listen I expected literally Nothing from the D&D movie okay, like I can't make it clear enough that I expected the most soulless money grab with a good cgi budget imaginable, I went in having already gone through every stage of grief and landed on acceptance and LISTEN
I fucking CRIED during this dumb RPG movie. it wasn't just "not terrible" it was objectively good with a clever plot and compelling characters and sincere emotional beats. this movie loves D&D so fucking much and it NAILS the "a bunch of goobers try to be cool and accidentally discover The Power Of Friendship And Also Great Violence" classic D&D party vibe. their barbarian's last name is fucking Kilgore and my entire family cried in the theater.
apparently when Astarion is reading the Necromancy of Thay book and he says "No I won't kill them. Well maybe [character name]" the companion he mentions is always the one who has the highest approval with the player (or second highest if he has the highest approval) Lmao He is jealous. I didn't know how this works. I thought it's random but he always said Shadowheart in my game and I never figured out why.
can i just say the weird standard people try and hold queer romcoms(and queer media but) in general is so weird
its always "its too juvenile" and "its too wholesome" but then its "this is too sexualised" and apparently queer ppl having sex scenes is automatically "fetishizing". Always "too corny" "too angsty" and dont get me started on people who act like something has to be bad representation just because they didn't like it
"its cringey" it is a fucking romcom bro. like half of the appeal of a romcom is the kinda cringey fun of it all . not your thing? fine go watch something that is,not being the audience for something is fine but god stop acting like one romcom is gonna dismantle the movement for queer rights.
So there's a great Thai restaurant in my neighborhood called Kiin. Yesterday, I searched for their website to order some takeout. Here's the Google result.
That top result (an ad)? It's fake. It goes to https://kiinthaila.com, which is NOT the website for Kiin.
The *third* result is real: https://kiinthaiburbank.com
Fake site:
Real site:
I got duped. I placed an order with the fake site. The fake site then placed the order - in my name! - with the real site, having marked up the prices by 15%. Kiin clearly knows they're doing this (presumably by the billing data on the credit card the fakesters use to place the order). They called me within minutes to tell me they'd cancelled the fakesters' order.
I could still come pick it up, but I'd have to pay them, and cancel the payment to the fakesters with Amex. Actually, as it turns out, I have to cancel TWO payments, because the fakesters DOUBLE-charged me.
Here's what that charge looks like on my Amex bill. See that phone number? (415) 639-9034 is the number for Wix, who provides the scammers' website.
How the actual FUCK did these obvious scammers get an Amex merchant account in the name of "KIINTHAILA" by after supplying the phone number for a website hosting company? What is Amex's KYC procedure? Do they even call the phone number?
And why the actual FUCK is Google Ads accepting these scam artists' ads for a business that they already have a knowledge box for?! Google KNOWS what the real KIIN restaurant is, and yet they are accepting payment to put a fake KIIN listing two slots ABOVE the real one.
To be fair to these scammer asshole ripoff creeps who are trying to steal from my local mom-and-pop, single location Thai eatery, they're just following in the shoes of Doordash and Uber Eats, who did the same thing to hundreds (thousands?) of restaurants during lockdown.
Doug Rushkoff says that the ethic of today's "entrepreneur" is to “Go Meta” - don't provide a product or a service, simply find a way to be a predatory squatter on a chokepoint between people who do useful things and people who use those things.
These parasites have turned themselves into landlords of someone else's home, collecting rent on a property they don't own and have no connection to.
There's NEVER just one ant. I guaran-fucking-tee you that these same creeps have 1,000 other fake Wix websites with 1,000 fake Amex merchant accounts for 1,000 REAL businesses, and that Google has sold them ads for every one of them. Amex and Google and Wix should be able to spot these creeps FROM ORBIT. Holy shit do we live in the worst of all possible timelines. We have these monopolist megacorps that spy on and control everything we do, wielding the most arbitrary and high-handed authority.
And yet they do NOT ONE FUCKING THING to prevent these petty scammers from using their infra as force-multipliers to let them steal from every hungry person patronizing every local restaurant.
I mean, what's the point of letting these robber-barons run the entire show if they're not even COMPETENT?
Members of the House of Representatives join together in loud applause in the conference room. After passing the equal marriage law, it is prepared to be forwarded to the Senate. [source: The Standard]
Thailand’s lower house passed, on Wednesday, the Marriage Equality Bill which will make it the first country in South East Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. The vote sailed through with a landslide 399 for and only 10 against, effectively bypassing any potential upper house veto.
The bill’s passage is a significant victory for LGBTQ+ advocacy groups in Thailand, who have been campaigning for marriage equality for years. It represents not just a legal change, but a profound statement of inclusion and acceptance in a society known for its vibrant and diverse LGBTQ+ community. [source: Thai Enquirer]