My Adventures in Life

In this age of craziness, I’ve gotten pretty serious about my privacy.  I’ve done a lot of research, and come up with some pretty intense things to make your life better.

Let’s start off with email.  Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook...they’re all pretty well known to be insecure.  They all have Two Factor Authentication, so that’s a good start, but none have full encryption.  That’s where ProtonMail and Tutanota come in.  These have full encryption, and are hosted in countries that aren’t the US, meaning they have stricter privacy laws.  Gmail is fine for normal stuff, but if you’re sending more sensitive material (business plans, a book you’re writing and working on, etc), ProtonMail or Tutanota are what you want.  They both have mobile apps as well as websites.

Browsers: For Android or iOS, I suggest Brave.  It’s free, has built-in blockers, forced HTTPS, and speed optimization.  It’s fast, and works great.  On desktop, you can also use Brave, but you can also use Opera with it’s built-in VPN.  To me, adding HTTPS Everywhere, uBlock Origin, and Privacy Badger along with Opera and its VPN makes it the best choice.  Tor is no longer safe.

Messaging: We all know that Viber, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger are insecure.  Sure WhatsApp has encryption, but it’s subject to man-in-the-middle attacks.  That’s where Signal and Wire come in.  Sure, they’re less popular, but they’re infinitely more secure.  Wire isn’t hosted in the US, and doesn’t require uploading your contacts to their servers (like Signal), so I suggest Wire over Signal.  They’re both good choices though.

VPN:  Always, always use a VPN.  Paid is better than free, but not all of us can do that.  Opera VPN and TunnelBear are great choices, and both free.  TunnelBear is more security minded, but also limits you to 500MB of data protected, and another 1GB if you Tweet about them.  Opera VPN is built into the browser, but also has apps for iOS and Android; TunnelBear has apps for desktop and mobile.

For Windows 10, there are a lot:  turn off your Microsoft Account and make it a local account.  Go to Privacy, and change basically everything off.  Under General turn off your Advertiser ID, under “Speech, inking, and typing” turn off “Get to Know Me”, then go through the settings and turn off apps you don’t want to have access to your Calendar, Contacts, etc.

Now mobile:  There’s a lot you can do to make your mobile phone more secure, but it’s based on your operating system (iOS or Android).  Basic things you can do like don’t use the fingerprint reader, set an alpha-numeric passcode to get in, turn off lock screen widgets and notifications, and make all notifications not show any real data.  Lifehacker has some great articles on how to secure both iOS and Android. (iOS: https://lifehacker.com/the-privacy-enthusiasts-guide-to-using-an-iphone-1792386831;  Android: https://lifehacker.com/the-privacy-enthusiasts-guide-to-using-android-1792432725)

For search: There is a lot of hubbub around DuckDuckGo for privacy.  It doesn’t track you, but it’s based in the US and has certain restrictions based on its partnership with Yahoo.  Now, there’s a new kid called StartPage.  It’s based in the Netherlands, and uses anonymous Google searches.  It truly doesn’t track you.

Having used Firefox since the 2.x series days, I’ve been a big fan for years.  Using linux, most distros come with Firefox as the default browser, PeppermintOS included.  So with options like Midori, Web, Firefox, SFIronWare, Chromium, and the big hitter Chrome, why choose Firefox? 

I use Linux because of it’s open nature, and for that I choose Firefox.  Firefox is open source, the only thing not is it’s branding.  Is it as fast as Chrome?  No, but it’s pretty damn close.  It also doesn’t use as many resources. 

I don’t know why I am so compelled to write this, but I am.

I have been watching Shane for a long, LONG time.  Like, he had bag of blood attached to his body still, he was wearing his “porn set” sweater (dark purple/red, covered in weird white stains), and Shanaynay was reviewing Carl’s Jr. because every other YouTuber had gotten a promotion from them but Shane.  Yes, it’s been a long time, it’s been one of the funniest, craziest, weirdest journeys I’ve been on.  Who would have thought that I’d be so invested in the life of someone I’ve never met?  Someone who lives behind a camera in Hollywood?  I’m not the type who follows celebrities and knows about their life, because frankly I don’t care.  Their just rich people, who make things that entertain us.  I care about what new phone comes out and its “revolutions” that will change our life, or what new Linux distro came out this week, or some awesome new way to cook an egg (my interests are weird).  But Shane...there’s just something about the way he connects with his audience that I admire, and it’s kept me following him all this time.

Anyway, I just finished reading Shane’s second book, “It Gets Worse”, and it really struck a chord with me.  Hearing all the stories he’s told in his videos, feeling like I’ve grown to know him quite a bit, the stories in this book were different.  They were (mostly) completely new, they exposed a side that Shane doesn’t show, and it really let us get to know Shane as an actual person.  The final chapter being written by Teresa, his mom, really reinforced the whole point of this book: you never stop going through hell, but you can look forward to what the future holds.  Her infectious, infallible sense of “there’s better times ahead” have stuck with Shane, and in turn, his audience.

When I first started watching Shane, I was in a dark place.  Mentally completely unstable, depressed, suicidal, and wanting to disappear from the world.  His humor immediately hit me, made me finally actually laugh, and see that the world has good people in it.  I was sucked in, and there was no going back.  In “It Gets Worse”, Shane talks about his “terrible shirts.”  Well, I owned one of them, and was even in a montage of fans he showed wearing his shirts.  I would still have it, had someone not stolen it from the laundromat (not kidding…).  I was inspired by his drive, by his sheer willpower, and even though he was in a lot of pain (both physically and emotionally), he never let that stop him.  He inspired me to start vlogging, to make content, and work more on myself.  I had a vlogging channel where I talked about my life, how boring it was, and how in this country it made me invisible.  I then went on to product reviews: toys, electronics, anything really.  It made me think a lot about how hard it would be to make that my life, my job, to depend on it completely for everything, and it made me appreciate Shane even more for that.  His videos helped me out of my darkness.

Reading through “It Gets Worse”, I feel like I wasn’t alone in that dark time.  Knowing exactly what Shane was going through, as fucked up as it was, showed I was never alone.  None of us are alone in our fights, we just make ourselves lonely. We alienate ourselves from our friends, family, and anyone who would actually care about us.  We create this dark world where we think no one is walking with us, supporting us, but everyone is there, just in the shadows.  Life is hard, it sucks, it really can make you want to die, but you’re never alone.  Shane really showed me this, through his videos and his books.

This book was different than “I Hate Myselfie” in that those were stories we all kind of knew, just with more details.  Sure, it was an amazing book, but “It Gets Worse” was deeper, kinder, softer, rougher, harsh, more puke filled, and showed more love than the first.  It hit a chord with me that hasn’t been hit in a while, one that needed to be struck.  I’ve hit a wall lately where nothing seems to go right, and it’s really gotten me down, but this book….it’s lit a fire that is spreading.  When I came to the end, after Teresa’s chapter, I felt empty.  Not a bad empty, but like I had just finished a binge on Netflix and don’t know what to do next (I’m sure Shane understands that feeling haha).  I wanted more stories, I wanted to know more about his life, I wanted an entire book from Teresa about her life…..That’s not saying I’m disappointed in “It Gets Worse” at all, in fact, it’s the exact opposite. I was so engrossed in it that I flew through it.  I couldn’t put it down, and enjoyed it more than I probably should have.  

Shane says he didn’t have a ghostwriter, and you can tell.  The words are his own, they’re his style, and their words his audience will immediately connect with.  And for that, I have to thank him.  He made this authentic, raw, real, and pure.  For anyone who’s been a fan of his, for any period of time, you need to read this book.  This book has made me feel things I haven’t in a while, including motivation, passion, and a spark of life.

To Shane:  you are an amazing person, who’s worked so hard for all this success, and deserves it all and more.  Your passion for your fans, your passion for creating, your drive, your determination...they’re awe inspiring.  Don’t ever let the haters get to you. Your fans way outnumber your critics.

To Teresa: you have raised an amazing son, despite the odds.  You never lost sight of his future, you never gave up on him, and you never let him feel unloved.  He’s lucky to have you as his mother, and his fan base knows this.  And someday, I can’t wait to write a review of your book.