Pay Attention To Palestine

The Very Basics of Not Killing Your Computer

AVOID HEAT STRESS

If you have a laptop DO NOT use it on a soft surface like a pillow or on a blanket, it’ll block the vents on your computer and make it get really fucking hot inside.

If you have a desktop you gotta open it up and blow out the dust sometimes.

If you are moving your laptop in a bag turn the laptop off. Don’t put it to sleep, don’t just shut the screen, turn it off, because otherwise it’s in the bag generating heat and there’s nowhere for the heat to go in the bag. OFF. Not sleep. OFF.

DO NOT DROP

Okay I know that should be obvious but drop damage to your hard drive is bad bad news. Be as careful as you can to set your computer gently on flat surfaces; don’t leave it hanging out on a bed where it can get knocked off, don’t set it on the roof of your car. And yes, just dropping it a couple inches can kill your hard drive or totally shatter your screen.

DON’T PUT SHIT ON YOUR KEYBOARD

Look I’ve seen four people ruin their laptops because they had a pen on the keyboard and closed the laptop and it fucked up the screen and the keyboard and it sucks so much and you feel awful after it happens because it’s so avoidable just don’t put things on your keyboard and always check that your laptop is clear before you close it.

PROTECT YOUR PORTS ON YOUR LAPTOP

You’ve only got one power jack and a limited number of other inputs on your computer and if they detach from the motherboard you’re fucked. USB ports get damaged because people use them a lot and eventually it weakens the connection and then they just stop working and it sucks. You can get around this with USB ports by using a USB hub to connect things like your keyboard and mouse.

For your power plug you just gotta be careful. Avoid tripping over the cord at all costs, don’t yank the plug out of the computer. It will SUCK VERY MUCH A LOT if you have to buy a new computer because the power port lost contact with the motherboard.

Don’t move your computer with things plugged into it. Take the power cord off before you put your laptop in the bag, take out the USB mouse dongle, do not travel with little nubby bits sticking out of your computer that can easily get caught or get tweaked or snap off inside of the thing.

(I really can’t emphasize enough that most of the “it will cost more than it’s worth to fix this” laptops I see are because of USB ports and power jacks. People don’t seem to know that this isn’t something that can be fixed easily; a broken power jack is a “remove the motherboard and resoldier components” job, not a “plug a new one in in fifteen minutes” job and most computer repair shops aren’t going to solder things for you and if they DO it’s going to be very expensive)

RESTART YOUR SHIT AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH AND JUST LET THE FUCKING UPDATES RUN

You should probably restart more than once a month but whatever. This is actually something that I consider part of reducing heat stress because when your processor is straining to keep up with all the background bullshit that’s running from a program you opened three weeks ago it’s going to use up resources and get hot and look just restart it once in a while.

Also the updates are almost always okay and safe and generally running updates is a good and secure thing to do (though maybe follow a blog dedicated to the OS you run because if there IS a problem with the updates that blog will probably talk about it before the update gets forced on your computer)

ANTIVIRUS BULLSHIT

Yes you should probably be running an antivirus.

Sophos is free and it’s fine. But don’t pay for it - if you’re using Sophos use the free version.

If you’re looking for something paid and a little more comprehensive I recommend ESET - get the cheap version, renewals cost less than the initial purchase, and feel free to get a multi-year version, the credentials follow your email not the computer so if your computer dies before your license expires you can install the license on a new computer.

DO NOT INSTALL NORTON OR MCAFEE THEY ARE EXPENSIVE BULLSHIT. Kaspersky is whatever. It’s less bullshit than Norton or McAfee but not as good as ESET for about the same cost.

If you think you’ve got a virus run the free version of Malwarebytes and get your shit cleaned.

KEEP LIQUIDS THE FUCK AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER

Again this should be obvious and yet. But seriously, just make a rule for yourself that drinks aren’t allowed on the same table as your computer and you’ll save yourself a lot of headaches.

PLUG YOUR COMPUTER INTO A UPS

Okay I fucking hate amazon but here’s a thing you should be using, just search the rest of the internet for “surge protector/UPS” and you’ll find something that isn’t from amazon - APC is a solid brand for this.

Basically you want a fat surge protector that has a little bit of a battery backup and you want to plug your computer (desktop OR laptop) into that instead of into the wall. The benefit of this is twofold:

1) if there’s a power surge the UPS will prevent your computer’s power supply from getting fried and possibly frying parts of your motherboard

2) if there’s a power outage and you’re *at* your computer you’ll have enough time to save what you’re working on before your computer loses power (like, you’ll maybe only have a minute or two on a small UPS but that’s still time to hit CTRL+S and keep from losing work)

At a bare, bare minimum your computer should be plugged into a surge protector but NOT directly into the wall.

BACK YOUR SHIT UP

[we interrupt this yelling for me to tell you that Western Digital has apparently released their new My Passport line and I’m obligated to inform you that you can get a 2.5″ USB 3.0 backup drive with FIVE FUCKING TERABYTES OF STORAGE for $130. Or you can get 4TB for $93. Or you can get 1TB for $53. basically what I’m saying is that it is not only cheap computer season it is also cheap hard drive season.]

[also if you’re getting a backup drive get western digital not seagate seagate fucking sucks and has a much higher failure rate]

Uh, okay, anyway - Do an image backup of your computer every once in a while so that if you get infected or your hard drive dies or whatever you can just restore from backup and move on like nothing happened.

HERE’S HOW TO DO AN IMAGE BACKUP.

SAVE YOURSELF THE WEAR AND TEAR

You know what is cheap? USB Keyboards and USB mice. You know what is not cheap? Fixing the touchpad on a laptop or replacing a laptop keyboard.

Get yourself a USB hub, a USB Keyboard and a USB Mouse (wired or wireless, doesn’t matter) and if you’re using your laptop at home plug *that* into your computer.

Also if your keyboard on your laptop breaks it’s fine just to use a USB keyboard instead I promise; if the screen breaks it’s also usually cheaper and easier to get a used or inexpensive monitor than it is to replace the screen. Your laptop is basically just a very small version of whatever bullshit is going on inside a desktop, if the peripherals break but the core components are fine you can just use it like a desktop.

Unless it’s a piece of shit that doesn’t have any USB ports or video out in which case you got ripped off, friend, demand functionality in your devices I’m sorry.

/rant

‘aight, mate, we’re done! Looking like a proper little punk now, eh?

Not to go "if you have ADHD just go for a run" or anything, but I am so serious if you have ADHD you should regularly go outside, no headphones no phone no nothing and just stand and observe for a while until you've had enough. Not until you get bored, until you've had enough. Drink your coffee without watching tiktok. Have a bath without music. Turn down the volume in your headphones. I cannot overstate how much learning to be bored is cruicial with ADHD. Life is not just about pleasure, no matter what your dysregulated dopamine system thinks, and when you teach your brain to be okay with being bored, then boring tasks stop feeling like torture. By letting yourself be bored you are yoinking your system out of the high/low binary and allow for the highs to feel like actual highs and not just anything that isn't low. I am so serious go literally touch grass. Listen to the sounds in your flat. Stimulate your body the way it was designed. It lowers anxiety and makes you feel like you're real and best of all it's completely free

I've been feeling quite bad about my art for a while now and I decided to compile some of my Realm of the Elderlings fanarts as a reminder to myself that I've never drawn this much in a single year before (and it's not even August yet) and that being hard on myself won't get me anywhere. If anything, it only kills the motivation to draw. Hopefully it gets better, because there's so much I wanna draw!

HEY IF U R CURRENTLY SCROLLING THRU TUMBLR AND R STUCK IN AN EXECUTIVE DYSFUNCTION FUELED STATE OF PARALYSIS RN I HAV A DARE 4 U

choose 1 of ! the followinge … and Do It !!!!!!i mean 1 not all !!! u r required 2 do ONE (1) of the following. not 2! not 5! not all !! just one !!!!

- put yuor Feets …. on the Grounde

- stand uppe and do a BIG STRECHEY so ur back does the crackle cronkle

- take yuor …. Medds !!

- close yor eyes to rest from ur screen for ten (10) secondts !

- do a SCREECHE

- roll off of yor bed and on 2 the floor !!!!

- drink sum ov that. good hydratey slorp . the clear liquid man. yumey yum slormp shlorp

- brosh Hairs

- do a lil dance !!!

- walk around ur lil room/dorm or watevr area u r in !!

- wash yuor Face and u do not have 2 do Emtire skinn care routine don’t wory . just wash face w sum cool wotter !

if doing 1 of these got u unstuck then that is v good !! i hope u r ok!! if it did not work i hope u r ok 2 !!!! being Stuck is big ickey heck. i relate v much bc i am a relatable !!! gamer !!!!! and mental illness saw free real estate sign on me brain. so yes i am understand the heckin uhhhhhh BIG OOF! so i hope this helped and i lov u!!!

i strive to make my room look like this

I am opening up pencil sketch commissions to help victims of the Palestinian genocide.

If you DM me a screenshot of a donation receipt of at least 20 USD (dated February 20th, 2024 or later), I will draw a pencil bust of a character of your choice. Larger donations are greatly encouraged and appreciated, but due to my own limitations I cannot do drawings more complex than the examples, even for bigger donations.

I will draw one character per donation. All drawings will be graphite pencil on paper.

I will draw: fanart, OCs, blood, body horror, stylistic representations of real people (i.e. not an accurate likeness)

I won't draw: animals/furries, overly complicated headpieces, accurate likenesses of real people

I will do sketches for donations to the following funds: Palestinian Children's Relief Fund, Hani Altat's fundraiser for Maha Rafieq Alsifie and her family, Crips for eSims for Gaza, Psychological Aid & Support for our People from Gaza, and Human Appeal Gaza Emergency Appeal.

Just thinking about how much Robin Hobb had to do to force her OTP back together at the end of Fools Fate and being salty. It required:

-Burrich to be depicted as a decrepit old man when he’s like in his 50s and conveniently die, gifting Fitz with his family (!) as his last wish

-Fitz to finally realize and accept what “no limits” means with Beloved after an entire trilogy where this is a central theme and raise him from the dead because he refuses to live in a world that he isn’t part of, and then for this to not matter at all because Beloved decides actually he’s just an obstacle to Fitz’s true love Molly (?!) and leaves

-Fitz not being allowed to choose what he wants, because when he tries to choose Beloved he’s told no that’s not actually what’s good for you

-Molly not being able to choose if she would be ok with her ex bringing along his queerplatonic life partner because it’s already been decided for her that of course she wouldn’t

-Fitz getting lost in a Skill pillar for a month so he can’t have a rational discussion with Beloved about it as Prilkop the conveniently located agent of Clerres tells him all about how of course their Path is finished and staying by his Catalyst will only do harm

-Prilkop convincing Beloved that he should go back to Clerres, a place where he was physically and sexually abused before running away, because apparently it’s his job to fix them, and this actually working (!!!)

-Literally everyone in Fitz’s life, up to and including Burrich and Mollys eldest son who Fitz never speaks to on page again after this, pushing him to pursue her and telling him not to take no for an answer

-Molly and Burrich (actually Nettle) being granted Withywoods and a noble title by Patience so they no longer have to deal with the obvious issue of the class divide

-Molly magically accepting that he let her believe he was dead for 16 years and abandoned their daughter because he was upset she married someone else because her role in this book is to be his prize for completing the quest

-Neither Fitz nor Molly ever mentioning or even thinking about Burrich, his foster father and major formative influence and her husband of many years and father of her sons, except for a few passing references

So yeah, in a series where the characters generally act in believable ways even when it’s frustrating, this whole plot was just contrived as hell

The sanctions won't even work on a group like Lions' Den so this is just pointless anti Palestinian-ism

"The Only Thing", Sufjan Stevens / Spirit Hold, Part Two, Holly Warburton