Welcome to the Bat Cave

Removed/checked all links to make sure everything is working (03/03/23). Hope they help!

Sejda - Free online PDF editor.

Supercook - Have ingredients but no idea what to make? Put them in here and it'll give you recipe ideas.

Still Tasty - Trying the above but unsure about whether that sauce in the fridge is still edible? Check here first.

Archive.ph - Paywall bypass. Like 12ft below but appears to work far better and across more sites in my testing. I'd recommend trying this one first as I had more success with it.

12ft – Hate paywalls? Try this site out.

Where Is This - Want to know where a picture was taken, this site can help.

TOS/DR - Terms of service, didn't read. Gives you a summary of terms of service plus gives each site a privacy rating.

OneLook - Reverse dictionary for when you know the description of the word but can't for the life of you remember the actual word.

My Abandonware - Brilliant site for free, legal games. Has games from 1978 up to present day across pc and console. You'll be surprised by some of the games on there, some absolute gems.

Project Gutenberg – Always ends up on these type of lists and for very good reason. All works that are copyright free in one place.

Ninite – New PC? Install all of your programs in one go with no bloat or unnecessary crap.

PatchMyPC - Alternative to ninite with over 300 app options to keep upto date. Free for home users.

Unchecky – Tired of software trying to install additional unwanted programs? This will stop it completely by unchecking the necessary boxes when you install.

Sci-Hub – Research papers galore! Check here before shelling out money. And if it’s not here, try the next link in our list.

LibGen – Lots of free PDFs relate primarily to the sciences.

Zotero – A free and easy to use program to collect, organize, cite and share research.

Car Complaints – Buying a used car? Check out what other owners of the same model have to say about it first.

CamelCamelCamel – Check the historical prices of items on Amazon and set alerts for when prices drop.

Have I Been Pawned – Still the king when it comes to checking if your online accounts have been released in a data breach. Also able to sign up for email alerts if you’ve ever a victim of a breach.

I Have No TV - A collection of documentaries for you to while away the time. Completely free.

Radio Garden – Think Google Earth but wherever you zoom, you get the radio station of that place.

Just The Recipe – Paste in the url and get just the recipe as a result. No life story or adverts.

Tineye – An Amazing reverse image search tool.

My 90s TV – Simulates 90’s TV using YouTube videos. Also has My80sTV, My70sTV, My60sTV and for the younger ones out there, My00sTV. Lose yourself in nostalgia.

Foto Forensics – Free image analysis tools.

Old Games Download – A repository of games from the 90’s and early 2000’s. Get your fix of nostalgia here.

Online OCR – Convert pictures of text into actual text and output it in the format you need.

Remove Background – An amazingly quick and accurate way to remove backgrounds from your pictures.

Twoseven – Allows you to sync videos from providers such as Netflix, Youtube, Disney+ etc and watch them with your friends. Ad free and also has the ability to do real time video and text chat.

Terms of Service, Didn’t Read – Get a quick summary of Terms of service plus a privacy rating.

Coolors – Struggling to get a good combination of colors? This site will generate color palettes for you.

This To That – Need to glue two things together? This’ll help.

Photopea – A free online alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Does everything in your browser.

BitWarden – Free open source password manager.

Just Beam It - Peer to peer file transfer. Drop the file in on one end, click create link and send to whoever. Leave your pc on that page while they download. Because of how it works there are no file limits. It's genuinely amazing. Best file transfer system I have ever used.

Atlas Obscura – Travelling to a new place? Find out the hidden treasures you should go to with Atlas Obscura.

ID Ransomware – Ever get ransomware on your computer? Use this to see if the virus infecting your pc has been cracked yet or not. Potentially saving you money. You can also sign up for email notifications if your particular problem hasn’t been cracked yet.

Way Back Machine – The Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites and loads more.

Rome2Rio – Directions from anywhere to anywhere by bus, train, plane, car and ferry.

Splitter – Seperate different audio tracks audio. Allowing you to split out music from the words for example.

myNoise – Gives you beautiful noises to match your mood. Increase your productivity, calm down and need help sleeping? All here for you.

DeepL – Best language translation tool on the web.

Forvo – Alternatively, if you need to hear a local speaking a word, this is the site for you.

Ingredients

-4tsp flour

-4tsp sugar

-2tsp cocoa

-2tsp water

-2tsp oil

-¼ tsp vanilla

METHOD

1. mix all the ingredients in a mug

2. microwave for 30 seconds

SAVE YOUR YARD STRAPS!!!!! YOU CAN USE IT FOR COMPOST

Leaves

Stickes

Grass clippings

Dead flowers

Some people start composting during the cold seasons because of the amount of yard scraps you get in the autumn. By the time its spring, your compost is usable!

Ok so I was messing around with canva and I made this for yall :)

CLEAN OUT YOUR 3828 EMAILS!!! That's electronic waste. It takes energy to send and store them. Go through 10 emails a day so u dont have to do all 3828 in one day.

Delete random emails from ur inbox

Unsubscribe from subscriptions

Clean out ur spam

Hi Everyone! I’ve had some people reach out to me today about NFT’s, and why it’s bad that Gorillaz is involved. So I’ve decided to compile a ton of info in a post for people who are confused, and tips on how to help!

TL;DR: Gorillaz have announced that they are producing NFTs, a form of crypto currency attached to digital art that wastes more energy than most people’s homes do in a year. 

What is an NFT?

An NFT (non-fungible token), also known as Cryptoart, is a unit of unique data that represents a digital item, typically digital art, music, videos, and other digital files. Basically, think of it like a Bitcoin that is linked to or attached to a .jpg. 

It’s complicated, but in theory, it’s meant to be like fine art auctions, but for digital art. However, buying an NFT does NOT give you ownership of the file, or even exclusive access to the file. Anyone else can view and save the original image/file. All the buyer gets is the unique digital metadata that is attached to it. 

Here is a video by the Wall Street Journal that does a good job of breaking down what an NFT is.

Why is it bad?

NFT’s are controversial for several reasons. 

For one, you do not need to prove that you are the original artist or creator of the digital art to tokenize it. That basically means that anyone can take your digital art and sell it as an NFT. Shitty, I know.

It is an incredibly inaccessible and fluctuating market, and works like a pyramid scheme. (linked is a very good infographic on the topic by Cabeza Patata on Instagram.)

However, the most damning and negative side effect is its environmental impact. Because of the large amount of computing power needed to create NFTs, an INSANE amount of energy is used, creating a LOT of pollution. An UNETHICAL amount of pollution.

To quote this article by Uproxx, “In one instance, the 10 seconds it took […] to sell six NFTs consumed 8.7 megawatt-hours of energy, comparable to the amount of electricity used by a household in a single year.”

It’s hard to explain exactly HOW or WHY it uses so much power, so here are some articles that do a better job of explaining it than I can:

NFTs Are Hot. So Is Their Effect on the Earth’s Climate - Wired

The carbon footprint of creating and selling an NFT artwork - Quartz

HERE IS THE ARTICLE YOU CAN SEND TO PEOPLE WHEN THEY SAY “BUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES WITH CRYPTOART WILL BE SOLVED SOON, RIGHT?” - by Everest Pipkin

What does this have to do with Gorillaz?

Yesterday, Gorillaz announced that they would be collaborating with Superplastic to produce products for their 20th anniversary, including NFTs.

This is a huge kick in the face due to the fact that Gorillaz has always produced music preaching environmental consciousness, and is deeply disappointing to fans. It’s hard to say if Jamie or Damon are fully aware of NFT’s impact, but regardless, it is a huge blow to the message of Gorillaz.

What can I do about it?

**DO NOT GIVE YOUR MONEY TO GORILLAZ OR SUPERPLASTIC.** DONT EVEN STREAM THEIR MUSIC. DO NOT SUPPORT GORILLAZ FINACIALLY UNTIL THEY ADDRESS THIS IN A MEANINGFUL WAY.

Instead, you can:

Support Gorillaz fan artists by commissioning them or buying their prints!

Buy any Gorillaz merch second hand/used (but take care to avoid scalpers.)

Here is a petition for Gorillaz to cut ties with Superplastic and stop production of NFTs!

Support organizations like The Climate Emergency Fund, The Clean Energy Innovation program, and other organizations fighting climate change.

Spread the word! Share this Post! Stay informed! Make sure everyone knows about the impacts of NFTs! This should go beyond the sphere of the Gorillaz fandom!

hi! if you’re looking for some ways on how to spend your time and engage with subjects you really love, or learn something new, or just distract yourself with art and literature, i’ve got you!! please share with others if it’s helpful <3

Language

how I study languages on my own

free online language courses

language challenges

Art, Music and Photography

582 met ebooks for free

visit the louvre, vatican museums, and many more virtually

stage shows, operas, musical theatre streams for free

free online art courses

free online design courses

free online music courses

free online photography lessons from nikon (april only!!)

Philosophy, History, Law & Literature

100+ legal sites to download literature

complete works of shakespeare

free online ivy league literature courses 

free online ivy league philosophy courses

free online ivy league history courses

6 cute ideas on how to fill your empty notebooks

free online ivy league law courses

Sciences

free online computer science courses

free online chemistry courses

free online medicine courses

free online physics courses

24 LGBT+ Books by Black Authors

I’m seeing a lot of the same books on my dash, so I spent a few hours researching some lesser-known books. These books fall across a variety of genres and age group. 

So yesterday I read a book called “The Miricle Morning - the not so obvious secret to waking up before 8am” by Hal Elrod. And whilst it is mostly about being able to wake up earlier to complete more things. It also gives you tips on how to go for things you wouldn’t normally and to quote the book “how to get that level 10 life, happiness, relationship” etc.

He suggests waking up at least 1 hour than you normally would every day (and yes that includes weekends. He says he originally only did it Monday - Friday and slept in on weekends but wound he felt miserable, so kept it every day.)

He has something called Life S. A. V. E. R. S which is 6 steps to improve your morning (and your life) every day. He suggests doing these somewhere other than your bedroom so that you don’t just jump straight back in bed and go back to sleep.

S - Silence. Here he says that you should do anything from 1 - 5 minutes of just sitting in silence. Just allowing everything to be and to be in a relaxed state. It could be mediation or just general relaxing 5 minutes of quietness.

A - affermations. Take 1- 5 minutes in a morning to tell yourself things that help buils you up or help you work towards your goals. “I am beautiful. I am strong. I am loved. I am happy. I am wonderful.” etc. Whatever it is that helps to build you up.

V - Vision/visualisation. Take 1-5 minutes to visualise a goal that you have and how you’re gonna get there and then how you’re gonna feel when you get to that goal. If it’s loosing weight, visualise what you’ll look like, how you’ll feel etc. He says to use all your senses and really visualise it.

E - exercise. Take 20 minutes in a morning to do some form of exercise. He does yoga or another example could be taking your dog (if you have one) for a walk (or just a walk on your own). Maybe do some sit ups, press ups etc. Whatever floats your boat, do it!

R - reading. He then says to read upto 20 minutes of books. This can be fiction or non fiction (although he says about self care books or of the sort. But personally any book is better than non). Reading helps you to gain knowledge and is relaxing and fun.

S - scribing. Scribing in the sense of having a journal. He says you should take 5 minutes at the end of your morning routine to just write down anything on your mind. Thoughts, ideas, feelings etc. Write the date on each page (unless you’re doing this in a dated journal anyway) so that at the end of the year you can look back at your journal and see how things have changed throughout the year and help you set new goals and intentions for the next year.

After life S. A. V. E. R. S he recommends you get some breakfast and a coffee before continuing the rest of your day.

A few other tips he mentions in his book is a routine to help you go from awake level 1 to awake level 10 in a few easy steps (usually done before doing your life S. A. V. E. R. S routine)

Tip number one is to keep your phone and other screens out of your room. If this isnt possible to either move them across the room away from you or to put them away 1 hour before going to sleep and reading a (physical) book so your natural levels of sleep aren’t interrupted. He also says to move your alarm across the room so that you physically have to climb out of bed to turn your alarm off which in itself will help begin waking you up.

Go and brush your teeth. This will help you feel refreshed and healthier but also continues to improve your levels of being awake. Something like level 3 or 4.

Drink a glass of water. Everyone’s dehydrated first thing, especially after 6+ hours of sleep. Everyone needs to drink water and whilst the recommended is 8 glasses a day, that doesn’t work for everyone. People who are more physically active in a day is gonna need more water than someone is more sedentary.

Lastly, get dressed. You’re not going to go back to bed after getting dressed so once you’ve done everything else you’ll be mostly awake anyway but being dressed will seal the deal. Plus you’ll be ready for the day! Then you can go on and do your life S. A. V. E. R. S routine and crack on with the rest of your day.

For the fanfic authors who don’t get art of their fics

For the fanfic authors who can’t get to 1000/500/100 hits

For the fanfic authors who don’t get comments/reviews

For the fanfic authors who write for small fandoms

For the fanfic authors who write rarepairs or gen fics

For the fanfic authors who get hate for the ships/characters/fandoms they write

For the fanfic authors who write in English despite it not being their first language

For the fanfic authors who don’t write in English

For the fanfic authors who don’t think anyone reads or likes their work

For the fanfic authors who aren’t big name fans

For the fanfic authors who don’t get requests in their inboxes

For the fanfic authors who can’t write stories that are more than a thousand words

For the fanfic authors who only write one ship

For the fanfic authors who are just starting

For the fanfic authors who have been writing fic for years

For the fanfic authors who use fanfic to practice writing

For the fanfic authors who write self-insert fics

For the fanfic authors who write about their OCs

For the fanfic authors who write to vent or cope

For the fanfic authors who are just waiting for their big break