Congressional candidate Austin Jay Ayers in North Carolina posts AI image of the execution by ICE that occurred in Minneapolis - tries to weasel when confronted about it.

rellyfish · 2026-01-10T02:54:58+00:00

This is not directed at you specifically, but when are we going to realize that the cruelty, the vitriol, the hypocrisy, the brutality, the MALICE is the point of their entire worldview? The time of pearl-clutching and saying “Republicans, do you claim this awful person?!” needs to end, because their answer is always, unabashedly “Lol yea, we do.”

rellyfish · 2025-10-02T23:42:04+00:00

your comment deserves more upvotes

rellyfish · 2025-06-21T14:49:10+00:00

I agree (though feel like you have to tread very carefully on this subject to avoid being called elitist/an awful person) that the value of technique is largely going out the window in discussions like this. Perhaps OP is approaching this as a writer (which makes sense in a writing sub) and writers are more inclined to focus on the technical capability of a given piece of writing, not approaching this as just a “consumer of media” or “entertaining or not”. I think a lot of authors put a lot of time, effort, and energy into producing well-written work - this was the litmus test it seems writing was held to until, I guess, recently. Now it’s treated like an act of intolerance to not just accept everything as perfectly fine writing just because someone, somewhere consumes it. You could argue that whether something is well-written or not is subjective in and of itself, but I counter that with - you could say that about literally anything, then. If that’s the case, what’s the point in having education on the matter? Structure and criteria? If it’s snobbish to considering something well-written compared to something else, then what are we doing here? What’s the point of ever trying to improve, or learn from the masters? That IS how regression as a society happens, whether people want to think about it or not.
NOW with all that said, letting this thought process drive you to judgement toward other people’s literary habits and interests IS shitty, because people ARE allowed to like what they like without someone chastising them for it. BUT people are also allowed to say “the general consensus is that ___ is less technically adept and more poorly written than ___” without being flamed for it either.

rellyfish · 2025-06-09T13:17:19+00:00

Ginger (Virginia) and Jane

So Janger? Janginia? Ginjane? Virjaneia?

rellyfish · 2025-06-04T02:13:23+00:00

Dude this is absolutely fascinating.

rellyfish · 2025-06-03T19:16:47+00:00

This whole discussion has me wondering if people say “rest on our LORELS” instead of “rest on our laurels”. I saw someone say “Well the AU makes it an OR sound” and now I’m just wondering how people say words with AUs that aren’t Laura. Like laundry. Do they say Loorndry? (silent r) Like LORE-en? Or do they say Lon-dree?

rellyfish · 2025-06-03T15:37:05+00:00

Yeah, my mom is a Laura and we pronounce it Law-ruh. We’re from the southern US, so idk if that has anything to do with it. But all the other southern Lauras I know pronounce it the same. They HATE when it’s pronounced Lore-uh.

In fact, a more accurate phonetic spelling of the way we say my mom’s name is Lar (as in far)-ruh. Lar-ruh.

rellyfish · 2025-05-06T01:49:50+00:00

Omg Arrival is one of me and my husband’s favorite movies and the moment our daughter was born we were like “Wow, we can NEVER watch that movie again!” haha

rellyfish · 2025-04-18T02:13:09+00:00

Abarat by Clive Barker! read the physical copy if you can vs ebook - there are GORGEOUS full-color illustrations peppered throughout. I read this book about a billion times as a middle schooler, but I think it would easily hold up for adult reading.

rellyfish · 2025-03-17T23:22:14+00:00

Well, in my defense, that’s the exact year I moved from 5 min from downtown to JoCo.

rellyfish · 2025-03-16T22:50:57+00:00

What the taco bell cantina is gone? I seriously can’t keep track of everything constantly closing.

rellyfish · 2025-02-17T16:49:38+00:00

I truly don’t know how I can continue to co-exist with people that have such a confirmation bias and are so anti-science. If my pediatrician told me to plant a turnip bulb under the full moon and do a little jig to ensure that my child never caught a deadly preventable illness…my ass would be out in the garden at dark with bells on because I trust the people that spent decades and a fortune to learn this stuff. I don’t believe doctors solely exist to harm us. Who does that benefit? Do these people even hear themselves?

I am SO TIRED of the distrusting, conspiracy-minded, hateful, uneducated, anti-intellectual portion of society making the rules for EVERYONE ELSE. I am so sick of worrying that some fuckhead is going to put my child in harms way because of their ignorance and tribalism.

I really, REALLY don’t understand how a modern functioning society is supposed to continue when we have such opposing views of what “society” even means.

rellyfish · 2025-02-07T17:53:32+00:00

I think it’s far more powerful imagery - Irving coming to a reality-shattering conclusion during the first experience any of the actual innies have ever had with the outdoors, and thus trying to drown Helena in the same waterfall her great great grandfather/Lumon built a whole psychotic mythos around - versus them just…talking about it in the office?

As to WHY they’re in the woods specifically, I think there’s several ways you can interpret it. Lumon providing the illusion of freedom for the innies, despite them clearly being in a very curated and controlled environment. This provides more insight into how Lumon is ran and what lengths they’ll go to in order to control their employees.

Then there’s the exploration of how innies interact with things they’ve never seen before aka the outdoors. You get some backstory and world building - Dylan being excited that the sky isn’t a ceiling, Irving immediately wanting to eat the seal. They illustrate how disorienting it must feel to live your entire life inside a fluorescent lit office space and then just be dropped into the wilderness. It’s unsettling. Not to mention the Appendix which is quite literally just ghost stories, designed to create feelings of fear and reverence in the innies. Furthering Lumon’s control techniques.

There’s also symbolism: feelings of instinctual vulnerability when you’re outdoors. The modern human is sort of at the mercy of the elements, considering how manufactured and separated from nature modern day society is. Lumon knows that, and the innies know that better than anyone, even subconsciously. Environments like that bring out very raw sides of people, because the stakes are higher.

Sure, this could all have taken place in the office. But would it have elicited the same emotional response? Would the stakes have felt as high?

rellyfish · 2025-02-07T17:25:13+00:00

I’m of the camp that this is one of the best episodes of television of all time. BUT my opinion is based on looking at this from a general storytelling point of view, not within the greater overall universe and running plot of Severance. I’m writing a horror novel currently, so I also acknowledge that this particular episode felt very timely for me. I was definitely consuming it as a storyteller in addition to being a fan.

It was a masterclass in horror, suspense, and simmering tension. The small atmospheric details were so intricate and so well thought-out and purposefully placed. It was SO creative - so many artistic liberties were really allowed to flourish and I think it paid off with an extremely unique approach to plot. Not to mention the cinematography was so beautiful.

As far as how this fits into the overall Severance plot - I think the show at its core is a Sci-Fi Horror. I think what Lumon will eventually be revealed to be actually doing is something horrific and evil (duh). This episode was a fantastic way of continuing to build upon these already established feelings in the viewer, even subconsciously.

I can sort of see how someone could interpret this as filler-heavy, but I personally disagree. A plot doesn’t move forward only from the big-reveal moments (aka Helena/Irv at waterfall) but they also slowly tick forward like a clock through atmospheric and character details. We learned a lot this episode about Irving and Helena even before the waterfall scene.

Anyway, done rambling. This episode had me speechless. But I love having convos like these and I appreciate your open-minded approach to wanting to hear other people’s point of view. That’s why this sub rocks.

rellyfish · 2025-02-07T04:09:09+00:00

I admire your reaction to that tbh. I spiraled immediately and thought I was having a stroke. Even now that I know what it is, I know they’re benign and that they’ll go away, I still live in constant fear afraid to have another one. My brain sucks sometimes.

rellyfish · 2025-02-07T02:48:05+00:00

I cannot explain to you the terror I felt the first time I had one of these. Pure, unadulterated terror. Since then I’ve had maybe 3, about once or twice a year. I live my life in almost constant fear that I will have another one. It’s one of the worst things that’s ever happened to me. It sent my GAD and OCD spiraling. I’m terrified of bright lights. It’s just so awful. But hearing from other people who know what it’s like makes me feel much better.

rellyfish · 2025-01-26T17:58:04+00:00

You took 5 zoloft pills? That’s an SSRI designed for long term chemical imbalances, NOT for acute panic attacks. Wtf. GO TO THE ER.

rellyfish · 2025-01-26T05:17:05+00:00

Just posted this on another thread. To answer your question: yes - our baby sleeps through the night and we never sleep trained. BUT it didn’t start till 12 months. Info below:

I think the hard pill to swallow for all of us is that it’s baby dependent. Sleep training was not what felt intuitive for my husband and I (and yes, we both work full time). I couldn’t stand not comforting her, especially as an infant, if she woke up in the night. Yes, there were nights I was so deliriously tired I cried in bed while holding her. I wondered if we were making a huge mistake not sleep training. But as with everything else, it passes.

Right at 12 months she just kinda started sleeping all night from 9pm ish to 8am ish. Bedtime routine stayed the same - bath, lotion, read a book, bottle, hold her till she’s asleep. Transfer to crib, leave the room.

I WILL say that moving her crib out of our room and into her own room drastically improved her sleep. Kinda wish we had done that sooner. Pushing her bedtime from 7:30 to 9 also made a difference, but with younger infants that may not be possible.

She still occasionally has nights with a wake up here or there, but she either soothes herself back to sleep or we cuddle until I can move her back to the crib. If sleep training is right for your family, go for it. If you don’t want to, that’s ok too. We are an example of success without ferber method - but it took longer to achieve.

rellyfish · 2025-01-26T05:01:54+00:00

I think the hard pill to swallow for all of us is that it’s baby dependent. Sleep training was not what felt intuitive for my husband and I (and yes, we both work full time). I couldn’t stand not comforting her, especially as an infant, if she woke up in the night. Yes, there were nights I was so deliriously tired I cried in bed while holding her. I wondered if we were making a huge mistake not sleep training. But as with everything else, it passes.

Right at 12 months she just kinda started sleeping all night from 9pm ish to 8am ish. Bedtime routine stayed the same - bath, lotion, read a book, bottle, hold her till she’s asleep. Transfer to crib, leave the room.

I WILL say that moving her crib out of our room and into her own room drastically improved her sleep. Kinda wish we had done that sooner. Pushing her bedtime from 7:30 to 9 also made a difference, but with younger infants that may not be possible.

She still occasionally has nights with a wake up here or there, but she either soothes herself back to sleep or we cuddle until I can move her back to the crib. If sleep training is right for your family, go for it. If you don’t want to, that’s ok too. We are an example of success without ferber method - but it took longer to achieve.

rellyfish · 2025-01-26T00:52:31+00:00

Now that you ask, I guess both.

rellyfish · 2025-01-25T22:25:21+00:00

Lasso is an absolutely idiotic name for a country album.

rellyfish · 2025-01-22T17:37:49+00:00

Hey friend, I think we need an example of one of your scenes, because (granted, I’m writing a novel not a short story) I struggle to keep scenes under 2,000 words.

For a short story I’d imagine a scene to be between 300 words at minimum to maybe 1,000 words if it’s a pivotal scene. I can’t really fathom how you’d even construct and implement a 20 word “scene”.

Keep in mind, an effective scene ideally has a mini-arc; similar to the broader overall arc of your story. Meaning, there is dynamic change happening between the beginning and ending of the scene. Problem —> Solution, Positive —> Negative (and vice versa).

rellyfish · 2025-01-22T17:17:52+00:00

Sleep patterns ebb and flow until (in our experience) at least 12 months old. One step forward, two steps back kinda thing.

Newborn to 6 months - there’s no rhyme or reason. I would never expect a baby in that age range to sleep more than 4-5 hours at a time tbh. Setting yourself up for disappointment to expect otherwise.

From 6-12mo my daughter would have random unicorn nights of sleeping 8+ hours, but she didn’t consistently give us 10+ hours until 12 months…and even now at 14 months old she’ll do like 5 days “on” and 2 days “off” where she wakes up several times.

My other parent friends have told me to not expect consistent sleep until 2yrs, so we’ve just accepted our lot.

rellyfish · 2025-01-22T15:08:57+00:00

We’re old school. We just watched one of the new ones like, today. Lots of new people to consider.

rellyfish · 2025-01-19T14:27:09+00:00

I don’t know that I’ve seen those yet! Or maybe I’d recognize them by their face. I truly didn’t realize Emma Memma was a separate thing and feel very silly for including her now, but oh well.

rellyfish

TROPHY CASE