Hallelujah, here I go again!

But now you know there was a man named Jack Dawson, and that he saved me, in every way that a person can be saved.

Borderlands Pre-Sequel + Vault Hunters

Hidalgo is a mustang that predates the BLM - he was a famous mustang of 1890. Best known for the epic biographical Western that bears his name, this mustang was once part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, where he was advertised alongside Frank T Hopkins as “the world’s greatest endurance horse and rider.”

The drama of his tale kicks off when a wealthy Sheikh requests that Buffalo Bill does not use that moniker unless the pair can prove themselves against the al-Khamsa Arabians in the ‘Ocean of Fire’ 3000 mile race in the Najd desert.

I won’t spoil the movie, but the pair go on to try their hand. There’s romance, drama, and swashbuckling. There’s a great deal of disagreement about the legitimacy of the story from a historical standpoint, with most concluding that despite the Hollywood “based on a true story“ claims, Hidalgo and Hopkins never existed.

speaking of that breakdown, watching beth’s facial expressions she doesn’t seem phased at all until he starts getting into his familial role—“everything I have to say is always met with an eye roll as if the act of hearing what I have to say is some exhausting chore” and her facial expression drops. but it’s clear that she still doesn’t take morty seriously because once he slams the door she sits at the table and waits for him to come back instead of following him out.

knowing that beth most likely follows much of the same parenting she recieve(d) from rick, it’s no surprise that she would neglect morty in the way she usually does:

and based on her and jerry’s conversations in “raising gazorpazorp,” she took rick’s methods of neglect and went with it: “put it down and let it cry itself out.”

so when morty finally calls her out on her bullshit, i’m glad it actually works because at the end of the episode we see her make a conscious effort to show that she’s there for him:

Resident Evil: Apocalypse ➡ 15/31

🎃 Spooky Season 2025 🎃

There’s this funny misconception that when a character walks into a room, the important part is the room. Writers start scrambling to describe the walls, the wallpaper, the lighting, the color of the rug that no one asked for. And sure, you can do that. But the room doesn’t matter until your character touches it with their thoughts.

And I’m saying this with love, because I’ve written those “character enters room, now here’s a paragraph about the furniture” scenes too. We all have. They’re basically a rite of passage.

But the more you write (and the more drafts you survive) the more you realize something important: the room is NEVER the point. The PERSON entering it is.

When someone walks into a room in real life, they don’t float in like a neutral non-entity. They bring whatever emotional chaos they’ve been dealing with. They bring the argument they just had in the hallway. They bring the secret they’re not ready to tell anyone. They bring the memory the smell of the room just stabbed them with. People don’t arrive clean. They arrive mid-story, even if they pretend they’re fine. So instead of focusing on the chair in the corner, try starting with the emotional “temperature” your character walks in with.

Are they anxious and trying to hide it?

Are they exhausted and hoping nobody notices?

Are they excited but scared they’ll ruin everything the moment they open their mouth?

You don’t have to spell it out like a weather report, just let it tint the way they see the space. Plus, a room changes depending on who’s looking at it. If your character is confident, the space might feel open, manageable, almost welcoming. If they’re overwhelmed, the same room can feel too loud, too bright, too filled with people who suddenly seem to know exactly where they’re going and what they’re doing. If they’re guilty, every shadow becomes suspicious. If they’re sad, the room might seem bigger than it really is.

It doesn’t matter how the room “objectively” looks. What matters is what they see first.

And please let your characters enter rooms in realistically messy ways. Not every entrance needs to be cinematic or in the Hollywood style. Not every character glides. Some fumble the door handle. Some hesitate in the doorway because they suddenly can’t remember why they came in. Some scan the room too fast because they’re nervous and then pretend they weren’t scanning the room at all. Some try way too hard to appear casual and end up bumping into a table they didn’t even notice was there.

That kind of stuff makes your characters feel like a real person and not because the action is interesting, but because it’s familiar. It’s that tiny, “oh god, same” moment between the reader and the character, even if they never consciously notice it.

1. Don't use Notepad, it has AI and Discovery bullshit embedded in it. (Link is to Microsoft's website describing these new "features," date Oct 2025).

Alternative I like: Notepad++ (essentially, old school Notepad preserved for modern use, open source program).

2. Don't use Microsoft Word/Office (and most of us will be forced out of it soon anyway to Microsoft 365 CoPilot, which is full of AI, AI scrapers, ads, and other malware these days. Seriously, they call it "vibe working" and if you read between the upbeat corporate speak, its awful. (Links are to ZDNET, GeekWire, and Ars Technica, and also it's plastered all over Microsoft's Office homepage).

Alternative I like: LibreOffice - pretty much feels like old-school Microsoft Office without...all that.

Bonus: Office Watch has a list of free alts. Choose your fighter.

Anyway. Just some things to do after you have debloated Windows.