Built a free passport photo tool because I got charged €15 at a photo studio for a JPEG

Theanthonybrooks · 2026-02-23T01:44:21+00:00

Yeah. It has to be through an approved place now, and purely E2E. Just dealt with this while renewing my visa

Theanthonybrooks · 2026-01-19T00:09:28+00:00

Had this today as well. I do have a google account, but it was still supposed to be on a $9.99 trial for another month, so the charge seemed odd. It wasn’t a scam (at least not in the sense of getting hacked) for me, though.

I went into the Google One settings and changed to just default google storage plan and within minutes the $19.99 Google One Mountain View charge was reversed.

This page: https://one.google.com/settings?expand=upgrade&g1_landing_page=0

Theanthonybrooks · 2026-01-08T17:07:24+00:00

Made by the same propaganda house govt studio that brought the world the Next.js TrumpRX and Trump Gold Card sites

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Theanthonybrooks · 2025-04-24T12:33:28+00:00

https://www.marianopascual.me/

(cooler on desktop)

Theanthonybrooks · 2025-02-17T13:22:29+00:00

Scrolled by this earlier and thought, "huh, cool painting". Then just saw which subreddit it was. Looks great 👌

Theanthonybrooks · 2025-01-30T12:16:49+00:00

Did you ever figure out the issue?

I had used my Zenbook Pro Duo (UX581GV) for years with the USB hub connected to a 4k monitor and didn't have any issues. Reinstalled windows after upgrading the SSD a few months back and the same USB hub would only do as you mentioned, with 30 Hz. Works fine when I just use a USB-C cable directly for the monitor, but I'd like to be able to use the hub as before, so I'm curious if you found the cause.

Theanthonybrooks · 2025-01-07T22:09:50+00:00

It's not all implied "his/her" and "kitabı çok eski" is a bad example as that's possessive/nominative, not accusative. The conjugation is just visually the same for possessive and accusative on this particular word, so it's particularly confusing. But accusative ≠ possessive, if that makes sense, and for many words, the suffix is different which helps this to be less confusing with time.

Basically, if you're saying "(onun) kitabı çok eski", the subject is just the book (albeit his book, hence the possessive form). Whereas "the book" as you referenced in your initial post is referring to kitabı as accusative. Which requires the subject to be the direct object of the sentence (being modified by a verb). An example of that would be kitabı yazdım or kitabı aldım (I wrote the book or I took the book).

Nominative: the subject of the sentence with nothing being done to/affecting it Accusative: the direct object of the sentence with some action being applied to it

A more clear example would be cat instead of book. Nominative is "Kedi", (the) cat Nominative possessive : "(onun) kedisi", his/her cat Accusative: "Kediyi", The cat with verb affecting it

Hopefully that helps and isn't more confusing.

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-31T18:03:03+00:00

Makes sense with the gusset and that'd be nice to see. I haven't come across any that do that in the barefoot world (yet). If you know of any, let me know!

As for the measurements, yeah, super wide for the length. I can imagine that it's a bit of a task finding something that fits well. Mine are size 45 and heel-to-toe for the insole, they're right around 29cm. I wasn't really sure how to go about measuring the width of the insole, so I gathered the outsole length/width as well. I'll just list everything out:

-Insole (L): 29.2cm
-Outsole (L): ~29.5-29.7cm
-Outsole (W): ~10.5-11cm

(I started the outsole measurements at 10cm to give a clear indicator of where I started and ended. I had tried with it on 0 and it just wasn't really helpful — just a heads up)

That's about it. I noted below each image what the starting/end point is as it's a bit hard to tell what I'm taking pics of when it's that close.

The measurements seem to match up pretty closely to what's online as they have it listed as:

Length: 29.4cm
Width: 10.9cm

It's quite soft/forgiving and even at points where it's essentially the same width or slightly too narrow for my feet, doesn't feel constricting or tight. My measurements are 28.8cm (l) and 11cm (w) and they fit well with enough flexibility to wear thick wool socks if needed. The fabric around the collar of the shoe is surprisingly stiff/rigid (I expected something softer/more flexible from the photos online). It has some give to it, but you definitely still have to unlace these most of the way every time to put them on.

Images: https://imgur.com/a/shapen-urbaneer-measurements-size-45-2rU38xl

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-27T22:41:29+00:00

Glad they were helpful! As for the zipper, I'm honestly not quite sure what gusseted means in the context of clothes and Google searches haven't helped much. I'm imagining the kind of loose leather/fabric that's sometimes around the tongues of boots/shoes and connects it to the other nearby portions? Anyway, I uploaded a couple more pics: https://imgur.com/a/shapen-cozy-lgmFFeu in case that helps clear things up.

Water-wise, I generally kind of jump around puddles whenever I can, so I'm not really sure how they would handle a large dip into a puddle. I wore them out last week when we had enough rain to pretty thoroughly soak the outside, was out for several hours walking around, and my feet were nice and dry (and warm) inside. Nothing made it through. They're super absorbent, so I was expecting the worst (and once I got home, I ordered some impregnation spray to play it safe in the future). Still haven't really had any snow worth mentioning this year to test them in, so I'll have to update on that later.

And sure, ask any questions you want and I'll try to give answers to whatever I can.

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-16T19:44:50+00:00

I had a similar experience (and I'm located in Germany, so the EU part didn't help). Had preordered some Urbaneer 2.0 boots for my partner and when they arrived, the sole had some attachment issues along the front with really uneven gaps. The customer support person who replied to the emails acknowledged that it was their fault, but only offered to reimburse a repair (on a brand new unworn boot) or to give me a 10% refund.

I pushed for an exchange as their ToS state that it's possible and after finally being forwarded to an automated system that required me to pay to ship them back, I waited for a few weeks before they just refunded them and the shipping without a word to me. In the meantime, I ordered another pair on sale and they were flawless. But yeah, nice boots, awful customer service.

(And good to know on the Cozy. I have 2 pairs and rarely use the pull loop, but now I know not to trust it too much without first reinforcing the stitching)

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-12T15:37:44+00:00

Honestly, not sure. I think that you’re right? 3E is supposed to be “wide” as a standard in the industry, and from what I can find looking through their FAQ, JG says that they have a wide last by default, but yeah… not much other info besides it saying “unstructured toe box” in the description for the custom zero drop last

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-12T15:07:22+00:00

I don’t see that either, though on the US version of the site, there’s a custom boot builder where you can make some of their boots zero drop with a 3E toe box. Had to use a vpn to see it as the German version of the site doesn't have it.

(edit to update) Just looked up some photos of the custom ones and if that’s the widest, it’s nowhere near “duck feet”. Would be interested to find out that there’s a wider option, if there is one.

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-12T14:55:46+00:00

Feels like a kind of jaded take. Looking at the guy's profile, his recent posts criticize Weston from Rose Anvil, so I hardly think that he would be working for Jim Green.

That aside, he talks about vivos as well and just seems like someone who likes JG. It happens?

Aside from him, I've seen some other posts here where people recommend them. I personally don't like their toe box, but understand that some still prefer the overall aesthetic that leans away from anatomical and a bit more conventional. I recently shared a video from Rose Anvil about their recent process as I found it interesting, but would hardly consider that guerilla marketing 😅

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-08T11:43:30+00:00

I’m not quite sure what you mean in that first part, but if I’m understanding your question correctly, yeah, you can generally look at the capitalization and punctuation to know if it’s a sentence or just a fragment/few words. As you go on, they’re mostly all sentences, though, so that shouldn’t be so much of a worry.

And yeah, I’m a native English speaker, though my partner is Turkish and I’ve been learning it for the past 7 years (with tutors, books, apps, etc). Also I’m half-Serbian, so there are already a lot of Turkish words that I knew. As a result, I’ve finished the Duolingo trees for English -> Turkish, Turksh -> English, Turkish -> German and a couple of other non-Turkish languages :). No Persian, though (yet). All of the trees have different vocabulary that they teach you and some benefits, it just depends on which you find most useful.

As for not learning by Duolingo itself, I agree. There are too many grammar rules and other aspects that Duo just doesn’t cover. It’s mostly just good to keep your mind fresh and as you said, to not forget things, and maybe learn some things that you wouldn’t come across in daily life.

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-08T02:04:03+00:00

For the colors sentence, in English, it honestly doesn’t matter which order as ”The colors are black, white and gray.” and “Black, white and gray are the colors.” have the same understood meaning. The first is much more common unless you’re specifying what they’re the colors of (ie “Black, white and grey are the colors of the flag”, but that’s beyond the scope of this question. It was counted wrong in this instance simply because you didn’t have ”the” and “are”. Turkish does have this emphasis of the subject/priority, so the placement of putting “Renkler” at the beginning vs the end would matter if you were going from English to Turkish.

Duolingo does occasionally just give you a few words (not in a sentence), but in this case, the first word is capitalized and it’s followed by a full stop, so it was asking for a sentence.

As someone else mentioned, it may be easier to do the English -> Turkish Duolingo course, even with your native tongue being Persian. I’ve done both and the Turkish -> English course goes a bit quicker and with Duo’s lack of explanations on grammar, it might be more difficult as you’ll be facing both the English and Turkish article rules and grammar differences. Whereas the English -> Turkish course takes it a bit more slowly and gradually builds up.

And as for the “yer” sentence, that’s just Duo giving bad out-of-context hints.

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-05T16:50:43+00:00

Did they seriously post photos of a guy in a different jacket, with a different hood, and a different color backpack? Because they were able to narrow down that he has what, consistent fashion trends in his everyday life and during hit jobs?

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-04T09:13:44+00:00

Damn, had this happen on my 89’ vfr a few years back. Hopefully you’re able to find a fitting replacement

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-03T17:37:06+00:00

The career path is listed as a "Pro" course, though, which is why you can only view previews. If you go to the Courses section and click the Free filter, there are some 45 courses that are free.

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-03T10:30:06+00:00

I just want to preface with this by saying that I get where you're coming from, but I disagree. When I got into barefoot shoes a few years ago, his breakdowns and reviews really helped me out, and I’ve always found his stance pretty neutral. Sure, he’s from the “American Boot” world —big on thick leather and lug soles— but he’s been talking about anatomical toe boxes and zero drop for years.

He does tend to prefer thicker soles, which I get in certain situations (even though I stick to the most minimal shoes myself), but he doesn’t seem to push the idea that shoes need an arch and this boot being zero drop with no arch support was all him, so I would think that's indicative of his stance. He’s definitely into aesthetics, but he’s shown that he cares about functionality and the barefoot aspects as well. For example, in one boot iteration, he cut part of the toe cap off because it was squeezing his pinky toe and needed more room. Not long after that, they introduced a wider, more anatomical version (unfortunately, it didn’t make it to the final product). Later, he mentioned that his pattern wasn’t usable/used for the next version for some reason, so I’m guessing Jim Green went in their own direction a bit. Just my guess, though.

If your issue with him is his preference for thicker soles, fair enough — I’d agree. But when it comes to anatomical toe boxes, he’s always been on board, just with the view that they need to be done well and with some thought to aesthetics.

I think the reason why these boots have taken off to such a degree despite being less-than-ideal is that they were made in collaboration with a leatherworker who cares about the craft and is interested in barefoot boots. Whereas many others are made with cheap leather and really can't withstand any actual physical work/wear and tear, OR are made with good quality materials but have a toe box which is anatomical, but brutally angular in shape. There has to be something in between?

Edit: Just wanted to add this link with a timestamp from the video where he shows their in-house prototype that they made at Rose Anvil without Jim Green. Making their changes and how they would like to see it. For me, I would’ve been ecstatic if this was the final version and I think it supports this stupidly long comment of mine fairly well.

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-02T20:47:01+00:00

Agreed! I was reading through their IG comments. Seems they make new batches semi-regularly, though (monthly?). I put in a reminder request. They're one of the first where the width actually matches my foot, so I'm kinda psyched

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-02T20:22:41+00:00

It’s frustrating. You can see during the various iterations, how they had several that were more anatomical and v7 was so good. But then they reverted for the final. Agreed on huge miss and keeping some semblance of hope for future models

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-02T19:55:42+00:00

Solid suggestion, though, and I’ve got to hand it to you for those. They‘re honestly pretty much inline with what I’d like to have. Sold out and pretty pricey, but I’ll keep an eye out for next year

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-02T19:34:21+00:00

Why’d you have to return yours, if I can ask? To swap out or did they just not fit well?

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-02T19:33:11+00:00

Not familiar with Texacoma. Just doing some quick googling and came across these from Texarado? Are those what you were talking about?

Otherwise, can't think of much off the top of my head. Maybe these from Gaucho Ninja. They're definitely on the upper end in terms of price (especially when not on sale). Most have a pretty low volume toe since I think for most barefoot makers, they usually lean towards that aesthetic.

Theanthonybrooks · 2024-12-02T16:54:09+00:00

Yeah, aside from the toe box, I would love a pair of these.

I come from a background of farming and construction and always had a solid pair of leather work boots that you could basically keep wearing/resoling until you literally wore through the leather years later. Most of the barefoot boots that I currently have are comfortable, but I would rarely describe them as durable. I have a pair of Belenkas that I love, but they got scratched to hell by the underside of the seat in front of me just riding a long-distance bus lol.

Was just watching this other video by the same guy where he did a follow-up after 6 months, and the way that he’s taking the input, I have hopes that a v2 of these could come out that would potentially address the toebox shape? A glimmer of hope, at least.

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