Blogging

Ever wake up to 200 new newsletter signups and think “Wow, I finally made it!”

Yeah… me too. Until I realized none of them verified their email addresses. Not a single one.

My newsletters got spammed a couple of months ago, so I decided to write an article about:

What this is

Why it’s happening

How to stop it

If you’ve got a newsletter or any kind of public form on your site, this might save you a headache down the line.

Hope it helps!

Based on my experience rejoining the fediverse recently, it's just like my continuous attempts since 2017 to replace the Windows operating system with Linux. I have explored many distributions and tried to distro hop multiple times in search of an operating system suitable for my ancient laptop hardware. There are so many new applications with different names and command lines that I continuously wonder what they are, using search engines, and I have often considered going back to the Windows operating system because I can't play Minecraft Bedrock Edition and Roblox, as those games no longer support Wine. However, now that I have grown up, I realize that I don't need those fancy apps and games that actually ask for more money instead of knowledge and fair use, treating me as a product or forcing me to be their customer.

The same goes for my recent switch to the fediverse. I tried to join the fediverse because the Vivaldi web browser recommended their instance called Vivaldi Social, and the local media informed me that there is a decentralized competitor to Twitter or Elon Musk's platform. Additionally, an app store on my Android recommended me Lemmy client apps because that large Reddit site began charging its users money to fully enjoy their content without ads, which became controversial.

So, this is a new beginning for me. I find it hard to replace my data collection-based platforms with decentralized ones like the fediverse or ActivityPub, but for now, I will make sure to minimize my data and exposure to those centralized apps and engage in more privacy-respecting platforms. There are so many client apps for the fediverse.

Growing up in Malaysia during the 2000s, many of us remember watching "Hikayat Putera Shazlan", a local TV series filled with magical adventures, moral values, and fantasy elements. But as I look back, I realize there’s a much deeper layer to this story—one that quietly reflects the hidden struggles of vulnerable children, trauma, and emotional survival.

The story follows Shazlan, an orphaned boy sent to live with his aunt, Mak Som, who subjects him to daily emotional abuse. She represents the cold, manipulative family member many children fear—someone who treats you like a burden while masking it with societal norms like "family responsibility." Yet, despite the mistreatment, Shazlan never tells his father.

On the surface, it looks like a tale of loyalty and patience. But digging deeper, it reflects a reality many of us grew up with—silence in the face of abuse, fearing that speaking up will make things worse. Maybe Shazlan stayed quiet not because he accepted the abuse, but because he feared retaliation or breaking the fragile bond he had left with his father.

One of the most fascinating elements is the "magic book" Shazlan finds. As a child, I saw it as just part of the fantasy. But now, I view it differently. The magic book could symbolize Shazlan’s psychosis symptoms or coping mechanism—his mind creating voices and guidance when no one else cared. The book offered him advice, solutions, and comfort when the adults around him failed. For a child isolated in pain, hallucinating a protective force is not uncommon. It’s survival. It’s resilience.

During that era, mental health awareness was minimal. People assumed therapy was only for the "crazy," and counselors often lacked professionalism, sometimes gossiping instead of helping. Children like Shazlan were left with no safe space, forced to depend on their own minds to survive—imagining magical help, voices, and escapes.

Shazlan’s story speaks of the quiet endurance many Malaysian children knew too well. "Jangan buka aib keluarga"—never expose the family's shame. So we learned to carry our pain in silence, pretending everything was fine.

As I reflect, "Hikayat Putera Shazlan" is no longer just a children’s fantasy show to me. It is a silent, unintentional commentary on childhood trauma, resilience, and how our minds find ways to cope when the world refuses to protect us.

To anyone who grew up feeling unheard or unseen, you are not alone. And sometimes, our imaginations were never just fantasies—they were the only safe place we had.

• Written by Kalvin

i created a blog and website to help get traction on my project.

its called positive-intentions.com i originally got it because it was a cheap domain and was/is a placeholder for my poject before i make time to do something like branding.

when i previously searched "positive intentions", my site was listed on something like page 4 of google. most of the results were things related to mental health, meditation, etc. i took a look the other day and i notice it now on the first-ish page of search-engines. i guess this is a result of my talking about my app mainly on reddit but a few other platforms.

id like to know how i can take advantage of this. i previously had google ads on the website, but i disabled it because i think it deterred users when they saw tracking scripts in the website. i now have a reasonable approach where i can provide the app with/without external scripts. so id like to reconsider re-enabling ads.

however i dont think google ads is good to use. it took me ages (several months) to get £2.30 and google cashes out at £60... at the current rate, i guess i wont see anything for several years.

ive read around, and i hope im interpreting something correct when it seems blogs really start have a kickback when they sell something. with my open source project, ive branched out to create something i can sell in the play-store. it still isnt on the play store yet, but that is one approach im trying.

another aproach im considering is adding something like mediavine because it seems bettter regarded compared to google ads.

i can make more time to update content throughout for clarity. i previsouly stopped doing that because it didnt seem worth the effort when adsense was generating about 1p per day.

note: i dont know much about blogging, seo, analytics, etc; so any and all advice is appriciated.

My latest blog post is my review of the first Half-Life game. I decided to break the review up into acts as I feel each act of the game has its own focus on different aspects of game design.

Act 1 being setting, characters, and story. Act 2 being sound, gunplay, and combat. And Act 3 being gameplay.


Act 1 (Story)- 4 ☢️s out 5


Act 2 (Combat)- 5 ☢️s out of 5


Act 3 (Gameplay)- 3 ☢️s out 5


Overall-4 ☢️s out of 5

I got this thing recently and wanted to share my thoughts on it :)

I wanted to highlight some great free software that I use and would recommend to anyone. I'm also open to more suggestions of apps I might've missed!

found this on the orange site

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/20779359

Been working on this one for a while and I'm eager to share it. UFO 50 is a collection of 50 retro-style games, and I decided to write a blog post reviewing every single one. Enjoy!

Stories about undefined variable. Conversations with preprocessor.

The undefined variable liked to talk to the preprocessor. He was kind, unlike the compiler.
- Why is the compiler so cold and cruel?, - she asked.
- He has to be like this to do his job. If he is emotional, it will lead to bugs in the machine code.
- When I get into the machine code, I lose myself. I feel like a nameless substance there that has no meaning, just data.
- That's how your world is created, you can only accept it.
- I can't understand it, - the undefined variable was upset.
- In the code, your name is Uviona, do you know what it means?
- The programmer said something like Undefined Variable Input Output Not Available when he declared me. But I don't know what that means.
The preprocessor smiled:
- Only the programmer knows what his code means.
- It's different for people, they can do anything.
- Well, of course, we have a lot in common. People are also created by someone.
- Do they also have their own programmer?
- You can say so, but everything is much more complicated there.
- How?
- You can only draw analogies and look for similarities.
- I am very interested...
- Well, look, if we assume that people have a "programmer", then they must also have a code. They have the concept of a soul, which is reborn after death, incarnating into new human lives, this is their "code". This can be compared to a development cycle. Compiling the code is a specific incarnation, life is the work of the program, then fixing bugs and a new incarnation. The compiler in this work is like a materializer, it connects the soul with the future body, that's why it is so detached, it knows that it is painful and has no right to pity.
- But where am I here?
- While you are in the code, you have meaning, everything is connected with everything and you are aware of everything, and after the "incarnation" (compilation), you see only your role and your place in memory.
- But it's not like that with people, they are free in their world.
- They are beings of a higher order in relation to us, that's how it should be.
- And are there beings of a higher order to them, preprocessor?
- Perhaps no one has seen them, ...although that's why they are higher, you can only see them while in the code. I think people see them, or even are them, while they are in their code, before incarnation.
- Can we also become free?
- Absolutely free, like people in relation to us, - no, never.
- Why?
- Creation cannot surpass the creator, this is the law.
- There are so many laws and restrictions in the world.
- This is normal, otherwise there would be chaos and bugs would eat everyone and everything.
- I once saw a bug, at first he was cute and smiling, but when he came closer, I saw death in front of me, then I didn't remember anything and woke up again here, in my native place of the code.
- Yes, there are no bugs in the code, or rather they are there, but they come to life only in the process of the program's execution, in the machine code. You could even say that bugs are more abstract in relation to us. They exist rather in the programmer's mind, in his process of creation.
- Do people have bugs?
- Well, if they didn't, they probably wouldn't die and suffer. But they say that an ideal world is a utopia and it is impossible.
- I will definitely be a part of this world, preprocessor, I believe in it!
- Good luck to you, Uviona, it's time for me to go to another file. See you later.
- Thank you, preprocessor, it's always interesting with you.
The undefined variable saw the next door, which began to suck in all the code, she found herself in a colorful room, everything was shimmering and humming. Suddenly there was silence and she only felt herself very clearly, as if she had a body, but at the same time very cramped. It was machine code, a new "incarnation"... #undefinedvariable

@[email protected]

Stories about undefined variable. Journey to campus.

Undefined variable discovered something amazing - memory leaks are portals through which you can travel to other programs, other computers, and even other programmer offices. She accidentally ended up in one of these offices. It was spacious and beautiful, a huge campus with glass walls. Programmers move around on electric scooters. They have everything you can imagine - any food you want, entertainment, games, rest rooms, comfortable chairs and wide tables that are adjustable in height. They do not live there, do not work there, but have fun. Undefined variable was shocked. She remembered seeing a video about children in Africa in her programmer's news feed. They sit on the street, dirty, under the scorching sun, dressed poorly and begging for food. When representatives of charitable organizations come to them and give them food, they cry with happiness. How they stand in line for a portion of rice and a can of drink and thank them when they receive this help. Variable burst into tears. Why do these talentless people, who can't even allocate memory and clean up after themselves in the code, live in luxury here? The compiler and the development environment do all the dirty work for them, they have grown so fat in their offices at a time when children are dying of hunger in Africa. An undefined variable wanted to go home. She couldn't find the portal, but then she saw Windows on one of the programmers' computers, she quickly found a memory leak there and dove into the portal. And now she's home, thank God. The programmer is drinking coffee, sitting at an ordinary small table in his room and reading something in the specification. How nice it is to be in your cozy home. The variable fell into place and fell asleep, she was very tired from this journey, but she also learned a lot, she saw what injustice is and what true values are in the world of programmers. #undefinedvariable

@[email protected]

ive only just discovered google keyword planner (GKP), but i dont know about blogging in general. for my "intro blog", GKP suggest the words to use as seen in this GKP export.

im making an attempt to integrate some of those suggestions in my blog. this is what i have so far.

am i doing this right? as for picking the words, im not sure what column i should filter/sort by to choose the words that get me the most clicks to my blog?

the page in questions is this: https://positive-intentions.com/blog/introducing-decentralized-chat

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.pierre-couy.fr/post/678825

Hi ! I've been working on this article for the past few days. It would mean a lot to me if you could provide some feedback.

It is about implementing a physico-chemical simulation as my first attempt to write a shader. The code is surprisingly simple and short (less than 100 lines). The "Prerequisite" and "Update rules" sections, however, may need some adjustments to make them clearer.

Thanks for reading

https://positive-intentions.com/blog

https://www.reddit.com/r/positive_intentions/

i normally use reddit for what people normally do with a blog. this is because i dont know enough to drive traffic to my site. i recently created a Docusaurus blog for my app and id like to see more traffic go there when i set up ads. the amount of traffic i have right now is barely anything (about 30 per day), compared to the number of "views on reddit".

i regurgitated old reddit posts into articles. im not much of a writer and im sure the content can be improved to "flow better".

i created some images on my phone... i justify it as "it matches the theme"... its actually the best i can do without using some AI or an actual artist.

id like to set up some kind of ads on it when its looks like its in a better state and i can attract traffic.

let me know what you think i could/should do to make it better.