#FreeSoftwareAdvent for today: Hammerspoon. Another macOS tool that makes the platform usable.
Script the OS, add hotkeys, all from Lua, a not wholly unpleasant programming language. One thing that it desperately needs is good documentation, and if I had a few weeks of uninterrupted time and no responsibility, I'd write said documentation. Otherwise, you need to do a lot of googling to find blog posts and code samples because the API docs are a bit mystical.
Hammerspoon
Staggeringly powerful macOS desktop automation with Lua. Making the runtime, funtime.www.hammerspoon.org
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GitHub - AccessKit/accesskit: UI accessibility infrastructure across platforms and programming languages
UI accessibility infrastructure across platforms and programming languages - GitHub - AccessKit/accesskit: UI accessibility infrastructure across platforms and programming languagesGitHub
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Any curious #Android users around? I just pushed the first early-bird code of my little sync tool to
Can be used to sync some data (documents & co, not intended for system stuff) without needing any app on-device. Uses rsync & adbfs (some details in the readme). You define per-directory whether it shall sync from or to the device. Supports bidirectional as well, but use that with care as it's rather hacky-wacky.
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To celebrate another win, for the time of the contest's duration, the audible traffic lights at some of Stockholm's locations have been revamped to play Loreen with "Euphoria" (winner of the 2012 ESC) when the lights are red, then when they turn green, they ticked to the beat of Mans Zelmerlow's "Heroes", the song that brought the contest back to Sweden in 2015. What a fun twist on an accessibility feature!
youtube.com/watch?v=pj3V06Thvo…
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #Sweden #Eurovision #ESC #UrbanEnvironment #Music #SoundDesign
Music Traffic Lights Stockholm Eurovision Song Contest 2016 (Take 1)
This was take 1 - I decided to re-record this a second time.YouTube
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the content warning itself is sufficient.
So I realized that all the time I have been doing this calendar, I haven't mentioned Poland, where I come from, once. Shame on me! Let's try to make it right.
Inpost is the pioneer as the provider of parcel locker technology in Poland. It's quite common to order something and, instead of requesting that the package is delivered directly to your door, have it dropped at one of the lockers which are often located quite centrally, at a post office or another place of significance in a given city, town or village.
Inpost have come up with quite a clever way of allowing blind people to open these lockers and find the right door. Not only is the app itself accessible so you can track your delivery all the way through but once your order arrives, all you have to do is go to the place where your locker is located, open the door for your parcel from within the app and read the instruction telling you which door is yours E.G. third up, sixth to the left of the touch screen. The system has become so useful for the general public that in order to become more sustainable, Inpost have begun installing screenless lockers so that everything has to be done with the app. This way, it is also possible to send a package somewhere without the need to stick a physical label on it. Other accessibility accommodations include the "easy access zone" as per the link below.
inpost.pl/en/help-easy-access-…
What are you ordering this Christmas and how is it delivered to you?
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #Poland #Shopping
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Zažívám nesmírnou radost naše distribuce CachyOS se ukázala na Phoronixu a to i s vyšším výkonem pro gaming.
Na začátku roku 2021 jsme začali jako menší partička kamošů - Já, Ptr, Hamad a pár uživatelů s tím, že cheme Arch Linux více optimalizovaný pro nová CPU a přinést gamingu na linuxu svěží vzduch.
Zda se povedlo, to posoudí každý sám. To je teprve začátek, máme další nápady, jak zlepšovat optimalizace. Co je nejlepší, lze je aplikovat na vanilla Arch Linux.
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You know the talking info boards at public transport stops, right? The ones that you press a button on and it reads the next few lines that will depart even when all you really need is the next one? I'm pleased to tell you that Luxembourg is doing it differently:
The spoken information is given only as long as you hold down the button that activates it so it is a kind of walkie-talkie that does the talkie part instead of you. This way, you can hold it down, listen to the next train or two arriving then release the button and be done with it. Not a perfect design as it excludes those with limited dexterity but it is a start.
Sadly, the information is given only in French which goes to show that accessibility should also include those who can't speak the country's language. This is in Luxembourg which boasts three official ones so most of the native population has grown multilingual from the start. Unfortunately, I have seen these info boards only at some train stations in the Luxembourg city - would be amazing to see the availability expand.
Again, no links and also sadly no recordings so have some more interesting facts instead:
1. Luxembourg is the first European country to make the public transport completely free of charge to everyone. Bear this in mind if you ever come to visit.
2. The city of Luxembourg has been awarded the European Commission's Accessible City Award of 2021.
#Accessibility #Blind #Adventcalendar #Luxembourg #PublicTransport
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Normally, I have difficulties relating what I touch on a tactile plan of a building to the real world. That station made a heavily simplified version of the experience by placing a pole at each crossroad of the tactile floor marking, with a simplified tactile plan at the top telling you where each of the forks of the floorline would take you. It looked a lot like the four navigation keys and the confirmation key on a classic mobile. Each of the arrows ended with a Braille description of the destination in both French and Dutch. This was a great help.
Also QDos to the sound designers who created the jingle for the Brussels public transport company. It's a pretty dancey beat of five notes played on a synthesizer which would make a nice text tone. Find it at the end of the company's promo video below:
youtube.com/watch?v=kmNBW0jdms…
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #Belgium #PublicTransport
Go Easy MIVB
http://goeasy.mivb.behttp://www.stib-mivb.be/https://twitter.com/STIBMIVBhttps://www.facebook.com/lastibhttps://www.facebook.com/mijnmivbhttps://www.linkedin...YouTube
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- A tiny version of the Czech remotes system, at that time capable of triggering the audible traffic lights, currently also the talking public transport info boards;
- an exceptional training of the public transport drivers who always stopped the bus right in front of you as long as you stood at the designated, tactile spot; opened the door and told you the bus/tram line they were driving;
- a tactile line going across what seemed to be all of the city's market square which made for a nice walk through the city center;
- the general feeling of safety that encouraged me to take long walks and explore the city by myself;
- the amazing community around my former workplace, Freirad, the social, community-driven radio station that focused on giving voice to those who wouldn't find it in the mainstream media. This meant tons of content from marginalized groups, a wealth of diverse cultural, music and linguistic spectrum and plenty of social initiatives on air. Of course, blind and partially sighted radio hosts were more than welcome and I was happy to be a part of this journey, organizing workshops for prospective hosts with visual impairments, including a really fun group of kids and spreading the word about the importance of accessibility which was always well-received. My former show on Freirad aired for the last time today so it's a bit of a chapter closing.
#Accessibility #Blind #Austria #BuildEnvironment #PublicTransport #Radio #AdventCalendar
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The recording is a 1:26 long collage of several clips taken in the park.
Clip 1: Birds chirping with some cars driving past in the background (the park was located directly over a highway);
Clip 2: The call of a group of peacocks mixed with footsteps and somewhat strong wind blowing into the mikes;
Clip 3: A waterfall flowing to my right and footsteps over a wooden bridge;
Clip 4: Moving further past the waterfall so that it's moving in the stereo spectrum and a white cane hitting the wooden bridge;
Clip 5: Another perspective of the waterfall;
Clip 6: Clearly can't get enough of waterfalls;
Clip 7: The last sounds of a waterfall, peacocks and the white cane;
I recommend listening in headphones for the best spacial experience.
#Accessibility #Blind #Austria #AudioRecording #BinauralRecording #FieldRecording #Nature #AdventCalendar
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People who use the #accessibility stack on Linux, do you use anything other than Orca?
I'm trying to map out unused code paths in at-spi2-core, and so far I'm considering orca/dogtail, but I'm sure I'm missing something.
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@matt ah, yeah, thanks for reminding me - it's at gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/dasher
I don't know how well-maintained it is; the last commits to the code are from a year ago...
ecq.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/p…
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #Australia #NewZealand #Voting #Phone
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Did you know Monopoly was invented by a woman named Elizabeth Magie in 1903?
Originally ‘The Landlord’s Game,’ it was designed as a protest against the big monopolists like Carnegie & Rockefeller.
But it was Charles Darrow, an unemployed salesman, who eventually sold it to Parker Brothers after playing a version.
Parker Brothers credited Monopoly with saving their company. Magie died in 1948 without recognition. Darrow became very wealthy & his legend lives on. #history #women #HistoryRemix
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Send umí bezpečné sdílení souborů bez registrace. Poté je sám odstraní
👉infoek.cz/send-instance-2022/
Send umí bezpečné sdílení souborů bez registrace. Poté je sám odstraní
Pamatujete ještě na službu Firefox Send? Jednalo se o moc hezky zpracovanou službu pro bezpečné sdílení souborAdolf Pupík (Infoek.cz)
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I thought of including Handsome, a French fintech dedicated to serving customers with visual impairments, as a part of this calendar, as it offers an accessible voice payment card; a dedicated concierge service, insurance in case of damage to assistive devices or stranding with no immediate mobility options. They can be found at:
howtobehandsome.fr/
Imagine my shock this morning when I discovered that through cooperation with the Tales Group, Handsome's voice card has become global so it's a matter of time before banks start introducing it.
The card is equipped with a Bluetooth LE chip, connects to the customer's smartphone either through their banking app or a specially designed one; then, once its inserted into the terminal, it delivers all of the status messages to the app E.G. the amount to be paid or the current state of the payment process. This way it is possible to avoid being scammed on the amount and we can make sure all is well with our transaction.
I'm curious if any banks are going to introduce this any time soon.
thalesgroup.com/en/markets/dig…
#Accessibility #Blind #France #Banking #AdventCalendar
Thales Gemalto Voice Payment Card
Discover how visually impaired people can make each payment transaction more secured and trusted.Thales Group
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The Unicode braille block starts from U+2800. The U+2800 character himself is a so called “blank braille pattern” which translates to a space sign in most cases. Stuff get more interesting if you want to make a braille pattern. In computer braille (8 dots) there are 256 possible patterns, it sounds like a byte, right? Right! Cause if you want to make a braille pattern, you just at a byte to the base character U+2800 as we already discussed. The bits in this byte are encoded in column order, so that 11100000 is the letter L, and 1101000 is letter F. The exception to this rule are of course dots 7 and 8. They have been added later and so putting them between dot 3 would break the compatibility with existing software. So, to reassume the encoding order is as follows (from bit 0 of the byte)
Dot 1
Dot 2
Dot 3
Dot 4
Dot 5
Dot 6
Dot 7
Dot 8
Tell me guys if you like such #programming and/or #accessibility posts from me.
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Something that has worked really well for librsvg - and now I'm happy to have for at-spi2-core as well - is a development guide for the internals. Not a library manual, but an internals guide.
It's available at gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org/a…
I want to make it a good reference for the implementation details of #accessibility - for how the system is built, the roadmap and the cleanups we're doing, how to make toolkits accessible, that sort of thing.
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By the device of anecdotal evidence I know that a similar system existed in Slovenia.
Another thing that was available in Italy, and I haven't heard of it anywhere else before, are accessible audio menus on DVD's.
openstarts.units.it/bitstream/…
#Accessibility #Blind #Audiodescription #Italy #Slovenia #Radio #AdventCalendar
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Inspired by a conversation I had with @adela, I decided to dedicate this one to the central purchase receipts storage system in Slovakia.
The Slovak government runs a central point where all of the receipts issued by merchands and service providers are registered. Upon issuing, a receipt is assigned a unique number in that system which then is printed onto the slip of paper given to the customer. What you can then do is, using a dedicated app for this purpose, load that receipt onto your phone by entering that number or scanning the QR code printed onto your receipt in order to have all the details of your purchase presented on your smartphone. This is a great way for blind individuals to check whether their transaction has been dutyfully conducted or to help in obtaining the necessary data to maintain your spending tracking record, so even though this solution was not conceived with blind people in mind, it is a valuable enhancement towards a more independent life.
technologiebezzraku.sk/2022/07…
#Accessibility #Blind #AdventCalendar #Slovakia #Shopping
Over doklad – prístupná aplikácia na čítanie príjmových dokladov - Technológie bez zraku
Over doklad je aplikácia vyvinutá Finančnou správou pôvodne určená na overovanie príjmových dokladov, ktoré prešli cez eKasu.Michaela Dlhá (Technológie bez zraku)
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Did you know that by 2004 Czech Republic was the second European country right behind Sweden with the widest network of audible traffic lights? Not only that but they already started installing tactile floor markings and my favourite invention, the remote controls for the build environment.
The Czech remote control is a tiny box with six buttons that each blind individual can purchase. Using this aid, a blind person navigating through a Czech city can check any public transport schedule available at any stop, confirm the line of the bus or tram that just came, alert the driver to their presence so that they can let them in or out of the vehicle, navigate around the Prague underground, trigger audible traffic lights to be switched on and locate some of the key buildings such as the Blind Union's HQ's.
Although many cities of Europe have meanwhile tried to implement a similar system, the Czech Republic is the only country I know of that offers such a wide range of services in the entire country this way. I was very impressed the first time I tested this and I love coming back to our southern neighbours. Ahoj a zdravim vas s Polska!
Below, an article of the Czech radio broadcaster back from 2004 explaining the accommodations along with audio samples in Real Audio, if you can still play that.
english.radio.cz/czech-blind-u…
#Accessibility #Blind #UrbanEnvironment #BuildEnvironment #CzechRepublic #AdventCalendar
"Czech Blind United" - making Czech towns and cities friendlier to the blind and visually impaired
Many foreign visitors to Prague or elsewhere in the Czech Republic are often puzzled by the ticking sound of traffic lights at pedestrian crossings. It is the acoustic…Radio Prague International
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Voicenet is the service of the Swiss Union of the Blind, where you can call in and receive all the information you need to access culture, shopping, receive advice, benefit from the organization's services etc.
Some things you can find there:
- the current supermarket prospects with all of the weekly discounts and special offers read by volunteers;
- TV and radio schedule, including information on movies with audiodescription aired throughout the week;
- traffic and construction works;
- rail schedules;
- signing up for the Union's events;
- a voice forum where users can ask for advice and exchange information;
All of that provided by volunteers and an editorial team in three languages: German, French and Italian with the ability to navigate through content E.G. jumping from beverages to dairy products with the phone's keypad.
I realize that things like the NFB Newsline exist but it seems that, as Switzerland is a much smaller country, it is easier to offer much more local information.
sbv-bvas.ch/voicenet-2/
#Accessibility #Blind #Phone #languages #Switzerland #German #French #Italian #AdventCalendar
Voicenet des Schweizerischer Blinden- und Sehbehindertenverband Sektion Aargau-Solothurn
VoiceNet ein interaktives Hörmedium +41(0)31 390 88 88 und bietet umfassende Informationen des Schweizer Blinden und SehbehindertenverbandBith (sbv-bvas)
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#accessibility #blind #Japan #adventcalendar #mobile #phones
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Have you also noticed that features (as well as extensions) to render RSS/Atom feeds directly in the browser have slowly disappeared - at least from Chromium-based browsers?
There was a time where almost every website would sport a link rel="alternate" pointing to a feed. And, if they did, most of the browsers used to show the feed icon directly in the URL bar, and browsers used to render feed URLs as HTML (it used to be quite spartan, but it was surely better than dumping some XML).
Those features have been taken away over time. The feed icon built-in in the browser is gone (you can get it back with some 3rd-party extensions). And, when opening a feed URL, the browser dumps directly the XML.
Of course I can imagine why this has happened (especially in the case of Chromium-based browsers), but I won't give up easily on my feeds, no matter how much effort my browser puts in it.
So in the past couple of days I've worked on a small browser extension that can render RSS feeds directly in the browser in a pretty format. That's ideal for people like me that like to explore feeds, but don't want to go through the hassle of adding them to another client or service just to see what's inside.
The extension is still WIP and I haven't tested yet on Firefox - any feedback is more than welcome.
git.platypush.tech/blacklight/…
rss-viewer-browser-extension
A simple extensions that allows you to render RSS feeds directly in the browser and fetch RSS URLs from web pages.Platypush Git
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Wow, after 25 years of Unix experience, I learned that you can filter output in #less.
Press ampersand (&) and enter a regex to show only lines matching the regex.
Press ampersand (&) and then exclamation mark (!) to apply an inverse filter.
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Read it all here: nvaccess.org/post/in-process-2…
In-Process 2nd December 2022
Can you believe it is December already?! (and where is that Interrobang from last time?!) We are still working away towards NVDA 2022.4, although we don’t have an update on it this week, rest assur…NV Access
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We just published a new blog post detailing our adventures with streamlining authentication in #XMPP!
It turns out you don't *always* have to choose between improved security or better performance. Why not both?! 🌈 🦄
Check it out at blog.prosody.im/fast-auth/
Bringing FASTer authentication to Prosody and XMPP
As our work continues on modernizing XMPP authentication, we have some more new milestones to share with you. Until now our work has mostly been focused on internal Prosody improvements, such as the new roles and permissions framework.blog.prosody.im
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bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.…
1069739 - DIVs with overflow receiving focus, causing issues for accessibility user
UNCONFIRMED (nobody) in Core - DOM: Selection. Last updated 2022-11-28.bugzilla.mozilla.org
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My level of pissoffedness with Windows is slowly creeping toward the "switch back to Linux" thresholds.
Defender reports threats that don't appear in its list of recent actions. If I trigger a scan, threats sometimes appear when I'm watching, but they vanish before I can navigate to them and learn more. If I trigger another, I'm told no new threats were found, implying the existence of non-new threats. I cleaned Defender's history of recent actions as suggested on a few threads I found, no change. Threats are still detected but not shown.
I scanned with Malware Bytes. No threats found.
And now backups fail because Windows claims they contain a virus or unwanted software. I can't even back up my own damn system. Thanks daddy Microsoft, I'm sure you know best and I'm just dumb.
And no, I don't download bunches of random things and click all the links. I browse behind multiple layers of ad/malware-blocking, including a Wireguard VPN with locally-run AdGuard DNS further hardened with custom blocklists. No it isn't foolproof, but I also don't think I'm being a fool.
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I'm often pissed with windows even tho I don't use because I like to help people and time to time I find they're using windows with or without WSL and both cases yields to weird results.
Here's a common WSL one: if you `npm install` using VSCode Remote WSL you make permissions on node_modules funky so next `npm install something` might give you tons of EACCESS. Solution: close VSCode and `npm i` using just a console on WSL
So there's a way to get the Steam app to play nice with screen readers.
Go to your desktop and highlight your Steam icon. Open your applications menu, go to properties and add -gamepadui to the end of the string. Make sure there's a space between the quote marker and the dash or it won't work.
You might have to login again, but this throws the app into a beta of the Steam Deck UI which fuck me sideways is very NVDA friendly. There's some bugs here and there, but this is lightyears better than what we had to deal with before.
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✨ Tady něco nového ode mě v #czech! 🎉
Koukněte na zbrusu nový webový komiks "Contra Chrome":
Podtitul: O tom, jak se prohlížeč Googlu stal hrozbou pro #soukromí a #demokracie
Těšit se můžete na Shoshanu Zuboff nebo veganské piraně :)
Dozvíte se všechno, co jste kdy chtěli vědět o #Chrome, ale báli jste se zeptat!
Čtěte a stahujte zdarma - doufáme, že se Vám to bude líbit! 😊
A pokud ano, prosíme o co největší šíření! 
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A Linux audio driver walks into a bar
Bartender: "what would you like?"
pulseaudio[18814]: No object for name "alsa_output.pci-0000_04_00.1.hdmi-stereo"
Bartender: "I can't hear you?"
pulseaudio[18814]: core-util.c: Failed to connect to system bus: Did not receive a reply
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RT @xdavidhu@twitter.com
I found a vulnerability that allowed me to unlock any @Google@twitter.com Pixel phone without knowing the passcode. This may be my most impactful bug so far.
Google fixed the issue in the November 5, 2022 security patch. Update your devices!
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@flaki asked me for this, so here's a short guide on scaling Mastodon *down*: gist.github.com/nolanlawson/fc…
Note that I'm not a Ruby/Sidekiq expert and probably don't know what I'm talking about. But these tips worked for me.
Scaling Mastodon down
Scaling Mastodon down. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.Gist
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I almost even feel like this is a hot take and I'm a little bit worried about posting it. But I still feel it's true.
Thanks for the guide!
But I think it can be quite easy to handle those spikes. Simply waiting until they go away is a valid option, too.
čeští novináři na mastodonu
čeští novináři na mastodonu. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.Gist
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Coming up on Mosen at Large 206, mastering mastodon, harnessing ham radio, and how to put an end to the Eset issues plaguing some screen reader users
Kia ora Mosen at Largers. Here’s what’s coming up in our next two-hour show that’s got the blind community talking. There’s no doubt that Twitter is tanking while Mastodon is having a moment. This …Mosen At Large
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We are welcoming Zap to #GNOMECircle! Zap can play and organize sounds for your next live stream, or you could listen to the integrated bark sound if you are still morning its removal from GNOME Shell 🐶
Zap is maintained by @rmnvgr
apps.gnome.org/app/fr.romainvi…
Zap – Apps for GNOME
Play sounds from a soundboard – Play all your favorite sound effects! This handy soundboard makes your livestreams and videocasts more entertaining. Import audio files, arrange them in collections and customize their appearance.apps.gnome.org
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Jesse
in reply to Andre Louis • • •Infinity Counter 🟦
in reply to Andre Louis • • •Andre Louis
in reply to Infinity Counter 🟦 • • •Andre Louis
Unknown parent • • •Andre Louis
Unknown parent • • •Andre Louis
Unknown parent • • •Andre Louis
Unknown parent • • •Andre Louis
Unknown parent • • •Jesse
Unknown parent • • •Andre Louis
in reply to Jesse • • •Jesse
in reply to Andre Louis • • •Andrew Hodgson
in reply to Andre Louis • • •Andre Louis
in reply to Andrew Hodgson • • •pax
in reply to Andre Louis • • •they just make windows worse and worse.
Andre Louis
in reply to pax • • •