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This was a random dream I had but it was too cool to not write down.

So in an alternate world James replaces Walter Sullivan as the main antagonist. Turns out the room where he killed Mary was room 302, and it seemed her spirit or ghost or whatever was haunting the bed. She was convincing James that he had to sacrifice people to the bed so she could be resurrected. Her ghost would only be seen under the bed and with every sacrifice she would rise through the bed to catch their souls. I didn’t see the protagonist but they must have been clairvoyant maybe because during the confrontation they actually see Alessa Gillespie is attached to “Mary”. So it’s an illusion to James to make him kill people.

Honestly pretty sick dream to have, not sure where it came from because I haven’t really had Silent Hill on the brain for a while.

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I’m getting the feeling that RE requiem is going to destroy my personal concept.

Not sure but it kind of looks like Grace does some kind of investigative journalisty stuff with the FBI maybe. So my reporter vibes are over. Maybe I have time to salvage it.

Ffs I’ve been waiting ever so patiently for the trailer and now I’m sulking.

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This is the most annoying nitpick I’ve ever had in my life.

If the rumours are true and Leon is the next protagonist in RE9 then I’ll be a little annoyed. I have some reasonable opinions as to why I’m not a fan of that idea but this one is just an autistic moment. Leon is typically featured in even numbered games, I was already miffed that him not being in 8 ruined the flow of that, but now suddenly he’s in 9? No no no. Ah ah ah. That’s not gonna work for me.

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So desperate for the defiance revival to be successful. Will be emptying my bank account as much as I possibly can into this bastard game.

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So the health service ended up calling back 18 hours later to basically say might as well go to the hospital that would be quicker than anything we can do further.

Have an appointment in 2 hours and I’ve been in so much pain today but I can’t take anything to help it

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Probably said this before but I’ll say it again.

I will become a ride or die swiftie when Taylor Swift makes an entire album about how much she loves her cats

That’s a niche that deserves to be filled

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Been going through it for the last few months. Had some big life changes around the same time I stupidly decided to stop taking my meds. My anxiety has never been this bad.

That’s why I’m so thankful for this podcast. Anything and everything on social media is getting to me, and luckily I can’t listen to the podcast and scroll because any time a video comes up it pauses what I’m listening to. It got so annoying that I’ve stopped going online.

She’s a blessing.

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Been watching the most iconic pretty little liars recap podcast and now it’s canon in my hypothetical rewrite that Aria’s a massive pick me who exclusively centres herself at all times

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These pointless thought exercises are so annoying what do you mean I’m assigning each liar a trait that helps them navigate the A mystery like it’s a DND game

And why am I giving a full example of how each one of them would tackle breaking into a house

It’s only a matter of time before I get into full mbti personality types

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Been on a wild PLL phase for the last few weeks and my ongoing essay is massive now. I dread to think of how many words are in there, doubly dread how many times I’ve repeated myself because it’s so disorganised.

I’ve had self discussions about the ending, the final A and I’m still mad. It’s common knowledge that the showrunner was too fixated on outsmarting every viewer so she came up with a twin which is stupid considering they already did that with Mary Drake. Everyone disliked that. If I had the ability to time travel I’d give Marlene two options I think.

1- stick with the Spencer twin and have it go back further. Make it so Alex Drake was the one to have a relationship with Caleb because viewers despised that. Friendship???? That’s your big theme and you have one going for the other’s ex????? This came to me when my sister had some choice words to say about Spencer and I thought wow that really was an A-hole move, should’ve rewritten that bit. Make it so the switch happened perhaps just before the time jump.

2- the better option, go back through the whole show and pick out little tidbits that lead to the answer. There are so many suspects that could go back to the very first episode and fans would appreciate that. It wouldn’t need to make the most sense, maybe some things were just red herrings and were solved later on but at least it would show some attention to detail. I have a whole thing about who I would’ve made the final A, and this bitch was in the first episode. Their suspicious behaviour was constantly hand waved away because there was a very convenient excuse. This only hinges on one piece of dialogue that translated into an A act later on, but it quickly snowballed from there.

I have a lot more to say about the second option because it’s not an isolated incident. The Cece reveal also had problems with continuity and she was already red coat so…….. Also not specific to the show considering the reboot also did the same thing. I think it was the second season where the showrunner admitted that they only decided on who A was over halfway through. That’s a bad mystery. That makes the previous episodes useless for viewers who want to pick up on clues. As someone who reads mystery thrillers that’s my favourite part. I like getting my suspicions in order and theorise. But if what I’m reading at that point has no basis to theorise then what am I doing. You need to be clear with your intentions from the beginning ffs.

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Reinstalled gears 5 after how many years don’t know and of course it’s taken forever to install. I think it’s been about 12 hours now and it allegedly fully installed but I went into the game and I had to further install things. Not gonna lie, that’s neat. I like the option of choosing what huge part to install first. Chose multiplayer but apparently the game ignored my choice and the campaign has been installing for the last 5 hours. It’s at 89% thank god, multiplayer is on 23% and hasn’t gone up since I made my alleged choice. I just want to play horde whyyyyy

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I try not to talk much about the annoying people in the world but I’m so perplexed by that Elongated Muskrat. Very confusing individual.

Don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a person be so sensitive to any form of criticism but also have a massive humiliation fetish. Unless he’s embarrassing himself on a daily basis accidentally but at this point I find that hard to believe.

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Insomnia is such a bitch but during nights of no sleep I tend to have the best self-therapy sessions. Newest breakthrough is getting to the root of why I hate receiving gifts.

I knew beforehand but for the last 10 years or so I’ve replaced it with the excuse of being uncomfortable with the attention, family members have said that about me a lot and apparently I just stole it to better explain.

The real reason is I developed intense financial anxiety and feel intensely guilty if someone buys something for me. My parents weren’t shy about our finances and would talk very openly in front of and to me a lot. They got me an Xbox 360 in 2010 I think and that’s when the guilt began. It was a big thing and they were always talking about being poor before and after this event. That snowballed over the years and now I find it really hard to put on a happy excited act when I’m crippled with guilt. Autism came in clutch and now everyone believes it’s because I find attention weird and uncomfortable.

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I need to stop thinking about resident evil pairings it’s too much I only have so much memory.

Ada Wong and Sheva Alomar.

It just came to me when I was thinking about Ada’s maybe canon maybe not backstory from a manhwa. Apparently she lived in a war torn country and as a child had to resort to murder in order to keep herself and I think her mother alive. Can’t quite recall all of it but it got me thinking I know someone else with a tragic childhood. Sheva Alomar had a similar situation getting caught up in Umbrella’s misdeeds. Thinking off the top of my head so I don’t forget, probably will end up with yet another resident evil essay I have so many why.

What I find intriguing about this is while they had similar struggles as children, they went in different directions. Sheva fights for justice, Ada fights for survival (money). That would be a pretty cool dynamic to see, especially with their combined history with Wesker and the fact that Sheva wouldn’t take too kindly to Ada’s work helping bioterrorists.

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Christmas Day is annoyingly difficult to manage. One of those occasions where my brain and body are so exhausted and overwhelmed but when it’s time to relax and sleep suddenly I’ve never been more awake in my life

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I’ve been in and out of a conspiracy rabbit hole for the last two weeks and I don’t know who would care about it other than me. My problem is I don’t like being misled.

So my guilty pleasure for a long time has been those Reddit stories on TikTok with the Minecraft gameplay. I live for other people’s drama and I need to be very stimulated in order to not get lost in thought so it’s the perfect thing for me. I’m sure a lot of the stories are fake but I don’t really care as long as I’m being entertained. But typically what gets me off TikTok for the day is when a story comes up that advertises a product. Immediate turnoff how dare you. It’s painfully obvious that it’s an ad when the storyteller brings up a specific product in the most inorganic way possible. It’s mostly a weight loss supplement called obvi or something similar sounding and each time it’s a no no no. I’m taken out of the fantasy world created here. So you, random person on reddit, talking about how you got revenge on your cheating ex husband, decide you should impart your wisdom on the masses by talking unnaturally about a product that made you miraculously lose weight? I may be tricked into believing Reddit lies, but I can sniff out product placement like a dog sniffing a pissy streetlamp. I know your game here.

I never really questioned why these TikTok pages would post these dull stories that only exist as sponsorships, for some reason in my head they would just run any and all Reddit stories through the AI voiceover and call it a day. What should have been obvious is the tiktok pages are sponsored. Found this out the hard way.

BARELY DISCLOSED ADS.

So you’re scrolling through your fyp hoping for some fun, maybe a few ha ha moments. Then you stumble upon a Reddit video asking flight attendants about the scariest things about working on a plane.

Looks harmless enough. Perhaps enlightening. Scandalous? Absolutely scandalous because the whole video is squeezing in as many sponsored products as possible while mixing in a couple of home remedies for naturally growing breast size??? So you wonder to yourself omg are all these things true? I mean this lady worked as a stewardess for a billionaire so these products she’s talking about must be really good.

But then

Sneaky little disclosure at the bottom you’ll only see if you expand the description. Not only under the title, but under the hashtags. I’m no expert on FTC guidelines, but I’m pretty sure you have to make it abundantly clear if/when you’re advertising a product. According to my various sources (single google search, and one person on YouTube explaining another situation in regards to undisclosed ads) it has to be very hard for the viewer to miss that a post of any kind is sponsored. These bitches are hiding the disclosure at the very bottom. I say these bitches because it’s multiple accounts. And for added creep factor they all use the exact same verbiage. “This story is a promotional piece. It is a perfect depiction of what could happen.” What does that even mean.

One might be saying, is that really the biggest problem you’re facing at this time? It’s 4am on Christmas Eve, you’ve got a ton of shit to do and shops close early so why are you up in arms about this? Also Kim there’s people that are dying. For one I have the autism excuse of a hyperfixation so get out of my face. Next unethical practices are bad even if they seem minuscule, any idiot could view this and be tricked into buying a product that’s probably shit. I would be one of those idiots if I ever had money to spend. Actively lying to people and being that sneaky with ads just to get paid alongside whatever tiktok is paying you is gross. And finally the reason I care so much about this is my secret weapon I’ve been hiding like the tiktok pages are hiding the ad disclosures. I think it’s bad enough to push products onto your viewers under the guise of a quote-unquote real person oh so naturally talking about these amazing things that changed their lives and oops just so happened to mention to exact name of the product would you believe this obvi stuff made me lose all this weight and save my marriage. The crème de la crème of this nonsense, the cherry on top of this bitter sweet journey I’m on. This one specific post advertising a toothpaste in my opinion is the worst.

We start our wondrous story with the words “I think dentists may be running the biggest scam in America.” That’s the most important part of this. The rest of this totally real and true story is just about dentists lying about cavities in order to charge patients for a deep cleaning, but this person never had cavities before and he always uses [insert toothpaste brand here] and even uses their mouthwash several times a day out of fear of getting a cavity. Goes to his old dentist who says nah mate your teeth are perfect oh you’re using [insert toothpaste brand here] yeah keep doing that and you’ll be fine, also get your wife to do the same.

Maybe I’m the crazy conspiracy theorist, maybe I’m seeing malice where I shouldn’t. However, to me that story looks like an attempt to discredit the entire dental industry in order to advertise a fucking toothpaste. The very beginning sowing those seeds of doubt, that the dentists are just trying to get your money. We, the [insert toothpaste brand here] people, are actually better than dentists. You’ll never have to see those evil scammers again if you buy our products.

Again, idiots like me who might actually believe the story to be a true account of someone’s experience may come away from this thinking I’m never going to the dentist again. Risking the oral health of viewers just to advertise a toothpaste???? I’m not American so I don’t know what the situation is like over there. But even if it’s true that the dental industry is scamming people through unnecessary procedures, it’s not exactly a noble cause when you’re trying to ADVERTISE A TOOTHPASTE. Are you kidding me? Nasty nasty nasty. I could be overthinking this, always a likely possibility, but all of this builds up. The deception of the story being completely fake. The fake story being an ad. The ad trying to discredit an entire industry and pushing bad advice. And the ad not being made clear to whoever’s watching. The trash behaviour stacks on top of each other until we get to this point.

Multiple of these Reddit accounts have posted this story, clearly the brand is getting around, but weirdly the title of the story keeps changing. It’s usually framed as a question asked on Reddit by whoever for other users to post their anecdotes or experiences. Not really a huge thing here just odd. Also odd is sometimes the question has nothing to do with oral health so the story seems to come out of left field.

A little bonus one though that really took the piss for me. We begin our story with a teacher who adopts one of her students and their sibling who were trapped with an abusive parent. They spent a long time adjusting to the new home, like really fucked up from their previous environment. It’s Christmas time like it is now, but the teacher not only doesn’t have enough money to make a great first Christmas, but also not enough to pay rent so they’re gonna get kicked out. Christmas Day arrived and the oldest child gives her an envelope filled with money, enough to pay the rent. Wow so heartbreaking then so heartwarming. Everything worked out, such a happy ending. But alas we couldn’t end it there. The whole story was an ad for one of those websites that promises you money in return for filling out questionnaires I think it was. That’s some nasty shit. Anything to make money though, I guess.

I think what really got me down this rabbit hole was the first time I saw that phrase “this is a promotional piece. It is a perfect depiction of what could happen.” I thought wow this account is such a huge bitch never watching again. Then I wondered how many of their posts were promotions so I searched it. Only to find several different accounts had the same well-hidden disclaimer, with the same stories circulating. That’s when I decided this was a conspiracy worth bitching about to anyone who would listen. It’s unethical, so fucking rude and honestly classless. Show a little decorum.

Jumping before that though, i was first watching a YouTube video about undisclosed ads on tiktok for something called bloom. Supposedly something good for health even though it’s provably not. To make a long story short, a ton of influencers were being paid to just have the product in the background of their videos, maybe use it without saying anything about it. Some would say it’s odd but I’d say it’s ingenious. Idiots like me would see this one thing in all these creators’ videos and think hmmm that seems to be a must have item for everyone considering barely anyone is promoting it and clearly they use it because it’s in their kitchens. A very subtle manipulation. One could say you don’t have to disclose it being an ad if you’re not actively promoting it, but if you’re getting paid money from a company to include specific content in your posts then yes you kinda have to. Sneakiness will not work here. What’s also funny is in posts where they actually do use the product and they either take the smallest possible sip they can, or try really hard to hide how disgusting it tastes. I can understand making money but you have to stand on business. Chug that shit and give me the fakest smile. Advertise to me properly. You chose the billboard life so now have to live it. Got distracted and almost forgot my point. The topic of undisclosed ads intrigued me because I’d had so many of those Reddit story tiktoks with the hamfisted inclusion of a product that got me thinking hmmmmm. As I said before I initially didn’t think to consider the TikTok accounts were posting sponsored content for whatever reason. I think I figured it would be a weird niche for advertisers to want to get into, completely failing to realise it may be a weird niche but it’s a very popular one. My memory is complete mashed potato but I think I started considering the blatant possibility of the accounts themselves getting paid when the product placements were becoming way more frequent. And while I’m cussing out my brain functions I don’t know why but I get surprised by things I was already aware of. Learning about undisclosed ads should not have been as shocking to me considering I learned about it years ago when the YouTube beauty community was still thriving and there were instances of creators not letting their audience know they were being paid to shill some makeup. Anyway, this needlessly shocking revelation had me thinking are these Reddit story TikToks promoting shit without disclosing? That’s when I found out they’re using the “see more” loophole in order to disclose without actually disclosing.

Think I’ve got it all off my chest, hopefully now it’s out of my head I can put the incoherent babbling to rest.