Oh man, totally agree with this. Saw a piece the other day where they cropped right into the canvas edge and my brain just kept trying to find where the painting ended. That clean border really does anchor everything somehow.

Man, you know what's really underrated in the weird garden world? Those tomatoes that grow with a little face on them. I had one last summer that legit looked like it was frowning at me, stuck it on my desk for a week. Sunflowers are just tall, big deal.

Yeah but that fork scene man. @colesanchez is right it hit hard. I think you mixed up the director though. It was actually the other guy, not the one everyone credits.

Page 47 of 'The Hollow Man' is where I almost gave up too. But I found a trick that works for me - I flip to a random page in the middle, read just a few paragraphs to get the vibe of the writing style, then go back to the start. It doesn't spoil the actual plot, just helps me get a feel for how the author is handling clues and red herrings. Like I learned that Dickson Carr loves hiding fake outs in long descriptions of rooms, so now I know to pay extra attention to those parts. That way I can push through the slow bits without knowing who the killer is or how the trick works.

Oh man, I noticed this same exact thing a couple years ago. My street got the new LEDs and I honestly thought someone was shining a flashlight into my window at night. What helped me was putting up blackout curtains in my bedroom, but the real game changer was when I called the city and asked them to add shields to the light fixture across from my house. They actually did it, it just took a few emails. Made a huge difference for my sleep because the light doesn't blast directly into my living room anymore. Also, I switched my outdoor porch light to a warm tone bulb on a timer so my yard doesn't feel like a parking lot. It's annoying cause the city probably won't go back to the orange lights, but you can find ways to make it less harsh on your own space.