#beaches' speeches

[b3aches]

Red Team Blues

A very novel novel, reviewed

tl;dr - it's a good book and if detective stories or thrillers are of interest to you, I would recommend checking it out.

Warning: possible minor spoilers below. If you want to go in blind, stop reading.

A mixture of a noir detective story and a cyber dystopian alternate reality nearly indistinguishable from our own, Red Team Blues is a roller coaster ride. The story follows our hero, Martin "Marty" Hench, a 67-year-old bachelor forensic accountant for hire on his last job before retirement. A prodigious sleuth at finding assets that some people would rather stay hidden, he has had a long and storied career stretching back to the beginnings of Silicon Valley. When Marty's old friend Danny Lazer calls in a favor to discreetly retrieve some stolen cryptographic keys that allow for control over Danny's revolutionary new blockchain system, Marty diligently works to find the keys. Fortunately, Marty is good at his job. He returns the keys and receives his payment for finding the assets: a cool 300 million dollars. Unfortunately, he also happens to find some dead bodies along with said assets. Consequently, he finds himself in a race against time to solve the mystery of what really happened and to clear his name before either the family of the dead or the people they double-crossed take him out.

The story is not just a gumshoe thriller taken on the road, but also a commentary about Silicon Valley, the impacts that technology has on our world and the people in it, and the differences between the haves and have-nots. It touches on the difficulties of playing defense (the blue team), the ease of playing the offense (the red team), and the benefits of playing to your strengths. 

The characters are well written and feel like real, actualized people. They have their own lives, their own experiences, and their own voices. And Marty has to rely on them. He can't keep himself safe without the help of friends and strangers, and he does what he can to help keep them safe in return.

Ultimately, it's a masterfully written book (and well narrated by Wil Wheaton) that is hard to put down. I listened to the audiobook nearly non-stop. When it was done, I had to fight the urge from starting it back from the beginning. I'm truly excited that this is the beginning of a series, and especially one that has the interesting twist where it is, chronologically, the end of the story.  As stated previously, Red Team Blues is a good book and if detective stories or thrillers are of interest to you, I would highly recommend checking it out.

You can get a copy of the ebook or audiobook directly from the author here. You can also buy the audiobook from libro.fm or get a physical copy from bookshop.org

[b3aches]

So, it is kind of a scam, but not in the way you are expecting!

Many states in the US have laws that say companies have to pay out unused PTO when you leave that company. As far as I know, "unlimited PTO" doesn't accrue. Since you aren't accruing PTO under the unlimited PTO scheme, the company doesn't have to pay you any unused PTO when you leave.

Does this mean you should always avoid taking one of these jobs? Probably not. But it is important to be aware of.

I keep seeing people online say that any job offering unlimited PTO is a "scam", because it's reverse psychology and you'll actually take less than normal, or that the manager still has to approve it and won't actually allow more than a few weeks.

I'm sure this can happen, but it's not at all a given! My husband's job offers unlimited PTO and he takes a cumulative average of 6-8 weeks off every year. Management is totally cool with it because he's a good worker who gets his projects done on time, and he's considerate by not taking off during the few weeks of the year that his team crunches for deadlines.

Don't scare people into avoiding jobs that offer good benefits in case they might not pay out. Instead, teach them to ask the right questions during interviews so they can gauge accessibility:

What are common reasons a PTO request may be denied? What's the criteria to be approved?

What's the average amount of time your teammates take off every year? (This will tell you how realistically you will get to take off)

How often do you (the interviewer) take advantage of the PTO policy?

Are there any exceptions to the "unlimited" policy, such as certain weeks of the business year, or length of consecutive PTO days taken at once?

How long does a new employee have to work for the company before the unlimited PTO policy kicks in for them?

Remember, you're allowed to ask questions during interviews! Use it to your advantage. And don't avoid jobs just because someone told you the benefits are too good to be true.

[panda-eggs]

fanart of my fav celebrity

[redeemed-wren]

Calypso is not a character that I LIKE but she is a character that I want to study like a bug

[b3aches]

Got on blue sky. Same username as my tumblr.

How will this impact my Tumblr habit? Only time will tell...

[b3aches]

Wow, I had definitely been blocking accounts with default profiles and no title previously. I'm sure many have been doing the same. I would think that it should definitely be flipped around so that you set a profile pic and description before you follow anyone. That's a weird choice.

fun fact!! it turns out that now when u make a new blog, tumblr forces you to follow 3-4 people before you can change your icon or modify your blog in any way!! this, of course, means that, yes, some of the "potential bots" many of us have been automatically blocking could have possibly been genuine new users who were only just seconds in to having an account!!! tumblr is literally screwing new users over!!!!

[elliot-olivia]

Thoughts on SVU25? It's been touch and go for me and now I'm losing hope there's going to be any payoff for sticking it out.

imo there have been some hits and some (frankly astonishing) misses but the liv character work does occasionally go crazy so, like. i’m not a hater. i will continue to be seated.

also idk what “payoff” means for you but (& i’ve said this on main) it does kind of feel like dgraz is building up to a potentially incredibly cathartic endgame with all these lewis parallels. i know some people really hated that they didn’t do anything with the courthouse stuff last episode but i’m not mad about it? at least not yet. graz seems to enjoy a long game (see: the velasco storyline) & there are just…. too many signs something is coming? of course if it all goes to shit and they trudge all this up for nothing i might just lose my mind and hunt the writers room for sport, but rn i am still very much 👀👀👀👀👀

[ratatatastic]

hi 13 second clip that i will be obsessed with for years to come because mikksy and lombo are doing mikksy and lombo things in the bg as they usually do how are you doing

theres something about mikksy looking over to his left and spacing out but when he sees long brown hair in his periphery he turns towards it, sees lombo struggling to pass off the cup and stares at him until lombo comes his way. the pining is palpable. i can feel it from here. he has the targetting program of a turret hes locking on.

also someone seems to either dropped a hat(?) or something of that nature because right as lombo steps forward to where mikksy is he bends down to get it but mikksy seeing him, also makes to reach for it but lombo seems to have it covered so he just bows like a chicken for a bit because his gentlemanly code intiated (rare sight) seeing a beautiful man bend down to retrieve an object...

and then after lombo comes up he immediately gets an arm around him and ushers him into his side. MANS GOT A FULL TOOTHY GRIN ON SEEING LOMBO. TH- AND HE REALISES HOW BIG HE MUST BE SMILING BECAUSE HE JUST CLOSES HIS MOUTH AND TRIES TO PLAY OFF THE FACT HE DIDN'T JUST HAVE THE GOOFIEST GRIN ON HIS FACE.

THE WAY LOMBOS CHEEK IS SO SMUSHED INTO HIS SHOULDER HE BARELY REACHES. PERFECT SIZE TO SNUGGLE INTO THE COLLARBONES. IM SORRY WHERE IS PLAYGROUND BULLYING PRETENSE??? SO WE'VE LOST THAT. WE'RE JUST GONNA COURT EACH OTHER NOW. WE'VE FINALLY ADMITTED TO THE ELEPHANT IN YHE ROOM AND WE WILL BE ACTING ON OUR FEELINGS HONESTLY. IS THAT WHAT WE'RE DOING. IT ONLY TOOK BOTH OF YOU BEING DRUNK. OKAY.

Panthers Championship Parade | 6.30.24

[stephantom]

I am reading the play Becket now (of course I am) and it’s interesting how some lines are just slightly different. In the movie we have:

LOUIS: Why does he hate you so?

BECKET: He's never forgiven me for preferring God to him.

And in the play:

LOUIS: He really hates you, doesn’t he?

BECKET: (Simply) Sire, we loved each other and I think he cannot forgive me for preferring God to him.

They loved each other!! He also says that he’s been talking to Henry since he left him. Meaning what, imagined/one-sided conversations??

LOUIS: I shall try to persuade him to make his peace with you. Should he agree, will you be willing to talk with him?

BECKET: Sire, ever since we stopped seeing each other, I have never ceased to talk to him.

Also of note, canonical threesomes:

KING: […] Ten years spent together, little Saxon! At the hunt, at the whorehouse, at war; carousing all night long the two of us; in the same girl’s bed, sometimes… and at work in the Council Chamber’s room.

And this part at the end of their last meeting, on the beach. Becket asks for a kiss and Henry denies him because he’s too distraught?? (This comes almost immediately after Henry’s “whole body is shaken by a sob” and Becket, “moved”, tries to approach him but Henry tells him to stay away because he doesn’t want pity.)

BECKET: (Gravely) Farewell, my prince. Will you give me the kiss of peace?

KING: No! I can’t bear to come near you! I can’t bear to look at you! Later! Later! When it doesn’t hurt any more!

[b3aches]

So, this is probably more information than you bargained for, but no, affiliate links are unrelated to this.

Source

So the affiliate link is putting a parameter at the end of the url which ties that link to a specific person. As an example, if I have a Barnes & Noble affiliate account I can generate links to Barnes & Noble products with my account in the parameters and I get a commission if you use my link to purchase that product.

What href.li is doing is hiding the referer:

Source

So when you click on a link the referer gets populated with the website that linked or included the resource.

Without href.li:

User clicks link on Tumblr

HTTP Referer header is set to Tumblr

Request goes to destination

Destination sees that request as coming from Tumblr and can track that fact

With href.li:

User clicks link on Tumblr

HTTP Referer header is set to Tumblr

Request goes to href.li

HTTP Referer header is set to href.li

Request goes to destination

Destination sees that request as coming from href.li and can track that fact

So yeah, not related to the affiliate link thing.

It is nice that Tumblr is using href.li to anonymize outgoing links. I think it is a win for users.

But... it does have the side effect mentioned previously that contributes to the myth that you can't convert Tumblr users into subscribers/customers/whatever, which is bad for Tumblr keeping the lights on.

Holy shit I think I just cracked the code of why people think you can’t sell things on Tumblr 😭

[invisibleicewands]

From Home for Christmas with Katherine Jenkins - 25/11/2023

[duusheen]

Leif planned a little beach getaway with Daphne for the weekend, but their alone time was interrupted by the paparazzi! Luckily there was one of those beach conservationists willing to distract them with an environmental speech so that Leif could escape with Daphne 😤

[sforzesco]

wh- what show is that 👀

the Heirs (2013)

[b3aches]

If a community pays into the systems they use, and actually becomes the primary source of income for running the system? It makes us the customers instead of the product.

That is a powerful thing for the community.

So, if you enjoy using Tumblr and can safely afford to do it, buy ad free, buy the supporter badge, buy Important Internet Checkmarks, blaze posts, gift things, whatever.

Hell, I've never used post+ or tips, but I'm sure Tumblr is getting a small cut of that too. So that means you could even be making money on your posts while Tumblr gets a little too. That sounds like a win/win to me, to be honest (although it might make your taxes a bit of a pain...).

In any case, I'm going to keep doing what I can to support Tumblr as a regular ol' user, and keep up the hope that everyone else that can does too. Tumblr really is a special place on the internet, and I'm hoping it can stay around for a long time.

I don’t know what’s going on, this place was like the first place I could genuinely communicate or share common interests of a lot of stuff and discover a lot of things just on the fly.

I’m going to feel so disconnected when this place finnaly sunsets.

There really wasn’t any way to make this place sustainable without profit driven motives of growth wasn’t there?

I really hope you do find solid landing where ever you go. I know people dunk on staff for many things, but at least this place worked as intended in some ways, even if it was at constant odds with a lot of things.

I’ll be here till the ghost light burns out.

wish we had a nickel for every time the rumor went around that "tumblr is dying!!!"

if you want to support tumblr, we literally have a Supporter badge for that, please throw some money at it if you'd like to help keep the site alive. that's why we built it. no growth motive needed there if enough people using tumblr today buy it.

[bostonwalks]

TIME TO STAND UP FOR ISRAEL

[steamclouds]

might've caved in and bought the Plastic Beach vinyl last night... not immune to pretty cover art...