cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/47911444

Book Lovers, by Emily Henry, is actually really good. I feel like it has a rather severe case of last-100-pages syndrome, but... Well, I can only remember the last 5 minutes of my life at any given time, so I suppose that makes us a perfect pair.

I'm not sure I have the words to describe how this book has made me feel, but I'll try anyway. For one, it makes me feel like I never, ever want to not only be in a relationship, but I also never want anyone to love me romantically. It seems like such a magnanimously horrific, terribly contrived, and simply unbearable experience. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy, but somehow it seems that that's actually the evil thing to think, so I guess I would actually wish love on my worst enemy, but let it be known that's a compromise between my own dreadful hate of love and society's incomprehensible yearning for it.

Hell is other people. Book Lovers is The Bible, but only

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/47836613

Alright, I know that title is a little odd, but stick with me.

I'm reading Book Lovers, by Emily Henry, and I've been feeling very weird.

For one, I think it's not very good at all! Maybe it's because I'm an awkward guy, probably aroace and seemingly agender, and, as such, that book is, quite simply, not for me; but it might also be because it's genuinely weird. Many of the goings-on of the plot are terribly weird, to me. Something I can kind of get over - not really... - is that they don't want to get together because they work together. I mean, they don't even work together that much, for starters, but even if they did... So what? My parents work together. They've worked together for some 20 years. Same thing with many other people. It's not that weird. Whatever. I don't like the book very much, so far, but I'm willing to take it to the end.

Now, here's the real kicker: what the fuck? Is this what women li

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/47679815

Have you guys seen stuff like that? People talking about drama and such being "huge news for the unemployed" and such.

On one hand, I think it's a little bit funny. As a serial unemployed person myself, I have to assume that many - shall I wager, most? - of the unemployed aren't actually spending all their time browsing the internet looking for niche micro-celebrity wannabe influencer drama to rot over, but I think the expression is moreso making light of people that are leeching off of others for no good reason and choose to spend their time dragging their crummy eyes over Twitter threads in hopes of finding a crumb of dirt to write a mean comment about some online nobody in a comment section. Which makes it funny!

On the other hand, however, I feel like it can be used to dismiss serious issues. For example, sometimes meaningful change is being discussed - such as the [SKG initiative](https://www.stopkillinggames.c

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/47592466

I think people are nice.

I have a lot of thoughts about people and the nature of crowds and mobs, but I think that, on an individual level, most people are rather delightful. It's not that most people are necessarily someone I'd like to hang out with, but I do think most people are generally trustworthy individuals that just want things to work out well for everybody. Especially themselves, perhaps, but everybody.

Yesterday, a lady - I think she was Dutch, based on accent alone - asked me for help, me and another guy, but I ended up providing the help. She was really nice, and I was really nice. The other guy was also really nice and pleasant. It was just... Normal. Interestingly, I also met 4 other people yesterday: my new boss, and 3 of my new coworkers. My boss was stellar, one of my coworkers seemed delightful, though the other two seemed to be, let's say, in a bad mood. They were abrasive and they sounded and a

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/47518472

I got the job!!

I had a job interview today and it went well. As good as it can go, I suppose, since I got the job. I'm signing the contract on the 11th of July, but I only actually start working on the 1st of September. So, as feared, I'll be jobless for a couple more months... But hey, progress!

The pay is good, the work is good, the boss is stellar - or at least really good at fooling me into thinking he's stellar - and it's in the city I used to live in, so that's great. I love that city very much, even though I only spent less than a year actually living there. It's just really nice.

Speaking of money. I used to earn around 1259€/month as grant money, which was nice because I paid no tax, but not so nice because there were no benefits otherwise. In Portugal, people usually earn 14 months' worth - since you get a month's salary as a vacation subsidy and another month's worth as Christmas subsidy - but gran

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/47415360

Today, I got a call. It was from a job I applied to today, some research project from an AI and biomedical device company. As a bioengineer with some experience working with biomedical devices, that appealed to me quite a bit.

The interview is tomorrow, early in the afternoon. I'm a little nervous, but I know I'll be much more nervous soon enough - especially tomorrow. Still, I'm fine. I was starting to get a little... Unhappy, with the current situation. I've been unemployed for 2 months now after quitting my PhD... My parents were starting to get on my ass. Well, hopefully this goes well. The guy that called me - the guy from the company - was actually really nice and he seemed very excited to hire me, frankly. He said that he thought that I was probably a really good match. I hope so!

Nothing can be perfect, of course. Firstly, it's in a different city... Though, it's in the city that I was living in previously

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/47341843

Today, I had lunch with my granny. She made roasted potatoes and octopus. I freaking love octopus and roasted potatoes! The food was tasty, and I very much enjoyed dessert: cherries and chocolate cake.

My grandma has a bit of an off-and-on relationship with baking, I feel like. She bakes rather often, but she's not very good at it at all. Occasionally, though, she'll manage to come out with a gem like today. She really hit it out of the park!

Most importantly, though, I got to spend some time with her and have a nice chat. Hear a little about what she's been doing and whatnot. It's nice.

I didn't do much today, outside of that. I ended up not rearranging my clothes, which is fine; I'll always have tomorrow. I do also have some clothes I should probably pick up.

On another note, I found a really nice Japanese YT channel! It's a girl vlogging her life. She speaks really fast, way too fast, but I can kind o

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/47266844

I had sushi with my grandma, my brother, and his friend, today. It was good. Very good, even!

I always have the same pieces, but today I felt like branching out a little bit. I didn't pick anything too different - not that there's that many weird pieces available at the buffet, mind you - but I did try a few that I usually don't. Namely, one with some white stuff that I thought was mayo, for some reason. It didn't look like mayo, but I vaguely remember trying it a long time ago (read: a couple years, at most) and being unhappily surprised that it tasted like mayo, so that was my expectation. Thing is: I love mayo. I believe the reason I elected to pick that one to be obvious. It turned out to not be mayo at all, but rather some kind of cheese thing, maybe cream cheese or something. I don't know the words for this stuff. It was too white to be mayo, in retrospect.

I also had some time to speak to my granny, which w

Today, I finally finished rereading A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers.

It was fantastic and delightful in every way, absolutely incredible - perhaps even more than I remembered. This makes me want to reread The Night Circus as well; if this one was this good, than that one might be that good. Perchance.

Currently, though, I'm reading A Prayer for the Crown-Shy. Well, it's OK. I like it, sure, but I'm liking it much less. For one, I think the novelty - maybe... - has worn off a bit. The world is brilliant and inviting - luscious, as per Martha Wells - but now that I've been introduced to it in the first book, it doesn't hit as hard in the second. Maybe. I think this logic is a little flawed, since I did enjoy it very much on reread. I don't know.

We might be going into some conflict resolution soon, but I guess I do feel like not much conflict has existed in the first, what, 3/4ths of the book? It's still pretty and all, and there's some insight to be gleaned, certainly

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/47108238

My youngest cousin is gonna have his first communion this coming August, and I'm likely to attend.

It's not a very formal event, but it's also not exactly something you're supposed to show up to in ripped shorts and a graphic tee. I've been thinking it through, and I think I don't really have appropriate clothes to take! Well, I do have jeans, some reasonable shoes, and a dress shirt - maybe that's enough - but I thought that this could be a good opportunity to get some "fancier" clothes, in relative terms. Nothing actually fancy like a suit, but just something a bit smarter that I could take to interviews, for example.

I thought that a polo shirt might be good. It's not formal, but it's definitely a step up from my usual Hard Rock Cafe shirts. Also, it's casual enough that it wouldn't really be weird to wear out and about, I hope.

Really, I wanted pants. I did have a list, at some point, of what pants I w

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/47024388

While browsing YT - as one does - I came across the video linked in this post.

It elicited in me a certain feeling that I have never felt before. It's a certain kind of warmth, a weird sort of absolute peace permeating my very being.

Is this... Love?

Perchance.

Regardless, I think it's really cool. There are a few of these looks-old-but-isn't videos out there - they come up on my recommended occasionally - but they do always leave me wondering; did these people find old videos and decide to upload them now, or did they just genuinely record something with a 20 year potato? Alternatively, did they record it with an average modern recording device - say, a modern smartphone - and then purposefully deteriorate the quality to make it look like an old video? Questions.

For the record, I wanted to use the verb degenerate instead of deteriorate, there, but, for some reason, it just didn't feel right. I'm n

I have spotted a blue tree, out there in the wild.

Well, I say blue but really I don't know what colour it actually is - I'm colourblind, so it could easily be purple or something, or pink. It's cute though. There's all this green and brown and vague shades of yellow in the foliage, and then there's a splash of blue. Very nice.

You know what else is blue? The sky. There are no clouds, so it really is just blue. It's so fucking hot, man. It's just, it's melting over here. I'm dripping with sweat and every movement costs me double the energy. It's crushing. Somehow, though, I'm pretty sure it fucking HAILED last night! HAIL! Can you believe it? I heard the ice striking my freaking window man, it woke me up. It was a little scary, frankly, but I was a big boy and didn't shiver too much. I foresee a nightmare, tonight.

Naturally, there is absolutely 0 chance in hell that I can wear anything other than the lightest possible clothes. Shorts and a T.

Actually, today I thought about m

A few days ago, I spoke with my brother about persistent-world games. Now, I'm not much of a gamer, myself - I play mostly single-player strategy games and turn-based multiplayer strategy games - but he does play some more MMO and RPG experiences. He plays LoL and BG3, as well as a few other games. As such, while I don't trust his judgement more than I would trust the judgement of a piece of rubble - he is my younger brother, after all - I do believe that he has more insight into this issue than I do.

I remember playing Travian, as a youngin. I didn't play it a lot because I was young and dumb, but I vividly remember adoring the concept. Eventually, I transitioned to CoC, but I ended up dropping it too. Now, reading Shadow Slave, I'm reminded of why I liked them so much. The reason is that I love persistent-worlds. I think the idea of a game wherein players conquer pieces of territory and then battle each other on a shared world is really cool and interesting.

Naturally, RPGs - spec

Conceptually, I think that's really cool.

I had this idea, a few days ago, for a novel wherein a detective that can learn about people by digging in their guts (à la haruspex). They get hired by the government to investigate the death of a high-ranking official, and then well it turns out to be bigger than an isolated incident yadda yadda. The thing I think is cool about this is that the detective has an ability that relies on people being dead, but their job is actually to catch people that are alive. As such, in a desperate attempt to catch the murderers, the detective ends up committing murders of their own to try and find leads and extract information from otherwise unwilling (or perhaps unable) witnesses.

I don't know, I think that's a pretty cool idea.

Anyway, today was extremely hot and there'll be a pretty rough heat wave coming on this week. Which is fine, I guess, but I was hoping to be able to wear jeans... Evidently, I won't. Way too hot for that. However, my grandma did

The morning air - suffused with the warm light of dawn - promised peace and grace upon these lands. I breathed it in, blissfully unaware of the dreadful fate that had already woven itself into existence. Perhaps, as I opened my eyes for the first time and let the cold air fill my lungs, there was time, still, but I was blinded by hope.

Hope; That heavy chain that weighs all of us down. It bound me to my demise, and I didn't even know to struggle.

I had an early breakfast - excited as I was, I found myself waking up much earlier than usual. It was good... Too good, perhaps. My apple was snappy and sweet; I filled my mug of chocolate milk to the brim and managed not to spill even a drop. I should've known then, at least, but I blinded myself to the truth, even as the unmistakable mirage of perfection poisoned my day.

I got on the train. It was late, but not so late as to be notable. Fate, that fiend, it lured me to sleep; it caressed me with bliss; it even missed a stitch on its harr

Before I talk about the egg that has taken over my YT, I'd just like to point out that, indeed, there now is a character in Shadow Slave that wears casual clothes. It's not shorts and a t-shirt - it's a dress - but close enough, I'll say.

Now, about the Canadian.

I've been watching lots of his stuff. He's funny. A little... How do I put this... Mean? I guess? He does sometimes come off as unsavory, generally, I'd say. I really don't think I'd like to meet him IRL, and we definitely would not be friends if he's anything like he is online. That being said, it's fun to watch him crack some jokes over random shit. He's really good at riffing. I don't care for the gameplay, nor do I watch any gameplay for gameplay's sake.

Regardless, I've been having some fun.

I think names are really cool.

My name does have a meaning, but it's not something people are aware of. It's something even I'm barely aware of - I only know it because my parents were vaguely interested in choosing a good name when they had me and so picked something that was generally reasonable.

Fiction always has cooler names. Well, not always, some places - cultures, languages - seem to have more of a focus on cool names.

I wish my name was a little more "international," I guess, but that's about it. At the same time, international names are usually very boring and common. Which is why they're "international." Like John. Everyone knows a John; maybe it's Johann or Sean or João or something, and even if they don't personally know a John, then they certainly know of a John. My name, though? Hell no. Pretty much only Portuguese or Spanish speakers know it, maybe Italians too.

Whatever.

My lunch today was really good. Well, not really good because, I just realized, I forgo

Today, I watched The LEGO Batman Movie. It was lots of fun, 4/5.

I can't give it more than 4/5 simply because the emotional depth and complexity of the plot was lacking. Mind you, it really isn't meant to be a thorough analysis on the human condition or anything - it's a fun family movie, and at that it does a fantastic job. It's hilarious all the way through, creative without restraint, and it was actually kind of interesting. I liked the way the plot developed and a couple of things actually caught me off-guard.

It was genuinely endearing and a very entertaining watch, no doubt about that.

Though, I must say that, by far, the most impressive aspect of the movie was the animation. The animation is just next-level gorgeous. It's a unique style, to be fair, so I suppose the expectations are a bit different than other, more traditional animations, but still. It was beautiful and dynamic, over-the-top without question, but maintaining a certain level of coherence that didn't make it

That's I'm talking about! This is what animation is supposed to be (among other things)!

Beautiful art, great voice acting - especially Dean, he has lots of great scenes - a wide breadth of emotions explored with both really funny and deeply emotional moments... Nuanced characters and a meaningful main message. Truly, one of the great works of the 20th century. To think this masterpiece came out only 1 year after Mulan really puts into perspective what a truly great film can be. The animation still struggles at times, there's things that aren't quite right - it does show it's age - but holy crap guys, it's incredible in every facet.

Everything it tries to do, it does, and it does it well. The Iron Giant is undoubtedly a classic, an undeniable icon of animation and it should continue to be a reference for all films to come, regardless of medium.

Brad Bird is a fucking genius, of course; He also directed The Incredibles so I'm not particularly surprised that this was as good as it

I watched Mulan, today.

I've been listening to "I'll Make a Man Out of You" for the past few days on repeat, so I thought I'd give the original 1998 animation a try - why not? Well, I was disappointed. Sorely so.

It's not a terrible movie by any means, but it's really not very good either. The plot is so simple; it's dreadfully unadorned! The animation was good, but I do suppose it looks 30 years old, because it is 30 years old. I suppose I should've tempered my expectations, in that regard. The horse looked cool. I also thought that Mushu was just annoying... There were good moments for the little dragon, but Eddie Murphy is fucking dreadful. YEAH, I SAID IT! MUSHU SUCKS!

I also thought that the end of the story had a very strong "and then everybody clapped" vibe to it - then the whole of China bowed. I mean, come on.

The other VAs were good, the music was very nice... I wish there was more music, frankly.

I really loved Shan Yu... He looked so cool! Though, he really didn't