Things Tumblr Taught Me

@insertspanishhere

@vitiligo-is-not-a-trend

@checkyourasianbias

@writingnothanyu

@blindbeta

You really don't need to be "optimizing" your workout and the majority of people don't need to be massively altering their diet and lifestyle to build muscle. The human body is already optimized to build muscle.

The human body is a machine that turns carbs into energy and energy into movement and that movement creates strain. The human body is a machine that turns protein + strain into muscle growth. All you need is the correct amount of crabs, protien, and strain to develop muscle.

"But how much is enough carbs?? How much is enough protein??" 45%-65% of your calories should be carbs (preferably complex carbs and whole foods). If you're trying to build muscle you should be getting half a gram of protein for every pound that you weigh.

"But should I have protein before or after the gym???" it doesn't matter, just get the correct amount daily and avoid having more than 30grams in a meal becouse you're body will stop caring at that point. You should have carbs (roughly an hour or so) before the gym, remember the human body is a machine that turns carbs into energy and you need that energy at the gym.

"Do I need to have lots of testosterone to build visible muscle". No, the human body is a machine that turns protein + strain into muscle, regardless of your hormones. Higher testosterone makes it easier, but it's not required.

"What about all these complicated workout routines that Instagram keeps trying to sell me or that YouTubers keep talking about?" You don't need them. Pick three days you can workout, they should not be back to back. Muscle doesn't build during exerince but during healing after the exercise. If you don't rest between workout days you won't gain as much muscle. On one of those days do 5 exerices that involve the pulling motion. On another day do 5 exerices that do pushing motion. On the other day do 3 exerices for your legs and 2 for your core. Stretch every day including rest days. Do yoga at least once a week.

"How many times do I do those 5 exercises?" 4 or 5 sets of 4-8 reps for each exercise. Start with 4 sets of 4 reps and increase the reps as it gets easier. When it's easy at 5 sets of 8 reps, increase the weight by 2-5 pounds and start over at 4 sets of 4 reps with the new weight. Between every set rest 2-4 minutes (rest 2 mins if your lifting 20 or under and 4 misn if your lifting 20 or higher), rest between sets is important for your body to understand it needs to build muscle, it needs to feel the ache to understand that the protein should be used for muscle development.

"What about cardio?" if you get less then 10k steps a day, add 10-30 mins of cardio to the end of each gym day. If you get less than 5k steps a day add 15 mins of card to the end of each gym day and add a fourth day where you do an hour of cardio. If that's difficult, don't feel like you need to do it all at once. Do 10-15 mins, then rest for 2-5 mins, then do 10-15 mins more until you hit an both of cardio. Cardio doesn't kill your gains, the gym bros are lying to you. Cardio is good for your heart health and your balance which will help you lift more in the long run.

"Do I need to loose weight to gain muscle?" No, the amount of body fat you have doesn't effect your ability to gain muscle. The human body is a machine that turns protein + strain into muscle, and that includes fat bodies.

"Do I need to gain weight to gain muscle?" Maybe. If you are in a calorie deficit (your body burns more calories then you eat and you don't have fat stores to make up for that) then you're not going to be able to gain much muscle and eventually you're body will stop developing it when it hits it limits. Remember the human body is a machine that turns carbs into energy and energy into strain, if you don't have enough carbs you don't have enough energy then you can't lift as much. The human body is a machine that turns protein + strain into muscle, if you don't have enough protien then the strain breaks down your muscle and you have nothing to rebuild it stronger, which will result in injury insta if of gains. If you are skinny and eating enough, you will develop some muscle, but probably not as much as someone who weighs more becouse if there is less body then their is less muscle. Also keep in mind that muscle weighs more than fat. When you work out the scale WILL go up, the scale doesn't know the difference between fat and muscle and bone and water and organs. The scale going up is not bad (regardless of the type of weight gain happening).

"Do I need a gym membership to gain muscle?" No, but it makes it easier becouse you have acsess to more tools, a monetary obligation to actually workout, and possibly gain a community that will push you to keep going (just be aware some of that community might firmly believe in gym bro tales about calorie counting and cardio=bad and body fat=bad. You mustn't listen to them. They have a body dysmorphia disorder and/or an eating disorder and they want you to have it to, in order to validate themself). You can buy some Dumbells and do a lot of exerices with those and a chair or a bench or a wall or your floor, no gym membership required.

"What about pre-workout?" You don't need it.

"What about protein powder? " It's an easy and cheap way to meet your protein goals, if you can't with the food available to you.

body language masterlist

a translator that doesn’t eat ass like google translate does

a reverse dictionary for when ur brain freezes

550 words to say instead of fuckin said

638 character traits for when ur brain freezes again

https://github.com/laylavish/uBlockOrigin-HUGE-AI-Blocklist

Install this blocklist using the instructions on the GitHub page. For Firefox, you will need to install uBlockOrigin for this. Google Chrome no longer allows the uBlockOrigin extension, so I'm assuming you're at least primarily a Firefox user - or about to be (see browser alternatives below).

For Google Chrome or mobile browsers, this will work with uBlacklist. See the GitHub page for full details on compatibility.

Remove AI Widgets:

If you go to your uBlockOrigin Filter lists page, you can select to filter out AI Widgets - this should completely remove the 'AI Mode' widget/button from your Google search page, in addition to the work done by the Huge AI Blocklist.

Using the uBlockOrigin Huge AI Blocklist filter has made my Google searches look like they used to, and gives me genuine search results.

Look at this. It's beautiful. It's informative. It's not a heap of burning trash bloated with fake information made up by a hallucinating chat bot.

We can go even further: return to the old school search results.

Now, the above results are great and should be free of generative AI junk, but some people would rather not see any of the summary widgets or 'people also ask' box at all. Fear not! You can remove all that by using the 'Web' mode in the Google search bar. Click the 'More' drop down menu and select 'Web'.

Huzzah! Incredible. It's like a functional search engine again.

You can make this the default Google search mode in Google Chrome using Method 1 from this page (https://allthings.how/how-to-turn-off-ai-mode-in-google-chrome/). Unfortunately, I don't know if there's a way to do this in Firefox too. This is why for the most part I still use DuckDuckGo (see below) as my default search engine, and only use Google to supplement my searches on the rare occasion I'm just missing something.

Remember, if you clear your cookies, your search engine preferences will reset, including any settings you enabled/disabled to avoid AI. This applies to DuckDuckGo as well; check your settings every time you clear your browser!

Extra filters (optional):

I've also added four filters (their order doesn't matter) to the My Filters page. Full disclosure: I'm not sure they still work, or may only work on Chrome, but I'm keeping them anyway, just in case.

From https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/1i7kg83/comment/m8lllwr/: see which solution in the list works for you, it seems to be different for everybody.

google.*##div[jscontroller]:not(:has(div[jscontroller].YzCcne)):has(.YzCcne)

From https://allthings.how/how-to-turn-off-ai-mode-in-google-chrome/:

www.google.com##.Beswgc

www.google.com##.olrp5b

www.google.com##.hdzaWe

Make sure you hit the apply changes button when you add filters.

Browser alternatives: escaping Google Chrome.

If you haven't jumped ship from Chrome yet, I'd recommend doing so. Sometimes Chrome outperforms Firefox for niche purposes or because a website doesn't bother to fully support non-Chrome browsers, but the days of Chrome being the superior browser are long gone — by about 10 years. If you're trying to escape Chromium browsers, beware that a lot of the popular Chrome alternatives are just Chrome in a different hat.

Firefox has been the most popular non-Chromium browser for years, and for good reason. However, the company running Mozilla Firefox has annoyed their users, me included, by refusing to take an anti- generative-ai stance, and even included AI features in the Mozilla Firefox browser. Most Firefox users specifically use it because they hate Google's enshittification and want a privacy-focused, clean browser that doesn't hog their RAM and CPU for no reason. So, you can imagine that Mozilla's attitude has pissed us all off recently. You can turn off the AI features in Firefox with the built-in settings, but the company has recently steered straight into the burning garbage heap by saying they want to make the browser based on AI.

Waterfox and LibreWolf:

There are really good alternatives based on Firefox (open-source) which are not affiliated with Mozilla (the company), if you don't like how it operates. Waterfox and LibreWolf are even more trimmed down and privacy-focused than Mozilla's Firefox, and don't use AI. Anti-ai statements: Waterfox and LibreWolf.

From this page: https://programming.dev/post/42546774

In short: LibreWolf is for those who want a “locked-down” fortress out of the box, while Waterfox is for those who want a privacy-conscious browser that still feels like a normal, convenient daily driver. Choose LibreWolf if: You want the highest level of privacy without having to manually edit config files, and you don’t mind occasionally “fixing” a broken website or re-logging into accounts. Choose Waterfox if: You want a privacy-respecting browser that supports Firefox Sync, has an Android counterpart, and handles streaming sites/logins without any extra friction (it supports WideWine out of the box, which lets you stream DRM protected content (netflix, hulu, disney, etc). — [email protected]

I've heard good things about both of these browsers and will investigate them further to decide whether to personally switch from Mozilla Firefox.

DuckDuckGo:

I would also recommend installing the DuckDuckGo extension to your browsers and setting it to be your default search engine.

I've had DuckDuckGo installed on my browsers, Chrome or Firefox, for like 10 years now. It is a good search engine, it's unobtrusive, and blocks trackers, cookies, and does not save any data about you. I've also used it as my default mobile browser for years, along with Firefox mobile, which you can add the AI Blocklist to (see again the GitHub page). I haven't tried the DuckDuckGo desktop browser yet, but I imagine it works just fine like the mobile version. I think DuckDuckGo's browser is also Chromium-based, at least indirectly. I use Firefox with the DuckDuckGo extension so I can have a widely-supported, non-Chromium browser, but include all of DuckDuckGo's anti-tracking features.

Note: DuckDuckGo has included AI in its browser product, however you can opt-out of all AI features with the built-in settings and they will not push it on you like Google does. I hope they remove AI features entirely in the future, but for now I am comfortable with the barriers in place to keep AI out of my face. Firefox also has AI features like Chrome does, which you can turn off with the built-in settings.

There's also noai.duckduckgo search, an alternative version of its normal search engine which removes AI-generated images and turns off AI results/assists by default. Even though DuckDuckGo's inclusion of any AI features annoys me, its policy to make these features 100% optional builds trust with this browser/extension/search engine.

You can always use Google search if you need to, but with uBlockOrigin and the AI Blocklist filter added on, at least you shouldn't have AI-altered search results or the AI overview anymore.

Other browsers exist, probably:

There are certainly more non-Chromium alternatives out there, but Firefox, Waterfox, and LibreWolf are the top three recommended to me. That link to alternatives, plus this ComputerCity page are the best lists I could find in a brief search. If you google "non-Chromium browsers" you'll get a lot of mixed results which require a bit of digging to realise they're not really recommending you what you looked for at all.

I've heard about Ecosia over the years, and while I like the idea of a search engine that plants a tree for each query, I don't think that's actually what happens — at least, that's what they used to be reputed to do, but I believe that's an unsustainable business model which has likely changed. In 2026, Ecosia says it uses 100% of its profits for the planet and runs its search engine off clean energy. That's cool! It's still Chromium-based. And it also uses generative AI for chat bots, so I don't trust its principles on environmentalism. I need to do more reading on this to form a stronger opinion about it.

I hope this post has helped at least some of you have a better experience browsing the web and googling your questions.

For the "crime" of not wanting to be tracked/have ads pissed into your eyeballs 24/7.

Even if you've paid for the "privilege" of the latter.

IF YOU USE A DESKTOP PC OR LAPTOP, TRY INVIDIOUS

https://invidious.io/

For additional reference, if helpful, here's a picture I found with my guesses of how old the kids are.

The main thing I observe is that a lot of employees recommend makeup that is chemically incompatible. For example, if you ask them to recommend you a foundation and concealer, a lot of times they’ll pick two products that are chemically immiscible, so they’ll NEVER blend together successfully.

– https://searchmysite.net/ Search engine for the indie web, personal websites, digital gardens. You can also find them in websites like Neocities, Indieweb, Blogarama, and write.as. There is also a big list of personal websites.

– https://search.marginalia.nu/ Search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and promotes websites that aren’t usually at the top of the list.

– https://www.worldcat.org/ Search engine for items in libraries (books, but also maps, articles, sound recordings, theses, etc.)

– https://scholar.google.com/ Search engine for scientific papers, reviews, etc. It’s still google, but a lot better than the normal search engine counterpart.

– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_search_engines A list of search engines sorted by subject, area, and more. If you’re searching on a specific area, it might be worth checking if there is one focused on that area.

– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_databases_and_search_engines A list of academic databases and search engines.

and let us not forget Sci-Hub itself!

Writer's block advice

Consume more media

People say this often, but when your case of Writer's Block is related to a lack of inspiration, this is the key to at least aiding it. Whether it's films, music, reading more books, or going to an art museum, find media you're interested in and try to get brainstorming for your own creative works.

2. Try experimenting.

Something I like to do a lot is research what techniques related to literature that I haven't tried yet, or research genres so I can see if I'm interested in branching out. If you're comfortable with it, writing from a new genre, new POV, or in a whole different setting than what you are used to might be able to help you out. Don't be afraid to mess it up, because that's the nature of experimenting, and the majority of authors have had to mess with their works at some point to get their fabulous books to where they are today.

3. Sometimes, don't write.

This might be controversial advice, but many writers go through periods of their life where they might not want to write, or be unable to due to Writer's Block. And that's okay! You are not a machine, you are a human being who requires breaks and will run out of inspiration or drive eventually. So if you're not too upset with your situation, feel free to just sit back and do something else, or relax.

4. Interview yourself.

This one is also silly, but a friend once advised me to make a list of 50 questions I could answer as if I were a successful author already. It did help restore my inspiration and made me rethink all my writing accomplishments. The excitement of being a writer and yapping about your works to an interviewer might be enough to get your headspace in check again.

5. Don't be critical of yourself.

It's easier said than done for many, but you need to be confident in yourself as a writer. In the event that your Writer's Block is caused by you being your worst critic, such as beating yourself up over spelling errors you made while writing or being upset when a piece doesn't come out perfect on the first try, you need to put the perfectionism aside. You will have plenty of time to go back and make edits, but at least allow the draft some time to marinate. You might wake up the next morning and decide you actually love it after all. When you're writing, just focus on getting out what's in your head, then go back and edit later, or else you'll be exhausted by the time your first chapter is complete.

I was trained in the dark arts of the cover letter by my mother, who is a hiring manager. And her training has paid off: I've been consistently told my cover letters are excellent. Let me pass on the wisdom.

The job of a cover letter is to give a prospective employer strictly more information than is on the resume. This is where you take the resume contents and put them into context. You look at the job requirements (you are looking at the job requirements before applying, right?) and look at your resume and ask the question (in your head) "why would a person think this candidate would be good for this job?" and your cover letter is the answer to that question. If you don't answer that question, the hiring manager is going to have to do it themselves, and you have way more information to work with than they do.

This is especially important if you're moving from one industry to another, because then the relevant connections aren't obvious. It's also very important if you're overqualified, because then you can use the letter to say "I know it looks like this job would be too entry-level for me, but I'm interested to pursue it for reasons x, y, and z". You can also use this space to explain away something that might otherwise be disqualifying, like job-hopping or a long break in employment. The tone to strike here is always matter-of-fact and constrained to topic - don't go into detail about health stuff or personal tragedy, just tell them what they need to hear: that this period of your resume was affected by [bad thing] but that it's now in the past and you're looking forward to the next chapter. Remember, one of the things they're trying to learn is whether you'd be content in this role, or whether you'd be miserable and leave after 2 months, which would force them to do all the work of hiring again. You're trying to establish that you will fit right in and not cause problems. Knowing what drew you to this job in particular (and don't just say 'money', that's true for everyone) helps with that.

“there’s a restaurant two miles from my house called—” nope

“today I learned [celeb] went to my high school—” nope nope nope nope nope

these are all real posts I’ve seen on the internet that allowed me to identify a user’s hometown instantly. if it’s a small town, that’s doubly dangerous, because a bad actor could trace you just by a unique first name or selfie you once posted. in an age where doxxing and stalking are some of the worst I’ve ever seen it, you HAVE to think twice about what you’re posting online.

i once saw a 13-year old post an image they noted as being “a few miles from their house.” it had a theater in the shot with a unique enough name to be local. one google maps search, now everyone knew not only what city they lived in, but the possible neighborhoods in that radius too. and they had a HUGE following…who all knew this was a 13-year-old child.

so yeah. not to sound like a 90s internet safety PSA…but I’m gonna be that PSA for a minute.

if you’re posting an image, there is NO need to say that you live there. you could just be traveling. “saw this in Montana” is better than “saw this by my house!”

before you post about a venue, especially a restaurant or small store, check and see if it’s local—CRUCIALLY if it has only one or two locations. people might travel to arenas or convention centers, but they’re far less likely to be traveling to Bartleby’s Fish and Chips. if it’s an anecdote and you still live nearby, you can honestly just leave the name out entirely.

if you’re sharing a news story, it can just be a story you found and wanted to share. you don’t have to clarify “it happened in my town,” because even if you don’t mention your town name, an easily-googled news article will.

if you’re seeing a concert or meeting a celebrity on a tour that’s stopped locally, wait until they’ve hit a few more venues before you post about it, or at the very least wait until you get home. this is honestly a smart move for any event you attend: unless you’re marketing yourself, there’s no need to advertise your location in real time.

check your selfie backgrounds for anything identifying. this includes city names on venues, school names, street signs, and house numbers.

this stuff is flexible if you no longer live in your hometown, or if your city is particularly big, but there’s STILL no reason to tie yourself to your school, your workplace, or your street. you can call it paranoid, but as someone who’s seen my friends get literal death threats over fictional characters before, the last thing I want is someone willing to act on those threats finding out where they live.

So I've done my first aid + CPR a few times. And every single time I try and bring up scenarios for fat folks

Specifically like 'what if someone is too large for me to wrap my arms around then to do the heimleich'

And its incredibly rare I get a decent answer.

How absolutely insane is it that me, as a fat person, is asking how to have MY life saved or to save ANOTHER life, is an impossible feat if someone is fat.

Most of the time they tell me to 'just try anyways uwu'

The heimleich is scientifically as effective as slapping someone VERY hard on the back. The only reason it's so well taught is the man that invented it did a lot of great PR for himself. It's also a bit easier for smaller framed people to get the necessary force in, because people are often extremely scared to hurt people, even in life threatening situations.

With larger bodied people, whether they be fat, tall, muscular, etc. If you cannot get your arms around them, literally just slap the shit out of their shoulders. You want hard, open palmed slaps right in the center of the shoulders or slightly below.

If they are too tall for you to reach that high, guide them to lean over the back of a chair, and then slap slap slap slap slap.

It's been proven to be just as effective through many studies. It just doesn't have a trademarked name and a dramatic effect in film.

If you have to do CPR on a larger bodied person, again, fat, body builder, tall and broad, whoever, the trick to finding where you want to put your hands if going to be to take your hand and shove it in their armpit. No seriously. Put your hand in their armpit, then drag it in a straight line towards yourself until you're in the center of the chest, then put your other hand beneath that one. This is where you push. Then you are going to move the arm closest to you out of the way so you can get closer to them, and get the leverage you need to press down for compressions. The more of your body weight that is over your hands, the better the compression will be. Act like you are trying desperately to pack the last of your clothes in a suitcase, and just slam down hard on their chest.

They will make *horrible* noises. You might even break ribs.

But a broken rib is better than being dead.

this is NOT because of blocking screenshots, it's because of HOW streaming sites use your computer's hardware to optimise performance, which means the thing rendering the video and the thing capturing your screen aren't the SAME thing. so they can't talk together.

a custom DNS resolver that blocks access to Fox News and other right-wing propaganda outlets

a keylogger to capture the admin password for your router so you can disable parental controls

a VPN or a virtual machine running the Tor browser to bypass access restrictions and age verification checks

your own "parental controls" browser extension, set up to send you notifications if your parents visit websites that indicate they might be spying on you (e.g. Life360)

a userscript that adds a fake virus warning popup to the donation pages of fascist political parties

have fun! make sure to do loads of reading and learn how things work so you can break them safely and effectively!