i think you can hate on taylor swift all you want but its maybe not right to hate on everyday people for enjoying her music

like sure 'jet fuel emissions' but also 100 other celebrities probably? is she really truly causing harm? more so than other big artists? is it wrong to actually enjoy her music? i think its okay for people to like her.

It's been said, before, and I think anyone remotely familiar with open-source has experienced or heard it but I'm still always taken aback by how much technological infrastructure was built to be general-purpose and malleable by the common user and how much corporations obfuscated and erased this.

Even in the tagging system for .mp3 files – ID3, an open standard –, I'm finding all kinds of functionality they accounted for that makes a lot of sense for a music file to specify (like lyrics synch.ed to timestamps and being able to specify events in the song like the outro or intro or the refrain or an interlude).

And I was just completely unaware of them because no music player on Windows ever offered them (alright; I mostly used iTunes, at the time, but the point stands).

iTunes saves any ratings you apply to songs in its own database; I never used the system in part because I've never found a need but, primarily, because I didn't want to invest a bunch of time and effort into something I'd lose the second I switched music players.

Oh; but did you know ID3 (v2) has a rating tag? One that iTunes could have used and then I'd take my ratings wherever I take my files with me?

Not only that but rating for a song are marked by an E-mail of the person rating; I expect it was largely to provide a unique identifier of some sort (and very 90s/00s to assume an E-mail is one's primary form of unique ID) but that means that songs can be rated by multiple people.

When your friends give you a copy of their favorite songs on a USB drive, those songs would've had their ratings.

Like a lot of tech. (especially early) architecture, this part fails to account for the presence of bad actors and spam but it also means you could reach out to those who rated the song, before you; their E-mail's right there.

Back when we traded AOL handles and the notion of communicating with those you knew but weren't nearby was exciting and new, we could have reached out to the friend of a friend of a friend at school who'd rated the song before handing it off until it reached us.

Even – now –, accounting for not wanting to attach your E-mail to a file that you'd, then, have to worry about getting into hands which might abuse that personal info. about you, being able for multiple people to tag a song is cool.

If I setup a Raspberry Pi at home and setup the Music Player Daemon on it for Jude and I to both put our songs on to listen to, etc., we could both tag the songs with our ratings and see what the other thought of the music we were sharing.

Like…this is some cool functionality ideas; this is some nice architecture. You just need the players to implement the functionality.

But they didn't; iTunes setup their own rating system (whether to tie people to their music player or not, I have no idea) and I never bothered to use what could be a sort of communal feature.

When I get excited about tech., these are the things that initially drew me to it – the ability to not only make my life, as a spoonie, easier but the ability to make all kinds of stuff we do everyday easier and with more people and to connect us all even more.

From the ability to making things more accessible without having to rely on others as much for it to…I dunno; the possibilities are endless.

Instead, the sheer joy so many of my generation had at creating their personal web pages by playing around with HTML and CSS became harder to construct because these businesses didn't care to make these experiences accessible because they didn't make them money.

I will never not be angry about that.

In any case, I'm at the point where anything further I might say is something I've already said before here on the subject; but I'm going to have these other tags be more accessible in my player. There's some really neat functionality in there that someone might want to utilize if presented in a more user-friendly manner (the original job of the music player implementations, to begin with…).

718

If you lived in Bikini Bottom, would you befriend Spongebob or Plankton? Obviously Spongebob. I’m there to have a good time and catch jellyfish, not eat holographic meatloaf and make it my life’s goal to steal a secret formula. Do you have any bananas in your house right now? I think we still have some left. My dad bought a pack? a group? a bunch? of them so he can make banana cue and turon for my mom and sister while we’re all stuck at home for the meantime. Which overrated tattoo are you sick of seeing? Eh I don’t judge this easily since I assume tattoos mean a lot to people but where I’m from, line tattoos are pretty overused. They DO look nice and I get why they’ve been trending for a while, but yeah they’re evvvvvverywhere. Is it easy to distract you? Yes haha I have a rather quick attention span. Do you prefer to drink from glasses or mugs? Depends on the drink. I drink my water from a glass but I prefer my coffee in a mug, that sort of thing.

What was the last thing you taught a younger kid? I don’t feel confident teaching kids just yet, huhu. It usually works the other way around: when I’m with kids, they teach me how to play their toys or whatever game they’re playing on their parents’ phone/iPad. Are the clocks in your house mostly digital or analog? We only have one analog clock. We mostly tell the time from our phones. How long have you had your television(s)? Answered this before but we have two TVs that are 12 years old and two others that were bought within the last decade. Do you like watching movies made with CGI or do you prefer hand-drawn ones? I don’t care. As long as the end product is done well I can enjoy the movie. Where did your parents buy their car(s)? I know for sure the two family cars were bought directly from the official dealers. I think mine was a secondhand one. Do you know why your grandparents chose your mother's name? No. I think they just liked the name. That makes me want to ask my grandma though. What is your favourite kind of soup? Miso is the only one I really like. Have you ever made your own musical instrument? Nope. What do you think of Leighton Meester's singing voice? I only know one song of hers and I reeeeeally loved that when it came out, but I don’t think it’s enough for me to have an opinion for her music altogether. I definitely don’t hate her voice though. Do you think you'd do well at teaching the English language to a foreigner? Yeah, it’s my other everyday language and I’m a little bit more fluent in it than I am in Filipino. How long have your neighbours lived there? About the same time as us, I think. We all moved in at sort of the same time when the village was newly developed. Is it weird to hear your name in movies or TV shows? It’s not a very common name so it does feel a bit weird to hear, yes. It’s weirder if I have to refer to the character in third person cause I never liked saying my own name :/ Why do so many people seem to hate the Jonas Brothers? Am assuming this refers to the Jonas Brothers pre-reunion because I’m sure no one hates them and their new music now lmao. I think, simply put, it was because they were teenagers then, and pre-teen and teenage girls was their main fanbase? Most people liked to shit on that category of celebrities, even today – case in point, Justin Bieber, 5SOS, One Direction haha. What is a store you like that is exclusive to your country? Fully Booked! It’s the most complete, up-to-date, and chic bookstore brand we have. The Fully Booked branch in BGC in particular is a partnership with Starbucks, so you can immediately walk over there to get a coffee and read after buying a book heh. If you attend school, what time do you usually get home after? I always have extracurriculars like org stuff, meetings, or fieldwork after my academic schedule so more often than not I’ll get home by 9 or 10 PM, which leaves me feeling exhausted as fuck at the end of the day. When was the last time you really needed to just let loose? Like two weeks ago? I was bored out of my mind being stuck at home so I chugged a lot of soju that I asked my dad to buy so I can at least be drunk while being bored lol. Have you ever been blackmailed? Kinda. There was a time when I didn’t talk to my sister and didn’t really feel well enough to reconcile with her yet, but my mom threatened to go to our class guidance counselor and expose me and ‘the kind of older sister I am’ if I didn’t make amends with my sister immediately.

This might sound sarcastic but thanks, survey, for reminding me what kind of mom my mother actually was during the years that were the most critical to my development lmao. I always need reminders like this because despite how our relationship has ‘improved’ now that I’m older, I shouldn’t forget the trauma she caused me and the fact that I had always planned to detach myself from her as much as possible once I’m fully independent. I can’t disappoint my younger self by keeping her in my life as if nothing happened.

Do you suffer from Restless Leg Syndrome? No. I keep forgetting what that means. Would you rather have novels based on your life or a series of comic books? Novels, so I’d be more interested to read it. Have you written a resume before, either for yourself or someone else? I did a resumé when I applied for my internship. Did you know that they plan on releasing a movie based on The Smurfs? This survey is sooooooo old hah they’ve made a bunch of films on it already. Do you ever wonder what it would be like to live underwater? Not really. Mostly I’ve just wondered what it would be like to be a creature from the deep sea, where it’s totally dark and most of the animals there look prehistoric as fuck lol. Have you ever worked in a bakery? If not, would you like to? No but this question reminded me of Harry Styles, aw :’) ANYWAY if I did I’d probably take up a job in the office, since I can neither bake nor deal with people on a regular basis even if one argues that bakeries aren’t really particular spots for angry Karens or Barbaras. What is your favourite thing about snow? I like that we don’t get them because it’s bound to make my first encounter with snow in the future magical as fuck. Is there a big personality difference between you and your sibling(s)? Yeah. I tend to adapt to new environments way better than they do and I’m definitely the most extroverted of the three in all aspects.  Do you enjoy decorating things with stickers? Hahahah yes, it’s an uncontrollable urge. I keep my stickers to just my laptop case these days, but back then I used to put stickers on my phone case, my ID case, clipboard, wallet, etc. Did you lose anything recently? Did you end up finding it? I lose my hair tie every now and then; my hair’s a bit short for a ponytail now so my hair tie gradually slips out my hair with me barely noticing it, so it always ends up in random places around the house. I do end up finding it after a while but it gets frustrating whenever I realize it had fallen off again. What colour oven mitts do you have? We don’t really use the oven so we barely use the ones we have. I don’t even know the color of it.

Why do you/don't you watch award shows? Because there are sooo many commercials in the middle of it, some presenters are awkward as fuck and I’d rather save myself from the secondhand cringe, and most of the time the choices for the winners are undeserving and end up pissing everyone off. It’s always easier to just wait a few hours and check the results on Google; and besides, the only fun parts are seeing what everyone is wearing and who attends to begin with hah. What do you think of Ellen DeGeneres as the new judge on American Idol? God this was a lifetime ago. I think I mostly didn’t mind it but I never did get over the replacement of the OGs Randy, Simon, and Paula. Do you ever do the exercises featured in some magazines? No. Have you ever watched What The Buck? What do you think of it? I don’t think I’ve heard of that. How long ago did you switch from cable to satellite, if you did? We didn’t make a ‘switch,’ per se. We had cable in our old home but when we moved to our current house in 2008, having extra channels wasn’t really the priority as moving already entailed a whole lot of expenses to begin with. That meant we only had free TV for a while which was extremely fucking boring, but eventually my dad got us satellite in like 2011 or 2012. When was the last time you partnered up with someone to complete something? I decided to partner up with Andrew for my undergraduate thesis in like August last year. Do you consider Lady GaGa's appearance artistic, or just plain weird? Artistic. What do you usually do when you have trouble sleeping? I put a lengthy YouTube video on so I can fall asleep to the background noise. At least that’s what I do these days - I always thought I needed complete silence to fall asleep, but apparently that’s not the absolute case. What was the last thing you used scissors for? I opened a sachet of 3-in-1 coffee.

Have you ever used some kind of food as a facial mask? Nah I always just use Korean sheet masks. How many USB cords do you have lying around? I personally don’t have any but I do have a hard drive. Are you satisfied with your social life (or lack thereof)? I’m very satisfied with it and I’m glad I got to open up in college. Do you know anybody whose initials spell something? Sure. What is your favourite flavour of Kool-Aid? I’ve never had Kool-Aid. Is there a specific food you think NEEDS to be at Christmas dinner? My grandma’s steak. Would you be able to re-string a guitar? I wouldn’t even know where to buy guitar strings. What TV show do you just assume you wouldn't like? How I Met Your Mother, just because their fans love to make fun of and compare their oh-so-great show to Friends so much when I’ve never seen a single Friends fan make fun of HIMYM like ????? Why the one-sided, unsolicited hate??? I was always planning to watch the show and appreciate Friends and HIMYM at the same time but because the fans are so pathetic I just stopped wanting to watch it altogether. Do your friends have more money than you? Seems unfair to pit ourselves against one another when we’re all still depending on our parents’ money lmao. Who always has the power to make you feel intimidated? Ate Frances has always had a very strong personality. Do you have more bread or cheese in your house? Bread. What was the last movie trailer you saw? Not sure. I don’t really like trailers since most of them give away too much of the plots already. Did you purchase any meat product when you were at the store last? My dad did. Have you ever been told that you have chubby cheeks? Well I don’t, so no I’m not usually told this lol. Do you know how to properly use a saw? Nope. Isn't it a shame that what Kanye West did at the VMA's overshadowed what was supposed to be a night dedicated to Michael Jackson? Hahahaha not really, I found it hilarious and so so stupid. There were a billion other tributes to MJ that year that went smoothly so it doesn’t really matter to me if the 2009 VMAs will always be known as the Imma-let-you-finish VMAs.

Still Awake

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Words: 1100

Characters: Willow Wren, Ethan Kim

Prompt/Tag:

“alright, i’ll leave you alone.”

“Don’t give me that look.”

Summary: Willow returns to school after winter break

Timeline: January 2016

Song: Rejoice - Julien Baker

A/N: it’s mentul illnuss innit, luv?

—————————————————————————–

I still felt half-asleep when we returned to school after winter break. I hadn’t talked to Kate the whole break, and Peter and Ned hadn’t heard from her either. The three of us met, as usual, in the lobby of MSST, but I just felt so disconnected, as Peter and Ned discussed their break and I nodded along. I had been to Peter’s a few times, just for movie nights with him and Ned, but it didn’t feel the same. They asked me what happened with Kate, and I didn’t have a good answer.

How did I fuck all this up so badly?

I didn’t feel like the same person anymore. After the revelation Marty’s USB drive brought, I wasn’t even sure who I was anymore. Who is Willow? Who was October?

I got to homeroom and slid into my seat, putting my head down on the desk, praying the school day would end quickly so I could go back to base, maybe sleep a little, and pick another HYDRA agent. I’m so bored. I’m—

“Hey,” someone said, and I looked up to see Ethan Kim settling into the desk next to me. “How was your break?”

I sat up and sighed. “Uh… below average?”

He looked like he wanted to ask more, but he stared down at his notebook, pushing his pencil tip into the binder holes. “Oh. Sorry to hear that. Did you do anything fun?” When he looked back at me, I read the concern in his eyes, the way he actually cared what I said, and it made me feel worse.

“Don’t give me that look,” I said, putting my head back down.

“Oh… okay… sorry? What look?” Ethan stuttered, and when I didn’t answer, he went back to poking his notebook with his pencil. “Alright, I’ll leave you alone.”

God, what’s wrong with me? Every time I shut my eyes, it was a new image. Marty dead in the apartment. The Russian family. Heidi Rye falling over the balcony. That couple I killed Christmas morning and felt nothing when it happened. I should have felt something. Why can’t I feel anything? I’m so tired. I’m so, so tired.

I titled my head in my arms and glanced back up at Ethan. “Sorry. How was your break?”

He seemed surprised and smiled a little. “Oh. It was all right. I went skiing with my parents, so that was fun. Celebrated Christmas with my grandparents in Connecticut.”

“Sounds nice,” I said, clenching my fists under my crossed arms. “Um… do you have any siblings?”

“No,” he said. “Just me.”

“Right on.”

“You?”

I read the clock at the front of the room. Still a few minutes before class started. “I have eleven. Well… maybe twelve.” Let’s see what he says to that.

“Wait, what?” Ethan asked, his voice barely above a whisper in the homeroom chatter. “Do they all live at that apartment? Like…”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “We all live in different places.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“That still must be cool though,” Ethan said. “It’s like a whole bunch of people who are forced to be friends with you.”

I almost laughed. “Yeah. Exactly.” For some reason, I was moments away from exploding again, my spine itself feeling like there was a current flowing through it, and my hands filled with pins and static. “Can you make sure I get marked present?” I asked. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

I practically ran down the hall, towards the auditorium, somewhere empty and quiet. Papers fluttered on bulletin boards, and just as I shut the auditorium door behind me, the wind shot out, ripping through the auditorium, shaking the seats, my hair twisting in the vortex. The light rig rattled against the beams and I sat down in the aisle, trying to get it to stop, somehow get control back.

Just as the wind began to settle, I hear someone approaching the auditorium doors and I stood up quickly. When the door opened, the air was still, and I saw Principal Morita standing in the hallway. “What are you doing here?”

“Um…”

“My office, please.”

And that’s how I spent my first afternoon after winter break in detention, watching one of those fucking Captain America videos on the roll-in television, a video I was no stranger to. “So, you got detention. You screwed up.” I mouthed along with the words as I scratched my name into the desk and the video droned on and Captain America’s smug face stared out of the grainy screen. “You know what you did was wrong, but the question is: how are you going to make things right? Maybe you were trying to be cool.”

How many of these did they make this guy make? Does he seriously enjoy making them?

I thought back to Ethan in homeroom this morning and felt bad all over again for blowing him off. He reached out to me a lot, and back before everything happened, I used to say hi to him every morning before class. But, c’mon. How am I going to make things right? I don’t know, create hurricane-force winds in my homeroom instead? Would that work? What does Principal Morita expect me to do? Of course, he doesn’t know and he’ll never know, but still. What the hell am I supposed to do?

“But take it from a guy who’s been frozen for sixty-five years, the only way to really be cool is to follow the rules. We all know what’s right and we all know what’s wrong.”

I turned back to scratching my name in the desk, before realizing that I would get in trouble for vandalism and started crossing my name out instead, scratching a deep gorge across the letters, dragging my pencil back and forth across the desk. The teacher didn’t seem to care if we did homework or not, as long as we weren’t on our phones, and even though I could use the homework time, I just sat there, continuing to scratch at the desk.

“Next time those turkeys try to convince you of something you know is wrong, just think to yourself what would Captain America do?”

I think about Marty. Why did he feel the need to go digging on his own? Why didn’t he tell me? I knew why, though. Marty was stubborn, he liked his secrets almost as much as I did. He liked the investigation, the hunt, that’s why he loved scamming people online so much. But why did it have to be Marty? If he had told me… I could have warned him. I could have stopped this. And even with Peter and Ned still here, nothing was the same without Kate or Marty.