I think it might possibly be time for me to dig out my old Ibanez and audio interface, buy some new cobalt strings and start writing some post-rock. Last time I wrote music was almost a decade ago and I have a lot of pain and thoughts I really need to offload somehow.
WORD5 #705 3/6
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I had somehow forgotten this guy exists. Genuinely one of the greatest vocal talents in human history! #music #musicstr
I enjoy a well-made matcha latte, but truthfully, I hate how matcha is mostly known in the west for matcha lattes and Pinterest recipes.
There's such a robust culture behind the Japanese tea ceremony, and quality matcha doesn't need ANY additives to be thoroughly enjoyable. 🍵 #tea #teastr #Japan #matcha
Since payment targets are rising in usage on Nostr, I just want to remind everyone that I have two addresses set in my payment targets: Bitcoin Silent Payments, and Monero.
At one point, I also had Litecoin MWEB and Bitcoin Cash set in them, but decided to trim back to Silent Payments and XMR only, as appropriate for a privacy researcher.
If you ever want to zap me for a note, feel free to use those. XMR is my preference over Lightning and Silent Payments, but I'm thankful for any that you send my way! #nostr #zaps #paymenttargets #btc #xmr #privacy
WORD5 #703 3/6
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Just had a bowl of matcha made from gyokuro tea leaves. Gyokuro was traditionally the tea reserved for the Japanese emperor; it's shaded right up to the harvest, which gives it a rich umami and a thick sweetness. In matcha form, it carries over these elements, but also has this creamy note to it that goes perfectly with the foam of a classically-prepared matcha.
I took a long break from matcha and Japanese teas to explore Chinese teas (of which there are a LOT more varieties) but now that I've returned to buying and enjoying Japanese teas, I've started to fall in love with matcha again.
Drinking loose tea and matcha, while partaking in a portion of traditional tea culture, is one of my favorite ways to safeguard mental health.
(Image for reference, same producer and distributor but a different blend.)
#tea #teastr #matcha #japan #mentalhealth #peace
I really don't have a clue how people can drink, let alone ENJOY skim milk. I'm not the "government conspiracy regarding raw milk" sorts but skim milk has to be a psyop.
WORD5 #702 6/6
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I'd say it is. I wouldn't pay full price for it right now because of the price hike, but if you can get it for a decent rate, it's definitely worth grabbing unless you're planning on playing the most recent AAA games on the go. But if you want a very solid Linux gaming PC to take with you, it's a great choice. Plus, the OLED screen is gorgeous, the entire thing is designed to be user repairable (unlike ASUS and modern Lenovo) and the ergonomics are still unbeaten.
View quoted note →I don't think I've EVER been more annoyed than I was watching this and hearing that idiotic family ranting about the cops and yelling at their kid.
Another great example of how absolutely stupid humanity has become.
WORD5 #701 4/6
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WORD5 #700 4/6
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So, as much as I'm enjoying Ditto so far, I'm not a fan of how all my actions (especially reactions to notes) show up on my profile page. Is there a way to turn this off? It clutters the page a lot. #asknostr #ditto
I decided to check out some other Nostr web clients. Up until now, I had used Primal, NoStrudel and Coracle. Primal was generally my go-to due to its easy-to-read UI and its "enhanced privacy" feature since I don't always use a VPN. However, since I decided to upgrade to Proton Unlimited, I'll be using my VPN a lot more, so I figured it doesn't hurt to check out some others.
So far, my favorite, by far, would be Ditto. The UI and feature set is incredible. It feels, in a lot of ways, like Amethyst in web form, which is massive because I absolutely love Amethyst on my phone.
Definitely looking forward to exploring Ditto some more and maybe check out a few other web clients!
Proton really needs to hurry up and get some sort of desktop application for Proton Drive on Linux. I need syncing, not just manual backups, but they're dragging their feet on the Linux application. This, and the Linux GUI for Proton VPN is also lacking a couple features, such as split tunneling...
I never grow tired of Maria Coman's voice. You've heard people describe someone as having an "angelic voice" but hers is pretty much the DEFINITIVE example of that. ☦️
Swedish meatballs is an incredibly underrated dish 🤔 #foodstr
I'm going on two months of using Proton's Lumo as my primary AI and honestly, I'm not looking back.
Before this, Perplexity was my main AI because I found its answers to be particularly helpful on technical subjects. It sources things very well and tends to have the best overall answers with technical topics. However, it's a Big Tech AI service: it's inherently horrible for privacy. While my Perplexity account is pseudonymous (email alias, no connections to me, personally) and I only ever use it for things like tech troubleshooting and research, it's still not good for privacy.
Before I decided to give Lumo a proper try, I had been using Venice AI. It's a privacy-respecting AI service with end-to-end encryption options and uncensored model options. At its core, it's a very solid service itself, but the main problem with it is that it has severe restrictions on free users: only ten text queries allowed per day. That's an absurdly low cap. Worse still, their lowest plan is $18/month. I use AI a fair amount but not enough to justify an $18/month subscription plan.
When Lumo was first launched, I found it to be pretty useless. It hallucinated constantly, the UI/UX was barebones, it just wasn't a great experience. However, when Lumo 2.0 dropped, things changed. Now, it feels nearly on par with Perplexity in terms of information and sourcing, and the UI/UX is actually excellent now. I find it to be very rare that I ever have to use a different AI, even with their free plan restrictions, and I'm even to the point where I'm considering subscribing precisely because I don't feel like I'm exploited as a free user. Their subscription is ~$10/month, by the way: significantly cheaper than just about every other AI option out there, as even the cheapest alternatives are still heavily restricted.
The fact that an end-to-end encrypted, privacy-respecting option is now truly competitive is amazing news because I love the benefits of AI, I'm just not keen on the ways it can be used against us.
#ai #proton #protonlumo #perplexity #encryption
WORD5 #696 6/6
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