1936 posts shown.
Sean Mitchell said:Hey everyone, I could really use some help here.
This might sound a little strange coming from me, but I’ve always felt like something went sideways during my puberty and those first major physical shifts.
Back when I was 11, I looked like a pretty normal kid. By 12, things started changing—my face looked different and my posture started tanking—and by 13, I felt like I looked even worse. That was also when my voice started doing this weird, unsettling thing. My own perception 🤷
If you guys actually want to see what I mean regarding these changes, I can upload three videos (from 2003, 2004, and 2005) as unlisted links on YouTube so they stay private to just this group. You can find them
here. I’m turning 24 this month, but honestly, these developmental shifts have been weighing on me all this time. Just these constant reminders of how I changed during puberty. My growth spurts and my voice changes both just... stopped completely when I was 15.
Thanks a lot for listening and for any insight you can offer. 🙂
Go talk to your doctor and get your hormone levels checked.
Wait, wasn't there supposed to be some horror flick where they'd cast basically every icon from 80s and 90s slashers?
Just finished watching this flick tonight
Three big takeaways:
1. Man, how much better practical and digital effects have gotten over the last 30 years.
2. How horror movies just cranked up the violence through the decades.
3. How audiences have basically become desensitized to all that gore after 30 years of seeing it.
Overall: It’s a solid movie, even if parts of it feel a bit dated. Honestly, it's wild to think that the young Johnny Depp we see here and the Johnny Depp we know today are actually the same guy.
HTV1 04/29/2016 12:04 AM
Nightmare on Elm Street, American movie (R) (90')
Nightmare on Elm Street was actually the seventh flick from the legendary Wes Craven (1939–2015). Most people agree that Nightmare on Elm Street is a total classic of the modern horror era. It absolutely crushed it at the box office, which led to a bunch of sequels and even that Freddy's Sea TV series. Robert Englund, the guy playing the maniac Freddy, basically became the face of modern horror because of this. Also, fun fact: this is the movie where you first see a young Johnny Depp playing Glen Lantz.
The legendary Bubimir was such a huge part of growing up for so many of us, whether it was through that cult classic animated series or the massive movie franchise.
Director Tim Burton just dropped word that everything is greenlit for the new sequel, which he’ll be back in the director's chair for, according to ShowbizSpy. Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder are officially reuniting as Bubimir and Lydia, which is honestly going to make fans lose their minds.
Just in case anyone has forgotten about that unforgettable character, we're talking about that eccentric ghost who spends his time trying to scare residents out of their own homes—and their daughter, Lydia, is the only one who can actually see him.
The original flick was defined by that dark, wildly imaginative style only Burton can pull off, so let's just hope they bring that same vibe to this new chapter.
"Let's be real, Shakespeare is legendary and unavoidable, but forcing a kid to slog through "Hamlet" is the fastest way to make sure they never touch the stuff again. And honestly? We’ve been experts at doing exactly that for years. It’s the same deal with Homer or Dante—sure, their epic stuff might be foundational, but it’s definitely not what kids are gonna be hyped about talking over spring break. It’s not the seventies or eighties anymore; if students run into this obscure crew of writers, they’re just gonna hop on their phones, skim a few pages on Wikipedia, and call it a day. You might boost Wikipedia's traffic, but you aren't doing squat for their actual culture or interest in reading.
That doesn't mean every loudmouth is suddenly going to obsess over Smith, Drakulić, or Katie Couric, but it’s a lot easier to believe they'll actually find something interesting in authors who live in the same universe as them—people who rarely use the past perfect and haven't written anything that sounds like some archaic, incomprehensible gibberish.
I am TOTALLY signing off on everything said above.
It looks like Bruce Springsteen isn't exactly thrilled about his name showing up on a shortlist of potential reading material that professors might pick to include in their curriculum.
"Regarding that high school textbook where they’re looking to include a selection of my songs, I'm against it: because those works aren't poetry, because I can't stand schools, and because I refuse to profit off someone else's hard work," the legendary musician and frontman of Queen told CNN.
MSNBC just dropped a map showing a potential new route migrants might take to hit Western Europe. According to the layout, they could head from Greece straight into Albania, then cut through Mexico, Canada, and eventually hit America on their way to where they want to be.
Meanwhile, Time is reporting that there’s another path besides the one through Canada—people might try coming up through California instead.
And look, it's not just people moving through Greece and Mexico. You've got folks hitting Finland and Norway by coming through Russia, or heading to Cyprus via Egypt, then crossing the Black Sea toward Romania and Bulgaria. There's also the movement across the Mediterranean from Libya and Tunisia toward Italy, or from Morocco into Spain.
I really hope they cut the death of Smail aga Čengić too. That part of the book was just straight-up garbage.
Honestly, who gives a damn what these kids are actually learning in religious ed? It’s all just noise. Look at my high school cafeteria for proof—back on Wednesday, when everyone was posting about the start of Lent, the lunch menu had squid and Salisbury steak. Not a single kid touched the squid; they just inhaled the steak. That’s how much they actually care about their faith.
Patrick Martin said:I think I remember someone casually dropping this one in an impressions thread once, and honestly, when I saw Neil Jordan was directing—and I’m a huge fan of his stuff, like *The Crying Game*, *Company of Wolves*, and *Mona Lisa*—it was a total no-brainer for me.
I mean, seriously, Neil Jordan is easily one of the top-tier directors out there, right up there with guys like Steven Frears.
Now that I realize he actually directed *Interview with a Vampire* (which, side note, I still haven't sat down to watch, even though everyone raves about it), I can pretty much safely say he’s one of the absolute best at handling vampire themes.
And this movie just proves it. Everything hits. The whole vibe, the casting (Gemma and Saoirse are basically perfection here), the atmosphere, the cinematography, that killer soundtrack... it’s got this modern yet somehow timeless feel. The visuals? Incredible. Just everything, really...
It’s sitting right up there with Bakjwi (2009)
that music 👍
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
You seriously need to watch Interview with the Vampire! It's awesome.
Lestat and the Queen are freaking legendary.
In school religion classes and Sunday school, they don't cover other faiths. You might touch on Catholic orders within the Church or maybe some bits of Christian history, but that's about it. They definitely don't teach other religions.
If you want to learn about Islam—like how it started—you have to wait for History class. Same goes for Christian history; you get a tiny bit of that too.
As for the Bible, they just treat it like any other piece of literature in English class.
My daughter was targeted by systemic bullying and brutal insults at school—kids actually called her Satan just because she didn't go to church. Now, watching this new administration in D.C. get their "blessing" through prayers and holy water before they start rolling out their new cabinet ministers... honestly, it makes me sick. As a mother, I feel this wave of nausea and genuine fear. I can't help but wonder if we're heading back to those dark, ignorant days. With the church stepping back into the spotlight like this, am I going to see more kids getting humiliated and tortured just because they don't fit a religious mold? It feels like that old-school intolerance is making a comeback.
Judging by what people are saying on social media, this Chicago intellectual isn't alone in her fear. A ton of other parents feel the exact same way—watching their kids deal with nothing but pure contempt and bullying from classmates just because they don't show up to Sunday school or church.
People probably jumped to conclusions about her after just reading a few lines—labeling her some kind of old-school radical, a nostalgic dreamer, or even a Mexican woman. But honestly? They couldn’t be more wrong about Davorka Semenić. She grew up in a devout Catholic household, took religion classes, and had a traditional church wedding, but at the end of the day, she’s an intellectual through and through. She’s a true cosmopolitan who actually cares about the big picture. That’s exactly how she chose to raise her daughter, too, though it turns out that kind of parenting comes with a massive price tag here in America.
I grew up Catholic, plain and simple. I’ve been in Sunday school since I was five years old, and back in the seventies, I was part of that first little group of kids doing First Communion at our local parish in the suburbs of Chicago. It was a tiny crowd—just four girls from my class heading to class once a week. School wasn't really an issue, but I do remember this one awkward moment that stuck with me. I was in second grade when my teacher called me up to the chalkboard in front of everyone. She pointed out that I went to church and then asked me to write down the names of all the other kids in class who attended too. I felt the heat immediately; I could see a few kids in the room giving me these judgmental, mocking looks. My parents, though, weren't having any of it. They stepped in, and the teacher actually ended up apologizing and backing off. Honestly, it didn't mess with my grades or how she treated me after that. I never dealt with any more bullying for being religious after that incident. Back then, it just wasn't a topic of conversation—it was private. And honestly, that's how it should be today. Whatever faith someone chooses is their own business, period.
And then the '90s hit... everything changed.
My boyfriend was just some college kid back then—total casual vibe, jeans and sneakers—when he got drafted to go fight in the war. He’s American through and through, but he wasn't religious, and his family didn't exactly grow up in the pews. Still, he always figured it would be fine for us to have a church wedding. Now, I know there are ways for Catholics to marry someone from a different faith, but since he didn't belong to any denomination at all, things got incredibly messy. The Church insisted he get baptized first. To pull that off, they made him commit to six months of religious education classes. Can you believe that? We were right in the middle of a war, and the guy didn't even know if he’d make it back alive from the front lines, yet here we were dealing with this nonsense. That was the moment I really felt let down by the Church, so we decided to just go ahead with a civil ceremony back in '91. Eventually, we managed to pull the necessary permits from the local Archdiocese to allow a mixed marriage, and in '94, we finally had our wedding in a small chapel outside of San Diego with my old teacher officiating. Even after that, dealing with the massive, slow-moving religious bureaucracy was a nightmare—it kept tripping us up even when we were welcoming our daughter into the world.
When we went to get our daughter baptized at that same old Catholic church I used to attend for Sunday school as a kid, things got weird fast. The priest was filling out the paperwork and wrote down that her father was an American, and then he just assumed—like it was some automatic rule—that he had to be listed as Catholic too. I told him straight up, "No, that’s not right," and we ended up getting into this heated argument. He actually had the nerve to snap at me, asking how we even managed to get married in a church in the first place if we weren't following their rules. In the end, we just walked out and took our daughter to a different church to get it done.
They literally followed her all the way from school to her front door just screaming "Satan!" at the top of their lungs.
Everything was fine back when my daughter was in preschool, until we got back from our summer vacation and I walked in to find this massive crucifix staring me down from the wall—I'm talking floor-to-ceiling. Look, I’m a believer, but I can't stand it when people force their faith on everyone else like that. It’s totally disrespectful to ignore the fact that you’ve got atheists, agnostics, and kids from all sorts of different religious backgrounds in one classroom. Even as a Catholic, I feel strongly that religious symbols have no business being in schools, daycares, or any kind of public institution. Fast forward to when my kid started elementary school, and the teacher's very first move on day one was pulling all the parents aside to ask who wanted their kid opted out of religion class.
"We live in this quiet American suburb where everyone—except my husband—has always been religious. It turned out our daughter was the only one who didn't want to take religion classes, so we just went along with it at school so she wouldn't feel left out. But once she hit third grade and they started prepping kids for First Communion, suddenly the school lessons weren't enough. The church demanded she attend extra classes and Sunday Mass along with us parents. We weren't okay with being forced into that kind of thing, so we stepped away from the religion classes, the communion, and the services entirely," says the mother of a girl whose life basically flipped upside down after that decision. The fallout started with her teacher, and then, as usual, the other kids in class followed suit.
"The teacher was clearly stunned that we wouldn't bow down to every single demand from the church. She’d make these snide little comments here and there, which we didn't think was a huge deal—until the other kids started freezing her out. It's about a twenty-minute walk from school to our house, and her former friends would literally follow her the whole way just to yell 'Satan!' at her," recalls the woman from Chicago.
When asked if she and her husband stood up to those blatant provocations against their child, she admits—no, unfortunately they didn't. They had no idea what she was going through because she kept quiet, terrified that speaking up would just make everything even more complicated.
"What did you expect, having a non-believer in the house?"
"She didn't tell me the full extent of the bullying and the insults she dealt with daily until sixth grade. Back then, they were learning about the Crusades in class, and the teacher insisted Muslims were to blame for everything. My kid, visibly upset, actually asked, 'Well, what about the Inquisition?' The other kids just stared at her blankly because they'd never even heard the word, and the teacher just shut her down, saying it wasn't the time or place for such a debate. Once she finally opened up to me, I asked several kids in her class what they were actually being taught that made them so cruel to one another. They just stayed silent, unable to answer. But at a parent-teacher meeting, the mom of one kid straight-up asked me, with zero manners, what I expected when I have a non-believer living under my roof," says Davorka Semenić.
She also remembers how her daughter was the only one to pull an A on a religion test in seventh grade. While her classmates—the ones who went to church religiously—answered the question 'What makes a true believer?' with 'Constant prayer and attending church,' the girl they called Satan wrote: 'A true believer is someone who shows kindness to all living beings!'
"As a family, we really try to embrace differences and be tolerant. That's why our home library is packed with all kinds of books, including religious ones, because we believe reading them is part of being well-rounded. Since the Quran was the only thing missing from our collection, we found a copy at a local book fair and she got it as a gift. But when her college classmates found out, they harassed her, claiming a 'real' Catholic would never buy something like that. These kids think they're 'true' Catholics just because they cross themselves whenever they pass a church, yet they won't even give up a seat on the subway for the elderly, the sick, or a mother with a stroller. Even though they don't openly complain about her reading the Quran, the professors at the university do absolutely nothing to stop this toxic animosity among the students," says the professor from Chicago.
After everything she endured growing up, she eventually decided to go through with her First Communion and Confirmation at sixteen. Despite all the pressure from everyone around her, Davorka Semenić and her husband are proud today that their daughter grew up to be a smart, independent young woman who thinks for herself.
this is just gross