Technical Hygenie

 Hoping this is common sense to everyone -

• Restart your phone and computer every day, after checking for updates. Once a week is better than never.
• On Android, remember to also update "System services" section in Settings, in addition to Play Store apps, Google Play system update, and the monthly OTA.
• On iOS, remember to update App Store apps in addition to iOS, and check for firmware updates for AirPods etc.
• On Windows, there's also the Microsoft Store, Office updates, winget (easy to update with UniGetUI), and any manually installed apps and games, and your drivers and firmware to check.
• On Linux, "apt upgrade" isn't enough, you also need to update the cache, snap, flatpack, fwupdmgr, and apps on the Ubuntu Store.
• And remember to update your router, TV, consoles,  headphones, smart watch, and IoT devices. If it connects to the internet, it gets updates.

Update coming soon with scripts to automate keeping Windows and Linux up to date.

Best foods and drinks

• UK
• Breakfast
• English Breakfast - Aztec West Hotel, Bristol
• Sides
• Crispy wonton - Thai Pinto, Leatherhead
• Chips - Alveston House Hotel, Bristol
• Roast pork puff pastry - Yi Ban, London
• Close match: YY Restaurant, Reading
• Chicken wings & veggie wings - Drumstick N Bass, Camden
• Mains
• Chicken Katsu Curry - Ippudo, Canary Wharf
• Burger (Juicy Lucy) - Blacks Burgers, Epsom
• Chicken Korma - Zyka, Reading (previously: Sizzling Spice, Reading)
• Butter chicken, peshwari kulcha - Vaasu by Atul Kochhar, Marlow
  
• Lasagne - Zizzi, Reading
• BBQ Ribs - Bodeans, Clapham
• Sweet & sour chicken & rice - King Du Noodle Bar, Harlow
• Korean crispy sweet chili chicken - Osaka, Reading
• Steak - Valpy Street Bar (now The Nook), Reading
• Desserts
• Sticky Toffee Pudding - Coed-Y-Mwstr, Bridgend
• Mini doughnuts - Bills, Epsom
• Australia
• Halloumi fries with sweet chili sauce - Elements, Sydney
• Veggie burger (Impossible burger) - (missing name), Darlinghurst, Sydney
• Tacos - Zambrero, Sydney
• Also available in the UK
• Close match: El Mexicana, M25
• Calamari - The Lure, Port Douglas
• USA
• Nachos - Brewdog, Las Vegas
• Malta
• Tacos - Taco Bar, St Julian's
• Sweet & sour chicken - Asian Kingdom, Paceville

Drinks

• Pina Colada - Be At One, UK
• Close match: La Nave, St Paul's Bay, Malta
• Hurricane - Hard Rock Cafe
• Strawberry Fields - Kitchen 24, West Hollywood
• Peach lychee bubble tea - Mooboo, Reading

Dear Donald Tusk

The British public are xenophobic, greedy, and are acting like they are 3 years old, however "Brexit means Brexit".

Please can I unsubscribe from your monthly newsletter which is costing us £13b/year in exchange. 

We accept we can no longer freely move between your realms, either for pleasure or work, which is fine because we are stuck up anyway.

We accept that we don't want to share our toys and lunch with you anymore because we are selfish.

We accept we no longer want your laws and consumer rights which are meant to protect 510m people, because we like burning money and being difficult. 

We accept that we no longer want to share nor receive information on terrorists, paedophiles and human and drug traffickers with you which would have protected both of us from 13,000 criminals, because we're stupid.

We accept that we basically don't care what happens to any of the millions of you anymore, because we are the neighbours from hell.

No hard feelings,

Sincerely,

Emperor Palpatine and Thatcher's abandoned offspring

"Spending money on space travel is a waste"

False dichotomy, you can have both. You're right, healthcare in the US needs to be free at the point of use. But there are worse things that we 'waste' money on, like alcohol, junk food, toys, incredibly inefficient cruise ships, traffic wardens, fast fashion, credit card interest, dog grooming, nuclear weapons, bureaucratic inefficiency, unused subscriptions, and bad investment.

+ Spending money on science inspires new generations to discover new things, there was a huge boost before and after the first visit to the moon: MRI machines, pacemakers, advanced water purification, robotic surgery, and telemedicine. 

+ There are so many risks to life on Earth that we need a Plan B. We need to become interplanetary to ensure our survival.

"Artemis is a waste of money and could be better spent elsewhere"

You're right, there are other priorities right now that are important.

However:

The Apollo programme led to several inventions: MRI machines, pacemakers, advanced water purification, robotic surgery, and telemedicine.

There are numerous threats to life on Earth:

• climate change and ecological collapse (especially methane trapped in ice)
• pathogens (natural, bioengineered, and waiting in permafrost)
• nuclear war (including accidental near-misses)
• antibiotic resistance and bacteriophage experiments
• ocean anoxia and runaway acidification
• global fertility collapse (from microplastics and PFAs)
• unaligned AI if given the controls
• runaway synthetic biology / gene drives (e.g. edited mosquitos)
• solar storms
• supervolcanoes
• asteroids
• grey goo nanotechnology
• nearby supernova
• oort cloud disruption
• hostile aliens
• gamma ray bursts
• rogue planets and black holes
• expansion of the sun
• vacuum decay
• strange matter

Over-apologising

• It's not attention seeking at all, it's the opposite. If someone gets angry, all I can think is: what did I do wrong? How much do they hate me? So I feel it is absolutely necessary to apologise

• It is very common in neurodivergent people (autism, ADHD) to be very self aware like this, doubtful of themselves - it's also related to anxiety

• At work, training involves objectivity and accountability: if we do something wrong, we have to own up to it and say "My bad", blaming others is not tolerated at all

• I have low self esteem because of rejection, either socially or romantically, this means I put myself down a lot, and hold very low expectations for myself

• I have severe anxiety and it is not under control. I have seen CBT, I've seen a therapist, and my symptoms are getting worse

• A normal person would not react by shouting, storming off or using the silent treatment. A normal person would say: Hey, I'm sorry for being a jerk yesterday

Addressing concerns about lost ID

I wouldn't be concerned about your name, date of birth and address being lost through your ID, it's probably already on the dark web and/or aggregated data like the electoral register, LinkedIn, domain registrations etc.

Have you used free services like haveibeenpwned, or Mozilla Monitor? Or paid for access to dehashed?

Your thoughts are not you

You don't have to accept every thought you have as gospel - challenge it, question it - especially the negative ones.

The thoughts you can trust are the ones that make you happy.

When did you last actually laugh so hard you couldn't stop?

• Watching a very early YouTube amateur Lego stop motion animation crossing over Doctor Who and Harry Potter, and while the Doctor is escaping the Basilisk is suddenly appears explosively while wondering through a forest. I was laughing and rolling around on the floor
• I was reading the Bunny suicides book, again was on the floor rolling around laughing
• End of the Sausage party film in the cinema
• End of the Weapons film in the cinema
• Watching Go For It Nakamura!
• TikTok videos (collection: funny)

Scammers from my experience

1. Fraud
1. Card cloned from an Indian takeaway who was repeating the numbers back to me over the phone. Spent £2000 on hotels, temporary car insurance, lingerie, Wickes, fake payment websites
2. Fake accounts
1. Fake profiles of family members on Facebook chatting to me and pretending to be them
1. Fake profiles on Instagram pretending to meet up
3. Data collection
1. Callers asking questions for a "household survey" which is really about targeting for later scam calls
1. Callers pretending to be my mobile operator (they have the wrong one on record) and saying I needed a new SIM so they could get my address
4. Fake sellers/buyers
1. Fake buyers on Facebook Marketplace trying to get me to post things before sending money, also sending fake bank transaction data
1. Fake tickets sellers on Twitter with highly convincing screen recordings of Ticketmaster - before the tickets are actually sent out (big ones are usually 1 week before, not months before)
5. Friends who have been scammed
1. A friend got scammed of £500 from trying to buy a drone on Facebook marketplace, it's completely unregulated so I don't use it anymore
   
2. A friend had their phone stolen in London, snatched out of their hands by someone on a bike

FF7 Rebirth Explained

There aren't different timelines or universes. Zack is a virtual reality bubble inside the Lifestream. Hence why he can see the yellow galaxy ring in the sky. It's the same ring that surrounds Cloud's Subconscious when he falls into the planet at Mideel. And when Aerith is the boat in the Cave of the Gi, she feels Zack's presence, because he's in the Lifestream. Biggs is also real in the Lifestream, but characters like Elmyra and Marlene are actually Whispers in Zack's virtual reality, which is why they know so much. Cloud can now see the yellow ring in the real sky because part of his consciousness is trapped in the Lifestream when he connected with Aerith and Sephiroth at the end of Rebirth - it's just a precursor to what will be the Cloud's Subconscious level. Tifa even had her own moment in the Lifestream at Gongaga and saw her memories, and Whispers, though more basic than Zack's, a kind of proto-virtual reality because she's not dead.

The Arbiters of Fate had a sword, a gun, and fists - who do they remind you of? They are Whisper versions of Cloud, Barret and Tifa. The Whispers are kind of like oracles or prophets, they are a way for the Lifestream to have a voice (kind of). The WEAPONs are the beasts that protect the planet as a last resort, and the Whispers are influencers, the first point of call. What doesn't make sense is that Shinra, especially Hojo, has no interest in the Whispers at all. They are crazy about WEAPONs, the Promised Land, etc., but they never talk about the Whispers. Either they are special to Cloud and the gang, or they aren't written as good as they could be, because otherwise Hojo would be capturing them and experimenting with them.