#oh technology

[scribefindegil]

Trying to make tables of NPC names in Obsidian so I can randomly generate characters on the fly. Something about one of the tables glitched. Crashed the program due to accidental creation of approximately 26,000 elves.

[yossariandawn]

Reposted my Meredith + Cherry color theme set because I messed up the coding the first time around, and in trying to fix it made it worse somehow. All fixed now! And special shoutout to @astarkey for teaching me how to do the color gradient caption, thank you again! 🥰

[shanlonwrites]

I wrote like 2000 words about my memories of card catalogues, and using Google to search for recipes, but things got a bit long and self-indulgent. In the end, I think my point is that the internet used to be very good for browsing, but that has disappeared.

There was a time when you could find new things on the internet, and explore new ideas very easily. But since we've moved away from listservs and rely heavily on search engines, unless you know exactly what you're looking for already, you won't be able to browse much. The results are clogged with SEO-optimized farmed content with little to no value (and which is reposted word-for-word across 100 different websites, all of which are competing to be higher in the results, ending up populating the first several pages of results with the same low-quality article), listicles so bogged down with ads they drag your internet speed to a snail's pace, or a slew of pins on Pinterest, some of which are interesting, but most with broken links making them dead ends.

It's interesting to see how browsing is starting to move back towards physical media. Libraries and book stores are so much better for this than the internet. Shameless cash-grabs are rendering it pointless. Or at least, less useful than going to the library.

Anyway, listicles suck and farmed content is a blight and I need to stop by my library's cookbook section soon because I can't handle another "grandma's best mashed potatoes recipe #194 (the secret is just butter)".

And yes, YouTube is good for new recipes, but God damn it I don't want to watch a 15 minute video when all I need is a written recipe.

[ckerouac]

Fic: Operation Secret Santa

Klaine Advent Day 23: Year

Also on AO3

Chapter 23

His middle school gym teacher would be surprised and impressed at the number of elbows thrown and the breaking through of a defensive line as he shoved his way through the crowd at the bar.  If he’d known that all athleticism was was pushing horny drunks out of the way in order to run after a cute guy from work, he would’ve gotten a varsity letter.  Look Dad, I’m a jock!

Kurt emerged onto the sidewalk and immediately wished he had his coat.  The cold December air was biting right through his sweater, but there wasn’t any time to waste.  He had to talk to Blaine, to apologize, to tell him that he was wrong and made too many assumptions.  

He had to make sure it wasn’t too late.

Blaine hadn’t gone far.  Kurt found him on a bench outside the park across the street, keeping warm from his anger and the seventeen layers he had wrapped around him.  At this point Kurt would kill for that scarf again, but that would be the definition of presumptuous.  

“Hey,” Kurt said.  “I… saw you in the back of the bar.”

Blaine turned his head to glance at Kurt.  The irritation was still plain on his face but his cheeks were becoming rosier by the minute due to the cold.  It was hard to look irritated with rosy cheeks and those lush eyelashes.  How had Kurt never noticed his eyelashes before?  “I’m surprised,” Blaine said.  “You seemed preoccupied with a lap full of Sexy Santa.”  

Ugh, Blaine sounded bitter.  “I’m sorry,” Kurt said.  “I shouldn’t have said those things at the office.  It wasn’t fair of me to unload all of my single frustration on you in that moment.  Plus… I realize that I was incredibly off-base.”

“Yeah, what boyfriend?” Blaine asked.  “You know I’m not seeing anyone.”

Kurt wrapped his arms around himself both to ward off the cold and to hide whatever small part of his shame that he could.  “See, here’s the thing… I thought Cooper was your boyfriend.”

“Cooper?” Blaine exclaimed.  “You thought I was dating my brother?”

“I didn’t know he was your brother!” Kurt insisted.  “I just thought he was your incredibly attractive boyfriend on your desk and in my head every time you wanted to spend time with someone special you were smugly alluding to the fact that you were gonna get… romantically intimate with him…”

Blaine’s expression was somewhere halfway between disgust and horror.  “How could you think he was my boyfriend?  We talked about it that night…”

“The night you took me home?”

“Yeah.”

Kurt groaned and covered his mouth with his hand.  God, this was the last thing he wanted to admit.  “So, here’s the thing.  I might… not… remember anything after I had my last drink in the bar.”

Blaine’s eyebrows lifted at that.  “You don’t remember telling me about the magic of Christmas and my sweaters in the line?”

“No.”

“Or asking me to spin around because you wanted to look at my ass?”

“No.”

“Or about how my brother, Cooper, stripped on the side?”

“Is that why you told me you’d give me the number of a pole dancing instructor?”

“And you don’t remember me telling you how much it sucked that every guy I’ve been interested in tells me how unbelievably hot my brother is compared to me?”

Kurt’s expression moved into the signature look of pain mixed with regret he was perfecting this holiday season.  “Oh, balls, did you really tell me that?  And I’m sitting here telling you about wanting to get felt up by Sexy Santa?  I’m sorry Blaine, I didn’t realize.”

“So why didn’t you say anything?” Blaine asked.  “Why didn’t you just say you didn’t remember that night when we were talking later?  I mean, I just thought you’d forgotten about shopping for Rachel’s gift.  I didn’t know I was basically talking into a void.”

“Do you know how embarrassing it is to have to admit that you don’t remember anything about your work crush taking you home, especially when he sounds so happy that you both got to talk?” Kurt insisted.  “I… didn’t want you to think I was a drunk.  Or sloppy.  Or… anything.  I wanted you to think I was great.”

That made Blaine smile.  “Kurt… you’re amazing.  That night just made me realize it, and man it sucks that you don’t remember it.  You told me I was cuter than my brother.”

“Well, you are cuter than your brother,” Kurt said.

“And after that I just wanted to get to know you more.  But we just had to be careful about it at work.”

Ah, yes, work.  Work, where they weren’t allowed to date.  Was it presumptuous to start looking for a new job?  Would that make him pathetic to do that for a man he hadn’t even kissed yet?  Was anyone hiring around the holidays?  “Yeah, I know… I know that we can’t be together because of the policies…”

“But I got moved to management on four.”

Kurt shrugged.  “But I’m not allowed to date management.”

Blaine smiled that bright, beaming smile again.  “Kurt… you can’t date management or other members on your team.  Why do you think I pushed hard to get this transfer?  I was due to be reviewed in a year, but I convinced them to do it now.  We’re on different teams now.  We’re good.”

“We’re good?”

“You really should read the employee handbook more closely,” Blaine laughed.  

They were good.  Everything was in the clear.  He started to laugh, but it came out as his teeth chattering instead.  

“Oh, you must be freezing,” Blaine said.  He unwrapped his scarf and draped his around Kurt’s shoulders.  “Don’t worry about returning this quickly.  Some big hearted Secret Santa got me a spare.

“Let me guess, I told you I was your Secret Santa when I was drunk.”

“But you made me promise not to tell myself your secret.”

“God, I’m an idiot.  I’m also going to lean hard into Dry January,” Kurt declared.  Blaine just laughed, and Kurt was sure that was the best sound he’d heard all season.  “So, different teams.”

“Different teams.”

He reached out to grab Blaine’s hand.  “No boyfriend.”

“No, no boyfriend.”

Blaine’s face was beautiful under the light of the street lamp.  So open, so hopeful.  Why had he ever considered that someone like this would lead him on?  Blaine’s face couldn’t hide a lie if he tried.  Everything he was thinking, right there out in the open.  So if he was reading him right…

Kurt forced himself to stop thinking as he leaned forward, closing the distance between them, and kissed him.  Candy canes and joy, that’s what Blaine tasted like, he decided.  Candy canes and joy and reindeer sweaters and spare scarves and the biting December air.  Blaine’s other hand was up on his cheek and Kurt found himself unsure of what felt better, soft lips or strong hands.  

They didn’t break until Kurt felt something icy on his other cheek.  He pulled back to find fat snowflakes falling and catching in Blaine’s dark hair and impossibly long lashes, making him shine even more in the moonlight.  “How did you figure out that he wasn’t my boyfriend?” Blaine asked as he caught his breath.

“Cooper told me, while he was dancing up on me.”

Blaine laughed again.  “Yeah… that sounds like Cooper.  Nothing he loves better than a good matchmaking.”

Kurt glanced up, watching the snow fall harder around them.  “You know, Mercedes was insistant that there was Christmas magic.  I just didn’t think that magic would be Santa Claus as performed by your stripteasing brother.”

“I guess magic shows up when you least expect it,” Blaine replied.  “Hey, are you doing anything right now?”

“Did you have something different in mind?”

“Kurt Hummel, could I take you out to dinner?” Blaine asked. He stood up from the bench and offered Kurt his arm..  “On a real, honest to god, no ambiguity date.”

Kurt didn’t hesitate to stand up and link his arm in Blaine’s.  “I think that sounds like the best Christmas gift of all.”

[armeleia]

I love that my phone no longer autocorrects "moosecular." It just underlines it in red in an angry, resigned sort of way.

[hidemywaifu]

The new way

QUILTBAG, to describe individuals who are queer/questioning, undecided, intersex, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, asexual, or gay.

[sass-o-matic]

Having a slowly dying phone is great for people with executive dysfunction (me, I’m people) - can’t stay on the app too long, it’ll crash! Can’t stay up late, your battery is dying!

[ghostlight-goat]

my fiancée is locked in a psychological war with the litter robot, and I’m just sitting here watching Pokémon videos and cheering her on