#note not EVERYONE has this problem

[sunbentshadows]

I wholeheartedly agree with this post, but just FYI; a lot of, but not ALL, enterprise businesses wholesale block ProtonMail due to the amounts of spam coming from the .ME top-level-domain (where the service is hosted).

Email security is really specific and depends on a lot of trust between providers. Any free service will automatically be suspect outside a major tech company, and a service like ProtonMail has an extremely high rate of scammers due to no user verification.

Be aware if you use the service your emails may sporadically wind up being sent straight to the email filter/security blackhole. I’d suggest Microsoft or Apple, at least for trusted providers, if you find that happening.

* Note: If you set up protonmail from your own domain and have properly configured DKIM, DMARC, and SPF, apparently this is not a problem. Note 2: This is a huge pain in the ass.

(And check out box for a GDrive alternative!)

Google is going to start scraping all of their platforms to use for AI training. So, here are some alternatives for common Google tools!

Google Chrome -> Firefox

If you’re on tumblr, you’ve probably already been told this a thousand times. But FireFox is an open-source browser which is safe, fast and secure. Basically all other browsers are Chrome reskins. Try Firefox Profilemaker, Arkenfox and Librewolf! Alternatively, vanilla Firefox is alright, but get Ublock Origin, turn off pocket, and get Tabliss.

Google Search -> DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo very rarely tracks or stores your browsing data (though they have only been known to sell this info to Microsoft). Don’t use their browser; only their search engine. Domain visits in their browser get shared. Alternatively, you can also use Ecosia, which is a safe search engine that uses its income to plant trees! 🌲

Google Reverse Image Search -> Tineye

Tineye uses image identification tech rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks to find you the source of your image!

Gmail -> ProtonMail

All data stored on ProtonMail is encrypted, and it boasts self-destructing emails, text search, and a commitment to user privacy. Tutanota is also a good alternative!

Google Docs -> LibreOffice

LibreOffice is free and open-source software, which includes functions like writing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, formula editing and more.

Google Translate -> DeepL

DeepL is notable for its accuracy of translation, and is much better that Google Translate in this regard. It does cost money for unlimited usage, but it will let you translate 500,000 characters per month for free. If this is a dealbreaker, consider checking out the iTranslate app.

Google Forms -> ClickUp

ClickUp comes with a built-in form view, and also has a documents feature, which could make it a good option to take out two birds with one stone.

Google Drive -> Mega

Mega offers a better encryption method than Google Drive, which means it’s more secure.

YouTube -> PeerTube

YouTube is the most difficult to account for, because it has a functional monopoly on long-form video-sharing. That being said, PeerTube is open-source and decentralized. The Internet Archive also has a video section!

However, if you still want access to YouTube’s library, check out NewPipe and LibreTube! NewPipe scrapes YouTube’s API so you can watch YouTube videos without Google collecting your info. LibreTube does the same thing, but instead of using YouTube servers, it uses piped servers, so Google doesn’t even get your IP address. Both of these are free, don’t require sign-ins, and are open source!

Please feel free to drop your favorite alternatives to Google-owned products, too! And, if this topic interests you, consider checking out Glaze as well! It alters your artwork and photos so that it’s more difficult to use to train AI with! ⭐️

[cometblaster2070]

actually obsessed with the idea that apple listens to chappell roan because i can TOTALLY see this stupid comphet funky lesbian listening to the lyrics of good luck babe and coming to a realization about her feelings for darling with it.

like just the image of apple sitting upright in bed at 3am blasting good luck babe for 4 hours straight while she violently scribbles in a notebook and puts up a conspiracy corkboard tying together how she feels for darling, how she feels about darling being her prince charming, how she never might've liked daring at all, and the fact that she might like girls-

and then there's raven and ashlynn in a corner like:

raven, whispering: she's been like this for HOURS; i don't know what to do.

ashlynn, equally concerned: she's clearly figuring her feelings out, maybe we should let her continue-?

cue apple violently crossing out what she's writing and just sticking a page that has GAY written on it on her corkboard while starting to sob.

ashlynn: never mind, i think it's time to knock her out.

also just the thought of apple lying in bed listening to good luck babe on repeat just having her 'main character in an indie movie' moment while raven's also lying in bed 10 feet away contemplating whether she should scream into her pillow or suffocate apple with it.

bonus thought: darling relating wayyy too hard to the song too and rosabella threatening to hide all of her swords unless she gets her shit together and talks to apple.

[ask-lu-wild]

[kvetchinglyneurotic]

Thinking about love in season 2 of The Bear and how Carmy seems to conceptualize "love" and "fun" as opposites — because for him, they historically have been. It's something I really noticed in Fishes (2x06): how vocally and genuinely everyone in his family — including in-laws and functionally adoptive members like Richie and the Fak siblings — loves each other, but also how deeply entwined that love is with stress and chaos and criticism.

Natalie is nicknamed, by people who love her, after a mistake she made years ago and which is still held over her head when she tries to help in the kitchen. Donna loves her children and is loved by them in turn, but she's constantly on the edge of a meltdown, unable to offer or accept support. She spends hours cooking them a beautiful dinner, and then she drives a car through the wall. Michael reminds Carmy he loves him and tries to give him advice, and then he gets in a massive fight with Uncle Lee at the dinner table and starts throwing forks. Cooking is clearly so important to his family, but doing this activity they love, and especially doing it around the people they love, so rarely results in a feeling of "amusement or enjoyment."

And so it's no surprise, really, that the career Carmy loves is one that gives him panic attacks and made him throw up before work every day, or that he (and Natalie and Sydney) not only decide on such a radical transformation of the restaurant but give themselves a ridiculously sort timeline to complete it. He's stressed and miserable a lot of the time, but is it really something he loves if he doesn't feel that way?

[comic-sans-chan]

Sometimes I think about the fact that Q is canonically in love with Picard, like it is baked into the very foundation of his character, and it drives me absolutely batshit

[danzainosolitude]

Once again I read fanfiction that seems to have been precisely written to deal psychic damage to me.

[sundial-bee-scribbles]

I've been looking for this one au where Len basically becomes a mad scientist and turns his friends into robots one by one for a while now, and I'm beginning to realize that I just read through your blog while half asleep a few months back and mixed together my memories of your flower hivemind and composite au

this is very funny to me. i'm absolutely honored this blog's posts were enough to evil-farming-game an entire vocaloid au into your memories 😂

i can give you this doodle; it's composite au but i'm sure it'd fit very well with this theoretical mad scientist len au lololl

[outeremissary]

🚬 for Balthazar and Kas, ⛄ for Carmen and Ismene

Thank you Nix!! I think some unintentional parallels(?) slipped into two of these...

[prompt list]

🚬 for a headcanon about a bad habit

Balthazar If something is in the morning, Balthazar will be late to it. This is an immutable law of the universe. He’s not a morning person, he never will be, and even when he’s really, truly trying to make the accursed before noon hours adhere to shape and structure, somehow things will still slip little by little and he’ll be five minutes late. And there is some personal frustration he feels with this- it’s the lack of control he seems to have even when it counts. It’s one thing to indulge in the slow start and let it draw out at his leisure while everyone else has to adapt, but it’s another to be unable to rally when he wants to be seen as perfectly, precisely put together. Because of this, he avoids scheduling important meetings in the morning- the best way to claw back that control is to just keep the situations where he needs it far away from when he knows he won’t have it.

Kas God, we already did the leading people on one recently, didn’t we… Well, here’s a different one. Kasander is an intensely earnest idealist while also being a natural born (and very defensive) liar, and a worrying number of their choices are made on split second impulse guided by a vague sense of what people “deserve” to hear. They are honest to active detriment and dishonest to self-destruction- a rare talent for splitting the difference between painful earnesty and chronic lying. And that of course means an array of rare talents for openly confessing to murders, unsustainable fabrications, telling people the worst news they’ve ever heard, concealing personal misery, and just generally escalating delicate situations. It can and does wrap back around to things working out Fine, but playing Kasander Morality Roulette can be pretty fucking stressful for everyone else in a situation.

⛄ for a season-themed headcanon

Carmen Carmen dislikes fall. She doesn’t have any real issue with the weather or the natural motion of the season, but as a girl she always disliked the amount of work that went into getting ready for winter. The final harvests are a pain. Organizing stores is a pain. Preserving things is a pain, even if it’s not like the task has changed from how it was the whole rest of the year. All the wrapping up and tying off loose ends and anticipating the dim, inactive season never sat well with Carmen as a restless lass. Her habits and lifestyle have changed to the point of being nearly unrecognizable over the years, but that old frustration is burned deep into her. Her mood is always just a little bit worse during the season.

Ismene When Ismene was a girl, Gorion sometimes took her to the top of the walls during the long dark of evening and morning in the winter to show her the stars. He drew out constellations and spelled their histories, and mapped their movement across the heavens between sunset and sunrise. It gave the sky depth and wonder. Of course, all wonder fades with time- over the years she and Gorion spent less and less time up on those winter walls and she came to know the stories well enough to finish them from his first word. The stars that once gave the sky such a sense of enormity outside the confines of Candlekeep kept turning the same year after year, night after night, and they became just another part of the ceaseless circle of library life. Still, here and there she still went stargazing with other denizens of the keep, and some of the monks took to addressing her as their master astrologer thanks to the readiness with which she could supply trivia. And despite the fading of these old joys, there’s still a comfort that lingers in the cold season- even if she can’t always put a finger anymore on why.

[tursaskeisari]

As per popular demand (2 people) I've decided to grace this site with my presence and will start by spamming all the 4235 Giacomo Baten Kaitos {tm} I’ve drawn in like two weeks bc I am extremely abnormal about him. Lets start with these ones i guess.

Most of my dumb of assery and screaming into the void (as well as tons of self indulgent old man splatoon yaoi) can be found on instagram with the same username.

[numbuh424]

I don't know if anyone else will appreciate this but if there are any other Death Note fans out there who also enjoy the TV show Taskmaster I am making a DN on Taskmaster AU so self-indulgent and I am pleading that you make yourselves known to me cause I can't be alone in this

[unproduciblesmackdown]

"winston quant billions: like anyone else, an entire universe" or "the good news is it's just that everyone's been terrible to you, the bad news is it's just that everyone's been terrible to you"

[just-in-cays]

.

[sleepingfancies]

sorry for oc posting . it will happen again

[lrdvyke]

class. warrior, mage ( apostate ) details. spirit warrior, storm mage, later a frenzied mage nationality. technically ferelden languages. common, high draconic weapons. war spear, gravel stone crystal atop it.

story.

From the south of Ferelden, within the uncharted territories of the Frostback Basin, there lies the Badlands where Vyke is said to be from. Part of the Nightfolk, a subsection within the tribe headed by Hoarah Loux, he is guided by the stars to head northward into Thedas. Being a lone adventurer, yet notable in his full suit of armor and tall spear that he is never seen without, he often poses as hired muscle for select jobs which he finds to be worthy enough to take on. There is no telling what the criteria entails to have him agree, but there seems to be something guiding him further on to the point where he is never truly in one place for too long. From what people can say who have met him, Vyke is known as a spirit warrior and does not quite hide the fact that he is also a mage ( much to the annoyance of many a templar who have not caught him yet )—however where he learned most of his spells is the one thing he often hides for the simple desire of protecting that which gave him the trust in the first place: a dragon. From his bond, he was able to learn the power of the storm, and wield electricity magic alongside his prowess with the spear. Now, the spear doubles as a staff, with its foci on the butt-end with a gifted crystal from the dragon itself. ( Off the coast in Storm Coast, there lies Dragon Island where a Vinsomer High Dragon by the name of Lansseax resides. Vyke can also be seen here, if one knows how to get there, that is. ) Yet, all journeys often come to an end, but no one knows what exactly that end was. Only one thing is certain: Vyke disappeared without a trace. Some say he traveled east, others say he went further north, while a small, select few say they saw him descend below ground, past the dwarven thaigs, past even the Deep Roads, to go where no man in centuries has been able to go. They said he is as good as dead, counting him among the corpses that litter the way, thus when he finally dragged himself up to the surface, less of a man he once used to be, no one truly believed it. In now melted armor, and an odd sensation surrounding him, he staggered and pulled himself to a rest at a small town just on the outskirts of Orlais. There, stories began to circulate. The town had gone mad with a mysterious flame burning them from within. Screams are often heard in the night, a proclamation to one of the lost Forgotten Ones to take them all, make them all equal within the chaos that is bound to come. It got to the point where Templars from a nearby city were then dispatched to control the area, only to be met with Vyke. Stories were added: was he dead or locked up, one does not know for certain. But all tell of Vyke vanishing once again.

interaction notes.

events not set in any particular game, can span across all three mirroring the protagonists from each as he does his own things. can be met here and there, but will never be a full companion, and can actually be a boss / enemy depending!

most interactions will be based before he descends. plotting otherwise is the only way I will write frenzied Vyke with anyone. some of these plots can be breaking him out of jail inside of a Circle if there is any interest.

easiest mode of interaction is Inquisition based: he is on Dragon Island which the Inquisitor can get to by way of a side quest. but he will either try to stop them or fight them off from attacking the dragon there. if the Inquisitor backs off from killing the dragon, Vyke can be recruited temporarily before he disappears by the end of the main game events.

Origins / DA2 centric characters, he will be part of one of the dragon cults within the area. however, he will want to go down into Orzammar / the Deep Roads ( da2: can be either of the three acts where the party goes back into the Deep Roads ), but will then disappear from the party once there if taken. if not taken, he will no longer be around.

[demetrius-haggarty]

Shrub Club: episode 4

'Ah, if only I knew more people that could understand my love for chomping cabbages,' Meech sighs as he feeds one of his 'little' toothy friends.

This particular one grew to be the healthiest in the batch and the Gryffindor still insisted on giving it a little extra each meal. The temperature and humidity of the freshly built greenhouse are close to their Professor's classroom so Demetrius moved his chomps here as soon as he could. He was convinced that they would start biting Leander's ankles if Meech left them in his care for too long. Not that he doesn't trust his dormmate. But he knows his cabbages too well. Whatever the girls did with their charmwork, the cabbages thrived in their greenhouse.

Demetrius didn't realize at first that he talked about his love for cabbages out loud. He turns around to look at the other members of the Shrub Club with his typical frown. Anyone who has known him for long enough knows that he's not really frowning. That's just how his face is.

'That was... rhetorical,' he mumbles. 'How has the decorating been going? I assume everyone agrees with Wren's idea of a beautiful Hawthorne growing under the main dome?'

The Gryffindor doesn't want to sound sentimental when he brings up The Tree but the thought still makes him feel cozy inside. Meech has been expecting a beautiful sapling to arrive all morning today (his gramps pitched in) and now that they are all gathered here after classes he is uncharacteristically nervous. Meech continues.

'I couldn't find a way to get a tree in here that is already as big as on Wren's sketch but I... We got some help with a very powerful fertilizer from Professor Garlick. Our tree should grow in a matter of hours and we get a chance to shape the branches and prune it as it goes. If you guys... want to do it together?'

The flapping of the wings is heard from the outside and Meech hurries over to accept the long-awaited green guest.

'Ta-da,' the Gryffindor says a little awkwardly but surprisingly with a huge grin on his scared face and a delicate sapling in his hands.

@theodoradevlin @justaskmagnoliaellistor @ask-wren-zhang

[fearforthestorm]

@vikingpilot you leave me no choice but to cite my sources on this one. however, unfortunately, you can't upload a video in a reblog, so this is just gonna go in its own post i guess. clip from RNJoy's twitch stream 02/15/2023, link to timestamp!

[Video description/transcript: a clip from Joy's stream, with her facecam in one corner and chat on one side. Joy and Viking are chatting as they mine for ancient debris in Minecraft.

Viking: Basically, I get a Q&A that's just like, "So it turns out you can gift people verified on Tumblr, so, here you go!" So i am now officially verified on Tumblr, and I'm mad, cause it's my first checkmark and it's on fff - pardon my French - fucking Tumblr.

Joy: (laughs) But that's cool! At least you have - at least you're verified somewhere!

Viking: (laughing and talking at the same time as Joy) It's hilarious, but like, what the heck!

end transcript]