@xwingedpoe / xwingedpoe.tumblr.com
For anyone without easy access to a local library,
I am not an ebook reader myself, but LibGen and the Gutenberg Project are sites I've heard good things about. The others look enticing.
Some of the sites mentioned here are nonprofits that predate z-library, so they actually benefit from notoriety and attention. If you want to enjoy free literature and support authors, these are actually BETTER alternatives to z-library.
we are all just so normal about him
people seriously pretending EEAAO is overrated suddenly bc it swept awards? it swept awards largely because it is very very very good. I cried like someone who's just had a religious revelation BOTH times I watched it bc it touched something raw and real and beautiful but it was also just very, very funny. everyone's performance kills and the concept is creative and interesting and doesn't distract from the emotional core. you guys are just contrarian.
oh my god I just saw like 20 people solemnly agreeing that it "looked nice but was written for children" because it. because it. has. immature jokes about hot dog fingers and butt plugs and because the ultimate message is "be kind".
written for children
as if it isn't extremely written for adults dealing with adult problems that are keeping them from finding space in their life for joy and whimsy and silliness.
it is about a woman doing her taxes!!!!! it's about being weighed down by age and responsibility and the sense of the turns you missed in your life and being so exhausted from Being A Grown-up that you burn all the most important relationships in your life!!! it's about being a mother and a wife and a businesswoman and a human person!!!!! it's about trying and failing to hold it together in the face of your own well worn traumas and cycles of abuse for decades! it's incredibly specific to an adult audience!
the message of the film isn't even "be kind" as much as it's "be silly. fuck around. laugh it off. find joy in being ridiculous. fuck cynicism."
like I just. the amount of contrarianism you have to be huffing to fuck up your sense of media literacy this bad. there is a lot of childish humour and absurdity and silliness in the film because the thesis statement of the film is that silliness is profound and important. the message isn't "be kind" it's "find joy." literally it's so on the nose the character Evelyn is reaching for is Literally Called Joy.
like how do you watch a film where the triumph over nothingness is symbolised by sticking googly eyes on everything and think "oh, the reason this film is full of absurdities that seem immature is clearly an unconscious failure of the film to be mature or deep" rather than "oh the way this film is constructed is Specifically About This Explicit Theme that the whole film has been repeatedly reifying, that both stoic responsibility and chaotic nihilism are paths to self destruction and the real hard important work is allowing yourself to be earnestly naive, vulnerable and silly."
I do not understand. how multiple people seem to have decided the theme of the film was "be kind to one another" and not "engage authentically with the absurdity and joy of the world because nothing matters except what you make matter!!!!" Simone de Beauvoir did not die for this!!!!!!! kill both the sensible man and the nihilist and revel in the absurd!!!!!!!!!!
Poe Dameron, Leia's most daring pilot.
#for science
PEDRO PASCAL MET GALA 2023 | via Pierpaolo Piccioli
whenever i see another tiktok girlie talking about how she wishes to have been a fangirl in 2010s i feel like a seasoned veteran overhearing a foolish youngin boasting about wanting to go to war for glory and adventure. you naive little idiot. you know nothing. you understand nothing. you weren't there in the trenches. i have seen things, terrible things. i cannot plug in my phone charger at night without being plagued by the visions of Him
star wars, but it’s just the memes
MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU
PEDRO PASCAL ━ The 2023 Met Gala Celebrating “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line Of Beauty” (May 01, 2023)
PEDRO PASCAL Met Gala 2023, Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
Pedro Pascal as SILVIA Strange Way of Life (2023) dir. Pedro Almodóvar
The way he gets so mad when he says “she was a whore” is gonna feed me for the rest of my life
Pedro Pascal in Merge Mansion Mobile Game Event (March 2023)
HAPPY DEATH DAY (2017) HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U (2019)
Aight y'all. Here's a lesson I learned from my wife, and I wish I'd learned it years ago:
Before you buy anything, take 5 minutes to search (preferably with a non-Google search engine like DuckDuckGo) "best [whatever] for [specific purpose if necessary]."
Make sure you look at who the reviews are from; there are a lot of bad spam sites out there, but you can find good lists on reputable sites. However, you'll get some of the best lists on Reddit.
Most of what you'll find at the top of the lists on Amazon (and Walmart) are people who have paid for that spot. You'll still have to use discernment to make sure you're picking a good review site, but I'm not kidding when i say that the last time we had to buy a plunger, I ended up on a thread on a plumber's forum where they were discussing which plunger they keep in their own bathroom. (The overwhelming winner was something called a Toilet Saber, and... it's much easier to use than the usual style of plunger, actually.)
She searches "best potato peeler" and "best pastry blender" and "best standing desk" and it seems so obvious, right, but she does it for literally everything and the average quality of things I own has gone way, way up since I started taking 5 minutes to search "best yoga socks" and "best cuticle trimmers" and then going to buy whatever it is.
Her research skills go into overdrive when it comes to big purchases; she's the one who researched our sublimation printer and found the desk I currently use. If there's an extremely passionate subreddit out there about the thing she wants to buy, she'll find it and then read half a dozen reviews.
I cannot stress enough how much she does this. About. Everything. And how much everything we own is better as a result.
It's amazing, honestly.
Seriously tho, reddit used to be hyperfocused small communities of ppl devoted to Specific Things. The answers you get about products on reddit threads from more than ~3 years ago are very, very genuine. They may be out of date, as product quality tends to drop when high prestige can make up for it, but it’s an absolutely lovely starting point
Additionally: Check to see if Wirecutter has anything.
Wirecutter is an offshoot of the New York Times that is dedicated solely to reviewing products. Meaning you can know for certain they are 100% not a spoof review site designed to make someone's product look good, or a shady "pay for good reviews" outlet.
They have full time staff whose job is to test out products and tell you what the best options are.
They also usually have a couple different categories in their reviews and will tell you what the best "budget" option is, too, if the one they recommend is too expensive for you. For an example, this review of noise cancelling headphones gives you their top picks for headphones and ear buds, and then their top budget pick for both categories, too. Or this review of steam irons gives you their top pick, runner up, and a more expensive upgrade option.
They also update their recommendations, or go back and re-review and then tell you that they still stand by something, like in this dishwasher review. And they usually give you the Amazon price right in the article.
It's an incredibly useful tool, especially if there isn't a reddit community associated with whatever you want.
(Also their review staff are unionized with the same union I am, and they're cool people.)
JENNA ORTEGA as WEDNESDAY ADDAMS Wednesday: Season One (2022)
The internet is carried on the backs of sub-10k subscriber tech support youtube channels that have the most specific ass solutions to the most specific ass system errors, tech stuff is the one thing I recommend not Googling and instead slamming in a Youtube search.
All the top hit pages in Google for tech support and how to fix this or that are “10 Ways to Fix Error!” and then they go on a soliloquy about what Windows is to fill word quota. We KNOW what Windows is. We make fun of online recipes where the author tells you about how much those mashed potatoes were a beloved family tradition dating back to 1937 when the author and her sister would play in the woods and get bitten by ticks and get Lyme Disease and then after a lot of playing, they’d come back home and eat the most generic ass recipes, yeah, we do that, but we oughta start doing that with tech “support” pages too like god damn, “10 Ways to Fix Error!” except the first 3 “ways” are “Reboot your computer <3″, “make sure you updated your PC <3<3″ and last but not least, the world champion heavyweight nothingburger, “open the Command Prompt as administrator and run sfc/scannow </3″ LOCUSTS UPON YOU, MAN, if I can’t fix the problem, and it is a problem, no fucking way Microsoft software is gonna do jack fucking shit.
The “way” number 4 is, you know it, the sponsored product of the day. Install Krunklo Driver Manager! The best Driver Manager software out there! Here’s a trial version that has fuck all and the paid version is 39.99 each second.
Way number 5 through 10 are various things like exsanguination, putting mercury in your bloodstream, a jar of snake oil, or leaving aromatic substances near your vagina so your hysteric uterus comes back betwixt your loins.
So you just wasted an hour or two on the equivalent of vigorously dancing around the flames the rid yourself of the malaise, and all your god said was “well it’s just 39.99!”, FUCK that, you go to Youtube, copypaste slam whatever the error was in the search bar, and there’ll be one specific ass person out there in the world that solved this and made a video on how to solve it, just for you. The video will be from 2019, and you didn’t even know computers existed back then, but they DID, and this FUCKER OF MOTHERS, may they fornicate many parental figures of their preferred disposition, made this video for YOU. There is meaning in you perusing that video.
It’s 1:14 minutes long and immediately eradicates the problem decisively. You are now oathbound to take a bullet for this beloved stranger, your computer is back in action, and you are not 39.99 poorer. Krunklo Driver Manager will not have its day.
aka possessions which are just possessions, but which have noticeably improved my quality of life: for when people ask you “what do you want for your birthday/Christmas/graduation” and you instantly transform into St Francis and pledge fealty to Lady Poverty because your mind went blank
A few more things!
Good luggage. Whether it’s a suitcase or a duffel bag or even just packing cubes, it’s all helpful!
Good art. If it’s someone you trust, you can ask them to surprise you with a piece they like, otherwise you can have a few back up suggestions of ideas (I saw a framed piece of just the hands from Michaelangelo’s The Creation of Man and have not forgot about it since)
Good good pillows or fluffy blankets to go along with those nice new sheets from above
Office supplies. Pens, markers, sharpies. All the sharpies.
Coffee travel mugs (can one have too many?). If they say they still want more ideas, also ask for a bag of their favorite beans/tea
Look around your house, what do you have that is still from college? Ask for a better one of those.
And for the future planning, especially if you’re me and forget things: make a document of “things I’d like but don’t want to buy for myself frivolously” and then select items from that for a wishlist.
