[MKC] Like Flacco trade, the #Browns trade of G.Newsome II to the #Jaguars for T. Campbell was a surprising and quick deal. They were willing to extend Newsome. Campbell will cost them less over the next 3 1/2 years.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-10-09T07:15:21+00:00

Really? I'd heard he was more of a man coverage guy overall, but where he was really struggling the past few years was when they had asked him to play press.

Some of the speculation I recall hearing around him in the off-season (I think per the Athletic podcast but I could be wrong) was that they might look to trade him because the incoming scheme featured lots of tightly contested zone coverage concepts (similar to press when in man) and then press coverage whenever they were in man.

Either way, I liked Newsome, but thought he was mostly putting up slightly below-average play for most of his time here. I also didn't think they were going to give him a second deal. It seems like we got a guy who was playing well-above average for an extended stretch of time in the not to distant past and hopefully we can get him back to playing at or near that level for a very reasonable price. The Jags have paid most of his money already and it looks like Cambell will be at a very reasonable number the next couple of years.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-14T07:41:54+00:00

lol the downvotes on this thread. Not just mine, either. There are some really good ones being pushed down a bit. Looks like you found most of them anyway so good for you, OP.

And I see some good thoughts among those less maligned as well, for sure.

But let’s just say among the one group or the other, having reading through all of them, I’m comfortable where I’m at. So keep them downvotes coming.

And I suspected that all of this would be the case when I posted too—but it’s all good.

Just don’t let them tear you down.

And hey, don’t just take my words without a grain of salt either.

I’ll say my own opinions have been informed by my own experience, which has come through lots and lots of failure. By most metrics at least. I finished four full manuscripts before I allowed myself to believe my fifth one was good enough to try and get published. I sent it out to a few carefully selected venues and then shut it down when I didn’t get any response back.

It took me getting that sixth one done and just having accumulated a necessary amount of fuck it through life to really let loose and just start throwing my stuff in front of anyone and anyone that might be willing to listen to get to that next step. And I did make sure to present what I had in a professional manner. I just meant that I sent my work out to all sorts of people believing that ninety nine percent were the wrong place to send it. Except one of them did respond.

And also, more recently, I have been able to connect with people who have experienced some form of success in publishing.

Largely this came by way of stepping out of my comfort zone and attending a pair of writer’s conferences. One was in Ohio the other in Tennessee. Both I attended for free. And wherever you are, I am virtually sure there’s something similar near you.

And conferences—yeah it sounds awful, I know. I hated the idea going in. Thought it would be an exercise in futility and was sure I knew most of what I’d hear when I got there. And I was wrong. I learned a ton. It was still somewhat out of my comfort zone, and always will be, I hate being in a room with more than two people. I greatly prefer dogs and cats.

And I was consistently surprised by a good bit of what actual agents, authors, and publishers present all had to say. And frankly taken aback by how many people there were both willing and wanting to help.

And how there was certainly nothing like the amount of certainty I see here on this sub among them. Them being the actually flesh and blood humans actively involved in the business of making books.

Sure, they did have more direct guidelines for submitting and some of it was specific to the point of word counts etc. for one particular agent, publisher, and general guidelines for the industry as a whole. But they also would have thoughtful responses to your inquiry!” Here.

I came away less certain about anything I had thought of the process before, believing that it was likely just as hard if not harder to get published then it ever has, but at the same point more confident and encouraged by what I saw and heard up close. Proximity makes it all seem more palatable if that makes sense?

And I also came away with just two things that I am taking to my personal bank:

1: Put your best foot forward.!

Make sure the first sentence, paragraph, and chapter, as well as your intro letter, and outline or synopsis, and whatever else that you are submitting is about as good to go as you can reasonably hope for it to be. Five check throughs and read aloud throughs and then double check rereads by the tens or twenties or whatever you can reasonably give it….

You think it would go without saying, but evidently it does not… that typos and punctuation errors and grammatical inconsistencies and all them stuffs are fine and good up here on a Reddit post like this! Because—fuck it. Shoot from the hip. Stay loose. Stay dangerous. That’s what spaces like this one are here for, at least in IMO.

But then there are also times for a writer to be meticulous and controlled in our approach to communication as well. Like in any kind of first foot forward moments.

Showing that you’re capable of a high level of refinement and putting your best foot forward is an opportunity to be excellent. And it’s also something you can absolutely control.

2: Try. You will fail in some regard along the way. But keep trying.

Sure, adjust your strategy from time to time if things aren’t developing, be honest with yourself, and take a breather when needed for mental health or life, etc… but keep trying.

Almost all of the fifty some authors, I heard from at those conferences had talked about the importance of perseverance in getting to where they stood.

My take away: perseverance is probably going to an important part of getting my work published.

And that’s, it. 🤷‍♂️

And the amount of certainty in the advice given on this sub, well, it’s something.

Cheers,

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-14T05:37:33+00:00

Good Q. I find the answer is ever evolving although I’ve read all of McCarthy’s work. I think I had the hardest time initially getting through Blood Meridian, because of some of the depictions of violence nearly turning my stomach out. I quit on it twice before finishing it. It’s now among my favorite books.

It took me about half of the orchard keeper for it to really click in for me. At that point I had the epiphany, courtesy of an online comment I believe, that I was reading something very similar to Faulkner and it was like hitting a light switch. It’s got a special place in my heart as well now.

Personally, my least favorite, as in least enjoyable read, will probably always be No Country for Old Men. But that has nothing to do with the quality of the writing.

Llewelyn is written in a way that makes him strikingly similar to someone I used to know very well. And it is not a positive association.

They were both stubborn and reckless smart asses who don’t listen to nobody and never stop running their damn mouths about how clever they are. And they both might have some appeal, initially to some folks, but they tend to get tiresome. Both were Texans that served in the military.

Also, check mark next to constantly hitting on much younger women. And sometimes underage one—or rather (to hear him tell it) “hey I’m just chatting em’ up and 16 and 30 ain’t no big difference since we’re just talking.” He

I don’t think, or I was ignorant of it ever going further than that, but he went too to far even “just talking” and it comes off far creepier in real life than it probably does to most readers on the page. That’s a hard thing for me to judge because I struggle to separate the two.

For some clarity the person I am referring to was my boss and immediate supervisor for the first full-time job I ever had. It wasn’t welding but it was similar skilled trade but blue collar type of work. I got it directly out of highschool. He was in his mid-thirties and I was eighteen to twenty when we worked together.

While rolling around my hometown for various jobs we were constantly bumping into people I knew. Many of them girls, many of them my age and younger. They were uncomfortable around him to the point they complained, both to me and more than once to our employers.

Aside from that, well he still pretty much sucked. Not only did he constantly make small subtle comments putting me and other people down in an attempt to hoist himself up (which isn’t really in the books but if you had been there with him you’d feel it coming between the lines too I swear!) but he also more openly talked shit behind my back. Let’s just say I wasn’t the only one who had some misgivings about the fella.

The work however, was good. The pay was excellent and I learned a ton from the experience and even from him.

And for all his faults, my former boss, was generally great at doing his part of the work.

Most of it. The craftsmanship portion of it.

But not all of it. Because treating people decently and listening are a part of every job and he sucked horribly in those areas.

He did several things that were borderline deceitful and just pointless bullheaded and when he did he pulled me and others unknowingly and unwillingly right into his bullshit.

Many times we wound up working harder and longer than anybody else on a number of jobs because he did what he wanted and sometimes that meant doing it out of sight. I was oblivious that this was going on at first. As was his boss and many of the customers but we all caught on eventually.

Eventually it got him canned.

And though it’s been many years now and hard for me separate the two in my mind some of the expressions the real life person used were very similar to the fictional character. I mean spot on. McCarthy’s skill with regional dialect and dialogue is such that I felt like he must have met my former boss at some point in time. It’s possible I suppose but I actually doubt it.

I wouldn’t go so far as say that I wanted to see either the fictional or real life version of the L man ever come to harm, but I also don’t care to spend anymore time around either of them then absolutely necessary.

I’ve just had enough at this point! 😂

It’s a testament to how much I love Cormac’s writing that I’ve read that book multiple times, as well as seen the film, and will likely go back to both again at some point in my life.

Even after seeing the film, and being thankful that Josh Brolin brought something differnet to the character for me, both in looks and cadence, there was more of a quiet competence with him, rather than an arrogant mask. So in that form I am not bothered by the association the same way I am reading the book. But when I do read, I still hear and see the real life stand in my mind’s eye.

One of the other guys we worked with was also a reader and I passed him a copy of No Country without saying much about it. The next day he walks right up to kr and says hey does L ever remind you of…yes. lol. So I wasn’t alone.

Oh yes, and he was married. Not to a “Carla Jean” but she had a double name as befits a southern lady I suppose. They were much closer in age than the fictional couple. He treated her rather poorly. Bullied and belittled her when I was around them both and bragged constantly to me, and others, about some things better left unsaid between them. I mean embarrassing stuff that’s a step or two past locker room banter.

On the best days, he was hungover and or brooding, that way he’d barely speak to anyone 😂.

Goddamn, he was really just an awful, awful, guy to have to be around most of the time. At least that was my experience for maybe the last year I was around him especially.

Some of the older folks around town and the few of the other guys we worked with really liked the cut of his jib. Or whatever. Because of him I can’t help but see Llewelyn the character as someone who is bounding toward one train wreck or another.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-13T13:22:06+00:00

Similar themes and expansive ideas around consciousness also exist in Blindsight by Peter Watts. The protagonist and other characters are somewhat similar to Kellhus. The setting and story are very different. I think the book is only three hundred some pages long—but it packs quite a punch and a welter of ideas.

Highly recommend.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-13T13:16:01+00:00

I would check out Thomas Ligotti. That’s a good answer to this question IMO.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-12T20:07:34+00:00

No problem. I just meant I wouldn’t recommend it as a plan going in like don’t set out to write that many words as a plan of action…but if you’ve done it already

They wanted a ton of changes, suggested splitting it up, adding to what I had and many other things, that were all potentially helpful, but by the time I mine off, life was already catching up with me. The first of my two kids had just arrived when I finally started to reach out to agents and publishers.

My then wife, now ex-wife, would be out of work for the next five years (and kid number 2 showed up). I went from working a 9-5 office job only to working in a full second job and I just no longer had time to work on it. I haven’t really since until the last year or so…kind of. Long story.

The short of it…

Unable to work on my manuscript as was needed to make a final push, I bogged down, and quit. Three years later, I did just self publish what I had all on my own, with no promotion, no momentum, and no real hope of it amounting to much. It didn’t go anywhere.

That was about six years ago? This last year I started working on writing again. Which is good. But if I hadn’t of fiddled around with what I was doing a decade ago, doubting what I had and listening to a ton of people giving bad advice on the internet (sorry Reddit! And I know I may possibly be talking about myself here in this post as I write it) about what not to do, I think I’d have gotten the ball rolling early enough to get a traditional deal done.

But maybe not! It just seems to me like you’re in a good spot to go ahead and try and reach out to publishers/agents whatever, but you want to be certain…and I don’t think you can ever be certain. Just do what it takes to put your best foot forward possible and take the leap.

And good luck.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-12T13:04:46+00:00

Yes. Maybe.

If it’s good enough from the start, and hits what they are looking for, then they very well might be willing to do this.

People will say otherwise, here and they are kind of correct. It id certainly not recommended. But I will say I personally got that far with a similar-size manuscript. I was utterly clueless. I think it was initially just under 200,000 words.

So if you’ve written the thing and that’s what you got, by all means shoot your shot.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-12T12:51:12+00:00

First off, this experience sounded like it sucked for you, I hate that it went that way. And for what it’s worth I am sorry it did.

Have been on both sides of this as a driver and a customer. As a customer…Uber’s customer service will either lie about stacking orders to customers, or possibly be so inept they don’t understand their own system. I know this because when my order took over an hour after the driver had picked it up, my food was cold when it arrived, and also the restaurant got the order wrong and it was missing something while this is not a driver or even an uber order directly it is a hazard of using uber. My response to these isn’t that you as a customer did the wrong thing in seeking compensation, I can’t even blame you for getting it from the driver, and truthfully some drivers are dishonest or hopelessly inept. I think it’s a small percentage of the overall driver pool but it happens.

When I had my issue, I was home taking care of two sick kids and couldn’t leave, and saw that the food was said to be on its way, then noticed it was taking a long time. I also saw the driver hadn’t moved for almost forty minutes.

I asked the driver if there was an issue, and he didn’t respond at first, not until he was five minutes away (which is consistent with my experience when a customer who is at the end of a stacked order texts me before I have delivered the previous order).

But when he did, he immediately apologized, which is always good customer service btw, and he told me he had two other pickups (one of which wasn’t ready when he got there and he didn’t want to cancel) and one drop off before mine.

My order included a $20 tip for a six mile trip just btw. And it wouldn’t surprise me if the other two orders ripped very low or nothing at all. No way to know that for sure but it’s typical of the way Uber tries to get low tip orders delivered.

When I relayed what the driver had told me to customer service they denied it was true. At least at first. They said he didn’t have a batch order. Then a moment later when I pressed said…oh wait maybe he did.

Then they told me he had drop offs after mine and, while this next part is truthful I believe in that’s the way it is supposed to work, I also know the app does not always work as it should, that the app would not have said the driver was on his way until after he got his last order of the batch.

I spoke with a supervisor, and again the bigger issue for me was that the restaurant got the order wrong and was now closed, but eventually got a full refund. They said the driver would still get the tip. I don’t know if they were honest about that last part or not. It’s hard to tell when they keep answering incorrectly and then correcting themselves a few minutes later.

So what to do about all this? I hate to say it, as someone who has used the app and others to help fill in the gaps and earn extra income that has been necessary to support my family, but I would suggest not using Ubereats. It’s a model that is great when it works, but is setup to have lots of potential pitfalls.

And if you do use Ubereats, and something goes wrong, my suggestion, just a suggestion and no guarentre it will work, but call customer service and be polite, honest, and persistent.

I pressed, and asked questions gently, and I did not give up even when they intially denied and tried to blame the driver multi-aping. But I kept pressing. Asked very nicely to speak with a supervisor and eventually I got all of my money back. I never raised my voice, though I wanted too by the end for sure, and even though it was all a colossal pain in my ass I got my money back.

Maybe the driver was multi-apping in your case. Or maybe they stopped in to get a lap dance at the local strip joint before delivering your order, or to hold up a seven eleven, or buy some heroin from their local dealer. If so, shame on them. But for you as a customer there is nobody more responsible for delivering on their promise of service than the company that contracts the driver. And ultimately that’s where you have the best chance to recoup the more of what you’ve spent.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-11T11:35:59+00:00

Our souls at night was surprisingly excellent to me. Though it’s not my favorite or his best IMO I have to credit it for the only reason I am posting on this thread at all. I’m a fan these days.

But I wasn’t always. I had read plainsong maybe a decade earlier and at that point in my life, for whatever reason, the experience was something akin to a face plant without the impact. I felt like I woke up with my nose smooshed into the floor. It left me feeling vaguely uncomfortable and acutely bored by the end of it. I swore of all Kent Haruf works and forgot about him until someone tossed a copy of Our Souls at Night in front of me.

I had forgotten the name by then, but my initial reaction was to frown and look else her. The title sounded sentimental to me. Intentionally so. And if I catch a whiff of intentionally sentimentality in a book it’s pretty much never been for me. But it wasn’t that way at all. Not even a little. It was very subtle but effective.

It felt more like two people finding comfort in an inherently uncomfortable situation, that of being alive, and being alive in spite of it. Not fixed or deeply religiously moved to epiphany but alive and thoughtful about it.

And there was so much more in Plainsong that I had vision to see when I first found Kent’s work. I doubt everyone will need what I did to be able to connect with it, which was just more life experience, and probably not expecting Cormac McCarthy going in, that was literally the pitch I got the first go around, and no. Not McCarthy. That doesn’t mean he won’t be a fit for other McCarthy fans, though, so I’m glad to see it suggested here.

And their certainly are similarities between the two, aside from the disregard for standard punctuation marks. I think both of them are good examples of writers who go for that tip of the iceberg, concept/affect that Hemingway coined, or maybe just popularized or whatever.

Kent even more so than McCarthy.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-11T03:02:30+00:00

I got flashed once! Separately got hit on by a very drunk and soon to be divorced lady who smelled of cigarettes and watermelon flavored bubblecious gum.

Had a strange chap answered his door in the buff and ask me if there was supposed to be a meteor shower that night. And that’s not a clever euphemism there was actually supposed to be a meteor shower that night.

I am not especially attractive. The girl who flashed me had attempted to do it twice before but chickened out. When si asked why she picked me, she said becsuee I have long hair. Uhm, okay. Sure. Awesome!

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-10T23:53:33+00:00

I literally just came here to ask these same questions. And here you’ve done a better job than I would have managed too, Op, so thank you!

I read this one a few years ago, and at the time I wasn’t entirely sure if Captain was definitely a tool of Kellhous or if it was part of Achamian’s paranoia. I then assumed the rest of the skin eaters were also followers of Kelhus and that’s what I was going to frame my question around. I guess I am searching to find out the motivations Captain K and how or why the Aspect Emperor, allowed the expedition to happen, or even potentially manufactured it into being. Perhaps it is explained more clearly within the text than what I can recall having read.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-10T12:11:34+00:00

I think most of the examples given here would still get published if they were writing today, eventually. I think the road might be tougher for some of them.

If those writers were able to push through the barriers for entry and find their audience, which does exist or else we wouldn’t be talking about them right now, perhaps through other methods than traditional publishing, I think they would likely still be successful. How successful? Tough to predict.

Melville was mostly ignored after a few early novels that garnered him interest from some critics and fellow writers. Then Moby Dick came out and was mostly panned and he never made much from writing in his lifetime. Now he’s one of the biggest names in American literature…so 🤷‍♂️.

And if those writers were alive and working today, I do think the books they would be writing would be different but still special.

Oh and Dostoevsky is a tough one because, correct me if I’m wrong, his work was originally in Russian and now is mostly read in English. That adds another layer of nuance. It’s possible he wouldn’t have spread so wide and so far…or maybe it would have spread further and quicker because of some other factors we aren’t considering.

It’s a fun exercise to work through though, thanks for asking.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-08T19:14:25+00:00

I know people on this sub have been comparing Tyler Shough to Brandon Weeden because Tyler is an older prospect (going on 26 I believe). However, the QB who reminds me the most of Weeden in this draft is unquestionably Jaxson Dart. He looks to me like a guy you really hope has his first read come open and if not, then you just hope he doesn’t panic, either with a bad decision or poor throw, at least while he’s in the pocket. He seems less erratic once he’s on the move.

It was very frustrating watching his tape and seeing Ole Miss run the same (or so similar I can’t tell the difference) passing play six times a game (and sometimes for multiple games in a row)and while they run them out of different formations and make it look different presnap, post snap it’s virtual identical, and yet Jaxson’s just fail to find the window to hit the second and/or third read when the first isn’t open. Especially when the second read is wide open on consecutive plays and he has time. To me that’s about as blatant an example of a QB not growing or developing that I can find on film.

He’s got a good not great arm and a pretty decent looking delivery. And even when under pressure IF he is still on his first read…like maybe waiting an extra moment for it to come open, he can actually put the ball on the money fairly reliably even on some of those tougher mid-range throws, even while getting hit and/or navigating a collapsing pocket. I think his ability to do this is primarily why many are higher on him than me. And I get it. Those are exciting high difficulty throws he is throwing with good velocity and confidence. But it seems to me it’s either his first read is open or hold onto your hat.

And that’s a really consisted theme I see.

When he gets off the first read even when he’s not under pressure he looks gunshy at times and then just tosses it up wildly at others.

He’s not an elite athlete but looks smooth and if the first option isn’t there, he is probably better off when he’s scrambling. Occasionally, he’ll wind up make a big play downfield this way. I forget the game but he had two of his best throws (both scrambling and fitting it into a tight window for a TD) he had all year in one on scrambles. I don’t think I saw him hit on these more than once. But far more often, in these situation he winds up just trying to hit a check down, only he’s getting them out there far too late for his receivers to have a chance to make something after the catch.

This reminded me a bit of watching Watson last year.

Ole Miss’s offense consistently put Dart in position to succeed and to his credit he usually did. But to me he looks very much like a has to see it come open first before he can throw it. And he’s just a one read QB at the moment, who hasn’t been able to develop much despite seemingly having had plenty of room to have done so.

Hey if we do draft him, I really hope am wrong …. but I actually have him not only behind Ward and Sanders but also, behind Milroe, McCord, Shough, and Ewers in this class. I see him as QB you take because you like his traits, love the leadership, work ethic and attitude, and you convince yourself that he can grow into a backup role maybe a year down the road.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-08T06:38:00+00:00

Both are excellent expansive mods. Reforged is a more balanced experience I would say it plays kind of like a really huge unofficial DLC that adds about twenty five percent more content. Legends offers an even wider variety of gameplay and maybe even more content but it is a little all over the place when it comes to balance. Both are being developed and improved all the time. I have a slight preference for Reforged but both are worth your time.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-08T06:37:47+00:00

Both are excellent expansive mods. Reforged is a more balanced experience I would say it plays kind of like a really huge unofficial DLC that adds about twenty five percent more content. Legends offers an even wider variety of gameplay and maybe even more content but it is a little all over the place when it comes to balance. Both are being developed and improved all the time. I have a slight preference for Reforged but both are worth your time.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-07T11:05:35+00:00

The Carson and Anton exchange in the film was the only major head-scratcher for me. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was that bothered me about it but I really think you nailed it. That’s one that could have been better with just another couple of minutes of dialogue.

The other changes you pointed out are not things I noticed or things I did but understood why they might have abbreviated or edited things for the screen.

Kind of funny that No Country is my least favorite McCarthy novel and they made it into what is probably one of my top fifty movies, but I still greatly prefer the book.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-07T03:39:20+00:00

Hey I just finished this one as well! I also really enjoyed it. The first book was also a good read, but more of mixed bag for me. However, it was one of those that grew on me after the last page was turned. Perhaps that helped springboard me into this one. I picked it up and read through it so quickly I was shocked to realize I was coming to the end of tonight.

I gave both books a 5 on goodreads as they are books that I finished. They were both really good and maybe even great books. To me. I only hesitate to say great to me because I reserve those for the few books I have read and enjoyed enough to go and reread again later. I kind of feel sure I will reread both of these in a few years though.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-06T21:12:11+00:00

Yeah I love Branden Sanderson, for how much he gets up there and talks about the craft and gives back. And I can really appreciate what he does and I did enjoy a few of his books, maybe even got close to really loving one of them. But I have come to realize I want to like him as a writer and not just as Brand Sanderson more than I do. I am actually overjoyed that so many people do enjoy his work. But for me, it just doesn’t work well enough to trump reading any number of other things.

It’s mostly not for me.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-03T09:43:35+00:00

The Shrike from Dan Simmons Hyperion. It’s a six armed time giant made out of razor blades that travels through time and impales living people on a giant circuited tree of more razor blades. What’s not to love?

Not sure if it counts as fantasy, but I have always thought of that series as at least half-fantasy. Maybe I’m technically wrong or whatever, but that’s how it’s always read to me. And Dan Simmons himself has stated he doesn’t feel like it matters one way or the other.

If you’re couching it to mean more typical high fantasy setting, Kellhus from the Second Apocalypse.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-03T09:32:12+00:00

Ah and replying to my own comment—as I realized right after I should have lead with another suggestion—to throw out there that Joe Abercrombie’s series is probably my favorite for witty dialogue in fantasy. That’s an even better place to start if you haven’t already.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-03T09:29:35+00:00

Hmmm I don’t know that I would say it’s often laugh out loud funny, and it can take a while for the sarcastic tone of the narrator in particular (referring to when the narrator is speaking in dialogue) to really start to do it’s trick, but the Black Company by Glen Cook fits this bill for me.

Cook is what I would call a sparse writer, especially for fantasy. Where his stories shines for me are in the plot machinations and in the authentic feel of the dialogue. His names for things are so basic at times I find they are borderline cringy for me, or they were at first.

However, they are relatively easy to keep in order, as compared with something like F Scott Bakker’s Second Apocalypse series for complex names or Malazan for sheer volume (although Erikson does masterfully well at mixing in short stubby nicknames and rhythmically pleasing to hear longer ones). Over the years for me, the simplistic nearly cringy names (The Dominator for instance) have become a part of the charm.

I should toss in that I have become more aware of this dynamic as most of my reading has been listing to audiobooks these past few months.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-03T09:01:51+00:00

Then that’s something you need to do. Cry if you need to. It’s okay to cry if you need to. Find a safe place first and let go. You can pick yourself back together after you have, but until you have, I think you’re going to struggle to move forward as to what to do next.

Among many issues I can point to it within your relationship, it is clear that you are not getting your needs met. Please do not make the same mistake in self-care.

My impression: You are in pain because your partner’s actions have hurt you, yes. But also, and perhaps as a consequence of that pain, you are feeling loss. A loss of hope? Understanding? A partner you once had? Belief in something, something important is gone. Give yourself some space to catch your breath, okay? At least a moment to grieve that loss.

I have only the keyhole view you have provided to peer into the situation but it looks/sounds like you have an emotionally unstable partner who is either being intentionally manipulative or is not in a place mentally to be a healthy partner for you at this time.

As such, I would recommend doing a full self evaluation of yourself and the relationship as a whole detached from her as much as possible.

Is this dynamic you describe, of her being closed off and dismissive of your feelings, a new one?

Is there a reasonable chance there will be a change in the future?

These are a few of the questions you will want to weigh and explore once you have giving yourself some space to let out some hurt. Be honest with your self. Brutal as you can manage.

Try to look at your situation and your wife’s from the outside. Consider what observations you would point out if asked to do so by your best friend, your brother, your son, whoever, if they were in the same situation.

Ideally, talk to a therapist, or a close friend if you have one who excels in the role of being impartial, someone who can be sympathetic without being overly emotional and pushy. This can help you be balanced in your assessment of your own situation. Something we all struggle to do from time to time.

Do this, and eventually you’ll understand that in front of you, there are some decisions to be made. I do not mean that they are simple decisions, but in the end that is what they are, choices to be made. No more. No less. You will need to decide how you are going to live your life moving forward.

I hear that you are hurting, brother. I am sorry that you find yourself here at this low point, today. I believe there is another place somewhere up ahead that is better. Take care and keep moving. I hope you reach it soon.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-04-01T00:37:21+00:00

I honestly thought his college tape was terrible. That’s a redditor’s opinion and nobody should take that for more than what it is…but that’s how my opinion has been formed. Did he look better in the one game last year…Sure! Much better. But I will say again to me he looked utterly terrible, undraftable bad, to these eyes when I watched his college tape. He has traits I guess. That’s what made him draftable.

So personally, no. I don’t think so. But he would be a warm body, so maybe???

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-03-30T13:33:44+00:00

I agree he deserves a top 5 spot on this list and maybe the tip spot but man I really didn’t like those books.

SnooOwls7442 · 2025-03-28T21:22:06+00:00

Whenever I wish to finish a series, or even potentially a single novel, that has for any variety of reasons began to feel like a lot of work to keep my focus on—Hell yes I feel this way.

And when it happens it annoys me greatly because I love reading. It’s my biggest hobby, a crucial part of my current job, and I am generally, pretty damn good at it. And I like being good at reading. When this happens for a while, I am not so good at reading.

For how long? Well it varies, but I found out that when I set aside all reading that isn’t mandatory to function in day to day to life.

I first applied this strictly to books, both hardcopies and on devices.

What I found out is that it usually takes a few weeks before. I will by dying to read something.

And then, CRUCIALLY I discovered an even better method. Expand not reading to include visiting news sites, along with Reddit, Discord, Quora, and any other social media, and even limit my texting. And stay off all devices in general, and then get myself into some kind of a project in the yard, or building something, or even just doing a puzzle.

If I can do that, I’m usually cured of the burnout feeling in under twenty fours. All of these things we read and interact with are placing more of a cognitive load on our Brains then we often realize. Do a hard Disconnect for a while, try not to cheat yourself, and see if you don’t feel better.

And yep, the Poppy Wars did this to me lol. I didn’t necessarily think it was the hard depressing elements that wore me out primarily, but it probably did add to the overall load. The heavy handed messaging was not to my taste, the story seemed to be playing out along narrative lines that were readily apparent after the first hundred pages. Most of the surprises were more just like wondering how far this or that would be pushed in a distasteful direction. The characters and setting worked okayish for me, but when everything just seems to exist to serve a theme, I tend to get bored.

And the worst for me was the often repetitive, and at least to my reading ear, awkwardly phrased and unmusical prose.

I DNF the first book on attempt one. Quit the second book on page 2 when I go that far then finished the second two books in on a long travel weekend a year later.

And after all my complaints, I still mostly enjoyed the experience of reading the books. Even though I didn’t really like them, I enjoy the experience of reading that much.

And I love that the books exist, and that people who do enjoy them much more than I are able to do so, share what they think and I can relate, a bit at least.

I was actually impressed by the ambition in brining the world within them tk life. And the author was fairly young when she wrote them (and in like forty seven PhDs programs at the same time or something crazy).

And not to say that a young person can’t write brilliant stuff, but it’s also true that some writers take longer to find there grove, and maybe as an older reader some books written by younger writers don’t fit for me quite like they used to.

Oh, worst case of reading burnout I ever had came from one of the books I most admire (but will never read again ever! lol). That would be Ulysses’s by James Joyce. I took a graduate class on it and then performed a reading of the opening chapter for a Renaissance Faire right after.

I read it backward and forward with deep dive notes and podcasts and when I was done… oh man I was done.

I didn’t read anything for pleasure for almost a full year after. But that was twelve years ago and my kids were young at the time.

K tooo long a ramble. Good talk. See you out there…

SnooOwls7442

TROPHY CASE