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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 9h

Lest anyone think I've changed too much these past couple years...I spent most of my Saturday night making a bunch of pop culture watch- and read lists that I will surely forget about in a week, and it was SO fun.

The desktop of my computer, covered with sticky note lists that say the following: Fiction books:
The Specimens*^
The Vampire Lestat*^
DS9: The Big Game*^
Sunrise on the Reaping*
No and Other Love Stories*
The Moon is Down

Nonfiction books:
Poyums Annaw*
The Book of Sheen*^
Night Sky with Exit Wounds
Girls to the Front*
There’s Always This Year
Gef!*

Comics:
News From The Fallout^
Worldtr33
The Raven Boys: The Graphic Novel
The Best We Could Do
Peanuts: Snoopy*
Complete Calvin and Hobbes*
Project books:
Flashlight
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
The Rest of Our Lives
The Land in Winter*
Hag: Forgotten Folktales Retold
Sutta Pitaka

Classics:
Song of Solomon*
East of Eden*
Moby-Dick*
Passing*^
White Fang
Dubliners*

Activism:
How Tyrants Fall*
Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects*
The Jungle*
Practical Anarchism
Joyful Militancy
Disability Intimacy*
New movies:
One Battle After Another
Kpop Demon Hunters
The Naked Gun
Bring Her Back
Weapons
The Smashing Machine

Old movies:
The Red Shoes
Velvet Goldmine
Heat
Boyz N The Hood
The Elephant Man
Serpico

Criterion challenge:
Playtime
Z
Gimme Shelter
Blow Out
Anatomy of a Murder
Chess of the Wind

Documentaries:
The Act of Killing
I’m Your Venus
Stop Making Sense
American Movie
David Lynch: The Art of Life
Martha

Horror movies:
Stoker
Them!
Happy Death Day
Creature From the Black Lagoon
Death Becomes Her
Peeping Tom
Current shows:
Yellowjackets^
The Studio
Severance^
Mo
Bob’s Burgers^
Mythic Quest^

Ended shows:
WKRP in Cincinnati^
All in the Family
Cheers^
NYPD Blue^
E.R.
Veep

International shows:
Shetland^
The Trauma Code^
Little Women
Dept. Q
The Summer Hikaru Died
The Trunk
Idle shows:
Criminal Minds^
The Simpsons^
Beyond Belief, etc^
You Can’t Ask That^
Highway to Heaven
The Price is Right^

Docuseries and reality:
The Last Dance
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives
Trophy Wife
WWE: Unreal
Alone
Attack on London

Shorts + web vids:
Ghost Files^
Road Files^
Andrew Steven & Adam
Crash Course Zoology
CC Religion
CC Linguistics

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 12h

I really loved The Long Walk, but weeks after seeing it, I'm still thinking about how much it could've benefited from practical effects. The inadvertent distancing effect of CGI head explosions cannot be ignored.

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 13h

Resharing one of my more vulnerable essays from the past few years in honor of National Coming Out Day. www.slashfilm.com/1261899/ted-...

Ted Lasso Season 3 Offers A Perfect Monologue About Coming Out - SlashFilm

Ted Lasso just delivered one of the show's most transcendent moments.

www.slashfilm.com

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Reposted by Valerie Ettenhofer

🕯️ Crowley Rae Jepsen 🕯️ @mags.colvett.online · 13h

It’s easy to feel over it about things like National Coming Out Day, but my life diverges at 25ish from catastrophically unlivable to interesting, worthwhile, *possible* because I was able to say to friends, family, colleagues, etc. “hey, this is who I am, this is how you need to receive me”

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 13h

More people should get short boyfriends. You can kiss the top of their head 100 times a day, you get big spoon (aka best spoon) priority, and when they make you mad you can joke about throwing them like a football or putting them in your pocket. Also: face in boobs.

Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 13h

Putting a big "EXCLUSIVE" label on a shocking celebrity obituary is pretty fucked, right?

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 1d

She's such a stunning, powerful screen presence in The Underground Railroad and All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt. What a catch for one of the best shows on TV. #IWTV

Lin Codega @lincodega.com · 1d

For folks who didnt hear Sheila Atim is Akasha.

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 1d

Throwing myself on the floor Wayne's World style about it. We're not worthy!!!

Lin Codega @lincodega.com · 1d

BANG BANG!!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr0q...

Extended First Look at The Vampire Lestat ft. Sam Reid | Premieres 2026 | AMC+

YouTube video by amc+

www.youtube.com

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 2d

And a rewatch 🥰

The gimmicky, illustrated poster for The Tingler featuring an ad for Percepto!

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 2d

So far I'm taking the "just click on random shit on Pluto TV" approach to my spooky season viewing this year.

The poster for The Beast Must Die featuring an illustrated werewolf face

The poster for The Wraith featuring a gaggle of youths including charlie sheen and sherilyn fenn

The poster for The Day of the Triffids featuring a classic B movie illustration of a blobby, plant-like being that has people in its clutches. Also, its in Cinemascope!

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 2d

I really liked Enriquez's early collection Things We Lost In the Fire! I'm glad she's finally getting popular and I def want to read her newer stuff.

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 2d

Lest you think I'm setting an unrealistic example for the unemployment grind here, it's worth noting that I did fuck-all (besides go to the dentist) yesterday. And that's okay!

Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 4d

Weds-Fri unemployment goals:
✅️ Make it to my interview tomorrow
✅️ Do the bulk of two bigger applications
✅️ Surf for quick apply jobs
✅️ Finish today's essay
✅️ Edit and publish it, or publish something smaller if it's not ready
✅️ Clear my godforsaken email
✅️ Change my signature and bios
(cont.)

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 3d

Nothing like having the first pain-free dental experience of your life at age 30 to make you realize that, yup, local anesthesia has never once worked on you before.

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 4d

Yeah no shit

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 4d

NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 4d

WEIRD

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 4d

My 3yo nephew is, too!

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 4d

What are some other numbers relevant to the situation, npr?

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 4d

Hey bestie it's not a war if one side doesn't allow the other to have its own military

NPR @npr.org · 4d

It's been two years since Hamas-led militants attacked Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. In response, Israeli leaders promised a punishing offensive. Here are some numbers showing the war's toll.

These numbers show how 2 years of war have devastated Palestinian lives in Gaza

It's been two years since Hamas-led militants attacked Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. In response, Israeli leaders promised a punishing offensive. Here are some numbers showing the war's toll.

n.pr

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Reposted by Valerie Ettenhofer

Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 10d

Been trying to figure out how to get all of this down on paper for a year or three. valerie-ettenhofer.ghost.io/quitting/

63 Reasons To Quit Your Entertainment Journalism Job in 2025 (NOT Clickbait!)

Number 36 will surprise you!

valerie-ettenhofer.ghost.io

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 4d

Good to be here! I missed ya.

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 4d

I realize I shouldn't have done check marks because I haven't actually done these things, but it's far too late to fix it now.

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 4d

✅️ Outline a recurring column idea
✅️ Reach out to people about it if I'm feeling brave
✅️ Watch some new releases
✅️ Donate to the Prisoners Lit Project
✅️ Confirm my U.S. tax filing
✅️ Try not to take a whole day off after my dentist appointment

Keeping myself on track here, sorry if it's boring.

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 4d

Weds-Fri unemployment goals:
✅️ Make it to my interview tomorrow
✅️ Do the bulk of two bigger applications
✅️ Surf for quick apply jobs
✅️ Finish today's essay
✅️ Edit and publish it, or publish something smaller if it's not ready
✅️ Clear my godforsaken email
✅️ Change my signature and bios
(cont.)

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 4d

It's pretty funny that I spent a year working on my health (glad I did!) in hopes of getting more productive at work, but in the end, quitting my job was the thing that finally made it easy to put in a 7 hour work day.

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Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 4d

✅️ applied for two jobs
✅️ confirmed one interview
✅️ updated my spreadsheet
✅️ surfed job boards
✅️ ordered a new work skirt
✅️ set up a petsitting profile
✅️ built a contact list for one potential project
✅️ wrote 1700 words of another
✅️ sent my MP and Starmer emails that will surely go unread

Valerie Ettenhofer @aandeandval.bsky.social · 5d

Tomorrow's unemployment goals:

-job apps
-update job hunt spreadsheet
-order new interview clothes
-prep for an interview
-harass my local representatives about the ongoing genocide
-cancel subscriptions I can't afford
-outline and research some writing project ideas I have to see if they're viable

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