Definitely! But speaking of pen-testing, there are some “funny” stories about pen-testers getting temporarily apprehended and questioned by security or the authorities when communication between their employer and their client wasn’t done properly. I wonder if the IT Crowd at my agency would notice if I did an unsanctioned, unauthorized port scan from my office desktop…

https://nmap.org/book/legal-issues.html

Yep, true story. Besides from the particulars in the GDPR that affects EU citizens, I think there is a more generalized disclaimer in the nmap manual about doing certain scans.

It’s late and I need to sleep so I’ll just paste some links for now, but you are talking about such a wide variety of issues that’s it kind of hard to give a short, succinct answer.

Some privacy tips that I follow, by Naomi Brockwell: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt3zZ-N423gXV-0pdxnRn-nw0WzVKh4NY

Same, but by Rob Braxman: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKqVMfkpsufHUWAwU9nnkHnhSRH1TBgF3

In my country, simply scanning for hosts/IP addresses could get you implicated, since IP addresses are under certain circumstances regarded as PII according to the GDPR. So… stay safe xD

Never thought of it that way. Just tried it because I didn’t know what else to do. We never made concrete plans, but she did point out before we started, that I have to manage my expectations because some problems may have direct solutions while others don’t. And that some problems I will have to learn to coexist with, instead of “getting rid of” them.

But yeah, that’s a nice way of putting it. I did gain some things, attained some goals.

Thanks! Funny you say that, since I was just trying to learn some íslenska just for the fun xD I visited Ísland once with my ex wife. The blue lagoon was too “touristy” for my taste xD but the landscape was just amazing. Other worldly. And I miss skyr xD Thanks again for the encouragement! Takk fyrir!

Thank you so much for saying there is nothing wrong with me! That felt really good!

I have been putting off visiting Japan because I’m afraid of what I might feel. I’m afraid to confront my feelings. What if I only feel regrets? But I will go there one day and I will face my feelings.

PS: I absolutely hear what you are pointing out regarding Japan’s ignorance toward mental health and nature. I wouldn’t weight it against emotional intelligence though. They too are victims of their country’s history and politics. The rebuilding of the nation after WW2 required them to adapt a mentality that put aside mental and physical health and environmental awareness for the sake of economic prosperity and metropolitan visuals. Even after becoming an economic superpower in the 80’s, they never let go of this mentality, which in my opinion is what Westerners often perceive as them having unhealthy and unsustainable work ethics. But yeah, I wouldn’t wish their laboring conditions on anybody.

Thank you so much for your kind words! 😊 I will take them to heart. Especially the part about self soothing.

Thanks for your input! In was thinking the same. I want to try managing myself on my own for a while, with the tools that I acquired. And I can always resume therapy if I feel the need.

I am not quite qualified to answer your question. My simplest guess is that those tropes make money because they trigger something in people, affect dopamine production or whatever and in turn make more money? Idk.

Anyway, your post made me think of a Japanese girl (one of the two girls who made the duet Namakopuri that made some soundtracks for the game Cyberpunk 2077. After “disbanding”, she continued to use the duet’s YouTube channel, on which she later announced that she is doing a 生前葬 (for non hanzi/kanji readers: “a pre-death funeral”). To concept was so crazy for me at first. But just like some others commented on your post, maybe it’s about creating good memories with people that matter to you. In that sense, I understand why a pre-death funeral could be nice: you decide how to do it, who to invite, etc.

I would recommend formulating your threat model before doing anything else. There is a lot of materials on the topic on the world wide web, but for starters, ask yourself and answer the question, what information about yourself would you like to keep secret and why.

Again, before anything else, subscribe to an email alias service - maybe there are free ones out there too, I don’t know. This way, you don’t have to share your real email address and you can turn off or even delete that attack vector at anytime.*

Finally, regarding Bandcamp, I have never uses it myself so my understanding of your situation is poor to say the least, but are not able to simply save the links in a text file? Again, I’m not trying to play down the situation, I just don’t understand it.

*This is basically what I do with almost all my services that need registration: I give them an email alias, a randomly generated cyberpunk name and create a 30 characters long password with a password manager. The only services where this doesn’t anonymize you are those that require your payment information, which is often tied to your real identity. Had I been living in the US, I would have used those anonymous prepaid debit cards that work like email aliases, but for your debit or credit cards.

LOL AdAway blocked liberux.net wtf😂 but thanks! The specs are surprisingly good too! :O

Right, then I’ll just stay on my current build, being careful not to flash an OS update 😈

But in all seriousness, couldn’t one manage without OS updates - relying on only proper cyber hygiene and opsec - until a more viable solution comes up? 🤔