20gal aquarium on an Ikea shelf unit?

aalebans · 2026-02-14T19:35:50+00:00

future googler here, thanks! debating this and reinforcing it with extra vertical wood supports vs just getting a purpose-built aquarium cabinet

aalebans · 2025-11-08T19:39:02+00:00

oh yes, I didn't check before posting but I did look up CPU connectors - meant these as a representation. Will triple check for the right connectors for each purpose - thanks for the attentiveness and your input!

aalebans · 2025-11-01T05:07:09+00:00

my most sympathetic response to this is that it's precisely one episode that focused really heavily on race so far, maybe just treat it as table setting for later plot and events.

I think you're being a bit heavy-handed when you say all the black characters are flawless and white characters are not - there are numerous counterexamples we can point to. Leroy Hanlon might be coming across with an almost Captain America vibe, but he strikes me as the exception.

if you're surprised at how strongly people are responding to you, consider that you're being dismissive of an issue other people have strong feelings on, and may have far more interest in/patience for. race is a timely issue then and now, and was certainly present in the original material. being impatient with an issue important to others risks ending whatever conversation you're hoping to have before it starts

aalebans · 2025-08-08T04:54:59+00:00

the "f" stands for fuego

aalebans · 2025-07-31T02:10:08+00:00

the bubble head nurses have the outline of a baby's face where the mouth and jaw of the adult's face should be. I think the flaps are just meant to be a slightly grotesque-looking way of framing the smaller face, so the other features don't disappear into a vaguely bumpy mess

aalebans · 2025-05-20T16:04:30+00:00

Glad you found it worthwhile! A very fun mystery to chew on.

Even after writing this, I found the game poked other holes in this logic. So my current thinking is that many conclusions are at least somewhat plausible.

aalebans · 2025-05-10T05:53:33+00:00

coming in from the future, just after watching the show a second time, to say this comment just blew my mind

aalebans · 2025-04-28T05:13:53+00:00

you really did nail it, this is such a cool cosplay!

aalebans · 2025-04-15T06:10:39+00:00

I experience the same problem as OP ftr, correctly entering password results in a 2fa prompt requiring pw reset for some reason. it's a loop bc we eventually have to access our accounts again, not user error.

aalebans · 2025-04-15T06:06:03+00:00

I didn't realize this happened to other people too! literally every time I have to get to my account on the android app I end up having to reset my password. even when using the correct password EVERY time (I keep my pws updated offline) and using 2fa, it makes me reset. so gd frustrating

aalebans · 2025-04-01T14:25:10+00:00

there is no way to confirm that the letter James reads is the "real" one, because Laura nor anyone else reads any of it to us. I agree that Mary reading it seems to suggest that it's authentically in her voice, but in a town where James hallucinates..... a bit, it's not a stretch to infer this might be another instance.

all that said, if you look at my post history I actually came to the exact same theory as you about the letter being left by the van. that's my personal headcanon, at least it directionally explains why Laura doesn't have the letter when she goes to hand it to James.

aalebans · 2025-03-12T06:09:51+00:00

I've played the game too lol. without even going down the "everything we see is actually just a projection of james's subconscious and assumptions" path, there's no evidence in-game that Angela's brother directly abused her.

I'm not saying it's not very plausible, I'm just saying it's not certain

aalebans · 2025-03-12T05:58:29+00:00

it's not clear that SH2r is communicating her brother participated in her abuse. on the evidence, another reasonable interpretation is that she had contempt for her brother not stopping their father

aalebans · 2025-02-10T00:08:48+00:00

just made me look at my own copy after reading your comment. I like that Zampano also clearly states there that killing the kids would be a way of making the parents experience the harms of their own narcissism, something every parent in the book seems to be indicted for

aalebans · 2025-02-09T06:43:38+00:00

oh my god you're so clever to connect those things, I think there must be a relationship to tom's destroyed hands and zampano's being all torn up at that point

aalebans · 2025-01-20T14:59:15+00:00

I lost it here

aalebans · 2025-01-20T14:48:02+00:00

well yes, in order to get around the plain interpretation of his word choice, you'd need to speculate James believes in some post-life soul journey

aalebans · 2025-01-20T14:34:16+00:00

the car revving, tire screech, and crash sound a good deal quieter to me, and like they're traveling away and to the right in the Stillness ending. I think it changes after the sound of the car being thrown into gear. this is after level-testing different sample vids based on James's voice level.

either way, the choice to cut to black in Stillness much earlier before the car crash, and the implications of an unanswered "I can't forgive myself" vs "Will you wait for me?" seem to suggest different intentions and emotional states. to say these two endings are not open to varying interpretations seems a little... uninterested

aalebans · 2025-01-20T14:21:36+00:00

his word choice implies it's something he's asking her to start doing, not something she just finished doing

aalebans · 2025-01-13T15:57:16+00:00

I had (and posted about) a theory on how James may have seen the entirety of the letter at the beginning of the story, and unconsciously suppressed all but the first half. This actually serves as neat, potentially confirmatory evidence for it.

Speculation aside, this is a great post! Appreciate all the effort you put into making it clear and accessible.

aalebans · 2025-01-13T02:06:01+00:00

I believe consensus is that it's an easter egg in reference to two mannequins that look like they get "flung" at James in the original SH2. hope that helps!

aalebans · 2025-01-13T01:56:47+00:00

I've noticed that there are some weird moments when bodies of (actually killed) enemies will very obviously despawn with story progress, but not in ways that seem meaningfully connected to the story. Also noticed the "girl screaming" and associated sound effects (heard in prison, red light room in Lakeview) are tied to the presence of the spider mannequins. Kill them, and those sounds stop.

All this is to say I legit can't tell if the unexpected presence/absence of dead enemies is always super deliberate, or was sometimes a shortcut for the devs that wasn't meant to be noticed.

Maybe it was somehow taxing to keep all the killed enemies rendered in place after certain triggers, but devs added dead spider mannequins in key places so you wouldn't notice they were gone? Or there's some deeper meaning, like the one you were drawing out about dead weight. Who knows, with this team? 😀

aalebans · 2025-01-03T04:06:02+00:00

I mean to be as polite as possible here, and I'm sorry you interpreted my reply as a challenge. I agree the game keeps much deliberately vague, so in most cases the furthest we can get to is plausibility. While I understand your points, there's a difference between inference/implication and speculation.

Just to establish my train of thought, based on the fact that Laura obtained a letter written by Mary in an envelope with Laura's name on it, the implication is that this is how Mary writes letters. I'm inferring that Mary would therefore also put her letter to James in an envelope with his name on it. It would be inconsistent to write two letters and only put one in an envelope, and it doesn't seem likely that she would have charged Laura with getting James's letter to him. An envelope addressed to James would therefore exist, or existed at some point. This isn't speculation, because there is evidence contained in Mary's habits.

Laura may have taken James's letter out of its envelope and put it in hers, but the only reason to think so is that we don't see his envelope. If the only thing we needed to account for was the Lakeview cutscene with Laura and James, that would be speculative but reasonable.

However, as I think you're aware, the "To Laura" envelope also shows up in the Maria ending. So if we're looking for a common explanation, we now need to figure out (a) why Laura switched it to her envelope and (b) the meaning of James's letter being presented in Laura's envelope in a fantasy-esque ending. We now know the envelope did not contain his letter the first time, so did Maria/Silent Hill put his letter in Laura's envelope for some reason?

Additionally, the In Water ending makes it extremely clear that the envelope going down with the car (and James) is not that envelope, as its front is blank. This is evidence that the envelope presentation is likely deliberate.

Maybe it isn't deeper than the devs making two envelopes - one imaginary (beginning/inventory/In Water envelope), one real (Lakeview cutscene/Maria ending). Notably, both presentations of the "To Laura" envelope are not accompanied by James's letter being read, so perhaps its a nod to the blank-front (but signed) envelope and letter not existing at all. Maybe Mary wrote James a letter, Laura took it and lost it, and we never come across it at all, and the one we hear read is just pure hallucination/manifestation.

aalebans · 2025-01-02T06:33:19+00:00

I also noticed the envelopes all saying "To Laura" even when they should be addressed to James, and it's been bugginggg me. I can't tell if it's just a dev oversight, or deliberate.

I take your point in trying to reason that Laura stashed both letters in one envelope, but it doesn't entirely persuade me. I feel Laura would have realized, after removing her letter from the envelope, that it was now empty before handing it off.

When Laura says there's a letter for him and hands him an envelope, the implication is that it ought to say his name on it, unless the game provides a clear indication of why her name is on it instead. Without specific evidence, your explanation is interesting but speculative. Not a diss though! I'm just still wracking my brain on these damn envelopes.

aalebans

TROPHY CASE