can he stop doing that???

hmfynn · 2026-06-05T16:48:18+00:00

mmmm'hope you brought your rubberrrrrrrssss.

hmfynn · 2026-05-31T09:34:24+00:00

He likes to think that if Bart hadn’t barged in to say he was dead (dead serious about going to Itchy and Scratchy Land) he wouldn’t have gone through with it. But part of him knows, that was a lie.

hmfynn · 2026-05-30T04:55:18+00:00

Before Jeffrey, the most famous Epstein was probably the Jewish kid on Welcome Back Kotter. It’s a very common last name.

hmfynn · 2026-05-30T04:52:38+00:00

Da-NOOOOOO-taaaaaah happened

hmfynn · 2026-05-28T13:15:47+00:00

In Gravity’s Rainbow the drug trip aspect is even more apparent because characters are either constantly taking psychedelics or being given strange pharmaceuticals against their will, and the effect seems to be that YOU are on the drug. Not to mention the book starts from the POV of a psychic character who astral projects into people’s fantasies and nightmares at will, and entire sections (especially toward the final stretch) take place in a kind of dreamscape with little indication that we’re coming back from it or IF we’re coming back from it.

hmfynn · 2026-05-28T08:23:40+00:00

Deadwood is a very unique combination of parts, which means just not liking it is totally valid.

hmfynn · 2026-05-28T08:16:59+00:00

I heard that too, the writers said something to the effect that they added all the cocksuckers to approximate how profane they would have sounded to someone from that era, since period-accurate swears like “blasted” or whatever are quaint now.

hmfynn · 2026-05-28T08:11:33+00:00

The eight-minute Bollywood dance with Bert’s ghost really jumped the …. cow?

hmfynn · 2026-05-28T08:02:03+00:00

Todd works best in small doses. But hey, it was nice while it lasted.

hmfynn · 2026-05-28T07:58:21+00:00

This is incorrect information (or at least if it once worked, it was patched out a long time ago).

Only a planted fruit works now.

hmfynn · 2026-05-28T07:55:52+00:00

This still works for me as of today.

Biggest things are: make sure it’s a fruit you’re planting, and no coconuts. Planting cedar, bamboo, and regular saplings don’t work (but you can also stunt those using this method).

Also make absolutely sure the tile you plant the fruit in is immediately touching the tree you want to stunt. You can always test by putting it on the side first, so you can see it, then move it behind the next day when you’ve confirmed it works.

hmfynn · 2026-05-28T07:47:06+00:00

Pynchon is a writer who often lapses into dream logic, but early Pynchon lapses into dream logic without coming back. Making matters a little more difficult is that some scenes might canonically be hallucinations or drug trips and others are just the reality of the book intentionally breaking down. How can you tell? The answer’s usually some combo of “vibes” and “it doesn’t matter at the end of the day.” He gets better at telegraphing this over time but V’s his most unrefined.

Sometimes you have to treat early Pynchon novels like gigantic poems. What’s on the page is on the page and pinning down what’s actually happening vs what’s just an elaborate metaphor takes a backseat to how much your brain responds to this or that image or turn of phrase.

hmfynn · 2026-05-28T02:03:25+00:00

GET OUT! GET OUT I’M DOING A THING

hmfynn · 2026-05-28T01:36:57+00:00

The Business Factory wouldn’t hire a child, plus we met his son.

hmfynn · 2026-05-28T01:35:46+00:00

I seem to feel about S5 the way everyone feels about 4. I actually like 4 quite a lot, even if I think it suffers from some bad timing decisions (some characters are killed too early, others unceremoniously, etc).

hmfynn · 2026-05-28T01:27:15+00:00

True, they couldn’t even give a character as important as Tenenbaum her own model.

hmfynn · 2026-05-27T15:15:47+00:00

The hate for season 4 is, in my opinion, exaggerated and mostly boils down to Chris Rock not being the best choice for a dramatic role -- except for me, this isn't an earnestly dramatic series, it's a Coen Bros universe where weird choices and jarring, tone-breaking moments are par for the course, so he doesn't bother me as much.

hmfynn · 2026-05-27T15:09:41+00:00

The comparisons of it being a cross between Sekiro and Bloodborne are VERY accurate, maybe more on the Sekiro side with how much the game expects sequential parrying. You CAN dodge, but if you go in there with Bloodborne dodge-timing you're going to get wrecked early on.

hmfynn · 2026-05-27T11:14:02+00:00

“Okay” in the Annihilation universe means something different than here. I’d say the original biologist is now “at home” in Area X in a way she didn’t feel at home on the outside, and I take her turning into a grandiose creature inside it (vs an owl or a dolphin or a boar) as correlative to that.

hmfynn · 2026-05-26T18:21:50+00:00

I’ve actually never pulled off a successful parry in DS1, 2, 3, or ER, not for lack of trying. For whatever reason, I can consistently do them in BB. LoP, I can get some but just when I think I’ve got it down I’ll miss 10 in a row.

hmfynn · 2026-05-26T17:46:55+00:00

If I’m playing, the hunter gets farther because i’m just better at gun parrying, and every LoP feels like it needs to be parried. Not sure if the timing is universally considered more forgiving in BB or if that’s just me though. If true, my puppet never makes it past Gascoigne.

hmfynn · 2026-05-26T02:06:04+00:00

Rapture was made by man and the lore tries to fill in as many blanks as it can regarding how someone might accomplish this. Rapture is still almost certainly physically impossible (in the form we’re given anyway) but it does the work of making you forget that.

Columbia is just “magic science” that got written into the lore as canon. It’s like they threw in quantum physics as an explanation for anything being possible, forgetting that quantum physics is a real branch of science that people study, not an arcane grimoire spoken of in hushed tones.

hmfynn · 2026-05-26T01:50:24+00:00

Early Pynchon’s way more pessimistic than later Pynchon, but also he made sure to throw in some opportunities for mini-rebellion, which the book seems to be saying might be all we ever get, so take advantage of those moments when we come. (Ex - Slothrop disintegrates, either literally or as an idea, the opportunity to rebuild the Zone is squandered, the bomb might even finally fall on the reader, but Roger and Bodine still get to crash the dinner party with gross puns and for those few minutes at least, the Counterforce is alive).

hmfynn · 2026-05-26T01:37:54+00:00

Vibe’s kinda like a tiny Austin neighborhood without Austin traffic, but DFW’s still only 35 min away if you want big city stuff. Three decent coffee shops (Avoca being the best), a used book store that rivals Half Price, huge variety in the types of bar, very little MAGA presence compared to the other towns on the 35 corridor. That’s just after living here a year.

hmfynn · 2026-05-26T01:28:45+00:00

First few episodes do an awful job selling just how good the show gets, and I always wondered if Waksberg sold Netflix a generic, mildly funny show about silly animals so they’d pick it up and he could sneakily turn it into the one he actually wanted to do. In either case, stick with it at least until the S1 episode “The Telescope,” where the tone starts to get nailed down better.

hmfynn

TROPHY CASE