This one’s a little tricky, if you got any questions please ask.

They’re GRRREAT!

🪀: G Squared AL7 Arbiter X

How does it look?

I had stored away my plastics years ago, and then kinda forgot about them! It’s going to be a fun while getting reacquainted with them all!

First of all I really enjoyed this podcast. It was well done and in some parts there was a good explanation of what being gay in a small town is like. But there is a lot of missed context that I just want to shout at the editors about the whole time.

As a young gay man I truly can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been invited to come be a handyman on some eccentric old closeted gay man’s property in a rural area in exchange for money/free rent etc. John was definitely a unique gem of an amazing man, but the dynamic between him and these younger men is not unique, mysterious or at all unusual. The tattooing and piercing also isn’t and is pretty obviously his way of having physical intimacy with straight men— if you are straight I can’t exactly explain the clues that confirm this but there are just things that stand out.

In the first few minutes of the first episode, I knew John was gay. In the first minute of discussion of Tyler I knew what that dynamic was. As soon as I heard …

I don’t want to have to listen to Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, et al, but I would love if someone were monitoring the scuttlebutt in MAGA land, and could give a summary about what they’re thinking/talking about — like the Daily Beans, but not a digest of news, just opinions or the prevailing winds.

https://www.businessinsider.com/memo-amazon-breaking-up-wondery-as-podcasts-shift-to-video-2025-8

I love so many Wondery podcasts.

First Pineapple Street, now Wondery. Can a non-Joe Rogan type format survive?

I’ve always kind of been a completist and get really hyperfixated on things. So, for those of you like me, which podcasts got you so hooked that you’ve heard them from start to finish?

Oh my god when will it end!?!? I listen to podcasts, A LOT, like most of the time and it doesn’t matter which one I listen to every single commercial break I hear the ad for the Anabei sofa. I live in fear of the first 5 notes of that commercial.

I’m not mad about commercials in podcasts, I totally understand the need for them, and I know I can pay premium membership for some of my favorites and not hear any commercials but I listen to a lot of different podcasts and the washable sofas add is ruining my life!!!

😣😣😣😣😭😭😭

And yes I listen on headphones that have a skip button. I don’t mind skipping past ads. It’s this specific ad, if you haven’t heard it you don’t know what I’m talking about, is specifically annoying from the very first nanosecond and is playing at every single ad break on Spotify. It’s about on level of annoying with Chumba casino but way more frequent lately.

My favorite one is “S-Town.” I know there has been a lot of controversy around “S-Town,” but I think Brian Reed’s storytelling is unmatched. I was fascinated by how even moments where nothing happens seem interesting through his storytelling. I’d love to hear your favorite one!

Mine has to be Lonesome Dove. I can’t believe it took me this long to read it, but goddamn. What a book. What’s your favorite book that you’ve read this year? It doesn’t matter when the book was published, as long as you read it in 2025. I’m looking for my next great read. Thanks in advance.

I work for a residential treatment facility that cares for teenage girls between the ages of 11 and 17. The books they currently have are completely inappropriate and/or boring for teenage girls (things like Charles Dickens or a biography on Robert F Kennedy as an example). I was tasked with overhauling their library.

I need to be able to find the books reasonably priced second hand, and there can’t be sex scenes.

I’d prefer a range of genres and not just romance, because not every teenage girl is into romance novels. Romance, mystery/thriller, sci-fi, horror, and beyond are all valid suggestions.

The obvious choices like the Twilight series and Harry Potter are already on the list.

That woman clearly seems to think she reinvented the wheel and wrote a book full of embarrassing “epiphanies” at middle age that most people figure out far sooner. She seems so narcissistic. And the metaphors. Oh god, the metaphors. I DNF’d at about 30%. The passage that was a final straw for me:

“I have entered the place I thought was death, and it has turned out to be life itself. I entered this Ache alone, but inside it I have found everyone. In surrendering to the Ache of loneliness I have discovered un-loneliness. Right here, inside the Ache, with everyone who has ever welcomed a child or held the hand of a dying grandmother or said good-bye to a great love. I am here, with all of them.”

Absolutely wretched simpleton-masquerading-as-a-prophet speak. Barf.

Anyway, something I loved: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. Actually I’m not quite done so no spoilers please!!! Been slowly savoring it.

Modern vampires, 1960s vampires, vampires at university, Southern Gothic vampires…whatever it is, I just want vampires in some kind of different setting/period that isn’t high school or a stormy manor. Maybe I’m still trying to ride a high after watching Sinners, but I’m in need of some new vampire literature whatever it may be. I’m cool with any genre, honestly; sci fi, horror, slice of life, comedy romance — gimme it all.

If it helps I’ve read Dracula, The Vampire Lestat, Interview with the Vampire, and Twilight (for my teenage sins)

Edit: holy shit I went to bed and woke up to over 400 comments…thank you all for so many amazing recs!! Cannot wait to dive into some fang-tastic stories 😏

I want the weirdest most absurd, surreal shit happening.

rate it up to 5! recs r welcome too!!

Hi guys, I’m looking for your list of ¹⁰⁄₁₀ games of the past ten years. It may be the no contest popular games or even niche games. Intrigued to see your lists!!

Because of that, the focus of the game is on fast-paced movement, momentum, and using your environment to thrive.

Basically, games like Ghostrunner / Neon White / Katana Zero / SUPER HOT?

I miss playing something that leaves me a sobbing mess after finishing it. Undertale is a classic example, but two other games that really struck me deep are GRIS and Transistor. The latter especially had me crying at the ending so badly I got a headache, and then hours later after thinking about it, it made me realize just how well that game is written, and how much that ending meant. It’s amazing. I need more games like these. Preferably ones with similar playtime too, so maybe not games that take months to beat, but any suggestions are welcome o/

Looking for a game that just makes you addicted asf - It shouldn’t be a slow - for me boring - game like for example stardew valley or any city builder etc., just not my type of games.
Other than that I’m pretty open to genres, I just want to get that feeling again of “Hm just a few more minutes” and then when I watch on the clock again it’s 2 hours later.
Edit: Didn’t think that there are sooo many replys xD Bc of that I just edit the post to say: Thank you all for every suggestion you gave me! :D

What’s a game that’s cheaply made, A very shit idea, or just a basic game loop but you can’t put it down! Or just had a lot of fun for a few hours?

I think I have a pretty unique request for you all. So, I like to read and I also like gaming. But its hard to do both at the same time. Or is it? What I used to do was join an Escape from tarkov raid, post up somewhere, and read a book until someone strolled by. Then I would murder them, take their stuff, extract, repeat. It’s one of the most relaxing and enjoyable hobbies ever. Its like fishing but I get to ruin someones day and enjoy a nice book. Like you have no idea how pleasant and enjoyable Tarkov can be despite all the poor decisions from BSG and all the hacking if you play like this. Anyways, tarkov is fun and all but I’m wondering if there are any other games I could do this in. I’m not a big fan of rust or dayz.

Is it childish? Absolutely. But I get a kick out of it every time I plug my phone in. My wife hates it.

I found that the expressions sound most.. authentic.. when I use “Siri Voice 4” for these.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/e9ec27cc544d4f2987980b656f7c4c70

I saw someone trying to sell an app on here that created wallpapers from Apple Music libraries and had a shortcut to set the wallpaper.

In shortcuts this was a fairly easy thing to do natively - so here y’all go - don’t spend money for native features.

No it’s not possible with Spotify using this system, but someone with Spotify’s API could probably do it - and that would actually make sense as an app.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/1e8bddf925d84573b49b1178aaf441a8

EDIT: thanks to you guys’ quick responses, I backed up all my shortcuts from another device, and will attempt some things to try to get them to sync via icloud back onto my phone or else, failing all that, just manually add each one back from the backup.

It explicitly says, unambiguously, in no uncertain terms, that any data stored in iCloud will not be deleted.

Data stored in iCloud includes, for example, all the shortcuts you’ve ever made.

I nuked the app to reinstall it to try and fix this bug that’s not been addressed for at least 2 years, and when I reinstalled it all my shortcuts were gone. This represents hundreds of hours of googling, interacting with guys here to get shortcuts that I’ll never find again, and manually tweaking the really complex shortcuts that I could never possibly build on my own.

😔

The “lizard” meme has consumed me and I must share that with my friend. How can I make it more annoying? I’m already planning on yoinking her phone and making my text tone ‘lizard’. If you’re wondering why she hasn’t blocked me it’s because I’m one of the few she would never block lmao.

Apple Shortcuts is one of the apps that I enjoy most on my iPhone and I love that Things 3 offers a huge set of actions. This helped me create a Morning Summary that will fetch relevant information about my day and that will display it in a design way using HTML

The end result shows these information

- Weather : daily weather and temperature, then the min/max temperatures and chances of rain

- Calendar : events of the day

- Tasks : tasks of the day, then tasks of the Anytime (tasks that have a project but no specific time, this is my « this week »

I would love to automate this shortcut so the HTML is sent through email and displayed as inline in the message instead of the code, but I don’t know how

How to install it :

- Download the shortcut : https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/fb6f5761bf914290bbbbf82895ff2aad

- Edit the shortcut to your needs (location, calendars to exclude)