Thankyoufortheadventure - Thankyoufortheadventure

>First, we’ve discovered that about a quarter of all the internet connection in or out of the house were ad related. In a few hours, that’s about 10,000 out of 40,000 processed.

>We also discovered that every link on Twitter was blocked. This was solved by whitelisting the https://t.co domain.

>Once out browsing the Web, everything is loading pretty much instantly. It turns out most of that Page Loading malarkey we’ve been accustomed to is related to sites running auctions to sell Ad space to show you before the page loads. All gone now.

>We then found that the Samsung TV (which I really like) is very fond of yapping all about itself to Samsung HQ. All stopped now. No sign of any breakages in its function, so I’m happy enough with that.

>The primary source of distress came from the habitual Lemmings player in the house, who found they could no longer watch ads to build up their in-app gold. A workaround is being considered for this.

>The next ambition is to advance the Ad blocking so that it seamlessly removed YouTube Ads. This is the subject of ongoing research, and tinkering continues. All in all, a very successful experiment.

>Certainly this exceeds my equivalent childhood project of disassembling and assembling our rotary dial telephone. A project whose only utility was finding out how to make the phone ring when nobody was calling.

>Update: All4 on the telly appears not to have any ads any more. Goodbye Arnold Clarke!

>Lemmings problem now solved.

>Can confirm, after small tests, that RTÉ Player ads are now gone and the player on the phone is now just delivering swift, ad free streams at first click.

>Some queries along the lines of “Are you not stealing the internet?” Firstly, this is my network, so I may set it up as I please (or, you know, my son can do it and I can give him a stupid thumbs up in response). But there is a wider question, based on the ads=internet model.

>I’m afraid I passed the You Wouldn’t Download A Car point back when I first installed ad-blocking plug-ins on a browser. But consider my chatty TV. Individual consumer choice is not the method of addressing pervasive commercial surveillance.

>Should I feel morally obliged not to mute the TV when the ads come on? No, this is a standing tension- a clash of interests. But I think my interest in my family not being under intrusive or covert surveillance at home is superior to the ad company’s wish to profile them.

>Aside: 24 hours of Pi Hole stats suggests that Samsung TVs are very chatty. 14,170 chats a day.

>YouTube blocking seems difficult, as the ads usually come from the same domain as the videos. Haven’t tried it, but all of the content can also be delivered from a no-cookies version of the YouTube domain, which doesn’t have the ads. I have asked my son to poke at that idea.

What we could have had:

TVD S1: Elena (unicorn/hunter), Bonnie (witch), Caroline (vampire), and Hayley (werewolf) [Jeremy, Enzo, Matt, and Tyler, too, I guess] are introduced to the supernatural. We should see their before, origin points, and foreshadowing what's to follow. This season sets the tone and the world rules for all future seasons by establishing lore, dread, and tension; bad things happen but we only see the suggestion of something-not-right. (Keyword: DREAD)

TVD S2: The Mystic Falls Girl Gang versus Katherine and her Salvatore brothers. Katherine, on the run from Klaus but still following his orders, torments Elena and her surviving family (Jeremy, Jenna, Alaric, John, and Isobel). Damon is really leaning into the Dracula thing by killing "his brides" and kills/turns Caroline and attacks Bonnie. Stefan is angsting over his latest binge-feeding and trying to play "human" but not human enough to save the Gang. Klaus should be suggested here. This season is a turning point and the terror of becoming and inevitability. Our monster girls should grow more monstrous, sacrificing their humanity for each other. (Keyword: TERROR)

TVD S3: The Mystic Falls Girl Gang versus the Mikaelsons. Supernatural royalty shows up for what they think is a power-up blood ritual, maybe unlocking their hybrid potential as a family. They were created because their parents feared their inevitable deaths so having the siblings driven to extreme action to escape their timely demise makes sense. (The nuance of obscenely powerful characters consumed and eventually defeated in their quest for more power because they're terrified is delicious.) Also, death to the sad bad boy justification—Klaus isn't a bastard or the only hybrid anymore. Mikael, a viking, had a wife (Dahlia (hunter), the mother of Elijah, Freya, and Finn), a frilla or mistress (Esther (werewolf), the mother of Niklaus and Rebekah), and a thrall or slave (Ayanna (witch), the mother of Kol and Henrik). The women hate Mikael but love their children and seek their immortality with Ayanna's magic and the unicorn's blood—however because they killed the unicorn the consequences are dire creating hunter/vampires, werewolf/vampires, and witch/vampires (siphons) that are more powerful than humans, hunters, werewolves, and vampires because the wlrldbuilding already supports this. Maybe after centuries of in-fighting, Klaus still daggers his siblings because he's still paranoid of any threat to his power—just imagine a defeated Klaus un-daggering Rebekah and Kol and having to admit he was bested by the Mystic Falls Homecoming court. (You're welcome.) Obviously, even with his siblings, the Gang runs them out of town and they flee to New Orleans with the agreement to stay west of the Mississippi River from then on. They still get theor spin-off where they face their parents and eventually reclaim their humanity/mortality. This season should end with the Mystic Falls Girl Gang becoming more monstrous than the monsters they were so against in the beginning amd the horrors they commit after shedding their humanity for each other. Yum. (Keyword: HORROR)

Then their story ends so I don't have to suffer through 8 seasons of bad writing from CW.

Kafka’s archive of longings (prev.)

(excerpts from “Letters to Milena”, Allan Kaprow “Comfort Zones”)

if you’d like to support me … 🌼

ha!

Proper boundaries

someone i follow on instagram just put out the PRETTIEST rendition of the traveler's prayer

MEHMET GEREN • Trust

“For there to be betrayal, there would have to have been trust first.”

Hey. At times like these, I find myself asking if the internet is destroying our ability to create healthy communities and have meaningful conversations or am I, myself, simply spending too much time online or online in the wrong spaces? (Because as much as I love [insert thing here] or want to participate in that specific community, it can be a harmful experience, especially online. Does that make an entire topic, friend group, fandom, or community toxic? I don't know! That's not for me to decide but it probably isn't helpful for anyone to do so as an individual, including myself, because nobody is the Arbiter of All Things Good and Just and Ethical and Moral and and and—) I've come to the conclusion that it's both and more, it's everything really. Which isn't helpful to anyone either, much less myself, so all I can leave us with, myself and dear followers and the odd unfortunate reader, is this: set boundaries. Set boundaries with yourself and online spaces and the wider world then stick to them. It's okay to check in with them, patrol the perimeter if you will, and renegotiate them as needed too. (Things change and people grow.) We're going to make mistakes—that's how we learn—and we're going to cause harm and be harmed. That part is unavoidable and mostly out of our control but what is in our control is how we react and the choices we make going forward. It's ok to step back from it, it's ok to make space for ourselves to heal and move forward and continue on. Even if that space is only just enough for a deep breath in and out before we square our shoulders, stiffen our spines, raise our heads, bare our bloody teeth before we dive back into the fray—wait, maybe that imagery isn't conducive to this post. I could remove that, this is my post after all, but while typing this I am incandescently angry at the world around me and want nothing more to lash out. Which I can take time to make space to acknowledge my emotions, validate the experience, process it all, and move on. Breathe in, breathe out, make space and continue on. It's not always that fast or straightforward either. I'm only human. I'm very hurt and angry. I'm going to make mistakes—that's how I learn. Once I know better, I can do better next time, right? But we have to give others the same opportunities and standards to which we hold ourselves, ok? Be kind to yourself, be kind to each other.