Have a blog, and ditto. I am not twenty-five, I do not have perfect skin, and I am not a makeup maestro. I absolutely edit photos to fix contrast/saturation/color issues (I kinda have to, because I’m also not a photography maestro), and I will absolutely airbrush out a gnarly zit or take some of the red out of eyes…

I’m not saying I find that behavioral dichotomy difficult to believe — I’ve seen it plenty of times too! but fortunately not as extreme examples as you’ve laid out here, for which lemme just say oh I am so sorry and [[hugs]] — I just find it so hard to understand. Like, what elements would have to “flip” in my own head…

While any actualpsychologists in the house would probably dispute our layperson’s oversimplified “diagnosis” here .... yeah, I feel like there’s a strong possibility he’s got some kind of personality disorder. TOO BAD HIS DUMB CULT WOULDN’T LET HIM BE TREATED FOR THAT.

NOOOO I haven’t seen that one yet but it’s SO on my list! (And I am not at all a Horror Movie Person at all, for the most part -- at least not the more common “terror ‘n’ gore” variety.)

Exactly this. And it just makes you wonder what’s really going on in his head, why are his valuations of peoples’ worth and agency apparently so different (his laudatory coworkers versus his evidently very un-laudatory exes), how much of his public and professional persona is “performative,” etc. Like if he’s such a…

And if Cruise’s public/professional persona is indeed carefully calculated and “performed” in part or entirely to make CoS appealing — which sounds very tinfoil-hat-brigade but isn’t outside the realm of possibility — then it’s even more insidious.

That is SUCH a good movie! WOEFULLY UNDERRATED. Fave alien/creature design in yeaaaaars, and the whole cast is just fab. <3

It’s extremely weird to me how he seems like SUCH a good guy ... until you get into discussion of his family/romantic relationships or the Scientology thing. Of course the “Tom Cruise Personal Drama!!” gossip shit all comes with the caveat that this is third-party reporting, and we can’t possibly know the true…

I don’t remember hearing anything about Renner’s departure either, but it’d be a pretty easy guess that he’s been super busy with Avengers shit, soooo.

Simon Pegg has said a lot of nice things about Cruise, on a professional level and otherwise, and Pegg seems like a legit Pretty Good Dude and A Real Person. Maybe he (and Jeremy Renner, who’s done the same) have been under BIG PRESSURE from honchos/studio types to do so? But concur, my impression is that Cruise is…

OOOOOO, FANCY! I’ve just got a regular ol’ non-impact driver/drill, but I do indeed fucking love it and don’t know how I existed without one for so long. Plus they have like literally a hundred-plus tools that run off the same 20V Li-ion battery, so I had an excuse to get a recipro saw too. 

GOOD TO KNOW! I’ll probably grab one of the TO retinol thingers the next time I order from them, thanks! 

Ehhhhh, azelaic has been FDA-approved (in prescription forms, I guess) since 1995, so well over 20 years. Adapalene was approved the following year, and a couple years ago was made available OTC (albeit in a much lower concentration). I’ve used both, azelaic is amazing and has basically zero ill effects, whereas 1%…

Things That’re Super Good AND Super Cheap :

I have that one too, and I don’t mind it a bit! In fact I kinda enjoy it when I accidentally get a little on my lips and lick them later and it’s like biting into a vitamin C tablet.

I haven’t tried a retinol yet, just hardcore retinoids — regular tretinoin and the allegedly gentler time-release version (Retin-A Micro). I was so hopeful for the Micro, as I’ve got some burgeoning eye-area lines that I’d like to blast too, but ugh the flaaaaakes. Have you had visible results on any lines/wrinkles fro…

Wellllll, apparently it is and it isn’t. It’s in a LOT of OTC products — TO has a 10% azelaic (which sucks — granted, it’s marketed for “smoothing” not acne, but the concentration is too low AND it contains a silicone that breaks me out like a mofo), and there’re products from Paula’s Choice and numerous others that…

They do have some good ones! I like that for most designs, you can get it printed on a VARIETY of shirt types and colors — long sleeve, triblend, hoodie, whatever. (I just did a shirt design for the bf on one of their tri-blends and they’re NICE — really thin and soft and sillllky, with seemingly minimal propensity…

Seconding your love for Melazepam — I JUST found this stuff on Amazon, after never being able to find an OTC 20% azelaic in the US (I’ve been ordering Skinoren from New Zealand), and it’s IMO bordering on criminal that the big drugstore chains don’t stock this stuff. It is, for me, TEN THOUSAND times better and more…

Ever spent any time on RedBubble? There’s a lot of crap (tho not as much as at like CafePress), but there’s also a lot of LEGIT great/cool artwork on there. I mean technically they frown upon doing shit with licensed characters / copyrighted material? But a ton of things sort of skirt around the edges of that, and…