Alter Kaker

I'm a Jew and a parent. Child refugee from the USSR (1990) and Israeli expat (2006). US resident.

A nominally senior software engineer, working on a variety of backend systems at a multinational company in the entertainment and hospitality sector.

Public Key

npub1hxppznzlflq5ynffg99u6dqj7gc29c2k7j3pl2a7ljxhmy88mndqwzpx5y

NIP-05 Address

alter_kaker@hachyderm-io.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqstnqs3f305ls2zf555zj7dxsf0yv9zu9t0fgsl4wl0ertajrnaekspz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dslplupy

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1hxppznzlflq5ynffg99u6dqj7gc29c2k7j3pl2a7ljxhmy88mndqwzpx5y

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Last Notes

2026-10-18 17:11:27 UTC

Anyone have any idea how to troubleshoot an old Gameport joystick? It was tested working on WinXP, but when I took it home Win95 said it wasn't connected properly. Do I need to get a second joystick/soundcard, or are there other things I can do to test? Eg. how can I check the gameport device configuration?
#RetroComputing

2026-10-10 20:32:06 UTC

What did the precipitously aging man do to feel young again?
#RetroComputing
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/117/418/509/188/181/585/original/ccda10b860ac4d94.jpg

2026-10-07 01:37:38 UTC

Does anyone here in #Minneapolis (Longfellow area) have knowledge of reasonable childcare? I've heard there are such things as nanny shares that might be more reasonable...
I really have to find something for the twins by the time I start my new job next week.
Boosts welcome

2026-08-21 02:58:02 UTC

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@nprofile…5876 I'm being forced to use llms at work, and lately I've been experiencing intense rage while using the chatbot at least once a day. What's the point of being angry at a machine? But like you said, I can't turn it off as much as I try.

2026-08-21 01:14:05 UTC

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@nprofile…vdqu do you have any of the resources you used laying around? I'd really appreciate that. I've heard of Authelia, it's just difficult to find good reliable help docs at my level

2026-08-21 01:02:57 UTC

Another, related #SelfHosting question. I have a VPS, and I want to host a Forgejo instance and NextCloud for me and a small group of friends. I would like to have SSO for those two things.
What's the easiest way to do that? I'm not an expert, I just want it to work. Bonus points if it's reproducible. If you have a link to some tutorial that will wall me through it, that would be fantastic.
Boosts welcome.

2026-07-25 00:58:44 UTC

What I really want is a top of the line 486 with DOS 6.22, or maybe a Pentium with Win95, to relive my long-lost childhood. Due to budget and space constraints, and since apparently VirtualBox is no longer "in," I will learn how to run qemu on Debian Trixie and set it up that way. Tips welcome.
#retrocomputing

2026-07-05 19:28:40 UTC

Hey #music people who know about #piano education: I need a few books that will help me get from "was a promising student 30 years ago" to "can play acceptable parlor/swing piano" or at least keep me busy for a year or two on the way there. I can read music, I've played various instruments but very little piano since I was a kid.
I'm thinking maybe a couple of technical etude books and some enjoyable music to play. I think I might have some Scott Joplin sheet music lying around already.
I'm ready to put in the time but I just can't pay for lessons.
Boosts welcome

2026-07-02 13:32:05 UTC

Do you know the story of the slogan, מיר וועלן זיי איבערלעבן (mir veln zay iberlebn, we will outlive them)?
When the Nazis sadistically forced Jews at Lublin on the death march to sing, they started to sing לאמיר זיך איבערבעטן, (lomir zich iberbetn, let's reconcile), a religious song about reconciliation with God, but without enthusiasm.
Then (according to the story) someone chose to change the lyric to מיר וועלן זיי איבערלעבן (mir veln zay iberlebn, we will outlive them, i. e., the Nazis). Then the singing became so enthusiastic that the Nazis stopped the singing and dancing.
Now today, the slogan is used in a general anti-fascist manner. People get it done on banners or for tattoos.
According to a reliable source, recently it has been sometimes referred to as a "traditional Yiddish anti-Zionist slogan.
Antizionists MAY use it of course! But please don't claim that it is a "traditional Yiddish anti-Zionist slogan," because it most decidedly is not! Please don't erase the memory of those who were exterminated by the Nazis.
I have a very low opinion of someone who would do something like this. It shows a total lack of any sense of duty or loyalty to anyone but oneself, and also a complete detachment from reality.
People who would deliberately or unthinkingly rip those words out of their historical context, and appropriate them for the service of their personal political goals (however admirable; I was getting court martialed for refusing to follow IDF orders around the time a lot of those people were getting born), have neither the sense of responsibility to honor their ancestors, nor the honesty to confront the world as it is rather than is it would be personally convenient for them to be, nor the wisdom to assume anyone else's frame of reference even for the sake of learning.
Such people are (or choose to be) only capable of projecting their own ideas and prejudices on others in whatever way benefits and comforts them personally.
It is the same "post-truth" attitude that fuels the
Inquities of the Right (including Zionism, by the way!) and even if it does not offend you as it does me, know that no good will come of it.

2026-06-04 22:21:22 UTC

Hey #3dprinting folks, anyone want to help me learn about making models for dual color printing? It's for a good cause
Boosts welcome.

2026-05-29 13:43:52 UTC

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@nprofile…f86m I hate this

2026-05-21 22:47:22 UTC

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@nprofile…gt58 I once had an idea to build single book presses, with the text laser engraved on the plates. Show up with a set of plates and a big crank
@nprofile…a4ar @nprofile…fk9u

2026-04-22 18:56:52 UTC

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@nprofile…5rtp "Among many European tourists taking pictures with the new attraction, one Belarusian family stood out.
With no direct flights from the EU to Belarus due to sanctions, they are living the consequences of human-made borders daily. As he watched his children on the swing, the father expressed a deep longing. “Hopefully, borders will no longer be necessary in the future.”"
😭

2026-03-19 20:47:05 UTC

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@nprofile…44dh what if evil is both individual and social, and has both individual and social remedies in the appropriate contexts?

2026-03-01 08:21:37 UTC

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@nprofile…vsjg Jericho is still inhabited, though.

2026-02-24 22:51:08 UTC

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@nprofile…f86m antisemitic trash

2026-01-30 01:36:31 UTC

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@nprofile…pfuj you're not going to like this but maybe you can install something like Termux on those chromebooks and teach the students to use nvim 😜
Probably not, though. Learning Python AND a totally different way to edit text would be tough for most students, although for a few it might be great.

2026-01-21 23:03:49 UTC

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@nprofile…pfuj what's a mail merge?

2026-01-18 22:08:06 UTC

Court ruling "didn't change anything." So now what?
#Minneapolis #USPol
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/115/918/372/139/995/261/original/058a674c990de16d.jpg

2026-01-14 03:28:23 UTC

Jan 23, not your social media "general strike"
"Major labor unions in #Minnesota are supporting the call, including Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1005, SEIU Local 26, UNITE HERE Local 17, CWA Local 7250, and St. Paul Federation of Educators Local 28 — and organizers expect this list to grow."
Even without the MFT, this list of unions is enough to bring the metro to a standstill if the membership actually participates.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/minneapolis-renee-good-ice-shooting-labor-unions
#Minneapolis

2026-01-12 03:37:31 UTC

One of my earliest memories concerns the air raid sirens from the first Gulf War, when I was five or six. I remember the Safe Room, which had brown packing tape over the power outlets and around the windows, supposedly to help protect against chemical weapons. Our building didn't have a bomb shelter.
I remember being woken up night after night, to go sit in the Safe Room with the brown plastic tape. There was also a record player and a couple of couches. For some reason—I'm not sure if this is an authentic part of the memory—there was nothing on the walls, just blank, slightly dirty white paint, even though our apartment walls were always full of pictures, books, decorative porcelain plates...
Despite tge tape, we still had to put on gas masks. I had a special one for kids, with a hood and a big blue briefcase looking thing with the filter and a respirator fan.¹
So night after night, go to bed, have a nightmare, get woken up, go to the weird bare room with the packing tape and the record player, and sit there with the gas mask on until the all-clear came.
Eventually, I just refused to go to bed. I put my foot down and told my parents that I won't sleep until after the air raid, because I'm tired of being woken up in the middle of the night every night.
These past few days I can't stop thinking about that feeling. #Minneapolis, this is what you are feeling now. The unbearable tension of waiting for the blow to strike, so that it should come and go already...
This is what war feels like.
And I still don't want to sleep. But I have to, for my babies.
¹This made me mad. I wanted the same cool looking grown up gas masks the grown ups had. My mother once let me try hers on. It turned out that my little six year old lungs weren't strong enough to pull air through the filter.

2026-01-08 03:07:23 UTC

"Dear MPS families,
Out of an abundance of caution, there will be no school on Thursday, January 8, 2026 and Friday, January 9, 2026 due to safety concerns related to today's incidents around the city.
All MPS-sponsored programs, activities, athletics, Community Education, including Adult Education, will be canceled. The District will not move to e-learning because that is only allowable for severe weather.
MPS will continue collaborating with the City of Minneapolis and other partners on emergency preparedness and response.
Sincerely,
#Minneapolis Public Schools"

2025-12-30 23:00:17 UTC

Edit: now that my wife was arrested protesting in South Minneapolis, I had to take some time off work to support her and the babies, and things got rather more dire. Now we need help to pay for the car AND rent...
OK, this is #MutualAid / #BegPosting time.
The car needs a new transmission.
https://www.paypal.me/derpayatz
We finally got a car last month, after a year of bus and bike travel, but with the state of public transit where we live made it too difficult with the twins, who just turned two in October. It's a used car, in pretty good condition. Or so I thought...
Even though I'm employed (in this economy? Thank God), we are at the end of the rope financially. We are living paycheck to paycheck and very deeply in debt. This car repair bill is really more than we can handle right now, and I really hope that you can help me raise the money before the car just dies completely.
Please help. It's $900-$2000 for a used transmission, and $1000 for labor. I'm going to put the middle number here as a goal.
For what it's worth, I'm an immigrant and child of immigrants, and the only wealth I got from my parents is their love for me, and the love of learning they instilled in me. Insofar as I have anything at all, it goes back to those two things.
Please please boost! And if you see it after boosting, you can re-boost by un-boosting and boosting again. Or, if you had good interactions with me here, you could even quote-boost!
https://www.paypal.me/derpayatz
$117/$2450

2025-12-15 22:46:31 UTC

#Signal always has this problem where it doesn't consistently deliver messages in a timely manner unless it's open in the foreground. With #grapheneOS it seems to be even worse. Does anyone have a solution or mitigation? I haven't been able to figure out how to allow it to always run in the background.

2025-12-14 20:21:00 UTC

Since we are having a big day for antisemitism, here's a thought:
As a Jew (and a human being who cares about humanity, including Jews), I am simply not interested in any political theory, movement, or tendency that doesn't include a credible theory of antisemitism, and a serious praxis around it.
This includes Zionism, whose theories of antisemitism range from self-serving projection to magical, essentialist trash, and whose praxis ranges from bad-faith weaponization to compulsive violence; and it also includes antizionism, whose theory ranges from self-serving projection to outright denial, and whose praxis ranges from bad-faith projection to compulsive glorification of violence.
To the right, we are mascots or useful tools (or targets, for the honest ones), and on the left we are in a peculiar situation where we are required to be on the side of everyone else, no matter what, to be considered for a tentative membership in humanity, but no one (including us) may be on our side, because some of us have been known to do bad things.
It's an absolutely intolerable situation which, Divine guarantees aside, directly threatens our survival, since if we can't have reciprocal allies on the left we don't have anyone, and a small nation cannot survive in this world without allies.
This is why I've pretty much abandoned politics, aside from making angry and cynical statements such as this.

2025-11-25 23:05:33 UTC

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@nprofile…e4ry it was definitely not suburban—very tiny, very efficient, good for small apartments. I was in a reproduction one in a museum once. You can basically reach anywhere just stretching out your arm but somehow there's room to do real prep. Like a WV beetle, I guess. If only the Germans stuck to designing nice small things for people

2025-11-25 23:01:53 UTC

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@nprofile…e4ry have you seen the modernist German kitchen designs from the 30s? Or maybe 20s... Anyway they were designed so that anything can be reached sitting down on a rolling stool

2025-11-10 17:14:41 UTC

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@nprofile…n7x3 I don't know if you've ever heard of Janusz Korczak, back in the day he was called "the Marx of Children." I read his diary from the Warsaw Ghetto when I was a teen and it had a great deal of influence on me.
https://www.librarything.com/work/1304235/161618923
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_Korczak

2025-11-06 02:28:12 UTC

I try to avoid posting about Jewish stuff on here but I've been itching to say something for days.
In my opinion Mamdani's promise to defend the right of Jews to determine what is taught in their yeshivas tells me that he actually understands the interests of American Jews are much better than some creep who wants to go to the Hague to defend Netanyahu. Or American Jews who attack autonomy for American Jews, and substitute it with fanatical support for Jewish supremacy in a country they don't even live in.

2025-10-28 22:13:53 UTC

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@nprofile…zjv9 I was never able to get past the first few episodes of Babylon 5 because 1. it felt fashy, and 2. the character that was a horrible caricature of a Russian

2025-10-17 00:25:07 UTC

Anybody got a recommendation for a typing game with reactive difficulty level and reasonably fun gameplay?

2025-06-16 22:58:25 UTC

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@nprofile…4dwe he's learning from the IDF, it looks like

2025-06-13 17:03:43 UTC

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@nprofile…60lz Regarding private schools. I'm going into debt sending one of my kids to private school, where they can get kosher lunch and aren't presented with the choice of either hiding their Jewishness or being asked about their horns, enduring shrieks of "devil," and having their grades reduced by teachers for observing Jewish holidays. My wealth level is "rent is 40% of pre-tax income."

2025-06-12 16:04:37 UTC

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I can code in Java, Kotlin, Rust, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, Lua, Python, and probably anything else that's required. I speak English, Russian, and Hebrew fluently, Yiddish at an intermediate level, and I am learning French.

2025-06-12 15:22:49 UTC

#GetFediHired I am a software engineer with 4 years of experience at backend development and a US resident at risk of repression due to immigration status and history of political activism. I am looking for a Canadian employer who will sponsor me for a work visa, ideally to start in the winter or next spring (2026) in Montreal or remotely anywhere in Canada. If you have any information that would help my search, please let me know.
I do not wish to be deported to Israel, where my children will be forced to serve in the IDF.
Boosts welcome

2025-06-08 20:08:14 UTC

Hey any #math people here? I have a math problem that I need someone to explain to me like I'm 10.
The math problem is like this: if I have a 2d projection of a 3d landscape, things get smaller as they get farther away. So let's say that there's an object that is moving from position 1 to position 2. I know how much smaller this object gets, but I don't know 3d coordinates or anything, only 2d. I want to calculate what should be the apparent velocity on the projection. Obviously on the y axis it should be slower! But by how much? I have to figure this out only from the change in the object size.
Yes, this is #GameDev math.

2025-06-08 14:09:44 UTC

Another question for folks knowledgeable in #Godot #GameDev. I'm working on a game with 2d hand-drawn (not rendered) backgrounds and sprites. I can simulate perspective by drawing a grayscale depth-map of the walkable areas, and use that to scale size and speed for things that are at a greater distance (depth). So far so good. It's adequate, but not very flexible. What if I want my character to be able to crest a hill in a scene that has a flat angle viewpoint? It would need to actually go "backwards" a little, but be obscured by the top of the hill... This would also mess up the Y-sorting and everything.
So my question is, what are some considerations for trying to do this in a 3d world, but fake the 2d look? An invisible 3d mesh to move on, billboarding, and so on? It should look the same, kind of along the lines of the old LucasArts adventures.
Obviously whether or not it's "worth it" is a judgment call, but I'd like to have a little more information on what it looks like to implement this.
EDIT: This is silly, why make things more complicated when they already work?!!

2025-06-01 20:12:52 UTC

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@nprofile…4dwe
Do you think that there hasn't been another huge mobilization because putting is still worries about the opposition, or just because they can't process that many draftees? Or they just don't need more than how many they are drafting every month?
I've read some views that this may lead to escalation because of the damage to Russia's nuclear deterrent. Do you think that this attack was so unprecedented? Do you think that it changes the strategic picture?

2025-05-05 21:40:00 UTC

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@nprofile…args certainly one can. I tend to think of Egypt as the original archetype of tyranny, and I haven't really looked for anything else, because it's a useful bit of mythology, in the sense that it gives me a vocabulary to think of certain things which is also linked to my own history and present. I don't begrudge anyone else's finds though 🙂
And of course, despite anything Pharaoh might say, Pharaoh isn't Egypt!

2025-05-05 21:32:16 UTC

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@nprofile…args I think that Egypt and the pharaohs mean entirely different things to you and me

2025-04-29 19:25:50 UTC

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@nprofile…4dwe I can't read Ukrainian, does this mean some draft officers that are particularly despised, or just draft officers in general?

2025-04-16 17:28:41 UTC

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@nprofile…4dwe 'Viraj Solanki, a research fellow at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies think-tank, said India faced challenges selling its newer and more high-end wares.
"Unless it starts using its indigenous equipment more frequently and demonstrating its effectiveness, it is likely to struggle to convince potential buyers," he said.' 😬

2025-03-26 23:32:33 UTC

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@nprofile…args I first heard Phillip Glass from a tape I got at a thrift store driving through Texas around 2009 or '10. We had just bought a 1987 Suburban that had only a tape deck and a radio, so we needed something to listen to.
I liked the look of the tape. We also got Raffi for the baby.
Listening to Glass while driving through the massive, chaotic interchanges around San Antonio was an unforgettable experience.
#music

2025-01-27 23:16:28 UTC

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@nprofile…leq3
No, i2s is not available. Also something within me just wanted to use a parallel 8-bit connection. It felt more right for this application. I am writing 8-bit values directly to the register on a timer interrupt. What's cooler than that?

2025-01-27 21:30:23 UTC

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@nprofile…leq3
I am working on something similar too. I'm using 8-bit output on 8 pins and struggling to find the right DAC chip. For now I have a R2R DAC and using op-amps instead of a real amp...
This is running on an Arduino Nano.
Possibly the best part was writing a WAV player from scratch, which for a Java dev like me is a totally novel experience 😊
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/902/447/670/697/577/original/728f9618c10289c6.jpg

2024-11-15 00:16:03 UTC

Does anyone know an #Arduino module to receive data from USB at high speed?

2024-07-04 20:31:11 UTC

There are folks I know including myself with seniority on the Left ranging from 50 years to 20 years who are ringing the alarm about antisemitism on the left and it's really amazing how many people just want to make excuses of assert that Jews are not oppressed enough for antisemitism to be a thing

2024-06-27 22:49:35 UTC

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@npub19st…u9g9 everyone should remove Anne Frank's Diary, but Maus is very good as I'm sure are most of the rest of the books

2024-06-14 15:06:01 UTC

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@npub1nq0…n00m life and stamina

2024-05-24 23:29:12 UTC

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@npub19fc…ay3c the problem with traitor is that anyone can be called one. And mostly it's people like you and me who get stuck with that title

2024-05-23 00:42:15 UTC

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@npub19fc…ay3c what else are you going to do

2024-05-21 17:18:20 UTC

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@npub19fc…ay3c now what

2024-05-20 17:46:22 UTC

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@npub19fc…ay3c increasingly looks like everyone is getting ready for the Big One. I'm not sure why they are expecting anyone to win it

2024-05-20 16:46:59 UTC

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@npub19fc…ay3c Caesaria was established BCE and the Romanization of Gaul started with Julius Caesar. Not to mention Romania (what used to be Dacia before)

2024-05-20 16:44:35 UTC

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@npub19fc…ay3c well, western Europe except for some of the north-western edges where the Romans didn't reach, like Brittany, Galicia in Spain, Ireland, and Scotland

2024-05-19 15:43:39 UTC

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@npub19fc…ay3c it's a Hamas unit I think. Maybe there's more than one?

2024-05-06 16:48:53 UTC

What's the best headless #CMS to pair with @npub1z9m…rz2z #Eleventy for user friendly content editing and custom content types?

2024-05-06 04:17:23 UTC

We need more of this kind of representation
"We are Jewish faculty and staff at UCLA, of various degrees of religious observance and cultural practice, various racial and class backgrounds, and from multiple parts of the world. We are also Jews of different political persuasions, including but not limited to Jews who are anti-Zionist, non-Zionist, and Zionist."
Well written, reasonable, and important
https://sites.google.com/view/ucla-jewish-faculty-staff/

2023-08-10 16:17:18 UTC

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@npub1qmc…v6gx
How many workers (in an industry where everyone is supposed to be paid a lot, how come you can't afford $26) are going to write a personal email to the publisher begging for pricing accommodation, and how many are just going to move on and wait for someone else to organize a union?
They could have just had a pay-what-you-want thing for the ebook and saved people both time and embarrassment.
@npub1xl7…ss7c

2023-07-17 17:45:00 UTC

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@npub19fc…ay3c glad I decided not to watch this tbh