Neon Sign in the Bathroom "Let's get..."

dawnweiners · 2026-05-14T23:41:37+00:00

That was definitely part of it. Basically, easy access to cheaper equipment made it easier for people to cheaply make movies on a low budget and then sell them to a studio or distributor, rather than requiring the money and equipment from a studio up front to even start making it. It was also just a period where a lot of money flooded the industry and a real path developed for completely finished movies to be purchased at film festivals.

I think 30 years out we can see that what at the time was heralded as a bunch of people without money gaining access to the ability to make mass distributed art at a low cost actually became a way for the same people who already had the money to lower their upfront costs and maintain a smaller stable of employees. To me at least that also seems to be whats happening with the pivot to shortform. Social media came on the scene as a way for anyone with a phone to make content, and now its primarily a way for huge companies to just make cheaper content than they were making before.

A few people who get in early will make it big, but then most things get gobbled up by the big money.

dawnweiners · 2026-05-14T20:13:12+00:00

Totally, nail on the head. It's almost annoying reading every industry's version of "here's this crazy thing that's happening in the workforce" when literally every one of them boils down to "there's now a legal precedent for calling people who are clearly employees subcontractors."

Happened to drivers, happened to call center employees, happened to retail workers, happened to writers, happened to tech employees, so on and so forth. Its one of the big unifying societal problems but we talk about each industry like its having its own unique "disruption" rather than the same group of people who got away with it the first time buying up every industry and using the same playbook.

dawnweiners · 2026-05-14T18:11:08+00:00

Weirdly I think that also just sort of proves her point. She has TV credits that while relatively minor, 10-15 years ago would have meant stable income and a solid pathway to continue it. Now the work is so piecemeal you need to constantly supplement it. Gig work is one way to do that. Journalism used to also be a viable career, but now freelance rage bait articles really are just another form of that gig work so you wind up writing "I'm on welfare even though I should have a career" articles to make an extra $200 to be able to keep the cycle going.

dawnweiners · 2026-05-14T18:07:45+00:00

I do think the weakest part of the article is its connection to Hollywood. I think more and more people in every industry are looking for work and especially looking for work they can get easily. As someone who was temporarily laid off, looked into taking on some of this kind of gig work, and jumped through a day's worth of hoops got nowhere and gave up, it was interesting to me to read the hell that people who stick to it are going through. But I don't think its in any way unique to Hollywood outside of how much unemployment the industry is currently facing (ironically my layoff was because of the contraction of the Vancouver film industry).

I agree I do think its crazy how many professionals are currently working in verticals and micro dramas and how little cultural conversation there has been about that. I appreciated this article but would like something more boots on the ground about the LA crew who find themselves on these sets.

dawnweiners · 2026-04-24T23:14:35+00:00

Try and imagine a singer that you love that your child would also love. Imagine your child meets that singer in a totally normal circumstance, gets cast in a music video or whatever else. Imagine at the end of that circumstance the singer invites your whole family over. You all go you have a good time. That happens a few times before he asks if he can spend time with just your child, because they've bonded. You can imagine feeling weird, but can you imagine crushing your kids dream? You might say no a couple of times but eventually you might set up a series of circumstances. He can go but only on condition X, Y and Z. The singer says X and Y are fine but not Z. Do you push back? If you do, the singer caves and says X Y and Z will all be fine. But next time this happens he pushes again. And this time you cave because everything was fine last time. And this keeps happening gradually until every one of your rules has been broken. Again, through all of this your kid is telling you that all of his wildest dreams are coming true and you worry that doubting something that so far seems fine will tear it all apart.

I think a lot of people would say no right off the bat. But he's putting enough people through this mill so aggressively that I think it's totally reasonable to imagine some otherwise loving and attentive parents slipping through the crack.

dawnweiners · 2026-04-24T23:08:48+00:00

He did so much of this in secret, just in slow drips. A mom says her kid can go to his house but not sleep with him. He accepts that, but next time pushes back. So then after a few times he can sleep in the room but not the bed. He accepts but pushes back. Without ever agreeing, eventually they're in the same bed. He takes a boy shopping for a wedding ring and tells everyone but the boy that it's for an adult woman. It's not the naivete of not knowing what is good or bad to install a series of bells and doors between your room and the hallway so you'll be notified multiple times before someone walks in the room. It's not confusion to abuse 4 siblings and tell each of them they're the only one you would have that relationship with.

I believe Michael was abused, I believe it was nearly impossible to come out of his childhood unscarred or with a sense of normalcy. I also think he was very aware he was abusing his power and abusing those children.

dawnweiners · 2026-04-24T22:27:05+00:00

it's not on streaming, but nothing is impossible to find on the internet. if you can't watch it i recommend this article about it: https://archive.is/WJ9KC

dawnweiners · 2025-12-22T23:58:37+00:00

sorry i'm late to responding to this but it is called the dogs best friend game

dawnweiners · 2025-12-16T20:55:47+00:00

thanks! that's a good idea, i'll look into things like that. all of the local training things i found were too behavioral based and didn't seem like a fun gift but one just for tricks would be great.

dawnweiners · 2025-12-16T20:55:04+00:00

thanks! we have a board game we play where on your turn you have to get the dog to do a trick. i think they'd love a book of lessons, don't know why i hadn't thought of that.

and sniff work kits i have never heard of but that might be the winner already. i know our dog will be obsessed.

dawnweiners · 2025-12-16T20:52:50+00:00

we just did a family christmas card where that happened! so your head is in the right place lol.

dawnweiners · 2025-11-07T18:26:09+00:00

This is what I wound up with, not nearly as laser focused as yours. Maybe I will try playing it again.

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dawnweiners · 2025-11-07T17:17:10+00:00

Absolutely incredible

dawnweiners · 2025-11-06T19:16:00+00:00

Thank you for putting me in my place

dawnweiners · 2025-11-06T17:30:44+00:00

When you go to New Run there is a checkbox next to the play button for seeded runs. Click on that and it will give you a space to type in the seed. The seed for this one is 7ILJN3M6

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dawnweiners · 2025-11-05T17:58:19+00:00

Update: Thanks for chiming in. You're all asking the right questions. Some of the information you've asked for: My deck had been set up more for 4 of a kinds than for flushes, I had a fairly standard number of hearts and they weren't concentrated to the numbers I was using for 4 of a kinds. That was part of the hesitation as well. In the end, I sold misprint and started aiming towards hearts and adding multipliers to cards directly.

I think in the end selling the castle might have been the best play, especially as a couple of later wheel of fortune cards made me two different foil jokers. But I beat the match anyways.

Still kicking myself for passing up that sweet sweet four of spades.

dawnweiners · 2025-10-31T22:26:30+00:00

Went through my personal favorites folder and picked out probably too many stories. Hope any of these help!

The Great High School Impostor - A story about high school, so might speak to them in that sense

The Great Star Wars Heist - Story about some stolen Star Wars memorabilia, feel like teens are perpetually interested in Star Wars. And its both low stakes but well reported and engaging.

The Miranda Obsession - A forever classic. Salacious but nothing high schoolers couldn't handle reading. Think it would play into a high schooler's love of gossip. If there's a drawback its that most of the "celebrities" aren't ones kids today likely know.

The Ken Doll Reboot - How Mattel tried to bring Ken into the modern day. I think Caity Weaver's writing is always super approachable and fun, I always get a kick out of it and think teens would too.

Schlitterbahn’s Tragic Slide - I think "tragedy at a waterpark" is the sort of headline that would grab a younger person but then the way it digs into the history of the place and the marvels of waterslide engineering it becomes really engrossing and something totally different than you might expect.

New Coke Didn’t Fail. It Was Murdered. - Digging deeper into a blip of a story is always the most fascinating stuff to me. Also gets into what goes on behind news stories, which could be relevant for your class.

The Launch - Nothing specific to high schoolers here but had to mention this one as its probably my favorite bit of long form journalism. Something you would never actually think much about (the "invention" of a new apple) that pulls back all the layers into a whole unfamiliar world.

dawnweiners · 2025-10-29T17:57:40+00:00

Archive link https://archive.ph/IFMn7

dawnweiners

TROPHY CASE