GoinDowntown
Well-known member
There's more literature discussion going on in this thread than there is in her book club
- Notice
gossip_guy
VIP Member
And she wasn't even bullied. By all accounts, her "bullying" amounted to people just not wanting to be friends with her in school and maybe making passive-aggressive comments to her because she was a judgemental, conceited little buzzkill who actively made her fellow students' days worse by encouraging and reminding teachers to assign homework to everyone. Her "bullying" was so intense that, according to her, she forgot/didn't realise that she'd been "bullied" until years later.
Then she acts like she's a brave survivor - a voice for the downtrodden - and compares her experience to that of concentration camp survivors. It's like her having a dream where she stubbed her toe, then going to a cancer ward to tell a bunch of terminally ill children that she knows exactly how they feel as a result. She's a delusional lunatic.
Griftwood
VIP Member
”My first property” really grated on me. Congrats, Roobee, you were born to privilege and you’re going to continue in your privilege, oblivious to the real world, like the little tory your parents have made in their image. Go ahead and buy a second one, why don’t you, as long as the youtube cash is still rolling in.
p1ge0n-b0y
Member
Nah this outfit has sent me
dodadedo
Active member
Okay this is a couple of pages back now but I am in this EXACT position and my parents live about 8 miles away from RoOoObee's CoTtAgE. I would never be able to afford to rent in my home village, let alone buy. My mum was born and raised there, my grandad was born and raised there, his family was born and raised there etc etc. Yet my brother and I are totally priced out. For context, a fucking 4-room (not 4-bedroom, 4 room) old people's bungalow thing (literally tiny kitchen, tiny living room, tiny bedroom, tiny bathroom) a street over from my parents recently sold for £500,000. Half a fucking million for FOUR ROOMS. And it is directly people like Reuben Sandwich and her fucking filthy rich Tory parents who are the cause. My tiny little traditional Bucks village (where the older people still speak in the Buckinghamshire accent) is being gentrified to FUCK because it's a 'commuter' hub, or because people want houses on their property portfolio that they can rent for extortionate prices.I've seen a few stories in papers recently where people born and raised in villages in idyllic areas like Cornwall are priced out of their village by people buying second homes or landlords buying multiple properties.People like Ruby. Instead these villagers either have to inherit a home in their area or pay astronomical rent, or buy a house at inflated price just to stay where they have always lived, where their friends are, etc. It's disgusting.
Ruby really needs to learn how privileged she is because she really doesn't relate to 99% of her audience.
/endrant
THIS THIS THIS 1000 times over! I am due to start my primary PGCE next month, and one of my greatest motivators to be an educator is to help my students learn “how to fail” in all the ways I didn’t… until I was 21 and faced the biggest “failure” of my life, suspending my degree 6 months out from graduation because my mental health hit rock bottom.
I was Ruby. I was the girl who measured her self worth by numbers, by grades, by social media likes, and in the end by calories too - the final thing being the tipping point, and what I fear will be Ruby’s too. All of that was embroiled in the pursuit of “perfection.”
If my recovery journey was a book, the title would be “How to fail” - to quote Elizabeth Day, who would get an honorary mention in my dedication, because her podcast by the same name has been a game changer for me!
It was during the THREE YEAR break from my degree that I decided do work experience in a primary school, and after just one day I knew that’s what I wanted to do. No question. That afternoon one student had expressed her fear of failure with me - I vividly remember it was over a shoebox doll house they were making. She was so scared of getting it wrong that she had barely started 30 minutes in!
I saw how, bytalking to her and empathising, I was able to reach her in a way that jaw stayed with me ever since. I realised that, not only could I rewrite my own story, but I could give others the tools to write their own with words that are infinitely kinder, positive and - well - accept that they are HUMAN.
As I said, It was THREE whole years before I went back to my degree. That is how long it took me to truly get my life back from the grips of an ED, which was merely a mask for the real issue of crippling perfectionism and self-worth. I write this because I do desperately fear that history will repeat itself with Ruby. Just knowing that she is doing the same degree at the same university is like dejavu, but there is one more similarity that I almost fear more than any other - the role of the “good girl”; the “perfect student.”
I played it for over a decade. At school, and then at Uni. I was the girl who didn’t so much as drink a sip of alcohol until freshers week, never went out to nightclubs and - yes - I did judge others who did. I had that superiority that i see in Ruby, because that is not what the “good girl” does. That is not what the “model student” does.
Yet that “good girl” didn’t realise how bad things had gotten; how far she had lost herself in the pursuit of perfection. She didn’t realise because the lie was so powerful she had convinced even herself it was true; that the A*s and 1sts and curated images on Instagram were somehow more real than the sunken cheeks, the dead clumps of hair, the bloodshot eyes and the silent tears.
They’re not, Ruby. And if your reading this, I only hope you realise it before it is too late. I say that as someone who geninely cares, which is more than can be said for the dozens of ”fans” on Instagram and YouTube, who at this point are no more than enablers.
I am so sorry for how long this is! But I needed to get it off my chest, as you’ll provably understand why. The quoted post really hit me - but in a good way. In that I’m so thankful I was able to “make it it the other side” and now use my experience to “do some good in the world” as Hermione would say ( book seven Hermione, that is… when she’d finally sorted out her priorities!)
roundmidnight
Active member
The Sims 4: Ruby Granger Expansion Pack
Possibly a hot take (def one for Ruby) but there's no such thing as an 'unproductive day'. Even if all you do is lie in bed and stare at the ceiling, you're getting needed rest. 'Doing nothing' and unwinding is actually a crucial element of being productive - you'd burn out otherwise.
Griftwood
VIP Member
The disappointment is pretty devastating… but (as I think you’ve realized) you don’t need Ruby to be motivated, or to live authentically. I discovered her in early 2020 and she was one of the people who inspired me when I decided to go back to studying literature during lockdown. I haven’t changed substantially, but I’ve implemented some new habits and made some new goals for myself, and I’m happy with the progress I’m making. I read four Shakespeare plays last week, purely because I want to use my vacation to do a bit of a deep-dive, and while Ruby may have been an early inspiration, she gets none of the credit for where I am now, or where I’m going. I say take the good and discard the bad/questionable/toxic. I still watch some of her videos for inspiration, although it now requires a certain suspension of disbelief and I think of her videos as fiction - maybe a tv show that had a couple of good seasons and has now gone downhill, if that makes sense.
lizzie2707
Well-known member
"Having lunch with old friends recently, I was told that I am not very feminist because of being super excited about my new 'Hoover' coming today"
"I have ordered a pink, Barbie style, upright Sebo, which I know doesn't sound very feminist at all"
Dear god, if Ruby learned her definition of feminism from her mother, no wonder she thinks that all things pink and sparkly are beneath her, and is determined to be not like other girls, she's been raised by someone who apparently doesn't quite understand feminism. I'm convinced that her mother just isn't very bright, this piece of writing is utter nonsense. My flat last year at uni didn't have a mop, and when I eventually got one holy shit I was over the moon. I was similarly excited when we got a new oven. Those things in no way negate my feminism. What the actual fuck??? Also once again, why don't they get a cleaner? Surely they can afford it, and they'd be providing employment to people who desperately need it at the moment.
"I have ordered a pink, Barbie style, upright Sebo, which I know doesn't sound very feminist at all"
Dear god, if Ruby learned her definition of feminism from her mother, no wonder she thinks that all things pink and sparkly are beneath her, and is determined to be not like other girls, she's been raised by someone who apparently doesn't quite understand feminism. I'm convinced that her mother just isn't very bright, this piece of writing is utter nonsense. My flat last year at uni didn't have a mop, and when I eventually got one holy shit I was over the moon. I was similarly excited when we got a new oven. Those things in no way negate my feminism. What the actual fuck??? Also once again, why don't they get a cleaner? Surely they can afford it, and they'd be providing employment to people who desperately need it at the moment.
lizzie2707
Well-known member
Personally I would modify this to “being different is OK, as long as it’s real”. Being different is awesome - imagine how shit the world would be if we were all the same. But guess what? Sometimes being the same as everyone else is awesome too! Having fun in the same ways, reading and watching the same stuff, going to the same places etc. The issue isn’t that Ruby is different, it’s that she’s so obviously pretending to be different because she’s just so ‘not like other girls.’ Her points of difference aren’t authentic, they’re things she does because she thinks they make her special or superior in some way. She doesn’t like going out to clubs or pubs, drinking, doing all the dumb stuff people at uni do. In theory that’s fine - nights out aren’t for everyone, I barely drink myself and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being tee-total. The problem is Ruby doesn’t like this stuff because she sees people who do it as less intelligent or hardworking than her. She keeps watching Anne with an E because of her unhealthy childhood obsession, not because she genuinely prefers it to Breaking Bad. It’s ok to be basic and like the stuff everyone else likes, as long as you do genuinely like it too. Ruby’s points of difference are all so phoney.
I’m not sure what course you’re doing, but as an Exeter English lit graduate I can honestly say that I know very few people (if any) who “easily got 70 on a last minute essay.” With a degree like English, I also wouldn’t say that knowing a mark scheme can help you get a first. At A Level maybe, but a first at degree level require a level of research and structure that you can’t just game - at least not in my opinion.
Throughout a 3 year degree, I had ONE quiz, and can also count on one hand the number of modules that had a (10%) seminar participation mark. The rest were essays and exams! I graduated 2 years ago, so can’t see this has changed that much.
I am just saying this as a personal opinion and people are completely free to disagree with me! But I worked SO hard on my degree, which included a 2 year break from study due to mental health difficulties (in part catalysed by academic pressure and feeling like a “failure” for any mark below 70).
I graduated with a 2:1 and, looking back, know I worked so hard to get that. The 70 for my dissertation felt like summiting Everest, in light of everything I went though. I just feel uncomfortable with some of the talk in recent threads, which seems to project the narrative that a good Exeter degree is somehow soft/lacking credibility.
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Goodbyeoctober
New member
Long time lurker… but saw this and instantly thought of Roobs.
Attachments
pletkininke
Member
Tbh I think it's better to have mostly plant-based diet and have a spoon of honey once in a while as an exception rather than thinking that you are either a 1000% vegan or eat everything. Even if someone has 1 vegan meal a day, it helps reduce the harm. Imagine if everyone did this!
Some peope do not go vegan 100%, but are like 99% or even 90% vegan with some little exceptions, and having many such people is more helpful for the environment than having this all or nothing thinking. So I think it's fine if she's not a "perfect" vegan, it's still a good example and encourages people to make better choices.
Also it's much better than throwing food away because it's not 100% vegan like Jade did when she was given food in quarantine.
edit: I should have used plant-based instead of vegan, but you get the idea!
Some peope do not go vegan 100%, but are like 99% or even 90% vegan with some little exceptions, and having many such people is more helpful for the environment than having this all or nothing thinking. So I think it's fine if she's not a "perfect" vegan, it's still a good example and encourages people to make better choices.
Also it's much better than throwing food away because it's not 100% vegan like Jade did when she was given food in quarantine.
edit: I should have used plant-based instead of vegan, but you get the idea!
juliadniwe
New member
Due to my poor vocabulary I can’t express how it is precious to get your replies! Ruby wasn’t my only motivation but she was really-really inspirational. Well, reality is reality. And you are all right. Thank you for these words, it’s much easier to accept the situation
GoinDowntown
Well-known member
Don't worry, books like that aren't going to waste I promise! I buy them all the time in second-hand shops.
Just two weeks ago I found Dante's Inferno AND Purgatory in a charity shop that had somebody else's notes all over them plus part of the first page missing where the previous owner's name had been written on, and I was so excited! As a bonus, they were the editions with the hideous neon green and orange print on the cover and spine.
I cannot tell you how happy I was! They had the Italian and English side by side and there were lots of interesting remarks in the margins about the translation, biblical references, allusions to other texts, interpretations, grammar, mythology, the lot. That person must have really studied that text in some depth. I'd love to know how they ended up in that shop. Oh and they smell soooo good!
I realise this is probably an unusual/unpopular opinion, but I really like pre-owned books that show evidence of having been used and loved. Scribbles, dog-ears, cracked spines, coffee stains, the uglier the better. So just remember one person's trash really is someone else's treasure!
I used to be one of those people who were all precious about their books and thought writing in them was akin to sacrilege, but... it's just paper. It's the contents that are important, and if any kind of physical interaction with a book helps the owner have a better and more profound reading experience, then the book is serving its purpose no matter what it looks like. And unless you are intending from the start to pass the book on to someone else, it should be yours to do with as you please.
We all know Ruby would never donate that book anyway, it will sit on her bookshelf gathering dust until the next time she rearranges her room, so she might as well exercise some critical thinking and make some notes on it.
Griftwood
VIP Member
Because ”alcohol” refers to a group of substances that includes ethanol (the stuff that gets you drunkled) but also methanol (which is used in antifreeze and will make you blind and/or kill you if you drink it), sugar alcohols such as xylitol, erythritol and sorbitol (which are used as calorie-free sweeteners and make you fart to varying degrees), fatty alcohols such as cetyl alcohol (which is used in cosmetics and, contrary to ”regular” alcohol, doesn’t make your skin dry but rather the opposite), etc. etc. So it wouldn’t actually be incorrect to label the shelf ”alcohol” but Roobee is teh smrt, so she knows that unless the shelf is labeled ”ethanol”, it could contain basically ANY of the abovementioned substances, which might lead to antifreeze and sorbitol being stocked in the fridge and the entire family (except for Eri-- I mean, Roobee, because we all know she never partakes) going blind and farting themselves to death.
gossip_guy
VIP Member
Her latest video is one of the few occasions that she's made some tiny degree of effort to keep some amount of consistency in her outfit changes between footage, or was careful to only use footage from 2-3 days rather than the usual 6+, but she still fucks up. She wears the same dress, but the footage flits back and forth between her wearing a dark brown button-up cardigan and a black V-neck pullover on top of the dress - she no doubt thought that'd be close enough to fool everyone.
You'll also notice that despite mentioning having toast after her nightmare courgette breakfast concoction, she doesn't even bother with the now obligatory shot of her taking a single, disgusting, grimacing bite before cutting away, undoubtedly after she dumped the rest in the bin. Guaranteed, she never ate any of it, and she always uses the same toast plate to aid in including quick insert shots of previous days' breakfasts.
First shot is her "making her bed", which is her usual process of dumping all her pillows on the dirty, dusty ground, not changing (or even adjusting) her bedsheets, half-assedly shifting her duvet (the same penguin cover she's had on for half the year) and then throwing all the filthed-up pillows back on the bed, ready to sleep on. What a disgusting cretin.
Claims to be reading "A Picnic on Hanging Rock". As well as fucking up the name, this is a book she claimed to finish on July 28th, which gives an idea how old this footage is.
"I want to get a lot of stuff done today." Immediately starts wasting time on making timetables for the day rather than actually doing anything productive.
She qualifies wrapping a birthday present for a friend and writing birthday cards as "admin", showing yet again that she treats the few friendships she has like tasks to be completed.
Of course, then her outfit changes completely, and she makes a note to point out that it's because of an unseen "bike ride" that no doubt never happened. Always be suspicious when she makes excuses for something trivial like that - methinks the dimwit liar doth protest too much. They have an off-screen family meal that, again, likely never happened and no food is shown, then Ruby shows a disgusting small bowl of some kind of sludge with a few banana slices in, which is presumably her actual meal.
It's a "day in the life" video that's equal parts lies and exposition as Ruby tells us about the day that happened off-screen rather than showing it (likely because it didn't happen).
You'll also notice that despite mentioning having toast after her nightmare courgette breakfast concoction, she doesn't even bother with the now obligatory shot of her taking a single, disgusting, grimacing bite before cutting away, undoubtedly after she dumped the rest in the bin. Guaranteed, she never ate any of it, and she always uses the same toast plate to aid in including quick insert shots of previous days' breakfasts.
First shot is her "making her bed", which is her usual process of dumping all her pillows on the dirty, dusty ground, not changing (or even adjusting) her bedsheets, half-assedly shifting her duvet (the same penguin cover she's had on for half the year) and then throwing all the filthed-up pillows back on the bed, ready to sleep on. What a disgusting cretin.
Claims to be reading "A Picnic on Hanging Rock". As well as fucking up the name, this is a book she claimed to finish on July 28th, which gives an idea how old this footage is.
"I want to get a lot of stuff done today." Immediately starts wasting time on making timetables for the day rather than actually doing anything productive.
She qualifies wrapping a birthday present for a friend and writing birthday cards as "admin", showing yet again that she treats the few friendships she has like tasks to be completed.
Of course, then her outfit changes completely, and she makes a note to point out that it's because of an unseen "bike ride" that no doubt never happened. Always be suspicious when she makes excuses for something trivial like that - methinks the dimwit liar doth protest too much. They have an off-screen family meal that, again, likely never happened and no food is shown, then Ruby shows a disgusting small bowl of some kind of sludge with a few banana slices in, which is presumably her actual meal.
It's a "day in the life" video that's equal parts lies and exposition as Ruby tells us about the day that happened off-screen rather than showing it (likely because it didn't happen).
gossip_guy
VIP Member
"Dickens takes us around the city, introducing us to characters, scenes and places." So, like pretty much every author in every story then? What's next, "This book contains words"?
Why is she dressed like a deranged, malnourished magician?