I just realized that my Tumblr is my digital time capsule. I've had it since I was in highschool I randomly scroll through my old post and its so cute and cringey at the same time reading my old thoughts.

Is it possible to change the width of days (week, multiweek and month view) in the calendar? I have an ultrawide 34" monitor and while in fullscreen every day fits fully on the calendar, if a shrink the window to anything less than fullscreen the right most days (usually Saturday and Sunday) disappear behind the Events and Tasks bar. I assume this is because of scaling in relation to the screen width. Horizontal scrolling is sadly also not possible. Anyone knows a fix? I appreciate any help.
Edit: I'm on Manjaro with KDE if this helps.

The familiar sounds of the office fill the ears of the "Adventurer" as he steps into his home away from home. To him "Familiar sounds" means the voices of about three-quarters of the hundreds of employees who work in this building, thanks to the progressive, passive, perpetual boosts to his senses that he has simply always been accruing. He still can't quite hear everything in the office, indeed as powerful as his senses are he can only actively sense enough space around him to be firmly aware of events occurring about half of the building's length and width away from him at a time, but those are still incredibly powerful senses.
Lucas steps past several cubicles and heads to his own with a calm smile on his face. He actually enjoys his job, not because he finds the work fulfilling but because it presents him with a chance to level up his skills and work towards becoming altogether stronger in a hilariously safe environment. The figure sits in his cubicle and logs into his work computer with a bright grin on his face. As he grabs the last pieces of paper in the backlog that was a big problem when he began to work for this company he feels a pang of pride.
The workday is pleasant enough. He successfully finishes the last pile of paperwork that was considered part of the backlog and this effort is celebrated by his direct supervisor and a few of the friends he's made in his department, a group composed of several men and only a few pair of women, who have been working here for years but lacked the abilities he possesses that allow him to grind out progress at a rapid rate and allow him to improve the work he does every single day without fail. The news quickly spreads throughout the office, and various people, including other departmental supervisors and managers, come to him and congratulate him.
When the day ends Lucas is one of the first people out the door. This is commonly expected Lucas-like behavior at this point so no one bats an eye at it. The figure works and then leaves, and he seems to have an incredibly strict policy about work-life balance to the point that no one from the office has seen his apartment or even seen him outside of the office aside from on social media.
The lad walks towards a nearby mall even as he checks his phone. When the decently cautious man is sure he's not being watched he uses his inventory to swap outfits, changing into something much more casual than his work uniform so he can do his equivalent of trolling. His clothes go from being the professional outfit someone might expect to see an accountant in, to the much more casual clothes of someone who works at a Game Station the local equivalent of a Game Stop.
The minute the figure reaches the mall he relaxes and steps into it with a smile on his face as he is suddenly and powerfully aware of events going on all around him now that the sounds he's been passively hearing for the last few minutes are not muffled by layers of solid American construction. The mall is a favorite haunt of his, a place where there are enough people that even if something goes awry he can pretty easily escape in the chaos and commotion that any sort of hostile actions would necessarily cause. Still, to the figure's credit he has not been caught yet.
The thief begins his training by carefully studying the department store he's in. He can be a bit bolder now than he could weeks ago, as in the time since he began to hone this skill he's enhanced it in such a way that he can teleport objects directly into his inventory, which is a tremendous improvement even if he can't take anything bigger or heavier than a cleaver. He eventually spots a teenager with a wallet that is just visible out of the corner of his pockets. Lucas diligently uses "Observe" on him and the powerful skill is strong enough now that Lucas can use it to determine someone's affiliations. When the young adult spots that the teen belongs to a gang he decides it's worth taking his potentially ill-gotten gains.
The clever trickster points a single finger in the direction of the teen's pocket and silently casts the handy spell. A thin line of energy lances out of his extended digit and sails through the air toward the teenager. When the teen begins to move Lucas hisses in annoyance and expends a bit more magical energy to take advantage of the first skill he's gained as a result of an attribute hitting 50: arcane manipulation.
Days ago the young adventurer's passion for magic and healing resulted in two classes leveling up on the same day: mage and white mage. This resulted in his intelligence going from 49 to 52, and as a result of that he gained the ability to manipulate magical energy, so long as he can detect the magic in question and is willing to spend some magic of his own. In this world, where the figure is reasonably certain that no other magical beings exist, this means that to hone this skill the wizard needs to manipulate his own magic. Still, that hasn't stopped the young professional from tirelessly doing just that.
With a significant amount of focus the mage is able to manipulate the thin beam and twists and turns it so that it circles around the teen before snaking into his pocket and striking the young gangster's wallet. When Lucas feels the wallet enter his inventory he chuckles and makes his way out of the department store. The rest of this particular bout of training is filled with similar feats of arcane finesse and hilariously minor acts that will steal from those willing to enact violence on others in exchange for money. Lucas's clever usage of his skills coupled with his willingness to act in stunningly petty and annoying ways make him great at harassing those he designates his foes. Lucas, lacking an ability to kill those he fights thanks to a drawback affecting him, has thus far refused to actually engage those he has marked as his foes in direct battle but his desire to annoy them has led to willingly target people associated with criminal groups with some of his spatial magic.
In hours the figure is back home and he is toying with the newest toy he's received from his gacha system. A guitar sits on his lap and he fiddles with the instrument, even he listens to a video about how to tune the thing. Lucas is experimenting with something, and behind the tablet he gained some time ago is a book that contains information on tuning guitars. The tablet is in use, recording what the man is up to. An app is in use and it records the sounds the guitar chords make. The self-taught musician relies on some of his new skills for this, as he has only recently gained the "Guitar" and "Guitar Maintenance" skills, and he got them at different times so they are different levels. Nonetheless, the figure patiently records himself, occasionally stopping the recording and examining it. He is diligently using his long-term planning skills and sticking to his broad plan. At the same time the figure patiently uses magic and steadily hones the "Mage" class, using his magic skills to farm multiple sources of experience while adhering to the schedule he has informally given himself.
Eventually the next day rolls around and the figure, predictably, gets out of his apartment and goes to work. If you had explained the concept of "Jumping" to Lucas a year ago and asked him if he thought so much of it would be just working a 9-5 job he'd not have believed you and yet in the context of his experience with the unusual profession a stunning amount of time has just been him being a regular employee of a perfectly mundane business.
Time continues to pass for the would-be adventurer at a steady pace. In this mundane world a figure with legitimate supernatural abilities is a uniquely powerful presence, and this is especially true of one that is determined to keep his head down and nose clean. Lucas's determination to live a regular, relatively risk-free life does not stop him from living, but it does stop him from suffering from some sort of "Middle School Second Year Syndrome" as a result of the fact that he has gained trainable superpowers. Instead of going mad with power or gaining an unhealthy mentality Lucas has just enough knowledge of how jumping works to know that while he might be a big fish in this world he is not a big fish in other worlds like Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, or even something as aggressively hostile and oppressive as the general setting of Minecraft is.
If an objective, impartial onlooker viewing Lucas's life is given the chance to describe the sort of "Television Show" that they are watching, they'd say it could easily be considered slice-of-life. For the first few months of his time here the most exciting times are the rare moments he adds something new to his slowly expanding list of activities and the even more slowly growing list of things he can do, such as when he begins to walk the streets of the city he lives in at night and cast healing, positive, restorative magic on the sleeping homeless people he encounters. This activity ultimately earns him the peculiar title of "Unsung Saint", a title which enhances the effectiveness of his restorative or otherwise beneficial magic on those not aware of the fact that he is using magic on them.
Days of work, training, and controlled, planned forays into new pastimes, turn into weeks of steady and anticipated progress. Weeks of steady and anticipated progress turn into months of upward mobility and the healthy establishments of new baseline feats. That said, eventually progress slows and becomes more difficult for the jumper in a world as relatively safe, for supernatural beings, as this one. It doesn't take terribly long for Lucas to go from a somewhat predictable, fairly focused figure who is very specialized in a number of areas, to a somewhat more well-rounded figure with a steadily increasing repository of skills and abilities, thanks to a subtle shift in growth strategies.
​Just a few days short of eleven months into his stay in this jump, the jumper is facing a new foe but is participating in an activity he's come to enjoy; sparring.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I dodge a well-aimed right-handed punch intended for my face, though thanks to my agility I easily had enough time to dodge it, It took a long time, from my viewpoint, for it to get close to me so long enough that I only let it get this close on purpose. I'm holding back in terms of my speed and strength but my opponent, a friend I made at the gym a few weeks ago, doesn't need to know that. I have way too many supernatural advantages for it to be a fair fight if I don't hold back.
I give my opponent enough time to register that I've dodged the blow before I begin to telegraph, purposefully, my next attack. I purposefully overextend my left arm and launch a powerful, but slow, strike. The man grits his teeth and moves to intercept my strike. He is fast enough to position his arm in front of it but that is still a mistake. I guide my blow into his arm and watch as he lets out a sincere, pained, grunt. Even with me holding back I still allow DPS to work its magic, and that perk coupled with both my trained and perk-enhanced strength is enough for me to deal him a decently powerful blow.
I retract my fist with a sly smile and note that the bars that cover my field of view are all going up at different rates. The bar for "Brawler", a class that's the result of "Fighter" giving me access to a new class when it hit level 10, my currently equipped class, is going up at a healthy clip as I spar with this man, as is the bar for "Precision Strikes" and "Acting", some of my skills. Most of the things going up at a decent clip are affected by "Jack of All Trades" a perk thatreduces the time and effort it takes for me to train up new skills to around the level of my average. Most of my other bars are only slightly going up, but this is acceptable. This sort of training is vital, long term, for my very survival, and thanks to my perks is pretty easy for me to do.
Behind me I hear a familiar voice cheering; Hannah's. The lovely redhead has begun to accompany me to the gym, but this is a somewhat recent development. Before a few weeks ago we only occasionally saw each other on Saturdays at the cafe she worked at, though we have been texting buddies ever since we met. Marcus, my sparring partner, grins savagely at me as he listens to my friend and gym buddy's cheers.
"I can't let you show me up in front of your girl, Lucas. We're not close like that." Marcus tells me, though the words are insincere. Marcus is a friend of mine, one who has even tasted my food, and that's something I don't let others do as much as I once did, barring people who go to the soup kitchen when I'm one of the volunteers on duty. My cooking can now do some decent stuff so I don't want to get anyone who isn't an ally or someone I need in my pocket overly reliant on my skills. I grin at the muscular bruiser of a warrior and dart back before gesturing for him to come at me like he means it. The man lets out a hearty laugh as he begins to pursue me. He is a touch taller than me and he has muscular, wide arms that take up a lot of space.
I watch, diligently, as he swings them at me when he is in the martial sweet spot of being close enough to hit me with a fully extended fist and being far enough away for me to strike back in an effort to preempt or counter his blow. I dart forward even as he stops advancing and duck underneath the strike before I use an active skill from my "Dancer" class to infuse my agility into my strength and hit him with a blow that disorients him. He steps back, a look of pain and confusion on his face as I step forward and move close enough to hit the man with a much softer blow to the chest. I feel his solid muscles block part of the harm done to him, but the blow is still solid enough that I watch his HP lower.
He gasps in pain and staggers back, and I smile at him and sense my triumph. He's only lost a small portion of his total hit points, but for normal people, one's total stock of HP is an abstraction of their physical health. For me, my HP serves as a skillful shield that protects me at all times, and for me to fall in battle someone has to whittle away my entire bar before they take me out. In fact, right now my HP is not maxed out; earlier I took a hit from Marcus that I'm still recovering from.
I take a step forward before Marcus signals that he needs a break. I laugh, the sound filling the part of the gym we're fighting in, and stop approaching the man. Hannah walks up to the ring and offers me some of her water as I walk toward one of the corners of the small ring. I silently gesture that I'll accept it and she tosses it at me. When the object is in my hand I use subtle telekinesis to mess with my boxing glove just enough to more easily hold onto the water bottle and sip from it. The cool water tastes good, and I smile as I feel it helping me relax as I wait to continue the fight. This is the sixth time I've beaten Marcus, but I'll give the man one bit of praise: he's persistent. He likes fighting enough that he is always eager to try and fight me, and I like fighting just enough to appreciate his resistance to the idea that I can beat him. It's not always easy for me to keep on finding partners that I can spar with.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In the days that follow this fight, the young jumper continues to spar with Marcus. He steadily trains his "Brawler" class, and takes on class skills that do things like make him a more efficient hand-to-hand fighter, even gaining skills that he suspects, and hopes that he won't need here; like the ability to launch a punch that can inflict damage at a distance.
The figure's volunteering remains a steadfast facet of his in-jump identity. The man gains popularity throughout the place that is, functionally, his hometown, as he becomes a well-known volunteer. He even makes the places he volunteers at more popular, using a steadily increasing amount of local and online popularity to advocate for the organizations he supports. This first began to occur about three months into his stay in the jump, but he really begins to leverage it at the six month mark and he quickly begins to slowly become a minor force in the community, taking advantage of his heavy charisma build to sway hearts and minds to his cause.
His days at work continue to remain fairly unchanged from how they were at the start of his time in the jump, though on very rare occasions he creates reports and the in-jump equivalent of PowerPoint presentations about the data he has compiled to his supervisor. He has also overseen a day of service for members of his department to go and volunteer at the soup kitchen where he volunteered on the day he met Hannah, allowing him a pleasant chance to practice his leadership skills. He earns his first pay raise just under a year into his stay in this setting.
Minor missteps occur along the way, such as the figure overbooking himself during one particularly hectic weekend, which annoys his friends and fellow volunteers but serves as a decently humbling experience for the overly eager adventurer and also shows his friends that he is, ultimately, human.
Lucas continues his relaxed, fairly peaceful days for more and more time. By the time he has been in the jump for a full two years his pre-jump life feels like a memory or a strange dream, though this change to his state of mind does not actually mean he cannot recall such a time only that he has fully acclimated to the realities of being a jumper. At least as much as someone who is still on their first jump can acclimate to such a thing.
A/N: I like this episodic style for the necessary time skips that a standard (or mostly standard) jumpchain story will require. Now I'm gonna say that this style won't be universal across all jumps since some jumps may be better suited to shorter timeframes. Heck some more story-intensive jumps may benefit from longer focuses on individual events and sequences of events, but we've gone past the tutorial phase for this jump and I think minor episodic looks at broad timescales is better than a thousand chapter story that only hits one year in a jump and ultimately gets dropped. That said, I know that I'm not doing this style of writing PERFECTLY, so I hope that I can use this to grow as a writer and to become better able to convey how long time skips affect the characters, relationships, and strengths of the people involved over time. Still, if nothing else this was fun.
ALSO, as an author's note that is unique to the subreddit: this story is being published on Spacebattles and the white line that cuts through parts of the story indicates a narration/viewpoint shift. On Spacebattles and several other places I write there are in-built formatting options that allow you to cut through a textbox with a horizontal line which serves as a visual marker for some significant change to some aspect of the story. The line I made was my attempt to do that here on Reddit. It's... not perfect, but hey I'm trying.

I have an app that saves verses (items) into my app db using floor from my own api so that use can access them offline. My minimalistic code is as follows:
verse.dart

@Entity(tableName: AppConstants.versesTable) @JsonSerializable() class Verse { @PrimaryKey(autoGenerate: true) int? rid; int? book; String? content; bool? bookmarked; Verse({ this.book, this.content, this.bookmarked }); factory Verse.fromJson(Map json) => _$VerseFromJson(json); Map toJson() => _$VerseToJson(this); } 

verses_dao.dart

@dao abstract class VersesDao { @Query('SELECT * FROM ${AppConstants.versesTable}') Future> fetchVerses(); } 

home_screen.dart

class HomeScreen extends StatefulWidget { const HomeScreen({super.key}); @override State createState() => HomeScreenState(); } class HomeScreenState extends State { late HomeBloc _bloc; int setBook = 0; List filtered = []; static const _pageSize = 20; @override void initState() { super.initState(); _bloc = context.read(); _bloc.add(const HomeFetchData()); } void sortVerses(List verses, int bookNo) async { var tempList = await compute( sortVersesByBook, VerseSort(bookNo, verses), ); setState(() => filtered = tempList); } @override Widget build(BuildContext context) { return BlocConsumer( bloc: _bloc, listener: (context, state) { if (state.status == Status.loaded) { setState(() => setBook = 0); sortVerses(state.verses, state.books[setBook].bookNo!); } }, builder: (context, state) { var booksList = SizedBox( height: 40, child: ListView.builder( shrinkWrap: true, scrollDirection: Axis.horizontal, padding: const EdgeInsets.all(5), itemCount: state.books.length, itemBuilder: (context, index) { final Book book = state.books[index]; return BookItem( text: book.title!, isSelected: setBook == index, onPressed: () { setState(() => setBook = index); sortVerses(state.verses, state.books[setBook].bookNo!); }, ); }, ), ); var versesList = ListView.builder( shrinkWrap: true, physics: const NeverScrollableScrollPhysics(), padding: const EdgeInsets.symmetric(horizontal: Sizes.xs), itemCount: filtered.length, itemBuilder: (context, index) { return VerseItem( verse: filtered[index], ); } ); return Scaffold( backgroundColor: Colors.grey, appBar: AppBar( title: const Text(AppConstants.appTitle), ), body: SingleChildScrollView( child: Column( crossAxisAlignment: CrossAxisAlignment.stretch, children: [ if (state.status == Status.inProgress) ...[ const ListLoading() ] else ...[ if (state.books.isNotEmpty) ...[booksList], if (state.verses.isNotEmpty) ...[ versesList ] else ...[ const EmptyState(title: "It's empty here.") ], ] ], ), ), ); }, ); } } class VerseSort { int bookNo; List verses; VerseSort(this.bookNo, this.verses); } List sortVersesByBook(VerseSort verseSort) { return verseSort.verses .where((s) => s.book == verseSort.bookNo) .toList(); } 

When the app launches it fetches about 700 items from the database. This is is all okay until I decide to sort the items in categories in this case books. It freezes until the sorting is done.

1.5 changes the research tab to have a vertical and horizontal scroll bar. I’m using a number of mods that have research projects outside the default window, and when I try to scroll down it just moves horizontally. Is this fixable?

for some reason I cannot sroll up/down when holding the shift button becouse it changed to make you scroll horisontaly. but I need it to scroll vertically for sertain video games.. how do I disable horisontal scrolling when holding the shift button?

I should point out before starting this, my current Android phone (Nokia XR-20) is huge and heavy so increasingly I don't carry a phone with me. The last few Android updates have made it laggy and incredibly slow (40 seconds to open the camera app for a photo). My phone is largely a device to play youtube and check email/whatsapp my desktop can do most of that, lets have fun!
Day 0
The hardest part in starting is trying to figure out what you should buy, I'd gone through the drawer of old phones and none of them were really supported. When I went into PinePhone spaces asking how it is everyone responds with "it isn't ready for a daily driver" at £200 that is a bit expensive for a bit of fun, the Purism subreddit is filled with angry people so best to give that a miss. Someone blogged about buying a OnePlus 6 for Plasma Mobile and I noticed it seemed to be supported. So many bids on ebay later I get a OnePlus 6 for £40.
Day 1
The PostmarketOS instructions are really simple to follow, I first flashed the phone without a sim card in it and I noticed the Wifi connection kept dropping and you have to turn wifi off and then back on and then go into settings -> wireless and select the network for it to reconnect. This is weird and annoying.
I've now added Firefox ESR which was full desktop firefox and completely unusable, lets install the other firefox which is equally bugged. On to google where I learn I was supposed to install mobile-config-firefox and use firefox ESR. It doesn't seem to really fix anything.
Now on to installing Waydroid, selecting for copy/paste is proving to be a nightmare, waydroid keeps telling me a start script is failings when I run waydroid session start. Now I've failed at this, time to move on to putting in a sim card! Nothing is detected hrmmmm.. At this point I am wondering if there are loads of packages I've missed cause its Alpine under the hood.
The Plasma Mobile page shows loads of operating systems but the only one with OnePlus phone support is Mobian. Its pretty clear Mobian are interested in phosh, all the instructions are for phosh. The instructions aren't nearly as good but the postmarketos instructions mean I can work it out, where I discover the last 4 weekly builds of plasma mobile don't start up and nor does the 'stable' phosh. Basically the OS tries to start crashes and then restarts into crashdumper.
So back to PostmarketOS it is! This time I have a sim card in the phone and add openssh-server and install everything remotely. Waydroid seems to work, the wlan connection stays connected, firefox renders much better, etc.. I actually love the fact I can remotely manage my phone via SSH.
I notice Mobile Data doesn't work, it needs me to add APN details, that sounds like tomorrows problem.
Oh and the camera doesn't work, someone needs to reverse engineer how the firmware works.
I'm off to use Tokodon which works really nicely.
Day 2
Everything was working fine for an hour but then then Wifi disconnected and needed turning off/on and then reconnecting.
My Mobile provider APN details issue looks really simple, going into settings, Celluar Modem and unlocking lets me add a APN. Clicking it creates a non full screen popup which is pushed vertically off the screen by the keyboard so I can see what I am entering or select the next text box. Touching that seems to have reset the time has reset to 0. Fixed the timezone issue, can't figure out how to add a APN with the GUI as it is. Now the Wifi dropped.
I got Waydroid installed, from a bit of googling it seems Waydroid needs iptables and there is a iptables-legacy installing that allowed the Waydroid session to start. I then look for Google Play and realise the instructions install Vanilla Android and I want GAPPS android. Go to rerun init and the Wifi dropped.
So I got GAPPS installed and Whatsapp knows its not directly on a phone and wants to do the web app thing. I give up for now lets look at the Flatpaks which all seem to be wrappers on the web app. Whatsie won't open, WhatsApp for Desktop is ancient and won't install, ZigZag installs but every page either scrolls off screen or is shrunk to fit o screen and the contents are completely hidden. Back to Android Whatsapp, this seems to open really quickly, it forces the Android keyboard which has painful lag (the app doesn't) and I've just realised the notifications aren't forwarded on to the desktop, I have to manually check the App. This is deeply annoying but we can cope.
This actually raises a general issue in the UI, so many things keep assuming you have a large amount of horizontal space. KDE Modal dialogs in discover are the worst culprits. It would be nice if they decided below a certain width to consume the entire view and for the buttons to get larger than then are. The sudo popup is actually a great example, its clearly been modified so it consumes the full screen and resizes nicely but the text box is small and the ok/cancel buttons hard to press.
And the Wifi disconnected
There is also a weird thing with the keyboard, some apps dynamically adjust their height when you open the keyboard, some are stuck at half screen height when you go to them. When a page compresses it doesn't include scrollbars. Again use discover for 5 minutes and you'll see what I mean.
The Wifi disconnected
I still can't decide if I like desktop Firefox, on my Android phone Firefox will decide to rerender and reset page contents (often on the get code from email screen) and can end up incredibly lagged out. This one doesn't suffer that at all, but the buttons are just a bit too small and the keyboard can get stuck displaying or not. It manages to be equally annoying, I tried to switch to Angelfish but it constantly has little embedded messages with yes/no buttons that are SO tiny. I can't deal with that.
The Wifi disconnected
So the native Plasma Mobile Apps seems quite good, but I can't find anything to play video. I pop on to Youtube and the video is stuck permenantly loading, I go to my Jellyfin server and the same things happen. I install audio tube and the same thing happens again. I can't test if the audio works because I can't get the device to play audio.
I give up, I can see its so close to being complete but I am hitting to many major issues. I am going to park things here until Plasma 6 is released because when I can do is great and I love but...

I'm trying to build a task page with the ability to long press and drag each task around. Did some digging around and found the react native gesture handler. I got it working at one stage but I left the app for a while and tried implementing it again but the app keeps crashing whenever i try long press and drag the task around with no errors frustratingly. Below is the screen in question, idk if its logic problem or something else. If anyone has any experience with react native gesture handler, or suggestions to be resolve this or know any other library I could use that would work would be much appreciated. thanks in advance.
once again thanks for any help.

import { useState, useEffect, useRef, useCallback } from "react"; import { Text, View, Alert, SafeAreaView, ScrollView, RefreshControl, StyleSheet, Animated, } from "react-native"; import { FirebaseAuth, firestoredb } from "../../firebaseConfig"; import { collection, getDocs, query, where } from "firebase/firestore"; import { GestureHandlerRootView, GestureDetector, Gesture, } from "react-native-gesture-handler"; export const AppScreen = () => { const auth = FirebaseAuth; const user = auth.currentUser; const [refreshing, setRefreshing] = useState(false); const [tasks, setTasks] = useState([]); const panRefs = useRef( tasks.map(() => ({ x: new Animated.Value(0), y: new Animated.Value(0), })) ).current; console.log(panRefs); const generateGesturePanHandlers = useCallback(() => { return tasks.map((_, index) => { const panGesture = Gesture.Pan() .onTouchesUp(() => { console.log("touched"); }) .activateAfterLongPress(500) .onBegin(() => { console.log("long pressed"); }) .onUpdate((event) => { panRefs[index].x.setValue(event.translationX); panRefs[index].y.setValue(event.translationY); }) .onEnd(() => { console.log("ended"); panRefs[index].x.setValue(0); panRefs[index].y.setValue(0); }); return panGesture; }); }, [tasks, panRefs]); const gestureHandlers = generateGesturePanHandlers(); const onRefresh = () => { setRefreshing(true); setTimeout(() => { setRefreshing(false); }, 1000); }; const getDataFromDatabase = async () => { try { const q = query( collection(firestoredb, "tasks"), where("taskType", "==", "todo") ); const querySnapshot = await getDocs(q); const dataList = querySnapshot.docs.map((doc) => doc.data()); setTasks(dataList); } catch (error) { Alert.alert("Error", "Failed to get data from database"); } }; useEffect(() => { getDataFromDatabase(); }, [refreshing]); useEffect(() => { panRefs.map(() => ({ x: new Animated.Value(0), y: new Animated.Value(0), })); }, [tasks]); return (   } >  {tasks.map((item, index) => (      {item.title}: {item.description} - {item.status}      ))}    ); }; const styles = StyleSheet.create({ safeArea: { flex: 1, backgroundColor: "#1E1E1E", }, scrollView: { flex: 1, maxHeight: "100%", paddingTop: 0, }, taskContainer: { backgroundColor: "#2E2E2E", padding: 20, borderRadius: 10, }, container: { paddingHorizontal: 8, gap: 20, }, taskText: { color: "white", }, }); 

ried using useEffect and defining the panRefs outside of the component and a dozen other approaches... but to no avail.

I am searching for an ergonomic mouse, preferably a vertical model. It's important that it includes both horizontal and vertical scrolling capabilities (or a trackball if available). Wireless connectivity is not a requirement for me; either wireless or wired options are fine.

https://preview.redd.it/s6rxd24cfm1d1.png?width=854&format=png&auto=webp&s=982ce09126c700e32c5da5a2c427880945e7d1ae
Hello, I need help to change the directory of the game. I moved all my folders to the desktop , but rn the launcher still search for the folders in AppData/Roaming/.minecraft , how I could make the launcher search for files in the new location???

TL;DR Spotify is way better lmao
I decided to get a two month free trial of Spotify Premium to see what it was like and also try all the cool things on the app. I usually use Amazon Music as I get a discounted price due to Prime and it's cheaper. If I'm gonna be honest, I'm gonna miss the past two months lol
Spotify's UI is so much easier and friendlier to use, and it's so easy to search up songs, make playlists, and curate your music experience. Amazon Music, however, lacks in those fields.
For this review, I'm mostly talking about the mobile versions of each app.
SOUND QUALITY Amazon Music definitely wins when it comes to sound quality. I like how you have a choice between sound qualities. It also takes up less space on my phone for the same amount of songs and same quality. However, for Spotify, higher quality listening takes up a lot more data and downloading high-quality songs takes up a lot of storage (Spotify took up 6 GBS and AM took up 3 GBS for the same amount of songs).
MAKING PLAYLISTS
Spotify wins for this one. It's so easy to make a new playlist and share with friends. You can also make shared playlists, which is a feature I really enjoyed. As well, you can add custom playlist covers, which I'm gonna really miss on AM. Covers add a lot of personality to a playlist and it's way better than just 4 album covers in a square. Additionally, playlists are so much easier to locate on Spotify. When you click Library, a horizontal list of all your playlists shows up, and you can easily pin playlists to your liking. AM, however, stuffs other playlists on the Library tab, and you have to scroll through to find a specific playlist. For some reason, it also puts my main playlist at the end of the list even though it's the playlist I listen to the most?? It's also WAY easier to organize your playlist on Spotify.
USER INTERFACE
Spotify a billion percent for this one. It's SOOOOOOO much better than Amazon Music and I can't stress that enough. Searching for songs is a BREEZE on Spotify. I listen to K-pop and Indian songs, and while it's easier to search up K-pop songs, it's very annoying to search for Indian songs on Amazon Music. On Spotify, I just have to type in the song name. For Amazon Music, I have to type the title with the artist and the movie it comes from. It definitely discourages me from making playlists because it just takes too long and I don't have the time to dig deep into an artist's discography just to find one song. My main playlist consists of over 350 songs, and on Spotify, I can easily search for a specific song in my playlist or scroll to the bottom using the little scroller on the side. On AM I have to scroll endlessly until I find the desired song. Spotify is overall more smooth, fast, and aesthetically pleasing. I also love how Spotify syncs songs across devices.
However, I do like how Amazon Music shuffles better. I just have to press the shuffle button and it will shuffle my playlist. On Spotify, I have to press a song and then press shuffle. Another downside of Spotify is that it really does NOT want you to leave. It shows you 5 different pages before "cancelling" your subscription. Turns out, when it said I had cancelled my subscription a day before the trial ended, it just... brought it back.
Some similarities I found are that AM tries to shove podcasts down your throat while Spotify tries to shove audiobooks down your throat. I'm gonna miss podcasts on Spotify though, because some people would put special songs or instrumentals that weren't officially released as a podcast that people could add to their playlists.
To conclude, Spotify is much better in terms of mostly everything except for sound quality haha

I feel like I’ve been on a Bridgerton Voyage since I woke at 3:30 am to watch S3 before work on Thursday. I have spent WAY too much time on Reddit and Tumblr! This season and POLIN have turned me into someone else.
I just want to stay in bed rewatching it, reading analysis here and scrolling through tumblr looking at gifs and memes. I want to stay in POLIN land.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been possessed by a show or fandoming like this but I waited 4 years for this couple to happen. Been waiting since their first scene in season 1 when I was like hmmmm they are so not just gonna be friends. My favorite trope is friends to lovers and I have enjoyed seeing these two find their way home to each other each season.
It’s been a little exhausting navigating some of the negativity and hate for this season but I know everyone has a right to their opinion/feelings. And how they feel about S3 is honestly how I felt about S2 and nothing anyone could say or write would change my mind so I’m not going to try to change anyone else’s about S3. I will provide my thoughts and opinions though:)! So I’m breathing and taking it all in stride.
I’m very thankful for this sub and for the fun I’ve had over the last month on here. No one in my real life cares about Bridgerton enough to tolerate let alone enjoy all my analysis.
Anyone else feeling like this?
Keep Calm and POLIN on y’all.

On web everything looks fine to me, but on mobile when testing it on my phone, the mobile header is too big and scrolls horizontally ... i've set the mobile header to width: 100% and it still doesn't change, half of the page is cut off on mobile...see image.
Thanks for your help!
https://i.ibb.co/K62QfPC/Screenshot-2024-05-19-211108.png

Come join the Sunday Watchalongs in ‘The Giant Chat of Sumatra’ On Discord. It honestly doesn’t matter if you are a Sherlock fan, or just randomly found this on the scroll, we would love to have you join us! We're hosting a Granada Holmes mega watch-through!
On 26th May we’re going to watch Episodes Eight & Nine; 'The Copper Beeches' & 'The Greek Interpreter'. Granada Sherlock Holmes was produced by the British tv Granada Television between 1984 and 1994. And starred Jeremy Brett as Holmes.
All of the watchalongs take place in the Discord Server ‘The Giant Chat of Sumatra’ and we start watching Promptly at 20:10 UK time (People usually turn up from 19:45 onwards to have a natter beforehand!) See you there!
https://www.tumblr.com/nixxie-pic/750933391565848576/come-join-the-sunday-watchalongs-in-the-giant?source=share

Hello! Usually I use Elementor for building pages and posts by any templates, but now I have a task to add some sections with something that seems to be custom animation or maybe there is an elementor add-on for this that I don't know about? Also can you recommend any elementor plugin to help me create a row of containers with text to be horizontal slider with infinite loops?
I will write below the examples I need to do from 2-3 sites. Also if you go without plugins, how do you add custom animations including an external js library? Using html widget, adding the source, enqueuing the js and adding the js?
Here are the example sections: 1. https://boardmix.com/#workflow - here we have some tabs on the top and lists (maybe?) on the left, that are going with a timer one by one and changing the images. I thing this is pretty much custom made animation.

1. https://www.bigchange.com/#w-node-_4e9625aa-86a9-c04b-d702-85c01c2af5ca-c966f566 - here when the user reach this section, the video on the left stays static and the right part keeps scrolling its content till the end, after that the scroll continue to the next section of the page.

Thanks in advance!

I hope this question can be answered somehow. By page I obviously don't mean page like in a modern book, but the piece of text which was attached together in vertical orientation, if the scroll was opened horizontally. Did the scrolls then have some more or less standard sizes, or varied a lot? Would it be closer to today's a5 format like most of the books, including Bibles, or more like a4? Basically, would it be more or less text than in one page of the typical a5 bible? What kind of scrolls are preserved from that period regarding to that matter?

Hey all,
​
I've been running into the following problem for a few days. I am trying to customise the horiztonal section of this CMS detail page. Namely, I want to add more space so that I can add more items. These items are already in there and can just be seen on mobile. Only on desktop and tablet I can't get it to work, does anyone know where I should look?
​
Fourroom (the maker of the template) didn't reply sadly.
​
thanks in advance!
​
Link to the environment:
https://lars-de-nijs-r---digital-designer-fotog.webflow.io/project/club

Platform(s): Android (i played on android but im sure it was available on any mobile device)
Genre: Fantasy, Strategy, Side-scrolling, RPG
Estimated year of release: Old 2007-2013?
Graphics/art style: Fantasy, medieval, Dark, Realistic
Notable characters: Animals and Dragons (the goal of the game was to make hybrids)
Notable gameplay mechanics: 2 castles, 1 on the left (yours) and 1 on the right (enemy), different levels (everytime you beat the enemy castle you automatically moved on to the next (harder) level, around 5-6 horizontal lines to send your hybrids on, they automatically walked to the right and fought enemy troops, each troop costs mana to send. between levels there was a shop with 3 animals and sometimes dragons (dragon were more for higher stages of the game) and when you had enough animals you could merge them into one and choose wich parts of the animal to use for which body part (lion head, bear body and swine legs etc.)
Other details: you could also send a fire ball or freeze spell with enough mana. the shop with animals refreshed every so mnay minutes or hours. there were a few types of dragons (fire, ice, poison) and they could only be merged with other dragons. better hybrids costed more mana to spawn.

🪞
Welcome back to the Asylum write-up, where we explore the decade-long slow-motion car crash that is the Emilie Autumn fandom.
Sorry this installment took so long to upload! Just a heads-up, I may take some time to deliver the last one too – these posts take forever to format on Reddit's finicky-ass editor, and my dumb real life is currently keeping me from precious Internet time. Thank you for your patience! You have my word that everyone who pre-ordered the final installment will receive a PERSONAL, HANDWRITTEN letter autographed and illustrated by me, a list of the snacks I consumed while composing this write-up, some exclusive behind-the-scenes secrets, and a pony.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4.1 – Part 4.2 Part 5

Places, everyone This is a test Throw your stones Do your damage Your worst, and your best (...) And if I had a dollar For every time I repented the sin And commit the same crime I'd be sitting on top of the world today (“God Help Me”, 2006🎵)

Quick recap of where we left off. First, there were five to ten halcyon years of pleasant and meaningful interactions between EA and her blossoming fanbase, prominently by way of her official forum. Then, circa 2009-2010, EA's online presence shifted towards sudden anger outbursts, ban-hammering, and an increasingly top-down communication style.
This created a sort of primordial rift within the fanbase, between those who supported EA's right to speak her mind and regulate her own fan spaces however she pleased – and those who thought that her reactions were rude and inappropriate (at best), and that even fan spaces should allow for reasonable, non-abusive criticism of the artist.
Between a poorly-handled book release (see Part 3), the controversial (Part 2) or dubiously true (Part 4) contents of said book, and serious shade from various former collaborators (Part 5), more and more fans had pressing thoughts about EA's work ethic and choices. EA attempted damage control through drastic forum rules that made it virtually impossible to voice any “serious” critical opinion. It didn't work, of course: instead of squashing the mutiny, she created a schism.
Critical fans and active haters started congregating on unofficial platforms.

“WITH MUFFINS LIKE THIS, WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?”: TROLL LIKE A GIRL

So here we were, the early 2010s. The official forum (which had about 700 members in 2006, if you recall) was now thousands-strong, reaching just over 12,000 registered users in 2012 – not all of them active, but still. In terms of sheer numbers and content creation, the party was POPPIN'... but increasingly in parts of the Asylum that escaped EA's jurisdiction, such as Tumblr, where they could speak their mind freely.

You play the victim very well You've built your self-indulgent hell You wanted someone to understand you Well, be careful what you wish for, because I do (“I Know Where You Sleep”, 2006🎵)

In one wing of Asylum Tumblr, a smattering of call-out blogs emerged, which laid out EA's various lies, faux pas, shitty takes, and general deep-seated terribleness in detailed timelines and screenshots (or, short of that, long-winded bullet points). While many such blogs framed it as “serious” whistleblowing and did their best to remain as fact-based and neutral as they could, there was some genuine disgust, animosity and creepiness towards EA on that side of Tumblr; for some ex-fans, “exposing the truth” was mostly justify obsessive hatred, prying and verbal abuse. Some, for instance, felt the bizarre need to side with EA's mother in their estrangement. (One user, with the URL “emilyautumnfischkopf”, argued in a serious and down-to-earth tone - but with zero sources - that EA's upbringing had been nothing but peaceful and supportive until she ungratefully kicked her loving family to the curb for no reason at all. They were later revealed 🔍 to have an alternate handle as “eaisalyingcunt”.)
Either way, through these blogs, a number of potential drama bombs that had mostly flown under the radar were dredged up from over the years – some of which were hard to ignore, even for supportive fans. Where to begin?
There was that nonsense in-joke song, captured twice on camera during the 2009 tour (to very little outrage, at the time), crassly called “Manatee Retard”📺. Or EA's scathing response, in print, to a wheelchair user who found it insensitive that she used a bedazzled wheelchair as a prop to do sexy acrobatics on stage. (“Your offence taken at my hard-won self-acceptance proves that I indeed have something to fight against”, she wrote). Spoken word tracks where she made trivializing knock-knock jokes about serious mental illnesses she didn't have, like schizophrenia and OCD. Multiple instances of calling Britney Spears a “bimbo” and a “Hollywood fucked-up”, resentfully claiming that she only shaved her head because she was “hopped up on drugs” and certainly not because she was “bipolar”, a word the press liked to wield as an insult anyway. (“That's almost like calling someone a retard!” Yeah, heaven forbid.) The meanest, most distasteful paragraphs in the book. Basically everything problematic EA had ever said or written.📝 In retrospect, it had been a long time coming, but it was a lot to take in – and certainly more off-putting, even to less emotionally invested fans, than silly lies about her age and last name.
In another wing of Asylum Tumblr, some fans had had it up to here and just wanted to have fun. 🎵 If Plague Rats had learned one valuable lesson from EA, it was how to crack a joke in the face of absurd tragedy – and the general state of the EA fandom certainly warranted a few.
In 2012, Fight Like a Girl was released. After six long years, three of which had been peaceful, the Opheliac era was officially over. The new album and ensuing tour confirmed that the Asylum had entered a process of glamorous Broadway-style militarization. 🎵📺
The mood board was “Roman general meets Vegas showgirl meets Victorian street urchin”.🪞 The color palette was, to naysayers, “musty pink and rotten, stale piss yellow”. 🐀 The keyword was “REVENGE” (through the power of... self-expression! sorority! brutal assault with rusty medical implements!). The chorus of the title song had an intriguing run-on line about getting “revenge on the world, or at least 49% of the people in it” 🎵 – which seemed like an awful lot, and was widely interpreted (to cheers, boos, or uncomfortable sighs) as a misandrist jab at literally all men on Earth.
The show was essentially a demo version of the musical, in that the setlist vaguely reflected the order of events in the story – but prior reading was essential in order to get what the hell was going on on stage. This one Broadway reviewer had not perused the literature before seeing the show 🔍, and hated: the set, the choreography, the skits, the plot, the lyrics, the music, the concept. (Seriously, you should read the review. It's not even my show and I feel like quitting show business.)
Pre-show VIP encounters, now violin-free, were lorded over by EA's new manager🐀, whose official title was “Asylum Headmistress”. (Interesting choice – she sounds fun!) The swag bags were less substantial than before, and the “greet” part of the meet-and-greet was rarely more than a quick hug and photo op.
On Twitter, EA continued to embrace her “I am very badass” fronting attitude...

Often wonder if cyberbullies r aware they’re fucking w/ a girl who’s BFs w/ maker of the SAW films & is marrying a knife-throwing scorpion. (🐀📝)

...and her taste for needlessly inflammatory statements. About an aisle sign in a supermarket:

If this does not infuriate you, then you're a fucking potato.

(Again with the confounding crypto-ableism, EA! 🔍) She also went through a phase of raging against Lady Gaga 📝, who had stolen her idea of using a wheelchair on stage as an able-bodied woman. 🔍 That failed to convince anyone that she wasn't the histrionic diva that haters made her out to be.
Spurred on by EA's rallying cries and “us vs them” mentality, loyalists turned the white-knighting up to 11. On Twitter, some Plague Rats got into cat fights with Lady Gaga's Little Monsters (what a time to be alive). Others tried to balance out the Tumblr negativity with initiatives like “Spreading a Plague of Love” – a “positive-only” confession blog, whose extreme fangirling, comically drastic rules and hyper-defensive tone📝 did not debunk the increasingly popular notion that “true Plague Rats” were a bunch of authoritarian and hopelessly brainwashed fanatics.
EA truthers and other anti-fans started lashing out at anyone who dared express any positive opinion of EA, solidifying claims that the backlash against EA was just a conspiracy of bitter, hysterical bullies.
All this to say: every passing day brought new reasons for fans to get mad at EA and each other, and everyone in the Asylum was in need of a laugh. It's not easy having a good time.🦠
Leading up to Fight Like a Girl and in the years that followed, user-submission-based meme blogs took off, most notably “Spreading a Plague of Lulz / Troll Like a Girl”. A lot of the early submissions were absurdist humor and toothless, cheezburger-Impact memes (a style that was, oddly, already dated at the time). Those often originated in good fun, and from loyal fans, on the official forum. But there was also true snark, satirizing EA's questionable ethics, outrageous claims, and easily spoofed artistic gimmicks. A new slang of Asylumspeak emerged: Glittertits (slight NSFW), GAGA!!, EA Gusta and all its memeface variants, Get outta mah house!, Are You Suffering?, Fight Like A Goat, [Random celebrity] copied EA (a subgenre in its own right), ...
Most of the “trolling” was directed at unrepentant bootlickers and, to a lesser extent, red-in-the-face haters and creeps. Meme blogs would post joke comments under “serious” or gushing submissions on Wayward Victorian Confessions, and taunt loyalist accounts by tagging them in their posts. When a few people complained on WVC that almost all of the Bloody Crumpets to date had been thin white able-bodied women, and a few fans responded by sharing their dream-casts for a more diverse line-up, the blog was flooded for days with confessions that “X should be a Crumpet” (candidates included RuPaul, Mitt Romney, Nicki Minaj, EA's therapist, and the WVC admins). Farcical shenanigans like that.
Ah, but some people will always cross the line, won't they. EA threads popped up on merciless, bully-friendly snark platforms like Lolcow, Pretty Ugly Little Liar, and Encyclopedia Dramatica. Snarkers with a mean streak and obsessive haters mingled in some of the more aggressive, 4-chan-spirited retaliation against EA – which would be called “brigading” in modern parlance. This included flooding EA's Goodreads page with one-star reviews (see part 4), repeatedly editing her Wikipedia page to include her legal name and birth year, and ensuring that Googling said name would bring up current pictures of her.
All of this compounded agitation fragmented the once-united fandom beyond recognition.🦠 Through substantial disagreements among fans, personal bickerings, layers upon layers of inscrutable in-jokes, and cross-platform telephone games, the Asylum morphed into a booby-trapped Escher room.
Satire blogs were taken in earnest. Earnest fan blogs scanned as satire. Memes would get called out as abuse. Appreciation without attached criticism would get mocked as bootlicking. Obvious jokes made by EA would be taken at face value. One divisive confession could trigger days and days of debate, to the point that WVC eventually banned confessions in response to other confessions. New waves of infighting created a confusing web of rival sub-factions🐀, each accusing the others of being toxic, cliquish, and delusional.
The shared fantasy was broken, the collective vision had crumbled, no onez was speaking the same language anymore. Fans would jump down the throat of other fans who held almost identical views about EA, except for that one thing she said or did that one time. Everyone had differing thoughts on what should or shouldn't acceptable to discuss, question, excuse, make fun of.
War is hell.

SCORCHED EARTH SHENANIGANS: HONEY, I SHRUNK THE ASYLUM

Would you tear my castle down Stone by stone And let the wind run through my windows Till there was nothing left But a battered rose? (“Castle Down”, 2003🎵)

Haters vs sycophants is not really the kind of conflict where one side can come out on top (if you're participating, you've already lost). But in the long tug-of-war between “grassroots” and “EA-sponsored” fan spaces, the ultimate winner is obvious – in that the former is gasping in agony, a shriveled husk of its former glory, while the latter... is non-existent. This is due in no small part to EA's tendency, like the Czars of old, to settle conflicts by setting Moscow on fire.🔍)
That's not entirely fair: unlike EA, the czar only did it that once.
By early 2013, as EA was gearing up for her third Fight Like a Girl tour at the end of the year, the official forum was... not as lively as it once had been. Not just because of the stifling rules and disgruntlement towards EA, or because EA herself hadn't really posted anything on there in years; the Internet was also changing, and forums in general were fast becoming passé.
This made it difficult for EA to create a safe space where she could talk to fans, and fans could talk to and about her, in a way she deemed suitable (ie, a space she could gate-keep and regulate enough to keep it completely free from negative criticism). Social media was a minefield; she still posted regularly, but didn't interact very much. So EA and the Headmistress came up with a way to filter out the unbelievers: an official fan club📝, aptly called the “Asylum Army”, with a $100 entry price.
Joining the AA came with a dog tag, a sew-on patch, and a lifetime membership certificate signed by EA and – for some reason – the Headmistress. (Unlike EA's best friend and sound engineer back in the forum's heyday, I don't think fans ever really embraced the FLAG-era manager as part of the Asylum in-group. She came across more as a coordinator / businessperson / adult chaperone, at best.🐀) So, slightly better goodies than you'd get by joining the other AA 🔍 ... but not by much. The main appeal was that members would have access to exclusive content, special merch, giveaways, early bird tickets for future shows, and regular video chats with EA.
The concept itself drew a fair amount of criticism, as you can imagine. Between the name🐀, the price, and the inherent gatekeeping of a pay-to-join fanclub, many balked at the monetizing of a concept that had once (like, three years back) been significantly more DIY, grassroots, and inclusive. 📝🐀
Then again, many also longed for a positive, drama-free space where fans could just be fans. And while the creation of the AA was generally recognized as a quick cashgrab, a lot of people were surprisingly cool with it. EA was trying to finance her dream musical, after all – although a number of fans wished she had gone about raising funds in a less sketchy way.
So around 400 fans shelled out (which, according to the Headmistress📝, “basically cover[ed] the cost of running the fanclub itself – keeping the database up, website, etc.”). Enough for a close-knit, but sizable community. But already, there was a conflict of interest: a high fanclub entry fee essentially demands that you pledge loyalty to the artist over loyalty to your fellow fans, who wish to join but can't afford to. Sharing, caring, and ensuring no one felt left out were some of the more positive values cultivated in the fandom... but leaking exclusive content would surely piss off other paying members🐀, and make EA feel betrayed all over again. (And she had barely just started to mellow out on social media!)
...But then again, this is the internet. After the first month of secret AA drops (lyric sheets, some photoshoot outtakes – nothing too juicy, really), there were, yes, some leaks. EA was predictably miffed, and retaliated by... ghosting the fanclub for weeks at a time in its first few months of existence (great look!). She eventually found the “solution” to her problem, by providing something you couldn't right-click-save (and which had been part of the promised perks to begin with): live interaction.
Over webcam, she was her usual in-person bubbly, charming, funny self. Everyone seemingly had a good time during the fanclub video chat, and this gave people faith and hope.
There were a few more events, giveaways, etc. As promised, ahead of the fall 2013 tour (the last one to date, it would turn out), AA members got priority access to show tickets and VIP bundles. The latter were much pricier than before, and only included soundcheck, a photo-op, and three goodies: a tin of loose-leaf tea, a signed printer-paper setlist, and a small flag that said “F.L.A.G.”.🔍 Some stuff continued to leak – but, as some of the outlaws pointed out (scroll down to the Disqus comments), they were mostly relaying information that was relevant to the entire fanbase, such as updates about ongoing projects (the dragged-out recording of the audiobook, for one).
In early 2014, lifetime memberships were closed, and replaced with monthly, quarterly and yearly subscription tiers. Bizarrely, you ended up paying $3 more per month if you bought a $99 yearly subscription📝 – but it did include the patch, dog tag, and piece of paper!

Sometimes I kind of want to be part of the cool kids and register to the Asylum Army. Then I remember how it came about, what you could get for the same price a couple years ago, how the whole thing was and is handled, and that I won’t support any of this bullshit. (And then I roll around naked in all the money I’m saving.) (🐀)

Still, a number of fans rejoiced at the affordable monthly option, and joined – if not for the exclusive content and merch (which were... okay, but not much to write home about), then for the friendly, drama-free exchanges with an artist they actually did love, in spite of all the frustration.
For the still-too-poor or still-undecided, there was always the forum! It wasn't as active as it used to be, but a few die-hards still managed to keep the lights on... until, inevitably, Someone Did Something and Ruined Everything. (Once again: EA's wrath is spectacular, but rarely completely unprovoked.) The incident features one notable figure in the Asylum community. Let's call him the Collector.
OK, so maybe you remember the meme I linked to in Part 4, with Christian Grey and the ginormous EA hoard. Well, that's the Collector's collection. The “Violin” promo that I called the "Holy Grail of the fandom" in the same paragraph? Also his. The handwritten lyrics that went for $940? Guess who won that auction. Over the years, the Collector had probably spent five figures on EA merch and shows, and although that fact was a little unsettling, he was a very active, easy-going, and generally well-liked fixture of the fandom.
One day in 2012, shortly after the Headmistress had replaced EA's old Chicago BFF as main forum admin, the Collector's account got banned or restricted over something dumb. When the ban wasn't lifted as quickly as he hoped, he took it... the way one takes things when one is unhealthily invested: he started spamming Headmistress and the mod team with increasingly rambling and abusive emails (lost to time, probably for the best). When that didn't work quickly enough, he tried a different route.
One of the many auctions that the Collector had won, some years prior, was EA's old iPod Touch📝 – which contained all of her favorite tunes and, buried somewhere in the data cache... a phone number. Which the Collector tried calling. And wouldn't you know it: EA picked up. She congratulated him on his sleuthing skills, listened patiently as he made his case, apologized for any distress caused by the unfair account restriction, and then they got married.
Kidding! She freaked the fuck out, hung up, and banned him for life from the forum and all EA shows and events.
After his ban, the Collector allegedly still tried to attend at least one VIP pre-show (one source in the comments says he was allowed to buy some merch, refunded for his ticket, and escorted out). He joined the Reform forum to bitch about EA and try to rally people to his cause, possibly made revenge posts about her on darker snark forums, and continued to hound the Asylum mod team. So in June 2014, EA came up with a radical and unexpected fix to the Collector problem.

The official Asylum Fan Forum has been shut down permanently. I have personally paid thousands of dollars each year to keep the forum safe and secure for you ... Unfortunately, the forum has not been kept safe and secure for me, a truth which disappoints me greatly, instead becoming a place where people who have physically threatened myself and my staff prey upon forum members, pressuring them to contact me and my staff on their behalf. If the gullible wish to humor my stalkers (who live in their parent’s basement at age 30 something) and thus put me in danger, they may do it on their own dime. They may also fuck off, because stupidity can kill, and I won’t be your victim. To those who enjoyed the forum, you know who to thank for its closure. (“On the closing of the Asylum Forum”)

Voilà! This is how a decade-long archive of shared history ends: not with a bang, but with a dirty delete and a sod-off communiqué.
The obliteration of the forum took everyone by surprise...

I was actually on the forum when it was taken down. I was navigating between posts and when I went to click on a different board, an error message came up. I honestly cried a little, I'm not ashamed to say. (WVC admin on Reddit, 2024)

...and I do mean everyone:

Chicago BFF / ex-admin, the next morning: Whoa, EA forum shut down? Ex-mod: It turns out that if someone spends enough years actively “waging war” to destroy what they can’t have, eventually they’ll be successful. * eye roll * Not even mods got prior warning. Just all the sudden, poof, gone. BFF: Really? She did not let the moderators know?! This is sounding worse and worse. Uggh. I’m so sorry. Such a loss. (...) Ok, threats are serious, but why not just put it in archive mode so no one can post? (...) Sad. I shall light a candle in the forum's honor. (Facebook posts; scroll down for screenshots)

It was a gut punch, especially for people who had poured countless hours into the community, or could have used some prior warning to save years of their own writing from the role-playing threads. One last chance to take a look around the place that had meant so much to so many.

From the wording of the announcement of closing the forum and a number of other things, it sometimes seems like EA doesn't like her fans much. :/ (🐀)

Three months after the forum was nuked, Battered Rose (a venerable EA fansite, which had been around since the Enchant era and had one of the most complete EA galleries online) announced that it was shutting down too.📝 The admin, who had also been a long-time forum mod, cited a lack of “time, energy, passion, or money” to keep the website going... and being upset at the sudden disappearance of the forum. It was, truly, the end of an era for the Asylum.
...Well, no point in living in the past. For those who could afford it, and still wanted to talk to/about EA after that (not everyone did 🐀), there was always the Asylum Army fanclub!
Over the summer of 2014, EA held regular live chats and Q&A's, and... many attendees really enjoyed them, and thought the AA was well worth the money after all. She also quietly parted ways with the much poo-pooed Headmistress around that time.

Just spent over 4 hours giggling, drinking tea and playing guessing games in chat with EA and other Asylum Army members ... No griping, no downers, just lots of fun. I think I like the way the ‘new fandom’ is going and now I’m really glad I finally decided to join the Army. (September 4, 2014🐀; Battered Rose had closed the day before)

The forum was lost forever, but perhaps that was a chance for a fresh start. Could this fanclub thing really be the Asylum Renaissance that fans had been longing for?

...I have come today to a very difficult but necessary decision, and that is to discontinue the Emilie Autumn Official Fanclub. The site itself, and the community chatroom, will remain open to you indefinitely, but I will no longer be making updates to the site. (Newsletter, September 8, 2014📝)

...Never mind, then.
Turns out the fanclub had been the Headmistress' idea all along. EA had been reluctant from the start, and although she really enjoyed the live chats with a safe community of people “who are there for the right reasons”, she couldn't overcome her fundamental discomfort with the concept. Lifetime and regular members would receive a bunch of digital downloads and a -35% coupon on the Asylum Emporium for their troubles. EA said she would definitely pop back once in a while for live chats, for free, just for fun, but to my knowledge, she never did.
And so the most devoted fans were left standing in the rain...

She is happy, she made it. She is fulfilling her dreams, found love and happiness after all the pain. I understand that she now doesn’t need “us” anymore ... That doesn’t change the fact she broke my heart with taking the Asylum Army and the forum from me. Yet, I am happy for her. (🐀)

...while naysayers pointed and laughed, Nelson-style.🦠

I don’t feel sorry at all for the people that paid for the Asylum Army fan club. Most of them knew that EA is an atrocious business woman and has broken many promises before. In fact, I laugh at them. They seriously thought that EA would actually stay consistent with this? (🐀)

EVERYTHING MUST GO: THE ASYLUM WHOLESALE

EA fans were left without an “official” home for about three years. This gave them plenty of time to be annoyed at EA for: not releasing the audiobook on time, not materializing any new project for a while... and the new sin of peddling random, ridiculously marked-up AliBaba jewelry as “merch” on her official store. Think faux-antique cameo pendants and $30 Big Ben rings (...because the Asylum story is set in London, get it?).

The whole accessories section looks like a tacky overpriced English souvenir shop. (🐀)

The fanbase lost a lost of steam in those in-between years, because there wasn't much to stick around for. As evidenced by the positive reception of the AA live chats, even in the midst of unresolved drama, out-loud interactions in a friendly environment have always been EA's saving grace. Considering the amount of online hate, there are shockingly few accounts of bad IRL encounters with EA: most people say that in live conversation, she comes across as a fun, warm, and genuinely sweet person. Some report that their negative opinion shifted after meeting her.
But there were no chats or live shows anymore. There was only social media, where she ignored questions and vague-posted about overdue projects – and the newsletter📝, which was all saccharine love-bombing to promote bland dropshipped trinkets. For fans who remembered the handcrafted merch (and two-way communication) of the early years, it was a bitter pill to swallow.

CONTINUED IN COMMENTS

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So, backstory--I'm an old school HTML novice. Learned it back in the 90's. Did most of my own code and only really used CSS for light aesthetics (like changing the color of the scroll bar to match the site, etc). Recently, I've decided it's not worth keeping a personal website anymore, not with all the social media stuff out there and Yahoo has passed off its hosting service to another company and the prices have ballooned (I've had the account since it was Geocities--before Yahoo was a thing).
Anyway. I'm keeping the domain, because I like the email address but I want a nice splash page instead of the gross 'coming soon' crap the host puts up. I've whipped up something that I like--just a single large image (size-wise, it's only like 464kb). What I want is the image to sit on the page, centered vertically and horizontally in a letterbox type presentation (like the black bars at the top/bottom of your screen when watching original format movies).
Back in the day, I did this easily with frames. I used frames a lot for positioning (specifically centering). I know frames are basically fully depreciated and only supported for posterity at this point so I'd like to do this properly with CSS. Which is unfortunate because I never got too heavily into it beyond little stuff (mostly color).
I have the image where I want. I have it resizing with the browser window and remaining centered both vertically and horizontally. What I want is the letterbox effect when the image doesn't fill the screen. I know this can probably be done by making the background the letterbox color and using a div tag around the image and extend it to the width of the page so that it gives that visual effect but that is a little beyond me (honestly, I copy and pasted most of this and just tested it over and over). I feel like this should be really easy (and likely is), but it's been a minute since I did any coding.
Below is what I have already. Can someone help with this?

 tombstone splash page        

Note: Eventually I want to make a mobile-friendlier version of this. I'll probably end up asking about that too. Thanks in advance!
UPDATE: I got it working perfectly. Unfortunately, my host wants me to use premade crap for my 'free' site. I'll see if I can wrangle it, but all of this help has been appreciated. Thank you very much!