nablastria

[nablastria]

I'm going to sound very old and very tired here for a second, but iIt is so dystopian to me to have ads on my computer.

Ads used to be on the internet. And that's that. The things that were installed on my computer did not show me ads.

And that goes even beyond the questionable practice that free versions of programs such as Avira now show you lil ads in the corner of your screen like once a day.

You used to have free games on your computer.

I was in the mood to play a game again, a very rare mood for me, and I opened the game center for the... first time since I had this version of Windows (as I said; very rare mood).

And there's ads. You play the "free" games that live on your computer and there are ads left and right and beneath it and between levels there is just a 20 second ad break.

You can go premium to no longer have ads.

That's dystopian to me.

When things that used to be fully free and just part of something are now riddled with ads and to get the ad free experience that, again, used to just be the experience, you have to pay.

And it's not even a one-time-payment.

Back in the day, you used to pay for something and then you owned it. You used to pay for a program or a game, and you owned a physical CD that you put in your computer to install the thing and it was just yours. It belonged to you, because you paid for it.

Now everything is a per month subscription, which is just so sinister because many look like oh, that's not that much money! Sure, I'll pay 1,99€/month to play games ad free. Every single month sums up, and it sums to a lot over the years though, for something that used to be free. (And I've complained about subscriptions before, in the context of Adobe, which isn't just dystopian anymore, it's actually plain evil to demand 25,99€/month to use a singular program, that you can now no longer buy to actually own.)

And I know - I know - you can find free games online to download or play in browser (already did that for mahjong) - but I'm talking about the principle here. The principle of getting ads on your computer, directly, and to have to pay to no longer have ads and use something that had been a part of the Windows experience since... forever.

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sold

it turned out so beautifully 🥹

and the plum blossoms show which way the lid fits 🌸

[nablastria]

Zheng Chunhui, a famous Chinese wood carver spent 4 years engineering this master piece from a single tree. Based on a famous Chinese painting “Along the River During the Quingming Festival” the carving echoes the daily life of the 12th century Chinese local. The level of detail is stunning!

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i'm not "undiagnosed" i'm largely headcanoned as neurodivergent but with no confirmation in canon. i hear a showrunner said something at a panel last year but it hasnt been leaked on youtube yet.

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I missed most of the Iraq war due to being a baby, but every time I read about it I start wondering why we aren’t all talking about it all of the time

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men are so privileged they dont even realized how oppressed they really are

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[nablastria]

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are feeling the wrath of constituents as their phone lines light up with complaints, worries and confusion over Elon Musk's efforts to gut government programs and fire longtime civil servants.

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when the lyrics you've been mishearing are more clever than what's actually in the song

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It’s wild to me to see transvestigator conspiracy theories online that could be so easily explained by natural human variation. That woman has a deep voice? Yeah, sometimes they do. A woman has broad shoulders?? Maybe she plays rugby or hits the gym a fuckton. There’s a “bulge” in her tight pants?? Maybe her vulva is just fat. All the “markers” of trans woman that transvestigators use to harass any woman aren’t even things unique to trans women.

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[nablastria]

while they share a similar base flavor, dick tastes more umami while pussy tastes more acidic, though recent menstruation conveys an overwhelming metallic flavor that some diners object to (though i am not one of them). recommended wine pairings are

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The perfect daughter

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“Nobody’s going to want to sit on high-speed rail for fifteen hours to get from New York City to LA.”

Me. I will sit on high-speed rail for fifteen hours. I’ll sit on it for days. I’ll write and read and nap and eat and then do it all over again. I’ll stare out the windows and see America from ground level and not have to drive. I’ll see the Rockies and the deserts and cornfields and the Mississippi River and your house and yours and yours too. I’ll make up stories in my head about the small towns I see as we go along. I’ll see the states I’ve yet to see because driving or flying there is a fucking slog and expensive to boot. I’ll enjoy the ride as much as the destination. And then I’ll do it all over again to come the fuck home.

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"Uhhhhhhhhh dont romanticize china" nobody is, stupid. People are learning that Chinese citizens are regular people like themselves. They have big problems with their government too, just like us. They do not, however, appear to struggle as much as Americans do just to survive. A bunch of them have expressed shock and horror at how easy it is to become homeless in America and how hard it is to get back out of homelessness. Literally that one thing alone would make China a safer place for many Americans to live. That and the cheap health care, cheap housing, and lack of property taxes. Literally the country our own government paints as a suffering hellhole is still easier to be poor in than this one.

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idk if this is a boomer take but I think ppl should make more of an effort to go see movies in theaters bc I couldn’t bear it if the movie theater industry went down and the only way to watch movies was through streaming I’m not strong enough

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