For perspective, this story starts around October 2022 and ends around January 2023
October
When I was in year 11 I was pulled out of my English class along with 2 other students by a different English teacher , we'll call this teacher Lalo. Lalo told us that we were invited to an after school club he hosted called the creative writing club that took place every Wednesday after school.
I'm not much of a writer or anything but I decided to go one day to see what it was like, that and I think Lalo is a rlly cool guy.
So I walk in the room and I look across to the end of the room and I see a girl ( her codename was Lunnettes, my friends came up with it, we'll get to that later) in the year below me, I vaguely recognise her by face because our form rooms are opposite each other. We make eye contact and she instantly starts giggling with her friend. I was intruiged by this, but I didn't talk to them, I just sat and did the activities provided with someone I knew in my year.
I notice that Lunnetes and her friend, we'll call her Yoyo keep giggling and Lunnetes keeps looking at me. Despite all this, I still didn't say a word to her, nor did I catch her name, but she seemed lovely and funny.
This whole glancing and giggling thing continued when I showed again at the club, and it also started happening other places we passed by each other like at break, walking in the hallways etc
This all caused me to develop a lil crush on her, because she seemed lovely, funny and she was cute. Also the idea that she likely thought that I was cute was the main reason I liked her ( I know that that is a stupid reason to like someone, but I was stupid back then)
November
One day I accidentally found her on Instagram ( yes I know that sounds stupid but that's how it happened). I didn't follow the account, because at this point, we still haven't had a conversation, this was also how I found out her name. I also found out that she really liked a specific anime movie, so that gave me an idea, I decided to watch the movie, in hopes that when we do have a convo, and I could bring it up in that convo
At this point , I had told my 3 main friends about it, their code names will be Fox, Capybara and Cricket (ik they are stupid names I just thought of these on the spot), Capybara came up with the code name for her, " Lunnettes" , he decided upon that because she would wear glass's but never over eyes, only above her head which rlly annoyed him, we just decided to roll with it
Then one day I saw her walking by( keep in mind that because of the insta, i knew her name but she didn't know mine or the fact that I knew her name) then I went up to her and asked her if she was going to the writing club that week, and then asked her for her name (even tho i alr knew it), then gave her mine, this then gave me a valid reason to know her name yk
December
Fast forward to the last week of school before the Christmas holidays , one last writing club before Christmas break
I go to the writing Club, and I ask to work with her and her friends (Yoyo included), she said yes, and we actually got on really well. This was when I brought up the movie to her (as if I didn't just watch it to interest her)
Then the Christmas holidays had started and I decided to follow Lunnettes on insta, then at like midnight she follows me back and sends a friend request on snapchat ( my snap is in my insta bio) , I added her back on both
Then around 5 or so days into the holidays she sends a vid on snap to me, the problem is that I opened it in a go karting lobby, so I couldn't hear the vid very well. The vid was of her friends (Yoyo included) at a Christmas party all talking to the camera, the only words I heard were my own name, and the words "alpha male" , and since it was on snap, it wouldn't let me replay it , so I sent a snap back asking what that vid was about, and she responded later saying she didn't even remember sending anything, which was just odd
January
New years eve came round and I sent her a happy new year text, she sent one back with 3 heart emoticons
Holidays end and school starts again
This is where things start to go wrong, the glancing and smiling continued but less frequentthan before, but then I started to start talking to her on snap, and hope that I could get to tall to her at the writing club, I went to that club almost every week but she wasn't rlly showing up to it, and when I'd text her, her interest was lacking. But I was stupid, so I kept perusing.
Then one day she actually showed up to writing club, she didn't look as happy to see me as she did one month ago, I worked with her again, but there was no connection and she seemed disinterested, unlike the time we worked together just before the Christmas holidays. After the club was over, on my way out, I did one of the most regrettable and embarrassing things I've ever done, I asked her if she was free that weekend, she wasn't
Then the next day Capybara and Fox went up to her friend group but just stood next to them, in hopes that I and Cricket would follow them, I did, mistake number 3. And so there we are just stood like 7 metres away from them, and I'm really nervous whilst her friends and my friends are all laughing, then the bell rings and me and my friend walk away, but my other two friends stay there for a moment, as I'm walking away, I hear Yoyo and another one of her friends go over to Capybara and Fox who are still stood there and one of then says "ok, which one of you likes her". Me and Cricket are standing by the gate waiting for the other two to come back, we see them walking to us and they're absolutely dying of laughter, I can tell something bad has happened, my friends come back to me and my other friend and Capybara yells "SHES A LESBIAN!"
My world was completely flipped upside down, I remember feeling like the whole school was gonna find out and that I'd be a laughing stock
But a week passes and I get a text from Yoyo on insta telling me that the whole lesbian thing was a joke and that Lunnettes finds me "fit" (her words not mine) and suggesting that i talk to her, then her other friend messages me, I'm presuming to make fun of me or something but just ended up saying hi. Lunnettes then messages me saying not to listen to them.
Her friends started approaching me and my friend group in school asking us all sorts of weird questions, they even asked Fox if he was "coochie" (again, their words not mine) along with all sorts of odd things for about a week or so every break time.
Then Yoyo messages Fox, and Fox wanted answers, and he ended up finding out the truth. It turns out that lunnets used to like me but doesn't anymore, then lunnets messages him wanting to know what's going on, Lunnettes ends up telling him that she never liked me, according to him she was a "prick" and she said bad things about me to him, even something along the lines of "how could I ever like someone so unsociable" he told me that he was glad I didn't go out with her because she turned out to be horrible.
I believe him, but it's been over a year since all this, so I'm open to the possibility that she's changed, rumors about her tell me that she hasn't, but I take them with a pinch of salt, because at the end of they day, they're rumors/gossip
I haven't heard from her since (at least irl)
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, anything at all.To those that actually sat through and read all this, thank you very much, I appreciate the fact there's so much to read. :)

Solo Live Event: The Curses Unleashed
Title: Decoded
Theme: Morse Code Vs Pandora
Battle Pass.
Pages.
Page 1.
The Morse Savior (Skin)
Savior's Survival Kit (Back Bling)
Pandora Killer (Pickaxe)
Morse Coded Descendance (Contrail)
Wings Of Binary (Glider)
One And Zero Holoform (Built-In Emote)
Savior Of The Binary (Emoticon)
M0RS3 (Spray)
Decoding Binary (Wrap)
Pandora Is Inevitable (Music Pack)
The Curses Unleashed (Loading Screen)
Page 2.
Morse Audio (Skin)
Morse Microphone (Back Bling)
Morse Microphone (Pickaxe)
Morse Readings (Contrail)
Nightly Ride (Glider)
Food Poisoning Power (Emote)
A Certified Lesbian (Emoticon)
Coded And Lesbian (Spray)
Ones And Zeros Scope (Weapon Mod)
Audios By Morse (Loading Screen)
Page 3.
Don (Skin)
Audit Computer (Back Bling)
Don's Sugar (Pickaxe)
Audit Antidote (Contrail)
Don's Car (Glider)
Gimmie Some Sugar! (Built-In Synced Emote)
A Nice And Regular Dude (Emoticon)
Don And Rigby (Spray)
Don Brown (Wrap)
Closer Foregrip (Weapon Mod)
Don's Sugar (Loading Screen)
Page 4.
Darth Rogue (Skin)
Rogue Empire (Back Bling)
Darth Rogue's Lightsaber (Pickaxe)
Rogue Airships (Contrail)
Rogue Galactic Shuttle (Glider)
Rogue March (Emote)
Pandora's Vader (Emoticon)
Warrior Of The Rogue (Spray)
Rogue Sith (Wrap)
Rogue March (Music Pack)
The Rise Of The Warrior (Loading Screen)
Page 5.
Miss Delight (GS Games) (Skin)
GS Games Barb (Back Bling)
GS Games Barb (Pickaxe)
Rogue Fog (Contrail)
Miss Delight's Destroyer (Glider)
Delightfully Cackle (Built-In Emote)
Delightful Smirk (Emoticon)
A Delightful Worship (Spray)
Pencil Spear (Weapon Mod)
Delightful Massacre (Loading Screen)
Page 6.
Morse Science (Skin)
Volcano Decipher (Back Bling)
Studying Decoder (Pickaxe)
Morse Knowledge (Contrail)
Eruption Coding (Glider)
Science Research (Emote)
Smart Science (Emoticon)
The Ring Of Fire (Spray)
Green Eruption (Wrap)
Rogue Rampage (Music Pack)
A Smart Researcher (Loading Screen)
Secret Page.
The Rogue Delight (Skin) Defeat The Rogue Delight (1)
The Rogue Emblem (Back Bling) Place Rogue Flags At Morse Code POIs (3)
Rogue Sword (Pickaxe) Disintegrate Broken Weapons With Rogue Fog (3)
Pandora Curses (Contrail) Visit Broken Pandora Boxes (2)
Wings Of Rogue (Glider) Fly Through Floating Red Rings While Gliding (7)
Rogue Roar (Built-In Emote) Emote As The Rogue Delight (1)
Rogue Remark (Emoticon) Collect Rogue Weapons (3)
Bowing To Pandora (Spray) Play Audio Logs From Pandora (5)
Rogue Fog (Wrap) Enter Rogue Fog For 5 Seconds Without Dying (1)
Rogue Anthem (Music Pack) Visit Rogue Corrupted POIs (3)
Rogue Kingdom (Loading Screen) Eliminations At The Rogue Delight (10)
Bonus Rewards.
Page 1.
Catnap (Gametoons) (Skin)
Smiling Critter Group Photo (Back Bling)
Catnap's Claws (Built-In Pickaxe)
Cartoony Red Smoke (Contrail)
Gametoons Game Station Train (Glider)
Catnap Groove (Built-In Emote)
A Smol Plushie (Emoticon)
I'm Gonna Be Your New Best Friend... (Spray)
Cartoony Red Smoke (Wrap)
Dead N Gone (Music Pack/Jam Track)
Catnap's Family (Loading Screen)
Page 2.
The Morse Savior (Morse Code)
Morse Audio (Morse Code)
Miss Delight (GS Games) (Morse Code)
Morse Science (Morse Code)
Catnap (Gametoons) (Morse Code)
Page 3.
The Morse Savior (Rogue)
Morse Audio (Rogue)
Miss Delight (GS Games) (Rogue)
Morse Science (Rogue)
Catnap (Gametoons) (Morse Code)
Page 4.
The Morse Savior (Pandora)
Morse Audio (Pandora)
Miss Delight (GS Games) (Pandora)
Morse Science (Pandora)
Catnap (Gametoons) (Pandora)
POIs: The Rogue Sanctum, The Rogue Island, The Rogue Dock, Pandora Pavement, Savior's Sanctuary, Audio Authority, Don's House, GS Games Playcare, The Ring Of Fire, The Science Lab, Home Sweet Home (Gametoons), Exit 9B, The Rogue Town, The Rogue Suburb, The Rogue Swamp, The Rogue Hedges, The Rogue Woods, The Rogue Beach, The Rogue Park, The Morse Hideout, Pandora's Throne, Simulated Island.
NPCs: Spencer Tellin, Tony The Talking Clock, Springtrap, Baldi, Benson, Toodles, Hector Rivera, Cartoon Cat, Nephrite, Monika, Innovator Slone, Puss In Boots, Eren Yeager (Season 4), Mario [Movie], Lacey, Catnap, Morse Audio, Don, Morse Science, Walten Mistress, Feebee.
Bosses: The Morse Savior, Darth Rogue, Miss Delight (GS Games), The Rogue Delight, Catnap (Gametoons), Thomas, Garrett Bobby Ferguson Jr., Sammy Drowson, Rebirth Luigi, Pandora Titans, Pandora's Messenger, Kado Thorne, AprhoMimic, The Duet, The Electric Wire, The Burnt Creative, The Immortal Rebirth, Rogue Caretakers, Mini Pandora Box Hands, The Silencer, The Smug Blood, Pandora, Simulation Jeffy.
New: Morse Coded Auto-AR, Morse Coded Burst SMG, Rogue AR, Rogue Shotgun, Rogue Sniper, The Morse Savior's Morse Coded Auto-AR, The Morse Savior's Medallion, Morse Audio's Medallion, Don's Medallion, Darth Rogue's Lightsaber, Darth Rogue's Medallion, Miss Delight (GS Games)'s Barb, Miss Delight (GS Games)'s Rogue Sniper, Miss Delight (GS Games)'s Medallion, The Rogue Delight's Rogue Shotgun, The Rogue Delight's Tendrils, The Rogue Delight's Medallion, Catnap (Gametoons)'s Claws, Catnap (Gametoons)'s Medallion, Thomas's Gadget Blade, Thomas's Medallion, Garrett Bobby Ferguson Jr.'s Machine Pistol, Garrett Bobby Ferguson Jr.'s Medallion, Sammy Drowson's Repulsors, Sammy Drowson's Energetic Unibeam, Sammy Drowson's Medallion, E-Gadd Supply Drones, Poltergust-Repulsors, Rebirth Luigi's Auto Shotgun, Rebirth Luigi's Medallion, Pandora's Messenger's Medallion, Kado Thorne's Medallion, AphroMimic's Crossbow, AphroMimic's Medallion, The Duet's Twin Mag SMG, The Duet's Medallion, The Electric Wire's Charge Shotgun, The Electric Wire's Medallion, The Burnt Creative's Creativebending, The Burnt Creative's Medallion, The Immortal Rebirth's Fists, The Immortal Rebirth's Medallion, The Silencer's Medallion, The Smug Blood's Lightsaber, The Smug Blood's Medallion, Pandora's Powers, Pandora's Medallion, Simulation Jeffy's Striker Burst AR.
Unvaulted: Striker AR, Burst SMG, Suppressed AR, Prime Shotgun, Semi-Auto Sniper, Machine Pistol, Auto Shotgun, Pandora's Scythe, Pandora's Messenger's Scythe, Scoped Burst SMG, Kado Thorne's Scoped Burst SMG, Kado Thorne's Vampiric Blade, Fiend Hunter Crossbow, Twin Mag SMG, Charge Shotgun, The Silencer's MK-Silence AR, MK-Silence AR, Striker Burst AR.
Vaulted: Supreme Water Gun, Water ODM Gear, Jules's Medallion, Lifeguard Levi Ackerman's ODM Swords, Lifeguard Levi Ackerman's Medallion, Beach Guard Daisy's Frenzy Auto Shotgun, Beach Guard Daisy's Medallion, Beach Ready Eren Yeager's Medallion, Bikini Mikasa Ackerman's Medallion, Pool Party Armin Arlet's Medallion, Beach Prepared Pieck Finger's Medallion, Summer Set Buck Wilde's Medallion, Beach Glitchtrap's Medallion, Booster Boots, Charge Boots, Redeploy Boots, Fire Boots, Skateboard, Bradley Uppercrust The III's Skateboard, Bradley Uppercrust The III's Thunder Burst SMG, Bradley Uppercrust The III's Medallion, Walten Mistress's Maulers, Walten Mistress's Medallion, Morse Gadgets, Ocean's Medallion, Kit's Medallion, Death Kwon Do Techniques, Death Kwon Mordecai's Medallion, Death Kwon Rigby's Medallion, Otherworldly Techniques, Otherworldly Observer's Medallion, The Otherworld Omni's Medallion, Otherworldly Master's Medallion, Morse Code Rift Edge, Morse Coded Sword Glove, Gavin's Wings, Gavin's Primal Rifle, Gavin's Medallion, Gertie's Wings, Gertie's Primal Pistol, Gertie's Medallion, Mendark's Reality Shield, Mendark's Medallion, Morse Coded Burst Shotgun, The Morse Code's Coded Burst Shotgun, The Morse Code's Medallion, Charge Shotgun, Hunting Rifle, Flare Gun, Jules's Drum Gun, Jules's Grapple Glider, Anti-Gravity Boots, Motorboat, Ski Boat, Striker Burst AR, Chug Jug, Shockwave Launcher, Ocean's Burst AR, Ocean's Bottomless Chug Jug, Kit's Charge Shotgun, Kit's Shockwave Launcher, Rift Edge, Primal Rifle, Primal Pistol.
LTM: Exit 9B.
LTM Items: Gadget Blade, Striker Burst AR, Mammoth Pistol, Thomas's Russian Cannon.
Live Event: Pandora's Curse.
Season Crew Pack.
The Immortal Rebirth (Skin)
Rebirthed Cowl (Back Bling)
Claws Of Rebirth (Built-In Pickaxe)
Luigi's Mansion: Rebirth (Loading Screen)

The Internet.. has become a corpse.
We pay to use its faculties.
If you can't afford it? It's like you're dead.
How did this happen?
We started using social media sites like Facebook, which was a major change from Myspace.
How so?
Facebook is like a cookie cutter apartment.
Everything is laid out for you, you just put your stuff inside (the content of our lives)
Myspace? Heh.
You could use the page as is, sure.
But most people designed it to reflect their personalities.. who they are.
It was Our Space, and we got to share our inner selves with others.
It was a special time.
But today? Not the case.
Experiences are created FOR us. and we obey Algorithms (codes that make decisions guided by devs and the companies that own them, or AI from their independent analysis determine what's best for us.)
What happened to Freedom of Choice?
What Happened to Freedom, Period?
Our online lives are like dried up reproductive organs, which is painful to say, and I don't say it lightly.
It's like soil that was stripped of nutrients and now like old folks, we are taking vitamin pills and supplements in the form of dopamine rushes from social media that adds nothing and takes more than it could ever give.
Because nothing is there.
It's an illusion.
The realest thing here is US.
And we have the choice not to be Fake and take our Internet back by reclaiming our Attention and therefore our lives.
Reaching out to others that seem cool. And rebuilding the Internet to be what it should have always been:
A Playground of the Mind and Human Experience that is Infinite in how far the human spirit can reach with a collective pull.
I call myself MonksOnMethNirvana, because that's the world we are living in.
A place Monks got on meth because that's how much the force must being F**ked with.
At least that's my take.
We need to plant trees online to reconstitute the soil so we can enjoy life.. both online and off, again.
I'm tired of deforestation.
Metaphorically, Figuratively, and Literally.
Stay Privateering Out here.
-MonksOnMethNirvana

I started my game dev journey about four months ago, and I'm loving learning everything. I've got a bunch of small projects on the go but I'm looking to actually finish one.
My background is in sales and the most coding I ever did prior to this was making my own MySpace layouts. I've never been an artist, I've never produced music (I played guitar in a metal band for years, but I didn't write many of our song).
I was wondering if anyone has found success (whatever that may mean to you) starting from a position where you literally had to learn everything from scratch?

I just watched the Boiler Room set and it looked like sooooo much fun, what a blast 🥳
It's cool that from 14 onwards she's had ~rave vibes (for lack of a better term lol) throughout all of her music. Everything she's released lately feels like a fully realized version of her Myspace music, super Uffie coded, it's gr8. I'm excited for the album 🤙

2004-2005 School year. The John Titor experience
The post that captures the sights, sounds, and scents of a specific academic year. This time, we examine 2004/2005 in detail on the sidelines to see what made those years special. Hold onto your seats because I will be going into great detail. It's going to be a rocky journey! Feel free to compare this to your very own experience. Brace yourself guys!
August 2004
There's a pretty dreamlike vibe to it. Upon returning from Day 1 and Day 2, I noticed an unexpected abundance of emo people. Practically everyone wears a live strong bracelet. there has been a significant drop in the number of Eminem-themed clothing items and locker posters. I still see lip smackers. People are still in Sam Goody shopping for CDs at the mall. I get a Nintendo Gamecube and could not be more happier.
September 2004
On MTV, all you hear every morning is Green Day and Ciara. There's this weird challenge where you have to snort smart candies. I'm not sure why this was a thing. I sneak into Resident Evil Apocalypse and leave early because it's a school night and it's 12:30. Many students in class have an irrational obsession with Ryan Cabrera. It's really cold outside. It seems like hoodies are in style right now on everyone. A student fights my science teacher and knocks him out with a bat. He goes flying out the door like Super Mario Bros 3. We all have to do these therapy circles to discuss what we saw and "process" it. DSL is blowing up and hardly anyone I know is using dial up anymore. Tons of MCR clone looking people walking the hallway rn.
October 2004
Big scandal at school results in the dismissal of my principle. He gets punched in the face by a pupil in front of the school assembly. The Ashlee Simpson fiasco from Saturday Night Live is constantly played. Everyone is talking exclusively about it. I sneak in to watch the Taxi movie. "TAXI" is the worst movie I've ever seen, guys. In this, Jimmy Fallon was atrocious. People beg me to add them on MySpace at random. All of a sudden, Myspace becomes extremely popular. I utilize my computer class to learn the proper way to apply HTML code. I almost get kicked out for sneaking into Shark Tale. "Talking about the CAR WASHHHHHH" Those ushers at the cinema were so clueless.
Tons of house parties start popping up in bulletins on Myspace and I start discovering what the Grey goose is very quickly. Blue camera flip phones are all the rage right now. Students taking pictures of teachers is a thing. GTA San Andreas and Halo 2 both come out. People are obsessed talking about it @ lunch every single day. Someone broke into Blockbuster video and attempted to steal a bunch of them. Tons of people in study hall talking about Dragon Ball again due to GT Shadow dragon saga kicking up. I start dating this guy that works at the strip mall and looks like Vin Diesel. They won't stop playing Maroon 5 "Will be loved" on the radio. MAKE IT STOP GUYS. Halloween party at this mansion. A bunch of streakers show up and get the whole party shut down when the neighbors are caught snooping. Bunch of people get arrested as well. My school starts adding Wifi to the building.
November 2004
We do a mock election in class. Almost everyone votes for Kerry. That Mosh song from Eminem is everyone's ring tone. Bush wins and pisses everyone off. Nintendo DS comes out. Initially I hate it. I go with my friend to Best Buy at the mall to pick one up. T-Mobile sidekick phones start blowing up. I break up with Vin Diesel guy and start dating this guy Dak from a town over. Tons of Nightmare before Christmas stuff being sold at Hot Topic now. That stupid Nelly/Tim McGraw song won't get off my TV guys...Over and over and over and over and over again. Smackdown vs Raw comes out for PS2 and we are going crazy playing it. Carson Daly is back hosting MTV TRL for the time being. I get a black Dell PC at Circuit City and it is so fast guys! Literally winged hair cuts are everywhere right now.
December 2004
Myspace is banned from the school computers. We start using proxy sites but they find out about those as well lol. Tanning salons start popping off hard. Literally 5 new tanning salons appear in my town. Everyone looking orange as hell. People in class won't shut up about Laguna Beach and One Tree Hill. I give up and end up watching it. NYE party was so insane. It was basically hosted on top of a roof top. I remember everything was Ice related. Like the stairs and floor looked like ice.
January 2005
Dak accuses me of cheating during a heated argument we have on AOL Aim, even though I was actually asleep at home. Apparently, I was set up by a jealous friend of mine who couldn't stand to watch him with someone else. My cousin invites me to WWE Raw. I end up screaming at Batista and I ask Randy Orton for his number at ringside.
February 2005
Huge Super bowl party fiasco. Rival foot ball team from a town over crashes the party. They kick down the door and start beating the crap out everyone. Police come an arrest half the people. 80s week at school. Everyone dressing like it's 1985!
March 2005
50 Cent's new album comes out and has people skipping school. I never want to hear candy shop ever again. Dudes in the hallway with Drop it like it's hot as their ring tone. I get a PSP and I am blown away. Literally PS2 graphics on a handheld. DESKTOP quality browser as well...WHAT? Yeah I kind of stop using my laptop for a bit because of this lol.
April 2005
I play a prank on everyone that I am moving and that this week will be my last day of school. Literally everyone believes it. I never hear the end of it...people were PISSED. They had all signed my backpack and everything lol.
May 2005
Hype for Star Wars Episode III is at a fever pitch. People dressing up like Darth vader to class...idiots...lol. We Belong Together by Mariah Carey is literally played on the school speaker every single morning....make it stop guys! The school secretary was a huge Mariah fan if you couldn't tell. Stupid people putting their away message on aim to "this ish is bananas". I start using MSN messenger heavily right now. You can SEND PICTURES AND DO VIDEO WHAT?
​
June 2005
Tons of Batman shirts coming out of the woodwork due to Batman Begins. A kid from class falls through the roof of the school and glass shatters everywhere in my health class. On some Mission Impossible ish. He ends up getting suspended for 3 days and we all laugh about it. We do a school prank where we glue all the textbooks to the floor. My friend Camille starts singing at the dance and embarrassed herself by throwing up all over her rented dress.
​
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Hey everyone. I'm in the process of coding my first website (essentially using knowledge I've managed to retain from making MySpace layouts back when I was a teenager, 15 years ago). I'm currently attempting to write the code for a particular page that includes direct download links to files. I'm achieving this by using a utility that generates Google's direct download URLs and coding these as text links. The one issue I encountered was with larger files, which trigger Google's virus scanner protocol; taking the user who clicks that particular link to Drive to click authorize for the download to begin. I wanted to bypass that prompt, so I did some digging around and found the ideal method by creating Google Drive API credentials, and pasting that key, along with the File ID, into the following URL format:
https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3/files/####FILEID####?alt=media&key=####APIKEY####
This happens to work for bypassing the virus scan prompt. But; the issue I'm facing now is that it triggers the download with the file named as the FileID; not the original filename it was uploaded with.
Is there any way around this, or to instruct Google Drive to retain the original filename?
Perhaps something to note; I tried pasting the same URL minus the "?alt=media&" portion of the text and it returns with a page that has the following code:
{ "kind": "drive#file", "id": "[FILEID]", "name": "[OG filename]", "mimeType": "audio/flac" }
Since it's obviously detecting the original filename using some of these parameters; can that filename be extracted and used for the download somehow?
Any help or insight would be great, or suggestions for a better place to host about this. Thanks!

Am I doing too much?
Throwaway account due to this being a fairly specific scenario.
There's no tldr, my apologies. (There's a lot of context, so please forgive me as i may jumble the sequence of how context should be built)
I come from what i perceive to be a dysfunctional family. My european father, born in the 50s, twin of 6 siblings, being the youngest, used to be a hippie, and has his own conventional ways of living his life. He's never taken anything too seriously, and is the type to live happily renting his whole life. He's a friendly person and has decent qualities about him. He never gives up. I like to think my positive traits come from him.
My asian mother, born in the 70s was well educated and came from a wealthy (for south east asia) family, youngest of 5. She's not stable person; ambitious, lazy and entitled. She follows some traditional asian goals such as owning a home, being a doctor etc. but never became or achieved these things for herself. I hate that many of my negatives traits were learned from her.
My parents have been in an up and down relationship/marriage/divorce/whatever for as long as i know. However i only just realised recently that i hadn't noticed the turmoil in our lives would be identified as rocky. My mum has a nasty temper and cannot control her anger. She uses physical violence and nasty gaslighting techniques to control and manipulate people and their emotions. Mostly myself and my siblings. I have a younger sister who's 30, and a brother who is 26. I myself am M30.
Despite both my parents came from decent backgrounds, neither of them had money. My dad always had cash in hand jobs and never got a career. He liked being off the grid as much as possible. My mum never got a job because she looked after us. Cashflow was bad. my sister and i grew up knowing we were poor.
My father would sometimes not be present during our childhoods due to him falling out with my mum over money, bickering, etc most if not all problems stemmed from my mother initiating a problem. Every time my father was kicked out of the home, she would tell us about how bad he was, and that he beat her (she would always attack him, sometimes with knives, kitchenware etc). The durations of these events ranged from days to months at a time, though there were 2 occasions where they wouldn't speak for years.
The abuse we endured as kids was physical and mixed with guilt, punishment, gaslighting. She once beat my brother over something i had done, and kept beating him to make me feel guilty and own up to something to receive punishment. He was 5 at the time, i was 10. Things like this still replay in my head every so often when im reminded of her. The things she done to us still haunt me, and would send her to jail for the rest of her life, had she been caught in any of the acts. Social services did once investigate because i came into school the next day brandishing my bruises from a punishment the previous day. As we got older these punishments became less wild but more painful. Wooden spoon, rolling pin etc. we eventually grew out of it to a certain extent.
Growing up i had poor self esteem. I had friends, i was friends with a lot of people and had my own little circle of closer people. I was no means popular though. I was smart, but this came with expectations. My mother wanted me to be a doctor, a dentist etc you name it, she wanted me to be it. I found my love for graphic design and art when i was 13. I chased this dream the moment i discovered it. Back then we had MySpace, i was able to code and design custom layouts by time i was 14 and by 17 I'd say i gotten very good at it. I became popular, i became somewhat Myspace famous. I felt i achieved something, i just needed guidance on how to make it a successful career. My mother's plans were being pushed off course. She made me study sciences in A Level, I picked IT aswell because i could build PCs from around 14 aswell, it all matched up with my coding knowledge too.
Im now having to pick what i do at university. Ofcourse i pick the graphic design coursed. I failed sciences to avoid becoming a doctor on purpose. I was then faced with having to become a pilot. I luckily have medical conditions that slowed down the process and i was forced to pick something else. Atleast Computer science was something else i was interested in.
I need to mention that neither of my siblings had academic expectations, and this is because quite frankly, theyre very average people, the type to go out on a Friday and Saturday night, clubbing/partying.
During my time at uni, i found myself not enjoying the course and falling into a deep depression after my mother had told me she wished i was never born during a heated argument about something trivial. It was the lowest i had ever been in my life so far. I ran from home to go back to uni. I lost purpose, i picked up smoking weed and had a nightmare trip that sent me into depersonalisation. It was hell. We reconciled 6 months after and i was welcomed back home, but nothing was really the same in my head. I even expressed how depressed i was when i returned home after uni, there was some emotion felt, but it didnt feel heard by the rest of the family.
Im now tasked with getting a masters degree. I decided i couldn't do another year of something i dont enjoy. My mother wanted to pay for it so she could brag to her friends that her son has a masters degree. We agreed that i could do a nasters in something i wanted to do. I managed to persuade the university to let me into an irrelevant course from my post grad degree of computing. I had still been chasing my graphic design passion during uni.
I get the masters, now there's an expectation to make money, get a job. Im applying to literally every job i can. 6 months go by and she's lost her temper with me. Thrown coffee on me after not believing i had been applying. She mustve thought a masters degree means instant job. During these 6 months i helped around the house, helped my dad at work, helped ny mum at work, not asking for a penny. I'd run errands to the shops etc.
After the coffee situation had lost my temper. I threw my phone at the wall because she wouldn't look at the applications for jobs i had applied for. She still expected me to come to work with her. I told her to fuck herself (i had really lost it. And this time i wasnt backing down) she continued to shout at me until i heard "i hate you". I responded to never ever see her again after today.
I packed all my stuff and drove off in my car. I had to buy a new phone with my last bit of money so i could respond to any applications. I had £70 to my name. Thr phone was £50 (at the time you could get entry level android phones for this price) i loaded it all up and waited in my car for a week. I couldn't see friends, i couldn't do anything, i need to save my last £20 on fuel for travel. I stayed in fields and carparks over the week and i got a response for 2 interviews!!
Long story short, i got one of the jobs and started rhe next day. I spent the next month not going home until everyone was asleep to avoid any interactions. I got paid weekly so i could put rent money on the table every week. But i was saving to escape. A month went by and I had saved enough to secretly move out.
Ive been out the house now for 9 years without a word to her, she thinks i owe her an apology. I've become successful in my design career in this time and have unlearned a lot of bad behaviours and personality traits. There's still a long way to go, im thinking about therapy but dont know how to approach it. However this has been great for me, it has put a lot of strain on my relationships with my brother, sister and father.
My fathers side of the family are fairly dysfunctional, all of them have a drug, drink or gambling problem. My mother's side have gambling and eating/self infuced health issues.
Im sure my mother is at play here, as they have both repeated her thoughts to me as if they're their own during arguments that stem from misunderstood intentions. I love my siblings to bits and it does really hurt me knowing that during my time away a new narrative was being formed. I didnt see them much over the 9 years, but i have reached out to them for support in times when they needed it (my sister broke up with a fiance of 8 years). She has note spoken to me in 2 years because i was concerned for her career path and wanted to help. She got offended that her career has a dead end - she has no passion for her career. This disagreement suddenly spiralled out of control and she blocked me.
I used to play xbox with my brother as a kid. I love no other person more than my brother in this world. I used to change his nappies and took some parental responsibility of him growing up as my mum was dysfunctional and didnt do everything all the time (it's not as bad as it reads, but shouldn't ever happen). I taught him how to play football, how to ride a bike etc. his music tastes and his style of clothing all similar or derived from me. Im proud of him for all his successes in life.
We talk more often than my sister, but recently i asked him if he wanted a PC to play a game we really enjoy. He said yes. My intention was to bring us closer and spend more time together as we missed 9 years apart. I spent time building his pc. We started playing this game and he verbally abused me every session we played. He's always been passionate when playing games, but this time it was different. It was venomous. He done this infront if his friends aswell. I decided to end it and take back the computer with the reasonings: "i didnt pay to get verbally abused on the internet playing a game i enjoy after time at work". We havent spoken for a month now.
My dad tried to be a peace keeper, i tried to explain my side of the story and to give him an insight but he just couldn't seem to understand my actions.
Over the 9 years. Like i said previously, i have tried to improve myself and identify when i make mistakes and own up to them like an adult. I just dont think my family have tried to do the same thing with the distance we've had in time and space.
It was my birthday recently and no one from my entire family said happy birthday to me. I've gotten used to having cut my mum off in my life. Im of the cloth that everyone is now old enough to know better, but whether or not they want to be on a path of self improvement is up to them and is a conscious choice.
It breaks my heart i may have to cut everyone off and really move on with my life. Is all this doing too much?
Edit: there's a lot of information missed out as there's just too much to include for additional context.
Apologies if this is too much context. My head is going wild as ive been pondering a lot of this for a long time.

Throwaway account due to this being a fairly specific scenario.
There's no tldr, my apologies. (There's a lot of context, so please forgive me as i may jumble the sequence of how context should be built)
I come from what i perceive to be a dysfunctional family. My european father, born in the 50s, twin of 6 siblings, being the youngest, used to be a hippie, and has his own conventional ways of living his life. He's never taken anything too seriously, and is the type to live happily renting his whole life. He's a friendly person and has decent qualities about him. He never gives up. I like to think my positive traits come from him.
My asian mother, born in the 70s was well educated and came from a wealthy (for south east asia) family, youngest of 5. She's not stable person; ambitious, lazy and entitled. She follows some traditional asian goals such as owning a home, being a doctor etc. but never became or achieved these things for herself. I hate that many of my negatives traits were learned from her.
My parents have been in an up and down relationship/marriage/divorce/whatever for as long as i know. However i only just realised recently that i hadn't noticed the turmoil in our lives would be identified as rocky. My mum has a nasty temper and cannot control her anger. She uses physical violence and nasty gaslighting techniques to control and manipulate people and their emotions. Mostly myself and my siblings. I have a younger sister who's 30, and a brother who is 26. I myself am M30.
Despite both my parents came from decent backgrounds, neither of them had money. My dad always had cash in hand jobs and never got a career. He liked being off the grid as much as possible. My mum never got a job because she looked after us. Cashflow was bad. my sister and i grew up knowing we were poor.
My father would sometimes not be present during our childhoods due to him falling out with my mum over money, bickering, etc most if not all problems stemmed from my mother initiating a problem. Every time my father was kicked out of the home, she would tell us about how bad he was, and that he beat her (she would always attack him, sometimes with knives, kitchenware etc). The durations of these events ranged from days to months at a time, though there were 2 occasions where they wouldn't speak for years.
The abuse we endured as kids was physical and mixed with guilt, punishment, gaslighting. She once beat my brother over something i had done, and kept beating him to make me feel guilty and own up to something to receive punishment. He was 5 at the time, i was 10. Things like this still replay in my head every so often when im reminded of her. The things she done to us still haunt me, and would send her to jail for the rest of her life, had she been caught in any of the acts. Social services did once investigate because i came into school the next day brandishing my bruises from a punishment the previous day. As we got older these punishments became less wild but more painful. Wooden spoon, rolling pin etc. we eventually grew out of it to a certain extent.
Growing up i had poor self esteem. I had friends, i was friends with a lot of people and had my own little circle of closer people. I was no means popular though. I was smart, but this came with expectations. My mother wanted me to be a doctor, a dentist etc you name it, she wanted me to be it. I found my love for graphic design and art when i was 13. I chased this dream the moment i discovered it. Back then we had MySpace, i was able to code and design custom layouts by time i was 14 and by 17 I'd say i gotten very good at it. I became popular, i became somewhat Myspace famous. I felt i achieved something, i just needed guidance on how to make it a successful career. My mother's plans were being pushed off course. She made me study sciences in A Level, I picked IT aswell because i could build PCs from around 14 aswell, it all matched up with my coding knowledge too.
Im now having to pick what i do at university. Ofcourse i pick the graphic design coursed. I failed sciences to avoid becoming a doctor on purpose. I was then faced with having to become a pilot. I luckily have medical conditions that slowed down the process and i was forced to pick something else. Atleast Computer science was something else i was interested in.
I need to mention that neither of my siblings had academic expectations, and this is because quite frankly, theyre very average people, the type to go out on a Friday and Saturday night, clubbing/partying.
During my time at uni, i found myself not enjoying the course and falling into a deep depression after my mother had told me she wished i was never born during a heated argument about something trivial. It was the lowest i had ever been in my life so far. I ran from home to go back to uni. I lost purpose, i picked up smoking weed and had a nightmare trip that sent me into depersonalisation. It was hell. We reconciled 6 months after and i was welcomed back home, but nothing was really the same in my head. I even expressed how depressed i was when i returned home after uni, there was some emotion felt, but it didnt feel heard by the rest of the family.
Im now tasked with getting a masters degree. I decided i couldn't do another year of something i dont enjoy. My mother wanted to pay for it so she could brag to her friends that her son has a masters degree. We agreed that i could do a nasters in something i wanted to do. I managed to persuade the university to let me into an irrelevant course from my post grad degree of computing. I had still been chasing my graphic design passion during uni.
I get the masters, now there's an expectation to make money, get a job. Im applying to literally every job i can. 6 months go by and she's lost her temper with me. Thrown coffee on me after not believing i had been applying. She mustve thought a masters degree means instant job. During these 6 months i helped around the house, helped my dad at work, helped ny mum at work, not asking for a penny. I'd run errands to the shops etc.
After the coffee situation had lost my temper. I threw my phone at the wall because she wouldn't look at the applications for jobs i had applied for. She still expected me to come to work with her. I told her to fuck herself (i had really lost it. And this time i wasnt backing down) she continued to shout at me until i heard "i hate you". I responded to never ever see her again after today.
I packed all my stuff and drove off in my car. I had to buy a new phone with my last bit of money so i could respond to any applications. I had £70 to my name. Thr phone was £50 (at the time you could get entry level android phones for this price) i loaded it all up and waited in my car for a week. I couldn't see friends, i couldn't do anything, i need to save my last £20 on fuel for travel. I stayed in fields and carparks over the week and i got a response for 2 interviews!!
Long story short, i got one of the jobs and started rhe next day. I spent the next month not going home until everyone was asleep to avoid any interactions. I got paid weekly so i could put rent money on the table every week. But i was saving to escape. A month went by and I had saved enough to secretly move out.
Ive been out the house now for 9 years without a word to her, she thinks i owe her an apology. I've become successful in my design career in this time and have unlearned a lot of bad behaviours and personality traits. There's still a long way to go, im thinking about therapy but dont know how to approach it. However this has been great for me, it has put a lot of strain on my relationships with my brother, sister and father.
My fathers side of the family are fairly dysfunctional, all of them have a drug, drink or gambling problem. My mother's side have gambling and eating/self infuced health issues.
Im sure my mother is at play here, as they have both repeated her thoughts to me as if they're their own during arguments that stem from misunderstood intentions. I love my siblings to bits and it does really hurt me knowing that during my time away a new narrative was being formed. I didnt see them much over the 9 years, but i have reached out to them for support in times when they needed it (my sister broke up with a fiance of 8 years). She has note spoken to me in 2 years because i was concerned for her career path and wanted to help. She got offended that her career has a dead end - she has no passion for her career. This disagreement suddenly spiralled out of control and she blocked me.
I used to play xbox with my brother as a kid. I love no other person more than my brother in this world. I used to change his nappies and took some parental responsibility of him growing up as my mum was dysfunctional and didnt do everything all the time (it's not as bad as it reads, but shouldn't ever happen). I taught him how to play football, how to ride a bike etc. his music tastes and his style of clothing all similar or derived from me. Im proud of him for all his successes in life.
We talk more often than my sister, but recently i asked him if he wanted a PC to play a game we really enjoy. He said yes. My intention was to bring us closer and spend more time together as we missed 9 years apart. I spent time building his pc. We started playing this game and he verbally abused me every session we played. He's always been passionate when playing games, but this time it was different. It was venomous. He done this infront if his friends aswell. I decided to end it and take back the computer with the reasonings: "i didnt pay to get verbally abused on the internet playing a game i enjoy after time at work". We havent spoken for a month now.
My dad tried to be a peace keeper, i tried to explain my side of the story and to give him an insight but he just couldn't seem to understand my actions.
Over the 9 years. Like i said previously, i have tried to improve myself and identify when i make mistakes and own up to them like an adult. I just dont think my family have tried to do the same thing with the distance we've had in time and space.
It was my birthday recently and no one from my entire family said happy birthday to me. I've gotten used to having cut my mum off in my life. Im of the cloth that everyone is now old enough to know better, but whether or not they want to be on a path of self improvement is up to them and is a conscious choice.
It breaks my heart i may have to cut everyone off and really move on with my life. Is all this doing too much?
Edit: there's a lot of information missed out as there's just too much to include for additional context.
Apologies if this is too much context. My head is going wild as ive been pondering a lot of this for a long time.

I've been applying for food stamps recently and they called me in the morning but I didn't take the call so I rescheduled and this time they couldn't reach me (I was connected to WiFi in my flat). This has also happened in KFC; I was connected to their public WiFi but couldn't make any calls. The same has not applied to other public places like the food stamps place; calling using their WiFi was fine. I honestly have no idea what's going on. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I was considering the fact that CalFresh (food stamps) uses landlines with "Unknown number" but they were able to reach me before. Is it just that the service doesn't work sometimes? If that's the case, it has to be router dependent because trying over and over on the same network yields the same results. I'm applying to jobs and they obviously need to be able to get a hold of me. I could go back to my old phone plan but it's actually WORSE than I had with TextNow ($40/month for the same thing but with absolutely horribly low quality 3gp video sending). I have recently factory reset my phone but that shouldn't be a barrier to receiving calls. (although i did reset it since the last time CalFresh called me)
2nd thing; the TextNow sim cards. What's the difference between a $1 and a $5? I bought a $1 sim card and tried putting it in but my phone won't accept it. It prompts me with a network unlock code that I don't have and I just tried to do the APN stuff to no avail. I don't really need to have cellular data other than to call, so I would really like to get TextNow working. Otherwise I gotta get a burner for work.
Last thing; is it possible to mod/create a fork for the regular SMS app or even TextNow to send pixel art emoticons instead of emojis? I know this is a little off topic but it's related to phone communication and since I am no longer a child I don't particularly enjoy emojis. Human emotions don't fit inside a computer unless they're digitized.
Thanks in advance
​
UPDATE: i just got my sim card working and most of the stuff i posted on here has been solved. the last question still stands, but i'm not sure if this is the best place to post it

Hii! Im new to Sweet days! I recently started but my phone is broken now and I cant transfer my data without My Code apparently… And I dont remember it 😅 Can someone please look for my account and screenshot my Code? My user is Bunniicidal with emoticons behind it, Im also on Cinnamonroll street. 🤍

I found this old thread asking a question I've asked myself often:

how you would learn web development if you could start over ?

https://www.reddit.com/Frontend/comments/12h51z1/comment/krp779z/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
(and then accidentally spent like 3 hours writing out this story, which I realized needed to be in a list) (and then none of it fit in the comment...) (so, now it will live here)

In a way, I did start over part way through my career. Old thread but I feel like this might be useful to someone out there.

TL;DR / Here's what I would do -- (if I didn't choose a path like College or LauchSchool or Watch and Code or Perpetual Education)

• in general / relax. don't free out. set boundaries
• get really good at HTML and CSS by copying lots of websites you like and making them better
• get the pocket guides (even if they are a bit older now)
• read through them often and find the little things that are too hidden in MDN
• assume everything you make should work equally on every screen it could be viewed on
• learn git early on (almost feels silly to say / it's just like 'learn typing' or how to save your video game)
• make friends with a graphic designer and learn about typography and trade work / even start an agency
• learn about the dev tools and how the resources are all pulled in and how to view everything
• learn how to use a screen reader and how to make your HTML universally accessible - to start
• learn how to author SVGs and how to style them and animate them* go to all the meetups and be helpful and kind and enthusiastic
• pair up and share a screen and build things with other people often / get out of your head
• maintain your personal website at all times and keep an archive of past versions
• write about your explorations, your progress, and just everything you can
• maintain these writings on your personal website that you own
• keep a collection of all of your experiments on your website or in CodePens
• if you're excelling with the semantic/accessible HTML and CSS, your probably hirable somewhere* consider getting a job anywhere - so you can learn on the job while being paid
• learn a server-side programming language and
• use the Exercises for Programmer book as a guide of practical needs* read the documentation like a book (often)
• get another book or two to read about the language you're using and hear it explained differently
• meet with a tutor or mentor at least once a month to course-correct
• learn how to model data and relationships
• plan out a CRUD app in a UI/graphics program (consider a simple Figma prototype)
• build a CRUD app and get clear on HTTP and querystrings and routing concepts
• it's ok to watch/read tutorials or take classes - but don't ever follow along and copy
• when learning from online resources take notes.
• stop often and take the concept their teaching and build a few things that use the concepts differently
• take it beyond the trivial setup and make something out of your comfort zone with no how-to steps
• get comfortable being uncomfortable and don't search for "the answer"
• you'll learn more by exploring than from searching for a prescribed "right way"
• make it work and then talk to your tutor about ways to improve it
• learn from the situation not from the best practices and avoid premature optimization
• allow yourself to get into situations that will highlight the lesson to be learned / search for the problem
• build client site with an admin panel using WordPress to get a feel for a bigger framework ecosystem
• from there you are probably hirable in a role with more responsibility
• you would work on a PHP, Rails, Shopify, or most other codebases now
• figure out what you actually like (or at least a directly you're pretty sure you'll excel in)
• just because you heard "full stack JS" is the norm doesn't mean it's right for you* there are many many many roles and careers and things will change and evolve
• maybe you like UX or UI or graphic design or managing the project
• the design process will always be more important than code and syntax and patterns
• at this point you'll know enough about web development that you can make smart decisions
• you'll know about templates and components and the common concepts present in all stacks
• from there you are probably hirable in a role with more responsibility
• if you're down with web dev (that's what the OP question is about), then it's time to learn JavaScript
• you know 70% of it already because you already know how to program
• now it's time to learn the browser API and about some of the trickier async things
• run through the Exercises for Programmers book by progressively enhancing your server-side versions with JS
• then run through it again with plain JS
• keep meeting with your tutocoworkefriend as often as needed
• but don't let them push you into learning what they think is 'cool' (keep going with plain JS for a while)
• document all of these things and create a style guide, component library, or design system
• learn about the animation options
• build a few app prototypes with JavaScript only (use ECMAScript modules for one of them)
• with the combination of server-side concepts and client-side concepts, you can see some limitations
• from there, you are probably hirable in a role with more responsibility
• build a rest API with your server-side scripting language
• build a client with JavaScript and connect them to explore SPA and PWA
• learn about Node and the ecosystem. You should be able to rebuild that same crud app pretty quickly
• run through the Exercises for Programmers book with Vue (it'll be a more intuitive step than JSX)
• build a client with Vue (you'll need to use some build tools like Vite)
• from there, you are probably hirable in a role with more responsibility
• now you can see how JS apps lose some of the server-side rendering and other security benefits
• consider how the two can work together and concepts like island architecture
• consider the pros and cons of microservices* at this point - you're going to have built a lot of stuff
• and choosing the tools will be up to you
• get a job at a place that you can grow into
• make things that aren't horrible
• plan out the long-term and choose your jobs and projects as though you are creating a legacy
• that sounds silly, but aim high and realize that where you work now will decide where you work later
• choose to work at good companies that build interesting things that are just a little out of your comfort zone
• lift up everyone around you

Obviously, I think PE is the best way to get all of this done the fastest and with the most support. But there are other bootamps that could be inserted in here at the right time - and like I mentioned tutors and many different ways you could learn things things. You could start a business or learn them on the job somewhere.
OK now: if you want to read it - (the story I had to work through and remember to get to this list ^) (might have some ways to explain the "why" here)

I'd say the start (of my learning) went pretty well, so I'd likely do it the same.
The first thing I did was take a course on Lynda (around 2011) that was actually taught by her brother. It was all absolute positioning and background images. I'm glad I did it. It really cleared up how MySpace worked. I had learned how to hack together pretty fancy MySpace pages for bands in college, but I had no real understanding of how everything worked. So, I'm glad I found that course - but basically, the night I finished the project, I read about `@media` rules 💡 (which was new and allowed for responsive/adaptive layouts that could change and many screen sizes). So, that was amazing, and I just got really really into HTML and CSS, and I copied websites I liked and made them even better by making them responsive (when that was really new). I joined stack overflow and answered a lot of questions and learned a lot about the confusions people had with HTML and CSS. I also learned a lot about how to ask good questions.
If I were to do that today, I wouldn't have to hack everything into a custom framework with floats. I'd have Flexbox and grid and custom properties and subgrid, and everything would be 3x easier. I'd start with Flexbox until I could pretty much make anything - and then learn Grid when I got to those situations where it really proves its worth / and then probably end up using Grid much more. I'd focus on this for a long time because you can get a job if you're really good at HTML and CSS, but you can't get a job if you're just OK at everything.
I'd also get a tutor or someone to help me. At the time, none of my friends were doing web development.
I also think that instead of doing freelance for so long, I'd try and get a job at an agency / or these days a bigger company so things weren't so hectic and I'd have some stability. I learned a lot about being freelance, but it was painful. Trial by fire. I learned some WordPress from Chris Coyier's Lynda course. And that was really eye-opening. Not because it was WP but because it tied together the CMS and the dynamic nature of templates. For whatever reason, the way he explained it just really clicked with me, and I felt like I majorly leveled up (fast). I built a pretty serious WP site for a client that is still up today! So, I'd keep that part. But what I would change is that I didn't learn anything about PHP. I tried to use as little as I could get away with and I let it all be mysterious. I didn't know what an array was or an associative array or an object. And I just left it that way. I did the same for JS. I knew just enough to get a click to work but could not have explained how it worked at all. I have proof in some old StackOverflow questions.
It's amazing how there are all these full-stack devs now, and we expect so much out of ourselves, but I was doing great with just that little skill set. I got a job at a small dev shop and learned a ton about clients and teams and all that. But again - I just, for some reason, thought that PHP and JS were beyond me. I just let it be a mystery - and really, the people there weren't the type of people I would learn anything about programming from. So, in retrospect (and I consider choosing where to work as part of the learning process) I should have looked for a new job that would have some more advanced developers after a while. That could have completely changed my trajectory. If someone could see my level of understanding and kinda mentor me - or just say, "Dude. Learn programming. It's not that crazy - you can do it," then I just would have let that mystery cloud go away.
Making sure you're at a place with people who are smarter than you and more experienced than you is really important. But I had learned by myself and always felt like an outsider and that there were some other official 'programmer' people - and I wasn't one of them. So, maybe reaching out to people and trying to go to meetups earlier or getting a tutor would have cleared all that away way early on.
Besides not learning PHP or JS, the next big mistake I made was to try and learn "real web development" and jump into AngularJS (an early JS framework). People always talked about how PHP was dead and WP was lame and I guess I believed them (Even though they were very wrong). It sure worked great, but I wanted to make "apps" and so I started making things with Angular. But the problem was - I was just hacking things together and I didn't even know what a JavaScript object was. I made some cool things, but also - it took me 40x longer than it should have, and I wasn't adding anything to my foundational understanding. It was just avoiding all of the important things to know - and everything I built barely worked, and I didn't understand it at all. But I'd invested so much time! (this is like a lot of new devs who start out learning React). Then Angular 2 came out, and everything I'd scraped together was gone. So, if it's not clear - I would spend as much time as I needed to learn solid PHP and JS before any frameworks. By learning PHP - I could have had a much clearer understanding of HTTP and how forms work and sessions. That would have made everything I did after so much faster and clearer, and I would have really leveled up. And learning about JS would have been pretty easy because it's mostly the same. Everything about the browser API and jQuery would have made so much more sense. Config files would have made sense. Brunch and gulp and build tools wouldn't have been a total black-box mystery.
It's like I made everything 100x harder just because I didn't know what I didn't know. It's seriously ridiculous. What a waste.
In the same amount of time (those 3 years or so), I could have been a master of Angular. I was basically a master of HTML and CSS, but that didn't seem like enough. Again, it would have been if I had known to work at a bigger company and specialize. I could be like those people talking at the conferences on a yacht with Eric Meyer! haha. But what did I do? I decided to learn Ember.js!! Yep! I did my research, and I was sure that Angular had blown it and that Ember was going to be where I could put my energy and become "a real web developer." I did it again! I somehow thought I could skip knowing pretty much every important thing about programming, and I went about memorizing the shapes of the functions and objects and trial and error, and I made some pretty cool stuff. And it's probably hard for you to believe... but I still don't think I understood the basics of programming. It's seriously crazy to think of. And I didn't have anyone who was looking close enough to slap me and redirect me a little. So, I certainly wouldn't do that. If I'd spent 3 months learning PHP or JavaScript, I could have learned more than I learned in what seemed like 2 years of fighting through building things with Ember. It was all my fault. And luckily, I went to a bunch of Ember meetups. And I asked a lot of questions in the Ember Slack. And I got enough feedback to get it through my head that I didn't know nearly enough about what I was doing _to ask intelligent questions.
So, what did I do? I decided to learn Ruby on Rails. Why? Because all the Ember tutorials had this mysterious backend server, they just spun up like it was nothing, and everything depended on it. So, I followed "The Rails Tutorial," and I built the next Facebook and was rich. Just kidding. I finished my app and put it up on Heroku, and a week later didn't know how any of it worked because I'd followed along and there were all these little edge cases and auth setup, and it was all server-side, and I'm sure I learned some things... but not nearly as much as if I'd had a real-life empathetic human to actually take stock of what I knew, didn't, know - and how disconnected it all was.
It's just insane that we expect to learn all this complex stuff on our own.
So, at this point - I was 5 or 6 years into my web dev life. And this is where I decided to stop what I was doing. To stop all the framework stuff and all the epic (but unfinished) projects and go back to JavaScript. I think that I should have gone back to PHP actually, so that's what I'd do in this new ideal outline. But I didn't. So, let's insert: learn enough about PHP to make a CRUD app with forms, deal with the file system, really clarify HTTP, query strings, and serverside concepts, sessions, and cookies, and build a small version of a CMS-like Visual Idiot who built Anchor (an awesome dev I just remembered being really inspired by). Learn basic SQL queries and things.
It's just wild how much this would have opened up for me.
Then (and only after that), I'd sprinkle in some JS and learn how to progressively enhance things. At that point, I would have been a real developer - and I probably could have done it in a year if I'd had some other humans to talk to. I'm not shy. I just didn't know how to find anyone. I listened to shoptalk show. I read CSS tricks.
To really learn JS, I bought a few books. Eloquent JavaScript and the new The Secret of the JavaScript Ninja Second edition (and to date, how late this was in my career - it came out September 10, 2016). ElloquentJS started out OK, but wasn't a fit for me. JS Ninja was a good fit. But it still didn't help me figure out where to use it. I did all the challenges. I worked through all the code. I understood what set was. But it wasn't until somehow I'd found this book Exercises for Programmers that I actually sat down and wrote code until I really knew how to be a real programmer. The exercises were language agnostic. They had no answers. It just forced you to sit down with the tools and design a solution. It helped outline the process of breaking down the problem. And more than anything, it forced you to think about user requirements. I hadn't been learning the right programming things all those years, but I was now a Sr Product designer and front-end developer. I learned a lot about UX along the way. And if you combine HTML, CSS, and PHP or JS with clear user requirements, you will learn how to build web interfaces faster than you can imagine. That's what I did.
I learned everything I should have learned (and could have learned 5 years prior) - in a few months. Shortly after I also ran into Godon's Watch and Code and seeing his introductory course where he talks through building a todo list was a bit late - but also would have been really really helpful 5 years ago! So, it all came together. The configs all turned out to be just key:value pairs. I realized that the CSS and HTML were also key:value pairs the whole time. It's all just key:value pairs. I filled in all the gaps I had with Ember. I felt pretty dumb, but it also felt really great to finally understand it through the lens of the problems it solved and how it's more like training wheels than extra-advanced JavaScript. The Rails tutorial made sense in retrospect and acted as my connection for what I should have learned about PHP. I picked up Vue really easily and managed to avoid React and JSX because gross. And I wouldn't change anything about it - because it made me who I am. But I'd never wish it on anyone else. And so many other things happened that I'm sure I forgot - but / now, when someone askes me how I'd learns web development - I have a very clear idea about that. And I even have a few years of testing this reverse-engineered outline on real people. It works.

Hello beautiful people. I'm just another person who's been following this subreddit for some time now, and received many insightful information about this whole career before and after I decided to take the plunge into the field.
Times are tougher right now than ever, and I understand the pain that everybody is going through. So I don't want to simply discount all the "doomer"ish posts being made here. We all need to vent and it helps to talk to others throughout this tough process.
I guess I just wanted to make this post to let other bootcamp grads know, that despite the market being tough, it is still possible to get a job in tech. You just have to know that it takes more than just "12 weeks at XYZ bootcamp/course to 6 figure job" hopium. It is simply false, and going into this field with this mindset will test your will and patience to lengths you've never been before.
A little about me-- someone with a BA (non-CS) degree from a T10 university. Pivoted careers many times throughout my life, from medicine to business management, until I decided to try my wits in programming after building my first word guessing game in python. Prior experience in programming only went so far in HTML during the MySpace era (who else remembers lol) while tweaking and customizing my own page.
I had been working in general management at the time, and after seeing the potential to really try myself being fully immersed in learning the language, I saved up enough money to last me about a year, quit, and enrolled in a bootcamp.
The results of the bootcamp was bleak, which I somewhat knew prior to going in, but finishing it myself, I got to really see the reality of it. Starting out, my cohort consisted of about 20 of us, and by the end of it, only 3 of us had graduated. Even following the graduation, nobody among us 3 had gotten any offers let alone a callback.
I stuck to a somewhat tight schedule following my bootcamp completion--grind leetcode, expand my projects, apply to any jobs, etc. Little did I know of the reality that doing this everyday without a clear end in sight would be so depressing and crushing. Add to the pressure of my personal life and that savings running dry, day after day.
Eventually, I ended up getting a few take-home assignments for a few positions, but no callbacks. I grinded again with some hopium, and this would continue for months on end ... until recently with some stroke of luck, I got an invite for a phone screen. I prepared the living hell out of myself not only with coding, but also with my demeanor and practicing giving answers the STAR interview way. Safe to say, after 2 weeks of interviewing, I finally nabbed a junior position.
Total applications submitted by this time is around the 400 mark with 1 interview which led up to my one and only offer, overall taking 6 months in the making. I guess all in all, I gambled on 9 months of programming for a 0.25% chance of employment. Definitely a stat that is to be taken seriously before you do something like this.
That is to say, I'm not here to advocate for a bootcamp. I think it is a great stepping stone to really be immersed in programming, but the bootcamp itself will not land you a job. And definitely not a 6 figure one at that. Maybe the only thing helpful outside of a bootcamp is, besides having some project under your belt, a 5 second phrase of something like "I graduated with honors in the bootcamp" during an interview. My interviewers commented positively to this, but this may or may not be the case for you depending on who you might interview.
Anyways, tldr thanks for reading. I guess the takeaway from this is that 0.25% chance of employment is a gamble for bootcamp grads to not take lightly. However, if you are considering a bootcamp or are already in one, strap down. You are in for a ride, and where this ride ends up taking you is entirely up to your will and chance.
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Hai! I see a lot of posts on here saying they can't afford scene clothes, their parents won't let them dress scene, etc. so I have compiled some helpful tips as a bit of a penny-pincher myself :3
You can wear *any* t-shirt with a cute cartoon on it. Cute cartoons are a staple of scene culture, but your shirt doesn't have to be Domo, Gir, Sanrio, or band-related. I have this adorable AJJ shirt with a kitten on it, by no means are AJJ a scene band but since it's still a cute cartoon (and it fits me tightly too!) so I wear it with more traditionally scene outfits. You can go to Walmart right now, spend some time in the kids section, (girls OR boys) and get a kid's xl (which will roughly correlate with a women's xs or small) to wear with some black jeans. In the boys section, you might find dinos (very scene ^w^,) stripes, pokemon, angry birds or Nickelodeon/cartoon network characters (which DOES include invader zim, btw), and other colorful graphics. In the girls section, you'll find generic unicorns, a slightly overpriced Justice section, stars and hearts, silly halloween clothes (during septembeoctober), peace signs, flowers, and Sanrio if you're lucky. The walmart girls section is also a great place for hairclips.
You can wear anything as long as it's colorful and at least vaguely fits the "scene silhouette." There's this unrealistic expectation on TikTok (and it still existed during the Myspace days LOL) that your outfit will look like this every single day. That's not plausible, especially if your school has a dress code. To make anything a scene outfit, you can just put on a fluffly skirt or tight jeans, and a form-fitting t-shirt or tank-top, and a few necklaces and bracelets. You can even layer cute tank tops and bras! Back in the Myspace era, most people make did with had they had since there were no "scene stores," so it'd just be a mix of emo clothes and normal old navy kids clothes. Here's an example of someone who is recognizably scene, but doesn't have an over-the-top outfit.
You can have any hair style or texture as long as it also fits the "scene silhouette." Straightening your hair every single day if you have curly, wavy, or coily hair will undoubtably damage it. Yes, the pin-straight look is one of the most undeniably scene things you can do, but if you don't have access to a hair iron or don't want your hair to fall off, there's still plenty of hope for you!!! And you don't need your hair professionally done for 500 dollars, either, you can buy serviceable hair dye for under 20 dollars at basically any chain retailer. Hell, even guys can get away with fauxhawks! I would say the only three requirements for hair to be recognized as scene is that they're layered, asymmetrical, and colorful!! For example, if you have locs, you can accessorize them colorfully and part them to one side. If you have curly/wavy hair, you can wear racoontail extensions or colorful curly extentions and still give yourself scene bangs. If you have coily hair, you can dye one section one color and then dye a smaller section another color. (It sounds ugly, but trust me, it's cute.) And of course, no matter your hair color or texture, you can just shave it off and wear a wig. I promise you that most of the "scene queens" on TikTok are wearing wigs. You can buy a 20 dollar blonde or neon wig from party city and use dry shampoo to remove the plasticky shine. Then, straighten it on low heat, tease and cut layered fringe into it (there are scene/emo hair tutorials on YouTube, the older the better), then make stripes and colored portions with Sharpie marker. Spray it with hairspray if needed and voila, you have somewhat realistic scene hair without having to do ANYTHING to your real hair. (There's also been some discourse when it comes to oversized bows, I've heard. I wouldn't personally wear them, but I don't think they automatically make you a huge poser or anything LMAO)
SUNGLASSES are one of the most overlooked aspects of the scene look. There are only two guidelines when it comes to scene glasses and it is that they're BIG and/or THICK. You can have square "stunner" shades, oversized/colorful aviator glasses, thick "nerd" buddy holly frames, even Sanrio glasses frames can come relatively cheap. Even those shiny neon wraparound glasses can be macgyvered into something scene. You can even use them to help you hold portions of your scene hair in place, along with hairclips!
DO NOT spend all your money bank on HT/alternative stores, Etsy, Depop, or even Amazon before checking off-price or secondhand stores. "My local thrift store/charity shop has nothing good!" You may say. Chances are that your local thrift stores may really be that barren, but I encourage you to look again after reviewing all the other tips in my guide. Even though certain scene items are trending, (Sanrio, pyramid studs, Invader Zim, stripe stockings) I can't imagine I <3 Boobies bracelets, costume jewelry, outdated Impact Font text shirts, or Angry Bird flat-billed hats are particularly popular right now, so feel free to cop them if you see them. I promise you'll find at least ONE \*vaguely\* scene item at a thrift or charity shop. This is the first place I'd check. But if there's nothing there, you will \*definitely\* find scene things at discount shops like Gabe's or Ross. The money you could spend on one belt at HT is money you could use on 5 belts at the thrift shop. Even Party City bling necklaces (>5$) are cheaper than a 30$ custom Etsy bedazzled grenade necklace, even though it's a good thing to support local businesses. Besides, getting *all* of your clothes from HT is really *not* the scene look. In general, scene individuals may have emo influence, but they're not emo. The ratio, in my opinion, of "preppy" to "emo/alternative" clothes/accessories should be 2:1 or more, but that's just my personal preference. Nicer thrift stores or discount shops may have some Aeropostale, Banana Republic, Hollister, or even some old Delia's. It's completely okay to have "normie" or "preppy" clothes in the scene subculture, because scene takes influence from everything and is a little like drag because it takes a "normal" appearance and dials it up to 100, in my opinion. But scene encompasses many different interpretations so don't be afraid to add your own spin. ///^w^///
Learn to DIY. There are some very easy diys you can do at home right now for not that expensive. Get a big ass tub of beads/embellishments from the store for a few dollars and some hot glue. Get some puffy paint for your shirts, belts, or shoes, or cut the fingers off of gloves. IMO repping your favorite music and your silly sense of humor is an ESSENTIAL part of scene, so get some 3$ t-shirts from the thrift and paint or sharpie your favorite bands or slogans onto t shirts. You can stretch your own ears with an 8% kit from the internet. (BE VERY CAREFUL THOUGH!!!!) Scene is a lifestyle along with a fashion style, so take old CDs or DVDs and burn your favorite scene songs or videos on them to watch with your friends. You could even put on a scene show at your school! (But I'm sure some songs are too vulgar to played in front of people's parents, unfortunately!) Starting a scene band is cheap and easy these days with programs like Garageband or Bandlab, and you don't even need to be particularly talented. And it costs zero dollars to go on Spotify to discover old scene/metalcore/crunk/electronicore bands and make nightcores/lyric videos for underrated songs on an old phone. You don't even have to listen to exclusively scene music, espicially since the lines can easily be blurred, and you could argue what genres are and aren't scene. Just look around at old playlists and Myspace archives and find what you like!
Stop taking trouble from anyone!!! I'm being very serious here, there's a lot of scene gatekeepers (some of which are WAY too young and inexperienced to be gatekeeping), but there's also a lot of people who don't like our scene in general. That's ok. Getting other people's approval is not the goal. Scene kids are DGAF, sure, but being rude or catty is NOT a part of the subculture IMO, so if other scene kids are rude, don't listen. Constructive criticism as opposed to just being rude helps our community stay tight knit! Scene kids are social, silly and lives of the party, so you should definitely look around at your school and take stock of other scene kids, if any go. There might even be secret scene kids who listen to the music, go to shows, and live the life but don't even look that way at school! I would hunt around and socialize so you can make new friends you can go to shows with. Learn some cool emoticons or kaomoji to use with your scene friends. Here's a full list!
Drugstore/kid's makeup is not just good, but preferable! I would NEVER, EVER recommend high end makeup to scene kids. Boy or girl, neon colors and jet black smudged eyeliner are important parts of a scene makeup look, which is not what you'll find at high-end makeup stores. Money you spend on skincare or expensive makeup is money you AREN'T spending on shows or band merch, which IMO is #1 priority. Just ditch the concealer (all that hair means nobody will notice your acne anyway, and concealer is really not good for your skin.) If you really want beautiful skin, wear sunscreen instead of foundation! It's cheaper and prevents redness. Plus, high-end eyeshadow comes in "delicate" colors instead of bold scene colors. You can go to Target or Walmart and get a cheap mascara, neon eyeshadow palate, and an eyeliner stick, and that is *all* the base essentials for a scene look. You don't even need to wear mascara! I would recommend ELF makeup because it's cruelty free but also very affordable (we luv those little aminals.) ELF makes great liquid eyeliner sticks, but they have to be replaced often. Good thing they're usually under 10 dollars!
Decorating your room: they sell posters at Walmart, but they tend to be expensive :c you can use old music or skater magazines and just hang up the pages. You can color cartoon coloring books (they tend to be very cheap.) and hang up the pages. They make printable coloring pages online, too. Or, you can take a big sheet of bristol and trace album logos on them with markers to make really adorable posters that look good, but not cheap. If you've gotten to the point where you're getting a new bedspread but don't have a lot of money, they sell very cheap animal print and Sanrio blankets and pillowcases at walmart. Just get two or three throw blankets and it's just as warm and cozy as an expensive bedspread, while being way cheaper >:3. I'd recomend going on Pinterest for bedroom ideas that fit your style.
I might make a part two if i HAVE too, but I think I've covered just about everything =D
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This article will discuss some of the best Kawaii apps for Android and iPhone. "Kawaii" is a word that perfectly encapsulates "cuteness overflow."
This Japanese phrase refers to something adorable, and it is pretty popular among anime lovers around the world!
Hello, Kitty by Sanrio was one of the most influential figures in the rise of kawaii culture in Japan, and this cute culture continues to evolve globally today.
There are kawaii artbooks, emoticons, toys, and games. "Kawaii" is a term you'll hear from young Japanese girls.
It's approximately equivalent to 'cute,' but multiplied by ten or even a hundred.
It is impossible to describe Japanese female youth culture without it. From dogs to behaviors to boys, anything can be cute.
Furthermore, Characters and creatures that are kawaii are easy to spot.
They are hand-drawn and pastel-colored, and they have tiny bodies, massive heads with innocent features, and beady eyes that make you weak in the knees.
They're featured in toys, merchandise, and many Android apps because they're visually basic but adorable.
Here are some of the best kawaii Apps for Android that reflect the spirit of kawaii in Japanese culture.

1. Otter Ocean- Treasure Hunt

FiniFugu's newest Kawaii game is Otter Ocean. Instead of kittens, you'll be collecting adorable pocket-sized otters in this game, similar to Kleptocrats.
They'll delve deep into specific "dive locations" in search of antiquities, shells, food, and pals who may have perished in a hurricane.
Collect all otters, locate missing creatures, discover secret doors, unlock them using codes, feed, clean, and heal our favorite animals.
Download for AndroidiOS

2. Fril

Fril is a posh online flea market for female high school and college students. It is one of the best Kawaii apps for Android.
They had downloaded the software over 5,000 times in less than a month, and the app had sold over 10,000 goods.
Because the majority of the users are students, the average item price is roughly 2,000 to 3,000 yen (or $22 to $34).
Fril is an all-guys team and a graduate startup from Tokyo's Open Network Lab incubator.
Furthermore, Fril is unquestionably one of the most well-designed apps for ladies, thanks to over 100 interviews with their target customers.

3. Snapeee

Snapeee is a purikura app, which means it allows you to take photo booth-style photos with various embellishments.
In May 2011, the app drew users from Asia, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao. People in other regions of Asia also enjoy "kawaii" items, and the app has been downloaded over 800,000 times in less than a year, with half of them coming from outside of Asia.
Snapeee updates the app with new decorative stamps, brushes, and frames every day. Facebook, Twitter, Mixi, GREE, Ameba, Renren, and Sina Weibo are a few social media platforms where you can post decorated images. In addition, the app is compatible with Android devices.

4. EveryTown Sweet

Everytown Sweet is a cute match-3 puzzle game in which you have to match cute jello-like Kawaii animals on a game board.
It has a lot of charming animals and chibi characters and combines city-building with match-3 puzzle techniques.
Also, the evil Dr. Oh and his frightening boars have reduced the exquisite Everytown to ruins, and you'll have to reassemble it using medals gained through puzzles.
The puzzles, particularly the animated animal blocks, are the game's main draw. Various objectives are included in the puzzle stages, such as rescuing trapped animals, obtaining resources to erect dwellings, and locating power blocks.
Along with cute critters, the game includes 40 different characters, each with a unique ability that can aid you in solving problems. Install Everytown Sweet on your Android device RIGHT NOW if you enjoy Kawaii games.
Download for AndroidiOS

5. Decopic

Decopic is another popular purikura app and a competitor of the Snapeee mentioned above. It is a creation of Community Factory Inc.
Also recently revealed that it had surpassed the 12 million download threshold, which is a significant achievement for any smartphone app.
In September of last year, Yahoo Japan purchased the company for one billion yen (about $11 million). Yahoo Japan was keen to enter the mobile market and was able to secure Decopic's eight million members.
Because it is not created like a standard smartphone app, the app can be recognized by its distinctive user interface. It's more akin to the purikura machines that its intended audience is used to. It's compatible with Android devices.

6. Sailor Cats

Cats have consistently been recognized for their cuteness, but their cuteness reaches new heights in Sailor cats.
This click-to-collect game follows the exploits of a lone fisher cat as he sets out to explore numerous islands, increase his fleet, hunt for treasure chests, battle sea monsters, and discover new planets.
If you help him save furry creatures and expand his pirate fleet, his ambition of becoming a "pawrate" can come true. This is one of the best Kawaii apps for Android and iPhone.
Because of its basic one-tap controls, the game is exceedingly simple to play. You'll be upgrading your fisher cat's ship and acquiring numerous varieties of kittens.
I'm not talking about shells and trinkets when I say Sailor Cats has a lot of treasures. Also, You'll be gathering antiques, riches with costumes, and a plethora of toys.
It's a nice and peaceful game that you can download from the Google Play Store and Apple Play Store.
Download for AndroidiOS

7. Kawaii Kitchen

In Kawaii Kitchen, you may run your burger joint complete with cute chefs and customers. It's a fun memory game in which you must fill clients' orders by placing items in the correct order and serving them before the timer runs out.
You begin with a small kitchen and simple orders; however, burger orders will become more complex as you continue.
Also, You will need to ensure that you add the right ingredients in the proper order before giving them to your clients.
Furthermore, over a hundred different burgers to make and serve, and serving them to all clients will get increasingly difficult.
You'll be able to unlock incredible Kawaii chefs and enhance their skills as you grow your kitchen. In addition, the game is addictive and super cool.
Download for AndroidiOS

8. iQon

iQon is a Japanese fashion community that allows users to make magazine-style collages of fashion styles, similar to Polyvore.
iQon began as a web-only business, but it released an iPhone app in February of last year. The number of collages posted on the service has expanded by twenty, with over one million visitors as of March 2012.
The majority of the app's users are in their twenties, and they use it an average of nine times every day. It's compatible with Android devices.

9. Happy Hop: Kawaii Jump

Happy Hop is a cute vertical jumping game in which players must tap the screen on the right and left sides to make their lovely creature hop on moving platforms.
I adore the bright trails they leave behind when they hop from one perch to the next. You'll have to move them quickly from one platform to the next before it travels away, break, or vanish.
You'll find cool trunks and pinatas packed with lovely clothes for your characters on your way up. You may also come across other items to use to adorn your virtual home.
You'll also be unlocking and collecting hundreds of cuddly Kawaii characters in their adorable chibi avatars, ranging from cute unicorns to lovable bats.
Furthermore, Each character also gets a joyful house to decorate, which you can do with items found on your leaping trip.
Happy Hop is full of surprises, including monthly specials, a plethora of virtual pets, and unique prizes. This is one of the best Kawaii Apps for android and iPhone.
Download for AndroidiOS

10. Cute Pet Pululu

Imagine how adorable the gameplay would be if the game's title were as cute as it sounds. Cute Pet Pululu is a pet simulator game where you can acquire "pululus," or fun-loving creatures.
When the egg hatches, a charming pululu emerges. You'll have to feed her, play with her, and watch her as she grows.
There are seven pululus to gather, and each one has a distinct personality that makes every moment spent with them memorable and enjoyable.
The growth of a pululu is also influenced by how you care for her. Therefore the evolution process is fascinating. You'll discover how to evolve a pet as you hatch new ones.

11. Axolochi

Another adorable Android pet breeding game, Axolochi, allows you to breed virtual axolotls - yeah, those cute but weird alien-like amphibians.
However, in this game, they are pretty cute and not menacing. They come in various forms and sizes, and when they become more significant, they're the cutest.
Unfortunately, once they reach adulthood, you will have to release them. You may bathe, feed, and even train an Axolochi to gather exciting items from deep beneath the water after you catch one.
Once it has fully evolved, you can release it to acquire a new axolotl egg. You may dress up your pet axolotls with hats and other accessories to make them more attractive.
Axolochi is a pet breeding game that you must download if you enjoy pet breeding games. This is one of the best Kawaii apps for Android and iPhone.
Download for AndroidiOS

12. Nameco

The tweets and posts generated by this software nearly filled my entire Twitter stream at one point.
Nameco is a mushroom-growing and harvesting game that has been downloaded over 13,000,000 times and has a 4.5-star rating on the iTunes app store as of June 2012. Nameco's great popularity stems from its super-cute mushroom character.
There are over a hundred different tangible product items for the character, putting it in a lucrative market, as we saw with Rovio's Angry Birds.
It's even collaborated with Hello Kitty from Sanrio. This is one of the best Kawaii Apps for android.

13. Food Truck Pup

Food Truck Pup is a cute avatar of your favorite canine. Also, Food Truck Pup is a culinary simulator with adorable pixel graphics.
It mixes a cookery simulation with a business management simulation. To grow your crepe business, you'll need to work with dogs and other animals.
Also, you may then use the money you earn to buy clothes for your dogs and decorations for your food truck. This is one of the best Kawaii apps for android and iPhone.
Furthermore, Food Truck Pup tries to mimic everything a business owner would do to grow their company, but cutely.
You'll need to gather supplies, distribute leaflets to passers-by, make crepes, and hire charming dogs to work part-time. There's also a cooking and match-3 game mode in the game to keep you occupied for hours.
Download for AndroidiOS

14. Showa Candy Shop

Showa Candy Shop depicts the life of a grandmother who is faced with a challenging responsibility. She wants to turn an abandoned old candy store into a place where all youngsters desire to go.
Assist Grandma in stocking her shop with vintage Japanese toys and confections. Your goal is to make money by attracting customers to your business and unlocking various vintage collectibles.
Furthermore, You'll receive letters that progressively reveal a heartfelt story about Grandma as you progress. Kids will spend their allowance on candy and toys.
The money can then enhance shops and unlock more enjoyable things. The game's characters, mainly the adorable granny and the children, are endearing. Also, It's one of the best visually stunning Kawaii games apps for Android and iPhone.
Download for AndroidiOS

15. Furistas Cat Cafe

Furistas Cat Cafe is undoubtedly one of the most adorable Android and iPhone games. To appreciate how pretty this game is, you must play it.
Consider a place teeming with cute, cuddly felines. Your fantasy will come true at Furistas. You can adopt a large number of cats to keep in your cafe. Each cat has a fascinating backstory as well as a distinct personality.
To boost happiness in the café, you'll have to match a cat with a customer based on their matching personalities as customers arrive to adopt a cat.
The more kittens you unlock, the happy your clients and kitties are. There are other obligations in addition to adopting cats, such as arranging your café to make it pleasant for your cats and appealing to clients.
Clean your cafe, add refreshments, paint the floor and walls, create themed interiors to attract clients, etc.
The developers of Furistas Cat Cafe have done an excellent job of delivering their message with this game, which advocates animal adoption. This is one of the best Kawaii apps for Android and iPhone.
Download for AndroidiOS

16. FeeDog Raising Puppies

If you think cats are cute, you haven't played FeeDog yet. Puppies are just as cute as cats, and if you like dogs, you'll enjoy playing this game.
These hungry dogs are on a mission, and you are the only one who can help them. An evil ghost wants your puppies to eat all kinds of dangerous stuff so he can enjoy a long life.
Tap to prevent your dog from ingesting a harmful item as it is thrown at him. The ghost will strike those who are flung aside.
Carry on like this until the ghost's negative energy has been depleted. Furthermore, You will receive a star coin if you win, which you can use to purchase more pets.
Each dog has a guardian angel who once protected him. Aside from the fascinating mini-game, there's also a large kennel to maintain, with each puppy living happily under your watchful eye.
You may raise and feed puppies and level up a dog to make him stronger. Also, the game is adorable and can be downloaded for free from the Google Play Store and Apple store.
Download for Android

Hi, I really don't want to study for my exams right now. So I'm going to overanalyze a game where most of the writing is probably there "because it's funny" and over think it. Anyways, this is way too long.
With that out of the way...

What actually happens in Class of '09?

Class of '09 has a weird situation where it has a "not-sequel" that behaves just like a sequel and an apparently planned third game. Re-up isn't a remake, because its paths and branching completely shift away from the original '09. It also doesn't seem to fit any of the endings from original '09. Despite that, OG '09 begins in 2007, and Re-up begins in 2008, suggesting time has passed and there's some kind of continuity. So I thought about it and tried to come up with a working explanation.
Here's a few takeaways:

1) Nicole is the world's most unreliable narrator.

I feel like this should be kinda inherent to the format of the game - she's an uber sarcastic teenager who hates the world generally. It does seem true that every person in her surroundings is simply terrible, but events seem to pop in and out of focus according to her mental state.
One really glaring example is the Ari route in Re-up. If you date Ari, Nicole verbally abuses her to the point of disgust by Jecka, and Ari has to gradually work up her self esteem to break up with Nicole. If you reject Ari, however, Ari works her way into socially ostracizing and manipulating Nicole into a relationship. On one end she's incredibly shy and timid; on the other she's a damn sociopath as bad as Nicole. These are incredibly different personalities, beyond the usual code switching any person would be capable of doing.
Other details continue to not add up.
Depending on the route, Nicole either learns that her mom is absolutely loaded from alimony payments, has to get a job because the alimony won't last forever, can afford an expensive lawyer because of alimony, or can't afford a good lawyer at all because her mom's actually broke. These can't all be changing just because of chaotic school interactions. They do reflect how an ignorant teen might have a childish understanding of finances, however.
Both games open with her declaring she's a sociopath, and every ending dovetails with her closing out the story in her limited perspective. I think there's a definite case that what you've seen on screen doesn't line up with what happened in the story every time.

2) There are still events that definitely happened regardless of what route you took

In every route in OG '09 (aside from ones where you die early), it's mentioned the coach was actually fired for sexually assaulting students. This remains consistent even if you never go to gym class yourself. Regardless of how your first day goes, Nicole always befriends Jecka. Nicole will never get on well with any of the boys, and the counselor is always creepy. Nicole picks up a drug habit, skips class, doesn't do well. Jecka does similar. There are elements to the story that seem to be rooted in reality, away from just Nicole's point of view. And Jecka sticks by Nicole's side in every situation (even the weird white supremacist endings)...except for the bullying ending, which just might seem like the "realest" ending to some.
What's interesting is that these points remain consistent in Re-up, aside for the Coach appearing to organize the straight club. (That path seemed to be a fever dream by itself - we'll talk about it again later)
There's also a descent in Re-up, in that Nicole's life consistently gets darker and she becomes noticeably more distant from Jecka. Several endings revolve around the two no longer being friends, out of a mixture of disgust (Crack, Ari, Emily to some extent) and abandonment (the Myspace ending). In many paths, Jecka is shown to be actually improving her grades and life, and making decisions independently of Nicole. This is a large departure from the first game, where Jecka supposedly becomes a Neo-Nazi if Nicole isn't around to talk her out of it.
Jecka begins planning for college, while Nicole still has no intentions of following through. She takes AP classes, and doesn't end up in remedial English. She even expresses concern that Nicole skips remedial class, which is completely at odds with what Nicole saw of her before. She's able to diagnose her own dangerous drug interaction of metoprolol and Vicodin off of something she learned in school.
Probably most definitive is Jecka's avoidance and intentional distance with Nicole as time progresses. She can become uncomfortable with Nicole's lack of emotion following her mother's death, shocked that Nicole bullied a girl into becoming bulimic again, etc etc... For maybe the second time, she gets fed up with Nicole.

3) Many events seem to fit a teenager's daydreams perfectly

Separately from distorted reality, an awful lot of events that play out do so according to the self centered understandings of the world that adolescents have. In one possibility, Nicole gets shot by a mall cop, then gripes about Jecka's PTSD, reasoning that it "didn't bother me, why did it bother you?" We know exactly how stupid that sounds, but to a teenager, that logic would make sense.
Many events wrap around to fulfilling a latent desire of Nicole's. She's a consistently lonely girl who doesn't want to date boys, yet practically snaps at any opportunity to ruin a happy relationship when she sees it. At the mall, she breaks up Karen and Jeffery (in the one instance when he's not a degenerate) out of spite by suggesting he cheated on Karen with her and Emily. One entire ending branch in Re-up centers around humiliating Megan by cuckolding her boyfriend. She's totally disinterested in dating people...and yet can't help but be happy to pull one over people in their own lives.
Remember Ari? In one path, she ends up being broken up with because she's abusive. In the version of that path where she never made the first move, somehow a Coach who should have been fired in the last game and who ONLY shows up in this scene organizes a crazy plot to burn down a gay girl's house...and that gay girl just so happens to NEED Nicole so badly that she socially engineers her into a relationship, even though she hates her guts. It ticks off like EVERY teenage fantasy at once:
a) "What if we never dated at all?"
b) "What if I had to be the hero to the girl I like?"
c) "What if this girl that loathes me now still liked me?"
d) "What if this girl was just as crazy as me? What if she's literally me?"
e) "What if she's still not over me?"
Sprinkle in the ample subtext of Nicole liking girls much more than guys throughout the games, and it's textbook angst. We haven't even covered bits where Nicole calls the emo kid's generic ramblings about poetry "the most thoughtful thing I've ever heard" even though Crispin exists, endings where she ends up rich from lawsuits that could never work, endings where she humiliates teachers, or (pretty somberly) endings where she leaves behind a sad body, a sad note, and sad friends. All of these are perfect examples of how teens romanticize their lives.

OK I don't wanna read all that. What does it mean?

Nicole's world that you see is largely her own imagination. Her environment sucks, her teachers are shitty (as is usually the case in real life, faculty tend to be in teaching for the wrong reasons), most of her classmates are unpleasant (again, as is usually the case in real life, teenagers are idiots), but she does have a few friends at first. Her school probably has a real pedophilia problem with the gym teachers and counselors, since that's true to life. Nicole is likely reacting to that in her overall worldview.
Nearly all of the horrifying manipulation in the first game you see is fantasizing and locker gossip between her and Jecka (ie. "Wouldn't it be really funny if like Jeffery actually had a thing for being stepped on?" "STOPPP"). In reality, she's probably a quiet kid with average grades and a drug habit, just like any other kid. That's why Re-up begins senior year quietly - none of that flashy over the top crap happened in "reality", aside from one path.
The most common path you'll get is the hostage friendships ending, where Nicole gets slutshamed over a rumor and Jecka and her have a fight. There's a reason for that, it's probably what happened. Out of all the whacky ways the story goes, this is the one where the events are relatively normal, Nicole doesn't get her revenge fulfilled, and there's nothing pretty. It's just schoolchildren being nasty and adults being unsupportive. Nicole lives to see Re-up, obviously, which is the one change from that path.
That's why Re-up opens with Nicole monologuing about how people called her situation "unrealistic", as the most contradictory endings flash by. We see her crying in the shower as well, suggesting her junior year didn't end happily, and her first lines of dialogue with Jecka are unusually tense and stilted. They're definitely growing apart.
Re-up is where Nicole's delusions start to really clash with the people around her. Jecka begins to actually focus on school and disapproves of many decisions Nicole makes. It's possible that though Nicole didn't actually humiliate Jeffery to the point of a mental break or gaslight Kylar into jumping off a roof, she still carried enough manipulative tendencies to drive a wedge between Jecka and her. The games' strength is their voice acting and line writing, and the way Jecka slowly backs out of Nicole's life is incredibly subtle but very realistic - most people break up with their best friends by slowly edging them out and losing track of them.
If I had to predict what happens next, the next game will be post graduation, where Nicole finds herself meeting her former classmates and realizing she never grew up. The girl is clearly not headed for something well, and I foresee a sad ending. There might even be a point about Jecka asking to be referred to as "Jessica" (seems like a pretty prominent Chekov's gun).
I would love to hear anyone else's thoughts on how it's all shaping up!

tl;dr: Nicole's crazy and the games are about her deteriorating relationships while her friends grow up

hiii!! im looking for a cg! or just someone das supew nice to be teeny around talks tooo?? >.< it says cg but could also apply to sitters or big sibby frens!! <3 just plz don’t be dry TvT
ʚ 🌙 ɞ — I'm looking for a caregiver! ʕ⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴥ⁠ꈍ⁠ʔ
☀️My name is! · ◟⁠. .vee!
☀️My age is! · ◟⁠. . 18!!
☀️My pronouns are! ◟⁠. . they them!
☀️My gender is! · ◟⁠. . enby!
︶︶︶ ⊹ ︶︶୨♡୧⠀︶︶︶ ︶︶︶ ☀️Here are some things I love! · drawing, coding, cooking, beach trips (i live next to a beach :3) dino’s!! comfort, big plushies, the color black, affection, sweets! :0 ◟⁠.
☀️Here are some things I don't love! · nuts (allergic :,3) dry texters >.< ◟⁠. .
☀️About me! · ◟⁠. . im vee! i rlly like to draw! (ill probs draw something for u >:3)i have adhd so sometimes i can be hyper and be clingy and rlly affectionate! i usually reply quick :0 i loveeee physical touch so idm rp! especially when i get anxious, i have anxiety so sometimes i might need some reassurance TvT i hate dry texters, they make me rlly anxious, plz don’t dm if dry!

: My timezone is · ◟⁠. . PST!

︶︶︶ ⊹⠀୨♡୧⠀︶︶︶ ⊹ ︶
☀️I want my caregiver to be like this! · sweet and affectionate and caring! maybe doesn’t mind petnames and touch and babying me cuz i luvv that -//- doesn’t rely on just me to keep the whole convo going :< maybe checks in on me and helps remind me to do stuff!! maybe hewp a teeny bit with self care? >.< and knows how to comfort! (like doesn’t just say ‘oh im srry ‘ then immediately jumps to a new topic if i vent to them :<) is goofy cuz im goofy too and we can be silly together!! x3 [my code is sunny!] also doesn’t dry texttttt!! that’s rlly important! if u need an example basically how im talking rn! using emoticons and punctuation and such! :3c (also a cg that doesn’t mind me givin u compliments cuz i wanna compliment uuuu! >.<)
◟⁠. . ☀️I would prefer my caregivers gender to be: · ◟⁠. . any!
☀️I would prefer my caregivers age to be: · ◟⁠. . 18-25 (ask if ur over that tho!)
☀️My DNI is this · ◟⁠. . basic dni and dry texters :[
_ _⸗ ʚ 🌙 ɞ — Please dm me or comment on this message if you want to be my cg!! ʕ⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴥ⁠ꈍ⁠ʔ (and dm me w my code so ik u actually read all of this through! :,>)

I'm new to Home Assistant (set it up over the December Christmas break) but can I say, I am just having so much fun playing around with automations and dashboards. I haven't had this much fun messing around with code and CSS since the MySpace days when you could customise your profile and load song integrations etc. It's definitely filling that nostalgia quota for sure. My spouse was weary at first but yesterday he asked if we could do a washing machine vibration/smart plug situation!

aaaa so im in this agere server and there cg form was super cute and thorough so im puttin it here in case anyone’s interested!! (agere is completely sfw so no kinky stuff >:[ )) it says cg but could also apply to sitters or big sibbies!! <3 just plz don’t be dry TvT
ʚ 🌙 ɞ — I'm looking for a caregiver! ʕ⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴥ⁠ꈍ⁠ʔ
☀️My name is! · ◟⁠. .vee!
☀️My age is! · ◟⁠. . 18!!
☀️My pronouns are! ◟⁠. . they them!
☀️My gender is! · ◟⁠. . enby!
︶︶︶ ⊹ ︶︶୨♡୧⠀︶︶︶ ︶︶︶ ☀️Here are some things I love! · drawing, coding, cooking, beach trips (i live next to a beach :3) dino’s!! comfort, big plushies, the color black, affection, sweets! :0 ◟⁠.
☀️Here are some things I don't love! · nuts (allergic :,3) dry texters >.< ◟⁠. .
☀️About me! · ◟⁠. . im vee! i rlly like to draw! (ill probs draw something for u >:3)i have adhd so sometimes i can be hyper and be clingy and rlly affectionate! i usually reply quick :0 i loveeee physical touch so idm rp! especially when i get anxious, i have anxiety so sometimes i might need some reassurance TvT i hate dry texters, they make me rlly anxious, plz don’t dm if dry!

: My timezone is · ◟⁠. . PST!

︶︶︶ ⊹⠀୨♡୧⠀︶︶︶ ⊹ ︶
☀️I want my caregiver to be like this! · sweet and affectionate and caring! maybe doesn’t mind petnames and touch and babying me cuz i luvv that -//- doesn’t rely on just me to keep the whole convo going :< maybe checks in on me and helps remind me to do stuff!! maybe hewp a teeny bit with self care? >.< and knows how to comfort! (like doesn’t just say ‘oh im srry ‘ then immediately jumps to a new topic if i vent to them :<) is goofy cuz im goofy too and we can be silly together!! x3 [my code is sunny!] also doesn’t dry texttttt!! that’s rlly important! if u need an example basically how im talking rn! using emoticons and punctuation and such! :3c (also a cg that doesn’t mind me givin u compliments cuz i wanna compliment uuuu! >.<)
◟⁠. . ☀️I would prefer my caregivers gender to be: · ◟⁠. . any!
☀️I would prefer my caregivers age to be: · ◟⁠. . 18-25 (ask if ur over that tho!)
☀️My DNI is this · ◟⁠. . basic dni and dry texters :[
_ _⸗ ʚ 🌙 ɞ — Please dm me or comment on this message if you want to be my cg!! ʕ⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴥ⁠ꈍ⁠ʔ (and dm me w my code so ik u actually read all of this through! :,>)

Alright, so. You might be familiar with the story of Joe_Cracker and the Light of Courage. This was a sprawling, chaotic, and incoherent series of fan(?) movies, created to make fun of the guy who wrote the script.
I have a similar story for you today. It deals with one Oceanspirit Dennis, mighty pirate. He's the protagonist of a sprawling, chaotic, and incoherent series of fan(?) games, created to make fun of a forum user with an intense anime obsession. Then things went weird.
​
Before we start, three quick disclaimers:

• This story happened more than a decade ago, and everyone has long since moved on. Don't heckle any of the people involved in this, alright?
• My post is full of rude words for reproductive anatomy. Sorry.
• Along the way, this story blends into some homophobia-by-implication and gay male misogyny around the edges. So be warned. It never gets particularly heavy and the ending is nice, though.

​
Finally, I'm very sorry for the length of this post. I hope it's at least halfway readable. At least nobody's going to accuse me of "low-effort" posts.
​

(0): So what's an AGS, anyway? (1997)

Today's story takes place on the Adventure Game Studio forums. I've written about the community before, but in short: AGS is a free game engine, intended primarily to let you make point-and-click adventure games, but flexible and powerful enough to support all kinds of project. It's not as powerful as Godot or Unity, or as popular as RPGMaker, but it has its charms. There were a few breakout hits that made it outside the adventure gaming bubble, like Cart Life or the Chzo Mythos.
AGS also has a number of community resources, including official web forums. They aren't as active as they used to be, but back in the early 2010s, they were a genuine hotspot for discussing indie games.
So what's the community like? Well, this is an obsolete medium, dedicated to the discussion of an obscure game engine, which is used to make games in a dead genre. This was all true in 2010 as well. In short: These people are passionate weirdos, and I mean this as a compliment.
​
​

(1): The Pub Master Quest saga (2009)

Now, one thing that happens in creative spaces (especially game-related ones) is that people just sort of... wander in. All sorts of people, at that. Many people experience the Divine Urge to Create, but don't have the skill-set required to do so. Or much in the way of social graces.
In August of 2009, one such user appeared on the AGS forums. He went through a few different names, but I'll call him "Studio3" here, because I don't want this thread to pollute search results for the other nicknames. (He's still active under some of the other nicknames he used.) Studio3 made his introduction by starting a series of nearly incomprehensible threads, usually announcing game projects of some kind. Here's a small selection.
​
Pub Master Quest:

Studio3: the game takes place in a pub with a boy named dave(currently useing my voice) he want to become a pubmaster some day but he must take on a lot of task (p.s. game will have a lot of updates as time goes on if ags let's me the update will come out then the old game will have 5 days on shelvs then (#) deleted :'(
Darth Mandarb: Please read the forum rules.

​
Pub Master Quest 2

Studio3: For some time now I have been working on pmq1 gold hits now I have made up my mine to start on part 2 but I don't want it to be a demo so I am going to make it into 3-4 chapters frist off since my game was really ff.xiii I will be making chap 1:ifrit's crystal + and the game will be in a ps1 ff7-9 like world so I am making the players 3d like.
Snake: Shouldn't you have learned something from the first time?

​
Neku's New Trip (Chapter 2)

Studio3: it has been a year & i thought that i was never gonna make any more chapters but i found a way to work it out. sorry...well this game takes place a year later in a world were the towns & city's from the first chap of nnt have become corrupt files and can only be restored by going to the M.C.P2 in the core tower. it falls way off from the first nnt or twewy , but the story will make since as to why it does later on in the game.
Darth Mandarb: I'm not sure why "my computer crashed" feels like a good reason for not posting properly. Especially since you've now posted 5 more times in this thread without making the needed updates to the original post/screenshots.

​
We could keep going, but you get the idea. Recurring themes included pubs, Square Enix mashups, a unique approach to posting, and not meeting the screenshot requirements for a Games in Production thread.
Now, the AGS forums have always been reluctant to actually ban people. People who were Bad at Posting were simply yelled at and told to shape up. Studio3 seemed to be immune to social shaming tactics, but he never crossed the line into outright troll territory, so this stand-off continued for several months.
​
​

(2): The RPG template incident (2010)

​Eventually, through sheer trial and error, our hero managed to create a thread that complied with forum rules. In it, he requested help with an RPG template project, which was then available for download on the official AGS website.
​

Studio3: um...hey guy's i was thinking about put a type of rpg in one of my games but the coding is difficult because the example code is for a older version of ags & i cant work with it, now what i will do is make templet of the game & post it up for download but if you are interested let me no..cause i don't have the spair time to really do make this but i really do need the help

See? That's an actual question, and everything up to the first comma is actually coherent. I remember trying to use that template myself, and... yeah, the project just didn't work.
​
People tried to explain this, and pointed out that AGS wasn't really the best engine for RPGs. Yeah, you could use it, but why not consider RPGMaker? You really should consider RPGMaker.
​

Darth Mandarb: I second (third/fourth) the RPGMaker option. Not only is it a far superior program to AGS, it's vastly more simple to use. Also, I know you'll find a happy home on their forums as well. The people there are far nicer than the people here on the AGS boards. For example; when you completely ignore their rules, they don't care! When you repeatedly ask for help and then totally disregard every bit of advice that is offered, they love it! When you are told not to do something (12 times) and then do it anyway (over and over and over...), they laugh and pat you on the back!

Darth Mandarb, incidentally, won a Lifetime Achievement Award for his moderation work.
​
Studio3 would thank the other users for their advice, but decided to tough it out with AGS for now, to the delight of everyone.
​

Studio3: I'll even make a small game with ags to show my version FF.XIII
Atelier: No. You have a twisted obsession with Square Enix and Final Fantasy. Plan your own, original game.
Studio3: That is some what true but If I come up with a game then 3 year's later decide this is going know then I change the name but keep the name! - there for proving that I did make my own game I just changed the name (ah-ha take that! :]
Atelier: I. Didn't. Understand. A. Word.

​
He also shared some concept art for his games, apparently trying to explain the connection between Final Fantasy 13 and Pub Master Quest.
​

Studio3: here is the 2005 vs 2009 version of Dave(main & first character)

The image is gone, but it showed a male character from Final Fantasy 13 (I'm not gonna look up his name) next to the protagonist of some entry in the PubMaster Quest saga. They looked exactly the same but with different hair, and the PMQ character was named "Dave." This finally broke the users.
​

Snake: The only thing I have a problem with is his signature and his inability to type and take advice and actually use it. I think it's perfectly plausible that he did in fact create that Final Fantasy game and Square took his idea.

The image of an anime guy just named "Dave" was too much. Other posters would riff on the idea, making fun of the characters, making fun of anime in general...
​

DDQ: Well, I'll give you one thing, he's certainly got the effeminate angst of a Final Fantasy protagonist, but Dave is such a bland name. How about "Ocean", "Spirit", or "Dennis"?

... and eventually creating a little something called Oceanspirit Dennis.
​

DDQ: I've been called many things, but this city calls me... Oceanspirit Dennis: Scourge of the Underworld. (C) Square Enix.
Snake: Really. This is too much *insert emoticon here that shows how much my guts hurt from laughing*

​
Oceanspirit Dennis is, in short, what your dad thinks anime is. He's got spiky hair, an oversized sword, an eyepatch, and an incomprehensible tagline. (I recommend clicking the link, it's funny.)
The thread rolled on for another week, though nothing else of substance was discussed. But the idea of Oceanspirit Dennis had caught on.
​
​

(3): Oceanspirit Dennis: Scourge of the Underworld! (2010-2011)

Now, remember, this was around 2010. At the time, a lot of netizens suffered from the urge to take a fake thing and make it real. In May 2010, a thread appeared in the Completed AGS Projects subforum, and it was perfectly rules-compliant, thank you very much.
The thread was titled Oceanspirit Dennis: Scourge of the Underworld, and it was started by one Ben304.
​

Ben304: I've been called many things. But this city calls me... Oceanspirit Dennis: Scourge of the Underworld.
Ryan Timothy B: Brilliant little game. lol I almost shat myself once I saw this posted in the CG's thread.
Ponch: Such a powerful story, filled with all the Jungian Archetypes you find in the great works of the past (before this modern trend of postmodern deconstructionism became de rigueur in narrative fiction).

​
Mr. ThreeOhFour, we have to emphasize, is The Guy - being an accomplished game designer and an incredibly skilled artist. His work has defined the few commercial point-and-clicks that still get released. His portfolio contains headliner titles like The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, Shardlight, Technobabylon, The Shivah, and the upcoming Nighthawks.
If you don't play adventure games, you might still be familiar with his work from, say, Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator.
So, anyway: Him releasing a game that features a parody of your OC, well... imagine Stephen King writes a short story where your Undertale OC, I don't know, gets eaten by a car or something. People are going to notice.
Including the gaming press.
​

Alec Meer, writing for RockPaperShotgun: Here's five minutes of your life you won't get back. Fortunately, you might rather enjoy them. Or you might be bewildered by them. Or you might be angered by them. I'm at a loss to accurately describe your likely reaction.

​
Technically, that article doesn't talk about Scourge of the Underworld, but Ben304's third OSD game, rather confusingly titled Oceanspirit Dennis. That is, of course, not the first game in the OSD series overall - or, for that matter, the third one.
It's the fifteenth.
You see, Ben304 released Scourge of the Underworld to the public domain, allowing everyone else to get in on the action. And people very much did. Within a few weeks, there were five OSD games, including: Oceanspirit Dennis DX by ddq, Oceanspirit Dennis: Mighty Pirate also by Ben304, Oceanspirit Dennis: The RPG by discordance, and Oceanspirit Dennis: Pirates on the Poopdeck! by Ponch.

ddq: Brought to you by Square Peniks, the joke that just won't die!
discordance: I pride myself on knowing a bandwagon when I see one, and Dennis has a funky way of capturing the imagination. Hence this attempt to bring something new and exciting to the table, namely, AN ACTUAL RPG ENGINE!!!

So, by the time that RockPaperShotgun took notice, a few months later, OSD had already become a sprawling and chaotic mess of a franchise. The early games claimed to be "(c) by Square Enix" but it became "Square Peniks" almost immediately, because of course it did.
​

(4): The Series has Landed (2011)

This is where it gets weird. Oceanspirit Dennis experienced a genuine explosion of popularity, to the annoyance of people who didn't want to feed the trolls.
​

LimpingFish: The people who go out of their way to make ironic statements and who attempt to meme-ify (...) should share the blame[.] (...) The irony has been nullified. The creators of these games are now intrinsically linked to all this bullshit, seeing as [Studio3] credits anybody who contributed, unwittingly or otherwise, to his lore. Just take a look at his later game entries in the database.

​
It was far too late, of course. Dennis-mania was sweeping the nation, with its first peak being a dedicated Game Jam in November 2011.
It's actually quite difficult to say how many OSD games were made. There's about twenty entries in the official AGS database, but those are just the ones that made it past the community's gatekeepers. This user-maintained list lists 34 core titles plus 8 spin-offs, but it's only current up to 2014, so it misses some newer releases. The official fan website is a little more discriminating and only goes up to 31 games. And of course the Internet Archive has a collection with 32 items in it, which partially but not entirely overlaps the other lists.
Those lists also don't count remixes or supplemental material like the art contest, or the times the characters appeared in other games, or had cameos elsewhere on the forums. OSD characters also showed up in non-AGS games, and we're also not counting ports to other platforms such as Android.
All told, there's roughly 50 pieces of OSD content, depending on your definition. That's... sort of ridiculous for a one-off joke, right? Even if a lot of these games are barely interactive, or just remakes of Ben304's thing, that's quite a lot.
The releases span half a decade (2010-2015) and there's plenty of real games in a variety of genres, including adventures, turn-based tactics, rhythm games, and walking simulators. We can't really go through them here, this post is already too long as it stands.
But... how does that happen? What is Oceanspirit Dennis?
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(5): In which I fail to explain what Oceanspirit Dennis is

At this point, I'll have to zoom out a little, so there won't be as many quotes in the next sections.
By all rights, OSD shouldn't be anything. A lot of it is deliberately incoherent, since it was started to make fun of a bad poster, and everyone's just sort of winging it. However, there's... actually kind of something here?
The games all share a few key concepts, since they're derived from the same image. Dennis is an "oceanspirit," and he has an eyepatch, which means he's a pirate most of the time. Sometimes he has a ship, which is fairly consistently named The Fancy Man when it exists (occasionally The Fancy Lad). Also, Studio3 had a "twisted obsession with SquareEnix," as the forumites liked to put it, so most of the games are JRPG parodies.
Dennis wanders the world, FIGHTS slimes, saves the city, learns new spells, and tells attractive women to get away from him. There's a "core" plot to the franchise, or at least Ben304's efforts, wherein Oceanspirit Dennis battles the minions of the Underworld, and his goal is to defeat someone called Final Boss Karen. She is only vulnerable to an ancient and mysterious spell, but Dennis gets tricked and banished to the uterus dimension for a bit. When he escapes he must wash off the taint of the vagina. All the while he's doing this, he has to keep fighting off attractive women.

Ponch: But watch out for Knottybeard's "girlfriend," the unpredictable Corsettica the Red Leather Witch. Her large breasts and tightly-cinched enchanted corset gives her inexplicable power over the minds of men!

... you may have been wondering when the LGBT angle would come in. Yeah, this is where.
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(6): Oceanspirit Dennis and Life Partner Ray

You see, this was 2010. It was a commonly accepted fact at the time that anime = gay and gay = funny. Since Dennis = funny, we must conclude that Dennis = gay. But how do you riff on that idea? Well, clearly he isn't just gay, he's... really very gay! He's so gay, you guys. Sooo gay.
Of course, you can't be a boykisser without having a boy to kiss. This is where we bring in Life Partner Ray. (You can see more of him here.)
Ray is a perfectly average, slightly scruffy man, drawn in a realistic style without any anime features, who is in a steady relationship with Dennis. This was clearly meant to be a joke - Life Partner Ray acts like a "damsel in distress" most of the time, and he also speaks normal English while Dennis is barely coherent.

OneDollar: Ray's village is under threat and the only one who can help is the legendary Oceanspirit Dennis. Tasked with tracking him down Ray sets off for the next city, but quickly runs into problems...

​
But... it ends up almost wholesome? There's a game whose plot is that Dennis accepts a job as a character in a point-and-click adventure game, just because Life Partner Ray loves adventure games, and Dennis wants to surprise him. (It's never quite clear if Dennis is himself a videogame character or if he's an actor who plays videogame characters, just roll with it.) That's... actually pretty sweet?
And there's another one, called A Taste of Man Cake, where Life Partner Ray is the protagonist. The plot is about buying a penis-shaped birthday cake for Oceanspirit Dennis.
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You see, two men being together is already the height of comedy, you can't add to it. Therefore, their relationship must be shown as close, loving and harmonious. You can't make it funnier, it just wouldn't work.
Which isn't to say there weren't romantic betrayals and questionable jokes on occasion. There was some discussion about "gay male misogyny" and implied homophobia, but it wasn't nearly as bad as you'd expect from a nerd forum circa 2011. And the whole thing was approached in good faith at least.

Ben304: It wasn't intended to be homophobic. :) If there was something in there that seemed homophobic and offended you, then I am sorry, but surely silly things like him finding the mention of breasts and that disgusting isn't homophobia.

​
Stranger still, Ben304 initially drew Dennis with terrible teeth and stick-arms, just a pretty gruesome look in general. ("Realistic" pirate I guess.) But as time goes on, he gradually morphs into a proper anime bishōnen. His later outfits begin to include booty shorts and a vest but no shirt. His scruffy hair, too, transmorphs into handsome anime spikes.
By the end of the series, the original joke has inverted - the funny part is now that Dennis is a beauty-obsessed prettyboy, rather than a gruesome-looking pirate. Life Partner Ray is usually a schlubby nerd, with the joke being that Dennis is completely out of his league, but occasionally he's shown to be a bit of a fashion icon himself.
Life Partner Ray may be the co-star of the franchise, but there's other fun characters in there. These include Hairstylist Toya Toya, who keeps Dennis topped up on hairspray, and the Fancyman's trusted first officer, Emosailor Frank.
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The series received all sorts of fun spinoffs too. For a while, it was the done thing to take an existing game and make a Dennis version of it. The Oceanhumble Dennisbundle contained a parody of Binding of Isaac, for example. There's the inevitable genderswap AU as well, starring Oceanspirit Denise and Whoohoo Partner Rei.. Then of course there's Leather Gear Smooth (a gay beach resort AU) and an adaptation of Hamlet called Oceanspirit Danish.
In short: At some point in the process, people forgot they were making a weird joke and started building an actual collaborative universe.
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This might have become a source of conflict in itself, because the AGS forums already had one of those, and the "joke games" were displacing Reality-on-the-Norm. However, developer Ponch eventually created a crossover episode, thus defusing the conflict.
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Epilogue: Where are they now? (2016+)

People spent years driving this joke into the ground. While the franchise(?) peaked in activity and controversy around 2011, there was a steady trickle of Oceanspirit Dennis content for years after. He became something of an unofficial mascot for the forums. You still see him around every now and then, and a few of his games have made it to Itch.io, but the Dennis-mania is mostly gone. (All the assets are public domain, though, so it could start again at any time.)
The AGS community is still around, however, still doing its thing. Sure, adventure games don't seem to be coming back, and web forums have largely been displaced by platforms like Reddit. But who cares about popularity? You should make what you want to make, and some people just want to make point-and-clicks.
As for Studio3, he took the jokes on the chin, which won him some respect. His artistic skills improved, as did his English. By the mid-2010s, he actually became a respected member of the community. Check out this thread for his post-OSD stuff.
He's dabbled in graphic novels, music and animation, he's done PNGTuber streams, he's run a small YouTube channel, and he's worked on an LGBT-inclusive visual novel called These Last 6 Months With You. Last I saw he was focusing on his day job for the time being, but there's a respectable backlog of content.
Let's conclude this saga with a nice and wholesome post from the AGS forums, quoting the late AGS user Ghost.

Ghost: You've come a great way, man. You had your rough patches and, let's face it, less than stellar games, but now look at your work. (...) You're seeing it through, that's already something very good. Again, best of luck, and I am honestly looking forward to once more play [a Studio3] game. :) Also belated merry christmas- and a good new year.

I keep running into people on Reddit who are barking at people with stuff like "Just knowing HTML and CSS will never get you a job" - and things like that.
The how the current market is perceived and the whole intensity of hustling to just learn full stack seems to have people really amped up - and for some reason - they want to share their anxiety and tell other people how likely they are to fail. But I don't think they are correct. I don't think that everyone needs to be a "full stack" "software engineer" - and that hasn't been my experience at all. From what I've seen, there are people of all skill levels - from no-code updating the CMS to a little CSS tweaks - to some basic PHP or JS - and all the way across a spectrum of experience and skill. Sometimes they're not even doing web dev and they're typing things into terminal to update other systems (and they're novices). And something that gets baked into that - is this idea of hierarchy that I don't think is real. Sure there are different salaries - but are full-stack devs more important than the other people on the team? I don't think so. Is the dev who's focused on the templates not a real developer? Many of the best JS devs I've worked with openly talked about how terrible they were with CSS. Everyone brings a different set of experience and skills to the team. It depends what the goal is.
Anyway, I figured I'd ask you.
Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe the world has changed, and full-on software engineers are the ones pimping out the myspace pages. Maybe there really are no jobs besides writing Node APIs and React clients all day. Is it true that everyone making websites and web apps is required to be a full-stack self-driven application-building software engineer?
I believe that normal, everyday people are also web developers. I know because I've worked with them. I've been one of them. I meet them at BBQs, and often - they don't want to talk about work. Not everyone is as intense as new developers seem to think. We're not all tastemakers and Git heroes who just grind leetcode all night. Maybe there are other jobs besides that 120k SWE job that everyone thinks they're going to land for their first job after boot camp. Am I crazy? Can any of you confirm that there are jobs out there for people who focus on the HTML and CSS side of things?
(I'm just going to list this out all the HTML and CSS centric jobs I've had - - because when I started thinking about it - I had even more examples than I thought) (so feel free to bail now)
My first experience with CSS was changing themes for things like MySpace. Some enterprise levels of facebook also had themes and I knew someone who's whole company was built around that. I didn't actually know what CSS was, but I knew if I change some of the lines of code - that I could customize the mySpace pages. I ended up getting paid to do that - while really having no clue how it really worked.
When I started taking web dev seriously (2011), I was just building websites with HTML and CSS. I build a bunch of freelance sites and built a portfolio.
I added in a little WordPress and learned about CMSs with Chris Coyier's Lynda course. But besides a copy and pasted loop a few places - it was all HTML and CSS. I'd learned some flash in 2000 and figured HTML would just die out haha. Nope! So, I had to learn it all - and I made a bunch more sites doing freelance. I also helped my partner who was a print designer switch over to web design and learn how to code. I was a little obsessive with the responsive layout stuff so I got really experienced with that.
Then I got my first in-office job (because I was ahead of the curve on responsive design / still using floats then...). I didn't really know anything about PHP (more than that stuff I mentioned) - and so the PHP guy handled any of that. I had kinda memorized a few jQuery methods for clicks - but again: 98% of my day was building layouts with HTML and Sass. We used a GUI for preprocessors, so I didn't even need to use Node or Brunch or anything yet for build tools.
My partner from before ended up theming shopify sites and managing a few well-known company websites and did well money wise (better than me) - and was all HTML and CSS.
I worked for a ticketing company building out websites for music venues / and it was all HTML and CSS. They had a system in place where you really just wrote out `getShows(20)` and things like that. So, even though by this time I knew PHP and liquid and JS, I didn't actually have to do anything that wasn't HTML and CSS for this job.
Later in my career, I was working with Angular v1 - but I didn't touch any of the controllers or the Django back-end. I just built out all the templates and the CSS system. I got really into design systems way before I ever knew what that was. I animated some complex games with the angular lifecycle CSS classes / but really wrote basically no javascript.
Later I consulted for a big company auditing their CSS across a large system that served thousands of institutions. My whole job was CSS (and just a tiny but of HTML - because really / it was already set in stone).
I had many other jobs and contracting gigs over many years. During these times - there was always other developers around me who were assigned to updating long-lived web apps or theming multisite type systems. There were clients sites throughout the years on all the CMSs and they required updates that were almost all HTML and CSS. There was usually someone devoted to HTML emails. A few places I worked - that was a big deal and a big part of the company. And many times there were interns and people who came over from other department who learned on the job (starting with HTML and CSS)
I've met people at meetups who described their teams and how some people wrote the Ruby and others focused on getting the templates and layouts ready so they could connect them. Sometimes they mostly wrote HTML and just sprinkled in the bootstrap classes.
And none of this was planned. I didn't consider myself a HTML and CSS developer specifically.
Even recently (2022) - I found myself consulting for accessibility and SVG situations that were again / all HTML and XML-like based. And all that time - I worked teaching people HTML and CSS - so they could do their jobs / that were only HTML and CSS. I know someone who runs a whole team dedicated to building layouts for email and they get paid really well.
I know of many people in this sub and via discords - who's full-time jobs are HTML and CSS / and run companies building things with only HTML and CSS. Sometimes there are old forums that don't even use JS so they have to come up with interesting work-arounds.
And yeah - at some point / I ended up learning all the things that it takes to build web applications (I still learn every day). I don't get my jobs just because I know a little HTML and CSS. But I did at some point! And I got them because I was just a little better than other people. Someone does those jobs. And they shouldn't be considered somehow less real than more advanced programming roles. Not everyone want to be a software engineer. And not everyone likes making websites. I personally don't want to update the Wordpress theme styles at this point in my career. Now I'm a teacher - and some of my students get jobs centered around HTML and CSS. So - the jobs are real. But I want to hear you tell me how you see it - because I might actually be crazy. Time for a glass of wine.
Edited: for readability