#I'm sure this makes no fucking sense if you don't watch Game Changer

[blubberwhalebelly]

Sorry about kicking over the camera in the previous one. I took it from the top!

[queerfables]

Why all the crowd scenes look the same, aka: Something is WRONG in Soho

I'm not even gonna tease and draw this out because it's so cool it doesn't need the fanfare. Ready?

Season 2 takes place over the course of 5 days. During that time, most of the passersby in Soho - maybe even all of them - stay exactly the same. It's the same people every day, wearing the exact same clothes, and they wander through the neighbourhood in paths that don't make any sense. You won't be able to unsee it. I can't believe it's taken us this long to realise.

Don't believe me? Rewatch the scene from 2x03, I Know Where I'm Going where Shax confronts Crowley outside the bookshop, appearing in a series of different guises. Pay attention to the people going past.

I've marked out five people you see on screen when Crowley first exits the bookshop at 39:37:

Numbers 1, 2 and 3 are following the path right. Number 4 follows the path left. Number 5 crosses the road.

Here the five people are again, at 40:19, when Crowley goes to return to the bookshop:

Number 5 is still visible in the distance, in the direction she walked in. This makes sense! But numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 are rounding the same corner they just passed. It's as though 1, 2 and 3 all decided to turn and head back the way they came just 40 seconds ago, and number 4 has circled the block to join them.

This on its own would be super weird, but they're not the only people to do that in this scene. The man in the purple sweater from the first picture crosses the road, then appears back next to the bookshop, then starts walking back the way he came again.

Here's the part that made me absolutely certain, though. At 40:05, a man wearing an orange hoodie with blue sleeves walks past Crowley, who is heading towards the bookshop entrance.

The camera cuts to a view from behind Crowley, and a moment later, at 40:08...

He reappears in front of Crowley and walks past him again.

It's such a distinctive outfit, there's no mistaking it. They are absolutely fucking with the background characters and they are absolutely doing it on purpose.

Your turn. There are at least three other characters in this scene who pass by multiple times. Watch it again and try to spot them.

This scene is really chaotic and obvious, but the phenomena I'm talking about is much bigger than just one scene. Let's go back to the first thing I said: the background characters don't change. All our leads do. Maggie and Nina wear distinctive outfits, clearly demarcating each new day. Even Crowley and Aziraphale, who in season 1 were like cartoon characters with wardrobes full of identical clothing, vary their looks. Crowley changes his (very subtly) each day; Aziraphale is less rigid on timing, but he has a few different coats that he switches between. The background characters, on the other hand, wear the same outfits every single day. They walk by on the street but they never actually seem to have a destination. They sit in the coffee shop or pub and don't eat or drink anything, and nearly everyone leaves together exactly on closing time. It's eerie.

For reference's sake, here's a rough timeline of season 2, with pictures of Maggie and Nina's outfits to show the passing of time. I had to outsource this section because my post was too image heavy, lol. The main point I wanted to make is that five days go by.

Five days, and all the same faces keep showing up in the background, and almost none of them change their clothes. I'm not entirely sure what it means, but there's no way it's an accident. It might, in fact, be a game changer. To me this is proof positive that something is not as it seems. I've been a massive Clue skeptic, adamant that I'd only be convinced by the most unambiguous evidence, and honestly? This is enough to move the dials. It's too big for me to ignore. Whatever grand explanation of Good Omens we come up with has to account for this. I don't have it yet, but my current working theories are that Crowley and Aziraphale are under some seriously heavy surveillance, that time warping is involved, or that reality itself is not what it seems.

It would take a really long time for me to go through all of the background characters who turn up over and over but I do want to show you what I'm talking about. To wrap up, then, I'm going to pick out some memorable characters and walk you through a few of their appearances through the week. I highly recommend looking out for this yourself on your next rewatch and seeing how many other characters you can recognise.

Yellow Skirt

The first person I kept coming back to as being not quite right. You probably remember her from the first episode - she's the one who waves and walks past Maggie and Nina the night they're locked in together. Incidentally, she's also Person Number 3 in the scene with Shax.

Day 1 (2x01 - 36:20):

Day 2 (2x02 - 42:03)

Day 3 (2x03 - 06:36)

Day 5 (2x06 - 30:00)

Coolest Leather Jacket In The World

It's not so easy to recognise people wearing lots of nondescript dark colours, but I love his hair and his jacket, so he stood out to me. I think there might be a lot more people who are wearing fairly nondescript clothes who I just can't recognise from episode to episode.

Day 2 (2x02 - 16:44)

Day 4 (2x04 - 41:20)

Day 5 (2x06 - 29:20)

Dressed In Mustard

Ms Mustard shows up everywhere. If you want to see what I mean about their paths not making sense, pay attention when she comes on screen, because she'll often show up a few times in succession and walk very purposefully to nowhere in particular. The thing that she is doing, essentially, is behaving like an extra in a tv show. Which of course she is, but you're supposed to make that invisible by not having the same person go back and forth in the same scene, or changing up their outfit each in-universe day to give the sense time is passing. Not doing that is a really deliberate choice.

Day 1 (2x01 - 22:37)

Day 2 (2x02 - 42:03)

Day 3 (2x03 - 01:49)

Day 3 (2x03 - 37:07)

Day 5 (2x06 - 29:59)

Swishy Dress

This character shows up a lot in the first episode. I've struggled to find her in later episodes, though. None of the characters seem to follow the same patterns or show up to equal extents each day, which makes me think this isn't a straightforward time loop. I haven't actually cross referenced character appearances to in world times, though. Possibly this is a project for someone who's more across the time-related shenanigans than me.

Day 1 (2x01 - 22:43)

Day 3 (2x03 - 07:01)

Yellow Vest

I've only seen this guy a handful of times, always around the French restaurant. I wonder if there's significance to that.

Day 2 (2x02 - 41:06)

Day 4 (2x05 - 12:49)

Fuzzy Blue Coat

Another background character who shows up frequently. The blue doesn't stand out quite as much as the yellows and reds some characters wear, but it's very distinctive.

While we're getting a lot of shots of the street, it's worth noting that I'm pretty sure the vehicles we see are also just the same few cars repeating each day. A lot of them are in neutral silvers and monochrome, but there's a couple of blue cars, one red, and one black and white that I'm fairly sure I've seen over and over through the season.

Day 1 (2x01 - 22:45)

Day 2 (2x02 - 42:04)

Day 3 (2x03 - 02:00)

Day 5 (2x06 - 40:10)

Day 5 (2x06 - 48:56)

Day 5 (2x06 - 50:06)

One final note: Whatever this is, Nina's employee who you see in the background at the coffeeshop sometimes isn't affected by it. He's wearing different outfits each day. On the other hand, some of the other shopkeepers do seem affected. I'm fairly sure Mr Brown and Mrs Sandwich wear the same outfits a few different days, only changing because of Aziraphale at the ball.

And that's it! Thanks for reading and I hope your mind is blown as much as mine is.

EDIT:

Hey I don't mind anyone pointing out production reasons that this might be the case or disagreeing with my analysis (over-analysis, some might say 😉). Please be kind about it, though. I'm not ignorant of the practical limitations involved in film making, but some of these costumes were really distinctive in a way I thought might be intended to draw attention.

For those of you who do find this theory convincing, I feel I should mention that I was working under the assumption that this stuff would have taken a few days to film, even filming it all together. That would strongly suggest that the actors were deliberately costumed the exact same way over multiple days of shooting, which made me think it had to be purposeful. @coranax was kind enough to point out, though, that behind the scenes videos said the extras were filmed separately to the main actors because of Covid protocols. In that case, they could have done it in just one day and that weakens my confidence in its intentionality.

Finally, all of my points about the scene with Shax in 2x03 stand. That was not a case of accidental continuity errors, it was really elegantly choreographed to enhance the tension in the scene. I say that with confidence because the extras are doing exactly what Shax is doing: circling Crowley, appearing where he doesn't expect them, creating a whirlwind sense of being off balance and out of control. I think it's really cool and effective, whether there's a deeper meaning to it or not.

[woolieshubris]

my tamagotchi UNI review:

im so sorry its going to be long...

TL;DR it's good :3 if u want a color tamagotchi and don't mind spending 60 dollars (about what you'd pay for an after market tamagotchi ON/MEETS) i'd highly recommend it!

full review below cut

Aesthetics:

Let's be honest, the aesthetics make sense, but are still a tad disappointing none the less. they are going for a more gender neutral vibe this time around + trying to make it more similar to the way that the original tamagotchi shells look, rather than going for the hyperfem aesthetic, which I can appreciate. I just wish they made them more interesting. give me my glitter!!!!!!!!

Form Factor:

It is very much built to be played with the watch case on. Not a bad idea- but outside of the case, the buttons stick out quite a bit. I just hope they produce an official case that doesn't have the watch band attached- I'd love to be able to clip it onto my belt loop! I'm sooooo glad they continued with the rechargable battery, because it makes it so much smaller and better. It's even smaller than the smart- which to be honest, I wasn't expecting.

Engineering:

I'm so fucking glad they brought back the 3 buttons. They make it so much easier to navigate the menus. I got pretty used to the Pix's touch capacitive buttons though, and I wouldn't have minded them here- but I do understand that they were extremely hit or miss with people. (I do miss being able to do swipe gestures though. I guess that just means I need to play with the pix more.) I'm honestly incredibly glad they didn't do the touch screen here, because after playing with my smart for about a year on and off, the screen gets really dirty really fast. (not to mention the discoloration.) I'm also glad that on the official tamagotchi shell they didn't include any silicone- this pretty much solves the discoloration issue, and I hope that they sell more watch bands in even more colors. I dislike the placement of the lanyard/charm hole, I never really liked it being on the back, it should be on the side- otherwise it has a tendency to hit things, but I can understand putting it there. I do wish they upped the speaker quality though, the 16 dollar gigapet shouldn't have better speakers than the 60 UNI. I'll probably turn off the sound after a while. The speakers do their job regardless, since the tamagotchi has continued to stick to their guns and not have it play any noise other than beeps at various pitches. ALSO. USB C CHARGING IS A GAME CHANGER FOR REAL.

UI Design/Region:

The fact that this tamagotchi is not region locked is amazing. all tamagotchi UNI's share the same programming, and on startup you can pick whatever language and whatever server you want. The menus are pretty simple and not confusing, and I like a lot of the choices they made. It's not my favorite UI from a tamagotchi, but it's perfectly serviceable.

Gameplay:

It's cute! It's tamagotchi gameplay. Seems like they brought a bunch of fan favorite features back- having pets, marriages ect. I also like that each tamagotchi has a specific personality that you help them develop. I think that's really sweet. Also, being able to hold 4 accessories at once is a great way to be able to decorate the tamagotchi! I like that they added more places to go- the pix was really missing that. The games are fun and interesting, and I really like the way they use the gyroscope in some games. The growth chart seems like theres elements we haven't discovered yet which cause certain characters, so I'm curious as to see how it pans out. There's still a lot of mystery surrounding the gameplay!

Online Functionality:

The online functionality is scary to me, since I'm worried about the ability to push out updates. I haven't run into any bugs, so it seems like it'll mostly be used to push content updates? But I'm not entirely sure. I do like having the codes be exclusive, (I'm sure the modding scene will be able to find ways to automatically hack in certain items) because the PIX's QR code system made me a little bit sad with how easy it was to get any item in the game. It seems like there are also more items in this game as well. I do think the online functionality could be a really useful gateway for the modding scene, and the fact that the tamagotchi can download updates and items from the internet (not just backgrounds like the ON/Meets) is super exciting. I'm very excited to see what comes next. It is slightly worrying that bandai could in theory patch out any modding/hacking entrances, but also this is bandai we are talking about and they only really care about each tamagotchi model for about 2-3 years before phasing it out. (Though to be fair the Pix and Smart were smaller releases- they kept support for the Meets for 4 years)

OVERALL REVIEW: it's good :3 if u are a tamagotchi fan and have the money it's a must buy imo! I can def see it becoming a fan favorite down the line, esp if they release some extra lines with fun designs.

[imunbreakabledude]

Late congrats on the bowfa, it really is a game changer and i cant imagine much better it is on an iron. Any idea on what you want to farm out first? I dont know if you found this guide but there is a method to do sara gwd without chugging stams here's the link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaqZaAw0DHk

But i dont know if its worth doing sara or kree, i think acb would only get used at like nex since you have bowfa now and armadyl is such a meagre upgrade over blessed dhide, if you have that, that i think it would only be worth it to get if you have masori to upgrade already. I think the items they drop are just more important later in progression vs the now that bandos and zammy are. But i think kree and sara are considered easier because kree is kinda just sit and hit and sara you just run around not taking any damage from the boss.

Also I didnt see that makeover update osrs did since i've been playing rs3 but that is a pretty sick update. I'm right there with you on wanting the ability to swap between how the armour looks and maybe similar updates for rs3 if the player model update ever happens. Newer armour sets havent been as bad but some of the older ones are like, why? At least let me dress up the dudes the same way. But rs3 has been fun otherwise, cool quests and skilling. Getting stomped by the harder bosses isnt as fun but super satisfying when i finally get the clear, hard mode sanctum is the biggest example of that. I will say though iron is easily the best way to experience the game, there are a lot of interesting bosses, minigames and quests that you can just skip if you sit at one boss hard enough and buy everything. Group iron would probably be better when that comes out in a few months since you get to completely side step solomons store and share some of the horrible grinds.

Also also if these asks are weird please tell me, I don't mean to be creepy or anything i just like talking about runescape

thanks! I am definitely happy to have the bowfa, almost less because of what I want to do now and also not even because I was tired of gauntlet but because it removes the fear of going super dry at gauntlet and getting miserable and wanting to quit the game. as far as I can tell there's no other drop that "locks" you into one place for so long if you don't get it on rate (i know it doesn't really "lock" you from doing other content, but i mean, everyone knows, red prison is a prison bc it just Makes So Much Sense to keep going and get bowfa before most other PVM that it FEELS BAD to not have it)

thanks also for the guide, watching it once it already looks like a pain to me (i am lazy as fuck and any guide that has multiple colors of tiles or like, more than a couple sets of super intuitive tiles to step on looks like way too much to worry about to me lol. I'm sure I will appreciate it some day though).

also to clarify I don't plan on "grinding" kree or zilyana at all. I just wanted 1kc of each GWD boss for both fremmy elite + unlocking nex (which I got, last night!) I might do a bit more of each of them to see what combat achievements I can get, though. Because to answer your question, that's my next plan - going for Elite combat achievements. I'm quite far off from them and it will require me to get a lot more experience at a variety of bosses I haven't done much/at all. so that's my goal and I'll hope for useful drops along the way. but I want to enjoy the variety that is now afforded to me.

my other goal is diary cape, which requires 93 slayer (and I want 95 eventually for hydra, too), so basically I'm doing slayer and trying to use any tasks I can use for bosses OR other important drops (like, if I get a greater demon task, which i haven't for a WHILE, i'm kind of suspicious lol) then I'll do TDs. or Kril after I get 2-3 synapses. Black demons I'll do demonics of course. Anything (besides those) I can do in catacombs I'm doing there to amass ancient shards for eventual emberlight.

there's some content I can't get slayer tasks for (don't plan on unlocking boss tasks anytime soon) - like Zulrah, Bandos, and ToA, which all have key drops I ""should"" be prioritizing, so I guess I'll mix them in whenever I'm feeling up to it.

I'm glad rs3 is treating you well :) I didn't realize that rs3 didn't have group iron yet. that should be fun. and no worries about sending these asks, not weird, it is fun indeed to talk about runescape :)

[abishekmuses]

Facing the Music

For years, I've harboured envy, resentment, pride and slothfulness. I'm not a christian or anything - don't know why this is taking that form - but I want to roll with it. I've been having a pretty intense time of it recently - For years, I've felt like I've been stuck. Years. Today, I even thought that maybe I've never really felt well-adjusted throughout my entire adult life - that's a scary thought. I don't know if it's true though - how can I know? I've not been in other people's heads. Anyway, about a month ago I decided to take my writing more seriously - you see, I'd spent most of my life wanting to be a doctor - wanting's the key word here - I just wanted it. Wanted it - said I wanted it anyway and thought I wanted it. I realised that I'm not in control of my life and was getting swept away with events and the changes in mood/perspective that they brought about only to find myself in pretty much the same place again after months or maybe even years. There was this sense of "now or never" - I felt like like if I didn't do something radical, I'd keep getting sidetracked by the crosswinds of life - so I decided to go on a 3 month period of silence. I'd still play badminton and to make sure it didn't get unnecessarily weird, I'd speak minimally to my mates there. Likewise on the odd occasion that i'd need to buy something, I'd speak sparingly. (although the idea was to keep this to a bare minimum) And, I'd still speak to my boss. (which is not often anyway)

I was also going off social media (which at this point was just whatsapp and telegram) and youtube. No music either. I also switched off my phone.

I'd been on a "high" wave of sorts - the past few months had felt pretty "flow-y" - There was this sense of positivity in me that was reasonably stable and it felt like this was the right time to do something like this. In the beginning it was all hunky dory - I felt good about myself and got into this "everything's gonna be so great" kind of a mindset that I tend to get into - a high-energy, high-optimism and high-creativity. (I have been thinking if I'm actually bipolar; Not a fun thought)

I had a lot of time; I had a lot of clarity and energy; Good stuff flowing - great all through! Gradually, the fears and icky emotions started to surface.

"Hey! I'm equipped for this stuff now - I've done a bunch of sadhana - plus I know that doing these kinds of things hasten the processing of negative emotions - this is totally par for the course - let's just keep going towards these emotions and just let them go! That'll do the trick!" I felt good about my odds against these dastardly old nemeses of mine. I even wrote a post on this selfsame blog about how much of a game changer this "letting go" thing was. Just sitting with emotions and watching them leave. Managed to finish reading the book "letting go" by David R Hawkins btw. Great read. A book straight out of the heart - and a heart full of love and compassion at that. Highly recommend.

Anyway, been letting out a lot of emotions - been crying practically every single day. But today was something else. It was the motherlode - fear, insecurity, guilt, heartbreak, anxiety, shame - all the negative emotions you can think of - rolled up into one ginormous feeling of pressure and "oh fuck the walls are closing in on me".

At some point, I remembered Richard Rudd's words from the Gene Keys (another book I highly recommend having at home and reading every now and then when the inspiration strikes; It's a prophetic piece of writing and the book has an almost oracle like quality to it) saying that one just has to accept and feel one's fear - that's all it takes.

But it was pretty non-stop. The onslaught of panic and fear just wouldn't abate - I was worried about losing my job; I was worried about ending up broke; all sorts of stuff. But somehow I was able to remind myself that what I was actually afraid of was continuing to feel the way i was feeling in that moment.

The suffocating emotional pressure was the problem - not some hypothetical scenario where i'd lose my job and be broke. I realised that a situation where my inner state wasn't one of stress/fear and I lose my job, wouldn't be such a bad situation after all - I guess what i'm trying to say is i remembered something crucial through that intense negative state - that the real problem is just the state itself. The fears about a certain situation coming to pass in life is just a projection of that internal state.

To make matters worse, I'd woken up thinking about my ex today. I felt a lot of old memories coming up - of me cheating on her - me being a reckless addict in general who caused a lot of damage with his inability to control his impulses; Guilt emerged. Sadness emerged; Desperation ensued. She was on my mind a lot today and I guess that's why I googled her name - Found her website, IG etc - saw that she was upto a lot of cool stuff with her life - she'd been writing (incredibly well) and seemed to have started some kind of service where she was helping people release their inner pain and find lightness. My instant response was one of constriction - A lot of fear, anxiety, insecurity and inadequacy came up. Old patterns of such feelings were recognised. I went for a walk and kind of reckoned with myself for a bit - "hey this is not who you are - are you really upset that she's doing well?" the answer came back that I'm not but I did feel terrified about my own prospects. Felt this feeling a lot of us are familiar with which goes along the lines of "why am I such a fuck up? Why did I waste so much of my life? yada yada" Now you see why I'd mentioned earlier about wanting to do more with writing - now that I saw my ex writing and doing so well with it - I was like "fuck I'm late even to this and I'm not sure i'm even at this level yet - blah blah blah - self-defeating rhetoric. Classic insecurity and fear.

At some point while I was swimming in stress and anxiety, I stumbled on one of her blog posts where I found that her best friend, Julia, a girl that I'd spent quite some time with (she's about my age) had just died! That piece of news was a real shocker and did quite the number on me! I bawled my eyes out and just couldn't hold it.

I was like "to heck with the silence - I'm gonna go tell my parents that I love them and hug them - which I did; I didn't want to go through my period of silence out of some misplaced sense of pride/propriety only to face that feeling of "oh fuck I never got to tell them how i felt!"

I hugged them, cried to them and wrote some stuff to them. For what it's worth, the verbal silence is still intact. Kept crying non-stop. At some point, after hugging my parents and soaking in their love, I couldn't help but feel a profound sense of gratitude for life - that I was even alive. Some of the things I was worried about even hours ago felt churlish. To think that I was thinking things like "fuck I'm 30! Is it too late to pursue my dream of becoming a doctor?" - Man that chick I smoked weed with is dead now! fucking dead!

That really knocked some perspective into me. Even being broke isn't nearly the same ballpark of a problem as being dead. Fuck. That news really knocked the wind out of my sails for a bit. But it also showed me that I was holding back a lot with unnecessary worrying. I felt an inner loosening - a relaxation - a coming back to life.

I got on my motorcycle and went for a ride through my town. I fell in love with everything my eyes saw. I felt reborn.

Let's see where we go! But for now, I love you all and I love this beautiful world we live in for all its fuck ups and dramas and heartaches - I love being alive!