Yes, I recognize that there are outliers. I understand that the industry is saturated. I know that “mainstream” does not equate to quality. But good night…. Movies are not what they used to be. Now sure, I’ve aged, but I’m still in my early 30’s. Why is every movie putting me to sleep? They all feel unnecessarily long, the plots are ill contrived or just low effort, and nothing is iconic or memorable anymore. Is Hollywood in its end days? I’m of the impression that movies are going to die off in favor of TV and mini-series. Perhaps it’s our collective attention spans being diminished by social media, but honestly it feels more like Hollywood producers don’t care to create art anymore—just to profit off of mass produced garbage.

Maybe this isn’t an unpopular opinion. What do you think?

"But boneless wings aren't even wings, they're chicken nuggets!" Ok, fine. They are big ass chicken nuggets and chicken nuggets are awesome.

When I'm eating chicken wings, I want to pick up a chicken wing, put it in my mouth, and eat all of it. End of story. I paid for 100% of the food, and I eat 100% of the food. Its delicious and easy.

Traditional wings can't compete. It's a chore to find the actual meat among all of the cartilage, fat, and gristle. Any perceived enhanced flavor of the dark meat is immediately negated by the rest of the undesirable crap in there.

Finally, you end up eating like 40% what's on your plate. You're left with a gigantic pile of bones that is taken away from you at the end meal while you reach for a toothpick to remove all of the animal waste that is wedged between your teeth.

I prefere the middle seat on airplanes with the assumption that the two strangers are not crazy.

Pros: Not having your shoulder and leg bumped by every single person that walks by.

Getting up to use the bathroom isn't as complicated as the window seat.

It actually has the most leg room after take off. After take off, you are allowed to have your personal item under your legs instead. Switching gives you more leg room than the other seats.

It's actually the least awkward seat when recieving snacks. No big reach from the attendant.

You can almost always get really close to the front of the plane if you are booking closer to the flight.

You by far get the best AC fan.

It's fun to sit in awkwardly when the ailse seat is a no show but the window seat is still there.

Ever since I've moved to North America from Europe, I've noticed that a ton of people like to proudly proclaim how they make comparatively good money, solid 6 figures. Many of them doing things that, intuitively, don't sound like they'd earn that much, e.g., trades, but also things like sales etc.

Upon further questioning, it almost inevitably comes up that these people work way more than 40 hours per week.

While they may actually earn, say, 150k a year, in a debate where salaries are being compared, it makes no sense to treat them as a 150k earner, since they work extra hours. This doesn't even take into account working through holidays, while sick, and not taking time off, but that's just extra math people won't feel like doing anyway, so normalizing to a 40h workweek should be enough.

*edit:

Clearly I got the right subreddit for this. Now, just something that most people seem to have missed:

I specifically wrote that I'm talking about "a debate where salaries are being compared". Unless you want to compare apples and lettuce, you should be comparing at a standardized number of hours. Taxes, how much hits your bank account etc. is pretty much irrelevant for what I'm saying.

Also, I'm not judging anyone for choosing to work extra/fewer hours. That's your (hopefully voluntary) decision, obviously. But the point stands that if you work 50% more time than me and end up with 50% more money, when we're comparing, you're making the same amount I am, you're just working more. If I decided to work 50% more, I'd get the same amount in my bank account. In other words, you're not better paid, you work more.

Being an Asian and having gone to Japan 5 times I can confidently say that sushi sucks. I went to a Michelin star restaurant in Japan that specialises in sushi. It was mediocre.

Sushi just lacks flavour. It's basically just fish and sour rice in between seaweed. It needs some flavour. Some things in life are simple and delicious but some things are not like that such as sushi. Japanese foods like ramen and tonkatsu are better.

Title is a little dramatic but I just don’t think they do any actual valuable work. I think my main issue is with how we buy/sell homes. It’s an incredibly complex thing for something that at its core is not complex at all, creating a “need” for realtors who can actually understand all the nonsense that goes into buying a house, besides that I can’t think of a single thing they do that’s actually “work” besides telling you to get trendier kitchen cabinets (because obviously everyone who’s selling their house can afford to do an entire renovation to fit the realtors standards). It’s just silly to me.

I like imitation syrup. I do not like real maple syrup as much. Just because it's harder to make and more expensive doesn't mean it's actually any better.

Imitation syrup is also more versatile. It doesn't have the same darkness as maple syrup and never has a burnt flavor.

You can use fake syrup for more things: it goes better in tea and lattes, too.

Edit: it's worth saying, although it might be obvious, that there are huge differences in quality with some imitation syrups. Some people mentioned HFCS, which is not in every brand.

Edit: Log Cabin is the best.

“No Child Left Behind”, or “Every Student Succeeds Act” as it is now called, seems to still allow for very low thresholds and standards for kids to move forward to the level of education when they are, to put it bluntly, not at that level of progression.

Seeing these young adults struggle with basic math and spelling that should have started in early elementary curriculums yet somehow they made it through another five or six grades of schooling and “graduated” in some cases is doing the said child no favors.

It's not even about crazy sentence structure or formulaic math, but rather the girl at the drive-thru that reads off the total of $4.75, I give her $20.75 which causes her to have a mini-stroke and somehow I get back $17 back at the first window, which she then comes to the second window and says she made a mistake only to give me $2 more. Then there are the folks that send out the emails or texts with five simple words misspelled and using the incorrect variant of words like their, there, and they're.

I mean seriously, think about it, if the highest speed limit in most places is 75-85 MPH then why do we even need the capability? I understand that the engine is designed to be capable of going to higher speeds because then it puts less strain on the engine at lower speeds and improves engine health but there should be a safety design where, despite the ability, cruise control just kinda kicks in at 85-90 with the exception to first responders, emergency, and race track vehicles.

Edit: Wow this blew up. For clarity and elaboration, I know that governors to mandate a cars speed exist, but I am advocating for this effect to be not optional but mandatory for every road vehicle, ideally manufactured in such a way where removal or tampering results in failure of the engine. Any race vehicle without one should be limited to the tracks only.

People seem to be interpreting this as me trying to prevent people from speeding? No where in my post did I say that. With a cap of 100 miles an hour people can still speed in pretty much every existing zone. That’s not what I’m saying at all. I am trying to make the point that the capability of going upwards of 120 mph on any public stretch of road in the world is absolutely not worth its weight in fun or freedom to any probable risk, nor can I name one emergency where it’s validated either.

I honestly don’t give a shit about “Waaaah what about the autobahn or this one really remote road in Texas/Australia?” I’ve come to the conclusion that the autobahn to car junkies is the equivalent palm-fantasy of going to Amsterdam to potheads. Germans have been considering implementing a speed limit there for ages because of the danger, too, so I’m sure the 3 roads in the world with no speed limit or a high speed limit will be perfectly adaptable to changing that.

I dont know why this is unpopular but it is. Too many people get dogs without thinking of the scope of responsibility.

You should not have a dog if you can't afford major medical bills. You should not have a dog if you need to keep it locked up 10 to 16 hours a day.

I swear people think they are some anime characters or something. "I'm going to get my loyal companion who is perfectly trained and its all perfect".

The reality is extra bills and extra responsibility that people are not prepared for. The dogs get neglected and you end up with a bigger problem.

people complain how hard it is to get a dog from the shelter but I honestly think it should be harder.

Less so for work and such, more so among friends. It seems like most friend groups always have a handful of people who just show up 15-30 minutes late to hang out.

I find it incredibly disrespectful, mainly when they are CONSISTENTLY late. I think it’s more normalized among friends because it’s not professional in any way.

Whenever I speak up and try to call them out for being consistently late and inconsiderate, it’s casually brushed away.

I can’t fathom the idea of being late to anything, and am always apologetic on the rare occasion I am.

Edit: Kids and busses are a different story, i dont have any friends who have to deal with either, I would understand if this was a reason.

For me, this series is absolutely brilliant and a perfect adaptation of the game. The choices made in the show were carefully crafted to suit a different medium—after all, a game and a TV series are two different forms. Bella Ramsey might not look exactly like the in-game character, but she’s doing an amazing job, and that shouldn’t be taken away from her! The show works beautifully alongside the game. There are little Easter eggs for players, like characters stopping to rummage through their backpacks before action scenes, or searching for collectibles in different locations. At the same time, people who haven’t played the game can still enjoy the series fully—it’s made to offer a great experience to both gamers and non-gamers **** acting by Pedro and Bella, as well as the rest of the cast, is a masterpiece in my eyes. The characters are always multi-dimensional and full of emotion—I truly feel with them and go through everything alongside them.

We spent nine days in the area. Most of the stunning scenic areas start around Svolvær and progressively become more impressive as you go west towards the village of Å at the far southwestern end of the archipelago, with about 2.5 hours driving distance between them.

Some quick suggestions:

Getting there: Most will first fly into Oslo and then take a flight up to one of many regional airports such as Evenes (EVE, for rental car), Tromsø (TOS, for rental car), Bodø (BOO, for ferry), or even directly to Svolvaer (SVJ) or Leknes (LKN) on smaller airplanes with more limited / seasonal schedules.Good bases to stay in would be Reine / Hamnøy area, Leknes / Ballstad area, and Henningsvær/Kabelvåg area. These areas are central to many scenic spots and highlights. If you have the time, I would allocate 2-3 nights to each area so you can minimize driving time and explore each area in depth.Weather can be quite variable. We were there in late August and had many days of rain / cloud, but we still got to do hikes and outdoor activities every day as the rain would stop and the sun came out. Be prepared with good hiking shoes, ponchos/umbrellas and a flexible, open attitude!Costs: The most expensive prices are for rental cars at $125-150 per day (likely cheaper outside of peak summer season). Gas was NOK 20-25/liter (approx. US$7.50-9.00 per gallon). Restaurant entrees are US$35-45 at upscale places and $20-30 at moderate places (no additional tax / tip beyond menu prices). There are decent groceries in larger towns such as Leknes and Svolvaer where food prices are moderate and many rorbu hotels have kitchens or kitchenette. Hotel costs are in line with popular international tourist destinations at $250-500+ per night.Things to do:Stunning scenery everywhere you look. Nature lover and photographers’ dream. The two lane highway E10 that links the islands must be one of the most scenic drives in the world.

Outdoor activities— Hiking, with very high payoff vs effort ratio. Kayaking, fjord cruises, boating, and surfing / beach in good summer weather.

Culture and history, where you can learn about Lofoten fishermen way of life, colorful rorbu cabins, stockfish production and salmon farming, and even the Vikings (the museum is on the site of the largest Viking longhouse ever found)

Just an amazing, unique place in the world.

Recently visited Portugal for 15 days including Madeira, Porto and Lisbon with day trips to Sintra (unfortunately really misty) and the Duoro Valley.

Weather was fantastic apart from Sintra, there was lots to do, the food was incredible and overall it was relatively cheap compared to the rest of Europe.

Could not recommend it enough.

These are some photos from a beautiful trip I went on to Italy! My favorite sight was at the top of the Rose Garden in Florence (1st picture). Beginning the trip, we first arrived in Rome and spent time at the Colosseum (2nd picture), the Roman Forum, Vatican City, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and some basilicas. Then, we traveled to Amalfi and took a boat tour in Capri (3rd picture). From Amalfi, we traveled to Florence (4th picture). Then, we made our way to Cinque Terre (5th picture). Finally, our last stop was Venice (6th picture)

Booked a three day jungle trip from Iquitos, Peru. Within the first few hours, thanks to the extremely negligent (bordering on the reckless) decisions of the company and guide (edit: see company name below), we were completely lost deep in the Amazon jungle with no food, water or any safety supplies. Guide had collapsed from exhaustion and lay down to die, refusing to get up. Rescue was nothing short of a miracle. Full story is below - Any thoughts on how to make the company take some sort of responsibility are appreciated.

——

My brother (21M) and I (27F) have always wanted to do a trip into the jungle, so planned an entire itinerary in Peru around doing so. We looked at a few different online tours, and booked a two-night tour leaving from Iquitos and going into the Amazon. The tour was one of the less luxurious options but had very good reviews so we felt it was a safe choice. We spent the days leading up to it in Lima procuring and stocking our day packs with safety supplies (correct clothing and gear, strong insect repellent, flashlights, medicines) and researching how to be safe. We were worried about lethal snake or spider bites, jaguars, caimans, mosquito-borne diseases etc, but the golden rule from all of the advice online was to always trust and follow your guide and you’ll be safe, as they know the jungle and will always cut a safe path for you and point out dangers. Thousands of people do Amazon tours every year and have a great time. We were really excited.

On the day the trip was starting, we met at the office in Iquitos and then took a boat for about an hour and a half down the Amazon river. The small group doing our tour included our guide (Peruvian ~35M but seemed to speak good English), a young girl who seemed to serve no purpose except to accompany him, and a mother and daughter (~55F and 30F), the latter of which spoke fluent English and Spanish.

The boat made a couple of five minute stops along the way, firstly to get some gas and then to let some other guests off. It stopped a third time at about 11am and our guide motioned for us to get off. We thought we must be starting the tour so picked up our bags, but he told us to leave our bags on the boat. We assumed this was just another five minute stop. We asked if we needed our gumboots, and he said no.

We follow him off the boat. When we get up the river bank, he looks at our empty hands and asks “do you not have any water?” We were extremely confused as he had told us to leave our things on the boat and hadn’t explained what we were doing. He says “don’t worry, we are just doing a short 20-minute walk down the the track to a local village so you'll be fine.” The guide didn't have any water either. My brother and I are a bit concerned, but by the time we turn around the boat has already left with our stuff (including our water, carefully chosen repellent etc), so we trust that we only have a short period of walking and we follow the guide down the track into the jungle.

The first 20 minutes are lovely and the guide is exemplary of what we had read online, pointing out interesting insects and telling us which ones to avoid, and showing us the safe places to step. At some point though, he leads us off the track and into the deep jungle. I’m completely unconcerned and assuming this is all part of the plan. He tells us later that this is because he came across a large fallen tree over the track and we had to go around it.

Things start to go a bit awry from here. We walk through the deep jungle for an hour or so, and our guide is becoming less responsible. He’s charging ahead and leaving us to cut our own path (he doesn’t have a machete or delicate instructions of where to step like the guides we read about online). We have to clamber over trunks, under vines, avoid vicious ants, and get stuck in mud. Luckily we didn’t encounter anything more deadly; god knows it was definitely lurking. The mother who was with us fell over a few times and the guide didn't seem to care.

Eventually we make it to a small clearing and are starting to get a bit fed up, given we are yet to reach the village and are getting hungry, thirsty, sweaty, muddy and bitten. But, we are relieved to be out of the thick forest. The clearing has a basic bamboo shelter, and a little stream with two small aluminium boats. Is this the village? Our guide tells us to wait here and disappears for another half an hour without communicating anything to us, which is extremely irritating. He eventually returns and explains that we have to go back as “the boat that was meant to pick us up isn’t there”, which doesn’t make any sense as we thought we were heading to a village. He says it will be 20 minutes maximum to get back to the river and, to our relief, starts leading us along a small dirt track. At this point (probably around 2pm) we just want to get back ASAP - we’re hungry and thirsty. To our dismay, he shortly leads us off the track again back into the jungle, pointing at the sun and saying that he can tell which direction the river is in. Although annoyed that we have to wade through mud again, I still at this point have no suspicion that we are lost, and trust that he knows exactly where he’s taking us. My brother isn’t so sure, and says to us “if he’s using the sun as navigation I’m not that confident about this”. The rest of us laugh and follow our guide as all of the online advice told us to do. Stick with the guide, you’ll be fine.

We stumble our way through the deep jungle without any assistance. By now, the guide is charging so far ahead that we can barely see him and have to keep yelling out to him. We are being bitten by red ants which is very painful, falling over and wading through mud, where we could hear running water bubbling underneath us. At one point, I fell thigh-deep into a muddy swamp and screamed, half expecting a caiman to bite my legs off (our gumboots would have come in handy if we hadn't been told leave them behind). The guide did not seem to care. At this point we scream to him to slow the fuck down and wait for us because this is extremely dangerous. He eventually does and stops to talk to us, saying that we should wait here (in the middle of nowhere) and his colleague will bring us food and water. Again, we are confused. He then leaves again into the jungle before we can stop him. We are in disbelief. We look around and there is dense forest/swamp in all directions and we are being constantly bitten by mosquitos. We don't want to wait here for long, especially without water and repellent.

He returns a few minutes later looking extremely exhausted, having taken off his shirt, and collapses onto the forest floor. Between desperate gasps for breath, he finally drops the act and admits he has no idea where we are. We are completely lost.

It soon becomes clear that we have been lost for hours. We figure the guide was charging ahead to try and find a familiar path and completely exhausted himself doing so. He has collapsed shirtless on a muddy log, with loads of insects biting him. He is too exhausted to care. He is delirious and completely incoherent, seemingly forgetting how to speak English except to ask for water (which we didn’t have) - luckily the daughter in our group could translate for us, because he managed to get a bit of phone reception and called his boss. We learned from her that he could not explain to his boss where on earth we were. He was even trying to describe the clearing with the two boats (which the boss did not recognise), showing that we were already lost all the way back then, and he had tried to hide it from us all that time. He had nothing with him to prepare for this situation: no flare, no water, no machete, no GPS, not even a compass.

We spend the next hour or so trying to think logically about how to survive. We got the guide’s phone password and contacts as it seemed that we were going to lose him at any minute. Although I didn’t have reception, my google map had partially loaded so that we could perhaps see the direction of the river and hack through the jungle to make our way to it and hopefully flag someone down. I was nervous about doing this because (1) it meant leaving the guide (who kept insisting he couldn't stand), leaving us without his knowledge of the jungle but also leaving him to die; (2) I really doubted whether the map was correct and (3) it would mean hours navigating the thick jungle by ourselves, risking encountering deadly animals, dangerous tribes, anything. And, we probably only had an hour of sunlight left...

We were all extremely thirsty and were trying not to panic, but things were not looking good. It was extremely hot and muddy, mosquitoes were flying everywhere, and we were on constant alert for snakes, spiders, jaguars etc. Everyone remained extremely calm and thought logically which was a blessing (the mother and I shared a hug; I think she suspected I was about to get upset), and we were so lucky to have the other two in our group, but it was looking like we were going to have to try and survive the night (or longer) in the Amazon jungle without water, without a guide, and without any of our supplies.

The daughter then manages to get a bit of reception on her phone and can speak directly to the boss herself, although we still have no way of describing our whereabouts. We send him a screenshot of my half-loaded map image. She contacts her boyfriend and tells him that she will likely die in the jungle and that she loves him, but can he please contact the authorities asap. We ask our guide what the emergency number in Peru is and he brazenly refuses to tell us (I guess because he was worried about getting in trouble).

I’ll preface this by saying that my grandmother was born and raised in Türkiye (diplomats). She loved the country, spoke Turkish, and returned nearly every year. She took me there about 20 years ago and as a 12 year old, I really loved it.

Fast forward these past two decades and I’m so excited to take my spouse there. I am now sitting at IST feeling completely the opposite. Here is just a small section of why I felt so scammed by nearly the entire experience in only 3 days:

• The airport approved taxi with fixed price tried to rip us off for 3x the fixed price into Istanbul. He locked the doors when I refused to pay the inflated price and threatened to call the police. I managed to get the locked door open and leave the agreed upon payment on the seat.
• We had the “tourist price” menus constantly given to us with massive price gouging. Then when a Turkish friend joined us for dinner, we found out what was happening. Not to mention the constant yelling and cajoling of street scammers trying to get their next victim.
• My spouse fell for the common shoe shine scam. This is my fault for not warning her so shame on me. She is also the nicest person I know so it feels even worse. But this guy actually ended up reaching into her bag and grabbing her wallet and removing 20€ (all that was in it thankfully) before running off. So aggressive.
• I wanted to take a photo of the building where my great-grandfather worked. It used to be an embassy, but is now a social club. I was angrily screamed at and told to leave despite being on a public sidewalk. I tried to explain why I wanted a photo using Google translate and the “security man” only screamed more and threatened to call the cops unless I paid him. I just ended up walking away and into the hotel across the street.
• We just wanted to buy some Turkish delight to take home to my spouse’s mother. The shop owner charged us 4x what was told to us it would be when he wrapped it up. He threatened to call the cops if we didn’t pay, so we did, and now I am contesting the charge with the credit card company. We are two women in a foreign country so it’s not like we are going to keep arguing with some random man we don’t know.
• Our hotel demanded we pay half our room in cash and were pressuring us at check out to write a “five star” review online while standing there. Constant two-faced behaviour, especially when the wifi stopped working and the lift went out.
• Finally, let’s just even look at this airport. The view that every foreigner is a piggy bank continues. 22€ for a f***ing burger at Burger King even at an inflated airport price is insane. There are not that many places to fill up water bottles either, so I suppose it’s 10€ for a bottle or just dehydrate yourself! Oh, and want internet? You only get it for an hour and you have to go get a special password! World’s best airport? Maybe world’s best scam airport.

I’ve lived in multiple Global South countries and never have I been so eager to leave a place, even where less developed than Türkiye so this is not some “western tourist” issue. Türkiye really has an issue on its hands and it is very lucky it has such beautiful and significant historical and religious sites to encourage people to come. It seemed every time we left our hotel we were barraged with scammers viewing two Dutch blonde women as being rich. One of us is a school teacher and the other works in international development so we are not flush with cash. From start to finish, I felt extremely sad and guilty for feeling so upset and angry since this was my grandmother’s favourite place. I pride myself in being culturally respectful and sensitive, but even trying to take a step back and looking at it all from their perspective didn’t help. I would never dream of scamming anyone out of money while also pretending to be kind. Another box of worms: these guys scam, never face any consequences, but me, the gay person, has to pretend not to be while I’m in the country to be respectful of the homophobic culture and protect myself from being the victim of discrimination and crime. Makes total sense.

For a country that wants so badly to be part of the European community, shame on it for supporting and tolerating this culture of scam. I’ve travelled plenty throughout countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, etc. also wanting to be in the European Union and never once felt like every move was vulnerable to being scammed.

I have many Turkish friends in the Netherlands and now fully understand why they wouldn’t want to live in Türkiye. I understand this population of scammers represents a small portion of Turkish people and most people are good, but the country needs to stop allowing this sort of culture. Tons of police officers stand around doing nothing. There’s almost no way to report this sort of thing to be taken seriously. These men are allowed to yell from their shops and overcharge “idiot” foreigners.

I really supported the country before this, but now I will never come back to this country that my grandmother loved so dearly. I really am heartbroken.

An amazing trip that I will remember for the rest of my life. Something about biking across a country that lets you feel so much more connected to the land, the culture and the people

2 parts gin or vodka

2 parts coconut water

1 part lime juice

*half part simple syrup (to taste, honey/agave also works)

shake with ice and pour over strainer