Population: Me

Just a nerd out here trying to function.

[chronicillnesshumor-deactivated]

[boybeetles]

You know technology literacy is dying because I saw this meme with 76k likes

F11 the full screen button? You’re scared of the full screen button? F10?? It opens the menu bar???

[boybeetles]

Computers are so scary what if I accidentally hit F12 in a steam game and it takes a screenshot. What if I press shift + F12 while in word and accidentally save my document 😖

[yetanothergreyjedi]

[shower-thoughts-last-responder]

If you had to learn what the F keys on your computer do through me reblogging this post, then I'm glad you did. Computer literacy is not a skill that gets taught anymore, and it is absolutely one that needs to be taught in order to be learned. Don't ever feel bad for not knowing something, but ☝️ don't ever stop learning learning about your environment, the tools you use, and especially the people around you

[headspace-hotel]

Never stop learning+ Never stop sharing what you learned

[calamityplanet]

okay I'd like to preface this by saying I don't think it will happen, I think we got an ending with severe plotholes and deep flaws with a few highlights of good. BUT if we wanted to think like conspiracy theorists for a secret second finale, I would compare it to the opening scene of Stranger Things.

Mike loves a fake out. He does it all the time in the campaigns, and we see that in that first scene. He throws the troglodytes out when they all expect the Demogorgon, and they all relax, and then he does the "do you hear that".

We've been told that Mike is a self insert, and the end scene is a specific reference to the first campaign we see. Mike's storytelling, in that case, reflects how the duffers would do things. In this case, it supports a fake out, where we get the chance to react to the disappointment. Max loses it when they're just going to lose, and then there's another gotcha moment where they find a different ending. If we were looking at it that way, the d20 at the end of the credits is rolled to a 7, which of course is what Will rolls in this first scene.

If they did it that way, and had a secret 9th episode that answered more of those plotholes and gave a different option, I kind of think that would be a perfect ending. Not because of the content of the second finale, but because it's kind of a choose your own adventure kind of ending then. You want the ending to be episode 8? Go for it, let it be. You think episode 8 was a big let down at the very least when it comes to notable plotholes the duffers said were going to be addressed or pay off by the end of the series? Welcome to episode 9, baby.

Do I think they did it? No. I think they talked a big game and said they'd pushed certain things down the line but had them planned out and lost track of significant things and probably need to have a serious discussion with the continuity editor for their writing to let them know they don't have what it takes to keep track of a lot of key information.

[calamityplanet]

Just to add, if they did do it and the theory that the episode would get dropped on the 7th, 7 days later, then the audience is given the opportunity to experience what Joyce and Mike did in the first season.

7 Days of saying insane shit like look at the lights my missing child is talking to me in the lights and look at all of these secret clues that must mean there's a secret ending coming.

7 days of being told you're crazy, you need to let it go, plan the funeral, say goodbye.

And then having an ending that is, if it exists, much darker. Finding your child wrapped in some sort of living organism that is killing him.

We all know the ending as we currently know it is weirdly kind. Everyone lives, not a scratch on them but their mental wounds and long since corrupted childhoods. But if there were a surprise secret 9th episode, it would be unmerciful in a way that reminds you that the 8th episode ending as kindly as it did was a sense of peace we should have cherished.

[calamityplanet]

okay I'd like to preface this by saying I don't think it will happen, I think we got an ending with severe plotholes and deep flaws with a few highlights of good. BUT if we wanted to think like conspiracy theorists for a secret second finale, I would compare it to the opening scene of Stranger Things.

Mike loves a fake out. He does it all the time in the campaigns, and we see that in that first scene. He throws the troglodytes out when they all expect the Demogorgon, and they all relax, and then he does the "do you hear that".

We've been told that Mike is a self insert, and the end scene is a specific reference to the first campaign we see. Mike's storytelling, in that case, reflects how the duffers would do things. In this case, it supports a fake out, where we get the chance to react to the disappointment. Max loses it when they're just going to lose, and then there's another gotcha moment where they find a different ending. If we were looking at it that way, the d20 at the end of the credits is rolled to a 7, which of course is what Will rolls in this first scene.

If they did it that way, and had a secret 9th episode that answered more of those plotholes and gave a different option, I kind of think that would be a perfect ending. Not because of the content of the second finale, but because it's kind of a choose your own adventure kind of ending then. You want the ending to be episode 8? Go for it, let it be. You think episode 8 was a big let down at the very least when it comes to notable plotholes the duffers said were going to be addressed or pay off by the end of the series? Welcome to episode 9, baby.

Do I think they did it? No. I think they talked a big game and said they'd pushed certain things down the line but had them planned out and lost track of significant things and probably need to have a serious discussion with the continuity editor for their writing to let them know they don't have what it takes to keep track of a lot of key information.

[calamityplanet]

I can't wait to find out what's going on with the memories in Hawkins. I can't wait to find out what we don't know because it was erased. Like, Mind Flayer has been erasing parts of these people's memories as far back as 1959 for sure. Given the events of The First Shadow, we can gather there had to be some form of mass memory alteration for no one to be like "This entire string of crazy shit happened in high school. Of course it's going to happen again."

Hopper saying that the only interesting thing to happen while he was working in Hawkins the past 4 years was some boring thing? When he did all of that in high school? No. They had to have a memory alteration there.

People forgetting Will's birthday, which is the same day as Henry Creels.

People forgetting Barb even went missing aside from her parents.

Joyce not saying "they were wrapped on spires with a vine in their throat? Just like you were when Hopper and I found you when you were taken" because she LITERALLY SAW THIS. She literally sees Hopper get him out and GIVES HIM MOUTH TO MOUTH RESUSCITATION. I expected her to say it the minute Will said Holly was a part of the spires like it was doing something to her.

Joyce not saying "You said that exact same thing when you lead that group of scientists into a trap when the Mindflayer took control of you" when he said "I could feel it's important to him... I had this feeling he didn't want me there. He didn't want me to see it." Like word for word.

Steve forgetting Robin in his class despite her always talking and having no filter. At the very least jock Steve would have been like wtf is this girl doing.

People constantly acting like Hawkins is the most boring normal town as if they didn't have a boy go missing, get dragged out of the lake, and have a funeral for him only for him to be found alive. Like they talk about Will getting bullied for it as Zombie Boy but they do NOT explain what they told the parents of Hawkins to make it make sense that they pulled a whole kid out of a lake like that. And then the stuff that happened with the Creels is documented in a non-paranormal way as the dad went psycho and killed his whole family and all of the adults are like "This is Hawkins, nothing happens here" like that isn't absolutely insane. I get that it was like 24 years prior but all of the adults saying Hawkins is boring were teens when it happened. I would never call a place where someone's dad went crazy, killed a bunch of animals and then his family in a horrifically gruesome way, and then tried to off himself in the same gruesome way as nothing happens here no matter how much time had passed.

People acting like Joyce Byers is always insane despite her being right multiple times, including Hopper. Like I know she's the town crazy lady and people are kind of like oh it's Joyce she just says stuff but like you say "They showed me that body and it's not my son" and then he COMES BACK? I'd remember that. I'd be like yeah Joyce you probably have a point with these magnets, they might mean something.

But that same Joyce then forgetting how old her kid was when he was taken? Because he was 12, not 11. And while that's an easy mistake, the woman is out here counting the hours she didn't notice he was gone, I think she's going to remember his age.

I know part of it is the era, part of it is Joyce as a person, but it would be one thing for a kid to go missing and people kind of forget. But there's a lot of times where things get forgotten that feel like there's a cover up going on. One that, if it gets confirmed, we're going to see withheld important information or revelations. I think there are things that the Mind Flayer could do psychically to move in stealth, or there was another being that did it like the Green Dragon theory people are talking about (but I don't know enough about that to weigh in, feel free to add lore or context if you're better equipped to connect the Green Dragon in here).

[calamityplanet]

oh it was just bad writing. yikes.

[calamityplanet]

I want to know where the demo-creatures come from and where they went. Are they native to the bridge or The Mind Flayer dimension? Because Holly is just bookin it through that dimension not a demo in sight. And also they're just gently wandering around the Upside Down / Bridge this season fighting nothing.

So where are they? And where did they come from?

If we assume that the Mind Flayer has been working on pushing through this bridge for at least as long back as when they made contact with Henry Creel in the 1950s, and take a step further that it goes back to the beginning of the First Shadow play when they broke through to dimension x during the war, the Mind Flayer's vine/tenticle things being in the bridge is all built over decades.

Did the demo-creatures live in the space the bridge once occupied? And therefore when the Mindflayer built through that dimension with the bridge, consumed them? Are they a consumed race from another Mind Flayer course? Did that set of creatures exist in their own dimension, had it eradicated, and those were the remaining parts of the races from that dimension?

And in that case, is that what happens to Hawkins/the world if the Mind Flayer wins? They are consumed until there is no more, and they become the bridge to the next dimension that the Mind Flayer attempts to consume, the remaining humans being fully mentally taken over and therefore the army of the Mind Flayer for the next dimension? Meaning that someone would then fall or crawl through a crack in dimensions and find the next Will Byers on planet whatever and drag them into the Mind Flayer Dimension to be essentially a palette assessment and appetizer.

[calamityplanet]

As far as the environment in the upside down goes, I feel like the Bridge does explain why they can go in there without protection now. If the goal is merging two worlds with the bridge as guide, what we see in earlier seasons is initial impact. Debris and the other dimension's initial atmosphere are everywhere. They're breathing rubble and an alien set of gasses.

As the bridge does its job at bridging the dimensions, it brings them closer together in similarity. Henry's body is thrown into the other dimension at the start of season 1, but look at what Vecna is. That's not human life sustained. It is, at minimum, a human body consumed. It's possible that that environment was not conducive to his continued living, or that the Mind Flayer consumed him and this physical form is what a Mind Flayer can become when given a human body to consume. Either they intend to make more Vecna-like beings as human suits for the Mind Flayer (s? idk if it's a race or just one being) or they can consume the human race for power within their own circumstance in some way.

Regardless, it makes the Bridge we've known as the upside down this whole time a place that is merging two environments and bringing them to an equilibrium that both dimensions can survive in. So them being able to go into the upside down now without almost dying could make sense if that's the explanation.

[calamityplanet]

I can't wait to find out what's going on with the memories in Hawkins. I can't wait to find out what we don't know because it was erased. Like, Mind Flayer has been erasing parts of these people's memories as far back as 1959 for sure. Given the events of The First Shadow, we can gather there had to be some form of mass memory alteration for no one to be like "This entire string of crazy shit happened in high school. Of course it's going to happen again."

Hopper saying that the only interesting thing to happen while he was working in Hawkins the past 4 years was some boring thing? When he did all of that in high school? No. They had to have a memory alteration there.

People forgetting Will's birthday, which is the same day as Henry Creels.

People forgetting Barb even went missing aside from her parents.

Joyce not saying "they were wrapped on spires with a vine in their throat? Just like you were when Hopper and I found you when you were taken" because she LITERALLY SAW THIS. She literally sees Hopper get him out and GIVES HIM MOUTH TO MOUTH RESUSCITATION. I expected her to say it the minute Will said Holly was a part of the spires like it was doing something to her.

Joyce not saying "You said that exact same thing when you lead that group of scientists into a trap when the Mindflayer took control of you" when he said "I could feel it's important to him... I had this feeling he didn't want me there. He didn't want me to see it." Like word for word.

Steve forgetting Robin in his class despite her always talking and having no filter. At the very least jock Steve would have been like wtf is this girl doing.

People constantly acting like Hawkins is the most boring normal town as if they didn't have a boy go missing, get dragged out of the lake, and have a funeral for him only for him to be found alive. Like they talk about Will getting bullied for it as Zombie Boy but they do NOT explain what they told the parents of Hawkins to make it make sense that they pulled a whole kid out of a lake like that. And then the stuff that happened with the Creels is documented in a non-paranormal way as the dad went psycho and killed his whole family and all of the adults are like "This is Hawkins, nothing happens here" like that isn't absolutely insane. I get that it was like 24 years prior but all of the adults saying Hawkins is boring were teens when it happened. I would never call a place where someone's dad went crazy, killed a bunch of animals and then his family in a horrifically gruesome way, and then tried to off himself in the same gruesome way as nothing happens here no matter how much time had passed.

People acting like Joyce Byers is always insane despite her being right multiple times, including Hopper. Like I know she's the town crazy lady and people are kind of like oh it's Joyce she just says stuff but like you say "They showed me that body and it's not my son" and then he COMES BACK? I'd remember that. I'd be like yeah Joyce you probably have a point with these magnets, they might mean something.

But that same Joyce then forgetting how old her kid was when he was taken? Because he was 12, not 11. And while that's an easy mistake, the woman is out here counting the hours she didn't notice he was gone, I think she's going to remember his age.

I know part of it is the era, part of it is Joyce as a person, but it would be one thing for a kid to go missing and people kind of forget. But there's a lot of times where things get forgotten that feel like there's a cover up going on. One that, if it gets confirmed, we're going to see withheld important information or revelations. I think there are things that the Mind Flayer could do psychically to move in stealth, or there was another being that did it like the Green Dragon theory people are talking about (but I don't know enough about that to weigh in, feel free to add lore or context if you're better equipped to connect the Green Dragon in here).

[calamityplanet]

So in the reference Robin makes during her broadcast of the code for the next crawl, she talks about The Wiz and particularly calls out MJ as the Scarecrow. Given Sadie Sink has an upcoming Spider Man project which people believe she is going to be MJ, Mary Jane, we get the first reference that Sadie's Max is the Scarecrow of their reference. We also have a reference to The Wizard Of Oz with the particles falling like a snow over Hawkins, like the Poppy Field sequence, which is also enforced by the final shot of season 4 where they stand in a field of flowers (maybe poppies, I haven't verified) while the particles ie snow is falling.

Then we have Holly in clear Dorothy costuming (and yes, it's a costume that references several very notable characters for her. Alice in Wonderland, Dorothy, Red Riding Hood, and of course Mike's creation of Holly The Heroic). The Girl who gets swept away to a colorful and bright land and has to find a way home and meets a group of people who also believe that a person with immense power is going to change things.

Then we have Will as possibly the Tin Man, trying to find his heart and realizing that who he is is enough, the heart is there even if he does not possess one to hold. Also Mike is the Heart, and regardless of your relationship opinions it has been made clear that Will does have feelings for Mike, and that he has been yearning for him the way the Tin Man yearns to have a heart.

I'm not 100% sure who the Cowardly Lion is, but maybe Henry. My theory is Henry and Vecna are separate, Henry was Vecna's first Will. Before Eleven opened a gate that allowed the Mind Flayer access to this physical world, the Mind Flayer was a psychic entity that attached itself to Henry Creel when he went to that rock formation with his family. Which would be why Henry is afraid of the Rocks, it's where he was abducted and he knows he never fully returned. I do think also that Vecna/ The Mind Flayer is afraid of the Rocks, where they were trapped before attaching to Henry. Then the Mind Flayer piggy backed in his mind, the killings started, they moved, and that's how we get to The First Shadow. Henry loses the battle for his own mind against the Mind Flayer on November 6th 1959, where the body of Henry Creel is now fully possessed by the Mind Flayer and we call that combination Vecna. Henry is stuck in the upside down, and takes what Max calls Door 2. He can't die, he can't get out, so he builds a safe space in his mind to hide from what's happening to him. This is where Holly is. A land of Henry's creation, where he hides from the monsters that got him like a cowardly lion. He genuinely believes he is doing the only thing he can to save the kids from experiencing everything he did, aging in his own mind as his body does. He becomes the father of his house, Holly looking a lot like Alice, and he plans on giving the kids an escape despite the fact that he doesn't try to get them out. Max doesn't engage with him, she knows his face, and hides in the caves.

The Wizard, however, is Vecna. Vecna, who has no real power, because he's what happens when the Mind Flayer fully takes over a person's body and mind. He's the vines wrapped around a corpse (sorry thats gross, but I do think it's true) and animated. Henry's body was pushed into the upside down when El opened the gate, giving him a physical form to consume. Honestly I think the physical form of Vecna is irrelevent to their power, and the Wizard of it all is going to be that defeating him physically was never a way to win, it was always mental. Hence why Will's powers come in so epically during the end sequence of episode 4, where he's conquering a major mental battle. Will was the first taken when the Mind Flayer could access the physical world, and he's the first time it could feed directly in the way it did. He's imaginative, emotionally available, and thinks and feels deeply. A psychic entity would be feasting with so much information and neuroplasticity. It's taking the children because they're at an age where imagination and play and expansion of the mind is constant.

So Vecna as we are percieving it has no power, it's the Wizard of Oz, and the Mind Flayer (or whatever is behind the Mind Flayer, I've seen great theories on a Green Dragon situation that I feel like could definitely be an answer but I don't have as much information on that) is the Ruby Slippers. Something they've been carrying with them the whole time, but using them is important to getting home.

We also have the Rainbow Room, where Vecna's body is sent into the new land by flying over the Rainbow (on the ground and in the room). We then see Max opening that same space to the closest she got to getting out of the land, back through the space where they door was over the Rainbow.

I think Will using the power he's got will be a part of the There's No Place Like Home of it all, and of course the knowledge that we have will being the first like Vecna says, so 1+11+8 being 20, the number needed to defeat Vecna in the DND fight with Vecna in season 4 and also the highest number on the d20.

[victoria-pedretti]

DEAD POETS SOCIETY 1989 — dir. Peter Weir

[ekingston]

sometimes i say things on twitter and then make a little graph about it

[np-444]

The real horseshoe theory.

[pseudophan]

so it turns out phan is real

[luulapants]

My dad and I once had a disagreement over him using the adage "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

I said, "That's just not true. Sometimes what doesn't kill you leaves you brittle and injured or traumatized."

He stopped and thought about that for a while. He came back later, and said, "It's like wood glue."

He pointed to my bookshelf, which he helped me salvage a while ago. He said, "Do you remember how I explained that, once we used the wood glue on them, the shelves would actually be stronger than they were before they broke?"

I did.

"But before we used the wood glue, those shelves were broken. They couldn't hold up shit. If you had put books on them, they would have collapsed. And that wood glue had to set awhile. If we put anything on them too early, they would have collapsed just the same as if we'd never fixed them at all. You've got to give these things time to set."

It sounded like a pretty good metaphor to me, but one thing I did pick up on was that whatever broke those shelves, that's not the thing that made them stronger. That just broke them. It was being fixed that made them stronger. It was the glue.

So my dad and I agreed, what doesn't kill you doesn't actually make you stronger, but healing does. And if you feel like healing hasn't made you stronger than you were before, you're probably not done healing. You've got to give these things time to set.

[delphinidin4]

Tons more at the source!

[micro-usb-deactivated20230625]

[helloitsbees]

i gave the cashier at bath & body works my phone number yesterday for the reward program and she did this, exactly:

[general-history-reference]

[funnytwittertweets]