The Exorcist works for me even in spite of my atheism. Ignoring the actual exorcism in it, the film is about a mother whose daughter is unwell, whose condition is truly mysterious, cannot be cured by conventional means, and is destroying the lives of both the mother and the daughter. Knowing your child is ill and not knowing how or if they’ll be cured is a form of horror that resonates with many and I feel so strongly sympathetic for the characters in the film.

Bob Marley!

Sahara is ~9,200,000 km2

Antarctica is ~14,200,000 km2

Taste test.

Cause it’s cheaper.

wat

Thank you for your kind assurances and for “footing” for me, random stranger c:

At the moment, bugger all. Currently in therapy for my PTSD and apparently my chronic “life is infuriatingly boring and nothing is worth doing”-ness is not normal and a side effect of having dealt with as much trauma as I have. Dunno where to go from here, really.

I have an auditory processing disorder sooo all of them lol

Don’t forget Alligator Auschwitz! I hear they’re selling merch.

Human suffering is such a uselessly broad, wide sweeping range of things and happenings that you may as well have said “bad things.”

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The problem is that genAI isn’t good at creating new, distinct faces. It’s good at making approximations of faces based on heaps of visual information. It only makes sense that if you use the slop generator, you’re going to get a consistent, samey, lifeless pile of slop.

In essence, stop pulling the slop lever expecting a fine crafted turkey dinner. You’re not pulling the turkey dinner lever, you’re pulling the pink slime lever.

Oh hey, EA is taking an upcoming sequel, dumping a shit ton of money into it in short time, and trying to get it pushed out the doors with unrealistic sales goals?

I’m certain this has happened many other times but the first and only other example I know off the top of my head is Dead Space 3. “The last game barely sold like we wanted it to sell, so this time you’re going to almost double the previous sales target in less time.”

The Mojave. The desert is gorgeous, I long for getting away from the humidity, and I NEED a burger at Goodsprings.

No traces of modern civilization left after a couple hundred years? Are the mountains of plastic in the planets testicles going to degrade in less time than the USA has existed? What of the monolithic concrete structures, millions of metallic motor vehicles, the snaking networks of asphalt roads, and the mountains of explosive devices still left in the soil across many parts of the world? How about the radioactive materials that’s trapped in burial sites packed beneath structures of concrete and leaded shielding? (Materials with half-lives longer than humanity has existed) Are those going to be completely wiped from existence in the time it took us to go from making the first petrol engine to creating dial-up internet?

We’re STILL unearthing ruined cities, skeletons, and every day possessions from civilizations that existed for hundreds or thousands of years longer than the United States of America has existed for. Please link what sources made the claims you’re regurgitating.

Edit: Fun profile name, by the way.

Probably the collapse, at this rate.

Composer here, I could grab quite a lot! There are multiple shops in a 2.5 hour drive-radius from me that sell used instruments and audio equipment for dirt cheap. I bagged a $700 audio interface for $100 - just a single hunge! I could probably start an Elephant 6-grade recording setup with a thousand.

Nope. None of the jobs I’ve worked ever offered it, and I never had the budget for it. All my medical costs have been covered out of pocket.

When I broke and dislocated my arm a few years ago, four months’ worth of hospital visits drained my bank account, over $2,000 gone. It was also draining hundreds from my brother’s account, and then the week before Christmas I got hit with a bill for over three thousand dollars to cover the rest of the services rendered, due Christmas eve.

The services that were rendered included having my arm eyeballed by a doctor a few times, two xrays, and that’s it. Nothing for the pain (“Just mix ibuprofen and Tylenol”), nothing to rehabilitate the strength I lost in that arm, just some dick in a coat poking my arm and charging me hundreds for the opportunity.

Had I not gone to the hospital, I wouldn’t have been left penniless. Combine that with my severe anxiety disorder and now I feel fight-or-flight fear responses any time I have to spend more than $100 on something.

Oh yeah, then a few months after that a friend of mine elsewhere in the country fell ill. He didn’t think it was major enough to warrant hospital fees, especially since he was uninsured and made little money. About a week later his condition suddenly went critical, and the next evening his sister informed me that he was dead in the hospital. Leukemia. I’d still be talking to him if it weren’t for the American wealthcare system.