#git fundamentals

[stellerssong]

not getting involved in Thee Conversation but to everyone who cannot see the catharsis and the hope and the simultaneous love and grief in the act of passing the torch in mansand vol 10 the wake....................................like. once again. skill issue. When You Love Danny Then You Will Realize.

[http-chris]

just learned to be good at art i need to learn 'fundemantals'. god. what bullshit. 'form'? 'shape'? 'gesture'? sounds like lies from the woke left. what do you mean i cant draw tghe same characters over and over until tjhe inevitable heat death of the universe. fuck. this life is a prison

[devopsschool]

Git Fundamental Tutorials for Beginner | Session 1 | Part 1 Out 2

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[lxmelle]

Spoilers.

The ending is very close to the jujutsu world that Geto and Gojo always dreamed of.

One that didn’t rely on just the One Strong person.

A sorcery institution that protected the youth and would try to shoulder the blame / responsibility.

A hierarchical system that wasn’t led by selfish old gits who upheld outdated values.

A world of relative peace.

A team of sorcerers who are “strong and intelligent comrades”.

Individuals who would fight for and with each other.

Sorcerers who have been touched by feelings of loss and understand the value of belonging - will likely open their arms to others, nurturing more of the same in the future.

The roots for a place that others can feel like they would be coming home to - a “family”.

A world that wouldn’t leave anyone behind.

A world that would try to leave the pain of the past behind, but carry along (keeping) its precious memories to heart — without it being a wound that created loneliness. Gojo and Geto fundamentally strove to create a world that would not have casualties like themselves who were far too young to shoulder huge burdens all on their own.

…for the last point, this really echoes real life. People do die, and those left behind have to find a way for life to carry on.

Their legacy may or may not continue. Sometimes it does continue when a real revolution occurs. We have reason to believe a real revolution did occur. Gojo and Geto did straddle the two worlds because they elicited change. They took on the brunt of the blame and responsibility. This was what they wanted. It gave them meaning. And this was meant to be the most fulfilling thing for them.

Even within the series, one day, Gojo Satoru will be talked about just as Gojo himself talked about his ancestors. Maybe like Tengen and co. who first brought peace to the world. Those of that new era will not be able to put a face to his name. Or understand their methods. May not wish to.

And it’s... okay. That’s arguably the way it’s meant to be. Life does go on.

You can remember as the reader.

This is what it means to grieve, I think.

Things like this touch the core of what it means to be human. Facing death. Loss. Grief. How we make sense of it.

I’m filled with gratitude that I fell into this series by chance. There are so many memories of where I was when I read this or how I felt when I read that.

My feelings for the series and the characters will change one day.

It’s normal. It’s okay.

In this very moment, I’m so grateful for the series, the vision created by Gege, and the community who love jjk - especially those who choose to keep it alive and embrace their fandom by expressing it in healthy ways that love each other rather than tearing each other down.

[wannabelilybriscoe]

ASFTEOTW: Chapter 18 Commentary

This chapter of A Song for the End of the World is a little bit sexy at the end. But first we gotta get through some plot stuff.

Previous Chapter < > Next Chapter

There’s a term used by the military to describe a high-impact event that is difficult to predict under normal circumstances but that, in retrospect, appears to have been inevitable. This is known as a black swan event.  Because a black swan is, by definition, unexpected. Fundamentally hard to prepare for. It’s only after the fact, in hindsight, that the black swan is rationalised by those who survived it and so understood to have been unavoidable. Of course, the military had protocols for everything, including black swans. These protocols focused on handling situations of uncertainty using a structured framework that accounted for having incomplete information.  The problem is that the military is made up of humans, and humans are abysmally susceptible to black swans. There are two reasons for this: the first is that humans like to create narratives to understand the world, but they can only create narratives based on their reflections of the past. The second reason stems from the first: humans tend to believe that the past is a reliable predictor of the future. There’s also the pesky little matter of confirmation bias, which prevents humans from seeing evidence that contradicts their existing beliefs; their understanding of how things have happened in the past. Of how things should be.  So, when something entirely unexpected happens like, say, a zombie apocalypse…well. They were all just humans, grasping at tools that saved them in the past, trying to beat the black swan.  But there’s the rub: you don’t know a black swan is a black swan until after it’s already beaten you. 

I am not a military geek at all. But I've learned a bunch of interesting trivia through my research for this fic. The term "black swan" in this context is not specifically a military term (i.e. it's also used in economics, by historians, etc.), but it is used by the military. I pulled the concepts from this Britannica article. I loved this concept as a narrative device for the second part of the story, and if you're caught up in the story, you'll know why.

Giving Remus’s hand a quick squeeze, Sirius runs to fall in step with Regulus. Crouch hangs close on the other side of the younger Black brother, eyeing Sirius suspiciously.  As Remus follows them, he overhears Sirius demand, “Reg, what the hell is going on?”  “Que fais-tu ici?” Regulus hisses at Sirius without breaking his straight-backed stride.  Not missing a beat, Sirius responds in rapid French. “Je t'ai demandé en premier.” “Je pensais que tu serais parti avec les Potter.” “Évidemment non.” Remus has no idea what they’re saying, but he notices the way Regulus does not respond to whatever Sirius just said. Sirius continues impatiently, “Où sont maman et papa?”  “Plus tard.” “Non, Reg, dis-moi maintenant! Et qu’est ce-que tu fais avec cette putain d'épée?” Regulus shoves past Sirius as they enter the sitting room, following Dolohov and Shacklebolt to where they’ve gathered by the fireplace. “Are you alright?” Remus asks Sirius in a low voice. Sirius exhales a sharp, frustrated breath, running a hand through his hair. “Just looks like the zombie fucking apocalypse hasn’t changed him at all.” 

I put this in the chapter's notes, but in this story, Sirius and Reg speak several languages, including French, Latin, and Italian, though their primary language is English. They use French to speak privately in front of others.

Also, yes, I will gratuitously drop the line "the zombie fucking apocalypse" whenever I feel like it.

“Remus! I thought better of you!” He rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah, well—” “That’s not important right now,” Sirius cuts, waving a hand. “What matters is that the sneaky git revealed Remus’s immunity to complete strangers. What is he playing at?” “It’s like he said in his letter,” Lily says, glancing down at the crumpled paper in her hands. “He thinks this is our best chance at survival.” “And do we trust him?” James asks with an edge to his voice.  Remus expects Lily to get defensive, but he’s surprised to see her expression turn pensive instead.  “Severus isn’t the type to take chances. He would have put a lot of thought into this before acting.”  McGonagall nods in agreement. “Yes, he has always been a calculating boy. I believe he did this with the right intentions.”  Sirius and James share a sceptical look.  “But how do we know he isn’t doing this for him? For some gain of his own?” James presses.  “He isn’t,” Lily says with conviction. “In his letter he. Well.” James turns to her fully, brow furrowed. “What?”  Lily chews on her lower lip, a faint blush painting her cheeks. “He, ah. He said he loves me. And he wants me to be safe.”  James’s jaw twitches. “He did?”  Sirius makes a disgusted noise. Lily shuffles her feet and nods. “Yes. I didn’t—I had no idea he felt that way.”  James’s chest rises and falls with his breathing. His posture is tense, his next words coming out clipped. “And you?” Lily’s eyes widen, and she shakes her head. “Of course not!”  “I’m sorry to interrupt, but we must focus on the matter at hand,” McGonagall cuts in, her voice soft but firm.  “Y-yes, of course!” Lily says quickly. But James continues to watch her with trepidation.  

Snape!! *shakes fist* Regulus addresses him without preamble. “What are you exactly to my brother?”  “I’m not sure how much he would want me to say.” “Are you his boyfriend?”  Remus tilts his head, trying to read the younger boy’s expression. Is Regulus bigoted like their parents? Sirius hadn’t mentioned him sharing their views, but then again, he hasn’t told him much about Regulus at all.  “Why do you want to know?” Irritation passes across Regulus’s face—an echo of the irritated look he sometimes sees on Sirius.  “Do you care about him?” “...’Course I do. Now, why are you asking?” Regulus raises his chin imperiously. “I don’t care to know the details of your relationship, but given my brother’s tendency towards rash behaviour, I feel it’s my duty to speak to you. I’ll say this only once: you should be careful about flaunting your relationship in front of others.” Uneasiness ripples through him. “Why? Is there someone who would harm us? Should we be worried about going to Gaunt Farm?” It’s unsettling how quickly the irritation melts away from Regulus’s face, leaving his expression smooth and impassive again. A practised skill in the House of Black, apparently. “You should know by now that harm can happen anywhere. Gaunt Farm is safer than any alternative, but you should always keep your attachments close to your chest.”  This doesn’t do much to soothe him. “Is that why you’re giving Sirius the cold shoulder?” “My relationship with my brother is of no one’s concern.” “It’s a bit of my concern, what with his and my attachment.” “It isn’t. I don’t know what my brother has told you about me, but trust that you will never understand what it is to be a part of our family.” Well, he can’t argue with that point. “He told me he wishes he’d taken you with him. When he left your parents’ home. He misses you.”  There’s the slightest twitch to Regulus’s eyebrow, the corner of his mouth. “My brother is stubborn. And idealistic.” “And you’re not?” “No. I’m a realist. Which is why I’m making the effort to talk to you at all, in the hopes that you have even a shred more sense than he does.”  “Right. Well. This has certainly been reassuring.” Remus stuffs his hands into his pockets. “Look. Just be straight with me. Is Sirius going to be safe at Gaunt Farm? And the rest of our friends? Because this is something that I need to do, but if they’re going to be put in danger, then we’re leaving now without them.”  Regulus rolls his eyes. “Please. Travelling at night would be suicide. Besides, you know my brother won’t forgive you if you leave, don’t you?” So Regulus does know Sirius well. Remus knows he’s right. He doesn't want to leave without Sirius. He made a promise that he wouldn't leave again without telling him. But if it's between breaking a promise and saving his life, he'll do what he needs to do.  “He’ll be angry, but I’d rather he be angry with me and alive than the alternative.” Regulus regards him for a drawn-out moment before answering. “They’ll be safe, as long as they keep their wits about them.“  Remus levels him with his own stare. “Good. I’m going to believe you because you’re Sirius’s brother, and you’re important to him. But if anyone threatens them, I’m not going to think twice about doing something about it.”  Regulus doesn’t even flinch. Like he’d expected as much. He nods.

“Understood.”  “Oh, and also? I think Sirius had more sense than you give him credit for.” 

I am not a moonwater girly, but I do have so much fun writing scenes with Remus and Regulus. I feel like they have a similar energy.

And yes, I do think Remus would break a promise if he felt it was warranted.

But check out Remus defending his boyfriend!!

Remus: Um, actually 😤 Sirius has a ton of sense 😤 So how about you watch your mouth 😤

Xeno smiles. “We’re at a fork in the road. Everyone can feel it. Some of us will take one road, and some will take the other. It seems like a good time to meet my own destiny.” Xeno’s words are simultaneously hopeful and foreboding—two contradicting forces that unsettle Remus deeply. “We’re only going ahead of you. Then we’ll send for the rest of you,” he tells Xeno. Xeno lowers his hands and looks at Remus properly. “Do you trust the group from Gaunt Farm?” Shifting his weight from one foot to the other, Remus says, “Not really. But if there’s a chance that I can help them make the vaccine, I have to try. Also…Sirius’s brother is with them.” Xeno nods slowly, like he puts real weight in Remus’s words.  “Yes, sometimes we must take risks for love. You’re brave, Mystery Man. If we don’t see each other again, I hope destiny treats you well.” He smiles at Remus. Feeling heavy and a little sadder than he anticipated, Remus smiles back.  “Same to you. But we’ll radio you when we get there. This isn’t the last you’ll hear from me.”  Xeno doesn’t respond. Still smiling, he returns to his game. As Remus turns to leave, he stops, calling over his shoulder, “Oh, and say hello to Panda for me, if you find her.” “When,” Xeno says easily.  “When,” he amends. 

Xeno! You underrepresented weirdo. I adore writing him as a mystic oracle kid.

Xeno: I dunno man, those guys seem wack. You sure you and your soulmate wanna go to their creepy farm?

Remus and Xeno, I will write a buddy comedy about you two one day!!

He traces the bridge of his nose up the length of Sirius’s neck to the spot below his ear and back down, so he can feel the shivers it sends across Sirius’s skin, the hitch in his breath. As he does this, he slips his hands lower, under Sirius’s shirt, so he can stroke the soft, smooth skin of his stomach, the trail of hair below his belly button. His hands drag Sirius’s hands with them, and he feels Sirius push against his hands as they splay across his stomach, then lower, pressing against the sharp juts of his hip bones. His senses are flooded with Sirius—the heat of his body, the sound of his breath stuttering and speeding up, the smell of him, the pressure of his hands gently urging him on his path of exploration.  “You’re so beautiful, cariad,” Remus murmurs into his ear. Later, he will reprimand himself for being so needy and so carelessly close to Sirius. But right now, he feels swept up in the moment, like the world around him is closing in so all he can focus on is the sound of Sirius’s breath, the warmth of his skin, and the small movements he makes in his arms, against his front. “Sometimes I can’t believe how beautiful you are.” Sirius strokes a hand up Remus’s arm to the elbow, then reaches up to feel the curls at the nape of his neck, stretching his body against him. Sirius's arse is flat against his front, and he's sure Sirius can feel him hardening. It's equal parts embarrassing and thrilling.  “Tch. You sure are laying it on thick suddenly," Sirius says, but he sounds pleased, and Remus wants so badly to please him. Emboldened, Remus smooths his hands up the flat plane of Sirius’s torso until he feels the ridges of his ribs and the rise and fall of his breathing. He wants Sirius so viscerally that it hurts. “You could do so much better than me,” he says mournfully, burying his face in Sirius’s neck again, feeling his tendon move as he swallows through the thin fabric of the mask. “You deserve someone who can give you everything.”  He feels Sirius sigh, then turn around in his arms, ringed fingers wrapping around the back of his neck. The air between them feels pulled taut like an elastic band, so taut it could snap at any moment, and then they'll be crashing into each other.  “Stop that,” Sirius says fiercely, staring straight into his eyes, “I bloody adore you, Moony. God, I just—I like you so much. Stop trying to pull away from me.” Tears prick at the corners of Remus's eyes. Sirius continues to look at him, unflinching and beautiful, and it feels like he’s looking directly at the sun. I should take a step back, Remus thinks, I should put some safe distance between us, this is too close, it's too risky… But then something flashes across Sirius’s face—a look of determination that Remus has come to recognise. Sirius pulls back from him, and it sends Remus’s mind reeling, because he just told him not to pull away, so why…? Remus takes a bewildered step forward, but Sirius stops him with a hand pressed firmly against his chest.  “I have an idea.” “What?” “If you could touch me properly, where would you start?” His voice catches in his throat. “But we shouldn’t.” “But if you could.” Sirius holds his gaze, and Remus notices that his posture is relaxed and open. Unguarded. In fact, his mouth is quirked into a small smile, one eyebrow cocked invitingly—a challenge, then. “If you could touch me anywhere you wanted, however you wanted, without needing to worry about it, what would you do?”

*fans self* Whew! I'm not going to share the rest here, but if you've read it, you know how it goes. It felt like the right time for R and S to take their relationship to a new level of physical intimacy, even if they can't touch each other the way they want to. I wanted this scene to be sexy but also vulnerable and sweet. Sirius recognises what Remus needs in this moment, and he offers a way to work around it so that they can still feel that intimacy they both crave. The night before they leave the inn felt like the right time for this scene, because the uncertainty of the next day would give them (particularly Remus) that little push that they need.

The action really gets going in the next chapter! Ahhh!

[layover-linux-official]

Write One to Throw Away?

If you're in the software industry for long enough, you'll hear this advice eventually. There's an infamous Catch-22 to writing code:

You don't deeply understand the problem (or its solution space) until you've written a solution.

The first solution you write will have none of that hindsight to help you.

So it naturally shakes out that you have to write it at least one time before you can write it well, unless you're stricken with exceptional luck. And the minimum number of attempts you will need is two: one to throw away, and a second attempt to keep.

It's just math. It's just logic. Write one to throw away. It's got the world's easiest proof. You'd have to be some kind of idiot to argue with it!

Okay, hear me out...

As you work on bigger and older projects, you will continuously be confronted with a real-world reality: that requirements are an input that never stops changing. You can make the right tool for the job today, but the job will change tomorrow. Is your pride and joy still the right tool?

If you're like most developers, your first stage of grief will be denial. Surely, if we just anticipate all the futures that could possibly happen, we can write code that's ready to be extended in any possible direction later! We're basically wizards, after all - this feels like it should work.

So you try it. You briefly feel safe in the corrosive sandstorm of time. Your code feels future proof, right up until the future arrives with a demand you didn't anticipate, which is actually so much harder to write thanks to your premature abstractions. Welcome to the anger stage. The YAGNI acronym (you ain't gonna need it) finally registers in your brain for what it is - a bitter pill, hard-won but true.

But we're wizards! We bargain with our interpreters and parsers and borrow checkers. Surely we can make our software immortal with the right burnt offerings. We can use TDD! Oops, now our tests are their own giant maintenance burden locking us into inflexible implementation decisions. Static analysis and refactoring tooling! Huh, well that made life support easier, but couldn't fix fundamental problems of approach, architecture and design (many of which only came into existence when the requirements changed).

As the sun rises and sets on entire ISAs, the cold gloom eventually sets in. There is no such thing as immortal software. Even the software that appears immortal is usually a vortex of continuous human labor and editing. The Linux kernel is constantly dying by pieces and being reborn in equal or greater measure - it feels great to get a patch merged, but your name might not be in the git blame at all in 2 years time.

I want to talk about what happens when your head suddenly jumps up in astonished clarity and you finally accept and embrace that fact: holy shit, there is no immortal software!

Silicon is sand

... and we're in the mandala business, baby.

I advocate that you write every copy to be thrown away. Every single one. I'm not kidding.

Maybe it'll be good enough (read adequacy, not perfection) that you never end up needing to replace your code in practice. Maybe you'll replace it every couple years as your traffic scales. But the only sure thing in life is that your code will have an expiration date, and every choice you make in acknowledgement of that mortality will make your life better.

People are often hesitant to throw out working code because it represents years of accumulated knowledge in real-world use. You'd have to be a fool to waste that knowledge, right? Okay. Do your comments actually instruct the reader about these lessons? Does secondary documentation explain why decisions were made, not just what those decisions were? Are you linking to an issue tracker (that's still accessible to your team)? If you're not answering yes to these type of questions, you have no knowledge in your code. It is a black hole that consumed and irreparably transformed knowledge for ten years. It is one of the worst liabilities you could possibly have. Don't be proud of that ship! You'll have nowhere to go when it sinks, and you'll go down with it.

When you write code with the future rewriter - not merely maintainer - in mind, you'll find it doesn't need to be replaced as often. That sounds ironic, and it is, but it's also true. Your code will be educational enough for onboarding new people (who would rewrite what they don't understand anyways). It will document its own assumptions (so you can tell when you need a full rewrite, or just something partial that feels more like a modification). It will provide a more useful guiding light for component size than any "do one thing well" handwave. And when the day finally comes, when a rewrite is truly necessary, you'll have all the knowledge you need to do it. In the meantime, you've given yourself permission to shit out something sloppy that might never need replacing, but will teach you a lot about the problem domain.

This is independent of things like test suite methodology, but it does provide a useful seive for thinking about which tests you do and don't want. The right tests will improve your mobility! The wrong tests will set your feet in cement. "Does this make a rewrite easier?" is a very good, very concrete heuristic for telling the two apart.

Sorry for long-posting, btw. I used this space to work through some hazy ideas and sharpen them for myself, particularly because I'm looking at getting into language design and implementation in the near future. Maybe at some future date, I'll rewrite it shorter and clearer.

TL,DR:

Every LOC you write will probably eventually be disposed or replaced. Optimize for that, and achieve Zen.

[emacs-unofficial]

As a neovim user, I don't honestly know much about emacs. How is it differnt fundamental from vim and such?

I probably don't know enough about vim/neovim to give a meaningful awnser. (I know as much as vimtutor teached me, and apparently there are a lot of functions that are completely unmeantioned there)

If we talk about fundamentals, the biggest differences is probably, that emacs is (out of the box) not a modal editor, meaning instead of switching between an edit and insert-mode, you are always in insert mode and navigate/edit via key combinations (kinda like modern gui text editors). Another fundamental difference is, that the cursor sits between the characters in contrast to vim, where it sits on a character.

Also, while emacs can run in a terminal, it is also a GUI programm with image support and such.

Oh, and "yank" means in emacs term the opposite to what it means in vim. (Ah, good old software so ancient, that it precedes modern terminology like "cut" and "paste")

Thats mostly it for text editing. But emacs can do a lot more cool things: Org-mode is fantastic for taking notes (and can get even better with certain packages) (and IMHO a better markup language than markdown). Magit is for some people the best git client in existence. Editing and file navigation on remote systems works as well as local editing. And much more.

I can highly recommend simply installing emacs and trying out the tutorial. It tells you basically everything thats in the base packet and gives you links to where to get more in depth infos for configuration and external packages. To run the tutorial, start Emacs and type C-h t, that is, Ctrl-h followed by t.

You could even continue to use vim keybinds thanks to the @emacs-evil-mode package.

I've had a similar discussion in the past worth reading:

[seriousbrat]

I don’t think James would win because I don’t think is that witty. Compared to Sirius most of his lines aren’t very clever. I know they were 11 here but the train scene stands out to me, Sirius delivers a cutting extremely clever line with ease “where are you hoping to go since your neither (iconic) and then James has “blimey I thought you were alright!” Which is a bit weak in direct contrast with everyone else in the compartment. Then there’s also the swm scene and his “quick” lines are “it’s more that he exists” and “go on go out with me and I’ll never lay a wand on snivelly again” which again compared with both Sirius and Lily in that scene is definitely not as sharp. There’s also the responses on the map, Remus and his “begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of people’s business” Sirius with the most cutting “would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor.” Even Peter’s is “sharper”, slightly, “Mr. Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball." But James’ is "Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git.” What I’m getting at is that I don’t think James is a man of many words, and the words he does use aren’t nearly as sharp as Sirius.

There’s also the vocab aspect of scrabble, none of James’ lines included language that is particularly far reaching, but Sirius and Remus demonstrate that repeatedly.

Im not saying he is dumb by any means, but I don’t think his strength lies in sharp wit.

And James is competitive, but I don’t feel that being competitive is exactly equal to being “good” at a game, in a lot of cases it can work against you.

Basically I’m saying Sirius would be the winner here

You don't think James is that witty...... girl I respect your vision but I'm sorry..... I cannot bring myself to agree. Not that I have a super strong canon-based argument against it lmao I just don't see it that way.

Look "it's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean" while this is a TERRIBLE thing to say in context, I think it actually is witty lol. As is "'Do you think you managed to get all the signs?" which James says 'in tones of mock concern.'

Okay thinking about this I can recognise that maybe it's just the way that I personally write James-- where his language isn't quite as classically eloquent as Sirius and Remus might be, but he's naturally funny and clever in more of a casual way, if that makes any sense. James's brand of eloquence for me is more down to earth, it's less academic but also more honest.

I think Sirius is absolutely the master of the razor tongue, he's much more cutting than James is. But that's because Sirius for me is fundamentally more aware of the effect of what he's saying. Whereas James is more of an 'off the cuff' type of person, in my opinion.

Also to be fair to James, we see much less dialogue from him than we do from Remus or Sirius. If we were just judging Remus vs James solely based on SWM then would you really say Remus is much more verbose than James? His moment of humour in SWM is just him 'yes and'-ing James. I think if we'd seen James as an adult the way we see Remus and Sirius he would be witty and funny and eloquent, and I think that's the impression of him we're supposed to have. To be honest I really don't think he was supposed to be a man of few words haha.

I'm also not sure to what extent we can judge their characters on the Marauders Map phrases-- like do you really think Peter was funnier and wittier than James???? Idk about that lol. They probably came up with those together.

Anyway none of this has anything to do with scrabble haha. I will accept Sirius as the winner, grudgingly, but I'll accept it. Grudgingly.

[spockandawe]

I forgot to post the last few paintings! I have also been experimenting with watercolors, because I've never been a person to git gud at a single craft when I could be mediocre at ten million 😂 (stay tuned for my impending adventures in straw marquetry and lampshade covering) (neither of those are jokes).

For watercolor, like with acrylics, I dove in pretty big, with the aim of having things for my parents' new house by mother's day. So I was very much aiming for foolproof projects! I had two very tall, very skinny frames (12x36) that i got from the clearance section, thinking I would buy 36 inch watercolor paper, only to learn that no such thing was in the stores near me. So for that, i went abstract and layered, using spacers from the papercrafts i never followed through on to give it some dimensionality that doesn't photograph well. And then i looked up tutorial videos for loose watercolor flowers. Very much a learning process, and I was painting right up until noon of mother's day, but I had fun and mom was delighted! Now it's time to back down and do real studies and learn the fundamentals, haha

[memelovescaps]

CHAPTER 15: HARRY'S BIRTHDAY (PART 1)

I didn't do it on purpose but since today's the 31st of July, it's very fitting that this chapter is the first part of Harry's birthday! So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HARRY!

Hermione giggled but Ron shook his head, his nose wrinkled.

“Still with that, are you?” Ron said, pulling a face.

“Still with what? Severus?” Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ron’s scowl turned into a disgusted grimace as he stopped dead in his tracks.

“You’re calling him Severus now? SEVERUS?!” Ron's arms were gesturing wildly.

“Yes, Ron, Severus. It’s his bloody name, for Merlin’s sake…”

Harry breathed in and out, trying to calm down as he shook his head.

“Oh come on, we’ve been through this. Spending time with Severus has shown me he’s not the person we believed he was. And it's shown him that I am not James Potter, or even Lily. We’re friends now, just like you, Neville, and Luna,” Harry’s voice tightened, his fists clenching as he struggled to keep his tone steady. “I don’t understand why that bothers you so much.”

“Because it’s him!” Ron shouted. His jaw tightened, and he ran a hand through his hair, “It’s the git from the dungeons, it’s…”

“Yes, and I am the son of his mortal enemy,” Harry interrupted. “If he has learned to forget all that, you should too. I don’t understand this hatred towards him! After all, all he’s done to you is deducting points from Gryffindor.”

“He didn't...!” Ron said, his hands in the air. “You must be bloody delusional, Harry!”

“Ron, that's enough,” Hermione intervened.

Harry turned to his left, where Hermione was standing, looking at Ron with a stern gaze. Ron's ears turned bright red, and he turned around, huffing and starting to walk, his steps heavy on the ground. Harry’s hands clenched into fists, his knuckles turning white as he struggled to maintain control. The tightness in his chest was suffocating, and he could feel a knot of anger and disappointment forming in his stomach.

Ron's words seemed to echo in the quiet moment before Ginny, who'd been standing behind them, took a step forward. Her brow knitted together as she glanced between Harry, standing beside her and Ron, already walking away.

“Harry, it’s not just Ron,” Ginny said quietly. “You’ve been spending so much time with Snape lately when you used to hate him not three months ago. And we remember the things he did. Maybe you know things we don't, but still, it’s Snape. It's…weird.”

She then ran after his brother until she caught up with him, a few yards ahead.

Harry breathed out, looking at the dry path as he sighed and started to walk, Hermione falling in step with his pace, much slower than Ron and Ginny's.

He felt a wave of weariness wash over him. That had gone dismally. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, closing his eyes shut. Why was it so hard to understand that someone could change?

People can change. He'd seen it in Severus. He'd felt it in his bones, he himself was not the same he was a year ago. Hell, hadn't he himself changed from the boy who had first arrived at Hogwarts? If he could evolve, why couldn't Severus? Why couldn't Ron? The realisation felt like a cold, sharp truth he struggled to accept.

He couldn’t help but feel isolated, Ron had always been a pillar in his life. But this time, it didn't look like he would budge. His emotions tangled with a sense of being fundamentally misunderstood.

As usual, also available on Wattpad and Fanfiction

[essential-randomness]

Ms Boba’s Quarterly Extravaganza Part 2: Where is The BobaVerse™ at?

[from the start] [blog version] [$upport me (and get this in your inbox)]

(or better said, “where was the BobaVerse at in July 2023, when this was written?“)

While a vision like this poses a lot of questions, the most important one is also simple: can this all be set up for success before I run out of money and have to go back to sell my OP programming/marketing skills to some VC-backed company?

The process of getting to sustainably build things is a treacherous and complex one, one that must account for the (unfortunately inevitable) failures along the way. Learning is a fundamental part of the building process!

We fail, we learn, we get up, we go back to trying!

Wins & Losses

In more practical fashion, the first half of this year (back in July) saw quite a few wins under our belt! The highlight is @fujowebdev, our successfully Kickstarted guide to Git and GitHub that will help us clear the highest hurdle to collaboration: teaching Version Control.

We also had a few Ls, which we don’t shy away from! For one, the Kickstarter was an immense amount of effort (but worth it); I’m incredibly far from covering my rent (so I can keep at this); and life just Keep Happening™ to both me and volunteers, which makes collaboration hard!

How to Help

So how can you help? Well, we did have some requests, and we did get help with a bunch of them! Right now (for how uncomfortable that is to say) the main thing we need is recurring income. Our runway is getting shorter, and every little bit helps us focus on building and not fundraising!

The most impactful way is to support me directly, either on Patreon or on my website. If you can’t give yourself, consider pitching it to friend(s) that want to help build a better web!

If you’d rather give one time, we’re running a 2023 holidays fundraiser with exciting discounts! It won’t give you early Town Hall access (unlike patron support), but you can get sleek Yaoi cheese paddles or Ship Ownership certificates for you or a friend!

See you all in edition #2!

Next

Read this all as a blog post

Back to Part 0 – Intro

Back to Part 1 – What is The BobaVerse™?

$upport all this

[ouhmouda]

Tips for New Web Developers: Building a Strong Foundation

Tips for New Web Developers: Building a Strong Foundation

As a beginner in web development, it's important to focus on the fundamentals before diving into complex projects. Here are a few key tips to help you build a strong foundation:

Learn HTML & CSS: These are the building blocks of web development. Mastering them will allow you to create basic, functional websites.

Understand JavaScript: This language brings your websites to life by enabling interactivity. Start small and work your way up to more advanced concepts.

Responsive Design: Ensure your website looks great on all devices by learning responsive web design principles. Mobile-first design is crucial today.

Version Control (Git): Use Git for tracking changes to your code and collaborating with others. GitHub is a great platform to showcase your projects.

Focus on Clean Code: Write clean, readable code that is easy to maintain. It’ll help you and your future collaborators down the line.

Remember, the journey may be challenging, but with consistency and practice, you’ll become proficient and confident in web development. Keep coding! 🚀

[edwin-paynes-bowtie]

Why do you find Charles interesting?

I find Charles fascinating because I think that he's a very unique character. He's terrible in a multifaceted way that I think is often overlooked.

Fandom and Creator Attitudes

I feel like a lot of people write him off as "annoying" and ignore him, which is kind of irritating.

First, in writing Charles off as "annoying" without elaborating on that, we brush the actually-heinous things Charles does under the rug. Specifically in regards to Alastair. Like, no, he wasn't just a boorish boyfriend who neglected Alastair's needs! He was an abusive person who groomed him when he was a child, transparently used him for sex based on their behavior in ChoG, treated him consistently terribly, brainwashed him to the point that Cordelia compared Alastair-dating-Charles to Bracelet-James, and harassed him in public after they broke up. Let's talk about it beyond "lol what an annoying asshole!"

Unfortunately, the narrative and the fandom villainize him for being closeted. This is not a reason he sucks. Charles is a gay man in the early 1900s and should be allowed to chill in Narnia for as long as he wants. When we go "he needs to CoMe oUt," that's shitty. But it also brushes the perfectly legitimate reasons he should be villainized under the rug!

But second, in writing Charles off as "annoying," we ignore what a complex and layered character he is.

Why Is Charles Layered?

Charles Buford Fairchild is, mark my words, a pompous git. I don't want there to be any misunderstanding here. He is an arrogant, self-important douchebag who puts on an air of perceived authority and thinks he is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

And yet.

In addition to thinking he is the Coolest Thing in All the World, Charles also hates himself on a deep and fundamental level.

This dichotomy is fascinating. Charles isn't just made up of ambition, shame, and fear in equal parts. He's made up entirely of ambition, entirely of shame, and entirely of fear. All three of these things work together to form the character. They exacerbate each other. If Charles did not have so much ambition, he would not be so scared of his homosexuality; if he were not so ashamed, he would not be scared. But at the same time, that fear drives his ambition. He has to be the best, he has to be Consul, he has to matter.

Charles also is incredibly awkward. Like, sometimes he says and does awful things that I don't even necessarily think he means to.

I personally, like @faithfromanewperspective and @caterpillarinacave once said, believe Charles to be autistic.

He has 0 concept of how to engage with people, and he seems to follow pre-set rules when it comes to social interactions that don't always make sense. Exhibit A: talking to James when he destroys the Blackthorn's greenhouse. He has walked into this encounter with a preconceived idea that James has done something wrong; he is unable and unwilling to entertain otherwise, because he has already made up his mind. Charles Buford Fairchild simply cannot be wrong, not only because he's pompous but also because it would go off-script to be wrong. It would be awkward for him, and the way that he purports himself here illustrates that.

Defining Charles's Character Through Relationships

There's also something interesting to be said about his relationships with other people. His mother, whose footsteps he wants to follow in despite the fact that he has deep-rooted misogyny, yes. His father, who he seems to show absolutely no interest in, sure.

But, family-wise, I think it's interesting to pick apart the fact that he and Matthew are so different in an almost cultivated way. They seem to have each defined themselves against the other. Matthew is open, flamboyant, a libertine; Charles is a closeted, stuffy, sexually repressed person. They're both MLM. They just handle it in the exact opposite ways. And everything with Charles totally backfires in part because of this. Everybody loves openly bisexual Matthew; Charles knows this, but the fear that stems from having too much ambition convinces him that his homosexuality will be a barrier in the way of becoming Consul. He convinces himself (incorrectly) that Matthew has no ambition or drive; that all he does, and, yes, I think this is a very interestingly slut-shamey thing to say, is go to "clubs and salons and orgies." He's the classic Republican gay guy that has convinced himself that Matthew is the other kind of gay person that he doesn't like. Baffling. And, still, everyone loves Matthew. Astounding.

His relationship with Alastair, though vile and rancid, is also interesting on a narrative level. He's doubtlessly predatory, and he's very abusive - but I don't think that he views Alastair as a person that he's abusing. I think he views Alastair as another gay man, one that he is attracted to - and, thus, a constant reminder that he is gay. This supersedes Alastair the person and is in part a reason that he is so foul.

It's also interesting to note that Charles is the natural culmination of what a Charlotte/Henry baby would look like in its worst possible form. Charlotte's ambition and drive, but totally blown out of proportion into something ugly; Henry's desire to matter to the Shadow world magnified and redirected toward political pursuits rather than scientific ones.

In conclusion, he's fascinating.

[kintatsujo]

you know, on the one hand I'm very much for accessible video game design, I am all for as many settings as possible so that the widest variety of people can play and enjoy games, "git gud" philosophy is the antithesis of video games as an art as far as I'm concerned

and on the other hand, 3d Sonic games and most racing games and the like are fundamentally unplayable to me and I'm pretty sure making them into something I could play would mean they weren't what they are anymore.

I recognize there's sides to it, is what I'm saying.

But I think on that second point I'm gonna draw the line when a game's sanity meter effects are what make me sick.

...yes I'm still grumpy about being unable to play The Sinking City, this was brought on by thinking about racing games and the fact that I'm pretty much at peace with the fact that I can't play those

but Sinking City's woobly insanity effect both blindsided me with it and there's absolutely no settings or even an official word from the company about it, not even like unofficial commentary, like people have brought this up in official threads the company made for tech support and been ignored

it's just.... it's like.. there is a difference between knowing there is a game genre you can't play because it makes you sick and a game being IN a genre you ENJOY and then there's one thing about it that would be easy to turn off in a setting, that isn't, and it turns out THAT makes you sick.

Anyway idk put fuckin camera settings in your games and let people turn off fisheye filters

[moose-mousse]

Going to make a "Getting started with GIT" Post

(This is my getting the "why are you making that post" out of the way, so that the posts with the actual information does not get polluted by it. And also polling people on what they find confusing about GIT so I can target that a bit better) So I re-blogged a post with a really nice GIT diagram, showing what commands sends what where. And I noticed 3 things in the replies and reblog. 1: A lot of people seem to be intimidated by the perceived complexity of GIT. That is fair. But I promise, while HOW it works is complicated, using it is not. 2: Many have it on a TODO list for after they learn to code. Which is... backwards. It would be like waiting with learning how to use a keyboard until after you have become a good writer. Trust me, learning GIT as one of the first things will make it EASIER to learn to code. 3: Several people suggested that GIT is overcomplicated. That is... simply not true. It is one of the old school pieces of software (Meaning it does 1 thing, is open-source, free and is impossible to monetize). It does something very very complicated in the simplest way possible. I think people simply do not understand how complicated the problem GIT solves is. I am not saying "People are dumb" (I think... anyone thinking that is fundamentally missing something in how the world works.), I am saying "People seem to be either misinformed or not informed". And that I can help with!

I WILL make a "Getting started with GIT" Post, but if people want an easy explanation for something more, then I will also make posts for those later... Or maybe they fit in as part of a getting started post. We shall see

[ceausescue]

Hi, can you tell me about btrfs? It was a default choice for the filesystem when I installed fedora on my laptop and I read little bit about how it is different from like ext4 and what cool stuff it supports etc. But I newer, like, utilised all that stuff in it. So, if you don't mind, can you tell me what am I missing and how do I utilise it potential?

btrfs! what is btrfs? btrfs is a copy-on-write journaling filesystem with various other goodies. my experience is mostly using it on one disk on my personal machine, which seems to be what you're doing with it also. you may have heard some bad things about btrfs eating your data silently and then the mailing list being really mean about it, and all that is true but it's only true if you're using btrfs raid4 or raid5, which you aren't. for our use case there's absolutely nothing to fear- btrfs is an absolutely rock solid filesystem and i wouldn't accept any other for my daily driver

i was planning on writing this whole long thing summarizing my notes because when i was learning all this stuff i couldn't find any source that had everything i needed in one place. but that was 4 years ago, and since then fedora switched to using it by default. nowadays there are a bunch of articles explaining all the fundamental concepts and commands and such. the two linked at the bottom ive read and can vouch for, and they cover basically all the intuition for the concepts and commands and such. so im going to focus on cool things you can do with a COW filesystem

basically all the cool things you can do are snapshots. snapshots, better explained in the links, are lightweight copies of entire file trees. you can, for instance, take a snapshot of your home directory and then be able to access all your files at the time of the snapshot whenever you want, even if you change them in the "real" version. but you can do better than this. if your subvolume layout is correct (and don't worry, fedora's is), you can rollback to a previous snapshot whenever you want. with a little configuration you can make all your root snapshots bootable, so you can select in grub or whatever which version of your filesystem you want to boot into. with a little bit of doing, which im not sure is easy on fedora but certainly might be, i got my computer set up so that my boot directory is just a btrfs subvolume on my regular filesystem. if an update breaks my setup, which does happen from time to time, i can go back to exactly the state i was in, files packages kernel and all

you can and should use btrfs for your backups also. not local snapshots, those aren't very good backups, but incremental backups to an external drive or over ssh to another machine. for this i use btrbk, which is a pretty simple script that just makes use of btrfs features to make safe, fast, and reliable backups to wherever you might want them. then, because it's using native features of the filesystem, recovering from just about anything is dead simple. you can send over the subvolumes and mount them wherever. the one thing is that for most of these you need a bootable drive with btrfs and enough drivers to work on your system. whatever you used to install fedora should work fine

and with that you basically need fear no file loss event, big or small. i mean i wouldn't give up git or anything, but now you can retrieve your desktop layout, your browser settings, your /etc, whatever you want. its absolutely magic. since doing an install with this btrfs setup 4 years ago i have had absolutely nothing break in a way i couldn't fix in under 15 minutes, even running arch objectively badly. imagining life without snapshots feels barbaric now. its one of a handful of things which are just objectively better on linux for any user at any skill level. data loss is a choice, and it has been for almost a decade. take my hand

additional notes:

APFS: yeah apple has this too. time machine is a brilliant piece of software and the apple ppl are lucky to have it. however! i have needed to actually go back and use my backup like 2 times ever. most of the time i just use the snapshots locally. plus afaik you don't have the same range of options to deal with snapshot size- i dont hang onto my steam directory for very long

ZFS: if you need raid id say zfs is definitely better (zpool is awesome). but a lot of the things you can do with snapshots and subvolumes on btrfs aren't actually possible on zfs. a rollback on zfs is a very specific action which invalidates everything that came after- it's not to be done lightly. with btrfs you just move subvolumes around and they're available whenever you need them

encryption: its annoying but you should put your filesystem inside of lvm inside of LUKS and it'll work fine. its the same as using LUKS normally, and once it's open it's the same as using btrfs normally. this would probably suck for multiple disks, in which case you should use zfs

hibernation: use LVM to have a swap partition and call it a day, storage is cheap these days. ive heard swap files are improved somehow (?) but i dont use one and there really isn't any reason to

compression: imo not a showstopper or anything but it comes in handy. i wouldn't expect huge gains in space usage (storage is cheap anyway) but a lot of modern cpus are good enough at compression that it's actually faster to store everything compressed bc the bottleneck is disk IO. you can test what algorithm and level works best for you, and tune it by subvolume. on my nvme i dont notice a difference, but my server has some hard drives and compression speeds things up