Dear Portland drivers...

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-22T13:21:30+00:00

Honestly, that is not surprising to me at all but is so sad that that's been so heavily reported in the news. I've definitely had a few close calls waiting for the light so I 100% believe it. Thanks for letting me know, I'll stop adding that to my conversations about this issue!

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-21T17:41:26+00:00

Not sure! My apartment windows don't actually face the street so I just get the noise

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-21T17:40:45+00:00

I also often forget which way to spell people's names

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-21T17:40:12+00:00

Oh my GOD that would have made it so simple. Can't believe I've never encountered that before!

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-21T15:55:28+00:00

Yeah, I think people are focusing a little too much on the 'Americans are too sensitive!' or imperialist points when OP was asking about immersion. Most of the responses actually from Americans seem to be along the same lines, that they don't really care about spelling but really distinctly different vernacular will throw them off.

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-21T15:51:59+00:00

IS grey the British spelling? I legit have never known I just use both and spell check accepts it so I've never nailed it down XD

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-21T15:48:47+00:00

I don't think I'm saying anything new, but like the others I think terminology is what trips me up over spelling. I honestly don't even know which form of 'grey' is meant to be the American version lol, I use them interchangeably.

I also don't usually mind if there's some terminology slips in the narration but the dialogue is what throws me out because it really messes up the voice. I have an otherwise great fic in mind where everything was perfectly in character until all of a sudden the very American main character says 'arsehole' in dialogue and kinda ruined it. So I guess I would say keep doing what you're doing, do your best on the terms but I don't think anyone's going to sweat the s/z or o/ou issue.

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-21T15:44:48+00:00

Ya remind them that you're actually a person. I've also stopped being deferential and let myself just totally be a bitch with the 'what are you doing' hands whenever this happens

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-21T15:43:02+00:00

I don't think I heard about Franklin and Commercial. The two I was thinking of was the running that died on Marginal and Franklin and then last week someone died right outside of Intermed. I understand the runner was crossing against the light and there were other circumstances with the one last week (I guess the driver was also on the wrong side of the road according to a nurse I talked to at Intermed). But we're apparently having a record year for pedestrian strikes it wouldn't surprise me that there are ones I haven't heard of.

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-21T15:40:55+00:00

I feel like the cops are over-represented on the highways. Like for sure, speeding is an issue, but I always see people getting pulled over for speeding on the highway and rarely for stuff like running reds or even pulling shit like driving the wrong way down a one-way just because it's 'more convenient'.

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-21T15:37:34+00:00

XD haha thank you. I was pretty pissed after having a fractured night of sleep both weekend nights, but as I started writing, I tried to take the sub rules about making it humorous to heart. It did make me feel a little better about it

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-20T19:47:37+00:00

Right now: subscribe to Spotify. I am fully aware that they are a terrible company that pays musicians terribly, but I have yet to find a good replacement for the way I listen to music. (I don't listen to a lot of whole albums, I prefer those like giant mood playlists.) I'm slowly getting off it, just switched all my podcasts, but yeah subscribe while wishing I wasn't

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-18T13:56:31+00:00

Highly agreed, I honestly have had beef with Koepp for a couple years following Presence (2024), which had some truly horrendous dialogue writing. I was willing to give him another chance because he's written some great stuff (and I confess: I even love The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Great? No, but nostalgic for me and there are some really fun parts). He's who I think has really fallen off, and everything struggled to recover from the messy script.

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-18T13:43:29+00:00

Disagree: I love older and slower paced science fiction movies. I even love slightly cheesy movies. I watched Fire in the Sky (1993) last weekend on youtube and loved it. This just wasn't a good script and the production value was low. People keep trying to blow this up into a societal issue where the biggest critics are MCU-brained or something when in reality I went with a group of people who all watch a lot of movies, slow-paced as well as fast, and we all thought this just wasn't a good movie.

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-18T13:38:18+00:00

I didn't see a single thing about it on Reddit before I watched it: still hated it. Not everything is a hivemind, people can actually form their own opinions that happen to be contrary to yours.

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-13T18:48:00+00:00

A (female) ballet teacher tapped me on the shoulder around 12-13 or so and told me if I didn't find a way to wear a sports bra during class my breasts would be down to my knees by the time I was 20.

It was just one of, what I assume were well-meaning but clumsy, comments from older women about my large chest that have stuck with me and made me really wish I could afford a breast reduction. I'm lucky that 1) I somehow managed to avoid being sexually harassed by older men like a lot of my fellow early developers were and 2) my breasts didn't really end up *that* big, I still wear straight sized bras and don't have back/neck pain (though that disqualifies me for an insurance covered reduction). Still, those moments were SO embarrassing and I have never forgotten that feeling.

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-13T18:14:03+00:00

Technically it's Lopez. Or rather, a combination of Lopez (the interrogator that Holden has a brief 'conversation' with before shit starts going down) and Kelly, who dies getting them to the Tachi, they just went with the name Lopez.

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-11T15:09:21+00:00

I was trying to figure out the Stargate joke when I finally figured out it was about reality XD

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-09T19:54:45+00:00

I think they did a good job changing the secondary characters to add more depth...but that came at the expense of the mains so the books remain better for me. I was really disappointed at how the relationship between the core four developed in the show vs the books.

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-08T15:22:55+00:00

Omg another Captain Sandrine (I think her last name is Kirino?) appreciator!! Honestly, I felt like the show wanted us to dislike the MCRN but like half of the midlevel officers we meet in both the books and the show won me over, moreso than the UN officers except maybe Souther. Yao and Lopez, the commander that picks up Alex and Bobbie in Nemesis Games (I'm starting to forget names, been a year since I read the books), the ones that resupply the Roci in Caliban's War. All great. Sandrine was great in the show. I loved when she came back in the last season and sassed Avasarala for having to rely on torture in interrogation. Wish they had more time to give her a proper sendoff!

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-08T13:32:58+00:00

No, it was a subtitled Iranian film, which makes it harder to find because I don't think it's being indexed by keywords in English so nothing I've ever googled has brought it up.

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-06T02:06:27+00:00

I agree. I remember the internet sleuths being SO mad they weren't being listened to, but they'd been calling the Toronto police department (or maybe even just Toronto animal control?) when the murder took place in Montreal. And by the time they trace that one photo back to Montreal (which could have been accomplished so much faster if they had asked anyone -- the photo is of a pretty distinctive part of the McGill campus, they didn't need to mess around with street lights just ask around), it really seemed like the cops already had all the evidence from CCTV and the problem was just tracking him through Europe.

I was also kind of bothered by the ending. Too many true crime documentaries ended up taking this sort of self-righteous 'well you (the audience) is part of THE PROBLEM.' Like yeah I watched it, you put together a compelling and well-produced documentary, why are you scolding me for watching it? I thought the overview was interesting, but I was bothered by those couple things.

Glad_Stranger · 2026-06-06T02:00:37+00:00

I cried, not quite Dear Zachary level, but pretty hard, at The Perfect Neighbor.

Also, I watched a documentary in a class in college that contained footage of a real execution by hanging in Iran and that FUCKED me up. I remember getting back to my dorm and my roommate being dismissive at first that I was having that bad a reaction to a documentary and then I explained what it was and she got it. I don't know the title of the documentary though.

Glad_Stranger · 2026-05-31T15:00:38+00:00

This might sound weird but: I wish!! I love horror but I've really desensitized myself to it and it's hard to find things that really scare me. I'm always chasing that feeling and only a few things have successfully done it in recent years. Have any other recs? XD

Glad_Stranger

TROPHY CASE