I don't live an interesting life, which means I get bored easily. If I hear a knock on the door and see through the window that it's a solicitor, it's a perfect opportunity to fuck with people for the sake of my own personal amusement. If it's a door to door salesman, I'll immediately start preaching the words of Jesus Christ followed by saying something insane. If it's a religious group trying to convert me, I'll say some of the most antagonistic things I can think of in the moment.

I started the East of Eden series recently, which tries to stay faithful to the source material (at least the first episode). The whole time, I was thinking “Just read the book! It’s this, but better!” On the other end of the spectrum is the recent Wuthering Heights, a beloved book where “creative liberties” were taken in the adaptation, which was universally panned.

There really is no right way to adapt a good book in a satisfying way. You inevitably lose what made it a good book in the first place. Even a quality adaptation will just be a pale copy of the book itself.

On the other hand, there have been movie adaptations that exceeded the book. In my opinion, Fight Club and The Shining have adaptations that improve on the source material and create iconic movies. Why? Because they’re mediocre books.

Mediocre often explore interesting ideas with lackluster execution. Adaptation gives a new life to these ideas from someone with a fresh perspective.

I can afford any kind of toilet paper I want and I would still buy cheap Scotts single ply toilet paper over any ultra soft one. First of all, I can use so much of the stuff, totally protect my hand in it, and still hardly make a dent in the roll. The rolls last forever. I also like to wet the paper before I wipe and it holds up way better to that than the soft ones do, which like totally disintegrate in your hand when you do that and increases the danger level of the wipe. It also leaves behind way less stragglies than the soft TP does. On top of all that it's not a pain trying to flush them if you end up using too much. They flush down every time even if you fill the bowl with the stuff.

HOW does this get hyped as one of the GOATs of all anime?! I don't understand!

It's a good show and well-done battle shounen, but that's all it is. I would've hated anime if this was representative of all anime. People are free to like it because art is subjective, but I hate that it always gets named as the perfect starter anime when it fucking SUCKS as a starter anime.

It's great as a starter anime if you know the audience member likes action and battle shounen. Otherwise, it's so mid.

FMAB is an anime that plays it safe and pulls its punches at all costs. The start of the original 2003 series, at least the start, does a far better job at connecting you to the characters and focusing on their psyches and the philosophical and psychological ramifications of the dark themes the story explores. It's not as manga-accurate as FMAB, but it does so much of a better job of making your care about the characters.

FMAB, like I said, is a well-done battle shounen, but that's what it specializes in. It's all about the action and the optimism and the power of brotherhood and friendship. It doesn't care to dive deep into the dark subject matter it explores. War, genocide, human rights violations, etc. are all major themes and concepts in the series, but FMAB loves to wrap things up nicely with a bow and cut to the action and then the comedy.

I vastly respect anime and all works of fiction that incorporate a vast range of genres and emotions. I like when things oscillate between light and dark. Sometimes a story calls for fucked up and depressing, other times it calls for fun and light-hearted. I like when a work can do both. FMAB is not one of those works. The show and manga (FMAB is more accurate to the manga than the original 2003 manga interpretation, which deviates in plot) largely wants to keep an optimistic, happy-go-lucky fun action story going. That's great, except you can't possibly tackle the dark subjects like genocide and do it justice while forcing everything to remain light-hearted. It just does a disservice to the work and all the ideas!

Take the very infamous Shou Tucker arc. Shou and his daughter Nina only are featured in a single, rushed episode in FMAB, but in FMA, they're featured in 2 and integrated into the main story before their arc is concluded. In FMA, you're given the time to bond with them and care about them, especially Nina, as Ed takes the exam, before all hell breaks loose. FMAB rushes through this then forgets about it, then gets praised for being so deep and impactful when it skips over all the good storytelling and psychological depth in favor of forgettable boring shounen action.

People are free to like FMAB, as all art is subjective. It just kind of annoys me that this basic battle shounen gets exalted as one of the anime greats and "gateway anime" when it's so far from that. There are so so so many more impactful, deeper anime, and also so many more entertaining, happy fun anime. FMAB is in a sour spot and bored the hell out of me. It was one of the first anime I ever watched and it was so forgettable, yet it's constantly being recommended to those interested in anime. If it was the first anime I watched and advertised as representative of the medium, I would've thought the medium was shallow and only cared about action. The contrast is even starker considering that its 2003 precessor was infinitely more interesting!

EDIT: Sorry that was a drunk rant^ lol but I do largely mean it

Sure, stuff is great for variety and no wonder kings fought for that, but plain food also tastes good and a lot of the time I prefer that. A plate of plain boiled macaroni or just white rice with unseasoned chicken also tastes really well.

Of course there are dishes where condiments are an important ingredient (like baking, i'm pretty sure salt and sugar do material engineering there), but I'm not referring to those.

I usually don't like it when TV series or movies show right before the climax first, then give you a "six months earlier", and the rest of the story is catching back up to the moment we saw in the beginning.

^{Random examples, i know:}

White lotus notably does this, at least in season 2.

the Mr bean short film "Man vs. Bee" does this.

Assassins creed 1 started it's story in modern times, you were Desmond and went into the past/ history for segments of the story, but returned to the present.

Second last or last episode of Lanterns season 1 did the same thing, this one expanded on recaps we'd already kind of seen. Like, get back to the present, I don't care.

I don't have any problems with stories written so a narrator is telling the story, and no problem with in-medias-res writing, starting in the middle of the action. this is often very engaging. but if there is a "2 weeks earlier" intertitle, I can get very impatient. often, I just want to get back to the "present" in the story, as it's what I was invested in. I particularly don't like it when we get back to the present, and the story ends. it's like we finally get to the real story, and it's over, wtf.

I get slightly annoyed when I'm looking through people's stories and see someone celebrating the birthday of a member of their family. Except the member of this family cannot fathom or understand social media, nor do I imagine they would care about it.

I can't imagine your pet or baby or infant would understand why you are posting them or sharing it online. And I don't think that your senior grandma would care if you wished her a happy birthday on social media.

None of them can see it on that platform. What's the point? I also think posting anyone (excluding pets) without their consent on your story is weird, even if it's for a birthday. I don't think we should be posting pictures of babies or seniors on the internet in general.

Grilled cheese and tomato soup is a terrible combination. It doesn't go well together, and canned tomato soup is terrible.

I love grilled cheese. If I have fresh tomato, I'll put a slice on before closing the sandwich (I cook both sides at once, then put them together) grilled cheese goes well dipped in a good marinara (think the good semi-chunky stuff that you get with mozzarella sticks) tomato soup? Hard pass.

I wasn’t allowed to shop there for both money and sexual advertisement reasons, and the smell and dark environment made it feel cool and forbidden yet aspirational. I loved that going in there was a whole experience that smacked you in the face, lol. I still associate that smell with “2000s unattainable cool girl” vibes…

I am dumb. Extremely dumb. My parents are dumb too and horrible academically so naturally I am extremely dumb. But my parent have this insane delusion that I am really smart (I’m not). I fully admit I am dumb and while it is hard to be dumb I’m not ashamed to say this anymore and I refuse to let anyone convince me otherwise.

My entire high school, they kept telling me I was so smart despite there was so much evidence to the contrary. I hated school. The classes that everyone said were easy As gave me nightmares and I stayed up late doing work for them. I studied hard but I couldn’t grasp the concepts because I am mentally challenged. No amount of studying will make general chemistry or the most basic biology or 10th grade maths possible for me, let alone AP classes. I was failing multiple classes.

The entire time, my parents kept saying I was so smart and blamed me for just not trying harder (I was trying extremely hard with tutors and studying but I was exhausted). Whether I tried a lot or didn’t, the result was the same. I got horrible grades. They thought I was lazy and just didn’t apply myself which caused a lot of arguments. But I did try but it doesn’t mattter, because at the end of the day, studying won’t make me do much better. I tried literally everything. My teachers lied straight to my face, telling me that I am smart. And I believed those lies, so I tried to challenge myself in difficult classes. Well, that was a fucking fail.

I felt a lot of pressure to be smart because it’s seen as a desirable thing and well, people kept lying to my face saying I am smart so I felt that I needed to prove it. Those people lied straight to my face and I resent them for making me think I am smart.

After having awful grades for 3 years straight, a friend told me the truth: that I am mentally challenged and I need to be strategic. I saw the light. I am dumb, and very much so. So I started taking some super easy classes. I chose classes based on the teachers, the ones that give out As to everyone. I had an excellent academic performance in my senior year, not because I am smart, but because I just chose the right teachers who threw me a bone. I didn’t try harder or change how I studied. In fact, choosing these teachers was even less work and made my life so much easier. I didn’t do the readings or the homework but still got As. In college, I used ratemyprofessor to see which professors gave out free As. I had excellent grades because I chose an easy major and literally all of my profs were the nice ones who gave out free As.

To the outside eye, it looks like I started applying myself and taking advantage of my intelligence. The truth is, I have very little intelligence. I thank my friend so much for making me realize how utterly mentally challenged I am and it has made my life so much easier. When I was under the impression that I am smart, I was constantly failing and wondering why and trying harder and having meltdowns. Until I realized that I am truly dumb, and that doing well in those harder classes isn’t possible for someone like me. The only As I could get are the ones that are handed to me.

And no, this isn’t imposter syndrome. I’m telling you exactly how I got my As: they were free. I didn’t work for them. I’m not some secretly smart person feeling dumb. It’s easy to diagnose me with imposter syndrome because of my good grades now, but the truth is that all those As did not require any intelligence or effort.

In the end, I’ve realized that I am truly and utterly dumb, and this has epiphany has changed my life for the better. I will never let anybody convince me that I am smart again, because that mistake has given me endless meltdowns and sent me into so many spirals.

As a guy who has ever since birth, tried cereal hot, let me tell you, soggy cereal can be banging if the milk is hot. Putting some sauces like honey or some sweet sauce on it is great.

And plus it goes down pretty easily, and it's nice if you don't like chewing that much and just want to slurp it.

Try it sometime. I'd think you would enjoy it.

…pledged to criminalize automated phone trees and outsourced phone services. And I think that said politician’d win in a landslide! Left, right, confused, everyone hates spending 1 to 5 minutes navigating a phone tree, inputting their account info into the automated part of the system, repeating the exact same info for the human that finally answers, and then trying to have a conversation with said human despite wildly differing native languages and foreign accents.

Customers who like automotion can use company websites to do their business, customers who like talking or who have oddball questions that websites cant answer deserve the basic courtesy of actually helpful customer service.

We need to make Wednesday part of the weekend. Hear me out.

The current workweek is actually cooked. You wake up on Monday and realize you have FIVE whole days of work or school ahead of you.

Monday sucks because it's the first day, but you're refreshed and kind of productive because you had the chance to rest on weekend. Tuesday is usually peak productivity but from there it goes down. By Wednesday, your soul has already left your body and you're mentally checked out. Thursday is Friday loading screen, no one cares what happens on Thursday, you just want it to be Friday. And Friday is what keeps half of the workforce alive.

Then you finally reach Saturday, and what happens? You spend the first day recovering from the week, and the second day stressing about Monday. Like, I just got here 😭

Two days off is a scam. Day one is for recovering. Day two is for dreading your next shift. By the time you actually feel human again, it's time to clock back in. We're basically running on a 50% weekend efficiency rate.

So here's my proposal: Weekend Wednesday.

You work Monday and Tuesday, take Wednesday off, then work Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Sunday is your second day off. That's the whole revolution.

Instead of grinding through five consecutive days like an NPC, you get a break every two or three days. Monday doesn't feel nearly as depressing when you know you're only two days away from a day off. And when Wednesday's over, you've only got two more days weekend. It's so much more manageable mentally.

And honestly, I think the productivity argument makes sense, too. People aren't machines. Going nonstop doesn't magically make you more productive; sometimes you're just sitting there staring at a screen with approximately three brain cells fighting for their lives. Taking a proper break halfway through the week could help you come back more focused, less burnt out, and actually capable of getting stuff done.

The days off hit different, too. Wednesday becomes a proper reset instead of something you have to wait five days for, and enjoy places that are packed when everyone else is off. Meanwhile, Sunday becomes an actual day of rest instead of the final countdown before Monday.

Obviously, this won't work for every job, and coordinating schedules would be a whole thing. But if you're self-employed, work remotely with flexible hours, or you're a student who can arrange their timetable, why not try it?

I'm not saying Weekend Wednesday will solve every problem with modern work culture. But maybe the five-day grind followed by two days of recovery isn't the genius system we've convinced ourselves it is.

Normalize the midweek reset

Of course there are some People in the community that are not good people. But not Everyone is like that. Just because some People in a community are bad doesn't mean all of Them are bad and it certainly doesn't mean most of Them are bad. and it's not the community's fault that fan made brainrot content for the show exists.

Yes, even with friends and in stadiums in person. It is so goddamn monotonous and dull. It’s the same thing happening over and over again. How tf do people become invested in a team? Even if it’s your city or your country. I have never actively rooted for my own country whenever they play the Olympics online because I do not care. How tf do you become a fan of a team? I’ve tried and failed. It is so dull.

It's the end of the week and I'm beat. Oh but I have stuff to do? Nah fuck that: I might laze about, recuperate, and get back to it on Sunday, readying myself for the week ahead. Having had a long week, why would I want to be busy another consecutive day?

Maybe twenty or thirty years ago, this wouldn't be so doable, but the marvel of 21st century capitalism allows me to be as lazy as I want on Saturdays and then still be able to do errands on Sundays as most shops are open.

There's some films that I go to just to enjoy. Obviously, as film is an art, any movies that are actively trying to say something should prioritize finding good actors, but that's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about "fun movies" like action films. I was doing a run through of the Predator movies and I came upon Prey and realized why I didn't like it as much as I should. The lead is not attractive. I know that's super shallow, but it's an action film. It's meant to be escapist junk food media. I go to have fun, and it's more fun when everyone's, like, hot.

I feel like people saying that they're happy that someone not "conventionally attractive" was cast are just grandstanding. Like, come on, was a huge part of the original's selling point not seeing hot muscly dudes covered in sweat? In this same way, shouldn't Prey have had an attractive woman lead?

I know this is the epitome of a reddit opinion, but I'm just being honest about what entertains me which most of you seem to be unable to do

What I mean by disadvantaged, I refer to those with a disability, those with bad childhoods such as family-related abuse, those who are looked after children, etc.

You may think this is something helpful and beneficial, ostensibly, but in reality, it is otherwise.

There is this popular phrase that which teachers often tell them, often so that the kid just relaxes and does not panic. While panicking and stress are nowhere better, telling someone to just try their best reduces their motivation. For example, an A-level student may have ambitions to be a journalist, a social worker, a doctor, a lawyer, accountant, blah blah blah. For these roles, you must have take in much more merit, effort and hard work, if you do not achieve those grades, you will not be at an advantage, these roles are vital and need the perfect one. If you just tell them to just try their best, this is useless advice; not supporting those who actually want achieve such efforts. Not just grades, any classes, or roles, etc.

Those who are disadvantaged they are just told that because of stereotypes assuming that they cannot do this. Consequently, creates a literal self-fulfilling prophecy indirectly as they are told that they are not viable individuals. Prominent people also faced the same thing. Kemi Badenoch when she did her A-levels in Maths, Chemistry and Biology, her teachers undermined her efforts, giving her low expectations and demanding her to just be a nurse (a lower-average middle class role). Sajid Javid was blocked from doing GCSE Maths and he can just be a TV Repairman at his old school because of his living and family conditions.

I am doing A-Levels in Politics, Business and Sociology. My Sociology teacher was telling me to just "try my best" in the mocks, but in reality, there is a culture in colleges in the UK in which students who need genuine help get expelled instead of support because they want more reputation competition - this is not to say that this is better, but the culture of low expectations from teachers gives little to no motivation, and makes students intentionally lazy. I am from an average middle class background and I should not be spoken like that simply because I am not an upper middle class person. Not to mention in my Sociology class, my teacher is too relaxed about students.

This is not just in education. Also in extra curriculars, workplace, sport, creativity, etc.

Of course, the other side in which teachers being overly disrespectful and too sharp are nowhere better as they also label certain students as dumb and stupid while not being supportive of some students, but this is just the corresponding side of the same coin. Neither are helpful.

Hard work is the way to achieve success. But of course there are issues like unsanctioned cronyism and nepotism (initially class based but now community based as a result of too much in-depth multiculturalism), but nevertheless, having soft expectations do not improve any effort. If someone is of a disadvantaged background, they need sufficient support and advocacy to ensure they achieve those high expectations to escape and to succeed.

In conclusion, just telling someone to simply try their best is not supportive for struggling people. It backfires. Tell them to stay out of their comfort zone.

To be very clear, this does NOT excuse those men who are married/in hetero relationships to willfully follow women who are primarily lustful influencers, lust workers or engage in trades, businesses or domains of lust like p0rn, on-demand lust services, lustful modelling, and so on.

Women (regardless of adult age groups) who are artists, musicians, singers, comedians, actors, non-lustful models, athletes, sports persons, journalists, doctors, psychologists, scientists, technologists, corporate workers, normal content creators who talk about various things like media, movies, series, TV, games, tech, social trends, commentaries, clothing, fashion, philosophy, etc, are dominating various online platforms.

There's absolutely nothing wrong if men mostly follow such women's profiles, pages, etc WITHOUT liking their lustful contents (if at all sometimes they post them out of their own will), WITHOUT DMing them like creeps, without objectifying them, and so on. Many such men also "relate naturally more" to female content creators, female voices, female artistic expressions, female opinions, etc, and are respectful enough to NOT like their "sometimes" posted revealing/semi-lustful contents (if they may happen), and ignore/scroll past to their other relevant contents.

That's pretty much it. Bobbing for apples is gross. Everybody's face and mouth goes in the water. I could never. I saw this ad for this girl doing waterproof makeup because she was gonna go bobbing for apples and I just think about all the hair and eyelashes and food bits and saliva in the water. It makes me physically sick to think about.

TLDR : Reddit's annoyingly strict rules, pedantic users, and pissy mods are exactly what keep it from turning into the unmoderated wild west of instagram or the endless slop fest that is YouTube.

I know Reddit mods have a reputation for being power tripping losers, and a lot of that criticism is deserved. But I think Reddit being so anal about rules is one of the biggest reasons it’s still a decent platform.

Look at Instagram. The comment sections are basically the wild west. Every post is filled with the same recycled jokes, engagement bait, bots, and people saying the most outrageous shit just to get attention.

YouTube isn’t much better. Finding useful content feels like digging through mountains of AI slop, clickbait, sponsored garbage, and 20 minute videos that could’ve been a paragraph.

Meanwhile, on Reddit, if you post something irrelevant, lazy, or repetitive in a well moderated subreddit, there’s a decent chance it’ll get removed. If you ask a question that’s been answered a thousand times, someone will tell you to use the search bar. If you make a claim without backing it up, someone will probably demand a source.

I like that different subreddits have their own little cultures and standards. I like that a niche community about some obscure hobby can have people who are genuinely knowledgeable and passionate about it, rather than an algorithm feeding everyone the same lowest common denominator content.

Of course, Reddit has its own problems. Mods can be insufferable, communities can become echo chambers, and some rules are downright ridiculous. But I’d much rather deal with an annoying moderator removing my post for violating Rule 7 than scroll through another platform where absolutely anything goes and the loudest, dumbest content gets rewarded.

Yknow that one meme about how good it feels to be vindicated when someone you hate “for no reason” is exposed as a piece of shit? I’m the opposite, I loathe that completely.

Ignoring the obvious feeling of “I am not happy when someone causes grief and suffering and my first reaction is not to be smug about it”, it’s just not as fun to hate someone for legitimate reasons sometimes? If I started out hating someone for petty reasons, I want to stay hating them for petty reasons- having them be legitimately terrible takes all the fun out of it completely. It’s boring, and it makes me feel like a total dork who wants to be a good person more than I actually am one.

A big theme of being in my mid 20s was listening to how annoyed my friends were with their parents pressuring them into getting married and having kids. All my friends would talk about how the worst part of going home was listening to their parents guilt them about not having a family yet.

IMO, that is a necessary part of parenting. You should be encouraging your kids to settle down and reproduce when the time is right. In fact, you’re really the only people in their lives that can do it. It’s your job. Furthering the human race and your genetic line is generally a good thing, it’s what we’re biologically programmed to want. Parents should encourage that in their kids when they can.

The unfortunate reality is that having a family is time sensitive. You only have a short window to make it happen. You can live to be 100, but you really only have about 15 years to make it happen. For women there’s a hard cap when it’s just not safe or impossible to have kids, and for men the older you get, the less likely it is you’ll find a woman willing to have kids and settle down with you. Your parents should be there to create a sense of urgency, and make sure you know that you need to at least be thinking about it.

And I of course don’t mean putting back breaking pressure on your kids, or constantly reminding them or telling them they’re a disappointment if they don’t have a family. I just mean occasional, gentle reminders. Making sure it’s at least on their mind. Because I also had friends that never thought about a family at all, their parents never talked to them about it, and then they turned 32 and started panicking.

And I definitely don’t think every single parent should do this. Some people just aren’t fit to have kids for all kinds of reasons. I only mean the parents of kids who could reasonably be expected to have a family.