#you’re one of my favorite parts about coming on this app every day and I’m so grateful for you 💓🌷✨

[hlficlibrary]

HL FIC LIBRARY ☕ Coffee Shop Fics

Remember to leave kudos and a comment on the fics you enjoyed to show your appreciation! You can find the library's other recs here.

☕ I’d Still Dance With You by kikikryslee / @flamboyantommo {M, 57k}

“Liam, if you met someone that you really liked, would age matter?” Louis asked. “I suppose so; to a point, anyway.” “Like, how young would you go?” Liam thought it over. “Uh… I don’t know. Like, 24?” Louis groaned and dropped his head in his hands. “Why? How old is this guy you like?” “Twenty-one,” Louis muttered. “Hang on. He’s 21, and you’re… what? Twenty-eight?” “Yeah.” “Wow. Um… well, OK. That’s a, uh, that’s a gap.”

Or, the 21/28 age difference fic where Harry is younger than Louis thought he was, and even though Louis’ head is telling him not to pursue anything, his heart doesn’t seem to agree.

☕ I Really Like Your Styles: The Baking Advent-ure by @homosociallyyours {T, 34k}

Louis isn't much for frills, and the coffee shop he co-owns with his best friend Liam is evidence of that. Yes, it's got a decent sized, well-kept industrial kitchen, but Louis insists that people come to coffee shops for coffee, not mediocre pastry and plastic wrapped cookies. When Liam's campaign for serving treats turns into watching a few baking accounts on whichever popular app he's on, there's one that really gets on Louis' nerves: "I Like Your Styles." With his chipper demeanor and over the top descriptions of the food he makes, Louis is sure that the (unfortunately cute) baker is full of it. Nothing that adorable could possibly be worth the hype.

It doesn't actually take much for him to eat his words...and some quality baked goods, while he's at it.

☕ love drunk, waiting on a miracle by @hellolovers13 {E, 30k}

Christmas inspired Coffeshop AU

Harry has a bit of a crush on a customer. Thankfully, the feeling is mutual.

These are their first 24 days together.

☕ And That’s The Tea by @2tiedships2​ {M, 27k}

I’d like an Earl Grey with milk and sugar, please.

Louis had the phrase memorized, even though it had disappeared off its place on his upper arm over thirteen years ago now.

At fourteen he didn’t understand. Soulmarks don’t just disappear. Not unless…

Unless one of them dies.

Or, the one where Louis loses his soulmate before even getting the chance to meet them, and he is in no way prepared for the kind of distraction his new friend Harry proves to be.

☕ Friday I'm in Love by @perfectdagger {M, 25k}

It has a pattern, Harry has noticed.It’s not that he has been observing the guy who regularly comes to the coffee shop for the past few weeks; but he totally has.It’s also not Harry’s fault that he’s infatuated with the guy who apparently follows a very repetitive schedule.

Or the one where Harry works at the coffee shop and Louis goes there almost every day and Harry is head over heels for him, making his love life look like a The Cure song.

Inspired by Friday I’m in Love by The Cure (obviously).

☕ From The Heart (series) by jacaranda_bloom / @jacaranda-bloom {E, 24k}

Every Tuesday, Louis spends his day off holed up in his favorite coffee-come-bookshop, writing his little stories as part of the WordPlay challenge while daydreaming about the resident barista, Harry. Each week a new word prompt is revealed and Louis adds to his series of short stories about Henry, the owner of a B&B in the Cotswolds who has curly hair and dimples, Lewis, his long term guest who just happens to be a writer, and Tigger, Henry’s cat.

As Louis and Harry’s friendship develops, could his fantasy world spill out into real life? And how does that reader who leaves the lovely comments with the teacup emoji seem to be able to read Louis’ mind?

☕ ever since new york by @sunflower-live​ / sunflower_live {NR, 22k}

Louis works at a coffee shop in NYC and he pines endlessly after the boy who lives above it.

☕ blend into my favourite colour by rainbowninja167 / @rainbowtitania {T, 19k}

Harry often wonders if they’ll ever meet in real life. And if Harry will recognize Tommo the instant they see each other, like somehow their souls will just know. Or maybe Harry’s soul is shouting “Louis!” too loudly for any other signals to go through.

Harry is a barista with a secret Werewolf High fan blog, a desperate crush on a customer named Louis, and a best friend on Tumblr who always makes him laugh. Louis can't figure out why the barista at his favorite coffee shop keeps creepily staring at him, and to make matters worse, he may be slightly in love with a friend he met online.

A love square involving two boys, one TV fandom, and one food fight.

☕ The Importance of being Earnest by @louloubabys1992​ / louloubaby92 {NR, 16k}

Harry cannot help but pay extra attention to Louis' order, even if it is just a warm cup of tea with a dash of milk and no sugar. He also makes sure that the Danish Louis asks for is warm and fresh from the oven and not the one in the display, even if it means delaying Louis a bit when he fetches said Danish from the kitchen. It's all worth it when Louis smiles his crinkly smile at him before he rushes off to work.

Man, he's hot, he cannot help but think.

Or Harry is a barista who's been harboring a crush on Louis for months. Little does he know that Louis actually likes him back.

☕ Before We Ever Wrote a Song by @casuallyhl​ {E, 13k}

Harry just can't be around Louis when he's flirting outrageously with Chad Michael Murray. So what if he's the star of one of the country's most popular shows? Harry's seen an episode or two and it's not that great. Sure, the drama is exciting and all the actors are attractive and it’s shot in his hometown, but still. Not that great. Certainly not great enough for Louis to fall over himself every time Chad enters the coffee shop.

Harry doesn’t want to watch the over-the-top spectacle, which is why he usually retreats.

And besides, it hurts to see the boy he’s in love with flirting with someone else.

Or, Harry and Louis work in a coffeehouse on a film studios lot, and Harry wishes Louis would pay half as much attention to him as he does the famous actors.

☕ A Love Stronger Than Espresso by tempolarriefics / @tempolarriefix {G, 12k}

Louis is entirely dependent on caramel mocha in the mornings, but soon he finds that there's one thing at the coffee shop he needs more than coffee - a cute barista named Harry.

aka: The one where Harry is a cute barista guy and Louis plays hard to get by using a different name to order coffee each day

☕ John Doe by FitzAndLarry {G, 12k}

John Doe I don't even know you, but I know fo' sho' That you are beautiful, so baby let me know Your name Damn what's his name?

xxx

There's a boy taking the stand at the open mic night where Harry works as a barista, and he's going to find out the boy's name if it's the last thing he does.

An ode to Never Shout Never, and a story about finding a new home.

☕ Coming Home Through the Dark to You by LadyLondonderry / @londonfoginacup {G, 6k}

Harry Styles works at the Fox in the Snow, the most hipster coffee joint around. He's got too many roommates and a best friend he met his first day of university who he might very well be head-over-heels for.

☕ ‘Sup by MediaWhore / @mediawhorefics​ {G, 6k}

Gemma really wants her little brother to sign up for a dating app and get back in the game after a messy divorce. Harry thinks he’s way too old to swipe. They compromise to devastatingly embarrassing results.

Meanwhile, all Louis wants is to finish the play he’s been commissioned to write, but one of the regulars at his local coffee shop keeps distracting him.

ft. older larry, pushy gemma, harry being a disaster gay and silver fox louis.

☕ Time Of The Season by alienharry {NR, 6k}

When writer's block stands in the way of Harry completing his second novel, he turns to the sweet-smelling omega behind the counter of his new favorite coffee shop for inspiration.

☕ I Kinda Need A Hero (Is It You) by @fallinglikethis {NR, 5k}

Louis is a barista who’s had his heart broken. Harry is the boy who wants to put the pieces back together.

☕ That's Not My Name by @lululawrence {NR, 3k}

He froze for a second, because he hadn’t expected to be hit with such an intense gaze. Green eyes beneath a beanie and loads of curly hair made Louis miss a beat before coming back to himself.

“Uh, hi. Sorry. Can I take your order?”

The boy (man?) gave a shy smile and said, “Just a caramel macchiato, please. Grande.” Louis nodded as he scribbled onto the cup and punched it into the register.

As the boy held his phone to the machine to pay, Louis asked, “Name please?”

“Oh, uh, Marcus.”

Louis scribbled Marcus on the cup and handed it off, but not before giving the boy a smile and nodding over to where he’d be able to pick up his drink. Louis watched him a bit longer than he probably should have, then forced himself to move on.

Or the one where the cute boy coming into the coffee shop gives Louis a different name every time...for over a month.

☕ A Cuppa Courage by @juliusschmidt {G, 3k}

Liam kicks Harry's shin, picking up another cup to fill. “He seems like he’d be a good catch, if you liked guys, I mean.”

I do like guys, Harry does not say, even though he’d like to shout it at the top of his lungs. I DO LIKE GUYS.

[a fluffy lil' fall coffee shop coming out au.]

☕ cursing the cosmos by 5sexualhomos / @hogwartzlou {NR, 3k}

In a world where people have timers counting down to when they meet their soulmate, finding love is easy. Harry meets Louis in a coffee shop one day. They slowly fall in love, the only thing holding them back is that they aren't soulmates.

☕ baby baby, you're a caramel macchiato by @missandrogyny {T, 3k}

So, yeah, Harry doesn't think it's that far of a stretch to call himself a good barista. There are some particularly bad ones, and some particularly good ones, and, with his work ethic, his skill, and his charm, he'd probably be lumped in with the latter group.

☕  tell me what you need by @disgruntledkittenface​ {G, 2k}

“And a fresh cherry?” he asks, pinching his bottom lip between his fingers. He waits as Louis stares him down, his brow furrowing.“No? What the fuck,” Louis rasps, looking bewildered.

coffeeshop AU based on this iconic prompt:

harry: can i please get a semi-iced half caramel half vanilla decaf latte with no foam using fresh almond milk with a small swirl of whipped cream covered in a pinch of cinnamon and a fresh cherry? louis: ...no? what the fuck

[xo-cori]

because second’s not the same

pairing: abby anderson x fem!reader

summary: morals become blurred in a motel room with your boyfriend's ex-girlfriend.

warnings: smut (MDNI), comphet on reader’s end, internalized homophobia, lots of angst, cheating, sorry owen you seem cool, submissive top!abby ftw, hair pulling, fingersucking, facesitting, abby makes reader answer a call while getting down n dirty, they both hate men (real)

a/n: my first fic on this godforsaken app, hopefully it’s okay! this is based off of an old halsey song called “is there somewhere,” i highly recommend listening while you read

When your phone chimes twice at exactly ten o’clock on a Friday night, your heartbeat quickens and the air is stolen from your lungs. Your body seems to know who it is before you do. Maybe that should concern you or serve as a reminder of how much of a problem this is becoming, but instead, you unlock your phone and read the much anticipated message.

abby: Hey

abby: What are you up to tonight??

you: hey, i was just reading a bit before bed

abby: Sounds like a real party

you: shut up lol

you: why do you ask?

abby: Don’t make me say it

you: i’m making you say it

There’s a hesitance on Abby’s side, made obvious by how the text bubble appears and disappears as she types and deletes a response. It takes her a good minute to send another message.

abby: Just wanted to know if you’d meet me

abby: Please

you: there we go. be there in 20

Before you know it, you’re driving fifteen miles over the speed limit, chest tight and craving a release that only Abby can bring. You eventually step out of your car and into the near-empty parking lot of the old motel that you’ve become awfully familiar with these past few weeks.

Your feet guide you along the farthest side of the building, straight towards a room marked ‘93,’ and you invite yourself in.

In less than five minutes, your shirts are on the floor and her hands are on your hips and god, her thigh feels so good between yours. She always seems to know exactly what you need. More importantly, she wastes no time with giving it to you.

“Fuck,” Abby says, “been waiting for this all week.”

You nod in agreement, lost in the way she grinds you onto her with seemingly no effort. She sighs contentedly when your back arches, chest pressing into hers, enveloping her in your warmth and melting away all the stress of a long day. There’s a piece of heaven in this room with her. How could she worry about anything outside of it?

“Me too,” you reply. One of your hands grasps at her shoulder in attempt to steady yourself, caressing the tense muscle, while the other gently tugs her hair. The dirty blonde strands feel like silk between your fingers and you can smell the pine shampoo that she uses. It invades all of your senses. It makes you desperate for more. So, you tug harder. Her head falls back against the headboard with a groan and you use it as an opening, diving in to press your lips to her neck.

It’s messy, just how Abby likes it. Her grip on you tightens and she lets out a broken gasp.

She needs this just as much as you do, if not more– but you’re much more generous with the teasing.

“Feel good?” You mumble into her throat, before picking another patch of skin to suckle on. Every touch sends a bolt of electricity up her spine and decorates her freckled skin with goosebumps.

Still, Abby does what she does best, and clings to any power she still has. You don’t resist when she grabs you by the shoulders and pushes you back onto the bed. In fact, you only spread your legs wider so she can situate herself between them. Then, without wasting another moment, her lips come crashing down onto yours.

It’s always your favorite part of the night; when she kisses you so passionately that you can almost fool yourself into thinking it means something.

This isn’t supposed to mean anything, though.

You assure yourself that the sparks you feel are all make-believe, silently wrestling with the fact that you’ve never once felt this with Owen. Not even close.

Her tongue quickly finds yours in a heated battle for dominance that she’s already lost. There’s no telling just how long this goes on for– you’re so focused on the feeling of her large hands running up and down your body, soothing all the shame you feel about this arrangement as you caress her cheek with your thumb.

It’s a loving gesture. Too loving, Abby thinks. She shouldn’t enjoy it so much, but she does.

When she pulls away, your half-lidded eyes land on the redness on her face, her swollen lips, her hair that’s all messy from your wandering fingers. The dim light from the bedside lamp casts a glow to one side of her face, and a shadow on the other. The thumb that was once on her cheek starts moving toward her mouth, until it pushes past her waiting lips and she accepts it with a pleased hum.

You watch her intently as you press down on the center of her tongue. Her brows furrow up and she lets out a whine.

After a few more moments, you pull your thumb from Abby’s mouth and smear her own saliva across her lips. She opens her eyes to look down at you, finally, and you offer a warm smile. “You just take it.” You observe aloud. “Whatever I want, you just let it happen.”

It’s a stark difference from your relationship with Owen. There’s never any concern for what you want; though, to be honest, you wouldn’t be in a relationship with him if you could get actually get what you want. It’d be Abby’s apartment you go to every weekend. There’d be no motel and no deleted messages and no acting like mere acquaintances when Owen gets all of his friends together, including her and you.

If you could get what you wanted, you don’t think you’d ever want anything else ever again.

“Yeah.” She agrees, slightly muffled until you fully pull your hand away. “Whatever you want.”

Part of you feels bad. You have this woman wrapped around your finger, and you have to act like it’s nothing more than a convenience.

In reality, it’s everything to you.

So, the other part of you plans to take whatever you can from her.

“You really mean that?” You ask.

“Would I lie to you?” She asks in return.

You pat her cheek. “Lay down, then.”

Without another word, Abby does as she’s told. The two of you switch positions and she watches you peel off the rest of your clothes, while she lays in a grey sports bra and a pair of boxers.

She starts to feel excited when she thinks you’ll move down further like usual, your face nestled between her legs until you’re pulling orgasm from orgasm out of her.

Her heart nearly stops, though, when she sees you pull off your own panties and begin crawling up her body.

‘Excited’ doesn’t do it justice. You’ve hardly done anything and she already feels like she might die of happiness.

You feel her hands grab your ass, encouraging you to move much faster than you are, and you hesitantly oblige. “You can push me off if you need to, yeah?” You clarify. “Don’t wanna suffocate you or anything.”

Abby nods with a quiet mm-hmm only to appease you, but in her mind, suffocating to death while you sit on her face would be an honor. She’d probably die beneath you before the thought of pushing you off ever crosses her mind. For now, though, you do your best to be gentle as she ushers you to fully hover over her mouth.

Then, she pulls you down onto it.

A strangled moan escapes you when her tongue immediately finds its target, her patience clearly worn thin as she latches to your clit. Your hands fly down to grab her hair in attempt to ground yourself, but if you didn’t know any better, you’d think you’re having an out-of-body experience.

The worst part? Only Abby can make you feel this way.

Guilty, and so, so good.

Maybe she doesn’t know the extent of your feelings, but she knows your body like the back of her hand, and she uses that to her advantage. Her fingers dig into the pillowy flesh above your hip bones, surely hard enough to leave a few bruises, but you never complain about marks until you see them in the morning.

“Abs,” you manage breathlessly, “ease up, baby–”

You’re cut off by another moan as she somehow manages to pull you down further, unrelenting and making it impossible for you to escape. Not that you’d want to, anyways. So, you just grab her hair with one hand and grab the headboard with the other as your eyes flutter shut.

That is, until you hear your phone vibrate on the bedside table. Once, twice, three times; you soon realize that it isn’t stopping.

“Fuck.” You groan.

Abby looks up at you and slightly moves you down so she can speak, seemingly much more entertained by this than you. “Who’s calling?”

“It’s Owen,” you say truthfully, “I was supposed to go over to his place tonight, but here we are.”

Her eyebrows shoot up. “Wait, you blew him off for me?”

“No shit. I’ll just silence it and pretend I fell asleep.” You grumble. Then, you reach over to grab the phone before she takes a hold of your wrist.

“Answer it.” She says.

You can’t help but laugh despite the forming pit of anxiety in your stomach, because you know that she’s dead serious. “What?”

“You heard me. Answer it or I’ll stop.” She repeats, making your eyes widen.

“…Fine, but can you please—” You’re interrupted by Abby pressing the green button for you, and you quickly bring the phone towards your ear.

The sound of Owen’s voice makes your chest feel tight. “Hey,” he says with an obvious concern in his voice. “Sorry, did I wake you up?”

You open your mouth to respond, but you can only let out a gasp when you feel Abby’s lips wrap around your clit. Thankfully, her tongue moves more slowly than before, deciding to show you some mercy. “Yeah,” you breathe, “yeah, I fell asleep– I’m sorry, I really don’t feel good today. Think I might’ve caught something.”

It’s a pathetic excuse, but you can only hope he buys it. “Oh, that’s… uh, not good.” He mumbles, which makes you roll your eyes. “Do you want me to bring anything to your place? I have this cold medicine that could literally heal the bubonic plague, and I’m pretty sure I have some soup in one of these cabinets somewhere,”

You can hear him rummaging around on the other line. “No!” You blurt out. The last thing you need is Owen stopping by just to find out that you aren’t home. “No, I’m okay. Appreciate it, though.”

“You sure? If you’re worried about me getting sick, I can just leave it outside the door.” He continues.

“Really, Owen, it’s fine. Pretty sure I’ll feel better in the morning,” you assure him.

He sighs. “Whatever you say. Just let me know if you change your mind, okay? I’ll bring whatever you need.”

He’s kind. Too kind, considering your current situation. Abby’s mouth is latched to the most sensitive parts of you, her blue eyes staring up at you as you try your hardest to keep your voice steady. She kneads at the back of your thighs, getting you into a rhythm while you rut against her tongue.

All the while, you’re on the phone with a man who deserves much better. You’re aware of this. You tilt your head back with a shaky sigh.

“Okay,” you reply, “thanks, Owen. ‘Night.”

You don’t even wait for him to say it back before you hang up the phone, quickly throwing it off of the bed onto the carpeted floor. Abby smiles, and you can feel it. You reach down to grab a handful of her hair and pull it as hard as you can– which isn’t very hard, but it still makes her whine. “Fuck you,” you huff, thighs tensing on either side of her head, “I’m so close, Abs.”

Any annoyance you feel is overshadowed by the orgasm creeping up on you much quicker than usual. You already know that you’ll never forgive yourself for being so turned on by something so horrible.

Abby sticks her tongue out so that you can ride it, letting out moans of encouragement as you finally tip over the edge. Your mouth falls open and a gush of wetness fills Abby’s, which she happily laps up with her warm tongue. Her hands wander over your shivering body, listening to your muffled moans with her eyes trained on your face; more specifically, the tears that begin to run down your cheeks.

It doesn’t take much longer for you to crawl off of her face and crash into the bed beneath you, much to Abby’s dismay, but she doesn’t let it show. Instead, she crawls to your side, placing a strong arm over your stomach so she can pull you closer.

Though all of your instincts scream to push her away, you just curl into her and bury your face in the crook of her neck. She thinks maybe, just maybe, everything is fine; of course, until she hears you let out a quiet sob. One of her hands comes up to rub your back, a soothing gesture that only makes you cry harder.

“Hey,” Abby whispers, “are you… did I do something wrong? Was it the phone thing? ‘Cause if it is, I’m really sorry, I should’ve—”

“It isn’t that.” You mutter.

It’s only a half-lie. Honestly, you aren’t crying because you spoke to your boyfriend as if you weren’t hooking up with his ex, no. You’re crying because you thought it was the hottest thing ever.

“Isn’t it, though?” She questions. “Seriously, I fucked up and I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t fuck up, Abs– I swear, it’s not you, it’s just… this. All of this. I don’t like it.” You do your best to reassure her, but it only causes more confusion.

“What, and you think I do? Because I don’t. I like you, though, so I deal with it. That’s what we agreed to.” Abby says. You can tell she’s upset no matter how gentle her voice is. There’s a certain bite to it, a venom that you’re quick to pick up on. “He’s my friend too, you know. This isn’t easy for me either.”

This comment makes you rear back a bit, looking up at her with furrowed brows. “I know that, Abby. None of this is easy for either of us. He’s my boyfriend, and he was yours at one point, too.”

“Don’t remind me,” she scoffs.

You give her a stern look. “I’m serious. This is gonna end one way or another. Someone’s gonna find out.”

Her grip on your waist tightens. “No one’s gonna find out if we don’t let them find out.”

“You don’t know that.” You shake your head. “All it takes is one fuck up.”

“So, what do you wanna do? You wanna break this off now and go back to being acquaintances?” Abby asks, voice raised defensively.

“Obviously not!” You yell, sitting up and dragging the comforter along so you can cover yourself. “I love you, Abby. I love being with you and talking to you and—”

“Don’t fuckin’ say that.” She interrupts you, which is probably for the better.

It’s different for Abby, being one of Owen’s closest friends, because he’s unaware of how well she knows you and so he feels comfortable confiding in her about your relationship. A big problem he seems to have is that you’ve never once said the word love. Not to him, at least. Not about him.

Yet, here you are, throwing that word around just for her.

She wants to feel honored, but she finds herself only feeling guilt. The kind that makes her throat tighten and her heart drop.

You groan in frustration. “But it’s true!”

“So make it untrue!” She shouts back. “You can’t just… say shit like that, and expect me to be okay with it. You’re supposed to love Owen.”

A confession bubbles up in your chest, one that you know you should shake away, but your mouth moves before your brain can catch up. “But I don’t.” You mumble. “I want to. I just can’t.”

Abby stares at you like she’s seen a ghost. All conversations she’s had with Owen about you– ones about how he’d propose to you someday, wondering if you’d want to have kids, asking if it was too early on in the relationship to think about saving for a house– they all become null. The worst part? Abby thinks she might know exactly how you feel. “You can’t? What does that mean?” She asks.

“Exactly what it sounds like.” You reply. “I try, but I can’t. We go on dates, and the whole time, I’m just waiting for it to be over. We watch a movie together, and I pretend to fall asleep so he doesn’t try anything. It’s exhausting, Abby. None of it feels right. Every single fucking guy I’ve been with– it never feels right. The only relief has been you.”

Abby listens to your rant with a blank expression, reaching up to wipe some stray tears from your cheeks with her thumb. “So, you’re gay.” She says.

You quickly grab her wrist and shove her hand away. “I’m not gay.” You hiss.

She sighs. “You just sat on my face. You’re a little gay.”

“Okay, fine, maybe a little!” You throw your hands up defensively. “But I don’t like other women. I like you.”

Truthfully, it’s all too much for Abby to take in at once; she does her best to appear, knowing her best bet is to calm you down, but she can’t imagine how much it would break Owen to know this. To know that he’s now been left by two women due to a sexuality crisis. Would he think it’s his fault? Would he guess that Abby had something to do with it? She likes you too, maybe more than she knows, but it’s an impossible situation.

When you’re met with silence on Abby’s end, you continue. “You’re gonna think I’m horrible for this, but it’s true; I’ve been waiting for him to fuck up so I have a reason to leave him. Some nights, he tells me he’s going to a party and I’ll go to sleep hoping I wake up to a text from Manny about how Owen got a little too drunk and some girl looked enough like me,” you shrug, “I’ve had that scenario in my head for weeks. It’s so convenient.”

“You’re fucked up,” Abby shakes her head, “fantasizing about him cheating while you’re sleeping with his friend? Jesus.”

“But it’s true, right? Then I could just leave him. No goodbye, no nothing. I’d give him all his sweatshirts back and let him see me wearing yours instead.” You say, and she immediately recognizes that tone in your voice. Something dark, something you put on when you know what you want and you’re set on getting it.

It hurts to hear you talk about her friend like he’s nothing more than an obstacle. It hurts even more to know that, deep down, she’d felt the exact same way once.

Wishing he’d leave her, knowing that he never would.

“Yeah.” She huffs, now visibly doing her best to avoid eye contact. Her eyes skitter around the room and it doesn’t take long for you to regret speaking your mind. “That sounds like an easy way out, but you should know by now that there’s nothing easy about being with Owen. Nothing’s easy about cheating, either.”

You nod in agreement. There’s a heavy silence after that, one that leaves you both staring down and biting your cheeks and feeling like all your sins had been laid out in front of you. The weight of it all is overbearing, but still so worth it.

“It’s easier with you,” you mutter after a minute, “and I know you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t feel the same.”

“I wouldn’t.” Abby agrees, deciding to leave it at that. “Do you… uh, do you wanna stay the night? Here, with me?”

Finally, your eyes meet hers, and she hates the way this simple action reignites the spark inside of her. You tilt your head. “Oh, yeah. I didn’t really return the favor, huh?”

Her jaw clenches, teeth grinding together as she fights back a smile. She shouldn’t be so infatuated with you– your every movement, every word��� but she is.

The smile escapes her efforts and she shakes her head. “No. No, you didn’t.”

[nanowrimo]

5 Tips for Building a Sustainable Writing Practice

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. First Draft Pro, a 2023 Camp NaNoWriMo sponsor, is a great writing app—whether you’re writing solo or with a co-author. Here are a few tips for building a sustainable writing practice, brought to you by author Ariana Brown and First Draft Pro.

We’ve all heard the advice to “write every day,” as if it were that easy! Translation: suck it up, no one cares if you’re tired. But what if there was another way to get writing done, without being unkind to yourself? 

Hi, I’m Ariana Brown, and I teach writers how to create a writing practice that is sustainable, flexible, and fulfilling. Most of my students are chronically ill, disabled, neurodivergent, or simply exhausted from the daily stresses of life. I know writing isn’t your only responsibility—capitalism makes sure of that! But I strongly believe that writing should be an enjoyable activity you look forward to.

Below I’ve compiled my top tips for exhausted writers who want to be kinder to themselves—and still get the work done.

1. Add pleasure to your writing routine.

Sensory pleasures are neither frivolous nor are they only for children. They’re a crucial part of being alive! They give us something to look forward to when times are tough and we need motivation. Candles, soft blankets, cold beverages, mood lighting, dance breaks, yummy treats—whatever you choose, make sure it’s something you love. Paint your nails a fun color so you have something beautiful to look at while you’re typing away. Make a playlist of your favorite songs and after you finish a chapter, blast one song so loudly you have to get up and dance. Then, get back to writing. Remember, even for the most focused among us, pleasure is a better motivator than shame.

2. Be clear about your intentions.

What brought you to writing in the first place? For some, it was the ability to escape into our imaginations. For others, it was the chance to finally express what we’d been holding inside. Identify your reason for writing, then ask yourself: Am I still enjoying this? Do I still feel connected to my reason for writing? If not, explore how you can strengthen your connection to your inner child’s reason for writing. 

3. Work with your brain, not against it.

If we know that everyone’s brain works differently, why do we force strict discipline and linear processes on ourselves? My advice: find or create a writing process that works for you. Maybe you love outlines; maybe you prefer to see where the words take you. Either way, make space for wandering, play, and discovery as you write. Take brain breaks. Doodle, map, dance, and draw when you get distracted. Body double with other writers, try new exercises and prompts to make the writing sing, and take plenty of breaks to stretch your body and talk to friends. We come to writing with our whole selves. Listen to your body, don’t shut it off.

4. Find a writing community.

You don’t have to wait for a community to come to you! I offer co-writing sessions on Zoom four times a month for my Patreon supporters, but do what works for you. Attend local open mics as an audience member and cheer on your peers. Invite your best friends to your living room once a month for a two hour writing/crafting session. Or check your local library and bookstores for free workshops and author events. You don’t have to do this work alone.

5. Develop a gratitude practice.

Finishing your draft is a huge accomplishment, but it’s not the only milestone to be celebrated. Consider creating opportunities to thank yourself throughout your writing practice. You’re doing an amazing and difficult thing. The fact that you keep showing up is worthy of celebration. Whether you decide to journal, rest, pray, meditate, or reward yourself, a little gratitude goes a long way.

Ariana Brown is a queer writer from San Antonio, TX, based in Houston. She is the author of We Are Owed (Grieveland, 2021) and Sana Sana (Game Over Books, 2020), and a national collegiate poetry slam champion. Ariana holds an MFA in Poetry, MS in Library and Information Science, and a BA in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies. She has been writing, teaching, and performing for over a decade. Follow her online @ArianaThePoet and www.arianabrown.com. 

[creative-writing-for-cupcakes]

Puppy in Training

So I’m getting back into writing. I need to practice my smut especially. So I found a prompt on “How would you treat a new puppy?” I wrote this, let me know whatcha think.

Oh puppy, I don’t think you’ve been FULLY trained. Do you need some toys while I’m away at work? Well it doesn’t matter if you don’t I want to train you to take all the toys I want. I want to restrain you in your cute lil kennel all padded and full of pillows for your comfort. Your arms tied behind your back, attached to your cute lil collar so when you move you choke in the best way. A puppy tail plug shoved up your tight ass. But I may have upgraded it to a new one, it’s bigger, and how do you like the vibration? Moving on to your breasts, I bought you some cute nipple clamps shaped like puppy paws. My puppy needs every part to look so pretty. Made sure to chain the clamps to your kennel, move and they will pull your pretty nipples in the best way. Don’t worry, the chain is long enough for you to lay down, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the pain. I made sure you have a circle gag in your mouth, need to train your jaw to keep open at all times, want you to be able to suck off all my toys and any mess we make. Besides, I want to hear all your horny sounds. The best part is all the toys I stuffed in your sweet pussy though. I have some big toys that would break you so I need to train you to take it all. I’ll be gentle and start you out with two egg vibrators stuffed so deep in you. I made sure they stayed as deep as possible by filling you up with a giant silicone dildo. You poor thing, you were screaming and begging me to stop. Whining about how it was “ too big” for you. Oh, my little puppy, this toy is so small. I had to shush you, massage your sides and tell you to take a deep breath as I bottomed you out. Oh, you looked so fucked out already. So full that I could see the vibrators bulging in your tummy. You whined like such a pretty puppy when I pushed down on the bulge. But I couldn’t leave your weeping cunt alone. Poor thing was begging for attention while you tried humping the dildo. So I taped down two vibrators to your cute puffy clit. 

Oh, you looked so cute trying to fuck yourself crazy when I left. I told you I wanted you to cum until you couldn’t anymore. God, I’m so glad I set up the pet cam last week. It was so fun watching you fuck yourself stupid on my phone. Did you know the new vibrators I got  came with an app, so I can control them from work? I loved seeing you work yourself up to an orgasm just to turn off all the toys and hear your sounds of anguish, begging to let you come. But I think I liked it more when you got overstimulated, pleading to turn everything off, to let you rest. Such a good girl, begging for mommy even when I’m not around. I turned the toys up higher than ever. Uh! Your scream made it so hard to stay at work, but I can fuck you in person later.

You got so dumb after that. My sweet dumb puppy. Oh, you’re doing so good, making your kennel such a mess, staining all your pillows and blankets with cum. I can’t wait to make your clean up your mess, then I’ll give you such a treat. It was so sweet to see you fuck yourself to sleep. So worn out that you passed out with all the toys still buzzing to life. I swear I cooed at my screen seeing you hump at the toys in your sleep. You just kept cumming. It was adorable. You did so good for your first day of training baby. I’ll reward you when I get home and let you pick out one of your new toys for tomorrow. Do you want more eggs in you? I’d love to see how many you can hold before you burst. Or maybe you think you can take a bigger dildo? You need to work on taking a bigger size. Don’t worry I’ll work you through it as I fill you up. But first, I can’t wait to get home. I’ll treat you by fucking you with your favorite strap. Then I’ll let you fall asleep sucking on my cunt just like you like. I’ll break my sweet lil puppy in and train you to be the best lil toy around. I’m sure you won’t mind me lending you out to some friends once you get trained. You’d like to have me watch them fuck you right? But don’t worry, they’ll never fuck you full of love like me puppy~!

Hope you look forward to me coming home puppy. I’d love to hear what reward you want for being such a good girl.

[maxtalksalarmclocks]

Radio Tuning and Volume Controls, Part 1

At the risk of too many technically dense posts in sequence, I’m following up my post on the minutiae of battery backups with two posts on the minutiae of radio tuning and volume controls! These “explainer” posts will likely be the most time-consuming for me to write, so I want to knock them out rather than turning them into Big Daunting Things in my head that I then procrastinate on.

In Part 2 of this post, we will explore the weirdnesses of radio tuning and volume controls. But first, we need to explore how they work in the first place. And before we explore that, we need to explore why alarm clocks have radios or other music-playing apparatuses in the first place. So let’s do it!

Why do so many alarm clocks have radios, CD players, or other music players?

There’s an obvious reason and a slightly less obvious reason! The obvious reason is that it saves space on a nightstand. I know my nightstand barely has enough space for everything on it, and I can imagine pretty much nobody wanted to cram a CD boombox and an alarm clock onto their bedside table. Combining these devices reduces their footprint!

The slightly less obvious reason is that these “combo” alarm clocks tried to give you a more pleasant sleeping and waking experience than alarm clocks of yore. Most people don’t enjoy waking up to bells ringing or obnoxious buzzing or beeping, though for some of us, it may be the only way to get us out of bed. But for others, it might be nicer to wake up to a favorite song, or the voice of your favorite anchor on NPR. That’s why alarm clocks with radios, CD players, or other audio sources typically let you set these sources as the alarm sound, which wouldn’t be possible if the radio or CD player was an entirely separate device.

Pretty much all of these alarm clocks also go a step further. They don’t just try to help you wake up peacefully, they also try to help you fall asleep peacefully too. Tons and tons of alarm clocks have a sleep timer, which shuts off the radio or CD player automatically after a set time. That way, you can put on soothing music or a boring news station to fall asleep to, and then have the sound shut off automatically once you’re asleep. I feel like sleep timers are something surprisingly few people use or even know about, though they’re included on practically every alarm clock with a radio or CD player ever made.

Now, here’s the tricky thing. The audio people want to fall asleep to is not the same as the audio they want to wake up to. (Or the audio they listen to during the day!) Maybe you’re the kind of person who puts on soothing classical at a low volume to lull you into slumber. But you’re a deep sleeper, so you need the guitars of heavy metal playing LOUD to get you out of bed. (If you’re that person, I applaud you for your rich and varied music tastes.)

I don’t think there are really that many people using their alarm clocks to the max in this way, setting the CD alarm, using the sleep timer, and letting their tastes meander across every genre and volume level of music. But when that rare human being comes along, alarm clocks have to be prepared. It’s helpful when they have the ability to play one thing at one volume (such as during the sleep timer), then switch themselves to a different thing at a different volume (such as for the alarm sound). And that leads nicely into our discussion today!

Analog vs. digital controls

If you’re young and sprightly like me, you may have no idea how radio works. (Well, I know a little about how radio works, but mostly because I’m an alarm clock nerd, not because I really listen to it. Though NPR slaps, I will say.) Both AM and FM radio stations broadcast at specific frequencies, measured in kilohertz (for AM) or megahertz (for FM). Using FM as an example, one station may be located at 91.1 MHz, then another at 91.3, then another at 91.5, etc. The important thing to know is that, unlike “stations” on an app like Spotify, real radio stations are arranged in a numeric sequence, and you change between them by changing the frequency the radio is set to receive. The process of changing this frequency to the number you want is called tuning.

If you’re an alarm clock designer, you might approach designing controls for radio tuning in a similar way as you might for volume. That’s because volume controls, like radio tuning controls, also need to move through a series of numbers in sequence. These numbers are more obvious. They are an arbitrary range the alarm clock designer chooses, from mute all the way up to super-super-loud.

Both radio tuning and volume controls (on alarm clocks or other devices) can be analog or digital. This is a surprisingly important distinction that I want to explain as carefully as I can.

Digital controls

I’m actually going to explain digital controls first, because they are more familiar to most people. With a digital control for radio tuning or volume, you press a button or turn a dial, and your action sends a command to the device’s motherboard, which changes the numeric value for radio frequency or volume by a preset amount. The resulting value is typically shown on a screen. You know when you press the volume-up button on your TV remote, and the screen shows that the volume changed from 29 to 30? That’s a digital control.

Below is a an alarm clock (a Sony ICF-CD853V) with a prototypical example of digital radio tuning. The radio frequency (87.5 MHz) is shown at the bottom of the screen. The “Tune / Time Set” buttons allow you to decrease or increase the radio frequency. And there are buttons numbered 1 through 5 on the top of the alarm clock for “Preset Tuning,” which is almost always a telltale sign of digital radio tuning. I’ll explain what those do in just a moment.

There are two crucial things to understand about digital controls. First, they change radio frequency or volume in discrete steps, rather than continuously. If volume is on a scale from 0 to 30, you can’t set the volume to 5.5, or 3.3333333, or 2.57684749249. You can set it to 2, or 3, or 4, or 5. This could be considered limiting for a volume control, because what if you want to listen to music at 5.5, and 5 is too quiet and 6 is too loud, gosh darn it? But alarm clock designers can usually resolve this problem by including enough volume options. And changing in discrete steps is actually really helpful for radio tuning, because radio stations are arranged in discrete steps. You want to move from 91.1 FM to 91.3 FM without ending up in between. If you end up at 91.2 FM, where no station exists, I believe you'll hear a little bit of both radio stations on either side simultaneously, which is what we call “not ideal.”

Second, you can use a digital control to change radio frequency or volume, or the electronics within the device can change the radio frequency or volume themselves. There are so, so many reasons why this is important. With radio frequency, it allows for preset stations, where you save the stations you listen to most, and at the touch of a button, the electronics within the device can leap from the old frequency to the one you selected, regardless of how far apart they are. (That’s what those 1 through 5 buttons do on the alarm clock pictured above! I could save NPR as preset 1 and jump to it whenever I want.) With alarm clocks specifically, digital controls also allow you to set a radio frequency or volume level for the alarm that is different from whatever you were last listening to. At the alarm time, the clock can change itself to the new radio frequency or volume level. Finally, digital controls also allow you to adjust the radio frequency or volume without physically interacting with the device, such as by using a remote control.

Analog controls

This is all in contrast to analog controls. With an analog control for radio tuning or volume, you turn a dial, and the dial physically interacts with the circuitry of the device in a way that I honestly don’t fully understand, and the radio frequency or volume changes along a continuum (not stepwise or discretely). The resulting radio frequency or volume is not shown on a screen, because (a) the device doesn’t know exactly what radio frequency or volume it’s set to (yes, really), and (b) the radio frequency or volume isn’t an exact, discrete number.

Below is an alarm clock (a Sony ICF-C630) with a prototypical example of analog radio tuning. An estimate of the radio frequency is shown on the dial scale, which looks like a ruler and is located below the display. The radio tuning dial is the small gray wheel on the lower-right side of the clock. As you rotate the dial, a mechanical linkage moves the red pointer on the dial scale, showing you roughly which station you are tuned to. (If you’re wondering why the frequencies on the dial scale are weird numbers, it’s because this isn’t a U.S.-market clock, and radio frequencies work differently in different countries.)

Analog controls will probably make more sense if we discuss the physical controls themselves. Both analog and digital controls can be dials. But a digital dial can make more than one full rotation, while an analog dial is restricted to one full rotation or less. An analog dial also never clicks from one “step” to the next, while some digital dials do. Using volume as an example, an analog volume control is usually a little dial or wheel on the side of a device that smoothly, freely rotates from one endpoint (mute) to another endpoint (the loudest volume possible). If you’ve ever had a Nintendo device (like a 3DS) with a volume slider on the side, that’s a perfect example of an analog volume control. (Though on alarm clocks, dials are much more common than sliders.)

As I said earlier, analog controls change radio frequency or volume continuously, not stepwise or discretely. They have an infinite amount of settings between their two endpoints. So you can dial in the perfect volume level for your listening (though you may get sucked into an obsessive loop doing it), but you can also find yourself tuned between two radio stations, which sucks. You’ll rarely, if ever, tune perfectly to 91.1 FM, so you better get comfortable with “good enough.” Devices with analog controls also can’t change these controls themselves. So if an alarm clock’s radio tuning dial or volume dial is set to a particular station or volume, that’s the station or volume the alarm clock will be using, until you physically rotate the dial. So no preset radio stations, no programming a unique radio station or volume level for the alarm, and no changing the station or volume using a remote control.

Analog volume controls don’t typically indicate the volume level, but it’s easy enough to hear if the music is already playing. Analog radio tuning controls do typically indicate the estimated radio frequency, because you don’t always know which station you’re on just by listening to it, unless the announcers tell you. Above, I showed you an example of a dial scale, which is the most common kind of radio frequency display for analog tuning. But there are others. Sometimes radio frequency numbers mechanically rotate through a little plastic window, like on the Sony ICF-CD815, shown below-left. And sometimes the radio frequency numbers are printed on the dial itself, like on the HoMedics SS-6000, shown below-right. (You might need to zoom in to see the radio tuning dial, which is on the lower-right side of the clock.)

Time for a break!

I know this is a pretty technically dense post, and I really appreciate you bearing with me. Here’s the good news: now that you’ve learned all this information, you will be better able to appreciate the weird and fun things I’m going to show you in Part 2! So go get hydrated, have a snack, touch grass, and then join me for Part 2!

Image credits:

Sony ICF-CD853V (digital tuning): Poshmark

Sony ICF-C630 (analog tuning with dial scale): Google Images

Sony ICF-CD815 (analog tuning with frequency windows): Google

HoMedics SS-6000 (analog tuning with numbers on the dial): eBay

[what-gs-watching]

"It said quarter to five, but it was quarter to ass…"

I’m sorry but it’s time for a quick appreciation post for Community’s season 5. I realize I shouldn’t be watching Community yet again since I was just into it like eight months ago and obviously wrote a love letter to it  but we’re here already so deal with it. 

This is an incredibly deep cut situation, but I don’t care. Season 5 has some of my all-time favorite episodes, even if it’s likely a lot of people gave up on the show before it ever came out because Dan Harmon had left for season 4 and there was always so much upheaval around it even being renewed and blah blah AND Donald Glover left that season.

Which, I admit, was devastating. But even so, there are a bunch of gems in the 13-episode run. 

Starting with "Basic Intergluteal Numismatics", wherein the study group tries to FINALLY solve the case of the Asscrack Bandit, a shadowy figure who’s running around campus dropping quarters down unsuspecting asscracks. Literally, that’s the entire premise. The episode is based on movies like Zodiac, it’s dark and brooding and it’s fucking hilarious because everyone takes it so seriously and it’s a perfect Community homage. They had BEN FOLDS do two different songs to include in it and they’re catchy as hell, honestly they fucking slap, and I’m still not sure who I think is the asscrack bandit, and I hope to never find out. 

Another pure favorite is “Geothermal Escapism”, which is Donald Glover’s final episode, and a perfect way to send him off. Abed declares a school-wide game of “the floor is lava” and it’s such a good replacement for the paintball game episodes. As usual, everyone in the school is completely committed to the bit except for Britta for once, who’s trying to force the group to properly deal with Troy leaving, she’s the surprising voice of reason throughout and the loophole they come up with to help Abed deal with losing his best friend is so Community. I cry everytime I watch this one - literally, their relationship is so pure and beautiful and sweet and the episode is simultaneously fun and bittersweet. 

Also, we can’t forget about "Analysis of Cork-Based Networking". The only reason I love this episode is like, a fairly small part of the entire story, but it makes me hysterically laugh every time. The group has formed a ‘Save Greendale’ committee and Annie is off navigating the labyrinth of bureaucracy which leaves Jeff, Shirley, Chang and Duncan to pick a theme for the midterm dance. After Chang has a meltdown, they agree to his pitch of “Bear down for midterms” which no one understands, but they commit to it. Eventually, they find out why Chang was so insistent on the theme, and it’s not great. I honest to god still yell “BEAR DOWN FOR MIDTERMS” when I’m dealing with something I don’t want to do. Like right now, with the case study I’m doing for an interview process. My husband always knows what I mean, and I love it.

Finally gang, "App Development and Condiments". Fucking Meowmeowbeanz. This is the episode where the entire school gets caught up in a social media app that lets them rate each other, and the entire social ecosystem falls apart. The important part here is that this episode was made BEFORE that Black Mirror episode you’re thinking about. Community is streets ahead, and always has been. The commentary is scathing, and fucking hilarious. 

I have no real point to any of this, I’ve just been thinking about it for the past two days and I had to get it out. I can never sing enough praises for Community. I’ve decided on this (10th? 15th? who knows) rewatch that it is literally my favorite show in the world. Like, it’s my desert island show and my comfort show and my comedy show and my sad show. It’s my every show.

Community, oh how I love you.

[workingmomsofsanantonio]

Beyond Busy: The Art of Time Management for Working Moms

Beyond Busy: The Art of Time Management for Working Moms

Beyond Busy: The Art Of Time Management For Working Moms Time Management Tips

Jan 15, 2024

If you often find yourself caught in the whirlwind of managing work, family, and everything in between, you're definitely not alone. I get it—the juggling act of being a working mom is no small feat. But fear not, because today, I’m diving into the world of time management. Let's uncover some small, totally doable techniques to help you reclaim control of your schedule and make the most out of every precious moment!

The Art of Time Management

Time management isn't about fitting more into your day; it's about making the most of the time you have. It's a skill that, once mastered, can transform the chaos into a well-orchestrated symphony. Start by acknowledging that you are an amazing working mom managing multiple roles, and you deserve a strategy that works for you.

Creating Daily and Weekly Schedules

Get that planner ready (oh man, this is my favorite part), because we're diving into the nitty-gritty of scheduling. Begin by outlining your priorities for the day and week. Assign specific time blocks for work tasks, family time, self-care, and those unexpected mom duties. Having a visual roadmap can be a huge when it comes to time management, and if it makes it into the planner, you're so much more likely to commit to getting it done!

Setting Priorities and Goals

Prioritization is key. Identify the tasks that truly matter and most importantly, the ones that align with your goals. Whether it's a work deadline, a school event, or your much-needed 'me' time, knowing your priorities helps you allocate time where it matters most!

Delegating Tasks

Meet your sidekick—delegation. If you’re anything like me, it may be a struggle to admit this, but it's okay not to do it all! It’s important to delegate tasks at work and home, whether it's assigning chores to the kids or partnering with a colleague on a project. Remember, you're not relinquishing control; you're smartly distributing the workload, and hopefully acknowledging other’s strengths in the process!

Overcoming Procrastination

Procrastination is the arch-nemesis of productivity. Kick it to the curb by breaking tasks into smaller, more manageable steps. Set super realistic deadlines and reward yourself when you achieve them. Small victories pave the way for significant accomplishments!

Pro-Tip: When you make a to-do list, put everything on there—big or small! There’s something so satisfying about checking things off that list, even if it’s something as small as making your bed, and it will help motivate you to tackle the bigger, less desirable tasks!

Time-Saving Tips for Busy Moms

Let's talk about efficiency hacks. Embrace technology—use apps for grocery shopping, meal planning, and task management. Batch similar tasks together, like responding to emails or tackling household chores. And yes, saying 'no' is a powerful time-saving tool...a good friend of mine recently reminded me that “no” is, in fact, a complete sentence and can be used as such! It really is about preserving your energy for what truly matters!

Remember, time management is a journey, not a destination…and it will help you craft a life that aligns with your values and goals. Embrace the process, be kind to yourself, and celebrate the victories, big or small. You've got this, and I’m here cheering you on every step of the way!

About the Author:

Erika Radis is a Co-Founder of Working Moms of San Antonio. She is a real estate agent, graphic designer, podcaster, office supply enthusiast (is there anything better in this world than a good pen?)and San Antonio area Working Mom. She has owned and run her own businesses for the last decade, all while raising her 3 daughters and enjoys providing valuable resources for Working Moms in the San Antonio area! You can follow Erika on Instagram or on Facebook.

www.workingmomsofsanantonio.com

[journeys-debut]

Wha—what is a lightstick? PC? What is—why would we collect plastic? Birthday? In a cafe??? Free..bie?

THERE IS A KPOP CONVENTION AT THE ANIME EXPO PLACE?

HEELLLLLP

*record scratch*

*Freeze frame*

Yep, that’s me. (Not really.) Freaking out over boys a million miles away. I bet you’re wondering how I got here.

Hi I’m Journey, nice to meet you!

So here’s the thing: I’m brand new to K-Pop fandom.

I’m not new to fandom (anime, books, etc.) and I’m not new to K-Pop (in that I’ve always been aware of it; listen to some of the music; I have friends w/in the fandom, etc.) But I have never been in the K-Pop fandom—that all changed w/ Cha Woongki. 

One day, I'm scrolling through Tiktok and see this:

and I’m like it’s giving

queer~,

it’s giving

Reality TV~.

Already my two favorite things. So, I search up the source material, and boom: Boys Planet pops up. 

I jumped right in, wondering if I’d even be into it (Because I have a short attention span when it comes to tv sometimes)—

I got hooked.

Cute, talented guys around my age?

Also some very much giving girlypop?

ALSO competing?

(The survival aspect killed me sometimes as an empath. Stop emotionally destroying those boys please.)

I can’t remember when I started watching the show...maybe half way through the season airing? But I immediately jumped into live voting.

I was super excited, and even thought, "if some of my Top Picks make it into this little group...

...will I be stanning a K-Pop group?"

Then it happened. I went from juggling a few Top Picks, to finding the one.

My BIAS* (which I did not know at the time, because what is K-POP?):

Seok Matthew.

I was like... "him. I’m rooting for that one. I love his talent, he's super freaking cute, and I’m sad when he gets sad on the show."

...and right on time. Because, now, instead of having the option to vote for three Top Picks on the app...we could only vote for one. 

And I was finding that a lot of fans on social media weren’t struggling to select one. It seemed like every fan had one person they really were devoted to /excited about / cheering on. And I was like... "Well, that’s how I feel about Seok Matthew."

I mean, this happens all the time with Reality TV shows, right? We have a fave and we root for them with fellow fans. And maybe even vote.

But the energy of this—felt different.

Only 9 out of 18 guys were going to make it into that debut group**. It all was riding on the votes.

We, as fans, literally had their dreams in our hands.

There were Twitter polls where fans were exchanging and buying votes. Or working with fans of already debuted groups.

There will billboard ads across bus stations and on the sides of buildings advertising top picks. 

There was even this crazy moment where the fans decided who got the best part in the finale performance...all through YouTube streams?! As in, all the competing boys performed the part, and the video with the most views + likes would be awarded the part.

(It was CRAZY. Seok Matthew has just gone through a sad moment on the show and had been dealing with a lot of negative rumors. So, Seokryudans*** were PISSED. All that stress/defensiveness blew up, and w/in a day, the fandom got his views super high.

But get this? One of the most popular boys on the show [rightfully so, we love him] has a HUGE fandom, so they started competing with us Seokryudans.

Like, it was meant to be an 8 person battle, but the competition was ONLY between Zhang Hao and Matthew.

We were in the trenches. Streaming in the millions. SCREAM TYPING on social media.

Hao won.

(I’m almost over it.)

Anyway, so that crazy streaming war? Think of that vibe, but times it by 100000000—because this time we weren’t voting on a part.

We were voting on who debuted.**

We were voting on who got to follow their dreams versus who would literally have go back to their daily lives and struggles / head home / leave the country. 

It was intense.

...

Matthew debuted in the group!

 And two other Top Picks of mine: Gunwook and Hanbin debuted, too.

(*Moment of silence for some of my other faves that didn't survive this time around...

...including the icon, the legend, the one that started it all for me:

)

So, many talented boys didn't make it. But Gunwook, Hanbin, and the LOML Seok Matthew did!

And, throughout the transition from Boys Planet to the new group preparing to debut (through a lot of Tiktoks, birthday lives, and magazine covers, I’ve gotten to really fall for the charms of all the boys in the group—and now I really do love ZEROABASEONE.

And that’s when it hit me:

 I…

...really love a K-Pop group?

As in the background on my phone? As in my previous hyper fixation (*cough* My Hero Academia *cough*) almost replaced??

WHAT???

At least with previous hyper fixations, I had something to jump off of. MHA? Great, I know anime and cosplay.

Thai Drama? Yeah, you know, I’ve watched foreign TV shows before. I can read captions, I get it.

UlTING**** a K-Pop group? Wha—what is a lightstick? PC? What is—why would we collect plastic? Birthday? In a cafe??? Free..bie?

THERE IS A KPOP CONVENTION AT THE ANIME EXPO PLACE?

HEELLLLLP

*record scratch*

*freeze frame*

(Yep, that’s me. Newly formed K-Pop girlie, with only one K-Pop group...that’s she's obsessed with.

ZEROBASEONE is debuting as a new group, and I’m debuting as a new K-Pop fan.

This is Journey’s Debut.

...Let’s see how this goes. <3 0_1

.

.

.

BONUS: I will be keeping K-Pop Logs for new vocabulary I learn / pickup / discover within the fandom, and end up using on the blog.

~

K-POP B/LOG:

*BIAS - A favorite member within a group.

**DEBUT - Though “debut” is a word used for music genres other than K-pop, it's often used in K-pop to refer to a trainee who has transitioned to an idol by releasing their first official single (either as a soloist or in a group) or performing in public for the first time.

***Seokryudans - Name of Seok Matthew fandom; a play on the Korean word for pomegranate (seongnyu) and Seok.

****ULT - A bias refers to your favorite member, but it can change through time. Meanwhile, an ULT, short for "Ultimate," is that group or member who's your top favorite no matter how many idols and groups you like in the future.

~

More ways to follow the Journey!

[twwpress]

Creator Spotlight #19: stillattherestaurant

Welcome back to the TWW Author Spotlight! For every spotlight, we’ll ask each featured author the same ten questions, as well as your questions submitted via Twitter. This week we are so happy to welcome to the spotlight AO3 user stillattherestaurant (@thingswithpaper on Twitter)!

1) What are your top 5 desert island fics by other authors?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/37131781 all i’ve ever known by sam_writes_fics

Sam has written so so many of my favourite fics, and I wanted to share the love across authors, so choosing one was very difficult, but this au is one of my favourites, and the amount of times I’ve reread this must number at least ten.

(Honourable mention to the uncompleted august, honey (you were mine) also by Sam, the Sam/Josh fic that ruined my life and continues to whenever I reread. Camp counselors is so!!! My heart!!!! Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40285125)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/34995025 summer, highland falls by crossingdelancey

This CJ&Josh fic absolutely ruins me every time I read it, because them being step siblings and learning to tolerate each other? Fuck yeah. CJ kissing a girl and Josh not telling anyone? Ruins me every time.

 https://archiveofourown.org/works/34783816 closer by rearviewmirror

If there’s one thing about me I’m going to absolutely lose my shit over religious trauma, and something about this fic really fucking ruins me. I’m a sucker for a college au in addition to it, and something about Leo and Jed in college is so very insane. I’m also a big believer in Leo and CJ bonding over religious trauma and it makes me want to write something about that (because… listen I don’t think anyone on this show is straight except maybe Toby).

 https://archiveofourown.org/series/2601712 professor josh (series) by hufflepuffhermione

I could not choose just one of these works so I’m going with the whole series! Alli, this was the first fic I fell in love with in TWW fandom, and I come back to it often.

 https://archiveofourown.org/works/35532172 the world is getting warmer, running out of air (but you can send me way up to the stratosphere) by scamophogoghs

Listen, this is maybe the hottest Josh/Donna fic I’ve read. Ever. I’m not getting stranded on a desert island without it. 

 2) Do you have a favorite character to write? Favorite ship(s) to write? Are there characters or ships you'd like to write more of?

I love writing Josh and Donna, obviously, and from those I think Donna’s voice comes easier to me, and I really enjoy exploring the parts of her life that aren’t talked about in canon - like why she left her boyfriend, and her feelings about Josh across the series (that are more than just drop dead in love, although there’s plenty of that too!).

I wrote one Sam/Josh fic, and enjoyed it so much that I’d definitely want to write more on them, and if the right idea comes to me I’d love to explore Helen more, she fascinates me.

 3) Tell us about your writing process (setup/location? Night or day? Snacks/beverages? Computer/phone/notebook? Music or silence? Anything else you want to share is welcome!)

Really whenever I find time! I work and study, and so for me it’s less about when inspiration strikes and more using the times I’m free. I’ll listen to music always - and I’ve been known to make playlists for even the shortest of fics to get me in the mood. Sometimes if I have ideas but I can’t outline it there and then, I’ll get it into my notes app, then copy it over to a document later, where I’ll do a brief outline (a very messy paragraph summarising it), then start writing.

 4) What writing advice do you have for others who may be reading this?

Start where you’re comfortable. My biggest roadblock is coming up with ideas, and so I take details from my own life sometimes, and think about how I can twist it to suit a character or ship - projection has gotten me through a LOT of fics! Also, just the act of writing something can help, even if it’s just a short drabble, it might spark something.

 5) From where do you usually draw your inspiration? (Other forms of media, music, tropes, etc?)

I write a lot of song fics, even if I don’t explicitly call it that - often I’ll listen to a song and think about one lyric in a character or ship context, and then all of a sudden, I’m outlining a whole fic based on it. If I’ve been watching the show, sometimes I’ll think about scenes that aren’t shown, and write them (there’s a few of those sitting in my drafts), and use it as a jumping off point for canon divergence or deleted scenes.

 6) What is the fic you've written that you're most proud of and why?

Definitely my phone call Josh/Donna fic - it’s inspired by an episode of Halt and Catch Fire, and getting to put a spin on it when the characters are in a similar position (not talking to each other, then repairing a relationship) was very fun. I struggled a lot trying to make the jump cuts work without it being too jagged, but I think I managed it okay, and the dialogue features some of what I think is my best work.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/38136118

 7) What's the fic trope/concept/AU you'd read 1000 of? What's the fic trope/concept/AU you'd write 1000 of?

I would read so many friends to fwb to oh-shit-i’m-in-love-with-you fics. I’d read them all. Every single one. Unfortunately, I have minimal experience/talent in writing smut, so I can’t do my own wish-fulfillment, but I do love it so much as a trope in media and as a trope in fics.

I’d also read as many soulmate aus as is humanly possible. However it comes I’ll take it, I love the universe variation and the way it’s something new, but also so understood.

For TWW-specific, I would read a thousand fics about everyone’s reactions to Josh and Donna getting together. Particularly across the Santos-campaign era and then Santos-in-office era, there’s not enough of these fics and I would read SO MANY of them!!!! All of them in fact!!!

As for writing, I think I could write a lot of pining. In any form: divorce era, first meet but didn’t get a number (or equivalent), love of my life is with someone else, literally anything. I love it a lot.

 8) Is there anything you'd like to try writing-wise that you haven't yet?

I wish I had the patience to write something longer than 10k! I write so many short fics - 1-3k usually, and I’ve only ever written one fic that made it to 10k (and that was something that I was very very passionate about and might be my favourite fic I’ve ever written to this day). One day it’ll happen, I just have to find the right plot to enjoy and take my time with.

 9) What's your go-to Starbucks/coffee shop/other drink order?

I’m not really a coffee shop person, I mostly just drink tea at home and water! English breakfast decaf tea with milk and sugar is my go to.

 10) Do you have any current projects you'd like to promote or anything upcoming you'd like to tell us about?

I haven’t written for TWW in a while (I’ve been writing for another fandom, which has been fun, and something very different), but I just pulled up a WIP from a few months ago yesterday, which I’m a little excited about - Josh and Donna at Ellie’s wedding, some cute fluff and the smallest bit of hurt/comfort. Other than that, I’m just happy to be back, and looking forward to writing more for them this year!

Submitted questions:

From @mlea7675: What are your favorite WW ships?

Josh and Donna will always take number one for me, but I’m also in love with a lot of the Bartlets’ dynamic, and Sam/Josh holds a special place in my heart (for non-canon gay couples). There’s something about the inherent romcom of Josh and Donna’s story that gets me. CJ/Toby is another one I adore, they’re probably second to Josh and Donna for me! They should have been canon and I’ll die on that hill!!!!

 From @flowersinapril_: favourite post series headcanons (tww specific) / favourite AU tropes (all fic) xoxo

Oh this is a good one! For hcs, I love Josh and Donna getting married at the Bartlet’s farm, and the idea CJ and Josh dancing together in place of the usual first dance always makes my heart go !!! when I think about it. I’m also a massive fan of Sam and Donna phone calls after he leaves and then their regular catch ups when he comes back to D.C. (mostly talking about how stupid Josh is, and maybe commiserating over dating him).

For favourite AU tropes, I am a massive fan of childhood friends to lovers (I mentioned Sam’s earlier, and I’ve written one for another fandom), and any sort of modern AU also is a love of mine.

 From @sam_writes_fics: who is your favorite character that’s NOT a part of the main cast?

If it’s not clear from the amount of times I mention her, I am deeply in love with Helen Santos. I am of the belief she is severely underrated and a complex character the writers could have easily left as a far less major role (and she still didn’t get enough screen time in my opinion), but they still did a good job with her!!! I love her!!!

 From @jess_bakes_cakes: Which TWW character are you most like and why?

I honestly have no idea. When I first watched the show in 2021, it was with my family, and my mum always called me a mix of Josh and Donna (maybe the biggest compliment of my life), but I think I share a lot of qualities with Abbey too - stubborn, not willing to let go of things easily, but pushing aside that when it counts to be there for people. There’s the sense that she’ll be pissed at you for as long as it takes to get the point across, but no matter where you’re at, she’ll come through for you, and I like to think I’ve got some of that in me.

 From @donnamossburner: What is your favorite episode of TWW? And what is an episode you would rewrite if you could?

For favourite episode, I think 4x12 (Guns Not Butter) is the one that not a lot of people would say (although my other two favourites are 17 People and The Cold, so we know where my priorities lie), and I just love it so much!!! It’s got the iconic ‘steal the rest’ scene that I can recite verbatim at this point, the CJ and the goat fiasco, and it just feels very quintessentially TWW. Not only that, but the ending with the whole senior staff family, I’m just so in love with it!

The second part of this question I really had to think about, but I think I’ve finally come up with one - The Women of Qumar, 3.07/8. The whole thing with, well, first of all, Amy throwing the balloon out the window feels very off and is something I would like to not include, and also? My heart wants something more to come of the ‘are you dating your assistant?’ interaction. I do, however, love the CJ plotline, and the ‘shove it up your ass, Toby’ line, the delivery and the writing of that has stuck with me for a long time.

 From @bimadabomily: Unpopular west wing opinions?

I honestly cannot remember other people’s opinions on this, but Season 5 is not good on a first watch (and is still probably my least favourite of the seven), but on rewatches it becomes so much better because it sets up a lot of the white house dynamics in S6/7, and it recovers from the mess of the S4 ending in almost the best way it could have (although I wish we’d seen Zoey and Josh trauma bonding oh my god).

Final note from aurora:

Thank you so much to TWW Press for having me, I had so much fun doing this, and I’m super excited for 2023 and all that brings us <33

Thanks again to aurora and thanks to everyone who submitted questions! If you’d like to be featured in a future creator’s spotlight, send us a message here, email weeklypressbriefing@gmail.com, or DM us on Twitter!

xx, What’s next?

[chorusfm]

Liner Notes (November 30th, 2024)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, or if you’re not in the States, just a good Thursday and start to your weekend. If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here. A Few Things * I tried to keep track of the various Black Friday/Holiday sales I saw over the past week, and the community added some others to the replies. It’s always worth taking a look at as the Christmas gifting season begins. November is now over, and the year is almost over, and time has continued flying by at a record pace. We spent most of the day today putting up the Christmas tree and decorating a little bit for December. Sitting here now by the fire with the Christmas lights behind me is quite nice. * I say this with no hyperbole: Overcast is probably the most used app on my phone since its launch if you don’t count Messages and Safari. I’ve been writing about it since its debut and listened to thousands of hours of podcasts on it. I gladly pay for the premium version, and I subscribe to (and pay for) the creator’s podcast, ATP.fm, and have listened to every single episode. I love Overcast. And yet, when I saw a message saying that the app’s price was going to increase with the next payment, I couldn’t help but cringe a little. The latest app redesign has fundamentally broken the app for me in some significant ways. I can no longer play any podcasts on my portable speaker. AirPlay says it’s connected, but no sound comes out. I used to listen to many podcasts while showering and getting ready, but this no longer works. The app crashes on me every few days. Usually losing my place in whatever podcast I was listening to. And this bug where I hit back on a podcast screen and have to hit it multiple times (sometimes between 5-8) to go back to the podcast list view makes me want to throw my phone at the wall. I hate to say it, but the app has become highly unreliable for me. And the price increase has me thinking I need to look around at the podcast market again for the first time in a decade. I’ll probably move back to the default Apple app. My podcast listening has slowly decreased over the past few years, and I only listen to a handful of shows regularly these days (and then pick and choose episodes from a few others). My subscription renews in September 2025, so there’s still time for the bugs to get all worked out before I have to make a call. But I’ve been bummed out that one of my all-time favorite apps has been so untrustworthy lately, and I find the timing of that coinciding with a price increase to be extremely unfortunate. In Case You Missed It * Black Friday & Holiday Sales (2024) * Review: Career Day – I’ll Always Be This * Unreleased Blink-182 Song? * Record Store Day Black Friday 2024 Preview * Bob Bryar Passes Away * Thrice ‘Beggars’ 25th Anniversary Variant * Liner Notes (November 23rd, 2024) * The Early November Announce New Years Eve Show * Yellowcard Play “Better Days” in Manchester * Albums in Stores – Nov 29th, 2024 Music Thoughts * Imogen Heap can’t just show up and drop “What have you done to me?” and then casually mention on social media that it’s not part of an upcoming album. That’s just not fair! The song is too good. I want more! * MxPx’s dropped the one-off single “Set a Fire” a while back, but it’s stayed in pretty constant rotation for me. I love the aggressiveness and hope they continue down that path. This week had me spinning a few of their old albums, including Let it Happen, and Before Everything and After. Every time I hear “Well Adjusted,” I am shocked that it didn’t do better on the radio or find its way into the band’s live show more often. We’ll see what my final end-of-the-year stats look like, but MxPx is on track to be my most-played artist this year. They’ve been a go-to “comfort” band all year. When I’m unsure what I want to listen to, I’ve tossed one of their records on, and I’m almost always in a better… https://chorus.fm/features/articles/liner-notes-november-30th-2024/

[cdevroe]

Diversions #7: Additional progress

Wow, so much has happened since #6. Where do I begin? Should I try to recap my travels to Portland or to Atlanta for WordCamp or FinCon? Should I summarize all of the progress we’ve made on the addition to our home? Should I write about my recent upgrade to an M4 MacBook Pro? Or, do I focus on the updates that have come to the ActivityPub plugin that has me rethinking how I use my personal website (yet again)?

How about all of it?!

I’ve posted a few photos from Portland, though I have many more photos that I’ve taken on film that I just haven’t developed yet. This weekend I went to do exactly that and hit a roadblock. It would help if I had fresh chemicals around!

I’ve also commented on what happened at WordCamp and wrote some key takeaways from FinCon. So I won’t rehash any of that.

Instead, I’ll focus on the reminder that traveling (in general) and going to events has a positive impact on your outlook, your network, and your business. Not all of them can be directly measured or are reflected on the bottom row a spreadsheet – but you can feel them as you move forward. You may face a challenge and end up thinking of a company or person you met at an event that can help. In short; go to events.

The addition is moving along quickly now. This sort of project seems to be one where the beginning parts; planning, drawing, documenting, etc. are the slow parts. Then, once the work begins, it is difficult to keep up with.

Working from home affords me the ability to jog outside once or twice a day to snap a photo or two of the progress. I’m very happy that I’m not the one doing the work this time.

The foundation and floor base

I know snags are inevitable. In fact, the forecast at the end of this week already looks like it will slow down progress some. But that is how these sorts of things go.

The new lighter, faster 14″ M4 Pro MacBook Pro is really a delight to use. I hit a snag or two when upgrading the software that was Intel-only to their Apple Silicon counterparts (especially Adobe) but other than just a few hiccups — the upgrade/migration process is so easy.

My previous MacBook Pro was no slouch but this one is a screamer. Building projects, running local LLMs, or just having literally every single app open doesn’t seem to phase it. Using it as a laptop, something I was never able to do with my previous computer, is also really fun. I can actually get a lot of work done and the battery life is great!

My last bit of equipment upgrading is going to be a Thunderbolt dock and at least one external SSD. I need my port situation to be a bit cleaner and I’m hoping a dock will free me up to just have a single wire running into the laptop. And, as of today, I’m not backing up using Time Machine so I cannot delay getting a new SSD.

The social media landscape is a mess! Part of me loves the messiness. It is an interesting time and lots of people are experimenting with many things. New platforms, new ideas, new ways of sharing. Gone are the days of only one or two social networks thriving.

But another part of me is frustrated. I don’t really know what I want to do with my personal blog as it relates to the social web. I have the ActivityPub plugin installed, and it works well to distribute my posts onto the fediverse as a first class citizen. But it isn’t (and likely never will be) perfect.

If you’re at all interested in your website joining the fediverse, I recommend giving the plugin a try and learning how it works. This isn’t cross-posting. It makes your website “an ActivityPub endpoint” so that the account is your website (and/or its authors). It is very cool and interesting.

The reason the ActivityPub plugin has me rethinking my personal blog use, is that I can begin to see a future where all of my favorites, boosts, quote posts, etc. live here on my website – rather than my Mastodon account. But for that I’d want to restructure my site’s design a bit (and likely my RSS feed). Of course, if I explore this at all I’ll write about it.

Regardless of how this phase of the social web shakes out I know I’ll be publishing here on my blog.

An edition of Diversions wouldn’t be complete without some links:

Christoph Rauscher’s newsletter – I like how Christoph publishes his newsletter. Lovely.

Live at Delia’s Third Happening – Site Nonsite live album recording.

Vault – By Commercial Type.

Rex Brasher Field Notes – Lovely little film about Brasher’s work as well.

Rachel Binx’s website – Go take a look.

Apple Pay Plates – This is me buying Crocs or fanny packs.

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

It’s finally getting a bit chilly overnight here in Charlottesville. Yesterday morning we managed to drop down to 39 degrees (Fahrenheit) overnight. It was 41 when I got up with the pups this morning.

Coffee is made, first cup poured, time to put together some links and horrible commentary! 😂

John Naughton • The Guardian

If you log into Dave Winer’s blog, Scripting News, you’ll find a constantly updated note telling you how many years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds the blog has been running. Sometime tomorrow morning the year field will switch to 30. Which will mean that every single day for three decades Dave’s blog will have been stirring things up.

Congratulations, Dave! As I mentioned earlier in the week, Dave was one of my inspirations for blogging.

It’s hard to believe he’s been doing it for 30 years.

Manton Reece

Shut it down. ByteDance has until January to divest the app and I have no sympathy for a delay. It needs new leadership.

These are strong words coming from Manton. He’s a proponent of the open web and to see him this upset is saying something.

[EMILIE BLACK & CODY HAMMAN • JoBlo] (https://www.joblo.com/bloodiest-films-goriest-ever-made/)

The Goriest, Bloodiest Films Ever Made: some of our favorites

I’ve wanted to watch the Terrifier series for quite a while now and the recent release of Terrifier 3 I really want to see them.

The only film on that list I’ve seen is Evil Dead, and that was a remake.

The best of the original trilogy was Army of Darkness. It was super campy and Bruce Campbell was amazing. So many quotable one liners from that film.

If you haven’t seen Army of Darkness it’s worth a watch.

Emma Roth • The Verge

“WordPress.org just belongs to me personally,” Mullenweg said during an interview with The Verge. WordPress.org exists outside the commercial realm of Automattic, as a standalone publishing platform that offers free access to its open-source code that people can use to create their own websites. But it’s not a neutral, independent arbiter of the ecosystem. “In my role as owning WordPress.org, I don’t want to promote a company, which is A: legally threatening me and B: using the WordPress trademark. That’s part of why we cut off access from the servers.”

A lot of details have emerged about the ownership of various parts and pieces of WordPress the open source software vs. WordPress the hosting company vs. Automattic. Matt is, basically, all three.

Matt Mullenweg • WordPress

We’re very proud to announce that Vinny Green, a former WordPress community member, has started his fork, FreeWP. We strongly encourage anyone who disagrees with the direction WordPress is headed in to join up with Vinny and create an amazing fork of WordPress. Viva FreeWP!

With all the kerfuffle between WordPress and WP Engine Matt is still a staunch advocate for open source projects and is fine with folks forking WordPress. It is, after all, the way of open source.

It seems Matt’s biggest complaint is WP Engine taking and never giving back. If they’d fork WordPress into something new I’d imagine that would go a long way toward solving some of Matt’s issues with them.

Let WP Engine maintain their own copy and do with it what they will, even if that means doing nothing to improve it.

Alexander Martin • therecord.media

Meta fined $101 million for storing hundreds of millions of passwords in plaintext

Remember kids: Friends don’t let friends use Facebook. Meta is a horrible company run by a sociopath.

Eugen Rochko • Join Mastodon Blog

Mastodon 4.3 just landed! If you’re a mastodon.social user, you might have already seen some of this in action as we’ve been gradually rolling out these updates over the course of the last 11 months in nightly releases, but we’re finally making a new stable release available to the community.

I haven’t noticed any of the major changes because I’m shielded by using a native iOS and Mac client application for all my Mastodon needs.

Congratulations to Eugen and the entire Mastodon development team! 🥳

Leonardo Brito

I had an old Motorola G5 Cedric gathering dust, so I decided to do something with it – it is now running a Puma web server with a simple Sinatra webapp.

I’ve wanted to do this in the past with my old Handspring Visor. These days it would be fun to do it with an iPhone.

I recall someone talking about doing that within the last year or so using Iconfactory’s WorlWideWeb for iPhone, if memory serves.

Debopriyaa Dutta • /Film

If you’re a fan of slow-burn police procedurals that suddenly transform into a possession flick with stylish, ambitious choices, “Fallen” is worth checking out.

I saw Fallen in theaters with Kim and we both liked it. It is certainly a slow burn detective movie with a super natural twist of an ancient evil.

Worth checking out.

Jason Bahl • WPGraphQL

With that said, I’m excited to announce that after 3.5 wonderful years at WP Engine, I’ve accepted an offer with Automattic to continue my work on WPGraphQL as it transitions into becoming a canonical community plugin on WordPress.org.

With the community in tatters it’s nice to see someone share some good news. Although it may not be seen as good from the WP Engine side of the equation.

Jessamyn!

Happy 7th Birthday MLTSHP!

This tiny service came into being as MLKSHK many years back when Twitter didn’t have its own photo sharing. I’m sure you could find many an old Tweet in my archive using MLKSHK for photo posting.

I’m still a subscriber. Long live MLTSHP and a very happy birthday! 🎂

JanerationX

The Internet Archive got hacked. It takes a special kind of asshole to do something like this. While the world is currently full of assholes with too much time on their hands, this particular breach just rankles, and it makes you wonder: is anything sacred?

The short answer is, no. Nothing is sacred. Especially on the internet. 🤬

Megan Sauer • CNBC

Her Etsy store brought in $220,300 last year, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

This is the kind of “side hustle” I’d like to have. 😂

That would allow me to become an indie developer and realize my dreams for Stream and its yet untitled sister app.

Andrew J. Hawkins • The Verge

For almost as long as he’s been CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk has been bullshitting us about self-driving cars.

Folks are finally talking about Musk the way they should. He’s a bullshit artist. That’s his genius.

He’s managed to bullshit his way into Tesla. No, he’s not a founder. He’s not a Twitter founder.

Yes, he founded SpaceX and the Boring Company, but he doesn’t seem too involved with those. Choosing to let intelligent folks to run those was a good idea.

He’s a lying, white supremacist, homophobe, antisemitic, conspiracy theorist, bully with a lot of money.

Clearly I don’t think much of him. He’s a terrible human being.

All I think of when I see that picture is Igor saying “Master.”

Of course he was shaking Trump’s hand. Or should I say, master’s hand? 🤔

[eazy-group]

Kristyna lost 44 pounds

New Post has been published on https://eazydiet.net/kristyna-lost-44-pounds/

Kristyna lost 44 pounds

Transformation of the Day: Kristyna lost 44 pounds with healthy food and exercise. This mother of five and a grandmother of one wanted to feel good, look good, and be there for her family for years to come. Walking is a big part of her workout routine.

Social Media: Kristyna Cornell on Facebook 

What was your inspiration? What inspired you to keep going, even when you wanted to give up? I had been trying on and off for years, but my motivation this time was my 41st birthday. I was going on a birthday trip and wanted to feel good and look good. Since that birthday has come and gone, my current motivation has been not to return to where I was. 

I’m loving the results and refuse to go backward. My husband and I have five children and now a grandson. I want to be healthy and live a long life to be here with my family. My mother passed at a young age, and I was terrified that would be my fate as well. 

How did you change your eating habits? I began with Keto. I did that for about six months. Then, I transitioned into being in a calorie deficit. I didn’t think Keto was something I could maintain long-term. It’s been pretty easy for me to count calories and stick to it using a calorie calculator/app. 

At first, I stayed away from fast food, junk food, and carbs. Now I eat whole grains, fruits, and lots of vegetables. I have my favorite cookie or sandwich every once in awhile so that I’m not completely depriving myself. I plan my meals and focus on not overeating and not snacking. I also drink lots of water. 

What is your workout routine? I walk. I have a walking pad that I use for about 30 minutes a day, usually during my lunch hour. I also walk around my neighborhood during the warmer months. I do some YouTube strength training workout videos using small weights, but I mostly walk. My goal is at least 7000 steps a day. 

How often did you work out? About five days a week.

What was your starting weight? 250 pounds

What is your current weight? 206 pounds

What is your height? I’m 5’4″.

When did you start your journey? How long did your transformation take? I began in May 2023, and it took about six months. 

Is weight loss surgery part of your journey? No

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far? I learned that I needed to know why I had gained so much weight in the first place in order to lose it and keep it off. I’m an emotional eater, and I had to get control over that to stick to my new routine. 

I also learned that I needed to know what worked for ME. I found a healthy way to lose weight and live a new lifestyle instead of trying a diet I could never realistically stick to. 

What advice do you have for women who want to lose weight? Keep trying. Even if you slip up, start over and keep going. Work on your mental health. Talk to a therapist, read books, or do whatever you need to figure out why your weight got to where it is. Address those things, and you will be able to be consistent and eventually see long-term results. Also, do not compare yourself to other people. What worked for them may not work for you. Because it was their time to lose weight, it doesn’t mean it’s your time. Your time will come when you’re ready physically and mentally.

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[affectiondeficitdisorder]

The Paradox of Choice: Too Much is Not Better. It's Not Even As Good.

by Ethlie Ann Vare

Kaitlyn Tiffany, a smart young writer for the Atlantic with a name that sounds like the Onion made up byline for a smart young writer for the Atlantic, recently interviewed my second favorite anthropologist, Helen Fisher, in an article called The Woman Who Made Online Dating Into a “Science.” The quotes around “science” are theirs, not mine, and the paywall is also theirs, not mine, so I apologize in advance if you can’t access the full article. 

My favorite anthologist is my late cousin, Dr. Paul Puritt. But he was all about traditional social structures in Tanzania and Zimbabwe, and she’s all about getting laid on Match.com… so…. But both very cool scientists.

Tiffany isn’t just interested in Helen’s Fisher original work with Chemistry.com or her five volumes about the science and history of romantic love. Fisher has famously studied love from every angle: historic, poetic, scientific - I quote her groundbreaking work extensively in my book. Fisher’s thesis is “Romantic love is deeply embedded in the architecture and chemistry of the human brain,” and she has the fMRI studies to prove it. But Tiffany wasn't interested in the theoretical. She was interested in the practical.

“I told Fisher about my own bad experience with dating apps, how clinical I had become, how mean I could be. I told her I got compulsive about swiping and did it all the time, for fear of missing out on the perfect profile. I swiped at work, at the gym, on the train; then I would go on dates and want to leave as soon as the person opened his mouth. I felt angry at my dates. 

“‘I’m sure that happens,’” she told me. Those struggles are a result of “cognitive overload”: I was allowing myself too many options at one time. Online daters “binge,” as she put it. If I’d looked at only three Tinder profiles a day, she said, then I would have been “‘doing it the way our ancestors did, and that would be much better.’” But she acknowledged that it is nearly impossible to make yourself do that. That is not the way anybody uses a dating app.”

It’s what economists call the paradox of choice: Having more options doesn’t increase our satisfaction, it decreases it. As Barry Schwartz put it in his book The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, “the fact that some choice is good doesn’t necessarily mean that more choice is better.” We are overloaded with options, and the anxiety that we will not choose the best one is paralyzing. Picture your local CVS sunscreen selection: UVA, UVB, SPF30, SPF31, SPF46, SPF50, SPF55… lotion, spray, sports stick, tinted, glimmer, self-tan, long-lasting, waterproof, moisturizing - I’m paralyzed for half an hour figuring out how best to not to burn my nose at the beach. How am I supposed to handle choosing a lover?

In Italy, demographers have become worried that singles now outnumber families, with 33.2% of the population being single compared to 31.2% being part of a family. A recent report found that over 60% of Italians feel conditioned by external factors when it comes to being single, including stress and job insecurity. One neurologist and psychotherapist, Maria Cristina Gori, describes the choice to be single as a “result of a spasmodic search for the ‘perfect partner’ which promptly results in nothing done, because it is impossible.”

So people are giving up. Only 30% of teens in 2021 reported ever having had sex, down from 50% in the 1990s and, I’m willing to bet, a fuck of a lot higher than that in the 1970s. (I was there. Trust me.) This, despite having a DTF locator in their pockets. They have so many options that they opt for None of the Above.

A data scientist once told me that if the Miss America judges had to make their decision one contestant at a time in alphabetical order, we’d never get a winner. “Thank you, Miss Alabama, but I haven’t seen Miss Arkansas yet.” “You’re a delight, Miss Colorado. But maybe Miss Delaware is even more delightful?” “That was great Miss New Jersey, but I have high hopes for Miss New York.” “That’s it? Miss Wyoming is the last one? No, wait! Let me see the Carolinas again! Please!” 

Also, he said, the judges would shoot themselves.

When Springsteen moaned that there were “57 Channels and Nothing On,” streaming was still 15 years in the future and there was already too much TV. Ghosting someone, or being ghosted, is a reaction to choice overload not unlike being so overwhelmed by the Netflix home screen that you just watch a rerun of Friends. As terrified we are of being alone (anuptaphobia, some social psychologists are calling it), we’re even more terrified of choosing the wrong partner. How can I settle down with with Mr. Missouri when I haven’t even seen Mr. Nevada yet?

“Learning to choose is hard,” says Schwartz. “Learning to choose well is harder. And learning to choose well in a world of unlimited possibilities is harder still, perhaps too hard.”

ADDENDUM (and this is why I should not post a column at 11pm, because I will certainly be awakened in the morning by the vital thought I forgot to add…): Everything in this column applies to just about all the perfectly normal people in the world. It applies double to love addicts. Because decision-making is a function of dopamine, and we addicts have very wonky dopamine systems. Every choice is a question of “which of these will give me more pleasure, which will make me happier?” and anticipation of pleasure is what produces a spike of dopamine. Not the pleasure itself so much, but the anticipation of pleasure. And addicts of all stripes have inefficient dopamine receptors. We need a bigger jolt to feel the same pleasure. 

So every Italian population study, every book about the paradox of choice… they should have an asterisk that warns: “This may not apply to the 6% or so of the population that are addicts. Or it may apply even more. We still have to decide on that…. and apparently deciding is hard.”

[purplesurveys]

1700

When was the last time you got more then eight hours of sleep? I think Friday? I actually fell asleep relatively early, around midnight; and ended up sleeping in, too. I think I had gotten up only by 10 AM.

Do you find that people don't really understand you? Maybe as an angsty teenager, but I don’t feel like this these days. It’s probably also a matter of finding the people who do understand me. Is there anyone in your life that you wish you were closer to? Now that I know Trina is leaving for Canada for good, I really want to get even closer to her in the three months she has left in the country. I’m glad that we got close at all, especially after getting promoted. She used to just be this high-ranking workmate who I thought was untouchable.

Would you say you are a gullible person? Very. I am everyone’s favorite for jokes and light pranks.

Are you one to swear often? I do tend to swear a lot, yeah.

Have you ever sat down and played video games all day? Only when I was younger and got obsessed with playing Sims 2. I no longer play video games but am very much capable of being on my phone all day and just go from one app to another.

What is one thing in your life that is no longer there, that you miss? Kimi.

What do you believe is the best thing about being a kid? Hard to tell when you’ve had a rougher childhood compared to everyone else. Idk...being doted on, I guess? I lacked attention in my own home.

What flavor Dum-Dum is your favorite? I have no clue what that is.

What is the last book you read/are reading? Did you/are you enjoying it? That would probably be Around the World in Eighty Days; it’s a good read, but I’ve just never had the time to continue it. I haven’t resumed reading since January.

Are you on a laptop or a desktop right now? Laptop; I have never owned a desktop.

If you could go anywhere right now, where would you go; why? I’m feeling significantly attached to Bangkok right now because it has been exactly three weeks since we saw Yoongi. Our trip overall was quite short – only four days total – so it only makes the feeling of ‘missing’ Bangkok a lot more intense. I miss the place, I miss their great public transport, I miss the nightlife, but I will say that I do not miss the weather. Remembering how humid it is over there still makes me squirm lol

Have you ever trusted someone you wish you wouldn't have? Yeah.

Have you ever been on a picnic? I’ve never been. I wish we had picnic-friendly places so I can actually experience a picnic. When I was at KL and was repeatedly going to their park, I felt really envious of the families who were there with picnic mats out and eating. I could only wish they recognize what they have.

Which is better tea or coffee? Coffee; I never liked tea.

Do you own an umbrella? Yeah, I keep it in the car.

Do you like the ocean? Sure.

Is there anyone that you wish you were with right now? No, I’m okay being on my own for the most part.

Who was the last person you hung out with? Bea, Ysa, Trina, and several members of a co-agency that we regularly work with for PR events..

What animal cracker is your favorite? I haven’t had those since I was, like, 5.

Is there anything you're currently holding back? Yeahhhhhh I wish I could just tell the team not to promote me, honestly; at least not yet. I don’t want to leave the company, but please give me like 1-2 years before stepping up to the next position. It sounds very bitchy and ungrateful to say on paper, but I’ve been promoted every single year I’ve been in the company and it always comes with a wave of fear and pressure every time. I wish I had longer periods of incubation(??? lol) before getting asked to step up to the next level.

Do you like your smile? Sure!

Have you ever watched something on the TV that truly disturbed you? Mostly commercials or when networks sign off for the night and do their ominous creepy jingles before transitioning to that TV rainbow screen thing.

Are you scared of needles? Yes. I am 100% not the poster child for vaccines and tattoos.

Is your current cell phone out of date? Not at all. I know tech companies churn out new products at 34788394x speed and in their terms an iPhone 13 can be considered old-ish, but all things considered a 1 year old phone isn’t bad at all. I’m not in a rush to get a new one as mine still works just fine.

Have you ever drank milk when it was spoiled? Ugh, yeah. I remember an instance when I was around 5-6, I drank some Milo that turned out to be spoiled and immediately ran to the sink to frantically spit it out because it tasted horrific. Ever since then I’ve had a fear of drinking milk.

Would you/have you ever bought a gym membership? I’ve thought about it before; didn’t push through with it. These days, I wouldn’t think of getting one.

Have you ever bought anything on the TV? Nopes.

Have you ever done something that you knew was wrong? Sure.

Do you know what all the keys on your keyboard do? Not all. I still don’t know what the ‘fn’ key does and I’ve never tried using it for anything.

What is the last channel you were on, when watching TV? I’ve never watched TV for the channels in agesssssssss. We cut out cable starting 2020, too.

What is your favorite restaurant? Closest to being my favorite is probably Mendokoro Ramenba but in general I don’t think I have found my favorite restaurant yet.

What is the last thing you spent money on? Just prepaid load, lol. I’m on major budgeting mode as I think my family is planning a trip to Incheon – something I’m largely against because unsurprisingly my mom never consulted with us and each of us is suddenly in charge of chipping in for something – and I need to make sure my track record as far as money looks acceptable for the visa application.

Do you know of anyone who hates you? I don’t think so.

Lose your arm or your leg; Which do you choose? I don’t like this question at all, but for the sake of answering this I’d pick the leg.

Has an animal ever bit you? Like, a genuinely angry bite? Yes, from Cooper. I feel like after getting those six shots in one day I can surpass anything.

Have you ever tripped over your own feet? Sure.

Do you ever take out the garbage? Yes.

Do wash your face thoroughly everyday? Yes, first thing I do in the morning and last thing I do before turning in.

Would you ever do a ride along with a cop? No.

Are things, in your opinion, overly expensive these days? They are, as a fact, more expensive.

Where was your last car ride to? Apart from getting back home, I went from MOA to Feliz to have lunch with my family earlier.

Are your nails long? They aren’t.

Have you ever gotten food poisoning? Yes. Hate it.

Have you ever had to put a dog to sleep? I have not.

What messenger services do you use? Messenger, Viber, Telegram, and very occasionally Whatsapp.

Have you ever lost someone important to you? Of course.

Are you listening to music currently? No but I have an episode of GMM in the background.

[dailyaudiobiblechronological]

3/31/2023 DAB Chronological Transcription

Judges 3-5

Welcome to Daily Audio Bible Chronological. I'm Jill, and today is the 31st day of March. We are winding our way to the very end and we will turn the page tomorrow and start a brand new month with a brand new everything new mercies new days s bud for now we'll stay present and be here in this moment and invite the very presence of God that we know, that surrounds us to come and change us, renew our minds, renew our spirits open our ears to hear and our eyes to see in our hearts, to receive all that he would do in us, among us and through us. In these next few moments. Today we're reading Judges, chapters three, four and five. And just a couple of days left in the Evangelical Heritage version. Judges, chapter three.

Commentary:

So we have some gruesome stories today, not my favorite. And this sort of disproves a comment that I hear a lot from people, that the book is an instruction manual. If this is an instruction manual, then we're all in trouble. Sleep with one eye open. I think that is sort of the point, though, that there are things that are uncomfortable in the Bible. There are things that are disruptive in the Bible because those things are true in our real life. Sometimes our life is more R rated than G or PG 13. And so we have to sit in the discomfort and the disruption, and we do so and we can even ask the questions, what about this makes me uncomfortable? What about this disrupts my life? And the beautiful thing about that is then we get to invite Jesus into that. We can pray for understanding, we can pray for wisdom, we can pray for discernment, we can pray for deeper healing. And even parts of our lives where we've had healing that we thought, well, that was that we can move on. And then those disruptions come in and maybe show another layer of healing that we need to pursue and pursue. Healing is oftentimes how we get it. Many times. It doesn't just fall upon us. We must pursue it. So this is one aspect of what's taking place today. And then the second important part is we have the very first female judge introduced to us named Deborah. So we will end here for today and turn the page together tomorrow as the story and the book of Judges will continue.

Prayer:

So, Father, we thank you for Your word. Thank you that we can call on you in the uncomfortability, even especially in Your word, because this is the whole reason why we are here in this place today, to know you through Your word. So I pray that that disruption, that interruption, will cause us to sit with it. It will cause us to consider why it's rubbing us the wrong way. What is it that you want to reveal to us in these moments of uncomfortability? And we invite you in that Holy Spirit come into that disruption and come into those deeper places that need healed those layers and layers. Because while you reveal things about ourselves that is true about our past, that is true about where we are now, that is true about where we're heading. Ultimately, what we're learning is more about you because you created us in the very image of yourself and we can take you with us on that journey into our past. We know that you are here present and we know that your mercies are new every morning. So that means you will be with us in the future. And I thank you for those truths here today. We pray this all now in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Announcements:

Daily Audio Bible. That's home base. Check it out, if you have not. Take a look around, that's the app. If you would like to partner with us, we thank you so much for your partnership. Cannot do this without you. So very thankful we do not have to. If you're giving by mail DAB PO box 1996, Spring Hill, Tennessee 37174 or utilizing your mobile app, hit the Give icon. It's up at the top right hand corner. And lastly, utilize the Give icon on the website if you need a prayer. If you'd like to pray for someone that's previously called in several different ways for you to do so 800-583-2164 or once again utilizing the app, hit the red circle button up at the top right hand corner of your device. Hit Submit, turn the wheel over to chronological and it will get to the right place. That's going to do it for me today as we wind this month down together today, we will wind the week down together tomorrow and I look forward to it. Until then, I'm Jill. It's been such a pleasure truly to be here with you. Until tomorrow, love one another.

Community Prayer Line:

Hello DABC family. This is Chicago, Peg. And this is for Woman at the Well. And I appreciated your story today of that you have a son the same age as China and actually got to meet them. And your son really grew up listening to China and to Max. And now your son is also expecting a baby perhaps around the same time as China. Yes. How cool is that? So praise God for you and congratulations woman at the well that soon to be a grandma. So I just wanted to rejoice with you in that. And speaking of rejoicing, Jill, woman again, so anointed you are so appreciated. So today, which is on the March 27, I really appreciated your words of wisdom and I really resonated with this. You're talking about not being that we are not irreparable, we are not unusable because of words. We have allowed people to previously stop us with those words that we felt defeated because of words spoken over us. And we began to believe that this was me many years ago. And by God's grace, yes, in the strength of the Lord, I have overcome this in the Lord that, yes, I have overcome. And that by God's grace that I may be used for his glory. Yes, that I may be used for his glory. O Lord, please use me. Let me be used by you. In Jesus name. Am. Amen and amen. Chicago Peg signing off. I love you, DAB. I love you, DABC. I appreciate you so much. Thank you.