#scratch programming site

[another-apocalypse]

Í̴̲̭m̸̬͠á̷̯̜̔g̷̦͌̂í̶͈̫n̵͖̮̔e̷̤̔͆.̷͔̲̊̀ ̷̮̱͝P̵͔̮͂r̸̡͔͋͝o̸͓̦̚͝g̴̮̻̊r̵̜̚a̴͖͑͑m̶̺͗.̸̪͛ ̷͔̒͜Ş̴̼̇h̷͖͒̈á̵̖͇ȑ̷̹̪̉ḙ̴̡͊.̵̮̌

Official art for Pibbified Scratch Cat! I also made the design on Scratch itself here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/759064970/

Do NOT join the servers linked, the first one is DELETED and the second one is DEV SERVER NOT RUN BY ME

[vib-ri]

digital mascot design by Reiko Chiba

[goldfades]

𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐘 ☆ BURROW⁹ (ev's 6k celly!)

free palestine carrd 🇵🇸 decolonize palestine site 🇵🇸 how you can help palestine | FREE PALESTINE!

CELLY MASTERLIST

ᝰ 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 | 1.6k

ᝰ 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 | it’s his first real day off in weeks and all he wants to do is spend it with you. no press. no cameras. just overpriced fruit and holding your hand in public like it doesn’t mean something. you trail through the market with a smoothie in one hand and his hoodie in the other, watching him pretend he’s not overly invested in picking the right sourdough.

ᝰ 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 | domestic fluff! literally nothing just maybe grumpy joe and invasion of privacies, nothing too crazy though

ᝰ 𝒆𝒗'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒔 | last fic of my celly :,)! now we can go back to our regular programming!! here's some joey b fluff to end this fun celly! this is probably my fav joe fic i've ever written just because i LOVE domestic AND nerd joe?? all in one fic?? not to toot my own horn, but thats perfect<3 anyway, i hope you enjoyed this fic & my celly!

It’s still early when you wake up, the light outside pale and quiet, stretching slow across the sheets like it’s trying not to disturb anyone. Joe’s arm is slung heavy across your waist, his face half-buried in your shoulder, and you can feel the steady pull of his breath against your skin — long, deep, the kind of sleep he only gets when no alarms are set and no planes need catching.

You blink up at the ceiling for a while, trying to match your breath to his. The room is warm and still, faintly smelling of laundry and whatever cologne he wears that always lingers longer than it should. You shift a little, careful not to wake him, but it doesn’t matter. He stirs anyway.

“Don’t move,” he mumbles, voice rough and hoarse with sleep. He tightens his hold on you like the bed’s about to fly off into space.

You smile against his chest. “It’s morning.”

“Don’t care.”

You let the quiet settle again, the kind that feels full instead of empty. It’s been so rare lately. Even when he’s home, it’s like half of him is still somewhere else; some practice, some meeting, some endless obligation. But today’s different. His first real day off in weeks. No team facility. No recovery sessions. No PR appearances disguised as “casual” check-ins.

Just this.

You run your fingers through his messy curls, scratching lightly at his scalp. “You hungry?”

A grunt. A non-committal noise. Then, after a pause, “Tired.”

“You’ve been tired for three months.”

He lifts his head just barely to look at you, eyes still half-shut, expression somewhere between affection and flat-out grumpiness. “Yeah. That’s what three months of getting hit for a living does to a guy.”

You press a kiss to his forehead. “Come on. Let’s go get groceries or something.”

Joe groans and rolls onto his back, throwing an arm dramatically over his face. “I don’t wanna be inside.”

“You’ve been inside stadiums and weight rooms for like, a quarter of the year.”

“That’s different. That’s work.”

“So let’s not work,” you say, nudging him with your knee. “Let’s go outside. What about the farmers market?”

You feel him hesitate. Not in a way that means no. In a way that means he wants to but his brain is still flipping through all the reasons he shouldn’t. The risk of being seen. The noise. The endless low hum of people looking, whispering, pointing. Always someone watching. Always something expected.

But you also know him better than that. You know he doesn’t want to spend the day holed up in the apartment pretending that being off means being unavailable.

You roll over to face him fully, cheek pressed into the pillow. “We could get fruit. Those little blueberries you like. Maybe some bread.”

He peeks at you from under his arm. “That place had good peaches last time.”

You smile. “Yeah, and you stood there for ten minutes judging every single one.”

“Had to make sure they were ripe,” he mumbles, but his voice is softer now. Less guarded.

You reach out, let your fingers trace along his collarbone, lazy and slow. “Let’s go. No press, no schedule. Just us.”

Joe doesn’t say anything for a moment, just turns his head so he can look at you fully. And when he exhales, it’s like something eases in him — shoulders relaxing, jaw unclenching. Like maybe he’s finally letting the day be what it is, instead of what everyone else expects it to be.

“Okay,” he says quietly. “Farmers market.”

The farmer’s market is already alive by the time you get there. Loud in that low, contented way Sundays are loud with kids trailing behind strollers, dogs sniffing at everything they’re not supposed to and the smell of something sweet and cinnamony floating thick and tempting through the air. There’s music coming from somewhere, faint strumming, a voice you can’t quite make out but mostly it’s the sound of people talking, bartering, laughing too loud.

It’s chaos. But a familiar kind. The kind that makes the world feel less like it’s spinning out and more like it’s just... going.

Joe’s hand finds yours without asking.

He doesn’t pull, doesn’t rush you along. Just holds on — loose at first, then tighter when someone brushes past too close. He’s in his “blend in” uniform: baseball cap, hoodie pulled over his head even though it’s too warm for it, sunglasses that cover half his face. But it’s not fooling anyone. You catch a double-take from a teenager walking past, hear a soft, excited “that’s Joey B, right?” from somewhere behind. Joe keeps walking.

The fruit stalls are toward the back, tucked between a flower vendor and a guy selling artisan soaps shaped like crystals. You spot the blueberries before he does.

“There,” you say, nudging him lightly. “Your precious berries.”

He perks up like a kid promised a toy store and immediately drops your hand, stepping forward to crouch in front of the stand like he’s about to interrogate the inventory.

“Oh my god,” you whisper, mostly to yourself. “You’re actually doing this again.”

Joe doesn’t look at you. He’s too busy picking up a pint of blueberries, holding it up to the light like he’s checking for imperfections. “These are underripe,” he mutters, placing them back with the dramatic disappointment of someone returning a bottle of bad wine. He picks up another, squints.

You glance at the vendor, who looks only mildly amused.

“Ignore him,” you say with a small smile. “He thinks he’s a fruit expert.”

“I am a fruit expert,” Joe says, straightening up to hold out a pint toward you like a trophy. “These are the ones.”

You take them from him, inspecting them even though you know he already did. “And what exactly qualified these?”

“They’re plump,” he says seriously. “Color’s good. Matte, not shiny.”

You look at him. “Matte?”

“Shiny blueberries are old blueberries. That’s just science.”

You raise an eyebrow but don’t challenge it. There’s something endearing about the way he says it like he’s passing down ancient knowledge. He’s already crouched again, this time carefully picking through baskets of strawberries like he’s searching for treasure. You let him work, stepping aside so a woman can reach past you to grab a bag of oranges.

“This is nice,” you say after a minute.

Joe doesn’t look up. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I missed this. You being annoying about produce.”

He laughs under his breath, quiet and a little sheepish. “I missed you watching me be annoying about produce.”

You smile and drop a kiss to the top of his head, right where his curls are peeking out under his cap. He freezes like he thinks you’ve just revealed state secrets, then glances up, glasses slipping a little down his nose.

“Bold,” he says, though there’s no edge to it. “You’re gonna blow my cover.”

You shrug. “They already know. That girl over there took a photo when you were choosing apples like they personally insulted you.”

He groans, softly, and stands up. “I hate that.”

“I know.”

“I just... why can’t I exist in peace and judge fruit without it being content?”

You take his hand again. “Because you’re hot and famous and dramatic about berries.”

He mutters something that might be “unbelievable” under his breath but doesn’t pull away. You both start walking again, navigating through the maze of people and stalls. You stop for fresh bread, watch him examine every loaf like he’s picking out a new car. He holds one up, knocks on the crust like he’s listening for a secret message then frowns and puts it back.

“Too soft.”

“Maybe it’s meant to be soft.”

He shakes his head. “If it doesn’t sound hollow, it’s not good sourdough.”

You give him a look. “Did you research all this?”

“I just know things,” he says with a maddening little smirk.

You end up with a loaf that does pass the test, tucked carefully into your tote like it’s fragile. Then come the peaches — God help you. He stands there for nearly ten minutes turning each one gently in his hands, pressing near the stems, breathing them in.

You busy yourself with finding honey sticks and watching a toddler have a meltdown over a squished banana. You’re not even annoyed by the wait anymore. There’s something about seeing Joe this way — slow, unguarded, quietly particular, that makes your chest feel weirdly full. Like watching someone be exactly who they are when no one’s asking anything of them.

He finally walks over with three peaches and a look of profound satisfaction.

“They’re gonna be perfect by tomorrow,” he says. “Just give ‘em a day.”

You reach out and cup his cheek. “You’re such a nerd.”

He leans into your hand, grinning a little. “You love it.”

You do. God, you really do.

You wander for a while longer, letting the sun warm your skin and the weight of the morning settle somewhere deep in your bones. Joe buys you a smoothie you don’t need and you steal sips from it while holding his hoodie, which he’s finally peeled off after admitting it was “too damn hot for May.” You catch sight of your reflection in a vendor’s mirror: wind in your hair, his hoodie in your arms, sunglasses slipping down your nose and think, yeah, this is something I’ll want to remember.

By the time you start heading back, the market’s thinned out a little, the vendors slowly packing up, kids getting cranky, the music quieter. Joe keeps your hand in his the whole way to the car, fingers playing absentmindedly with yours, like he’s not quite ready to let the day go.

Neither are you.

It wasn’t much. Just fruit and bread and sun. Just people and dogs and noise. But in the middle of all that, it felt like something rare — normal, soft, yours.

And sometimes, that’s more than enough.

↳ make sure to check out my navigation or masterlist if you enjoyed! any interaction is greatly appreciated !

↳ thank you for reading all the way through, as always ♡

[oc-ology]

How to OC post without being an artist (or spending money)!

As much as I yelled about OC-posting, some people said that they struggled to know what exactly they should be posting. Obviously the answer is whatever you feel like but if you’re already aimless, that answer isn’t very helpful. Additionally, not everyone knows how to draw (which I think is an obvious method of OC-posting) so I wanted to give some ideas for what people could post for their OC! This will be split up into different sections.

Creating visual representations of your OC

Disclaimer: I will not suggest nor support the usage of generative AI. OCs are about creating something yourself, not allowing a computer to do it for you.

Outside of commissioning someone else for art, it can be disappointing and frustrating to not have any visual representation for your character. An easy way to get a representation of your character is to use Picrew, Meiker and other similar sites. There’s a large number of art styles, types of fashion, species, that can all be used to make your OC and that amount only grows by the day. Many of these websites can be accessed on PC and mobile and take very little processing power.

However, this can be limiting at times since you might not find exactly what you’re looking for, especially if your OC has a unique combination of features. For something with more customisation, you can use video games with character creation to make a version of your character. I personally would recommend games like The Sims or Skyrim as both have very active modding communities. This way, if a certain type of clothing or facial feature isn’t present in the base game then you can often find someone who has created a mod that adds it in instead. This does require you to have access to a computer that can run not only the game but the mods as well.

Another option would be using a program like Vroid Studio to make your character from a base model. This has both a mobile and PC version, although I will primarily be speaking from a PC perspective. The mobile app, while able to create a character from scratch, is a lot more limited than the PC version. The great thing about Vroid is that there’s a lot of user-made content that you can often get for free through websites like Booth, as well as many tutorials for beginners to follow along with. Again, this requires a computer that is able to run it. I would recommend against using Vroid on a laptop as it will likely be too intensive for it.

My final suggestion for character visuals is to take a character from anime or cartoons and simply edit them. This was actually how I first got into making original characters! You can recolour their hair or outfits with an editing program (with some free examples being FireAlpaca, Krita or GIMP) and even edit different images together to create something more unique. Please only do this with characters from existing media and avoid using fanart for this.

Other OC visuals

Other than just what your OC looks like, there are other ways to visually put together your OC. Moodboards are the most obvious example of this, but you can also edit other things such as putting together outfits for them or finding pictures of items they would keep in their bag.

If you have multiple OCs, you can create fake text conversations between them using a number of websites. These can be as silly or as serious as you like!

Finally, you can always build them a pinterest board. I am a massive pinterest enjoyer and not only can you use pins that others have posted to pinterest, you can add your own from off the site. 

Writing

Beyond writing out your characters’ story, there are numerous other things you can write. Keeping in line with what you’ve already written, you can re-write scenes from alternative perspectives. These can add context to what is seen in the main story, as well as flesh out background or side characters and their relationship to your other OCs.

Another fun thing to write is non-canon scenes. Write a beach episode! Write about a character getting sick and someone else having to take care of them! There are countless ways to draw your OCs interacting with their world or other characters that wouldn’t necessarily ever fit into the “main” story.

Next is genre changes. If you had to categorise the genre of your OCs’ current story, what would it be? Now image what if the genre was something completely different? Romance to mystery… Slice of life to horror… Part of the challenge is figuring out what story beats remain the same and what gets changed, including character dynamics! And of course… Alternate Universes. There are too many types of AUs to list but some of my favourites are superpowers, mafia, zombies, time loops and time-travel-fix-its. These are similar to genre-changes but often include a number of AU specific tropes. If you’re struggling to figure out the staples of a certain AU or what kind of AUs exist, there’s a really good page about alternate universes on Fanlore.org!

Other ideas

These are ideas that didn’t quite fit into the other categories.

First is music playlists! There are two types of these. The first is a playlist of songs that describe a character and their story while the second is a playlist of songs that the character would listen to. Some people like to combine the two as well! There are no rules to this, simply have fun listening to music and picking out songs that remind you of your OCs.

Second is incorrect quotes. I remember these used to be beloved by fandom and now they can be beloved by you and your OCs! The concept of incorrect quotes is that well-known and funny quotes from pop culture (such as memes or movies) get written out and your characters are assigned a line of dialogue. While there’s a website that’ll generate these incorrect quotes for you, I personally find more fun in coming across quotes organically while scrolling social media and realising that they fit my OCs almost perfectly.

Finally, ask games. These typically take the form of lists of questions or prompts with emojis or numbers next to them. People can send in the relevant emoji or number and you then answer the corresponding prompt. There used to be a kind of “ask game etiquette” where if you reblogged an ask game from someone, you sent an ask from the list to them as well. This way, it allows the game to continue circulating and you can spread the joy of OC-posting with others! It can also lead you to making friends within the community.

And that’s it for my post! If you have other suggestions for kinds of OC-posting then I would love to see them!

[sirfrogsworth]

sirfrogsworth please i am begging to know your boomer uncle’s thought process when he installed all those spam search bars what on earth was he TRUING to do

This was my Uncle Larry. He died in 2014 from a lifetime of smoking.

But while he was alive, he was what my grandma would refer to as "a character."

I feel like seeing his photo gives a partial explanation of the toolbar fiasco.

He was a man stuck in the 1960s but extremely curious about new things.

It was the early 2000s and I was trying to make some extra money. So when he was interested in getting a computer I offered to build him one from scratch.

What I didn't consider about this arrangement was that I was basically signing up to be my uncle's IT person. If something went wrong, it could possibly be due to a mistake I made.

He called me up complaining he couldn't see his websites and that the computer was running slower than normal.

I boot up his system and it takes 10 minutes to get to Windows. The desktop was filled with random programs he installed. And when I opened his web browser I was immediately greeted with a dozen pop up advertisements. Once I nuked them all, all of the different search toolbars were revealed. There was maybe a few inches of space for viewing websites and he had just been looking at photos a segment at a time for weeks before wondering if maybe it wasn't supposed to work like that.

I asked him why he installed all of this crap and he told me he didn't realize he had a choice. He just thought you had to say yes to everything that popped up on the screen. He also opened every spam email he received.

To make matters even worse, when he was searching for lewd pictures of Catherine Bell (aka the "JAG lady" with nice cans), he ended up on various softcore porn sites containing ever more dangerous pop up ads. And he clicked on all of those as well.

He loved the internet. It was a wonderland for such a curious person. He loved typing in random things and just reading and looking at pictures for hours. Aside from Maxim photos of TV celebrities, his searches were pretty innocent. He looked at old cars he used to own and lawnmowers he wanted to buy. He read old war stories and found websites helping him learn how to whittle walking sticks.

But he had no sense of danger. He had a Leroy Jenkins approach to life. He just sort of jumped into whatever without any fear or caution. Which is probably why my parents were so pissed at him when he offered 8 year-old me a ride on his new motorcycle. He immediately took me off-road and up a steep hill without a helmet or telling me to hold on. And it was a Harley, so not really meant for that terrain.

I tried a virus scan and it just said "You have every virus." So I had to nuke his Windows install from orbit. I then gave him computer lessons, which he paid me for, so that sort of worked out despite how frustrating it was to keep him from clicking on random things.

Uncle Larry taught me an important lesson.

Never tell your family you know about computers.

[agirlandherkinks]

Hypnovisor: Beta Test (TGTF, Hypno)

James had always been a tech super-fan. The newest phone, newest headphones, shiniest laptop, he had to stay abreast of and on top of the current trends. So when he read about some fancy new VR company that wanted beta testers for a headset, provided for free (minus shipping), his vision blurred and he signed up before he even considered finishing reading the ad.

Three weeks of anticipation and waiting passed until his doorbell finally rung, accompanied by the corresponding buzz of an email notification on his phone. Scrambling from his couch he flung the apartment door open, and to his mild surprise saw that the postman was nowhere in site. There was just a nondescript cardboard box labelled "Fragile", which fortunately bore none of the expected dents and scratches one would associate with the postal service and delicate freight. Practically bouncing with undignified delight, James scooped his parcel up and dashed back inside, barely remembering to lock the door behind him.

The headset looked even better than he had imagined. Sleek plastic curves surrounded a central visor that was just translucent enough to see through, meaning you could walk around safely if you turned a program's opacity down. It fit beautifully when he tried it on, more comfortable than anything he'd ever worn. Wearing it felt wonderful and... right, somehow. His only complaint was that the black headset was decorated in hot pink highlights, although it still looked futuristic enough to sooth his fragile masculinity. His roommate and best friend Erik certainly agreed, interspersing James' insightful comments with appropriate "Ooh's" and "Aah's". Waiting for the battery to charge seemed to take a thousand years, although chatting with each other about what it could do replaced their boredom with swiftly growing excitement.

Two hours later, a soft buzz from the headset in the corner signified its charge was complete. Erik cheered, his sandy-blonde hair bouncing behind him, and even James couldn't suppress a soft whoop of excitement. Erik unplugged it and handed it to James with a flourish and a bow, who accepted it with a suitable stuffy speech. His cheeks flushed with embarrassment, but he was so giddy with anticipation he felt he could match Erik's goofiness for once. The advertisement had promised unmatched realism, a luxurious fit, and cutting-edge, groundbreaking technology. Normally James would have discounted claims like that as corporate claptrap, but the headset fit so well he actually believed the rest of it.

Booting up the headset brought a perky, relaxing jingle in his ears and wall of settings text in his vision. He would have read it, but between his own excitement and Erik's infectious enthusiasm he left the settings on default and skipped to the main menu. The feedback for the buttons was amazing, it felt just like he was pressing down on them whenever he touched one! Another little jingle sounded as he confirmed his choices, and a few games and applications bubbled up into his view, imposed over a hot pink background.

"So Erik, what do you think I should try," James asked. "We've got a music player, interior design app, some sorta idle monster game, and a few RPG's." "Surely try out the RPG's man! You've gotta see that high-definition you were yammering about when we called." Erik's voice came back surprisingly muffled, as if he was speaking down a long tunnel. "Bro, I can barely hear you, the noise-cancelling on this headset's insane! It's like I'm in a world of my own!" James took a deep breath, recovering a little of his composure. "Alright, an RPG it is. Fantasy, sci-fi, or modern day?" "Go fantasy! You know we've both got a thing for elf chiiiicks. Hell, with the kind of feedback you were telling me about, you might even get to grab her" Erik's distant voice sounded playful, with a ting of desire and jealousy. And it did make James hard, at the thought of getting to look and squeeze and fondle some busty elf bitch, made entirely to his wishes~

To James' horror a quiet moan escaped his lips, accompanied by faint hysterical laughter from his friend. Brushing it off angrily, he slammed the icon for 'Silverflame: A Magical Journey' (the button felt like thick moss to his touch). Instantly a soft flute begun to play in his ears, accompanied by the gentle lull of a harp and a quiet sparkling. James felt himself relax, all the tension draining out of his body. Erik must have noticed too, because James heard his laughter die down to be replaced with a slightly concerned silence. "Don't worry man," James said, "music's just really pretty..." He trailed off with a slight giggle, but heard Erik give an affirmative just before a silky, sultry voice started to speak.

"Welcome traveler, to the beautiful world of Silverflame. An untamed paradise where strange beasts roam the land, noble adventurers go forth in search of treasure, and the most wonderful magic [James shuddered] is woven. You are the latest brave, beautiful heroine [Heroine? Shouldn't I get to choose my character's gender first?] to step foot into this land. But first, tell us a bit about who you really are."

Pink sparkles rained across the screen, superimposing his view of a vibrant meadow with a series of stats. Physique, IQ, Wisdom, and Charisma, fairly standard stuff. And next to it, a human man with a blank, slightly happy expression on his face [...did he look familiar?]. James gasped, he looked just like a real person! Erik was suitably impressed by this information, and urged him to pick some stats so he can get to the body modification. "You can always change them later man, might as well pick a couple of stats now and get a move on. Sounds like you're not gonna get to pick your gender for a while, which kinda sucks. Buuut if we're being horny about this, you might as well go for a slut scaffold so you make less changes later." James chuckled at this, remembering the build they discussed one night while both sloshed beyond belief. For this game it would be high Physique and Charisma, low IQ and Wisdom. James touched the slider for Physique, and gasped as he felt himself feel... better than he had in a long time.

Not trusting his senses any more, and worrying about Erik being exposed to whatever was happening from the other side of the headset, James brushed off his concerned questions (which he could barely hear now, past the soothing, soothing, music) and suggested he went to the toilet, since he'd been holding it in since he got here. Erik grumbled at missing out, but mercifully left. James was actively sweating from what just went through his body, but couldn't muster the energy or concentration to feel the level of panic he knew he should be. The music was just so, so calming, that fear was harder to feel than usual. The prompt told him he still had to change two more stats, so he decided to turn down Wisdom. He gasped again and his vision went blurry, and when it cleared he felt a bit, fuzzier? In the head. But it wasn't too bad, in fact it was perfectly manageable. He felt even calmer now, so maybe changing another stats would make him feel better. Why not IQ? He tapped the slider.

He groaned as an immense pressure wrapped around his brain. Thoughts, aspirations, memories felt like they were melting from his head faster than they appeared. The pressure seemed like it lasted forever, but eventually it trailed off and he was left panting in his chair. It had felt, really good? Like, tots good, even. James giggled to himself. Something was different about him, but he couldn't think what. Oh well, it'll probably come to him later. He squealed in delight as he realized he could get a step closer to the body modification page, although he looked longingly at the IQ slider. He could come back to it later, for now it was time to make his super-hot elf slut a body!

James clapped to himself with delight as a cute little melody played, a shower of sparkles spiraled [spiraled...] across the screen, and the man on the side moved to the center of the screen. "Firstly", the sultry voice said, "choose what race you want to be." That was an easy choice. He clicked on the 'Elf' button, and shivered as he felt tingles run through his body, intensifying in his ears. Reaching up to touch them, he inhaled as he felt long, pointed tips. In fact, his whole body seemed a bit slimmer. This doesn't quite feel right... he thought. Oh I know! It must be making me an elf too! Maybe we'll be in a party together! Between the strange fuzziness and the pulsating heat in his groin, James quickly flicked to the next page and made his choices. Long, silver hair, gorgeous big purple eyes, and some giant perky lips. "Combination unlocked!" the narrator exclaimed, "+1 Charisma, -1 Wisdom!" James giggled again as the mental fog settled a little tighter around his brain and naughty thoughts about cute girls and boys filled his brain. Boys? Well I guess I've never minded swinging both ways... This felt natural to him, because of course he'd always been bisexual. Next screen!

"Choose your voice young heroine," the woman commanded. James felt a little strange, like her voice was echoing around his head. And why were the sparkles still there, spinning and spinning around the screen. He felt confused, but knew he had to obey that voice. He picked the sexiest combination for his own voice; high pitched, breathy, perky. "Combination unlocked! +1 Charisma, -1 Int." He moaned as that wonderful pressure wrapped his brain and his weekend plans changed to eyeing hunks at the beach. Girls were cool and all, but men had always been more interesting to him [and their pulsing, hard...].

"Now heroine, can you tell me: Are you a girl, or a boy?" The question sent shock waves through his brain. He was a he... right? Why did it feel like there was some longing, some need to acknowledge the woman in him... her? The fog, the music, the spirals, all the feelings he had been having, James could hardly think. Maybe he should think less. Being a girl sounded fun, it's just a character after all. And he needed to be sexy. "Wonderful choice young lady! Now, are you a dominatrix, a super-switch, or a bimbo slut?" Bimbo slut~ James giggled as the words echoed in her brain. She was a bit of a slut, now that she thought about it. It felt odd to pick it, but why not for funsies? "Bimbo slut selected! Wonderful choice, just wonderful. Hold still while your stats are adjusted, and then we'll begin on giving you the perfect, sexy body you've always wanted."

The spirals filled her view and began increasing in speed. James was taken aback at first, but quickly felt oddly calm and receptive to that sultry voice.

"Physique +1, Physique +1, Physique +1." James felt wonderful, like every ache and blemish in his body had faded away.

"Wisdom -1, Wisdom -1." Thinking was fuzzy, but Jamella felt so content she didn't care.

"Charisma +1, Charisma +1, Charisma +1, Charisma +1. Charisma +1." Jamella gasped as visions of sexy men, pecs and abs and juicy, throbbing cocks filled her mind. A desperate heat filled her, and she began touching her groin against her will to try and ease it.

"IQ -1." She moaned, feeling light.

"IQ-1." Empty. She was so, wonderfully empty.

"IQ -1." This was like, so much funsies! She didn't know what was going on, but everything felt so nice~

"IQ -1. Congratulations Ella, you now have the 'Bimbo Slut' build."

Ella giggled absently. Thinking was like, so hard, and she felt like, so hard~. The fun spirals had disappeared... But the nice lady was talking to her again! With great effort, she listened in. "Now that your mental changes are complete, it's time for the physical changes!" Ella rubbed her thighs together and cheered in excitement. She couldn't wait to have more fun! "Unless you choose so now, the process will be au-to-ma-tic [...why was she using such big words?]. You can choose to take over at any time, or wait until the end and adjust as you please [...please. That word felt funny in her brain]".

"No user input detected. Body adjustment commencing."

A nice shiver went through Ella's body as she felt her headset warm against her face. Looking at the boring young man she'd begun to customize (her reflection, of course), she couldn't wait to begin! She sighed happily as waves of pretty silver hair drifted into her view and cascaded down her back. It felt especially nice against her smooth, soft skin, and she couldn't help but gently shake her head to watch it sway. A cool feeling brought her attention to her face, and the alluring amethyst eyes now set in it. Her face itself became much more elegant [but cutesy, too!], and she puckered her lips as a lovely pressure made them swell and bulge out, giving her a sexy and kissable pout [the boys'll love this look! boys~]. She felt herself shrink a few centimeters, gulping as her Adam's apple disappeared into her body. In fact, her whole body had become even more slender, with narrow shoulders, adorably small hands [pretty purple nails!], and a tiny little waist. She gasped, then clasped her hands over her mouth in delight. Her voice was so high and cutesy! She couldn't stop herself from giving out tiny, high-pitched giggles, just to hear how cute she was!

"Basic body structure altered. Adjusting outfit in preparation for primary and secondary sexual characteristics."

Ella ooh'ed appreciatively as a stream of sparkles enveloped her body. And when they disappeared, she squealed in delight! Her drab t-shirt and denim shorts were gone! In their place was a beautiful silver mini-dress that shimmered like starlight when she moved. She frowned in vexation, though. The plunging chest and shoulder-less design was very pretty, but her chest was flat! [shouldn't I have tiddies? The boys won't like me like this...] And the way it clung to her waist and hips would have been sexy, but as it was there was barely any difference between them! Her ass wasn't nearly big enough to justify how the dress cut off barely past it, and with how tight the fabric was Ella could see how achingly hard she was [wait, why do I have a cock? I'm supposed to get cock! In my mouth, in my ass, in my tight little pussy~]. It wasn't right!

"Thank you for your patience sweetie. Optimal figure calculated. Prepare for adjustment of sexual characteristics."

Ella let out a moan as a wave of heat and pleasure washed over her. With how horny she was she could barely keep her eyes open, but she knew she wanted to watch herself become the sexy little [cum] slut she was meant to be [I want it... I want to be~]. The heat settled in her hips, her ass, and her chest, and she moaned again as the changes begun.

Her nipples grew first, more than doubling in size and stiffening through the soft fabric of her dress. Tentatively touching them induced a gasp of pleasure [so nice~] and sent her rocking backwards. The motion made her giggle, because in that time she'd grown a cute pair of B-cup breasts that jiggled when she rocked. Jiggle makes me giggle. I like giggling. I like jiggling. Ella nodded thoughtfully to herself, feeling very wise. Her boobies grew to C-cups. She jiggled some more. She giggled some more.

A tightness around her hips distracted Ella from her tiddies. They were growing! She groaned as fabric and flesh tightened around them, too euphoric to feel pain. Sliding her hands from her waist to her hips made her squeal happily. She had such a sexy hourglass figure, she knew any girl worth her money would be jealous [and the boys would wanna hold me and squeeze me and fuck me raw]. Thighs thickening dramatically in response to her growth, she slapped her ass in impatience. Why won't it get bigger already!

But get bigger it did, swelling out in response to her touch. She fell forward as sheer pleasure blanketed her mind and weakened her knees. Squishing her boobies against the ground made her feel even nicer, until she was panting and moaning for somebody to help, to hit her again and make her bigger~

A slap landed on her booty, and she groaned in delight as it and her thighs swelled again. More. More! I NEED MORE! She moaned in ecstasy as blow after blow landed, making her swell and grow and grow and swell and feel so gooooood! Her tits inflated to D, then E-cups [good for the boys. I can jiggle so well for them~]. Her hips widened and thighs thickened, until she looked ridiculously large compared to her waist [ridicu... ridic... really, really sexy...] And her ass kept growing, and growing, and growing and growing and growing and growing! Tighter! Around my cock! Cock... I... oh~ Too... too... much! Too much! I'm~ I'm!

OooOOoOoOOooOoOoooOOOOOHHH~

Ella screamed in delight as she came, just cumming and cumming and cumming her tiny little brain out.

"Wisdom -1. IQ -1. Charisma +1. Charisma +1."

She was desperate, humping against the ground as the flow of cum abated from her cock. Everything she had been was flowing out of her messy stupid brain, and everything that she should be was coming in. Boys... Cock... Need fuck... Breed~ I'm such a dumb little cum slut~ She giggled to herself.

"Final adjustment required."

Ella stood up shakily, the bottom of her dress a cum-soaked mess. She squealed with delight as the mental fog settled even tighter and she felt an intense heat in her groin. She could see the tops of nipples trying to break free from her dress, and could feel the air drift over her ass, which had mostly escaped the fabric in her growth. So sexy. Hehe~ Boy can take me~ Don't even need dress off~ Thinking hard... Her ass and hips had pulled up so much fabric that her cock was visible now, deflating and still leaking from her orgasm, but she gasped in pleasure as it began rising up again. And, as she felt something long and hard brush her booty [cock? Boys? Fuck?].

A pressure like hands on her shoulders forced her to her knees, and she whimpered in desire as she felt an unseen cock touch her cheek. At the same time, something began intensely stimulating her own. She reflexively opened her mouth in a moan, but was cut off as she felt the cock shove inside [Feels~ Feels!].

All thought stopped.

Her mind was blank, full of pleasure and desire and happiness. Her cock felt good like it never had before, and the dick in her mouth tasted wonderful~ This was what Ella was made for, what she was meant to be. Feeling good, feeling sexy, feeling a pleasant emptiness that could only be filled with cock. Her haze reached a crescendo. Dimly she was aware of her own cries of ecstasy, muffled by the cock fucking her mouth and mind, as she came harder than she even had before. And as she came, her dick shrunk with each spurt until it went inside her [inside me!]. The cock withdrew from her mouth, filling her with a desperate longing. Emma moaned for her unseen hero, then gasped as she felt him once more. And blinked in surprise as the pretty meadow and her sexy reflection disappeared.

She was kneeling on the floor of an unfamiliar room. Shaking off a little of her confusion [don't need know much anyways...], she gasped as the tell-tale smell of pre-cum filled her nose. There was a man standing in front of her!

Sandy-blonde hair. Body like a surfer hunk! Naked. With a massive, sexy cock, dripping with her saliva and it's own juices. Ella moaned in desire, falling on all fours. Visibly trembling with lust, he tenderly cupped her cheek and slowly moved behind her.

Touching her with his [cock!].

Ever so gently, on the edge of her [...pussy!!!!]

He rammed inside her, and she screamed as an absolute feeling of rightness, of sexiness and pleasure and single-minded happiness rushed through her [MORE! HARDER! COCKKKK~]. Riding his dick she felt herself go into a trance, with nothing, absolutely nothing, disturbing her feelings. Ever. This was right. Ella moaned and surrendered to herself, drifting away on her lover's cock and mindless pleasure.

[adafruit]

🎄💾🗓️ Day 18: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar - Commodore 64🎄💾🗓️

The Commodore 64, released in 1982, is one of the ones we keep hearing got many people their start in their own computing history. Powered by a MOS Technology 6510 processor at 1.02 MHz and featuring 64 KB of RAM, it became the best-selling single computer model of all time, with an estimated 12.5–17 million units sold. Its graphics were driven by the VIC-II chip, capable of 16 colors, hardware sprites, and smooth scrolling, while the SID (Sound Interface Device) chip delivered advanced audio, supporting three voices with waveforms and filters, making it a lot of fun for gaming and music.

Featured a built-in BASIC interpreter, allowing users to write their own programs out-of-the-box. The C64’s affordability, large software library, lots of games, productivity, and educational applications made it a household name. It connected to TVs as monitors and supported peripherals like the 1541 floppy disk drive, datasette, and various joysticks. With over 10,000 commercial software titles and a thriving homebrew scene, the C64 helped define a generation of computer enthusiasts.

Its impact on gaming was gigantic, iconic titles like The Last Ninja, Maniac Mansion, and Impossible Mission. The C64 also inspired a demoscene, where programmers pushed its hardware for visual and audio effects. The Commodore 64 remains a symbol of computing for the masses and creative innovation, still loved by retrocomputing fans today.

Check out the National Museum of American History, and Wikipedia. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_334636 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64

And…! An excellent story from Jepler -

== While I started on the VIC 20, the Commodore 64 was my computer for a lot longer. Its SID sound chip was a headline feature, and many of my memories of it center around music. Starting with Ultima III, each game in the series had a different soundtrack for each environment (though each one was on a pretty short loop, it probably drove my folks nuts when I would play for hours). There were music editors floating around, so I tried my hand at arranging music for its 3 independent voices, though I can't say I was any good or that I have any of the music now. You could also download "SID tunes" on the local BBSes, where people with hopefully a bit more skill had arranged everything from classical to Beatles to 80s music.

Folks are still creating cool new music on the Commodore 64. One current creator that I like a great deal is Linus Åkesson. Two videos from 2024 using the Commodore 64 that really impressed me were were a "Making 8-bit Music From Scratch at the Commodore 64 BASIC Prompt", a live coding session (http://www.linusakesson.net/programming/music-from-scratch/index.php) and Bach Forever (http://www.linusakesson.net/scene/bach-forever/index.php) a piece played by Åkesson on two Commodore 64s.

Like so many things, you can also recreate the experience online. Here's the overworld music for Ultima III: https://deepsid.chordian.net/?file=/MUSICIANS/A/Arnold_Kenneth/Ultima_III-Exodus.sid&subtune=1 -- the site has hundreds or thousands of other SIDs available to play right in the browser.

Have first computer memories? Post’em up in the comments, or post yours on socialz’ and tag them #firstcomputer #retrocomputing – See you back here tomorrow!

[jjmcquade-misc]

How Obama Transformed the U.S. Intelligence System into an Untouchable Force

The sprawling U.S. intelligence apparatus wasn’t Barack Obama’s invention, it emerged in the wake of 9/11 under George W. Bush, who laid the groundwork with the Patriot Act and a retooled security state. But Obama didn’t just inherit this system; he refined it, expanded it, and entrenched it so deeply into the fabric of American governance that it became nearly impossible for anyone, even a president, to rein it in. His tenure marked a pivotal shift, normalizing a decentralized, privatized, and largely unaccountable intelligence leviathan. Here’s how it unfolded.

The story begins in the early 2000s, when the Bush administration responded to the September 11 attacks with sweeping surveillance powers and a new security architecture. The Patriot Act of 2001 granted agencies like the NSA and FBI unprecedented authority to monitor communications, often sidestepping traditional oversight. By the time Obama took office in 2009, this framework was already in place, but it was still raw, controversial, and subject to scrutiny. Obama’s task wasn’t to build it from scratch; it was to polish it, protect it, and make it permanent.

One of his earliest moves came in 2011, when he signed a renewal of the Patriot Act with a Democratic-controlled Congress. Rather than scaling back Bush-era policies, he leaned into them, signaling that the post-9/11 security state wasn’t a temporary overreach but a new baseline. That same year, he authorized the drone strike that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen, without judicial review—a decision rooted in a secretive “Disposition Matrix,” a kill-list system driven by CIA intelligence and insulated from external oversight. Over his presidency, Obama would greenlight over 500 drone strikes, far surpassing Bush’s tally, establishing a precedent for extrajudicial action that relied heavily on intelligence feeds.

Surveillance took a leap forward under Executive Order 12333, which Obama expanded to allow warrantless collection and sharing of raw signals intelligence (SIGINT) across federal agencies. What had once been concentrated in the NSA and FBI now seeped into every corner of the government, from the Department of Homeland Security to the Treasury. This decentralization diluted accountability, as data flowed freely between departments with little public scrutiny.

The 2013 Snowden leaks threw a spotlight on this system. Edward Snowden, a contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton working with the NSA, exposed illegal mass surveillance programs like PRISM and bulk metadata collection, revealing how deeply the government had tapped into private tech giants, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple. Obama’s response was telling: he defended the programs, prosecuted whistleblowers like Snowden, and declined to hold the architects accountable. PRISM became a blueprint for a public-private surveillance partnership, unregulated by Congress, immune to FOIA requests, and beyond democratic reach. Meanwhile, the reliance on contractors like Booz Allen ballooned, by the end of his tenure, 70–80% of the intelligence budget flowed through private firms, funneling billions into an opaque ecosystem.

Obama also shielded the intelligence community from legal consequences. In 2014, the Senate’s Torture Report laid bare CIA abuses, black sites, waterboarding, and even spying on the Senate investigators themselves. Yet Obama refused to prosecute, famously urging the nation to “look forward, not backward.” This stance didn’t just protect individuals; it cemented a culture of impunity, signaling that the intelligence apparatus operated above the law.

Beyond surveillance and legal protections, Obama supercharged the bureaucracy. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), created under Bush, gained sweeping coordination powers under his watch, but rather than centralizing control, it added layers of insulation between the president and field operations. He also empowered hybrid units like Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and CIA task forces, which blended military and intelligence functions. These shadowy outfits operated in dozens of countries with lethal authority, secretive chains of command, and minimal oversight from Congress or even their own headquarters.

By 2017, as his presidency wound down, Obama made a final play: he authorized a rule change allowing the NSA to share raw, unfiltered data with 16 other intelligence agencies, stripping away privacy safeguards. This move ensured that the system he’d built could hum along without presidential intervention, its reach embedded in local “fusion centers,” secret courts, and corporate data pipelines.

The outcome was staggering. By the time Obama left office, the intelligence network spanned 17 agencies, leaned heavily on unaccountable contractors, and fused with private tech infrastructure. It wasn’t just bigger, it was untouchable, legalized through executive loopholes and shielded from reform. Obama became the first president to weave intelligence into every layer of government, from foreign policy to law enforcement, but in doing so, he relinquished control. The republic did too. No future leader would easily dismantle this machine, not because it was too strong, but because it had become too diffuse, too ingrained, too essential to the modern state. Obama's Intelligence Policy

[making-you-in-mc]

What would I specifically need to have downloaded to make ears like in your pinned post? Can I do any shape of ear? Are they playable? I just want my sona in Minecraft but hair obviously doesn’t give me what I need. (Also I’m not experienced in advanced skin making but I just want to know so I can poke around online with more specific questions later)

OKAY SO . the model in my pinned post is completely playable if you have figura. it's a mod for fabric (and maybe other mod loaders, unsure.) that's client side but if other people have figura they can also see the model you're using. There may be server setup needed, but i'm unsure- i'm not the admin of the server i use it on.

essentially you can add additional pieces to your skin/model with blockbench (3D modelling program tailored to minecraft, essentially.) or just make one from scratch! You can make virtually anything you put your mind to. Blockbench has a site with tutorials and such, and Figura has a dedicated discord server where you can learn relatively anything you need to know.

so, in short: - Yes, any shape of ears! it is playable as long as you have the figura mod in your game. This also includes any animations or scripting you want to add to your model. - What you need: Blockbench, Figura, and Lua (the coding language, for scripting, if you intend to do that.)

that's the most basic answer i can give without over-explaining too much. good luck on making your sona!

[lazeecomet]

The Story of KLogs: What happens when an Mechanical Engineer codes

Since i no longer work at Wearhouse Automation Startup (WAS for short) and havnt for many years i feel as though i should recount the tale of the most bonkers program i ever wrote, but we need to establish some background

WAS has its HQ very far away from the big customer site and i worked as a Field Service Engineer (FSE) on site. so i learned early on that if a problem needed to be solved fast, WE had to do it. we never got many updates on what was coming down the pipeline for us or what issues were being worked on. this made us very independent

As such, we got good at reading the robot logs ourselves. it took too much time to send the logs off to HQ for analysis and get back what the problem was. we can read. now GETTING the logs is another thing.

the early robots we cut our teeth on used 2.4 gHz wifi to communicate with FSE's so dumping the logs was as simple as pushing a button in a little application and it would spit out a txt file

later on our robots were upgraded to use a 2.4 mHz xbee radio to communicate with us. which was FUCKING SLOW. and log dumping became a much more tedious process. you had to connect, go to logging mode, and then the robot would vomit all the logs in the past 2 min OR the entirety of its memory bank (only 2 options) into a terminal window. you would then save the terminal window and open it in a text editor to read them. it could take up to 5 min to dump the entire log file and if you didnt dump fast enough, the ACK messages from the control server would fill up the logs and erase the error as the memory overwrote itself.

this missing logs problem was a Big Deal for software who now weren't getting every log from every error so a NEW method of saving logs was devised: the robot would just vomit the log data in real time over a DIFFERENT radio and we would save it to a KQL server. Thanks Daddy Microsoft.

now whats KQL you may be asking. why, its Microsofts very own SQL clone! its Kusto Query Language. never mind that the system uses a SQL database for daily operations. lets use this proprietary Microsoft thing because they are paying us

so yay, problem solved. we now never miss the logs. so how do we read them if they are split up line by line in a database? why with a query of course!

select * from tbLogs where RobotUID = [64CharLongString] and timestamp > [UnixTimeCode]

if this makes no sense to you, CONGRATULATIONS! you found the problem with this setup. Most FSE's were BAD at SQL which meant they didnt read logs anymore. If you do understand what the query is, CONGRATULATIONS! you see why this is Very Stupid.

You could not search by robot name. each robot had some arbitrarily assigned 64 character long string as an identifier and the timestamps were not set to local time. so you had run a lookup query to find the right name and do some time zone math to figure out what part of the logs to read. oh yeah and you had to download KQL to view them. so now we had both SQL and KQL on our computers

NOBODY in the field like this.

But Daddy Microsoft comes to the rescue

see we didnt JUST get KQL with part of that deal. we got the entire Microsoft cloud suite. and some people (like me) had been automating emails and stuff with Power Automate

This is Microsoft Power Automate. its Microsoft's version of Scratch but it has hooks into everything Microsoft. SharePoint, Teams, Outlook, Excel, it can integrate with all of it. i had been using it to send an email once a day with a list of all the robots in maintenance.

this gave me an idea

and i checked

and Power Automate had hooks for KQL

KLogs is actually short for Kusto Logs

I did not know how to program in Power Automate but damn it anything is better then writing KQL queries. so i got to work. and about 2 months later i had a BEHEMOTH of a Power Automate program. it lagged the webpage and many times when i tried to edit something my changes wouldn't take and i would have to click in very specific ways to ensure none of my variables were getting nuked. i dont think this was the intended purpose of Power Automate but this is what it did

the KLogger would watch a list of Teams chats and when someone typed "klogs" or pasted a copy of an ERROR mesage, it would spring into action.

it extracted the robot name from the message and timestamp from teams

it would lookup the name in the database to find the 64 long string UID and the location that robot was assigned too

it would reply to the message in teams saying it found a robot name and was getting logs

it would run a KQL query for the database and get the control system logs then export then into a CSV

it would save the CSV with the a .xls extension into a folder in ShairPoint (it would make a new folder for each day and location if it didnt have one already)

it would send ANOTHER message in teams with a LINK to the file in SharePoint

it would then enter a loop and scour the robot logs looking for the keyword ESTOP to find the error. (it did this because Kusto was SLOWER then the xbee radio and had up to a 10 min delay on syncing)

if it found the error, it would adjust its start and end timestamps to capture it and export the robot logs book-ended from the event by ~ 1 min. if it didnt, it would use the timestamp from when it was triggered +/- 5 min

it saved THOSE logs to SharePoint the same way as before

it would send ANOTHER message in teams with a link to the files

it would then check if the error was 1 of 3 very specific type of error with the camera. if it was it extracted the base64 jpg image saved in KQL as a byte array, do the math to convert it, and save that as a jpg in SharePoint (and link it of course)

and then it would terminate. and if it encountered an error anywhere in all of this, i had logic where it would spit back an error message in Teams as plaintext explaining what step failed and the program would close gracefully

I deployed it without asking anyone at one of the sites that was struggling. i just pointed it at their chat and turned it on. it had a bit of a rocky start (spammed chat) but man did the FSE's LOVE IT.

about 6 months later software deployed their answer to reading the logs: a webpage that acted as a nice GUI to the KQL database. much better then an CSV file

it still needed you to scroll though a big drop-down of robot names and enter a timestamp, but i noticed something. all that did was just change part of the URL and refresh the webpage

SO I MADE KLOGS 2 AND HAD IT GENERATE THE URL FOR YOU AND REPLY TO YOUR MESSAGE WITH IT. (it also still did the control server and jpg stuff). Theres a non-zero chance that klogs was still in use long after i left that job

now i dont recommend anyone use power automate like this. its clunky and weird. i had to make a variable called "Carrage Return" which was a blank text box that i pressed enter one time in because it was incapable of understanding /n or generating a new line in any capacity OTHER then this (thanks support forum).

im also sure this probably is giving the actual programmer people anxiety. imagine working at a company and then some rando you've never seen but only heard about as "the FSE whos really good at root causing stuff", in a department that does not do any coding, managed to, in their spare time, build and release and entire workflow piggybacking on your work without any oversight, code review, or permission.....and everyone liked it

[lostinhistory]

Heritage News of the Week

Discoveries!

Hundreds of graffiti texts scratched into the historic stone walls by prisoners as they awaited their fate have come to light for the first time. Examples that were either overlooked or illegible are emerging through cutting-edge technology.

Large deposits of amphorae found at Agios Georgios

An international team of archaeologists have concluded this season’s program of excavations and surveys at Agios Georgios and Yeronisos Island in the Paphos District of Cyprus.

A notable Byzantine artist has been identified by a 700-year-old handwriting study

Manuel Panselinos, as the artist is known, was a contemporary of Giotto and equally influential among Byzantine art for adding a sense of humanity, including facial expressions and greater attention to proportions and depth, into otherwise rigid Orthodox religious works.

New evidence uncovered in Princes in Tower mystery

A university professor has uncovered fresh evidence to support claims Richard III was behind the murder of his nephews at the Tower of London.

Archaeologists find a vaulted structure beneath earthquake rubble

Archaeologists are conducting a rescue excavation following the discovery of a vaulted structure in Antakya, Türkiye.

Archaeologists discovered more than 1,000 artifacts beneath Notre Dame Cathedral

After a blaze nearly destroyed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, archaeologists had a rare opportunity to dig underneath the building’s structure during its five-year renovation and reconstruction, and found more than 1,000 fragments of historical artworks.

New, big-headed archaic humans discovered: Who is Homo juluensis?

Researchers have identified a new species of ancient humans, which they have named Homo juluensis, meaning "big head," based partly on a very large skull found in China.

Strange pile of Stone Age skulls unearthed in Italian village baffles archaeologists

Archaeologists have discovered a pile of 15 human skulls in a Neolithic village in Italy. The bones were worn and broken, but there was no evidence of violence, leading the researchers to suspect the heads were regularly handled as part of an ancient ancestor ritual.

Iron Age weapons sacrifice found in Denmark

Archaeologists have discovered a large arsenal of Iron Age weaponry during excavations for the expansion of the E45 motorway near Hedensted, Denmark.

Archaeologists uncovered a Roman-era clay theater ticket in ancient city of Prusias ad Hypium

Excavations at the ancient city of Prusias Ad Hypium in the Konuralp region of Düzce in northwestern Türkiye have uncovered a Roman-era clay theater ticket, a figurine depicting Aphrodite, and a Thyrsus figure.

Diver finds Viking era sword in Supraśl River

The Military Museum in Białystok, located in northeastern Poland, has unveiled a Viking-era sword discovered by divers in the Supraśl River.

Once again asking when it will be my turn to find a sword

5,000-year-old artifacts in Iraq hint at mysterious collapse of one of the world's first governments

Dozens of clay bowls may be evidence of one of the earliest government institutions in the world, a new study finds. The bowls, which were unearthed at an early archaeological site in Iraq, are thought to have held savory meals given in exchange for labor in ancient Mesopotamia.

Research shows early North Americans made eyed needles from fur-bearers

Archaeologists from the University of Wyoming have found bone 13,000-year-old eyed needles crafted from the bones of various furry animals. The discovery sheds light on the lives of these early inhabitants of North America.

Rare gold 'Brutus' coin minted after Julius Caesar's murder is up for auction

A rare coin minted by Marcus Junius Brutus after he helped assassinate Julius Caesar will go to auction next week. The gold coin — one of only 17 of its kind known to exist — dates to 43 or 42 B.C. and depicts Brutus on the front and a trophy celebrating a naval victory on the back.

Archaeologists uncovered a tile workshop from the first century in Corsica

Archaeologists from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research excavations on the east coast of Corsica have uncovered the remains of a tile workshop dating to the 1st century AD.

Early Americans ate tons of mammoth, 13,000-year-old bones from Clovis culture baby reveal

Radioisotopes in the bones of an 18-month-old boy who lived almost 13,000 years ago indicate that his mother ate mostly mammoths.

Grave of Roman soldier unearthed in Heerlen

Archaeologists have found the earliest evidence of Roman settlement in Heerlen by uncovering a burial containing the remains of a Roman soldier.

Rock found by a 6-year-old on a beach is actually a 50,000-year-old Neanderthal axe

The 6-year-old boy found the rock and then didn't tell anyone for three years. But a new examination reveals it was made by some of the last Neanderthals.

Archaeologists found a mysterious stone tablet in Georgia that contains an unknown language

Archaeologists have unearthed a basalt tablet with inscriptions in an unknown language near Lake Bashplemi, in the Dmanisi region of Georgia. Although the tablet’s exact age is uncertain, researchers believe it was created in the Late Bronze or Early Iron Ages based on related artifacts such as stone mortar and pottery fragments.

Bronze snakes and perfectly intact eggs among treasures found at ancient Italian thermal spa

Bronze snakes, statues, two gold crowns, jewellery, thousands of coins and perfectly intact eggs are among the latest remarkable discoveries to emerge from the site of an ancient thermal spa in a small town in Tuscany.

1,600-year-old burials in Crimea hold gold and silver jewelry from 'rich women'

Researchers say the finds are from aristocratic burials between the fourth and sixth centuries.

A medieval barbican and a network of passages uncovered in western Slovakia’s town of Trenčín

A medieval barbican (fortified outpost or fortified gateway), and a network of passages that acted as a sewerage system have been uncovered in western Slovakia’s town of Trenčín. At the time, the site would have been part of the Kingdom of Hungary.

4,400-year-old jade cylinder seal found in western Türkiye

A cylindrical seal made of jade stone dating back to 4,400 years ago was found in Kütahya Seyitömer Höyük (Seyitömer Mound), an Early Bronze Age – Middle Bronze Age settlement located in the western Anatolia region of Türkiye.

Pyramid discovered during road construction works

Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have conducted a rescue excavation following the discovery of a pyramid during construction works on the Federal Highway 105 in Hidalgo, Mexico.

Statue head of goddess Tyche discovered in Bulgaria

A remarkably crafted head of a large statue of the Greek goddess Tyche was recently unearthed during the excavations of the Bishop’s Basilica in Plovdiv, the present-day city situated where the ancient Philippopolis.

A hoard of gold and silver Roman coins dating back to the reign of Emperor Nero was found in Worcestershire

A hoard of Roman and Iron Age silver coins dating back to Emperor Nero’s reign has been found during building works in Worcestershire, western England. The treasure, consisting of 1,368 coins, includes the largest collection from the emperor’s reign ever found.

Glaciers retreating at an ever-faster pace revealed the eerie, sometimes grisly remains, giving rise to a new scientific field: glacial archaeology, the study of ancient finds from melting glaciers. They present a surprisingly detailed and unexpectedly long timeline of adventure, innovation and danger in the high mountains.

Museums

It’s the first time in nearly 400 years that the castle’s interior has been made accessible since it was partly destroyed by parliamentarian forces in the 17th-century during the English Civil War.

Joe Biden addresses America’s ‘original sin’ of slavery on Angola visit

Joe Biden addressed America’s history of enslavement in a speech on Tuesday at Angola’s National Museum of Slavery, calling it “our nation’s original sin” during a trip in which he also lauded recent US investment in the region.

Repatriation

On November 30, France‘s foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot handed over two prehistoric stone axes, bifaces, and a stone cutter to Ethiopia’s tourism minister Selamawit Kassa during a symbolic ceremony at the National Museum of Ethiopia in the capital city of Addis Ababa.

Talks over return of Parthenon marbles to Athens are ‘well advanced’

Talks concerning the Parthenon marbles between Athens and the British Museum are “well advanced”, the Guardian has learned, even if officials have decided the cultural row will be low on the agenda when the prime minister, Keir Starmer, meets his Greek counterpart on Tuesday.

Parthenon Sculptures deal 'close', ex-Greek official says

Sculptures return deal 'some distance away'

Make up your minds, guys

Denmark will return bronze sculpture to Turkey

Denmark’s Glyptotek Museum will repatriate a bronze head of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus (reigned a.d. 193–211) to Turkey. It is thought to have been looted from the Lycian site of Bubon, which is located on Turkey’s Mediterranean coastline.

Indigenous Australians recover human remains taken by Germany 120 years ago

Five sets of ancestral remains from Australia that have been held in German museum collections since the 19th century have been handed back at a ceremony that a community representative described as a sad but “very joyful” moment.

Odds and ends

Alongside Japanese sake and Brazilian cheese, Europe made a strong showing on the UNESCO list. Ukrainian 'pysanky' and Parisian roof restorers were just two of the continent’s treasures to be added.

‘A blend of ancient and modern’: inside Thessaloniki’s new €3bn metro system

The project, which took 22 years to complete, unearthed more than 300,000 treasures now on display across its subway stations

‘I’m a mixed Black female historical re-enactor in a sea of men with beards’

Not everyone would want to spend their weekends dressed in a tunic fighting medieval battles, but my love of re-enacting is rooted in keeping history alive

The 'bison skull mountain' photo that reveals the US's dark history

The photo of two men standing on a mountain of bison skulls is well known as a symbol of hunting during the colonisation of the US. But there's a more sinister story behind it – with a surprising modern message.

Medals of executed Great Escape pilot return home

Medals belonging to a pilot executed after taking part in the famous Great Escape during World War Two have been brought home to his former squadron.

Top German archaeologist accused of faking prehistoric discoveries

Axel von Berg was among the world’s most respected archaeologists. Now, his historic findings are being called into question.

👀

[mostrovskaa]

Just out of curiosity, you make the mockups for your faux sticker set by yourself from scratch? or maybe mofidy existing ones?? I Think they look very good and add so much to the comms and you even theme them to suit the characters instead of using the same one over and over, like wow that takes some effort!! Your art is amazin! Do you reccomend some tutorials/tips and tricks/sites for mockups like these?

Hi! Thank you so much, I am so glad you like these! To do these I most often use stock images and public domain images alongside textures and scans of objects (notes, paper, scribbles, book spreads etc.) I made myself and mofidy them into digital collages. I also sometimes use preexisting mock-ups for graphic designers and just edit the hell out of them to make them suit my patchy aesthetic, but I prefer to just use the previous method of putting images together, because it gives me more of a field to work with. It does take a bit of effort, yes, that's why I don't make them for every commission post but I like to create them anyway as much as I can, to visualize a digital product in a semi-realistic way :-)

If I want to create a specific effect, I often just search up some photoshop tutorials or just experiment with filters untill i find something exciting or nice graphically. There are a lot of places that offer free textures to use, for example sites with materials for 3d modelling that offer these things - which I love to use in my work. But they are super easy to create on your own as well traditionally. I often take pictures of scraps, dirt and the like to later put into these types of images. You can also find that many museums and art institutions offer public domain images (of artwork, documents and the like) from their collections!

All in all, the process of making these comes from my need to explore how all the effects, filters etc. from digital programs can be used to achieve interesting visuals. I am by no means any authority on the topic though, I mostly just explore and if I like something - explore it more.

Sorry for the long anwser, but i think this is something other people would also enjoy to know!

Thank you again!

[asexual-spongebob]

What are some tips you have for writing fanfics?

I have some! I hope these are helpful!

Tips for writing Multi-Chapter fics, as someone who has written multiple:

Have an idea of how many chapters + the word count range for the chapters. Some fics have shorter word counts but have more chapters (like my fic, The Waves That Lap The Shore for example, was usually in the 1k to 2k range when it came to it’s chapters, and had a lot of chapters. However, my other multi chapter fic, Wail Of The Siren didn’t have many chapters, but was longer when it came to word counts for chapters. The chapters usually being 2-5k words. Every fic is different.

I also recommend having some kind of plan. I doesn’t even have to be a detailed one. It can literally be just a document full of thought dumps. My planning/outline for Wail Of The Siren was literally just a document on my notes app full of my ideas.

If you’re about to scrap a scene, put it in a document for scrapped scenes and dialogue. That way, later on, if you decide that you want to include that scene or dialogue, you wouldn’t have to rewrite it from scratch, you can just copy and paste from the scrapped scene document. I can think of so many times that I’ve scrapped a scene or piece of dialogue and ended up using it later.

Write the story you want to read.

The first draft will not be perfect. It’s okay if it’s a bit of a dumpster fire.

You don’t have to write in chronological order! Have a scene/chapter you are really excited to write but hate having to power through others just so you can write that one? Write it first! You can fill in the blanks later!

If you are having trouble finding words to use, then go to sites like word hippo and thesaurus! I’ve found some great words there.

It’s okay to use said, sometimes a character just says something and that’s okay.

Show instead of tell, like instead of saying, “she was angry as she watched him walk by, wishing she could punch him” can say “rage boiled inside of her at the sight of him, she clenched her hand into a fist and clenched her teeth as she watched walk by, wishing she could just punch him in the face.”

DO. NOT. TYPE. THE. FIC. DIRECTLY. ONTO. AO3’s/WATTPAD/FF.NET’S ETC’S TEXT BOX! You run the risk of your hard work being washed down the drain if you forget to save it. Or if it gets deleted. Always write your chapters somewhere other than your fanfic site’s text box. You can literally use anything. Google doc’s, libree office, word, your notes app, hell even apps that’s intended for grocery lists. Always have them saved somewhere else.

Oh and I also recommend using a spell checker to fix any grammar mistakes! You can find them online if the program your using doesn’t have one!

honestly i love answering asks like this. Thx 4 sending! :)

[loz-3]

An Unwilling Operative - Part Three

Pairing: Loki x female reader Word Count: 2,937 Warnings: strong language, forced confinement, violence, forced sedation

Tags in the comments!

Part Two

“Ooh, big scary Mr. Eyepatch… am I supposed to be frightened?”

It was over two hours into a rather rigorous interrogation session and honestly, you were getting bored with the questions: 'Why did you do it?', 'How long have you been with Hydra?', 'What did you hope to accomplish?'. You grinned up at the very angry Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. He exuded his name perfectly, "Last chance, Y/N. Tell me why?"

"No. And fuck you."

Without another word, he turned and stalked out of the room, leaving the door open. If you weren't chained to the desk by your ankles and wrists, you would attempt to make a run for it. You rattled at the bonds anyways, ducking under the tabletop to pull at the floor mount. As you struggled, a pair a boots came into view, stopping in front of you. You jerked your head up, smacking it off the underside of the table, "Fuck!" A hand extended towards you, offering assistance but you shrugged away from it, sitting upright on your own.

Loki's face was etched with worry and something more, but you spoke first, "Ahh… it's you. What the fuck do you want?" You scratched at the bump still visible on your neck.

"Y/N… wait, what is that?" He rounded the table, hands restrained your head, turning it to the side for a better look. You thrashed, trying to free yourself from his grip but he was much stronger. Looking up at the camera above you, he made a motion and a S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist quickly entered. They took a swab of the old injection site, as well as a picture for reference before leaving. Loki released you and stepped away from your gnashing teeth.

"Well, fuck you too then!" You strained towards him, fingernails digging into your palms, "I didn't ask for this!" A single tear ran down your face, a crack in your aggressive façade.

"Did not ask for what?" He hesitantly stepped forward, daring to come within range of your limited reach.

You shook your head, more tears followed the first, "I just want to be myself again…"

He closed the distance and took your face between his hands, "We will fix you." His eyes were level with yours, watching the panic reflecting out shift back to pure hate. Too slowly, he let go and pulled back, catching your forehead as you slammed it into his nose.

"I don't need to be fixed." The blood on your face was his. You tasted a droplet as it dribbled down your cheek, "It's no wonder those ice giants didn't want you, you're too soft." He had strode to the door, pinching his nose to stem the bleed. He didn't answer you, only listened as you continued to spew hateful words. When you finally ended your tirade, his posture was defeated, the hope in his expression hardened to dull grey stone. Stepping out, he hit the button that sealed the door behind him.

Nick Fury was waiting. "Good catch on her neck, she'd been injected with something. Brain scan's next." Loki nodded, dried blood decorated his face and hand from your violent headbutt. Fury continued, "She seemed to come out of it briefly before…that happened. Might be a 'Dr. Zola'-type of situation."

Loki nodded again, turning away from the Director. He swallowed hard, forcing the rising bile in his stomach back down. This wasn't you, not by a long shot, but nothing you had thrown at him was untrue.

Several days pass. The S.H.I.E.L.D. science team have been working around the clock to de-program you. After their last attempt, they had been able to pull your true self up through the anger and aggression. From the testing and research, they determined that your mind corruption was not as extreme as the winter soldier program, so hopefully you could recover quickly. You asked after Loki, of course, as you could vividly remember all the terrible things you had done to him. He had not been seen much around the compound since you nearly broke his nose.

"Could someone get him a message for me? Please?" You pleaded with your handler, "I know he won't want to speak to me but… I have to apologize." They had initially refused, but finally had opted to send out the request. Not that you expected him to come, so it was quite the shock when the familiar sound of his footfalls drifted into your room.

He stood straight, arms crossed across his chest, eyes cold. He didn't speak, just waited, half turned towards the door. "Loki…" his name slipped past your lips, causing a shudder to run down his spine, "I.. I'm so sorry." His jaw stiffened, chin slightly rocking back, his lips were locked in a thin line. "If I could take back everything I said…and did to you…" A sob broke through as you continued to speak, "…please, whatever I have to do…I'll do it, as long as it takes…I…"

"No." His answer was short, the sharp edges of each letter bit into your heart. "There is no forgiveness here." His expression was impassive as he turned his back on you and left the room.

Your tears ran freely down your face as the realization set in. You had lost him, utterly and completely. You laid back on the flat cot, rolling into the fetal position and whispered to the empty space, "…I love you."

Time passed, memories faded. You'd been back at work for a few months now, diligently keeping your head down. They had moved you into the agent quarters as it was best for you and S.H.I.E.L.D. if you were unable to be re-triggered. As no data had been breached during your little defection, there were no legal consequences. and you have been making good progress in therapy, having been promised that you would soon be permitted to leave the compound and gain a bit of freedom back. Not back-to-your-apartment freedom, but some independence at least.

Staff at the compound, even many main team members, were very happy you were back to mostly normal. Try as you might, you just couldn't shake the sorrow that had taken root in your chest. You understood, of course, why things were like they were. While the mind control was behind the major personality change, it was still you. You had said all those things to him, you had drove him away, you had destroyed that blossoming relationship. Initially you wanted to be angry with him for throwing your apology aside, but you couldn't. So you carried on, pushing everything down the best you could, but it had been getting more and more difficult to face a reality without him in it. He didn't even pick up his own tech anymore, instead opting to send the interoffice courier.

"Hello? You ok in there?" A sharp knock on the grate over your window caught your attention. The black widow's face peered around the bars, "It's after six, shouldn't you be closed?"

"Oh.. yeah, sorry, Nat." You gave your head a shake, clearing the cobwebs, and shot her a pathetic attempt at a smile. She frowned as you shuttered the tech room and stepped out into the hallway.

Her hands were on her hips, "What's wrong?" Ever since you had taken up residence in the compound, she had become the closest friend you had. True, you weren't a spy or a super hero, but you were kind and she liked not having to deal with the meatheads on the team all the time. There was also no hiding anything from her.

You tried again to smile, almost resorting to using your fingers to force your lips to upturn, but the tears slid free from the effort. "It's nothing…really.. I'm just tired." Turning in place, you gave her a little wave and headed off towards the elevator, punching in the floor for your living space. She followed silently, making sure you'd made it inside your room before spinning away and storming off.

The doors of the lounge slammed open as Nat entered, causing everyone inside to look up. Glaring around and not finding who she needed, she huffed a single name, "Loki." Five hands swiftly pointed to the balcony, where she could now see the Asgardian brothers. Loki was sitting in the corner chair, head in his hands and looking miserable, while Thor was sprawled across the love seat with his feet overhanging at one end. With a sigh, she approached the glass door slowly, pausing to listen a moment.

"I do not understand why you cannot speak with her…"

"Speak with her regarding what, exactly?"

"Tell her how you feel!"

"It is better she heals with a clean break…"

"Brother, she…"

"Do not speak of her to me again."

As Nat watched, Loki's head sunk deeper into his palms. She raised a hand to knock, but decided to slide the door instead. She stepped out, closing it behind her. Both Asgardian's looked up at her, Thor in relief. "Lady Widow, PLEASE help me!"

"That's what I plan on doing." Thor shifted on the couch, patting the tight spot he had created for Nat to join them. She shook her head at him, smirking down at the cushion. "You're an idiot, Loki."

His eyes narrowed, "And pray tell, how am I the idiot when my brother is sat right here?"

"…Hey!"

Nat carried on, "Get off your ass and go see her." Loki shook his head, his eyes trailed down to the floor. Nat rolled hers, "Not a request…Look, she's just as miserable as you are. It doesn't take much to see you need her too."

He ran his hands through his dark curls, head still hanging low, "She would not want me. I was…harsh… at our last meeting."

Scowling, she pulled her phone from a pocket, tapping in a series of numbers to pull up the camera feed from the tech room. After a moment of scrolling, she found the image she wanted. It was of you, seconds before closing up today: eyes void of life, dark circles lingered across your cheekbones, hair bundled in a rat's nest of a bun. She held the device under Loki's face, "Look at her."

His eyes flicked to the screen, finally taking in your image. He swiftly stood, free hand balling into a fist, "…stop being a coward.." he muttered to himself. Turning to Nat, he handed back her phone, thanking her for 'making him to see'.

"Anytime. залупа…"

"I can understand Russian."

She snickered, "I know. Now go!" With a little shove, he went.

The door of your compound apartment clicked closed. You didn't bother to turn the lock. Nor did you turn on the light, choosing instead to shuffle through the dim to the bathroom. Flicking on the switch for the fluorescent vanity bulb, you gazed at your reflection. Maybe a rinse would perk you up a bit. Your hair was in dire need of help.

One short, very hot shower later and you were clean, skin pink from the torrent of nearly scalding water. At least the water pressure here was better than the place you had outside the compound. A quick dry and you found yourself on the little couch in your main area, hair wound in damp braids. With the television off, the room was still dark aside from the slight glow emanating from the open bathroom.

A quiet knock sounded from outside. You glanced up, unsure where the noise had come from. Surely it wasn't your door, there was no-one who would need or want anything from you. The knock came again, a little louder. Confusion knitted your brow as you shifted, getting up off the couch and approaching the door. You scanned the peep hole but only being able to see a dark fabric clouding the light. You grabbed the handle and pulled the door inwards, stopping when you saw who stood in the doorway, "Oh."

You couldn't look at his face, but you stepped back and opened the door to allow him entrance. He took the opportunity and stepped inside, eyes intently seeking your downcast ones. The door closed silently behind him.

"It is good to see you." Loki's hands twitched, as if he wanted to reach for you.

You gave him the same pitiful smile you had given Nat, "… I can't begin to tell you how sorry I am…" You couldn't even speak his name.

"No…Y/N, it is me who should be apologetic. I have been too cowardly to admit that I forgave you once it was discovered you were not yourself…" You brought up your face, mustering everything within you to look at him. There were tears in his eyes, his hands clenched at his sides. "Please…let us start anew. I cannot fathom another day without your smile."

"..but.."

He shook his head, "Hush, we will not speak of that time again." He slowly, gently stepped forward, wrapping his arms around you as you stood in shock. Your surprise didn't last long, however, and you swiftly returned the embrace.

It doesn't take long for your friendship to pick up where it had left off, several months prior. Since you were living in the compound now, it was much easier to see him after working hours. "As soon as you have your freedom from this building, we will go and celebrate." Loki promised, as he leaned against the countertop in the cafeteria, "I am sure you are weary of this.. slop."

"It's not so bad, at least I don't have to cook it myself." You giggled, then sighed as you grabbed the last sandwich off the rack. It was fairly flat, as if it had been squished under a heavy object, "But either way, we'll know this afternoon. What did you have in mind?"

He brought up a finger and waggled it at you, "Ah ah, that is not for you to know yet."

You rolled your eyes at him with a grin, nudging him aside so you could grab a drink from the cooler. The hand holding the tray brushed against his, "Oh.." You moved to pull away from the contact, but he caught your forearm in his hand, keeping you in place.

Leaning in, he whispered into your ear, causing you to shiver slightly, "Later…" He released your arm, pushing off the counter.

"Later? Wha…" He pressed a finger to his lips in a silent shush, then turned and strode from the room. Thank the gods there was no-one else in the cafeteria at the time, you didn't want to explain the sudden flush of colour on your face nor the goosebumps that rose along your skin.

Your afternoon came and went, as did your therapy session. The results were good: you were still to call the compound home, but you were permitted to leave the premises at will. The clock on the wall finally ticked to six, so you slid the window closed and locked up for the night. Upon stepping outside your office, you noticed a bag had been hung on the outer doorknob. "What the heck is this?" you wondered aloud as you lifted it off the door and peered inside. There was a bundle at the bottom, wrapped in tissue paper, and a card on top. You could immediately read Nat's scrawling script.

I heard about your liberation! Congrats! Wear this Front lobby, eight o'clock Don't be late ♡ Nat

You chortled, stuffing the note back inside the bag. 'I'll open this upstairs.' you thought, not wanting to make a mess of her lovely wrapping. Once in your room, you carefully unwrapped the package in the bag. It was a mid-length dress made of fine silk. You gasped as you held it to the light. Every movement reflected the rich colour, mimicking moonlight across a calm pond. You smirked. Leave it to Nat to pick something in his colours: the verdant green was a perfect match to Loki's shade.

An hour later, you were dressed and ready to go. Surprisingly, you weren't nervous. Before the incident, the butterflies in your stomach would have been at full flight by now, but they didn't seem to be home. You chalked it up to a lingering side affect. With one last glance in the mirror, you headed down to the entrance to the building. The area was mostly empty, aside from the night watchman, who seemed very uninterested in your approach and a lone figure standing close to the doors facing outwards. You drifted over to him and ran your fingertips across his back as you circled around, "Hi.."

"Hi" He spun, his smirk turning to a wide grin at the sight of you in green, "My my, what desolate cupboard did you find this in?" His eyes twinkled with amusement.

You returned his grin, "I got it from Nat, so it could be from anywhere… Grandma's closet, NYC trash bin, Russian gulag.."

"No-one in a gulag could look this ravishing." He reached out, hands set on your hips, and pulled you tight. You weren't used to being this close, but he'd get no complaints from you on the matter. Heat blossomed in your chest, granting you the confidence to link your hands behind his neck as you pulled him down to meet your lips.

When you drew apart, you were both breathless. "We're not going out, are we?"

"Mm.. no."

Notes: I ran short of time to write the spicy bits, so there will be a part four after the weekend, I promise!

залупа - dickhead

Part Four

[akaicodes]

update to my roadmap of learning https://www.tumblr.com/akaicodes/744920785897111552/roadmap-of-learning-curriculum-related-so-far - 4 months later ♡

• C# - spent ~1 year so far practicing, more comfortable, can build whole sites/programs with little help

• HTML & CSS - started ~5 months ago, confident in both, can style a site without help online, still much to learn

• JavaScript + Vue - Axios - can build “full stack” applications where i do both backend & frontend and host online (love JS!!)

• REST - experienced for 5 months! can build my own REST API, use someone elses with axios & test it thoughoutly with Postman (+Javascript code)

• Unit testing & UI testing - learned so many better ways to unit test & UI test more indeph

• Started leaning Git more with commands

• SQL - can manipulate simple databases and more one from scratch

& huge thanks to my sister @niyacodes for being on this journey with me 💓

++++ I went to a 5 hour exam for all these subjects (+- more) and got the highest grade possible 🥹 (i failed my first programming exam in 1st sem!!!!) ((pic is my favorite after study-snack))

[hockpock]

Glasses Review - Firmoo

Hello vision impaired friends, I bring you the gospel of Ordering Your Damn Glasses Online

I have previously ordered from EyeBuyDirect (luxotica/lenscrafters'/America's Best in disguise, sorry.) and Zenni Optical ( most well known online provider, A+ would recommend) and have seen lots of ads for free pairs from a competitor, Firmoo. I have too much prescription for the free pair offers to ever work out from ANY provider, but their fun designs put them on my list.

When my current glasses broke, I was dinking around and saw their current promotion is Buy One Get One Free PLUS 20% off lenses and as lenses are the real $$$ I jumped on that like tigger on crack. I am VERY nearsighted with astigmatism and the average pair of glasses from lenscrafters used to cost me $300 minimum.

After much deliberation with a million tabs open and a poll I ignored the results of for Reasons, I ordered a pair of clear frames and a pair of purple steampunk-y wireframes . Two pairs of HIGH PRESCRIPTION glasses for $87 shipped. I could cry, y'all.

Note: I have an up to date prescription and a nifty app that measures Pupillary Distance or 'PD'. you will need both these things accurate to have the best experience buying your glasses online.

I ordered them 9/22, they shipped 9/25, I received them 9/29 with regular shipping. They came well packed - each pair was in a bag made of cleaning cloth material inside a sturdy plastic case and they come in a foil bubble mailer.

Both pairs feel well made, with lots of attention to detail-

however I did not pay attention to detail or pay extra money for the Re-he-heaaallly thin lenses. So the clear ones are slightly too big and I hate the way the nose pieces sit, while the purple ones are a wee bit small across the temple and heavy to boot. I haven't had dents in my nose like this since I was 12.

the website lists their exchange policy as 30 days, the pamphlet that came with the glasses says 60. Either way it was pretty painless to go into my order history and select "exchange". The form I filled out with my reasons for dissatisfaction promised me I would be contacted within 24 hours.

My 'personal Firmoo consultant', 'Karen', emailed me with a code for the full price before discount of both pairs + standard shipping, as well as the usual customer service canned answers about checking the sizing information and did I know I could upgrade the lenses?

Also I could keep the failed pairs 'FOR NOW', here are some places that accept glasses as donations. (mixed messages, Karen, but sweet!)

New friends are April006, round anodized wireframes with a cute dingly gem thing, and Sandy020 , literal tortoiseshell cat eye frames.

This time I used the site's search terms to cut the temple width and earpiece length options down and double checked the weight of the base frames. (14g vs 24g for the round wireframes before my coke-bottle lenses. RIP my nose. )

New order was placed 10/5 and they arrived 10/17 . (last time I checked the tracking estimated arrival had creeped from the 19th up to the 23rd so grain of salt. This may be a tactic to make the order feel like it got here faster or legit delays. In my case there was a federal holiday involved.)

Complete disclosure I'm gonna grab a pair of pliers and take the little dangly off the wireframes. It makes a noise when I move my head and if I don't fold the frames in the right order when I take them off it'll scratch up the lenses. I ain't gonna remember to avoid that, so off it goes.

The Good:

Large selection, Good Quality, Good Communication. Lots of Off the Beaten Path options for internet weirdos. Firmoo p much always has a promotion going.

My wallet is so happy. SO HAPPY. Frames run $20-30ish to start. lenses will vary with your prescription and options.

If y'all want 50% off your first frames and to give me a $10 credit they have a referral program and my code is T4Z8I2. BOGO20 is a better value but it expires 11/01/23.

The Bad:

Not flexible about lens options- you go down one track and pick your options within that. If there was a way to put tinting on a pair of glasses other than blue light blocking I couldn't find it. (in contrast I believe Zenni lets you choose a range of colors and tint depth on any pair, designed as sunnies or not)

You Will Get Emails. Firmoo REALLY wants you to buy more glasses and post about it and tell your friends and HERE THIS CODE IS ONLY GOOD FOR 3 DAYS, GO BUY NEW GLASSES. They are marketing themselves to fashionable young influencers who change styles every month. Unsubscribe with impunity.

like Zenni, this is a company with the majority of it's functionality based overseas. It's cheaper because you're ordering directly from a factory and not paying Luxotica's markups to itself. Customer service is mostly English as Second Language speakers and there may be delays.

Not For Emergencies. I was able to coast on a pair of glasses from a prescription or 2 ago but it's gonna take time for your order to be made and shipped.

Overall I'm very happy with them and will probably order again.

Next time I have spare money I'm aiming at Wherelight because y'all. they are next down on the list of reputable to shady AF but they have the most amazing WTF designs.