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TIFF Day 10: The Festival Wraps With Some Very Good Dogs

The final day of TIFF 2020 has come and gone and below are my final capsule reviews. I’ll post a full capsule roundup on Monday.

Fauna [Mexico/Canada, Nicolás Pereda, 3.5] Narratives nest within narratives when an actor visits his girlfriend’s family in a sleepy small town. Comic misunderstandings, naturalistic locations and twisting meta-story may remind seasoned festival-goers of the works of Hong Sang-soo, with Coronas instead of soju.

Preparations to Be Together For an Unknown Period of Time [Hungary, Lili Horvát, 4] Top neurologist questions the accuracy of her recollections when she moves back home from the US to Budapest for a romantic rendezvous, only to find that the object of her affections professes not to remember her. Quietly suspenseful drama of psychological uncertainty.

The Truffle Hunters [Italy, Michael Dweck & Gregory Kershaw, 4] An aging generation of Piedmontese truffle hunters carries on the search for the elusive delicacy, fearing the poison bait left for their beloved dogs by ruthless newcomers to the trade. A documentary balm for lovers of food and canines luxuriates in the presence of sumptuously photographed forest eccentrics and their very, very good dogs.

Bandar Band [Iran/Germany, Manijeh Hekmat, 3] A pregnant singer, her husband and their guitarist try to get their van through a floodstruck region to attend a contest gig in Tehran. Neorealist drama where the obstacles in the characters’ path are literal.

The Water Man [US, David Oyelowo, 3.5] Imaginative kid (Lonnie Chavis) heads into the Northwestern forest in search of a legendary immortal, thinking he holds the secret to curing his mom (Rosario Dawson) of leukemia. One of the more successful of a recent wave of films that put a somber sin on 80s kids adventure, thanks to a well-constructed script and Oyelowo’s sure control of tone.

Among the differences of this digital-only fest was that it removed the flexibility to choose between multiple screening dates. In a regular year I program the last days and work backward to end on some combination of stronger and/or lighter selections. Here programmers assigned a 24 hour window for each film. These last movies weren’t what I would have picked as closers in ordinary times. To compensate for this Valerie and I are running a day of fake TIFF programming to simulate the funner final Sunday we usually shoot for. They consist of one film that played at TIFF 2019 and three others from previously-appearing directors. Play along at home by streaming The Vast of Night, The Forest of Love*, Mr. & Mrs. Adelman, and Ace Attorney.

*Update: Turns out this one is ultra-disturbing and in no way fun or light. Going into something with mistaken tonal expectations—just like the real TIFF!


Capsule review boilerplate: Ratings are out of 5. I’ll be collecting these reviews in order of preference in a master post the Monday after the fest. Films shown on the festival circuit will appear in theaters, disc and/or streaming over the next year plus.



  • toronto international film festival

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Life and Things

I opened up the wordpress dashboard today to write a post and noticed I had a post pending from June. So, uh… here’s that post so I can get it out of the draft section: It’s June, so I should … Continue reading




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New program will see pregnant mothers and babies protected from life-threatening virus - SBS

  1. New program will see pregnant mothers and babies protected from life-threatening virus  SBS
  2. World-leading approach to protect babies from RSV  Department of Health
  3. Government-funded RSV vaccines to protect infants from severe disease  Australian Pharmacist
  4. 'Very scary': Wagga mum's plea for parents to protect babies through RSV jab  The Daily Advertiser
  5. Guild backs free RSV vaccinations  Australian Journal of Pharmacy





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NASA discovers Mars rock with ancient potential for life

A single 3.5 billion-year-old rock shows signs of all the conditions life needs to thrive.




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Eureka? Scientists’ first hints of life on other planets may not be so obvious

Knowing that you've found signs of life beyond Earth may not be as clear-cut and simple as one might think.




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Life in other worlds

New research suggests liquid water might be hiding under the surface of Mars. Could life be there too?




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What would happen if we nuked an asteroid?

Detonating a nuclear weapon on or near an asteroid is one of several options for defending the Earth from an impact. Here's what nuking an asteroid might actually do, and why it isn't always the best option.




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Extraterrestrial artifacts

Could the Solar System host traces of other intelligent life?




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Connecting ancient life to other worlds

Looking to the past to guide the search for life.




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Could Europa Clipper find life?

For a mission that doesn’t aim to find alien life, Europa Clipper may come surprisingly close.




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Barbour Ladies Pendle Beanie & Scarf Gift Set




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biff your ass

Today on Married To The Sea: biff your ass


This RSS feed is brought to you by Drew and Natalie's podcast Garbage Brain University. Our new series Everything Is Real explores the world of cryptids, aliens, quantum physics, the occult, and more. If you use this RSS feed, please consider supporting us by becoming a patron. Patronage includes membership to our private Discord server and other bonus material non-patrons never see!




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if i can be honest cody

Today on Married To The Sea: if i can be honest cody


This RSS feed is brought to you by Drew and Natalie's podcast Garbage Brain University. Our new series Everything Is Real explores the world of cryptids, aliens, quantum physics, the occult, and more. If you use this RSS feed, please consider supporting us by becoming a patron. Patronage includes membership to our private Discord server and other bonus material non-patrons never see!




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if you are listenin

Today on Married To The Sea: if you are listenin


This RSS feed is brought to you by Drew and Natalie's podcast Garbage Brain University. Our new series Everything Is Real explores the world of cryptids, aliens, quantum physics, the occult, and more. If you use this RSS feed, please consider supporting us by becoming a patron. Patronage includes membership to our private Discord server and other bonus material non-patrons never see!




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TIFI WIN: The 10-Speed Lamp

Here we see a nice little floor lamp made from old bicycle parts. Be sure to lock it up or someone might steal it!

Check out more theft-worthy WINs here!




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Deion Sanders says he’ll intervene if ‘wrong' NFL team tries to draft son Shedeur

Coach Prime tells the "Speak" crew how he plans to handle the NFL draft process with quarterback son, Shedeur, and two-way star Travis Hunter.




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UK-to-US Word of the Year 2023: if I'm honest

Each year since 2006, this blog has designated Transatlantic Words of the Year (WotY). The twist is that I choose the most 'of the year' borrowings from US-to-UK and from UK-to-US.  The question this year raises is: does 2023 deserve SbaCL Words of the Year?

The eligibility criteria remain:

  • Good candidates for SbaCL WotY are expressions that have lived a good life on one side of the Atlantic but for some reason have made a splash on the other side of the Atlantic this year. 
  • Words coined this year are not really in the running. If they moved from one place to another that quickly, then it's hard to say that they're really "Americanisms" or "Britishisms". They're probably just "internetisms". The one situation in which I could see a newly minted word working as a transatlantic WotY would be if the word/expression referenced something very American/British but was nevertheless taken on in the other country.
  • When I say word of the year, I more technically mean lexical item of the year, which is to say, there can be spaces in nominations. Past space-ful WotYs have included gap year, Black Friday, and go missing. I've also been known to declare a pronunciation the Word of the Year.

The UK > US WotY was nominated by Nancy Friedman and endorsed by Ben Yagoda. It is most definitely a phrase:

if I'm honest

In Ben's post the phrase is associated with Great British Bake-Off (AmE: Great British Baking Show) judge Paul Hollywood. When I looked for it on YouGlish, there were a whole slew of examples from the British (BrE) motoring show Top Gear, on which they review cars. In both program(me)s, the phrase is useful in softening criticisms (which both shows have a lot of) by framing them as a truths expressed with some reservation. If I'm honest marks something as an admission of some sort. It's similar to to be honest, which has long been said in the US (and the UK) for much the same reason. (And then there's honestly, which I'll come back to.)

Here are some recent American uses of the phrase:
  • Ryan Gosling, on being cast as Ken in Barbie:  "I just decided I was going to Ken as hard as I can. I Kenned in the morning; I Kenned at night. If I’m honest, I’m Kenning a little right now.”
  • A Real Housewife of Potomac, on getting divorced: "I've just been a little bit complacent about it, if I'm honest, because there are benefits to being married."
  • A Manhattanite writing about an experiment in sustainable living: "If I’m honest, part of me hoped to find the challenge untenable so I could say the cure was worse than the disease and give up."
  • A Chicago police officer commenting on the city's mayoral race: “If I’m honest, I think Catanzara may have some blame here”

These kinds of phrases are discourse markers. They do not add factual meaning to the sentence they're in, but rather make a comment on the speaker's attitude, or stance, toward(s) what they're saying. 

Is it a British phrase? Yes. Here is if I *m honest (i.e., if I'm honest or if I am honest) in the 2012 data of the Corpus of Global Web-Based English, where it occurs 7.6 times more often in BrE than in AmE. (Click on the images to embiggen them.)


And here it is in British sources in the News on the Web Corpus: 


In the 2012 data, the phrase occurs at a much higher rate in GloWbE than in NOW—the NOW number only reaches GloWbE's rate (1.8 per million words) in 2023—because the types of texts in the two corpora are different—there's more variety and informal language on GloWbE. That's something worth keeping in mind when we look at the US numbers. Speaking of which, here they are:


A few things to notice here:
  • Yes, the phrase is going up in AmE news, from 0.08 per million words to 0.19 over the past 13 years. 
  • But it's still below the 2012 GloWbe number (0.24 pmw). One would imagine that if we had current data that was collected in the same way as GloWbE, we'd see a lot more there. 
  • And it's wayyyyyy below the British numbers.
  • A country music album had the title If I'm Honest in 2016, which helps (to) account for the higher number then.

Here's a view of the Google Books numbers, comparing If I'm honest with To be honest (though keep in mind that to be honest here is not necessarily the discourse marker. It could be in any number of sentences about honesty.)

And a comparison of it with the equivalent if I'm being honest, which is less common, but making a move in AmE.



The pictures (and numbers) tell the story of a British expression that's become more and more common in BrE, and that has raised American exposure to (and use of) it. But note that it's rising far faster in BrE than in AmE. So, does it meet the first of my eligibility criteria? Maybe not. But it's what I've got for this year!


P.S.  Honestly

Honestly, used as a discourse marker in a sentence seems to be more common in AmE. But as a stand-alone expression of exasperation, it seems more common in BrE (Honestly!). It's definitely more common from the BrE speakers in my house than from me, but maybe I'm just more exasperating to live with than they are. Here are searches with punctuation from GloWbE:







Will there be a US-to-UK WotY?  To be honest, it's unclear at this point! 





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NFPA launches Policy Institute to support fire and life safety efforts

Citing the need to have an arm’s-length view on policy issues that impact fire, life and electrical safety, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has announced the launch of the NFPA Fire and Life Safety Policy Institute. The Policy Institute will study a range of issues and provide guidance and information to policymakers on the best approaches governments can take to improve safety for the citizens they serve.




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CC Certificate Alumni Making a Global Impact

Launched in 2018, the Creative Commons Certificate program has trained and graduated nearly 1800 people from 66 countries. The Certificate program offers in-depth courses about CC licenses, open practices, and the ethos of the Commons. Our staff is constantly inspired by our community of Certificate alumni, accomplishing incredible things. In this interview, we were delighted…

The post CC Certificate Alumni Making a Global Impact appeared first on Creative Commons.




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Apple’s AI notification summaries are unintentionally hilarious

What’s worse than getting broken up with over text? Getting broken up with over summarized text. Apple rolled out its Apple Intelligence suite of AI tools in October, and one feature has made headlines over and over again for its absurdity: Apple Intelligence notification summaries. What it is:…




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China battery giant CATL would build US plant if Trump allows it

CATL , the world's top battery maker, will consider building a U.S. plant if President-elect Donald Trump opens the door to Chinese investment in the electric-vehicle supply chain, the company's founder and chairman, Robin Zeng, told Reuters.




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Exclusive-China battery giant CATL would build US plant if Trump allows it

In This Article: NINGDE, China (Reuters) - CATL, the world's top battery maker, will consider building a U.S. plant if President-elect Donald Trump opens the door to Chinese investment in the electric-vehicle supply chain, the company's founder and chairman, Robin Zeng, told Reuters. "Originally,…




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Asia-Pacific mostly lower with data in focus

Major stock market indexes in the Asia-Pacific traded mostly lower on Wednesday, partly mirroring the decline in Wall Street that preceded the newest report on the United States' inflation. The region...




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Asia-Pacific markets fall after Wall Street postelection rally fizzles

Asia-Pacific stock markets were trading mostly lower Wednesday, tracking losses on Wall Street as the U.S. post election rally stalled overnight. Asian traders assessed corporate goods data out of Japan, which showed year-on-year producer price growth, or wholesale inflation, in October reached…




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China battery giant CATL would build US plant if Trump allows it, chairman says

China battery giant CATL would build US plant if Trump allows it, chairman says Trump wants to block Chinese EV, battery imports but open to US plants with American workers Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world’s top battery maker, will consider building a US plant if president-elect…




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Shopify stock skyrockets ahead of the holiday season




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Ford is slashing the working hours of some of its German factory employees amid what it calls a 'significantly lower than expected' demand for its EVs

Ford is getting its workers in Cologne, Germany, to work fewer hours. The carmaker said a "lower than expected demand for electric vehicles" brought on the shift. The carmaker has more than 4,000 employees at its Cologne plant. Ford is slashing the work hours of its manufacturing plant workers in…




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How business owners can prepare for potential tariff hikes in 2025

President-elect Donald Trump has promised tariff hikes. Here's what experts say business owners should be doing now to prepare.




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Tesla's Chinese Battery Supplier CATL 'Open Minded' About US Expansion If Trump Welcomes Chinese Investments

Amid the evolving landscape of U.S.-China trade relations, CATL, one of the world’s largest battery manufacturer, has expressed interest in establishing a manufacturing plant in the United States. What Happened: Robin Zeng, the founder and chairman of CATL, shared this perspective in a recent…




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After spending three years working on SMS verification at Zenly, Prelude wants to fix SMS onboarding

Prelude is a new a new French startup that focuses on SMS verification; it’s coming out of stealth Wednesday. The two founders met when they were working for Zenly, a popular location-sharing app with tens of millions of users that was acquired by Snap (and later shut down). While you might not…




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Google DeepMind releases AlphaFold 3's source code and model weights for academic use, which could accelerate scientific discovery and drug development

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Google DeepMind has unexpectedly released the source code and model weights of AlphaFold 3 for academic use, marking a significant advance that could accelerate scientific…




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What is the Difference Between a Paid Listing and Buying a Link?

Paid listings and Pay per Click ads are not the same as buying links. For example, iAquire got hit by Google early this year. The company was selling links for profit of course and even lost their court case due to link selling. The company allowed for clients to pay for relevant links after companies […]




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Marvel superheroes explore strange timelines in new trailer for 'What If…?' Season 3 (video)

A new trailer for Marvel Animation's animated anthology "What If…?" Season 3 has landed




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More fun with IFS Fractals

I have been playing with some iterated function systems again. These images were built using two affine transformations, one being a rotation through 20 degree composed a scaling of 90% and the second is a general affine transformation chosen at random. Some of the best of these results I have attached here. I have added...




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Riemannian ℤ₂ⁿ-manifolds

In a recent preprint Riemannian Structures on ℤ₂ⁿ-manifolds, Janusz Grabowski and I initiated the study of Riemannian geometry in the setting of ‘higher graded’ supermanifolds. ℤ₂ⁿ-manifolds are, very loosely, manifolds that have coordinates with a ℤ₂ⁿ-degree (ℤ₂ⁿ := ℤ₂ x ℤ₂ x … x ℤ₂, n-times) and are commutative up to a sign factor that...




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She’s cute, but what if she would say: “Quantum Mechanics doesn’t make sense to me intuitively.”?

This is one of those portraits generated by Midjourney, not that of a real person.Like many people I’m impressed with the facility of Midjourney to create portraits of photogenic people. But how attractive or engaging would a person Iike this seem to be to you if you are someone, as I am, who struggled to...




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The Simplest Waldorf Star Pattern – Beautiful and Easy Decoration

Looking for the simplest Waldorf kite paper star pattern? You’ve found it! Anyone can make a beautiful sun catcher for their window out of translucent paper. This pattern gives young children the delight of creating their own decoration, while practicing fine motor skills. Please note though – it may be a bit tricky for kids […]

The post The Simplest Waldorf Star Pattern – Beautiful and Easy Decoration appeared first on Joyful Abode.





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16.1: Shade from Spotify

When your 2020 wrapped congratulates you on all four episodes of content you produced this year, it must be PotterCast!

Welcome to season 16, in which we are, we swear, on the edge of actually producing this thing at a normal clip. See how it's going to start to work in this episode in which we introduce a few new segments — a bit of opening chatter (including an IN-Depp conversation as Frankie puts it) with your gang, then two new segments: POTTER PONDERINGS (in this episode, we wonder what it takes to make a Hufflepuff go dark) and HEY NETFLIX (in which we pitch spinoff shows about the Potter universe — today, what would we want from a show about the Ministry of Magic?). Then join us to chat in the drums as usual!

~*~

Here are ways to support the show!
Join our patreon!
patreon.com/pottercast - Now, you can also join our Discord community there!

You can also buy PotterCast-related merch at mischiefmerch.com!




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This Foot Locker Commercial Shows a Small Glimpse of What It Would Look Like if Everything Were Right in the World




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I Am Not Real: Artificial Intelligence in the Needlework World

The topic of AI in the needlework world has been on my radar for well over a year. But I’ve …




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A Warning from Maj. TurnerThis election is going to clearly define the rest of everybody’s life

You must watch this warning from a soldier who has everything on the line. ... READ MORE





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$25 Amazon Gift for $13.95 and other great Gift Card Deals at Amazon

Hot off Twitter.  Prices may be fluctuating and cards may go in and out of stock.
 


 
 




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Shaws/Albertsons offering $25 credit with $150+ in gaming gift cards

From 11/17 until 12/14, get $25 off future grocery purchase when you buy $150+ in gift cards. Includes PSN, xbox, gamestop, and other random retailers.

16.6% discount on gaming credit if you were getting groceries anyway. Promos are usually valid at all regional Albertson affiliates. Star Market, Acme, Vons, etc.




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$70 Xbox/Microsoft Gift Card (Digital Delivery) - $59 (Can be used to buy Xbox/Microsoft hardware too)

Eneba has $70 Xbox Gift Card (Digital Delivery) for around $59 after applying code X70US in cart.

  • Note: Price is after service fees and applying code X70US in cart.

You can purchase the code(s) and redeem to add balance to your Microsoft account.

  • Both the Microsoft and Xbox cards work just the same. Once redeemed to your Microsoft account, you can spend your balance at Microsoft Store online, on Windows, and on Xbox. You can get the latest apps, games, movies, TV shows, and Surface, Xbox, and accessories. (Source)

Add balance to your Microsoft account and use to purchase items from Microsoft Store online. Black Friday deals from Microsoft Store can be found here.
 

Note:

  • Price is after service fees and applying discount code X70US.
  • Deals ends tonight.
  • Eneba codes usually sell out fast.
  • Xbox Gift cards do not currently work at physical Microsoft Stores.
  • You currently cannot buy Microsoft 365 with a gift card.




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Xbox Game Pass Ultimate: 3 Month Membership $28 (Also $100 Amazon Gift Card $94)

Eneba has Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – 3 Month Membership (Digital Delivery) on sale for around $28 when you follow the instructions below.

  • Note: You can stack up to three years of Game Pass Ultimate Membership.

Deal Instructions:

  • Visit the product page
  • Click 'Buy Now' to add the item to cart
  • Click on "Got discount code?" Apply discount code GamePassBF
  • Proceed to checkout
  • Select a payment method: PayPal or Credit Card (a service fee will be applied on this step)
  • Price after discount and service fee will be ~$28
  • Note: Price is subject to change by a few cents due to currency exchange rate volatility
  • After purchase, redeem the Membership code at Microsoft



Eneba also has $100 Amazon Gift Card (Digital Delivery) on sale for around $94 when you follow the instructions below.

Deal Instructions:

  • Visit the product page
  • Click 'Buy Now' to add the item to cart
  • Click on "Got discount code?" Apply discount code USBFAMZ
  • Proceed to checkout
  • Select a payment method: PayPal or Credit Card (a service fee will be applied on this step)
  • Price after discount and service fee will be ~$94
    • Note: Price is subject to change by a few cents due to currency exchange rate volatility
  • After purchase, redeem the Gift Card code at Amazon




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Eneba: $99 Nintendo eShop Gift Card (Digital Delivery) $85, $50 PSN eGift Card $43

Eneba has $99 Nintendo eShop Gift Card (Digital Delivery) on sale for around $85 when you follow the instructions below.

 

Deal Instructions:
  • Visit the product page
  • Click 'Buy Now' to add the item to cart
  • Click on "Got discount code?" Apply discount code USBFNintendo
  • Proceed to checkout
  • Select a payment method: PayPal or Credit Card (a service fee will be applied on this step)
  • Price after discount and service fee will be ~$85
    • Note: Price is subject to change by a few cents due to currency exchange rate volatility
  • After purchase, redeem the Gift Card code at Nintendo

 

Eneba also has $50 PlayStation Network Gift Card (Digital Delivery) on sale for around $43 when you follow the instructions below.

Deal Instructions:

  • Visit the product page
  • Click 'Buy Now' to add the item to cart
  • Click on "Got discount code?" Apply discount code USBFPSN
  • Proceed to checkout
  • Select a payment method: PayPal or Credit Card (a service fee will be applied on this step)
  • Price after discount and service fee will be ~$43
    • Note: Price is subject to change by a few cents due to currency exchange rate volatility
  • After purchase, redeem the Gift Card code at PlayStation

About:

  • Buy a PlayStation Store gift card and redeem for anything on PlayStation Store: games, add-ons, subscriptions and more. Codes can be redeemed on the PlayStation Store via console, any web browser or on the PlayStation App.
  • Please note that PlayStation Store digital gift cards are not redeemable at direct.playstation.com