it’s very funny to me that the advice in the notes divides cleanly into two camps:
Actually actionable advice (break it down into smaller pieces, leave and come back later, find somebody to do it with you so you aren’t doing it alone)
People who are Jared, 19 and just say something that’s fundamentally a variation on “just do it scared”
Warning: advice that “you have to leave your comfort zone to grow” is meant for people who are IN their comfort zone the majority of the time. If you rarely/never feel comfortable and safe, you actually need to get more comfortable and safe before you can grow 👍
you need to oscillate between your comfort zone and your discomfort zone, like going between a sauna and a icy lake
got a new lighter. it’s shaped like a fish and it blinds you.
it had a huge sticker on it that said “this is not a toy”. the gas station i got it from had a sign infront of the display for these only that said “buy first, then test”. the first time you strike it (from the fins, by the way) you find out exactly why. they have added incredibly bright flashing blue LED lights on the eyes, which point directly into your eyes and the eyes of whoever is looking anywhere close to the fish that makes you blind.
a friend of mine was like “you can probably take this apart and cut the wires so it doesn’t do that anymore” and i told her “no i can’t. i can’t do that” and she was like “???why not?????????”
it’s just too fucking funny. this is the stupidest thing i own. thinking about that gas station clerk with like 50 more of these fucking things thinking “how the fuck am i gonna get rid of these?” makes me loose it. setting up the sign and i was literally the first person to buy one.
Functionally, there’s very little difference between watching a movie on poob and watching a movie on basic cable. Yet, for some reason, the advertisements on poob offend me far more
ad breaks on poob always interrupt important scenes or make really jarring cuts.
when it’s on cable, they’ve timed the commercial breaks in a way that generally isn’t as disruptive. someone took the time to “reformat” the movie for tv.
ads on poob always KNOW that they’re on poob and want me to interact with them or click them. the number of QR codes or ads-in-separate-ad-framing/window are infuriating and jarring.
cable commercials are just stupid little skits i can mute to go use the bathroom.
ads on poob are less than 2 minutes–not enough time to do anything, but enough time to piss me off.
cable commercials are 2-5 minutes, which is enough time to go do something/bathroom or snack break, or talk to whoever you’re watching with.
ads on poob are the same 3-4 commercials over and over and over and over again, often cutting to them immediately with no warning, and poob struggles to like, catch up to the fact that it’s having to show a different progress bar, or a different timer.
cable commercials, esp during primetime, generally cycle through like 10-15 minimum, so you can go an ad break or two without seeing the same commercial. and they usually only pop up during quiet moments, at regular intervals, so you can see them coming–and there isn’t a weird lag/loading time.
in both cases i am being accosted by advertisements and treated like a consumer to manipulate and exploit. the volume changes on cable and poob, the brightness level is eye-searing in both cases.
but poob doesn’t respect that i’m here for the MOVIE. cable, thanks to preexisting, decades-old norms around broadcast television, still kind of does. kind of. it’s easier to ignore those commercials than the ones on poob.
basically i think poob follows ad norms established on the internet–pop-ups, invasive flashing bullshit, creating lag, taking up time and attention–and cable follows established cable norms of, “time for a few minutes of ads that are just stupid little skits instead of spam machines, and then back to your otherwise uninterrupted movie.”
I mean i know what you’re saying, but there’s about a dozen free ad-supported streaming services and i respect none of them to use any of their names. Meanwhile, Poob has fully entered the tumblr lexicon as a shorthand for stupidly-named tech products, especially streaming services.
