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world-of-advice · 2 days
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luvfrommirah · 2 days
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Ways to fill up a notebook☆
As a notebook lover, I always buy new notebooks and leave them empty for ages! But now I've found ways to fill them up and I wish to share them with you guys too<3
Diary! Nothing beats a regular daily diary! Permanently saving your memories is such a comforting thought
List notebook. Any list you might need in one place! Shopping list, tbr, shows and movies to watch! Just perfect!
A silly small sketchbook! Even if you aren't an artist, having a place to express yourself with art is pretty relaxing and rewarding!
A daily to do list notebook. I used to have one of these and I could really see improvement in my discipline and self control in daily habits!
Scrap book! It's such a fun way to spend time! If you have a printer to print photos, it's even better!
Something I call, free space. A sketchbook-Scrapbook-Journal hybrid. I have a notebook where I draw, save random "trash" (my treasure) and spill all of my thoughts into. I try to keep it as visually unpleasing as possible so I don't feel pressured to make everything pretty, and I suggest that to you too!
If you're an artist, this is for you. A notebook for anatomy practice. Despite the place, practice is practice and it will help you improve!
Now this one is a bit overkill, but a create your new activity book. Every week, print, create or draw pages for your future self to be entertained!
Self reflection! Have a notebook specifically to see how you're doing mentally and if you're improving or not!
Now there are thousands of posts that say specifically how to fill up notebooks. This is a bit broader and "umbrella term" type ideas. Regardless I really hope you consider these useful and end up using them!
Lots of love
-Mirah ☆
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sabrebash · 1 month
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I have to draw a lot of gold and metal for my work, but wasn't happy with any of the metal tutorials i could find around. I prefer really specific instruction, so after some research i put together what i think works as a generalist's guide/tutorial. Not perfectly accurate, but i hope it's helpful!
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queriesntheories · 8 months
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alright i am sick of yt to mp4 sites being shady and full of viruses and finding websites that seem to be working and then don't work
so HERE'S HOW YOU DOWNLOAD YOUTUBE VIDEOS WITH VLC!! VLC FREAKIN RULES!!
get your youtube link
open vlc, go to media > open network stream
paste your url in the box and PRESS PLAY!
wait for the video to open then go to tools > codec information
copy the entire file location (click the box, then ctrl-a to select all, then ctrl-c to copy)
paste into your browser of choice (i use firefox)
right click video and press "save video as", choose your file format if you want
DONE! NO VIRUSES OR SKETCHY STUFF!
the quality might be a little crummy but if you don't mind that, then shabam! video on your computer! then you can email it to yourself and have it on your phone too if you want! if you need a guide with pictures wikihow has you covered my friends
happy downloading and stay safe on the internet :D
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lifehacksthatwork · 1 year
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Just a bunch of Useful websites - Updated for 2023
Removed/checked all links to make sure everything is working (03/03/23). Hope they help!
Sejda - Free online PDF editor.
Supercook - Have ingredients but no idea what to make? Put them in here and it'll give you recipe ideas.
Still Tasty - Trying the above but unsure about whether that sauce in the fridge is still edible? Check here first.
Archive.ph - Paywall bypass. Like 12ft below but appears to work far better and across more sites in my testing. I'd recommend trying this one first as I had more success with it.
12ft – Hate paywalls? Try this site out.
Where Is This - Want to know where a picture was taken, this site can help.
TOS/DR - Terms of service, didn't read. Gives you a summary of terms of service plus gives each site a privacy rating.
OneLook - Reverse dictionary for when you know the description of the word but can't for the life of you remember the actual word.
My Abandonware - Brilliant site for free, legal games. Has games from 1978 up to present day across pc and console. You'll be surprised by some of the games on there, some absolute gems.
Project Gutenberg – Always ends up on these type of lists and for very good reason. All works that are copyright free in one place.
Ninite – New PC? Install all of your programs in one go with no bloat or unnecessary crap.
PatchMyPC - Alternative to ninite with over 300 app options to keep upto date. Free for home users.
Unchecky – Tired of software trying to install additional unwanted programs? This will stop it completely by unchecking the necessary boxes when you install.
Sci-Hub – Research papers galore! Check here before shelling out money. And if it’s not here, try the next link in our list.
LibGen – Lots of free PDFs relate primarily to the sciences.
Zotero – A free and easy to use program to collect, organize, cite and share research.
Car Complaints – Buying a used car? Check out what other owners of the same model have to say about it first.
CamelCamelCamel – Check the historical prices of items on Amazon and set alerts for when prices drop.
Have I Been Pawned – Still the king when it comes to checking if your online accounts have been released in a data breach. Also able to sign up for email alerts if you’ve ever a victim of a breach.
I Have No TV - A collection of documentaries for you to while away the time. Completely free.
Radio Garden – Think Google Earth but wherever you zoom, you get the radio station of that place.
Just The Recipe – Paste in the url and get just the recipe as a result. No life story or adverts.
Tineye – An Amazing reverse image search tool.
My 90s TV – Simulates 90’s TV using YouTube videos. Also has My80sTV, My70sTV, My60sTV and for the younger ones out there, My00sTV. Lose yourself in nostalgia.
Foto Forensics – Free image analysis tools.
Old Games Download – A repository of games from the 90’s and early 2000’s. Get your fix of nostalgia here.
Online OCR – Convert pictures of text into actual text and output it in the format you need.
Remove Background – An amazingly quick and accurate way to remove backgrounds from your pictures.
Twoseven – Allows you to sync videos from providers such as Netflix, Youtube, Disney+ etc and watch them with your friends. Ad free and also has the ability to do real time video and text chat.
Terms of Service, Didn’t Read – Get a quick summary of Terms of service plus a privacy rating.
Coolors – Struggling to get a good combination of colors? This site will generate color palettes for you.
This To That – Need to glue two things together? This’ll help.
Photopea – A free online alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Does everything in your browser.
BitWarden – Free open source password manager.
Just Beam It - Peer to peer file transfer. Drop the file in on one end, click create link and send to whoever. Leave your pc on that page while they download. Because of how it works there are no file limits. It's genuinely amazing. Best file transfer system I have ever used.
Atlas Obscura – Travelling to a new place? Find out the hidden treasures you should go to with Atlas Obscura.
ID Ransomware – Ever get ransomware on your computer? Use this to see if the virus infecting your pc has been cracked yet or not. Potentially saving you money. You can also sign up for email notifications if your particular problem hasn’t been cracked yet.
Way Back Machine – The Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites and loads more.
Rome2Rio – Directions from anywhere to anywhere by bus, train, plane, car and ferry.
Splitter – Seperate different audio tracks audio. Allowing you to split out music from the words for example.
myNoise – Gives you beautiful noises to match your mood. Increase your productivity, calm down and need help sleeping? All here for you.
DeepL – Best language translation tool on the web.
Forvo – Alternatively, if you need to hear a local speaking a word, this is the site for you.
For even more useful sites, there is an expanded list that can be found here.
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friendofthecrows · 1 year
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I compiled this a while ago but I was just looking for references and found the file so...
Best places to find reference photos:
Body types, poses, and anatomy:
http://reference.sketchdaily.net/en
https://www.posemaniacs.com/
https://quickposes.com/en
https://www.characterdesigns.com/#home-section
https://www.adorkastock.com/sketch/
https://line-of-action.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/
https://www.proko.com/browse/tools?af=242
Giant anatomy reference tutorials Pinterest board:
https://www.pinterest.com/deedee1232/body-reference/
General:
https://unsplash.com/
https://pixabay.com/
https://www.pexels.com/
https://stocksnap.io/
https://www.freeimages.com/
https://kaboompics.com/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
https://morguefile.com/
https://www.flickr.com/
https://www.dreamstime.com/
https://pmp-art.com/
https://www.freepik.com/
https://photobash.co/
https://picjumbo.com/
https://burst.shopify.com/
https://magdeleine.co/
https://wordpress.org/openverse/
Historical:
https://nos.twnsnd.co/
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evilminji · 2 months
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*Gasp of joy* Brain, you shouldn't have!
You know how the Wayne's have basicly been the ONLY Good And Uncorrupt Wealthy Family in Gotham? And probably fuckin curse resistant AF because otherwise, HOW!? (No, seriously, the local magical population is baffled but impressed!)
....you....you wanna bet at least a few of those suckers died thinking "but I haven't completed my orphan hospital for sickly waifish puppy's and sad eyed children, yet! I... must... save... THE CHILDREN! *le dies (×.× ) * " to the tune of their beautiful (and somehow bizarrely benevolent and well adjusted) families weeping at their bedsides.
Whoop! There's a ghost! Hello, Mr. Wayne.
(Why does this Keep Happening? Please have LESS unfinished bussiness. You're supposed to be rich. Stop trying to help people ON YOUR DEATH BEDS! FFS.)
I say all this? Beeeecause~?
( >.>)(<.< )
Allright! Time to come clean, folks! Which side of the family lead to our descendant dressing up in a Kevlar BAT SUIT!!? Throwing himself off buildings in the middle of the night. Cavorting around with Amazons!
We aren't even mad about the last one! We're actually deeply and respectfully impressed! But who pulled THAT off? Angela? That yours? (*shrug* I mean... probably? It DOES seem like something my daughter would do...)
So like?
Imagine Danny~.
Trying to eat his generic brand cereal. IN HIS Underwear. When? All these Fancy Ghosts show up to his A College Kid's, Baby's First, Crap Apartment(TM). He's eating on a pillow on the floor for God's sake. It's too early for this! C'mon guys...
But, no.
They want permission to go Haunt their Descendant.
Danny sighs. He can already FEEL his cereal going soggy. This is gonna take a while, ain't it? Okay... okay, WHO is you offspring, what did they do, and for how long? You know the rules, guys.
Then they hit him with the oh so casual "BTW he's Fuckin Batman".
YOU WANT TO WHAT!?
(They convince him. How? He couldn't tell you. It's... is? Is this what It's like meeting a Fenton? For other people? Huh. He always thought people were exaggerating...)
Which? Is how a dead Victorian Old Man has arrived to ABSOLUTELY tear this Trouble Making Youngster a new one, in front of his little friends! Just full on full names him. Oh, OH! The broken BONES! The BRUISES! Have you no regard for your poor ancestors health! Their fragile hearts! Trying to put us in the grave AGAIN, are you?! Why in MY DAY-!!!
(Nightwing? Recording this for Alfred. It's gonna be an early birthday present~)
@hypewinter @hdgnj @the-witchhunter @ailithnight @mutable-manifestation @nerdpoe
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paxthepuppycat · 4 months
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Nonhuman Tips!
Part 1: Paw dysphoria 🌿🐾
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Making/Buying paw items can help to ease your animal mind <3
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miseriathome · 2 years
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https://www.tiktok.com/@tylerandhistummy/video/7086509725671722286
Video description and transcription:
Tiktok by Tyler from Fig (tylerandhistummy)
[Tyler faces the camera and speaks to it.]
If this video helps even one person, it was worth it.
So, I've got a ton of ingredients that my body reacts to: corn, citric acid, gluten, chocolate, bananas, peanut oil--I'm all over the place.
It was so hard to read ingredient labels and just find food that I could eat. Grocery trips were unbearable, they took like two or three hours usually.
But I always had this idea on how to make it easier. So I quit my job and helped build an app over the past few years. And that app's called Fig.
[A phone screen showing the app interface, which Tyler scrolls through. Top text reads: "First up: Do you follow any of these diets? Dietary restrictions are complex - it's ok to select more than one!" Underneath is a checklist of ingredients and dietary restriction, including categories with suboptions.]
What makes fig unique is we're trying to help pretty much everybody that has to avoid certain ingredients.
That means we've got a ton of things that you can select from--even really specific ingredients.
[Camera briefly returns to Tyler's face again.]
And like I had dreamed of for so many years, checking ingredients is as quick as this.
[A phone camera scans the barcode on a bottle of spices. Details about the product appear, including an ingredients list and allergen statement. The ingredient "citric acid" appears in red all-caps. There is also an accompanying message that says "This product does not match your Fig."]
And finding food you can eat is as simple as this.
[The app displays a scrollable list of food items, similar to a storefront. Each item has a save toggle and is accompanied by a photo, the product brand/name, and its size. There is a search bar labeled "search for a product." There are also menus for narrowing the search; one is set to "allowed," one is set to "Whole Foods," and another unaltered menu is titled "Category."]
[The camera returns to Tyler.]
So if you know anybody with food allergies, stomach issues, other dietary restrictions, I'd really appreciate it if you shared it with them.
[The appstore listing for Fig: Food Scanner & Discovery.]
It's called Fig, it's completely free, and you can get it on iOS and Android in the US.
[Tyler smiles at the camera.]
Thanks for helping out.
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Posted on September 30, 2022 by Jay Bettencourt
In an uproarious interview with Vice published in 2013, the philosopher Slavoj Zizek describes a dynamic all too familiar to many workers today. He says, today “a typical boss no longer wants to be a boss.” He goes on to describe how, in the postmodern workplace, workers are forced to pretend their employers are their friends. You have to be overly polite, give the boss a hug, “exchange vulgarities,” and so on. The whole time both parties act like this is a relationship of friends and equals. 
Management sometimes goes to absurd lengths to keep up this illusion. They will go out for after work drinks or parties with workers, engage socially during off time, invite workers to funerals and weddings, and even try to position themselves as on the side of workers, really. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard my manager say, “I’m on your side guys. I asked the owner for a wage increase but he said no and there’s nothing else I can do.” 
This game wears you down fast, especially if you work a low-wage job. Management or HR expects you to maintain a good, polite mood and passion for your job while making your life materially miserable. Some even deploy a line like, “this is a very chill workplace, I try not to be too hard on you guys” as if it were a benefit like decent healthcare or ample vacation time, which are usually missing. All the while, consumer price inflation leaps ahead, wages stagnate, and working conditions steadily decline. 
On the flip side, this dynamic can lead to some workers trying to overperform to impress the boss or play into favoritism to secure preferred treatment and respite. Management’s intrusion into the off-hours social lives of their workforce can also act as a form of social surveillance and conditioning on the workers – you can’t talk frankly or even safely vent about your issues if your management is there. Or, if you do, management can easily use that to bribe, isolate, or otherwise retaliate against workers. They threaten to stop being nice.
When you dispense with the niceties and pull back the curtain, the whole sham reveals itself as a classic divide-and-conquer strategy. Employers set up pay structures and work conditions that pit workers against each other in productivity competitions. But to keep workers from cutting each other’s throats, management’s “door is always open” for workers to vent to a friendly ear if they want. Management wants workers to have good social relations only with them. Snitching and ratting out are encouraged, every worker is expected to be a teacher’s pet, and the only way to get any relief from poor working conditions is to play into a manager’s favoritism. 
The late Mark Fisher touches on this form of working class isolation in his hard-hitting 2009 book Capitalist Realism. Like Zizek, he hones in on the postmodern workplace and argues that this pervasive structurelessness serves to both alienate workers from each other and break our will to fight. He illustrates this with a point about discipline; during the earlier parts of the 20th Century, workers were regularly subjected to rigid discipline directly from capital, the state, or their agents. Today, workers are socially conditioned to have a “good work ethic,” practice “self-discipline,” and “hustle” to increase labor productivity instead of withstanding discipline meted out by the employer. Management hardly has to intervene.
Furthermore, Fisher argues that this state of affairs conditions working class resistance to capitalism into useless individualized channels like consumer activism. Without knowledge of a class structure (and capitalists pretending to be Just Like Us), there is no clear target to force into giving us what we want. And thus, the problems of capitalism feel as though they have no beginning and no end, intractable as the movement of the planets around the sun.
Unfortunately, Fisher does not offer us much in the way of practical advice for moving forward. Luckily, the IWW is full of battle-hardened class warriors who have learned many hard lessons over the years. In my personal experience, the “nice employer” has proved one of the toughest barriers to getting a union drive off the ground. I generally see management organizing after-work socials, happy hours, and events much more than workers themselves. In my own workplace, managers join workers for game nights and often accompany workers on outdoor activities like biking or camping. It seems they will do anything to make workers forget that the labor relationship is anything besides fundamentally economic in nature.
Management’s deep tendrils in workers social lives tends to make workers reluctant to take actions that may jeopardize their friendships. Organizers must know who is close to whom in the workplace in order to avoid this trap and prevent management from turning workplace leaders and other workers against an organizing effort early on. In our Organizer Training 101, we teach new Wobblies this, what we call Social Mapping, as one of the very first steps in a budding union drive. 
In that section, trainees learn that the workplace is already organized. Only, it is organized by management with the capitalist’s interests in mind – usually for maximum labor productivity and profit extraction. I see management’s efforts to infiltrate and structure (or isolate) workers’ social lives as a deliberate way they organize the workplace. It is the organizer’s job to clearly see that and start to break management’s structure down. But organizers must know the lay of the land first if we are to make effective strides toward collective action. 
Once the organizers are armed with a good understanding of the social structure and who the leaders are in the workplace, they can start building relationships and pulling workers away from management toward the nascent union with Agitation and Education, or even before that starting to “socialize the workplace;” i.e. developing relationships with coworkers outside of management’s view. This step may be increasingly necessary to counteract the growing alienation and isolation of the modern workplace and getting workers to care about each other and be a bit more involved in each other’s lives. This is the raw material that class consciousness and class conflict is built on, but it can take time and effort to grow. 
While Fisher is a bit nihilistic about our prospects, Zizek goes on to say in his interview, “the first step toward liberation is to force [the boss] to really behave like a boss.” He is a bit glib, but his point is a good one. In today’s muddy waters where class organization has been suppressed almost to nil and everyone is forced to act as if they are an “independent contractor” who works for the passion of it, even drawing the lines clearly seems like a radical step. But it is a necessary one that can cut through the confusing fog of modern existence and lay the groundwork for a brighter, revolutionary future free of capitalist exploitation. As the old labor saying goes, “united we fight, divided we beg.” I, for one, am sick of begging.
We must be able to bring our coworkers together to see past management’s superficial niceness in order to fight for that future. I teach new Wobblies in Organizer Trainings that one of the most important and powerful parts of Agitation and Education is helping our coworkers slice through the propaganda to see the world for how it really is. In this case, management’s politeness comprises a small tactic in a much larger strategy on the part of Capital to delude workers and maintain labor peace. We must help our coworkers stand firm for ourselves, together, against management. We can’t be afraid of not being nice –in fact, we can use it as a weapon just like they do.
Furthermore, in many workplaces management remains the sole puppetmaster of workers’ social lives. Modern management theory seems to have recognized the fractured state of the working class and seeks to prevent our organization by relentlessly trying to mediate, filter, and prescribe workers’ social lives. I think this is a key to building an effective organizing committee; sometimes even before having one-on-ones, IWW organizers must build up some on-the-job social life to pull workers away from management. Meet up for coffee and chit-chat. Have small group events with no managers. Having a stake in each other’s lives is a crucial building block toward effective one-on-ones and toward the trust necessary for taking collective action. 
Slow, steady building will pay off in the long run. Take the time to build some friendships and other long-term relationships in the workplace. Agitate and Educate coworkers effectively. Over time, we can build strong worker committees that can finally drop the curtain of politeness, make clear demands, and take collective action to materially improve all our lives. Just don’t fall for the bait.
Jay Bettencourt is an Organizer Trainer with the IWW. Read more about the history of the IWW Organizer Training program here.
Contact the IWW today if you want to start organizing at your job.
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lost-on-the-highway · 6 months
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Piracy 101 for beginners
Hello friends, it is I, your favourite anti-capitalist. After a lot of interest from people looking to get into piracy, I have compiled a guide for anyone who wants to become a pirate but doesn't know where to start. This is a long post, so I'm gonna put a cut here, but if you want to find out, keep reading!
This information is all up to date as of September 2023.
OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: all of this stuff is from my personal experience with torrenting, but please use your own common sense - piracy is a crime in many parts of the world, please stay safe and be careful.
Always remember that PIRACY IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Okay, boring stuff over - let's get started! I'm going to try and be as comprehensive as I can and there is an FAQ section at the end, but do feel free to send me an ask if you want something clarified!
Before you begin
Before stepping foot on your pirate ship, there are a few safety things you need to know about. These are essential because they'll keep you and your computer safe when pirating.
VPN. This is the single most important thing that you need. Basically, when you connect to the internet, your device is given a fancy little number by your WiFi network that basically shows your location - this is called an IP address. Now, if you're doing something a Little Bit Dodgy, you don't want people to know where you are and which network you're connected to. This is where a VPN comes in. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, and what it does is basically makes a private little bubble by encrypting your connection and routing it through a different server in a different country, hiding your IP address and keeping you safe (overly simplified but that's more or less it). Basically, your IP address will say you're in Japan when you're actually in England. Deception! There are a lot of VPNs on the market, and a lot of them are paid, but if you're broke like me, Proton VPN is completely free, has really fast servers, and it's super secure!
A good adblocker. A lot of sites are full of pop-ups, trackers and spammy viruses, so an adblocker is a must. If you're on Firefox or Chrome, uBlock Origin is an amazing free extension that does the job. For Safari, I recommend AdGuard (or, y'know, switching to Firefox).
Okay, so you're all VPN'd up, connected and adblocked. What next?
From my personal experiences, there are two main types of piracy: online piracy and torrenting. Also, please note that usually, I pirate films, so I'm not the most knowleadgable about software/music piracy, but I'll try to be all-encompassing.
Online Piracy
Online piracy is kind of like Piracy Lite. I'm calling it online piracy because it's using the regular internet (clearnet) to access sites which provide films/books/files over the Internet. This kind of piracy is usually more accessible, and there's a strong chance you've already partaken in it!
Online piracy for films
You're probably familiar with sites like hdtoday.tv for watching free movies - they're something of an open secret. The way sites like this work is that the actual video files are stored on external servers - that is, they're not on your computer, they're on some server somewhere else. The website is basically just a viewer that allows the video files to be relayed over the internet to be watched on your laptop. Online piracy is more about access than owning.
Pros
Really accessible. You don't need any other applications or anything fancy - just open the site and watch!
Online piracy streaming sites are not actually illegal. Yep, you heard that right. There's a lovely loophole in the law that defines piracy as the downloading and distributing of copyrighted content. Because on piracy streaming sites, you are simply viewing the media, and not downloading it or sharing it, and also because the sites are readily accessible, you have plausible deniability and are not breaking any laws!
Instant relay. Instead of waiting for a download, online piracy allows you to start watching immediately.
Relatively high quality files. Usually, the videos are pretty good quality (expect about 720p) and there aren't any weird unremovable Mongolian pop-ups.
Subtitles. Online streaming sites are usually really good with a large selection of subtitles in different languages.
What you see is what you get. You don't have to wait for a download only to find it was corrupted - usually, defective files are spotted and replaced pretty quickly and if they're not, they usually have multiple servers that you can switch to.
Lightweight. These sites don't usually use too much bandwidth, and as long as you have a decent internet connection, you should be good.
Cons
Buffering. This is probably the single most annoying thing about these sites - if your internet connection dips, the video will buffer. You don't need to worry about this if you have fiber-optic super-speed connection of whatever, but it makes watching things pretty infuriating sometimes.
Loading issues. See above - it's prettty annoying to try to skip to a certain point in a film or scrub back, because the file sometimes just won't load.
Pop-ups. Usually, an adblocker will take care of these, but these sites can be buggy and full of re-directs/ads/hot singles in your area.
Quality. 720p files are fine if you're watching a film on a laptop, but if you want to have a movie night on a big screen or a projector, it's going to be a little underwhelming.
Annoying mirror sites. Because of the dubious legality of the sites, oftentimes the same site will have lots of mirrors (remember, the site itself is only a skeleton viewer to play the files, so the sites don't vary much one to another). Oftentimes, certain mirrors wil be added and deleted meaning you might have to hop around different sites, which is annoying.
Torrenting
Torrenting is probably what you think of when you think of piracy - file-sharing and strange documents and downloading things. I know this all sounds scary, but it really isn't! Torrenting is simply another way of file sharing - instead of downloading from a single source, torrenting is using an internet protocol called BitTorrent that basically allows multiple users to share little pieces of a file with each other, which allows really large files such as film files to be transferred efficiently.
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Torrenting is a bit more complicated, so here's your crash course if you want to get into it.
VERY IMPORTANT: Turn on your VPN. This keeps your identity private because torrenting, unlike online streaming, is very much Frowned Upon. Most VPNs have a kill switch, which means that if the VPN connection dips, you'll be disconnected from the Internet temporarily so your address isn't leaked - I'd recommend turning this on.
To use the BitTorret protocol, you need to get an application that can run it - this is called a torrent client. I'd recommend Vuze, but there are lots to choose from and they all do essentially the same thing - plus, they're all free!
Then, you're going to want to find a torrent site. The most popular one is obviously the Pirate Bay. Look for whatever file you want.
You'll often be met with lots of different copies of the file you want, which can be confusing, so here's how you choose the right one.
Let's say I want to watch The Empire Strikes Back.
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Wow, that's a lot of files. How do I choose? Well, if you look at the right of the table, you'll see a column that says SE. This stands for seeds - this refers to the number of computers ready to upload pieces of the file to you. A high number of seeds means that there are more people to give bits of the file to you, so it'll download faster. So if it's May the 4th and you're determined to watch Empire, you should go with the top file with 216 seeds. High-quality files are labelled as such, so just find the type you need and pick the one with the most seeds.
Once you click on the file, you'll be redirected to a magnet link. This is basically just a link that tells your torrent client to start getting the file, and the link should open the application automatically.
That's it! Your file should start loading in the torrent client. Once it's done, most torrent clients will create a folder in your hard drive where you can find your downloaded files and some even let you watch within the application. Congratulations - you've earned your pirate hat.
Pros
That file is yours forever. That's right - once it's on your hardrive, no-one can take it from you, ever.
No buffering! Because the file is downloaded locally, there's no lagging, pausing, buffering, skipping or glitching - just press play!
High-quality files. You can pirate in 720p, 1080p, even 4k, meaning that if you have a 4k projector or home cinema, you don't need to sacrifice quality.
Not reliant on internet - you can download movies for planes, take them to the top of Mount Everest, whatever.
Easy viewing experience. No ads, no pop-ups, no browsers, sites, glitches, lags, anything. All you need is some kind of media player and you're set.
Cons
Downloads could take time. If your WiFi is slow, then torrents can take a really long time to download, which is annoying. If you have good WiFi and a lot of seeds, it shouldn't be bad, but it's nowhere near instant.
Corrupted/broken files. There is a chance you will download a file and it'll have yellow ads for an Indian scooter company all over it.
Can't view the file in advance - see the above, you don't know if it's the right one or not until you have it.
Higher risk of something going wrong. Given the higher number of moving parts in torrenting, there are far more things that can go wrong, like broken magnet links or corrupted files.
Frequently asked questions
I'm worried about viruses/malware/etc.
This is probably the number one thing that's asked when it comes to piracy (particularly torrenting). To answer this, it's worth noting how viruses and spyware works. A virus is an executable file - i.e. it's a bit of code - that, once downloaded, messes up your computer in various ways. Basically, it's a file that makes your computer do something. Video files like mp4s are... well, very much not that. Video files are just files containing information that your computer displays, and no programs or files to run. That means that if you download an mp4 file, you cannot get a virus from it because it's just technically not possible. However, it's worth noting that if you're ever expecting a video file from a torrent and get something ending in .exe or similar instead, then don't open it - always make sure you know what you're expecting so you know if there's a possibility of a virus. On the other hand, this is very much a higher risk when pirating things like software or video games, that do contain executable files, so be careful. I'm not the most experienced in that arena, but if you're just sticking to films, you don't have anything to worry about.
Oh no, my VPN disconnected whilst I was torrenting! Are people going to come to my house and arrest me?
If your IP address is accidentally revealed for two or three seconds whilst you're connecting to the internet, don't panic, because nothing will happen to you. As long as your IP address is hidden most of the time, a two-second blip isn't going to matter. This isn't to say don't use a VPN - please, always use a VPN whilst torrenting - but no one's going to come to your house if you accidentally turn your VPN off for a moment. Put it this way - the Internet is really big, and the anti-piracy people don't have the time or the need to monitor every single person, so as long as you don't do anything attention-arising, just re-connect as quickly as you can and keep going about your day. That said - the longer you stay disconnected, the higher you are at risk, so just be careful.
Where should I store my downloaded files? They're really big and taking up space.
A 1080p movie file can easily be up to 5GB, and 4K movies can up to 100GB. These can fill up space real quick, so I would suggest investing in a solid state external hard drive. They've become very inexpensive and you can get a very large amount of storage in a small, portable drive that you can keep safe and full of your files. I have a 2TB drive that I use for my film work that does just fine with storing my torrented files.
What happens if I get caught?
The big, scary question, and I'm not gonna lie, I don't have a definitive answer. The first thing is that this will obviously vary depending on where you live, but still, I think that piracy often has a lot of over-blown paranoia about it. Copyright infringement lawsuits and the like are often reserved for really major offendors - think large-scale businesses and corporations. I highly doubt that you, as an individual consumer, would be a high priority on the prosecution list. I'm going to say that probably the worst thing that you'll get hit with is some sort of fine, but you won't be sent to jail or anything unless you decide to hack the CIA or something. This is why VPNs are so important - they'll ensure that you won't have to worry about this.
Concluding notes & more resources
Thank you for making it this far! I hope you found this guide helpful and that you have fun sailing the high seas. Once again, if you have any questions, my askbox is always open. Piracy and torrenting is, at its core, about community and sharing, and there's a great group of people online to connect with. The Reddit r/piracy subreddit also has a really good megathread of more resources, and the best way to learn more is honestly learn from others.
Happy pirating!
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pratchettquotes · 2 months
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"Just a minute," said Lobsang. "Who are you? Time has stopped, the world is given over to...fairy tales and monsters, and there's a schoolteacher running around?"
"Best kind of person to have," said Susan. "We don't like silliness. Anyway, I told you...I've inherited certain talents."
"Like living outside time?"
"That's one of them."
"It's a weird talent for a schoolteacher!"
"Good for grading papers, though," said Susan, calmly.
Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time
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ONLINE THINGS THAT HELP ME ON UNIVERSITY, because someone may need it
resoomer.com –> summarizes the text (you can set your native language)
wordcount.com –> counts words in document
speechinminutes.com –> counts how long it will take to read the prepared text (you can also set whether you speak slowly, quickly or normally)
essaytopicgenerator.com –> generates the topic of the essay based on keywords (the field or type of essay can also be included)
researchgate.net –> free texts that can be referred to in the essay
academia.edu –> free texts that can be referred to in the essay
Google Drive / Microsoft OneDrive and Office365 –> free cloud with tools to make slides, documents etc.
sites.google.com –> make free, simple website without any skills
carrd.co –> make free, simple and pretty website without any skills (max. 100 elements)
Online converters –> change file type to different file type
icons8.com –> free icons (for slides, sites etc.)
remove.bg –> remove background from photo
loader.to –> download YouTube video or playlist as video or sound files
forms.google.com –> make simple form/poll/quiz/etc.
quizlet.com –> make flashcards and test yourself (some things are only in pro version now)
Streaming services –> documentary films, educational podcasts etc.
artsandculture.google.com –> explore art, online museum tours etc.
plantsnap.com –> recognizes plants and mushrooms
ecosia.org –> web browser, but they plant trees when you use it
tunemymusic.com –> transfers music playlist (or text song list) to another service
shazam.com –> recognizes songs
slidesgo.com –> slides templates
Darkling Dark Mode –> dark mode for Google Chrome
Darkling Dark Mode –> dark mode for Microsoft Edge
thesaurus.com –> finds synonyms (you can easily find similar websites in your native language)
Apple reminders, google calendar etc. –> help organize
Online libraries –> free books
html-online.com –> write html, css and javascript online
supercook.com –> shows recipes with things you have at home
edx.org –> free courses
academicearth.org –> free courses
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lachiennearoo · 6 months
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How to Make Friends
A more-or-less clear guide on social interactions
Growing up with heavy ADHD and generalized anxiety, it was always a bit hard for me to make friends and socialize. Despite my yearning for friendship, I was always "the quiet one" and "a loner", simply because I didn't know how to approach certain social situations, and it made any friendship I had extremely unstable (except for my sister @vive-le-quebec-flouffi, who was so extroverted and friendly it was literally impossible to escape her clutches of socialization)
As I grew older, I learned through a lot of trial and error what makes a good friendship.
Or, rather... what's the best way for someone to WANT to be your friend (without being superficial or hypocritical.)
Now, obviously, this doesn't work for everyone. But this is what I found helped me the most in social circles (especially online) and I hope it can help others too
LET'S BEGIN!
1 - Be yourself
Now that sounds very cliche and cringe, I know, but hear me out, because my opinion on this is not the same as all those feelgood inspirational movies and ads.
"Being yourself" isn't as simple as it seems. Because after all, what does "self" imply? If someone is, say, a criminal, would "be yourself" mean that they should embrace their sinful side?
No, obviously not.
"Be yourself" is a bit more nuanced, but I'll try to boil it down for you.
It just means "be unashamed of your qualities which you think are flaws". For example, "be yourself" would apply to someone who sees themselves as ugly, or maybe someone with an odd yet unharmful hobby, or a weird sense of fashion, or someone with say a handicap, a speech impediment. "Be yourself" is a sentence for the specific people who have genuine good in them, but are afraid to show it to others because they have been persecuted in the past, or are scared to be. It does NOT mean to accept genuine flaws. "Be yourself" does not include say violent anger issues, an addiction, a recent crime committed, or a generally unpleasant personality. Those are obviously not things to encourage. You can understand they may be a thing that happen to you, and accept it in your life, but that's different from being proud of it or encouraging it.
Speaking of personalities... let's talk about that
2 - Be kind
Now when some people hear that, they think it means "always smile no matter what, always look happy and positive, always agree with everyone just so you don't hurt their feelings, and never cause any drama", like you're Deku in My Hero Academia or Steven Universe in his titular show.
But that's... not quite that.
Obviously, kindness is something you use to help people feel better, to cheer up, and feel happy, and obviously to be kind, you need to have compassion, heart, empathy, and always put yourself in other people's shoes regardless of who they are. But it is not necessarily all-encompassing.
There's a rule that I think anyone learning kindness must learn. It's that sometimes, kindness means to be firm.
Not mean, of course. Not judgmental, not insensitive. Don't insult anyone, don't belittle or patronize anyone or make them feel inferior to you. That's still very rude and that's not what you want.
But what I mean is that sometimes, if you know that a person's actions towards something are wrong, especially if it's towards someone else, you must be able to point it out, and act accordingly. Don't just stand there and agree with them just because you don't want to hurt their feelings. You must still be able to know right from wrong. Kindness just means you won't be an ass about it, it doesn't mean to stay silent.
Hey, that brings me to point three!
3 - Show your own opinions
If there's one thing people hate just as much as meanness, it's those who stand by and do nothing about it.
Regardless of if you agree with them or not, if you say absolutely nothing when genuinely bad behaviour is happening, out of fear of "starting a fight", you are actively making the person who is being attacked feel alone.
I remember myself, when I was bullied in the first two grades of secondary school (11-13 years old for those who don't know) for "being ugly", I was told by my mother (who was friends with other kid's parents) that some of the kids "didn't hate me" and "didn't agree with the bullying". And I asked her "if they don't hate me, why won't they talk to me?" She never managed to answer that one. And it broke my heart, because outside of my sister, I had no one else.
Don't be like that. You may be scared of acting, but you know who would be grateful if you did act? The victims. And isn't their opinion of you much more important than the opinion of someone who acts with hatred and bigotry?
If you see someone suffering injustice, or even just hear someone who has a rather harmful opinion, don't be scared to tell them that you disagree. Obviously don't be an asshole about it, stay civil, but if you voice out your opinion, you will be seen as someone who stays true to their beliefs and is brave enough to stand up for them if the opportunity comes.
There's obviously much more that comes with social life (nonverbal cues, sense of humor, timing and mood), and I don't know everything (I'm just some random québécois girl on the internet). But I hope this was a bit more helpful. I did have fun writing this, at least. So I guess that's better than nothing!
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neil-gaiman · 10 months
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People ask me a lot where to start reading my books. Here's a suggestion from the New York Times today.
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