30.3.22
Well, it's happening again. Happened again - I'm writing this after the fact. It's so strange, to sit peacefully on my laptop, the sky visible through my window... and the knowledge that hundreds, possibly thousands of homes are damaged or destroyed.
Again.

My friend is sending me semi-regular photo updates of the water outside their house - still rising. It's like the most horrific sense of deja vu. I wish I was there with them, if only to help ease this horrible survivor's guilt. I almost was, in fact - I was meant to stay with them tonight. I was going to ask if I could stay last night, as well, but didn't know how to bring it up. Now I'm out here and they're in there. Last time they were trapped for nearly a week. This flood seems less severe, but I'm willing to bet this time there'll be less aid as well.

I think I'm going to dedicate part of my holidays to flood clean-up. I desperately need a break, but others need my time more than I do, y'know? And I guess I am having a break right now, even if it doesn't feel like it. If I can, I'd like to spend a bit of time doing maths today so I don't fall too far behind, and can spend the weekend helping instead of catching up.

I just wish this wasn't happening now, but I guess there's not really a good time for it to happen.

24.3.22
I hate web cookies so much it's unreal. I've set my browser to block every third party cookie by default, and things still work fine... almost as if we don't need them. I try to embed a youtube video: immediately, third party cookies. I try to add a cbox: third party cookies. Even pages that logically shouldn't need them use third party cookies, and I'm sick of it. Did you know Facebook - sorry, Meta - can and does build up ad profiles on you, even if you personally don't have an account? I didn't. It's absolutely horrific. Not to mention! it's so difficult to access a page without accepting cookies. I do my best to decline all of them, but sometimes I just have to give up, they're layered under so many hoops to jump through. I'm just so tired of having to actively defend my privacy every time I open a new webpage.

If you're designing a website: PLEASE think about whether you truly need that iframe. Use the nocookie option for embedding youtube videos, and make it easy for a user to decline all tracking cookies. And if you're a user: familiarise yourself with your browser settings. Disable third party cookies and autofill. Clear your existing cookies. It isn't that difficult to sign in each time you need a website. Chrome especially, there are SO many little settings that are enabled by default that any reasonable person would want disabled.