One Rando with a Side of Strange

This is "Arras", by Mark Lewanski, and the medium is G L A S S.

FIRST:

The easiest way to get rid of the majority of the bullshit that Windows is forcing on us, as of October 2025, is this one-stop-one-click debloat solution from a modern day hero:

It's very easy, even if you're not tech savvy or get scared of pop up windows saying "ARE YOU SURE?" Yes, you are sure, I promise. This program takes maybe two minutes and will save you SO MUCH pain, time, and money (and exploitation).

Now that you've done that, here's the cleanup, to catch the little shit that the debloat might have missed (most of this will already be done by debloat, but hey, it's good to double check).

Even just reading about some of these features makes me angry. Fucking Copilot and "Discover" AI scrapers are in Notepad. NOTEPAD. And then there's this uncanny valley garbage:

No uncanny valley video calls for me, thanks! (Also, what else is it doing while it scans your face and listens to your calls? What else, microsoft? Because there was a lot of memory being assigned to this program for a simple "smooths your skin" add on).

The truly insane number of places they have stuck ads on your own home computer is sickening. Become Unmarketable.

Bonus:

Some background programs you probably don't need that are taking up space and how to remove them (Microsoft forums, 2024)

Your Samsung Galaxy Phone comes with 22 apps you don't need (Android Police, 2025)

a) go to the store. yes you have a cold, but you could be in and out fast. then again you could run into someone you know. embarrassing.

b) go across the street to your grandparent's house and ask to borrow an egg. you may or may not get a lecture about not being at church. is it worth it.

c) use two of the raw eggs and two hard-boiled eggs. surely this will work out fine

i didn't....i didn't even think to do that

I could've...used other ingredients......?

the late 2000s to mid 2010s were culturally, a time of a resurgence of hope. I don't think we seriously realized it at the time (for all the Obama campaign posters), but it honestly was the last period in recent history where it was assumed the future would be better.

that was a big thing, that many millennials didn't realize was a big thing, until it was torn away. we honestly thought it was over, the fear and uncertainty of the Cold War and the Nuclear Age (and Bush 2.0). we were born in an era of reprieve. things were bad, yes, the world was insane and unfair, but it was better than it was before. the world had been at the brink of ultimate disaster, and then it stepped back. (And we honestly thought we had escaped our parents' legacy, by sheer virtue of being born in the correct decade.)

I cannot overstate how much that shapes your worldview, growing up in a time where the recent present is better than the recent past. we had reason to believe the world was getting better. because it was, actually! for a good while there! progress was slow, but it was real, and we could feel its grit on our fingertips.

and now we're in an age of regression. because you were robbed. we were robbed. a great global era of robbery (of housing and food and time and health and body and freedom and fundamental human rights), has blossomed, and is happening everyday today.

Source: currently a janitor at a church and you would not believe how many boomers get upset with me for insisting the trash cans need to be practical and easy to use instead of out of sight and too cute for functionality

things people have told me are "tacky" and that I need to get rid of (they have lost many of these arguments because I'm a bitch, others are ongoing)

an umbrella stand by the door with spare umbrellas for parishioners to use

a table by the front door "because people keep putting things on it" (that was. Why that table was there)

the signs that directed people towards the bathrooms

the actual trash can in the bathroom "because surely we don't need one so big" (for the bathroom that services the fellowship hall, which hosts things like the local scout events, so yes we need one that's at least 20 gallon)

apparently it's also tacky if I write down when I changed things like batteries and air fresheners, on a calendar they'll never see unless they go into my office??

another table in another waystation type area because "people keep putting things on it" (even when it's completely clear)

voting block 2 (options 2, 10): 39.1%, highest option "no"

My most controversial opinion is that genocide is worse.

Terrorism is bad - genocide is worse.

Kidnapping is bad - genocide is worse.

Any thing you can say that Hamas or any Palestinian has ever done - genocide is worse.

And as long as Israel is literally committing a genocide, it is worse and it is the evil party here.

There is no justification for genocide. No one has "the right to" any kind of action that results in genocide. "Israel has the right to defend itself" - not if it leads to genocide! Nothing ever justifies a genocide!

It's online. The book was carefully and wonderfully recreated online by hand. You can find it here. The entire book is this easy.