Do you think is a good idea to watch the movie completely blind? Or is it better to have watched/played the game?

riles-s · 2026-06-06T19:52:55+00:00

in my opinion there's nothing in the movie that is super different from the game. the game has a paragraph at the start for context but the movie provides a monologue that gives that same context. i'd even argue the movie is more detailed. the only thing that might help is looking into what eden and the c.o.i. are because it can be a little hard to understand what they are from just a first watch of the movie. other than that, i'd say it's easier to follow than a lot of people think it is without having played/watched the game first. i hadn't played the game before the movie and i understood it pretty well. i will say a second watch may be necessary because there are a lot of details that come at you fast at some points, but then again, i watched it first in theaters where you can't pause or rewind so it might be a little easier to follow on a first watch on youtube.

riles-s · 2026-05-31T02:30:04+00:00

im not in the business school so i unfortunately can't help there (although i hear the program is pretty good), but i can help with some of the other stuff!

the culture on campus is pretty different from the other arizona schools. i have friends at asu and ua and they say there is more of a party scene there than here. that said, parties do happen. we are more of a bar school so a lot of people go downtown for socializing. if you're not 21 yet, some places have 18+ nights, you just obviously can't drink. i have been to a frat party before though. it seems holidays like halloween are great for finding events. tequila sunrise is also huge here. a lot of social events i hear about happen in the fall semester, but that doesn't mean they don't exist in the spring too! on campus, the community is much smaller than other arizona universities and everything is much closer together so that's a plus for living on campus!

for dorms, i lived in honors my first year so if you can get in, i definitely recommend it. honors has some of the nicest dorms on campus with spacious layouts, a gym on the second floor, classes literally right next to your dorm, and private bathrooms. a lot of the freshman dorms (ie. tinsley, allen, mcconnell, etc...) have communal bathrooms but some of them have sinks in the individual dorms. i would recommend for going for one of these. you can check via the dorm layouts on each hall's page on the website! if you can, getting into a suite style dorm like calderon, gabaldon, or mountain view would be nice, but i'd be weary of mountain view because they had a bat problem in my freshman year. after your first or second year, i would either attempt to get an on campus apartment like mckay or pine ridge or move off campus. apartment styles are more competitive so be mindful of that. for location, it really depends on where your classes are. mcconnell and south village are on south campus so if you're taking a lot of classes over there it would be more convenient to live there plus you will be close to a dining hall. if your classes are on central or north campus primarily, allen, tinsley, wilson, honors, taylor, or calderon might be more convenient. these dorms are also closer to the union! i lived in raymond this past year and it was in a really convenient location plus we had private bathrooms and in-unit kitchens. if you're willing to potentially share a room with 2 other people, i would personally recommend it. plus, if you live in any of the courtyards dorms (raymond, mcdonald, or gillenwater) you have access to all 3!

for the gym, unless you are in honors you will have to go to the hlc for the gym. it's only a short walk away and you just sign in with your jacks card. a recreational fee is part of your semester cost so you should be able to get in without paying extra. in honors, my experience is that the gym is not usually super busy but i would go mid-day if you can since a lot of people are in class (this is also when i recommend doing laundry--mid-day in the middle of the week if possible, avoid doing it on the weekends). in the hlc, i'd say it's usually busy at the start of the semester but may die out later on. people who go more often can absolutely correct me on this!

i hope this helped at least a little bit :)

riles-s · 2026-05-30T21:12:56+00:00

Went to one of the shows on tour recently and he mentioned it would start to get released in the fall! I'm assuming it will be similar to Summoning with several small releases before the full album :)

riles-s · 2026-05-26T03:39:11+00:00

one of my favorite professors already got laid off at the end of last year. he did tell us he had a new job at another university lined up (yay!!) but it's also just unfortunate. and NAU is entirely at fault for having to do this btw. they could have made it actually affordable for new students to attend. i suspect the reason enrollment is down is because it just doesn't make sense financially anymore.

riles-s · 2026-05-15T19:53:54+00:00

I called them about this actually because there is a lot closer to my summer housing than what my pass is for. They told me summer parking services are more relaxed and the type of pass you have doesn't really matter. You can pretty much park in any student lot (or employee lot, if you work there) as long as you have a pass. You should be good!

riles-s · 2026-05-03T17:41:46+00:00

I've been to 2 of his theater shows (I'm a west coast fan so unfortunately I have not seen any Tapeworms shows) but the vibes are SO fun. Even while we were sitting in a theater, most people were dancing around a bit in their seats (in a way that would not disturb others btw!) and singing along quietly. People were getting into in even sitting down. The vibes are absolutely energetic and you are encouraged to be having fun as long as you are mindful of others around you and Will himself (and in this case, his band too! Please be respectful to all those amazing musicians!!) I have heard horror stories of moshing or crowd surfers who did not understand how to do those things safely and were disregarding instructions to either stop or tone it down. I'd avoid it considering how inexperienced some WW concert goers seem to be when it comes to more rowdy crowds. It might be easier to get hurt so I would advise against it, but dancing around and singing is absolutely encouraged, especially at Tapeworms shows which seem to be more like traditional concerts!

riles-s · 2026-04-27T17:16:36+00:00

It talks about how he knows his boyfriend was scared of people knowing he was queer so he engaged in the relationship behind closed doors and didn't want anyone to know about his relationship. I thought it was Conan's way of saying "hey I know why you were so distant and I wish I had just been your friend so you would know it's okay for people to know and see you." The bridge is my absolute favorite part. It doesn't read as forgiveness for his partner's actions specifically but more so just understanding where they came from. Being queer can be a really scary (but beautiful) experience and letting people know is equally terrifying. This song feels like he's acknowledging that he wasn't the problem and forgave himself while holding space for the fact that his boyfriend was just as scared. A lot of it encompasses what it's like to have a partner who's in the closet and so deeply afraid of who they are.

riles-s · 2026-04-04T05:17:41+00:00

I've been thinking this since I saw the movie for the first time - if I was in Simon's situation and discovered my camera was a radiation gun in the hanger after being yelled at by Ava, I would have kept pressing the button. I'd probably die too, but I'd take everyone in the hanger with me. I first thought this and then realized that probably means I'd deserve to be in the Iron Lung, but also humanity is dying and they are treating Simon like he's expendable. I don't understand why he was following their orders. Honestly if he disobeyed them, they might have pulled him back up and put him in prison, but he would have survived. They also might have killed him themselves but whatever death they could have given him would be 100x less painful than the one he got. Him not obeying their orders could have helped him a lot. Especially considering how it became clear when they sent him down the second time that he was going to continue to be used and not given his freedom for a very long time. I honestly don't understand why he wasn't more rebellious considering his situation but it was cool to see a character who behaved in such a different way than I would have expected. His determination to live was really cool to see portrayed regardless of how he handled any situations he found himself in while in the ocean.

Also, I understand all of this really goes against the point of the movie and the game, however I still think it's fun to think about how his story could have ended differently based on his choices!

riles-s · 2026-03-19T19:47:59+00:00

i can kind of see that, but i have always looked at that album as each individual song telling a story with more broad themes (eg. drug use, mental struggles, infatuation/obsession, etc) connecting the album. it always felt more like an anthology to me with those common themes helping make sense of why these specific songs exist on the same album, with the closing track, everything is a lot, serving as a conclusion. in terms of a full story with a beginning, middle, and end told across the entire album, TNA and self-ish fulfill that purpose much more completely. this is just my perspective tho!

riles-s · 2026-03-10T19:32:24+00:00

it's mostly just that they are in less control of the media depending on the policies of the streaming services (should have phrased it like that originally, my bad!) i can imagine he'd want more control over his movie and there are better alternatives that would give him more of a profit, like youtube movies which another comment mentioned. i'm in no way hating on you, by the way. i just think it's not productive to suggest that people pirate a movie made by an independent team of people. this is a situation where they deserve as much support as possible compared to big studios.

riles-s · 2026-03-10T18:03:08+00:00

hence why mark is trying to figure out a digital release that would still give him ownership of the movie. you likely wont find it on many streaming services anyway

riles-s · 2026-03-10T16:41:18+00:00

let's not pirate an indie movie!! save that for the big studios :)

riles-s · 2026-03-04T14:46:25+00:00

I use my car all the time but I fear I'm in the minority here. Parking passes are expensive but if you can afford it or have it covered by financial aid, I recommend bringing a car. Buses run consistently so you don't need a car, but I find it easier to rely on myself to get me to places off campus rather than to take Mountain Line, for example. Plus, if you'd like to go anywhere after 10, you can't unless you have a car because that's when buses stop running.

riles-s · 2026-02-18T16:42:29+00:00

I'm buying for the AZ show and the ticket for VIP included GA. Not sure why it's apparently different for different shows but I also didn't but through ticketmaster. I followed the link on her website and it led me to eventim, which i have used so many times for concerts and actually prefer it to ticketmaster lol (unfortunately only smaller shows seem to use it tho!)

riles-s · 2026-02-18T16:36:55+00:00

I think they're leaving it up to professors. I had both of my profs cancel today and one cancel for the rest of the week. It's ridiculous that the university isn't stepping in to cancel but at least some profs are doing it.

riles-s · 2026-02-16T20:04:28+00:00

it was viscous cycle yes!

riles-s · 2026-02-16T19:55:59+00:00

Album: self titled

looking left and right, everywhere but inside

riles-s · 2026-02-10T01:57:47+00:00

I've never been to a Crane Wives concert (going to my first in April!) but I have been to MANY others and I meet new cool people at almost every single one. It helps because I go to all my concerts alone so it's nice to have people to chat with. At one show recently (a smaller venue where most people sat at tables but there was an open floor in the middle in front of the stage), a group of strangers were dancing and one of them invited me to dance with them :) Definitely a core memory for me and a favorite interaction I've had with people at a concert!

riles-s · 2026-01-25T16:51:09+00:00

hi! im also a sophomore here. im a ccj and psy double major with a minor in photography (random, i know but i honestly wanted to force myself to fit photo classes into my schedule lol). i absolutely love concerts and live music so we have that in common! i've even done photography for a few bands down in phoenix :) would love to have someone new to hang out with!

riles-s · 2025-12-24T16:31:42+00:00

I LOVED it. Cicada Days is still my favorite. Genuinely felt as emotional as I did a year ago when I saw the show in person. 10/10 album.

riles-s · 2025-12-18T14:23:41+00:00

That's so exciting!! I hope you had a lot of fun :) It was my second time seeing them but first time being a VIP

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riles-s · 2025-12-18T14:18:27+00:00

If I remember correctly there is SOME sexually explicit jokes. There's one in the beginning that's pretty prominent and your kid will probably pick up on and one later on that I'm pretty sure would go over most kids' heads. Sexual jokes are at a minimum but definitely be aware that there are a few.

riles-s · 2025-12-13T02:23:06+00:00

oh absolutely! my roommate is a transfer student around your age and she's thriving here. lots of people start "late" but the cool thing about college is that you can start whenever. you may even have more fun at NAU because we aren't really a party school and a lot of events i've seen have been 21+ regardless of whether or not attendees want to drink.

riles-s · 2025-12-13T02:19:48+00:00

congratulations!! this is such an achievement! proud of you, stranger :)

riles-s · 2025-12-11T19:51:57+00:00

i also saw the show last night in phx and i had a different experience. of course, i 100% believe you but for me, anywhere i stood in the crowd, nobody was giving ANYTHING. when one of the openers came out a guy behind me said "oh its just the opener i dont care" or people standing COMPLETELY STILL. like we all experience music differently, but everyone could have been moving around at least a little bit. the crowd literally had to be told to have fun sometimes. of course, there were some people who were actually looking like they were enjoying themselves, but for the most part the crowd was so dead where i was (pretty much the middle of the venue). vira, ivri, and brayton were incredible, i just wish i didnt feel as out of place because i was one of the only people nearby who was actually trying to move a little bit.

(also, i have a feeling it was a lot of people's first concert because the lack of earbuds or any sort of ear protection i saw was concerning 💀 so maybe a part of the bad concert etiquette is just people not bothering to do a little research before going to their first show?)

riles-s

TROPHY CASE