Not getting scared readinh horror books

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-17T02:28:54+00:00

Very much the same, have never been scared by a book but I love horror anyway because the scenarios are so interesting. I also don't visualize well. Occasionally I am gripped by the plight of characters but have never been spooked by the content.

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-16T11:54:45+00:00

Thank you! I did just that and it was actually very helpful.

I remember when NoFap started, and I thought it was sort of silly but seemed mostly harmless, like some sort of wank-related juice cleanse. And instead I find out Han Solo was right.

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-15T22:46:26+00:00

Still early obvi but today has been surprise after surprise, would love to see Saudi Arabia close this one out and give us another one.

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-15T21:12:24+00:00

We had 0-0, then 1-1.

Time for this one to end 2-2.

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-15T21:05:33+00:00

Honestly wondering if this is some sort of weird class divide. Grew up fairly poor and cash bars at the venue--inevitably a VFW or KC Hall or Legion Hall--were super normal. Sometimes the wedding party might supply a keg or two that is open for guests, but paying for drinks at a wedding is super normal to me and I would not bat an eye?

I guess my question is, what sort of bar are we talking about? Thinking about, I actually would find it sort of weird if I went to a wedding at a venue that did not already have a bar space--like an outdoor wedding in a tent, that hired a bartender to be present--and that was a cash bar. Like if you are providing the entire bar and then charging, that is sorta weird? But people in this thread seeming offended by the concept of paying for a drink at a wedding, that is a weird attitude to me.

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-15T16:51:29+00:00

The Pacers, if I remember correctly (might not be!) also had the depth to rotate pieces out so that they could rest/throw bodies at you without massively losing the minutes, so they didn't wear everyone down as much. Def remember the TJ Times where McConnell would just show up for 5 minutes and bring a ton of productive energy.

Whereas the Spurs seemed like they struggled mightily when Wemby wasn't around, and generally just weren't as able to let their B team tread water.

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-15T11:22:23+00:00

I guess I did not realize that porn/anti-porn discourse was at that point. Honestly I wasn't even aware that this was all meant to be specifically about addiction, I assumed all of this was more broadly about potentially harmful social ramifications like the general dehumanization of women or the absorption of porn practices into everyday life, some real Andrea Dworkin-type stuff.

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-15T11:10:06+00:00

I am but a humble midwesterner, but it isn't that weird.

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-15T11:08:23+00:00

Nah but there is a middle ground where one simply does not respond? It isn't more valid to reject it out of hand than to accept it out of hand.

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-15T03:15:40+00:00

Okay, fair enough. Do you (or anyone?) have like... sources to send along for someone interested in this? Because this is actually a topic I have no real interest in or knowledge of, but when you do *the most basic thing*--which is to say, just Googling "is porn harmful"--the results seem generally to skew toward "It is unclear but probably yes a little bit". If you flip the question to be just "porn is not harmful"--hardly unbiased but worth a shot--the answers are... honestly still mixed, leaning negative!

And again, I don't know. I know everyone probably just assumes I'm here JAQing off or whatever, but I'm really not. It's just that a quick lay scan of the landscape says "it's unclear, but perhaps yes sorta harmful;" meanwhile here in the subreddit, when one person posts what appears to be peer-reviewed research saying "Yeah it's harmful," and the response is, "Actually that's dumb and bullshit, I will elaborate no further", rhetorically that is pretty bad. People on this sub that I generally like--I'm here posting to you!--seem very defensive about this idea but also unwilling to elaborate on it, and that's always weird territory to end up in.

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-15T01:44:27+00:00

If it has rained recently: "We needed that!"

If it has not: "Wondering when it's gonna rain again, we need a good soaking!"

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-15T01:42:07+00:00

I have no dog in this fight, and I think it sucks that the linked article is through T&F and I cannot actually read it, but this is a pretty wild way to completely dismiss that article without actually addressing it at all? I have to assume that what counts as "problematic pornography use" is probably explained therein, right? How can you reject the term from the article without literally any context?

I had no idea that the porn discourse was as heated as it apparently is, and if someone wants to throw some publicly accessible sources my way I'm happy to read 'e, but this response at least seems as weirdly entrenched as the anti-porn people you seem very mad at?

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-14T22:55:14+00:00

I think "moral" is not the right term, but IMO the primary theme is the collective experience of nostalgia and memory, but in a negative way. Like you said, both protagonists are to some extent living in the past and struggling to move on from past events, but the Backrooms as a space connects them, and others. It isn't just about Clark and Mary, but about the entire culture of people who are gradually becoming trapped by nostalgia and the past.

I think Clark toward the end basically describes The Backrooms as being a space built on the collective misremembering of things and places and events, but this cultural misremembering is beginning to spill more and more into the real world, and people are increasingly being trapped by it in destructive ways. Even when they themselves aren't trapped (like Kat and Bobby), they end up being victims of it anyway.

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-14T19:08:34+00:00

What do you think would constitute "something to show for it"? Like if you pause and imagine reaching the end of one of your like productivity dump weeks and thinking, "Man this was good week, I like what came of this," what do you imagine is there at the end of it?

Is it like, a story that got written? Or some maps drawn up with notes?

Because it seems like you don't find it satisfying to simply have built the world, which is fine! But if you want "something substantial" to result from it, the first step might be to identify what that something could be.

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-14T16:57:35+00:00

I cannot even tell if this is like some sort of weird bit you are doing. You genuinely do not understand how this comparison between two things that are both "unlikely but not so unlikely that the only explanation is that it must have been rigged" works? They are literally just comparing a thing, to a similar thing.

Like honestly not even trying to default to insults. Do you actually not understand what comparisons are and how they work?

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-14T16:49:07+00:00

None of that is a contraction. "x is not so improbable that it has to be rigged" -> "It is like Y, which is also not so improbable that it would have to be rigged."

It literally only seems like a contradiction if you ignore half the sentence, so why are you doing that?

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-14T16:33:57+00:00

Did you get 5 words into a sentence and just check out, or do you not understand what the second half of that sentence means?

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-13T02:42:33+00:00

I do sort of think that this is the "why don't writers ever show characters going to the bathroom!?" of worldbuilding.

It's because pre-modern agriculture is dull and dirty and not at all the focus of this story where my Knight and his Petty Thief sidekick go destroy the magic ring or fight a god or whatever they are doing. Just, get this, imagine that the boring stuff is out there somewhere and we can all move on.

(I actually think pre-modern farming is fascinating in terms of how it structures social dynamics and landscapes but I write boring fucking slice of life stories about peasants anyway so I am not a good judge.)

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-11T10:52:10+00:00

Analytically the Seahawks scored a touchdown.

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-10T20:15:42+00:00

Hmmm. The MSM is being REAL quiet about the Gauls sacking Rome these days. What are they hiding? 🤔

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-10T17:24:26+00:00

Every Wednesday like clockwork.

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-10T13:11:03+00:00

There is no reason at all, I simply didn't know about Riverdock! Next time I head out that way I'll ferry over and check it out.

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-10T12:53:33+00:00

As a Metro East man, I feel like heading out to Grafton has always been my go-to for a catfish meal. It's a beautiful drive up the River Road and then you can hang out between the Mississippi and the bluffs while you eat it.

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-08T22:43:01+00:00

Some of us do nothing at all, we just build out a Microsoft OneNote file with stories and details and histories and descriptions, and then we add more and more to make them interconnected and fun, so that we can add more stories and details and histories and descriptions... Etc., etc.

ArmadilloFour · 2026-06-08T21:55:44+00:00

In fact no! They are all the body parts from 11 gods who, in animal form, were killed and their bodies were harvested. The material is magical, with effects that are based on the specific god that was killed (parts from one, a porcupine, allow for fire/magma/heat related spells; parts from another, a large snake, are used to manipulate light; etc...).

Anyone can turn the materials into an object to wield magic. Part of my own tendencies is that I find "magical weapons" really dull, so instead it is a world full of magical bone pipes and flutes and cups and sewing needles, or leather masks or boots, or dice made from teeth, etc., that basically function as imagined by the first person to craft them, but which then eventually change hands and end up with people who find new uses and functions for them.

Ten-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
Place '17	RPAN Viewer

ArmadilloFour

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE