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eightpix

@ eightpix @lemmy.world

Posts
3
Comments
153
Joined
3 yr. ago

Been a student. Been a clerk. Been a salesperson. Been a manager. Been a teacher. Been an expatriate. Am a husband, father, and chronicle.

  • What X-mas themed things do people who hate X‐mas like?

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  • No, I was checking whether you thought it was the ✝️-ians who were annoyed. Like, who the "their" was in your question:

    Do you feel like that lessens [✝️-ians] annoyance about it? (I assume the ✝️-ians are annoyed be virtually everything non-traditional at this point)

    Or

    Do you feel like that lessens [the Greeks] annoyance about it? (I didn't know the Greeks would be annoyed about it. But, hey, you live you learn.)

    Or

    Do you feel like that lessens [the English] annoyance about it? (I assume the English would be annoyed because of the aforementioned laziness in spelling)

  • What X-mas themed things do people who hate X‐mas like?

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  • Hating on 1950s X-mas carols.

  • What X-mas themed things do people who hate X‐mas like?

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  • What X-mas themed things do people who hate X‐mas like?

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  • Who, the X-ians?

  • What X-mas themed things do people who hate X‐mas like?

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  • Ill find it and have a listen.

  • What X-mas themed things do people who hate X‐mas like?

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  • Ill check it out.

  • What 'bad' movie could you fix with a simple casting change?

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  • Remove Joel Silver from the production team of the Matrix: Reloaded and Revolutions. Creative control to the Wachowskis.

    Allow the countercultural, noir elements that made the first Matrix excellent. Police and innocent bystanders are potential if not actual enemies. Fewer set-piece fights; more skillful, thoughtful moments like the fight against Seraph.

    And, certainly, a different end-fight arc. Once Smith has the Oracle's power, a slugfest stops making sense.

  • Offensive terms in Spanish

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  • What brought you to Lemmy?

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  • It was Boost for Reddit for me. Note: I hate the ads in Boost for Lemmy, but I still havent jumped ship or started to pay for ad-free. When I go on contract at work (I hope) it'll be more possible.

    e: wait, it's $5, one time? Ok, I'm killing the ads now.

    I want to support the platforms that look at people for their interactions, not their marketability. APIs were going to be dead at Reddit and I wasn't willing to stand over the body with a knife in hand.

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

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  • Fiction

    • Ursula K. LeGuin
    • Octavia Butler
    • Margaret Atwood
    • Tui T. Sutherland (J Fic)
    • Suzanne Collins (YA)
    • Lois Lowry (YA)

    Non-Fiction

    • Naomi Klein
    • Margaret Atwood (Massey Lecture)
    • Angela Y. Davis
    • Tanya Talaga
    • bell hooks
    • Robin Wall Kimmerer

  • What old movies hold up because of a lack of special effects or because clever use of effects?

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  • Off the top of my head:

    • Pan's Labyrinth (CGI augments excellent practical effects)
    • Ghostbusters (1984)
    • The Cell (CGI augments excellent set and costume design).
    • The Abyss (1989)
    • Interstellar (had to check if this was CGI).

    With research: Speed and The Edge of Tomorrow are fun. Also, I am annoyed at myself that I forgot Aronofsky's the Fountain — a beautiful, painful film.

    Practical scenes with mentioning:

    • That one scene in Chinatown, "they lose their noses!"
    • That one scene in Boogie Nights, "I'm a big bright shining star."
    • That last arrow in Throne of Blood

  • What old movies hold up because of a lack of special effects or because clever use of effects?

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  • Two out of these three are movies I keep coming back to.

    Welp, guess I can't avoid the Thing for much longer. Unless, of course, I can.

    I'm not much for horror. But, it's also sci-fi. I'm torn.

    On a scale of 0 to Event Horizon and Alien (1979), I assume the Thing is beyond even these.

  • Is the US currently in a recession or entering one?

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  • Makes you wonder whether the calculations serve anyone other than the top 0.1%.

    Their portfolios bring up the average for the US because some swinging dicks decided that a (temporarily) decisive strategic advantage in faster calculators makes the graph look "good."

    Meanwhile, people are hungry, getting furloughed, evicted, bombed, arrested, bound, gagged, and shot in America. Democratic institutions, the fundamental raison d'être for the American experiment, are undermined, bulldozed, disregarded, or blown up.

    That's fine, they say. That's who and what they VOTED for. That's the mandate, they say.

    Horseshit, I say.

  • If the meaning of life had a color(s), what would it be?

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  • Psilocybin sparkle.

  • If the meaning of life had a color(s), what would it be?

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  • Now I'm confused. I thought it was 50% grey. Wikipedia has a lot more middle greys.

  • What show did you come to understand as a profound extended meditation on suffering and loss?

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  • Another easy answer would be Six Feet Under. This show has the most beautiful finale.

  • This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow, 9/15/25; 'The Week That Was'

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  • Joseph Gedeon at the Guardian reports that Matthew Dowd was fired from MSNBC for stating:

    “Hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions, ... You can’t stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and then not expect awful actions to take place.”

    Richard Luscombe at the Guardian reports:

    Among those to have been fired, suspended or censured in recent days for their opinions include teachers, firefighters, journalists, politicians, a Secret Service employee, a junior strategist at Nasdaq and a worker for a prominent NFL team.

  • What are some horror movies that don't make any sense outside of a narrowly specific cultural context?

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  • Whoa, no way. THAT'S why he's the Count? I thought it was a royalty/ bloodline thing.

    In general, vampires existed to me as a commentary on colonialism, class, and the advantages to longevity. Vampires as "blood suckers of the poor", to quote Popa Wu, who was quoting Louis Farrakhan.

    I didn't know the 'stop and count objects' element.

    Question, though, as I think this through: would that not extend as an antisemitic trope?

    (A half hour of reading later.)

    TIL there is an antisemitic history to vampires.

    "As rendered by Bram Stoker, the literary depiction of Count Dracula is deeply antisemitic, with roots in the long-standing blood libel against Jews and the antisemitic archetype of the wealth-hoarding degenerate." [2]

    "Today, the vampire remains one of cinema’s most popular horror villains, and the connections to prejudice are largely forgotten, or erased. They still lurk around the edges of the genre though, as generations of creators have either furtively invited them in or tried to put a stake through their heart." [1]

    "The symbolic link between Jews and blood through a history of blood libel and the depiction of Jews as alien and parasitic are seen the main themes that allowed the merging of the two image." [3]

    [1] Bloodsuckers: Vampires, Antisemitism And Nosferatu At 100

    [2] The Antisemitic History of Vampires

    [3] How Vampires Became Jewish

    [4] Blood Libel: The Anti-Semitic Roots of Vampirism

  • Favorite Movie With Practical Effects?

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  • As you can see, I almost left him out. I don't think of him as an actor. More, a plug-and-play action man for Christopher MacQuarrie screenplays.

  • Favorite Movie With Practical Effects?

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  • Since 2001: Space Odyessy is above...

    Im tempted to go with some Jackie Chan (?!) or Jet Li (Hero) or Tony Jaa (Ong Bak) or Donnie Yen (Ip Man) film — the one that's closest to my heart is Wo Hu Cang Long (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).

    Do not watch the trailer. It's garbage. The film is beautiful.

    There are a few outstanding moments in film as well that are practical effects that just force my memory:

    As mentioned: 2001, and the Fall.

    The last arrow in Throne of Blood. Several scenes in The Cell (dir: Tarsem, who also did the Fall) I'll also highlight Hero.

    e: And all the crazy shit Tom Cruise does in Mission: Impossible. Those are some fun movies.