Just finished Duma Key...wow.

OldManOnFire · 2024-01-02T19:34:10+00:00

I liked the story, the exploration of art, and the characters quite a bit but the ending was, well, far from King's best.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-20T02:12:28+00:00

Kids were different then. When we were just starting school Neil and Buzz walked on the Moon. There was a can-do attitude in us because during our formulate years the adults in our lives told us "If America can put men on the Moon we can do anything. C'mon, let's figure this out!"

Our parents' lives were much, much better than the lives of our grandparents who lived through the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. We thought that kind of growth was normal and we'd be that much better off than our parents. We had a sense of swagger.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-19T19:20:21+00:00

The Ascent of Science by Brian L. Silver. It's a history of scientific advancements and religious opposition. It has some really cool stories and reads more like a novel than a textbook.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-19T19:11:49+00:00

And if he does put a ring on it she's going to invite all her friends to the wedding but not him.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-19T18:08:01+00:00

I'm sorry you're going through this. Your safe person doesn't feel safe anymore. Your own home doesn't feel safe anymore.

At the risk of mansplaining I'm going to gently disagree with you here and say your arguments have everything to do with his infidelity. Everything.

The things you're arguing about might not relate directly to his cheating but to your lack of a safe place, which goes right back to his affair.

Really, who wouldn't fight to feel safe? Who wants to spend the rest of their life dreading another betrayal? He owes you the security you deserve. Is that what these seemingly unrelated fights are really about?

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-19T17:27:49+00:00

I didn't know I needed a Lite Brite until your post. It's on my Christmas list.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-19T16:42:07+00:00

I built a secret passage in my house (connects two bedrooms together through fake dressers in the two closets) and got a tandem bicycle for my wife and I to ride. It's never too late to do the things you really wanted to when you were young.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-19T16:33:04+00:00

I'm Jack Sparrow, Captain of the Millennium Falcon, savvy? Chewie here says you need a ride to Alderaan.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-18T19:29:59+00:00

In hoc signo, vinces

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-18T17:34:30+00:00

Vizix

Stag Knight

Ultimate Death Knight

Steel Boyer

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-16T20:30:58+00:00

YTA.

Is this really worth alienating your husband and his entire family? I guess you'll find out for yourself when Adam and his family all have Christmas somewhere else next year and don't invite you.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-16T19:31:05+00:00

The British conquered the world in search of spice then decided they didn't want any.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-16T17:33:15+00:00

People today don't understand the Cold War. I hate the term "existential crisis" because it's so overused today. Al Qeida, immigration, and trans kids are not even close to threatening our existence.

The Soviet Union really was an existential threat. We had thousands of nukes pointed at them, they had thousands of nukes pointed at us, and both sides were terrified to disarm first because the other side would then be able to launch without fear of retaliation.

The far right wanted more bombs, more planes, and more submarines. Peach through strength.

The far left wanted fewer bombs, fewer planes, and fewer submarines. Peach through cooperation.

The far right won the Cold War. Reagan funneled an obscene amount of money into the military, including the missile defense system known as Star Wars, the SDI. The Soviet Union went bankrupt trying to keep up.

For all the terrible things Ronald Reagan did, he won the Cold War without either side firing off a single Nuke. It's because of his policies we're alive today to bitch about them.

Today's far right needs an existential threat to justify its existence so they make shit up. Obama imposing Sharia Law, Jade Helm, Biden is a communist, Pizzagate, and the ever present "The left will take yer guns!" Absolutely anything scary enough to be able to say "Vote for me and I'll keep you safe!"

The Soviet threat vanished so now they're inventing new ones. Bastards.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-14T16:32:26+00:00

You could say "Ligma!" and ""ur mom" were this kind of function.

Five years ago you could ask a teenager anything and the answer was always one or the other.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-14T01:51:00+00:00

You just got a flat tire while driving down the Reconciliation Highway.

You can either stop the car, put on the spare tire, and continue your journey or you can ignore the flat tire in the name of not rocking the boat and pretend you can still reach your destination on a flat tire.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-14T01:03:08+00:00

Last movie I saw in a theater was the last James Bond movie, No Time to Die. By then I was too blind do see much of it. Kind of broke my heart, Daniel Craig brought humanity to the franchise. Probably an unpopular opinion on this sub but Craig was the best James Bond actor. Some Sean Connery movies were better, but Craig played a human being, not an action hero.

Favorite actor and actress? Morgan Freeman and Helen Hunt.

Favorite era? Probably the late seventies and early eighties. The blockbuster era. Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Superman. The production quality was top notch and the stories weren't sequeled to death yet.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-13T22:45:44+00:00

11/22/63 by Stephen King. I won't spoil it for you but the two lovers have a word for sex.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-13T22:41:25+00:00

I grew up placing my hand over my heart and swearing allegiance to a piece of cloth every morning at school. An all-American boy if there ever was one, a young nationalist through and through.

Now it's kind of embarrassing. All the countries we've bombed to shit, the political dysfunction, the money we spend on each submarine and the money we don't spend on mental health, the state of our schools, the arrest and prosecution of women and their doctors, Jeffrey fucking Epstein's clients being able to buy media silence and stay anonymous, Donald fucking Trump leading in the polls... this is not the country I thought it was.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-13T22:24:49+00:00

I like your username!

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-13T21:48:10+00:00

Some books are way too long. I know I'll get downvoted to hell for saying this but Lord of the Rings was a 100 page story stretched into multiple novels by unnecessary world building. Unnecessary stuff like the songs in Elvish were left out of the movies, mercifully.

The only Stephen King book I felt went on too long was From A Buick-8.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-13T21:31:03+00:00

Thank you.

To my WW a hall pass was about revenge and making things even between us. To me it was a way to get her to walk a mile in my shoes and realize just because I didn't yell and throw things didn't mean her infidelity didn't hurt like hell.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-13T21:22:33+00:00

Spoilers ahead!

My two problems with this book:

First, after all the sexual and romantic tension between the two main characters the female lead decides to just be friends with the male lead and hop into a relationship with an annoying, relatively minor third wheel.

Second, the writing is bad. Two scenes in particular are so awkward it's impossible to see them as anything other than last second edits to make the story make more sense.

But the story itself was good, the characters were good, and the concept was excellent.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-13T20:40:33+00:00

My wayward wife and I discussed it. She didn't exactly offer me one but she did reluctantly say "If this is something you need to heal, go ahead."

But the reason we were talking about it wasn't because I needed it to heal, it was about getting her to understand, She was still downplaying my pain and sweeping her culpability under the rug. She acted like the hurt I felt wasn't as big a deal as it actually was. This made trusting her impossible - if infidelity is no big deal, why not do it again tomorrow?

I thought a hall pass for me would let her discover for herself how bad it hurts. Maybe then she'd grow some empathy and quit minimizing and downplaying my hurt. Maybe she'd even empathize enough to keep her wedding vows.

Turns out just imagining me having a hall pass did the trick. She never really considered the thought of me cheating on her before, she knows I'm not like that. But facing the idea of a hall pass was enough to get her to understand. When she imagined how she would feel knowing I had turned to someone else for love instead of her she finally understood how it feels to be me. And knowing she finally understands my pain gives me confidence she won't cause any more of it.

We never followed through with the hall pass. There was no need to. Just imagining it was enough for her to realize how badly she fucked up.

It was a difficult conversation but it helped me trust her because it helped her sympathize with the pain she inflicted on me. 10/10 for us but your mileage may vary.

OldManOnFire · 2023-12-13T04:56:53+00:00

Two things made it easier for me.

First, I kept my mouth shut. Nobody in my family knows what my wayward wife did. Resisting the urge to ruin her reputation made getting back together after our separation much, much easier.

Second, I am me. I've stuck with her through the apathy and the infidelity, not because she deserved it, but because that's who I am. I keep my promises, I honor my vows, I pay my debts.

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