#Pointer To Object In C++

[herovired12]

Pointer To Object In C++ is a variable that holds the memory address of an object. This allows for dynamic memory allocation, enabling the creation and manipulation of objects at runtime. Pointers facilitate efficient resource management and provide access to object members and methods through the pointer syntax. Check here to learn more.

[3verythingiknowaboutlove]

say yes to heaven

how spencer and you deal (or don't deal) with the fact that he doesn’t want a baby anymore after coming home from prison, and you really do.

MDNI | angst

word count: 2226 warnings & tags & stuff: bau!reader, avoidant reader, avoidant spencer, no happy ending (wtf), reader wants a baby, one line about reader not having a certain religious belief, they like almost have sex, spencer undresses reader, lots of talk about a condom, they dont really fight at all?, very underdeveloped/bad description of quantum immortality author's note: heyyyyy guyss whats up..... this is a different vibe to my regular stuff and i fear it may be really ooc?? i don't know how to feel but i literally have to post or i'll go even more crazy sooo here we are!! have a delightful day, let me know your thoughts if you have any, ily!!!

Antique shops, you and Spencer have decided, are the hidden gems of this nation yet to be appreciated enough by the general public. 

Each town or city you visit is bound to have one, and going to them has become a little celebratory tradition. In the early mornings after cases are solved, right before the plane ride home, you take a look around. You’re typically the first and only ones in the store, wandering with intertwined hands and sipping on ‘2 extra foamy cappuccinos with an additional shot of espresso, please’ and occasionally, but not necessarily, choosing something to take back to D.C.

You’ve been trying your absolute hardest to fill your home to the brim– sometimes with objects, and other times with words, or touch, or the ever so valuable and fleeting concept of shared time– in effort to replace what had been lost in that three month long period when it was completely devoid of tangible, fresh love.

It’s today you’re wandering through a quaint, very cluttered shop in western Oregon, the Pacific visible from the store’s windows. 

Wheels up in an hour. Don’t be late. Hotch’s text buzzes in your pocket, but you barely glance at it– there’s something about the Oregon coast that reaches into your heart and gives it a gentle massage, enveloping you in a refreshing lack of urgency.

Spencer, in his own peaceful world, is staring at a tall wall of books. He reaches out to pick up a dusty rendition of Moby Dick, carefully cracking it open to the first few pages to check the publication date, brow scrunching as he reads. You go to peer over his arm to check as well, when something catches the corner of your eye. You let go of his hand to inspect.

A bassinet. Dark wood, surface polished to a faint sheen, with intricate little waves engraved on the sides, like the ocean’s misty outreach had come all the way into the shop and placed this here for you to see. 

You weren’t exactly sure when this now familiar ache had started; this deep, internal desire felt in your stomach for a little hand to be gripped around your pointer and for tiny onesies to fill your laundry basket, but you’re sure, with every fiber of your being, that you want it to be there.

“Spence,” you say softly, voice jarring in the otherwise stillness of the shop. “Come look.” He carefully closes the book and puts it back where it was and pads over, looking down at the bassinet. His eyebrows raise slightly.

“Wow. It looks like it was made in the 80s, maybe even earlier. You won’t find any level of detailing more recently than that, it’s too labor intensive for modern production methods. Good find.”

“I know. Should we get it?” you ask, biting a smile. He quickly meets your eyes, brow raising slightly.

“Do you want to?” he asks, voice even.

“I mean, I just think it’s really cute, with the waves and stuff.” you say bashfully, nudging it with your toe so it rocks back and forth. Spencer swallows, adam's apple bobbing.

“Yeah, I just…” Spencer hesitates. “I don't think we’d be able to bring it on the jet. It would probably snap in half if we held it in the wrong way,” he says, making your brain race even though he hasn’t said a single thing that should cause it to do so.

“Oh.”

You blink.

“No, yeah, you’re totally right. It’s too inconvenient. You should get that copy of Moby Dick instead. That edition looked cool, with the forward explaining all the names,” you say gently, pushing a smile, nudging him back towards the shelf. He goes, shooting you one last glance as you move to observe a few clocks hanging on the wall.

Spencer doesn’t reach for your hand again when he comes back.

…

The house is quiet when you arrive back home, hours later. Spencer sets his bag down by the door, and yours goes next to his to be dealt with later.

Exhaustion from the case is heavy in your limbs; the long flight and the sleepless nights are seeping into your bones, but Spencer seems perfectly intent upon kissing it better. You rest your forehead on his chest, exhaling softly, contentedly, as he presses kiss after kiss into your hair. He gently rests his hands on your waist and pushes you against the door– not as an act of dominance, like if someone were viewing you two from afar might assume, but one of simple convenience.

His hand reaches up to tilt your chin to the position he wants. Before leaning in to your neck, he pauses. 

“Are you sure you don’t just want to go to bed?” he asks. “You didn't sleep last night.” You shake your head, giving his cheek a small peck of your own.

“It’s one of those tireds where I can’t even think about sleep ever again.” 

A small smile grows on his face.

“I bet I can change that,” Spencer offers, knuckles skimming over your waist. You smile and let him tug you upstairs to your room and guide your hips to sit on the bed. His hand cups the side of your jaw, as always, lips moving to press against yours in a soft, affectionate display of his adoration. His other hand moves to your waist, squeezing, and you shiver a little in response, making him hum gently. 

His hands go underneath the hem of your top. “Okay?” he asks. You nod, lifting your arms to help. His eyes take their time tracing over you, but never in a way that couldn't be defined as sweet. His hand leaves your cheek and goes to the bedside table, sliding open the drawer. It draws toward the front left corner, as it always does, when it pauses. He turns to look at you, hesitating.

You, whose legs are now pulled up to your chest, chin resting on them. You stare at the yellow light of the lamp you and Spencer picked out months ago reflecting against those countless little squares of foil. 

Your lips are drawn inwards, between your teeth, unable to help your mind from racing to other realities, ones where every detail is the very same, except Spencer chose not to open that drawer tonight. 

…

Spencer explained the basis of quantum immortality to you a long time ago, in the early stages of your relationship, at a time so late in the night where a regular person would never be able to form coherent thoughts, let alone thoughts like these.

You were slumped over the kitchen island, peering at him as he wandered around, silently marveling at the preciousness of your boyfriend the world seemed to take for granted as he tried to get you to understand how cool this concept was.

“There’s also an interpretation of quantum mechanics proposed by a physicist named Hugh Everett which involves a ‘many worlds’ concept: essentially, it suggests that every possible outcome of an event creates its own branch of reality, meaning an infinite number of parallel worlds exist, each containing a version of events where everything that can happen, does happen,” he starts, widening his eyes for dramatic effect. “So quantum immortality is rooted in the concept that when we die in one timeline, we essentially just move on to the next one where every detail is the same except… well, you don’t die.”

He went on to emphatically talk about some guy’s cat in a box, but how this time, in a thought experiment that demonstrates this theory of immortality, you’re the cat.

You had pretty much lost him when he got to that part.

…

You blink, shoving the memory from your mind. 

“You’re staring,” you point out quietly.

“You’re pretty,” Spencer responds. He sits next to you on the bed, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. You watch as his other hand fiddles with the condom he grabbed, running his thumb over the edges of the wrapper. His mouth opens and closes a few times before he says, “Did I do something?” You shake your head softly. 

“Mm-mm.”

“Really? Because we’ve been sitting in silence and you haven’t stopped staring at the condom in my hand for the past two minutes.”

You exhale quietly, internally screaming at yourself to just spit it out.

It’s never been easy, being an agent dating an agent. Sure, agreements have been made to not profile each other, but with so many years of experience, small observations and connections about your partner’s nature are an automatic practice. You know that Spencer takes 3 sugars in his coffee just as well as you know he says your name more frequently and shortens his sentences when scared, almost like he tries to instead convey the appearance he’s mad.

You also know very well that you and Spencer have both been consciously avoiding this conversation like the plague, especially since his homecoming. 

You gnaw at your lip, trying to think of something to say, but your mind can only come up with freaky images of cats that are simultaneously alive and dead until observed.

“`M sorry, I was just thinking. Lost in my mind.”

“Thinking about what?”

Relationships that are simultaneously kept and broken until a certain conversation is had.

“Um. Quantum immortality. Who’s that guy? Hugh Jackman?”

Spencer straightens, eyebrows raising a little. “Hugh Everett,” he supplies. His tone is gentle, coaxing. “You’ve been thinking about that? I told you about him months ago.”

He stands as you quietly think of a response, grabbing a hoodie from the closet to tug over your bare torso, letting his hand gently cradle the back of your head after doing so.

“Yeah. I did a little more reading on it. It’s kind of a nice thought I keep going back to. Obviously really, really scary when you think about it for too long. But nice in the sense that there’s probably a version of us out there somewhere where…” you trail off, suddenly extremely aware of the weight of your words. 

He glances down to the condom he left on the comforter.

The thick silence that follows feels like it stretches across a thousand timelines, each one probably also filled with countless what-ifs and unspoken words and really bad communication, and at the very root of all of it, fear. That deep, gaping hole in both of your souls.

When Spencer finally looks at you, his eyes are so deep it takes your breath away. So deep that it jars you into just saying it.

“Spencer,” you begin, voice so quiet. “Do you still want kids?”

You find yourself shooting up a silent prayer to whoever is out there looking out for you– God or Isaac Newton or Hugh Everett or Jason Gideon: 

Pleasesayyespleasesayyespleasesayyespleasesayyespleasesayyespleasesayyespleasesayyespleasesayyespleasesayyespleasesayyespleasesayyespleasesayyes.

When he doesn’t answer right away, you continue– a habit probably picked up from the person standing right in front of you. “I just feel like there was a time where we were almost talking about it, but then it… went away.”

He reaches out to gently take the condom you were now fiddling with and sets it back in the drawer, his hand resting on the edge of the table as if grounding himself. His face is soft, almost glowing in the dim yellow light.

“I know,” he starts, voice crackling at the edges.

You stay dead silent.

“I didn’t mean for it to go away,” Spencer says, the crack in his voice causing you to glance up and see his eyes brimming with unshed tears. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

You nod, shakily, though the perpetual ache in your stomach is sharper now, more like it’s a knife stabbing you through the gut.

“I get it,” you say, even though part of you doesn’t want to. “You don’t need to be sorry.” You can’t even bring yourself to think of the implications of what he just said– all you know is that there is something fundamentally different between you and Spencer that wasn’t there before.

“It’s not that I don’t want it. I do. You know I do. But I can’t. Not now.”

You reach out your hand for him to take.

“Spencer,” you whisper. “It’s okay. Really. We don’t have to talk about it any more.”

His lips press into a thin line, and you can tell he doesn’t believe you. Clearly. It wasn’t a statement said to be believed. There was nothing okay, at all, but this isn’t a fight- there’s nothing to fight about. There's just a quiet understanding. He nods, finally, and steps back. “We should get some sleep,” he says, his voice almost too soft to hear.

You watch as he pulls back the covers and slides into bed, still in his work clothes, leaving just enough space for you beside him. After a moment you curl up next to him because, despite everything, doing the alternative would be so much worse.

Spencer's arms wrap around you, his breath warm against the nape of your neck, and you close your eyes and let the silence settle over you both, feeling the steady beat of his heart against your back. Something you would have given anything to have not so long ago.

[captain-hawks]

HUZZAH!!! nice i didn't miss it! how about narumi + pink !

gen narumi x reader

c: "flirting", ...gum sharing, i apologize in advance what you're about to read!!!!, gen "who's going to match my freak" narumi

“Platoon Leader.”

You jump slightly at the sound of Captain Gen Narumi’s voice, his tone pitched low as his hot breath skirts the shell of your ear, and the rifle shudders in your hands, your perfectly-framed target lost as the scope jolts with you.

Turning to glare at the man crouched down beside you, you inhale sharply when you realize how close he is, your noses brushing before you nearly stumble backward onto your ass. 

Narumi’s right hand shoots out to steady you, fingers treading along the side of your jacket, skirting dangerously close to your hip as you rock back onto your feet. 

“Yes?” you ask as you catch your breath, annoyed.

He smiles, head tilted to the side as he leans his cheek against a gloved palm. Narumi stares at you for a moment before tapping his closed lips twice with his pointer finger.

Eyes widening, you snap in a hushed whisper, “What the fuck?”

The back of your neck burns as you blink at him, incredulous. Sure, the two of you have been flirting like your lives depend on it for the past couple of months. 

And yeah, if Captain Narumi wanted to call it a day for today’s training session, sending everyone else inside before finally ravishing you right here on this rooftop, you certainly wouldn’t object. 

But you’ve never actually explicitly acknowledged any of this with him directly, not by a longshot.

And you would have thought his style would be more along the lines of pinning you up against the wall in a deserted hallway inside of the base mid-argument with his mouth against yours.

Not…whatever the fuck is happening right now.

He shakes his head, eyes flicking to your mouth for a moment as your jaw flexes. “You’re chewing gum.”

Oh.

Hot, mortifying embarrassment begins to set in. Earlier this year, gum was banned from the training grounds after a new recruit choked on a piece of it in the middle of an exercise. As a platoon leader, you certainly know better, but by the time you realized you’d forgotten to spit it out today, there was nowhere to dispose of it. 

“Well, I don’t suppose you have a tissue or a napkin, do you?” you ask dryly. 

Narumi shakes his head, offering you an open palm instead, his hand hovering near your mouth.

You blink at him several times until he finally says, “Go ahead.”

“What are you going to do with it?”

He doesn’t reply, just calmly stares at you, waiting. Sighing, you open your mouth, gently spitting the sticky pink wad into his hand.

And to your absolute fucking surprise with not a single word of warning, Captain Narumi pops the piece of gum into his mouth and resumes chewing it. 

“What the fuck,” you mutter to yourself again after he walks away. 

Two hours later, freshly showered, Captain Narumi finds you alone in the hall outside of your quarters, once again scaring you nearly half to death as he taps your shoulder the exact moment you begin to twist the door handle.

Spinning around, you find him standing right in front of you as you lean back against the door. Your heart thrums an unsteady rhythm as you subtly suck down a slow, steady breath. 

“Nice job today,” he says, eyes glinting with a hint of pride that matches the warm swell in your chest at his words. 

Well, you had smoked the rest of your team once you recovered from The Gum Incident (recovered being a very loose, vague term for the strange mix of feelings still squirming in your chest). 

“Thanks.”

You try to ignore the hot, insistent reaction that stirs in your gut at the sight of his messy, sweaty hair. He’s still in his suit, though it’s unzipped a few inches down at the neck, where his mask hangs loosely. Narumi slowly places a hand on the surface of the door beside your head, and the foam soles of your shower shoes protest against the linoleum floor as your toes tightly curl against them. 

“I have something for you,” he says in a hushed tone, shifting to close the gap between your face and his. 

Anticipation sears your nerves and rattles your bones. Thankful to be leaning against something for the sake of your weak knees, your eyes fall shut, and he gently runs a bare thumb along your bottom lip.

“Open,” Captain Narumi murmurs. 

Confused, you comply, lips parting as he hooks his pointer finger beneath your chin, your eyes following suit of their own accord to meet his determined gaze. 

And then Narumi’s mouth grazes yours in the ghost of a kiss before he spits a piece of gum into your mouth.

What the fuck. 

His fingers briefly feather against your jawline as he pulls away, straightening up. 

“Sorry, I didn’t have any bubblegum flavor to replace yours,” he shrugs and grins, though he really doesn’t look sorry at all as you tentatively bite down and taste peppermint. “See you in the mess hall, Platoon Leader.”

[throatgoat4u]

will you be my valentine?

word count: 1.5k

summary: matt's made a valentine, but for who?

warnings: none!

a/n: happy valentine's day lovelies! hope you guys are having an amazing, amazing day! this one is actually surprisingly proofread and so it's probably better than most fiics i put out cause like i don’t proofread…. this is based of this comic. um so yeah… enjoy!

toodles {lovers} ♡

today was valentine’s day and just like every other year, you didn’t have a valentine. it wasn’t that nobody had asked you—plenty of people did��but you turned them all down because you were convinced that this was going to be the year. matt was going to ask you to be his valentine.

“this is the year, guys. i can feel it,” you declare, beaming with excitement.

“i don’t know cutie. you’ve been saying that ever since we were in pre-school. we’re in college now,” violet says with a sigh, earning a nod from patty.

“well… well, this year is different. this year, my gut is telling me.” you insist as you run around the room, trying to find your lucky blue ribbon. of course, you had plenty of blue ribbons to choose from, but this one was special—it was the ribbon matt gave you on your eighth birthday. ever since then, you have worn it on the most important days—birthdays, exams, finals—and it never failed to bring you good luck. you can’t recall a single time that you’ve failed an exam while wearing it (though, to be fair, you’re really smart… but the ribbon makes more sense).

“what are you looking for?” patty asks, a bit concerned as you toss things around in search for the object. 

“my ribbon.”

“cutie… this one?” patty sighs, holding up your lucky ribbon from the vanity. 

“oh… yeah… that one.” you mumble, snatching it from patty’s hand and tying it into a bow at the end of your braid.

after your classes, you head over to the sturniolo house, like always. at this point, it’s a ritual—for (both)  you (and matt)—that you show up and yap about absolute nonsense. you skip up to the door and give it a quick knock. commotion erupts from inside, making your eyebrows knit together in confusion. what the hell is going on? you wait for a moment, until their mother—mary lou—opens the door. she wipes her hands over her apron as she greets you with a hug.

“cutie! i’m so glad you could make it. come inside,” she says quickly, ushering you inside and closing the door behind you. “please excuse the mess—i was making cookies, but someone decided it was a good idea to start a food fight,” she mutters, hooting a stern look at her youngest son, chris.

“hey! i didn’t start it! nick hit me first and i just hit him back with food.”

“don’t put the blame on me! you started it and don’t you even dare lie.”

“nuh uh.” chris says sassily, his hand on his hip, shaking his pointer finger. this definitely set nick off as he began to chase chris around the kitchen. you turn to mary lou, absolutely astonished. you’d seen the boys like this—considering you grew up with them—but the amount of things that just happened barely even rendered through your brain. the kitchen looks like it got invaded by the pillsbury doughboy. nick is covered in flour, chris is drenched in some sort of mystery jam, and mary lou is a mixture of both. to top it all off, they’re running around like feral animals. it feels like you’re watching a live action tom and jerry episode before your eyes right now.

“i- wha- am i- did you- huh!?!” is all you manage to stutter out. mary lou just smiles and shakes her head. 

“they must have eaten something different because i swear they’ve been off their rockers all day. even matt. i saw him making a valentine card for someone. cutie, when i tell you i was beyond shocked. matt has never once in his life done anything romantic for any girl and swore he would never. i just feel like he’s finally found someone and i can’t be more happy.”

“pardon?!?!” you exclaim, a hint of excitement but also nervousness. that valentine could be for you, but it could also be for another girl. well, it can’t be for another girl, it has to be for you. you are his future wife after all.

“yeah, i mean he even looked excited,” she says, a twinkle in her eyes. she’s never ever expected matt to find someone since he was so obsessed with his piano, but she couldn’t be happier that he did. “ hey, why don’t you go check on him now? i bet you could find out who his secret valentine is?” she teases, wiggling her eyebrows and nudging your side slightly. 

you shrug softly, thinking about it, though you knew what your answer was going to be. “yeah… maybe i should.” you turn on the balls of your feet and made your way upstairs. you get to the door of the piano room and knock softly. from the other side, you can hear matt playing a soft melody, one you recognize to be the moonlight sonata. not that you genuinely care to remember, but because matt always gets mad at you for mislabeling it and is always screaming at you about it. gosh, the anger issues that kid has could make the hulk look like a meditation instructor. when he doesn’t answer the door, you knock harder, starting to lose your patience with the kid. but to your dismay, he starts to play louder.

at this point you’re frustrated. you know he hears you knocking. it’s rude to ignore your future wife when she’s knocking at the door, it’s like… common knowledge. you knock a little louder and he starts playing a little louder. you huff, finally at your wits end, and open the door, letting yourself in. you make you way to the piano, your little kitten heels clicking against the floor. matt glances at you, drinking you in for a second. your little blue dress, you white kitten heels, and the way your hair was done—just the way he liked. the loose braid that always made him go feral, the way the front pieces of your hair fell in front of your face. his eyes drift down to the end of your braid, where your lucky ribbon—the one he gave you—rests, its lace slightly frayed from years of wear. | he drinks you in for a moment before turning his attention back onto his piano.

you roll your eyes and huff. you know he knows you’re here—he looked at you! so why won’t he acknowledge you? you walk up to the piano, propping yourself on your forearms. “hey matt,” you say innocently.

“hello,” he mumbles.

“whatcha doin’?” you hum, leaning in closer to matt, resting on the piano

“playing the piano,” he mutters.

“whatcha playin’?” 

“fur elise by beethoven. not only is this one of his most famous pieces, but also it’s my favorite.” he says matter-of-factly. 

elise? who’s elise?

“who’s elise?” you huff, pulling back and folding your arms.

matt stops playing the piano and looks up at you, tilting his head and narrowing his eyes. “you… don’t know… fur elise? why it is only one of the best pieces of classical music written on planet earth,” he snaps, standing up from his seat, causing it to push back creating a loud screech. “how is that even possible? it’s one of the most famous pieces ever composed! beethoven—beethoven—wrote it! it’s legendary!” he throws his hands up in the air, his frustration palpable.

you look at him with a dumbfounded expression, “it’s a song…?” 

“no, it’s not just a song, it’s ART! ART! ART! ART! ART! ART! something you would never understand!” he shouts

“right… got it,” you say, watching as matt sits back down all proper and poised—as if he didn’t just scream his lungs off bouncing on beethoven’s wood—and picks up right where he left off. “so ummm, do you know what today is?” you ask, leaning back onto the piano again

“yes. it is february 14th which also happens to be valentine’s day. the day that everyone pretends they care about each other because society says so.” he states, pausing for dramatic effect, “i’d rather celebrate fur elise—now that’s real love.”

you scoff, shaking your head. “i still don’t understand what’s so great about elise and not me?” you mutter. you shake your head a bit, as if you were shaking off that thought. you needed to know who the valentine was for. was it for you? was it for tessa? was it for elise? fuck elise and tessa. that’s your valentine.

you sigh, twiddling your thumbs in thought until you get an idea, “you know, i find that there is a very big misconception on what and who valentine's day is about,” you say, turning over to your side, “i mean, people make the mistake of thinking you have to be madly in love with someone for them to be your valentine”

“oh. so does this mean that you’d have to love her a little?”

“well no, not necessarily.” 

“sooo what if you only like her and not love her?”

“that works.”

“and if you are just barely being able to tolerate her?”

you turn around once again, finally facing him and his gorgeous face as you rest your arms on the piano. “well that could work but-” 

he grabs a card and hands it over to you, “happy valentines day!” he says with the biggest, cheesiest grin on his face.

your face drops as you look at the card and then back up at him, slumping down into your arms, “rats...”

taglist ♡

@sturns-mermaid. @chonicallyalone. @storyteller32. @mattscoquette. @55sturn. @queen-of-beees. @xoxopetalzblog. @lilysturn. @ilavlilpeep. @weepingdelusionobject. @ju2tm30. @funkybananas101. @xxkylie906xx. @courta13. @p3r3j1l. @sofia-is-a-sturniolo-triplet-fan. @ireadtoofast. @rippeanuts1950-2000. @reigengyattataka. @a-s-h-t-o-n. @anime-4-u. @maggot3647. @watercolorskyy. @matthewsturnsgf. @lemonhoney2460. @snoopychris. @oopsiedaisydeer

nini’s stamp of approval ♡

[squidthusiast]

can I ask how you learned to render as beautifully as you do? I've been trying to learn how to apply colors for a long while and nothing seems to stick;;

Heya Anon :)

Awh shucks! you think I render beautifully? I’m so touched💖

Rendering, painting & color theory have been a bit of a special interest of mine for a while, so i’d be more than happy to explain & give some pointers!

If there’s a specific piece of mine that made you inquire, feel free to mention it in another ask too. I love showing my thought process and workflow c:

I’ll put the rest of the ask under the cut to minimize clutter meanwhile.

I learnt to render both through self-taught methods and during my college art degree (though quite honestly, not much that I didn’t already know or learn by myself).

Rendering in digital painting/illustration is a process that compounds various areas of knowledge. The main ones that come to mind and of which i’ll talk about are the following:

* Values

* Color Theory

* Light & Shadows

* Edge Control

Having a solid grasp on these fundamentals will greatly strengthen your ability to render and understand how other artists tackle their pieces as well.

Values

I always love to start by talking to people about values. It’s something that I don’t always see beginners learn about, yet it’s one of the main things that makes or breaks an art piece.

Values allow you to control & direct the following: Composition, Contrast, Focal Point, Colors, Distance, Mood, etc.!

So what are Values? In short, they’re the range between light and dark when it comes to both neutral greys and colors.

A handy resource to understand this is the Munsell Color System:

Hue refers to the different Colors on the wheel. Chroma is the purity (strength vs weakness) of a color. Finally, Value refers to the lightness or darkness.

Different colors have different chromatic values; that is, how a pure color appears in a greyscale format.

A 100% red will always be at around 50% grey. With this knowledge, we know that we can’t get a pure bleeding red if we were to paint a light shade of white. It would be more pink than red.

Color Theory

Okay, so we know of values, now what?

Color Theory can seem intimidating, but it shouldn’t be!

Colors have a harmony, a flow. They talk to each other, and once you learn to listen to them you can start creating wonderful conversations.

The following are things I take into account when I am thinking theory:

-Color Harmonies (complementary, triadic, monochromatic combinations, etc);

-Warm & Cool Colors;

-Color Psychology (what moods can be conveyed through color?).

-Color Relativity (how a color is affected by other surrounding colors)

I think the best advice I can give when it comes to studying and applying color (once you have a general grasp of the fundamentals listed above) is to analyze art pieces that you love.

“What attracts you to it? Why do you think it works? What does it communicate in terms of colors? Are there fundamentals that the artist applies (OR breaks?) in this piece?” etc.!

Light and Shadows

So there’s values, there’s color.

Light and Shadows could be confused with Values (black and white right?), but in this case we’re actually talking about lighting!

Values are specifically related to the range between black and white AND the lightness/darkness of a color (chromatic value).

Our eyes perceive volume through contrast, lighting and shadows first and foremost.

Understanding the terminology of light and shadows will give you a fantastic set of tools to ground your drawings in reality, and give it volume regardless of whether it has cartoony proportions or not.

There is one thing I want to also mention: it is important to know about light terminology, but it’s equally important to understand how light affects different materials.

The following terms are great elements to keep in mind if you wish to accurately render different sorts of objects (it’s a non-exhaustive list by any means, but a good start)

- Types of Light (soft, hard);

- Light Decay;

- Specularity;

- Roughness;

- Translucency;

- 1-2-3 value read

This leads us to my final note…

Edge Control

This last topic is more-so a bonus, but i’ve found it really brings a painting to another level when you know how to use it. Knowing how to control your edges will help you better define 3D volumes in your pieces without needing to use lines.

We typically have three types of edges in painting: Hard edge, Soft edge, and Lost edge.

I won’t talk about the last one because I’m still researching and practicing it, but let’s look at the other two:

Hard Edges are typically used when there is a sharp change between two planes.

Soft Edges are the more gradual transition, typically on a smoother surface like a sphere or a soft slope.

Notice how different both examples feel?

Organic shapes like bodies are full of hard and soft edges because of the smoothness of skin and fat, coupled with the harder edges of bones and muscles.

Try to pay attention to this, both in real life subjects and in art pieces. You’ll be surprised to find the variety of edges there are in all sorts of objects and living forms. It takes practice and observation, but it’s definitely feasible to learn.

Resources:

GENERAL STUFF

Marco Bucci (he covers most of what I talk about here & more, huge rec!)

Arne Niklas Jansson - (I stumbled upon this one by accident, it’s old but gold)

Values:

Yuming Li (in general)

Bonekrishna/ Roberto Ribeiro Padula

Anthony Jones (his ‘painting like a sculptor’ video is one of my favs)

Marco Bucci (seriously this guy has solid videos)

Orenjikun - (his reels and video tutorials are so insightful)

Color Theory:

Slawek Fedorczuk

Justin Oaksford

Eyecager

James Gurney blog (+ his book Color & Light)

H3m0cyt3 (A fun way to harmonize color palettes)

Iniro/Eskbl (I own this pdf, it’s best used when you apply each concept in your own exercises)

Lighting Mentor (really good vid about color relativity)

Light and Shadow:

How to Render- The Fundamentals of Light, Shadow and Reflectivity [BOOK] - Scott Robertson

(I think this is the most solid resource you can have if you’re serious about studying this subject)

Color and Light - James Gurney [BOOK] (this one’s a classic)

Proko (if i’m not mistaken, he has some videos that tackle this subject)

Edge Control

Thomas Mahon (he has one or two tutorials that touch on this)

Anthony Jones (even just watching his process videos on youtube helps)

Sinix

Unfortunately it’s somewhat hard to find more resources for this section :(

———

I hope this helps with your question! If anyone has other good resources feel free to link them as well :)

This is just what I can think of for now :P

[triviallytrue]

So @kaiasky you asked for me to write something if I figure out more about how video game hacks work, and I did some more research.

At its most basic, if bytes are written on your machine, you can modify them. So if you have a binary on your machine, you can easily decompile it to assembly, modify the assembly, recompile it, and run it.

Except, wait, that sucks.

You have to know assembly well, which is miserable

It's really easy to brick a program that you do this to because of offsets

A lot of programs have checksums and other failsafes to detect direct modification

So that's not going to work very well.

Instead, you can ride along in the process that's executing the binary and execute your code there. For windows machines, it seems like the easiest way is DLL injection.

Now we get to use C instead of assembly (thank god) and we have a lot more flexibility. We don't want to touch the underlying binary because of (2) and (3), but since we're in the same address space as the program, we can write to the addresses that the program accesses. If we discover the location of a variable, we can overwrite its value with whatever we want.

We can abuse this further by messing with function pointers - if we can overwrite a value containing the location of another function within the binary, we can point it to our code instead, achieving arbitrary code execution. Yay! I think there are some countermeasures to this that cheat developers have to watch out for, but this is just a broad overview anyway.

Okay, great, but how do we figure out what to modify? We could read the entire binary in assembly, but I think I'd rather kill myself. Instead we have to use some tool to spy on the program. I remember using CheatEngine when I was little to cheat in flash games, and it turns out it still works pretty well - if you can repeatedly modify a value, you can use a tool to find its memory address (usually).

You can even trace back a pointer chain (ie, an attribute contained within a player object contained within a game object, but usually with many more layers) to its root and find a way to do location discovery entirely automatically, though this seems a little tricky sometimes.

Anyway. This is a very broad overview that raises as many questions as it answers for me, but I'm going to try playing around with some tools and seeing if I can get anywhere.

[oldwritingm]

Craig tucker x gn!reader plss where reader is emotionless like craig and he’s absolutely smitten w them

Yes ofc!! Sorry for the wait!!

Word count: 736

South Park - Craig Falling For an Emotionless Reader

Craig glanced at the clock for the umpteenth time that hour, sighing deeply at the minute hand that seemed to be slacking that day. The teacher drolled on about something or other; he wasn’t really paying attention. If it wasn’t already obvious, he was bored out of his mind. And he wasn’t the only one—looking around, most students were either doodling in their notes, texting underneath the desk, or straight-up nodding off.

“Y/n!” The teacher barked suddenly.

Craig’s eyes scanned the room, trying to figure out who they were talking about. No one looked like they heard their name being called; they all kept their bored expressions, apart from the few who were looking around too.

“What?” A student near the front of the room didn’t look up from their notebook. Craig was sitting close enough to see that they weren’t taking notes, but doodling idly.

The teacher’s face soured for half a second, but a devilish smile curled their lips after. “Can you tell me which U.S. state was the first to grant women the right to vote?” They tapped the board, which read “suffrage” in large letters, with their pointer.

“Why don’t you tell me? You seem to be eager to share.”

The teacher’s face dropped. “I’m not sure I like your tone.”

The student looked up at last. “What’s wrong with it?”

Craig tilted his head. There was no malice or mischief in their voice; it was flat, curious if anything.

The teacher, however, was much less appreciative. Their ears were turning red as their hands curled into balls.

“You think this is funny? Well, I’ll tell you what I think is funny. Detention.”

“Why’s that funny?”

The teacher fumed. Long story short, the student earned themself detention. And to make an unrelated but equally long story short, too, Craig had already been sentenced to the same fate earlier that day.

So it was that both students found themselves seated next to each other with a bored teacher pretending to care what they were doing.

The student was drawing again. Craig examined their expressionless face, their eyes that seemed bored with everything. They were rather pretty eyes, he reflected, wondering in the same moment if that was a strange thing to think.

“Your eyes are nice,” he noted.

Y/n glanced at him. “Oh.” They didn’t flinch, going back to their drawing.

Craig had said it objectively, and that's how they seemed to have taken it. It wasn't often that Craig found himself being understood like this; he was intrigued, to say the least.

“You’re not very expressive, are you?”

“People tell me I’m not.”

“They say the same about me.”

Finally, a reaction. Y/n put down their pencil and turned to face Craig. “Really?”

Eager to find a like minded soul and emboldened by the attention, Craig was compelled to speak. “Yeah. It’s gotten me in trouble so many times. I guess people take it as rudeness.”

“It’s the same way for me!”

“Hey! Quit whispering over there! This is detention, not a sleepover.”

Both students blinked, turning silently back to their “work.”

Craig's mind was buzzing. The image of Y/n was burned in his mind as if he'd been staring at the sun. He was trying to remember little details. Were there freckles on that nose? Were the eyelashes long, or short? He craved another glance, but restrained himself, feeling the teacher's eyes on him.

A moment later, they finally looked away, and Craig found a folded piece of paper being placed discreetly on his desk by a s/c hand. He found himself admiring the hand as it moved; it was beautiful. The most beautiful hand he’d ever seen… Was that a strange thing to think? Probably. Yeah, no, it was totally weird.

He shook his head, unfolding the note.

Do you want to have an actual sleepover? lol

Craig looked up at them. In the half second their eyes met, he nodded once.

Another note came a second later.

Cool. Just text me when ur free :) (xxx)-xxx-xxxx

Craig stared at the number. His cheeks suddenly felt warm, and his heart drummed at the mere notion of spending more time with this mysterious yet kindred. The smallest of boyish smiles quirked up the corner of his mouth, and he stuffed the note in his pocket. He was so texting them the minute he got home.

Thank you for the request! And thanks so much for reading, take care you beautiful souls <33

(divider by saradika)

[utopicwork]

Interesting paper that should end up making for more efficient data structures as implementations of the work are created

[moose-mousse]

Hello!

Checking out your blog, I noticed that you use C++ and seem quite knowledgeable on it, so I wanted to ask for your help (if it doesn't bother you!).

I've completed the two C++ courses in SoloLearn (which are quite superficial, but serve as good introductions, I believe), and I'm currently reading "The C++ Programming Language", by Bjarne Stroustrup. My issue is that I'm a bit afraid of not really understanding anything and/or being unable to write any functional code by myself. Therefore, I wanted to ask if you had any resources and/or tips that could be helpful for a beginner like me (the only language I've ever used before is HTML, and so I thought it was a good idea to go straight to C++ for the challenge of it xd).

It NEVER bothers me to blabber about code! :D

I LOVE C++

So first a long rant, and then my answer :3

C++ will probably forever be my favorite langauge.

But many do not like it, and it is actually somewhat rare to see as a language a professional uses.

Why? Because one should use a language for what it is good at.

And what is C++ good at?

Well, one of its neatest features is that it is a object oriented language.

It is also a language where you can create objects, but the language ITSELF is object oriented.

C++ is a derived class of the baseclass C

And it have the same philosophy as C

You can do ANYTHING!

You can EASILY write garanteed memory safe code in C++

You can write psydocode that have the same safety garantees as Rust.

Or you can go for 100% performsnce, dancing with void pointers and GOTOs!

Craft a class so it gets build, moved, removed used and works EXACTLY how you want it to! Down to the smallest details!

Write halfway object oriented and half functional!

If it can be done on a computer, it can be done in C++!

It may not be the language most often used. Often there are better languages for creating things

But knowing C++ means that you never again have to fully learn another language.

A C++ programmer KNOWS what a computer can do, so it is just a question of googeling the syntax for whatever language we are writing it in that day :D

Rant over. Answer time! :D

When I have to get a bit familiar with a new language I usually build a HTTP server :3

It is easy enough to look up for help, it means you work with everything you know

Slap it on a raspberry pie 0 or 3 depending on your wallet and bam! You have your own fileserver! :D

Connect a SSD into the raspberry pie 3 and bam, you now have your own cloud storage! :D

That is ALWAYS a useful thing :3

Keep it on your own network with a passwork and use MDNS to use it and it is 100% safe.

Because you piggybag on all the security wirless networks come with these days :3

[zoeythebee]

So not super visually interesting, but what i've added is actually very interesting.

Basically I had no way to neatly define actions. I had three seperate places where the player could theoretically get an item. And as the project would grow there would be more and more of these. Which would just be huge switch statements that would be almost identical to eachother.

Secondly, in this game many actions take time. For example digging a bush would take a few seconds. I needed a way to hold onto an action, and then send the player into a loop where they would work for the allotted time. And once that was up actually complete the action they were assigned.

Thirdly, I am in C. Which means there is no way to generically define objects with their own method. Like I can't attach a "dig" method to a tile object and just call it. So in C I used a collection of enums and function pointers.

This is the code that shows it off

So every action has an 'action_add' function. That accepts an action, and some parameters. Where we add the action to an array, and add the required data to the actions data buffer. Which we do with some fun pointer shenanigans.

Also yeah I know there is a few inefficiencies here don't worry. The realloc and memcpy lines at the end is where the real magic happens.

And then do_action takes an action. Iterates through it's actions array. Pulls out the required chunk of data, and passes it into a function pointer.

The function it runs in this case being,

Blammo! Generic action handlings! Now whenever I want the player to destroy a tile and get an item I can handle it with much less code. The only draw back is this whole system requires some book keeping. But I am reasonably sure if something breaks it will be fairly obvious what is going wrong. And the fix may just being slightly rearranging some arrays.

I feel very clever hee hee.

[magiccatbus]

I'm gonna ask a silly little question about a concept to do with: General Relativity. I don't really expect the right nerd to show up with my answers, so I probably need to find the actual equations or something, and figure out how to calculate the theoretical answers to my questions, but here's hoping.

If your in a sealed box, moving at a fix speed through space, there is allegedly no way you can tell how fast your moving. And humanly? Almost no way. But if I am allowed to take whatever insturments I want into the box with me? I am not entirely convinced.

The more real questions start with light, but first a distraction to do with gravity:

Could I not bring some highly sensitive equipment which can measure gravity into the box with me and then measure the changes in the gravitational field? And perhaps that wouldn't tell me I'm moving so much as it would tell me that some other object is moving relative to me, but what's the difference? And perhaps that is outside the intended premise of the original idea.

Although I suppose perhaps this would ultimately not be mesurable because the box might follow the gravity wells, and me and my instruments would be in free fall. I suppose you probably can't measure gravity if your in a free fall in a vacuum.

I really could do to think gravity measuring over harder, but that was just a tangent I accidentally stumbled on.

Light travels at a known speed. If the box were moving at say 99% of the speed of light is there really no way one could measure from the inside that the box is moving so close to the speed limit? Hell, if the box were moving that fast, would the occupant not be able to feel the difference between moving with and against the direction of travel what with it taking more energy to accelerate the closer to the speed of light you get(that is a thing, right?)? could a human even continue to live if they were subjected to near light speeds, even in a sealed box?

If the box was moving at say the c - 2 kph, would cause and effect not seem abstract? If I shined a flashlight would it not take an easily measured amount of time to bounce around? I imagine that if I was to attempt to measure the speed of light under these circumstances that it would seem to travel at approximately one kph? I imagine that it would seem to travel nearly 2 * c one way and at half of the remaining difference between the "true box speed" and c, and seeing as I don't think we have a way to measure the one directional speed of light the expected expeirimental result would be the two expected one directional speeds multiplied by time spent at that speed, and averaged together? Except of course from the experimenters point of view the prerequisite knowledge to produce expected experimental values would not be present.

What would happen If I pointed a laser perpendicular to the direction of travel as the box moved oh so blindingly quick? And I mean blindingly quick quite literally, because I imagine light wouldn't seem to be behaving quite normally. Would the laser pointer's beam, pointed perpendicular to the direction of travel "fall" to the "back" of the box? or would it seem to move on a more expected trajectory, but at a speed more in line with walking, than that expected out of the fastest shit known to exist(we have no proof of tachyons, which maybe exist in the math, that I know of, yet).

And I guess maybe you still couldn't tell what direction your moving, but if you knew the speed of light, and had the equipment to try to measure the speed of light, could you not find the speed you are traveling?

With love, some random idiot with more questions than are probably good for her.

The questions are fun though, so who knows ;3

Hopefully I worded all those thoughts correctly, I should sleep now and might try to re-read and potentially edit this when I wake.

One last thought to tac on. If my thoughts here regarding light hold any truth, then when they measured the speed of light did they adjust for the speed of the earth, sun, and/or galaxy?

[partypoisonzz]

(yeah, right) he fucking loves me (trey parker x reader nsfw alphabet)

Era: 90s

Content:

- Sub!Trey

- Recreational drug use

- Nobody asked for this as my return lol sorry please still like me anyway

Disclaimer: This explicit story was written by an adult for consumption by other adults only. If you are under 18, please do not read or interact in any way.

Hope you enjoy.

- Pen

-

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

He gets cuddly, but in a borderline stupid way. He's clingy as fuck, so you're going to be stuck in bed for a while with his face buried in your neck and his arm wrapped around your waist. Even cuter, he gets absolutely giddy, giggling and referring to you by pet names that would totally negate his edgy satirist image if anyone ever heard him. You take the opportunity to play with his hair and dote on him for a bit, knowing that that's not a luxury that you often get without a lighthearted argument or joke being thrown in. 

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

His favorite body part of his own is probably his hair. He's pretty damn vain about it and experiments more than is most likely healthy, especially where bleach is involved. However, he does allow you your own input and the opportunity to assist, which results in his impulsive makeovers being a little less disastrous, — and he let you put pink streaks in it that one time. That was cute.

As for you, he loves your chest. Though this isn't without its perverted reasoning, there's something sweet about the way that he buries his face there when you tease him, as well as how he falls asleep with his head over your heart. 

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

You had to beg him to come inside of you for months before he finally felt secure enough to do it. You'll never forget the way that he grabbed your hips and held you down the first time, whimpering as you told him what a good boy he was for filling you up. 

D = Dirty secret (a dirty secret of theirs)

He bottoms at least once a week, without failure. He's so particular about being in control all the time, so tightly wound. He trusts you to take the reigns when it's time for him to relinquish his grip. In his opinion, there's no better type of break than when you fuck him stupid.

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

He knows a good bit, but you've taught him most of it. Luckily for you, he's an eager learner. He doesn't just want to do what's worked before on his past partners, — he wants to please you . He's always happy to take your pointers, and he always makes good on them. 

F = Favorite position 

Either missionary or when you ride him. As basic as it all is, he just wants to get to look at you, no matter if you're above or below him. He likes to watch your face, and remember that this isn't just some random fling, — it's you, and he loves you more than anything. 

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous?)

You already know that he's absolutely ridiculous. He's hardly ever serious unless something's wrong. He frequently cracks (often objectively terrible) jokes mid-deed. You don't mind. You appreciate how he's always, — yes, always, — able to make you laugh.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they?)

You know that this man doesn't shave... Unless you ask him to. Then he would do it in a heartbeat, no questions, because, if you haven't gathered by now, you have him totally fucking whipped.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

He's so much sweeter than anyone would ever suspect. His entire brand may be playing the part of a massive jerk, but he's just so tender with you. Even when he's greedy, gripping and clawing at you, he's telling you through broken moans how much he loves you. Plus he can never seem to keep his mouth off you, kissing wherever he can while he's buried deep inside of you. 

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

He's obsessed with phone sex, mostly so you can tell him when he can and can't come, even when you're not physically together. It's so much better when your voice is there to spur him on, and he knows he won't be able to deny himself like you deny him. He loves that you make him stop and wait, as well as the way that you assure him that he's so good, just for you. Hearing you get hot and bothered from listening to him jerk off is also a turn on. 

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

He has a massive praise kink. Nothing makes him weaker than hearing you call him your good boy. He loves the way that you spoil him, indulging him in ways that he's too shy to ask for. It's both hot and reassuring to hear that he's good for you, but hearing that he's yours does it for him on an entirely different level. 

He loves when you're possessive of him. He likes it when you mark him up for this reason. He doesn't care if you leave behind hickeys or scratches, and frankly makes absolutely no effort to cover them when you do. He wants everyone to know that he belongs to you. Hell, you've joked that you could put a collar on him and he wouldn't mind. The fact that he turned bright red rather than arguing told you everything that you needed to know. 

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

Whenever and wherever you can. The bedroom, the shower, the couch, locked rooms at work when Matt leaves to go get food, the backseat of his car. He's a red-blooded young man, and your living situation has not necessarily leant itself well to privacy over the course of your relationship. If you've got a free minute and getting caught is not a certain possibility, he's game. 

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

To reiterate: he's a guy in his twenties, and he's totally fucking in love with you. Sometimes all you have to do is look at him and he's begging you to find somewhere for the two of you to sneak off to. 

He likes when you play with him a bit, deliberately teasing him before telling him that you shouldn't do anything right now. He would happily let you get him riled up over the course of an entire day, reducing him to nothing but a begging mess by the time you finally give him what he wants. He's your plaything, and he fucking loves it.  

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

He's kinky, but some more extreme things freak him the fuck out. He wants you to take control of him, not put him in a position that could fucking kill him if either of you made a wrong move. That being said, weapons are off the table, and choking is a hard maybe.  

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

Well, obviously he likes receiving, because what guy doesn't love a good blowjob? He loves the way that you dig your fingernails into his thighs and look up at him while bobbing your head up and down. It takes everything in him not to come on the spot, of course, but if you've taught him anything that he thought he might never learn, it has definitely been restraint. 

But when it comes to giving, you absolutely have him trained. He does exactly what you like, and he's naturally good at it. He loves when you pull his hair and push his face further between your thighs. Going down on you is his main way of serving you. He would absolutely do it all day if he could. 

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

He's fast, but not really rough, — not intentionally, at least. He's just impatient to a fault, which is something that you're trying to break him from. You frequently remind him to slow down and enjoy the moment. When that doesn't work, you edge him until he's reduced to a whimpering mess. Though you love the challenge that comes along with testing his obedience, you take satisfaction in the fact that he's so needy for you and let him go as fast as he wants on occasion. You're always pleasantly surprised when he accidentally gets rough with you. Knowing that he needs you that bad makes you come hard, which he most definitely appreciates. 

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

For better or for worse, quickies are a regular thing for the two of you. You've grown accustomed to getting each other off quickly at any opportunity. He's certainly not complaining about it, — if anything, it's made him all the more skilled at making you come, — but the times when you can actually enjoy yourselves without worrying about time constraints or somebody walking in are certainly a treat.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

He has never experimented as much as he has since he's been with you. For the most part, he is at your mercy, letting you do whatever with him with only a few hard limits. 

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

He has stamina in spades. It all comes down to how needy he is. It doesn't take much for you to get him hard again after he comes, and he's happy to go down on you between rounds. You've been known to make entire afternoons of your escapades, with him either letting you edge him or get him off again and again. Either way, there have been times where you haven't stopped until he got lightheaded and you had to go get him water and lovingly chastise him about stopping while he's ahead. 

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

Toys are another thing that he didn't have any experience with before he met you. Now that he has quote-unquote "incidentally" discovered how much he likes, — ahem, taking it, — you've taken him shopping once or twice. You joke about how new and inexperienced he is while either making him fuck himself in front of you or listening over the phone. 

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

He likes to tease you just for the purpose of being a brat. When it actually comes down to the act, he'll do whatever you want, whenever you want. Still, he's certainly not above playing with you just so you'll turn it around on him and make him fucking cry later on. He's a glutton for punishment, though he'll never verbally admit as much. 

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

He's so fucking loud. Embarrassingly so, even. He goes the whole nine yards, — moans, whimpers, begs, cries for you. Though he always starts out attempting to keep himself under control, that never lasts. By the end of it, his face is always either buried against your skin or in a pillow, and Matt is usually loudly bitching on the other side of the wall, telling him that if he can't quiet the fuck down, he can at least "not sound like a fucking girl."

W = Wild card (a random headcanon)

He can't smoke weed, so you make pot brownies for the two of you whenever you have a weekend to kill together. He barely has any tolerance, so he gets baked out of his mind. Conveniently, when he's high, he can't keep his hands off of you, and everything feels much more intense for the both of you. All of the stoned, giggly sex that ensues makes you fairly certain that your culinary endeavors are beneficial. 

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

He's a big, tall guy, and the rest of him is proportional to your expectations. (He just about died when you told him he was the biggest you ever had the first time that you slept together.)

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

Stupidly high. You like to inform all your friends that he "fucks like the Energizer Bunny." Unless he's sick or super depressed, he'd probably be o-kay with you climbing on top of him and taking what's rightfully yours. The two of you just never seem to get enough of each other. 

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

If there's nothing else that needs immediate attention, he stays awake just long enough to clean up, curl up against you, and sleepily mumble a series of far-too-sweet sentiments while you rub his back. After that, he's out cold and still holding onto you in his sleep. 

[unlust-fvck]

C (panic attack), E, K, L, O for the 300 celebration (congrats btw) with Wilbur if that's alright. Feel free to do only one 😁

comfort—

will is definitely one to freak out at first in his head. sort of like the “don’t tell mom” freak out when you get hurt as a kid

he means well though. it takes him a bit to really get the gears turning on what to do

first, he tries to get your breathing evened out before anything because he definitely knows what it’s like to feel so suffocated

then, once you’re sniffling and avoiding eye contact, he likes to just hold you. not the too loose hold or the too tight hold; the genuine i love you hold.

he’d lay down with you, your head on his chest, and just let you listen to his heart to encourage you to keep steady until you say otherwise

equal—

will is the more domineering one in the relationship, though it’s very casual. switch ass bitch

he’s the type to hold the small of your back while the two of you navigate through busy streets. the type to keep an eye on you at parties and interfere once things become too much.

though everyone says he’s whipped for you, the dynamic is honestly the complete opposite.

in the least toxic way possible, he’s got you between his pointer and his thumb and you’re okay with that.

you love the feeling of knowing he’s the one taking care of you and making sure everything is well, though it may seem different from afar

kiss—

will initiated the first kiss.

the two of you had been dating for about three weeks at that point and he knew everything had to be slow, yet perfect.

he didn’t want to scare you off, nor did he want you to lose interest.

the two of you sat in his gaming room, his eyes set on the screen in front of him as you sat beside him on the couch, watching.

he glanced over at you and noticed the impatient huff leave your lips. those pink lips.

he spun around to face you and bent down slightly, his movements calculated.

his eyes flickered to your lips, then back up. a wordless exchange passed between the two of you and his lips ever so slightly grazed yours until you amped it up.

he’s definitely a good kisser but has his moments when he’s sleepy. his tongue just limply lapping at yours.

love confession—

it wasn’t planned, nor calculated like everything else.

the two of you had been dating for about four and a half months before it had really cross your mind.

you’d hint at it now and again, nervous to what will might think.

after a long day of streaming, editing, and more computer work, will was exhausted.

all he wanted was dinner and his bed, yet he groaned at the thought of cooking.

you had taken notice to his busy day and showed up at his door with takeout and wildflowers.

after seeing you on his doorstep with the objects in hand, he breathed it out quietly and pulled you into a tight hug.

on cloud nine—

anyone who knows will also knows you.

though he dosent say much about it, it’s very obvious to everyone else how lovestruck he is.

the way his eyes crinkle at the sight of you. his shoulders relax and his jaw unclenches.

you’re like a grounding force for him and it’s very evident.

will is a strong believer in words of affirmation and acts of service.

he’s always looking out for you and praising you for every little thing you do.

join the celebration here!

[ohcitron]

ranking kaguya sama characters by their coding abilities/familiarity:

ishigami: he probably knows basic html from being super online all his life. has general education coding knowledge but probably understands it at a deeper level due to past experience. has the knowledge and expertise the average extremely online boy on a stem track. and he definitely has a bunch of failed attempts at making a game in rpgmaker or unity.

miko: knows a bit from general education and possibly an elective, but doesn't know much past writing simple if statements and for loops. just barely has enough knowledge to know what an object is. considers it a useful skill to some extent but doesn't really know enough that it'd be useful in any sense.

chika: you'd expect her to know little to none but i feel like maybe she has some strange esoteric knowledge from some linguistics/cog sci perspective. like one very specific spike of knowledge of one very specific use case. she's chika

kaguya: about the same as miko. i dont think she'd go out of her way to learn the skill but would be plenty good at it due to the way her mind works, just does not prioritize it.

shirogane: i know his ass has used matlab. theres definitely coding for astrophysics and im sure he's done some self study in that regard. i cant remember clearly but he's probably studying business in college rather than astrophysics but i can dream. maybe he's fintech related coding now or something. sigh. well my point is i think he definitely has background knowledge in mathematical modeling.

hayasaka: i think she definitely has more expertise on the hardware side of things. in general she definitely and like canonically has a ton of knowledge of networking and sniffing and things like that. extremely practical/useful skills. i think if you showed her a C function pointer though she might start running away

disclaimer: i am kind of ass at coding. take this with a grain of salt.

[watchmorecinema]

Normally I just post about movies but I'm a software engineer by trade so I've got opinions on programming too.

Apparently it's a month of code or something because my dash is filled with people trying to learn Python. And that's great, because Python is a good language with a lot of support and job opportunities. I've just got some scattered thoughts that I thought I'd write down.

Python abstracts a number of useful concepts. It makes it easier to use, but it also means that if you don't understand the concepts then things might go wrong in ways you didn't expect. Memory management and pointer logic is so damn annoying, but you need to understand them. I learned these concepts by learning C++, hopefully there's an easier way these days.

Data structures and algorithms are the bread and butter of any real work (and they're pretty much all that come up in interviews) and they're language agnostic. If you don't know how to traverse a linked list, how to use recursion, what a hash map is for, etc. then you don't really know how to program. You'll pretty much never need to implement any of them from scratch, but you should know when to use them; think of them like building blocks in a Lego set.

Learning a new language is a hell of a lot easier after your first one. Going from Python to Java is mostly just syntax differences. Even "harder" languages like C++ mostly just mean more boilerplate while doing the same things. Learning a new spoken language in is hard, but learning a new programming language is generally closer to learning some new slang or a new accent. Lists in Python are called Vectors in C++, just like how french fries are called chips in London. If you know all the underlying concepts that are common to most programming languages then it's not a huge jump to a new one, at least if you're only doing all the most common stuff. (You will get tripped up by some of the minor differences though. Popping an item off of a stack in Python returns the element, but in Java it returns nothing. You have to read it with Top first. Definitely had a program fail due to that issue).

The above is not true for new paradigms. Python, C++ and Java are all iterative languages. You move to something functional like Haskell and you need a completely different way of thinking. Javascript (not in any way related to Java) has callbacks and I still don't quite have a good handle on them. Hardware languages like VHDL are all synchronous; every line of code in a program runs at the same time! That's a new way of thinking.

Python is stereotyped as a scripting language good only for glue programming or prototypes. It's excellent at those, but I've worked at a number of (successful) startups that all were Python on the backend. Python is robust enough and fast enough to be used for basically anything at this point, except maybe for embedded programming. If you do need the fastest speed possible then you can still drop in some raw C++ for the places you need it (one place I worked at had one very important piece of code in C++ because even milliseconds mattered there, but everything else was Python). The speed differences between Python and C++ are so much smaller these days that you only need them at the scale of the really big companies. It makes sense for Google to use C++ (and they use their own version of it to boot), but any company with less than 100 engineers is probably better off with Python in almost all cases. Honestly thought the best programming language is the one you like, and the one that you're good at.

Design patterns mostly don't matter. They really were only created to make up for language failures of C++; in the original design patterns book 17 of the 23 patterns were just core features of other contemporary languages like LISP. C++ was just really popular while also being kinda bad, so they were necessary. I don't think I've ever once thought about consciously using a design pattern since even before I graduated. Object oriented design is mostly in the same place. You'll use classes because it's a useful way to structure things but multiple inheritance and polymorphism and all the other terms you've learned really don't come into play too often and when they do you use the simplest possible form of them. Code should be simple and easy to understand so make it as simple as possible. As far as inheritance the most I'm willing to do is to have a class with abstract functions (i.e. classes where some functions are empty but are expected to be filled out by the child class) but even then there are usually good alternatives to this.

Related to the above: simple is best. Simple is elegant. If you solve a problem with 4000 lines of code using a bunch of esoteric data structures and language quirks, but someone else did it in 10 then I'll pick the 10. On the other hand a one liner function that requires a lot of unpacking, like a Python function with a bunch of nested lambdas, might be easier to read if you split it up a bit more. Time to read and understand the code is the most important metric, more important than runtime or memory use. You can optimize for the other two later if you have to, but simple has to prevail for the first pass otherwise it's going to be hard for other people to understand. In fact, it'll be hard for you to understand too when you come back to it 3 months later without any context.

Note that I've cut a few things for simplicity. For example: VHDL doesn't quite require every line to run at the same time, but it's still a major paradigm of the language that isn't present in most other languages.

Ok that was a lot to read. I guess I have more to say about programming than I thought. But the core ideas are: Python is pretty good, other languages don't need to be scary, learn your data structures and algorithms and above all keep your code simple and clean.

[nectoy7]

The History of Java Programming: From Its Humble Beginnings to Dominance in Software Development

Java is one of the most influential programming languages in the modern era, known for its versatility, portability, and robustness. Developed in the early 1990s, it has left a lasting impact on the software industry, helping build countless applications, from mobile games to enterprise-level software. In this blog, we'll explore Java’s fascinating history, its motivations, its growth, and its influence on today’s technology landscape.

The Genesis of Java

Java originated in the early 1990s as part of a project at Sun Microsystems. The project, initially called the "Green Project," was led by James Gosling, alongside Mike Sheridan and Patrick Naughton. The team's goal was to develop a language for embedded systems, specifically for appliances like televisions, which were beginning to incorporate smart technology.

The language was initially called "Oak," named after an oak tree outside Gosling's office. However, due to a trademark conflict, it was eventually renamed Java. The name "Java" was inspired by a type of coffee popular with the developers, signifying their relentless energy and drive.

Motivation Behind Java's Creation

Java was developed to address several key challenges in software development at the time:

Portability: Most languages of the day, such as C and C++, were platform-dependent. This meant that software needed significant modification to run on different operating systems. Gosling and his team envisioned a language that could be executed anywhere without alteration. This led to the now-famous slogan, "Write Once, Run Anywhere" (WORA).

Reliability: C and C++ were powerful, but they had pitfalls like manual memory management and complex pointers, which often led to errors. Java aimed to eliminate these issues by offering features like automatic memory management through garbage collection.

Internet Revolution: As the internet began to take shape, Java was positioned to take advantage of this growing technology. Java’s platform independence and security made it an ideal choice for internet-based applications.

The Birth of Java (1995)

The Green Project initially produced a device called Star7, an interactive television set-top box. While innovative, it didn't achieve widespread success. However, by the mid-1990s, the internet was gaining traction, and Sun Microsystems realized Java’s true potential as a programming language for web applications.

In 1995, Java was officially launched with the release of the Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.0. At the same time, Netscape Navigator, a popular web browser, announced that it would support Java applets. This gave Java immense exposure and set the stage for its rapid adoption in the software development community.

Key Features that Set Java Apart

From the beginning, Java had several features that distinguished it from its contemporaries:

Platform Independence: Java programs are compiled into an intermediate form called bytecode, which runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). The JVM acts as a mediator between the bytecode and the underlying system, allowing Java programs to be executed on any platform without modification.

Object-Oriented: Java was designed from the ground up as an object-oriented language, emphasizing modularity, reusability, and scalability. This feature made Java particularly attractive for building complex and large-scale applications.

Automatic Memory Management: Java's garbage collector automatically handles memory deallocation, reducing the risk of memory leaks and other errors that plagued languages like C and C++.

Security: Java was designed with a focus on security, particularly given its intended use for internet applications. The JVM serves as a secure sandbox, and Java’s bytecode verification process ensures that malicious code cannot be executed.

Evolution of Java Versions

Since its release in 1995, Java has undergone several iterations, each bringing new features and improvements to enhance the developer experience and address the evolving needs of software applications.

Java 1.0 (1996): The first version of Java was mainly used for applets on web browsers. It came with basic tools, libraries, and APIs, establishing Java as a mainstream programming language.

Java 2 (1998): With the release of J2SE (Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition), Java evolved from a simple web language to a complete, general-purpose development platform. Java 2 introduced the Swing library, which provided advanced tools for building graphical user interfaces (GUIs). This release also marked the beginning of Java Enterprise Edition (J2EE), which extended Java for server-side applications.

Java 5 (2004): Java 5, initially called Java 1.5, was a significant update. It introduced Generics, Annotations, Enumerations, and Autoboxing/Unboxing. The updated version also brought improved syntax and functionality, which simplified writing and reading code.

Java SE 7 (2011) and Java SE 8 (2014): Java SE 7 brought features like try-with-resources, simplifying exception handling. Java SE 8 was a transformative release, introducing Lambda expressions and Stream APIs. This version brought functional programming aspects to Java, allowing developers to write more concise and expressive code.

Java 9 to Java 17 (2017-2021): Java 9 introduced the module system to help organize large applications. Java 11 and later versions moved towards a more rapid release cadence, with new features appearing every six months. Java 17, released in 2021, became a long-term support (LTS) version, offering several advancements like improved garbage collection, pattern matching, and record classes.

The Java Community and OpenJDK

Java's development has always been characterized by a strong community influence. Initially controlled by Sun Microsystems, Java's fate changed when Oracle Corporation acquired Sun in 2010. After the acquisition, Oracle made significant strides towards making Java more open and community-driven.

OpenJDK, an open-source implementation of Java, became the reference implementation starting from Java 7. This move encouraged greater collaboration, transparency, and diversity within the Java ecosystem. OpenJDK allowed more organizations to contribute to Java’s development and ensure its continued growth.

Java in the Enterprise and Beyond

Java has become synonymous with enterprise-level software development, thanks in part to the introduction of Java EE (now known as Jakarta EE). Java EE provides a set of specifications and tools for building large-scale, distributed, and highly reliable applications. The Java ecosystem, including frameworks like Spring, Hibernate, and Apache Struts, has contributed to its popularity in enterprise environments.

Java also became a key player in the development of Android applications. Android Studio, Google's official IDE for Android development, is powered by Java, which contributed significantly to its widespread adoption. Although Kotlin, another JVM language, is now gaining popularity, Java remains a core language for Android.

The Challenges Java Faced

Despite its success, Java faced competition and challenges over the years. Languages like C#, developed by Microsoft, and Python have gained traction due to their developer-friendly features. Java has been criticized for its verbosity compared to more modern languages. However, the Java community’s active contributions and Oracle’s improvements, including adding modern programming paradigms, have kept it relevant.

Another significant challenge was the rise of JavaScript for web development. While Java was initially popular for web applets, JavaScript became the dominant language for front-end development. Java's relevance in web applications decreased, but it found its niche in server-side applications, enterprise systems, and Android.

Java Today and Its Future

Today, Java is one of the most popular programming languages globally, powering applications across various sectors, including finance, healthcare, telecommunications, and education. Java’s strength lies in its mature ecosystem, robust performance, and scalability.

The new six-month release cycle initiated by Oracle has brought excitement back into the Java world, with new features being added frequently, keeping the language modern and in line with developer needs. Java 17, as an LTS version, is a stable platform for enterprises looking for reliable updates and support over the long term.

Looking forward, Java’s evolution focuses on improving developer productivity, adding more concise language features, and optimizing performance. Java's adaptability and continuous evolution ensure its place as a leading language for both new projects and legacy systems.

Conclusion

Java’s journey from a language for set-top boxes to becoming a foundational tool in enterprise computing, Android applications, and beyond is nothing short of remarkable. Its creation was driven by a need for portability, reliability, and ease of use. Over nearly three decades, Java has evolved to remain relevant, keeping pace with technological advancements while preserving its core values of reliability and platform independence.

The language’s robust community, open-source development model, and wide adoption in critical applications guarantee that Java will remain a force in software development for many years to come. It has not only withstood the test of time but continues to thrive in a constantly changing technology landscape—an enduring testament to the vision of its creators and the collective effort of its global community.