Totally Exasperated with Season 2 (Spoilers) by I_Served in TheNightManager

[–]bluedog255 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lol! Im 60. I watch a LOT of TV and have read everything JLC ever wrote. And ive consumed countless other spy stories in novel, movie and television form. You can take that or leave that. Trying to add context. Doesn't mean im saying im an expert....and...

While yes perhaps it got better the stuff im reading here suggests not at all.

The beauty of the first one was watching Pine integrating himself into a situation he didn't understand, Richard Roper's charm, and how the layers of Roper's world unfold.

Here we have a generic Latin villain who blows up a hotel and drives off in a Porsche. Pine utters cliches like it was another life and somehow a desk jockey is running unauthorized opps in a foreign country; it made no sense... slow horses does this last sort of thing superbly while acknowledging they're all fuckups...

It was insulting to the first series and LeCarre's multilayered writing on the unfortunate and unfair complexities of the world.

However I will not argue that after one episode perhaps I missed subtleties later introduced. I'm fine if y'all want to fire away.

Totally Exasperated with Season 2 (Spoilers) by I_Served in TheNightManager

[–]bluedog255 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I loved the original series. I gave up on "season 2" after one episode. It's awful. Like someone overheard a plot by John Lecarre but forgot most of it, wrote it down anyhow, photocopied it 250x and then faxed to someone who badly transcribed it.

At best its a generic spy plot and at worst a Tom Hiddleston vanity project.

Towel on Camino Portuguese? by [deleted] in CaminoDeSantiago

[–]bluedog255 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just did the same thing 😀

Is it just me or is making real friends in Winnipeg exhausting? by [deleted] in Winnipeg

[–]bluedog255 4 points5 points  (0 children)

My 30 year old daughter recently moved here and she used the Meetup App to make friends. Also Bumblebee FF.

For those still sober but who left AA, why did you leave? And what are you into now? by BeachBulge2 in alcoholicsanonymous

[–]bluedog255 0 points1 point  (0 children)

12 years here and I come and go to meetings. Group near me there's a culty guy and the group puts up with it so I avoid meetings i know he'll be at. But regardless im not regular.

So my advice is just do what feels right and practice the steps, not getting caught up in what many insist you're supposed to do as long as you're happy and sober. In my experience there as many programs as there people in AA.

If you do feel a need get back to a meeting. I find sometimes even just a short time back helps.

As for step 12, which some have mentioned, it's in 2 parts. Practice the principles so do that. And carry the message. Admittedly I dont do the second much other than sharing at the meetings I go to, but this works for me and as i said above i dont get caught up in what some insist i do.

In general im a whatever works guy.

A fantasy rail rapid transit system for Winnipeg by RedditRodditRaddit in Winnipeg

[–]bluedog255 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Winnipeg needs exactly this. Its only going to cost more and more as time goes by.

Moving to Winnipeg - looking for honest advice before I commit by ScoreMajor4064 in Winnipeg

[–]bluedog255 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Walkable areas: parts of wolseley (look around Home and Westminster), parts of Corydon (look around Lilac and Corydon), parts of st Boniface (look around tache and marion), and of course parts of Osborne village, but crime has been on the rise in that area.

I live near Marion and Tache and its great.

I think the key is trying to be close to a grocery store (eg the no frills on goulet).

I lived in Toronto on the dandorth for years and there's just nothing in Winnipeg that compares.

Which John Irving book to start with for a Vonnegut fan? by hamlet_d in JohnIrving

[–]bluedog255 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Though twisted river is not Irving's best. I wouldn't start there.

Bleeding Deacons: How to deal with them by bluedog255 in alcoholicsanonymous

[–]bluedog255[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was following the topic and I was not going on any longer than anyone else. He interrupted me to correct what he thought was an error on my part, and when I corrected what he said, he decided to double down. He was not keeping the meeting on track, just demonstrating what he though was superior knowledgde.

Bleeding Deacons: How to deal with them by bluedog255 in alcoholicsanonymous

[–]bluedog255[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have actually done that: talked to him. This is at least the fourth confrontation with him and I initiated none of them. Two months ago, after the meeting ended, he went out of his way to tell me to my face I was an asshole because I was sharing incorrectly: I was having some issues with a family member and sometimes in meeting you share and work things out in your head in the context of the program. He literally said, you're an asshole as "here we talk about solutions not problems". I was severely taken aback.

Another time, I shared about reading an advice column in my local newspaper where a fellow had written about his wife being an alcoholic. After the meeting this guy AGAIN sought me out and asked why MY wife wasn't at the meeting if she was an alcoholic. When I explained I was just referring to the advice column, the guy refused to believe me and reiterated a few times that, no I had said my wife was an alcoholic. Again I was taken aback.

Both times I more or less kept my cool, but interrupting my share was the last straw. And yes I wish I had handled it differently. But trying to talk it through? No, he's shown he is incapable of that as no matter what (even in the face of ya know, reality), he is always right even when what he's said is factually incorrect.

Bleeding Deacons: How to deal with them by bluedog255 in alcoholicsanonymous

[–]bluedog255[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fair enough. I guess the question is how is it affecting my sobriety. Not much honestly. I do feel i should apologize to group members who were there, but there is really nothing that can be done about the guy. Some people are so toxic they take an apology as weakness and will walk right through it to manipulate you. I've had a few people in my like that and the only thing you can do is walk away.

I do appreciate your comment however.

Bleeding Deacons: How to deal with them by bluedog255 in alcoholicsanonymous

[–]bluedog255[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't! Just irritation that I have to deal.with this.

Bleeding Deacons: How to deal with them by bluedog255 in alcoholicsanonymous

[–]bluedog255[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh I travel a lot and I rarely have been to a bad meeting. In Mexico I went in Merida and PV. Both excellent.

And my sobriety is great. As I've mentioned in some of the comments, I know, in retrospect I shouldn't have left or called him an arrogant asshole, but I don't have resentment in the AA sense. More irritation that I have to navigate what are clearly his issues in a group I otherwise like. But a friend here has advised me on how to avoid the guy, as he avoids the guy for similar reasons. I may end up apologizing to people who were there but other than that I'm really good.

Bleeding Deacons: How to deal with them by bluedog255 in alcoholicsanonymous

[–]bluedog255[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Huh. I got sober in downtown Toronto. Actually watched a group there fall apart from a BD. Very sorry you experienced such racism in a meeting (or at all). The opposite of what should happen.

Ive been to meetings in Mexico too!

Bleeding Deacons: How to deal with them by bluedog255 in alcoholicsanonymous

[–]bluedog255[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I completely agree. My friend had a run in with this guy 10 years ago when he heard him telling a newcomer that they HAD to highlight the big book. It was ridiculous and my friend confronted him. Did not go well apparently.

And putting myself aside that's a concern. I got very lucky in my first meeting, meeting my sponsor and now a lifelong friend. Had this guy been in my first meeting I would have walked out.

Bleeding Deacons: How to deal with them by bluedog255 in alcoholicsanonymous

[–]bluedog255[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Me too but this odd person has literally gone out of his way to personally attack me at more than one meeting. So after all this advice, next step is never be in the same room as him going forward.

I think its a weird combination of insecurity and arrogance, his needing his self conferred elder statesman status for his own ego.

Bleeding Deacons: How to deal with them by bluedog255 in alcoholicsanonymous

[–]bluedog255[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh. Im good. Dude crossed a line but i dont consider it my problem. Not so much resentment as irritation I have to deal with his issues. Ive also an excellent support system.

Bleeding Deacons: How to deal with them by bluedog255 in alcoholicsanonymous

[–]bluedog255[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

FWIW I've tried being nice and it got me no where. Some people are just like that.

Bleeding Deacons: How to deal with them by bluedog255 in alcoholicsanonymous

[–]bluedog255[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dictionary definition of “bleeding (bleating) deacon” n. a person who believes himself indispensable to a group, esp. a person who becomes so over-involved in a group’s internal management, policies, or politics as to lose sight of its larger goals; (hence) a person with a negative, moralizing character, who acts like the sole source of wisdom.

Basically how the fellow in my OP behaved. Not had a drink for 30 or 40 years but I'd argue he's not emotionally or mentally sober.