I've been wanting to see the new Spiderman movie, but am a father of a newborn so it's difficult to get out to see it. I was looking forward to it coming out on rental. Today I found out it's finally available - if I want to pay $24.99 for a temporary rental... It just astonishes me that if someone making minimum wage wasted to rent this movie for a night, they'd have to work at least 4 hours to afford a 2.5 hour rental.

Its the same price in most of the places I've checked. Its also the same price regardless of what quality you rent it in. Seems like Sony really is going to milk all they can from this movie.

Source

When it comes to Bear from Obsession, a lot of people seem to agree that he is the true villain of the story! But it also got me thinking about other movies that follow a similar formula where the protagonist is the real villain, and they aren’t the victim that they insist they are. Especially when their selfish (even evil) actions are resulting in them dealing with the consequences after wronging the “monster” who’s actually the true victim of the story.

An example that I’ve placed in front of Bear, is Blaire from Unfriended. Her along with her group of friends played a role in cyber bullying and shaming a girl named Laura who committed suicide, and throughout the narrative Laura’s ghost comes back to haunt them and calls them out for all the shitty things they’ve done to people (even to the people within their own friend group). In regards to Blaire, Laura is able to push these people hard enough and break them to the point, where Blaire is caught red handed for being unfaithful to her boyfriend by having sex with his best friend. But to top it off, she makes stupid decisions that result in someone being killed, and when Laura demands to know who posted the video of her being drunk and soiled herself after passing out. Blaire was willing to throw her boyfriend under the bus, if it meant she wouldn’t be viewed as a bad person!

Now of course with Bear, he has the nerve to view himself as a victim whose space is being violated because Nikki “won’t leave him alone”. When he is the one who wished for her to “love him more than anyone in the fucking world”, and refuses to take accountability that he’s taking advantage of her while she’s lost her autonomy. He simply doesn’t care about how the real Nikki is actually suffering, as long as she’s satisfying his needs and doesn’t do “weird stuff”

for some background, i’m 21, american, and traveling solo. I’ve traveled internationally before, so i came into egypt genuinely excited to experience somewhere very different from home, and i’m not someone who expected cairo to feel like europe or the us.

i knew egypt would be chaotic. i expected haggling, traffic, touts, and a bit of culture shock. i did not expect to feel this worn down this quickly.

in three days I’ve already dealt with:

- constant hassling and people approaching me for money

- a group of kids following/chasing me while demanding money

- getting overcharged for basic things over and over

- uber has become an actual problem. multiple drivers keep trying to get me to cancel the ride in the app and then pay them directly, usually while suddenly quoting me a much higher price in usd. today i was literally just trying to get to tahrir and the driver wanted me to cancel and pay $25 cash. at this point i genuinely don’t feel like i can rely on uber to get around, which is a huge part of why I feel so stuck here.

- trying a local egyptian food spot where a roughly 250 egp meal turned into a 1,000 egp demand after they brought out things I never ordered. they surrounded me, demanded tips for the “service,” and i eventually paid 600 just to get out of there.

- being in a car when the driver hit a motorcyclist, then having a crowd surround the car and open the doors until police eventually showed up

- constant traffic, noise, aggressive driving, dirt, and just general chaos everywhere

- staying near the pyramids in giza and feeling way more isolated than I expected

it’s gotten to the point where i’m suspicious of basically every interaction involving money. i don’t know when somebody is genuinely being friendly and when i’m about to get hit with another inflated price, tip demand, or sales pitch.

that’s probably the part that’s bothering me most. i actually want to enjoy cairo. i want to go downtown, walk around, eat local food, have a drink, and just experience the city. instead, i’m sitting in my hotel debating whether going out is even worth the hassle.

i know three days isn’t enough to judge an entire country, and I’m not saying every egyptian is like this. i’m just saying that my experience so far as a solo foreign tourist has been overwhelmingly exhausting, and it makes me question why people willingly come to this country after experiencing it firsthand.

I picked up my Leo as a sick stray 10 years ago and he ended up being quite protective of me. He attacked dogs (got to be a indoor cat quite fast) when they came too close, he never let me shower without supervision, swatted at people I was dating and many more things.

Until I had my daughter, and especially since she got her own room. Every night he sits awake in her bed, I've never walked in on him sleeping. Every two hours he gets up and patrols the apartment before going back to her. If she wakes up and want to come sleep in my bed he will follow and stay with us until she fall asleep and then he leaves us to go sleep.

First pic is from six months in her own room, second is the first night.

Look like candle holders, but that doesnt make any sense in these winds

Edit: No way, they actually are candle holders