Brinens and Things

Comments on my own posts:

The one about Recoll

[cw: what it says on the tin] The one about plague nightmares [one comment, not counting the postscript]

[fairly mild cw: war, amnesia] The one about remembrance poppies

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Comments on other people's posts:

[Substack; Wayback] (OP by Evan Þ) If you enjoy my posts in which I express wildly alien intuitions about things, you may enjoy me dipping my toes into a (very polite) discussion of free will. (At least, I assume these intuitions are wildly alien from how often I see people say things that only make sense under different intuition sets. In any case, we are pleased to offer the finest autoxenoanthropology here at Brinens and Things.) [two comments]

[cw: poverty, venting] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by catchymemes) In which I have a lot of psychological baggage around museums.

[cw: death, aging, apocalypse] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by treadwells) Cottagecore and a broader view of danger.

[Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by mindstalk) The hole in comparative social-media discussions left by ignorance of Tumblr.

[cw: food, poison, illness, (arguably) death] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by ultraviolet-divergence) Dealing with the latest big listeria outbreak.

[cw: (strong) illness, (strong) apocalypse, bugs] [Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by siderea; in response to ewt) The wonders of PPE, climate-catastrophe edition.

[fairly mild cw: corporate bullshit] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by rustingbridges; in response to bulbous-oar) How to selectively prevent Android apps from accessing the Internet.

[Scribble Hub; Wayback] (OP by wingedcatgirl) Isekais and the importance of caution when carrying irreplaceable otherworldly technology.

[WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by headspace-hotel) Poetic meter and artistic instincts.

[WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by reptile-ruler) Fighting Tumblr's slippage down the slope towards Internet silos.

[cw: illness, apocalypse, (arguably) amnesia] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by eightyonekilograms; partly in response to sigmaleph) In the future, "zoonosis" will be a word everyone knows; knowing *where* they learned it is another matter. [two comments, sort of]

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Links:

[Imgur; Wayback] Live wire-sculpture (not to be confused with live-wire sculpture).

[arguably cw: injury, embarrassment squick] [Hackaday; Wayback] (by Lewin Day) False positives on Apple's automatic car-crash 911 calling.

[CBS; Wayback] (by Phil Galewitz) Over-the-counter hearing aids now available in the United States.

(Although I am also having feelings about this sentence:

A pair of prescription devices typically sells for {{USD}}$2,000 to $8,000.

Only if you're getting ripped off, dude. Go to Costco. *So* glad we told the non-chain hearing-aid centre to go fuck themselves when they wanted six grand: the perfectly fine Costco hearing aids were CAD$1,800 *before* the $1,000 government subsidy. (that's not even *counting* the refundable tax credits I might be able to wring out of it))

[Kiwix; Wayback] What is the size of Wikipedia? (Also, your regular reminder that Kiwix is amazing and you should check it out. (And it gets even *better* than amazing after you figure out how to make your own ZIM files.))

[AO3; Wayback] (by Edonohana; h/t Ozy Brennan) The intricacies of tardigrade literature.

[cw: what it says on the tin] [Dreamwidth; Wayback] (by siderea) Stop relying on Twitter for third-party authentication.

[cw: what it says on the tin] [Science; Wayback] (by Arevalo et al; h/t KelseyTUOC) A 20-valent influenza vaccine, containing examples of every known flu subtype. Works well in mice and ferrets, soon to be tested in primates and--hopefully--humans. In addition to the obvious benefits, it shows promise of providing cross-protection against novel influenza strains.


Three laugh-rule entries:
[cw: corporate bullshit] [Twitter; Wayback] (by rahaeli) Sporking the Cohost terms of service.

[Youtube; Wayback] (by Lauren Lopez and Robert Manion; h/t Blazing Darkness) Bella Swan is sixteen, going on seventeen...

[cw: scopophobia, (arguably) corporate bullshit] [Reddit; Wayback] (h/t trivialagent) It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you.

( https://thefridayfive.dreamwidth.org/111769.html )


1) What's the most cluttered spot in your home?

The basement. It's somehow Dad's favoured hangout: I don't know how he stands it down there all the time. At least we added an air purifier for him, although the air quality still isn't great.


2) What's your method for decluttering?

I enjoy wandering around the house until I come across something that bothers me and then fixing it.


3) What are your favorite cleaning products?

Fast-food work has given me a (non-literal) taste for quaternary ammonium. I also like a good alcohol wipe.

For detergent, I've found that while the store brand *appears* at first glance to be cheaper, it's so much more diluted that if anything it's *more* expensive than the name brands. (Especially because you can often get 30 - 40% off of the name-brand stuff if you time it right.) I like Dawn for dishes and Purex petrichor-scented for laundry. The Gain stuff smells terrible, though by the time the clothes come out of the dryer it's at least faded enough to reach "okay"; likewise with Palmolive and dishes.


4) What helps get you motivated to clean up?

Uh...immune bullshit, I guess?

(My first reaction to this question was "what are you talking about, obviously cleanliness is inherently good/pleasant/valuable", followed by "well, yes, but *why* is it inherently good".)


5) What's the most organized spot in your home?

The bottom two shelves of the non-board-game dining-room bookshelf. They contain non-perishable food, neatly stacked, each with its place. When it comes time for a batch of groceries to leave quarantine and move into storage, I ensure that everything on those shelves remains organised by expiration date for proper cycling.

Comments on my own posts:

Comment and Link Roundup: November 17, 2021

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Comments on other people's posts:

[arguably cw: nsfw text, rape] [AO3; Wayback] (OP by Ysabetwordsmith; in response to Lurker2) Five and a half years ago, I got Ysabet to add a content warning on her story "Touching Moments", which at one point attempts to hypnotise the reader (yes, I was pretty upset to have that sprung on me). Recently someone came through, found my comments on this, and went "wait, what? that's a thing? how concerned should I be about this being a thing?". I gave them some safe-sex lessons. [five comments, three of which are new]

[cw: (artwork of) blood and injuries, (arguably) drugs] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by inz0913; in response to maryellencarter) Sleep deprivation may cause higher reblog rates of fanart depicting sleepy cuddling: further research needed.

[cw: death, apocalypse, unreality] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by quasi-normalcy) In which I consider a creepypasta as a thought experiment.

[WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by rustingbridges) Hand-moisturising techniques. [three comments]

[cw: Christmas, venting] [WordPress (Tumblr)] (OP by itsbenedict) Some Christmas-music radio stations, it turns out, are much worse than others.

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Links:

[Matt Blaze's Exhaustive Search; Wayback] (by Matt Blaze; h/t Bruce Schneier) Testing phone-scale Faraday cages.

[Foreign Policy; Wayback] (by Paul Musgrave; h/t Bret Devereaux) The history of Pepsi's relationship with the Soviet Union.

Laugh rule:
[cw: amnesia, corporate bullshit] [Forkast; Wayback] (by Angie Lau, Marta Belcher, and Brewster Kahle)

And whenever we sort of stand around and go and shout and get angry at something, it's like maybe we should be a little bit more Canadian and look and say, I think I'm going to listen to the other side this time.

There is a blanket [cw: illness] on the rest of this post.

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