happy with it. I had already paid for a video editor (Cyberlink PowerDirector Pro), but I needed to reinstall it and I didn't remember how. Out of desperation, I searched up "FOSS video editor" and I'm so glad I did. There's no launcher, there's no promotion of other apps and asset packs—it's just a video editor with a normal installer.

GIMP

GNU Image Manipulation Program is an image editor, much like Photoshop. Originally created for Linux but also available for Windows and MacOS, it provides plenty of functionality for editing images. It is a bit unintuitive to learn at first, though.

I've used it to create and modify images for years, including logos, really bad traceover art, and Minecraft textures. It doesn't have certain advanced tech like AI paint-in, but it has served my purposes well and it might just work for yours!

(Be sure to go to Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Colors. I have no idea why that's not enabled by default.)

Audacity

Audacity is an audio editing program. It can record, load, splice, and layer audio files and apply effects to them.

Audacity is another program I've used for a long time. It is not designed to compose music, but it is great for podcasts, simple edits, and loading legacy MS Paint to hear cool noises.

7-Zip

7-Zip is a file manager and archive tool. It supports many archive types including ZIP, RAR, TAR, and its own format, 7Z. It can view and modify the contents of archives, encrypt and decrypt archives, and all that good stuff.

Personally, I use 7-Zip to look inside JAR files for Minecraft reasons. I must admit that its UI is ugly.

Firefox

Firefox is an internet browser, much like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Safari. While browsers are free, many of them include tracking or other anti-consumer practices. For example, Google plans to release an update to Chromium (the base that most browsers are built from these days) that makes ad blockers less effective by removing the APIs they currently rely on.

Aside from fighting monopolies, benefits include: support for animated themes (the one in the picture is Purple Night Theme), good ad blockers forever, an (albeit hidden) compact UI option (available on about:config), and a cute fox icon.

uBlock Origin

As far as I know, uBlock Origin is one of the best ad blockers there is.

I was on a sketchy website with my brother, and he was using Opera GX's ad blocker. Much of the time when he clicked on anything, it would take us to a random sponsored page. I suggested that he try uBlock Origin, and with uBlock Origin, that didn't happen anymore.

Linux

Linux is a kernel, but the term is often used to refer to operating systems (much like Windows or MacOS) built on it. There are many different Linux-based operating systems (or "distros") to choose from, but apps made for Linux usually work on most popular distros. You can also use many normally Windows-only apps on Linux through compatibility layers like WINE.

I don't have all four of these, so the images are from Wikipedia. I tried to show a variety of Linux distros made for different kinds of users.

If you want to replace your operating system, I recommend being very careful because you can end up breaking things. Many computer manufacturers don't care about supporting Linux, meaning that things may not work (Nvidia graphic cards notoriously have issues on Linux, for example).

Personally, I tried installing Pop!_OS on a laptop, and the sound output mysteriously doesn't work. I may try switching to Arch Linux, since it is extremely customizable and I might be able to experiment until I find a configuration where the audio works.

Many Linux distros offer "Live USB" functionality, which works as both a demo and an installer. You should thoroughly test your distro on a Live USB session before you actually install it to be absolutely sure that everything works. Even if it seems fine, you should probably look into dual-booting with your existing operating system, just in case you need it for some reason.

Happy computering!

[hellsite-hall-of-fame]

I was about to very incredulously be like "do you not use an ad blocker?" and then I remembered that people who are not me use mobile, cause other people like, don't have their own computer or leave their house on the regular or things like that. so here's my bad unhelpful answer: just go desktop only :)

ha yeahhhh I only really use mobile

i’ve used desktop a bit more recently, but it kinda scares me a bit? idk why

also no I don’t have an adblocker :(