WHATEVER happens happens

Like, I grew up in rural PA, in the Poconos — it's a lot more built up now than it was when I grew up there, but even now it's like the stereotype of 'rural tourist area' — and then lived in Lancaster County for a while, and when I moved to Philly, this idea that everybody I knew at home was a stupid, bigoted hick was... pervasive. That was an ancient song when I first heard it decades ago.

Let's take the common Person Falls, Is Caught in Arms, They Look at Each Other trope. The most memorable take I've seen on this one is Character A was carrying a musical instrument and Character B caught the instrument and let A fall (A's easier to repair). Is Character B too slow or weak to catch the other person (do they hate that about themselves)? Do they even care; do they watch them fall, bemused? Do they catch with reflexes, see the other person and then purposefully drop them? Then Character A, did they slip out of clumsiness, manipulation or because of a trap? Are they embarrassed to be in a vulnerable position? Do they act pitiful for more sympathy? What is the contrast? Would A catch a possible Character C differently?

So because I'm an Austen blog, for example!

Anne Elliot of Persuasion stumbles because she's tired from the long walk, Captain Wentworth catches her because even when he's pretending not to pay attention, he's really focused on her. He catches her, for one moment they are in the past again, and it's alright to hold her in his arms, but then he comes back to the present. His expression goes cold. He sets her upright and walks away without looking at her again. Anne is left there, feeling that though he still doesn't want her to be hurt, the past can never return.

Edward Ferrars of Sense & Sensibility catches Lucy Steele, but of course she fell into him on purpose. She smiles shyly at him while in his arms. He blushes. He helps her stand and then notices her clothes are askew, but clenches his hands awkwardly. It's not proper to touch her again. He can't figure out what to say. Then she tries to walk and cries out in pain. He quickly offers her his arm. She smiles slyly at the camera...

Caroline Bingley of Pride & Prejudice wants to be viewed as graceful, so no, the slip wasn't on purpose, but when it happened she tried to make the most of it. Unfortunately Darcy was surgical in his precision, he caught her and set her upright, no chance for gazing lovingly into each other's eyes. What a shame! When Elizabeth, flustered to be found at Pemberley and struggling to find a safe subject of conversation, tripped on a tree root, he somehow couldn't help himself from stealing a moment with her in his arms...

Henry Tilney of Northanger Abbey would catch Catherine Moreland, be sure she wasn't sneaky enough to do it on purpose, and then make a quip about how cliche they were being. Catherine would be in awe.

˙⋆✮ Apologizing and immediately doing the thing again

˙⋆✮ Giving advice they never actually follow themselves

˙⋆✮ Knowing they're overreacting and doing it anyway

˙⋆✮ The inability to leave a conversation without one more thing

˙⋆✮ Turning every compliment into an argument

˙⋆✮ Asking for opinions and then resenting the ones given

˙⋆✮ Needing to be the one who cares less ˙

⋆✮ Starting projects with obsessive energy and abandoning them quietly

˙⋆✮ Remembering every wrong done to them in stunning detail

˙⋆✮ Making jokes at the exact moment sincerity was needed

˙⋆✮ Saying they're fine and being genuinely furious when believed

˙⋆✮ Promising to be on time while fully knowing they won't be

˙⋆✮ Bringing up old arguments disguised as new observations

˙⋆✮ Liking people more in their absence than their presence

˙⋆✮ Fixing other people's problems to avoid their own

˙⋆✮ Being completely incapable of asking for help directly

˙⋆✮ Catastrophizing privately and performing calm publicly

˙⋆✮ Holding people to standards they don't apply to themselves

˙⋆✮ Falling for the same type of person and calling it bad luck

what to say and choosing the

wrong thing on purpose

canon is what happens in the text. e.g. merlin tries to poison morgana

a headcanon is a fact that you have personally made up as an elaboration of canon. it is your invention. e.g. i think morgana and gwen had a teenage lesbian situationship before the events of canon. or, i think modern morgana would love evanesence.

an interpretation is how one reads the existing text. it is not an invented fact nor is it a headcanon, it is a reading. e.g. i think merlin tries to poison morgana out of misplaced self-hatred. or, i think that one line was delivered with suppressed malice and shows a nuanced relationship.

fanon is the general fandom’s accepted headcanons and interpretations that elaborate or recontextualize canon. e.g. merlin is a badass waif and morgana is a bitch.

>look inside

They have a Global Device Identifier (GDID) Tracker that functions as a fingerprint for your PC that can surpass VPNs, proxy servers and countries. Although it can't survive a clean reinstall of Windows (it can survive updates), because Microsoft forces you to go to the internet and log in into a Microsoft account, they will be able to get to you.

Microsoft kept it secret and it was only found out when the FBI tracked a hacker thanks to the information Microsoft gave them.

You should be paying attention to this, and possibly consider moving away from Windows. If a government, especially the US government, doesn't like you for some reason, this could be seriously concerning.

This article specifically notes:

For journalism, activism, or domestic abuse situations, skip Windows and use Linux routed through Tor instead of a commercial VPN. A GDID doesn’t care which VPN you use, only that it’s still the same Windows installation.

Other important quotes:

What has researchers uneasy is everything else the case reveals. Costin Raiu, a well-known malware researcher, asked on the Three Buddy Problem podcast how much of this exists on other platforms, and whether it is linked more permanently to hardware. Matthew Hickey, another security researcher, called Windows “surveillance software”.

Two things back that up:

There’s no consent screen. A GDID gets assigned when you sign into a Microsoft Account. Apple’s advertising identifier needs an App Tracking Transparency prompt and a visible reset; Android’s works the same way. GDID has neither, and a Windows reinstall only gets you a new number Microsoft can still get back to the same account.

From the linked article:

Because Linux doesn't track your activity, if he had used the Tor browser it would've been way harder since it would look like any person who used Tor could've been at that website, and they couldn't be sure who and what device was doing it because there's no Microsoft giving the logs on activity, that Linux Distros don't even collect in the first place.

Putting that aside, you do bring a good point: even on Linux you should be using extra security measures, because there are other ways to track your online activity!

The article you shared is really nice and it lists ways to avoid this digital footprinting better:

Mitigation strategies include: Browser Extensions: Extensions like Privacy Badger, NoScript, and uBlock Origin can block fingerprinting scripts. Tor Browser: The Tor Browser is designed to minimize fingerprinting by standardizing the browser environment. Browser Hardening: Manually configuring browser settings to disable certain features and reduce the amount of information revealed. VPNs: VPNs are good for masking IP addresses, they are not good to mask your digital fingerprint.

I will add that there are even other things you can add to your Linux to make you even more untraceable. And because it's not Microsoft and you can do whatever you want, nobody will stop you or even know you have them installed. At least one of these is literally made by GNU, the organisation who makes the utilities for the majority of Linux Distros. These include:

MAT2 - to remove metadata from your files so when you upload them online they can't be traced to you (the app version for ease of use).

BleachBit - an app that can automate cleaning your cache and temporary files while also making sure that when a file is deleted it is deleted for good.

universal-macchanger or GNU MacChanger (this one is the original Linux only version) - spoofs your MAC adress, aka, the address your internet card comes with.

OpenSnitch - An application firewall, that is, unlike most standard Firewalls, this one blocks not only unwanted connections from the outside but also from the inside, so, it stops apps from sending information to a server somewhere if you don't want to. And you can specify that the app can access a domain but not another, for example. They have an option for blocking "ads, trackers or malware domains system-wide", so not only on the browser, but everywhere on your OS.

@echoiiing said it very well.