#b tag in html

[mountmortar]

i love it when federal sites haven't updated their code since like. 2003 or something

[pigeonthejackalope]

man learning html is a fucking lot. like i'm having a great time and kinda can't believe i threw together a working website in a day but it's gonna be so much work to make it look like. good.

[ploverbear]

learned that my job will just let you go on LinkedIn and learn whatever kind of classes u want so I'm learning more HTML today while I have downtime

[hyukassubi]

Truer words have never been said‼️

[roksik-dnd]

For everyone who asked: a dialogue parser for BG3 alongside with the parsed dialogue for the newest patch. The parser is not mine, but its creator a) is amazing, b) wished to stay anonymous, and c) uploaded the parser to github - any future versions will be uploaded there first!

UPD: The parser was updated!! Now all the lines are parsed, AND there are new features like audio and dialogue tree visualisation. See below!

Patch 7 dialogue is uploaded!

If you don't want to touch the parser and just want the dialogues, make sure to download the whole "BG3 ... (1.6)" folder and keep the "styles" folder within: it is needed for the html files functionality (hide/show certain types of information as per the menu at the top, jumps when you click on [jump], color for better readability, etc). See the image below for what it should look like. The formatting was borrowed from TORcommunity with their blessing.

If you want to run the parser yourself instead of downloading my parsed files, it's easy:

run bg3dialogreader.exe, OPEN any .pak file inside of your game's '\steamapps\common\Baldurs Gate 3\Data' folder,

select your language

press ‘LOAD’, it'll create a database file with all the tags, flags, etc.

Once that is done, press ‘EXPORT all dialogs to html’, and give it a minute or two to finish.

Find the parser dialogue in ‘Dialogs’ folder. If you move the folder elsewhere, move the ‘styles’ folder as well! It contains the styles you need for the color coding and functionality to keep working!

New features:

Once you've created the database (after step three above), you can also preview the dialogue trees inside of the parser and extract only what you need:

You can also listen to the correspinding audio files by clicking the line in the right window. But to do that, as the parser tells you, you need to download and put the filed from vgmstream-win64.zip inside of the parser's main folder (restart the parser after).

You can CONVERT the bg3 dialogue to the format that the Divinity Original Sin 2's Editor understands. That way, you can view the dialogues as trees! Unlike the html files, the trees don't show ALL the relevant information, but it's much easier to orient yourself in.

To get that, you DO need to have bought and installed Larian's previous game, Divinity Original Sin 2. It comes with a tool called 'The Divinity Engine 2'. Here you can read about how to unstall and lauch it. Once you have it, you need to load/create a project. We're trying to get to the point where the tool allows you to open the Dialog Editor. Then you can Open any bg3 dialogue file you want. And in case you want it, here's an in-depth Dialog Editor tutorial. But if you simply want to know how to open the Editor, here's the gist:

Update: In order to see the names of the speakers (up to ten), you can put the _merged.lsf file inside of the "\Divinity Original Sin 2\DefEd\Data\Public\[your project's name here]\RootTemplates\_merged.lsf" file path.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions! Please let me know if you modify the parser, I'd be curious to know what you added, and will possibly add it to the google drive.

[komaedalovemail]

komaedas have you tried straw.page?

(i hope you don't mind if i make a big ollllle webdev post off this!)

i have never tried straw.page but it looks similar to carrd and other WYSIWYG editors (which is unappealing to me, since i know html/css/js and want full control of the code. and can't hide secrets in code comments.....)

my 2 cents as a web designer is if you're looking to learn web design or host long-term web projects, WYSIWYG editors suck doodooass. you don't learn the basics of coding, someone else does it for you! however, if you're just looking to quickly host images, links to your other social medias, write text entries/blogposts, WYSIWYG can be nice.

toyhouse, tumblr, deviantart, a lot of sites implement WYSIWYG for their post editors as well, but then you can run into issues relying on their main site features for things like the search system, user profiles, comments, etc. but it can be nice to just login to your account and host your information in one place, especially on a platform that's geared towards that specific type of information. (toyhouse is a better example of this, since you have a lot of control of how your profile/character pages look, even without a premium account) carrd can be nice if you just want to say "here's where to find me on other sites," for example. but sometimes you want a full website!

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neocities hosting

currently, i host my website on neocities, but i would say the web2.0sphere has sucked some doodooass right now and i'm fiending for something better than it. it's a static web host, e.g. you can upload text, image, audio, and client-side (mostly javascript and css) files, and html pages. for the past few years, neocities' servers have gotten slower and slower and had total blackouts with no notices about why it's happening... and i'm realizing they host a lot of crypto sites that have crypto miners that eat up a ton of server resources. i don't think they're doing anything to limit bot or crypto mining activity and regular users are taking a hit.

↑ page 1 on neocitie's most viewed sites we find this site. this site has a crypto miner on it, just so i'm not making up claims without proof here. there is also a very populated #crypto tag on neocities (has porn in it tho so be warned...).

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dynamic/server-side web hosting

$5/mo for neocities premium seems cheap until you realize... The Beautiful World of Server-side Web Hosting!

client-side AKA static web hosting (neocities, geocities) means you can upload images, audio, video, and other files that do not interact with the server where the website is hosted, like html, css, and javascript. the user reading your webpage does not send any information to the server like a username, password, their favourite colour, etc. - any variables handled by scripts like javascript will be forgotten when the page is reloaded, since there's no way to save it to the web server. server-side AKA dynamic web hosting can utilize any script like php, ruby, python, or perl, and has an SQL database to store variables like the aforementioned that would have previously had nowhere to be stored.

there are many places in 2024 you can host a website for free, including: infinityfree (i use this for my test websites :B has tons of subdomains to choose from) [unlimited sites, 5gb/unlimited storage], googiehost [1 site, 1gb/1mb storage], freehostia [5 sites/1 database, 250mb storage], freehosting [1 site, 10gb/unlimited storage]

if you want more features like extra websites, more storage, a dedicated e-mail, PHP configuration, etc, you can look into paying a lil shmoney for web hosting: there's hostinger (this is my promocode so i get. shmoney. if you. um. 🗿🗿🗿) [$2.40-3.99+/mo, 100 sites/300 databases, 100gb storage, 25k visits/mo], a2hosting [$1.75-12.99+/mo, 1 site/5 databases, 10gb/1gb storage], and cloudways [$10-11+/mo, 25gb/1gb]. i'm seeing people say to stay away from godaddy and hostgator. before you purchase a plan, look up coupons, too! (i usually renew my plan ahead of time when hostinger runs good sales/coupons LOL)

here's a big webhost comparison chart from r/HostingHostel circa jan 2024.

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domain names

most of the free website hosts will give you a subdomain like yoursite.has-a-cool-website-69.org, and usually paid hosts expect you to bring your own domain name. i got my domain on namecheap (enticing registration prices, mid renewal prices), there's also porkbun, cloudflare, namesilo, and amazon route 53. don't use godaddy or squarespace. make sure you double check the promo price vs. the actual renewal price and don't get charged $120/mo when you thought it was $4/mo during a promo, certain TLDs (endings like .com, .org, .cool, etc) cost more and have a base price (.car costs $2,300?!?). look up coupons before you purchase these as well!

namecheap and porkbun offer something called "handshake domains," DO NOT BUY THESE. 🤣🤣🤣 they're usually cheaper and offer more appealing, hyper-specific endings like .iloveu, .8888, .catgirl, .dookie, .gethigh, .♥, .❣, and .✟. I WISH WE COULD HAVE THEM but they're literally unusable. in order to access a page using a handshake domain, you need to download a handshake resolver. every time the user connects to the site, they have to provide proof of work. aside from it being incredibly wasteful, you LITERALLY cannot just type in the URL and go to your own website, you need to download a handshake resolver, meaning everyday internet users cannot access your site.

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hosting a static site on a dynamic webhost

you can host a static (html/css/js only) website on a dynamic web server without having to learn PHP and SQL! if you're coming from somewhere like neocities, the only thing you need to do is configure your website's properties. your hosting service will probably have tutorials to follow for this, and possibly already did some steps for you. you need to point the nameserver to your domain, install an SSL certificate, and connect to your site using FTP for future uploads. FTP is a faster, alternative way to upload files to your website instead of your webhost's file upload system; programs like WinSCP or FileZilla can upload using FTP for you.

if you wanna learn PHP and SQL and really get into webdev, i wrote a forum post at Mysidia Adoptables here, tho it's sorted geared at the mysidia script library itself (Mysidia Adoptables is a free virtual pet site script, tiny community. go check it out!)

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file storage & backups

a problem i have run into a lot in my past like, 20 years of internet usage (/OLD) is that a site that is free, has a small community, and maybe sounds too good/cheap to be true, has a higher chance of going under. sometimes this happens to bigger sites like tinypic, photobucket, and imageshack, but for every site like that, there's like a million of baby sites that died with people's files. host your files/websites on a well-known site, or at least back it up and expect it to go under!

i used to host my images on something called "imgjoe" during the tinypic/imageshack era, it lasted about 3 years, and i lost everything hosted on there. more recently, komaedalovemail had its webpages hosted here on tumblr, and tumblr changed its UI so custom pages don't allow javascript, which prevented any new pages from being edited/added. another test site i made a couple years ago on hostinger's site called 000webhost went under/became a part of hostinger's paid-only plans, so i had to look very quickly for a new host or i'd lose my test site.

if you're broke like me, looking into physical file storage can be expensive. anything related to computers has gone through baaaaad inflation due to crypto, which again, I Freaquing Hate, and is killing mother nature. STOP MINING CRYPTO this is gonna be you in 1 year

...um i digress. ANYWAYS, you can archive your websites, which'll save your static assets on The Internet Archive (which could use your lovely donations right now btw), and/or archive.today (also taking donations). having a webhost service with lots of storage and automatic backups can be nice if you're worried about file loss or corruption, or just don't have enough storage on your computer at home!

if you're buying physical storage, be it hard drive, solid state drive, USB stick, whatever... get an actual brand like Western Digital or Seagate and don't fall for those cheap ones on Amazon that claim to have 8,000GB for $40 or you're going to spend 13 days in windows command prompt trying to repair the disk and thenthe power is gong to go out in your shit ass neighvborhood and you have to run it tagain and then Windows 10 tryes to update and itresets the /chkdsk agin while you're awayfrom town nad you're goig to start crytypting and kts just hnot going tot br the same aever agai nikt jus not ggiog to be the saeme

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further webhosting options

there are other Advanced options when it comes to web hosting. for example, you can physically own and run your own webserver, e.g. with a computer or a raspberry pi. r/selfhosted might be a good place if you're looking into that!

if you know or are learning PHP, SQL, and other server-side languages, you can host a webserver on your computer using something like XAMPP (Apache, MariaDB, PHP, & Perl) with minimal storage space (the latest version takes up a little under 1gb on my computer rn). then, you can test your website without needing an internet connection or worrying about finding a hosting plan that can support your project until you've set everything up!

there's also many PHP frameworks which can be useful for beginners and wizards of the web alike. WordPress is one which you're no doubt familiar with for creating blog posts, and Bluehost is a decent hosting service tailored to WordPress specifically. there's full frameworks like Laravel, CakePHP, and Slim, which will usually handle security, user authentication, web routing, and database interactions that you can build off of. Laravel in particular is noob-friendly imo, and is used by a large populace, and it has many tutorials, example sites built with it, and specific app frameworks.

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addendum: storing sensitive data

if you decide to host a server-side website, you'll most likely have a login/out functionality (user authentication), and have to store things like usernames, passwords, and e-mails. PLEASE don't launch your website until you're sure your site security is up to snuff!

when trying to check if your data is hackable... It's time to get into the Mind of a Hacker. OWASP has some good cheat sheets that list some of the bigger security concerns and how to mitigate them as a site owner, and you can look up filtered security issues on the Exploit Database.

this is kind of its own topic if you're coding a PHP website from scratch; most frameworks securely store sensitive data for you already. if you're writing your own PHP framework, refer to php.net's security articles and this guide on writing an .htaccess file.

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but. i be on that phone... :(

ok one thing i see about straw.page that seems nice is that it advertises the ability to make webpages from your phone. WYSIWYG editors in general are more capable of this. i only started looking into this yesterday, but there ARE source code editor apps for mobile devices! if you have a webhosting plan, you can download/upload assets/code from your phone and whatnot and code on the go. i downloaded Runecode for iphone. it might suck ass to keep typing those brackets.... we'll see..... but sometimes you're stuck in the car and you're like damn i wanna code my site GRRRR I WANNA CODE MY SITE!!!

↑ code written in Runecode, then uploaded to Hostinger. Runecode didn't tell me i forgot a semicolon but Hostinger did... i guess you can code from your webhost's file uploader on mobile but i don't trust them since they tend not to autosave or prompt you before closing, and if the wifi dies idk what happens to your code.

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ANYWAYS! HAPPY WEBSITE BUILDING~! HOPE THIS HELPS~!~!~!

-Mod 12 @eeyes

[hazyaltcare]

Typing Quirk Suggestions for a Robot kin

I hope it gives you a wonderful uptime! :3

Mod Vintage (⭐)

Letter replacements:

Replace "O" with zeroes "0"

Replace "i" or "L" with ones "1"

Replace "one" with "1", including "one" sounds like "any1", or "we 1 = we won" (the past tense of "win")

Replace "zero" with "0"

Frankly, you can just replace all sorts of letters with numbers, such as

R = 12

N = 17

B = 8

A = 4

E = 3

etc.

or maybe make all "A"s and "i"s capitalized, cause "A.I." (artificial intelligence

Prefixes and Suffixes:

Get inspired by programming languages!

Begin your text with "//" like a comment on C++

If you prefer other languages comment tags, you can use "< !--your text-- >"

Or maybe begin it with " int main () { std::cout << "your text"" and end with "return 0; }" like C++ too

Greet people with the classic "Hello world!"

Or greet people with "beep boop!" honestly, I have no idea where this comes from, but it's cute.

Or write down html stuff, like sandwiching your italicized text with "< em> "

The possibilities are endless!

Robot Lingo:

(under the cut because there's a LOT! maybe terabytes! ...just kidding >;3c)

.

some of these are from the machinesoul.net robot server! (not sponsored) (we're not in there anymore, but we saw the robot lingo shared there when we were)

Fronting = logged in, connected

Not fronting = logged out, disconnected

Conscious = activated

Dormant = deactivated

Blurry = no signal

Upset, angry = hacked

Small = bits, bytes

Bite = byte

Huge = gigabytes, terabytes, etc.

Your intake of food, medicine, etc. = input

Your artwork, cooking, handiwork, handwriting, etc. = output

Body = chassis, unit

Brain = CPU, processor

Mind = program, code

Imagination = simulation

Purpose = directive

Nerves = wires

Skin = plating

Organs = (function) units

Limbs = actuators

Eyes = ocular sensors

Glasses = HUD (head's up display)

Hair = wires

Ears = antennae, audio sensors

Nose = olfactory sensors

Heart = core

Liver = detoxification unit

Circulatory system = circuits

Voice = speaker, voice module, voice box

Mouth = face port

Name = designation

Sleep = sleep mode, low power mode, charging

Eat = fuel, batteries

Energy = batteries

Tired = low on batteries

Translate = compile

Memory = data, database

Bed = recharge pod/charger

Dreaming = simulation

Birthday = day of manufacture

Talking = communicating

Thinking = processing

Transitioning = modifying your chassis

Depression = downtime

Joy = uptime

Trash = scrap metal

Fresh/Clean = polished

Keysmashing = random 1s and 0s

Self-care = system maintenance

Going to the doctor = trip to the mechanic

Group = network

Anyone = anybot

[harmless-variety-of-garden-snake]

What else could Day Fourteen of BuckTommy Fluffebruary be but Valentine's Day? Happy Valentine's Day, you lovely folks. Here's an extremely fluffy fic for all of you. Once again, Tumblr doesn't believe in total HTML formatting and I had to use a fake iMessage thing for the texts. You can also read this on AO3 over here. Tagging @bucktommyfluffebruary

Tommy’s always outwardly been a “Valentine's Day is a commercialized bullshit holiday” kind of guy, but inwardly wants to love it. The problem has been that he's usually working or just wasn't in a serious relationship when the holiday rolled around. Twice, he'd done the whole wine and dine thing with Abby and another ex, Ben, who had actually been a “fuck commercial holidays” guy, as Tommy had found out over a very stilted Valentine's Day dinner just before they’d officially broken up.

He's working until midday, because Jerry on B-shift had needed to switch so he could take his daughter to an appointment and go to her gymnastics meet. That had given Tommy a few days to try to figure out what he could do for Evan, who's off all day. He'd decided on making dinner at the house and then taking him to the movies, since a theater near his place is showing Princess Bride, which Evan’s never seen. He starts a grocery order to get to the house when he should be getting home so he can start right away. He already has a card that he’d drawn and painted along with a set of tickets for an outdoor light show at a botanical garden in Palos Verdes and an itinerary for a trip to Napa, and they’re all safely in his glove box where no one can stumble on them.

When he's helping Sherri clean one of the engines, there's a call at the front for a delivery under his name. He frowns, looking at his watch. Even if he'd mistakenly ordered the groceries to his job, the driver's about three and a half hours early.

“Be right back,” he says, and she waves him away.

He opens the app on his way, wondering if he'd missed a message, but it's still telling him that it'll let him know when his shopper gets to the store. That's when he reaches the front desk and sees a huge bouquet of flowers. There's red roses at the center, but there's also pink hydrangeas, calla lilies, and peonies scattered throughout. Some sort of greenery with round leaves is poking through between some of the flowers. The entire bouquet is at least eighteen inches in diameter, and a card is standing in a holder with his name on the envelope.

“Tommy Kinard?” the delivery guy asks, and Tommy nods slowly. “Can you sign here, please?”

Tommy nods again and signs the paper without really looking. When he's done, he takes the card from its holder and opens it. It’s printed with a message that says:

For my Valentine:

I love you For sentimental reasons I hope you do believe me I've given you my heart

Evan

Tommy's breath catches. It's from the song they'd danced to in his kitchen just after they'd gotten back together last month. It was while that song was playing that Tommy knew he'd ask Evan to marry him one day. He remembers looking at Evan’s gentle smile and twinkling eyes and quietly singing along and feeling his heart ache with how much he loved him.

He holds the card to his chest with one hand and reaches out with the other to stroke his thumb across a soft, delicate rose petal. It's the first time anyone's ever gotten him flowers. He takes his phone out of his pocket and calls Evan.

“Hello?” Evan says, picking up on the first ring.

“Evan…” is all he can really say, his voice valiantly not shaking, though it’s a near thing.

“Do you like them?” he asks, sounding nervous.

“They're perfect,” Tommy says, his voice soft. He knows there's people milling around, but he just wants to exist in the bubble of Evan’s voice and the beautiful flowers. “Thank you.”

“Happy Valentine's Day, baby.”

Tommy smiles, his face warming at the term of endearment and with just how sincere Evan sounds. “Happy Valentine's Day, sweetheart.”

They can only talk for a bit, because Tommy's supposed to be cleaning and doing a stock check before he hands the keys over to the next shift, but they confirm their plans for that night. Before they hang up, Tommy tells him he loves him, and he huffs out a laugh when Evan sighs and replies in kind, sounding so happy.

He takes a picture of the bouquet and scoops it up to bring to the kitchen so he can temporarily keep them in a large ice tea pitcher. He knows he has a vase big enough for the bouquet at home, because he has a lot of his Nonna’s and Zia’s things, but it’s packed away. He’s never had a reason to use it.

An hour later, there's another call for him at the front. This time, it's cupcakes from one of the only bakeries Tommy likes nearly as much as his boyfriend's baking. The note that's attached is handwritten and signed by Evan, and he wonders when he'd actually planned all of this.

For nobody else gave me a thrill With all your faults, I love you still It had to be you Wonderful you

Love,

Evan

Tommy laughs, because it's a bit of a private joke between them. He'd shown Evan A League of Their Own in the week after they'd gotten back together. When Marla Hooch drunkenly sings to her future husband, Evan had pointed at the screen and said that would've been him if Tommy had shown up to the karaoke night Howie had organized before Christmas.

“I would've tried to woo you back with sad, drunk love songs. I was so close to calling you and doing it anyway.”

“I mean, that might've worked.”

“Now you tell me.”

He calls Evan again, but his boyfriend texts him that he's picking Jee-Yun up from preschool.

He gets a picture from inside Evan’s Jeep of him making a kissy face from the driver's seat and Jee-Yun in her car seat in the back doing the same. She's wearing a pink sweater with little red and white hearts all over, and her cheeks are extra puffed out from the face she's pulling. Tommy wants to press kisses to them and blow a raspberry and make her shriek with laughter. It's one of his favorite sounds in the world.

There's no reply, likely because Evan is driving, and Tommy goes back to his end of shift duties. He's getting gently ribbed for getting two special deliveries, and more than one person is lamenting that Evan makes them all look bad. It’s the kind of thing he’s been able to say to other people, he’s never been on the receiving end of it. He can’t even pretend to be annoyed or over any of their comments, he’s too busy being happy.

It's when he only has forty-five minutes left that the B-shift captain comes up to him with a smile on his face.

“Delivery at the front, Kinard,” he says. “Delivery girl's real cute, too.”

Tommy snorts and sets down his clipboard. “Yeah, I'm sure she'll be just my type.”

“You never know.”

When he jogs to the front, he doesn't see anyone for a moment, but then he hears a giggle and Jee-Yun peeks from around where the bay doors are open. Tommy’s face splits into a grin, and he's on his knees to squeeze her close.

“Cap said the delivery girl was cute, he didn't say she was the prettiest in the world!” he exclaims as she giggles into his shoulder.

“Uncle Tommy!” she says loudly, pushing his shoulder and looking at him sternly. “I'm s’posed to give you a present.”

Tommy sits back on his heels and gestures for her to continue. “My apologies, please continue.”

She smiles and looks back just before a distinctly Evan-shaped hand reaches around to hand her a colorful piece of paper. She hands it to him, and Tommy unfolds it to reveal a wonky heart covered in crayon scribbles, several smiley faces drawn with marker, a flower (or sun) in marker, and words written by an adult hand that had been loosely traced over in crayon. They read:

Will you be our Valentine?

Love,

Jee-Yun Buckley Han and Evan Buckley

Tommy hugs the valentine carefully to his chest and smiles. “Yes. I'd be honored.”

“He said yes!” Jee-Yun whispers loudly over her shoulder.

And then Evan steps into view, and he has a single red rose in his hand and a smile on his face. Tommy stands and kisses him, plucking the rose from his grip, nearly lifting his boyfriend off his feet. He feels like he could float away at any moment.

“I love you,” Tommy murmurs, nuzzling their noses together.

“I love you, too,” Evan says softly, smiling and looking at Tommy with so much warmth radiating from his entire being. It always feels like Evan’s got a ball of sunshine inside just beaming out of him.

Tommy kisses him again before picking up Jee-Yun and pressing kisses to her cheeks and grinning when she does the same.

“I love it,” he tells her. “And I actually have something for you at my house that I can give to your uncle tonight.”

“Really?” she says, looking shy and happy all at once. He wishes so badly that he'd thought to put the stuffed dinosaur (store bought) and matching card (handmade, full of puns) in his truck.

“Of course! I had to get something for my favorite Valentine,” he says, finally blowing the raspberry on her cheek. When she laughs so loud it almost hurts his ears, he squeezes her to his chest and feels his eyes prickle when she throws her arms around his neck and squeezes back.

“Happy Valentine Day, Uncle Tommy,” she says, and he twists his mouth for a second so he doesn't cry.

“Happy Valentine's Day, Jee-Jee,” he says softly, kissing her hair.

She straightens up and looks around the bay they're in, and Tommy turns to see that they've accumulated an audience of people glancing over from whatever they’re doing. He instinctively tucks her close, but all he sees are smiles.

“Do you want to see where Uncle Tommy works?” Evan asks, and Jee-Yun nods. “I think he'll give us a tour if we ask really nicely.”

She turns her big eyes on him. “Uncle Tommy, can we please see your work?”

Tommy kisses her temple. “Absolutely. Let's go, baby girl.”

Everyone is charmed by her, especially when she starts pointing at some of their ground equipment and calling it by name, telling them that her Daddy uses it, too. It's when they get to the hangar that she looks excited, almost wiggling out of his arms to get a look at one of the helicopters.

“C'mon,” Tommy says, handing her to Evan before climbing into the cockpit. He reaches out for her and settles her on his lap while he points to different instruments and tells her what they do. She whispers the names of some of them quietly to herself as if she's trying to memorize them. Hell, she might. She's got the recall ability of both parents and her uncle.

When he looks out at Evan to check on him, his boyfriend has a phone pointed at them.

“Don't mind me,” Evan says cheerily.

It's past the end of his shift when they get back to the front.

“I gotta get her home,” Evan says, reaching for Jee-Yun. She goes with some reluctance, looking longingly back at the door out to the tarmac.

“Before you go,” Captain Marsh says, holding out an LAFD folder. “A present for our special visitor.”

It's the coloring pages and stickers they give out to kids, but theirs are cooler than most LAFD swag, because theirs also includes Air Ops stuff. Tommy had personally illustrated the helicopter and plane pages, and Melton’s husband, who had a side gig writing kid’s books, had written out the captions and a little digestible explanation of what made Air Ops so different than a regular unit.

“Thank you,” Jee-Yun says, hugging the folder to her chest. “I like your station.”

“I like it, too,” Marsh agrees, grinning. “Have a good Valentine's Day, Miss Han.”

Tommy walks them out to the lot, his arm around Evan as they make their way to the Jeep. “Thank you both. This is the best Valentine's Day I've ever had. I really mean that.”

“Me, too,” Evan says, grinning and leaning over to kiss him on the corner of his mouth without breaking his stride.

Tommy helps get Jee-Yun strapped in, gives her another cheek raspberry and a smacking kiss, receives both in return, and then Evan decides to do the same when Tommy leans in for a good-bye kiss.

“You are such a brat,” Tommy complains, wiping slobber off his cheek.

“Well, yeah,” Evan says, grinning. “But I'm your brat.”

Tommy pulls him close and rubs a hand down his back. “Yeah, you are,” he murmurs, smiling at the flush of Evan's cheeks. “You can come by a little early if you want.”

Evan bites his lip and nods, smoothing down the fabric over Tommy's chest. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Tommy confirms before kissing him, sucking gently at Evan's bottom lip and feeling a bolt of heat shoot through his belly when Evan lets out a soft noise against his mouth. When he releases him, Evan looks a bit dazed. “Get her home safe.”

“Y-yeah,” Evan breathes, bumping into his sideview mirror as he backs up toward the driver's side door. Tommy raises an eyebrow at him, and Evan flushes, ducking his head as he gets into his car. As soon as it’s on, he rolls down the window. “I’ll see you soon.”

“See you,” Tommy says, raising his hand in a wave.

He waits until the Jeep is gone before going back in. He takes twenty minutes to finish the stock check that had been interrupted, hands it off to Lucy, who had arrived mid-tour for her shift, and tries to ignore the knowing or sappy smiles pointed his way as he gathers his stuff and heads out to his truck. They don’t bother him, he’s just not used to it. He thinks he could learn to get used to it, though.

When he gets home, the groceries are waiting for him on the front step. He takes everything inside and goes to the kitchen, ready to make aroz con pato, since Evan has been reminiscing about the food in Peru on their last date.

While the duck is simmering, he goes into the guest room closet where he has the few boxes of things he hadn't found a place for in the house. Some of it is old paperwork, old uniforms, photos that need to be put into albums, mementos he should probably part with, and one has carefully packed china from his Nonna along with a hand-painted vase that had passed from Bisnonna Valia to his Prozia and then his Zia and now it's his. His Zia had never had children of her own, so he’d ended up with a lot of the Carlevaro family heirlooms when she’d passed. He’d never used the vase, though. The closest he'd ever come to receiving flowers was when people sent them after his mom died.

He wipes down the colorfully painted vase with a damp cloth and then with a dry one before filling it with water and putting the flowers in. He props the card against it and puts the other two on his fridge.

It's quiet in his house, but he knows that soon his doorbell will ring and he'll let in a man who talks almost unceasingly about whatever's on his mind, who will laugh and make Tommy laugh, who will fill the house and Tommy's heart with so much beloved noise that he'll feel it echo in the time they're apart.

And one day, maybe, he won't have to say goodbye unless it's followed by “I'll see you when I/you get home.” And they'll add to the collection of Valentine's Day cards every year until they’re old enough to have to think long and hard about the story behind each one. And inevitably, one of them will remember or someone—Jee-Yun, her children, their own children—will chime in because they've heard it a million times before.

When his doorbell rings, Tommy gets up to answer with a smile on his lips and a lightness in his heart that he doesn't think he's ever felt before.

[mirandyficlists]

holi again, do you have any complicated Mirandy fics with a humor or 'crackfic' theme? :3

Hey there Kidlet

There is a good long list of Humorous/Ridiculous fics. Not sure about complicated, but in the list I would particularly recommend...

A Failure to Communicate, Too Long We Have Tarried, Andy's Alt Day, Incompitant Teddy Bears, Not Made to Woo, and Rebellious Lock, and When Locks Get Locked.

Humorous Mirandys 

A Beautiful Pea Green Boat (Sequel to A failure to Communicate) by thelastgoodname  http://ralst.com/PeaGreenBoat.HTM

A Conversation by Isdangmaharot/wordsalad    https://archiveofourown.org/works/1369855

A Day of E  by nooriginalityheremovealong  http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6298456/1/A_Day_of_E

A Different Kind of Devil by Shipstrella  https://archiveofourown.org/works/11409357

A Failure to Communicate  by  thelastgoodname   http://archiveofourown.org/works/5300144

A Fly on the Wall by Pantone462  https://archiveofourown.org/works/8706967

A Movie by eternalnightday   Journal purged but I have the fic.

Too Long We Have Tarried  by Telanu  A Riff on A Failure to Communicate   http://archiveofourown.org/works/750424

A Catfight  by MiLadygirl   http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8471430/1/Catfight

Andy Tells Her Side of the Story  by zingleagain  https://dvlwears-prada.livejournal.com/2471557.html

Andy’s Alt Day by Hawkbehere  https://archiveofourown.org/works/5866123

Bat Got Your Tongue by Casey Rocks  http://www.academyofbards.org/halloween/2011/caseyrocks_batgotyourtongue.html

Caroline Asks Andy What Cougars are by Fictorium  http://fictorium.tumblr.com/

Cause/Effect  by bagara b   http://bargara-b.livejournal.com/2011/03/09/

Context by jah728  https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9800961/1/Context

Dear John by Pradaschroma    http://dvlwears-prada.livejournal.com/1510699.html#cutid1

Dear John the Dinner by Pradaschroma   http://dvlwears-prada.livejournal.com/1513696.html#cutid1

Dogs? Really?  by Jehc  https://archiveofourown.org/works/4606068/chapters/10497108

Duck Soup by The Raven http://www.ralst.com/storiesDWP.html

Erotic Readings Online by MiLadygirl  http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8306572/1/Erotic_readings_online

Five Times Irv Ravitz Tries Team Bonding by  Radak  http://radak.livejournal.com/139799.html

Food Fight by miconi   I have the fic.

Fool Me Twice by grrrliliketigers  https://archiveofourown.org/works/746198

Getting the Boss by Eljefe  https://archiveofourown.org/works/17712920

Give Me a Kiss  by Nymphzira   I have the fic.

Gotcha by Punky96   I have the fic 

Hickory Dickory Dock (Prequel to Too Long We Have Tarried) by Telanu http://archiveofourown.org/works/779886

Honey I Shrunk the DWP  by ghost_writing  http://dvlwears-prada.livejournal.com/tag/user%3A%20ghost_writing

Hot Chocolate and Pillow Talk  by TeenyBirdy  https://archiveofourown.org/works/13369233

How Miranda Likes to Game by kosmos8 https://kosmos8.livejournal.com/3236.html

I Love Cookies by Tendara https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12436354/1/I-love-cookies

I Love Cookies 2 by Tendara https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12440078/1/I-love-cookies-2-0

I Love My Job by SLV1987  http://slv1987.livejournal.com/972.html

I Ruined My Manicure for this?  by the Raven  http://www.ralst.com/storiesDWP.html

In a World Without Sarcasm by slashydutchie  http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3668493/1/In_A_World_Without_Sarcasm

Incompetent Teddy Bears  by inlove_n_hate   http://inlove-n-inhate.livejournal.com/5866.html#cutid2

Irritatingly Irresistable by Punky96 https://archiveofourown.org/works/13762218

Kidnapping Gone Awry by leppeh https://archiveofourown.org/works/32809939

LBD by ZoS  https://archiveofourown.org/works/26566978

Miranda There’s Been a Mixup by violettes http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5989526/1/Miranda_Theres_Been_A_Mistake

Murphy’s Law by MirandaMinerva http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5824713/1/Murphys_Law

New Glasses by Punky96   I have the fic.

Not Made To Woo by Writetherest  http://archiveofourown.org/works/923217/chapters/1793747

Odd Things to Wake Up To  by Takeitback  http://dvlwears-prada.livejournal.com/?skip=10&tag=user%3A%20take_itback

Off All Things by Punky96  https://archiveofourown.org/works/12457080

Phone, Book and Post it Notes  by Pantone462  http://ralst.com/PhoneBookPostit.HTM

Practice Makes Perfect by corchen https://dvlwears-prada.livejournal.com/101063.html#cutid1

Press Release by Hayseed  http://hayseed-42.livejournal.com/35853.html

Purely Aesthetic?  By Melanacious  http://dvlwears-prada.livejournal.com/791092.html#cutid1

Rebellious Lock By Quiethearted   http://ralst.com/RebelliousLock.HTM

Royal Flush by AnatomyJane http://anatomy-jane.livejournal.com/

Scheduling Conflict by Grevling http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4854745/1/Scheduling_Conflict

Shhh it’s a wig by T Walker http://dvlwears-prada.livejournal.com/2013/01/05/

Superman vs Miranda Priestly by Ladylavinia   http://dvlwears-prada.livejournal.com/2006/08/08/

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Fired by Menzosarres  https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10522662/1/

The Love Unicorn by susilovestohate https://dvlwears-prada.livejournal.com/1898220.html#cutid1

The Night Miranda Was Plastered by iamfree2         Journal deleted but I have the story.

The Step Parent  by XV  http://archiveofourown.org/works/924575

Turn Two  by Hayseed  http://hayseed-42.livejournal.com/63624.html

Too Long We Have Tarried by Telanu https://archiveofourown.org/works/750424

Unexpected by MiLadygirl  http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8326278/1/Unexpected

Unmoored by Fewthistle  http://dvlwears-prada.livejournal.com/728001.html#cutid1

Visual Chaos – A Tale of Two Sissies  by Polgaria  https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6477386/1/Visual_Chaos_A_Tale_of_Two_Sissies

We’re Having a Baby Series of M/A/C fics.  By Quiethearted  http://www.ralst.com/storiesDWP.html

When Locks Get Locked by QuietedHearted   http://ralst.com/LocksGetLocked.HTM

You’re Very Fetching, So Go Fetch by CharlottePriestly/Elle_Nic –Dog Miranda  https://archiveofourown.org/works/24235207

[snarp]

Is there a screenreader/markup standard that allows the user or publisher to automate switching-out of reader voice according to HTML tag/class? Like, you're reading something with images, blockquotes and lists: switch to Voice B for alt text, Voice C for blockquotes, D for list items, etc?

Different voices for different classes: blockquote class="brother-cadfael" is instructed to use "Welsh-accented male voice", blockquote class="archie-goodwin" uses "New York-accented," etc... Surely we have the technology to get fancy with this now, right?

Even lacking a large enough variety of voicebanks, I feel like you ought to be able to assign some sort of light background music/ambient SFX to make it clear what type of text block this is. With pre-parsing, some kind of tone to indicate the length of the coming block would also make sense - make skipping ahead easier.

[racketballz]

everyone be cool i think some folks (re: me) are mixing up my own personal endgame tastes with TEF endgame (common misconception tbh which is understandable the only reason most people know me is b/c of TEF). TEF endgame is ??? but my own personal endgame is reds greens and bubbles/princess

also re: the ao3 tags just to help people not freak out about that either i made a post explaining that here! https://essbeejay.dreamwidth.org/149276.html

-sbj

Nods nods see! ☝️ maybe boomer won’t kill himself!! (Just maybe)

I didn’t wanna talk on your behalf LMAO

[whumpacabra]

How would someone start posting their writings and things on tumblr...? Im new to actually posting and lost!

Hi! My advice is largely writing based; I’ll put a more detailed explanation under the cut, but basically:

1. Change your default blog icon/bio/etc. if you haven’t already (people may mistake you for a bot and block you if you’re using the default avatar!)

2. Keep your posts organized, especially writing. Make it easy for a reader to find a list of chapters, the previous, and the next piece in a series by linking them on a post.

3. Initiate interaction and maintain connections. Reblog other writer’s work with comments in the tags or notes; play ‘ask games’ off anon or DM blogs you want to be friends with. It’s awkward and intimidating but honestly consistent interaction is what will bring people to your blog regardless of its content, just to check out what your blog is like.

Customizing your blog

This is a big one - regardless of your blog content or interactions, no one trusts a default icon in their notes. Make it a stock image watermarked photo, make it a solid color, but do not leave it as the default geometric shape. Bots and spam accounts rarely customize their icons, so you’ll be lumped in with them and summarily blocked.

Blog titles aren’t super important, but it can be nice to customize it to your blog content or just a silly phrase to indicate “hello I am a real human do not block me please.” Blog descriptions are pretty straightforward. I advise going light on personal details (especially if you’re a minor) but generally a name people can refer to you as and your pronouns is all people are looking for in a description. You can also customize your blog colors, but it’s a good idea to be mindful of readability (eg. avoiding eye strain, colorblind unfriendly combinations, etc.).

I would also recommend turning on your blog’s custom theme (see guide linked here). This can only be done on desktop, but it makes my second point about organization easier. A standard blog will link as tumblr.url.com, but a custom domain will like as url.tumblr.com. A custom theme changes your blog’s links to ‘permalinks.’ This means that if you change your blog name (its url), permalinks will not break, so you don’t have to go through every link on every post to change your url in the link. You can also edit the html custom theme of your blog it this is enabled, as well as access your blog archive.

Organization and links

Obviously tagging your work appropriately helps it reach people - tag browsing is generally how people find blogs to follow outside of their dashboard. But that means you might tag chapter 26 of a work that shows up, in isolation, for a reader. If they think it’s interesting and want to go to the very beginning, how many clicks does it take? It shouldn’t take too many - people get bored or frustrated very quickly when investigating something new and might decide it isn’t worth their time.

Appropriately linking up your story and making it easily accessible to readers isn’t a hard and fast ‘you must do it this way or no one will ever read anything’ kind of rule. But, I think, making your posts as easy and simple as possible for a new reader to approach is good. A reader might scroll through your blog post by post to find what they want, but if you make it easy for them, it decreases their frustration or boredom by minimizing search time.

The easiest and first step would be to make a masterpost. This can be a Blog Masterpost (usually pinned, containing multiple links to multiple different story masterposts- not just chapters) or a Story Masterpost (tagged with the story name, one story’s chapters all consolidated in one place). You can see an example of a pinned blog masterpost and it’s linked story masterposts at the top of my blog.

If you’re writing a sequential story (or intend to have the story readable in a sequential chapter by chapter order), it helps the reader to link a) the story masterpost, b) the previous chapter, and c) the next chapter, somewhere on the post itself. You can see a few different examples of that in my writing posts, as my style and UI philosophy has evolved over time.

Organizing your writing by tag isn’t as ‘important’ as tagging your story appropriately for new readers to find. If you haven’t been here long, you should know that tumblr’s search function can be truly terrible and fail to find something you know to exist. This is why activating your blog’s custom theme (and therefore it’s archive and the ability to access a post’s permalink) is so important. You can manually force a search of a specific tag if you’re at a url.tumblr.com blog, but you are at the whims of tumblr’s noodle code trying to search a tumblr.url.com blog.

I tag my writing (and reblogs of other people’s writing) with specific unique tags so that I personally can have an easier time searching for them, but not everyone will notice, use, or care for unique tag searching given tumblr’s unpredictability.

Interact

So, your blog looks like it was made by a human being, your posts are meticulously organized and easily accessible, now what? Do you just wait for someone browsing the #enemies to lovers tag to find your story? No!

Tumblr is a microblogging platform with social media elements. There is no traditional algorithm that will magically bring your target audience to your blog. If you want to be social, you need to initiate social interactions. That means reblogging posts as a bare minimum.

Liking posts can garner some interaction - someone might see your icon in their notes and think oh a person let me check out their blog - but it doesn’t…say anything. Reblogging a post says very clearly ‘i want to share this with people’ regardless of your actual follower count (‘cause this is tumblr and no one but you can see your follower count, as it should be).

If you’re reblogging someone else’s work, you probably liked it, and might have some compliment or comment regarding it - share it! You can ramble in the tags, write in the notes, or write it directly in your reblog. This a) is a really nice thing to do; writers love and remember people who have comments on their writing and b) reinforces that you’re a human being (that a writer could personally thank, start a conversation with, share ideas, etc.). Having something to say makes you stand out in someone’s activity, and in the notes of a post. Both the OP and anyone else looking at that post will see your comment or tags, and that can incentivize them to check out your blog and your writing.

Obviously you want to approach this as a community building exercise, not min-maxing your interaction to get the most attention, but you shouldn’t be super friendly or overly involved if you don’t want to - it will show and come off as insincere. This is where the whole ‘be yourself’ thing comes in where it’s trite and sucks but it’s true. There are people who will vibe with you somewhere on this hellsite, you just gotta find them. Step out of your comfort zone but don’t force yourself to be something you’re not.

[rookschnapps]

Previous anon here! I would love to read how you did it. Im suprised you managed to did it in Google Docs. I thought you used a program similar to InDesign or programs that are more suitable for graphic design ANYWAY i am also curious how many chapters you used. Was it seven? Did you stop there because the length was convinient or because a story arc ended there? I am not really good at identifying where an arc begins and stops. okay bcgjkkcj THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME

YAYYY I LOVE TALKING ABOUT ARTS AND CRAFTS!!

gonna put this in main tags as well this time so:

this is my bookbind of trod pt 1 :] by @bamsara which u can and SHOULD read here

ok so this first bit is how I made the pdf and then the next bit is how I turned it into signatures for binding. Then the last bit is splitting up chapters and stuff. If anyone has any advice or tips on what I could do differently (for free or v cheap haha) please let me know!! This is so fun I love learning and discussing and making things

first thing I did was grab a real book so I could take a look at where they put the title page, where they left the pages blank, etc

I then formatted the title and contents and stuff in docs by messing with font and position on the page (etc) until it was to my liking! THEN I realised I wanted an image on the very first page so I went back and put that in. I got to design it it was sooo fun

OH. I ALSO STUCK A SHAMURA QUOTE WHERE THE DEDICATION WOULD BE. HEHE

thennn I went and changed all the heading, title and normal text options for the doc so that they looked nice! I used times new roman size 16 :) but that might be a bit big for most people. I like bigger text

^^ that step was important so that when I started copy-pasting in the text it would all come out the right size automatically. also so that my chapter titles and notes pages looked consistent

next I downloaded trod from ao3 as a html file! I found it works better than pdf bc there aren’t any page breaks

I just copied and pasted trod in one chapter at a time and added in the notes and summary for every chapter where I wanted it and that worked pretty well for me

THEN SPELLCHECK. I didn’t want to do it automatically (docs had some horrible opinions sometimes. Also kept trying to erase bits of the writing style that made perfect sense and sound beautiful???) so I had to confirm every change which took a while but I think was worth it

lastly I added page numbers. They did not want to cooperate with me and I still do not understand the tiny fuckers, but I managed to get them in the middle of the page for book 2 so it looks less weird (hurrah). There’s a button for it

then I saved it as a pdf!

OK NEXT THING : SIGNATURES

this post is my bestest friend (link is to a tumblr post that was really helpful)

and this webpage is how I got a pdf of the signatures (it’s the same one linked in the post)

CHAPTERS:

yeah I split it into chunks of 7 chapters! Book 1 ends on the argument in the field bc a) it was getting wayyy too long and b) I want to lend it to my friends and that’s a delightful emotional cliffhanger. Book 2 (which is actually finished. I’ll try and post photos later today or something) ends after hekets release from purgatory which is I thiiiink another 7 chapters? Book 3 is gonna be a bit longer bc I want to do it up to the most recent chapter, which I was gonna leave out bc of length but then it came out and I went insane haha

OH in book 2 I did drop caps and title decoration which I designed in procreate and then imported into docs and moved around as imported photos. I’ll put a bunch of pictures at the end too

THANK U FOR ASKING!!! If there’s anything else u want to know then let me know!! :]

[ikimaru]

If you dont mind me asking, how do you link your tags in your bio? Ive tried to make links in my bio show up as what id like to title them as, but it wont work :') how did you first learn how to do all the cool tumblr stuff?

oh that's just a little of html ahah .. I tried to paste the code but tumblr won't let me, screenshot it is, it should look something like this

but might only work from desktop, have fun! (and there were resource posts and stuff but also googling B)

[wdapteo]

I love you <b> I love you <i> I love you <s> and I love you tumblr for supporting HTML tags ♡♡♡

[xiaokuer-schmetterling]

PODFICCER (and fic author) RESOURCE: things i learned about HTML today

-> from this reference work on ao3: A Complete Guide to 'Limited HTML' on AO3 by CodenameCarrot (please go leave a comment if you find anything here useful !!!)

EDIT: OMG Y'ALL I HAVE BEEN HAVING SO MUCH NERDY GEEKY FUN TWEAKING MY PODFIC HOW-TO GUIDE WITH THIS STUFF

headings, blockquote, div

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html currently allowed by ao3 html sanitizer

a. abbr. acronym. address. b. big. blockquote. br. caption. center. cite. code. col. colgroup. details. dd. del. dfn. div. dl. dt. em. figcaption. figure. h1. h2. h3. h4. h5. h6. hr. i. img. ins. kbd. li. ol. p. pre. q. rp. rt. ruby. s. samp. small. span. strike. strong. sub. summary. sup. table. tbody. td. tfoot. th. thead. tr. tt. u. ul. var.

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in-line (text) formatting tags supported by ao3

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OMG LOOK AT THIS !!! IDK WHEN I WOULD EVER USE THIS BUT LOOK HOW COOL !!!

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paragraphs & p formats: archiveofourown.org/works/5191202/chapters/161901154#AddParagraphs

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omg I'VE ALWAYS WONDERED HOW TO GET THAT LINE BREAK THINGY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PAGE !!!

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end post