#Tech post!

I've gradually realised that two particular aspects of web browsers are pretty important to me: the ability to completely isolate tabs (which means using a #Firefox-derived #browser), and the ability to properly resist #fingerprinting (which basically means #Librewolf or #Tor at this point - and Tor's too slow).

Trouble was, Librewolf doesn't let web pages know your time zone (part of resisting fingerprinting), which for me was a showstopper. And it can't be disabled without disabling too much other good privacy stuff. All my server stats and firewall logs, 8 hours out. Nope. Nope nope.

But yesterday I found a Firefox extension called "Spoof Timezone", installed it on Librewolf, set it to Manila time, and Bingo. All my server management screens are now correct again, without disabling what makes Librewolf great. Happy Drew.

#Poll #FediTips #AskFedi

I'm tired of Mastodon's #PhotoSharing limitations. I'd like to have more pics per post, with captions. Like a FB album! I think #Pixelfed can do this.

However, I think Mastodon silently drops pics in excess of 4 per post anyway so only Pixelfed-based followers would see my posts properly. So is there any point? I want my pics to be seen otherwise why bother...

Not sure what to do. Votes appreciated. Please boost for science, as they say.

#Today #3Things

1. After a heroic clearing day with 21 machete-wielding labourers last week, we're now doing controlled burns on our southmost hectare to prepare it for cultivation. Pics soon. #FarmLife

2. At least 20 of the young banana seedlings we planted 15 months ago are now fruiting (and are now 3m tall).

3. I'm trying to take more photos of the #goats, but in 90% of my shots they're barreling towards me to try and eat my clothing or get cuddles. Here are 4 of the better pics from today. None of Jonathan - the only ones I have of him today are patches of his shoulders when he was climbing on me. #GoatsOfMastodon #Goatstodon

#GoatsOfMastodon #Goats #DogsOfMastodon #Dogs #FarmLife

The young goats are old enough to have some supervised freedom around the farm now, outside their enclosure. Mrs Goat is on a 10m rope that we move between various trees, and Jonathan and the twins always stay reasonably close to her. Snowy seems happy to relax near them and the goats seem fine with him.

This article was basically written about me. I mean, it wasn't, but there's nothing in it that doesn't match my experience.

Anger has always been one of the biggest issues in my life. And when I was angry, of course I was the problem. Not what I was angry at. This was beaten (sometimes literally), drilled and programmed into me by so many incidents. And #Alexithymia stopped me from constructively fighting back. As the article says, it's a cruel loop.

One big thing this article has shown me is the crucial differences between #anger and a #meltdown. Anger can lead to a meltdown but they're not the same. There are so many insights in this article, it's worth several reads.

"Autistic Anger: The Emotion You Were Never Allowed to Have"
https://www.heyasd.com/blogs/autism/autistic-anger

#Autism #ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent

Big Log (Robert Plant)

#SwimmingPoolSongOrPoem
#HashTagGames

I have a degree of #synesthesia, and I love the way certain words feel in my brain. Some feel bright, some feel smooth, some feel warm, some feel satisfyingly clunky, some give me images of living things. I like making up rhythms with them. I'm aware this is possibly a #neurodivergent thing.

Aaaaaanyway... here are some place names in the #Philippines that follow a very satisfying pattern and set up a "Jackanory" rap in my head. They're all towns or villages within a few km of where we live.

Kapatagan
Malapatan
Tinagacan
Kidapawan
Bulatukan
Baracatan
Sinkatulan
Balangonan
Pagalungan

The emphasis is mostly on the third syllable. Like the word "information". And by a curious coincidence, information is probably what there is too much of here.

#Today #3Things

1. Returned home today from my #Davao trip. My headphones albums on the bus journey were:

Porcupine Tree - The Incident
Steven Wilson - Hand Cannot Erase
North Atlantic Oscillation - Fog Electric
North Atlantic Oscillation - The Third Day

2. Feeling considerably rested and de-stressed, though I suspect I put on a kg or two.

3. My hotel in Davao was mid-range rather than posh (I can't afford posh), but was lovely in every way except for incomprehensible air conditioning controls. Here are some views of the city from the rooftop restaurant.

I've headed up to #Davao #today for a little "change is as good as a rest" solo break. Couple of nights in a city centre hotel, sleeping, reading, swimming, eating. I do it a couple of times a year.

I decided to get the bus this time to avoid getting even more tired from driving. The roads are too bumpy for sleep, so my #music for the 3.5 hour trip (via my noise-cancelling headphones) was:

El Ten Eleven - New Year's Eve
Keor - Petrichor
Secret Machines - Awake In The Brain Chamber
Slint - Spiderland
Nirvana - Nevermind
Bruce Soord & Jonas Renkse - Wisdom Of Crowds

A fairly fantastic set of albums.

The highway from General Santos to Davao winds through some stunning landscapes, here's a view from just below the highest pass, in a region called Malalag:

#Today #3Things

1. Wife back from her long weekend, thank goodness. Max (smaller dog) was unwell all day (off his food, noisy gut, eating grass) and it's almost certainly because he missed her and was stressed out.

2. I basically flaked out on her return and slept through dinner before somewhat reviving half way through the evening. It's like when you sit a bunch of exams and fall ill as soon as they're done.

3. Something occurred to me that may or may not be related to the above (OK, it probably is)...
For me as an #AuDHD person with #PTSD, #ChronicFatigue from a previous #TBI and a shortage of #spoons, the situations that let me recharge do not always have to involve sleep; they just have to be a period of time when nobody needs anything from me.

*Sees lovely pic of #dogs in my feed, hits star

*Goes to poster's profile out of curiosity, sees "I make silly pics with AI"

*Goes back, removes star, mutes poster

#NoAI #FuckAI

#Today #3Things

A remarkably quiet day.

1. Walked the dogs around the farm twice, 7am and 5pm, as usual, in the hazy sunshine.

2. Spoke to wife at lunchtime (she's in Davao visiting her brother). She slept in until noon so clearly we both needed some downtime.

3. Watched some Secret Army episodes, read some fiction, watered the plants on the terrace.

Like I say, quiet. That's nice once in a while.

#SilentSunday #Philippines

#Today #3Things

1. Did a very fiddly and intricate #NGauge #ModelRailway task that I don't have the energy to describe properly but rest assured I'm satisfied and happy that one of my coaches is now running and coupling properly.

2. Our guys work fast and we now have 4 #solar streetlights at intervals along our driveway, each on a home made 4.5m pole.

3. Wife is seeing her brother in Davao this weekend, so until Monday afternoon it's just me and the #dogs. And the goats. And the chickens. And one of our workers. And his duck. Quack. Went to mow a meadow...

#Toady #3Things

1. Spot the typo above. I'll leave it in for Wind In The Willows reasons but had better add the #Today tag here.

2. Woke up this morning to (whispers) NO RAIN. First time in 4 days. All windows open and fans on, time to air out the house, give the dogs a long-awaited run in the sun and feel fresh again.

3. Far too wet for our workers to be clearing brush and cutting grass, so we've got them welding lampposts out of construction leftovers (we found 4 big solar streetlights going cheap to put along the farm driveway). They'll also dig the post holes while the ground is soft.

#DogsOfMastodon #Dogs

When it's a windy and rainy evening outside, Snowy knows where's best.

#Today #3Things

⓵ I go through phases of poor sleep. The last few days has been one such phase, hopefully soon to end. I do various things to help me sleep; sometimes they fail. I think it's just something I have to accept.

⓶ A post I happened to see on here prompted me to download the old TV series #Tenko, which was broadcast when I was in my teens and I never saw due to parental censorship (we had one TV which showed whatever my parents approved of).

⓷ Though I'm extremely tired, at least the stomach bug I had over the weekend has faded away now with the help of buscopan and very plain food.

#Tech post! #Today I finally found time to remove #Fedora from my #Linux laptop. I had intended to replace it with #MXLinux - in fact for a couple of hours I did - but in the end I had so many problems customising #KDE #Plasma that I actually stopped and had a rethink.

I had always liked Plasma for its customisability, but wrestling with panel configuration seems to be getting harder - or I'm getting older - and I just couldn't get the desktop how I wanted it. After 2 hours I realised life was too short for such nonsense.

I needed a polished distro with fractional scaling on #HiDPI displays, and after some research to get me up to date, I plumped for #Pop_OS with its #COSMIC desktop.

Pop_OS is great - it has a solid #Ubuntu base and the UI feels far more consistent and robust than either KDE or #Gnome - but my essential #Java app, the #JMRI #ModelRailway control software, looked awful at any scale. Jagged fonts, boxes overflowing, etc.

After a lot of searching I found a shell command to force font anti-aliasing for old Java apps (comment if you need a link to the Gist), and with a few more tweaks finally all was well.

Pop_OS, like MX Linux, seems to be AI-neutral rather than overtly AI-positive like Fedora, so I've achieved my original goal, even if it took me in an unexpected direction.

#GoatsOfMastdon #Goats #FarmLife

Little Jack is curious, cute and absolutely fearless, and we're all completely in love with her. Including Jonathan (entering pic at lower right), who may also have less honorable feelings.

4/4

#GoatsOfMastodon #Goats #FarmLife

Little Jill is the shy one but she's getting gradually more curious and comfortable with me

3/n