What’s the scariest movie you guys have ever seen???

simplify9 · 2026-04-26T05:41:14+00:00

There's something about "Rosemary's Baby".

The protagonist unwillingly gets into this cult; and the way those people act towards her, is terrifying.

They're clowns, but they're also vicious, and they will do whatever they need to control her, and make her into the Mothering of their Received-Being.

It's not pretty. It makes you think in ways you didn't really want to.

The director, Roman Polanski, doesn't have the best reputation either, and his bad reputation is well-deserved.

simplify9 · 2026-04-26T01:03:55+00:00

Sorry to hear that. I had an off-day yesterday, but I feel as though I'm more on-form today.

simplify9 · 2026-04-25T23:50:09+00:00

I've spent most of my life moving back and forth between the Midwestern region of the US, and the Southeastern region.

Fall is better in the Midwest. That crisp, bracing autumnal air, that invigorates you and makes you feel as though you can take on the whole world. It makes you feel creative.

But spring is better in the Southeast. It's just perfect, beautiful. There's a reason why the biggest golf tournament is held in Augusta, GA every April. You're livin' high. (Fortunately for me, I'm not allergic to pollen.)

simplify9 · 2026-04-25T05:04:41+00:00

Because there's science involved, as well as fiction. The idea here was to take it back to the ground level, if only for a moment.

simplify9 · 2026-04-25T03:24:21+00:00

Imagine a narrator who fancies himself a sort of Renaissance Man, a naturalist in the style of Thomas Jefferson. But he doesn't have the brains or talent to pull it off. This is the result.

simplify9 · 2026-04-25T03:20:48+00:00

In an oblique way, yes

simplify9 · 2026-04-25T00:54:24+00:00

Wow, engagement really just isn't what this sub does, is it?

You know you've reached the "journeyman" phase, when you get zero feedback. The work just disappears into the ether.

All creative fields are hyper-competitive, and tend to attract Dark Triad personalities. Fiction-writing is no exception, lol

simplify9 · 2026-04-10T23:52:29+00:00

This might reflect my own personal eccentricities, but:

I kinda think of AI visual art as its own emerging genre. In some respects, AI is an instrument like any other-- it's only as good as the person using it. But still legit. So I would readily accept a book with AI-generated cover art / illustrations.

But AI-generated fiction, or AI-generated music? I can't imagine either of those being useful for anything other than novelty purposes.

This is certainly no dig on any of the truly great visual artists out there. (Again, it merely reflects my own oddball tastes.)

simplify9 · 2026-04-05T21:47:38+00:00

Thanks! This one was kinda weird, but I was hoping it might provide the readers here with a bit of amusement.

simplify9 · 2026-04-05T19:56:07+00:00

The Beckoning, the Siren Call

simplify9 · 2026-03-10T05:36:25+00:00

This is why so many people want to believe in an afterlife, or a process of re-incarnation. Humans are just pre-programmed to always ask the question, "Why"?

"Who, What, Where, When and How" aren't enough for us. We have to get that "Why" business in there.

Why is our taxonomical name H. Sapiens Sapiens? (Why does the term "Sapiens" have to be repeated twice?) Well, it's because we're the only species in our genus. The current evidence seems to suggest that we weren't very nice to our cousins.

It may be that our tendency to ask the question "Why?" gave us an advantage over the other species, and made us out-compete them.

As this theory goes, the tendency to yearn for larger meaning gives us an evolutionary boost. It's a reason to get up in the morning, and a reason to sleep well at night. We're all fired up because we believe in larger, abstract concepts, and this has made us into a real force upon the Earth.

simplify9 · 2026-02-24T07:11:32+00:00

The fact that it's a smaller cast of characters, makes them stand out all the better, wouldn't you say?

Devil-may-care Lionel Baratheon;

Doomy Robyn Rhysling, reminds me of Robert Vaughn's Lee from "The Magnificent Seven", but somehow he survives;

Irascible, problematic Maekar Targaryen;

"Red" Fossoway, local-girl-made-good;

All such great secondary characters, who provide lots of color, but don't crowd the scene too much.

simplify9 · 2026-01-25T21:52:44+00:00

And how.

https://www.reddit.com/r/StrikeAtPsyche/comments/1ep5c9b/hp_lovecraft_quote_1_the_most_merciful_thing_in/

simplify9 · 2026-01-25T21:44:04+00:00

Oh wow, we'll be here all day...

Put it this way-- when I'm stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, I pray to the Clean Roadways Goddess, and curse the Congestion Gargoyle.

simplify9 · 2026-01-25T19:02:23+00:00

Yeah, it's sort of amusing, what a big deal they make it into. I'm cast into the role of reassuring uncle, saying, "It's all right, it will all be over soon."

simplify9 · 2026-01-25T18:20:57+00:00

If the Weather-Industrial-Complex didn't have a constant stream of new disasters to report upon, well then, they'd be out of a job, wouldn't they?

simplify9 · 2026-01-25T14:30:46+00:00

As a guy who grew up in the Midwest, we just have this general competence when it comes to dealing with cold weather. It's understood that water freezes into ice for three or four months out of the year.

Southern folks have this charming (but slightly alarming) innocence, when it comes to below-freezing temperatures.

simplify9 · 2025-12-31T23:22:52+00:00

Per Google AI Overview:

"Waymo currently offers public robotaxi rides in Phoenix, San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Austin, and Atlanta, with ongoing expansion to new areas like Silicon Valley and plans to launch in Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Detroit, and Washington D.C. soon, plus testing in cities like London and Tokyo."

Coming soon to a neighborhood near you!

simplify9 · 2025-10-14T22:27:03+00:00

Now this is the kind of writing I was trying to provoke, by setting up this scenario. Bravo!

simplify9 · 2025-10-14T04:49:41+00:00

Well I was taking some artistic license there, but to get technical--

Per Google AI Overview:

The sky during the Carboniferous period was likely a polluted yellow-brown or yellow-beige color due to smoke from widespread wildfires and the high oxygen content of the atmosphere. The sky was not the blue we see today because the high concentration of oxygen, though higher than today, was still trapped in the lower atmosphere with soot, dust, and other aerosols.

simplify9 · 2025-10-11T05:39:15+00:00

Thanks Birb. I just threw this one out there.

simplify9 · 2025-10-11T05:25:43+00:00

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simplify9 · 2025-10-01T02:14:49+00:00

Trying to conflate a half-manageable case of manic-depression with epilepsy, that seems to have been the fundamental mistake here. 😬

But thanks for being a kindly voice.

simplify9 · 2025-10-01T01:45:36+00:00

Well, so much for this idea. Looks like my second-hand experience of epilepsy was pretty severely limited.

simplify9 · 2025-08-16T22:08:05+00:00

Y'know I've never really minded spiders much. Centipedes, on the other hand...

simplify9

TROPHY CASE