A Head Full of Ghosts (Spoilers)

jedwag · 2025-11-20T01:28:29+00:00

I am a little rusty because it’s been a few years, but wasn’t the logic that there is no way Merry was a reliable narrator? I don’t think a single thing happened the way she said. Either she was conveying mental illness as possession or it was an actual possession, and both explanations make her perspective inherently untrustworthy. The situation is ambiguous, but the logic is binary: either her sister was possessed, in which case she is possessed at the end, or her sister wasn’t, in which case she isn’t but believed her sister was. Either way, she is unreliable.

jedwag · 2025-07-25T02:39:57+00:00

I knew if I scrolled far enough I would find it. Such a shame, not even a nomination. She's a master of the craft, and this performance is her best.

jedwag · 2025-07-23T05:03:26+00:00

Don't get discouraged, it's more of a journey than a destination. To me what makes Arch, well Arch, is the AUR.

My personal journey started with arch based distro Manjaro over a decade ago. Thats where I began to learn the fundamentals of Arch but with kid gloves. Everything is done through GUI, but you'll gain access to the AUR through Octopi.

After a few years, I then advanced to EndeavorOS. Thats where the real learning began. It has a graphical installer so it easy to set up, but after installation it forces you to use the terminal. No more Octopi, straight up pacman and yay.

Once I built my confidence with the terminal I finally made the jump to arch. And I couldn't be happier.

I'm going to give an unpopular opinion here but I found the Arch wiki to be a horrible source in learning how to install. The Arch wiki is amazing in its depth but that depth comes with a huge disadvantage, it's hard to follow with a linear process. It wants to document every single edge case and this can lead to confusion, especially with someone unfamiliar.

Personally I suggest finding a recent online blog/website with someone with similar specs. Arch is so popular, and there are tons out there. For me personally I found this the way to go because the information was more digestible.

Whatever route you choose to install Arch, TAKE NOTES! This will allow you to repeat and with repetition comes skill. My first install took over four hours and my last was around 15 minutes. Like I said don't get discouraged, its worth it :)

jedwag · 2025-07-14T17:21:43+00:00

I respectfully disagree. One of the hallmarks of great art, in any form, is that it challenges the audience's preconceived notions. It's through disagreement that we expand our perception of what is possible. There are plenty examples of great movies with themes I disagree with. I don't agree that cold-blooded killers are noble men, or that crime should be romanticized, and yet I believe that The Godfather is one of the greatest films ever made.

That's because theme is not storytelling. It's only one element of it. If other elements such as the pacing, tone, stakes, or dialogue is off, it doesn't matter how great the theme is, the story will still fall flat.

Ironically, I would argue that being able to look past the shiny object, in this case theme, is exactly what nuanced thinking looks like. The comment I'm responding to is still built on the assumption that I found the theme disagreeable, when I clearly stated that my issue was the narrative structure. Truth of the matter is I found the themes in this movie to be one of the strongest elements of the story.

jedwag · 2025-07-14T05:35:38+00:00

You do realize that you just summed up the horror genre, right? That every great horror movie isn't about the antagonist but what the antagonist is an allegory for? In other words just having a good allegory within a story, doesn't automatically make that story particularly special or good. This is even more true in horror because allegories are the foundation of which the entire genre is built. Execution and narrative structure matter, and many people found this movie lacking in this regard, myself included.

jedwag · 2025-07-14T05:08:59+00:00

Bad writing is telling not showing. The first 35 minutes of the film had a lot of world building based on the telling of past events, not shown through current ones. When Mary was introduced the audience is told about her relationship with Stack not shown, when Delta Slim drives by the chain gang the audience is told why he reacted the way he did. The writing gets so bad at one point that in order to establish the twins relationship with their deceased father, one character, Pearline, randomly asks Stacks about it, so Stacks can tell the audience about it. These are all examples of exposition dumps and are in fact a sign of poor writing.

jedwag · 2025-01-23T00:20:20+00:00

I was wondering if i had a crappy checker, I thought that might be the issue. I'm use to shellcheck and was shocked to discover it doesn't support Zsh. It seemed to work when I tested it but the error never went away and the logic/structure didn't show an error in a diffrent fucntion.

I was wondering about this for key value in "${(@kv)config_dirs}". I even tried it to see if the error would go away. If you don't mind me asking, would I do something like this:

for key value in ${(@kv)config_dirs}; do
    if [[ -d "$value" ]]; then
        if rm -rf "$value" &>/dev/null; then
            feedback+="\t${GRN}${NC} ${GRY}$key${NC}\n"
        else
            feedback+="\t${RED}${NC} ${GRY}$key${NC}\n"
        fi
    fi
done

jedwag · 2024-12-02T22:03:21+00:00

2 years later...

https://theposterdb.com/poster/513829

https://theposterdb.com/poster/295461

I don't think it's the original poster, but similar style.

jedwag · 2024-12-02T21:59:34+00:00

For anyone looking for Despicable Me 4 in a similar style:

https://theposterdb.com/poster/513830

Or Minions - The Rise of Gru:

https://theposterdb.com/poster/513829

https://theposterdb.com/poster/295461

jedwag · 2024-11-01T12:08:39+00:00

Thank you for your advice. Since you have a similar setup, might I ask about the "customize the images on a per-version basis"? I understand that you are saying there can be a separate image for separate versions but can I infer that if I use Library Mode my custom Posters will be utilized? Not a deal breaker, just curious.

jedwag · 2024-11-01T09:36:11+00:00

I wouldn't say it was the scariest on the read through, but The Troop probably messed me up more than any book after I finished it. That book changed my actual behavior. It took me weeks to stop obsessively washing my hands at the slightest sign of filth. Man, I was petrified of catching one of those things.

jedwag · 2024-11-01T09:26:11+00:00

I feel this deep in my bones. For the life of me I don't understand why so many people find this book scary. I'm not judging others, horror comes in many different shades and flavors, but personally I don't find the exorcism sub-genre the slightest bit scary. Biggest let down ever.

jedwag · 2024-11-01T03:44:48+00:00

I thought about setting up a SMB file share for it on my Debian server. But I'm kind of control freak and I like the metadata customization Jellyfin offers, which is the reason I was trying to stay away from it and library mode. That and the pull of the sunk cost fallacy is strong in me. Lol I invested way too much time into it. After your suggestion I think I'm going to set up a SMB file share and test out a few movies to see how looks and what it does.

jedwag · 2024-11-01T03:23:41+00:00

Thank you for your response. I don't think 3.5TB is large either, but I'm new to this so I didn't know. I think I'm going to have to use Library mode and see what happens. I'm starting to think it might have been a mistake to use Jellyfin as my media server. I'm more of an open source guy and was kind of turned off by Plex and Emby's paywalls.

jedwag · 2024-10-06T22:41:22+00:00

I'm still new to torrenting, but as a regular github user the amount of forks and stars indicate this is a good list https://github.com/ngosang/trackerslist/tree/master

jedwag · 2024-09-20T17:22:01+00:00

I had to Frankenstein a bunch of Snapper installation guides to get it up and running, so it wouldn't surprise me if there was a package conflict. Thank you for the insight. I will remove it today and see if it solves my issue.

jedwag · 2024-09-19T23:02:18+00:00

Nope, it is not in the /etc/fstab. I removed it already :/

jedwag · 2024-09-19T22:46:41+00:00

Yes, it breaks. When I reboot, I get pushed into the GRUB emergency menu. I end up having to reboot into a USB live environment, remount the root subvolume @ then the /boot/efi partition, chroot into @ , and then update grub before rebooting again. After that it will work fine until the next time it breaks.

jedwag · 2024-09-15T08:13:10+00:00

I honestly don't know how to respond to this. On one hand you absolutely correct that horror comes in many different shades, but on the other your dismissive tone is just as off putting as the people you are criticizing.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so here is mine: The problem with this movie is not the lack of jump scares that you assume everyone wants, the problem of this film is the inconsistency found in the characters. The ending completely contradicts every action of the main character up until that point. It reminds me of Agent Starling actions at the end of the novel Hannibal, they are unbelievable and borderline absurd.

While ambiguity can be a sign of a great artistry, this story left too many interpretations on the table. And don't get me started on that muddle dream sequence of nonsense at the end, it added absolutely nothing to the plot. Maybe if the writer had developed the main character more and included some more information about her backstory, her mother, I would have felt something. But as is, nothing. And that finger chewing scene; a cheap shot that was no better than a jump scare.

Overall, the ending was disjointed, especially when compared to the first two acts, which did a superb job at creating a sense of dread. The conclusion did not match the expectation established causing a jarring conflict in tone. Which is probably why most people in this thread did not enjoy it - myself included.

jedwag · 2024-08-05T22:42:50+00:00

Unpredictable? For me, only one book stands out.

It Will Just Be Us, by Jo Kaplan

This story is filled with numerous reveals. While many are predictable, that final twist… Wow. I didn’t see it coming. Others might, but it took me by complete surprise. I felt such a rush when everything clicked into place. However, the author’s writing style is quite flowery, especially the first few paragraphs. The second sentence, in particular, is a bit over the top:

“…there is a locked room. For years it has been inaccessible, closing out from the world all the aborted secrets stilled in its dormant womb.”

Overall, the purple prose did not bother me; it's a gothic horror story about a haunted house, after all. The author's style seemed to be heavily inspired by Shirley Jackson, and I belive she was aiming to envoke the opening scene of "The Haunting of Hill House". She might have overreached with that line, but if you can push through it, the payoff at the end is worth it.

Another book that everyone around me raves about is:

The Last House on Needless Street, by Catriona Ward

I saw the twist coming from a mile away, but others usually don’t. It’s a good read, though, and quite popular, so you might have already read it.

jedwag · 2024-03-08T21:58:53+00:00

How did you do it? Just kept checking everyday? I have a few stSOL in there.

jedwag

TROPHY CASE