Hey_there_fam

Now that Unus and Annus are awake and running things, the channel seems, for the first time, truly finite. And finite is terrifying to me. In response, I'm scrambling to get what I can just so I can have a tangible piece of this channel so I don't forget. and I know I'm not the only one. We're grasping at straws, trying to do what we can to just hold on.

But what have I learned over the time I have been watching this channel? Life isn't easy, and it will never go how you want it to. [Enter 2020] Obstacles of all shapes and sizes will be thrown your way and some will be easier to get over than others. But giving up isn't an option. The best thing you can do is adapt. Take what you have and make your own staircase to the top. This channel has also made "finite" less scary. It's teaching me how to let go. Because the clock will keep ticking, and at some point, we will no longer be here to witness it. And as humans, the hardest thing for us to do is let go. To move one. To accept that one way or another, it will end. And once it does, we cannot come back, we can't change anything once our time has come. All there will be is our memory, that will be our legacy. What we can do, at the least, is make the most of everyday. Make everyday unforgettable. Learn how to ride that motorcycle, and try that weird looking food. Do what you can while you can. Because, as hard as it is to accept, nothing is infinite. Remember that you will die, memento mori. So live like you will.

Momento Mori Ut Non Obliviscar (may we never forget)

Actually, the claim that HRT doesn’t do much after puberty is a myth.  I started when I was 31 years old and now I’m 35. =)  

It’s never too late.

The top two pictures are from 2011, age 32. The bottom three are from this yeah, 2016, age 37, and (almost) 2 years on hrt. Hrt is magic.

Never.

until yesterday when I came out to him as trans and he was just like “cool, I’ve always wanted a daughter I could brag about.” WHICH IS THE BEST THING HE COULD HAVE POSSIBLY SAID

but then, IT GOT BETTER. this morning over breakfast, my dad was like “I did some research on girl stuff, and I was wondering if you wanted to go shopping for dresses or makeup. Or just shopping.”

HE’S BEING SO SWEET ABOUT THIS ITS FUCKIN WILD. I DIDNT THINK HE KNEW WHAT TRANS MEANS YET HERE WE ARE

AWHWGEHSWHGEWKJ&2)/&2)&2)/!)/)/?2?2!/!/!-!/! THATS SO FUCKEN WHOLESOME DUDE OMG

The man-free sanctuary will offer up a range of typical beauty services such as hair, waxing, facials and manicures and pedicures, while providing unique services like henna and halal nails and eyebrow shaping.

“We want women to be able to come in and feel completely relaxed,” ~ Quhshi said.

Step one, download and install Firefox.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

It will ask if you want to import all your bookmarks and saved passwords from your current browser/s. Do that. It will also ask if you want to make it your default browser. Do that too.

You will be given the option to create an account, but it’s not mandatory. It’s just a convenience service if you want to access your bookmarks and saved passwords on different devices.

Firefox has a load of built-in privacy protections but we’re going to install some addons to make it EVEN BETTER. Don’t worry they’re all free and once you’ve installed them you don’t have to think about them again.

First, Duck Duck Go Privacy Essentials. Firefox does still set your default search engine to Google, we don’t want that. You could manually change it but the Duck Duck Go addon gives you some tracker blocking, encryption, private searching, all set up and ready to go

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/duckduckgo-for-firefox

Next you need an ad blocker. ABP went stupid, so here’s uBlock

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/

Do you use farcebook or any related product like instagram? Facebook Container automatically puts those in a little quarantine pen so they can’t follow you around and spy on what else you’re doing

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-container/

If you have multiple accounts (eg. work/school, family, public, personal, private) you can use Firefox Multi-Account Containers to manage them and keep their footprints separate

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account-containers/

Privacy Badger and HTTPS Everywhere are published by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and those people are serious as a heart attack when it comes to online privacy.

Privacy Badger sends a do not track signal, and also breaks link tracking by sites like facebook, twitter, etc.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/privacy-badger17

HTTPS Everywhere is… ok there’s a lot to explain here, and we’re already longposting so just, every time you connect to any page it makes it more secure.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/https-everywhere/

If you want to learn a bit about how this works and why it’s good to have, might as well start with the HTTPS page on wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTPS

You could stop here, that’s pretty good. But you can do more. You could install NoScript. A big warning with this one, it can break half the internet. It’s a LOT more user friendly than it used to be but if you can’t figure shit out by fucking around you should probably skip it. It blocks scripts from running without permission, protecting you from drive-by scripts that give your computer herpes, but also sometimes protecting you from script-heavy sites working at all.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noscript/

Lastly an honourable mention for Ghostery. Ghostery has been a solid privacy addon for years, and now has adblocking powers. Honestly I haven’t used it in ages, a long time ago it conflicted with something else I deemed more important so I removed it and I never got around to picking it back up, but it has a great reputation and is trusted by a lot of people who I trust.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ghostery/

Now, this all only covers your browser activity, which is a lot but you will still need to manually adjust privacy settings on your google/gmail/youtube account/s if you have any, your facebook/instagram account/s if you have any, and your actual gotdamn operating system if you use windows. I know it seems like a lot of effort, I’m a lazy bitch too, but it’s very set-and-forget, you only need to do it once, and then just review it a couple of times a year.

Here’s some stuff about Windows 10 privacy settings

https://pixelprivacy.com/resources/windows-privacy-settings/

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/5-privacy-settings-to-change-in-windows-10/

And some stuff about google privacy settings

https://mashable.com/article/google-privacy-setting-you-should-enable-now/

And some stuff about facebook privacy settings

https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/facebook-privacy-settings-2939307

And here’s an honest explanation of what a VPN really does and does not do, why you don’t actually need one, and the few real reasons you might ever want one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVDQEoe6ZWY

And  a bit about password managers

https://www.cnet.com/news/best-password-managers-for-2020/

This is by no means the limit of the steps you can take to secure your online privacy, if you want to go deeper you definitely can. But if you don’t want to or don’t have the time or aren’t very technically minded, this will still put you way ahead of the pack. It won’t make you The Most Private but it will make you Much More Private Than Most, and it should take you less than an hour or two, depending on how many accounts you have on predatory datenkraken sites.

ProtonMail is a free email service that’s not google (already a good start), but also encrypts all your mail so no one but you and the person you’re emailing can read it

From experience, Tor is a lot more user-friendly than you might think. It does take a little bit of fiddling and getting used to, but the payoff is that all of your traffic becomes extremely hard to track. They have a desktop browser that’s built on Firefox and comes pre-installed with many of the extensions listed above. I recommend trying it on without uninstalling your current browser, just to see how you like it

“gave away all our rights just to watch dog videos”

That’s some victim blaming shit. These systems were designed to be as essential as possible for us and to socially isolate those who refuse to participate. These companies spend a shit ton of energy and money on suppressing alternatives. If you work from home, if you go to school, it’s likely to have NO CHOICE but to use Windows, Google and maybe even facebook because your school or work does not provide alternatives and does demand that you access it’s platforms.

Some cultures lack names For a color, you see. Hence good old Homer And his “wine-dark sea.”

A usage so quaint, A phrasing so old, For verses of romance Is sheer fucking gold.

Words are in flux And meanings they drift But the word purple You’ve given short shrift.

The concept of purple, My friends, is old And refers to a pigment once precious as gold.

By crushing up molluscs From the wine-dark sea You make a dye: Imperial decree

Meant that in Rome, to wear purpura was a privilege reserved

For only the emperor!

The word ‘purple’, for clothes so fancy, Entered English By the ninth century

.

Why then are voilets Not purple in song? The dye from this mollusc, known for so long

Is almost magenta; More red than blue. The concept of purple is old, and yet new.

The dye is red, So this might be true: Roses are purple And violets are blue

maid ethan icons