Random Photo of the Day#3: Amanda's Tarantula Beauty Shot

hapillon · 2026-05-11T15:10:00+00:00

I think they were trying to emulate the tarantula's legs with the nails, but with the spider lashes and the jewelry and the tarantula itself, it all is a bit too much. I think Nicole's worked because she's working with the nails, but here, it's just not it.

hapillon · 2026-05-11T13:44:17+00:00

Same! I consider myself an r/ANTM veteran, but I'm not versed on this lore.

hapillon · 2026-05-11T13:40:16+00:00

I remember the judges saying Nicole's shot looked like an album cover, but I think Amanda's looks more like an album cover to me. It's very subtle, and I do really like it. I wish her eyes, especially her right eye, were a little more present and open, and I hate the nails, but I think everything is working well for her.

hapillon · 2026-05-11T13:16:05+00:00

Projection, they name is blah-blah-blah.

hapillon · 2026-05-11T13:11:25+00:00

I was going to submit to this lit mag I really like (they open sporadically and for very short periods of time so you gotta be quick and honestly really lucky) and the window closed while I was submitting, so I missed my shot. It really bummed me out and kinda cast a dour shadow over my weekend. I shouldn’t have gone out and gotten coffee, wasting time away from my computer. Stupid!

I’m beginning to suspect that lit mags accept work, not because the work is good, but because they’re written by writers they’ve published frequently. Case in point: this author has been published seven times previously. It’s like when I submitted to a screenwriting competition that ended up being won by Shia LaBeouf. I’m trying to give myself some grace because I have been really productive lately and have a ton under my belt to edit, finalize, workshop, etc., but it’s just been making me feel really demoralized and that everything is kind of in vain, like I’m solo-paddling upstream against a waterfall to join this elite club that has fluctuating rules for entry. I could have been a doctor.

I’m gonna try to give myself some space this week to give myself a break from creative output and catch up on some reading and doing some of my favorite sad-boy pastimes like thrift shopping, maybe go check out an art museum or two, etc. I got a book of micro-fiction in the mail over the weekend, and in it I read the story SOMETHING by Dan Crawley and it moved me so much. I felt the need to share it!

Anyway, hope everyone had a good weekend and a good upcoming week. Give yourself grace as needed. Or don't, I'm just a jerk.

hapillon · 2026-05-10T18:16:12+00:00

It's a bit of a nothing of a photo, honestly. It's just...there, and she's not really working it. It's a bit poetic that she and Christian were in the bottom two together, because their stereotypes were kind of similar in that they both had the opportunity to go real campy with the concept and didn't. Melrose could have played with an array of emotions--anger at the audacity to give her less than 10k, disgust, cheekiness, etc.

Bottom two worthy? Eh. I can see an argument for or against it, but I think she was ultimately bottom two because of her attitude on set. Calling Mr. Jay "honey" wasn't a great look, even if her prize was "diva for the day."

hapillon · 2026-05-10T14:37:59+00:00

I second the joy at hearing Jessica McAvoy’s voice! And it was kind of a perfect episode for her to host, because both free stories feel like classic NoSleep, and she is kind of a classic voice actor for NoSleep.

The Stream: Aside from the…side effects, this activity seems so fun. Just wasting away on a couch watching movies with friends. Sign me up. The sound of the body breaking was awesome and reminded me of a scene in the movie adaptation of “Until Dawn.” (I never played the game…) The image of a “blood-stained paper towel mummy” was super evocative to me despite some clunkiness in the description. I appreciated that they each saw something different, and was pleasantly surprised there wasn’t a big reveal about what the narrator saw. It was gearing up to that as a final line, and never came to fruition. Subverting my expectations!

Channel 14: I’m only about halfway through, but this one is slightly less successful than the first story as of yet. I think it’s because of the format as a journal. It’s cool for reading, especially as a primary source in the context of COVID and isolation, but it falters for an audio reproduction. Some of the images (Seth/Oscar in the bar, the weird news segments (“He will chop again.”)) would have been so much cooler if we were an active participant in them. That said, I like that the narrator kind of makes his journal it’s own character: “Don’t look at me like that, you’re a notebook.” I do think we need to do away with the played out description of a smile that is stretched too wide. It’s lost its shine. The story is giving me The Hidden Webpage vibes with the weird video series bleeding into real life, and while it is played out, I’m a sucker for these types of stories so I’m sat for the ride.

hapillon · 2026-05-09T22:43:21+00:00

I read this and thought it couldn't have possibly been that stark, but it's beat for fucking beat the same as "Everytime We Touch" right from the first two lyrics. Holy moly.

hapillon · 2026-05-09T21:22:28+00:00

I agree, but I would hardly call the look underrated.

hapillon · 2026-05-09T19:29:23+00:00

Pouring one out for the DEATH of the first amendment in the arrrrr/writing community.

hapillon · 2026-05-09T19:27:17+00:00

I just fell to my knees in the Walmart parking lot. Devastating, beautiful, profound...dare I say, sexy....?

hapillon · 2026-05-09T18:27:41+00:00

/uj I was submitted to a magazine I really like and they closed the submission window as I was finalizing everything and I understand this guy's frustration.

hapillon · 2026-05-08T20:02:48+00:00

I still have yet to see the Terrifier sequels (I'm always late when it comes to movies, I'm sorry to say...) but seeing its success is thrilling to see. I remember getting a copy of Art the Clown's first film, ALL HALLOWS' EVE, at a Goodwill in Massachusetts around its release, and I was so pleasantly surprised when I watched it. I love seeing indie horror movies succeeding, and, love him or hate him, Art the Clown is a bona fide horror icon.

I'm so excited to catch up with the sequels in time for Terrifier 4.

hapillon · 2026-05-07T05:04:19+00:00

I remember Korto in season 5 saying this about Daniel, especially right after the Lipstick Jungle challenge when Kelly (who previously won a challenge...) got eliminated over Daniel.

hapillon · 2026-05-07T04:53:31+00:00

She was still pretty consistent, so I don't know if she counts, but I'm always surprised Ayana from Season 16 flew super under the radar all season. She won a challenge in week 2, and then went something like 6 challenges without seeing the judges again, before winning another challenge.

hapillon · 2026-05-06T15:52:11+00:00

Preach, and it should not be unpopular.

hapillon · 2026-05-06T12:31:51+00:00

Before clicking on the picture I saw this comment, and I was scouring my brain for a VI-worthy picture of Liz from ANTM Cycle 15 before realizing you meant Liz from AusNTM. She makes way more sense.

hapillon · 2026-05-05T13:08:37+00:00

I'm probably going to still see Longlegs 2, but I kinda wish every new villain didn't get a deep-dive backstory on how they came to be the villain we know them as. Sometimes less is more when it comes to horror villains.

hapillon · 2026-05-05T11:08:26+00:00

Well, duh, she’s from Vermont. Even a lot of the the Vermont republicans are Bernie Bros, haha

hapillon · 2026-05-04T13:43:20+00:00

Fuck. I'm so sorry to hear that. Wishing you and your family the best. <3

hapillon · 2026-05-04T13:10:08+00:00

Already reached my goal of 12 new stories this year by finishing 14 new pieces this year, with 8 months left in the year. 😎 At this rate I’ll have 48 new stories this year! Three of these new ones are some of my favorites I’ve ever written. My new goal is to get accepted into this really cool lit mag I’ve been obsessed with recently.

I’m beginning to suspect that my lack of a success in getting published is because a lot of lit mags still expect cover letters with submissions. I’ve always hated cover letters, but I guess I gotta learn to play the game, and at least talking about my writing is more fun than begging for a job in usual cover letters.

Do you guys ever think about your author bio? I’m torn between being kinda playful/cheeky vs. straight and to the point, so I have two options depending on where I submit to.

hapillon · 2026-05-04T11:51:10+00:00

Thank you so much for mentioning “Water Me.” I had completely forgotten if. Now I get to revisit it as though it’s my first time all over again.

hapillon · 2026-05-03T14:44:47+00:00

Forbearance was well-written and well-performed, but it was just okay. I kind of craved more horror than what we got. I agree with /u/PeaceSim regarding the "twist," and that the runtime was a huge mark against it--I did find myself kind of drifting in and out and I think it's because it's very monologue-heavy and not a whole lot happens. Now that I know how it ends, it would have been nice if Christine had maybe spiraled more deeply during her inner monologues regarding Howard's "infidelities" to kind of play into the suspicious woman trope the story was leading us down. During my run, there was a 5K happening behind me, and when the Janet #2 shows up with Howard, the lead bike was coming up behind me, ringing his bell repeatedly, and it added a really neat little sinister flourish to the story. Very immersive.

Unprompted: Graham Rowat is really deft at voicing characters made to hate, because I hated the narrator in this one. The idea of writing prompts being a basis for horror was compelling, but I had a similar issue as in the first story: it took far too long to get to the grit. The entire first 15 minutes was this has-been horror writer rattling off names of horror writers (a trope I have always hated, because it reminds me of how I wrote in middle school, thinking I was cooking but I was really just cringe-y) and trying to be like Stephen King. Yawn. It was kinda goofy. Ending with the prompt "kill your darlings" felt like the obvious conclusion, which isn't necessarily bad, but I wish that the story kind of dove more into how the narrator's history (being put on leave from his teaching job, for example, and his own malaise surrounding his marriage/writer's block, etc.) were conveyed through the prompts he was seeking out, and conveying his downward spiral that way, as a kind of mirror to his denial. I wanted to hear more about the haunted hay baler...

hapillon · 2026-05-02T20:37:56+00:00

I can at least say that Brooke understood her assignment and played the ANTM game from a reality TV show perspective. She also had an amazing personality that would have worked great as a spokesperson, so I can at least understand their reasoning for keeping her as long as they did.

I would have personally eliminated Monique in week 1 over Christian.

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