I cannot tell you how often I discuss weather with strangers. It is inoffensive, and everyone has an opinion about it! Is it too hot? What about that rain the other day? Oh man, this sunshine is so gorgeous. Ugh, look at this slush. I hear it’s supposed to snow tomorrow.
(Traffic and construction are also a good place to start. Mutual complaining about the construction project that has been going on since February is a great way to bond.)
Has there been a recent holiday, weekend or cultural event near you? WHAT DID THEY DO. Did they go? Did they stay home? How do they feel about it?
What about the stuff on their person? Obviously you have to be careful with this, but no one has ever been offended by you asking where they got their coffee/lunch/snack because that looks so good. Complimenting shoes, jewelry, and phones is also good, because you can have a playful bantering conversation about the Galaxy versus the iPhone or what style of necklace you like.
And if nothing else, lame observational comments work like a charm. It is is the least offensive, least funny thing ever, but if you make a lame, joking comment they are socially obligated to give a polite laugh and respond in kind. This is Dilbert cartoon nonsense: “I can’t believe the weekend went by so quickly!” “It’s too early for this, I need coffee.” “Wednesday, hump day!” etc.
be careful about your cleaning products and dont get yourself injured or potentially killed ok
why it so dangerous to be clean
As someone who’s job is to handle chemicals like this, I need to state that this information is IMPORTANT. Plenty of people have accidentally injured or killed themselves at home because they didn’t know what kind of reaction certain substances have with one another. Play it safe and don’t mix chemicals.
Also don’t use bleach to clean up urine it’ll create chloramine bc of the ammonia in it and you can give yourself chemical pnemonia that way
bleach is scary
Last night I was about to mix hydrogen peroxide with vinegar when I remembered seeing this post earlier in the day. Thank you.
You can’t just tell people to ‘get a VPN (Virtual Private Network)’. Buying a VPN is like buying a house. It’s very very important. Having no VPN or having a ‘wrong’ one can seriously damage your life. Especially for Americans because their privacy laws are garbage. I am going to try explain why you should get a VPN but bare with me, I am from Germany and my English is far from perfect.
Let’s start with a simple test. Click this link here: https://whatismyipaddress.com/ It will tell your IP adres, your ISP (internet service provider), and your location. The location might not be very accurate, but then again, it’s just a simple website. Imagine what the government can do!
So basically, everyone can find out where you live. But there is more danger. Your ISP. Your ISP logs your every move online and they are required to keep it in case the government wants access to it (or if a 3rd party wants to buy your data (yikes). They have everything. What websites you visit. How long you stay on a website. What you download. Your search terms. European laws are more subtle on this but if you are from the US you are #@*#&, especially because Trump doesn’t support the open internet. It’s scary but maybe in the future you can’t get a job because the recruiter knows your searched on ‘how to deal with depression’ or anythings else that’s supposed to be private because it’s your f*cking right. Or you get a $100k fine because you pirated a movie 15 years ago. You need a VPN. You’re dumb for not using one. but what does a VPN do?
A VPN encrypts all your data so if it were be intercepted no one can ‘crack the code’ and damage your privacy.
Usually being online goes like this (simplified): Your computer —-> ISP (—–> keeps data —–> sells it)
But with a VPN it goes like: Your computer —–> VPN (encrypts data)—–> ISP (ISP can’t see shit)
Furthermore, a VPN hides your IP address and location by giving you another IP address located in Spain for example (you can often choose from a list and change as many times as you want).
Now that you know why you should get a VPN and what is does it is important to educate yourself because people often choose the wrong VPN. VPN providers are also businesses and have to obey the law. If you choose a VPN provider located in the US then you are throwing your money away because the laws in the US shits on your privacy. If the US gov wants the provider to give all their logs they have to obey. The ISP still can’t see what you are doing online and sell your data but the US gov can interfere with your VPN provider so NEVER CHOOSE A PROVIDER LOCATED IN THE US.
I just wanted to make that very clear so my followers don’t buy false security.
There is still more danger! Who says your VPN provider isn’t selling your data? You need to check their logging policy. Do they keep logs? If yes, what for? For how long do they keep them? Tip: Choose a provider who doesn’t keep logs
More about law The US is part of the Five Eyes program (the worst):
The Five Eyes, often abbreviated as FVEY, is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. These countries are bound by the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence (source)
There is also a Nine Eyes (bit better) and Fourteen Eyes Program (better). You don’t want a VPN provider who is located in one the Five Eyes countries. If you had to choose go for a provider located in a country that’s part of the Fourteen Eyes Program or even better, go for a country that isn’t part of any program!
I know this is a shitty explanation and please pardon my english but now it’s time to do your own research. Take your privacy seriously. Maybe WWIII breaks out and you get killed for liking the ‘wrong’ FB-page.
Make sure that your future VPN provider both has green boxes for Privacy Jurisdiction and Privacy Logging.
I recommend ovpn.se and trust.zone. ovpn is located in Sweden so they are part of the 14 Eyes Program and they keep minimal logs. Their business ethics, however, are alright.
Trustzone is located in the Seychelles. No country can interfere and their privacy jurisdiction is the best you can get. The US want your data but needs to get it from Trustzone? The Seychelles will simply give them the finger and wave them goodbye. However, this makes this provider very appealing for people who torrent and criminals because they keep no logs (and that is how it shoud be) Also, there are almost no marketing efforts so this provider is one the cheapest)
Also, often providers such as ExpressVPN are being called ‘The Best’ on websites about VPNs but know that this is just marketing which also makes those provider more expensive (and they too shit on your privacy)
This must be the worst article you have ever read but please, please take your privacy very seriously.
I am also with Trustzone but I think you forgot to explain one of it’s most important features. It protects you when you are using someone else’s Wi-Fi. If you are at Starbucks and you use their Wi-Fi your privacy is at risk. Anyone with ill intentions could steal your information. Especially if you are using an unsecured Wi-Fi hotspot. With a VPN your data gets encrypted so no one can steal it.
Wait, what’s going, on? Did trump destroy internet privacy with a bill or something? Where’s the news? Oh wait, why am I getting visions of Alex Jones and selling water purifiers?
He hasn’t yet but he says he wants to. And if he is serious about it it would be really easy to do. Since all our data is already recorded, as the person above explained.
Trump wants more surveillance of Muslim Americans. This in a country where internet privacy is already close to non-existent.
To all my friends in the US, please read this entire post. Making everyone aware of VPNs is going to be my mission. Your privacy matters. Please reblog this post.
Don’t tell me you just wanted to scroll past this. Stop looking at pictures of cats for a moment, okay? Don’t you realize how important this is? This is dangerous! ‘America, the best FREE country in the world’ my ass.
With this new law your ISP can sell your Internet history which could include passwords, usernames, religion, credit card numbers, race and much more to the highest bidder. So here is what I want you to do.
You are going to read the whole thing and before you think ’this is so important. Let me reblog this real quick and go back to admiring cats again-’ NO! Don’t reblog this. Take action first. Then reblog. Sign up for a free trial! Trust.Zone offers one (here). Yes. It might be difficult to set up a VPN for some people. But is that going to stop you from protecting yourself and your family? 30 minutes. 30 minutes is all that it takes. 5 if you know how to install software. The problem with some of you is that you see ‘difficult’ as something negative. I want you to see difficult differently. I need you to push through this stuff. You are going to protect yourself. There is nothing negative about that.
VPNs are fun and costsaving too! A VPN bypasses geographical restrictions so you can access websites you normally can’t or you could start Netflix’s one month free trial over and over again- forever. And it’s legal! (unless you use it to buy weapons etc.,)
Don’t tell yourself that you are too tired and that you will do this tomorrow. Because that isn’t going to happen and you know it. You have to do this right now. You only have to click on it.
Don’t let this/shit/life just happen to you. Take yourself seriously. Get a VPN.
Privacy is not a privilege, it’s a fundamental human right
please keep this post in your pocket for a rainy day: you are strong enough to get past whatever you are currently going through. you are capable and deserving of love. please don’t be too hard on yourself, you’re still growing and learning and ‘tough love’ isn’t always the answer
Every time you say that you only donate to charities and non-profits with extremely low overhead and administrative costs, what you’re actually saying is that you’ll only support charities and non-profits that underpay their employees and stretch them thin because they don’t have the budget to hire enough of them.
Transparency should be the priority here. Not low administrative costs.
Also? Especially in really BIG catastrophes, in the IMMEDIATE aftermath?
You want the charities that can MOBILIZE FAST. You CANNOT DO THAT if you are pinching every penny and working to the minimal staffing. You just can’t.
Transparency is important. And a charity should be able to EXPLAIN why each of the dollars they spent is spent the way it is, and it should be a solid reason.
And no, this is not just a factor of Money Is Evil. Even if we weren’t in a monetary-reward situation, value of effort, time and training still exists, as does value of goods, and it would simply turn to a different metric.
Considering all the damage done by Harvey and BEING done by Irma and Jose, this seems like a good time to reblog this.
If the mean people in our lives were crappy 100% of the time, it would be easy to leave them. We would shrink from becoming friends with them or jump aboard the nope rocket in the early stages of trouble, and we would feel only relief when they are gone from our lives.
The problem is that very few people are evil all the time. They don’t wear villain costumes purchased at ForeverEvil. They don’t laugh maniacally and stroke their evil goatees while monologuing about their evil plans. They appear in our lives as People-Who-Would-Be-Awesome-Except-For-That-One-Glaring-Problem. They have potential to be awesome, and sometimes they are awesome, and they make us feel awesome, so we relax and let out that breath we’ve been holding in, and then BAM! They show their mean side, and we do a ton of mental work trying to reconcile the mean stuff with the awesome stuff.
Breaking up brings relief, as you lose the constant mental labor of managing the relationship AND the stress of being constantly disappointed and hurt, but it also brings grief. Shitty people who forget your birthday and give little backhanded compliments and gossip about your secrets sometimes give really good hugs, or presents, or are your favorite people to get drunk and watch figure-skating with, or were the sole witness to an important time in your life. The good times were real.
I cannot express how much of a lightbulb moment it was when I realized people did not have to be unilaterally awful in order for you not to want to be in a relationship with them
hmmm…check ao3? sometimes people put fanart there or they link to it
I have now learned that there are nine (9) fanworks on AO3 for the Inda series. Sadly, this makes me feel a bit better – it just is that small of a fandom.
HEY, FOLLOWERS! Y’ALL SHOULD READ INDA AND BECOME INDA FANS AND DRAW STUFF FOR IT!
Why?
-It’s really well-written – not necessarily in a floral prose way, though there is some poetry included, as in a well-constructed way. This is an epic saga, and everything that’s introduced is going to be important later.
-The worldbuilding is quite literally the best I’ve ever seen. Maybe barring Tolkein. Maybe. Sherwood Smith has been working on this world for upwards of fifty years. She’s not as into conlang as Tolkein is, but she’s a lot better at dribbling hints of things into the story so you don’t have to read the gd Silmarillion to find out what was going on in the background. And while she’s not a linguist, she does include freaking linguistic drift in the books, both in the ones set centuries apart and as a minor plot point
-Did you like the more famous Wren series, or maybe Crown Duel, and wished there were more? There is.
-Do you like Victor Hugo and wish there were something like Les Mis but more recently written? There is. You can cry all you want – or if you don’t want to cry, you can try to remember that all of the characters got everything they ever dreamed of.
-Do you want queer representation? It’s all over these freaking books. It is just not necessarily important – after all, some people are plotting for the kingdom and others are plotting for the apocalypse. That being said, at least two sexualities become increasingly important over the course of the series. (If you include Banner of the Damned, then the asexuality becomes really important to the entire narrative and it’s the best representation I’ve ever seen.)
-Do you just want some freaking swordfights? Well have I got a story.
–What about magic both deeply woven into the fabric of society and displayed impressively across the field of the story? Sure! (Although the central country has had sanctions put in place that keep it from getting many trained magicians, so you’ll have to bear with the story for a while – unless you start with Banner of the Damned.)
-Do you really just want to fall in love with characters? WHY DO YOU THINK I LIKE THIS BOOK.
All that being said, Nimbler… Why not?
-The Inda series is something like 3000 pages. It’s not a small commitment. That being said, the slow reader I lent it to finished the first book in 6 months, the second in 4, the third in 3, the fourth in 2. It will pull you in.
AVAILABLE NOW IN LIBRARIES NEAR YOU
Victor Hugo and wish there were something like Les Mis but more recently written? There is.
…okay this is honestly like 90 percent of what I want always constantly from books, but I’m gonna need to know More. How is it like Les Mis? Lots of description? A focus on the non- standard-Hero classes and people living “ ordinary” lives? Surprising amounts of socialist theory for a fantasy series? I Want to Know More!:D (also is there a reading order you’d suggest?)
Hmmm, I’m not really sure how it’s like Les Mis really, but I can try and make a few guesses (possibly vaguely spoilery):
Really long, intricate story with multiple strands, side plots and supporting protagonists, even though the backbone of the story is the life of one person
It could maybe be seen as a sort of in-universe social history? There are lots of little societal details, and the narrator makes the odd throwaway comment about how this or that tradition changed or evolved before and after the events of the story
I guess the omniscient narrator/narrative style is maybe kind of similar?
There is no real Big Bad (there is sort of one in the overall arc of the whole story world, but not the Inda books so much), and plenty of characters (even on opposite sides of a conflict) who are trying to do the right thing most of the time. They may fuck up (a lot), and they may have very different ideas of what constitutes the right thing, but yeah
I mean, there are some characters who are clear-cut villains, but they tend to drive subplots rather than the overall narrative?
There are definitely elements of the “non-standard-Hero classes and people living ordinary lives” thing
But basically these books deserve to have a bigger fandom than they currently have.
honestly, as someone who’s hardcore a Tolkien fan and a Tolkien’s worldbuilding fan, I’m going to take a deep breath and look the world steadily in the eye and say Inda has the better worldbuilding. The Inda series has the best worldbuilding of anything I have ever read in my life. Inda’s worldbuilding is the standard by which all fantasy worldbuilding must be measured.
I haven’t read Les Mis, so I can’t comment on that, but it has a seriously enormous ensemble cast and I care so much about absolutely all of them, the characters are to die for. by which I mean I would die on a battlefield for them.
the character growth arcs are some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen
my otp ends up together! but like, in a natural and realistic way! having overcome obstacles (OH GOD SO MANY OBSTACLES)! it is all I wanted, it is all I dared ask and I received it
Inda came out on 2006, the queer representation was happening at a time when I feel like there was relatively little, in fantasy writing; I remember running into my parents’ room and wailing at my mother about how much I loved these characters and she kept trying to get me to admit that they were only gay in my head BUT NO. THEY WERE GAY IN THE TEXT. ON-PAGE, IN THE TEXT.
(yo I was still just a teenager it was a big deal. the various cultural attitudes and the characters’ personal attitudes about sex and love and all that was pretty deeply influential for me. different people were allowed to feel all sorts of different ways and it was revolutionary, man)
individual characters’ actions having far-reaching consequences on the actual plot!
sprawling
fucking
epic
plot!!!
C U L T U R A L W O R L D B U I L D I N G
characters who are PEOPLE! PEOPLE JUST TRYING TO DO THEIR THING!! PEOPLE I LOVE WHO SHOULD GET TO BE HAPPY *hysterical fucking sobbing*
politics! battles! characters! logistics! everything feels so goddamn real and immersive! the narrative tension is genuinely terrifying! the endings are so genuinely if bittersweetly satisfying!
I will never be over anything about this series. anything. you never get over any of it. everything that happens in these books has just straight-up marked me for life.
STUPID HORSE VIKINGS! STUPID! HORSE! VIKINGS!!!
*hysterical fucking sobbing*
reading order should go: Inda, The Fox, King’s Shield, Treason’s Shore. Then Banner of the Damned (I haven’t read that one myself yet, but it takes place at least a century later). (I have read Crown Duel/Court Duel and actually I didn’t like them. I reread them recently and still didn’t like them. so I can’t recommend them, really, but if you want them anyway read them after the Inda quartet & presumably after Banner as well, as they’re chronologically much much later)
…well this took off abruptly. Good! Go forth, my minions, enjoy!
@pilferingapples: It’s been a while since I made this post, but probably what I meant in comparing Inda to Les Mis is that there’s a broad cast, all of whom you wind up deeply invested in, and all of whom make you sad. Did you want to meet the Amis when they were 11? Except, like, actually get to know each of them instead of just a paragraph or two on each? Inda will show you how they meet each other.
(That being said, it doesn’t cover things like ‘sweeping social justice’ or ‘background from people from all walks of life (as long as they’re miserably poor)’ – but it will tell you things like ‘how do people handle having their marriages arranged at birth’ in many different ways, or ‘what sort of person becomes a pirate, and what exactly counts as piracy.’)
Otherwise, I’ll let Tansy’s comments answer you.
That being said, Silentstep, one comment on reading order, and then the fandom tears will be under the cut: There’s a quartet and then Banner, and while you’re absolutely right that Banner comes after Inda &c, I would argue that it doesn’t have to be read after. You will get some spoilers for Banner, but you might not… recognize them, honestly. Or maybe I’m just saying because I read Banner first, and it took me a year or two to get round to Inda.
These windows you create onto yourself, they never show all of you. There is mystery here. You have freedom to move. The window doesn’t define you. And it certainly shouldn’t offend you when people comment on what you’ve shown them. They are remarking upon one instant, their temporary moment touching yours. Any reflection you see is translucent and tiny. The window isn’t you. You are the whole person behind it.
just moving along like everyone else 