A pet/personal blog

i have a file or folder on my pc that i want to share with other people. let's call it gayshit.mp3

unfortunately gayshit.mp3 is 750mb and im not paying for discord nitro so i need another way to send it

i put it into qbittorrent and it makes a torrent file. this is essentially a very small file that points to gayshit.mp3 so other computers can find it. kinda like a treasure map

i send this tiny file to my friend, who loads it into qbittorrent. their computer takes a moment to find mine over the vast expanse of cyberspace and then (as long as my pc is running and the file is still where it should be), it gets copied from my hard drive to theirs

this is the cool part: if somebody else loads that tiny file, they can download it from both of us. if i'm offline but my friend is on, the third person can still get it. this also means that if two people have separate halves of the file, they can download the other half from each other. as long as some combination of people have the pieces between them, they can all have the whole thing.

crucially this does not require a server!!! you can just upload the file to a few people and as long as they keep it, it's still accessible. as long as somebody, somewhere is still connected, it's available forever. the only way it goes away is if everybody disconnects from it.

what that means is that I have a folder on my computer with the name of my url with an index.html file in it, and when i click on that file to open it in a browser I get a simple page with a list of years and months. selecting a specific month will send me to a list of the posts i made or reblogged in that month, similar to tumblr's own archive page. the contents of the post including images are stored locally on your machine.

It can also make a separate index file that organises posts by tag, which is great if you're a consistent tagger, but it will list every single tag you've ever used so it can take a while to find the tag you're looking for in the list if you're a habitual tag commentator. generating the tag archive also takes a while depending on how many posts have to be processed.

you can make it back up any blog as long as it's not set to private. I have backups of both my main and sideblogs and it keeps them in separate folders.

it's had some trouble going all the way back to the start of my main blog in 2012 just by sheer volume of posts, but by making it fetch posts from one month at a time I've been able to go back to 2015 (that's tens of thousands of posts), which was good enough for my purposes.

Free Harvard courses. Free Courses from Stanford. Free Courses from MIT. Free courses from Yale. Free courses from Princeton.

Free courses on Coursera.

Free Courses on EDx Free Courses on Alison

For paid, there's The Great Courses+/Wonderium. 20$ a month for unlimited courses.

And I also wanted to mention that humanitarian organisations have free courses too, like the Red Cross on international humanitarian law.

If you want a direct alternative there's Revolt, which is a free, open source discord clone.

This means unlike most popular chat apps, including and especially Discord, Element doesn't sell your conversations or tracking data to advertisers, because the company literally doesn't have access to that data in the first place.

United 24: General fundraising

Come Back Alive: Specific projects

Prytula foundation: Specific projects

Dzyga’s Paw: General fundraising (animal themed 🐶)

They need all the help they can get.

Help99 : Vehicles, drones, and drone jammers . Subscription and one-off.

Protect-a-Volunteer: Matchmaking sponsors of funds and airline miles (for international volunteers), general fundraising

Renegade Relief Runners: Medical and humanitarian aid. Tax deductible in USA.

Prevail Together: Landmine removal, medical and humanitarian aid. Tax deductible in the USA.

Wild Hornets: Drones....TW: the resulting FPV drone footage is *extremely* NSFW/NSFL

Yuri Chornomorets: Specialized sniper ammunition

Drukarmy: 3D printing drone parts and medical supplies

Liberty Ukraine: Earthmoving equipment and general fundraising. Tax deductible in USA.

Tytanovi: Physiotherapy and rehab for war amputees

..........................

Shitlist (please avoid) -

German Lions For Ukraine - suspected pyramid scheme, low transparency, gives faulty medical supplies

Georgian Legion - Threatens people who ask for transparency

Main recommendations: Season the dough AND season the filling. Also, make smaller loafs, about the size of a spatula head, for easy flipping!

Here’s how they look! Recipe below (doubled bc I have a big family).

Loaded Potato Loafs

Poke holes in and boil 6 large potatoes until soft

Peel potatoes (do this after boiling to retain nutrients and get the texture needed for the dough)

Mash into a smooth puree

Add 4 tablespoons of melted butter

Add 10 tablespoons of flour

Add a bit of pepper and a good amount of garlic salt

Mix until it forms a soft dough

Lay out plastic wrap and grease with a little oil

Place 1/8 of the dough into the plastic wrap and flatten it into a round shape

Add shredded cheese, shredded chicken, bacon bits, more garlic salt, chives, and Italian seasoning.

Grab the plastic wrap and use it to fold each edge of the dough over, starting with parallel ends. Make sure the dough is sealed all over and doesn’t break. It should be about the size of a spatula head for easy flipping.

Airfry two at a time. Fry one side at 450 degrees for 7 minutes

Flip with spatula and airfry other side for another 7 minutes

Couple of notes:

Season the shit outta this thang

Like it’s actually fucking crazy that neither cook in the video mentions seasoning 🤨

Don’t overstuff with fillings if you’re frying in oil bc it might lose structural integrity and fall apart on the flip

I filled mine with just cheese and hot dog bits (it’s what was immediately available and I’m lazy) and topped it with some ketchup + mustard to go with the hot dog theme

It was bomb as fuck chef kiss 😚👌💋

Main recommendations: Season the dough AND season the filling. Also, make smaller loafs, about the size of a spatula head, for easy flipping!

Here’s how they look! Recipe below (doubled bc I have a big family).

Loaded Potato Loafs

Poke holes in and boil 6 large potatoes until soft

Peel potatoes (do this after boiling to retain nutrients and get the texture needed for the dough)

Mash into a smooth puree

Add 4 tablespoons of melted butter

Add 10 tablespoons of flour

Add a bit of pepper and a good amount of garlic salt

Mix until it forms a soft dough

Lay out plastic wrap and grease with a little oil

Place 1/8 of the dough into the plastic wrap and flatten it into a round shape

Add shredded cheese, shredded chicken, bacon bits, more garlic salt, chives, and Italian seasoning.

Grab the plastic wrap and use it to fold each edge of the dough over, starting with parallel ends. Make sure the dough is sealed all over and doesn’t break. It should be about the size of a spatula head for easy flipping.

Airfry two at a time. Fry one side at 450 degrees for 7 minutes

Flip with spatula and airfry other side for another 7 minutes

Couple of notes:

Season the shit outta this thang

Like it’s actually fucking crazy that neither cook in the video mentions seasoning 🤨

Don’t overstuff with fillings if you’re frying in oil bc it might lose structural integrity and fall apart on the flip

I filled mine with just cheese and hot dog bits (it’s what was immediately available and I’m lazy) and topped it with some ketchup + mustard to go with the hot dog theme

It was bomb as fuck chef kiss 😚👌💋

Hey! :D Aw, that’s so sweet!! Totally - I’m by no means an expert, but i have done a fair bit of GF baking by now so I do have some tips.

Gluten free flour mixes are actually pretty good nowadays, especially the ones that have xantham gum, so as far as recipes go, you can often just subsitute GF all-purpose flour one-to-one and end up with something that matches its Glutinous Equivalent pretty closely (WITH NOTABLE EXCEPTIONS - see below).

The main thing to remember is that the purpose gluten serves in typical baking is a) holding it together, thanks to the gluteny fibres, and b) making your cake/bread/etc light and fluffy, due to the fact that as your cake/bread/etc bakes in the oven and the moisture in it evaporates and turns to gas, the gluteny fibres help trap that gas.

Thus, all gluten free producte by nature DESPERATELY want to be dense, mushy, and fall apart. :/ As such, I find that the best and easiest gluten free treats are the ones that take this into account.

I have ranked several different categories of baked good below, as easy, intermediate, possible but may drive you to insanity, and it simply cannot be done.

Cupcakes! Cupcakes are small, so they are unlikely to remain mushy and uncooked in the center, even if they don’t end up rising very much. I have tried a ton of recipes, mostly just subbing in GF flour for regular flour, and they’ve all turned out great. 

Brownies! By nature, they’re often designed to be fudgy and dense, so it doesn’t matter if they don’t rise very much.

Tortes! If you wanna get a bit fancy - there are a ton of chocolate torte recipes out there which are flourless by default, so are naturally gluten free.

Regular cakes - Intermediate/depends. - Like cupcakes, these are usually pretty straightforward, and you can often just replace the regular flour in a normal recipe with all-purpose GF flour. Just try to pick a recipe that has plenty of eggs (to help it rise and bind it together), and mix/whisk it well (also to help it rise, by introducing plenty of air). 

Pies - possible but may drive you to insanity. Since pie crusts are a shortcrust pastry rather than the fluffy kind, it is POSSIBLE, but maddening as it DESPERATELY wants to fall apart at every stage. This is the only good GF shortcrust recipe I have ever found. I follow it religiously every year to make my mince pies. Bear in mind you MUST include the xantham gum or you die

Bread - possible but may drive you to insanity. This is the ONLY gluten free bread recipe i have ever found that produces fluffy, chewy bread that even begins to approximate gluten bread. It is my holy grail. It takes like 6 hours. The person who invented this recipe is a fucking wizard. EVERY step is vital, YES even the one about sticking 4-5 ice cubes in the oven, and you MUST include the psyllium husk or you die 

Pastries - IMPOSSIBLE. Anything which requires you to manipulate dough (it will fall apart) and end up with nice fluffy layers of lamination (this will not happen) is a no-go. I have simply never had a good gluten free croissant, even from the fancy store-bought brands.

Banana bread - IMPOSSIBLE. Listen. You may think that this is easy. It is not. Do not be tempted by the banana bread. Anything baked in a loaf tin in general is going to be very hard (because again, GF stuff doesn’t like rising, so the center usually ends up dense and mushy), and banana bread in particular is already a very dense kind of loaf. I have never successfully made a gluten free banana bread that was actually cooked in the center. 

use overdrive, libby, hoopla, cloudlibrary, and kanopy instead of amazon and audible.

use firefox instead of chrome or opera (both are made with chromium, which blocks functionality for ad-blockers. firefox isn't based on chromium).

use mega or proton drive instead of google drive.

get rid of bloatware

use libreoffice instead of microsoft office suite

use vetted sites on r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH for free movies, books, games, etc.

use trakt or letterboxd instead of imdb.

use storygraph instead of goodreads.

use darkpatterns to find mobile game with no ads or microtransactions

use ground news to read unbiased news and find blind spots in news stories.

use mediahuman or cobalt to download music, or support your favorite artists directly through bandcamp

make youtube bearable by using mtube, newpipe, or the unhook extension on chrome, firefox, or microsoft edge

use search for a cause or ecosia to support the environment instead of google

use thriftbooks to buy new or used books (they also have manga, textbooks, home goods, CDs, DVDs, and blurays)

use flashpoint to play archived online flash games

find books, movies, games, etc. on the internet archive! for starters, here's a bunch of David Attenborough documentaries and all of the Animorphs books

burn your music onto cds

use pdf24 (available online or as a desktop app) instead of adobe

use unroll.me to clean your email inboxes

use thunderbird, mailfence, countermail, edison mail, tuta, or proton mail instead of gmail

remove bloatware on windows PC, macOS, and iOS X

remove bloatware on samsung X

use pixelfed instead of instagram or meta

use NCH suite for free software like a file converter, image editor, video editors, pdf editor, etc.

feel free to add more alternatives, resources or advice in the reblogs or replies, and i'll add them to the main post <3

oh sure I've workshopped it a bit also

BUNJY RECIPE BOOK: ONE- PAN CAJUN BUTTER BAKE

you will need:

2 lbs baby red potatoes, whole (also salt and white vinegar for these)

4 ears of corn (or equivalent frozen corn)

1 small white/yellow onion, cut into half-round slices

1 red bell pepper, cut into strings

1 package of andouille sausage of any variety, sliced

1 stick of butter (4 oz)

8-10 cloves of garlic

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp worcestershire sauce

1 heaping tbsp cajun seasoning mix

1 heaping tbsp old bay seasoning

about half a bunch of parsley, chopped

directions:

first, you will need to pre-cook the potatoes and the corn, if you're not using frozen corn. set a big pot of water with salt and a few good glugs of white vinegar to boil, and add the potatoes once the water reaches a rolling boil. cook for anywhere from 15-25 mins depending on their size, remove when fork tender and cool. you can just nuke the corn, 10 minutes for 4 ears is generally about right. you can leave the corn on the cob and cut the cob into slices, or you can slice the corn off the cob to save space. this can all be done ahead of time. (if using frozen corn, skip this and just thaw it before you add it to the other vegetables)

next, make the butter sauce by melting your stick of butter and beating in the cajun seasoning, old bay, lemon juice, worcestershire sauce, and garlic, either minced or microplaned if you really want to amp up the garlic flavor. split into two batches and set aside.

now, in a large bowl, add your sliced veggies, sausage, corn, and hot potatoes (cut them down to size if they're too large but you do want them to be big mouthfuls) and pour in half of your butter sauce, tossing to coat evenly.

preheat your oven to 425 F and lightly drizzle a large baking dish with olive oil. dump in your mixed ingredients and pat them down until the whole thing is about the same thickness. next, cover with tented tinfoil, or a lid if the dish has one, and bake for 25-30 minutes. You want the onions to be still crunchy but not raw.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

2 lbs boiled yellow potatoes

1 cup local milk

1/2 cup local 35% Cream

6 whole eggs

1 cup diced ham

1 cup sliced cherry tomatoes

2 cups cleaned spinach

1 scotch bonnet pepper or jalapeno sliced thinly (optional)

1 cup grated local mozzarella

3 tablespoons salt - 2 for the water to cook the potatoes and 1 for the egg and milk mixture

1 tablespoon black pepper

2 tablespoons chopped chives

2 tablespoons local salted butter

Method

Add your potatoes to a large stock pot and fill with cold water. Add salt and allow to boil until fork tender. Once ready strain water and allow to cool for a few minutes

Preheat oven to 350°F

Grease a large cake tin thoroughly with butter and add your now cooled boiled potatoes.

Using the back of a cup gently press down on the potatoes to form your crust.

Add spinach, diced ham, and tomatoes

In a large bowl whisk together milk, cream and eggs. Then carefully pour this into your shell.

Top this with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, hot pepper slices, and mozzarella.

Place this on top of a baking sheet and bake on the middle rack for 45-50 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

I love her, she's great. Her recipes are friendly for both physical and/or intellectual disabilities. And her 5-year-old helps her cook. 🥰

Link to her YouTube channel:

Go to 5calls.org, put in your location, and make the calls. Do it after business hours if you're worried about actually to a person, but do it.

so, the US just attacked Iran, and that is fucking terrible. Something we all need to think about right now is how we can stop the harassment and violence against Muslims and Arabs in the US that got so much worse in the early 2000s from happening again to people now.

To that end, I wanted to share some resources on Bystander Intervention. One of the biggest things I learned from training like this is that there are many ways to intervene, and they don't all involve putting yourself in front of the person who may harm you or others. It's ok if you feel intimidated by that because there are more ways to help! And once you do the training, it might not be so scary.

Right to Be has Bystander trainings based on the 5Ds of Bystander Intervention (Distract, Delegate, Document, Delay, and Direct). The trainings are free!! sign up here.

I took one of their trainings a few years ago (when the org was called Hollaback!) and it was really very good, they have trainings at multiple levels and focused on various topics. They also partner with other orgs to focus on specific issues (like anti-AAPI harassment and with CAIR Chicago for anti-Muslim harassment, etc.).

Here are a few more resources:

APA Bystander Intervention Tip Sheet

RAINN Practicing Bystander Intervention