#What is Rest API

[nitorinfotech-blog]

A RESTful API (Representational State Transfer) is a web service architecture that follows a set of principles and constraints, aiming to simplify communication between systems. RESTful APIs use standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) to perform operations on resources, which are identified by unique URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers).

[octal-codes]

The modder argument is a fallacy.

We've all heard the argument, "a modder did it in a day, why does Mojang take a year?"

Hi, in case you don't know me, I'm a Minecraft modder. I'm the lead developer for the Sweet Berry Collective, a small modding team focused on quality mods.

I've been working on a mod, Wandering Wizardry, for about a year now, and I only have the amount of new content equivalent to 1/3 of an update.

Quality content takes time.

Anyone who does anything creative will agree with me. You need to make the code, the art, the models, all of which takes time.

One of the biggest bottlenecks in anything creative is the flow of ideas. If you have a lot of conflicting ideas you throw together super quickly, they'll all clash with each other, and nothing will feel coherent.

If you instead try to come up with ideas that fit with other parts of the content, you'll quickly run out and get stuck on what to add.

Modders don't need to follow Mojang's standards.

Mojang has a lot of standards on the type of content that's allowed to be in the game. Modders don't need to follow these.

A modder can implement a small feature in 5 minutes disregarding the rest of the game and how it fits in with that.

Mojang has to make sure it works on both Java and Bedrock, make sure it fits with other similar features, make sure it doesn't break progression, and listen to the whole community on that feature.

Mojang can't just buy out mods.

Almost every mod depends on external code that Mojang doesn't have the right to use. Forge, Fabric API, and Quilt Standard Libraries, all are unusable in base Minecraft, as well as the dozens of community maintained libraries for mods.

If Mojang were to buy a mod to implement it in the game, they'd need to partially or fully reimplement it to be compatible with the rest of the codebase.

Mojang does have tendencies of *hiring* modders, but that's different than outright buying mods.

Conclusion

Stop weaponizing us against Mojang. I can speak for almost the whole modding community when I say we don't like it.

Please reblog so more people can see this, and to put an end to the modder argument.

[animentality]

Dude I'm so confused

Why are the redditors refugees here-

Whats up with the tag 196

AND WHY IS EVERYONE BEING SO NICE WITH THE TWITTER REFUGEES CAME WE GAVE THEM HELL (almost)

The Reddit refugees are here because several subreddits have gone private in protest of reddit's new policy of charging third party developers for access to its API.

Hence the term reddit blackout.

196 specifically was a very queer friendly subreddit that had one rule: that you post before you leave. 196 is trending because those Redditors have come here and they're basically sharing their memery here instead as they protest reddit's greed.

As for why we're welcoming them when Twitter refugees were seen with a little more irritation, well.

Think of the culture similarities.

Tumblr and reddit have far more in common than Tumblr and Twitter.

Twitter is about clout and manipulating algorithms and discourse in 280 characters or less. It's about bad takes that reach the right people and it forces you to see things you don't want to see and it's crawling with the worst people imaginable and you're forced to see them, all the time. They also brought bad tagging and 2016 Tumblr discourse with them, because Twitter culture really involves starting fights for clout and braindead opinions that no one really wants to come back to Tumblr culture.

There was a time when Tumblr did the same thing, but worse, with more words...but nowadays, it's really calmed down.

The worst people...went to Twitter after the porn ban. Ironically, it made the site less toxic and hostile.

But then they came back.

And it was like...hm. no thanks. Stay back where you came from.

But Tumblr and Reddit have much more in common.

Both have a more streamlined way of customizing your online feed. You can choose what subreddits you see on your home screen, just like Tumblr only shows you the content of your followers, on your dashboard, and in chronological order rather than what's trending. You can join a very specific weird niche group of freaks with a shared obsession, and not care about the rest of the site at all. You also don't have a character limit on either site, which lets you ramble more and share weird detailed stories.

Reddit might have karma, but like Tumblr, the majority of people are lurkers and not posters. It also allows you to downvote bad opinions, and moderators who have to adhere to certain guidelines of behavior, which means a lot of banning disruptive people.

Granted, sometimes their mods are power hungry, but. You know.

It does more to control its users than Tumblr do, and that's a good thing in terms of keeping toxicity and illegal shit off its subs.

Reddit also has a way more leftwing attitude than you would think.

It has a reputation for being full of incels but I honestly think that's outdated.

It's cleaned up its act quite a bit since the old days.

I see way more vile shit from Twitter and TikTok. Like seriously.

Twitter is crawling with conservative bots and propaganda machines and just outright inflammatory lies. TikTok literally has the worst comment sections I've ever seen, like edgy teenagers cracking racist and misogynistic humor and acting like it makes them different and special. Its algorithm also spoon feeds you garbage and is designed to be as addicting as possible.

At least reddit's culture, while chauvinistic and regressive in certain subcultures, is mostly on the tech positive, atheist libertarian side.

It can be a little pretentious and caustic about certain subjects, and a little full of itself. Some reddits are also very male leaning and disregard female concerns in favor of moaning about how men have it worse than anyone else on earth.

But for the most part?

...well.

I welcome them here, because if they left reddit in protest, then we always support protests. But 196 specifically is also a queer subreddit, and we support that even more.

Plus they're funny as fuck.

What's not to like, really?

You should welcome them with open arms too.

[baddywronglegs]

One thing I didn't expect working in web development was how annoyed I'd get at 404 jokes where other status codes would make a better punchline.

The problem if course is everyone knows 404 because it's the one web developers make jokey error pages for so really it's our fault.

The solution is using memes to teach what the rest of them mean.

[wip]

Hi!

Are there any plans to improve how users can prune a reblog chain before reblogging it themselves?

Right now, we either have to remove all the additional posts, or find a reblog from before a particular part was added. That's tricky, and being able to just snip the rest of the chain off at more points would make life a lot easier.

Answer: Hey, @tartrazeen!

Good news! This is already supported in the API via the “exclude_trail_items” parameter when creating or editing a reblog. However, it only really works for posts stored in our Neue Post Format (NPF), which excludes all posts made before 2016 and many posts on web before August 2023. For that reason, we don’t expect this will ever be made a “real” feature that you can access in our official clients. It wouldn’t be too wise of us to design, build, and ship an interface for something we know won’t even work on the majority of posts.

If you don’t fancy doing this via the API yourself, there are other solutions to leverage this feature—namely, third-party browser extensions. For example, XKit Rewritten has something called “Trim Reblogs,” which allows you to do exactly what you ask… though with all the caveats about availability mentioned above.

Thanks for your question. We hope this helps!

[kachowden]

Hello! Just found your blog recently but i really like it here :3

Could we learn more about Apis the bull demon, specifically i would like to know about these special "needs" u mentioned

Of course! And thank you so much that means a lot anon <3 （＾∇＾）

TW: nsfw themes, degradation, Excessive cum, size difference, “milking”, overstimulation, slight masochism

——————————

The hallow, thundering sound of your bedpost smashing against the wall filled your once neat and tidy bedroom.

“For fucks sake Apis not again!”

The beast mewled in embarrassment

It was a filthy sight really.

The bed was misshapen, sheets falling off, pillows thrown across the room. The only exception being the two head pillows, that cushioned the bull demons heavy cock. Just barely.

It twitched and pulsed to life under your stare, thick globs of pretty cum dripping from the flaming head, soaking your pillows more than they had already been.

You’ll have to get those thrown out.

This wasn’t the first time this had happened. No, the first time it happened you damn near passed out in shock. Actually no, you did pass out. You woke up the sight of large pecs squished into your face, and a hefty weight strewn across your lap. You passed twice that day actually.

To be perfectly honest you weren’t very well versed in the needs or biology of demons, nor more specifically bull demons. So how could you have know these guys needed a regular “milking”?

You pitied the poor fella who first discovered that.

Speaking of.

Apis whined needily at your wandering thoughts, forcing a multitude of disgusting, filthy lewd visuals to flood in, and encouraging you to take a deep breath and squeeze your thighs together tightly.

He practically purred at the sight, hips stuttering forward slightly and smearing cum against your sheets.

“Apis didn’t we take care of this last week? Isn’t it supposed to be monthly?”

Emphasis on supposed to be. Apis was a special case though.

You’d taken him to a “demon expert” once, to find out why he was so consistently hot and bothered.

Apparently since he was “infatuated” with you, and you two had yet to mate, the “milking” period was had become much more frequent in an attempt to coerce you into having sex with him. You know like how some demons have pheromone’s and heats and all that?

Except you don’t know because you literally knew nothing about demons before meeting Apis.

Just your luck right?

Painintheassfuckingmotherfucker-

Anyway.

It was annoying to put simply. Granted, bull demon seed sold for quite a lot to most “farms” and “grocers”. So in terms of some extra cash it really wasn’t all that bad. It was just a massive blow to your pride and mental stability.

Not to mention it made your back hurt something awful.

The poor guy was a fucking mess during milking time. It was hard to keep him to sit still half the time, especially with his whip like tail occasionally smacking you in the face, and him trying to grab you or grind into your side.

Typically he was pretty well behaved, just not on days like this which has become more and more frequent.

You guessed this “milking” period was pretty effective.

Your hand wasn’t nearly big enough to wrap around the full girth of his cock, so more often than not you’d have to use both to successfully lift the thing up. It was heavy too, which often meant you had to take breaks. But you’d gotten better!

You supposed that wasn’t really something to be proud of.

Luckily it wasn’t that difficult to get him going after that. You were pretty sure you could breathe on it and he’d ejaculate at least a pound or two worth. But that never solved the problem. He needed direct stimulation, from you, before his dick would go back down and he’d be good for a few more weeks.

So typically you had to be extra hands on. Which is what you were doing now.

The bull demon rested dutifully against the sofa, length stood proud and pulsing above the metal bucket on the floor, meant to catch whatever came out.

You’d done this enough times to have finally bought a big enough bucket. You could probably take a bath in the thing if you really wanted to even, though that wasn’t really important to mention right now.

Apis let out a half growl half whimper, as his hips bucked upwards, cock head rubbing against your cheek disgustingly.

Motherfucker had the audacity to moan at the sight.

“Watch it!” You pushed the appendage away, unfortunately causing Apis to release another deliciously filthy moan at the split second contact, as more pre cum rushed from the sweet Cherry red tip of his cock.

He was such a pathetic mess.

why was he such a pathetic hot mess?!

His teary eye urged you to continue, your mind being overwhelmed with the desperate and erotic imagery he sent to you.

You were 90% sure you couldn’t bend that way.

You supposed you had to finish this quickly now, less this bull decided to finally take matters into his own hands.

Your hands gripped at the base of his cock, encouraging even more pre cum to dribble out, before you finally began pumping.

It was an arm work out for sure, but you couldn’t help and admire the visuals at this point.

His head was thrown back, and his pretty pattered fur fluffed up with pleasure. Delicious, sultry moans poured from his jagged teeth, and his shoulders shook with the force which he gripped the couch head. You could hear it cracking under the pressure of his fingers. The implications of those hands holding you down made you shiver, and pump your hands a little faster.

At some point however, the pathetic mewls and moans began to fade into white noise, as your previous trance quickly turned into irritation.

Especially at the sight of your ruined furniture.

Whyd this happen to you exactly anyway? All you did was find the guy when he was wandering in your back yard at night. You thought he was trying to rob you or something! But he looked so sad that you stupidly took pity on him.

You didn’t have to offer him to stay though! Maybe he hypnotized you or something. Maybe he hypnotized you into naming him too! Maybe he’s the reason your stuck here, say and night, helping an overgrown cow jerk off in your living room, in your house, when you could be doing literally anything else after a long, exhausting, annoying day! Maybe he-!

“Ahhhgn!”

A loud blaring, thundering wave hit your thoughts like a truck, forcing you away from your angry inner tantrum.

Apis had never done that before.

Oh.

The bull demons eye was screwed shut, tears pouring out from behind his eye lids, his whole body riddled with tremors as orgasm after orgasm was ripped from his poor abused cock. He whined deeply and pathetic, choking out moans with strangled pants and furious blush that swelled over his cheeks and shoulders.

He slumped back tiredly, as fat bursts of seed shot from his cock all over the floor and couch. The bucket overflowing with cum that you hadn’t even noticed till now.

Holy shit

This was probably the most disgustingly sexy thing you’d ever seen. He looked utterly ruined

You would have felt bad for the poor bastard too, had it not been for the stupid wobbly grin and your name being sang like a prayer from the bulls thoughts.

What a pain in the ass.

“?”

“Not an invitation.”

———————————-

A/n: hope you enjoyed <3

[hufflepuffwritingstuff2]

Sticky Situation- Part 8

Part 7

@laffy-taffy-creations I'm tagging you because you're gonna wanna read this!

-------

"I'm in," Hero said, "what now?"

"Take a left at the end of this hallway," Assistant's voice crackled in Hero's earpiece.

Hero did as they were told. They crept through Organization's maze of corridors while Assistant instructed them from their makeshift computer setup in their car.

"You should be reaching the central cortex," Assistant said, "do you see a pair of doors with a keypad?"

Hero saw them, along with two long shadows. They ducked behind a wall as two henchmen passed. They waited until their footsteps faded, then approached the doors.

“Yep,” Hero said.

“Okay,” Assistant continued, “punch in code 4-4-8-3.”

Hero did that, and the doors slid open with a whooshing sound. Hero entered the central cortex.

“Now what, Assistant?”

Hero was only greeted by crackling and static.

“Assistant?”

Hero put a finger to their earpiece.

“Assistant, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t think they can hear you.”

Hero’s blood ran cold- colder than usual. They turned to see Supervillain approaching them as two henchmen closed the double doors, locking them inside.

“You did very well,” Supervillain praised, “you reached the central cortex much faster than I thought you would.”

Before Hero could move, they felt a pinch in their neck. A numbness began to spread throughout their entire body. The two henchmen caught Hero before they could crumple to the ground. They deposited them in a chair covered in restraints. The henchmen started strapping Hero in, though it really wasn’t necessary, as whatever Hero had just been darted with made them unable to move at all.

“Now that I have your attention, Hero, I have a question for you,” Supervillain said, “how much do you know about beekeeping?”

Hero blinked. That… was the last thing they were expecting to hear.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Hero asked.

“Just answer the question.”

Hero knew by now not to test Supervillain.

“I, uh, beekeepers take care of the bees?”

“Honeybees to be specific.” Supervillain amended, “Apis mellifera Linnaeus, or, the honeybee, is a remarkable little insect. Like humans, they are a eusocial species. Unlike humans, however, honeybees are known to have swarm intelligence, also known as a hive mind. This collective mentality allows the colony to thrive and keep the hive running. The most important bee is of course, the queen bee. She has the power to determine every action of the hive, via pheromones that only she can secrete. It’s the beekeeper’s job to make sure that the hive has a good queen.”

Supervillain paused, smiling to themselves.

“The bees crave subjugation you see. Much like humans. Without a leader, the colony would die. Without control, the colony would cease to operate. This would of course cause environmental collapse and the ramifications of that would likely be irreversible. Therefore, control is life-sustaining, but resistance is unequivocally destructive.”

Hero glared; they weren’t sure what Supervillain was getting at, but they were definitely sure that it wasn’t good.

“The only issue is… humans don’t know what they crave. They keep trying to find what’s missing, all the while resisting what would satisfy them. That’s where you come in.”

Supervillain turned to the giant computers in front of them. They typed in a code, pulling up the plans to create an army of cryogenically enhanced super-soldiers.

“I am the beekeeper, you see, and you, Hero, are the queen I have chosen. With your powers, I will send my worker bees to assimilate the rest of the world into the hive.”

Hero’s eyes went wide. This is why Supervillain wanted them the whole time.

“Get them ready,” Supervillain said, “and bring Assistant. We’ll need to start human trials soon after all.”

Another dart was injected into their neck, and Hero’s world went dark.

Part 9

Patreon

Ko-fi

Tags: @mythixmagic @infinityshadows @fishtale88 @thelazywitchphotographer @the-beasts-have-arrived @princessofonwardsworld @surplus-of-sarcasm

@steh-lar-uh-nuhs @rainy-knights-of-villany

[cugareal]

im posting thru it right now cause im fuckin mad. right as i begin to find a community on here of likeminded trans women everything goes to shit as we start getting systematically chased off here. whats your fucking damage. i feel like i have so much to say but i dont have the words for any of it cause im incandescent with rage. why commit so much energy to harassing - with the FULL FORCE OF A SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM - a group of random fucking women who post random fucking jokes and the occasional kink. are you really that threatened? does every single one of you FAANG dickriders have some sort of personal vendetta against trans women because one of them said something to you angrily once? whats your fucking damage! all you people do is act like youre the paragon of society, that somehow you’re objectively the smartest of us all and that you’re destined to singlehandedly lead us into a glorious new epoch because you know how to implement a javascript framework and a REST API and you cant even stand someone who takes estrogen once a night taking a few pictures of herself whats your FUCKING damage

[izicodes]

Hiya! Just wanted to share some Web Dev learning course videos I found really helpful! They're all pretty long and full of content! These videos can be the foundation of your web development journey and be used as a reference! If you do decide to work through the videos, do remember to code along - the best way to learn is by doing and, with programming especially, creating projects as well to apply what you've learned!

Most of the videos, if not at all, cover things like:

HTML5

CSS3

JavaScript

Responsive Design + Mobile design

jQuery

GitHub Tutorials

Tailwind CSS fundamentals

React fundamentals

Node.js

Next.js and more!

Now, onto the videos themselves below!

Web Development Tutorials For Beginners playlist by LearnCode.academy [link] 💻

Covers: HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, GitHub, Responsive Design

Full Course Web Development [22 Hours] | Learn Full Stack Web Development From Scratch by Codedamn [link] 💻

Covers: HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, React, Tailwind CSS, React Query, Node.js, Next.js

Full Stack Web Development for Beginners by FreeCodeCamp.org [link]

Covers: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node.js, MongoDB

Introduction To Responsive Web Design by FreeCodeCamp.org [link]

Covers: HTML, CSS, Flexbox, Media Queries

Web Development In 2022 - A Practical Guide by Traversy Media [link]

Covers: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Sass, PostCSS, TypeScript fundamentals, Testing, Databases, GrapghQL, WordPress, REST APIs, UI kits & Libraries, Moblie Development fundamentals, Web3

Front End Development Full Course 2022 | Front End Development Tutorial For Beginners by Simplilearn [link]

Covers: Git and GitHub, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ReactJS, Angular

Learn Web Development from Scratch by Edureka [link]

Covers: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB, TypeScript

┌── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

Well, that’s all! I hope the videos are helpful!! 😋

Have a nice day/night and happy programming 👍🏾💗

└── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

[vanillaxoshi]

little something to how i characterize troublemaker trio

Angin, is someone who i see the most mentally stable, as in someone who emotionally knows whats best.

Angin embraces himself, his insane nature and doesnt let the bad things get the best of him. positive vibes and true feelings. which could be the reason why he could be mean at times because hes someone who wants to be true to himself. (this is very contradicting to how the rest of the fandom characterize him)

he lets himself cries when he needs to, he lets himself get angry when he is, he becomes serious when he need to be.

Of course hed still feel pain, guilt, regret.

Hed learn how to move on from those things more faster than the rest and would love to be his own self, happy with what hes doing.

Api lacks, in academic measures, hes great when it comes to physical activities. which is why hed be recommended to different things involving physical leisures. but he hates that, people telling him what to do or become, to the point when it came to his academic scores, to that point from season 3 in which he got stressed when people told him to get better in grades, while hed be handling nightmares.

Fire was a great way to get out of it. It was also something that made want to do something of his own, Entertain.

He would love to see and do fun things. He likes to entertain himself, but also others.

Hes fond of dancing hes fond of making others have fun. thats why he hates it when people would look at him in fear.

he looks up to angin, someone who looks and is so free, he wants to be like him and do silly things.

Daun, social anxiety. He had very low self esteem when he was younger.

hed barely talk to people and think the lowest of himself. on how he cant do things others can, hes not that athletic, hes not that smart.

He doesnt know if he could talk to people either. He didnt believe he had capabilities, so he barely participated in a bunch of stuff.

He looked up to Angin and the rest, on how they could be so confident to show themselves.

Daun, when he started to be with Angin and Api, made himself be more comfortable and confident, more happy with what hes doing.

Hes choosing to not think what others think which could make him be perceived as naive.

Hes choosing to be himself more.

Because of his vulnerable side, the siblings dont really want to burden him with a lot of responsibilities which could make him feel bad, but they are proud whenever daun himself does something of his own, showing he's grown.

[sybilius]

Old Internet Fridays #15: mr.d0x

BITB Attack // whoami

What’s this?

What’s this website?

An independently hosted website/blog for mr.d0x. He describes himself as a penetration tester and security researcher. On this site he posts short and informative explainers of security gaps or phishing techniques.

Okay, how did you find it?

Professional interest, let's say. I don't work in the digital infosec space, and certainly not in the "offensive security professional" space, but it's been on my mind. I ran across this one searching for an entirely separate system and its behaviours. Technically this page pushes the boundaries of "unmarketable", since mr.d0x runs a hacker academy that this page almost surely boosts his cred for. That said, I think it's worth the share just because I'd not seen anything quite like it before -- direct, easy to understand, very interesting.

How's it doing on Internet Archive?

Doing great! Lots of twitter traffic, I think, which makes it easier for the net crawl to find it.

By the way, it's that time of year, if you have some spare change to toss at Internet Archive, please consider it! They're up there with Wikipedia (and maybe more so) for free knowledge, entertainment, archival preservation.

What delighted you about it?

Very matter-of-fact! In particular I chose this BITB example as a way of showcasing how sophisticated some phishing schemes look, and how some of the flashier webapp tools can make us more vulnerable than the good old "the URL needs to be right" verification:

I also really really liked stealing access tokens for Windows Applications, but I feel like full appreciation of that article requires some knowledge of what an access token / REST API is to begin with :)

[itsbenedict]

okay, so- the past three days have been pretty insane, hence no to-do lists. did not know hour-to-hour what in the hell i'd have to do next.

monday morning, there was a company meeting, and it was announced that we were being sold. this was not... the most surprising thing in the world, because about a month ago there was this sudden hasty push by the top to reorganize the business into distinct independent units that didn't depend on shared services. like, what else would the point of doing that be, if not to sell off pieces of the business? sure, they said that wasn't happening, but who the hell was fooled by that?

so i used to do most of my work on these projects for this one specific business unit, building and running a bunch of middleware API integrations for our learning management system. but my boss, who used to be in charge of the dev team generally, got assigned to this totally different unit- and she liked me enough that she pushed really hard to get me reassigned to her unit.

so i was already conflicted about that:

i really like my boss- she's really understanding of my need for flexibility to work on my side projects, she only cares that i get the work done (and even with many side projects, i still consistently exceed expectations and get a full-time workload done ahead of schedule), and she was pushing hard to get me a raise against upper management who'd taken to using covid austerity as an excuse to never give anyone any raises ever. and the team assigned to this unit didn't have any senior devs who could handle a big infrastructure transition, and i'd just become AWS certified, and without someone like me, my coworkers assigned to that unit would be in some hot water. plus, after the transition, maintaining a reduced suite of products would probably be easier day-to-day.

but on the other hand, all my projects in the other business unit, with the LMS- those are pretty vital, and the nature of the contracts with those clients necessitates frequent maintenance and changes. my code for those integrations is bad, for various reasons but mainly that there is no dev environment for testing changes. it's fundamentally about managing production data in databases we don't directly control, so every change has to be done very quickly and carefully, with no room for big refactors to clean things up (and risk breaking stuff). it's a mess, and no one in the other business unit is prepared to take it over. plus- i liked working directly with clients, doing work where if i did the work someone was appreciative of the work. it was motivating!

ultimately, i decided to trust my boss and follow her to the other business unit. we weren't completely splitting from the rest of the business- i'd still be able to train up someone else to take over my projects, we'd still have the shared customer accounts management software, and- crucially- i'd still have the boss who understood my needs and had no interest in squeezing value out of me.

so i went on vacation for a couple weeks right after committing to that decision- and then i came back on monday, and that day they announce we're being sold.

also that my boss is fired and being replaced by someone from the new company.

also that we have two months to completely disconnect all our products from shared service infrastructure and rebuild our own.

also no takesies-backsies, the acquisition agreement included terms that the former company not hire back any of the sold-off employees or even discuss the acquisition with them at all. no chance to react to the new information except to sign the new offer letter by close of business on Wednesday.

i was unhappy about this! can you tell???

so my first thought was- okay, this is bullshit. i still want to work for the LMS people, the LMS people still want me to work for them, there has to be a solve here. so i go to the guy in charge of that division, who also wants me to keep working there, and he says okay i'll have our lawyers look into it.

and then... he gets back to me sounding like a robot, "i am unable to discuss this further with you at this time", which is so obviously out of character for the guy that i can tell legal's thrown the book at him. i talk to legal myself- it's a dead end. they can't- they're unable to even talk about why they can't talk about it, because obviously this deal was engineered to prevent me from doing exactly what i'm trying to do here.

so i go at it from the other angle. president of the sold company, now a wholly-owned for-profit subsidiary of a nonprofit organization (is that even allowed???), i explain to him, hey, this is a mistake, i'm only here because my old boss really wanted me to be on her team, surely you can let me go continue doing my actual job?

nope.

so then i start playing hardball.

the salary they're offering me is, adjusted for inflation, less than the salary i was offered two years ago, which had come with the (entirely failed) non-promise that i'd be bumped up to a certain level very quickly after some formalities re: the employment structure. i explain, in detail, how upset i am with the entire state of affairs- and i threaten to walk, which i am allowed to do. i'm not required to sign their new contract- i'd need to go job-hunting, sure, but i have money in the bank, i can afford to do it, and i could definitely get a better deal somewhere else.

this is a tense situation! my old boss knew this team needed me- but they unceremoniously fired her while she was on vacation, so her opinion doesn't mean dirt to them apparently. it's unclear how vital i really am to this- they could maybe train up one of the other devs to handle the AWS stuff.

and on my side- if i walk, that's it. all that horrible messy code for the LMS stuff- i don't get two months to train someone else up and write documentation and do some housecleaning. i'm gone! my horrific dirty laundry (and hours and hours of regular maintenance work) gets handed off to some other dev who's totally unprepared for it, and that person inevitably puts a curse on my entire family line as retribution for me leaving them holding that intolerable bag. i don't actually want to walk, because then i end up the bad guy in the eyes of people i respect and care about.

(also i'd have to do a job hunt and that shit is so god damn annoying you have no idea you probably have some idea.)

so i tell the guy, look- i can do better. i'm basically starting over doing harder work at an unfamiliar company, and if i'm doing that anyway, why not do it for someone who'll pay me? if you don't give me X amount of money, i'm walking out, and now you don't have an infrastructure guy during the two-month window you have to migrate a shit-ton of infrastructure. i am a serious dude and you can't just fuck with me!

(and inside i'm like:

because oh god i am not a serious dude i am so easily fucked with what if i'm pushing my luck too hard)

and he lets me fuckin' stew. 5:00 on wednesday i need to have either signed a contract or not signed a contract, and he hedges and goes to talk with the higher-ups and makes no promises, and i have no idea whether it's because i scared him or if he's trying to work out how to replace me or what. all this negotiation has been eating my brain for the past couple days and it's coming down to the wire-

and then a couple hours before the deadline he gets back to me with a counteroffer. it's less than i was asking, because that's how negotiations work, but it is more than i was making when i was brought on, by a good 10k.

so now it's on to round two. i'm gonna stick around for this two-month period, make this transition work, clean up my mess and take care of things with my now ex-coworkers- and then if they haven't either proven their management is tolerable or given me a crystal-clear path to advancement, we're back to the standoff- except this time, they'll have a good idea of exactly what it is they stand to lose.

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. okay. okay. yeah. so that's dealt with for the time being. i can breathe now. we'll see how it goes. fuck.

[aego-weaver]

What is Gender Anyway?

Okay, I'm gonna be an essay blogger now. In this essay, I will talk about my experience with gender. This is gonna be very rambling, with little structure.

Upfront, I want to say that this is only my personal experience. If you agree with me, great; if not, that's fine.

I'm gonna start by saying something controversial and then explain what I mean: I don't understand trans people.

That's not to say I don't support them (because I do support them), but the idea of caring enough about your gender to make that kind of effort is foreign to me. I just don't understand.

To me, gender isn't something you are. It's not a core part of who I am. It doesn't define me. It doesn't really matter.

To put it simply, gender isn't something I am, it's just something I have.

Gender is just a label that, if I tell you, leads you to make assumptions about me; enough of those assumptions are accurate that the label has value for communication, but that's it. If it lacked that value, I would likely just discard it.

I truly don't care what people think about my presentation. In person, I'm obviously a guy, but if someone messed it up, I'd just be confused.

Now, storytime: I was sitting in that mental space for a while. I've sat on the periphery of the LGBTA+ community for a long while, mostly hanging out in aspec spaces, but i would try and keep up with the broader community, even if I didn't quite fit in.

I had an easy enough time finding labels for the rest of my identity: I'm aroace, more specifically aegosexual.

But I didn't really have a good label for my understanding of gender, so it just went unmentioned. I considered the agender label for a while, but it didn't fit. I had a gender, it just didn't matter.

I found the label cassgender by chance. I was reading a wiki, doing some research for a story, when that moment of "oh crap, that me" struck. Next thing I knew, I was looking for a cassgender subreddit (my social media of choice was reddit at the time; I left during the API situation)... and that felt right.

So, that's my story. To me, gender is basically just a sign that I can hold up that says a few things about me. That's it.

I genuinely don't understand having stronger feelings on the matter. For those who do, more power to you, but I personally just don't care.

In summary: What is gender anyway? A miserable pile of ideas! But enough talk, HAVE AT YOU!

[multicolour-ink]

So in the Deity AU so far we have :

On the divine side :

Mario => god of the sun, fire, warmth, chivalry, and might; associated with lions, cats and raccoons

Luigi => god of the moon, lightning, thunderstorms, courage, and fidelity; associated with dogs and foxes

Mia => goddess of family, food, baking, and devotion

Spike => god of the forge and construction, "rivalling" with Mario on the dominion of fire

Bowser => dark god, responsible for Luigi's disappearance

On the mortal side we have Peach, Daisy and Pio.

Who else would you consider a god or a mortal in this AU ? I love expanding this idea 8D

Deity AU

Thank you! I love expanding this idea too ^^

Hmmm so admittedly I've been focusing so much on the "story" and the relationship between the main characters, that I haven't given the prospect of any other characters much thought ^^; But I'll see what I can do.

Fyi Peach does technically have god blood in her, but it's only a little and not enough to qualify her as a full god (but does explain the powers she has that she often displays in the Mario verse). Mortals:

The Mario Family

Since Pio is mortal, this would mean that the rest of his family is too. So that includes Grandpa Mario, Arthur, Tony, and Marilyn. I also like to think that Marie is mortal too. Mario and Luigi are the only demi-gods in the family.

Toad (and the toad species in general)

I like to picture the toads as being nymphs or forest spirits in this AU (given they are fungi creatures). They are peaceful beings, but do not fare very well at fighting.

Professor E.Gadd

In this version I picture him a philosopher (much like the ancient Greek philosophers). He has gandered a reputation as being "mad" seeing as he has a fascination with the celestial domain, and only wishes to study the mysteries and wonder behind it.

Gods:

The Kongs

I had a think about it and I honestly feel like these characters would fit residing over constellations (much like real life animal constellations like Ursa Major, Cygnus, Delphinus etc). There was even a constellation called Musca Borealis (which I feel DK could reside over.

According to what I found: Musca Borealis (Latin for northern fly) was a constellation, now discarded, located between the constellations of Aries and Perseus. It was originally called Apes (plural of Apis, Latin for bee) by Petrus Plancius when he created it in 1612 (source)

Cranky could reside over the Cepheus constellation - which is also known as "Cepheus the King".

Rosalina

Very big stretch on this one as in the Mario verse Rosalina already resides over space. I don't see her as being a ruthless god in this AU or anything, but I imagine she would have more authority over the celestial domain.

- - -

That's pretty much all I can think of for now ^^ Feel free to suggest anything else if you like.

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Species You Didn’t Know Weren’t Native to North America

There are some species found here in North America that are so common that many people just assume they’re part of the native menagerie. They’re naturalized, which means they’re non-native but have managed to establish reproducing populations here. Some may also be considered invasive, in that they aggressively compete with native species and may even displace them in some places.

I know some of you readers will already be familiar with the fact that the following species aren’t native here. But I bet there’ll be surprises for the rest of you! Let’s see who our not-actually-natives are.

Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)

Hunters across the continent have long hunted pheasants for the table. First introduced in 1773–exactly 250 years ago–they have since made themselves at home in fields and meadows. While the largest populations can be found in the Midwest, especially the Great Plains states, they can be found throughout the United States, with additional scattered populations in southern Canada and Mexico.

While sometimes assumed to have integrated into their introduced habitats, pheasants actually wreak havoc on native game birds like quail and grouse. They compete for suitable food and nest sites, and may also practice nest parasitism, laying their eggs in other birds’ nests. This competition has led to decreases in native bird populations, as has the spreading of diseases that the pheasants tolerate, but which decimate other species. Pheasants will even attack and kill other birds.

So what other species made the list? Keep reading to find out!

Cross Orb Weaver (Araneus diadematus)

Fall is cross orb weaver time, and I run into these spiders constantly–sometimes literally, depending on how inconveniently their webs are placed! By that time of year, they’ve grown large enough to be noticeable, and their orange and brown coloration looks rather festive.

While I haven’t been able to find any indication that these spiders have a deleterious effect on their introduced ecosystems, they likely put at least some pressure on local invertebrate populations, whether as predators or competitors for prey species. This may become more pronounced as continued overuse of pesticides and habitat loss contribute to the invertebrate apocalypse.

Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)

“Save the bees!” has been an increasingly common headline since Colony Collapse Disorder first became widely known among the general public almost twenty years ago. What the articles rarely mention is that the honey bee is actually a domesticated insect that originated from wild stock in Europe. In fact, the true wild honey bee may be close to extinction, another victim of its domesticated descendants.

In fact, honey bees cause the decline of wild bee species wherever they are introduced. Not only do they compete with wild bees for food and nest sites, but they also spread diseases and parasites to these other species, some of which have become quite scarce. Moreover, honey bees are less effective at pollinating native plants outside their own range, and these species are at risk of extinction if their native pollinators are out-competed.

Another invertebrate beloved of gardeners here, the earthworms actually consist of a mix of both native and non-native species. Unfortunately, many native earthworms went extinct during the last Ice Age, so if your area has a recent glacial history it’s likely that the worms in your garden are invasive. (That does include the red wigglers (Eisenia fetida) commonly used for vermicomposting.)

What damage can a bunch of worms do? Plenty, as it turns out. They speed up decay and mix up nutrients in the soil in ways that many North American ecosystems aren’t used to. This changes physical characteristics of the soil like pH, texture, and density, as well as distribution of nutrients. Some young plants may not be able to reach nutrients that worms have moved deeper underground. So while you may thank earthworms for aerating the soil in your garden, they’re more of a problem for a lot of native ecosystems here.

umbleweed (various species)

“Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds,” sang the Sons of the Pioneers in 1934, though tumbleweeds have been associated with the American West for much longer. Several species of plant dry out, snap off the root system, and roll along the ground spreading the mature seeds. The best-known species is the Eurasian Kali tragus, though there are other species that have been introduced here.

Because these plants take up a lot of physical space, they can crowd out native plants, especially those that are not shade-tolerant. Their seed distribution method means that one plant can spread its descendants many miles from where it originated. Moreover, the masses of dead, dry tumbleweeds can build up and become wildfire fuel.

Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) and White Clover (Trifolium repens)

These two plants are so ubiquitous that it’s easy to assume they’ve always been here. White clover is especially common in lawns, and red clover will pop up in just about any disturbed sunny spot. Both are native to Europe and Asia, and red clover additionally may be found in North Africa. However, both species have been widely introduced elsewhere.

While neither is considered particularly invasive, they can take over large areas of disturbed land. They are deliberately sown for cover crops and livestock forage, so they’re not likely to go away any time soon.

Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica)

This is one of the most popular spring plants for foragers; chemicals that cause irritation can be removed through soaking the plants in water or cooking them. Although stinging nettle grows well in large areas of the United States, Mexico, and southern and western Canada, it is actually native to northern Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Stinging nettle makes itself at home in forested settings in particular. While it doesn’t create the same sorts of monocultures that, say, Himalayan blackberry does, it can shade out smaller plants with its broad leaves.

Saffron Milkcap (Lactarius deliciosus)

People don’t often think of fungi when it comes to non-native and invasive species, and yet there are fungi that have been moved around to new areas, often with their partner plants. Some are tiny soil fungi, but there are those that produce visible fruiting bodies. The edible saffron milkcap is one of these. It is mycorrhizal with pine trees in its native Europe, and managed to form connections with pines in North America as well.

As saffron milkcap does not cause any known diseases of plants, it is not considered an invasive species in the way that chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica) is. While the mycelium of saffron milkcap may certainly compete for some of the same soil nutrients as native species in the same area, it has not become aggressive enough to displace native fungi.

Death Cap (Amanita phalloides)

There are large, white Amanita species native to North America, like A. ocreata and A. bisporigera, both known colloquially as “destroying angels.” The death cap, however, is native to Europe. It has been spreading through parts of the United States, particularly along all the coastlines, and may sometimes be yellow-tinted. Its close cousin, the European destroying angel (A. virosa), has made a few appearances in New England and southern Quebec according to iNaturalist’s map of research-grade observations.

While these invasive Amanitas do not cause widespread ecological damage, they are considered invasive due to their extreme lethality. One cap is sufficient to kill a healthy adult human being.

Did you enjoy this post? Consider taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes or hiring me for a guided nature tour, checking out my other articles, or picking up a paperback or ebook I’ve written! You can even buy me a coffee here!

[gelu-the-babosa-multiversal]

Cute and angsty Egyxos future AU but not when Leo is an adult but years after his death, he already had children, and grandchildren and saw everything. He moved on and passed his last days with his family. Everyone else moved on with their lives except for one group, those friends that no one knew about.

The GA saw Leo grow not just into a warrior but into a family man, everyone have to see how with the years he became slower and exhausted, no longer the happy full-of-energy kid that once saved their kingdom. Kefer could not tolerate seeing this.

He was no longer a king, a Pharao, but something much more important, a God. But his father forbade him to do something, it would be too much to affect a process such as death. ¨Even a God could be punished if they play with such a fragile concept¨ Ra would say

But there should be something or at least anything to make the process slower, just to have Leo a bit longer. But deep down Kefer knew that it would not happen, and if it did, would he be happy to have a shallow shadow of what once was his friend. Death wasn't even a punishment to humans, it was liberation.

And so the young son of Ra let time do its curse, he let nature do its thing and saw how they buried what was left of Leo...

Years passed, the Walker family expanded having little contact with Egyxos. Toby also left a mark as he was the first human in millennia to marry a Goddes (Kyra), their children, demigods, would live and outlast their grandparents, cousins, and father.

Kyra was devasted but she knew that it would come. Her life didn't end as the new Queen of the Twilight islands, she instead decided to take the adventurous route taking her younger children with her will the oldest one stayed with Grandma Bastet to study and become the new ruler.

As for Kefer, his life became slower, grey, boring, just the same. Being immortal was maybe the worst punishment they could have given him. His father was always away with little time for him, Exaton was out doing his own life not seeing Kefer as brother or family anymore, and the rest of the GA was making their paths. Kefer was alone. A useless tool that was left to be forgotten.

One part of him was jealous as he was not as fast as the others, even his close friend Horus had built a life with a wife, children, and future descendants... it was just not fair.

He would pass hours looking at a wall or staring blankly at conversations. His only company at times where Apis in training and the servants of the Pyramid who were obligated to be there.

Life became just two sides. Boring or extremely boring. His life had lost meaning after his older brother was exiled from the land and their father Ra took the throne. Kefer was happy with that last part, as he never liked to be a Pharao. He loved his people but he never saw himself as a good political figure... or just a good ruler for his people.

Ans it keep like that. He tried his best to not be stuck in the same routine, change whatever he could, and find a new purpose. Maybe someone to love and start something new, but holly crap he was bad at to or he didn't understand how should it be.

Every chance he had, meeting and going with what it struck, it just failed. They were looking for status and not for love...

Things just got steamer as Kefer kept trying to find his other half, as one night when he was on a date with another prince, things got out of control. Both were not interested in each other and it was a kingdom union thing rather than an actual date.

Kefer didn't like it, he hated it more as his father thought that it was for the best. Not caring much for feelings and just for gaining more support. Kefer wasn't going to let that happen, he was going to make his father listen by screams or storms.

... and storms it was. Just a few saw it, but it was something that could never be forgotten.

And yet, time just kept passing and nothing seemed to have changed.

Until his wish was heard. Thus from an old grave, a baby Jackal found his way to Kefer's arms.

Kefer managed to do it, he found a purpose, and he became a father, and a loved one. To his son, Nilo or Leo for the rest of the family.