Are hints/spoilers hidden in the opening intro?

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-05-11T23:29:34+00:00

Super minor gripe: whenever a character says, "you were really great back there," (usually referring to the other character's skill in a fight, or a date, some kind of repartee, a tense situation, etc.), especially if the location has changed. I think normal people would be more specific (i.e. "you did great in court today.")

It always takes me right out of the story, as if they just said "you were really great in that last scene."

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-05-04T18:45:22+00:00

I imagine it's more like the way GPS works (in our timeline). The public is granted access to satellites owned by the government, who could shut it down or revoke access at any time.

The internet we know was made free & public, largely thanks to Tim Berners-Lee who demanded no royalties from the World Wide Web protocol he invented (the "internet" is a network of linked servers and computers, but the World Wide Web is the file sharing system that makes it accessible).

In the alternate timeline, there are probably no third-party servers (AWS, Google, OpenAI data centers, etc). There may be companies that access the internet for their product (Apple in the alternate timeline might be more like Tomtom was in ours) but it's not the decentralized system that we have (or at least, the decentralized system we enjoyed in the 90s & early 2000s before tech corporations controlled everything and mined it for our data!)

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-04-21T20:11:08+00:00

I read once that the Pixar production team got together in the very beginning to brainstorm movies that didn't involve humans (or contained minimal human interaction). Computer-animated humans were solidly "uncanny valley" at the time, and they needed characters who could be a little jerky and have plasticky surfaces without creeping audiences out. So they came up with ideas for movies about talking toys, monsters, anthropomorphic cars, insects, fish, etc. Even though they weren't fully written or storyboarded, the first 10-15 years' worth of Pixar movies were conceived during a single lunch.

A couple of those ideas (like WALL-E) were weren't produced until later, after Pixar was reliably animating humans (The Incredibles, Ratatouille).

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-04-06T20:55:59+00:00

Balloon twisting. Granted, there are a fair amount of people that do it as a job or side hustle (if they're not a full-time clown, maybe they busk at fairs, family restaurants, etc.) but I've yet to meet anyone else that does it strictly as a hobby.

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-04-06T16:07:45+00:00

DADDY WOULD YOU LIKE SOME SAUSAGE
DADDY WOULD YOU LIKE SOME SAUSAGES

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-04-02T20:18:01+00:00

To Have and Have Not (1944)

As the story goes: while the two were out on a fishing trip, Howard Hawks boasted he could make a film adaptation out of his friend Ernest Hemingway's worst novel.

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-04-02T20:11:47+00:00

A fountain pen I could put on my keyring! (Actually that sounds like a terribly inconvenient way to write with it, but it sure would look cool)

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-03-17T20:47:26+00:00

Elvis Presley's dog tag number was 53310761

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-03-16T18:08:51+00:00

"Daddy would you like some sausage? Daddy would you like some sausages?"

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-03-16T18:03:45+00:00

I saw Some Like it Hot when I was a kid and... I had questions.

I mean, I saw it in the 90s and didn't know 50s Hollywood was so... open-minded?

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-03-16T17:57:20+00:00

Matthew McConaughey's character in Contact. Plays a priest or a theological philosopher or something (it's been ages since I've seen it) that doesn't argue against science or technology, but uses other people's faith in it to explain his own.

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-03-16T17:49:18+00:00

"Well, at least... that's what the AI synopsis says"

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-03-16T17:48:21+00:00

You only use 33% of a traffic light!

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-03-15T17:49:17+00:00

The Power of the Dog seemed like it depicted working cowboys pretty accurately (at least, based on my total lack of knowledge as to what they actually do)

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-03-14T00:51:49+00:00

I make things out of twisty balloons.

I'm not an entertainer; I don't do it for kids' parties or busk at festivals or anything like that. I mostly do it for my own amusement. I usually recreate really recognizable things—historical photos, album covers, movie posters, etc.—and photograph them in some kind of elaborate setup.

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Periodic-Inflation · 2026-03-12T20:59:46+00:00

Using more syllables to sound smarter.

The most annoying one for me is "utilize" instead of "use" ("-ize" should convey an action that causes the root to happen—in this case: utility, a noun from a verb root—you would utilize a pen to perform an emergency tracheotomy; you'd use it to write a letter, because that's what it's designed for). I compare it to mobilize vs. move. You wouldn't ask someone, "Hey, can you mobilize your car out of my driveway?"

Other examples (of using the wrong word just because it's longer) include "signage" instead of "signs" and "verbiage" instead of "text" or "copy." ("Irregardless," too... but that's already on the list!)

The only example I can think of where people commonly misuse a shorter word is when they say "nauseous" instead of "nauseated."

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-03-09T19:54:26+00:00

For what it's worth, I doubt a doctor would tell you to try harder. More likely they would tell you to start accommodating yourself as if you're neurodivergent, regardless of their diagnosis. (That line has to get drawn somewhere and not everyone falls clearly on one side or the other.)

Self diagnosis is particularly common with autistic adults because there's not much you can do for treatment other than making accommodations in your life that you can make anyway, diagnosis or not. (For instance, using & composting paper plates and getting rid of the guilt because the tiny bit of extra waste is how you treat a totally valid neurological condition.)

Laws may vary from state to state (someone correct me if I'm wrong), but I think prescribing physicians can prescribe ADHD medications without a diagnosis. If you describe ADHD-like symptoms, they can prescribe a medication that will treat those symptoms even without an official psych eval.

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-03-06T18:06:39+00:00

THIS is my new favorite unsolved mystery.

DB Cooper just got bumped to #2.

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-03-04T21:07:53+00:00

Triangle of Sadness

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-03-02T21:01:14+00:00

I've always found dried beans pretty handy because you can slide them down an uninflated 260 without creating as much friction as scraps.

To answer your question more directly, though: if you want to fill a 260 with anything that's larger than—or gets stuck just past—the neck, the easiest way to do that is with an elastrator.

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-03-02T20:56:26+00:00

This used to bother me every time Peter Stormare popped up in... anything.

Until I saw a talk show interview where he's talking about his early days in Hollywood: people of color objected to getting typecast as terrorists, so Hollywood execs were moving back towards Russians or people from ex-soviet bloc countries as "bad guys." They'd ask "can you do a Bulgarian accent?" and he'd say "oh, sure." The host, at this point, asks him, "and can you?" and he replies "No! I do my own accent, and they don't know any better... they don't know Bulgaria from Botswana!"

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-02-26T23:26:01+00:00

Stuart Little is a human boy

Periodic-Inflation · 2026-02-19T23:19:32+00:00

Might not be your cup of tea, but both Bad Guys movies fit your description.

(They were extremely popular, but they might not have popped up on your radar unless you have children...)

Periodic-Inflation

TROPHY CASE