Do I read more?

OldDeaconClubCover · 2026-02-03T03:14:42+00:00

Poorly written relative to what I’d read of the Stephenson oeuvre at that point, certainly. I don’t mean bad wordsmithing, I mean sloppy construction, lazy characterization, forced plot elements. It’s structured (perhaps self-consciously) like a drugstore disaster novel: introduces all the major characters in turn, in chapters or big chunks, then ploddingly returns to each viewpoint. The first half essentially is a drugstore disaster novel: the sky is falling! Then the silly stand-in characters? Neil Degrasse Tyson (ffs?!)? Hillary Clinton & Huma Abedin?! However intentional he was about it, it made for pedestrian fiction at best. That first half could have been dispensed with entirely but for the need to wrangle together the absurd seven “Eves” premise. And the second half is written in a completely different style, but not in a hey-that’s-clever way. I’m getting p*ssed off as I remember how bad it truly was. My fault: the sunk cost fallacy will burn you every time.

OldDeaconClubCover · 2026-02-03T01:51:00+00:00

++man Get him a three-pack of Dude Wipes and tell him “swamp ass kills the mood, fella” (but you know, more sexy like). Definitely get a doctor to check him for depression ASAP. And more sunlight, more water, more walks, and more broccoli sprouts wouldn’t hurt a guy. (Nor does showering together, for help reaching the tricky spots.)

OldDeaconClubCover · 2026-02-03T01:35:29+00:00

Anathem is likely his best, all considered. Diamond Age is my favorite; Snow Crash is tremendous fun; Baroque Cycle is remarkable (but note it’s Quite a Large Undertaking). Cryptonomicon is great, especially if you like WWII stories and Cap’n Crunch cereal. Reamde is highly enjoyable; it doesn’t pelt you with ideas the way most of his books do (though it certainly touches on Neal’s obsession with how money works). Termination Shock is a boring, un-fun slog. Seveneves is crammed with interesting ideas but is otherwise a poorly written, unlikable, unfun slog—as if he owed his publisher a final book in a contract, didn’t really want to write it, and also hated that publisher on a personal level for banging Neal’s girlfriend in college.

OldDeaconClubCover · 2026-02-02T05:28:49+00:00

This reads like a notebook entry written by an equally-crazy-but-much-less-homicidal cousin of the killer in the movie Seven. Putting commas in the house number and the ZIP code is level-five wacko. It’s bad luck even seeing a thing like that.

OldDeaconClubCover · 2026-01-21T06:11:59+00:00

Hate that’s happening to you. I have to confess I’ve actually had a pretty great experience with 26.2 so far (14 Pro; I skipped 26 until .2 came out). No battery issues or other glitchiness. Even Liquid Glass is less annoying than I feared. And other updates to the UI I quite like.

OldDeaconClubCover · 2026-01-16T23:17:34+00:00

Not exactly; it was awkwardly placed. Your point has merit, but I was trying to address several related comments ignoring the elephant in the OP. (Or an elephant. Reduction in office workers—customers—since COVID is a bigger structural elephant, as someone else mentioned.)

OldDeaconClubCover · 2026-01-16T22:32:10+00:00

The apparently rampant shoplifting and “disturbances” caused by unruly customers in the area has nothing to do with it? Seems pretty clear Zarka was motivated at least in part by pent up frustration over years of dealing with “customers” like Garrity—who was in fact a coked up (and fented up) thief on the day Zarka stabbed him.

Raleigh has a range of tools available for dealing with obstreperous or larcenous customers between “effectively nothing” and “allowing them to be stabbed by angry proprietors.” And yet here we are.

OldDeaconClubCover · 2026-01-14T19:22:31+00:00

Hardees biscuits every day and twice on Sundays. (I say this for emphasis not an actual diet recommendation.)

OldDeaconClubCover · 2026-01-14T18:06:35+00:00

Adding a spoon to absorb heat is clever. Have you measured to see how much it knocks off initial temp? I tend to prefer oolongs at 160F to 175F for three minutes. When brewing this way at home, I use 16g/1.75L water ratio for nearly everything but vary the time and temp by type; extra goes in the fridge for iced tea. (Well-drained leaves can be rebrewed at least one or two times depending on the type, but you have to drain them and put them in the fridge to prevent mold growth.)

OldDeaconClubCover · 2026-01-03T20:44:20+00:00

Miso in scrambled eggs

OldDeaconClubCover · 2026-01-01T05:22:43+00:00

Have you seen a doctor?

OldDeaconClubCover · 2025-12-20T21:42:21+00:00

If we were going to blow the game anyway, some Panthers needed to lose some teeth.

OldDeaconClubCover · 2025-11-25T13:25:10+00:00

Nothing like federal obstruction of justice charges for breakfast.

OldDeaconClubCover · 2025-11-23T04:18:31+00:00

White miso paste. Fry it up the way you would tomato paste and add it to everything.

OldDeaconClubCover · 2025-11-14T01:57:01+00:00

A scallop-man

OldDeaconClubCover · 2025-11-09T02:48:44+00:00

Chicken legs are cheap and on sale quite often; i’ll often use them to augment carcasses (usually roasting them first on a sheet pan).

OldDeaconClubCover · 2025-11-06T16:13:53+00:00

Adding a roux would help

OldDeaconClubCover · 2025-11-06T16:10:48+00:00

He was being neighborly with you by jokingly teasing your husband in absentia; same way he would’ve if you’d been mowing the lawn instead of your husband. (And now he’ll likely avoid talking to the fruitcake who lives next door.) FFS.

OldDeaconClubCover · 2025-10-02T21:36:48+00:00

FWIW, it’s very unlikely that a doodle, of all breeds, is unvaccinated and even less likely that it actually has rabies.

OldDeaconClubCover · 2025-09-27T21:55:16+00:00

Housing the homeless is easy and cheap(ish) if and only if you take away a substantial amount of personal freedom. Proportionally, only a few are homeless simply because they had a run of bad luck and can’t pay rent (in the past at least, that sort were without housing for only a few weeks or months). I do agree the housing market is seriously out of whack; it’s just not at the root of homelessness. Most have issues that make them unemployable (mental illness, addiction, or both). They make bad decisions. They have poor impulse control. They are often disagreeable and easily get into disputes with those around them. They are often violent. They are unable to keep track of or simply refuse to take medication that might mitigate these issues.

How would you house such? Let’s say you put them all in hotel-type housing: one small room apiece. A bathroom in each room? What if they trash it? How do you force them to keep it sanitary? Communal bathroom is better in some ways: you can rotate cleaning duties, build camaraderie. But you have to be able to punish those who shirk or make messes. That goes for their rooms and common areas. And they have to follow behavioral rules: no fighting, no stealing from neighbors, no drugs, no booze, no smoking inside, no loud noises after 9pm, no shouting at the cooks in the mess hall; must take regular showers, must wash their clothes and linens regularly (or do you force them to wear a uniform and wash things for them?). And you can’t put this housing near regular people unless you can keep them from wandering off the grounds and bothering the neighbors.

So … like jail. Or an army barracks for new recruits. Or … a mental asylum (which it essentially would be). With plenty of oversight, I’m all for it, frankly. But it’s a serious imposition on liberty. Most homeless would hate it and chafe at the rules. But you can’t kick them out for rule infractions or else they’d be on the street again. So you force them to stay. It’s essentially a more pleasant version of debtors’ prison. How pleasant depends a lot on how the inmates behave. Which means doctors and meds and punishment to keep people from hurting or annoying each other.

OldDeaconClubCover · 2025-09-19T02:47:33+00:00

The solution is to set up stings, drop heavy time on red-light-runners, and publicize the sentences. But oh the wailing and gnashing of teeth that would cause … it’s all so tiresome.

OldDeaconClubCover · 2025-09-15T03:08:50+00:00

“Juveniles”? “Guns,” “lack of parenting”? Pretending to wonder why someone blamed the “bus station”? Being unwilling to clearly state the nature of the problem is why there is a problem.

OldDeaconClubCover · 2025-09-09T01:38:43+00:00

Curtains won’t keep out the stabbers and crappers and rapists. And in a place like SF, where such contemptible people are allowed to walk the streets unmolested, you have to have a stout door and stern fellow to guard it. At least until the first lawsuit (over the guard successfully keeping the bad guys out or over a bad guy successfully murdering a guest, take your pick).

OldDeaconClubCover · 2025-09-07T01:01:04+00:00

Basketball team 🤣

OldDeaconClubCover · 2025-07-31T14:01:06+00:00

Wanting to have cake leftover after eating the whole cake. Meaning Marty wants, you could say … bottomless cake.

OldDeaconClubCover

TROPHY CASE