#building Ruby apps

[rubys-domain]

at this point i dont even care if i get kokomi. i just want a 5 star

[ravenclaw-jojo]

Fandom: LaDS Pairings: Caleb x afab!reader Tags: Possessive love,  graphic smut, very ‘touch her and die’ vibes, breeding kink, Caleb is jealous of Xavier, light impact play, overstimulation, creampie (be safe ya’ll). MINORS DNI. WC: 2.5k

Description: You were a little late returning home from the Hunter’s Association. A/N: For @laddelulu30 who put breeding on my mind xD Also dedicated to @unintentionalseductress because well, Caleb :3

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You said you’d be out late. He already expected that. Yet something about the whole situation still made him uneasy. 

“There’s a pair of agents that just got back from their interrogation. We’re debriefing and then planning our schedules for the next few days. I promise, if it’s later than midnight, I’ll call you to pick me up.” You reassured him over video call. 

Caleb couldn’t protest, not when your eyes are staring back at him with sincerity he’s known for the better part of your lives — it was the same look you fixed him when you wanted an extra five minutes of his time to play whatever game you’d come up with that day. 

“Alright, alright, fine. Just promise to text me.” Caleb relented, the muscles in his jaw tightening despite the smile he tried to fix on his lips. 

“I will.” 

That was over two hours ago.  Thanks to the lifestyle app that you had suggested you download onto your phones, you were able to see each other’s general location on the map, and the speeds at which your phone was traveling at. Of course this only worked if you had your phone on you and the location was only accurate up to a 3-miles radius…and that wasn’t acceptable for him. No, he needed to know where you are at all times, down to the last step.

There’s a secret app on Caleb’s work cell, one he clicked open to reveal your precise location (the Hunter’s Association building, third floor, in one of the meeting rooms that’s in the south-eastern wing). This app was connected to the tracker embedded in the ruby gemstone of the dainty gold anklet he’d gifted you. You didn’t know about the tracker’s existence of course, and if you did… well that stirred a different feeling in Caleb that he was all too happy to entertain, if his focus wasn’t already fixated on your location. 

When the hour struck 10 and you still hadn’t called, he needed to take matters into his own hands.

“C’mon pip-squeak…pick up the phone.” He muttered as the video call attempted to connect. 

“Caleb? Why are you calling me silly?” Your laughter made the imaginary claws around his heart retract by a few centimeters. Despite trying to maintain some semblance of restraint, the reproachful tone in his voice reverberated through his sentence. 

“You said you’d call if you were staying later than midnight.” 

“And it isn’t midnight.” 

Caleb snorted. “Just like you to rely a little too much on technicalities.” 

Your laughter made his fingers pause mid-strum against the arm of your sofa. “It isn’t technicalities, it’s the truth. Clock has yet to strike midnight, Mr Caleb.” Your teasing tone doesn't go unnoticed. 

He chuckled, “It’ll be past midnight by the time you get here. Let me pick you up from work.” 

“Caleb, I’m not a little girl anymore. Trust me, I’ve made the walk home a dozen times before with no problem-”

“And that’s supposed to make me feel better? The pure coincidence that you haven’t been attacked by some stalker?”

Oh, it was certainly rich of him to say this. But you didn’t know that. You didn’t know how he was practically on edge right now, the sound of your laughter, the gentle curve of your lips…. 

“Stop that.” He commanded before he could stop himself, startling not just you but himself. It wasn’t like him to lose his control like this. 

“What?” You questioned with furrowed brows. 

“Biting your lip. Stop biting your lip, I want to do that.” Caleb said, his voice dropping into that gruff tone that made your thighs clench. Torn between surprise and a sudden rush of arousal, you licked your upper lip, brain trying to grasp at the thoughts that rushed through your mind from his authoritarian tone. “I…I wasn’t aware I was doing it. Sorry.” 

Caleb shook his head, locks of his hair curtaining his purple gaze. “You’ve nothing to apologize for. Just be careful coming home.” He told you in a gentler tone. The soft smile didn’t reach his eyes and you wondered what could’ve possibly changed… Caleb was no stranger to you working late, especially when it came to a case that had spanned months of tracking and intel gathering. 

“I will be.” You answered. You will be. Caleb thought to himself, watching the little red dot move along the map of his work phone, muscles on the back of his neck slowly relaxing when the very same dot started to move towards the building’s exit. He felt better knowing your exact location at all times.

Your fingerprint unlocked the door to your apartment and you were pleasantly surprised by the scent of good food wafting from your barely used kitchen – outside of baking, the kitchen was only functioning when Zayne happened to drop by. Though the doctor much preferred to spend time at his apartment or experiencing the service of an actual chef in a restaurant. Caleb however, had long since made himself at home in your kitchen. There was something oddly intimate about how he knew where you kept all your cups and plates, which drawer stored the utensils versus the designated junk drawer – drawerS, if we were being truthful. 

“Perfect timing, the rice just finished cooking..” He gestured towards the tasty food and dinner setting that waited for them at the table. You closed the door behind you, hanging your coat with an air of playful suspicion. “What did you do Caleb?” You asked. 

His easy chuckle softened your heart, while he led you to the table, the warm touch of his fingers easily breaking down said suspicions. This is Caleb. Your Caleb. “I’m not trying to butter you up pip-squeak. I promise. Juuuust making sure you’re eating, even if it isn’t really on time.” He pulled back a chair for her to sit down, before taking his own seat. You picked up on his pointed tone. 

“I’m sorry. It wasn’t like I intended to stay that late, I swear.” You said watching as he picked up your plate and started to arrange the home-cooked meal on it. His gaze met yours over the food, his scrutiny a little gentler than before. “Who else was there?” He asked.

You cocked your head, accepting the plate he offered. “The usual crowd, you’ve met Tara before. Then Simone was there to give a debriefing…”

“And what about that guy?” 

You suddenly had flashbacks of being a preteen and Caleb’s presence scaring away any and all potential crushes. Picking at your food, you raised an innocent eyebrow. “You mean Xavier?” His silence spoke more than his words ever could. 

“He hasn’t been around. Out on another mission by himself. And even if he wasn’t, do you honestly believe you have anything to be worried about?” You challenged him with a smile – one that immediately made his pants feel a little too tight. Caleb glowered back at you, “It’s not you I don’t trust, pip-squeak. Let’s make that clear. It’s other people I have little faith in.” He watched as you stood up from your seat, walking over to him. There was a glimmer in your eyes, something that hinted at mischief. Given your history, he was all too familiar with that look of yours. You had something up your sleeve. 

“You know, you’ve got to start working on your expressions if you’re ever going to go undercover, y/n.” He teased, your fingers trailing across his broad shoulders. He kept his focus on you as you walked around his chair and with a gentle nudge of your hip, had him push it backwards to provide you with just enough room to sit on his lap. 

You weren’t as amused by his jab, pouting up at him in a way that made his heart rate pick up. “I got a high score in ‘stealth and disguise’ thank you very much.” You retorted, arms going around his neck. Your fingers begin to play with the sterling silver chain of his dog tag, savoring the warmth of it between your fingertips. “Are you going to be a meanie all night just because you made dinner?”

His chuckle is followed by his arms cradling you, “Well I wasn’t going to say anything but since you pointed it out-...” His grip on you tightened before he stood up and carried you from the dining table. 

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

If he were being honest, he’d lost count of the number of orgasms he gave you. All he knew was that he’d never get tired of the way you look beneath him, the way the silver apple charm and dog tag clinked against his chest with each thrust he makes, and he’d especially never get tired of the way you moaned his name like you were begging for repentance from a god.  “Where do you think you’re going pip-squeak? Don’t tell me you’re done taking cock? You were so desperate for it earlier.” His voice took on a darker edge, his evol thickening in the air, the fine hairs on your body standing on end at the gravity change in your environment. Your hips that had unconsciously tried to pull away are forced back onto his, forcing him in an angle that made you feel so full. “Caleb…” You whined, walls tight as you accommodated his hard, almost manic thrusts – like he just wanted to see how much he could pull out of you, how big of a puddle he could make on the hardwood floor of your living room. 

“Love hearing you say my name like that.” He muttered, rolling his hips in figure 8’s just to further blur the lines between insanity and pleasure. “What do you think about recording it one day for me, hmm? Give me the pleasure of listening to you moaning over and over again when you send me texts.” Caleb’s smirk is replaced with a sudden darkening of his lavender eyes. “Then again, that would mean risking other people hearing your beautiful, needy voice. And I like knowing that this is all for me.” His hand slid into your hair, grasping a handful in a rough ponytail and tugging you back to focus on him. You wanted to say something but half your face is still pushed into the couch cushions, his hand keeping you in place. 

SMACK.

Fuck. Your mind was blanking out, the world narrowing down to the strain of your legs while Caleb continued rutting into you like a man possessed. The sharp sting of his palm against your ass cheek only sent more heat to your groin. More… “Aww you’re so cute like this pip-squeak. Look how wet you’re getting when I treat you like the good little slut I knew you always were. I wonder how many times your colleagues fantasize about you, wonder if they know just how depraved and dirty you really like it… All hidden behind this sweet face.” He released your hair, fingers sliding around to squeeze your round cheeks, forcing your lips to purse while his eyes drank in your features. 

Without so much as a warning, Caleb is suddenly pulling out of you – the disappointing emptiness only lasting for a fraction of a second before he flipped you over and with the help of his evol, pinned you down into a mean mating press – his favorite position with you. Caleb loved to watch the way your pupils dilate into lust-blown hearts when his cock stretches you, loved even more when your legs hook over his shoulders so he could leave gentle kisses along your calf, which honestly used to be his favorite part about fucking you like this. That quickly changed when he gifted that anklet to you – yes, the one with the tracker embedded in the matching apple charm – he’d also had the foresight to include another addition to the anklet: his initials. He’d only ever admit this to himself; something about the way he watched the letter ‘C’ bounce against your ankle in the same fast-paced rhythm he’d started, made his cock twitch. It was another way to mark you, filling him with prideful arrogance when he knew he’s the only privileged bastard to have their initials around your ankle. The same ankle he could hold onto when you have your legs on his shoulders. Well that was the situation until you said the very words that made the last thread of his restraint snap. 

“Breed me Caleb.” You pant, his pendant and chain pooling on your sternum. 

His hips stuttered, hand slamming down beside your head on the cushion while he steadied himself. “What did you say?” 

It wasn’t that he didn’t catch it the first time. The burning desire within Caleb had everything to do with needing to hear it again. 

The sting of your fingernails leaving angry red marks on his back made his irregular breathing heavier, especially when you’re staring straight into his eyes with that expression that practically begged him. “Breed me, please.”

“With fucking pleasure, pip-squeak.” Instincts took over when Caleb leaned down to nip on your luscious lower lip, making good on his promise from before.  Once upon a time, you’d have sworn the noises escaping your lips were fake – no way those videos across the Internet could be onto something – Caleb, however, knew everything about your body, knew precisely how to break you down just to take his sweet time putting you together again. “Caleb-...”

“Louder. I want the whole building to hear who you belong to.” His voice is husky, fingers tight enough to leave bruises against the back of your thighs. You could feel every vein, every throb of his cock between your heated, velvety walls-

“Caleb!” 

He was thrusting into you with blind need, the scent of your lovemaking thick in the air punctuated by the sodden thwack thwack thwack of your bodies.

Your vision is filled with a white sunburst, your body giving into your pleasure while you keened for him. The noises you made, the expression on your face, that vulnerability of how your chest seemed to flutter while you caught your breath…his. He was going to make you his. To breed you is to claim you in the most basest sense possible, no one would mistake who could’ve possibly made you swollen…the cadence of your voice begging him to breed you rang in his mind again further weakening the battle of wills he’d been having with himself – the need to drag this on as long as possible, or to fill you up to the brim with ropes and ropes of his-

“Fuuuuck…” You purred, overwhelmed from the feel of his warm cum spilling and smearing against your inner thighs.

“Y/n…” The crack in his voice instinctually made you grind against him, forcing another needy moan from Caleb. You both remained that way for a few beats, catching your breath while the white ring around the base of his cock slowly dripped along his balls. He pressed his cheek against your ankle, lips brushing against the curve of the ‘C’ from your anklet. His. You. Are. His.  

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ravenclaw-jojo™️2025 writing | No copying, plagiarizing or translations without expressed permission.

[n30ncr1ptid]

Ghost x transwoman user

First date meeting after chatting through a dating app scenario

Word count: 1131

Pure fluff with some (very mild) spice at the end

User's chosen name is Ruby but mostly reffered as "you"

Cw: mentions of: knives, animal bones, dick pics. Slight flirting at the end. User's genitals reffered to as dick.

It all started in a sleepover with your friends, you had decided to install a dating app and have some fun looking at dudes, to be fair you might have already had a drink or two but that just added to the fun you and the gals were having. You had spent the whole evening laughing, watching musicals, eating, chaitting , having fun, you even had taught your friends to dance to barbie's queen of the wave!

And so you had all started swiping showing profiles to each other and joking around like you best did

"this one looks like he'd be in a k-drama"

"why are half of them posing with a damm fish?"

"look at the pecs on this one"

"damm~, what size bra does he wear?"

"pfff hahaha!"

You had had a great time with your gals and , for some reason, didn't immediately decide to delete the app, you weren't using it and it didn't really matter if it was there anyways.

Then one day out of boredom you had decided to try and find someone to chat with, you opened the app and after clearing your inbox of the swarm of dick picks (you shook your head, so many years of evolution and this was their idea of romance? it was so ridiculous it almost made you laugh). You scrolled for a while, you were getting tired of seeing men showing you the result of their latest fishing trip.

Then your eyes caught on a simple profile, a tall man, muscular build, long eyelashes, blonde hair, wearing a facemask with a skull design. He looked like some type of goth, not that you minded, you didn't dislike alternative styles. You read his profile, military, british, from manchester, he liked paintball, dad jokes, airsoft, knifes... he seemed slightly intimidating but more interesting than any other dude you had seen on the app before, and his profile clearly wasn't a bot..

So you decided to send him a message asking if he wanted to chat and go from there, you were a bit nervous but it there wasn't any way he was able to tell from the pictures in your profile so you tried to keep the worry to a minimum . And you were pleasantly surprised, he wasn't a bad dude, maybe a bit intimidating but apart from that he was a solid guy.

His humor was refreshing, for once you weren't getting complains about being "too sarcastic" or "too dark", in fact you found yourself enjoying this little competition of who could pull the darkest jokes or the corniest lines.

After some time you decided to set up a date, he was stationed near you for some time, finally having some time off from his missions. And so you decided to meet at your favorite cafe cause at least if thing went south you knew the owner and she wouldn't hesitate to throw Simon out no matter how big he was.

And by god did you look pretty, your hair decorated with beautiful curls and a deep raspberry colored lipstick that gave you so much euphoria, you had decided to try and wear out a dark purple dress you had been itching to wear out but hadn't in fear of being "overdressed". You took one more look at yourself in the mirror before heading out, you looked so pretty! you looked like a very beautiful woman and that made you forget your doubts even if for just a short while.

So here you were, waiting, a cold drink in your hand as you looked through your phone, your nerves had unfortunately come back since you had arrive early giving your mind enough time to go over all the ways this could go south. You hadn't told him yet.. you still weren't confident enough to say it so soon, but why should you have to? it's not like you were forcing him to sleep with a "man", scratch that, you weren't a man, it was easy to belive in this dress.

Suddenly you got snapped out of your thoughts by a deep voice with a manchester accent.

"Sorry? I'm looking for someone.. are you Ruby?"

You nodded and placed your phone on the table looking up, he was handsome, but not to an extent that seemed artificial, if all he looked just slightly awkward , probably out of his element.

"Yeah, it's me, you're Simon, right?" He nodded sitting down opposite you, you could see some tension in his frame.

"Not used to going on dates?" You asked, he responded fairly quickly

"Not when 'm riskin' my life every bloody week, missions don't leave much time for romancing with chicks. I'm also not the type, prefer ta be alone to be honest"

"Yeah, i get that, going out can be really stressful"

You found yourself oddly comfortable as you chatted with simon, he showed you photos of part of his knife collection, you in turn showed him some of the animal bones you had collected, it was nice to chat about your interests without feeling like you were being judged for being gross.

After what must have been an hour but felt like a few minutes of chatting you found yourself laughing at his jokes, his deep voice was quite attractive. Then he crossed his arms over his chest as he laughed, and by god was the sight hot, especially since it accentuated his large pecs (no wonder why you were into guys with bigger tits than you).

You couldn't help but get a bit red at the sight trying to play it cool, but it was very apparent by the bulge in your dress that your dick didn't get the memo, you were thankful for your bag covering your lap but your expression must have changed enough for simon to notice

"all good luv? Ya look pretty bloody tense"

"wha-yeah yeah - you responded quickly, maybe a bit too quickly - i'm just fine"

"you sure 'bout that?"

You suddenly felt as his leg brushed against the tent in your dress, he was clearly just adjusting his leg, it was a purely innocent movement. Now you wanted the earth to swallow you, you were definitely red now, you were speechless, not knowing what to say or how he would react, still you tried to find in your brain something to say.

"i- sorry i didn't tell you- i should have warned you i-"

And then you were cut off by simon letting out a soft scoff.

"sorry? 'bout what? you ain't done nothin' wrong sweet'art. You're a woman, full stop, it doesn't matta' what's under your dress, besides it's not like i mind what a pretty lass like you's got, 'm not picky"

Maybe things weren't as bad as you had thought.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's all for now, might do a part two if this is well recived enough

[berrypass-de-murdler]

S-16 The Stayover Slaying

I don't even know if I've already used this or not but Grayscale is enjoying his favorite beverage, room-temperature water.

DON'T READ THE EPISODES WITHOUT READING THE BOOKS!!

Snow falls softly onto the kid’s tender face. It’s winter already, is it? The bitter cold would usually be damaging to his bare midriff and legs, but he shrugs it off, refusing to change outfits. He must think he’s the king of fashion.

Logico, meanwhile, doesn’t have anywhere better to be on winter break, and is also staying on campus. He’s going to catch up on studying for Obsidian’s class and be the first to crack the case. 

TUSCANY: Logico, you don’t have to keep working so hard. It’s winter break. Take some time off. LOGICO: And do what? Great opportunities do not come by without hard work. I will never become the next Deductive Rezoni by slacking! TUSCANY: [eyeroll] Oh. You’re still on that. I thought you’d put in so much effort you’d had your eye on becoming a real detective.

Logico laughs boisterously.

LOGICO: Not THAT much work. 

He glances out the window and sees a certain kid wandering in the cold. He watches him pause to shake the snow out of his fur, fluffing up a bit, sending Logico spiraling with joy. But then the kid notices a body on the ground. Logico runs outside, startling the boy. They stare at each other for a moment, then Tuscany steps out and they look away. 

The old smilodon looks troubled. Her son has amazing potential, more than any other student. But Hollywood? He could be using his gift to save lives, and instead, wishes to join the cult that is the film industry… She has an awful feeling that bad things are going to happen to him.

Logico catches a sparkle on the Mystery Boy’s chest - it’s that ruby pin! He had completely forgotten about that mystery. But not anymore. He points aggressively at the kid without a word, and starts to give chase. 

The Mystery Boy is fast! Logico is not. And the latter ends up crashing into Shy Abalone. 

LOGICO: …watch… where you’re going!

Aba gets pissed. But he can’t bring himself to spit out a word. Logico shoves him aside and keeps running. Then the clam decides - he’s had enough.

ABALONE: I will NOT be shoved around!

He runs over and body-slams Logico! The Boy gets away.

LOGICO: WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?? YOU RUINED MY PLAN! ABALONE: I’m not shy anymore!  LOGICO: GET OFF!

A piece of paper flies into his face. 

“When you eat something really fast, you’re scarfing! Aye aye, captain!”

LOGICO: The fuck?

It’s in the same handwriting as all the other notes, but this HAS to be a troll. What is wrong with this person?

But Logico does make a grand realization. The human who is now dead must have tried to push Abalone around… and was killed by him as a result!

LOGICO: MURDERER!

Abalone gasps and tries to run, but Tuscany stops him. 

TUSCANY: Another fine case, Logico.

Gico salutes in pride. But then he looks behind him, and sees a gift. It’s addressed to him. But of course, it’s not signed from anybody.

Inside the giant box is his own ruby pin. He marvels at its sparkle, the same color as his eye. It has to stand for something. But he can’t find any leads.

The kid looks out from behind a corner to make sure Logico got the gift. Then he ducks back behind and sighs. He knows this is the right choice. And he watches Logico slowly go back inside.

The kid looks at his own pin, and back at the building. 

You’re small but you’re a giant…

So brave and strong, defiant…

I can’t believe you look at me after all you know

I thought my life was over…

Not safe inside my own fur…

A voice inside me telling me where I had to go

And your single eye brings out something inside me

And I can’t fight it, I have to follow

But will you see what I have to offer

Or will you forget you saw me tomorrow

Why can’t I man up and speak

Every time you look at me

The only thing I want is to be your apprentice

I’ll give anything

I told you, I would find you

Every day I must remind you

My goal in life is to be your apprentice

I’ll give anything

I won’t take NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

For an answer this time!

I’ll be there, I’ll open the doors that you’re behind!

When you are around I no longer want to hide

I will step outSIIIDE and be your apprentice!

I’ll give anything…

The end! 

If anyone knows wtf the clue was supposed to mean, let me know :')

The power of Goat Lord compels you!

See you next time murdlers!

[ioniansunsets]

Okay so... your Heartsteel Boys and Their Love wrecked me, esp Ez and Phel. Is it okay to make requests? Could you write a Heartsteel!Aphellios scenario with a smol male reader who works at the studio? Requited "unrequited" crush; he thinks it could never work cuz this man is a music icon and clearly with Sett lol Like Settphel is probably a thing in-universe gossiped about by fans (but doesn't actually exist). Oh wow, that was long 😅 But yeah! You can take it from that prompt! Your work is awesome.

✖ Heartsteel!Aphelios x Male!Reader Confession ✖

✖ Word Count: 1.5k

✖ Tags: Mutual Pining, Confession

✖ A/N: Just know I have been thinking about this since you sent it in, for weeks I've wanted to write this and I got really carried away so I hope you enjoy it! It made my heart race in anticipation and I was the one writing it LMAO

Unrelated lyric wise but this was what I was listening to while writing this oops I'm old but the acoustic vibes and unrequited love felt right.

----

It was hard. Watching him from a distance this way. Holding yourself back knowing you were not part of the band nor part of their inner circle and truly have no chance. And that is already ignoring the fact that you don't even get to work with Aphelios alone much, he doesn't sing and you worked on that side of things so the only times you really see him at the studio is when he is working on stuff with you or for a photoshoot like now.

Wincing, you watch Sett pick your crush up. Aphelios' arms flailing in annoyance, gently resting on the taller man's chest as he visually shows how he demands to be let down. The giggles and chuckles of other staff and band members just made your heart ache all the more. You scoff, turning to walk away to spare yourself anymore of their cute interactions. You know, just looking at this scene, exactly why everyone thinks they're a couple. How could they not. Even you couldn't deny how cute the interaction was, how you wish you were the one holding Phel close.

The excited comments of " How cute!" and " I ship Settphel so hard." from other people working in the studio just rubbed salt into your wounds. The only solace in that, was at the very least, maybe it meant Phel swung that way and you'd have a chance. But against Sett? What could you do, if his type was big buff men, you were out of luck yet again. You let out a dry laugh as you leave the studio to take a break, not noticing Aphelios' gaze tracking you as you hurry out.

Get some air, yeah, you'll be fine if you grab a snack and pretend you saw and heard nothing. You'll be fine, this was what it was like loving Aphelios. This was alright.

So here you are, moping about it, a drink in one hand and your face in the other. Sitting depressingly with your elbows on the table in an booth far off in the corner of the building's café. If anything, at least it wasn't lunch rush so you could take some time alone. The soft instrumentals of the café's ambient music was somehow making you feel worse.

Thoughts and frustrations were plaguing you so hard you don't hear someone else enter the café, you don't hear them walk over and then sit by you.

It was only until they leaned in close and shoved an open note app on their phone screen under your hands into your line of sight that you jumped, shocked by your personal space getting intruded upon.

[Saw you leave suddenly, are you ok?]

Ah fuck fuck fuck, you know that phone you know that hand.

Looking up to see those god forsaken beautiful ruby red eyes sparkling with concern. You wanted his attention and care but not like this, not when you looked so pitiful, not when you're trying to push down your overwhelming feelings for him.

Offering Aphelios a pained smile you wave away his concern. Silence between you two was thick. It only made your heart sting more. You came here to escape the obvious one sided pinning but with Aphelios here it just made it so much worse.

[It's not really nothing if you're crying...]

Oh were you crying, oh this sucks this sucks. A soft shaky laugh leaves you as you wipe away your tears. Doing your best you try to divert the conversation away from bringing up your feelings.

" Why are you here anyway, you're mid shoot Aphelios. We're not even that close."

You ask him, leaning back into the booth chair. Hands now clasped together, trying your best to hold yourself together.

[I took a break. Wanted to check on you when I saw you run out. You're still my friend you know?]

He looks at you, eyebrows furrowed in concern. How you wish you could reach up and lightly caress that little cut in his brow and tell him its alright, it was just your personal problems regarding him. But you hold yourself back. You bite your tongue, thinking what to say to make all of this better. Recognizing your hesitant attitude he quickly types something else before holding his phone up to you again.

[ You always look out for me when I'm alone and frustrated in the studio, let me do the same for you.]

You pause again, shocked he even remembers all you've done for him.

" I am in love with someone I can't have."

You blurt it out, your own hand rising to cover your mouth. Ah, there was no going back now, this conversation was happening, you did this to yourself.

You see Aphelios freeze up, a flash of heartbreak across his features before it quickly returns to his cool default expression. The click of his neatly trimmed and manicured painted nails against his phone screen was all the more deafening. You should have told the truth.

[ An idol?]

Were you imagining this or was his hand shaky as he held up the phone again.

" An idol...but I think he already has someone so-"

[ He?]

Those damned sparkling ruby eyes looking up at you in hope set your heart off yet again. Why the hell did he have to look at you like that.

" He.

.

.

.

You."

Time froze as you whispered it out. The words leaving your mouth before your brain could catch up. The overwhelming feelings pushed you to admit it, to tell him after months of pinning. You were in love with him. You watched of course, the way shock crosses his features. Alright, you've done this before, the disgust would come next. You prepare yourself but it never happens. Instead he moves closer to you. What? He moved clos- You gulp hard, watching him.

Gently and so painfully slow, you watched his hand rise, slowly pulling down his mask. Ah, his lips, slightly pink, looking so soft, lip gloss still evident on the surface from the photoshoot earlier. The way it curls up gently into a smile as he leans in to you. He leans in to you?! He was barely hovering by your ear now. Your breath gets caught in your throat as Phel's soft breaths lightly ghost over your ears before, the softest, raspiest whispers grace your eardrums.

" I love you."

You froze. What else could you do. The shock gripping your heart, leaving you stunned for what felt like an eternity. It was only when Aphelios pulls away from you slowly. His damned, beautiful, ruby red eyes. They lock with yours. Eyebrows furrow just a smidge in concern, hoping he didn't overstep his boundaries, that your earlier comment allowed him the grace of talking directly into your ears. They had of course. You dreamt of this. His lips, once again, you watch, the way it slowly purses into a thin line, you should say something. Leaving him hanging in the same anxiety you have this way is horrible.

" I love you... Aphelios."

Ah it felt good. The way your chest now feels light. To say it out this way. To let your feelings finally escape into the world outside. To no longer stump it down in frustration. The trembling of your hands, the gasp and smile as Aphelios hears you speak.

And everything hits. All at once. Heart thrumming incessantly in your ears. The hustle and bustle of the world outside suddenly all too loud. The hand reaching up to hold your face and pull you close was all so fast. So fast. So soft. So gentle.

The way his eyes flutter close, the way his hands hold your face like you were something precious to him. The way his lips find yours. Just as soft and supple as you imagined all these weeks. His lips find yours. So gentle. So soft. So gentle. So soft. Your head spins as he kisses you. This was amazing, better than you could ever whip up in the private scenarios of your mind when you daydreamed about him from a distance. This was perfect. So perfect.

The two of you gasp as Aphelios pulls away. His lips slightly parted as he breathes slowly. The way it now shines a little from residual saliva from the kiss. Your heart races, you were so sure it has skipped more than a few beats. The whole scene burned into your memory for years to come.

He was oh so beautiful. Aphelios' face breaks into a warm smile. His eyes narrow from the grin, the pink tinge of a blush under his makeup, his hair falling softly around his cheeks. You can't help but smile too, all the endlessly frustrating one sided pinning that led to this was worth it. You sigh, content, pulling him into a hug. You don't hear it but feel the rise and fall of his chest as he laughs, hugging you back tightly as he leans his head on your shoulder. This was right. This was good. This was happiness. This was yours.

[ultimateaclrecovery]

Portugal day 3 - Douro valley wine tour!

First stop! A tiny town called Amarante. We left Porto really early, 7:30, presumably to beat the traffic so had an hour to kill before going to the first wine stop for lunch. They sold it to us a photo stop, and it was actually pretty photogenic!

First tour was Favios! Our tour guides jacket said follow me I know where the wine is. She walked us through the mixing and fermenting and aging process and then we got lunch! We got an appetizer shot of moscatel, a white and a red with lunch and a dessert wine.

Stopped at a Random train station for pictures with blue tiles and then a fun Boat tour! There was an app for audio guide which was just okay but the views were great and the rain held off!

Second stop! We got to tour the vineyard and see the grape plants and then got three glasses of port, a white, ruby and red. Would’ve been nice to spend longer here as the port was strong and we all got a little tipsy

After a long bus ride back I book it to my hotel to pee (perhaps I should’ve stayed at chatted and found a bathroom nearby but oh well) and then I grabbed a ticket for levarillo, the Harry Potter bookstore. It was pretty but overwhelming filled with people and I couldn’t find a fun classic book that I wanted to buy.

I then went out to Conga for a bifana (thin sliced pork) sandwich. It was okay but hardly life changing, but gotta try all the “Porto” food! I tried to get a side salad but ended up with a plate of tomatoes and onions instead…. Oops.

I then ended the night with gelato because I just wanted something delicious and familiar after trying too many new things. Topped off with a great sunset view from my room

Overly long travel diary

Day 3

Day 3 - 11/4 Douro valley

Leftover pastel de natas for breakfast as the sunrises. Wet and rainy day. Walk to living tour location and fun my bus. I was hoping it would be a small enough tour for just a van but alas. We have maybe 20 people so not a full bus but close. The guide talks about some of the buildings and portugals industry and food, cork wine and cod and also lets us sit in quite.

After an hour we stop at a little town called amarante and are given an hour to wander which is a long time for a tiny place. There is a church and bridge and some pretty views and I wander the streets a little. It is fine but not what I would’ve picked. It must be a timing thing for getting out of Porto early enough but not getting to the wine spots too early.

A lovely wine tour was had. Our guides jacket said “follow me I know where the wine is” she showed us cellars with the barrels and then the truck receiving location where they weigh the grapes and evaluate the quality to determine how much money to give the grape growers or producers. She then showed us the metal vats where they do the fermentation process. Squishing the grapes and maintaining the temperature for perfect fermentation. Talked us through the fortification of moscatel after only four days or 3% of the grapes have become alcohol. The normal quality grapes sit in giant metal vats for 4 years and the bestest grapes get aged in barrels. And then it was time for the tasting.

We started with a baby or young moscatel which hat smelled citrusy and tasted like honey. It was okay. And then lunch. We had soup, basic salad, a rice and French dish, cutely shoved in a round shaped a quilla maybe, and then pork and potatoes. With lunch we had a white (my favorite) and a red (quite good). And then for dessert there was fruit and a custard cake with Carmel sauce and a more aged moscatel.

I am enjoying the people watching of this trip. I most liked the single older man across from me who shamelessly read a book on his phone they most of dinner. I admire the self knowledge to have his one best time. My trip is mostly couples. a few young and about half retired l. There’s also a mother daughter pair, two ladies together and another single lady. It’s a fun mix. One couple sitting near me was celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary and another was almost at 49 years. My goodness.

I am now pleasantly tipsy back on the bus to the boat ride. Yay boats! Sadly it is quite grey and drizzly outside. Also I love my new sweater that I made just for me :D

I do wish Anthony were here. I think the trip would’ve been more fun with him along. We’ll see if I still feel the same way once I’m traveling with Elizabeth.

Before the boat ride we stopped at a train station with some pretty blue tiles (clearly killing time but pretty so whatevs). I thought that the blue tiles were always abstract geometric designs, but they also get used as part of murals where they make up one single picture which is fun. I continue my collection of blue tile pictures.

The boat ride was perfection. Not too cold and barely raining (no need for a raincoat). It came with an app for an audio guide which was nice but didn’t let you pause it and only came up at certain spots which annoying but better than nothing. The views though were great! The terraces and the fall colors and gentle river breeze were everything I could ever want. They let us hang out on the bow and open air and it was lovely. Got several nice pictures l, took some of others and just enjoyed the river surround by terraced mountains of grape vines.

The second wine tour was very similar to start with showing us barrels in a tourist aging area and then we got to walk up to see the vines. They were so red and pretty! He explained the pruning, how they do a rough prune down to the second wire and then a more precise prune down to the old trunks later. He showed us the difference of the old vines (normal looking) and then the new vines, which were American roots (to protect against bug diseases) with European vines grafted on top that stretched across the first wire. And then grew upwards at multiple points from there. It takes several years to produce “quality” grapes but only to produce any. Again they prune the new growth every year and let the trunk get thick and fat. They trim all the leaves every year down to the third wire to encourage more grape growth. This vineyard using mechanical stomping for most grape and traditional human feet for their vintages. And then we try the ports! We get a chilled white a very dark ruby and then a tawny. They are all 20% alcohol. The white is an appetizer wine and would only be drank before meals chilled. While the other two are room temperature and can be drank whenever. I’m surprised that the ruby is darker than the tawny. I like them all but the white is my favorite and then the ruby and than the tawny but both are a little alcholy bitter for my tasting but pretty good. We aren’t given very long to drink them and I am only half way thru when the guide announces ten more min, so I kind of chug them and then go to the bathroom. And then sneak in one more picture from the most enthusiastic older lady which is fun and is a cute picture so worth being one of the last on the bus, but not late!

“This picture brought to you by an older lady on what is either a mother daughter trip or just three older ladies living their best life, who loved all the wines and is clearly living her best life and gave me a “you go girl” while taking this picture 😂”

And now time for a tipsy car ride home.

I really do love the mix of people on group tours. You got three young couples, three retired couples, one in between? A two person girl trip, a three person girl trip (or mother daughter and friend?) three solos (me, a girl from India, and a tall middle aged man who hi reminds me of the non love interest man in legally blind (the tall awkward one who helps her get books from a tall shelf). Many countries, three USA, a Canada, Australia, Canadian (French candian), India, ect. It’s just kind of fun to see. I like hearing the different travel plans too. From the uk 3 day 30th anniversary trip, to week long, to two weeks two Europe stops, to 28 day uk cruise plus Portugal trip, it’s all so fun and varied.

Idk if I would call this the absolute highlight of my traveling life, like some travel blogs did. But I definitely had a good time and am glad I did it!

I had a boat tour! I tried wines! I learned about things! And I didn’t have to make any decisions! (And I got to sit on bus and do nothing and feeling good about it! (Honestly priceless and underrated))

Got back and it was raining and I had pee so bad and I was kind of hoping to get a ticket to the bookstore before they closed so I basically scurried off the bus and to the hotel 15min away and then felt kind of about because maybe I should have said good bye to people? Or at least the other solo lady from India? But I had to pee and public bathrooms are hard to find in Europe and I knew where my hotel was so I just scurried away.

Got back to my hotel bought a ticket, struggled to find the ticket because it got sent to spam, got confused by the lines but finally made it into the store. It was both underwhelming visually and overwhelming with the number of people and my first thought was to flee. I wandered around took some pictures, tried not to get in peoples way too badly as they took pictures on the cool spiral staircases and looked to see if there were any books I wanted. They had a whole little prince room which was cool (although I’ve never read the book). And lots of classic books. They had these mini little books called “lello collections” that were the only books under 16 euros. Your 8 euro ticket can go to the cost of a book so I think is everything is upcharged for that. They had a bunch classics but none I wanted. The closest was Alice in wonderland but my Alice copy was already a cute little book like that soooo. They had big copies of chronicles of narnis and the little mermaid and secret garden but they were all over 30 euros and I didn’t really want them, but would’ve gotten little versions of them. I give up on finding anything I want to buy and go to conga to get a bifana. The place is very Portuguese and the waiters have no idea what I’m saying but pointing at least allows me to order. I get a bifana (pork sandwhich) with cheese and what I think is a simple salad with tomato and onion, but turns out to be just a plate of tomato and onions…. The sandwhich is okay but nothing to rave about. And I don’t really know what to do with the tomatoes and opinions. I eat some of the onions (at least they have olive oil on them) and then put some more on the sandwich which is good. And then I finally figure out I have to go back to the counter to pay and leave.

I am now tired and grumpy and sick of trying new foods so I go and get ice cream. I walk right past the shop at first and have to turn around but eventually find it! I get dulce de leche and chocolate hazelnut and it’s delicious and exactly what I needed. I eat it while strolling the drizzling streets. I pop in a souvenir store on my way back because I want an ornament with a Santa hat but they only have Portugal ones with the hats and not Porto and I get decision paralysis and grumpy and just go back to my hotel where I also really need poop. I then just scroll on my phone, take a nice hot shower and go to bed.

[momolady]

A List of Things Not Yet Written

Here is the list of things I want to write that may inspire commission ideas or even inspire you to write something in general!

First off, I re-read Himley the Mad Hatter recently, and I have been filled with this deep, horrible desire to go back and make it better. The bones are there in the story, but it is jumbled, wordy, and I know I could do such a character justice. I want to rewrite it so bad. This may be the top of my list of projects I want to do.

It was brought to my attention the story of Bray was never fully closed. I would like to both rewrite his first chapter and continue it.

The Minotaur clan in the Ruby Empire was once a huge idea for me, but it had to fall to the wayside. Claudio was the only one I got to talk about from that neck of the Ruby Empire wood, and I would like to go back and visit it.

Most of the Ruby Empire needs to be retconned and rewritten, but no one could afford o fix that mess, so moving on.

I need to finish the Levi rewrite now that I'm on it.

I also wouldn't mind revisiting my first monster story, the Strawberry monster. 

This one was an ask on Tumblr: "A homeless girl arrives at Hearthway Hollow with only but her  guitar and optimism to make money, not knowing about the traditions or  even knowing about the werewolves." 

A former magical girl who supposedly died but has been turned into a cyborg, whose power over music is now a powerful mind control power. That's all I've got, just a character.

Anothe tumble ask: "a goblin thinks he is getting catfished, after an online friend finally sent the first picture of herself." The idea of this sounds so fun, could be any monster. Coudl give me the chance to build a monster dating app.

I've been rewatching Star Trek TNG and Data has been giving me thoughts. So maybe something along the lines of the android and a companion.

A former royal concubine runs away, rather than spend her life serving others. Near death, she's rescued by a man (orc, minotaur, whatever) and his dog. But he lives high in the mountains and supplies are low as is. She agrees to use her skills to keep him company through the long, dark winter until spring thaws the mountain and she can cross the Cobra Strait. 

A short, spitfire thief breaks into the house of a supposedly single woman who is a shut in. The house appears in disrepair and the woman has surprisingly nice things, even if things are cluttered and stacked around. But the thief is caught by the woman, who is quite taller than him. She kidnaps him and keeps him in prisoner in her home where she reveals herself to be a vampire disillusioned with immortality and has been sustaining herself off critters who get into her house. The short thief is just the latest.

Speaking of height difference couples! A short statured fire demon finds himself smitten with one of the ice giant women.

A monster wins a date with the camgirl he admires.

A red riding hood retelling. I'm shocked I've not done that before.

An attempt to clone a powerful, ancient creature results in a monster that seeks revenge on the people who have been keeping them captve and used for experiments. To exact revenge, the monster kidnaps the head scientist's daughter, intending to turn her against her family and humans in general.

I reread Thilo last night and I want to rewrite it. If only for the fact the reader character seemed a bit...predatory.

finish Misinformed! I think i need a couple of chapters to finish the story as it is before i do a rough draft rewrite.

An older woman reconnects with the orc she fell in love with. When Obresh was rescued by the Orcs her family decided to move rather than be ruled by the orcs, separating her from the orc she had fallen in love with. Decades later, she returns to Obresh and finds her former love. The two reconnect and finish what they started.

A halfling monster Hunter gets more than he bargained for when he comes into contact with two powerful and warring vampires.

An isekai story where the MC is sent to various worlds with the stipulation they’ll die if they have sex. So they make a game of it.

See any of these you like? Commission them from me! Or any story you want to see me write for you.

[attaseeinthebox]

Getting to know me!

Thanks for tagging me @yerdaftapeth

Rules: tag 10 people you want to know more about

Last song: Green Light - Lorde.

Last movie: Alien Prometheus.

Last book: Joe Lycett’s Art Hole and fan fic.

Last TV show: Devil in the Family - The Fall of Ruby Franke

Sweet/spicy/savoury: Savoury. Maybe a bit of sweet also.

Relationship status: Current Husband status - 1

Last thing you Googled: whether I’d spelt the word exponentially correct and was I using it in the right way.

Looking forward to: my birthday and holiday

Current obsession: All Creatures Great and Small, Midsomer Murders, Powerwash Simulator on the PS5 (it’s an amazing thing believe me), maps, real crime documentaries, cults. Lorde (as in the singer), trainers (mostly adidas), drawing building and doors, I’m partial to doing a bit of fan art also. Merlin the bird app - robins are drama queens. Rule breaker.

I’m not sure 10 people even know me on here. See last current obsessions.

[clockwrkcabaret]

Episode 790: Originally Aired on Mad Wasp Radio, 04.13.25

WARNING! This show is for adults. We drink cocktails, have potty mouths and, at least, one of us was raised by wolves.

The Clockwork Cabaret is a production of Agony Aunt Studios. Featuring that darling DJ Duo, Lady Attercop and Emmett Davenport. Our theme music is made especially for us by Kyle O’Door.

This episode aired on Mad Wasp Radio, 04.13.25.

New episodes air on Mad Wasp Radio on Sundays @ 12pm GMT! Listen at www.madwaspradio.com or via TuneIn radio app!

Playlist:

Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship? – Don’t Go

Miss Mousie & The Rigamarole – Dumpsters & Divebars

Beirut – My Family’s Role In The World Revolution

The Mountain Goats – Unicorn Tolerance

Gogol Bordello – The Era of the End of Eras

The Divine Comedy – Napoleon Complex

Apocalypse Five and Dime – Fire It Burns

Insomniac Folklore – Everything Will Burn

Orville Peck & Nathaniel Rateliff – Conquer The Heart

The Cog is Dead – I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire

The Correspondents – Rogue

Martin Martini & the Bone Palace Orchestra – The World Is Broken

The Little Willies – I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive

Roselit Bone – Slow Hot Death

Range Rats – Lonely

Meat Puppets – Two Rivers

Danbert Nobacon – Straight Talk (Meet Frank)

Camper Van Beethoven – Jack Ruby

Jenny Don’t and the Spurs – My Baby’s Gone

Those Poor Bastards – This World Is Evil

The Koffin Kats – Locket Of Sin

That Handsome Devil – Rob The Prez-O-dent

John Grant – Meek AF

Hellblinki – All for You

Check out this episode!

[rubys-domain]

i did it. i built hydro chongyun.

[cozzzynook]

depressing megarod drabble with sorta rodiclash

Okay so hi i have a sorta basic sad megarod drabble where megatron has died and most of the planet is celebrating. there were bots who knew roddy and megs had a thing going on during the lost light right up to his excuteion. some we're judgy of them, others decided to stay in touch with roddy and accept that the spark wants with the spark wants and as long as roddy is okay theyre okay with it. the bots who knew and were accepting checked up on him and they held a "hug and cry" session on the day of megs execution at drifts place and they all just sat around him and held him and cried as he experienced his spark go through agony because he could feel the spark bond between him and megs fatally breaking and ratchet and first aid were also there as friends but also medical back up in case something fatal happened to roddy. in certain cases many mechs have died from the pain and agony and intense experience of your sparkbond fatally breaking.

a few hundred years go by and everyone think that roddy is starting to heal, even drift and ratchet who visited him everyday and were there for when roddy initially went through a an intense depressin episode right after the execution and barely got out of berth most days. they checked on him daily and he really did seem like he was starting to process healthily and letting himself go through the motions. what no one in roddy friend circle know is that he started going through online interfacing apps looking for bots who were nearest and closest to megs in size and voice and sometimes looks and went under a different name. the few bots he met up with kinda knew they were meeting with roddy but didnt really care and we're just down to have a easy no strings attached overload. unfortunately for roddy after the one time with the five diff mechs he met up with he just stopped messaging them. none of them really helped thh.

He messaged brainstorm, being completely honest and ask if he could create a clone for him but Brainstorm refused, saying he did that alot during and after the war at the request of many bots who recently lost their conjux and they always ended up getting rid of the clones or just not becoming well after the fact, making him decide to stop with those specific clone requests.

one day after drinking alot the night before, Roddy took medicine for his helmache and then spent the day cleaning his place and thinking, then went over to Thundersclash's place and was straight up honest with him. asked him if he wanted to come over to hang out and interface and would be okay with him pretending he's megs for the night. thunders know it's a bad idea but also doesn't want to pass up the chance to help roddy in any sorta of way and be close to him even if its for his build and ruby optics and so for the next couple of nights thunderclash woukd come over at night to roddys and help roddy sexually with his grief, and got used to roddy asking for the lights to be turned off before they started so he could just stare into his optics pretending its megs, moaning megatrons name in his ear, having thunderclash whispering the praises megs used to say to Rodimus at roddys request. one day tho he went over to Drift's to saying he needs to find a way to let down rodimus and that he regrets saying yes to him and was blinded by how much he cared for roddy and secretly liked him. he tells him the reason why he waited till now was because last night roddy broke down sobbing but kept telling thunder to keep going and keep spiking him and that it just broke his heart to see him in such a state. and that he scared Roddy may become those mechs who never healed, and ended up getting worse as a result. Drift is just genuinely heartbroken and scared for his amica and kinda guilts himself for not noticing even though it was truly not on him and roddy just kept up an impressive mirage. ratchet has ro constantly remind him that and they both talk with thunderclash and help come with a plan to help Roddy thats wll my brain had for now

song going through my mind thinking this was Old Wounds by Pvris lol

This must be karma for when i post angst lol

Damn 😭

[tomblomfield]

Vibecoding a production app

TL;DR I built and launched a recipe app with about 20 hours of work - recipeninja.ai

Background: I'm a startup founder turned investor. I taught myself (bad) PHP in 2000, and picked up Ruby on Rails in 2011. I'd guess 2015 was the last time I wrote a line of Ruby professionally. I've built small side projects over the years, but nothing with any significant usage. So it's fair to say I'm a little rusty, and I never really bothered to learn front end code or design.

In my day job at Y Combinator, I'm around founders who are building amazing stuff with AI every day and I kept hearing about the advances in tools like Lovable, Cursor and Windsurf. I love building stuff and I've always got a list of little apps I want to build if I had more free time.

About a month ago, I started playing with Lovable to build a word game based on Articulate (it's similar to Heads Up or Taboo). I got a working version, but I quickly ran into limitations - I found it very complicated to add a supabase backend, and it kept re-writing large parts of my app logic when I only wanted to make cosmetic changes. It felt like a toy - not ready to build real applications yet.

But I kept hearing great things about tools like Windsurf. A couple of weeks ago, I looked again at my list of app ideas to build and saw "Recipe App". I've wanted to build a hands-free recipe app for years. I love to cook, but the problem with most recipe websites is that they're optimized for SEO, not for humans. So you have pages and pages of descriptive crap to scroll through before you actually get to the recipe. I've used the recipe app Paprika to store my recipes in one place, but honestly it feels like it was built in 2009. The UI isn't great for actually cooking. My hands are covered in food and I don't really want to touch my phone or computer when I'm following a recipe.

So I set out to build what would become RecipeNinja.ai

For this project, I decided to use Windsurf. I wanted a Rails 8 API backend and React front-end app and Windsurf set this up for me in no time. Setting up homebrew on a new laptop, installing npm and making sure I'm on the right version of Ruby is always a pain. Windsurf did this for me step-by-step. I needed to set up SSH keys so I could push to GitHub and Heroku. Windsurf did this for me as well, in about 20% of the time it would have taken me to Google all of the relevant commands.

I was impressed that it started using the Rails conventions straight out of the box. For database migrations, it used the Rails command-line tool, which then generated the correct file names and used all the correct Rails conventions. I didn't prompt this specifically - it just knew how to do it. It one-shotted pretty complex changes across the React front end and Rails backend to work seamlessly together.

To start with, the main piece of functionality was to generate a complete step-by-step recipe from a simple input ("Lasagne"), generate an image of the finished dish, and then allow the user to progress through the recipe step-by-step with voice narration of each step. I used OpenAI for the LLM and ElevenLabs for voice. "Grandpa Spuds Oxley" gave it a friendly southern accent.

Recipe summary:

And the recipe step-by-step view:

I was pretty astonished that Windsurf managed to integrate both the OpenAI and Elevenlabs APIs without me doing very much at all. After we had a couple of problems with the open AI Ruby library, it quickly fell back to a raw ruby HTTP client implementation, but I honestly didn't care. As long as it worked, I didn't really mind if it used 20 lines of code or two lines of code. And Windsurf was pretty good about enforcing reasonable security practices. I wanted to call Elevenlabs directly from the front end while I was still prototyping stuff, and Windsurf objected very strongly, telling me that I was risking exposing my private API credentials to the Internet. I promised I'd fix it before I deployed to production and it finally acquiesced.

I decided I wanted to add "Advanced Import" functionality where you could take a picture of a recipe (this could be a handwritten note or a picture from a favourite a recipe book) and RecipeNinja would import the recipe. This took a handful of minutes.

Pretty quickly, a pattern emerged; I would prompt for a feature. It would read relevant files and make changes for two or three minutes, and then I would test the backend and front end together. I could quickly see from the JavaScript console or the Rails logs if there was an error, and I would just copy paste this error straight back into Windsurf with little or no explanation. 80% of the time, Windsurf would correct the mistake and the site would work. Pretty quickly, I didn't even look at the code it generated at all. I just accepted all changes and then checked if it worked in the front end.

After a couple of hours of work on the recipe generation, I decided to add the concept of "Users" and include Google Auth as a login option. This would require extensive changes across the front end and backend - a database migration, a new model, new controller and entirely new UI. Windsurf one-shotted the code. It didn't actually work straight away because I had to configure Google Auth to add `localhost` as a valid origin domain, but Windsurf talked me through the changes I needed to make on the Google Auth website. I took a screenshot of the Google Auth config page and pasted it back into Windsurf and it caught an error I had made. I could login to my app immediately after I made this config change. Pretty mindblowing. You can now see who's created each recipe, keep a list of your own recipes, and toggle each recipe to public or private visibility. When I needed to set up Heroku to host my app online, Windsurf generated a bunch of terminal commands to configure my Heroku apps correctly. It went slightly off track at one point because it was using old Heroku APIs, so I pointed it to the Heroku docs page and it fixed it up correctly.

I always dreaded adding custom domains to my projects - I hate dealing with Registrars and configuring DNS to point at the right nameservers. But Windsurf told me how to configure my GoDaddy domain name DNS to work with Heroku, telling me exactly what buttons to press and what values to paste into the DNS config page. I pointed it at the Heroku docs again and Windsurf used the Heroku command line tool to add the "Custom Domain" add-ons I needed and fetch the right Heroku nameservers. I took a screenshot of the GoDaddy DNS settings and it confirmed it was right.

I can see very soon that tools like Cursor & Windsurf will integrate something like Browser Use so that an AI agent will do all this browser-based configuration work with zero user input.

I'm also impressed that Windsurf will sometimes start up a Rails server and use curl commands to check that an API is working correctly, or start my React project and load up a web preview and check the front end works. This functionality didn't always seem to work consistently, and so I fell back to testing it manually myself most of the time.

When I was happy with the code, it wrote git commits for me and pushed code to Heroku from the in-built command line terminal. Pretty cool!

I do have a few niggles still. Sometimes it's a little over-eager - it will make more changes than I want, without checking with me that I'm happy or the code works. For example, it might try to commit code and deploy to production, and I need to press "Stop" and actually test the app myself. When I asked it to add analytics, it went overboard and added 100 different analytics events in pretty insignificant places. When it got trigger-happy like this, I reverted the changes and gave it more precise commands to follow one by one.

The one thing I haven't got working yet is automated testing that's executed by the agent before it decides a task is complete; there's probably a way to do it with custom rules (I have spent zero time investigating this). It feels like I should be able to have an integration test suite that is run automatically after every code change, and then any test failures should be rectified automatically by the AI before it says it's finished.

Also, the AI should be able to tail my Rails logs to look for errors. It should spot things like database queries and automatically optimize my Active Record queries to make my app perform better. At the moment I'm copy-pasting in excerpts of the Rails logs, and then Windsurf quickly figures out that I've got an N+1 query problem and fixes it. Pretty cool.

Refactoring is also kind of painful. I've ended up with several files that are 700-900 lines long and contain duplicate functionality. For example, list recipes by tag and list recipes by user are basically the same.

Recipes by user:

This should really be identical to list recipes by tag, but Windsurf has implemented them separately.

Recipes by tag:

If I ask Windsurf to refactor these two pages, it randomly changes stuff like renaming analytics events, rewriting user-facing alerts, and changing random little UX stuff, when I really want to keep the functionality exactly the same and only move duplicate code into shared modules. Instead, to successfully refactor, I had to ask Windsurf to list out ideas for refactoring, then prompt it specifically to refactor these things one by one, touching nothing else. That worked a little better, but it still wasn't perfect

Sometimes, adding minor functionality to the Rails API will often change the entire API response, rather just adding a couple of fields. Eg It will occasionally change Index Recipes to nest responses in an object { "recipes": [ ] }, versus just returning an array, which breaks the frontend. And then another minor change will revert it. This is where adding tests to identify and prevent these kinds of API changes would be really useful. When I ask Windsurf to fix these API changes, it will instead change the front end to accept the new API json format and also leave the old implementation in for "backwards compatibility". This ends up with a tangled mess of code that isn't really necessary. But I'm vibecoding so I didn't bother to fix it.

Then there was some changes that just didn't work at all. Trying to implement Posthog analytics in the front end seemed to break my entire app multiple times. I tried to add user voice commands ("Go to the next step"), but this conflicted with the eleven labs voice recordings. Having really good git discipline makes vibe coding much easier and less stressful. If something doesn't work after 10 minutes, I can just git reset head --hard. I've not lost very much time, and it frees me up to try more ambitious prompts to see what the AI can do. Less technical users who aren't familiar with git have lost months of work when the AI goes off on a vision quest and the inbuilt revert functionality doesn't work properly. It seems like adding more native support for version control could be a massive win for these AI coding tools.

Another complaint I've heard is that the AI coding tools don't write "production" code that can scale. So I decided to put this to the test by asking Windsurf for some tips on how to make the application more performant. It identified I was downloading 3 MB image files for each recipe, and suggested a Rails feature for adding lower resolution image variants automatically. Two minutes later, I had thumbnail and midsize variants that decrease the loading time of each page by 80%. Similarly, it identified inefficient N+1 active record queries and rewrote them to be more efficient. There are a ton more performance features that come built into Rails - caching would be the next thing I'd probably add if usage really ballooned.

Before going to production, I kept my promise to move my Elevenlabs API keys to the backend. Almost as an afterthought, I asked asked Windsurf to cache the voice responses so that I'd only make an Elevenlabs API call once for each recipe step; after that, the audio file was stored in S3 using Rails ActiveStorage and served without costing me more credits. Two minutes later, it was done. Awesome.

At the end of a vibecoding session, I'd write a list of 10 or 15 new ideas for functionality that I wanted to add the next time I came back to the project. In the past, these lists would've built up over time and never gotten done. Each task might've taken me five minutes to an hour to complete manually. With Windsurf, I was astonished how quickly I could work through these lists. Changes took one or two minutes each, and within 30 minutes I'd completed my entire to do list from the day before. It was astonishing how productive I felt. I can create the features faster than I can come up with ideas.

Before launching, I wanted to improve the design, so I took a quick look at a couple of recipe sites. They were much more visual than my site, and so I simply told Windsurf to make my design more visual, emphasizing photos of food. Its first try was great. I showed it to a couple of friends and they suggested I should add recipe categories - "Thai" or "Mexican" or "Pizza" for example. They showed me the DoorDash app, so I took a screenshot of it and pasted it into Windsurf. My prompt was "Give me a carousel of food icons that look like this". Again, this worked in one shot. I think my version actually looks better than Doordash 🤷‍♂️

Doordash:

My carousel:

I also saw I was getting a console error from missing Favicon. I always struggle to make Favicon for previous sites because I could never figure out where they were supposed to go or what file format they needed. I got OpenAI to generate me a little recipe ninja icon with a transparent background and I saved it into my project directory. I asked Windsurf what file format I need and it listed out nine different sizes and file formats. Seems annoying. I wondered if Windsurf could just do it all for me. It quickly wrote a series of Bash commands to create a temporary folder, resize the image and create the nine variants I needed. It put them into the right directory and then cleaned up the temporary directory. I laughed in amazement. I've never been good at bash scripting and I didn't know if it was even possible to do what I was asking via the command line. I guess it is possible.

After launching and posting on Twitter, a few hundred users visited the site and generated about 1000 recipes. I was pretty happy! Unfortunately, the next day I woke up and saw that I had a $700 OpenAI bill. Someone had been abusing the site and costing me a lot of OpenAI credits by creating a single recipe over and over again - "Pasta with Shallots and Pineapple". They did this 12,000 times. Obviously, I had not put any rate limiting in.

Still, I was determined not to write any code. I explained the problem and asked Windsurf to come up with solutions. Seconds later, I had 15 pretty good suggestions. I implemented several (but not all) of the ideas in about 10 minutes and the abuse stopped dead in its tracks. I won't tell you which ones I chose in case Mr Shallots and Pineapple is reading. The app's security is not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it for the scale I'm at. If I continue to grow and get more abuse, I'll implement more robust measures.

Overall, I am astonished how productive Windsurf has made me in the last two weeks. I'm not a good designer or frontend developer, and I'm a very rusty rails dev. I got this project into production 5 to 10 times faster than it would've taken me manually, and the level of polish on the front end is much higher than I could've achieved on my own.  Over and over again, I would ask for a change and be astonished at the speed and quality with which Windsurf implemented it. I just sat laughing as the computer wrote code.

The next thing I want to change is making the recipe generation process much more immediate and responsive. Right now, it takes about 20 seconds to generate a recipe and for a new user it feels like maybe the app just isn't doing anything.

Instead, I'm experimenting with using Websockets to show a streaming response as the recipe is created. This gives the user immediate feedback that something is happening. It would also make editing the recipe really fun - you could ask it to "add nuts" to the recipe, and see as the recipe dynamically updates 2-3 seconds later. You could also say "Increase the quantities to cook for 8 people" or "Change from imperial to metric measurements".

I have a basic implementation working, but there are still some rough edges. I might actually go and read the code this time to figure out what it's doing!

I also want to add a full voice agent interface so that you don't have to touch the screen at all. Halfway through cooking a recipe, you might ask "I don't have cilantro - what could I use instead?" or say "Set a timer for 30 minutes". That would be my dream recipe app!

Tools like Windsurf or Cursor aren't yet as useful for non-technical users - they're extremely powerful and there are still too many ways to blow your own face off. I have a fairly good idea of the architecture that I want Windsurf to implement, and I could quickly spot when it was going off track or choosing a solution that was inappropriately complicated for the feature I was building. At the moment, a technical background is a massive advantage for using Windsurf. As a rusty developer, it made me feel like I had superpowers.

But I believe within a couple of months, when things like log tailing and automated testing and native version control get implemented, it will be an extremely powerful tool for even non-technical people to write production-quality apps. The AI will be able to make complex changes and then verify those changes are actually working. At the moment, it feels like it's making a best guess at what will work and then leaving the user to test it. Implementing better feedback loops will enable a truly agentic, recursive, self-healing development flow. It doesn't feel like it needs any breakthrough in technology to enable this. It's just about adding a few tool calls to the existing LLMs. My mind races as I try to think through the implications for professional software developers.

Meanwhile, the LLMs aren't going to sit still. They're getting better at a frightening rate. I spoke to several very capable software engineers who are Y Combinator founders in the last week. About a quarter of them told me that 95% of their code is written by AI. In six or twelve months, I just don't think software engineering is going exist in the same way as it does today. The cost of creating high-quality, custom software is quickly trending towards zero.

You can try the site yourself at recipeninja.ai

Here's a complete list of functionality. Of course, Windsurf just generated this list for me 🫠

RecipeNinja: Comprehensive Functionality Overview

Core Concept: the app appears to be a cooking assistant application that provides voice-guided recipe instructions, allowing users to cook hands-free while following step-by-step recipe guidance.

Backend (Rails API) Functionality

User Authentication & Authorization

Google OAuth integration for user authentication

User account management with secure authentication flows

Authorization system ensuring users can only access their own private recipes or public recipes

Recipe Management

Recipe Model Features:

Unique public IDs (format: "r_" + 14 random alphanumeric characters) for security

User ownership (user_id field with NOT NULL constraint)

Public/private visibility toggle (default: private)

Comprehensive recipe data storage (title, ingredients, steps, cooking time, etc.)

Image attachment capability using Active Storage with S3 storage in production

Recipe Tagging System:

Many-to-many relationship between recipes and tags

Tag model with unique name attribute

RecipeTag join model for the relationship

Helper methods for adding/removing tags from recipes

Recipe API Endpoints:

CRUD operations for recipes

Pagination support with metadata (current_page, per_page, total_pages, total_count)

Default sorting by newest first (created_at DESC)

Filtering recipes by tags

Different serializers for list view (RecipeSummarySerializer) and detail view (RecipeSerializer)

Voice Generation

Voice Recording System:

VoiceRecording model linked to recipes

Integration with Eleven Labs API for text-to-speech conversion

Caching of voice recordings in S3 to reduce API calls

Unique identifiers combining recipe_id, step_id, and voice_id

Force regeneration option for refreshing recordings

Audio Processing:

Using streamio-ffmpeg gem for audio file analysis

Active Storage integration for audio file management

S3 storage for audio files in production

Recipe Import & Generation

RecipeImporter Service:

OpenAI integration for recipe generation

Conversion of text recipes into structured format

Parsing and normalization of recipe data

Import from photos functionality

Frontend (React) Functionality

User Interface Components

Recipe Selection & Browsing:

Recipe listing with pagination

Real-time updates with 10-second polling mechanism

Tag filtering functionality

Recipe cards showing summary information (without images)

"View Details" and "Start Cooking" buttons for each recipe

Recipe Detail View:

Complete recipe information display

Recipe image display

Tag display with clickable tags

Option to start cooking from this view

Cooking Experience:

Step-by-step recipe navigation

Voice guidance for each step

Keyboard shortcuts for hands-free control:

Arrow keys for step navigation

Space for play/pause audio

Escape to return to recipe selection

URL-based step tracking (e.g., /recipe/r_xlxG4bcTLs9jbM/classic-lasagna/steps/1)

State Management & Data Flow

Recipe Service:

API integration for fetching recipes

Support for pagination parameters

Tag-based filtering

Caching mechanisms for recipe data

Image URL handling for detailed views

Authentication Flow:

Google OAuth integration using environment variables

User session management

Authorization header management for API requests

Progressive Web App Features

PWA capabilities for installation on devices

Responsive design for various screen sizes

Favicon and app icon support

Deployment Architecture

Two-App Structure:

cook-voice-api: Rails backend on Heroku

cook-voice-wizard: React frontend/PWA on Heroku

Backend Infrastructure:

Ruby 3.2.2

PostgreSQL database (Heroku PostgreSQL addon)

Amazon S3 for file storage

Environment variables for configuration

Frontend Infrastructure:

React application

Environment variable configuration

Static buildpack on Heroku

SPA routing configuration

Security Measures:

HTTPS enforcement

Rails credentials system

Environment variables for sensitive information

Public ID system to mask database IDs

This comprehensive overview covers the major functionality of the Cook Voice application based on the available information. The application appears to be a sophisticated cooking assistant that combines recipe management with voice guidance to create a hands-free cooking experience.

[secret-diary-of-an-fa]

Doctor Who: The Legend of Ruby Sunday (Worth the Wait).

In a season that has been decidedly hit and miss (with more of the latter than the former), The Legend of Ruby Sunday stands as a both startlingly detailed and wonderfully well-made. It might even be better than Boom! (the standout for this season so far) but I’m undecided on that one. It’s really astonishing how much of this episode just works, straight off the bat, especially given how many elements are in play at once. And there are are lot of elements. The Legend of Ruby Sunday is a dense, meaty slice of science fiction that feels worthy of the show’s spectacular, confident 2005 return. We have a woman who seems to have been multiplied and scattered across time and space but who, on present day Earth, is a tech billionaire preparing to release a new app that will change life on the planet in some mysterious and unspecified way. We have a time window that lets us see into Ruby Sunday’s equally mysterious past, developed in secret by UNIT (who have been spying on the tech billionaire). We have a dark cloud hanging over the TARDIS itself and ominous portents that He Who Waits is ‘returning’. It’s heavily implied that He Who Waits is something like the Celestial Toymaker but worse; far, far worse. And finally, at the end, we get a big, scary reveal that unveils the tech billionaire as a mere pawn in someone else’s game and the real identity of He Who Waits (and what he has to do with the dark presence lurking around the TARDIS). By golly that’s a lot of things and they all gel together nicely, creating a plot that feels kinetic and energised without feeling rushed.

Unfortunately, in order to review it properly, I’m going to have to spoil the big reveal at the end, so if you haven’t seen The Legend of Ruby Sunday yet, consider this a hearty, two-thumbed recommendation, go watch it, and then come back here for the analysis. SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT.

Done? Okay? Brilliant. So it turns out that He Who Waits is- and there’s no easy way to say it so I’m just going to come right and drop a bombshell on y’all- the no-kidding god of death (Sutekh to his friends). The tech billionaire (Susan, but it doesn’t matter) is one of his vessels, come to bring the gift of death to the noisy, babbling universe while the dark cloud around the TARDIS is Sutekh’s own body, scattered but waiting to manifest. And manifest he does, immediately causing his vessels and harbingers to turn into zombie-things whose merest touch can turn people to dust. Cue the ‘TO BE CONTINUED’ bit and roll the credits, because that, ladies and gents, is how you do a fucking cliff-hanger.

Doctor Who really does seem to be at its best when it’s doing full-on cosmic horror lately (the ridiculousness of The Giggle notwithstanding, it still leant heavily into that vibe; even moreso Wild Blue Yonder). Don’t get me wrong: I wasn’t necessarily a fan of the wishy-washy supernatural elements introduced this season (the stupid bloody fairy circle for 73 Yards can grab its cunty little goblin friends from The Church on Ruby Road and fuck right off), but I’ll forgive them since this is apparently what they were building to. The Doctor- the pinnacle of intelligent, problem-solving rationality- matching wits with a god death embodying the blackest, deepest depths of terror and superstition? Yessity-fucking-please! And the route we took to get here: the reunions and cheer of UNIT overcast and overshadowed with a palpable sense of looming dread as a storm rolls into London, presaging the terror to come. It’s great! It’s even gotten me psyched for the next episode; the final instalment of this season and this story. Well, it’s mostly got me psyched.

See, as much as I enjoyed The Legend of Ruby Sunday, I do worry that one great episode does not equal a trend and that the titanic confrontation promised at the end of this one might not actually be paid off in the sequel. We could end up with the Doctor getting sidelined by other, more active characters, or Sutekh getting nerfed for reasons of plot-convenience. Hopefully the two-parter got written in one mammoth session on one of Russel T. Davies’ more switched-on days and the quality will remain consistent across the halves, because it would be great if this season could end on a bang instead of a whimper.

Sorry. I don’t mean to sound negative while I’m in the middle of praising something. The problem is that this season has been such a mixed bag, it’s hard not to have my opinion of even great episodes coloured by the quality of the episodes that surround them.

Anyway! Back to the positivity! What works here is as much about what the episode doesn’t do as what it does do. We’re not interrupted, for example, by any unnecessary musical numbers (look, I was fine with the Celestial Toymaker having a song-and-dance routine, because he’s that kind of over the top villain, but the number of episodes that ground to a halt for musicals this season was starting to get ridiculous). We’re also mercifully free of rushed romantic subplots (again, Doctor Who plus romance is fine, it just needs awhile to percolate, and if you’re not going to do it properly, you shouldn’t do it at all, BBC). And, most importantly of all, there’s no overt, straight-to-camera speeches about [INSERT RIPPED-FROM-THE-HEADLINES ISSUE HERE]. I’ve broadly agreed with the show’s politics this season (we’re not lost in Tory Chibnal territory here), but I don’t want to hear any point repeated ad nauseum, even a good point. All the focus here is on delivering a proper, well-constructed story and it’s really refreshing.

I have gripes, of course. I appreciate the low-key diss someone slipped past the editorial team by making the god of death look a bit like a mouse. Disney, whose money Doctor Who now depends on is, of course, the ‘House of Mouse’ and it’s fair to say it’s influence is one of the factors slowly killing interest in the show, so yeah: right on whoever came up with that monster design. Unfortunately, it does have the unexpected side-effect of making Sutekh look adorable, which probably isn’t the vibe they were going for. Also, I’ve seen Lenny Rush on Taskmaster and now I’ve seen him in this and he definitely makes a better comedian than an actor. I mean, fair play to the wee fella, I’ve just googled him and he’s only fifteen so it’s totally to be expected that he’s not quite there yet. It just seems weird he’s in a more serious-skewing episode.

Overall, however, The Legend of Ruby Sunday is a refreshing change of pace in a season that’s struggled to find its feet. Hopefully, it’s a blueprint for both the season finale and Ncuti Gatwa’s upcoming second season as the Doctor. This kind of thing is good. This kind of thing can bring fans together. This kind of thing is what the show needs now.

Please, please, Russel T. Davies. MORE OF THIS SORT OF THING.

EDIT: Yes, I'm aware that Sutekh is supposed to look like a jackal, but 'supposed to' is the operative phrase in this context. From the camera angle privileged towards the end of the episode, with the big ears and adorable little whiskers, the motherfucker looks like a mouse, and that will never not be funny to me.

[ogxfuturetech]

The Comprehensive Guide to Web Development, Data Management, and More 

Introduction 

Everything today is technology driven in this digital world. There's a lot happening behind the scenes when you use your favorite apps, go to websites, and do other things with all of those zeroes and ones — or binary data. In this blog, I will be explaining what all these terminologies really means and other basics of web development, data management etc. We will be discussing them in the simplest way so that this becomes easy to understand for beginners or people who are even remotely interested about technology.  JOIN US

What is Web Development? 

Web development refers to the work and process of developing a website or web application that can run in a web browser. From laying out individual web page designs before we ever start coding, to how the layout will be implemented through HTML/CSS. There are two major fields of web development — front-end and back-end. 

Front-End Development 

Front-end development, also known as client-side development, is the part of web development that deals with what users see and interact with on their screens. It involves using languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create the visual elements of a website, such as buttons, forms, and images. JOIN US

HTML (HyperText Markup Language): 

HTML is the foundation of all website, it helps one to organize their content on web platform. It provides the default style to basic elements such as headings, paragraphs and links. 

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets):  

styles and formats HTML elements. It makes an attractive and user-friendly look of webpage as it controls the colors, fonts, layout. 

JavaScript :  

A language for adding interactivity to a website Users interact with items, like clicking a button to send in a form or viewing images within the slideshow. JOIN US

Back-End Development 

The difference while front-end development is all about what the user sees, back end involves everything that happens behind. The back-end consists of a server, database and application logic that runs on the web. 

Server: 

A server is a computer that holds website files and provides them to the user browser when they request it. Server-Side: These are populated by back-end developers who build and maintain servers using languages like Python, PHP or Ruby. 

Database:  

The place where a website keeps its data, from user details to content and settings The database is maintained with services like MySQL, PostgreSQL, or MongoDB. JOIN US

Application Logic —  

the code that links front-end and back-end It takes user input, gets data from the database and returns right informations to front-end area. 

Why Proper Data Management is Absolutely Critical 

Data management — Besides web development this is the most important a part of our Digital World. What Is Data Management? It includes practices, policies and procedures that are used to collect store secure data in controlled way. 

Data Storage –  

data after being collected needs to be stored securely such data can be stored in relational databases or cloud storage solutions. The most important aspect here is that the data should never be accessed by an unauthorized source or breached. JOIN US

Data processing:  

Right from storing the data, with Big Data you further move on to process it in order to make sense out of hordes of raw information. This includes cleansing the data (removing errors or redundancies), finding patterns among it, and producing ideas that could be useful for decision-making. 

Data Security:  

Another important part of data management is the security of it. It refers to defending data against unauthorized access, breaches or other potential vulnerabilities. You can do this with some basic security methods, mostly encryption and access controls as well as regular auditing of your systems. 

Other Critical Tech Landmarks 

There are a lot of disciplines in the tech world that go beyond web development and data management. Here are a few of them: 

Cloud Computing 

Leading by example, AWS had established cloud computing as the on-demand delivery of IT resources and applications via web services/Internet over a decade considering all layers to make it easy from servers up to top most layer. This will enable organizations to consume technology resources in the form of pay-as-you-go model without having to purchase, own and feed that infrastructure. JOIN US

Cloud Computing Advantages:  

Main advantages are cost savings, scalability, flexibility and disaster recovery. Resources can be scaled based on usage, which means companies only pay for what they are using and have the data backed up in case of an emergency. 

Examples of Cloud Services: 

Few popular cloud services are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. These provide a plethora of services that helps to Develop and Manage App, Store Data etc. 

Cybersecurity 

As the world continues to rely more heavily on digital technologies, cybersecurity has never been a bigger issue. Protecting computer systems, networks and data from cyber attacks is called Cyber security. 

Phishing attacks, Malware, Ransomware and Data breaches: 

This is common cybersecurity threats. These threats can bear substantial ramifications, from financial damages to reputation harm for any corporation. 

Cybersecurity Best Practices:  

In order to safeguard against cybersecurity threats, it is necessary to follow best-practices including using strong passwords and two-factor authorization, updating software as required, training employees on security risks. 

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) represent the fastest-growing fields of creating systems that learn from data, identifying patterns in them. These are applied to several use-cases like self driving cars, personalization in Netflix. 

AI vs ML —  

AI is the broader concept of machines being able to carry out tasks in a way we would consider “smart”. Machine learning is a type of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that provides computers with the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. JOIN US

Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: some common applications include Image recognition, Speech to text, Natural language processing, Predictive analytics Robotics. 

Web Development meets Data Management etc. 

We need so many things like web development, data management and cloud computing plus cybersecurity etc.. but some of them are most important aspects i.e. AI/ML yet more fascinating is where these fields converge or play off each other. 

Web Development and Data Management 

Web Development and Data Management goes hand in hand. The large number of websites and web-based applications in the world generate enormous amounts of data — from user interactions, to transaction records. Being able to manage this data is key in providing a fantastic user experience and enabling you to make decisions based on the right kind of information. 

E.g. E-commerce Website, products data need to be saved on server also customers data should save in a database loosely coupled with orders and payments. This data is necessary for customization of the shopping experience as well as inventory management and fraud prevention. 

Cloud Computing and Web Development 

The development of the web has been revolutionized by cloud computing which gives developers a way to allocate, deploy and scale applications more or less without service friction. Developers now can host applications and data in cloud services instead of investing for physical servers. 

E.g. A start-up company can use cloud services to roll out the web application globally in order for all users worldwide could browse it without waiting due unavailability of geolocation prohibited access. 

The Future of Cybersecurity and Data Management 

Which makes Cybersecurity a very important part of the Data management. The more data collected and stored by an organization, the greater a target it becomes for cyber threats. It is important to secure this data using robust cybersecurity measures, so that sensitive information remains intact and customer trust does not weaken. JOIN US

Ex: A healthcare provider would have to protect patient data in order to be compliant with regulations such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) that is also responsible for ensuring a degree of confidentiality between a provider and their patients. 

Conclusion 

Well, in a nutshell web-developer or Data manager etc are some of the integral parts for digital world.

As a Business Owner, Tech Enthusiast or even if you are just planning to make your Career in tech — it is important that you understand these. With the progress of technology never slowing down, these intersections are perhaps only going to come together more strongly and develop into cornerstones that define how we live in a digital world tomorrow. 

With the fundamental knowledge of web development, data management, automation and ML you will manage to catch up with digital movements. Whether you have a site to build, ideas data to manage or simply interested in what’s hot these days, skills and knowledge around the above will stand good for changing tech world. JOIN US

[astridvalencia]

How to Learn Programming?

Learning to code can be a rewarding and empowering journey. Here are some steps to help you get started:

Define Your Purpose:

Understand why you want to learn to code. Whether it's for a career change, personal projects, or just for fun, having a clear goal will guide your learning path.

Choose a Programming Language:

Select a language based on your goals. For beginners, languages like Python, JavaScript, or Ruby are often recommended due to their readability and versatility.

Start with the Basics:

Familiarize yourself with fundamental concepts such as variables, data types, loops, and conditional statements. Online platforms like Codecademy, Khan Academy, or freeCodeCamp offer interactive lessons.

Practice Regularly:

Coding is a skill that improves with practice. Set aside dedicated time each day or week to code and reinforce what you've learned.

Build Simple Projects:

Apply your knowledge by working on small projects. This helps you gain hands-on experience and keeps you motivated.

Read Code:

Study existing code, whether it's open-source projects or examples in documentation. This helps you understand different coding styles and best practices.

Ask for Help:

Don't hesitate to ask questions on forums like Stack Overflow or Reddit when you encounter difficulties. Learning from others and getting feedback is crucial.

Join Coding Communities:

Engage with the coding community to stay motivated and learn from others. Platforms like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and coding forums provide opportunities to connect with fellow learners and experienced developers.

Explore Specializations:

As you gain more experience, explore different areas like web development, data science, machine learning, or mobile app development. Specializing can open up more opportunities and align with your interests.

Read Documentation:

Learn to navigate documentation for programming languages and libraries. It's a crucial skill for developers, as it helps you understand how to use different tools and resources effectively.

Stay Updated:

The tech industry evolves rapidly. Follow coding blogs, subscribe to newsletters, and stay informed about new developments and best practices.

Build a Portfolio:

Showcase your projects on platforms like GitHub to create a portfolio. It demonstrates your skills to potential employers or collaborators.

Remember, learning to code is a continuous process, and it's okay to face challenges along the way. Stay persistent, break down complex problems, and celebrate small victories.

[momolady]

Things Not Yet Written

Here is the list of things I want to write that may inspire commission ideas or even inspire you to write something in general!

First off, I re-read Himley the Mad Hatter recently, and I have been filled with this deep, horrible desire to go back and make it better. The bones are there in the story, but it is jumbled, wordy, and I know I could do such a character justice. I want to rewrite it so bad. This may be the top of my list of projects I want to do.

It was brought to my attention the story of Bray was never fully closed. I would like to both rewrite his first chapter and continue it.

The Minotaur clan in the Ruby Empire was once a huge idea for me, but it had to fall to the wayside. Claudio was the only one I got to talk about from that neck of the Ruby Empire wood, and I would like to go back and visit it.

Most of the Ruby Empire needs to be retconned and rewritten, but no one could afford o fix that mess, so moving on.

I need to finish the Levi rewrite now that I'm on it.

I also wouldn't mind revisiting my first monster story, the Strawberry monster. 

This one was an ask on Tumblr: "A homeless girl arrives at Hearthway Hollow with only but her  guitar and optimism to make money, not knowing about the traditions or  even knowing about the werewolves." 

A former magical girl who supposedly died but has been turned into a cyborg, whose power over music is now a powerful mind control power. That's all I've got, just a character.

Anothe tumble ask: "a goblin thinks he is getting catfished, after an online friend finally sent the first picture of herself." The idea of this sounds so fun, could be any monster. Coudl give me the chance to build a monster dating app.

I've been rewatching Star Trek TNG and Data has been giving me thoughts. So maybe something along the lines of the android and a companion.

A former royal concubine runs away, rather than spend her life serving others. Near death, she's rescued by a man (orc, minotaur, whatever) and his dog. But he lives high in the mountains and supplies are low as is. She agrees to use her skills to keep him company through the long, dark winter until spring thaws the mountain and she can cross the Cobra Strait. 

A short, spitfire thief breaks into the house of a supposedly single woman who is a shut in. The house appears in disrepair and the woman has surprisingly nice things, even if things are cluttered and stacked around. But the thief is caught by the woman, who is quite taller than him. She kidnaps him and keeps him in prisoner in her home where she reveals herself to be a vampire disillusioned with immortality and has been sustaining herself off critters who get into her house. The short thief is just the latest.

Speaking of height difference couples! A short statured fire demon finds himself smitten with one of the ice giant women.

A monster wins a date with the camgirl he admires.

A red riding hood retelling. I'm shocked I've not done that before.

An attempt to clone a powerful, ancient creature results in a monster that seeks revenge on the people who have been keeping them captve and used for experiments. To exact revenge, the monster kidnaps the head scientist's daughter, intending to turn her against her family and humans in general.

I reread Thilo last night and I want to rewrite it. If only for the fact the reader character seemed a bit...predatory. 

finish Misinformed! I think i need a couple of chapters to finish the story as it is before i do a rough draft rewrite.

An older woman reconnects with the orc she fell in love with. When Obresh was rescued by the Orcs her family decided to move rather than be ruled by the orcs, separating her from the orc she had fallen in love with. Decades later, she returns to Obresh and finds her former love. The two reconnect and finish what they started.

A halfling monster Hunter gets more than he bargained for when he comes into contact with two powerful and warring vampires.