good to know, I realize now it's been quite a few years since I've used it and I didn't know that

The best way to see them all for free is annualcreditreport.com. It's jointly operated by Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion to comply with some federal law that says they each have to give you a free report every year. You only get one of each annually, so if you want to keep tabs on your credit more frequently you can get one now from Experian, wait four months, get one from Equifax, wait four months, get one from TransUnion and repeat.

To be clear, this is the app you'd use on a macbook or imac or whatever they call their desktop computers these days. It's not the app for iphone or ipad

To me, Biden seemed certain to lose, while with Kamala it could go either way. In no way is she a worse candidate than Biden. I think we should all be deeply invested in Kamala winning the election. Not because I want to see Trump lose, though I do. Not because I want to see Kamala win, which I don't really. What I want, what I think we all want, is to see Hillary Clinton looking on as another woman becomes the first woman president. Not just that, I want to see Kamala win easily, just to make it clear to Hillary that she, personally, was the problem in 2016. No one thinks Kamala is an impressive candidate, so if her mediocre ass beats Trump with a comfortable margin, it'll more or less settle the argument as to who was responsible for Trump's victory.

To be clear, I haven't lost sight of the fact that a Harris presidency would basically just be the Biden presidency with more awkward laughter. We're not going to get a good president this time around, or maybe ever. I'm aware that I'm doing something similar to the republican rank-and-file who know their candidates won't do anything to help them, but will at least make the people they don't like suffer. We should all be protesting, agitating, and organizing for something better, but with the understanding that organizing is almost certainly not getting us a better candidate this cycle, let's try and find joy where we can. In this case, in schadenfreude.

and here I was thinking the joke was to give them literal maids or maidens or something

he apparently posted this from the hospital after a seizure, according to his wife

https://x.com/ambercrollo/status/1812866538397139334

sorry for the twitter link i don't know how to use the alternatives

I think demon-possession stuff can be scary, or at least upsetting. Not so much when horror comes from a possessed person like in The Exorcist, but more like when demons are toying with the minds of mortals, making them unable to trust their own senses. There's a pretty-good movie no one saw called The Dark and the Wicked (not the greatest title imo) that does this pretty well. Is this person you just met real or was it actually the demon? Was it really them when you first met, and the demon the second time you met? Was it them or was it the demon when you spoke to them on the phone? Or did the demon make you think you were speaking to that person while you were actually speaking to someone else entirely? Were the words coming out of your mouth the same words you heard yourself say? Were you even speaking to anyone at all? It works because the horror comes less from a spooky monster who will kill you, and more from an inability to distinguish reality from illusion.

In a similar vein, one thing I liked about Hereditary was how the demonic forces were establishing "rules" for the protagonist just to fuck with her. I love the bit when she tries to burn the journal and is set on fire herself. So later on when she tries to get her husband to burn the journal, expecting to burn to death along with it, you're like "it's going to turn out that whoever burns the journal also burns, so the husband is going to die." But when he won't do it she throws the journal in the fire in frustration and the husband goes up in flames anyway. There are no rules to this. There were never any rules. The demon was just playing with its food.

So yeah, it's my opinion that if satanic stuff can tap into fears about losing control and losing your mind, it can be pretty scary.

I mean, he's right. We just let them do it. If he'd like us to take matters into our own hands I'm sure we can oblige.

I love that I put on a white noise video to help me sleep and now my feed is 80% white noise videos

I got to do this once. I look like the type a prosecutor would probably want on a jury and I wasn't individually asked any questions before being chosen. The case was a non-violent drug offense and it was a wild experience for reasons I won't get into. Once we got in the jury room it pretty much went like:

"Not guilty."

"Why not guilty? It's a pretty clear cut case."

"I don't believe the cops."

"Why don't you believe the cops?"

"I didn't find their testimony credible. It didn't convince me beyond a reasonable doubt."

"What about the body cam footage? Do you believe that?"

"I didn't find it convincing."

"The whole thing is on camera, do you think they faked it all?"

"I suppose that's a possibility. I just haven't seen enough evidence to convict."

"What more evidence could you need?"

"More than this. I'm not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt."

And around and around we went like that. I was the lone holdout. I have to say, the other jurors were pretty cool about it. Eventually we had to tell the judge we couldn't reach a verdict on any of the charges and it was declared a mistrial. Totally worth it.

I want to work at the government Office of Whaddya-Need? where people come because they need help training their dog, or they need help moving across the country, or they need a leaking roof patched up, or they need someone to pick their kid up from soccer practice on Friday evenings, or they want to become a librarian and need career guidance, or they have limited mobility and just want someone to take them over to the lake and sit and chat. I want to be the person who helps to figure out how to get them the thing they need. For free of course, because it's a communist utopia.

As someone who has never cared about Batman or any other superhero but enjoyed all the Arkham games, I think it's worth it for the Gotham-at-Christmas atmosphere. I often replay it around Christmastime

People should write their info on paper more often. Meet someone on the train, have nice conversation, "this is my stop, here's my number/insta/tiktok/whateverthekidsusethesedays, hmu if you'd like to continue this over drinks" and leave it at that. It'll be clear you've asked them out, but they don't have to decide in the moment, they don't have to reject you to your face, and they don't have to give you any personal info. You leave them in a position where they only need to take action if they're interested in talking to you again, and they don't have to expend any additional energy on you if they're not interested.

never thought there would be video of this omg thank you so much

Make other characters look straight to the camera and say "wow Witt is so witty, and smart and cunning"

barely related, but my favorite moment from Wonder Woman 1984 is when Diana Wonder Woman and Kristen Wiig Cat Lady go out for drinks and get to know each other. The scene begins with Diana Wonder Woman laughing at something we the audience didn't get to hear, says to Cat Lady, "you're so funny 😂," and the scene moves on. Like, you've got talented comedienne Kristen Wiig in your movie and you're establishing her character, and the writer (writers? I'm not looking it up) couldn't come up with a single funny thing for her to say? The entire movie is inept on every possible level but for some reason, that moment of ineptitude is the one that lodged itself in my brain.

If someone asks for help and you're in a position to help, you help them.

It's especially weird that companies are still like this after seeing the success of a game like Baldurs Gate 3. The runaway hit of the year, and biggest earner on Steam, doesn't even implement the basic Steam DRM. I tried it. The game launches and runs just fine when Steam isn't running at all. It's so messed up how capitalism leads to that (providing good products at fair prices and respecting your audience) being seen as an "unsustainable business model."

Cole Escola was also in Search Party. He was The Twink who kidnaps Dory in whichever season it was where she got kidnapped. Who wants to talk about what an extremely fun and deeply flawed show Search Party is?

Half-Life: Alyx is the game that shows us just how incredible vr can be. And it's the game that ruins you for all other vr games because nothing else is anywhere near as good.