Boys Being Boys

>First, we’ve discovered that about a quarter of all the internet connection in or out of the house were ad related. In a few hours, that’s about 10,000 out of 40,000 processed.

>We also discovered that every link on Twitter was blocked. This was solved by whitelisting the https://t.co domain.

>Once out browsing the Web, everything is loading pretty much instantly. It turns out most of that Page Loading malarkey we’ve been accustomed to is related to sites running auctions to sell Ad space to show you before the page loads. All gone now.

>We then found that the Samsung TV (which I really like) is very fond of yapping all about itself to Samsung HQ. All stopped now. No sign of any breakages in its function, so I’m happy enough with that.

>The primary source of distress came from the habitual Lemmings player in the house, who found they could no longer watch ads to build up their in-app gold. A workaround is being considered for this.

>The next ambition is to advance the Ad blocking so that it seamlessly removed YouTube Ads. This is the subject of ongoing research, and tinkering continues. All in all, a very successful experiment.

>Certainly this exceeds my equivalent childhood project of disassembling and assembling our rotary dial telephone. A project whose only utility was finding out how to make the phone ring when nobody was calling.

>Update: All4 on the telly appears not to have any ads any more. Goodbye Arnold Clarke!

>Lemmings problem now solved.

>Can confirm, after small tests, that RTÉ Player ads are now gone and the player on the phone is now just delivering swift, ad free streams at first click.

>Some queries along the lines of “Are you not stealing the internet?” Firstly, this is my network, so I may set it up as I please (or, you know, my son can do it and I can give him a stupid thumbs up in response). But there is a wider question, based on the ads=internet model.

>I’m afraid I passed the You Wouldn’t Download A Car point back when I first installed ad-blocking plug-ins on a browser. But consider my chatty TV. Individual consumer choice is not the method of addressing pervasive commercial surveillance.

>Should I feel morally obliged not to mute the TV when the ads come on? No, this is a standing tension- a clash of interests. But I think my interest in my family not being under intrusive or covert surveillance at home is superior to the ad company’s wish to profile them.

>Aside: 24 hours of Pi Hole stats suggests that Samsung TVs are very chatty. 14,170 chats a day.

>YouTube blocking seems difficult, as the ads usually come from the same domain as the videos. Haven’t tried it, but all of the content can also be delivered from a no-cookies version of the YouTube domain, which doesn’t have the ads. I have asked my son to poke at that idea.

dtiys prize art for @fridka of their disaster couple (/pos) sol and geno!

So I made a post recently about having hope for the future and so many people were talking about how they have felt hopeless about the future so here is another reminder that the world will not end with us. There's always a way. Maybe it's just the stubborn "where there's a will there's a way" attitude I was raised with talking or maybe it's because this has all happened before. the world has felt like it was ending so many times in so many centuries and for so many people but it doesn't. This isn't the end, these are signs of a new beginning: failed attempts at criminalising transness are admissions of hope from politicians who know that we will all be seen one day, workers on strike signal that we will no longer stand for the maltreatment of labourers. You know that saying-things have to get worse before they get better? That's what's happening right now. Hope is a weapon here's another reminder not to lay it down. Change is coming

dealt kai some psychic damage too!

referencing this image:

meme attacks (psychic damage) i dealt on my friends @void-in-the-sky and @univornz ! the first non-chain attacks of the season for me LMAOOO

[bea, harper (skye’s), kai (univorns’ sona)]

badly formatted bucket list or something idk this stuff sounds neat and i wanna try:

learn the drums or relearn electric violin and perhaps find a local rock or metal band to vibe with

streaming??? art streams would be nice for body doubling reasons & pngtubing/vtubing seems intriguing

finish that one tween mv for that one song. maybe do more of those too

i. could work with my local regional center to provide free art resources, etc for other folks getting services from that org. might actually even be a decent job??? combines art and supporting other neurodivergent folks in the community

figure out long term commissions/non emergency commissions

maybe ask my brother to help me learn coding

flesh out various character and world building shit in my world building passion project (maybe even research how languages work and develop one for my own purposes

relearn russian, learn welsh, and/or learn polish

scout out that one area that i’m thinking i’d move to in the long term

maybe learn to be a tattoo artist?? also gettin tattoos and more piercings, 10/10 gender euphoria

hone my kayaking skills, maybe learn to become a whitewater kayaking instructor?

participate in the protests for palestine happening in my area

so many possibilities… idk it’s nice to set goals for the future as a wee young person who’s passionate about things

art dump art dump (who knows when i’ll post this on insta)

[francis, ayelet, falyn, berry]

first three images: post-art fight stuffs

the rest: from the revenge chain!

been slowly getting back into the art making groove, but health stuff has been more pressing to deal with. such is life

last update!

updated some chara profile descriptions to have a bit more info!! also, caved and made my card not even try to fit the seafoam v. stardust theme lmaoo

hyped for the fight!!!

Art fight prep thread

i’ll be periodically adding to this as i, well, do my prep for what will be my third art fight! there’s a number of things i need to do:

make references for the ocs that will be on my page (francis, maddox, cecie, iarmys, inanna, and ayelet (ayelet is @boxxed-upkr ‘s)) (three are done, but i may redo two of them..)

make icons for the above characters

make lil chibis of the above charas to sit on my home profile page

after teams are announced, make borders for this year’s attack icons

hunt down a person to do an 800 level revenge chain with, to try to be in the top 3 longest chains of the year

if possible, revamp the toyhouse pages of the public characters there

strikedown = completed

————

caustic.caffeine’s art fight info

scene hitlist // revenge chain hitlist will be a long one!! aiming to be one of the top three longest chainers this year!

art fight profile: https://artfight.net/~caustic-caffeine

team: tbd! but i don’t mind friendly fires!

my characters: aside from one, all are humanoids! they exist within a dark fantasy/steampunk setting with healthy helpings of the occult, macabre, and otherwise potentially unsettling ✨on each of their profiles they have links to toyhouse pages with art storage and more info about their lore! references are a work in progress and a few characters i have hidden right now may be unhidden before art fight starts

who i’ll attack: in order of most likely to least likely! mutuals > characters on my hitlists > characters with themes i enjoy > beginner artists/people new to art fight/people with high attack ratios (hmu if that applies to you!) > people who attacked me first > bookmarks > everyone else

other notes: check out my socials for examples of my art! i occasionally dabble in animation, both frame by frame and tweening. if it means anything, i’m an autistic lgbtq+ disabled metalhead 😎. more about me on my site

examples of art range from late 2023 up to a few days ago

my thoughts on the instagram ai situation, as a digital artist on the platform

figured i’d write and share this around so others in the community i’m in know my status. sooo, some basics for starters:

“Are you leaving Instagram? Where can I find you active?”

i’m staying on instagram for the time being. seeing as instagram almost certainly already has the data of my past posts, i won’t be deleting anything; going forward, i’ll be using ai disturbance filters and other anti-ai overlays for any stills i post. i anticipate using instagram for reels primarily, as well as staying in communications with mutuals and other artists. i do have a cara account, but will likely be posting intermittently until some issues i’ve noticed get addressed. going forward, i’ll most likely be at my most active over here! growth, fortunately, never was a priority in my social media presence so i’m not super concerned about that.

tldr:

instagram: gonna continue posting reels and occasional stills, will be primarily focused on interacting with fellow artists

here: most active! will post both rough and polished stills, as well as lore and whatever random thoughts pop into my head. (see pinned post for a tag guide)

cara: activity will be low unless shit really hits the fan on instagram and i can no longer protect my work via overlays. if you’re an insta moot, feel free to dm me if you want me to share your posts around, though! if the link doesn’t work: i’m @/asphodelity [EDIT] cara does work with an ai organization, hive; here is a post that goes into it and other things people have said about the platform! as i already wasn’t intending to use the platform all that often this won’t change anything for me, but make sure to do your research if you’re looking into the platform!

“Will this affect how much you post?”

not really! i already have a fairly sporadic posting schedule, so i’ll just be continuing what i’ve been doing: posting when i have things i wanna share :]

“Help! I’m an Instagram artist and want to know how to protect my art!”

i gotchu.

[EDIT] the non-glaze/nightshade/artshield filters are mostly ineffective! it won’t hurt you to use them, but if you can stick to using the glaze and nightshade sites!! if you don’t have a pc, you can apply to get a webglaze account!

how to (hopefully) opt out of your art being scraped in the european union (i think?)

how to (hopefully) do the same in the united states (note: post could be outdated)

other ways to protect your art: one, two, three, four

ai disturbance filters: one, two, three (set these to overlay at 30% as the top layer for most effectiveness! these aren’t as effective as using a website like glaze, but are better than nothing)

after june 26, no matter your region, you’ll be unable to opt out of ai data training. this affects, to my knowledge, everything you post, including captions.

“Any other thoughts?”

now, more than ever, we as a community need to stick together and support each other. don’t let anyone tell you your art isn’t worth anything; we as artists have something very special in our ability to create, express ourselves, and connect with the world around us, an algorithm and misguided techbros will never be able to take that away from us. keep pursuing what you love, my friends; we have to weather the storm to see the rainbow.

my dms are always open for art reasons. need a pep talk? i’m around. wanna collab or trade? i’d love to! need help boosting your social medias? i’m happy to help (although my presence is admittedly very small). whatever it is, i’m here and willing to help!

i’ll keep updating yall on this platform as my activity changes (or, perhaps, something big related to ai happens), so be sure to stick around if that seems interesting! also, please feel free to reblog this post and add more information i may have missed, that’s all for now, thank you for your time <3

Please don't ignore me

Hello, I'm Lina from Gaza🇵🇸🍉. I'm part of a family of 8. I'm married with two young children. We've been bombed, besieged, and starved. Sadly, I've lost many of my family members❗ and I can't afford to lose any more. With a heavy heart, I'm asking you to help me spread my campaign. Please, what I'm asking is too much. Can you write a post about my story and share it with your friends? I desperately need your support. My father and brother were injured in the bombing and are in critical condition. They need to travel for treatment. I need your support. The genocide is still going on

You are my only hope for survival.

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@ana-bananya

I really hope you and your family get the support yall deserve! I’m currently unable to donate directly, though I’ll likely open commission work in the future where the payment i accept is folks donating to campaigns like yours.

If any of you can, go donate to this family, or reblog this post if you can’t!