恭喜發財

It’s a new year, so I’ve decided to completely change the font on my blog + add some new styling! Otherwise the site is largely the same.

I helped clean the kitchen this year so that Chinese Santa (who does not give you tangible gifts, but is supposed to bring me good fortune for the coming year, and maybe put a good word in for me with God or something. My mom is never very clear about it, but I clean up anyway) would not be ashamed of me. ^^ And my mom sent me noodles. Other than that, the Year of the Tiger has been pretty low-key so far. I had an exam, and I got back my quiz grade from last week: 100%! :D Now I just have to do even better than that on the upcoming exam this week (literally impossible). I wonder why professors always schedule their exams on the same week. Are they colluding to make students extra stressed out?

My new work assignment started with a whimper as the authentication method they assigned to my VPN software is out of date, so I cannot connect to their network. I still get paid for attending the meeting, however, so it’s OK I guess. I’m looking forward to actually getting to work for real though. Getting paid to do nothing when I can be doing something makes me feel like a good-for-nothing layabout.

Speaking of VPN, does anyone else get kind of sketched out when Youtubers aggressively advertise VPNs to you in their videos? I always skip past, but I always get the impression that the VPN companies really want to have your business when they advertise so desperately. It turns me off, lol. I’ve never used a VPN for anything particularly personal though, so that’s just my bias I suppose. It’s just been work use, eduroam, accessing university documents when I was in undergrad, bypassing paywalls, and so on. I know the whole thing with the VPN is so that your ISP doesn’t harvest your data, but then you’re just paying someone else to harvest your data instead. I guess it’s useful if you have a seedbox or are doing some really high-volume torrenting on a public tracker like an idiot.

And even with avoiding the government, most of those high-advertisement VPN companies are based in countries where you have to legally hand over records if subpoenaed, or they’re in countries that have formal/informal agreements with other governments to hand over information, so even whistleblowers and political dissidents are lulled into a false sense of security. This musing brought to you by finding out that a bunch of VPNs and VPN review websites were all bought out by a shady company well known for platforming malware distribution (and colluding with the government). In the end, you are just trading your trust in your ISP for trust in your VPN provider. And the type of VPN company that aggressively advertises to Youtubers sounds like no good to me.

Pivoting wildly from that, I have been playing Pokemon: Arceus Legends and it’s been a lot of fun! I constantly get the shit kicked out of my poor little mons because I’m always trying to fight the terrifyingly overleveled alpha Pokemon in my area. But I’ve caught two shinies, which is an infinite amount more than I’ve ever had (zero). Sadly there is no fictional Pokemon character who’s caught my eye the same way my beloved Nanu from Sun and Moon did. I guess it was like lightning in a bottle lol.

Uh, let’s see… what else… I also finished watching JJBA part 3 and started part 4. It’s amazing how much more likable Jotaro becomes when he isn’t the main Jojo. I’m looking forward to meeting the sexy and delectable Yoshikage Kira. I read a doujinshi where some subway molester groped him on a train and he was so dedicated to living his peaceful life that he didn’t protest at all. Truly anime wife material…♪

I’m joking of course but I really do like that sort of character.

I hope you have a great Lunar New Year and have good health and fortune throughout the year 🐯🧧