The amazing animation of px-3 (the TH editor mascot) that you see above was commissioned from my friend Swissy for a big milestone: As of yesterday, the Toyhouse live code editor I made has hit 1 million pageviews!

As a thank you, I bring you......more bugs. Nah jk but this update adds a lot of really ambitious, kinda experimental changes. This includes a WYSIWYG feature (!), finally fixing the importer so it can see past warnings + using my bot account to see guest blocked characters, and migrating storage to Indexed DB, after reports that local storage was chucking out people's work.

This version has been pretty intensively beta-tested, but there's still a chance it will break for you. If it does, please post a bug report or comment below! I would like to keep this working for as many people as possible. You can also use an older version if this one is breaking.

You know, back when I started the code editor, I had no idea anyone outside of myself (and a couple of friends) would use it. So colour me surprised at the response it's gottne. Seeing people talk about how it has made their coding experience easier, including fellow coders (which blows my mind), has been one of the most fulfilling things I've experienced. I don't think I realised how many people were using it until I saw memes about the code editor going down when my website migrated and I forgot to point Cloudlflare to the new address.

It's become a collaborative project (parts of it were contributed by Venfaaniik and alyeong) and the people kind enough to join my beta tester pinglist have been a huge help to making it what it is today: Endercoil, uniuniverse, Waltz, Yuzuriha, lonelymutt, R-A-Z-I-E-L, dogstarlite, Highlanderro, KizunaYui, purrdri, CCynical, Fainthed, misquery-monarch, saku_sthetic and DreamingMage18! To all of you, everyone who's helped by writing an informative bug report, or given a suggestion that got implemented, THANK YOU.

While you're here, you might be interested to help me test out some of my other recent projects - a Toyhouse HTML download & backup tool and an Art Fight image gallery download& backup tool. If anything's not working for you, don't hesitate to message me!

Version 1.11 beta: Check it out here (this version gives you a fresh local storage)

This is a weird update. I've migrated the editor's code storage to indexed databases. For most users, this version's behaviour will not be noticeably different...but for a small number, this update could majorly malfunction. (Detailed explanation below.) I just want to make sure that as few people as possible are experiencing the latter, by tightening up error handling before I push this to the live version. The main things needing testing are:

• Whether the code editor even loads.
• Whether you get any browser popups asking you for permission to store data locally.
• Autosave behaviour: that your work is autosaving and being restored properly between sessions.
• Loading and saving local files.
• The backup/restore feature.

Detailed explanation.

I received multiple bug reports from (understandably) frustrated users whose code had completely disappeared from the editor except for the last line. I also witnessed this bug myself, but it was impossible to reproduce reliably, so while I had a hunch that it was because browsers were evicting the saved data from the localStorage, I couldn't test any solutions.

Anyway, today I figured it might just make practical sense to migrate local save data to an indexed database anyway. Unlike localStorage, IDBs have a much higher size quota, and that limit can be removed by the user. It just seems like a much more robust solution than localStorage, which was never designed to save huge chunks of data.

The big problem (or so I understand) is that some users might actually have IDB access disallowed by default, so I really want to test that the new version 1. actually works for most, and 2. is not too disruptive.

It was a pretty involved migration, and I had to restructure a lot of stuff under the hood...all for what should be an invisible end result. If I did everything correctly, your browser should automatically migrate your local storage to an indexed database, and you'll see nothing other than a console message that reads, "Upgraded database to version 1."

If you do notice anything weird happening, like...the code editor not loading at all...that's a thing that could happen too. Do let me know if this is the case for you.

TODO:

• WYSIWYG toggle: Add clearer/more intuitive instructions. Maybe turn off WYSIWYG when you click the text field?
  
• Lorem Ipsum: Add variants, maybe make a better generator.
  

I just came up with CODE HEX two days ago, and I am genuinely having so much fun with it. I have always loved stories about crime and subterfuge and this is the culmination of that. (That, and my fascination with standard HTML colour names.)

I appreciate that I can have loads of characters with mismatched aesthetics. Most of the time, I require my characters to have looks & outfits that make sense in the universe because I'm such a stickler for internal consistency. So a project where wearing costumes is the whole point...I have been liberated...

Also! I have fixed their profiles, which were previously unreadable for some because I forgot that Toyhouse has different colour themes. I often do...(this is part of the reason I made the code editor in the first place 😭)

So, a little poll about that. Which loops back to HTML colours, funnily enough. What theme do you use?

It's way easier for me to do beta announcements as regular bulletins instead of World bulletins, so I'm gonna do that instead. Plus it lets more people know about them. As always, you can comment below to be added or removed from the beta pinglist!

Version 1.10.3: Check it out here (gives you a fresh local storage to play with, so it won't impact your existing projects)

What's new:

• This update focuses on the code import feature! Specifically, I had a brainwave and finally fixed it. It can now accept & bypass profile warnings to see the code underneath. So now, as long as the character is public, it should be importable.
• As before, you need to add something like (the important part is the "allow-thcj-import") to the relevant profile in order to import it (this is a measure to prevent theft of original code). 
• I also added the ability to mark all public character profiles on your account as importable - by adding   to your user profile.
• On top of bug reports on this freshly-updated code import feature, I would love feedback on the response speed, and whether you like the new stuff I added! The global import feature has slowed it down considerably, so it's a bit of a tradeoff.

On that note, I'd love some beta testers on my brand new (and very WIP) mass profile HTML downloader too! It's a response to a recent slew of site bugs + inspired by erayalkis' TH gallery downloader. The main thing it doesn't do right now is CSS download, but if there's enough interest in that, I can add it.

(I actually figured out how to bypass profile warnings for this project and then imported the findings to the code editor.)

Participating in art events is giving me ideas for character designs I'd probably never use in my projects, so you know what that means...these might become available to offer on at some point. Inspired by the churchyard grim (left) and huli jing (right)

You know that feeling when you hear a great song and you can't stop picturing a video of your OCs to go with it? That's how this began. Everybody Wants It is my #1 falling-in-love anthem and I can't help associating it with these two...specifically, I picture it as the "how Jinai sees Anqien" song.

Hope you enjoy watching this as much as I enjoyed making it!

Song: Zee Machine & Kelechi - Everybody Wants It (it's excellent btw, check it out)

Hello hello. The academic year sure hits without warning. Studies/research work are in full swing, and I'm back on the university tutoring grind.

I also just netted my third academic publication (my second as first author)! Considering that the pain and struggle of getting papers accepted is such a big meme among academics, the fact I haven't had any rejections yet is making me feel like I'm on an unbelievable lucky streak (or maybe, my writing is actually...not bad?). I might be attending another conference - this one in New Zealand - and I'm waiting on the verdict on another paper I submitted before deciding for sure (hmm, maybe this will be my first rejection).

But in all honesty, I kinda can't believe I'm succeeding at this academia thing. I'm just doing what I always do, in all my other pursuits. And somehow, it works.

That said, you know what this means...free time is getting harder to come by. I've been working on art/music commissions Very Slowly, at a rate of ~1 per month, which is why they're still closed. My "hobby" creative work has also kinda slowed; unfortunately it's been taken over by tutoring and marking assignments, which is a weekly commitment at minimum (and hoooo boy I could tell you all about the nonsense we've had to deal with in class this semester, but it'll take a couple hours).

What else? Oh yeah, I made the cover for Land of Fans and Music 5 Act 2, 6th edition of the biggest Homestuck fan music compilation series:

ALSO...I had some art of my Offshore faves (again) on Rose Magazine, an OC fashion zine, which you can grab for $5+! The full version will be posted on October 15. The outfits are inspired by Jupiter and Neptune, but also takes motifs from their respective cultures' traditional wear...

Anyway this was your monthly update from your resident ocean lover and whale appreciator. Stay hydrated ✌️

You know...that feeling when you can't stop getting cool profile theme ideas, but don't have enough characters to slap them onto, so you just keep making F2U themes for other people to use...

Tell me it's not just me 🥲

My most recent concept is a theme that has like...a big banner at the top where you can showcase cool art pieces around the character's icon so it makes a big statement right off the bat. But. I still have that Windows 95 theme on the backburner so I think that one will come first.

By the way, have you seen Lavender, the profile theme I posted a couple of days ago? I made it for the Coder's Quarters challenge and I'm super super proud of it.

By the way part 2, my flat-price code customs are still open and I'm tempted to make them perma-open. I always have energy for HTML/CSS stuff...I should update my links lol.

I've been working on a Laravel 10 rebuild of my website for the past (checks watch) 4 days. The whole thing's built from the ground up including the blog + project publication system. It's finally at a stage where I think it can be shared, mainly because I'm too excited to keep it under wraps, and want to know what people think. A lot of pages aren't done yet; those will redirect to my original site (circlejourney.net).

I'm super happy for you to go in and give the accounts/blog a spin, or even try to break it (I have been trying myself) - it'll help me catch bugs. I'll probably delete posts that are offensive/harmful/hurtful, if any, and no guarantees that they'll stay in the final version. Post like it's a guestbook idm! This thing is my pride and joy and I'm thrilled at the possibilities and also happy for the stress test.