h3x's recent activity

  1. Comment on The Odyssey - discussion thread in ~movies

    h3x
    Link Parent
    Oh no, I noticed that. I think my read on it is less that Zendaya is playing Athena, and more that Odysseus is having PTSD episodes about the priestess that was beheaded in front of him.

    Oh no, I noticed that. I think my read on it is less that Zendaya is playing Athena, and more that Odysseus is having PTSD episodes about the priestess that was beheaded in front of him.

    5 votes

  2. Comment on Gender Census 2026 in ~lgbt

    h3x
    Link
    I'm not affiliated with the project, but I like that it exists and wanted to encourage anybody who does not identify with the gender binary to participate :)

    I'm not affiliated with the project, but I like that it exists and wanted to encourage anybody who does not identify with the gender binary to participate :)

    4 votes

  4. Comment on My polish costs nothing in ~tech

    h3x
    Link
    /offtopic Yes, it's catching on!

    /offtopic

    Tilderen

    Yes, it's catching on!

    3 votes

  5. Comment on The Odyssey - discussion thread in ~movies

    h3x
    Link
    I saw it last night and left the cinema feeling a little keyed up. What a movie, holy hell. Some parts of it were objectively terrifying. I love how the Cyclops was so much more abominable than in...

    I saw it last night and left the cinema feeling a little keyed up. What a movie, holy hell. Some parts of it were objectively terrifying. I love how the Cyclops was so much more abominable than in other media; its proportions were reminiscent of the titans from Attack on Titan. It was a genuinely creepy monster. And then the body horror with Circe's transformations. That'll stay with me for a while. And the scene where they're on the boat in a storm, and it's basically impossible to see, except for almost painful flashes of lightning. It really gave me the sense of what it might be like to be on a boat during a night-time storm in that era. Like, it's obviously not a horror film, but parts of it really play to the horror genre's strengths. Even the bit where they're in the horse, and the soundtrack just turns into the overwhelming boom of a thumping heart.

    Thematically, it was really interesting as well. There was all this glorification of Odysseus from everyone that knows or knew him, and the scenes from the sacking of Troy get replayed over and over as it's retold. But when it's recounted from Odysseus' perspective right at the end, it takes on a whole different tone and recontextualises the movie. He's traumatised, and experiencing complex PTSD. He still sees the face of and talks to a girl that was murdered in front of his eyes. He still sees the head of the statue falling to the ground. It's a masterstroke. Different from the source work, to be sure. But I think it was a brilliant twist.

    Finally, I think it's interesting that Nolan's previous movie centres around a man who feels enormous guilt about his central role in fundamentally altering the world, and so does The Odyssey. I wonder if Nolan is moving on from time as his central motif?

    11 votes

  6. Comment on The candidates standing in the Clacton by-election in ~society

    h3x
    Link
    That’s so many candidates, omg. I hope this doesn’t split the Binface vote too much.

    That’s so many candidates, omg. I hope this doesn’t split the Binface vote too much.

    8 votes

  7. Comment on I am a transwoman, I am in the closet and I am not coming out in ~lgbt

    h3x
    Link Parent
    Oh hey, I have read this before! To the 4-and-a-half-years-ago me: Hey girlie, you would not believe how much better things are about to get for you. Some of the things in this post still haunt...
    • Exemplary

    Oh hey, I have read this before! To the 4-and-a-half-years-ago me: Hey girlie, you would not believe how much better things are about to get for you. Some of the things in this post still haunt you occasionally, but life is so, so good since you came out. You're almost there.

    24 votes

  8. Comment on the power of CHOICE (a short film to motivate you) in ~life

    h3x
    Link Parent
    Oh it's definitely preachy! I showed it to my wife and she got immediately quite annoyed by that undertone. But I like them as well, when they're short and to the point, and I enjoyed the animated...

    Oh it's definitely preachy! I showed it to my wife and she got immediately quite annoyed by that undertone. But I like them as well, when they're short and to the point, and I enjoyed the animated link you shared as well (although I found the use of In the Hall of the Mountain King a little grating).

    1 vote

  9. Comment on the power of CHOICE (a short film to motivate you) in ~life

    h3x
    Link
    YouTube kindly suggested this video to me yesterday, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Oddly enough, the thing that stood out to me most was not the impact of smartphone addiction...

    YouTube kindly suggested this video to me yesterday, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Oddly enough, the thing that stood out to me most was not the impact of smartphone addiction (although that hit home a little too hard as well), it was the way that the person in the video ate a proper breakfast, and it resulted in eating less right before bedtime. I'm someone who frequently skips breakfast, and then tends to overeat and overindulge later in the day, and that was eye opening.

    2 votes

  11. Comment on REO Runabout, gas truck starting at $21,500 in ~transport

    h3x
    Link
    Brit ignorant of US car culture here; is the advertised 25mpg considered good fuel economy?

    Brit ignorant of US car culture here; is the advertised 25mpg considered good fuel economy?

    3 votes

  12. Comment on British cities are a game design nightmare in ~transport

    h3x
    Link Parent
    This gave me a good chortle, thanks!

    Highly recommend watching till the end (13:00) for a cameo appearance from a very topical small youtuber with 51k subs.

    This gave me a good chortle, thanks!

    2 votes

  13. Comment on Despite important changes to Norway's consent law last year, there is a severe lack of understanding of the issue across society, experts say, from children to teenagers to prosecutors in ~society

  14. Comment on Keir Starmer announces resignation as leader of Labour Party in the UK in ~society

    h3x
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    In short: A lot of braying from the opposition parties about an unelected Prime Minister, and calls for a general election, which the new PM & Co will bat off by saying they're "getting on with...

    In short: A lot of braying from the opposition parties about an unelected Prime Minister, and calls for a general election, which the new PM & Co will bat off by saying they're "getting on with the job," while very little meaningfully changes for the population.

    In long: There probably will be a leadership contest, but it'll not be drawn out, I don't think. The writing has been on the wall for ages: Andy Burnham is widely tipped to become the next leader of the Labour party, and this whole drama has a strong whiff of kingmaking to it. Wes Streeting is the other possibility for leader, but he's not nearly as popular as Burnham (and thank goodness, as Streeting has been forcing through transphobic policies in his role as health secretary).

    Whoever it is that succeeds Starmer, I expect continuity rather than much change. There is little appetite for radicalism among the mainstream parties, despite the public clearly wanting more sweeping changes. NHS waiting lists are falling but still enormous. Small boat crossings are down, but still coming. Wages are up but it's still hard to make ends meet. Starmer's project lacked a coherent philosophy and suffered from terrible messaging. But the real killer was the lack of a great big headline policy. It was all just seen as tinkering around the edges. And while the intent was to portray Starmer as the adult in the room following the mess that the Conservative party made of the previous term, scandals such as the Mandelson/Epstein saga gave him a pretty grubby look.

    Starmer publicly complained about the amount of drag on his ability to make any changes at any kind of rate of knots, and that's not a problem with Keir Starmer, or the Labour party. It's a massive, systemic issue with the way that the UK's government operates, and it is not going to be fixed by someone coming in as a continuity candidate. Burnham (or whoever) will come in, and be met with the same lack of agency that Starmer pushed up against, and will instead be forced to tinker around the edges making micro-adjustments that will hopefully lead to large outcomes in ten years' time.

    The problem being that the public are impatient for change, and Nigel Farage is waiting in the wings to start banging on about how Burnham was not elected by the country at large, and that a general election should be called. The government will obviously ignore all of this. Farage knows his audience though, and they are a group increasingly angry at a political class that doesn't seem to care about the plight of ordinary people, and are more focused on internal party squabbling than actually governing. Farage has built himself a cosy position as an agitator, and political outsider (despite having been a career politician for most of his life), and has a very healthy following on social media. It's an easy line of attack on an already unpopular government, and it will most likely work, as much of the media are salivating at the prospect of a Reform government.

    It's difficult to predict much further into the future, but I think this honestly ends with Nigel Farage in government, either at the next general election, or the following one. There's a chance that Burnham manages to pull things together and give the Labour party a promising direction, but I don't think that's what will happen. They'll get a little bump in polling, and then it'll tail off again. Labour will ride out the rest of their term in office as far as they can, and one of two things will happen at the next GE:

    1. Reform UK utterly demolish Labour, forming a massive majority government and putting Nigel Farage in Number 10.
    2. All non-Reform parties enter into a "keep Reform out at all costs" arrangement, and form a coalition (possibly minority) government that is weak and can't agree on anything. Chaos ensues, and Farage wins the following GE.

    I am not filled with optimism for the future of my country.

    8 votes

  15. Comment on Ruins of the web: Hello Internet in ~tech

    h3x
    Link Parent
    Another Tim, checking in! It is one of my great Internet sorrows that this podcast stopped. A more recent sorrow is that Grey appears to have just vacated the Internet altogether. His channel was...

    Another Tim, checking in! It is one of my great Internet sorrows that this podcast stopped. A more recent sorrow is that Grey appears to have just vacated the Internet altogether. His channel was one of the first that I really got into, and it’s just… stopped.

    1 vote

  16. Comment on Jumping spiders shouldn’t be this smart in ~science

    h3x
    Link Parent
    Same, it is utterly superb. I think I’ve gifted six copies of it so far, and given dozens of recommendations too!

    Same, it is utterly superb. I think I’ve gifted six copies of it so far, and given dozens of recommendations too!

    3 votes

  17. Comment on Doctor Who Christmas Special cancelled, show put out to competitive tender in ~tv

    h3x
    Link Parent
    I've soaked up a bunch of the Big Finish adventures in a very similar fashion :D

    I've soaked up a bunch of the Big Finish adventures in a very similar fashion :D

  18. Comment on Doctor Who Christmas Special cancelled, show put out to competitive tender in ~tv

    h3x
    Link Parent
    I’ve been saying it for a good while; definitely due a hiatus and a reboot in a good few years. Looking forward to its inevitable return!

    I’ve been saying it for a good while; definitely due a hiatus and a reboot in a good few years. Looking forward to its inevitable return!

    5 votes

  19. Comment on Apple unveils their new operating systems for 2027: iOS 27, macOS 27 Golden Gate, and more in ~tech

    h3x
    Link
    I don't use a huge amount of Apple Intelligence, so this year's updates seem potentially a little on the underwhelming side. I like the sound of describing a shortcut, as well as using on-screen...

    I don't use a huge amount of Apple Intelligence, so this year's updates seem potentially a little on the underwhelming side. I like the sound of describing a shortcut, as well as using on-screen context. I have apps that don't hook into shortcuts, and it would be really cool to automate them with Siri AI. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what's going to be available to us though.

    Otherwise, the big standout for me is the overhaul of the screentime/parental controls. My wife and I have both lamented how poor and overly complex Apple's implementation of this stuff is when it comes to our kids, and this redesign looks like a really promising step in the right direction.

    4 votes

  20. Comment on Apple unveils their new operating systems for 2027: iOS 27, macOS 27 Golden Gate, and more in ~tech

    h3x
    Link Parent
    Yeah, I was excited by that announcement too. I don't need an intensively customisable EQ, and three bands should be absolutely fine for my needs. Looking forward to having a play with it.

    Yeah, I was excited by that announcement too. I don't need an intensively customisable EQ, and three bands should be absolutely fine for my needs. Looking forward to having a play with it.

    2 votes