For me, it was learning English. Although I do make a few mistakes here and there, I'm mostly perfect on it.

The amount of resources you have access to dramatically increases when you know a universal language. I say dramatically because it made me realize how much my native language lacks when it comes to certain topics. The most obvious one to me was tech and computers. Everybody knows how to use Windows but there are very few resources about stuff beyond Windows. It's actually sad. [insert sad face here]

I hope you all are having a good day. I would like to start by saying that I'm the "can't take compliments" guy who posted a while back about how he "can't take compliments". I've been thinking about something for a while. That being the situation in the title.

Now, there is a girl that I really like. Let's call her Cass. Cass and I are very similar. We both share similar interests. Reading books, discussions about philosophy etc. But we are also similar character wise. What I mean by that is that we both like to make jokes and are great at it too, etc. etc.

I am comfortable around girls. No issues with that. But I've been just really, really, shy around her. To the point where I straight up leave the room if I see her. For a person such as myself, this is a pretty odd behavior. Because I give zero crap about what other people think of me.

So instead of endlessly questioning myself, I decided to use this as an opportunity to think.

Why do we humans do this? Cass is perfectly capable of getting along and understanding me. So why am I nervous around her? Is it because I sub-conciously put Cass on a pedestal? Even though it's kind of illogical considering she's a very pick-me girl with mental issues? (For clarification, I did not mean these parts of her character when I said that we were similar. But who's to say I'm perfect?)

This has been bugging for a while. Low self-esteem? I have plenty of it. Fear of being judged? Might be if I really am putting her on a pedestal.

So... what's your opinion? I might make a post about her situation one day. Because she's certainly an interesting person. It's interesting how depression can destroy someone.

Not to brag but I'm a pretty confident person in my social circle. I'm funny, make people laugh etc. etc.

Basically, I am adored by everybody.

But there is something that I noticed about myself lately. Regularly people come up to me to chat and sometimes they compliment me. Now, complimenting isn't a bad thing, obviously. But I just don't feel anything when I receive them.

However I enjoy it when people talk good things about me when I'm not present. I, again, don't feel anything when people talk shit about me when I'm not present. BUT I really enjoy it when people straight up come at me and say something bad at me. My mood increases and I spend the rest of my day happier.

Is this some kind of a defense/coping mechanism that I have unintentionally developed? I don't see anything bad about this.

It's also worthy to say that I spent the majority of my life isolated up until a few years ago. No compliments at all but nobody to say bad things either. Is this why I fail to appreciate compliments?

This might also be an automatic response to prevent discussion. Although I'm not sure since it's MS' AI.

A few months ago I dropped my phone (Samsung Galaxy A70) and the screen broke. Got a new phone, problem solved. But there is some data on it that I forgot to include in my backups. Very small files but important for achive purposes.

Screen (touch input too) and the speaker are dead. I know the password (obviously) but how will I go around doing this? First thing that came to my mind is connecting the phone to a computer via USB. But there are some obstacles.

The phone is rooted and has LineageOS 20 (and Lineage Recovery) installed. The phone is on vibration or muted mode. Therefore an external speaker isn't of much use. The OS is most likely fully functional. I can tell when the screen is on and not by holding the power button. If it's on, it will vibrate which indicates the power menu has openned. If it's off, the flashlight will turn on.

Phone has a USB-C 2.0 port and the wireless cast doesn't work due to Google Services being absent (apparently) so no video output. First thing I tried doing is just straight up connecting it to a computer. Obviously it didn't work because I didn't unlock the phone and a security feature that only uses USB for power unless otherwise is told is active. That setting can be changed via a notification. So I tried connecting a mouse and keyboard. I couldn't if anything was happening or if the peripherals were connected at all.

So what do I do? I'm thinking of booting into Lineage Recovery and see if I can do anything with ADB or fastboot. But probably not since the data is encrypted.

This year we made good progress. You know, Linux gaming becoming better, Reddit fucking up, Metaverse failing etc. But on the other hand Big Tech has or are planning to make some moves. Such as, Google's Web Enviroment Integrity API (EDIT: they backed off), UK's encryption bill, etc.

So what do you think of the future? I'm currently optimistic. I think the best recent event was Reddit fucking up. Obviously one of the biggest information sources going down that path isn't something to celebrate. But it was bound to happen. I believe decentralized social networks becoming more popular is what Aaron Swartz would have wanted if he saw how Reddit was being managed.

Is there a product out there that can be used in the way the picture below (or above) shows? A really small speaker that's in (or silighly bigger) the similar size of phone's built-in speaker.