Epic Worlds

The official blog of Jonathan J. Snyder, the muse's bitch.

Wow. When I sat down this evening to just work on one of my #programming projects, I did not expect to see Snopes start posting on their feed with an absolutely absurd story of how they spent six weeks trying to claw back control of their hijacked #Twitter account. Spoiler alert: the experience involved Grok, probably the dumbest AI out there that was actually able to help.

From their statement on March 9th, 2025, a Snopes employee found themselves locked out of the company’s X account. Their CEO checked the site email and—bam—a fresh message from Twitter: “someone new” had just logged in. Unfamiliar location. Then, moments later, another email: “Twitter two-factor authentication is good to go!”

I know if I got this message, my blood pressure would have been through the roof.

They reported their CEO scrambled to reset the password using the “forgot password” link. Success—sort of. While the password was reset, the hacker had already enabled two-factor authentication (2FA). From what they were saying, it was a good thing they hit the reset password as it appears to have blown the hacker out of the account also before they could do any damage.

And so began the long, painful quest to get anyone at X to actually care.

Step one: submit help tickets—”We’ve been hacked” form, “Can’t access 2FA” form—you name it. Silence. Days turned into weeks, and the sound of crickets was deafening. Snopes even shelled out $1,000 for X's Verified Org plan—even though they already had the status for free—hoping it would unlock this mystical “Priority Support.”

Nope.

The actually saving grace here from what they said was Grok. You read that right. Grok of all things. After providing some stupid assistance, it actually pointed them to John Stoll, the head of Twitter's news who actually got to Customer Support and got their account back.

So, what did we learn?

  • Always use two-factor authentication. Convenience isn’t worth six weeks of hell.

  • Twitter’s customer support is a joke. Even $1,000 a month can’t buy you a human response.

  • Networking is useless if no one answers. LinkedIn was a ghost town.

  • Grok is as helpful as a Magic 8-Ball. It spat out obvious nonsense before accidentally pointing to the right person.

  • John Stoll is the real MVP. He seems to be the only person at X actually was willing to help.

In the end, Snopes’ saga exposes Twitter’s abysmal security and support. It wasn’t money, forms, or AI that saved the day—it was a lucky DM to the one guy who bothered to help.

The moral? Don’t count on Twitter to help even if you're a paying customer, even if you're hacked and the Head of News is the only way to get a hold of customer service.

God. They're fucking stupid. If you want to read Snope's full saga, you can do so here with their leading toot!

I know they're called X now. I don't care. Until Space Karen stops deadnaming his daughter, I won't stop deadnaming his company.

A Quiet Place on the Fediverse

tags: #infosec #fediverse

It would be an understatement to say that the recent U.S. #elections didn’t exactly go smoothly, and it’s left a lot of people feeling uneasy about the next few years. Whether it’s the chaos of the results or the ongoing fallout, many are already looking for safer spaces to weather the storm. For those of us on the #fediverse, the pressure’s on to find places where we can just exist without the constant noise and toxicity that’s been so hard to avoid. As things continue to unfold, it’s likely we’ll see more people flocking to smaller, tighter-knit communities—places where moderation is strong, and the focus is on creating a space for real conversation, away from the chaos of the wider internet.

The ION Network

Right now, social media networks like #Mastodon rely on an open federation model, where servers can connect with just about anyone, and that creates some serious moderation challenges. Harmful users or groups can easily slip through the cracks by joining open-registration servers, and even if you block them, they can just pop up again on a different server. The idea behind this proposal is to switch things up with an allowlist-only system, where servers only federate with others they’ve specifically approved. This way, we create smaller, more manageable communities that are easier to keep safe and moderate. It’s all about limiting federation to trusted servers, making the whole network a lot more secure.

In this system, servers would need to mutually agree to connect, which means the network is built on trust. There’d be a published allowlist to show which servers are part of the network, and new servers could join after a provisional period. Sure, it’s still a work in progress and comes with some challenges—like how to keep the allowlist updated and how to make sure it scales—but the idea is really about giving users a safer, more controlled space. With smaller, curated communities, moderation could be more proactive, and users would have a better sense of security knowing they’re not likely to run into abusive or harmful content.

Oliphant does a good explanation with his blog on the subject

Places to Sign up as a User

If you are a user that is looking for a place to sign up for the ION network, there are already a few choices made available. There are some instances that are open to sign ups here:

Places to Join as an Instance

If you own an instance or are looking to setup an instance yourself, you can find the instructions to do so at the repo setup to help!

It is important to have tools like this available especially with the direction this might go.

Tags: #infosec #code

Not much of a preamble for this one. My friend was struggling getting Postgresql to work with a column storage engine because the directions were opaque and useless. I started helping her out but discovered that MariaDB is the same way. After a day or two of research, I wrote a bash script that does the install of everything and when I tested it on my own machine, it worked!

NOTE: This script is written and tested on an Ubuntu machine. You may have to tweak it for others.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

set -e
exec 2>error.log

log_error() {
    echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') ERROR: $1" | tee -a error.log
}

trap 'kill $SUDO_PID' EXIT

echo "This script will install MariaDB and the MariaDB extension Column Store."
echo "Do you wish to proceed? (Y/N)" 

read -r proceed_time

if [[ "${proceed_time^^}" != "Y" ]]; then
    echo "Exiting script..."
    exit 1
fi

echo "Starting installation of MariaDB..."

# Check sudo access
if ! sudo -v; then 
    log_error "Sudo access denied. Exiting."
    exit 1
fi 

# Keep sudo alive in the background
( while true; do sudo -v; sleep 60; done ) & 
SUDO_PID=$!

# Update package lists
if ! sudo apt update; then
    log_error "Failed to update package lists."
    exit 1
fi

# Install MariaDB
if sudo apt install -y mariadb-server mariadb-client; then 
    if systemctl is-active --quiet mariadb; then
        echo "MariaDB server installed and running."
    else
        log_error "MariaDB server installation failed or not running."
        exit 1
    fi
else
    log_error "Failed to install MariaDB."
    exit 1
fi

# Prepare to install ColumnStore
echo "Preparing to install the MariaDB ColumnStore engine." 

mkdir -p columnstore
pushd columnstore || exit 1

# Download and set up the MariaDB repo
if ! wget -q --show-progress https://downloads.mariadb.com/MariaDB/mariadb_repo_setup; then
    log_error "Failed to download mariadb_repo_setup."
    exit 1
fi

chmod +x mariadb_repo_setup

if ! sudo ./mariadb_repo_setup --mariadb-server-version="mariadb-10.6"; then 
    log_error "Failed to install Maria Repo."
    exit 1 
fi 

# Update package lists again
if ! sudo apt update; then
    log_error "Failed to update package lists after adding MariaDB repo."
    exit 1
fi

# Install ColumnStore dependencies
if ! sudo apt install -y libjemalloc2 mariadb-backup libmariadb3 mariadb-plugin-columnstore; then 
    log_error "Failed to install ColumnStore dependencies."
    exit 1
fi 

# Verify ColumnStore installation
if ! sudo mariadb -e "SHOW PLUGINS" | grep -q "COLUMNSTORE"; then
    log_error "ColumnStore plugin installation failed."
    exit 1
fi

service mariadb restart

popd

echo "Installation complete."

Tags: #politics #essay

Fury. It's that ice cold feeling in the pit of your stomach that elicits no emotion and just simmers there? Yeah, that's how I have been for the last few days and the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court has made it even worse. Spoiler warning, I have nothing hopeful to say in this post. This authoritarian roller coaster is just getting started and there's no getting off. So, what has the response been since the courts decided to set us up for a dictator and a king?

Since the United States Supreme Court has declared Presidents are immune to official acts (and only lower courts can decide what is or is not an official act. They provided zero criteria), there have been steps to try to fix this but it is only theater and desk pounding that's going on.

Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) says he's going to introduce a Constitutional amendment1. It's dead on arrival. You need 75% of the states to ratify an amendment which means you can't lose more than 13 states. There are 21 solid red states per 2022 election3. Even if they do pass it, who says the Supreme Court can't just declare the amendment unconstitutional? Rules? They're not following them now. Why would they later?

AOC says she's going to submit Articles of Impeachment2 on the justices. That's also dead on arrival because the Dems don't have the stomach to do it cause “it'll look political” and with the tenuous hold on the Senate with a chance of losing it, it ain't going to go anywhere. They want to pretend it's still the 90s where everyone was still pretending to have integrity.

I have had friends ask me when I think that it all truly began to go down hill (as we have flirted with authoritarianism and fascism for years. Think back to McCarthyism and the backlash to the 60s Civil Rights movement).

It really started to go down hill with 9/11 and when the Patriot Act was passed. It was the first glimpse of the direction we were going. The Patriot Act was sold as a temporary thing that was supposed to help us stop terrorists from striking at us again but has continually been renewed for twenty-three years. It was sold as a patriotic law but had stripped freedoms from Americans5. For example:

  1. Roving Wiretaps: Allows surveillance on individuals without specifying the device or location being tapped, meaning a single warrant can cover multiple devices and locations.

  2. Sneak & Peek Warrants: The Act allows law enforcement to conduct searches without immediately informing the target of the search. These “sneak and peek” warrants mean individuals may not know their property has been searched until much later, potentially compromising their ability to contest the search.

  3. Mandatory Detention: Non-citizens can be detained without charge for extended periods if they are deemed a threat to national security.

From there, we have slowly descended into a government that goes behind our backs to get information and uses mega-corps to do their bidding.

It was 2016 when the facade fell off and the christo-fascist regime attacked our capital and attempted to stop the peaceful transfer of power believing that their lie that the 2020 election was stolen would cover them.

Many of them were found guilty of crimes around January 6th insurrection and even their leader Donald Trump was found guilty for Campaign Finance violations.

But they already had a plan for that. They had the scum bag McConnel block the appointment of an Obama supreme court judge by saying: “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”6 and even Lindsey Graham went and said: “I want you to use my words against me. If there’s a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination.”6

What happened when there were two seats come open in Donald Trump's term. Both senators pushed through two extremely conservative (and questionable) candidates in the last year of Trump's presidency. Building a conservative court to do their bidding. When challenged on it McConnel's response was “In the last midterm election before Justice Scalia’s death in 2016, Americans elected a Republican Senate majority because we pledged to check and balance the last days of a lame-duck president’s second term, We kept our promise. Since the 1880s, no Senate has confirmed an opposite-party president’s Supreme Court nominee in a presidential election year.”7

In short...it's important to have the public choose when you're not the party in power but if you're the party in power, it's okay to continue and appoint someone without the public having a say.

Since the court has swung hard right they have.

  • Raised the bar so that the Justice Department can't use Obstruction charges against the insurrectionists 8

  • Declare Presidential immunity for President official acts which now throw his conviction in state court into contention4

And I'm not even getting into Justice Thomas' wife being an insurrectionist who helped plan out some parts of the insurrection.

I have heard many say that we are at a crossroads this election but they are wrong. That crossroad was 2016 and we are now well along our way towards a faux democracy run by christian fascists who think their beliefs in God outweigh any other sort of consideration and we need to bow to them for guidance.

I have no hope to share right now. I've studied history long enough to see where this is going and like a train wreck, there's no stopping it. Even if Biden is elected president, each and every election cycle will be Christian fascists trying to take win so that they can force their beliefs down our throat.

If anything, I think Justice Jackson phrased it the best in her dissent to the majority opinion. She said: “The majority of my colleagues seems to have put their trust in our Court’s ability to prevent Presidents from becoming Kings through case-by-case application of the indeterminate standards of their new Presidential accountability paradigm. I fear that they are wrong. But, for all our sakes, I hope that they are right.”3

References

1 Nazzaro, M. (2024, July 2). New York DEM will introduce amendment to reverse Supreme Court immunity ruling. The Hill. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4750735-joe-morelle-amendment-supreme-court-immunity-ruling/mlite/?nxs-test=mlite

2 Lillis, M. (2024, July 2). Ocasio-Cortez vows to file impeachment articles against Supreme Court justices. The Hill. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4750034-ocasio-cortez-impeachment-articles-supreme-court-justices-trump-immunity/?nxs-test=mobile

3 Wikimedia Foundation. (2004, November 4). Red States and Blue States. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_states_and_blue_states Last edit was 18 June 2024

4 Trump v. United States, 23-939, slip op. at 118-119 (Supreme Court of the United States). Retrieved from https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf

5 Johnson, C. (2011, October 26). As it turns 10, patriot act remains controversial. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2011/10/26/141699537/as-it-turns-10-patriot-act-remains-controversial

6 Silverstein, J. (2020, September 19). Here’s what Mitch McConnell said about not filing a Supreme Court vacancy in an election year. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mitch-mcconnell-supreme-court-vacancy-election-year-senate/

7 Louis Jacobson, K. S., & Jacobson, L. (2020, September 22). Flip-O-meter: McConnell’s reversal on Supreme Court nominees. @politifact. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/sep/22/mitch-mcconnell/mitch-mcconnell-flip-flops-considering-supreme-cou/

8 Kruzel, J. (2024, June 29). US Supreme Court raises bar for obstruction charge against Trump, Jan. 6 rioters | reuters. Reueters. https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-boosts-jan-6-rioters-bid-challenge-obstruction-charge-2024-06-28/

9 Davies, D. (2022, January 27). How Ginni Thomas, wife of justice Clarence Thomas, influences the Supreme Court. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2022/01/27/1076097533/how-ginni-thomas-wife-of-justice-clarence-thomas-influences-the-supreme-court

tags: #uspol #musing #essay

When I booted up my laptop, opened the drafting page to my #writefreely blog, I did not know what i would write. What you are reading is a flow of consciousness I am making while I try to process my feelings, thoughts, and opinions around the events the world has been going through.

When humanity came out of the COVID pandemic, many thought (including myself) that hope and reason were back on the horizon. President Biden, though not a really good choice, had done a lot to try and improve the damage done by Donald Trump, the vaccine was going quickly, the economy was rebuilding, and we were improving faster than many countries around the world. The United States was back on track to become a trusted ally again with the rest of the world. Then 2024 happened.

We have now dealing with: * The election of a convicted felon to the office of the presidency. * The attempted overthrow of the South Korean government. * The assassination of the CEO of United Healthcare. * The current president Biden considering preemptive pardons to stop the inevitable revenge from the adjudicated rapist.

What the fuck is going on?

There is so much hate.

It's unfortunate but I have a sneaky suspicion that we have reached a point in our modern civilization where the cracks that we have been pretending don't exist are no so exposed that there is no way to continue hiding it. There is only one collective emotion left. Hate.

MAGA supporters voted in a criminal because they hate the liberals. The assassin who killed the United Healthcare CEO appears to have done it out of hate for insurance(This is based on reporting at the time of this article about the writing on the bullets that mock the tactics of insurance companies to not pay out claims), and the hate of people against others.

I am not a soothsayer nor a political analyst but the writing on the wall seems the point of changing our course towards the violence that is coming was back in 2015. The hate is not going to go away until it burns itself out and it's going to be destructive.

The Next Four Years

I am an optimist. I want to believe the best of people but I have also studied enough history to know when people get this angry, there is very little that can be done to stop it. Under Trump (I refuse to call a convicted criminal President), we are going to see the christo-fascist Nazis exact revenge for the perceived slights of 2020 to 2024. We're going to see worse than children in cages if the Republicans in Congress don't wake up.

I don't have a lot of hope but I do know that I haven't given up. I plan to continue to help my fellow humans, but I have reached the point that I think people are done talking because nobody was listening.

Violence is never the answer until you make it the only answer left.

Tags: #horror

The moment Kira stumbled upon the cave; she knew something was incredibly wrong. It took the blond-haired woman a few moments to realize that the forest had gone silent and the birds that were once singing hid among the branches. The way the wind seemed to die the moment she stepped near the jagged rock entrance sent chills up her spine. For some strange reason, the cave her eyes peered into felt ancient and unnerving, humming beneath the earth.

She had been hiking alone, a last-minute decision to clear her mind after a stressful week at work. The fact her boss hinted that she would be fired after the three day weekend did not help her mood.

“How the hell am I supposed to keep the numbers up if they keep raising the amount,” she grumbled to the trees around her.

Her friends often teased her about going off the beaten path, but Kira relished the isolation. Working at a call center, talking all the time made her want to avoid people. Solitude was a balm, a way to reconnect with herself after all the cynical noise from her customers. She hadn’t planned to stray this far. Kira was certain she had followed the trail, but when the trees thinned and the rocky outcropping appeared, the woman realized she was in a part of the forest she had never seen.

“Where am I?” Kira said looking around at the clearing she had stumbled into.

The cave beckoned her with its gaping mouth, a jagged crack in the earth that seemed to sink deeper than the eye could follow. The air spilling from it was cool, carrying a dampness that clung to her skin. Despite the growing unease crawling up her spine, Kira’s curiosity won over.

She had no flashlight, just her phone, but the battery was low. Still, the light was enough to make out the path ahead as she carefully picked her way into the cave, each step echoing in the suffocating silence. The deeper she went, the more the air changed. The crisp, natural scent of earth and moss gave way to something pungent, like stagnant water.

Kira knew she was being stupid, but something was drawing her in. An insatiable curiosity about what was at the end of the tunnel.

After what felt like an eternity of walking, she reached an expansive chamber. The walls glittered with moisture, and in the center had her frozen to the spot. A lagoon lay nestled in the middle of the cavern, its surface glowing with an ethereal, blue light. The water shimmered, casting soft reflections across the ceiling like dancing spirits. Kira stood at the edge, mesmerized. The glow seemed to pulse gently, as if the lagoon had a heartbeat of its own.

For a moment, the unease she had felt dissipated. It was beautiful—unnatural, yes, but undeniably captivating. Kira knelt, her hand hovering over the surface of the water. She wanted to touch it, to break the mirror surface but her hand did not move. Something about the way it shimmered seemed… wrong. The glow, though soft and inviting, felt like something grinning and trying not to show its teeth.

A sudden splash echoed through the cavern, sending ripples across the lagoon. Kira’s heart jumped, her gaze darting to the far side of the water. She saw nothing, just the stillness of the glowing lagoon and the jagged walls beyond. The water was undisturbed, but she had heard something hit it. The quiet wasn’t comforting anymore. An oppressive, weight wrapped around her lungs like thick fog trying to force her to the ground. She could not see it, but she knew.

Something was watching her.

Kira stood up quickly, backing away from the water’s edge. The light from her phone flickered, and she cursed under her breath. She needed to leave. Now. Desperately turning to find the path back, something in the water stirred again—this time closer.

She froze, her breath caught in her throat. Slowly, she turned her head back toward the lagoon, dread pooling in her stomach. Did she have time to run? Was it close to her? Was she about to die?

The glowing water began to churn, and from its depths, a dark shape started to rise. At first, it was nothing more than a vague shadow beneath the surface, but as it neared the top, Kira could make out more details. The figure was massive, its form serpentine, with limbs too long, too thin, stretching out like twisted branches. The glow of the water cast sickly reflections on its slimy, dark skin.

It had eyes—pale, milky orbs that seemed to bulge from its skull, locking onto her with an intensity that made her mind freeze in place. Its mouth, if that’s what it was, stretched open into a grotesque smile, filled with needle-like teeth that shimmered in the blue light.

Panic surged through Kira, every instinct screaming at her to run. She turned and bolted toward the tunnel she came through, but as her feet hit the rocky ground, the creature let out a sound—a low, giggling laugh like that of a child that echoed in the cavern, reverberating off the walls like a living thing. It was followed by a splash, and she knew without looking that it was following her.

Her phone’s light flickered again, the battery draining faster now as if the very air was sucking the life from it. The woman stumbled, her foot catching on a loose stone. She hit the ground hard, the wind knocked from her lungs. For a terrifying moment, she lay there, gasping for breath, her lungs refusing to pull in the air that she desperately craved. The sound of water sloshing and something wet dragging across the stone floor was audible now. It was slow but certain.

Legs finally started cooperating and Kira pushed herself up. She ignored the pain in her ankle and the tremble in her legs. She had to get out. She had to get out now! The tunnel felt longer than what it had been when she came in. The scared customer service agent ran, her breath ragged and her chest tight with fear. Behind her, the sounds grew louder, the wet dragging noise now accompanied by something else—something like a giggling whisper.

“Kira…Where are you, Kira?” Her name was drug out in a long sentence.

The voice was low, wet, but the tenor of a child. It slithered into her ears, making her skin crawl. The woman glanced back, just for a second, and saw the creature’s pale eyes gleaming in the darkness, peering around a turn in the tunnel, it’s one eye visible and half of a toothy smile staring at her with glee.

Terror gripped her. She pushed herself harder, her legs burning as she raced toward the cave’s entrance. The blue light of the lagoon still reflected in the tunnel behind her, casting eerie shadows on the walls. Somehow feeling as if they were reaching for her itself. Kira could feel the creature’s breath—cold and damp—on the back of her neck as it closed.

Then, just as the darkness around her seemed ready to swallow her whole, Kira saw a faint glimmer of daylight ahead. Sprinting the last few yards, she threw herself out, rolled and faced the entrance terror filling her wondering if it had leapt out after her.

The entrance was dark and still, the lagoon and the creature hidden dep within the earth. But she knew it was still there, lurking, watching. The whisper echoed in her mind again.

“Kira…”

“Screw you,” she hissed back.

She sat on the forest floor, trembling, her breath still shallow. Her pulse pounded in her ears, and the sunlight shone on top of her. It was still daylight and she had time to get back to the car.

She couldn’t stay there, that was for sure. Gritting her teeth, Kira pulled herself to her feet, wincing as her weight shifted onto her injured leg. She needed to get far away from the cave. No more curiosity. No more exploring. Just survival.

As she limped through the forest, the trees around her seemed ominously still, as if the very world was holding its breath. She kept glancing back over her shoulder, half expecting to see those pale, bulging eyes staring at her from the shadows between the trees. But nothing followed her.

After a few minutes, Kira finally reached the familiar trailhead that marked the beginning of the hiking path. Relief washed over her. She knew her car was just a few more minutes awake but her ankle was screaming louder every step of the way.

Kira’s phone was nearly dead now, but she tapped the screen to check for a signal. Nothing. No bars.

“Shit,” She cursed under her breath, scanning the forest for any sign of other hikers, but she was alone. The growing dusk stretched the shadows longer, the daylight fading fast.

“Just keep moving,” she muttered to herself. “You’ll be fine once you get back to the car.”

As she hobbled along the path, a gnawing thought surfaced in her mind. The whisper. That thing in the cave had said her name. It knew who she was. How? A chill rippled down her spine as her mind raced through the possibilities. Maybe she had imagined it. Maybe her terror had twisted the sounds into something she could comprehend. But no matter how much she tried to reason with herself, the whisper had felt real. Too real.

The sun dipped below the horizon as she reached the edge of the parking lot. Her car sat where she had left it, the only vehicle in sight. She fumbled with her keys, her hands shaking as she unlocked the door and collapsed into the driver’s seat. Shutting the door with a slam, she exhaled a shaky breath, locking all the doors before slumping back against the headrest.

For a moment, Kira sat in the stillness of the car, her mind racing, replaying the events in the cave over and over. The creature, the glowing water, that voice—none of it made sense. It felt like a nightmare, but she knew it had been real. Her ankle’s sharp pain was proof enough.

With trembling fingers, she started the car. The engine’s rumble was a comforting reminder of normalcy, something familiar during everything she couldn’t explain. She put the car into gear, ready to speed down the narrow forest road and never look back.

As the tires crunched over gravel and dirt, Kira glanced into her rear view mirror. The entrance to the hiking trail slowly disappeared, swallowed by the thickening night.

Home. All she wanted to do was go home. She glanced in the rear view mirror and something caught her eye. Just barely visible in the dim twilight, she saw a faint glow. A soft, blue light shining through the trees. Her breath hitched, and she forced herself to focus on the road ahead. It was just her imagination. She was exhausted, shaken, her mind playing tricks on her. The highway was only a mile more.

The further she drove, the more her panic began to settle. The radio buzzed faintly as she turned it on, hoping the music would drown out her thoughts. But the signal was weak, crackling with static. She twisted the dial, trying to find a clear station, but all she got was more hissing and buzzing.

“Kira…Where are you going? I want to play with you.”

She jerked the wheel, her heart slamming against her ribs as the whisper sounded by her ear. She looked in the mirror and saw no one in the back seat. The car swerved slightly before she regained control, her eyes wide and her hands gripping the steering wheel tight.

“No, no, no, no!” Kira whimpered.

The road stretched out before her, endless and dark, the trees pressing in from either side. She pressed her foot harder on the gas, the car speeding up as the headlights carved a narrow path through the night. Her heart pounded in her ears, drowning out every rational thought. She had to get out of there—get as far away from the forest, from the cave, from “It”.

But as the car sped down the winding road, the blue glow appeared again, flickering in the distance through the trees. It was following her. No matter how fast she went, no matter how far she tried to drive, the light was always there, faint but persistent.

“Come on, Kira. Let me play. I want to feel your sinew strain as we dance to Sarnithis’ song. Listen to the song your voice makes as we dig into your nerves.”

The whispers were coming from every direction now. It seeped into her mind, cold and wet, wrapping around her thoughts like the touch of something long buried in the depths. She slammed her hands over her ears, trying to block it out, but the voice only grew louder.

It was only in that instant before the crash that Kira realized that she had taken her hands off the wheel. The vehicle careened off the road and into the gully. The crunch of the brush and thud of hitting a stump silencing everything.

Dazed, she tried to force the door open and after a few pushes it popped open. Kira fell to her face and tried to force herself to stand. It was only now that she realized the blue light was around her that reality came rushing back. She had left the safety of the car!

Kira could not run, wet, sticky incredibly long fingers slid over her scalp from behind and she let out a cry as the sharp claws dug into her forehead to hold her. The woman felt herself being lifted off the ground so that her legs were dangling a good two feet from the forest floor. The searing pain swept through Kira’s lower back as the impossibly sharp claw pushed through her skin and nicked her spinal column causing her legs to go limp and useless.

“There, there, Kira,” it giggled in her ear, its breath smelling like rotting fish and earth. “Don’t fight it. I look forward to giving you the privilege of being twisted into perfection for Sarnithis. He enjoys such beauties as you.”

She did not know if it was the pain or something about the creature who was dragging her to a torturous fate, but she could see in her mind, the following morning where the wardens would find her car miraculously back to where it had been, undamaged and the keys sitting on the cushion. They would look for her. For two weeks nobody would find her. They would even search around the cave but never see it, but it did not matter, she would have had her limbs and bones snapped and re-arranged into something beautiful for ‘it who breaks the veil’.

One thing was for certain. No one would see Kira again.

(C) 2024 by Jonathan Snyder. All Rights Reserved.

You know the internet has reached a breaking point when major news articles are now discussing enshittification and The Dead Internet theory. As someone who remembers as a child when the internet used to scream at you (and you capitalized the letter I), I and many others saw this coming.

The pattern was predictable in many ways. New technology is invented, enthusiasts begin to build communities and connections with technology like Usenets and forums, then corporations are born who say: “Look! Come be with us, we have the innovation, and we can do all the same things. Even better, we'll give it to you for free and do all the hard work.”

Thus, the silos were born, and then, in a matter of a decade, those people who joined the silos became food for the ads and now artificial intelligence.

I think it all came to a head when Elon Musk bought Twitter and destroyed it from the inside out. So many people had sworn Twitter was too strong, too important as a central source to be brought down by one man.

Boy, were they wrong. It is anecdotal, but I remember when everything circulated around Twitter. If you wanted to advertise your book, you went to Twitter. If you wanted to hang out with other authors, you went to Twitter. If you wanted to know anything and everything that was going on, you went to Twitter.

Twitter was a constant part of your life if you had a presence online, and there was always something new or interesting going on. You couldn't go a day without thinking about it or micro-blogging something to share with your author friends.

Now? I haven't had an account since April of 2022. There is no one there I know anymore, and the last time I stuck my head in, all I found were random complaints, racist trolls, and a bunch of ads for fake gacha games.

This isn't unique to Twitter. Google started it when they removed “Don't be evil” from their Code of Conduct in 2018. It was the Reddit Apocalypse when Steve Huffman decided that Reddit being a public company on the backs of unpaid moderators was the way to go, and then crushed the mod and user revolt so efficiently it would have made autocrats proud. Now Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Tumblr and WordPress' parent company Automattic, is going out of his way attacking a trans user and prepping the sale of all user data on both platforms to be sold to Midjourney and OpenAI.

These are just a few of the major incidents that have turned the once green grass silos into hellholes where the users are kept making content for free that companies can sell.

There is a growing trend online from what I can see of people wanting their internet and digital lives back. They want freedom from the system that's enslaved them.

Freedom is Difficult

For many seeking freedom, it's a challenge because companies have made it so easy to find content and get things curated that users struggle to understand how to do that now. If you go through a lot of articles on Mastodon and decentralized social media when Twitter collapsed and burned, people were confused on what to do, and no matter how simple people try to make it, nobody can grasp it.

If it's not the concept of federation, it's the whole curating of their own experience and the fact that they must participate instead of just sitting there and watching what comes in.

The users see the word social media and see social MEDIA when it is more correctly SOCIAL media. I'm not saying that we must give up on these people or that they are beyond hope. The internet is owned by all, and they deserve their digital freedom too. What I am confident we have to do as a community on the Fediverse is try and find ways to meet them in the middle and help them de-program and get their freedom back.

What are the Steps?

I don't have the answers to everything, nor am I stating that I do. I'm not a snake oil salesman writing this up so people think I have the answers. I don't. But what we need to start providing to those is:

  • Work on coming up with explanations that are as simple and user-friendly as possible.
  • A list of instances that are neutral and a good starting place for users to make a home until they get their feet under them.
  • Tutorials on how to live on the Fediverse that aren't overly complicated.

If we don't make this more approachable, then we will never expand in any meaningful way.

I had some spare cores on my proxmox server and I decided that I wanted to self host my own matrix server again. When I had gone to the official matrix-synapse page, I found that a lot had changed and, unfortunately, there install instructions are quite complicated unless you have a deep understanding of their system.

So! I decided to put together my own, little tutorial and some of the hurdles that I ran into and what wasn't clear to me.

Installing was the easy part. You can easily follow the tutorial that conduit has right here. Here are some of the hurdles I ran into

Reverse Proxy is a Little Finicky

I am using a reverse proxy where I have one machine taking all the connections and sending the traffic to a cluster of machines that I have in the backend. The Reverse proxy was not as easy as I thought it would be. I had decided to set mine up on port 8448 to receive the federated traffic while conduit itself ran on port 6167. When I initially setup my server config (I am using NGINX) I had the first server config grab the traffic and send it directly to 6167. It did NOT like that.

Let's say the internal IP address of my DMZ server is 192.168.10.1 and the machine that conduit is running on is 192.168.10.2. What I had to do was send the traffic from 192.168.10.1:8448 to 192.168.10.2:8448 and then the server config on 10.2 then had to be sent to 6167. I tried a few different ways and this was the only one I got to work. Maybe it's my lack of experience?

Also! One of the other quirks of this program is that it doesn't like http in any part of the flow. If you have your SSL certificates on the DMZ machine for 8448 and you're sending traffic to the internal 8448, conduit expects there to be certificates there too, even if the traffic is already being encrypted as the DMZ and the internal server is not at risk. It can even be different certificates. They just have to be there. If you don't do this you'll get a message along the lines of “Received an HTTP request when it should have been HTTPS” even though the entry server is SSL secured.

Here are the nginx config examples:

DMZ Server (192.168.10.1)

server {
        listen 8448;
        server_name WEBSITE.NAME;

        ssl_certificate /path/to/ssl/certificates/fullchain.pem;
        ssl_certificate_key /path/to/ssl/certificates/privkey.pem;

        ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;  # Ensure these protocols are enabled
        ssl_ciphers 'HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5';  # Use strong cipher

        location / {
                proxy_pass http://192.168.10.2:8448; #Not real. Just used for example.
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
        }

Conduit Server (192.168.10.2)

server {
    listen 8448 ssl;
    listen [::]:8448 ssl;

    server_name WEBSITE.NAME
    merge_slashes off;

    # Nginx defaults to only allow 1MB uploads
    # Increase this to allow posting large files such as videos
    client_max_body_size 20M;

        ssl_certificate /path/to/ssl/certificates/fullchain.pem;
        ssl_certificate_key /path/to/ssl/certificates/privkey.pem;

    location /_matrix/ {
        proxy_pass http://192.168.10.2:6167$request_uri;
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_buffering off;
        proxy_read_timeout 5m;

    }

}

Getting Admin Privileges for your new Server

If you have used Matrix Synapse in the past, you are probably used to being able to generate an admin user right up front with the CLI. This is not possible with conduit and it took me awhile (plus with some help from the users over at # conduit:fachschaften.org to get me on the right direction.

Once you are certain your server is up and running and the federation is working on 8448, you'll need to register an account with your new server first. This means going to a place that you can sign up for a server and go through the registration steps. I went to element.io, selected register, entered my own server's domain name, and then went through the registration process. You will need to give the registration code that you setup in conduit-example.toml and once it's done registering, you will then need to login with the said username and password. Again, I used Element. Once you do that, the very first account that logs in will be granted admin rights and it will generate a room named @conduit: and there you will be able to issue admin commands.

And that's it!

I hope this helps anyone else who was stumbling over Conduit and if this was obvious, well...I then have a lot more to learn.

If you've spent any time with Japanese media, you've likely encountered the story of a character being pursued by multiple members of the opposite gender. This is the hallmark of the harem genre, which has become both popular and somewhat controversial over the years (Ayers). While the concept may seem familiar, especially with its historical roots, the harem genre in Japanese media is quite different from its Western associations.

In the West, the term “harem” typically suggests the image of a group of women collected for the pleasure of nobility, sometimes linked with the idea of a brothel (“Harem”). However, in Japanese culture, the meaning is less about possession or sexual fantasy and more aligned with feelings of affection and romantic interest. The harem genre is considered a form of moé (萌え), a term used to describe the strong emotional attachment or affection felt towards characters in anime, manga, video games, and other media directed at the otaku community. Moé can refer to affection for any subject, but in the context of the harem genre, it captures the romantic attention the protagonist receives (“Moe (slang)”).

In the Japanese context, a harem typically involves three or more characters of the opposite gender who are romantically or affectionately interested in the protagonist. While most harem stories feature a male protagonist surrounded by female pursuers, there are also examples where the roles are reversed or where the characters are of the same gender (“Tropes”). This emotional and romantic dynamic, rather than a purely sexual one, is what defines the harem genre in Japan, making it distinct from the traditional Western view.

Classical Literature and Early Influences and Early influence on the Genre

The idea of romantic entanglements and relationships involving multiple love interests isn't new to Japanese storytelling. Long before the modern harem genre became popular in anime and manga, these themes were explored in classical Japanese literature. One of the best-known examples is The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu in the 11th century. Often called the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji revolves around the life of Hikaru Genji, a nobleman known for his numerous romantic relationships. Genji’s love life is complex, as he juggles affection for several women, each with her own distinct role in his story. While the tone is serious and deeply emotional, these entangled relationships are early examples of the kind of romantic complexity we now see in the harem genre.(“The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica”)

The Tale of Genji digs deep into the emotions and societal rules surrounding love and desire. Genji’s relationships aren’t just casual affairs, they involve a lot of emotional and social intricacies. For example, his secret love for his stepmother and his encounters with women from various social classes bring out themes of jealousy, obligation, and heartache. These themes where the protagonist is surrounded by multiple romantic interests, leading to complicated situations—are very similar to what we see in modern harem stories. Even though The Tale of Genji doesn’t have the lighthearted or comedic tone typical of today’s harem genre, it laid some of the groundwork for exploring relationships in this way. Besides The Tale of Genji, other early Japanese works also played with the idea of love triangles or multiple lovers. For instance, stories like the Ise Monogatari and Tosa Nikki tell tales of protagonists caught up in romantic relationships with more than one partner. These stories, like Genji’s, dealt with the emotional complexity and social consequences of such relationships, something that’s still present in modern harem narratives, though often with a more humorous or exaggerated twist.

When we compare these classical works to today’s harem genre, we can see a big difference in tone. The older stories were more about emotional depth and navigating social expectations, while modern harem anime and manga tend to lean more into comedy, fantasy, or even fanservice. Still, the basic concept of a central character being pursued by multiple romantic interests has remained a constant theme throughout the ages.

Post-War Era and the Rise of Manga/Anime

The modern harem genre really began to take shape in post-war Japan, especially through manga and anime. After World War II, Japan underwent a lot of cultural shifts, including changes in how stories were told in popular media. Manga and anime became huge platforms for exploring all kinds of new themes, including romance. As Japanese society began to rebuild, there was a shift in cultural norms and expectations when it came to pursuit of a marriage partner. (von Feigenblatt 643) Japanese culture at the time focused on stability with family building instead of any love or attraction between the partners but with the introduction of western ideals, young men and women who survived the war began to prioritize compatibility over what was previously expected. (von Feigenblatt 644)

One of the most influential early examples of the harem genre in manga and anime is Urusei Yatsura (1978-1987) by Rumiko Takahashi. The story follows a young man, Ataru Moroboshi, who finds himself caught in a chaotic love triangle with an alien princess, Lum, and several other women. What makes Urusei Yatsura so important is how it introduced comedy and the unexpected circumstance into the genre. Ataru’s constant misunderstandings and the attention he receives from multiple women—each with unique quirks—became a blueprint for future harem stories. The combination of humor, romantic tension, and a bit of chaos made the series wildly popular and set the tone for how the harem genre would evolve.

As we moved into the 1990s, interactive media like visual novels and dating sims became a big part of the harem genre’s development. These games allowed players to step into the role of a central character who could interact with multiple love interests, choosing different paths and outcomes. Dating sims let players experience the fantasy of being pursued by various romantic partners, each with their own storyline. This interactive element deepened audience engagement, as fans could shape the romantic narrative themselves. These types of games made the harem dynamic even more popular, and they helped solidify the genre’s place in Japanese pop culture.

The Modern Harem Genre and Its Popularization

By the 1990s and early 2000s, the harem genre experienced a major boom, solidifying its place in Japanese pop culture. During this period, key works like Love Hina (1998-2001) and Tenchi Muyo! (1992) set the foundation for what would become the standard tropes of the genre. Love Hina is often credited with popularizing the idea of a male protagonist surrounded by several female love interests, each with distinct personalities and backgrounds. The story follows Keitaro, a clumsy, well-meaning guy who becomes the manager of an all-girls dormitory. As expected, romantic tension, misunderstandings, and comedic situations arise as the female characters develop feelings for him. Similarly, Tenchi Muyo! follows Tenchi Masaki, who finds himself in a similar situation when a group of alien women move into his home, creating chaos and romantic tension.

Both series helped to cement the harem genre’s defining characteristics. At the heart of these stories is the dynamic between a central, often average male protagonist and multiple women who are romantically interested in him. The genre typically blends romantic tension with lighthearted comedy, often through misunderstandings, awkward situations, and, at times, suggestive or ecchi elements. This combination of humor and romance is key to the genre's appeal, allowing it to reach a broad audience. The formula often creates a sense of escapism, where viewers can enjoy the fantasy of being the center of attention in an otherwise impossible romantic situation.

As the genre grew in popularity, subgenres and variations began to emerge. One of the most notable offshoots is the reverse harem, where the roles are flipped, and a female protagonist is surrounded by multiple male love interests. Examples like Fushigi Yûgi, Fruits Basket and Ouran High School Host Club brought the genre to women. In these stories, the female protagonist faces a similar dynamic—navigating romantic attention from multiple male characters while dealing with comedic and dramatic situations.

It did not take long for authors and mangaka to begin blending this moe with other popular styles like taking the seinen action stories and blending them to create action harem. This is where the romantic plot is interwoven with high-stakes battles and supernatural elements. High School DxD light novels and following anime are a prominent example of this subgenre as is believed to be one that popularized this type.

Conclusion

The harem genre has evolved significantly from its early roots in classical Japanese literature to become a defining element of modern manga, anime, and visual media. What began with stories like The Tale of Genji, which explored complex romantic entanglements, has transformed into a genre that offers both humor and escapism, reflecting deeper cultural ideals about love, relationships, and societal roles. From the post-war emergence of manga and anime, with pioneering works like Urusei Yatsura, to the rise of interactive visual novels in the 1990s, the genre has continually adapted to meet the changing tastes of its audience.

Harem stories have left a lasting impact on contemporary media, not just in Japan but worldwide. The genre’s appeal, particularly in the way it creates fantasies of choice and agency in relationships, has resonated across cultural boundaries. It has also inspired variations like the reverse harem and action-oriented harems, ensuring its broad reach and lasting popularity.

References

  • Ayers, Nelson. “Demystifying the Enduring Popularity of the Harem Genre.” 33rd Square, Urban Walkabout Ltd, 4 Nov. 2023, www.33rdsquare.com/demystifying-the-enduring-popularity-of-the-harem-genre/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2024.
  • The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “The Tale of Genji | History, Summary, and Importance.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 29 Aug. 2024, www.britannica.com/topic/The-Tale-of-Genji
  • Tropes, Contributors to Tv. “Harem Genre.” TV Tropes, 30 Sept. 2024, tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HaremGenre. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024
  • von Feigenblatt, Otto Federico. “A socio-cultural analysis of romantic love in Japanese harem animation: A Buddhist monk, a Japanese knight, and a samurai.” Journal of Asia Pacific Studies 1.3 (2010): 636-646.
  • Wikipedia contributors. “Harem.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 22 Oct. 2024. Web. 24 Oct. 2024.
  • Wikipedia contributors. “Moe (slang).” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 10 Oct. 2024. Web. Accessed 24 Oct. 2024

tags: #uspol #musing #essay

When I booted up my laptop, opened the drafting page to my #writefreely blog, I did not know what i would write. What you are reading is a flow of consciousness I am making while I try to process my feelings, thoughts, and opinions around the events the world has been going through.

When humanity came out of the COVID pandemic, many thought (including myself) that hope and reason were back on the horizon. President Biden, though not a really good choice, had done a lot to try and improve the damage done by Donald Trump, the vaccine was going quickly, the economy was rebuilding, and we were improving faster than many countries around the world. The United States was back on track to become a trusted ally again with the rest of the world. Then 2024 happened.

We have now dealing with: * The election of a convicted felon to the office of the presidency. * The attempted overthrow of the South Korean government. * The assassination of the CEO of United Healthcare. * The current president Biden considering preemptive pardons to stop the inevitable revenge from the adjudicated rapist.

What the fuck is going on?

There is so much hate.

It's unfortunate but I have a sneaky suspicion that we have reached a point in our modern civilization where the cracks that we have been pretending don't exist are no so exposed that there is no way to continue hiding it. There is only one collective emotion left. Hate.

MAGA supporters voted in a criminal because they hate the liberals. The assassin who killed the United Healthcare CEO appears to have done it out of hate for insurance(This is based on reporting at the time of this article about the writing on the bullets that mock the tactics of insurance companies to not pay out claims), and the hate of people against others.

I am not a soothsayer nor a political analyst but the writing on the wall seems the point of changing our course towards the violence that is coming was back in 2015. The hate is not going to go away until it burns itself out and it's going to be destructive.

The Next Four Years

I am an optimist. I want to believe the best of people but I have also studied enough history to know when people get this angry, there is very little that can be done to stop it. Under Trump (I refuse to call a convicted criminal President), we are going to see the christo-fascist Nazis exact revenge for the perceived slights of 2020 to 2024. We're going to see worse than children in cages if the Republicans in Congress don't wake up.

I don't have a lot of hope but I do know that I haven't given up. I plan to continue to help my fellow humans, but I have reached the point that I think people are done talking because nobody was listening.

Violence is never the answer until you make it the only answer left.

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