POG PUB 2025: About damn time. For a lot of things. But not everything.

Thanks for the entertainment, rick. Your subsequent comments have been much funnier than the 'joke' you attempted.

On an unrelated note, what age do people truly start working on awareness and being self-critical, if ever? Took me a while to look at life like that, even after I was fully comfortable looking at things like sport and musical performances from that perspective. Basically, if something went wrong analyze it from the perspective of it being completely on you and thinking through what you could do better, whether you succeed or fail in your intent, whether you were perfect or not.

Some of us have always chosen the bear

outback!!!!!

I went to a restaurant once in the last 5 years or so lol

me and my gf went to one on our first date, and we haven't been out together since ANYWHERE... and we been together coming up on 4 years I think.

we talked about maybe going out again sometime lol

nfw is the one who likes the cowboys

k is the one who likes coupons

for me, it has been coming in stages. I was a real POS in middle school. carried the guilt with me well into my 30s. was working on awareness and self criticism in high school... but as for "truly"... I mean it was "truly" in a way in high school.. but it was stage one... I unintentionally hurt my gf in my 20s, and that made me get real about being self critical and aware... as soon as I realized how badly I hurt her, I got to work on that, hard, starting at like 26... and still working on it, but not as hard as I used to. and I'm 53 now

I approve your refrigerator contents! (But I still grocery shop at Walmart)

You spend more on books than electricity? To collect or read? I do both but these days I'm mostly an ebook library lover.

I've a local buddy and his wife who since Covid will no longer go out to eat. He was completely normal pre-covid. He's also super liberal. Hmmm.

I'm an ebook library guy too. Protip that you probably already know: check out as many books as you want, download to kindle, put kindle on airplane mode and you have them as long as want. I always do that and return them like 5 minutes after I check them out to help out the next guy in line.

OMG, I return mine early too!

I use the pre-Libby Overdrive software on my phone that does something similar to your kindle feature. If you download the book to your PC then transfer it to your phone and you don't screw with it, it will last 3 weeks. Some books last forever. The Libby software doesn't allow you to do that.

nice tips marky marks

I came out the box ten toes down on being self-critical but I had to quit drinking alcohol (almost 20 years ago) in order to mature emotionally. It's an ongoing process as I started out very immature but I will never touch alcohol again.

Not sure exactly when I took the misogyny down several notches but at some point it became obvious.

Both. I collect cookbooks. Within arm's reach (and no, I'm not in my kitchen or by my bookshelf, but I've been meal planning and using some of my most recent acquisitions) The Bold Vegetarian by Sharti Kirchner, The New Moosewood Cookbook and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, both by Mollie Katzen, Horn of the Moon Cookbook by Ginna Callan, The Rise--Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food by Marcus Samuelson, and Jim Lee's Chinese Cookbook (all purchased used, ) The Essential Cuisines of Mexico by Diana Kennedy (borrowed from the library to see if I want to buy it, which I do) and Big Vegan Flavor by Nisha Vora and Mastering the Art of Plant Based Cooking by Joe Yonan. Loaded on my Kindle it seems I currently have The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis which I also own in physical form, The Complete America's Test Kitchen Cookbook for 2023 Hot for Food by Lauren Toyota, which I also own a physical copy of, The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Recipes of Record by Amanda Hesser, and 101 Asian Dishes You Need to Cook Before You Die by Jet Tila.

I've gotten away from purchasing digital content more and more as I've started to buy things that I want to be able to pass on to my niece. I want to OWN my books so I can lend and share and dispense with them as I choose. My niece is 13, loves to cook and bake, and went vegetarian last October. She also shares my love of fantasy, so I buy her physical books as presents and ones that I want to gift her one day I buy physically for myself.

I also read somewhere between six and ten fiction books in a typical month--mostly genre fiction: fantasy, scifi, romance, and mystery with a sprinkling of biographies (not autobiographies--I find it less interesting to have someone tell me how they see themselves) and science literature and a book for a book club I'm a part of.

I spend a LOT on books. :P

yeah this was the same for me. ironically, I think a lot(all) my misogyny came from toxic masculinity, and also my mom was a pretty awful mom.

but as I've spent more time thinking about things, i've seen the incredible value in the feminine. and most of my good friends are women. and listening to them, learning from them, has taught me a lot of things that I just didn't get before.

like 25ish years ago, I would have been Rick with that offensive comment, and the defensiveness that came after it. I just didn't know any better.

I'm not there with alcohol.. but my relationship with alcohol probably isn't that damaging... I can feel the tequila shot I just took starting to hit me... first one I've had in weeks.

I just need a break from the stress, and depression and misery of life. thank you tequila

6-10 fiction books a month is insane! lol

got any recommendations for newish fiction?

I loved the expanse series. I keep trying to listen to their new one about humans on some other planet, and some aliens attacking them. but I just can't get into it.

seems to me like new fiction is kinda crappy.

I was talking to my friend about this the other day, and we were guessing that maybe something about our society has changed. like something about the way we live our modern lives has seriously harmed the environment to creat good fiction writers. or maybe we just don't relate to modern writing?

but it really does seem like fiction was much better before. I mean like in the last 20ish years it just seems like fiction has gotten a lot worse, no?

It seems like genre fiction is stronger than ever but literary fiction is at an all-time low.

Stormlight Archive is what I'm reading now. Long series by Brandon Sanderson with the last (5th) book of the arc coming out last month.

filthy, tomorrow, why don't you go back and break down what was literally said by both parties and who said what insults to whom

the person in need of reflection is vr, and you too apparently

i'm happy to leave this be but i'm not going to just stand by while false accusations are made against me

vr introduced the topic, if she didn't like the natural progression of it then she shouldn't have introduced the topic, am i next supposed to be at fault if her milk spoils?

this is also exactly why she framed it as she did, so feckless people who are scared of being labeled a misogynist themselves jump in on it

even if she felt insulted (which i'm sure she did), the idea of baselessly packaging it into some greater attack on women is a disgustingly vile tactic of hers and you nor anyone should ever condone it let alone reward it as you had - remeber her evidence was the "vibe" alone because there literally is no evidence - just pathetic

this is just a poor showing from you man, be better than this

I'm reading the 3 Body Problem series by Liu Cixin

(TV series is based on it)

I enjoyed those books, haven't watched the tv show, maybe when it's over.

Yeah, we can tell

mark this is not what happened, she insulted me, repeatedly

if anyone should be apologizing it is her for her conduct towards me

this is just pure gaslighting and i'm not going to indulge it

i've tried listening to this a few times but always get lost and distracted and move on to something more interesting

i think i'll need to read it instead of listen

if you like his stuff, he's a very prolific writer and what was one of the biggest blockbusters ever was based on a short story of his

actually very surprised wandering earth hasn't been remade by hollywood yet, if you remove the couple plot holes and distinct china elements it'd be an amazing film imo

I had no idea it was spaghetti day, but it's a nice coincidence that I was already planning on spaghetti for dinner. I have been buying an Italian sourdough pasta that has spaghetti night back in the rotation after a lot of years of not really eating it.

What day was it that was Prince spaghetti day?

It's Smashburger Day for me. And maybe banana bread. My bananas are just about ready to be bread or trash.

the most common fate of the American banana