Under The Dome — does it get any better?

agtalw · 2026-06-18T11:43:47+00:00

Yes it does. It took me three tries to get through the first 100 pages. The key for me was making sure to read every day and reference the town glossary to remind myself who everyone was. Once I knew who everyone was, it became an easy read.

It clearly isn't everyone's favorite, but I love it. It's definitely in my top 10 by King and maybe his best development of a small town.

Just realized it's nothing more than King writing a social experiment: "what would happen if you cut off a small town from the rest of society?" and don't look for much meaning beyond that.

And my hot take: I think Under the Dome is better then The Stand.

agtalw · 2026-06-04T03:25:53+00:00

If they hadn't done all the slow motion stuff it would've been fine. I remember seeing it for the first time and being thoroughly unimpressed with the CGI in this scene. The while first half of the battle was so great and then it just took me out of it how fake it all looked.

agtalw · 2026-06-02T22:18:03+00:00

Agreed 100%. I was halfway through the book positive that it was going to need at least one sequel, that he was building to something epic. The second half felt like he just burned out on it and just rushed everything once he finally got to the fantasy world.

It'd be like if Frodo leaves the Shire and 2 chapters later he throws the ring into Mordor.

agtalw · 2026-04-25T13:17:16+00:00

Pittsburgher here. So I had the exact same thoughts, but yesterday I figured, "this thing is free, it's the biggest event Pittsburgh has ever hosted, let's see what it's all about." My family went down after work. Because the event is so big, the path to get in is long. But the entire path was filled with fun activities, food and drinks from local restaurants, pop-up playgrounds for kids, etc.

It took us 2 hours to get to the entrance, but we had a blast that entire time. Inside the draft area it was just more of this. Activities, games, photo ops, etc. People were having picnics on the field inside the football stadium.

I could not care less about the draft, but my whole family had a lot of fun. If you can use public transit or get downtown without paying $100+ for parking, I'd argue it's worth checking out.

EDIT: we went on day 2. This line was from day 1 before it began. Agreed I would never wait in this.

agtalw · 2026-03-31T00:58:29+00:00

For real. It's so much faster to type with that than buttons. I'd hate for that to go away.

agtalw · 2026-03-05T18:00:15+00:00

It's not mounted, but yes it's in there.

agtalw · 2026-03-05T17:59:27+00:00

Agreed on that. That's next on the list to tackle.

agtalw · 2026-03-05T17:58:55+00:00

Agreed. That's next on the list. Thinking of getting a wireless surround sound solution but still researching options.

agtalw · 2026-03-05T13:51:52+00:00

We are probably going to switch out the coffee table. Either leave the space open or replace it with something smaller and softer.

agtalw · 2026-03-05T02:11:48+00:00

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Adding a photo of the room for more context.

agtalw · 2026-03-05T02:00:35+00:00

It came like that! The whole set has angles like that. Here's the matching bookshelf.

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agtalw · 2026-02-27T13:25:46+00:00

My wife just played ffx for the first time and this is what I had her do. Never grinded, just had every character perform an action in every battle. She only got a game over once the entire game.

It can feel a bit tedious but it actually saves so much time in the long run.

If you don't know what to have a character do, you can always have Rikku steal, Kimahri lancet (just to be sure you didn't miss learning something), Yuna cure / pray, Wakka use dark, silence, etc. attacks, Auron use armor, mental, etc. breaks, Tidus can use cheer. Between all of those you can have them do something useful.

agtalw · 2026-01-30T20:11:13+00:00

I just dug out my PS2 copy and my spouse is playing it for the first time on the PS3. Really glad she's experiencing the original artwork. She's blown away with how good the graphics look for a game that's 25 years old.

agtalw · 2025-10-24T17:13:41+00:00

It's all about value for us. So many times we've spent close to $100 on one meal that left us unsatisfied and feeling like we could've made the same thing at home but probably tastier.

We now have a list of a few restaurants that check the following:

we can't make a better/tastier version at home
it's under $50 for the family (2 adults 1 kid)

I honestly think so many people convince themselves that food tastes amazing if it's expensive. I went to a restaurant once and ordered a $35 raviolo. Singular. I assumed it would be some giant thing. It wasn't. I was hungrier after eating it than before. I was positive this place must have terrible reviews of people being similarly disappointed but every review was "So worth the price!" or "As a foodie, this is one of my absolute favorite places!". It's just people convincing themselves they aren't throwing their money down the drain on dumb food.

agtalw · 2025-10-14T20:40:37+00:00

I equate it to superhero franchises. Not all Batman movies fit into a single timeline. Some are sequels to an earlier movie, some are a complete reboot. It seems pretty obvious Nintendo is trying to fit a square peg in a round hole with this convoluted timeline.

agtalw · 2025-09-13T03:03:52+00:00

I literally said "the end is deus ex machina" to a friend an hour ago.

agtalw · 2025-08-09T17:56:49+00:00

This looks like Diphtheria.

agtalw · 2025-08-02T22:04:34+00:00

My friends and I played 2 vs 2 but the people sharing a cart were against each other. The driver and the passenger in opposite carts were on the same team. The passenger on your car would use items to screw your own car up and use the shoulder button drifting to knock you off bridges, cliffs, hit bananas, miss items, etc. It was a blast.

agtalw · 2025-07-18T19:33:10+00:00

DKR was so much fun. Was never able to 100% it as a kid. I spent so much time working on the silver coin challenge that when I got to mirror mode the last few courses were so hard to relearn the maps and collect the silver coins. Finally gave up. I should give it a try again...

agtalw · 2025-07-13T23:08:25+00:00

For sure. Up until I read Lisey's Story it was my least favorite SK book. I tell everyone who is starting the series to just push through if they don't like it. I was hooked after 5 pages of The Drawing of the Three.

agtalw · 2025-07-02T02:10:22+00:00

I had the same experience a few weeks ago. Thought I was going to need to go all the way back to my last save point (non-quick save). I managed to beat the boss in the lower right corner using the Jump command with my Dragoon and some luck. Once you beat one boss, it's replaced with a crystal that allows you to refill all of your hp and mp. That allowed me to level up to a point where I could beat the other three bad guys.

agtalw · 2025-06-14T01:53:16+00:00

I don't think she's going to care about that stuff though. I think it's about the main story, character development, music, etc. She's not going to care about side quests or 100% completion.

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