krad

tearing big tech out of the stack

2026-06-03T16:24:50Z

as you all know, for the last year but especially the last six months i've been really... grieving the old web and the pre-AI slop world. sometime in the last week that shifted to anger as the primary emotion.

i don't like feeling this way.

i don't like what it makes me into with this simmering resentment (it's affecting my sleep too, annoyingly); i hope it shifts somewhere differently soon. but while it is there i've been trying to steer it in the direction of ripping big tech out of my personal "stack" (daily use technology) as something that is controllable, within my power to do, and at least a positive action. it's something that's been on my personal to-do list to do before i move, something that's increasingly more urgent also given how big tech's censoring NSFW artists specifically (and not revenge porn/AI CSEM for some reason... backwards ass priorities there). but it's also because i am just... completely, utterly fucking done with this forced corpo surveilance slop malware bullshit.

this doesn't include just FAANG (frankly 'G' is the only one i used at any kind of weekly capacity), but I'm expanding my hard requirements into:

* no forced/automatic updates
* no subscriptions
* no spyware
* all open source
* no genAI or cloud-based machine learning; anything like live captions must be local on-device models only, use a vetted model, and evaluated for narrow use-cases. anything that forces AI gets shotgun'd out of my orbit.

Current task list that i'm powering through:

get new linux laptop as a wholesale backup/upgrade - done, happened this past month.
test the 3-2-1 offline linux-only backup system - done, works magnificently.
find alternatives for all google apps - done, protonmail is taking the brunt but frankly that was easier than i thought it would be lol. good riddance to gacha too.
(technically you could include moving all of my domains onto NFSnet from bluehost in the last year)

delete both long-term google accounts - deleted one already, finished the last sweep of triple checking and changing username/passwords, waiting 3 days for some minor things to get back to me, and deleting the other friday.
get new phone with GrapheneOS - happening this week; phone just arrived today and with the new laptop i'll also be able to install it. (while the hardware of the new phone is a google pixel, it's one released from 2023, intentionally right before the AIsloppification. also before the whole android locking-down fiasco.)
get qbittorent online - learnin' some new skills here :3

eventual tasks:

revive my raspi's and install household-wide pi-hole - (with permission from all residents)
move to self-hosted bsky pds - as perhaps(?) the "general" short form SNS alternative since it can send posts to mastodon users too via bridgy.fed. if it doesn't work, no loss.
evaluate bazzite as a permanent SteamOS replacement - once when i finish plowing through steam-locked games; i only have 5 more i'm really interested in; the rest of my backlog is ah, cough, homebrew.
any new-home tech purchases (like a tv screen for my new office, or old bose speakers) will be dumb-only.

honestly... getting there!

also it is a little funny seeing how probably wildly outside the norm my tech habits are lol
once a linux sicko, always a sicko <3

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debug ALL the things

2026-06-01T13:43:55Z

had a funny-in-hindsight-annoying-in-the-present moment where BOTH my ear (implant) and laptop keyboard didn't work there for a hot minute and it was like all of my devices were playing a bad prank on me on monday morning.

thankfully it got sorted quickly with mom's help and both of us debugging swiftly; imagine two people with the personalities of ER techs triaging All The Things calmly in my bedroom first thing XD

or if you prefer the greentext version:

> be me, groggy af on a monday because i stayed up way too late drawing
> ear doesn't work
>> ahfuckherewegoagain.gif [wide awake now, a RARITY lol]
> [mom's helping me by this point] 'ok let's try the other battery' doesn't work
> hmm parts issue, so mom takes out the implant box where i have five million backups in and starts switching in a backup cord
> 'maybe it's the cord' doesn't work
> 'hm ...guess it's time to call the audiologist and get a speed dial appointment for further debugging'
> try to bang in an email while she's switching in the next part on our mental list
> LAPTOP KEYBOARD doesn't work
>> mentally: (╯'□')╯︵ ┻━┻
> 'this is why you have backups i guess..' grab the new laptop i literally just backed up three days ago lol
> mom's switched out the magnet disk/(coil)
> THANKFULLY THAT WORKS
> laptop reboot is also finishing and it works too.

;;;orz

thankfully i was not like, full five alarm Worried because things had been humid recently and if it does go out, 90% of the time it's a humidity issue playing havoc on the individual lil' parts. (that said that's still pretty rare; i'd say the coil/cable part goes out maybe once every three-six years? and those are by far the usual culprits.)

anyway, a moment in the life of krad XD

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b-b-b-backup!

2026-05-29T22:21:13Z

hit another cool milestone with digital independence...
got all of my (MAGI01, current laptop) files copied on the new (MAGI02) laptop! \o/

~~yes i'm a eva nerd lol. the steam deck is MAGI03 fwiw.~~

for context: MAGI01 is the linux laptop i brought in 2022 or so; and i've always backed it up monthly with my trusty ass 1TB western digital hard drive (since 2009(!)) using ubuntu's native backup system.

i've always backed up monthly (never felt the need to backup more than that) but technically i wasn't quite sure in case if a total crash that it was going to restore everything. thankfully as of today i learned that i can use that WD hard drive and simply copy 01's files over onto 02 as easily as one button click via the very same backup system. (and if the backup drive -> copies over to 02, backup drive -> 01 is fine.)

back when i had to send in MAGI01 (two or so years ago?) to fix the chassis when an old battery swelled, i realized that i was kinda out of luck if my main laptop went FUBAR. so since then, i've wanted a backup fully-useable linux so that way the whole workflow is basically identical if one of the two computers ever dies suddenly. like if 02 dies? i can switch that day back to 01 and keep drawing lol.

it sounds like a lot but the backup process itself is kinda... stupid simple? two button presses, and then i leave it alone for an hour or three (only that long if it's doing a from-scratch backup, which it sometimes does to avoid file corruption, but it takes care of that automatically).

beauty of it is that if the WD backup hard drive crashes; i have and have successfully used filezilla as a backup-to-the-backup file transfer. :3c (using it to move files to the steam deck, which is another linux). so the only way i would be truly up a creek is very literally 3 computers all goes at once (and i have one more old WD hard drive at a grandparent's house in case if there was a fire, so like, not even that).

AND NOTHING'S IN THE CLOUD, it's all offline and i have to manually approve updates, so no forced enshittification, or creepy surveillance data scanning ♥ ~ eat shit big tech lol lmao

next steps: i don't have the mental bandwidth for it right now after the work of the "full scale" backing up, but next month after the monthly (small) backup, i'll take the time to do the long-awaited update & upgrade for MAGI01 since it's hideously outdated lol. little nervous for that but like, this is why i'm taking all these careful prep steps.

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gardens of eden

2026-05-27T14:16:38Z

i've had a mini essay in my mind for a bit of the cultural differences between programmers and artists and where the culture clashes with creative work may have come from; with artists having an additive mindset, and programmers taking a subtractive mindset.

( Read more... )

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kradeelav @ 2026-05-26T12:41:00

2026-05-26T16:42:59Z

"52. When we speak of dignity, we do not always use the word in the same way. Sometimes we refer to moral dignity, namely the way in which a person directs his or her choices and actions. At other times, we think of social dignity, which refers to a person’s living conditions and the concrete respect received from society. In other cases, we refer to existential dignity, meaning the way in which a person perceives his or her own worth and the value of life. These aspects of dignity can be enhanced or diminished. In addition to these notions, there is also the more profound and important level of ontological dignity. This is the dignity that belongs to every human being simply by virtue of existing, of having been willed, created and loved by God. [60] No sin, failure, humiliation or exclusion can diminish the profound value of a human life that God has willed and called into being. [61]"

- X

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kradeelav @ 2026-05-25T19:59:00

2026-05-26T00:04:12Z

( pithy-ish ai observation )

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kradeelav @ 2026-05-23T23:58:00

2026-05-24T04:09:41Z

man, this absolutely beautiful, haunting 14th century rabbi poem/prayer wrestling with Gender ...

had to take a moment or two after that.

* tumblr is maybe not the best place to get culturally sensitive/nuanced stuff (at least without plenty of sources, there is a podcast episode here but they don't have the transcript online so i can't vet accuracy).

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April/May Links Roundup

2026-05-21T02:36:21Z

I forgot to do my April links roundup because that month was ~*hairy*~ bandwidth-wise, but here's my collection of links saved from then. :)

- radio.garden - listen to the radio station...from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world, via web browser. a whole new medium entirely accessible from the seat. (this plus live captioning would be so cool to have in the background while designing something??)

- understanding snapewives (video essay) - a dear friend tossed this over; found it fascinating, incredibly nuanced, more sympathetic to selfshipping than it looks like on the surface (being one myself) while being able to keep an academic point of view about this (and adjacent) topics.

- text.blogosphere - a HN-skinned curation of (text) blog posts, based on submitted time.

- https://web.archive.org/web/20190731055246/https://tinyletter.com/hypotext/letters/can-humanism-scale - vertigo, scale, systems thinking, made me think about the world in a new way.

- found this blog through the hilarious 'installing every firefox extension (at the same time)' post, and thought the web design rules so much. lots of great web links to peruse through at the bottom. :)

- i was curious if it was possible to reverse-engineer the vague amount of RSS subscribers one has (given my art RSS has been around for a while) while still being privacy-respecting, and it is indeed, somewhat possible.

- IRC channel searcher - want to move to IRC soon, this is a fantastic IRC-general resource blog, but also a way to search up topics and active/popular channels much like google circa 2005. ohhh i want to get my FE-specific channel up there soon...

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kradeelav @ 2026-05-20T21:47:00

2026-05-21T02:07:13Z

given google's recent moves (ditching search for AI, invasive gmail changes), i'm hitting fast forward on removing google entirely from my few use-cases.

ironically the hardest two things to replace:

1) google meets specifically due to close captioning. (proton meets is awesome and has been working for me in the recent past but damn, i really miss/use my close captioning even if the google text accuracy has gotten noticeably god awful lately. :c ) i would love hearing if there's a non big-tech alternative to meetings-specific captioning (that's not basic assistive tech tools; i've been aware of those).

2) google translate. i'll pay (and have paid) for human translators for longer more important chunks of text, but for quick one-off replies to JP social media accounts (and to double check game scripts and JP artbooks), this works in a pinch.

that said, a few startpage searches later i did find a few options! while none of them are completely AI-free, some of these have offline, open source local options, and smell much more like the old school machine translation (that existed ten-fifteen years ago) versus the inaccurate slop fetes of today.

- libretranslate (web version) powered by argos translate (offline, technical version). file translation available. free, but with more custom bells and whistles available at a price (eg, custom models).

- apertium - read somewhere that it's more rules-based versus pure machine learning based. specific language pairs may be very limited depending on how similar they are. document & web-page translation options available. free, open source.

- linux live captioning - borderline assistive tech (not a bad thing; just trying to keep focus narrow here) but worth mentioning if you're like me on linux and looking for a hybrid of options to paste together. this plus proton meets looks promising with no (unnecessary) data sent elsewhere.

happy to hear more options, or amends to these ~

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kradeelav @ 2026-05-16T13:44:00

2026-05-16T17:48:06Z

i am having an utter blast watching DMC S2, good lord, now this is a proper introduction into the franchise. :D about to watch e4 but procrastinating because i'm screenshotting the shit out of the last two eps currently.

this is going to sound weird but hear me out: in vibes it's almost like if voltron and hellsing ultimate had a ~~baby~~ hellspawn and it was actually really solid. lightly campy (not as much as hellsing; frankly i don't think anyone could make hellsing these days), but in a "modern western anime" vibe sense. no need to watch S1; there's easter eggs to be sure but i went in with no more knowledge than general osmosis from doujin and it's still solid plot wise.

also don't be surprised to see a nell icon here before too long lol

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kradeelav @ 2026-05-15T17:40:00

2026-05-15T22:58:16Z

it's actually kind of gratifying to realize i've structured my online persona so impregnably well that the only indication i might have gotten a callout is the follower count drops by a whole one hundred lol (and that's only because i haven't figured out how to hide numbers on a certian site like i did with twitter, otherwise i truly would not know. ignorance is bliss sometimes.)

truly ok with that (to outright amused) other than feeling slightly weird for half a day. ultimately doesn't matter tho, i like what i draw ~

saw reyson fire emblem's redneck cousin twice during supper (yesterday, last night), hung out with & helped grandma get an apple watch (solely for fall alerts since she lives alone and is becoming more concerned with that), interviewed two international folks, and content with some starbucks and about to draw a shitload of zihark. honestly can't ask for more. :D

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things be happenin' always

2026-05-14T15:44:26Z

life updates, May bullet-point edition ~

art projects, finished:

- Like Fine Wine (anthology, my contribution was a 6 page comic) is out and available to download here!

- NaZine II (anthology, my contribution was 3 companion illustrations for Idal Waves' story & a slight bit of printing help) is also out and available to buy!

both are an incredible selection of cool creatives & admins with all of us giving the middle finger to recent censorship ~

art projects, upcoming: settling down with 2 bigger long-term projects for the rest of the year; sort of pulling back a little on how much art related stuff I do this year since last year was just a bit Too Much all at once and this year's looking to be even nuttier with Life Changes.

- job: the less we talk about that the better, lol. starting to look around aggressively as per the personal deadline i mentioned a while back, there is A Specific Place i'm sniffing around in particular and am fairly certian i could jump ship to, the remote thing is the only real dealbreaker i'm possibly seeing might be an issue. we'll see. in the meantime it's not Fun (or sustainable long term ethically) but it's not as Genuinely Dire as it was in early April; i've pretty much recovered from that burnout stint.

- media: currently hooked on dragon's dogma: dark arisen! the story is a nothingburger, but for Brainless Blorbo Adventures, fantasy edition(tm) it is a perfect game. shockingly deep gameplay, the setting immersion is honestly annoyingly solid and fun between the greek mythology monsters and gigantic but complex world. i'm actually a little shocked the self-shippers haven't glommed onto this game as it's structured to be bait for that kind of duo-ish dynamic, though i have a sneaky suspicion one of the endgame plot twists Might throw a wrench into that (please don't spoil me, want 2 find out for myself and either scream happily or scream in dismay lol).

- tech: got my new S76 ubuntu laptop! loaded most of the programs there, just need some time to figure out how to transfer files and figure out the slightly new backup system. rsync/command-line programs like that terrifies me (lol) and i've spent the last ~20 years backing up via the same dumb 1TB faithful WD hard drive so i'd really prefer just to ... continue to use that.

- other, nendos: this is taking a little longer than i thought (but not really a big deal) since one of nendo!zihark's hairpieces didn't fit together, this second version is still not perfect but something I'd be Fine with. got all the parts as of this week, taking a break by shipping out the extra parts i don't need, and then whenever there's a solid day for Arts and Crafts headspace i'll get on painting those two <3

- other, msc: generally just in catchup/maintenance mode since in addition to the computer switcharoo there's a bunch of annoying minor medical stuff to follow up with (permanent retainer broke but fixed now, walker armrest broke, switching eyedrop Stuff, etc). nothing even particularly bad, and is not even badly-timed, just. paperwork stuff to Deal with that takes time & mental bandwidth and requires pacing out.

wishing y'all well ~

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/v/'s top 100 games of all time

2026-05-07T19:51:05Z

there's a few of '/v/'s top 100 games of all time' lists floating around, this one being a screenshot of one of the slightly more credible ones. I've actually been using it as a springboard to diversify my gaming tastes in the past year; most recently with dragon's dogma: dark arisen.

List below with my current thoughts & completion status. :)

( Read more... )

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kradeelav @ 2026-05-04T23:20:00

2026-05-05T03:57:27Z

i had an interesting thought-experiment last night with the muse about how different physical therapy felt/feels in comparison to kink when both are ostensibly about thinking outside of the box and empowering the individual on its face. through the body, even, (and very commonly with disability as a core reason) but with a non-zero mental element.

and yet - the former holds such an extreme negative emotion, still, while the latter is still ... quietly positive for me.

that was interesting to hold up to the light, for a moment, and think about why.
( Read more... )

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reflections from a 2018 mastodon to bsky user

2026-05-05T01:44:21Z

ironically as a 2017-2018 mastodon user (and die-hard linux fan lol) i would, personally, not go back there.

i realized i never really outlined the thought process (post mortem?) of leaving and figured it might be helpful for somebody. (no hard feelings to the platform; i respect its mission and am glad there's something else out there.)

( Read more... )

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Clean Install

2026-04-29T15:33:24Z

Slowly setting up my new main personal laptop this week!

I thought it'd be fun to make a transparent list of tweaks, programs, and bookmarks that i'm importing over. one or two might be redacted but this is pretty reflective of my daily tool setup other than gaming which is relegated to the steam deck. :) Items in blue are mission-critical to my workflow.

( Read more... )

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MGS loveblog III, final

2026-04-25T20:14:46Z

( in which krad goes on three fiddy tangents lol )

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MGS loveblog II

2026-04-25T02:06:55Z

dawg imma be real i didn't do a single damn thing all day except watch SNAAAAAAAKE

~~unless if you count doing the effects for two artworks and checking work emails once~~

i think mommy needed that potato day ......

( anyway, metaaaaal geaaaar, up to right before the final sniper wolf fight )

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MGS loveblog I

2026-04-24T17:30:30Z

ended up deciding to watch a lets play of MGS (PS1 version) instead of continuing with Twin Snakes; sadly I got another disk-read error when I got to the helipad, and between that and not really enjoying the gameplay but very much wanting to see where the story goes - a letsplay seemed better. (Thankfully my gamecube is fine; it's just this one disk, apparently.)

Also funnily enough MGS is the one series that kinda lends itself to watching what with the cutscene/codec call overdose, lol; this is giving me flashbacks to watching 4 in college right after it released. :)

( Thoughts on the first 1/4th )

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git gud, krad

2026-04-24T14:56:51Z

finally taking a stab at MGS Twin Snakes after I had to clean the disks - and promptly died like five times in a row even before getting to the first elevator. on easy. with the easy radar. lol.

tiny bit relieved that redditors mentioned that yes, that starter level sucks ass difficulty wise and actually gets much easier later. :D;; i didn't even know you could choke out soldiers?? and forgot about hiding in lockers???

intrigued at liquid snake ngl, he feels... krad bait shaped.......

anyway, spending today's PTO on MGS, the coolest damn old-web rabbit hole of this transmasc/queer film archive -> the site creator's mastodon -> this web theory collective(?) borne out of one of the longest running mailing lists since the nineteen EIGHTIES??

i <3 the old web and <3 old games ~~

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kradeelav @ 2026-04-22T10:35:00

2026-04-22T14:47:47Z

[ slowly working through a temporary burnout recovery/existential crisis stint ]

brain: you do realize your kid!self would think you're hot shit, right.
me: ?
brain: you just got back a letter from an actual senator from yelling at them about digital freedoms, not to mention talking with heads of two other orgs. you're a third of the way through a zihark doujin. you're surrounded by a literal herd of linux (~~linuxii? there's at least six of them. i might have a problem lul.~~) within arms reach with punk haxx0r projects on them all. you're in active collaboration with art collaborators who were/are your art idols. you're managing your favorite art director who's having a good time telling you war stories from the past. you're an active part of a tellius fandom renaissance finding new meta everywhere and getting into the garage kit scene.
me: ... huh.
brain: dude. kid you would think you're the coolest king shit mofo on the planet.
me: ........... heh.

(anyway. Going through it but i see the light. emergency terrible sing-alongs to one wing angel might be helping as they usually do :p )

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kradeelav @ 2026-04-18T13:44:00

2026-04-18T17:54:51Z

my boomer parents are people who would, politely, not be able to sit in the same room with the majority of bsky poasters without several arguments starting (lol)

but i am so thankful, increasingly so the last few months - that without fail they're both champions of critical thinking and real 'own your process/stuff/responsibilities' believers versus outsourcing ... everything. finances, computers, cognitive ability, etc.

just been talking about [current tech events] with them a lot and it's amazing how nuanced/aware of social knock on effects they are once they get to see how the tech works. 'ah, so it can do X kind of graphics that clients are enamored by via these prompts, but the the accuracy of Y, Z is totally off, and struggling to prompt it often takes longer than doing it right to begin with... why would you even bother doing that, then, you have a brain .... '

anyway there's a lot of change and uncertainty out there, also in my personal life right now but just, man. it's just nice to know this is one less Thing not to have to step carefully around in this next phase of life.

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kradeelav @ 2026-04-15T15:09:00

2026-04-15T19:15:00Z

in happier news: got to personally thank one of the character designers for the old Buzz Lightyear animated show back in the 2000's. :D (He's posting on bsky -- that show genuinely rewrote some of my brain neurons.)

Reminds me when I got to thank the main dev of SW:Starfighter for his amazing physics engine work when i think he was posting on formspring? ask.fm? (one of those); that game also made a substantial chunk of my childhood.

i do have to remind myself the internet can be a really cool place sometimes.

(This feels loosely relevant to a blog post i saw recently how all of the writer's favorite commenters actually never commented and instead sent emails directly to him. Got a chuckle out of that as somebody who sent like, three emails yesterday to webmasters personally thanking them or for similar casual chatting. email is the best social media <3)

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aging out

2026-04-11T22:22:49Z

>> @hausofdecline.bsky.social When I was 8, I showed my mom the first Jigglypuff episode of Pokémon and she stared at the screen with a Tommy Lee Jones "No Country for Old Men" expression. I didn't understand how she felt right up until the point I saw The Amazing Digital Circus.

‪> @theyoungdoyler.bsky.social‬ I remember so vividly being in my early 20s, watching gravity falls and having the dawning realization a few episodes in: "oh I just like this as a kid's cartoon. it's well made and enjoyable. but I'm not a kid anymore"
> It was liberating not feeling that manic fandom drive for the latest sensation

this is kinda a cool if bittersweet phenomenon.

no shade but i specifically remember feeling this way about homestuck & when vine started becoming popular. realized video was extremely not my Thing, and that hetalia/naruto was really the last mainstream fandom i enjoyed being around as somebody of that generation. i say hetalia & homestuck because they're both web based media works with very sprawling (and infamous) fandoms, but hetalia felt very livejournal, deviantart, and text-ish, wheras homestuck's fandom was... elsewhere.

when was y'alls moment of experiencing this?

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kradeelav @ 2026-04-10T23:40:00

2026-04-11T03:41:14Z

bombcar

> The analogies for these things like "hitting a golf ball into a hole in one 5,000 miles away" are always fun.

> I like starting from the fact that Ptolemy was able to get the accuracy of the "motions of the heavens" down so well that it took more than a thousand years to get observations that showed discrepancies. The math, it maths.

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