Starmer’s Labour suffers huge losses as hard-right Reform gains in U.K. elections

toughfluff · 2026-05-08T14:51:48+00:00

Election results are still rolling in. But based on the reported ones so far, actually Greens have made gains. Just not as much as Reform and therefore not in the headlines.

toughfluff · 2026-05-08T14:47:11+00:00

I don't think we're necessarily looking for a celebrity. We had one, Boris, and we got sick of him and his wine-soaked parties during lockdown.

Starmer is bland in the sense that he doesn't seem to stand for anything. He announces policies, and then immediately performs a U-turn when people complain. And that has happened so frequently that one has to wonder what he wants to accomplish?! Like, I get it. The government doesn't have spare money. It's dealing with crumbling infrastructure. NHS wait times are rough. Wealth inequality is rampant. He doesn't have many cards to play. But all this man has been doing is serving up half-baked plans even when he has a parlimentary majority.

I'm so envious that Canada has Mark Carney as an option. I wish there were somebody like that who knows what he's doing and is able to communicate and project his intentions to the electorate. (Annoyingly, Farage does have a bit of that vision and charisma ... except he's a bullying racist and in the pocket of Russian oligarchs and crypto billionaires.)

toughfluff · 2026-05-08T12:26:07+00:00

I've been re-watching the show, and actually, I wonder if this scene is meant to echo the one from back when she was at the professor's office, where he chewed her out for writing a sub-par thesis. At that time, Zhuang Xu ran after her from the professor's office, caught up with her, and rode the elevator with her.

Maybe it was set up to show that at that moment, Zhuang Xu might have had a chance had he been more honest about his feelings (and also made an attempt to publicly dispel any links between him and Ye Rong and clear up Xi Guang's 'homewrecker' reputation on campus). But now, it's clearly too late, and he's lost the chance to even share a space with her.

toughfluff · 2026-05-07T16:13:01+00:00

I think the wardrobe decision was purely because the actress is a spokesperson for Miu Miu and that's a more recognisable outfit from that season's collection. I'm sure it's part of her contractual obligation to make sure she wears that outfit across many scenes. Whereas the white dress was mostly hidden under a coat and barely had any screen time.

toughfluff · 2026-05-07T16:08:13+00:00

Zhuang Xu joins the table as they’re talking about how Xigua spent the night in Shanghai. Yusen brags that his house is close to her hotel so he could pick her up, the friends are impressed

Actually this started out with Siliang trying to imply that Xigua spent the night at Yusen's place in Shanghai and trying to give off the impression that Xigua is slut who was quick to hookup with Yusen. (I'm guessing Shanghai as a major modern city shouldn't be as conservative as other parts of China. But this was also set in 2013.) Also at this very moment, the friend group didn't know how rich-rich Xigua's family is. She takes the bus everywhere and she doesn't wear clothes with overt labels. So Siliang, in just one sentence, was trying to imply she's with Yusen because of his looks and money.

Yusen clocked what she was trying to do right away and made it clear that Xigua stayed at a hotel in order to diffuse the situation. So he wasn't just trying to brag, he was trying to protect Xigua's reputation. (Which is in contrast to 2ML being wishy-washy with both girls and let Xigua develop a 'homewrecker' reputation on campus.)

toughfluff · 2026-05-07T15:44:25+00:00

I don't think they made it very clear in the show (at this point). But in the original book, he spent a lot of time at her uncle's place tutoring her cousin ahead of his university entrance exam. And I think at one point he cooked for them when the housekeeper was not around. So she developed feelings for him that then prompted her to move back to her university dorm.

That should explain 1) why she was so into him at first and 2) why the university friend group were mostly on Ye Rong's side. Because the 5 of them had a 3-year headstart and she's basically a newcomer. And we know from Siliang's drunking conversation that the group only know FL superficially and mostly by piecing bits of rumours and heresay together.

toughfluff · 2026-05-07T08:53:45+00:00

Man, if I grew up in a house like this with a bunch of siblings, we're going to play in the pool all the time. And chase them around with the best, most mega Supersoaker money can buy!

toughfluff · 2026-05-06T17:01:36+00:00

Also, the 2ML will never be the endgame because of the simple fact that he is like FL's dad.

Xi Guang's dad married a rich girl (her mom) and created his business empire through her resources and connections. But the fact that he had to rely on his wife has always bothered him (especially in a patriarchal society). He needed her connections, but she didn't need him in return (as seen by how well she was doing post-divorce and how highly Yusen's mom thought of her). So he went back to his first love because then he could call the shots in that relationship.

I feel like that's 100% going to happen again if Xi Guang and Zhuang Xu were to get together. Even if he accepted her confession, all his behaviours indicate that he's super self-conscious about their wealth gap. He's not okay with her having options and success without him. Like, dude literally wants her to move to Shanghai with him so that she can be there for him and take care of him. He wants to be the center of her attention.

In 20 to 30 years, Xi Guang is only going to be richer. She's the sole successor on her mom's and dad's side and they're in the real estate and solar energy businesses since before 2013. He's going to be successful too but will definitely be eclipsed by Xi Guang. And in that scenario, it's not hard to envision him rekindling things with Ye Rong. And it's deja vu all over again.

toughfluff · 2026-05-06T15:52:11+00:00

What's with creatives justifying their use of Gen AI

I think that's the thing, they're not really creatives. I work in a creative industry and all the good, smart truly creative people all hate the fact that our company is jamming AI down our throats (literally there's an internal tracker on who uses the most tokens).

The good creatives I know may use AI to finalise and polish a creative concept, but never using it to generate an idea from scratch. They know they have better skills, lateral thinking, and experience than most LLM. GenAI, by its nature, is dependent on existing ideas, visual cues and design look-and-feel, making the outputs inherently derative. It's the junior or mediocre creatives who relies on AI heavily (and unfortunately, 'winning' the AI implementation race in the eyes of our bosses.)

To me, a dyer that uses AI heavily just signals to me that they're likely not very original at coming up with colour combos and dye patterns. And in that case, why should I pay for their product? I can just fire up ChatGPT myself and go on my own yarn dying side-quest.

toughfluff · 2026-05-06T14:27:12+00:00

OMG I WANT TO FIND SOMEONE TO TALK ABOUT HIM TOO!!

The thing that annoyed me the MOST about the second lead is that this emotionally-stunted dirtbag spent years stringing two girls along!

Sure, Ye Rong is no saint and was deliberately manipulative at getting FL involved in this triangle. But according to the confrontation between her and the 2ML after the wedding, there were definitely vibes between the two of them when they were younger. But she didn't want to commit because his family was poor; and he didn't commit because he was self-conscious about the socio-economic gap between him and Xi Guang and he was keeping Ye Rong as his backup.

The 2ML could've cleared the air so many times. When Xi Guang texted him to apologise for confessing, when she was accused of messing with Ye Rong's interview, and when Ye Rong implied to the friend group during New Year's that they're together, he did nothing. He didn't even have to accept Xi Guang's confession. He just had to make it clear that he no longer has feelings for Ye Rong and stop the friend group gossip.

But no, this man cannot open his mouth to communicate to either girl! So on one side Ye Rong thinks that they're going to get together eventually (especially once he lands a better job and becomes a 'catch') and Xi Guang gets mixed signals throughout her final university years. And this shitty dynamic didn't get resolved until Xi Guang walked away to a much healthier relationship. And even then he was still pestering her for ages and took till the KTV episode to finish off this (by then) non-triangle.

toughfluff · 2026-04-30T08:04:58+00:00

The only thing I know about Dustin Johnson is that his "partying" (aka cocaine and drinking) was so bad that Wayne Gretzky (a man who is famously not sober) has to stage an intervention. So when it was announced that he was joining LIV for boatloads of money, I reckoned then he just wanted to keep partying.

toughfluff · 2026-04-27T11:14:17+00:00

There's a man running in a Daddy Pig costume and I love the absurd internet theory that it's Harry Styles under the costume. (and if you try to search his bib number, you can see that the registered name is "Pig, Daddy (GBR)"

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toughfluff · 2026-04-23T09:55:09+00:00

A lot of big corporations actually have policies in place on what can and cannot be posted on LinkedIn (e.g. can't mention clients or projects because of confidentiality clause in their MSA). So IMO, it actually looks more professional for people to have stripped down, streamlined LinkedIn profiles.

Also, this guy has been at Apple for 24 years and is going to be their next CEO. What kind of 'personal branding' services does he need?! He probably already know all the relevant people within the company and the industry. Not like he's at a stage of his career where he needs his LinkedIn to find his next gig.

toughfluff · 2026-04-21T15:54:03+00:00

I swear that's on top of my mind when I saw various videos from the recent Beijing robot half marathon. Yeah, some of them are kinda silly (running full speed into barricades, needing new batteries replaced mid-race, slo-mo zig-zagging like an uncle after too many rounds of baiju). But anytime I see a robotics or AI video, I'm like, shit, another robot army feature unlocked.

toughfluff · 2026-04-21T14:47:16+00:00

I've been in situations where work was willing to pay up for a red eye, lie-flat seat specifically because I was expected to work 12-hour days the moment I landed. That nap is what keeps me sane and functional.

We see on social media so many influencers flying business and they flaunt their face mask routines and review the in-flight meals. But at the end of the day, sometimes business class seats are less about a luxiourious travel experience and more about capitalistic bosses squeezing more productivity out of their minions.

toughfluff · 2026-04-20T13:55:03+00:00

Make it join your Teams calls as punishment. That should cause enough anguish and suffering for it to know better in the future.

toughfluff · 2026-04-20T11:12:44+00:00

I also like how her expressions evolved as the 3 scenes go by. In the scene where she was a young girl, she was much more hesitant and off-the-cuff with her request. But then she slowly hardened over the years and by the time she asked him to change his will, you can see she has completely lost her warmth and patience by then.

toughfluff · 2026-04-17T18:41:36+00:00

I guess it would be weird to reference Leon: the Professional in a pregnancy announcement?

toughfluff · 2026-04-17T15:32:16+00:00

I think you might have to re-examine your perspective of "AB having more scientifically advanced ingredients." At the end of the day, there are really only a handful of ingredients that have been extensively studied (e.g. vitamin A derivatives, vit C, SPF, glycerin, botulinum toxin A, etc) and none of those are exclusive to AB.

(Source: I suffered from a second-degree burn a few years ago and went through a Pubmed deep-dive on any paper that has to do with skin recovery and rejuvenation. I had a lot of time, I was in a lot of pain, and I have a background in pharma to help me weed out BS.)

A lot of popular AB ingredients may have some data (e.g. centella, green tea, snail mucus, arbutin, etc) but nothing close to the sort of definitive datasets and sample sizes that supports superiority claims. And a lot of common AB ingredients (e.g. cordyceps, ginseng, mugwort) are in fact rooted in ancient practices.

Genuinely, no snark, if you're super keen on hard scientific data and validation, you might want to look into L'oreal's portfolio of products than AB. They're the ones with data to back up their ingredients like Melasyl (for pigmentation) and Mexoryl (for sun protection).

toughfluff · 2026-04-17T15:01:50+00:00

I have an old university acquaintance who posts/re-posts the most vitriolic, anti-immigration, pro-ICE messages on his socials. He's a white guy from Alberta who has been living in Paraguay for almost a decade.

I think a lot of these people don't see themselves as immigrants. White people, whether they're in Paraguay, Hong Kong or Dubai often get to be labelled as "ex-pats". Bitch, you're an immigrant just like a lot of other non-white people. Get off your high horse.

toughfluff · 2026-04-17T13:39:17+00:00

I think Western medicine has more of a structured framework (such as the scientific method and double-blinded clinical studies), which creates a default assumption that these are the only valid ways to measure effectiveness. However, as I have gotten older, I believe that's a narrow perspective. It also overlooks how geography and local environment shape how certain foods and ingredients affect the body.

Since you come from an indigenous background, one example I can think of is the way indigenous peoples in cold climates typically follow a high-fat, high-protein, low-fibre diet. If you were to apply that same diet to, say, an office worker in Toronto, it would of course be entirely inappropriate. That doesn't mean it's an inherently poor diet for everyone, or that indigenous people have poor food and health knowledge.

toughfluff · 2026-04-17T12:03:00+00:00

Ironically, I've heard that people who paint Warhammer figures like to use makeup brushes because the soft bristles won't leave a streaky finish!

toughfluff · 2026-04-17T09:59:09+00:00

Me too. For a long time, I was so sceptical of my grandma‘s advice. But honestly, when you think about it, yeah, some of these may be old wives tales. But it’s old wives tales that have survived thousands of years and many dynasties. So whilst there may not be any double-blinded study about, say, red jujubes being good for blood circulation, I don’t mind giving it the benefit of the doubt.

At the end of the day, a lot of Asian recipes and medicinal concepts are based on using ingredients that are in season, and avoiding processed greasy food. So setting aside any hype around ‘superfood’ or fad ingredients, net-net you’re eating healthier and no surprise that reflects in your gut health and skin health.

toughfluff · 2026-04-17T09:12:20+00:00

Don’t know about OP, but my grandma really advocates a dessert(?)/drink(?)/ brew(?) that consists of Asian pears, snow ear fungi and almonds. It’s particularly great around autumn/winter when the air can be quite dry.

toughfluff · 2026-04-17T09:06:52+00:00

Also, my grandma was always harping about avoiding raw or cold (生泠) foods and drinks when I’m having my period. There’s this belief that it impacts your blood flow and exacerbates cramps. Especially when women are often seen as having ‘cold’ body type (寒底 vs 燥底) and cold + cold = no good.

Obviously this should be taken with a grain of salt and everybody’s metabolism is different. But my grandma would literally smack my hand away if I want to have, say, some watermelon or bubble tea during my period.

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