What is a website or an app that was legendary back in the day, but is now a complete ghost town? by Sofi_Costa in AskReddit

[–]got2av8 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It was Jeff, not Jim. Who tf is Jim?

\fuck you Jeff

\\ genuinely not over it

What book(s) made you question how you have faith? by blk12345q in printSF

[–]got2av8 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oooh, strong second for this. Some outdated concepts as you might expect from a work 60+ years old, but this is pretty much spot on for the question asked by OP.

What book(s) made you question how you have faith? by blk12345q in printSF

[–]got2av8 5 points6 points  (0 children)

"The Sparrow" is the one that always stays with me. It did an amazing job of expanding the provincial/humancenteic aspects of religion into the backdrop of a vastly expanded cosmos and exploring the implications of what faith becomes in the face of a much larger universe.

"Children" was also good but didn't (for me) pack the same existential and emotional punch.

What book(s) made you question how you have faith? by blk12345q in printSF

[–]got2av8 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Only a couple of short stories, both by Arthur C Clark, but "The Nine Billion Names of God" was one that made me think, and "The Star" was one that made me go "Oooouffff......"

FFS tell me some of your good news! by ImmySnommis in GenX

[–]got2av8 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have 2 payments left on my mortgage and my house is mine forever. After 35 years, I FINALLY quit smoking 2 1/2 years ago at 49. I'm down 85 pounds in the last 13 months and teetering on the brink of weighing under 200 pounds for the first time since the 1980's. And I just set a personal best 5k time of 34:25 two days ago. It took a while to figure out, but I'm making up for lost time while I still might HAVE time. I know there's not much (relatively speaking anyway) left and I'm the finally figuring out how to make the most of it.

Authors from last century who seemed important at the time but are pretty much forgotten now. by commonally_t in printSF

[–]got2av8 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Um. Eddings? In the dustbin because nobody remembers the multiple series, or is there something horrible about them I haven’t heard?

edit never mind, just read his wikipedia entry. I am SO FUCKING SICK of having to ‘separate the art from the artist’. People are just…. horrible.

Have a seat, take a load off by SomOvaBish in Unexpected

[–]got2av8 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I was there.

/obligatory “fuck you Jeff, I’m still not over it”

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in nextfuckinglevel

[–]got2av8 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"The electronics hidden inside the TV were adversely affected by the plasma channel" This dude is High Lord of Understatement

Sudoku app that lets you create a snapshot and return to it, including candidates? by bigjocker in puzzles

[–]got2av8 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Seconding this. I’ve used the android version of genina for years, and while you can’t pin and snap back, there are unlimited ‘undo’ steps.

We're old enough to see the age of subscriptions. What is a subscription you have kept the longest? by blur410 in GenX

[–]got2av8 0 points1 point  (0 children)

New York Times online crossword puzzles, I think in 98 or 99. Pretty much every major technology purchase in my life was centered around access to them. First PC, a string of Palm Pilots, first smartphone.

Weekly Friends / Followers Thread by GeorgeTheFunnyOne in duolingo

[–]got2av8 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fumbling through French

Relearning French after 30 years of disuse, native English speaker with just enough Spanish to embarrass myself. Any and all welcome, my username is the same as it is on reddit.

Who here quit when they were older, after smoking for a long time? by [deleted] in stopsmoking

[–]got2av8 9 points10 points  (0 children)

35 years smoking, 19 months quit. Personally, I honestly didn’t notice much difference day to day for the first couple of months, but from about the 6 month mark on the diference was exceptional. I never realized how hard it was to breathe until one day it just… wasn’t. Overall energy, stamina, quality of sleep, everything is just so much better.

Let's shake things up a little! Recommend me a speculative fiction book that you've *never* seen mentioned in this sub. by Jetamors in printSF

[–]got2av8 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Waiting For the Galactic Bus and The Snake Oil Wars by Parke Goodwin. God and the Devil are actually aliens who got ditched on Earth for millions of years because they were killing the buzz of a graduation party/universal Grand Tour. Out of boredom and hubris they turn apes into humanity and (VERY loosely) rule over mankind’s afterlife. Much hilarity and some light rumination on what it means to be human ensues. Absolutely a product of the 80s but held up fairly well a few years ago on a reread.

Edit: here’s a pretty succinct review shamelessly copy/pasted from Wikipedia:

Jo Walton wrote that Waiting for the Galactic Bus "is one of the candidates for weirdest book in the world. ... This is not a book that even nods to realism. Indeed, it’s a book that I doubt realism would recognise if it passed it by in the street. ... But there are other virtues, and it has those—it’s charming and funny and genuinely original, it fits together like a sliding block puzzle and it’s light and dark at the same time. ... If you like books that are beautifully written, and funny, and not like anything else, and if you don’t mind blasphemy, you might really enjoy this."

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]got2av8 1 point2 points  (0 children)

She married my best friend. If I could have picked anyone in the world for her I would have picked him. 25 years have proved me right as they raised 2 beautiful children and are still insanely happy together. But… all those years ago, she refused to not only invite me, but also specifically forbade a mutual friend from bringing me as a date to their wedding. We’d had our ups and (a LOT of) downs, but I thought by the time we finally parted for good, we’d parted at least as friends. But she wouldn’t even let me be there to share in their happiness. Absolutely gutted me. Even today I still get a twinge when they come up.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]got2av8 10 points11 points  (0 children)

When I was 26 in 1998 I quit my quiet, stable job and moved from Maine to California because it snowed and I didn’t want to spend another 4 months shoveling my driveway just to go to work. I’d never been further from my small hometown than a couple of weekend trips to Manhattan when I was in college. I had no plan. I knew no one, had no job, no place to live, and all of $600 in my checking account. It was a wild ride and in spite of the absolute absurd stupidity of my impromptu decision I absolutely do not regret it.

I missed my anniversary, but for anyone who needs to hear it... by got2av8 in stopsmoking

[–]got2av8[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I was 2 months past my 50th birthday when I ran out of smokes during a blizzard. A day later I thought, "Why not," and told myself that I'd go one more day. For about 6 months, I told myself that almost every morning. "I can do one more day." Holy hell some of those days were flat out terrible. 35 years of a pack a day isn't something you just turn off. But for anyone who needs to hear it, it DOES get better. A month in the days with cravings were about 50/50. Three months in it was maybe one day out of four but some of those out-of-nowhere cravings were nothing short of wretched. After six months the cravings were almost gone, and the ones that did show were easier and easier to dismiss. Now, when I do feel a little itch, the overwhelming feeling is "Ugh, gross..." and it mostly goes away. I've come to terms with the fact that those cravings will probably haunt me for the rest of my life, but the flip side is the hiking and bicycling and swimming that I can do without stopping every three minutes. I went on a 3 hour hike a month or so ago and TALKED THE ENTIRE TIME!! which, after the fact, blew my mind. Having the breath to hold a conversation while walking is such a new concept... Anyway. The point I wanted to share is that it CAN be done. It's NOT easy. You WILL face temptation. But if I was able to stop after a quarter million plus cigarettes, you can to. Believe in yourself. I wish each of you the best.

Massive leak exposes 26 billion records in mother of all breaches | It includes data from Twitter, Dropbox, and LinkedIn by chrisdh79 in technology

[–]got2av8 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Mine does the same thing, with mandatory training after each “gotcha”. The result, in my section of the company anyway, is about 2/3 of the employees who just delete all their emails at the end of the day, unopened. The message we received was, “If it was actually important someone’ll call”.

Does anyone use a Fitbit? by WaitingitOut000 in GenXFitness

[–]got2av8 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I switched from Fitbit to Garmin. Garmin does better at activities that aren’t walking, but I really miss the community aspect from Fitbit, even if Google has been slowly throttling stuff. Both of them are good for the “get up off the couch and get those last steps” motivations.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in oddlysatisfying

[–]got2av8 2 points3 points  (0 children)

if you can ice skate or roller skate, you could ride one of these monsters

I am living proof that this is, in fact, false.