Another "Introduction to Piracy" post

There's a few of these going round but they can be dense, spread different information through different reblog chains, and other such impracticalities, so here's a fresh, quick & simple one.

1) Necessary Software

You're going to want two things: a VPN* and a Torrent client. Personally I recommend Mullvad for the former - flat charge of €5/month pay-as-you-go, unlimited data and solid speed, very privacy-focused - and qBitTorrent for the latter.

Once you've installed both of those, you should open qBitTorrent and make sure it only runs through the VPN's internet connection: open Tools in the top bar, then Options->Advanced, and select Mullvad from the Network Interface drop-down box.

*For those unaware, a Virtual Private Network routes your Internet connection through a proxy server and then encrypts it, hiding your activity from your ISP and giving any sites you visit the impression that you're based in whatever country the proxy server is.

2) Finding your desired content

There are many sources of pirated content out there on the Internet, and you can find an awful lot of it on 1337x.to, but personally I always consult the FMHY.net directory, a site dedicated to cataloguing how to find different content by type - films, games, programs etc. If you're worried about the safety of downloading these things, risk of malware and such, honestly you don't really need to be these days - any of the dedicated sites & repositories listed on FMHY should be safe, and if you're going to a general-purpose one like 1337x then as long as the file you want lists a decent number of prior downloads it'll most likely be fine (just avoid The Pirate Bay these days, it is not the haven it was 20 years ago).

3) Downloads

Now, content generally comes in one of two forms: either a direct download, or a torrent. A direct download is exactly what it sounds like, you just receive a copy of the files you want (usually packaged in a ZIP file).

Torrents are a little different. With those, you download a .torrent file, then you open up your torrent client and add it there, then tell it where to save the actual content you want. Torrents are a peer-to-peer download system, meaning instead of downloading the whole file from a specific server you're downloading many parts from everyone else who's previously downloaded it (and is running their torrent client) - this means that how long it takes is entirely dependent on how popular the content in question is, so something obscure and old might take a very long time while a popular new release might be limited only by your internet speed. It also means that you should really keep the .torrent file once your download is finished to help everyone else, an act known as seeding; the alternative, to delete it once you've finished, is known as leeching, and it doesn't harm you but it's generally considered rather impolite.

I think that covers everything, if anyone has any questions or suggestions feel free to say so and I'll update this as needed, until then - hoist your black flag and have fun!

i just found out tumblr was storing over three GIGABYTES of cookies on my device without me knowing and that's why it's been running so fucking slow recently... incredible. anyways everyone go clear your fucking cookies. don't let this website run a goddamn video game's worth of disc space in the background for no good reason.

Biden better plant some votes if he wants that election bc I don’t see it for that hoe at all….. he better go to them Illuminati meetings and pop some pussy otherwise it’s curtains for grandpa

sunsets after 7pm now !!!!!!!!!!! we made it guys !!!!!!!!!!!!

one of the greatest tragedies in life is that you will always be loved more than you will ever know. someone in class finds your presence inviting and warm, even if you’ve only ever exchanged a few words with them—maybe none at all. someone on the street loves your smile and it gets them down the next few streets. someone you used to be friends with still wishes to fondly call your name. someone you used to be friends with five years ago would give anything to be in the same room as you today. someone who regularly comes into work is disappointed when you aren’t there to brighten their day. someone missed you today. someone noticed you were gone. someone loves you when you’re there; someone loves you when you’re nowhere to be found at all. you think you have always disappeared when you’re no longer in the picture, but you’ve never left the frame.

its important to do this every time a museum or school thinks this is a good idea

just so you know how these campuses deal with actual antisemitism

hey here's a website for downloading any video or image from any website.

works w/ youtube, soundcloud, twitch, twitter (gifs and videos), tumblr (video and audio), and most other websites you're probably lookin to download stuff off of.

It pisses me the fuck off that yoga is actually ancient and really good for you. Part of me still feels like it was invented to extract wealth from white socal moms.

Why Do I Feel Unlovable?

Often when people feel unlovable, it is tied into one of the following reasons:

1. As a child, a parent or authority figure either told you – or sent out the message that – you were unloveable. Because of that, you came to believe that your core self was deficient, unacceptable or inadequate. Now you find it hard to believe that anyone could ever love you for just being you.

2. You experienced rejection, desertion or abandonment in one of your closest relationships. Now love feels scary - and is a source of anxiety and fear – rather than of healing and security.

3. You feel regret for something you did, or the way you treated a person you loved. Hence, you don’t believe you deserved to be loved, or you fear you will badly hurt someone again.

4. You have developed a series of flawed beliefs which have coloured your expectations for love. For example, you may have concluded that love leads to pain …. or that no-one can be trusted … or love always ends.

5. A voice in your head says you cannot change so you don’t believe that “you have what it takes”. But none of us is perfect; we’re all on a journey; and if we choose to take a risk then we’ll find that we can change.

The Rwanda bill has been passed. People seeking asylum in the UK are no longer safe. This bill has been criticised by many human rights groups, yet parliment have still decided to go ahead with it. People are seeking safety in the UK, and are being turned away. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.". The Rwanda bill prevents this. There is no conformation that people sent to Rwanda will be safe there. This is a blatant violation of human rights. Asylum seekers are human too, and they should be treated as such.

I don't think there's anything quite as soul destroying as being on the dole, looking for jobs you know you could do and would love but because you did the wrong subjects for A-levels, to do a degree you ultimately dropped out of, you can't. Or even just looking at jobs you'd tolerate but don't have "the right experience" and there's no way for you to get that experience because you're in your 30s.

What is the highest number of notes on a post you have made? What's your most "successful" post?

In my new report, I provide the first ever look inside of a US military program known as the Secretary of Defense Executive Fellows (SDEF) program, which gives major government contractors like Lockheed Martin and Boeing a way to influence senior military policymakers.

The program sends US military officers to work at major corporations for nearly a year; when they return, the fellows submit recommendations for reform of the Pentagon based on their observations of the private sector. 

We document numerous examples of companies using this program to pass along self-interested policy recommendations to US military leaders, including: more outsourcing, corporate subsidies, deregulation, less oversight, more political power to contractors, looser arms export rules, and more. We also analyzed a sample of former SDEF fellows and found that 43% of them go through the revolving door and work for military contractors after leaving the program. As such, the SDEF program uses government money to help subsidize the military-industrial complex, placing corporate interests above the public interest.

You can read my summary of the report here, along with coverage by The Lever here.

Bit of a personal post

One of the problems I've had for some time now, since my breakdown in 2018 and made worse by the pandemic, is not being able to properly gauge the passage of time. A recurring theme in my Read More's is that I wake up and 3 months have passed and I've not done anything with them. It's one of the reasons I keep meaning to keep a diary, so I don't lose things in the fog and forget my life, but I can never commit to it. I have a lot of diaries in my house that are mostly blank.

However, I do have a lot of personal text posts that I've written over the years I've had this blog. Inspired by a post about being someone's oldest tumblr mutual, I decided to go through my tags and retag the posts that were like a diary to me.

Going through them has brought back memories, painful and joyful, reminded me of things I'd forgotten, but most of all it's given me a sense of lucidity I haven't had in a long time. I can start order events in my memory again, I understand again the years that have gone by.

Remembering some of the dark places I've been in and the regrets I've had has been a hard day but I also remember the good times I've had, on Tumblr and IRL and that's brought a wave of nostalgia and contentment. I don't deal with nostalgia well but it's been nice going through some of those old interactions with people.

It was sad to see all those usernames I knew and loved that are no longer online or who I never kept in contact with. I'm terrible with establishing and maintaining interactions like that, I wish I was a person who did talk to my mutuals and my followers more.

I'm a naturally awkward person, I always think that people wouldn't want me to talk to them but I'd like to break that shell again and have fun again. I'm also going to make a few more in depth posts every now and again to keep track of my life so in another 10 years I have something to look back at and remind me what I was like during this episode.

And if we have been mutuals for a while, say Hi. I'm terrible at responding but I always appreciate and cherish it