#me: i like backend development!

[extramachine]

I hate reading MAUI documentation. wtf are you talking about.

FindAncestorBindingContext indicates the BindingContext of the ancestor in the visual tree of the bound element. This mode should be used to bind to the BindingContext of an ancestor represented by the AncestorType property. For more information, see Bind to an ancestor.

[cyrsed]

i love when companies frame them wanting to pay fewer people as some kind of personal development opportunity or job title lol. 'we're looking for full-stack developers', 'we're looking for T-shaped developers'

yea ok so you're cutting costs by expecting people to be able to do everything

[balsamibrahim]

Before the War: My Life as a Programmer

Before the war, my life was filled with lines of code, problem-solving, and creative thinking. I was a programmer—building web and mobile apps, writing backend systems in C# and ASP.NET. My days were spent developing projects, learning new technologies, and growing in my career. It wasn’t always easy, but I loved what I did. My work gave me purpose, and my future felt full of possibility.

Now: Life in War

Now, my reality has drastically changed. I live under constant threat, in a war zone, with my family. The sound of explosions has replaced the hum of my computer. Each day is a struggle for survival, filled with fear, grief, and uncertainty.

I have lost loved ones—my cousins, my aunt, and her children. And I have lost my job, my sense of security, and the dreams I once had as a programmer. The war took away my work, but more than that, it has taken away the life I knew.

Hope for the Future

But despite it all, I hold on to hope. Hope that one day, I will return to the work I love. Hope that one day, my family and I can live in peace. Like anyone else in the world, we deserve to feel safe, to dream again, and to rebuild what was lost.

Verified by : @bilal-salah0

@postanagramgenerator @prinnay

@orchidvioletindigo @pcktknife @planetgraves @vetted-gaza-funds @turtletoria @the-bastard-king @three-croissants @tortiefrancis @sleevesareforlosers @grapejuicedragoon @girlinafairytale @lovewontfindherwayhome @rooh-afza

@chronicschmonic @feluka @halalchampagnesocialist @ihavenoideashelp @irhabiya @jezior0 @kordeliiius

@claudiasescapesubmarine @neptunerings @malcriada @timetravellingkitty @magnus-rhymes-with-swagness-blog @northgazaupdates2 @rhubarbspring @watermotif @kyra45-helping-others @gaza-evacuation-funds @appsa @emathyst9 @transmutationisms @lonniemachin @retvolution @rairikka @a1m3v @bookn3rd-cartoons

@ana-bananya @norrriey @zagreuses-art @lesbianmaxevans @waci-illstr @heritageposts @riding-with-the-wild-hunt @schoolhater @apollos-olives @appsa @90-ghost @soon-palestine @magnus-rhymes-with-swagness-blog @troythecatfish @the-bastard-king @paper-mario-wiki @sabertoothwalrus @saberghatz @vague-humanoid @palms-upturned

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - We Are Surprised

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

May 2024 Wk 2

Ongoing Series - Thai

Wandee Godday (Sat YT) ep 2 of 12 - Oh it’s fucking great. It could all go horribly south, of course. But it’s awesome at the moment. Messy gay and one of them is already pining? Got to love it. Including the negotiation.

I’d love a good sex negotiation, it’s almost as good as linguistic negotiation. This show makes me happy. All that said, it’s moving awfully quickly for a 12 episode run. Not sure what’s gonna happen on the backend. 

My Stand-In (Thai Fri iQIYI) ep 3 of 12 eps - I’m still enjoying it but I’m ready for him to die again now. 

We Are (Weds iQIYI) ep 5-6 of 16 - Toey is going after the Namgoong Award for Best Wingman this year, I see. And in exchange, literally all the rest of the friends are going to be his wingmen. It’s adorable. I also like that Phuwin got to be the aggressor for the first kiss. I like that this is mostly just boys flirting, and not really any prescribed seme/uke stuff. In general, I think these last two episodes I improved the show in my regard a lot. But then middles are always GMMTV's strong point, it’s whether they can stick the landing that’s an issue.

Two Worlds (Thurs iQIYI) ep 9 of 10 - Apparently we have the Frodo walking into Mordor episode. Also the sides were cute. In Thailand (like Taiwan) all gangsters are gay, apparently. 

Only Boo! (Sun YouTube) ep 5 of 12 - It’s cute but very cringe and dorky. Silly singing. Terrible pickup lines. Still, that was a ridiculously charming confession.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Unknown (Taiwan Tues YouTube & Viki) ep 12fin - Oh so good. Very few shows that feature one-sided long-term pining of this kind can resolve the unevenness of that power dynamic into a more stable and equal footing with such class. We really got to see the object of the desire turn completely around and become equally besotted. An age gap, stepbrothers trope like this one is hard enough but at this length? Very well acted boys! Unknown managed to show the older brother softening in a believable way that’s pretty unusual in narratives of this type.

All in all?

Unknown is a wonderful BL with a pitch perfect portrayal of long term pining, age gap, and the stepbrothers trope. The acting and chemistry are ON POINT (especially from the leads) which made the resulting characters very believable. When it dwells in intimate family drama, it's stunning. It's slightly less successful when it leaves the home and goes gritty. It's few flaws are the result of curtailed length. It could have used more breathing room to deal with side plots, characters, and companion character development. The editing was occasionally choppy and packed with flashbacks that broke the emotional tension. Still, those are mere quibbles. This is an excellent show that I know I'm going to be recommending a lot. 9/10

Finally Taiwan hits another one out of the park.

About.

Damn.

Time.

Blue Boys (Korea Sat YouTube) 4 of ? - Oh it’s so good, and they are so tortured and it’s just charming and I can’t EVEN. I just love it. I love that Korea is giving us this right now. You’re an idiot if you’re not watching this show, it’s truly spectacular.

At 25:00 in Akasaka AKA 25 Ji Akasaka de (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 4 of 10 - Well well well Japan. I see how you kneed. I enjoyed this episode better than the first two, and I am way into our Bad Boy second lead. I can already feel myself succumbing  to the syndrome. Next week = the obligatory onsen ep! 

Living With Him AKA Kare no Iru Seikatsu (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 5 of 10 - Omg most adorbs failed linguistic negotiation. 

Boys Be Brave AKA Roommates (Korea Thurs Viki) ep 5-6 of 8 - I love the side couple. It’s a shame we’re finally getting some truly great class conflict and it’s relegated to crumbs.

Love is like a Cat (Korea Mon Viki) eps 11-12fin - Well that was a waste of time. There was no connection (of any kind) between the leads. The language thing was hella weird and likely added to that. The past history of the Korean character was necessary to know from the start, its lack throughout, meant there was no depth to his character. They tried to tackle all the interesting stuff in the final 2 eps. AND they even killed the dog. I never thought I'd type this sentance, but Peach of Time is better.

I don’t know. 5/10 I guess

All in all:

A disappointing lackluster and barely cohesive BL about a jerk Thai actor (speaking Thai) who has to work for a Korean animal rescue cafe as a publicity stunt. It's difficult to believe the leads like each other, let alone fall in love. The acting is stiff, the characters lack motivation and cohesion, and there's not much to recommend this show beyond some pretty visuals. Also, they kill the dog. All in all, a disappointing and unsuccessful joint venture that mostly highlighted that between Thailand and Korea the style of BL, narrative approach, language cadence, and acting techniques all clash.

It's airing but...

Lady Boy Friends (Thai WeTV grey) 16 eps - reminds me a bit too much of Diary of Tootsies only high school. Not my thing. DNF unless it turns a corner and is truly amazing.

You Made My Day (Thai YT) ep 1 of 5 - mini series staring the I Will Knock You couple Tar & Bom, started but I couldn't find it. I also didn't try very hard.

A Balloon's Landing (Taiwan movie) trailer - A frustrated Hong Kong writer, Tian Yu, meets a Taipei street gangster, Xiang (Fandy Fan from HIStory2: Crossing the Line), and the two of them embark on a journey to find the Bay of Vanishing Whales. Along the way, they discover unexpected twists and turns and close bonds, which brings out the message that "there is always someone like you in this world who is waiting for you. This released to cinemas in Taiwan, no word on international release.

Memory in the Letter (Thai WeTV) - it's done, tell me if I should bother?

Fan's Only Corner

Someone asked in a comment (which tumblr promptly ate) about group sleepovers in BLs. It's happened a few times but the only one I can recall being noted and particularly lovely (and VERY college) was in Nitiman. There's also one in Lovesick.

Next Week Looks Like This:

5/16 Blossom Campus (Korea Thurs Gaga & iQIYI) ep 1 of 6 - Strongberry doing classic uni BL! Weeee!

5/19 OMG Vampire (Thai Sun ????) ep 1 of 10 - LeeFrank are back - not unlike the undead (as it were). But how do we feel about it? Unsure given their track record.

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

May Releases

VBL (Taiwan) is releasing 4 'Special Episode' epilogues to their 4 2023 shows every Friday this month on Gagaoolala, Viki & Viu. Not sure on search terms or how to find these. (Or, frankly, if we need them.)

5/10 – You Are Mine

5/17 – VIP Only

5/24 – Stay By My Side

5/31 – Anti Reset

5/25 The Time of Fever AKA Unintentional Love Story 2 (Korea movie) trailer - HoTae & DongHee are back but unfortunately not in a cinema near me. Side couple from Unintentional Love Story, same actors, same character names. I love them. I NEED TO SEE THIS.

5/28 My Biker 2 (Thai movie YT?) - trailer

5/31 The Time of Huannan (Taiwan movie) - May not be BL

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

LOVE a smile kiss. Love it. Two killer kisses from PondPhuwin. Elegantly done, boys. Thank you very much.

I love them a lot all of a sudden. (All We Are)

It's hard to give MaxTul a run on their crown as best bodies in BL, but boy these two are giving it their, erm, best. (Wandee Goodday)

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are a pain.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire

If ya wanna be tagged each week leave a comment and I will add you to the template. Easy peesy.

[bellysoupset]

Some palate cleanser after the previous story 😭

------------------------------

"What was her name again?"

"Allison," Luke answered without missing a beat, his cheeks tinted pink, maybe from the wine. Bella leaned back uneasily as she watched her husband swirl the remaining bit of his drink and finish it off, catching her eyes.

Lucas was all smiles tonight. That one million buck smile that turned her off more than anything, a brilliant reminder that in another life he'd be a Forbes cover.

They were having dinner with Sylvie, Luke's boss, as well as the mayor Mr. Joshua Till and his twenty years too young wife, Marylin. It was taking all of Bella's willpower to pretend she was even mildly interested in all the polite small talking.

The mayor's eyes had sparked her eye, ambition written all over his face, and since then he hadn't bothered to talk with her. His child-bride, Bella thought viciously, was nicer and she had attempted to start up conversation twice, in a tiny voice that could not be heard by anyone other than their table and at the moment they were too busy measuring dicks to pay attention.

"What do you do, Bella?...Oh, backend developer... Sounds so scary, what's that?... My god, Joshie, you gotta hear-" Marylin tugged at her husband's sleeve and he brushed her off easily, causing Bella to cringe in sympathy.

"Don't worry," she leaned in to whisper innocently, "people don't give much thought about backend dev, not until they need an app working. I'm used to it."

Marylin's eyes sparkled at the friendly interaction, clearly the poor woman was feeling as out of place as Bell herself.

Bella's mood was quickly tanking. She didn't feel well, there was a heavy sensation in her stomach and she was glad that the rich people's restaurant served those minuscule portions, because there was no way she could eat much more than those two forkfuls she had.

Luke was busy and tonight her role was simply to play the loving, smiley wife, who didn't mind the mayor's mildly sexist jokes, like when he had first seen her and said "now I know why Luke was rushing to get married."

"You alright?" Luke whispered, leaning in, snapping Bella out of her thoughts, squeezing her knee inconspicuously. Bella nodded, opening a small smile as he planted a kiss on her cheek and whispered, "we'll leave soon."

Soon ended up being nearly three hours later. Bella was feeling clammy and queasy, she wanted nothing more than her bed.

"One closing drink and then we'll go," the mayor said, ordering liquor for the whole table. Bella bit the inside of her cheek not to grimace, she couldn't say no to the mayor, not when Luke and his boss had spent the whole night charming the man, but goddamn if she didn't want to.

The waiter came back with mini liquor glasses, tiny flutes filled with amber liquid.

Joshua raised his glass, urging them all to mimic him, "to a long lasting partnership," he cheered, before gulping it down.

Yeah, right, until the election, Bella thought sourly, before gulping her own drink down. Her already unsettled stomach flipped at the burning liquid and she hiccupped, loud and suddenly enough that Luke and Marylin both chuckled.

"Oh, that was cute-" Luke grinned, leaning her way, he was slightly tipsy, the lightweight that he was, and Bella glared at him.

"Excuse me..." she mumbled, standing up and grabbing on the back of Lucas' chair to steady herself, when the ground swam around her. Bell took a deep breath, ignoring Luke's confused glance, then marched to the bathroom.

As soon as she got inside, Bella braced against the sink and groaned as she saw her reflection. The natural golden tone of her skin had become muted thanks to her paleness and no amount of makeup could cover up how lousy she felt.

She swished some water and spat it back out, splashing her nape and neck, trying to cool down and taking measured breaths to fight the nauseous feeling starting to take over her.

The bathroom door opened as Bella was patting her cheeks with some humid paper towels, trying to wipe the clamminess without removing her makeup.

Marylin walked in, then paused on her way to the bathroom stall, perking up, "it was really nice that you were here, Bella."

Bell couldn't figure out why, considering her mood had been less than stellar for most of the night.

"Thanks...?"

Marylin offered her a soft smile, walking inside the stall. Bella was about to leave when she heard the lady's voice, louder so she could be heard, "these dinners are always so boring."

Bell cringed, she wanted nothing more than to leave, but politeness now required her to stay put while the other woman peed, "they're alright," she lied through her teeth and heard a little scoff.

"Please. Josh cannot stop talking, we're basically here as scenery. It's even worse when it's one of his committee parties," she flushed, then stepped out, smoothing her beige dress and walking towards the sink, "it's like I'm a very pretty plant he drags around."

Bella raised her eyebrows, queasy feeling in the backburner as she collected the gossip, "really? I thought you two were- Picture perfect," no, she didn't.

Marylin rolled her eyes, grabbing some paper towels, "no, you didn't. You look just as bored as I am, you're just not as good pretending. Resting bitch face case?"

A cackle slipped out and Bella rushed to cover her mouth, suddenly amused, "oh shit- I mean, sorry, sorry-"

The other woman smiled fondly, leaning against the sink slightly, "your husband's sweet," she said after a minute, "he actually listens when you speak."

"I mean," Bella frowned, "that's the bare minimum. Wouldn't have married him otherwise."

The First Lady shrugged, balling up the paper towels and throwing it in the trash, "is it?" she said in a calm voice, stepping around Bella, "how long have you two been together?"

"Six years in September," Bella followed her out, letting out a small sigh of relief as she saw Luke was standing at the door already, holding her coat.

"I've only been with Josh for three," Marylin threw her a serious glance, "we should go out for coffee some other day. I'll get your number with Joshua."

Did the mayor have her number?

"Uhm- Okay-" Bella barely finished her sentence, before the other woman was walking away, whole demeanor changing as she entered her unassuming role.

"You're pouty," Luke said, as they finally got to the parking lot, after many thank-yous and goodbyes. He had an around her back and Bella was quietly walking alongside him.

"No, I'm not," Bella grabbed the car door handle, climbing in, "I'm fine."

"Uhm..." Luke leaned in, slotting himself between her legs, his nose nearly touching hers, "don't believe you."

"Too bad," Bella planted her index on his forehead, pushing him back, "I just wanna go home, tonight was exhausting."

"Have I said thank you for putting up with it?" Luke didn't pull back despite her pushing, turning his face so he could catch her finger and nibbling at it, "thank you. I know it was boring as hell, but you being here meant a lot."

"Oh yeah, I'm sure the night would've been ruined without me," Bella rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help but smile as he wrinkled his nose and pressed a kiss to her palm.

"Mine would've," Luke pushed a curl that had escaped from her hairstyle back behind her ear, "thank you."

Her cheeks burned and Bella shrugged, unsure of how to take the honest thankfulness, "let's go home, I don't feel so good." She cringed as soon as she said it and caused Luke's eyes to widen, sobering him up immediately.

"You're not feeling well? What's wrong?"

Bella sighed, pulling her hand from his hold and rubbing her stomach lightly, "just feeling a little gross, it's not a big deal. I think I just miss my bed."

Luke opened a small smile at that, then leaned in and stole a kiss, "let's go home, grandma."

"Real weird calling me that right after kissing me," Bella grinned, but she happily kissed him back.

The drive home was uneventful, although Bella was muffling little burps against her fist for pretty much all of it. She couldn't get rid of that queasy sensation, not strong enough to make her pukey, not faint enough to let her forget it.

"I think the First Lady wants to be my friend," Bella said, once they got out of the car and she started stripping at their front door, using Luke's shoulder as support as she unclasped her heels.

"She's our age, I wouldn't be surprised," Luke shrugged, unlocking the door and stepping aside so she'd go in first. These little spontaneous bursts of chivalry never ceased to make Bella all melty inside. "Besides, you're like... The coolest girl."

"Aw, I'm flattered, babe," Bella teased him, draping herself over his back and letting out a sigh when Luke planted his hands over hers in his chest, keeping her put, "you think I'm the coolest girl?"

"Yep," Luke turned his head to smile at her, "you got that mysterious-dont-really-wanna-be-here thing going on. Got me smitten on the spot, I don't see why it'd be different with anyone else."

"Marylin called it a resting bitch face, but I love the way you see me," she muffled a little burp against his shoulder blades, stepping in rhythm with him as they waddled to the bedroom.

"What's the point of a hot woman if she doesn't look a little mean?" Luke smiled, grabbing at her forearms and throwing Bell in the bed. She fell with a pleased noise, sinking against the pillows, and squirmed as Luke promptly crawled over her.

"Don't- Luke," she shoved at his arm, "don't lie on top of me, my stomach hurts-" she rolled her eyes as Luke slid down on the bed, rolling her black dress up, "what part of my belly's hurting was an invitation to eat me- Oh."

"Yeah, oh," Luke snorted, placing a kiss against her belly, as he pushed her dress up enough, and starting to rub it gently, "doesn't feel bloated to me."

"It's not gas," Bella blushed and used this moment to pull her dress up and out, balling it up and throwing it across the room. She started removing the pins in her hair, "it's just bleh."

"Bleh," Luke repeated, smiling and pressing another kiss near her navel, "like you're gonna be sick?"

"Sorta," Bella tilted her hip, so Luke's next kiss was to the side of her belly, near her ribcage, "not really pukey, but I guess? I don't know, I just feel gross."

"You're a gift with words," he mumbled against her skin and Bella flicked at his ear. Her stomach churned once more and she groaned, turning her face to muffle a sickly burp against the pillow.

"Dinner's messing with you, uh?" Luke said quietly, resting an elbow on the bed and continuing to rub her stomach in soothing circles, seeming completely hypnotized.

"No," Bella's mouth started to get a sticky quality and she gulped down the weird sour taste, "felt like this all day."

"What?" he glanced up, surprised, "why didn't you say anything! Isabella! I wouldn't have-"

"It was a important dinner," Bell shrugged, poking his knuckles to get Luke to start the belly rub back again, "I almost threw up at lunch, but I persevered."

"You're impossible, Bell," Luke pouted, putting a bit more pressure in the slow circular motions, his thumb pressing on her side, "we could've rescheduled."

"With the mayor? Yeah, right," Bella sat up slowly, feeling a weird pressure in her throat. She pressed her lips in a line and Lucas raised an eyebrow.

"Bell? Do you need the trashcan?"

Maybe. Bella shook her head, letting the nausea wash over her and gulping down, goosebumps springing all over her.

"You're really pal-"

She hastily shoved him off of her and leaned over the side of the bed, but instead of vomit, only a small wet burp came up. Bella groaned, head hanging, as Luke went to hold her hair back and let out a small scoff.

"You're always so dramatic when you need to burp," he planted a kiss to her temple, "are you gonna puke?"

"No," Bella gulped down, collapsing on the pillow once more, "but can you get in bed and rub my belly?"

"Aw, pooOor baby," Luke teased her, pressing a kiss to her cheek, "yeah, let me just change first."

Bella was feeling more than a little drowsy by the time Luke slipped under the blankets, promptly pulling her closer to him and burying his nose in her hair, "are you sleepy?"

"Took you forever," she mumbled, grabbing his hand and moving it to her stomach, draping herself on his side, "Lu?"

"Yeah?" his mouth was pressed to her temple and his breath tickled the top of her ear, causing Bella to smile.

"Thank you for not treating me like a very pretty plant."

Lucas let out a cackle, throwing his head back and causing the bed to shake, "you're welcome?"

Bella smiled, pressing her nose to his neck and tangling their legs together, "I'd be a venus flytrap."

[aperture-of-bullshit]

jentry chau vs the underworld was quite fun. Very stylish. It is unfortunately not the best paced. Episode ten reads like a season finale, and if it were the finale most of my issues would instantaneously disappear.

And so this may just be me tin hatting a bit, but I think the show may have been pitched with two seasons, but they were only given one. And the creative team had some reason to believe that they’d be extremely unlikely to get a season two (I simply couldn’t imagine why, what with the general state of the American animation industry)(this is the most sarcastic I’ve ever been in my life). And the result is they condensed their plans for season two into three episodes and tacked it onto the backend of season one.

The condensing not only removes some pretty pivotal character development scenes (Micheal learning and developing his visions, Micheal and Jentry’s relationship and breakup) but it also severely fucks with the pacing, because once again: Episode ten is a perfect season finale.

TL;DR go watch jentry chau, but be forewarned that the general state of the tv animation industry is looming and ever present.

[piosplayhouse]

Horse Isle 3: The Yandere Sim of Horse Games

(or, an extended study in how to hate your own playerbase as much as humanly possible)

(or, or, tldr there's pretty much no updated information on just how ridiculously bad this game is so here's a writeup on how I got banned and all the subsequent information I found during my time playing for documentation's sake)

Part I. The Backstory

My beloved followers will know that a few months ago I began playing Horse Isle 3, a horse-raising MMO surprisingly released in the year of our horse 2019 despite its 1997-era website and Runescape-esque graphics. Some of my play through (mostly just horse pictures) is chronicled in my tag #homophobic scum horse chronicles ¹ if you want to see how drippy my horses were before they killed me.

Now, don't get me wrong. I have endless respect for small teams of game devs that manage to create insanely impressive products-- which HI3's elaborate real-genetics breeding system, its main draw, certainly is. Coding is hard, modeling is hard, moderation is hard. Tip a coin to your local small indie teams that work hard to make incredible art.

However, HI3 is far from an admirable success story about a small dev team that triumphed over its obstacles.

The game is known for a variety of things, chief among them being the staff's rampant homophobia (which has earned it the moniker "the homophobic horse game"), hilariously uncharismatic mods (to the point where one of the main moderators, Connie, is mentioned by NAME in the majority of poor reviews of the game), the dev team's unrepentant rejection of criticism, and racism with a side of downplaying war crimes.

(Screenshots taken from Sitejabber, here)

Now, it's marketed as a game for ages 8+, which, as I've briefly talked about before, is unfortunately a rarity in today's hostile internet climate. I grew up on a variety of typical child friendly MMOs like ye olde Pixie Hollow and PetPet Park, and truly lament that so many of these have been shut down over the years. As such, I have no issue with strict rules or word filters in games, with the caveat that they are effective and genuinely intended to keep people safe. Kids are naive, and can and will say things that they shouldn't (I, for example, got kicked from a Minecraft server when I was 8 because I posted in chat that my mom told me sex wasn't a bad word. things happen). Filters are a very appropriate tool to aid manual moderation of chat features, especially in an environment where mistakes will be made.

However, HI3's, as shown below (words that are forbidden from chat are marked in red), are... questionably selective.

(Screenshot taken by Alice Ruppert, from here)

This appears to be attributed to the fact that along with having horrible moderators, HI3 also seems to have a remarkably horrible developer backend, which is a trend that you'll see pop up quite a lot in this post. Taken straight from the horse's (haha) mouth, the lead developer is the only person who seems to be able or willing to add to the filter list, and for whatever reason only wants to block the "most common inappropriate words"- because saying transgender is more of an issue than nazi and gulag I guess.

(Screenshot taken from Top R.'s Sitejabber review, here)

¹ I'm not sure how far this will reach out of my audience, and since people have already assumed weird stuff about me I thought I should probably clarify-- I'm not calling the game "homophobic scum" ghghg, my play through was focused on making horse versions of characters from a novel called "scum villain", so I took the scum and added horse (I actually have another tag for a different horse breeding game called "scum horse chronicles" so I needed to distinguish them easily but am not very good at tagging). That's it.

Part II. The Game

The game itself is, putting it simply, a mess at best and openly hostile towards newcomers at worst. The game's UI is comparable to your average petsite with 20 thousand things to click on but if you tried to navigate that while also watching the Pilgrim's Progress movie by Scott Cawthorn on 90% of your screen. This is a very good overview of what your experience first logging in will be like, with the added caveat that talking in global chat costs in game currency and that the game doesn't tell you this at ALL until you try to type in chat, and that depending when you log on it's entirely possible that you'll spawn into a completely dead town miles away from anyone who can help you, wilderness survivor-style.

To make things more complicated, information about the game is split between the game itself and the laughably horrible website/forums. Spectacularly enough, the forums, which provide vital game information and rule elaborations, cannot be searched in any way (not via Google or any hard-baked search bar) and are regularly purged by admins to erase evidence of scandals and poor moderation complaints.

Now, something you will find to be generally people's biggest issue with HI3 is their strict no "date-speak" rule, which sounds ok on paper but is worded *just* vaguely enough to give the moderators full jurisdiction over whether or not they think you're breaking the rules. Selective moderation is a major theme in the HI3 chronicle, but it is perhaps most documented with regards to this rule, because what the hell does "boyfriend/girlfriend talk" even mean?? Outside of vagueness, this rule has also been scrutinized extensively by others due to the fact that a pair of previous moderators were openly married with the igns "FrogLips" and "MrsFrogLips". I don't personally think this is super condemning, since kids usually address adults by Mr/Ms etc whether or not they know they're in a relationship, but regardless it's clear that the complete lack of elaboration on what this rule means can be easily manipulated to lodge any number of complaints against people.

(Screenshot from the Horse Isle website rules page, here)

What I will say, however, is that this rule would probably hold more water if the game wasn't literally about breeding horses.

You can pimp out your horses, you can pay others to breed your mares, you can put any number of special (real life currency-bought) amulets on your horses to make them more fertile/have twins/give birth faster. I paid $1000 to castrate Jiang Cheng. The word "stud" (which btw, is another word for a black butch lesbian) is used constantly. Perhaps most shockingly, horse inbreeding is very common and accepted among the community, to the point that it is explicitly mentioned and EXPLAINED in the game guide; the only penalization for it is that your incest product foal will have a lower intelligence stat. Call me old-fashioned, but I feel as though implementing and acknowledging that horses can breed with their own relatives is hmm perhaps more harmful than another player saying the word gay, but what do I know.

(Screenshot from the Horse Isle website game guide page, here (only accessible with an account))

Well, you might ask, after you breed and sell a horse, is there any way to put a brand on it so you know it's from your ranch? That's where the "prefix" system comes in. Prefixes are bolded titles that appear in front of a horses name in lists and in the overworld, and are described in the official game guide as follows:

(Screenshot from the same Horse Isle website game guide page as linked previously)

I think you can toggle them off if you don't want to see them, though I could be wrong. They're basically just 1-5 letter titles you can put on your own horses (nobody else's, importantly). There's no way to search prefixes, and you won't see them in game unless either a horse with a prefix is listed in auctions or you actually encounter someone in-game and see their horse.

In fact, I would learn later that not even the moderators monitor the prefixes, and apparently have no way to mass-delete them. At all.

(Image taken from an anonymous friend)

Now, it's not unusual that a game as complicated as HI3 would inevitably have a pretty taxing server-side code. Millions of multifaceted assets and features is really nothing to scoff at. However, the notion that your lead developer has to perform a manual search in the game's code to delete the equivalent of a stamp from every instance individually is hilarious. I'm not going to pretend to be a game developer, but there HAS to be a better way of coding a feature that intakes user-generated content that should probably be monitored regularly than that, right? Or, at least, there should be a robust filter system that could prevent any issues from occurring before they would need to be fixed so tediously. You might think.

On December 29th, 2022, I discovered how to register a prefix. It's very common to headcanon the characters I was naming my horses after as transgender, and I thought it would be cute to attach "TRANS" to my horses as a nod to this. However, a filter blocked the word. I was disappointed, but not surprised², and then tried to think of another word that was under 5 letters. To my complete and gay surprise, "GAY" was not filtered out, and henceforth, this worked as my prefix.

As you can see on the popup here, there are scant guidelines for what the requirements for a prefix should be. And, in this moment of apparently utter foolishness, I was under the impression that since "GAY" was NOT filtered out despite there clearly being a filter on this function, it was ok to register. Possibly it's not filtered because it's a synonym for "happy", I thought, which is also cute because I do like when horses are happy. Perhaps the staff had learned from their past criticism and had loosened the restrictions slightly because they felt restructuring was appropriate now that gay marriage is legal in the US, I imagined.

(My original post)³

What I could not imagine, however, was that the only reason the word wasn't filtered out, despite being possibly the most common sexuality-related word, was just because the lead dev couldn't be assed to add it to the filter list. And that apparently I was supposed to know this because it would lead to a permanent ban on my second offense with no warning.

² Hence typing "eat shit lol". Admittedly childish of me, but I didn't put a lot of thought into the post because it was just part of a casual silly live blog I was doing to blow off steam. The "if I get banned" tag surprisingly was not referencing "GAY", as I genuinely thought I was in the clear for that for reasons stated above, but because I tried to register "TRANS" and then posted about it online. You don't have to believe me, but I feel the need to defend myself since some people have wildly extrapolated that my actions were malicious instead of just a split second decision I made because I was bored one morning.

³ Despite the pop-up box saying that prefixes cannot be removed, they actually can at any time, given only that the person that owns the prefix unregisters the horse from it. The unregistering mechanic is for whatever reason not told to the player upon registering the prefix, but is mentioned in the official game guide linked above.

Part III. The Ban, The Report

I will preface this section by saying that I played the game normally. I do like being outrageous sometimes for my followers' entertainment, but I really don't like dragging random people into my antics if they aren't interested. Because of this, I really didn't interact with other players unless we were mutuals on some other platform. I rarely used the chat feature except to participate in server-wide events that required team participation, and I typically just explored on my own for fun. In general I think I was a pretty ok player, objectively, which lines up with my user trust score.

You see, the way moderators of HI3 allegedly keep track of rule breaking is through a "user trust score" with points added if you use features in the game, help people, etc, and points deducted if you violate rules. Anecdotally I've heard that around the -10 total points mark is when moderators put you on a sort of list to be monitored for suspension or punishment, which is pretty reasonable.

By the time I was banned, I had a score of +31. The -10 offset was a part of this debacle. The only thing I had ever done in the game which warranted any kind of violation was, as you will soon see, literally just naming about 30 of my own horses "GAY", a sin egregious enough to apparently offset about 200 hours worth of playtime with no issues.

Because of this, I was a little bit confused on multiple levels. For one, I had never even seen a moderator in game, nor been informed of discipline at any time before. On top of that, their permanent ban notification is extremely strange and vague. The text pop up when you try to log in just reads "Account currently banned -1 minutes ().", which is probably just copied straight from the server-side code for things and just wasn't translated into user-side comprehensibility. You'll also notice there is a "()" section in the notification, which I would assume is where they put the reason for bans, except for the fact that mine was completely blank.

The website which allegedly would hold more info just repeated a near identical code: "BANNED! -1min. Reason:".

So, with nothing else to go off of, I messaged support on the jankiest help center submissions I've ever seen on a website with this:

"Insisting" and "total disregard" are very strong words to use for a situation in which I just typed a word into a textbox because the game let me, I'd think, which is why I tried to reason with her. The prefixes mentioned in my message are well-known amongst the userbase and are much older and wider-spread than mine, so I would think that there would be at least some sort of precedent for this. The "geldings and yearlings" reasoning was mostly a joke, but also intended to express that the nature of an acronym (as the majority of prefixes seemed to be) is that it can be interpreted in many ways. Intent was thrown around a lot when I was discussing the issues of prefixes with other users, and it seemed to have been used to excuse previous behavior in situations where mods liked the users in question better.

I also cannot emphasize enough how much they did not warn me about my prefix being removed. When I logged in and saw my horses' names did not include it, I was suspicious that the moderators removed it just because of the history of their behavior. However, I had no hard evidence because they did not inform me at ALL. Not through in-game mail systems, not through server messages, not through the website. Complete radio silence except for the addition of an unexplained "-10" to my user score. I did complain to some people that I thought it was removed, but a combination of things suggested that it wasn't a huge deal, so I mostly let it lie. For one, I had over 100 hours of playtime and was mildly worried that one of my chat messages had been flagged without my knowledge. For another, my profile text had also mysteriously disappeared, probably because of a glitch, so who knows what could happen in this game. Lastly, I went to the prefix registry again just to check and hilariously enough, they didn't actually block "GAY" from the database. Yeah, they apparently individually deleted it from all of my horses, but couldn't be assed to add such an "inappropriate" word to their filter system.

So I just registered it again and publicly told people that I would do it again if the mods didn't actually tell me to stop. I didn't really care about the prefix because to me, the feature was purely cosmetic. All I wanted was transparency from the staff.

Well, anyway, I assume Connie couldn't think of a comeback, so she just closed my report. I was annoyed because quite literally none of my questions were answered and she didn't even refer to anything in specifics. It would take less than 1 second to type the number of the rule I violated, but I guess that was too much work for her.

I tried to give them as many outs as possible to just apologize about poor communication, but they didn't even take the bare minimum. I would also like to mention that this support ticket process is the ONLY way to directly communicate with any staff. There's no ability to upload files or images on this system, and no email listed that you could contact. So essentially, there's no way to give actual evidence for anything you say even if you want to.

Kat, who is known as the slightly-more-reasonable-but-still-pretty-bad mod then picked up the case. Her response actually provided specific information, which made it leagues above Connie's, but still included some very strange elements for sure.

The notion that this game is intended for a worldwide audience is especially funny to me because you would really think if they cared about other countries they wouldn't violate their own rule one by using a slur for Europe's largest ethnic minority, but ok. It's a weird hill to die on considering how USA-dominated the staff's opinions towards rules are (Connie justifies the usage of a slur for Rromani people based off the opinion of a single roommate she had who reclaimed it, Joe defends a store in-game being called "The Gulag" because Americans don't think gulags are that bad (discussed and cited in the conclusions section)). But then again, picking and choosing what parts of other countries' customs you want to respect is very American, which is why I think they should add an extra star rating for its patrioticness on the website.

As I mentioned before, the prefixes I included in my response are definitely older and more commonly-used than mine, so I'm not sure how they wouldn't have seen them before. This comment also ties back to the suggestion that the moderators have very little control or insight over a distinct feature of their game, which is not a great thing to admit so casually.

Kat has a strange habit of immediately contradicting herself in the same paragraph, as can be seen here. "The glitches never happen and bugs were quickly fixed, but games still have bugs". "People that break the rules usually write in to ask what was wrong, but most people usually never ask". At this point I think we can confidently say that they don't even make an attempt to proofread any of their responses, to be honest.

Her 7th paragraph has one of my favorite lines in this exchange. "If we had to notify players every time we made moderator changes to their account we would spend 24 hours a day" is giving huge Yandere Dev "stop emailing me because I have to spend 24 hours a day reading all my emails instead of coding" energy. You really have to wonder why these people that seem to hate moderating so much are moderators.

You can tell by my response, but I do not like the use of "most" and "usually" in this at all. What's your standard isn't others' standards, and this is a topic which needs to be navigated gently, especially when kids are concerned. I never played the previous Horse Isles. I had no experience with the mod team, or with violations, or with anything because no one bothered to take five seconds to send me a message. No, I did not know that you would permaban me for typing a word that's in one of the most popular traditional Christmas songs in a place were only people who interacted with me would be able to see it. Most games would not do this. To take a lackadaisical approach to your literal job of community management because you want people to moderate themselves is contradictory to your claims of keeping children safe.

I will admit I was being a bit cheeky here as a subtle hint that perhaps they should take feedback, but I also would have taken a genuine response. I try my best to be as polite as possible to tech support staff because not everyone is! But they're people too and a simple thank you is worth a lot in customer service, even virtual. But Kat... you're not really giving me anything to work with here! If anyone reading this has feedback for how I could've rephrased things, feel free to comment them honestly. I actually ran drafts of these messages through a few people before sending them to make sure I was as concise and polite as possible, even if support clearly wasn't interested in reciprocating the effort ("following out rules using the the GAY to begin with"...?).

Part IV. The Backlash

I won't go too into depth in this section because it's more personal than documentarian, so feel free to skip to the next section if you want!

After this, the girlies were not happy with me. The one saving grace of HI3 that I've heard pop up over and over again is that the community is great. And a lot of users are! Don't think I'm disparaging people who play the game because I'm not-- it's a really fun experience with the right people. I was in a Discord server with a lot of people who were extremely helpful and kind.

However, within the community, there's also a pervasive culture of silence. According to Alice Ruppert of The Mane Quest, a lot of people will refuse to go public with their complaints about the staff due to fear of retribution, which I feel is unfortunate but understandable. There's a pressure to shut up and eat your food lest you be seen as someone causing controversy for the sake of it and ruining the sanctity of the game, which is an attitude explicitly encouraged by the staff (discussed more in the next section).

I liveblogged my entire correspondence with the support team to a group of other players for the 2 days I talked to them, and did have a lot of acceptance from people who appreciated someone speaking out. After the 2020 Mane Quest article, public information had sort of just gone dark as the community was pushed further into niche seclusion, despite things not improving at all. However, towards the end of my messaging, a group of people that I had never even spoken to or seen online before accused me of a variety of things ranging from "displaying my sexuality to children" (note: all I ever did was name my horses "GAY". I never once talked about my own sexuality in-game, nor did I say the word in chat ever) to "joining the server to cause drama" to "mocking the lgbt community by throwing around the word gay" (actually I'll attach a picture of this one even though I don't want to put people on blast in this section just because its so funny).

I think most of this can be attributed to the game having gained such a notoriety that longtime players, especially those with strong nostalgic feelings, have become completely desensitized to it. And this compounds with the fact that the game is so niche it doesn't yet have a good alternative to turn to to create a toxic cocktail where people tell themselves that they have to be loyal to the staff to play this one of a kind game-- and that anyone who doesn't follow them just doesn't understand. It's really sad, honestly.

Part V. Conclusions

I don't necessarily think the devs of HI3 are legitimately consciously homophobic-- unfortunately LGBT rights are still controversial amongst the largely southern and rural population of horse enthusiasts, and I could understand if they felt it necessary to skim the line towards conservatism to maintain a userbase. It's cowardly and dumb but it's not a sin to do what you have to do to survive in a capitalistic hellscape as cutthroat as the game industry.

However, what I do think the devs are is power-hungry and hypocritical. They have failed at every turn at community management because they're unwilling to admit they make mistakes, instead choosing to issue non-apologies like "[we] regret you guys got so upset and did not realize neither our true intentions nor motivations nor the whole situation [that we said it's ok that a player has a shop called The Gulag because it's 'not direct or violent']". To respond this way to a userbase filled allegedly with young children as a fully grown adult with a wife and kids is laughably out of touch. 'Sorry your fee-fees were hurt by our adult moderator responding to a serious complaint about inappropriate user-generated content with "lol", but actually you just misunderstood us and we're going to ban anyone who brings this up again' is the sort of response you'd see from the teenage mod team of an Undertale amino, not the supposedly responsible head dev of a 'rare oasis of kid friendly content'.

Telling an audience of impressionable kids that the fact that their feelings are hurt is their fault for not intuiting the intentions of 40+ year old adults is unbelievably toxic, and it's no wonder why people are so nostalgia-bound to feverishly shut down criticism about the games. They've been guilt-tripped into believing the mod team can do no wrong and any controversy, even if valid, that springs up is just extrapolated by people that haven't been laboriously groomed to know what the mod team wants to hear.

Countless times throughout my time researching and playing the game, the number one advice I've heard has always been "suck up to the mods or they won't do anything for you". It's crystal clear that the moderators care more about the joy they get from having power over some 200 users who will kiss their ass if they say a buzzword more than they care about you, your child, or the game itself.

It's essentially a model scam Kickstarter's wet dream, a game propelled to release and popularity by its singular defining feature and left to fester on the shelf as the only game in its niche market. Because of this, I believe there's truly no better way to describe HI3, with its messy backend, refusal to improve, narcissistic moderators, broken features, poor visuals, and inefficiency than as the Yandere Simulator of horse games.

[elvisabutler]

I know you aren’t taking requests again until March 12th, but I just wanted to ask early LOL!! Do you think you could write something about pregnant!reader and Austin being away for filming during her first trimester and when he comes back he notices her baby bump has developed and he goes feral (more breeding kink😸😸)

pop goes the bump

summary: your boyfriend- your eventual husband, truth be told, and you decide it's a good time to get pregnant before he goes off on location for filming. austin- gets a little surprise when he comes home. fandom: austin butler rating: m pairing: austin butler x plus sized female reader word count: 1894 warning: oral ( f receiving ). talk of pregnancy. talk of a breeding kink. pregnant reader. implied p in v sex ( future ). hiding something from a partner, technically. author’s note: first off anon, thank you for this request even though it was during the gala and honestly, let me tell you the way you were like I KNOW IT'S NOT MARCH 12TH BUT I'M DOING IT EARLY to this day makes me giggle. second, you know how to dangle a prompt and say this is irresistable isn't it? austin butler breeding kink- one of my weaknesses. honestly breeding kink in general is but you know there's a reason i can pump breeding kink fics out really quickly for anyone. i hope you're okay with this being a plus sized reader, i can rewrite this fairly easily without it being that but- i said the words big girl in the beginning and, my brain just ran away with it. also i'm aware the first trimester ends at twelve weeks but as i did plus size i adjusted our timeline just a bit for this knowing fully well my own bump with my daughter didn't pop until about sixteen to twenty weeks. in addition not apologizing for the title being a play on pop goes the weasel.

The thing about your life with Austin is that you've gotten used to planning things around projects. You've been thoroughly thankful that since Elvis there hasn't been anything that ends in staying away in a different country for three years with a severe lack of communication. Only the typical several months of a filming schedule and award seasons that drag on but have an end goal in sight. Those are the sorts of things you can plan around, they are the things you thrive planning around. It's why after the Oscars you can't help but propose an idea to Austin.

"You want to try for a baby?" You ask simply with your head on his chest watching the sun slide slowly down the horizon, bathing you both in a warm glow. If you were a less perceptive woman you wouldn't have noticed how Austin's grip on your waist tightened and how he moved just enough to splay his hand on your stomach.

"I start filming for that movie in a few months," he murmurs against the shell of your ear, "you okay with that?"

Okay with being left alone while pregnant if it sticks before he leaves is what he means. However, at the same time it's also clarifying that you're okay with remembering he'll still be busy and may leave you alone to deal with your changing body. Your answer is a shrug as you turn to give him a kiss.

"As long as I'm not alone the whole time, I don't care. I'm a big girl, Austin."

The smirk that crosses his face as he shifts your positions is downright evil before he starts to kiss you. "Oh, I know just how much of a big girl you are, babe."

And so you try and try and try those four months before he leaves for filming and while it was discouraging to see your period come the first three months, you wait for your period to come that fourth month only to see nothing. Austin had to leave a week before and you couldn't help but call him the moment you confirmed it with the doctor. Yes, you could have told him when you had the positive test but you refused to get your hopes up until you could show him the little tiny speck of a baby on the sonogram photo. He talks about taking the weekend off to see you, to celebrate but you tell him that if he did that- he'd be gone longer on the backend of filming. He'd be gone longer when you're more pregnant than you are now so he's talked out of it, barely.

You never thought you'd be the sort of mom who watches all those little apps and tells their partner how big the baby is from week to week. It seemed silly to talk about babies being the size of blueberries and seeds and yet there was something so delightful, so touching about seeing the way Austin's face would light up at the knowledge of how your baby was growing and how he swears he sees your body changing. You have a bit of weight around the middle so you're pretty sure he's lying even if you can feel parts of your stomach hardening from the baby- from your uterus growing. Still, you show him your stomach every single week to document how it looks until one morning when you're sixteen weeks and you realize you can actually see a difference. You can see your bump- it's barely there but it's there, the physical representation that you're carrying Austin's and your child. That the baby is growing strong and healthy and going through all those little fruit sized milestones. You should show him, you think, you should show him like you have every week and yet this- this you want to keep to yourself until he comes home. It doesn't stop Austin from noticing how you don't show him the bump.

"Something wrong?" He asks, his brows furrowing just a little. "Nothing's wrong with-"

"No!" You answer a little too quickly, "no Austin, I would have told you if there was something wrong with them, I just- I don't want to show you any more until there's something you can see. Until I pop, you know?"

"Babe, I like seeing you grow, I don't-" He starts before stopping once he sees your face, sees how you stubbornly aren't going to show him a video of your bump. "You know I'm gonna see it come next month, right? In person."

You smile at the thought, smile at the fact that he's finally coming home after five months away and it almost makes you want to show him the little swell that you can finally tell is a baby. "I do. And that's why I think you can be patient and wait. It'll be worth it."

The answer he gives you is just a fond eye roll before he acquiesces, holding up his hands and telling you more about his day and how he's getting tips from some of the people on set who are parents. You listen without a care in the world as you rub at your bump.

Your belly continues to grow over the weeks until it's fairly obvious you're pregnant and not just carrying extra weight around the middle. It's firm and you swear you've felt a flutter or two from inside. You should show him and he keeps asking, almost begging after your last call but you know it'll be worth it to see the look on his face when he finally can see you in all your glory. Almost as if he wants to get back at you, he doesn't tell you when his flight is coming in beyond the day, leaving you to guess what time of the day he'd arrive. Still, you find yourself wearing a light green sundress on that day, it flows enough to not constrict your growing belly while still accentuating it enough that you keep looking down and smiling at it.

His plane lands around noon and he finds himself pulling up to your shared house around lunchtime, his key easily opening the front door and despite his call out to you, you don't hear him, earbuds firmly in your ears as you make yourself lunch. It doesn't take him long to follow the sounds of your singing to the kitchen where he stops in his tracks. Nothing could have prepared him for what he sees when you turn to throw something in the trash.

There's something to be said about his visceral reaction to you being literally barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen but his mind doesn't care. His mind that reminds him you've made fun of that phrase so many times that if you knew it's the first thing he thought of you'd laugh. But- but here you were, your dress stretching over your bump- God, when had it gotten so big- making lunch without a care in the world. He did that to you, he's made your chest swell, barely being contained by the top of your dress. He did that to you, made your belly grow and swell and you still had more months to go- he knows from the books this isn't even when the most growing happens. If he had seen you before now, seen even the hint of this swell he's pretty sure his reaction wouldn't be as strong as it is. He's pretty sure his cock wouldn't be standing at such attention that it's painful. He wants to fuck you, he wants to bury himself in your cunt and touch your stomach and whisper how he's going to always keep you this way now that he's seen how gorgeous you look carrying his child, how you look like a goddess. How you look like Venus, curves and swollen breasts and a stomach holding his child.

It's as if he's possessed when he sees you, throwing down his bags and immediately falling to his knees in front of you. You're startled and open your mouth to speak only to have his hands move to cup your stomach through your dress. His lips plant kisses all over it, over and over with mumbles you can't make out beyond our baby, gorgeous, can't believe you hid this from me, gonna keep you like this forever. The grin that threatens to overtake your face grows even more as you feel his hands move to the hem of your dress. He groans when he looks at your underwear, sees the wet spot he's already caused before dragging them down your legs just enough for him to place a kiss on your cunt. It twitches under the attention and you can feel the smirk he gives you. Words fail you as you feel his tongue against your cunt, licking slowly at first before one of his hands moves to spread you open, the other hand resting firmly on your bump. Your hands claw at the counter, praying that they'll help you stay standing up even as you grind into Austin's face. His nose nuzzles at your clit while his tongue dips in and out in a poor imitation of his cock. He knows you like the back of his hand, knows what gets you to come faster than any partner you've ever had but he isn't using it to his advantage this time. He's taking his time giving you leisurely licks around your clit, in your cunt, everywhere. His fingers tease you, crooking just so but not deep enough unless you grind down on them. It's a torturous game he's playing, it's a torturous punishment you've earned for not telling him but Austin is nothing if not kind. He's nothing if not kind as soon as he hears your whimpers and moans and feels one of your hands move to his hair, tangling within the strands and as he feels the other rest on top of his own against your bump.

Your orgasm comes quickly once he starts to attack your cunt with a vengeance, once his tongue runs across your clit, once his fingers crook and once he takes your hand and squeezes. You can't help the way you grind down as your oragasm overtakes you, wanting Austin to coax you through it, to lick you lightly through it as your legs shake and you lean against the counter for support. You hear a slurp that has you shuddering before Austin manages to pull himself out from under your dress, your release covering his lips and mouth as he grins up at you.

"Hi, mama."

You swear your heart skips in your chest as you look down at him and there it is again- that little flutter you swear you've been feeling. You exhale softly, and ruffle his hair. "Hi, daddy," you move to pull him up even as his hand never leaves your bump. "that was quite the hello. You like how I look?"

Austin lets out a shaky exhale before taking your hand and placing it in the front of his pants where his arousal is pushing against his sweatpants, "forget about lunch and I can show you how much."

The two of you order lunch about an hour later. You eat it an hour after that.

[appolojustice]

Okay I think I'm actually going to say something about this because I have thoughts now that I think are coherent enough to be worth putting together.

But the thing is. I just do not feel like Lucanis being unable, under any circumstances, to forgive Rook for Treviso is congruent with his character as presented to us. At least not because "oh, he's passionate and complex!"

To be clear, I think there are circumstances where he would find it hard, if not impossible to forgive. I think certain role-play choices in that moment and the moments after would be hard for him to move past, because he does care about Treviso so deeply. I think there SHOULD be versions of that quest that end in a lockout.

I just think there are other scenarios where the situation is completely different. And I'm thinking specifically of Shadow Dragon Rook here, partly because I'm biased as a Shadow Dragon player, but also because I think it's the clearest example of the logic of the whole thing falling apart.

Because there are Shadow Dragon Rooks who, depending on how you want to role-play them, love their city as much as Neve does. As much as Lucanis loves his. Who go to their city because they are scared and need to be with their family. And, by the way, the Shadow Dragons are decimated by the decision to help Treviso. They are all but wiped out in the aftermath, so it's not like Rook is wrong to worry, to be afraid.

The reason Rook's decision on which city to help actually matters is because of Solas' dagger. That's the only deciding factor in the two fights, the only thing that makes the dragon engage and actually fight the veilguard was that the gods saw that dagger. And this was a subtle enough change in the tides that a lot of PLAYERS didn't realize that's what was happening. There's no way that Rook or any of the others could have known that Rook's presence would make or break either city.

So you're telling me. That with the heart he has. Lucanis, who has in him the capacity to forgive Caterina. The capacity, under the right circumstances, to forgive ILARIO. THAT Lucanis. He would look at a Tevene Rook. Who made the same choice, really, as Neve did. As he HIMSELF did. And he'd never be able to forgive them for that? No matter what came after?

And the frustrating thing is, if they wanted to make the lockout convincing, they could have. If they had said that the Treviso disaster left him distraught enough that romance is the farthest thing from his mind, if it locked ALL romances for him, I would have believed it. At least then you're committing. If they'd chosen to lean into the fact that Lucanis has a SPITE demon in his body, a demon that could have latched onto Rook as the cause of the destruction and fueled Lucanis' resentment, I could maybe see that. But they didn't really do that either???? Spite doesn't come into play at ALL with how Lucanis feels after Treviso, except in that he's even LESS willing to hear the demon out.

It just....it feels so obvious that the lockout was a result of lack of resources or time to devote to creating two different romance paths, and then they tried to find a narrative reason to cover that on the backend. Which isn't necessarily a problem in itself, given what Veilguard's development was like. I'll never fault the devs here for not being able to execute certain things, because by all accounts it's a miracle we got what we did.

But I wish, if it was the case (and I guess it's possible it wasn't, though I REALLY suspect it was) that the lockout was for mechanical reasons, they would own it. Say, "oh, we just couldn't make it work on the development side, so here's what we think the narrative reason might be." Instead, we get "He's a complex character". And I'm sorry, but....it's kind of the opposite here. You kind of have him written as seeing this issue very black and white, when it's a complex, emotionally fraught decision for Rook to make.

And yeah, real people are complex. They do things that are contradictory to their nature, their beliefs. But fiction works by different rules than real life. It's the "he would not fucking say that" rule, right? If you're going to have a character do something that seems contradictory to who they are, you have to make the audience feel that.

And if you wanted, if this was really a narrative choice and not a "reality of game dev" one, you could have fleshed it out. You could have had him be furious. You could have had how he feels about Rook after Treviso super dependent on the context— where Rook is from, how Rook handles the decision (Did they send at least some people to Treviso? Or did they take everyone to Minrathous? That could have been a call you make), how Rook justifies themselves afterwards, how they make amends. (Do you do all of the Crows quests in the aftermath?) I hate to be that person but in Origins we wouldn't be having this conversation, yeah? Because in Origins there would have been Six different things you could say to Lucanis after the mission, and two of them would have locked his romance completely, one would have made him leave the party, a few would have been neutral, and maybe one or two would have set you back on the path to recovering the trust that had been broken.

Talking with @baneoftoasters about how like. Actual complexity would have been an arc. Actual complexity would have been him being furious, hurt, betrayed, but having the option to either grow from that and regain some or all of that trust, or spiral further into resentment and maybe even hate.

I like the veilguard characters a lot!!!! I do. Most of the time the loss of some of the complexities of the role-playing we got in Origins doesn't bother me all that much, because I think it's a fair call if the devs WANT to move in a more streamlined direction. But it does feel sort of wack to not see where people are coming from when they say that the lockout doesn't make sense as it is. It could have made sense, but it doesn't.

I don't think you get to use the "complex character" card when you're not putting in the work to make that true.

[chamiryokuroi]

hi! any advice on getting your first software developer job?? I've been trying but it's hard and tiring 😮‍💨😮‍💨 I've barely got two internships but they kind of feel like they're just using me for free labor rather than try to teach me sth like they say they will

Hi sure here are some suggestions!

First of make sure you know exactly what you’re interested in working on, do you want backend or front end? Older code maintenance or newer technologies? Make sure to let interviewers knows what you are interested in, saying you’re willing to learn is good, but showing interest on what you want to work on is also great.

If you lack the experience look up companies that offer trainee positions, and then research the company before applying, a trainee is different from a internship, you are expected to have background knowledge but they usually do not require any experience and they’re actually paid (less than an actual development job but is a good starting point to get the experience).

Look up interview questions online, and study them, DO NOT memorize them, but take them as a starting point, trust me I have done interviews myself for my company and it is pretty obvious who memorized the 100 core java interview questions and who actually understands what they’re talking about.

Logic is very important for development and it might be possible they ask you some during your interview, they did in mine and it wasn’t even code related.

“If you have a 3 gallon jug and a 5 gallon jug how would you measure 4 gallons exactly?”

“You have a cake, how would you divide it into 8 equal slices with only 3 cuts?”

These kind of logic questions, never hurts to try some of them on your own, there are many online quizzes.

But above all be confident, know your worth and don’t give up!

[izicodes]

Hi! I’m a student currently learning computer science in college and would love it if you had any advice for a cool personal project to do? Thanks!

Personal Project Ideas

Hiya!! 💕

It's so cool that you're a computer science student, and with that, you have plenty of options for personal projects that can help with learning more from what they teach you at college. I don't have any experience being a university student however 😅

Someone asked me a very similar question before because I shared my projects list and they asked how I come up with project ideas - maybe this can inspire you too, here's the link to the post [LINK]

However, I'll be happy to share some ideas with you right now. Just a heads up: you can alter the projects to your own specific interests or goals in mind. Though it's a personal project meaning not an assignment from school, you can always personalise it to yourself as well! Also, I don't know the level you are, e.g. beginner or you're pretty confident in programming, if the project sounds hard, try to simplify it down - no need to go overboard!!

But here is the list I came up with (some are from my own list):

Personal Finance Tracker

A web app that tracks personal finances by integrating with bank APIs. You can use Python with Flask for the backend and React for the frontend. I think this would be great for learning how to work with APIs and how to build web applications 🏦

Online Food Ordering System

A web app that allows users to order food from a restaurant's menu. You can use PHP with Laravel for the backend and Vue.js for the frontend. This helps you learn how to work with databases (a key skill I believe) and how to build interactive user interfaces 🙌🏾

Movie Recommendation System

I see a lot of developers make this on Twitter and YouTube. It's a machine-learning project that recommends movies to users based on their past viewing habits. You can use Python with Pandas, Scikit-learn, and TensorFlow for the machine learning algorithms. Obviously, this helps you learn about how to build machine-learning models, and how to use libraries for data manipulation and analysis 📊

Image Recognition App

This is more geared towards app development if you're interested! It's an Android app that uses image recognition to identify objects in a photo. You can use Java or Kotlin for the Android development and TensorFlow for machine learning algorithms. Learning how to work with image recognition and how to build mobile applications - which is super cool 👀

Social Media Platform

(I really want to attempt this one soon) A web app that allows users to post, share, and interact with each other's content. Come up with a cool name for it! You can use Ruby on Rails for the backend and React for the frontend. This project would be great for learning how to build full-stack web applications (a plus cause that's a trend that companies are looking for in developers) and how to work with user authentication and authorization (another plus)! 🎭

Text-Based Adventure Game

If you're interested in game developments, you could make a simple game where users make choices and navigate through a story by typing text commands. You can use Python for the game logic and a library like Pygame for the graphics. This project would be great for learning how to build games and how to work with input/output. 🎮

Weather App

Pretty simple project - I did this for my apprenticeship and coding night classes! It's a web app that displays weather information for a user's location. You can use Node.js with Express for the backend and React for the frontend. Working with APIs again, how to handle asynchronous programming, and how to build responsive user interfaces! 🌈

Online Quiz Game

A web app that allows users to take quizzes and compete with other players. You could personalise it to a module you're studying right now - making a whole quiz application for it will definitely help you study! You can use PHP with Laravel for the backend and Vue.js for the frontend. You get to work with databases, build real-time applications, and maybe work with user authentication. 🧮

Chatbot

(My favourite, I'm currently planning for this one!) A chatbot that can answer user questions and provide information. You can use Python with Flask for the backend and a natural language processing library like NLTK for the chatbot logic. If you want to mauke it more beginner friendly, you could use HTML, CSS and JavaScript and have hard-coded answers set, maybe use a bunch of APIs for the answers etc! This project would be great because you get to learn how to build chatbots, and how to work with natural language processing - if you go that far! 🤖

Another place I get inspiration for more web frontend dev projects is on Behance and Pinterest - on Pinterest search for like "Web design" or "[Specific project] web design e.g. shopping web design" and I get inspiration from a bunch of pins I put together! Maybe try that out!

I hope this helps and good luck with your project!

[t-ierrahumeda]

Can I ask about your work experience, like what languages you work with and what kinds of projects you do? What is it that makes you want to take up a trade instead?

Hi! I've been a Java backend developer (mostly, I've done some front end stuff with Angular and Typescript, which I loathe) for 6 years. I've mostly worked in big companies, done contractor work (which I didn't like, WAY too demanding, REALLY long hours) and now I'm in a nondescript company, I took this job bc I was unemployed and I needed an income fast, but I don't like it.

I stress and get frustrated very quickly and there are many things that you have to be updated all the time, you can't just be a 'Java developer', you have to keep learning stuff that is insane and the pace changes all the time. You're surveilled all the time, not just with how many hours you put in, but also how much you use the computer, what programs you use, for how long, etc. It's very micromanaging-oriented. Some might not experience this, but I've always worked with these conditions, though lately even more monitored. I don't like it, makes me feel like I'm not working enough. You get the idea.

Currently I'm looking for a position in a better paid place, but the process of interviews is long and tiring, they can be over 2 hours long where they test your technical knowledge, sometimes with live coding, which makes me very very nervous (I don't like others seeing me coding, I hate it), and 99% of the times the interviewers are smug, sardonic men that will try to make you feel like you're dumb. This doesn't happen to my friends that also are developers, so I think it might be because I'm a female in the field. So there's that too. I'm thinking of changing paths because, even though most people might think this is a cushy job where you can work from home (that's a big plus, I don't complain about that, I love staying at home and I'm not very good at socializing duh I'm a software developer lol), you have to wreck your brain and you work long hours, sometimes up to 10 a day, specially when something breaks or you work in a shitty company, as is the case rn.

I wanna try doing something with my hands, something where I can see the results of my work in real life and that impacts others, and tbh there aren't many women electricians (I personally don't know any), so while it might be hard at first to get a clientele, I think there could be a market for it, bc women might feel safer with a woman in their house instead of a man. I want to try learning how to be a gas fitter and maybe also plumbing, so I can expand my trade and not just be an electrician. I found some 2 year courses at different universities so instead of finishing my degree in Software Engineering I'll go for that.

Hope that helps!

[windchimesgames]

End of Year Recap + Plans for 2024

Hey everyone!

Belated Happy New Year to everyone! I know this is a very late end of year recap 😂Unfortunately, the past week ended up much busier for me than expected, so I could only get around to doing this now that things have calmed down a little.

This is a crosspost of a public post I made on Patreon a few days ago, so if you prefer the formatting there, you can read the post at this link:

PS: I do free monthly devlogs / posts there on Patreon, so consider joining the free tier of the Patreon even if you aren't interested in the paid tiers!

For those who'd rather read the post here, I'll leave the extraordinarily long ramble in a Read More cut below!

Let's start with a quick recap of the highlights / achievements accomplished in 2023!

Okay, this one may be slightly cheating. While Emberfate only launched on Steam in Jan 2023 so the 92 positive reviews came in in the year of 2023, it was up on Itch.io since mid 2022, so not all 383 Itch.io ratings came in in 2023.

Still, I'm pretty proud of these stats! Perhaps the numbers are nothing compared to some other amazing games' out there, but it's still something I'm proud of. It makes me happy that my silly experimental nostalgic little game struck a chord in so many players — much more than I expected given how niche the topic was!

Now, unfortunately, I could not get Emberfate's DLC for Potato's route out by end of 2023 like I had hoped. Porting the game to mobile also ended up much more difficult than I expected because of just how much of the UI I'm going to have to redesign — and hence, programming to be redone — if I wanted to make the game fit a small mobile screen. So both plans are going to have to be postponed to 2024.

The other notable highlight of 2023 is that both Lyrissa's and Kierdan's routes for Reanimation Scheme were released for beta access! That put the game at 3/5 routes complete, with a total of 431,786 words for the script.

I recruited a handful of beta testers to test the three completed routes a few months ago, and so far, the feedback has been positive overall. That's been a huge relief and lifted a massive weight off my chest — due to the controversial reception of the demo, I've been extremely anxious that the game would be hated by the players, and I've done so many rounds of editing and honestly perhaps somewhat unnecessary and obsessive rewriting of the script, but none of it felt good enough 😂 So hearing the positive comments has been a huge motivation / morale booster. Perhaps I should have done beta testing sooner… LOL

There are two more achievements unrelated to a specific game project that I'd like to mention:

2023 is the year that I became more interested in and better at Ren'Py programming! Most of it is thanks to my amazing programmer friend and Ren'Py wizard, Feniks (whom you may know as the programmer for Our Life series), who sparked my interest in programming and helped teach me a LOT. While I'm by no means a professional now at coding, I feel much more comfortable navigating around Ren'Py code and setting up what I need to in the backend of the games I'm developing, which opens up new doors for me for future projects in terms of what kind of features (big or small) that I may be able to include! Though the side effect of that is I looked back at the code I did for Reanimation Scheme from previous years and was immediately horrified by how ugly and inefficient it was. 😂I did redo the backend code of the Gallery and Achievements system a bit, but the rest will just have to stay for now.

I made quite a few new connections within the indie VN dev sphere in 2023! I made a shocking discovery that there's enough number of indie VN developers from Hong Kong to fill half a minibus, and I was lucky enough to connect with them and share our experiences and learn from each other! Due to new project commissions I took on for $$$ (real life financial needs suck), as well as a couple of small game jam projects I joined as programmer to buff up my programming portfolio, I also made some new VN dev friends unexpectedly. It's been really nice, because honestly, solo dev can be a really lonely and isolating endeavor sometimes. I'm super grateful for the new connections I found myself making in 2023!

Looking Ahead: 2024

Okay, that was a lot of rambling for the recap. More than I thought I would write. Now let's move forward to what the future will look like for this studio in 2024 and what goals I'm setting for myself this year!

Priority #1: Finishing Reanimation Scheme

Of course it's Reanimation Scheme. As mentioned above, we're currently at 3 out of 5 routes completed (sans partial voice acting). So the biggest goal for 2024 will be to get the game done. and out. Finally.

I won't be giving a concrete release date until we're like, literally in beta phase for all 5 routes, just so I won't have to announce a delay and let people down. But given the current progress and pace of work, I'd say probably around mid-year — maybe Q3 latest.

I'll be keeping up with the episodic updates of Reanimation Scheme's beta build on Patreon (and Kickstarter) from this month onwards, beginning with Jori's route and then followed by Sebastien's.

The remaining Kickstarter rewards may take a little longer — but ideally, all of them (artbook / lorebook / short stories collections, etc.) will be done by end of the year as well.

Priority #2: Potato's Route DLC for Emberfate

Potato, poor Potato. His DLC had to be put on the sidelines until Reanimation Scheme is done.

Half of the art has already been commissioned and completed by the amazing Remnantation — we're just missing his selfie CG & his MMO character sprite! So the next step would be the script and then the voice acting for the calls part. I won't be able to start on the script until mid-2024 earliest, but given the fact that his route won't be that long if it's parallel in length compared to the existing three routes, it probably won't take too long to do. Perhaps 2-3 months for the development process of the DLC?

I'll likely be releasing his DLC early on Patreon, potentially also episodically as it's completed, like I did with Emberfate. So if you're interested, keep an eye out for it when the time comes!

Something Secretly Brewing in the Shadows?

If you're pledged to this Patreon on $10 tier or above, you'll probably already know what I'm alluding to.

I won't be announcing or talking much about this for now, since I don't know when I'll be able to start working on this project properly (i.e. I need to meet my above two goals first). For all I know, it might end up being not a 2024 thing but a 2025 thing. So I'll only tease it slightly for now here.

Bonus Goal: Market, for the Love of God

If you follow Wind Chimes Games on either Twitter or Tumblr, you'll probably have noticed the sorry state of my social media. I… really do not like marketing or posting on social media. I never know what to post or say. I'm too unfunny and uncreative to meme or write humorous captions that get engagement. 😂It kind of feels like I'm shouting into the void, and nobody really cares about what I have to say on my projects when there's so many cooler and more interesting things out there. So I always try for a brief period of time, and then I give up 😭

This year though, I really really need to take marketing more seriously. With two releases planned for 2024, marketing is going to be important if I want the games to sell more than like 20 copies LOL

So I guess, uh, hold me to it and call me out if I don't start posting regularly after all 🥹

Conclusion

If you've made it this far on this post, thank you so much for listening to me ramble. 🥹 2024 is going to be a very busy year, but hopefully, a productive one that will end with me meeting all of the above listed goals.

Thank you so much for joining me on the wild and bumpy journey that was 2023, and I hope you'll stick around for the exciting things to come this year too! Here's to a great year ahead of all of us!

[gingergari]

Hi!! (I'm sorry this is the third time I'm trying to send the ask, I think my wifi is fighting with me aksdasl) I love your Mareach babies! and the art you have of them :''v Also their names are perfect bc of all the meanings jsdskd I'd love to know more of them bc I too love twins whdjwhdw How are they when they grow up? Or even when they were still babies!

i’m so glad you like mela and pera! :^) (and dw, the internet’s been wonky here too)

on the backend of things i’ve used mela for a mareach kid for a few years but it’s only this year when i was actually like. designing her that i was like ‘they should have twins. something something runs in the family (on my dad’s side of the family his mom had twins and the twins also had twins) something something legendary star twin having twins’ so i trialed a few names (mainly arancia) before i settled on pera! :^)

i’ve been having the time of my life this semester (/s) so i really haven’t developed them very much unfortunately :( but that’s what asks are for! (so please send more if you’re curious!)

this is getting long so here’s a post cut

mela is the more excitable twin and comes up with a lot of ideas, but as they grew up she defaults more to pera to lead because she tends to execute them better and think of details mela would miss

though as kids pera would go along with whatever mela suggested bc she thought it was fun ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (mela was the one who proposed playing with fire, pera would probably just say ‘lets do it outside’)

i think they fully developed their own ‘firebrand’ around 3-4! but there were signs beforehand, like mela sneezing smoke as a baby and having a higher normal body temperature than pera

(but peach’s magic is so strong there was little doubt that her children would inherit her abilities, and they do end up doing so to some degree! fire just manifested early)

in terms of them as babies, they were definitely a handful but overall ‘good’ babies

once pera knew how to walk tho it was a wrap

very adventurous and loves pursuing knowledge no matter what it takes (nosy and persistent) meanwhile mela has that same curiosity but doesn’t really know what she wants. the happy hobby pursuer

we know mario has experience with younger children and babies (mallow, goombario if you squint a little, watt, yoshi kid, himself (PiT moment), olivia) and peach likely doesn’t have nearly as much but it’s still a different ball game when it’s your kid and two of them and being prince consort(? king? in my head he stayed prince consort but i like @istadris ‘s thing) but he does have a huge community so they do end up well traveled/being cared for and spoiled by many of mario’s companions, and especially so by luigi, peasley, and daisy

back to them being more grown up

mela is the oldest (and as such wears warm-reddish colors in accordance with my headcanon of mushroom world sibling pairs) so technically she’s first in line for the throne, but she doesn’t have as much of an interest in it and believes pera would be a better choice. pera (wears green tones) to her credit does show more interest so they may forgo tradition once more when the time comes but joint ruling was never out of the question

but they don’t have to worry about that for quite a while (but i think peach would do well to make sure both are prepared regardless because of her own experience)

as a pair they aren’t as joined together at the hip as mario and luigi were/are mostly because they didn’t grow up in an environment where mela or pera absolutely needed to protect the other (nor were they ever forcibly separated like the bros were in yoshis island) but they absolutely love each other and would be friends if they weren’t sisters

when they were little tho they were obviously fraternal and always wanted to look identical so they mostly dressed the same until they got to be maybe around 6-8? wide range ik but yeah

but i’m not entirely sure what the situation with bowser is like when they’re growing up but it isn’t as volatile as it currently is. the @justcallmerosey post with clementine giving me ideas tho👀

[beatupoldpickuptruck]

Just in case you were wondering

Big city area where I live;

(All Numbers pulled off indeed)

Waitress @ Red Robin : $73k/yr + benefits and tips

Front Desk Secretary @ Bank : $54k/yr + benefits

Warehouse: $34k/yr - no benefits

And I know you're like what the fuck already but get this one;

Police officer; $28k/yr + benefits + douchebags

But get this, this is the real kicker;

Frontend (make buttons, sliders, menus) Programmer / Developer : $112k/yr + benefits

Ok the button guy makes as much as 4 cops - cool. So what, you all ask me, a beatupoldpickuptruck.

Here's some more jokes;

Director @ Trust Fund $85k/yr + benefits

Chief of Police @ (Precinct) $65k/yr + benefits

National Parks Service Ranger: $32k/yr no benefits

Backend (math, computation, everything not user facing in software) programmer / dev;

*drumroll*

$184,650/year + benefits + STOCK.

SO 👉👉 if you wanna *fight the bourgeois* or *overthrow the patriarchy* or get rich so you can buy your dream cottagecore tiny home, or buy a private island to build an entirely Wicca society, whatever you want

you should probably learn to code.

Specially since them daggum learning machines are getting so good at art and writing that sometimes you can't even tell the difference?

Only way to sieze control of the levers of power are to become the controllers of the sources of that power.

Wrench away the machines from the evil doers and capitalists

Let free your creativity on the canvas of virtual machines

Set yourself free, wielding knowledge as your sword.

Then no one can disarm you.

But that's just what this beatupoldpickuptruck thinks of things, don't pay me no mind, children.

[eightyonekilograms]

The unit testing conversation: is there an equivalent for object oriented languages? I'm the closest thing my company has ever had to a developer and I have zero formal training. I made them a reasonably complicated power app that is now a load bearing component of our booking system (matching nurse skill sets to patient needs across multiple clinics). My boss will never hold me to any standards because he knows less than I do and I'd really like to have good practice. When I test my code I mostly just ... Pretend to be a user and make sure when I try and get a specific clinician I know can do something, she shows up. Repeat 1000 times until I think I've tried everything. Is unit testing relevant to me? Should I be doing something different but equivalent? My company is a charity, even though I'm working somewhat outside my job description I'm really helping people with my work and I'd like to do a good job.

The sticking point here is not so much OO languages per se— OO does just fine with unit testing if you use objects as your interface boundaries, which is harder not to do with most contemporary OO languages— but GUIs. Unit testing is particularly unpleasant in GUIs, and OO happens to be a good paradigm for doing GUIs, which is why it was the dominant one for so long. To be honest, I do very little GUI programming of any kind (both at work at at play I'm kind of a backend person who only makes UIs if I absolutely have to) so I don't have a ton of advice here, and all I can offer are general guidelines:

Gary Bernhardt's "functional core, imperative shell" mindset is a good guideline to keep in mind when you're working in situations that must, by necessity, have a lot of state which makes unit testing tough, including GUIs. Try to design your applications around with that mindset as much as you can, and then do the unit tests on the functional core.

OO was the dominant paradigm for GUIs for decades, but recently it is starting to get superseded by things like functional reactive programming. Because I'm not a UX/webdev person I'm not fully in the know here, but webdev seems to be moving strongly in the functional reactive direction, and the latest desktop GUI frameworks like React Native and SwiftUI are as well. Obviously it's not always possible in your job to throw out the whole codebase and start over in a whole new language/paradigm, but it's precisely because unit testing with GUIs is kind of a hassle that the industry is trending in this direction. Start brushing up on that if it's relevant.