#website disruption

[cryptoinfowatch]

Ordinals Website Hit by First DDoS Attack, NFT Minting Disrupted

Ordinals, a protocol for creating NFT-like assets on Bitcoin, said its website was targeted by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Monday, affecting its ability to mint new inscriptions. A DDoS attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal operations of a website or service by overwhelming it with a flood of Internet traffic. Ordinals said the attack was launched from multiple…

[easternmind]

Flash warning.

To refer to LSD: Dream Emulator as a game can be as misleading as it is reductive. It was a three-pronged attack on contemporary art conventions as they existed in the mid-to-late 1990s, one comprised of an interactive dream, a profusely illustrated journal, and an avant-garde electronic music album. It was also the most sophisticated coalescence of art and interactive media coming out of Japan at the time. There had never been anything like it before. One may even argue there has never been anything quite like it since.

[blindrapture]

SATURDAY JULY 23RD, 2011 (Goodbye, Swamp Queen)

5:40 AM Man, we passed out. We're still on the rooftop. The colors in the sky are noticeably different. A lot more reds this time. "What did you dream of?" Uh? Like. Seeing a haunted house? There was a ghost that startled me. Why, what did you dream of? "There was a face looking into my dream from behind a wall. Like a snake's face. I could feel it was there, because it didn't feel like it belonged in my head at all." Uh. Okay. Maybe we should get moving early today, then.

5:41 AM Went down the stairs, but the stairs leading further are blocked by a door that won't budge. We've gotta go looking around storage. It's still all.. y'know... boxes and mannequins. But there's more rooms. god I'm yawning

5:42 AM okay we've checked a lot of doors. what are we. looking for? "another way down." I'm just seeing a ton of boxes. some, like, metal pipe scaffolding, stuff that you can build makeshift stores out of. a stack of flyers. NO STEALING! NO ABUSE OF STAFF! VIOLATORS WILL BE PUT INTO STORAGE. huh. well luckily, we just had free samples last night, we didn't steal anything.

5:43 AM "Dammit. There's nothing. Maybe there's a key in one of the boxes, but there's way too many boxes to just go searching blindly." Yeah, I'd rather we not do that. And what if the key's not even up here but on some security guard downstairs? Or someone who's gone home! "But then what? We're not climbing down this building on the outside. I don't have the grappling hook anymore, y'know!" We might have to try and cross the border ourselves, now that we've had the rest. "And potentially get into a shootout with the new border patrol." Potentially. "sighhhh. okay, yeah."

5:44 AM ..the way back is blocked by a lot of mannequins. "Where did they..?" Is someone in here with us? "Aaaah!" now there's mannequins behind us. "Jordan, it's the mannequins! They're moving by themselves!" I've gathered that now! Stay back! Or, like, talk to us! We don't want to fight! now the ones by the stairs are closer. okay donnie, back-to-back, they move when we're not looking. "No, they're still moving! I can see them!" well then I guess we forced their hand. Stay back!!! For fuck's sake!! We have weapons! .."please kill us." what? "use your weapons. please. kill us." it's a garbled and muffled voice. from within the mannequins. do we. do we have to? ..a mannequin grabbed donnie's gun. dragged the barrel to its own forehead. "kill us."

6:33 AM There were a lot of them. It took about a dozen whacks in the head to kill the first one, and then once one had died, suddenly the doors to the staircase opened up, and all the mannequins from the other storage floors came up asking for a piece. So we worked together, Donnie whacking with her rifle, me with Tiger Stripes. (We were not going to waste the last of our ammo on this. We would have had to switch to whacking shortly in anyway.) And, steadily, we cleared the floors until there was nothing left asking for death. I can't say this was the.. most pleasant experience, but. We made it to the mall proper. The lights are off right now. I guess it's not a 24-hour mall. But that's okay. We're just looking for a Door.

6:35 AM "Score!" rabbit hole? "Crisps! Beef jerky! Fruit! Ready-to-eat food!" oh shit! are there any slim jims? grab what you can! "I'm grabbing plastic bags! You get some drinks!"

6:39 AM What about this hallway here? It looks unnaturally long for what the building's like on the outside. "Gotta be! Let's go!"

6:40 AM End of the longgg hallway. There's a door here. Here we go. On the other side will be another world, or maybe we'll be back on Earth. :D … It's a security office. Two big beady-eyed prawn-men in uniforms, who had previously been watching us steal food via the monitors in front of them, are now turned around, looking right at us. This was not a rabbit hole door.

6:41 AM RUNNING FROM THE LAW

6:42 AM ducking in a clothing store

6:43 AM I think we bamboozled them "jordan…" oh. this is a clothing store. the mannequins are all looking at us. uh. shhhhh! we're not here! you didn't see us! … also, um. do you guys happen to know the way out?

6:44 AM they pointed us to the bathroom across from the clothing store. we're. sneaking. across. looking around for security. trying to be reaaaal quiet with our bags. … OKAY WE'RE IN but this is still just the bathroom. option for male and female. uh. do we each try one? donnie wants us to stick together. okay. let's. eenie meenie miney mo? men's bathroom.

6:45 AM MEDICAL EQUIPMENT, GAGGED CUSTOMERS ON TABLES, BINS FILLED WITH DISCARDED SKIN, EMPTY MANNEQUIN SHELLS WAITING TO BE FILLED WITH MEAT AND SHRIMP-MEN WITH BONESAWS AND BLOOD-SPLATTERED VISORS LOOKING RIGHT AT US

6:46 AM So that was the wrong room. It was the women's restroom that was the rabbit hole. Simple mistake. Now we're stepping out in a T.J. Maxx. The lights are off here too, but at least the exit is right there, leading out to Earth, where it should.

6:48 AM We're here! On Earth!! Outside! In the red sky!

6:50 AM A little looking-around told us we're in a town called Fresno. At first I thought that was an Italian restaurant, but, no, it's a place! In California. And with a T.J. Maxx comes a parking lot, and with a parking lot comes the chance of hotwiring a working car!

6:54 AM SUCCESS WE ARE ON THE MOVE AGAIN EVERYTHING'S COMING UP MILHOUSE

7:15 AM Reached a town called Kernan.

7:20 AM It's all the same, deserted streets, a notable lack of cars except for the occasional broken-down hunk. We've been passing a lot of graffiti, and I've made sure to slow down so I can write it down. "CALIFORNIA DYING OF FEAR" "LISTEN TO THE STOMPING SIRENS: FUCK IT ALL, JUST DANCE" there are a lot of drawings of what I'm pretty sure are Legsteps o_o "MY DADDY'S GOT A GUN, YOU'D BETTER RUN" "DRAW A STAIRWAY FOR MY GOD TO SPITE THE SOFA OF MY FAITH" "WHAT DID DOCTOR CLOUD DISCOVER IN THE GENERA?" "^ Answers." "JORDAN DOOLING WITH THE TRILBY HAT" "JORDAN DOOLING WITH THE TRILBY HAT" "HEY JORDAN WITH THE TRILBY HAT" "WHERE IS JORDAN WITH THE TRILBY HAT" I'm seeing that message in a lot of hands. This has got to be what EAT was talking about. And I see it, I just don't get it. Donnie's grabbing my hand. "We're gonna find out together. I've got your back, and you've got mine." Yeah. :)

7:36 AM With no sign of people anywhere, I think we'd best keep moving. Leave this town. We've gotta look for people.

7:52 AM Lots of vultures in the sky again. "Look! On the side of the road! A hitchhiker?" They're looking at us, but I mean, we're a moving car, we're a rare sight. They don't have any bags, or any broken car, or even any visible weapons. It's just some woman in greasy plaid. "...she's walking into the road." Well, roll your window down so we can talk, but I don't plan on stopping. "Hey! Are you okay?" ...she's. still walking out into the road. and when I slowed down, so did she. I think she's planning on "WHAT THE FUCK" SHE OPENED ONE OF OUR BACK PASSENGER DOORS AND JUST CLIMBED IN "EXCUSE ME WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING" "I have looked into it further." What? donnie "WHAT?" stopping the car. "The graffiti has many copycats by now. I believe some unrelated humans assumed it was some kind of inside joke or quote and are spreading it." donnie "Hey! Hey! Who the fuck are you, get out of our car! I have a gun! You stink like a wet dog!" she is looking at us, or, past us? hard to tell. Are you.. Salmacis? a very mechanical smile. "You remembered." oh THANK FUCK donnie's annoyed but is a lot less alarmed. "Okay, can you not do that kind of thing again?" "You were in a moving vehicle. I was not going to be able to communicate everything in a brief few seconds as you passed by. If you wish to resume driving, we can talk on the way." donnie and I are looking at each other

7:53 AM Donnie's driving now, I'm in the passenger seat so I can talk with EAT. And they've scooted over to the opposite side so they can see me better. Um. Hello, Salmacis! "Disarming greetings." How.. have you been? I like your.. Camper… donnie "it fucking stinks" well I think she's kinda pretty "This was the nearest body on hand. I have been observing, inquiring, learning, as well as some other activities you are best ignorant of." o_o "Understand, I mean that not out of a desire to keep you in the dark. The other activities have involved a lot of killing. You asked." I.. asked how you've been. donnie "you're not gonna get a good answer. it's not a human." "Actually. I have been scared." o__o "I am not used to not knowing something this large. The nature of Rapture. The changes coming to my planet. I am not used to feeling scared." It's a rotten feeling, but if you can get past it, you get a lot of adrenaline! "I am used to adrenaline. Each of my bodies has its own chemical rhythms, and adrenaline is easy to trigger. I am not used to not knowing. This is something of incredible size merging with us. This is not a force of military might, or even a new Fear, I am used to dealing with those. This is…" An entire universe. "..it is?" You, uh. You didn't know that one? "It had occured to me as a possibility. Where did you hear this?" Oh, god. Tiresias, definitely. But there was a guy in New York too, who was the first to tell us. A government guy. "They're holding back from me. The government does not surprise me, but Tiresias? He can normally be trusted. Do you know of his certainty?" Uh! Not necessarily? It could have just been the closest way of explaining it to us at the time. Or. .… sigh. let me just show you the journal.

8:07 AM Got my journal back. "Appreciated." You're.. ...you're welcome, EAT. o: (donnie's tensing up. she's.. dammit, I know.) "I see what you mean. It may have been a lie-to-children. However, it strikes me as close to the truth. This would explain why I cannot enter Xanadu myself." It would? Wait, you can't? "Whenever a Camper enters a Door, it blacks out, and I lose that body entirely. I have never recovered one of these bodies." ...Indisen… "The presence of Indisen on Earth, outside of the Doors, complicates it for me. I would have expected my lost bodies to become the cadavers that they should be and just fall over on the spot. I would have expected all my missing Camper to be corpses in Xanadu. But they are not." Is this also what the Camper Festival is? Because you don't know about that either. And it's a whole bunch of Camper, in Xanadu, doing their thing. "These are all connected, I am positive of that." donnie "This is all fascinating, but, what about the graffiti here in California? Someone's looking for Jordan. And, hell, we're here now. Should we be worried? Threatened? Should we leave?" Yeah, EAT, you're kinda the only reason we're here. ...another smile. o_o <_< >_> … ouo?

"There is someone here in California who claims to know you. I have met him, though it was fleeting. He gave his name as Derek Taylor." Derek?? Really?? O: "You know the name, then." He's!!! I mean, if he's who he says he is... then he's someone I know!! Someone I would want to meet! Then! Where? Where did you meet him? "I met him in San Francisco, though I have no reason to be certain he is still there." Argh! But why? Doesn't he know the first rule of asking someone to meet you somewhere??? "I'm just the messenger on that one. He said to tell you he would either be in San Francisco or Los Angeles." Huh. Okay, that's.. helpful! "I said I would look into it, and I did." smiling again. "This is, as you put it, the overture of our continued friendship." !!! :D ...car swerved. donnie definitely didn't like that. I mean. right. I am.. pleased you are approaching this so respectfully. "We have no reason to obstruct one another. Everything I have seen from you, from both of you, suggests you are an ally. Victoria, do you hear me too?" I think that's you, donnie she said "I'm listening, yes." "You are unsure of whether to trust me. I respect your trepidation; it has worth as a survival instinct. I do not believe I can simply talk my way into your good graces. But, if you two are willing to remain in California for a few days, I will earn your trust through action."

"...there's something you've failed to address." "What's that?" "Why? Why do you, the all-powerful god of whatever, want us to trust you? What are you planning on doing that is going to require our trust? I mean, require, to the point that you can't just do it anyway without us?" "I can learn from you. I have already been learning from humans by observing at a distance. For more years than there are numbers, I have been doing that, I found comfort in it. Normally, when threats come, they are nothing to me, and I can just watch humans die to it. I grew comfortable in that too. But everything has changed and will continue to change, and for once it's something that is a threat to me, to my continued existence. I cannot just keep going by the motions. I need to change my approach. I wish to try." ...donnie is silent. "I am making no effort to attack either of you. Do you acknowledge that?" "I do." "Do you have any more questions for me?" "Yeah. Why does your body stink so bad? You had vultures following you, y'know." "Those vultures were Camper." "What?!" what?! "As long as a body can contain my water, it is a valid vessel. Birds can travel faster than humans and gather information unheeded. As you have demonstrated, they do not arouse suspicion easily." donnie, I just, I fucking love this thing she rolled her eyes "As for the stink, it's probably because this Camper had been dormant in a pile of mud for the last several months." "Well. Thanks for.. getting in our car." "Sarcasm noted. I'm learning what you dislike." "Lesson for the future: Very, very few humans like that." ...........…<__<;;;;;

8:14 AM and, as abruptly as it entered, salmacis opened a door and just fell out of the car. donnie's breathing sighs of relief and I'm just.. hand on the window.... goodbye, swamp queen.…

8:29 AM Town of Madera. We've stopped to get our bearings. Maybe also to air out the car a bit.

8:30 AM "So." ...yeah? "I don't.. get it. But it is here. And it wants to help us. Says it does." It told us that Bones is here. "Bones?" Derek. "Wasn't he.. some friend of yours from Georgia?" My best friend. We stayed at his house, and he wasn't there. I had hoped he wasn't dead. And he's here, in.. one of two cities. "We need to find a road map for California. We need to start checking some buildings. Figure out which city is closer."

8:41 AM trolling around, checking the buildings that might be of help. hotels. government buildings. if we can find a damn Publix or something, those have tons of magazines near the entrance. Donnie's checking out buildings on foot, but I said I'd take the car to look in the other direction. because I.. don't mind.…

8:48 AM there's donnie, shouting and waving for me. I think she's found one.

8:49 AM she did. and we're sitting inside this book store now, looking at the map.

8:52 AM "Right. So. We're actually in a good spot here. San Francisco and Los Angeles are both.. really close." Oh, neat! "However, they are in opposite directions. We can either go 3 hours north and hit San Francisco, or 3 hours south and hit Los Angeles." And so, if he's not in one, it's 6 hours in the other direction. Okay. That doesn't sound too bad. "God, I really hope we didn't go all this way for him to just say 'nice hat' and that's it..."

8:54 AM jesus, okay, yeah, the car does still.. reek. we'll... leave it a bit longer. there's no time limit on all this.

2:22 PM We slept for longer than intended, in the cover of the bookstore, but we kept our stuff with us, and if anyone came by, they weren't interested in our car. So we ate some of our snacks and got on the road again! I'm driving.

4:50 PM "Slow down, do you see that?" It's San Francisco. With a very blatant dome of blue sky above it. Little specks are flying around the sky. "Those must be the Ants. I wish I could make them out from here…" The RAF, or the Anonymous going by the name of the RAF, must have amassed here as well, then. This will probably be another place that cares about money. "Shit."

4:52 PM We were almost considering turning back and trying Los Angeles first when we saw another hitchhiker coming for our car. This one wasn't EAT, though. It's a young woman named Evi who was trying to get to an RAF meetup before her transport got grabbed by "the Morphs."

4:53 PM The Morphs are the bird Fear. I've seen them come out of lightning, Donnie's seen them swirl around and change the landscape, and now apparently Evi's seen them grab whole cars and carry them away.

4:54 PM She's trying to join the California branch of the Anon squad. They're going to stage an attack on the rich people who live in San Francisco and are calling for all volunteers. "Didn't you hear? The billionnaires are partnering up with the Fears and causing the red sky!" I.. don't think that's true. But we'll drive her to this meetup.

5:30 PM Well, much like Las Vegas, this place looks quite safe. There are some zombies in the streets, but they're not even hostile, they're just stumbling around. Maybe the Fears are in cahoots here?

5:34 PM The signage around here is rather consistent in calling this Sanctuary Francisco. Evi says that's legit. The name was changed. That keeps it consistent with New Sanctuary. I guess it's good advertising.

5:41 PM She's directed us to a semidetached little house. Donnie had a nap on the way here, but she's awake now. We're gonna go in and see.

5:44 PM There's only a handful of people here. The leader, as pleased as can be to see new volunteers, is a lady named Heaven. There's also a gruff dude named Cody, who cannot keep his eyes off Donnie. There’s three teenagers in Guy Fawkes masks, too. Tiger, Winston, and Jackie. This is about as American a group as it gets.

5:46 PM Hey, Heaven. So you guys are.. with Anonymous? "They're not really called that anymore. They're just Rise Against Fear." Yeah, but. There's already a branch of the military called that. shrug "News to me." Okay. And. Evi told us, on the way over here, that.. the Fears are allied with billionaires? "Oh yes. There's a lot of documentation on this from leading members. I subscribe to the idea that the Fears are actually bribing the rich, as they correctly identified that's the language they'd listen to most, but that when the Fears have completed their plans, they'll just kill them all anyway." Right. That's a reasonable supposition. But do you guys think.. the rich caused the red sky? "100%. It's all the pollution, it's finally caught up with us." ......right. You got beverages here? I am parched!

5:50 PM god they're utterly clueless. oh, uh. hey. tiger, right? "hey." I'm jordan. "hey jordan." how's it. how's it going. "boring." yeah. I get that. "do you want to ditch this place? there's a party going on a couple blocks away." oh. really? are you sure that's, like. okay? "yeah. heaven and cody have a plan they need us for, but that's not gonna be ready for a couple days. I just came here to get my DS." oh fuck, what model? "it's the 3DS! it just came out this year! it's so cool, it's like 3D movies but without the glasses!" ohhhh!!!! dope!!!! "do you have one?" oh god no! I have an old DS. "like a DSi, or a DS Lite, or...?" the. the old one. the first one. "oh..... damn. grandpa gaming." don't you go there! we'll go toe-to-toe, and I can get really rowdy! "haha! so, I'm about to head to the party with jackie and wince. do you want to come with?" yeah! let me just go get donnie, and we'll follow you.

5:53 PM Donnie's talking with that Cody guy. Hey! Hey, Donnie. c: "Hi! Jordan! Let me, um. You're not gonna believe this." What, does he have a 3DS too? "This is Cody. Or, as I knew him, CodeMaster64. He was my ex." Oh! Wow! Damn! "I know!" cody "And you are?" I'm.. DJay32. I mean. I'm Jordan. Donnie and I came all the way from England. "To come here? Did even England hear about us?" Oh! No! No, Anonymous are kinda obscure; I feel like I'm more famous. We came here looking for "Well, who the fuck are you?" I'm! The White Jester. I probably shouldn't have said that. "That... name is familiar. Okay, I'll admit, I've heard the name. Can't place where..." I'm sorry for!! Insulting the RAF. A lot is happening right now. I came to get Donnie. donnie "What's happening?" a party. few blocks away. "..that does sound like fun…" cody "Go on, Don. We'll talk more later."

5:57 PM ON THE WAY TO A PARTY

9:16 PM It was, indeed, a party. Mostly young people who have nothing else to do. The music's a little too bland for my tastes, or, at least, I'm not familiar with most of it, so I found where all the gamers were hanging out and spent time there. :3 Donnie's gonna head back to the house, but I'm gonna stay a little longer.

9:32 PM "FEAR AT THE DOOR!" everyone's freaking out

9:33 PM It's a. It's a zombie. A single zombie.

9:34 PM "HE KILLED THE FEAR!" "THIS GUY'S AWESOME!" Thank you, thank you. -w- I guess I can get used to this crowd. :D

11:10 PM Got back. Heaven's got a cot for me to sleep in. Donnie was waiting for me. We're gonna spoon... .w. This place isn't bad. It's kinda a little piece of the world that was, frozen in time. And if everyone here is helpful, we'll be able to find Bones-- or confirm that he's not here, so we can move on! Maybe even pretty quickly.

11:11 PM I just.. I wish that this place really is, I wish that it isn't too good to be true.

(Attached: “I don’t care what anyone thinks of me for writing this note, but I can’t ever think back to these times without cringing and wanting to cry. I don’t know how I made it out of all this alive, and how I managed to get into the mess in the first place is an even murkier subject. I don’t like spending too much time thinking about it, though, as I don’t want to fall back into that rabbit hole. It's a nonlinear subject, though, as those memories have been written over with words. In the end I, like him, was able to create. Right now it's undecided if I’ll be able to create my way out of this pit, but I am still creating context, meaning to these memories. I doubt I’ll be able to do what he does and create life, create sound, create the very idea of magnificence itself, but at least I’m able to create a reason to live out of the ruins of my spiritual death. At least I'm able to create HCEAT.”)

[PREV LOG] [TABLE OF CONTENTS] [NEXT LOG]

[darkhopping]

genre of post thats like "decline of skips + back in ye olde days skips were only 5 sentences long" and then u check the notes and see them getting ratioed in real time by ppl whove read skips released in the last year and/or authors of those skips themselves

[pepprs]

hi update as of an hour ago i have a THERAPIST!!! an actual licensed therapist!!!! we have our first session on monday 😭💗

[shorlinesorrows]

i'm eighteen years old and just got my phone taken away in a school library for reading on it during a free period instead of doing my (nonexistent) homework

*screams in frustration*

[salsflore]

[greencheekconure27]

Not to be a Karen but if the local bus service won't start providing me with an explanation as to why, for the fourth time this month, (not counting the day they were striking, which I'm okay with) three scheduled busses in a row just "won't come today" I'm gonna go ahead and assume it's because the bus drivers just couldn't be bothered and all went for a beer instead.

Signed,

Increasingly hangry customer who just wants to get home and have dinner already.

(I will Not be eating at the fast food place again. Nope. I refuse.)

[meathookmarvel]

WHY YOU SHOULD INTERACT WITH ME

tendency to grab people's ankles from the adjacent stall in public bathrooms that have dirty wet floors and flickering lights

possibly contains large amounts of raw uranium

poo

walks sidweay like Crab. ,

own 1 cat

"Who’s joe?" a distant voice asks. Instantly everyone nearby hears the sound of 1,000s of bricks rapidly shuffling towards his location. The earth itself seemed to cry out in agony, until finally the ground itself split open and a horrific creature crawled from the ground, covered in mucus and tar. ”Joe Momma…” the creature whispered. The man cried out in pain as he disintegrated into dust, and the whole world fell silent in fear. "I did a little trolling." the wretched creature remarked before burrowing back into the earth.

[bookwyrminspiration]

my parents were very “we don’t need that” when it came to buying things growing up, but now that I’m older they’ve flipped it to “you’re allowed to buy things, you know, you can get what you want :)”

and I know it’s partly because we have the money to spare now and partly because I’m old enough to be responsible with money but that does change the fact that I! Cannot! Switch! My mindset! I am so thrown off by it every time. it’s hardwired into me to Not Buy Things

[niveditainfosys]

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[blindrapture]

MONDAY JULY 11TH, 2011 (Sempiternity)

2:28 PM Ugh. Yeah, I guess I needed that rest. How long did I sleep? ..where's Donnie?

2:30 PM Downstairs now. The sky outside is blue. A crisp bright Georgia summer blue. This isn't real. Living room. My dad's on his laptop on the couch, typing away at his websites, his horse racing, his lists of movies. I can see through him at an empty dusty couch. The empty space where should just be wall displays a television, with a documentary playing that I'll never watch. Dad doesn't look at me. Because he's not real. He's a shadow. Now there are many shadows on the wall. They aren't connected to the Beast, the man on the corner, the Father my dad. My dad is just another remnant of the Musicians' powers working their way through my mind. I don't see them, and they might have gone on to torment someone else, but their effects linger. The shadows on the wall are different somehow. I think they're really there. They're humanoid and featureless, like Shadowclones but showing no sign of spontaneous reproduction. They are just.. there. Not laughing at me. They stand and sway gently, naturally. Like they were once human. I feel as if these are creatures I cannot name, but still there's a word in my head I can't trace the source of. The Victims. They know me. Something tells me I know them. They know my delusions all too well, and they have seen my nightmares. They live nightmares every day, trapped as eternal shadows. How did they become shadows? That's not clear to me, and they won't say. They can't say. They want to say, I feel as if they might reach out of the walls and grab me by the shoulders, scream the answer to me. But they won't, as they can't. They're shadows. Forever now. All they can do is shift along the walls of our disillusioned daydreams and pray we follow them down the rabbit hole.

2:35 PM They're coagulating around the door to the basement. Is that the rabbit hole? Down the stairs, into the darkness, open the Door, and let’s have a peek.

2:36 PM It’s a courtroom. Huh. Lots of creatures hustle to and fro, animals and man-sized insects, groups of what look like gingerbread men rushing past my feet, everyone has a place to go. Statues along the walls depict something complicated I don't have time to process, as "Mister Dooling?" huh. Someone in a tweed suit and a blindfold beckons me. Who are you? "Call me Sempi. I'm a friend of Father Tiresias. And right now, you very much need a friend." What's happening? "You're on trial." ...what's happening?? "We can't waste time, we've got to get inside."

2:39 PM We've sat down at a bench. This looks like an ordinary enough courtroom, although there's construction going on around the judge's seat. "The Judge wishes to see you." Alright, well, who's the judge? "The Judge is a Fear." A Fear in the rabbit holes? "You'll have time to wonder on the details later. I'm here to make sure you don't do anything stupid." Well. Okay. Thanks? Is he scary? "If you look directly at him, your eyeballs will melt." What? "Also, he knows everything about you. So don't lie." Okay... uh... Is there anything I need to do, in particular? Am I going to jail? "Just..." hand on my shoulder "Stay calm. Okay? Stick with that."

2:45 PM The jury are all Camper, complete with fleshy wings and long arms. The judge is not currently at the stand. The prosecution is just arriving. That. Is some kind of alien. Green, long neck, big black eyes, lots of arms. Sempi's telling me not to stare. Right. Sorry.

2:48 PM "Will everyone please rise for the formidable Judge?" I can hear some sort of noise coming from the judge’s seat that sounds like a cross between a bass guitar making distorted sweeps and the soft pitter-patter of raindrops. Or perhaps popcorn. But not that loud. ..rice krispies. I really want to look. A Camper looked. His eyes are now being coated in a skin-coloured substance. The substance slowly burns away, and now all that are left are empty eye sockets. Not even a scream.

2:49 PM "COURT IS IN SESSION." the voice is thundering and makes my bones twitch with odd high frequencies "I HAVE A LOT TO GO THROUGH TODAY, SO LET'S MAKE THIS AN EXPEDIENT ONE. THE DEFENDANT IS ONE JORDAN DOOLING. MISTER DOOLING, ARE YOU PRESENT AND OF STABLE MIND?" uh look at the ground Yes, sir. "THEN WE CAN BEGIN." my chair is raising, gotta look at the sides, look anywhere but at the judge "I UNDERSTAND THE DEFENDANT IS FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM, AND HE ACCESSED THIS COURTROOM FROM GEORGIA, OR AS IT'S NOW CALLED, THE COUNTRY OF SOUTHERN GEORGIA. DID HE CROSS COUNTRIES LEGALLY?" sempi "Your Honor, Mister Dooling crossed in an authorized vessel piloted by a licensed captain. The documentation has been provided as page 4 of the defense's report." "...SO IT HAS. VERY GOOD." "Furthermore, starting on May 21st of 2011, Earth time, neither the United Kingdom nor the United States jurisdiction which became the country of Southern Georgia has retained their restrictions on human migration between nations." "A POLICY I DO NOT AGREE WITH BUT ACKNOWLEDGE. VERY GOOD. AND THEN HIS PRIOR ACTIVITIES ACROSS FRANCE AND SPAIN WILL HAVE FALLEN UNDER STANDARD EUROPEAN UNION FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT. VERY GOOD! HE'S PASSING ON MIGRATION. THE NEXT MATTER IS THE STATUTORY." "The defense raises that the defendant's background fails to meet the requirements necessary to warrant an inspection of Statutory Violations." "The prosecution concurs, Your Honor." "ALRIGHT THEN." awkward silence look at the jury ...I can hear that one's eyes still making little popping noises okay uh look at.. my shoes…

"MISTER DOOLING. ARE YOU AWARE OF WHAT COMES NEXT?" No, Your Honor. "ARE YOU AWARE OF WHO I AM?" No, Your Honor. I have been told you are a Fear. "I AM." So.. you're from Earth? "I'LL ASK THE QUESTIONS. "AS THE SITTING JUDGE OF THIS COURTROOM, I HAVE A DUTY TO OVERSEE PROCEDURAL MATTERS REGARDING INTERUNIVERSAL TRAVEL. BUT BEYOND THAT, AS THE FEAR OF RIGHTEOUS JUDGEMENT, I HAVE A DUTY TO BRING TO THIS COURT A MORE INTENSE PRACTICE THEY ARE NOT USED TO WITNESSING. I AM AN INQUISITOR. AND, NOT TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION BUT AT LEAST TO ADDRESS IT, I SPECIALIZE IN THE FLAWS OF THE HUMAN MIND. "MISTER DOOLING, I ALREADY KNOW YOUR GUILT. YOU ARE FREE TO ASK FOR CLARIFICATION ON THAT, BUT WHEN I PASS MY VERDICT AT THE END OF THIS TRIAL, IT IS FINAL." I. What? "AGAIN, YOU ARE FREE TO ASK FOR CLARIFICATION. IT IS ONLY NATURAL." You already know my guilt? "YES." On what grounds? Guilt of what? "I KNOW THAT YOU HAVE ENGAGED IN PHYSICAL ALTERCATIONS WITH MEMBERS OF YOUR OWN FAMILY, NOT ALL OF WHOM WERE FIGHTING YOU AT THE TIME. I KNOW YOUR ENCOUNTERS WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT, YOUR NEAR-ARRESTS, YOUR TRESPASSES OF SCHOOL PROPERTY AFTER-HOURS. THESE WILL BE DEALT WITH IN TIME. I KNOW YOUR BLOGS. I KNOW YOUR WRITINGS. I KNOW THE PECULIARITIES OF YOUR PSYCHOLOGY. YOU DO NOT GET PAST ME. I CAN APPRECIATE THE SUBTLETIES OF THE SITUATIONS IN WHICH YOU HAVE FOUND YOURSELF. THESE, ALONE, DO NOT DETERMINE YOUR GUILT; THEY ONLY NECESSITATE TRIALS FOR LATER DATES. "WHAT HAS BROUGHT YOU INTO MY COURTROOM TODAY ARE TWO EVENTS THAT, IN MY EXPERIENCE, ARE ALMOST COMPLETELY UNHEARD OF. "ON JUNE 17TH, 2011, EARTH TIME, YOU ASSAULTED A FEAR UNPROVOKED. "AND ON JULY 8TH, 2011, IBID, YOU KNOWINGLY SABOTAGED" something "INFRASTRUCTURE. "MISTER DOOLING, ARE YOU AWARE OF WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT?" Well, 'assaulted a Fear' can only really refer to the Harlequin. "AND THE OTHER ONE?" July 8th was only a few days ago. Was that the God Machine? "CORRECT." Huh. sempi "Your Honor, if I may raise a point. The Harlequin, formerly Rosa Syclus, was assaulted by Jordan Dooling and Donnivan Rand on June 17th, this is acknowledged by the defense and by the Harlequin herself; however, she does not wish to press charges." "...LUCKY FOR YOUR CLIENT. ALRIGHT. THAT DOES, IN FACT, ADDRESS THAT MATTER." I'm.. surprised at that. Why wouldn't she want to press charges if there's, like, a whole Fear Court? sempi "The Judge may be a Fear, but this court does not serve—" "THE TIME FOR DISCUSSION IS ANY OTHER TIME THAN NOW." "I apologize, Your Honor." "SO. JULY 8TH. WAS THERE A GOOD REASON FOR YOUR ACTIONS?" Would a good reason even matter here? "MISTER DOOLING." Right. Uh. I was acting on a lot of assumptions. I had gotten it from Tiresias that I needed to decode the Seven Ciphers in order to open his book, and then I heard that the God Machine was one of the Ciphers? "SO TIRESIAS IS INVOLVED IN THIS. THAT IS NOT ENTIRELY SURPRISING." You didn't know that? "I WAS NOT CERTAIN. FATHER TIRESIAS IS INACCESSIBLE. HOWEVER, THIS DOES NOT CHANGE MY VERDICT. I AM READY TO DELIVER." fuck "JORDAN DOOLING, YOU ARE GUILTY. YOU ARE MOST DEFINITELY GUILTY. YOU SABOTAGED OUR SYSTEMS OF RELIGION AND COMMUNICATION. WITHOUT DEUS EX MACHINA, IT IS MUCH HARDER TO MANIFEST A UNIFIED VOICE IN XANADU. YOU DID A MOST DANGEROUS THING." I'm sorry. "COURT IS ADJOURNED." ...what? my chair is back on the ground. people are getting up and leaving. Sorry, that's.. that's it? "YOU ARE GUILTY. YOU MUST LIVE WITH THAT." But. That's?? ...sempi's shaking their head ....I mean, alright.

3:20 PM Sempi took me to the courthouse cafe and fed me. So, uh. "You're guilty." I am, but, like. There's no sentence. "Not as such, no. But the next time you see the Judge, you already have a record." Well. I can just avoid this court, right? "Can you avoid where you go here? Can you control your destinations in Xanadu?" Well. No! "Then you see the issue." But does he have jurisdiction? Isn't he in-- god, this is ridiculous, you see that, right? God, I haven't felt... like actually threatened by anything in such a long time. I feel like the gods are just fucking around. "Hm. Have you heard of the principle, 'Death By A Thousand Cuts?'" No, but that sounds self-explanatory. "You're still young. You have a lot to keep track of. You're bound to slip up somewhere." I guess. I dunno. I really thought destroying the God Machine was what I was supposed to do. "Did Tiresias tell you to do it?" Not.. in so many words. "He gave you a vague prophecy." Yes! Precisely. "That's him." Do you think he set me up? Or that I'm an idiot. "Tiresias wouldn't set you up. Not without a plan." You put a lot of trust in him. "I've known him for a long time." Arghh!!! I don't know. I don't know what any of this means. I don't understand what's happening. I've.. been asleep for so long. I've missed something important. I. Donnie. Mister Brown. Can I go home? Can I go back? "You're done with trial, you can go wherever you need." Okay. Well. Thank you, Sempi. It's been nice to meet you.

4:09 PM Came back to Earth, left the court the way I came in. Donnie was sitting in the driveway, watching the trees. She had no idea I'd even woken up. She says Mr. Brown left this morning. He had something he needed to do. Then, this afternoon, she saw a school bus drive by up the road. She thinks he went to confront Death. I. Dammit. I probably could have... stopped him? I probably could have at least talked to him. But I was asleep. And then I was... wasting time down in wherever the fuck. Donnie says she understands, but, I think she's getting a little sick of backing me up. She must be. So we're taking the car, we're getting the hell out of here. I've had enough of Georgia. I'm gonna drive, I'm gonna let Donnie sleep this time, I'm gonna take care of her. And we're heading for Nebraska. I'm gonna make things right. I'm gonna...

6:04 PM …I’m just gonna play some music, okay? Okay. There. Metallica. Death Magnetic. I’ve had this album in my head all day.

9:58 PM Donnie woke up. Says we should probably get some rest soon. Even though I’ve been asleep for days, I feel like that’s not a bad idea.

10:59 PM Stopping at this house here. Middle of nowhere. Just off the road.

11:02 PM ..there’s someone here. They’re running around back.

11:04 PM There’s a giant pond back here. I don’t see anyone nearboh. There’s someone crouching by the pond.

11:05 PM A giant tentacle is rising out of the pond. It’s grabbing the person and pulling them in. o_e;;

11:07 PM ..and the person is climbing back out of the pond. “Hello, Rael. Victoria.” Oh. Hi, EAT. o__o; "I hear you've been busy." We, um. We did a thing with a Cipher. "Yes. Would you allow me to read your journals?"

11:13 PM The Camper took my journal and skimmed through it. "Ah, so you've heard of my meeting with the government." Oh! Oh right, that was you! You're Salmacis! "The name made sense. I see you've also met the Archangel, the Musicians... Tiresias... and the Judge. You've met a lot now." A lot of them meet us, really… "You've made some questionable decisions in all this. I wouldn't advise making so many enemies." Well... ^^;; "But your work with the Ciphers is promising. That's the best lead so far." I was told I may have, um.. done something really bad? By destroying the God Machine? "You may have. Or you may have just attracted the wrong kind of attention, which would make sense if these Ciphers are the key to preventing the terminal coming of Rapture." But you don't want us making so many enemies? "As far as I see it, Rapture is already our enemy. And, furthermore, any wrench in the system will either help us, or at least teach us something about how our enemy works. So even if you fail catastrophically, you'll be doing the world a favor." Um. donnie "We'd rather not have to die." "Of course. In any case, your plan is to head further west?" Yeah. ...wait. ...should I have not shown you my journals? "It was, by all measures, another strange decision on your part. I thank you for trusting me, as I benefit from it, but should you trust me? I don't know how to answer that." donnie "Are you a threat to us? Are you going to hurt us?" "I have no reason to. You're just two additional bodies, and any knowledge I may gain from your brains generally already finds its way to me thanks to your indiscretion." Well. Thanks..? "Please. Now, I encourage your westward progress. There are still plenty of Doors, allowing search for the remaining Ciphers, and furthermore, you will end up near California." What's in California? "Someone else claiming to know you. It is primarily a trend of graffiti, all in the same hand, asking for your whereabouts by name. I have not yet seen the source of this. I can look into it further, if you wish?" Would. Would that trouble you? I'd appreciate the help. "I will look into it further." … "That's all." ...o_o

11:46 PM Uh. Yeah. We're driving on. The Camper was just.. standing there, by the pond, outside the house. We didn't want to sleep in that house. ...god, that was weird. God, today was weird. America, you're weird. Nebraska. California. Right. We can do this.

(Attached: “So there I was, far closer to the start of my long life, roaming some supermarket in Germany for food, looking for some more beer and hoping for mead, when I heard this weird noise from a few aisles down. Sounded like a church organ being hit with a train. Then there were slow steady footsteps, and out came an androgynous figure in plain clothes and a blindfold. This person called to me, asked if I was Tiresias. I quickly replied, --- Tiresias is dead. I’m Thoth. -- You’re still young... I am the Sempiternity. You don’t know me. --- I don’t, that’s right. Who are you? -- I am the Fear of forever. I’m looking to talk to whoever’s left on this planet. --- Well, civilization’s rebuilding all over; there are plenty of people left. -- I mean the Fears. What Fears are left? I paused to think for a bit. We hadn't used the 'Fear' moniker in quite some time. --- I know there’s the Musicians and Salmacis.. and the Omen, too. I think Red survived— that is, the Colour of Blood— though she probably went back to Tuonela. Sempiternity said, surprised, -- This is a small list. What about Death? Or the slender man? Surely one of the Brothers Sleep survived!

--- Death’s gone. Slendy too. I don’t know who the Brothers Sleep are. -- You really are still young, Thoth. This elicited a shrug from me. -- What about this planet, what happened that took such powerful beings? --- Rapture came. Sempiternity’s head fell into their hands. I put an arm around them and said I knew how they felt. A little while later, we walked together out of town, taking to the deserted forested streets. I talked about the apocalypse Earth faced two years prior, and Sempiternity told me about where they were from. -- I was a human once. It was too long ago, too far away. The Fears took me and tortured me, judged me, made me one of them. I was to live forever, they said. To be an immortal. That’s my only power, that’s all they did. I can’t die. I said it sounded awesome. -- I can still feel pain. I can still suffer. If I undergo too much pain, I go to sleep and wake up healed, my aching dulled, my wounds scarred. I stumbled and listened. -- It’s been so long since I was human. I don’t remember who I was, what my name was, what my life was. I don’t even remember if this was my universe. This is why I searched for Tiresias; I was hoping his library would hold my book. --- I understand. I’m sorry. -- He was my best friend. He walked down the road of aeons with me many times; he always said he’d show me his library some day, and we’d be able to look for my book together. --- Well, if you want, I can help you look for it. I’ve never stepped in his Peisistratos myself, though I know people who have. And I mean, it’s not like I’m doing much these days. I’ve been wandering ever since the world was saved. The Sempiternity gave a wide smile and held out a hand. -- Let’s shake on it, then. We’ll be new friends, and we’ll look for the Blind Man’s library. I took that hand and I shook it tightly, happy to help. Then we set off down another road towards new names and old faces.”)

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[digitalcreationsllc]

IOTW: DDoS attacks hit Czech ministries, pro-Russia group allegedly behind them

Multiple Czech Republic government websites were disrupted earlier this week due to a denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The police force and Prague Airport websites were also disrupted as a result of the cyber attack. The sites were down for around two hours on Tuesday, October 24. The website of the Crimea Platform, an international summit taking place in Prague, was also attacked. Several…

[methamphetatitties]

Im seeing a lot of people compare the crowdstrike outage to Y2K, but that's only half the story. The amount of disruption is what we expected out of y2k, but the technical issues are vastly different. What was going to happen with Y2K wasn't a bad update or coding error or anything, but a fundamental problem with the code language itself, basically. The timekeeping system was written in lile the early 70s and the time keeping system was not able to compute anything past midnight on January 1st 2000, and would instead revert back to 1901. To this day, many people believe that Y2K was a hoax because when the clock struck, nothing happened.

BUT

The only reason nothing happened is because many people pulled an ungodly amount of overtime to fix this before that date. In fact, they had to bring some people out of retirement to help because the system ran on the COBOL language and almost every IT person in the 90s did not know this language anymore. And in 2038, it may happen again if no one does anything about it.

I know many of the people on this website either don't remember or weren't alive for Y2K so I just thought it would be a fun little history lesson about computers.

Further reading:

[fomokun]

In a show of protest, Reddit users are participating in a site-wide blackout due to recent changes, particularly a significant increase in the price of API calls, which are connections between Reddit and third-party applications. Previously costing developers only a few dollars for 50 million API calls, the price has now surged to a staggering $12,000. This surge has led to the closure of many apps designed to enhance the user experience. To amplify their message and disrupt website traffic, thousands of subreddits are observing a self-imposed blackout, prohibiting new posts for a few days. @Fomokun の #DailyCompanion #NFT #IP #IP4 #IP4everyone #Web5 ( #Web3 + #Web2 )

[zvaigzdelasas]

Unionized workers at Samsung Electronics declared an indefinite strike Wednesday to pressure South Korea’s biggest company to accept their calls for higher pays and other benefits.

Thousands of members of the National Samsung Electronics Union launched a temporary, three-day strike on Monday. But the union said Wednesday that it was announcing an indefinite strike, accusing the management of being unwilling to negotiate. Samsung Electronics says there have been no disruptions to production.

“Samsung Electronics will ensure no disruptions occur in the production lines,” a Samsung statement said. “The company remains committed to engaging in good faith negotiations with the union.”

However, in a statement posted on its website, the union said it has engaged in unspecified disruptions on the company’s production lines to get management to eventually come to the negotiating table if the strikes continue.

“We are confident of our victory,” the union statement said.

The union statement didn’t say how many of its members would join the extended strike. It earlier said that 6,540 of its union members had said they would participate in the earlier, three-day strike.

9 Jul 24