So I wrote this. Recycled ideas, but eventually all of this will be cited. It's basically my own CES Letter. The formatting is weird because this is coming over from Notion.
I had to write this out to start my own deconstruction anyway, but giving it to my spouse will be interesting. Read it if you want. Critique it if you want. I just had to get this out into the universe.
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1. The concept that the Church can lie to you
   
   1. Rather than being told the entire truth about Joseph Smith’s death, we are told that he is innocent of any crime and that he went to deliver himself up. The truth of the matter is, Joseph Smith was in jail for destroying the property of William Law, who was creating a newspaper called the Nauvoo Expositor. He ordered the printing press be destroyed and violated the first amendment, as well as destroying another’s property. The newspaper exposed polygamy and many of the other immoralities of the Church. On the surface, this lie doesn’t seem egregious, but D&C 135 section mentions that Joseph was a martyr for the religion, and I was always taught this. However, he didn’t deliver himself up to be killed and it wasn’t because he was a “mormon”; it was because he broke the law and had angered a mob. All of this was a direct result of him practicing polygamy and yielding so much power.
   2. The method of translating the Book of Mormon was largely misrepresented to me as a youth, missionary, and young adult. I was always taught, whether through art or articles, that Joseph used the Gold Plates to translate the Book of Mormon.
   3. However, upon widespread discovery of further quotes and scrutiny, in 2014 the Church admitted that the translation was done through a rock and a hat. This is justified by quoting the Book of Mormon where it talks about bringing forth a stone to shine forth in the darkness. (Alma 37:23-24). The methods of translation accounts differ from each other. Martin Harris saying they were done by sitting across the table. Oliver Cowdery saying it was done by the urim and thummim or two stones and spectacles. To be clear, I am okay with some ambiguity surrounding the translation, or it being by the power of God. What I’m not okay with is the church deceiving how it was done until the internet era forced them to release the Gospel Topic Essays on this subject.
   4. The implementation of polygamy. a. Left ambiguous for a reason. How Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, Heber C. Kimball and many other high ranking church members took many wives including teenage wives. The church’s essay on this topic refers to Helen Mar Kimball, a 14 year old, as “several months before her 15th birthday.” In fact, they even say that Helen said it was for “eternity alone” but that is an out of context poem from Helen’s journal. There is no proof of sexual relations, but there are proof in many other relatoinships, including Fanny Alger, Joseph’s first “wife” that Oliver Cowdery called a filthy affair. He was excommunicated partly due to that statement. b. Joseph Smith wrote a letter to 19-year old Nancy Rigdon propositioning her to marry him after she denied his appeal in 1842. This letter is quoted in General Conference many times over the years, “Happiness is the object and design of our existence, and will be the end thereof if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God.” He then goes on to tell her that we cannot obey the commandments if we don’t know them and what seems wrong, can actually be right in certain circumstances. He quotes the times God has contradicted Himself in the scriptures. This letter is gross. Note that it comes right before the plural marriage revelation D&C 132. c. Joseph claimed that an angel with a drawn sword made him marry Zina Huntington Jacobs, despite her engagement to Henry Jacobs. He sent Henry on missions. She did stay faithful and was eventually sealed to Brigham Young, who also subsequently sent Henry Jacobs on missions. d. This doesn’t even take into account the actions of preceeding prophets who were married to dozens of women, sealed to hundreds, and many of them were underage. Wilford Woodruff for instance sealed himself to a 6 year old girl who had passed away, inexplicably. Maybe he didn’t know? Maybe he did? Who knows.
   5. D&C 132- Joseph Smith was sealed to over 20 wives before being sealed to Emma. He denied being polygamous publicly multiple times and the relief society (of which, Emma was president) wrote a letter condemning polygamy, while one of the presidency members was sealed to Joseph.
      1. Law of Sarah was violated before it was ever implemented
      2. Joseph performing a second marriage to the Whitney sisters after Emma approved it.
      3. Women must be virgins, while Joseph was married to other married women (at least 2).
      4. Abraham was not commanded by God to practice plural marriage, he was asked by Sarah to marry Hagoth because Sarah was barren.
      5. Additionally, Jacob condemns polygamy in the Book of Mormon but then God okays it in the D&C 132, both of them specifically citing the examples of Soloman and David.
      6. Plural marriage is the “new and everlasting covenant” implying that plural marriage in the celestial kingdom will be the new and everlasting covenant and required.
      7. 5. Historicity of the Book of Abraham There is an entire Gospel Topics Essay on this but the background is as follows. A guy named Michael Chandler shows up in Kirland with mummies and a bunch of scrolls. They were unearthed by Napoleon’s raiding of the Egyptian catacombs. Joseph believes that they are scrolls that contained writings of Abraham. He begins translation in 1835 and publishes it in May of 1842. The odds that these mummies, coming from a salesman who had a lot to gain, containing the written word of Abraham has always seemed really fortunate. In the Pearl of Great Price, the heading says they are penned by “the hand of Abraham” but according to scholars in and out of the church, they were written much later. “These fragments date to between the third century B.C.E. and the first century C.E., long after Abraham lived.” Not only is it not written by Abraham’s hand, it is also not anything to do with Abraham. In Joseph’s time, the Rosetta Stone had not been widely discovered. He began translating this book and now, experts know that these are standard funerary texts. The Facsimiles (pictures) have nothing to do with the sacrifice of Abraham. Everyone virtually agrees that what is on the remains of the scroll (most of which was lost in the Chicago fire but then recovered), is not what Joseph translated. This casts a large shadow of doubt on Joseph’s ability to translate. The Church is admitting that Joseph translated incorrectly. The only way to reconcile this is that Joseph used these scrolls to channel the Spirit to record what is in the Book of Abraham today. The doctrines in Abraham largely expand on the Genesis story but go deeper in doctrines about plurality of Gods and the creation of the universe and stars. Some of this goes against the Book of Mormon’s view of God. The Authenticity of the Book of Mormon
      8. This is arguably the largest domino that needs to stay in place. Here are a few quotes demonstrating the absolute necessity of the Book of Mormon being an authentic history of the peoples on this continent.
      9. “The Book of Mormon is God’s compelling witness of the divinity of Jesus Christ, the prophetic calling of Joseph Smith, and the absolute truth of this Church.” - Tad R. Callister
      10. “The Book of Mormon is the most important religious text to be revealed from God to man ‘since the writings of the New Testament were compiled nearly two millennia ago.’ Joseph Smith declared the Book of Mormon to be “the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion.” It is the only book that the Lord Himself has testified to be true.” - President Nelson
      11. “I testify that one cannot come to full faith in this latter-day work—and thereby find the fullest measure of peace and comfort in these, our times—until he or she embraces the divinity of the Book of Mormon and the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it testifies…and if he or she leaves this Church, it must be done by crawling over or under or around the Book of Mormon to make that exit. In that sense the book is what Christ Himself was said to be: “a stone of stumbling, … a rock of offence,” a barrier in the path of one who wishes not to believe in this work.” - Jeffrey R. Holland.
      12. "All that we have, all that we do hinge on the truth of that account of the boy Joseph Smith. If it is true, then everything that we have in this Church is true and is more precious and worth more than anything else on earth. If it is false, we are engaged in the greatest fraud that was ever perpetrated on earth.” - Gordon B Hinckley
      13. So with all that being said, this is my biggest stumbling block. I will begin with my own issues with the book that happened long before I was ever introduced to anything outside of approved Church material.
      14. The Sermon on the Mount given to the Nephites in 3 Nephi matches almost exactly to the one given in Matthew, with slight changes. He sets up a church similar to the one set up with Peter. But, the only issue is years later, Joseph Smith writes the JST and corrects different things in the Matthew version of the Sermon. But, if the Book of Mormon is the most correct book on earth, wouldn’t the writings have been exactly what the Savior meant?
      15. 2 Nephi 3 - Book of Mormon writes Joseph into the text relating a prophecy given to Joseph in Egypt, saying that a choice seer will be raised up and he will be named the Joseph after his father. 2 Nephi 3: 14-16
      16. There is a huge time lapse between Jarom and Omni to get us into Mosiah. 399 BC to 130 BC. The prophets basically write nothing and it seems like it’s just a transition to get to Mosiah.
      17. Ammon chopping off a ton of arms and all the people bring them to the king. The story of Ammon in general is crazy. The King is struck down for 3 days and his wife thinks he is dead. Then, Ammon converts this king who then goes and rescues Ammon’s brothers from another king.
      18. Other direct copies from the New Testament and Paul specifically found in the Book of Mormon. Moroni 7 is basically the same phrasing and concepts taught in 1 Corinthians 13. 2 Nephi 4:17 says “O wrteched man that I am” matches exactly to Romans 7:24.
      19. Alma the Younger’s story mirrors Paul the apostles history almost exactly. Both are destroying the church, get struck down by an Angel, go on to become amazing missionaries and even both appear before King’s and wicked people.
      20. The concepts taught in the Book of Mormon are basically christian. They are practicing Christianity as soon as middle of Mosiah, which is like 100BC. They are baptizing and confirming with the Holy Ghost. However, since Christ hadn’t fulfilled the law of Moses and they should’ve been practicing the Mosaic law. The book contains basically zero Mosaic and Hebrew traditions, which Lehi and his family would have been sharply familiar with. Instead, they practice Christianity before Jesus had even been born or practiced the Atonement.
      21. Joseph Smith almost never quotes from it. In fact, I’ve searched and searched and only found him reference it maybe once or twice. If this book is so important, shouldn’t it had been quoted from extensively. It doesn’t become a huge focus until basically the 1980s with Ezra Taft Benson started “flooding the earth with the Book of Mormon.” I’ve read Brigham Young’s entire Discourses of Brigham Young and he rarely mentions the Book of Mormon. While this proves very little, it just intensifies the idea to me that Joseph wrote it and did not consider it authentic scripture, even for himself.
      22. King Zedekiah Problem - The timeline of when Nephi left Jerusalem in the reign of King Zedekiah in preparation for the destruction of Jerusalem. But, King Nebuchednezzar had already invaded Judah twice by 599BC., two years prior to the Book of Mormon. He then Installed Zedekiah (formerly known as Mattaniah) as King of Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:11-18). So what does this mean?
      23. I will leave out the potential influences here because I do not think they are helpful nor likely to be true source material for the Book of Mormon. I think they are largely speculation and created just to create doubt without much validity or true sources. Do we know if Joseph accessed these works? Not really. But, it’s possible. There are a myriad of other problems with the Book of Mormon when examined scientifically, but that doesn’t really bother me so much. The church has an essay on DNA of Israelites not being in “Lamanite” or native american blood, despite many church leaders preaching that for years. It’s even included in the Book of Mormon title page until like 2006 or something. Additionally, Joseph Smith almost never quotes or teaches from the Book of Mormon. If it’s the most correct book of any on the earth, why is he not basing his sermons off these stories and scriptures?
      24. The Book of Mormon require that 3 key events from the Bible be literal events: a global flood in the times of Noah that covered the entire earth, Adam and Eve in the garden, and different languages occuring because God cursed people at the Tower of Babel.
      25. When I read the Book of Mormon, if I view it from a purely protestant view, it matches up doctrinally. In fact, it matches more purely with a presbyterian or methodist view of the atonement and doctrines (including the original trinitarian concepts taught in the Book before changes by Joseph Smith in 1837, eight years after the Book of Mormon was published and his first vision account that mentions God and Jesus being separate beings)
      26. The Charles Anthon Story is posed as a faith promoting story and prophecy fulfillment of Isaiah 29:11-12, where the learned wouldn’t be able to read a sealed book. So here’s the Church Narrative as found in JSH.
      27. Once i take off my believing member hat and look at this story objectively, it looks to me like complete and total BS. I am honestly insulted that this was taught and passed off to me as some amazing prophecy of Isaiah that was passed on to me.

Disavowed teachings and behavior of former prophets and leaders.

1. Brigham Young
   1. Adam-God theory was taught in the temple and considered straight doctrine by the “prophet” Brigham Young.
   2. Blood Atonement was also taught in the early Utah days
   3. Brigham taught that no man can receive the highest exaltation without taking on extra wives.
   4. Brigham young definitely was in approval (either before or after) of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, which is the slaughtering of innocent immigrants heading west. They luckily spared the smallest children and raised them Mormon. He scapegoated John D Lee who suffered the death penalty, despite being rewarded with “wives” by Brigham Young prior to that. Hmmmm
2. Blacks and the Priesthood
   1. So so so many quotes could go under here talking about how black people would never receive priesthood or temple covenants. The list could go on. I don’t need to repeat them all but in the Gospel Topics Essays, the Church disavows all racist teachings from the past.
   2. Book of Mormon and Abraham still talk about the curse of dark skin. The Lamanites are cursed but then will become “white and delightsome” as they repent (according to Spencer W. Kimball)
   3. How many prophets were completely wrong on this topic? Even after the Civil Rights movement which was going on 15 years earlier. The Church always seeems to be a step behind.
3. Polygamy
   1. Again, I could write a book on how much early leaders emphasized the heavenly requirement for a man to have multiple wives.
   2. Wilford Woodruff was sealed to like a 200 something wives on his birthday, including a six year old who had passed away. This can be found on FamilySearch
   3. The leaders of the Church didn’t stop practicing polygamy until around 1910, which is 20 years after the Manifesto, forced upon them by the US Government. This policy change wasn’t inspiration — to was a matter of the Mormons keeping their stuff or not.
4. Science
   1. Age of the Earth — Joseph Smith says that the earth has a temporal existence of 7,000 years before it will receive it’s eternal glory. This was a common thought back then and ties back into the Old Testament timeline. I was taught this in Seminary. Going back to Adam and Seth, then to Abraham and to modern day. It all lines up so that the Second Coming will be happening soon.
   2. Adam + Eve — This one is very hard for me to get past because the proof is indisputable: human life did not begin 6,000 years ago by two human beings. There was physical death long before it was introduced by the partaking of the forbidden fruit. It is fact. To deny it would be like denying that the Earth is round or orbits the Sun. So is this an allegory? Well Joseph Smith down to current general authorities have taught that this is LITERAL. The temple clearly emphasizes this. This is something BIG to get wrong. Considering Joseph Smith taught that it happened in the garden of Eden which was in Missouri.
   3. Noah’s Ark — This has to be literal as it is in the Book of Mormon as a fact. It’s also been “revealed” to have been a literal, global flood that covered the earth and cleansed the earth of all inhabitants. We also have doctrine in our church that says modern day revelation has confirmed this fact. But, this “story” is largely based on the Babylonian tale “The Epic of Gilgamesh.” It was recorded before the Hebrew Bible recorded the tale of Noah. The stories are earily similar and there are so many throughout other cultures of a great flood. Maybe that makes it more likely? Or maybe it was just a prevailing thought in that time period. Either way, scientific evidence knows that Noah’s Ark never happened because a huge flood never happened. And ask yourself, how in the world would they get all the animals on a boat? Is this really realistic?
   4. Tower of Babel — This is the genesis of the Jaredites. The Lord was confounding the language of the people, so the Brother of Jared goes and asks that they are spared. Eventually they are led to the Americas (which has a host of other problems). But, this story has to be literal because that’s exactly what’s happening in the Jaredite civilization to lead them to cross the ocean. But language evolved over tens of thousands of years and had nothing to do with a tower in around 2500 BC.
   5. Evolution — This fact goes along with Adam and Eve. Modern day prophets have disavowed this fact. In fact, Joseph Fielding Smit said “If evolution is true, the church is false” in Doctrines of Salvation, which was written while he was the prophet.

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1. Sexual Assault Cover Ups - This one is pretty self explanatory. There are hundreds of occasions and the most recent ones in the news are pretty disgusting. The fact that the Church didn’t report, and had systems in place to protect itself rather than the victims, makes me sick.
   
2. First Vision Accounts - In many Church media films and the way I was taught at a young age, Joseph had the first vision and then was mocked by the people of Palmyra for believing in visions. I had not idea that this was not the case. In fact, Joseph never wrote anything down until 1832. The accounts from 1832, 1835, 1838, and 1842 paint a picture of someone who was expanding, molding, and letting this vision evolve. The reasons why he went out to pray in the trees changes. First, it’s to receive a remission of his sins. He also says in that account that he’s already concluded that the church’s of his day are fallen. Then it evolves. He also says the Lord appears. Then it’s angels. Then it’s the Lord and His Father. He mentions that it had never entered his heart that they were all wrong in the Canonized JSH we have in the Pearl of Great Price. But, then he says he already knew they were wrong in earlier versions? In fact, Asa Wild and Norris Stearns have visions in 1815 and 1823 in the same area as Joseph Smith and the verbiage used is similar. Norris Stearns says, “At length, as I lay apparently upon the brink of eternal woe, seeing nothing but death before me, suddenly there came a sweet flow of the love of God to my soul, which gradually increased. At the same time, there appeared a small gleam of light in the room, above the brightness of the sun, then at his meridian, which grew brighter and brighter: As this light and love increased, my sins began to separate, and the Mountain [of sin] removed towards the east. At length, being in an ecstasy of joy, I turned to the other side of the bed, (whether in the body or out I cannot tell, God knoweth) there I saw two spirits, which I knew at the first sight. But if I had the tongue of an Angel I could not describe their glory, for they brought the joys of heaven with them. One was God, my Maker, almost in bodily shape like a man. His face was, as it were a flame of Fire, and his body, as it had been a Pillar and a Cloud. In looking steadfastly to discern features, I could see none, but a small glimpse would appear in some other place. Below him stood Jesus Christ my Redeemer, in perfect shape like a man-His face was not ablaze, but had the countenance of fire, being bright and shining. His Father’s will appeared to be his! All was condescension, peace, and love!”
   

Ultimately, all of these issues paint a picture, right? The character flaws and mistranslations of Joseph Smith, along with the setting in which he was raised all take away from his prophetic ability. There are more issues that I haven’t even touched on. LGBT issues, the treatment of women, the kinderhook plates, etc. There are more issues touched on in the CES Letter. But, these are things that stick in my mind when I try to imagine believing the Church is true again.
I believe Joseph Smith started writing the Book of Mormon to make money. Then, when it got close to publishing, he decided to start a religion. With the help of Sidney Rigdon, the Church grew and he introduced different aspects of "the Restoration" and eventually the power went to his head.
Being "prophet" brought him three things key for cult leaders. Money. Sex. Power. He got his living taken care of and people built him a house. He had around 40 polygamous wives and preyed on underage girls. He was dubbed king of the world by the Council of the 50 and was Mayor of Nauvoo.
How can I conclude anything other than him being a cult leader? This barely even touches on Brigham and the subsequent prophets that made huge mistakes.

Huge Star Wars Fan as that's one of my fondest memories of my late Grandfather. That and Godzilla. We never missed a showing of any of the films. I wish he were here to watch the new trilogy with me but given how disjointed and incoherent the new films turned out to be, I'm glad he's happy in heaven. Anyhoo. Honestly, I don't think we need to even rewrite these movies too much because they had all the ingredients to begin with. However, here's my painstakingly thought out Re-Write. This took a good part of two hours to write folks. Off the top of my head on a Friday midnight with bare minimum effort. I cannot fathom how a billion dollar studio couldn't afford writers who did not even understand basic setup and payoff, consequences to actions and building suspense and grand setpieces. What an incredibly wasted opportunity. Let me know what you think of my re-write of the plot. Aight. I'm a go cool off my aching fingers in some ice now while you peruse my rambling poorly structured sentences. 😂
PART ONE: This remains largely the same. But Rey and Finn fall hard for each other eventually. Kylo is split between the dark and light and genuinely believes the Jedi were the ones in the wrong and wants to bring about balance by destroying both the Jedi and the Sith. Snoke is a major influence. Let him be present and not just a shadow. Good vs Evil yada yada. Kylo hesitates on the bridge scene with Han but something flashes in his mind and makes him grasp a Ruby bracelet on his wrist. Memories of a past he had suppressed. Han notices the turmoil in his son and says "Ben. . ". As he reaches out to embrace his son, the turbulent memories trigger the saber to ignite, killing Han Solo. Kylo accepts his journey to the darkness and gets shot by Chewie. Rey and Kylo stand-off near the end. Except Rey doesn't nearly win. Finn loses a leg or arm in his blinded rage for Kylo killing Han Solo. Kylo is freakishly strong. Rey and Finn are saved by the skin of their teeth as Poe saves their asses instead of some natural calamity. This cements their friendship further. Luke's history is detailed. How he retired. Blah blah. Rey then goes and finds Luke. The end. Oh and btw, Finn has a better relationship with Poe and deeper bond with Han Solo while Rey gravitates intensely towards Leia and is good friends with Poe (but only after Poe's skepticism that she can be a Jedi fades near the end of the plot) This will have a solid pay off later.
PART TWO: Luke begrudgingly allows Rey into his personal space. He also doesn't chuck the light saber but takes it back to his hut and begins to dismantle it. Rey fights him and in the tussle he breaks down and confesses about why he quit. The Jedi had to make a terrible choice in the past. To save younglings and mother's in a distant home base or protect the few hundred fighters they had remaining. The Jedi are left in this tough spot when facing the tyranny of the new order - something they presumed was a remnant of the Emperor's reign but in reality, was a slowly rising menace new to this time in the galaxy. Stuck in between a rock and a hard place, they chose wisely not emotionally. Which is what the Jedi are. They're pragmatic. Not the heroes. Kylo was a Jedi master at this time and not a trainee. He couldn't stand by the orders of the Jedi as his friends and padawans were being mercilessly slaughtered. They saved the future but at the cost of the present. Cue heart wrenching scenes of Kylo disobeying the Jedi, breaking off to save the kids etc., while the Jedi stand their ground defending the military locations. Luke chases after Kylo after feeling that the threat has been handled. He reaches the home base to find a Kylo kneeling in the ruins, ashen remains of younglings around and his padawan in his arms. Luke approaches Kylo as he's giving a monologue about how they had to make the tough choice and Kylo is seething in rage. He crushes the bones of the ashen body, his sadness turning to anger while the Ruby bracelet his padawan used to wear is left behind as the only memory of his closest friend in his hands. He blames the Jedi for this tragedy, calls them monsters and as Luke tries to stop him, a battle ensues between them with Luke almost killing him. This cements both of their positions. Luke, withdrawn and head held down, apologizes to Kylo and tells him that he hopes he understands someday. That great sacrifices are needed sometimes. And that you cannot always save Everyone. In fact. It's only the sith that think along those lines. Luke retires. Realising that this time, they've gone too far. The Jedi have paid a price that cannot be justified in the name of the greater good. He quits and exiles himself while Kylo, seeking answers from the dark side is eventually led to Snoke. Po and Finn (with his new arm/leg) go on more buddy adventures replacing the whole Rose animal saving arc. Snoke wants Rey really bad so we keep that arc and Kylo boards Leia's ship instead of flying around to capture Rey and bring her in. Po and Finn aren't on board so it's free game for Kylo. A standoff ensues with a big fight which ends with Kylo raging about and losing control of his force powers. Blowing everyone in the room out into space. . the shields come on but not fully and Rey is stuck near the edge holding on to Leia with her dear life stopping her from flying off into space. Kylo is climbing up towards Rey and about to put the restraints to capture her. That's when he notices Leia and she looks him in the eyes. She let's go to Rey's horror and as Kylo strikes down in anguish, Rey dodges but he's too fast and slaps on the restraints. Kylo immediately jumps through into space after his mom while calling in ships to rescue them and bring Rey in. Cue scene like the Guardians of the Galaxy Part Two where Quill fails to save Yondu at the end. Leia uses her hidden force powers: NOT to shield herself and Marry Poppins her way into the ship. But to save her beloved son, despite everything. Kylo sheds tears breaking down as he holds his mother, feeling her last breaths through the force. He mutters "Not you. . Not you too". . She whispers "There's still some good in you. . And I see it in her too. . Ben. . Save her, she's . ... .." . . Silence. . as Leia's hand freezes while caressing Kylo's face and she dies. Kylo gets saved by the troopers and they depart to Snoke's lair, letting Leia's body float away into the deep dark nothingness of space. Entombed forever. Rey is tortured by a Kylo who is slowly losing his cool but she resists and puts up a force fight against his mind. Both end up in Snoke's room and the SAME shenanigans ensue. Snoke senses the confusion in Kylo and goes about treating him like a child. Snoke CHIDING Kylo and punishing him now makes more sense. While Rey tries her best to be the good guy and take on Snoke to only be mocked and thrown about. Snoke starts killing the resistance ships in space one by one. His minions have also captured a few of the rebels and brings them to knee in front of them - shock and awe as part of the folks kneeling are Finn and Poe. Here comes a major change and I feel Oscar Isaac would personally love this one. Poe gets a brutal ass fucking death with limb dismemberment etc. while everyone else tries to stop it but gets fucked up by Snoke and his incredible powers. Similar to that Negan scene from The Walking Dead and also makes more sense here as Poe's death in Part One as per Disney's initial plans would've been pointless (insufficient character growth to justify a meaningful death) Even Kylo is not cool with this and tries to intervene because this is too violent and too much but gets ragdolled like a bitch. Snoke even claims that HE was the one who put that distractiom in Kylo's memory, making him pull the trigger on the saber that killed Han. He gave Kylo the perfect memory at the perfect time to give him that one push over the edge. He influenced Kylo's rage, blinding him and making him take his own father's life. Snoke jeers and Kylo and Rey, claiming they're far more pathetic than he thought and they're unworthy of his teachings and presence. Poe is almost done for but being the badass that he is, musters what little strength he has to wink to Rey as she force pushes the blaster into his hands. Born out of pure fucking desperation to save his friends, Poe focuses his last ounce of strength and shoots Snoke straight in the face, blinding him in one eye. Buying just enough time for both Kylo and Rey to reach for the sabers, however, Rey gets hers first and absolutely wrecks Snoke as Finn rushes to Poe Dameron, holding him as he breathes his last. Kylo fends off an entire room of the Red guys 1v6. Rey vs Snoke is going on. Rey taps into the dark side. Juices up. Chops up Snoke and blows him up and as he's dying she still keeps going apeshit on him while Kylo has to step in and restrain her. Even he has a difficult time but manages to reign her in. Snoke dies. So does Poe. Kylo apologizes, saying this isn't how he envisioned things. As he's about to walk off, a sinister voice rises from the darkness beyond Snoke's corpse. Laughter echoing in the chambers as Snoke's remains, a lifelesss mangled corpse floats into the air with electricity arcing from his fingers and eyes. . And the ICONIC DIALOGUE is whispered in a booming growl "Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the dark side". . It's fucking Palpatine as a floaty ghosty mother frocker, grinning from ear to ear while Snoke's corpse collapses to the floor and this OMINOUS DEATH looking bastard rises into full frame. . movie ends. . Cut to black 🙄 Palpatine was the one controlling Snoke all along and he somehow survived the atomization and explosions. However, at least here, he is in Ethereal form and not Corporeal so it's easier to digest the fact that a Sith so fricking hungry with immortality and power would manage to continue his existence. . somehow. It's palatable. It's also palpable. It's also. . Wait for it. . Palpa-TINE. . Badum Dish. . Drumroll please. . I got puns for days 🤣
PART THREE: Movie starts off like The Two Towers. Zooming shots throughout Snoke's Palace while the sound bytes of the Part Two's climax play through with camera panning into the Throne room as the final moments of Part two play out all over again. Sheer panic and dread has set in. Poe is gone. Snoke is but a puppet in the true sense. Emperor looms over Rey, Finn and a befuddled Kylo who's now questioning everything he ever fought for. Emperor plays with them like they're little ants, frying them, flinging them and ripping off Finn's fake (arm/leg). He's toying with them and torturing them. And just as he's about to do finish them, the massive ass heavy doors to the throne room are flung apart like paper. Standing in the corridor backlit by green is a cloaked figure that whispers "I thought I threw you into the abyss". . As the lightsaber ignites in Glorious Green and the green light cascades onto an incredibly PISSSED OFF Luke Skywalker. "It can't be. You were in exile!" mutters a grumpy Emperor. A ridiculously immense "feat of strength" battle ensues similar to that of Dumbledore vs Voldemort. Both parties pulling out force powers out of their ass in magnitudes that are ripping the ships internals to shreds and endangering everyone else. It becomes a stalemate and they escape with their lives. And now, the "Somehow Palpatine returned" dialogue makes sense, especially when it comes from LUKE's mouth and not frickin Meriadoc Brandybuck. Luke explains to everyone else how Palpatine was an ancient evil he once fought and destroyed with his father Anakin. Everyone's shitting bricks because the Emperor clearly never died in the true sense of the word and has remained busy in the shadows as Snoke, rebuilding his empire, pulling all the strings. That's also WHY EVERYTHING LOOKS AND FEELS THE SAME WITH THE VILLAINS. MOTIFS, VEHICLES, DEATH STARS. BECAUSE ITS THE SAME BAD GUY ALL ALONG. 😅 Cue a final desperate adventure where Kylo comes to terms with his failures and how he was being misled all along. Sombre scene between him and Luke. He tells Luke "I don't know what to do. I cannot seek forgiveness. I allowed all this to happen. So many lives. I thought I was doing this for the greater good. For the balance. I knew there would be no coming back from this for me. But others could thrive in a new world". . Luke replies.."The greater good. Some of the worst things in the world were started with the best intentions. The Jedi were noble but they were also human. .and flawed.".... ... "All those lives I've taken .. " says an absolutely shattered Kylo Ren.. ..Luke replies. . "Lives that can never be brought back. But you can pay for theirs with the life you own now..We can put an end to it. It's not too late to see it through to the end. .".. ..Luke locks eyes with Kylo "Your mother and father loved you more than anything Ben. As do I". . Luke also tells Ben about how his grandfather, Darth Vader chose to be a father in the end and helped destroy the Emperor, eventually dying as Anakin Skywalker instead. This can lead to the scene where Ben breaks the Darth Vader helmet memento to bits and sheds his own helmet too. Tearjerker scene can follow where Ben Solo has a Skype call with mom and dad force ghosts who also give a cryptic message that he should talk to Luke because Luke has something incredibly important to tell him) - instead of the dumb scene with Han where he's a "memory"?. . Self forgiveness FTW? 😅 Rey comes to terms with Luke's warning about giving in to the dark side and TRAINS HARDER while Finn baby takes over Poe's mantle and fills in the Ace Pilot spot, wearing Poe Dameron's jacket and colors. Macguffin adventure with Luke Skywalker ensues.
THE GRAND FINALE. Finn leads the way to fight in space and stop the death destroyers. Rey, Ben and Luke go to the ground game to finish the emperor, once and for all. While enroute, Luke sits the kids down and tells them why The Emperor wanted both of them and their powers. They're brother and sister, born as a dyad, a strong bond in the force that was so United, it posed a threat to the fabric of the force itself. This happens once every few generations and they had to separate them during childhood once they figured out that Snoke had sent assassins to capture them. This also makes INCREDIBLE SENSE as to why Han and Leia could not be seen together and why Rey had been hidden away on a desert planet somewhere. Rey's parent is a LITERAL SKYWALKER. Someone she's been talking to all this time and only now finds out that it's her actual mom. Fuck me in the heartstrings. They both break down, mend their differences and get ready for the final fight. The Emperor has grown way stronger. The battle does not go easy. Ben's own soldiers, the Knights of Ren are a menace and nearly bring both Rey and Kylo to their knees. Except. Kylo calms himself down and in a moment of PURE CHEER WORTHY AWESOMENESS, he focuses himself to the point where his SPUTTERING LIGHT SABER BECOMES SOLID STATE LIGHT. A true saber but in all of its red glory. The brother sister duo tap into the force and start fighting together, blending their styles instead of doing their own thing while Luke faces off against the Emperor again. The knights are finished eventually but Luke is not winning at all. The Emperor uses some cheap tricks and tries to one shot Kylo and Rey but Luke gets in front of them taking the full brunt of the hit. As Luke is unable to stop the massive force lighting and starts to disintegrate, he looks back at his niece and nephew, smiles and tells them to look into the force, "You will always find us there". . Luke disappears, the Emperor falters, and his force lightning fades for a brief second. And that's all the siblings needed to make full use of Luke Skywalker's noble sacrifice. They attack with everything they have, exchange banter in between and just as the Emperor launches another Salvo of Force Lightning saying "I am ALL the Sith", Ben and Rey cross their sabers together and block the lightning. While they struggle to keep the lightning at bay, all of the force ghosts appear together as a result of the Dyad fusion, supporting them from behind. The force ghosts light sabers materialise into reality and the duo join them to their own sabers and reflect the lightning back to the Emperor, while saying this quote in return "And we are ALL THE JEDI". Emperor destroyed for good now 😤 . . SOMEHOW. . NO. NO SOMEHOW. HE'S DEAD FOR GOOD.
No awkward, out of the blue cringe fucking kiss scene like between Ron & Hermione after killing the Basilisk. All those ReyLo fans can weep in a dustbin. And the Dyad now makes sense. Every legacy character's death makes sense and has meaning. Each death also is in sequence. Han goes first. Leia follows. And Luke is the last to kick the bucket. Emperor's comeback also makes sense. Somewhat. The ending makes even more sense. Kylo (Ben). Rey. Finn. Reunited. They re-build the Resistance. And also teach a new philosophy of Balanced approach. Neither giving in to the dark side. Nor being blinded only by the light side. A new way forward. Led by the Skywalker genes through the combination of an Organa and a Solo in a new temple. Finn and Rey profess love for one another. And the last scene is her burying the force ghost's sabers in the ground until they're needed.
Years pass. Dry af desert planet. Rey and Finn are building their home. Random ass desert camel lady passes by asking "I've not seen you around here". . Rey replies "We're new here", as she looks down at her pregnant tummy and Finn working on their home in the distance. "What's your name, my dear?" asks the dry as a stick camel lady. . "Rey. . " comes a quick reply . . "Rey who?" Asks the annoying dust bag old lady. . "Rey Organa" . . Says Rey in a contemplative low voice. . Taking a look back at Finn, she smiles and says with a slight tremble . . "and that's my husband, Finn Solo".. "Rey Organa and Finn Solo, from the Skywalker Clan" . . Says Rey with Utmost confidence now in her voice.. The screen fades to black on a sunkissed Rey's face as she is now looking into the future, sure of the legacy she wants to carry ahead.
ORCHESTRAL MUSIC GETS LOUDER.
FADE TO BLACK on the Two Suns of Tattooine.

I'll admit it. I'm not a car guy and I know just enough to be dangerous. Apologies in advance for so many words.
I'm in Minneapolis and 3 years ago took ownership of this 1999 Ford Contour SVT through a good friend because they owed me a favor. It spent most of its life in California and Arizona, and much of that on a military base. It was a no brainer. 90,000 miles, price was right, and a FUN car to drive. (The smiles and thumbs up at stop lights didn't hurt, either) Aside from a few small tears in the seats, and some peeling clear coat on the roof, and various interior issues (an aftermarket stereo was installed sloppily and many dash components don't attach flush like they should) it looked pretty great. Car also came with a subwoofer installed in the trunk.
Almost immediately after purchasing I was rear ended. I wasn't at fault, insurance company totaled it out. Much of the rear fascia was busted but everything was operational. I would later realize the trunk no longer seals properly and water seeps in. Car is mostly garaged and fully functional So I kept driving it. Some time later I was sideswiped by some doofus changing lanes without looking. Insurance found me not at fault again and AGAIN totaled the car out. Big crease along the rear passenger side but managed to miss any important parts (gas cap, door handle, door edge)...so...again I kept driving it. While recently having a local (trusted) garage replace the alternator they found a myriad of issues big and small. Including loose front lower control arms and sway bar links, missing rear sway bar bushings, junk floating in the radiator, and lots of leaks. While deciding on exactly what to do, and waiting for used car prices to come down (spoiler alert...they never did), the front brakes have now gone bad.
SO MY QUESTION IS What can I honestly get for this car? I'm ready to let go of this car, for sure—but how do I price/sell a car with mechanical issues, AND a collision history that may affect the frame? I never noticed and problems beside the trunk leaking, but the body shop post collision was adamant they didn't want to tackle anything. Should I get the brakes done so it rolls at least, and simply divulge the rest to a seller? Should I abandon all repairs and try and sell to someone who can tow who wants to part this car to collectors? (I myself am in no position to part it out) Because of the make and model, the car feels like it still has value—but also seems overwhelmed with issues. Online value calculators are coming in WAY over what I would expect, even with me ticking every box I can regarding repairs.

I ordered a package of Hot Wheels Mustangs. Great condition, and a good price. It took a long time to ship, and when I got the package, it was wrong. Still Hot Wheels, but not so good, not the right cars, and not anywhere near worth the other things. The seller blocked me, so I couldn’t contact them in the first place. Facebook said that because they didn’t respond, they’d refund me, and they did refund me the full amount (price and shipping). I am still blocked by the seller and Facebook hasn’t given me a clear answer as to whether I keep the items or not. It’s been about a month. What do I do with the items?

I'm looking to install a 12 inch ported subwoofer in my 2023 VW GTI. However I need some advice on part information regarding the quality of brand product lines (Alpine Type S/R,JL W's, Kicker Comp C/VR) since it's been about a full 10 years since I last put together a system in my car and also I just am not very knowledgeable about all this.
I sorta gather how brands that used to reign supreme back then went through a steep degradation of quality control so their products now are nowhere near as solid as they used to be, ie Alpine Type R Subs, JL W Series Subs, etc.
I ran 2 12" JLw0s in a sealed ebay box for a bit for my first setup ever with some random amp then w2's which were absolutely amazing, I loved that. Those sounded so damn good, I enjoyed that setup a lot just to give some frame of reference for what I'm looking for except now I want a single ported 12" ideally cause I want to keep some room in my hatch of my GTI.
Another important reference point comes from when I heard my buddie's single 12" Alpine Type S (Sealed I think) in his old 2004 VW GTI which sounded SO good that I always wished my 2 12" JL setup was even half as good. It was most likely just a better tuned setup with actual thought and knowledge put into things better quality parts etc, what a shocker that it was so much better right?
Anyways, I listen to primarily rap, some uk garage, and metal/hardcore. I have always loved powerful, clean, loud bass with my music. I'm a total audiophile but I don't have the budget nowadays to afford
What I really would want is something like a Sundown 12" setup with a custom box tuned perfectly, like stupid low @ 24hz and I realize that my low budget won't be able to allow buying a setup that can accommodate anything close to that low of a frequency.
I have a ~$500 budget for sub, box, and amp. I have an LC2i and Knuconceptz Kolossus 4 gauge OFC amp install kit already.
Really want a powerful, reliable, clean sounding setup that would compliment the music genres I enjoy listening to the most that sounds the best at primarily the lower range of frequencies but still performs decent in higher frequencies. Most important is clean, impressive sounding low end.
I really wish I knew someone that could build me a custom enclosure for a good price but unfortunately I don't think a custom enclosure is in the cards which is why I'm considering only prefab stuff...
I've been thinking of:
$360 Kicker Solo Baric L7S passive 2ohm 750w RMS + box
$260 Kicker Comp R passive 2ohm 500w RMS + box
$280 Kicker Solo Baric L7T passive 2ohm 600w RMS + box
~$200 Alpine Type R 2ohm just the driver and find some prefab somewhere online that would do it justice.
And finally the best one, my top pick I think:
$280 Sundown SA-12 D4 Classic dual 4ohm 750w RMS - Only possibly issue is that 4ohm might not suit my needs but this thing might slap so hard it might not even matter lol. I don't think I'd be able to get an enclosure that would do this thing justice at all, at least not for a year or so when I can work on paying for a custom box for it. It's just hard to justify paying the equal cost of the sub itself on an enclosure at the moment but for a Sundown it would be worth it down the line.
For all of those subs though I'm totally clueless as to what amps I should run...
If you made it through this flood of text I salute you and would GREATLY appreciate any help in pointing me in the right direction. I want to get everything installed this month so I want easily accessible parts. Thanks!!!

I'm looking to install a 12 inch ported subwoofer in my 2023 VW GTI. However I need some advice on part information regarding the quality of brand product lines (Alpine Type S/R,JL W's, Kicker Comp C/VR) since it's been about a full 10 years since I last put together a system in my car and also I just am not very knowledgeable about all this.
I sorta gather how brands that used to reign supreme back then went through a steep degradation of quality control so their products now are nowhere near as solid as they used to be, ie Alpine Type R Subs, JL W Series Subs, etc.
I ran 2 12" JLw0s in a sealed ebay box for a bit for my first setup ever with some random amp then w2's which were absolutely amazing, I loved that. Those sounded so damn good, I enjoyed that setup a lot just to give some frame of reference for what I'm looking for except now I want a single ported 12" ideally cause I want to keep some room in my hatch of my GTI.
Another important reference point comes from when I heard my buddie's single 12" Alpine Type S (Sealed I think) in his old 2004 VW GTI which sounded SO good that I always wished my 2 12" JL setup was even half as good. It was most likely just a better tuned setup with actual thought and knowledge put into things better quality parts etc, what a shocker that it was so much better right?
Anyways, I listen to primarily rap, some uk garage, and metal/hardcore. I have always loved powerful, clean, loud bass with my music. I'm a total audiophile but I don't have the budget nowadays to afford
What I really would want is something like a Sundown 12" setup with a custom box tuned perfectly, like stupid low @ 24hz and I realize that my low budget won't be able to allow buying a setup that can accommodate anything close to that low of a frequency.
I have a ~$500 budget for sub, box, and amp. I have an LC2i and Knuconceptz Kolossus 4 gauge OFC amp install kit already.
Really want a powerful, reliable, clean sounding setup that would compliment the music genres I enjoy listening to the most that sounds the best at primarily the lower range of frequencies but still performs decent in higher frequencies. Most important is clean, impressive sounding low end.
I really wish I knew someone that could build me a custom enclosure for a good price but unfortunately I don't think a custom enclosure is in the cards which is why I'm considering only prefab stuff...
I've been thinking of:
$360 Kicker Solo Baric L7S passive 2ohm 750w RMS + box
$260 Kicker Comp R passive 2ohm 500w RMS + box
$280 Kicker Solo Baric L7T passive 2ohm 600w RMS + box
~$200 Alpine Type R 2ohm just the driver and find some prefab somewhere online that would do it justice.
And finally the best one, my top pick I think:
$280 Sundown SA-12 D4 Classic dual 4ohm 750w RMS - Only possibly issue is that 4ohm might not suit my needs but this thing might slap so hard it might not even matter lol. I don't think I'd be able to get an enclosure that would do this thing justice at all, at least not for a year or so when I can work on paying for a custom box for it. It's just hard to justify paying the equal cost of the sub itself on an enclosure at the moment but for a Sundown it would be worth it down the line.
For all of those subs though I'm totally clueless as to what amps I should run...
If you made it through this flood of text I salute you and would GREATLY appreciate any help in pointing me in the right direction. I want to get everything installed this month so I want easily accessible parts. Thanks!!!

Best night clubs to go to? My friends (F20-22) and I near London University and don’t mind taking the tube too far out? Any suggestions?? Also if there is a cover few please let me know!

I'm a non-Berkeley student currently located in Palo Alto, and was recently admitted to the hackathon. I was wondering if anyone is near me and planning to drive there and willing to carpool. I don't have my own car but I will pitch in for gas or treat you for a meal!
I also don't have a team if anyone is looking to fill slots. I am currently an ML intern and recently built a tool that scrapes data of any input website, embeds and stores it into pinecone, and creates augmented queries that can be passed into any LLM (similar to chatbase but with more flexibility for our company).
Please comment or DM me if you're interested in carpooling or having me on your team!

I'm looking to install a 12 inch ported subwoofer in my 2023 VW GTI. However I need some advice on part information regarding the quality of brand product lines (Alpine Type S/R,JL W's, Kicker Comp C/VR) since it's been about a full 10 years since I last put together a system in my car and also I just am not very knowledgeable about all this.
I sorta gather how brands that used to reign supreme back then went through a steep degradation of quality control so their products now are nowhere near as solid as they used to be, ie Alpine Type R Subs, JL W Series Subs, etc.
I ran 2 12" JLw0s in a sealed ebay box for a bit for my first setup ever with some random amp then w2's which were absolutely amazing, I loved that. Those sounded so damn good, I enjoyed that setup a lot just to give some frame of reference for what I'm looking for except now I want a single ported 12" ideally cause I want to keep some room in my hatch of my GTI.
Another important reference point comes from when I heard my buddie's single 12" Alpine Type S (Sealed I think) in his old 2004 VW GTI which sounded SO good that I always wished my 2 12" JL setup was even half as good. It was most likely just a better tuned setup with actual thought and knowledge put into things better quality parts etc, what a shocker that it was so much better right?
Anyways, I listen to primarily rap, some uk garage, and metal/hardcore. I have always loved powerful, clean, loud bass with my music. I'm a total audiophile but I don't have the budget nowadays to afford
What I really would want is something like a Sundown 12" setup with a custom box tuned perfectly, like stupid low @ 24hz and I realize that my low budget won't be able to allow buying a setup that can accommodate anything close to that low of a frequency.
I have a ~$500 budget for sub, box, and amp. I have an LC2i and Knuconceptz Kolossus 4 gauge OFC amp install kit already.
Really want a powerful, reliable, clean sounding setup that would compliment the music genres I enjoy listening to the most that sounds the best at primarily the lower range of frequencies but still performs decent in higher frequencies. Most important is clean, impressive sounding low end.
I really wish I knew someone that could build me a custom enclosure for a good price but unfortunately I don't think a custom enclosure is in the cards which is why I'm considering only prefab stuff...
I've been thinking of:
$360 Kicker Solo Baric L7S passive 2ohm 750w RMS + box
$260 Kicker Comp R passive 2ohm 500w RMS + box
$280 Kicker Solo Baric L7T passive 2ohm 600w RMS + box
~$200 Alpine Type R 2ohm just the driver and find some prefab somewhere online that would do it justice.
And finally the best one, my top pick I think:
$280 Sundown SA-12 D4 Classic dual 4ohm 750w RMS - Only possibly issue is that 4ohm might not suit my needs but this thing might slap so hard it might not even matter lol. I don't think I'd be able to get an enclosure that would do this thing justice at all, at least not for a year or so when I can work on paying for a custom box for it. It's just hard to justify paying the equal cost of the sub itself on an enclosure at the moment but for a Sundown it would be worth it down the line.
For all of those subs though I'm totally clueless as to what amps I should run...
If you made it through this flood of text I salute you and would GREATLY appreciate any help in pointing me in the right direction. I want to get everything installed this month so I want easily accessible parts. Thanks!!!

At work, I run clearance and markdowns for half the store. This particular day, I was in Sporting Goods dealing with some water bottles.
I have to mark them per UPC to keep inventory straight, and that's usually not an issue. Almost always different colors have different UPCs, even if they are a similar shade. This was no different. There were some light pink and dark pink bottles kinda mixed together. Same price point, different UPCs.
I sorted out the light pink bottles, counted them, scanned and printed tickets and popped em on. I even put them on the shelf all pretty. All that was left was the dark pink bottles, and I counted them to make sure.
There were 5 dark pink water bottles sitting on my work top. I scanned and printed 5 tickets. I went to stick the price tags on one, two, three, four....
There were 4 dark pink water bottles.
There were only 4
What happened to number 5?
No one had passed me. No one had gone down either aisle that I was near. No one had been close enough to me to grab one.
But there were only 4 dark pink water bottles.

Terrible timing I know! I've never worked towards this goal before as my old job kept me stuck where I'm from which is all +$1MM houses so since I was priced out I'd spend all my money on having fun like seeing the world. But with my new job I can live anywhere in the country! I would love to move out of state for cheaper COL and to actually be around other people my age but my dad is getting old so I'm trying to stay localish for now so still haven't been working towards this goal.
Friends are starting to convince me to look into buying in state where as I always thought I shouldn't waste first time home buyer assistance stuff on buying some where that I didn't want to stay long term. They're telling me that's a dumb way to look at it, equity blah blah blah.
My main dilemma is that I'm not very good or knowledgeable about personal finance. I never viewed money as very important so I never learned to save it and since with my old job you never knew what you were going to make week to week I never learned how to budget. So I could use all the help I can get, knowledge, advice, tips, links to read.. Budgeting to house buying basics, w/e!
I saw a house for sale about an hour away, where most houses are only 700k that I thought I could afford for $350k, a fixer upper I'm sure, and was about to go to the open house not knowing anything. Thought I should do a little research and next thing you know I'm on the phone w/ rocket mortgage. Probably not the cheapest place for a mortgage? They were talking about approval letters etc, stuff I don't know about. So anyways by the end of it, they said $3800/mo for a loan of $420,000 w/ my 30k I have saved as a down and asked if that's comfortable for me?
And I realized how clueless I am with this stuff. I'm not going to rush into anything just yet, just wanted to start looking into this stuff.. And chances are that $350k house is going to go for over asking and in cash. But why let that keep me from starting down this path.
Some basics figures: I work 21days on/off but paychecks are bi weekly so monthly varies but averaged together I make 6500/mo gross I also have been doing my old line of work while home but no where near as much as I could, my goal for the year was $22k in side work, I think I'm around 10k atm.. This money is 1099 so lots of write offs. I could certainly work more on my off time and double that goal easily if I wanted to.
Living expenses probably around $2k/mo.
My achilies heal is traveling, Cali Monday, 20 days in europe next month. I'll pump the brakes.. Time to pursue this!
One more question is my new job offers a 7% match on 401ks. Should I set it up and start contributing now or wait until after I buy a house?

Please comment your offer before PMing me.
I prefer all negotiations to happen within the comments of this post.
My region: U.S.
Any key below will be sent via PM in revealed form.
I am willing to bundle all games to move on and sell (please offer if interested in all).
Thanks for stopping by!

May Multiplayer Madness Game Bundle

Game	Price (USD)
Midnight Ghost Hunt	Offer
PULSAR: The Lost Colony	Offer

Conquer COVID-19 Bundle

Game	Price (USD)
Alien Spidy	Offer
Broken Age	Offer
DUCATI - 90th Anniversary	Offer
Europa Universalis IV	Offer
HIVESWAP: Act 1	Offer
Hacknet	Offer
Magicka	Offer
PAC-MAN™ CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION 2	Offer
Party Hard	Offer
Psychonauts	Offer
Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadsville	Offer
Stealth 2: A Game of Clones	Offer
Super Hexagon	Offer
This is the Police	Offer
VVVVVV	Offer
Worms Revolution	Offer

Türkiye-Syria Earthquake Relief Bundle

Game	Price (USD)
112 Operator	Offer
911 Operator	Offer
Agent in Depth	Offer
Alchemist’s Castle	Offer
The Amazing American Circus	Offer
Arcade Spirits	Offer
Armello	Offer
Backbone	Offer
Calico	Offer
Cosmic Express	Offer
Death Squared	Offer
Detached: Non-VR Edition	Offer
Doughlings: Arcade	Offer
Doughlings: Invasion	Offer
Firegirl: Hack ‘n Splash Rescue DX	Offer
Flynn: Son of Crimson	Offer
Frick, Inc	Offer
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload	Offer
Guns & Fishes	Offer
Hack ‘n’ Slash	Offer
Harmony’s Odyssey	Offer
Hyper Gunsport	Offer
The Inner World	Offer
Izmir: An Independence Simulator	Offer
Into the Pit	Offer
Lighthouse Keeper	Offer
Lust from Beyond - M Edition	Offer
Meow Express	Offer
MirrorMoon EP	Offer
Monaco	Offer
Mount & Blade: Warband	Offer
Non-Stop Raiders	Offer
Orbital Racer	Offer
Planet TD	Offer
Pill Baby	Offer
Project Chemistry	Offer
Pixross	Offer
Quadrata	Offer
Remnants of Naezith	Offer
Rym 9000	Offer
Saga Volume 1-10	Offer
Soulblight	Offer
Soulflow	Offer
Soul Searching	Offer
Space Crew: Legendary Edition	Offer
Stacking	Offer
Starfinder Core Rulebook	Offer
Starfinder: Junker’s Delight	Offer
Stikir	Offer
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones	Offer
Sunlight	Offer
Symmetry	Offer
System Shock Enhanced Edition	Offer
System Shock 2	Offer
Ticket to Ride	Offer
Worms Rumble	Offer
XEL	Offer
XCOM 2	Offer
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack	Offer
Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition	Offer

Humble Choice Games

Game	Price (USD)
Bendy and the Dark Revival	Offer
Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery	Offer
Builder Simulator	Offer
Crown Trick (x2)	Offer
Demon Turf	Offer
Emily Is Away <3	Offer
Encased	Offer
Epic Chef	Offer
Five Dates	Offer
Founders' Fortune	Offer
Golf Gang	Offer
Grow: Song of the Evertree	Offer
Industria	Offer
Monster Crown	Offer
Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp	Offer
Police Stories	Offer
Railroad Corporation	Offer
Red Solstice 2: Survivors	Offer
Revita	Offer
Rogue Lords	Offer
ScourgeBringer	Offer
Siege Survival: Gloria Victis	Offer
Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition	Offer
Super Magbot	Offer
The Invisible Hand	Offer
The Serpent Rogue	Offer
Windjammers 2	Offer

Fanatical Games

Game	Price (USD)
A Blind Legend	Offer
American Fugitive (x2)	Offer
Automachef	Offer
Chenso Club	Offer
Demon Pit	Offer
Distrust	Offer
Dub Dash	Offer
Dustforce DX	Offer
Hue	Offer
Iron Fisticle	Offer
Manual Samuel	Offer
Pixel Heroes: Byte & Magic	Offer
Plan B from Outer Space: A Bavarian Odyssey	Offer
Race.a.bit	Offer
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw	Offer
Riptide GP2	Offer
Smoke and Sacrifice	Offer
SoulCraft	Offer
Syberia	Offer
Terrain of Magical Expertise	Offer
The Inner World	Offer
War Solution - Casual Math Game	Offer
When Ski Lifts Go Wrong (x2)	Offer

IGSrep: https://www.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/yaglwrobertv03s_igs_rep_page/
SGSflair: https://www.reddit.com/sgsflaicomments/xc2tf7/flair_profile_urobertv03/

Please comment your offer before PMing me.
I prefer all negotiations to happen within the comments of this post.
My region: U.S.
Any key below will be sent via PM in revealed form.
I am willing to bundle all games to move on and sell (please offer if interested in all).
Thanks for stopping by!

May Multiplayer Madness Game Bundle

Game	Price (USD)
Midnight Ghost Hunt	Offer
PULSAR: The Lost Colony	Offer

Conquer COVID-19 Bundle

Game	Price (USD)
Alien Spidy	Offer
Broken Age	Offer
DUCATI - 90th Anniversary	Offer
Europa Universalis IV	Offer
HIVESWAP: Act 1	Offer
Hacknet	Offer
Magicka	Offer
PAC-MAN™ CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION 2	Offer
Party Hard	Offer
Psychonauts	Offer
Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadsville	Offer
Stealth 2: A Game of Clones	Offer
Super Hexagon	Offer
This is the Police	Offer
VVVVVV	Offer
Worms Revolution	Offer

Türkiye-Syria Earthquake Relief Bundle

Game	Price (USD)
112 Operator	Offer
911 Operator	Offer
Agent in Depth	Offer
Alchemist’s Castle	Offer
The Amazing American Circus	Offer
Arcade Spirits	Offer
Armello	Offer
Backbone	Offer
Calico	Offer
Cosmic Express	Offer
Death Squared	Offer
Detached: Non-VR Edition	Offer
Doughlings: Arcade	Offer
Doughlings: Invasion	Offer
Firegirl: Hack ‘n Splash Rescue DX	Offer
Flynn: Son of Crimson	Offer
Frick, Inc	Offer
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload	Offer
Guns & Fishes	Offer
Hack ‘n’ Slash	Offer
Harmony’s Odyssey	Offer
Hyper Gunsport	Offer
The Inner World	Offer
Izmir: An Independence Simulator	Offer
Into the Pit	Offer
Lighthouse Keeper	Offer
Lust from Beyond - M Edition	Offer
Meow Express	Offer
MirrorMoon EP	Offer
Monaco	Offer
Mount & Blade: Warband	Offer
Non-Stop Raiders	Offer
Orbital Racer	Offer
Planet TD	Offer
Pill Baby	Offer
Project Chemistry	Offer
Pixross	Offer
Quadrata	Offer
Remnants of Naezith	Offer
Rym 9000	Offer
Saga Volume 1-10	Offer
Soulblight	Offer
Soulflow	Offer
Soul Searching	Offer
Space Crew: Legendary Edition	Offer
Stacking	Offer
Starfinder Core Rulebook	Offer
Starfinder: Junker’s Delight	Offer
Stikir	Offer
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones	Offer
Sunlight	Offer
Symmetry	Offer
System Shock Enhanced Edition	Offer
System Shock 2	Offer
Ticket to Ride	Offer
Worms Rumble	Offer
XEL	Offer
XCOM 2	Offer
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack	Offer
Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition	Offer

Humble Choice Games

Game	Price (USD)
Bendy and the Dark Revival	Offer
Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery	Offer
Builder Simulator	Offer
Crown Trick (x2)	Offer
Demon Turf	Offer
Emily Is Away <3	Offer
Encased	Offer
Epic Chef	Offer
Five Dates	Offer
Founders' Fortune	Offer
Golf Gang	Offer
Grow: Song of the Evertree	Offer
Industria	Offer
Monster Crown	Offer
Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp	Offer
Police Stories	Offer
Railroad Corporation	Offer
Red Solstice 2: Survivors	Offer
Revita	Offer
Rogue Lords	Offer
ScourgeBringer	Offer
Siege Survival: Gloria Victis	Offer
Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition	Offer
Super Magbot	Offer
The Invisible Hand	Offer
The Serpent Rogue	Offer
Windjammers 2	Offer

Fanatical Games

Game	Price (USD)
A Blind Legend	Offer
American Fugitive (x2)	Offer
Automachef	Offer
Chenso Club	Offer
Demon Pit	Offer
Distrust	Offer
Dub Dash	Offer
Dustforce DX	Offer
Hue	Offer
Iron Fisticle	Offer
Manual Samuel	Offer
Pixel Heroes: Byte & Magic	Offer
Plan B from Outer Space: A Bavarian Odyssey	Offer
Race.a.bit	Offer
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw	Offer
Riptide GP2	Offer
Smoke and Sacrifice	Offer
SoulCraft	Offer
Syberia	Offer
Terrain of Magical Expertise	Offer
The Inner World	Offer
War Solution - Casual Math Game	Offer
When Ski Lifts Go Wrong (x2)	Offer

IGSrep: https://www.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/yaglwrobertv03s_igs_rep_page/
SGSflair: https://www.reddit.com/sgsflaicomments/xc2tf7/flair_profile_urobertv03/

I'm building my first PC! Desired build was to get 60+ fps on 1440p with ultra settings (I have a 1440p 60Hz monitor already), with some room for fps increases if I replace the monitor, and to do some freelance software development (fairly beefy VS projects).
This is what I landed on, but I'm definitely open to changes if anything is overkill or insufficient for my needs. Budget was around $1300, so I got pretty close (Micro Center near me has a few deals I'll take advantage of to bring the price down a bit more).
Thanks for any input!
PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 7600 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor	$219.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	ASRock B650 PG LIGHTNING ATX AM5 Motherboard	$199.99 @ Amazon
Memory	Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL36 Memory	$92.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Intel 670p 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	$72.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	ASRock Phantom Gaming D OC Radeon RX 6800 XT 16 GB Video Card	$499.99 @ Newegg
Case	NZXT H510 Flow ATX Mid Tower Case	$89.99 @ B&H
Power Supply	Corsair RM850e (2023) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$129.99 @ Amazon
Case Fan	ARCTIC P14 PWM PST A-RGB 68 CFM 140 mm Fans 3-Pack	$49.99 @ Amazon
Case Fan	ARCTIC P12 PWM PST A-RGB 0dB 48.8 CFM 120 mm Fan	$20.37 @ Amazon
Total	$1376.29
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-06-09 15:57 EDT-0400

​

It looks like they could be scanned and a refund issued

You can download the WesternUnion app and send the payment from your phone and I will pay the fees.

Desktop Users: Comment on this post and Click here to start a trade App Users, please include the following in your PM (Remember to comment on this post as well):

• Type of card(s) and amount of each.
• What payment method you accept.
• How you acquired the GC and why you're getting rid of it.

BTC, Paypal^1, Apple Pay, Chime, Cashapp, Venmo, and Western Union
I only have Steam as a substitute for cash payments in gift card trades.

Want ↓	Cash or a Gift Card ↓	BTC ↓
Apple	60%4	NA
Amazon.ca	50%	50%
Amazon.co.uk	50%	50%
Amazon.com	70%	55%
Amazon.de	50%	50%
Amazon.es	50%	50%
Amazon.fr	50%	50%
Amazon.it	50%	50%
Amazon.jp	30%	30%
Arrow Films	65%	60%
Barnes & Noble	50%	50%
Baskin Robbins	60%	60%
Best Buy	60%	60%
BJ's (not BJ's restaurant)4	60%	NA
Bloomingdales	50%	50%
Burger King4	60%	NA
Clothing Shops (Small Boutique)	contact me	contact me
Dell4	60%	NA
Delta gift cards4	65%	NA
Delta Sky Miles4	PM me	NA
Delta Vouchers4	65%	NA
Dicks Sporting Goods 4	PM me	NA
Disney Plus	PM me	PM me
DoorDash	70%6	NA
Dunkin Donuts4	60%	NA
eBay	70%	70%
Fandango4	10%	NA
Five Guys4	60%	NA
Gamestop	60%	60%
Gas Station Cards4	PM me	NA
Grub Hub	70%6	NA
Gyft	70%	70%
Half Price Books	50%	50%
HBO4	70%	NA
iTunes4	60%	NA
J crew	40%	40%
JCPenney	25%	25%
Jersey Mike Subs4	60%	NA
KFC4	60%	NA
Khols	30%	30%
Macys	35%	35%
Magazines.com	40%	40%
McDonald's 4	60%	NA
Microsoft6	60%	NA
Moe’s Southwestern Grill4	60%	NA
Nintendo Eshop6	70%	NA
Nordstrom	50%	50%
Panera bread4	60%	NA
PSN6	60	NA
PSN Plus 12 month4	NA	NA
Saks Fifth Avenue	50%	50%
Sears	50%	50%
Sephora	50%	50%
Speedway4	80%	NA
Starbucks	55%	55%
Steam6	60%	NA
Subway 4	PM me	NA
Taco Bell	60%	NA
Target	50%	50%
Uber6	70%	NA
Urban Outfitters	50%	50%
Vudu4	50%	NA
Walmart	60%	60%
Wendys4	60%	NA
Xbox (gift cards)6	60%	NA
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (12 month/6 month/3 month/1 month)6	PM me	NA
Other Clothing Stores, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Restaurant, & Fast Food gift cards	PM me

¹ When paying via PayPal, I can only send payments via Goods and Services, thus you will be charged a fee. If you'd rather not face this fee there are plenty of alternatives. ² Larger denominated gift cards preferred. ³ PayPal is the only payment option. ⁴ I can't send less than $10 in crypto per Coinbase's rules.

What I don’t buy:

• Amazon.au
• Bass Pro Shop
• buffalo wild wing
• Canadian tire
• Cold Stone
• Dairy Queen
• Fanatics
• Google Play
• Hilton Honors
• Hot Topic
• iTunes from anywhere but the US
• Krispy Kreme
• old navy/gap/banana republic
• Patxi's pizza
• PSN Canada or UK
• publix
• Raceway
• Scheels
• Shell Gas Stations
• Spotify
• Tractor supply
• Xbox Canada or UK
• Xbox live gold

Any fees are built into the price.

Selling

I have:
$500 in Amazon (can be broken up) and am selling at

• 85%: WesternUnion
• 85%: btc
• 90%: Apple Pay or Chime

Here are my GCX Rep profiles with 932 trades worth more than $60,000:

• #1
• #2
• #3
• #4
• #5
• #6
• #7
• #8
• #9
• #10

Important: before you send your codes please make sure your account is secure (if your password is twelve characters or less it's best to assume your account has already been compromised; your password should be eight randomly selected words, see 1 and 2). Scams where compromised accounts are used to leverage reputation to scam an unsuspecting user, used to steal codes during the middle of the trade, and steal unused gift cards the victim was saving for later are increasingly commonplace. If you have any concerns as to your account's security, please reset your password now and force logout of all sessions. Thanks

You can download the WesternUnion app and send the payment from your phone and I will pay the fees.

Desktop Users: Comment on this post and Click here to start a trade App Users, please include the following in your PM (Remember to comment on this post as well):

• Type of card(s) and amount of each.
• What payment method you accept.
• How you acquired the GC and why you're getting rid of it.

BTC, Paypal^1, Apple Pay, Chime, Cashapp, Venmo, and Western Union
I only have Steam as a substitute for cash payments in gift card trades.

Want ↓	Cash or a Gift Card ↓	BTC ↓
Apple	60%4	NA
Amazon.ca	50%	50%
Amazon.co.uk	50%	50%
Amazon.com	70%	55%
Amazon.de	50%	50%
Amazon.es	50%	50%
Amazon.fr	50%	50%
Amazon.it	50%	50%
Amazon.jp	30%	30%
Arrow Films	65%	60%
Barnes & Noble	50%	50%
Baskin Robbins	60%	60%
Best Buy	60%	60%
BJ's (not BJ's restaurant)4	60%	NA
Bloomingdales	50%	50%
Burger King4	60%	NA
Clothing Shops (Small Boutique)	contact me	contact me
Dell4	60%	NA
Delta gift cards4	65%	NA
Delta Sky Miles4	PM me	NA
Delta Vouchers4	65%	NA
Dicks Sporting Goods 4	PM me	NA
Disney Plus	PM me	PM me
DoorDash	70%6	NA
Dunkin Donuts4	60%	NA
eBay	70%	70%
Fandango4	10%	NA
Five Guys4	60%	NA
Gamestop	60%	60%
Gas Station Cards4	PM me	NA
Grub Hub	70%6	NA
Gyft	70%	70%
Half Price Books	50%	50%
HBO4	70%	NA
iTunes4	60%	NA
J crew	40%	40%
JCPenney	25%	25%
Jersey Mike Subs4	60%	NA
KFC4	60%	NA
Khols	30%	30%
Macys	35%	35%
Magazines.com	40%	40%
McDonald's 4	60%	NA
Microsoft6	60%	NA
Moe’s Southwestern Grill4	60%	NA
Nintendo Eshop6	70%	NA
Nordstrom	50%	50%
Panera bread4	60%	NA
PSN6	60	NA
PSN Plus 12 month4	NA	NA
Saks Fifth Avenue	50%	50%
Sears	50%	50%
Sephora	50%	50%
Speedway4	80%	NA
Starbucks	55%	55%
Steam6	60%	NA
Subway 4	PM me	NA
Taco Bell	60%	NA
Target	50%	50%
Uber6	70%	NA
Urban Outfitters	50%	50%
Vudu4	50%	NA
Walmart	60%	60%
Wendys4	60%	NA
Xbox (gift cards)6	60%	NA
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (12 month/6 month/3 month/1 month)6	PM me	NA
Other Clothing Stores, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Restaurant, & Fast Food gift cards	PM me

¹ When paying via PayPal, I can only send payments via Goods and Services, thus you will be charged a fee. If you'd rather not face this fee there are plenty of alternatives. ² Larger denominated gift cards preferred. ³ PayPal is the only payment option. ⁴ I can't send less than $10 in crypto per Coinbase's rules.

What I don’t buy:

• Amazon.au
• Bass Pro Shop
• buffalo wild wing
• Canadian tire
• Cold Stone
• Dairy Queen
• Fanatics
• Google Play
• Hilton Honors
• Hot Topic
• iTunes from anywhere but the US
• Krispy Kreme
• old navy/gap/banana republic
• Patxi's pizza
• PSN Canada or UK
• publix
• Raceway
• Scheels
• Shell Gas Stations
• Spotify
• Tractor supply
• Xbox Canada or UK
• Xbox live gold

Any fees are built into the price.

Selling

I have:
$500 in Amazon (can be broken up) and am selling at

• 85%: WesternUnion
• 85%: btc
• 90%: Apple Pay or Chime

Here are my GCX Rep profiles with 932 trades worth more than $60,000:

• #1
• #2
• #3
• #4
• #5
• #6
• #7
• #8
• #9
• #10

Important: before you send your codes please make sure your account is secure (if your password is twelve characters or less it's best to assume your account has already been compromised; your password should be eight randomly selected words, see 1 and 2). Scams where compromised accounts are used to leverage reputation to scam an unsuspecting user, used to steal codes during the middle of the trade, and steal unused gift cards the victim was saving for later are increasingly commonplace. If you have any concerns as to your account's security, please reset your password now and force logout of all sessions. Thanks

I am looking for Beyonce VIP club renaissance tickets for Sept 23rd Houston. Anyone selling or know someone who is? Message me with prices. 🤞🏽😅

So the older I get, the more it comes to dawn on me that other people, lots of other people, in fact, most other people, don't have the same experiences I do. This is true with pretty much everything. I have posted about my specific, singular experiences with everything from STAR WARS to Heroclix on various other online forums. Now I'll spend a few minutes telling you about my experiences with the work of Stephen King.
I am currently 61 years old and by slightly odd coincidence (it doesn't really matter, it's just a number thing) I was born in late 1961. The first Stephen King novel I ever read was THE SHINING. I read the trade paperback with the shiny silver color and the blank faced boy image on it. I enjoyed it a great deal and when one of the very few other student in my high school who read for pleasure saw me with it, she mentioned she liked the author a lot and offered to loan me his two other books. In the end she welshed – I was to discover she wasn't very reliable or trustworthy – but it got me interested enough to go looking for other stuff by King at the public library and that was where I first got copies of CARRIE and SALEM'S LOT – both mass market paperbacks as well. I don't remember the cover of the CARRIE book I read but the SALEM'S LOT had a black cover with an embossed child's face that had a single drop of red blood at the corner of the mouth.
I enjoyed both books even more than I'd liked THE SHINING. In King's forewords to his various different collections, he often contradicts himself as to events of this time period, but one thing that does come through very clearly, and this is obvious from the fiction he's writing too, is that he has always seriously seriously yearned to be a literary writer, rather than a commercially successful genre writer. He tells a story about his agent at the time warning him that if he does a haunted hotel book after the psychic teenager book and the vampire book, he's going to get 'typed', and how he laughed that off and said it was perfectly fine, and I tend to think that's a romanticization of what happened, because King is clearly, as my daughters would say, 'thirsty' for highbrow approbation. He wants the New York Times literary critic to praise his work. He wants to win a Pulitzer and all the other la di da prizes. It just kills him that he's the most successful author in the world in a 'trashy' genre. (When he parody/pities himself in MISERY, his fictionalized self is a writer of trashy romances. That will tell you right there how much respect King has for the genre fiction that has made him an unprecedented and nearly unimaginable success, and the fans of that fiction. He thinks horror is essentially the same thing as trashy romance.)
I think by the time THE SHINING came out King was anxious to be taken more seriously, and that's why THE SHINING seems so much more 'literary' than CARRIE or SALEM'S LOT. It's characters are more grimly realistic, the 'issues' it confronts (alcoholism! Child abuse! Bad parenting!) are all deeply serious. There is no Father Callahan character reviling social consciousness and yearning/demanding for a darker, more supernatural, occult, and 'unrealistic' evil to confront. Jack's alcoholism is the root of all the evil in THE SHINING, and in the end, his even momentary ability to take control of himself again is what allows the 'good guys' to triumph.
There's no such tedious grappling with real life problems in CARRIE or SALEM'S LOT. Oh, CARRIE is obviously centered around the cruelty of bullying, but King is hardly preaching about it or proposing any kind of real life action be taken; in CARRIE, some kids are absolute assholes, they pick on the wrong girl, and they get Blowed The Fuck Up. Nothing literary there. In SALEM'S LOT, King makes the occasional head fake towards tedious real life social problems – Parkins Gillespies tiresome speech about gory drive in movies is one such passage – but mostly he's all about getting this dumb little town in Maine eyebrows deep in vampires as quick as he can. He's obviously having a good time with the narrative and so are we. Again, nothing particularly grim n gritty, no real literary social issues to grapple with. None of the major characters are drunks or gay; Teen Mom is a child abuser but boy does she get hers, so that's okay. And as mentioned previously, Father Callahan is right in there talking about how much grim n gritty reality sucks balls and what he really wants is to fight True Evil.
And then THE SHINING comes along and it's a terrific book, wonderfully well written, but it seems very much to be King trying hard to get some serious reviews from the literary outlets. And ROADWORK, the trudgingly realistic novel he also wrote at this time and published as Richard Bachman, is just soporific.
But after THE SHINING comes THE STAND, which at the time seemed like a hugely ambitious undertaking that King nonetheless pulled off with aplomb. We had no idea exactly how huge an undertaking it really was as we would not see the sprawling, undisciplined monstrosity that was THE UNCUT STAND for decades to come. With THE STAND it seemed very much as if King had given up his quest for literary stature and gone back to just telling a really rockin' action-horror story. Twenty years later we'd find out that this was mostly an illusion; it's just that wise editors, knowing what mass audiences wanted, cut all the horrible real life social issue happy crappy (like the endless weeping and whining about Frannie's pregnancy and her fraught relationship with her psycho mom – King's good books always have a psycho mom in there somewhere – and the homosexual rapes embodied by The Kid and all that other lugubrious nonsense). After THE STAND came THE DEAD ZONE – a more down to earth narrative, absolutely, but still a damn good story with great heroes and villains and a central doomed love affair that proved, for the first time, that King really could be a top notch romance writer if he wanted to. And after THE DEAD ZONE came FIRESTARTER, one of my all time favorite King books. Like THE RUNNING MAN, FIRESTARTER is nothing but high velocity heavy impact action action action, and I loved every word of it. Wonderful heroes, truly villainous villains, and all of it painted with King's deft touch for characterization and atmosphere that made it all seem very believable. FIRESTARTER is, really, almost a remake of John Farris' THE FURY (which is also very much worth reading) but the rule of rip offs is, if you gotta steal, make your version better, and King absolutely accomplished that.
Yeah, and then came CUJO which made me want to barf, it was just SO bad. A killer St. Bernard! An adulterous affair! An advertising guy! OH THE LITTLE KID DIES! And maybe, who knows, we can't say, really, but maybe it had something to do with that crazy cop from DEAD ZONE? Maybe? Holy shit what a terrible, terrible book, and again, yet another one where King was obviously desperately jumping up and down and waving his arms, saying “hey big literary critics! Over here! I'M GRAPPLING WITH HUMAN FRAILTY AND VITAL TRENDY SOCIAL ISSUES!”
DEAD ZONE had come out when I was a senior in high school; FIRESTARTER came out when I was a freshman in college, and I bought it in hardcopy because that's how much I liked Stephen King. I still have that volume on my shelves; on the inside flap of the badly tattered dust cover you can still make out that cover price – $13.95. A lot of jack for a kid who didn't even have a work study job, but I doled it out and was not disappointed.
But once CUJO hit, I got warned off by another student who liked King. So I didn't buy it in hardcover or paperback, I waited until I could get it out of the library, and it blew moist chunks. And that was a very weird time for King's stuff. Next thing was the non fiction DANSE MACABRE, which interested me not at all, and then a lot of strange shit started bubbling up. King had just started to get his swagger on, with like eight best sellers under his belt, so he did CREEPSHOW and CYCLE OF THE WEREWOLF and they were pretty terrible, other than the pretty pictures. Hollywood had discovered King by then and that just added to his strut. He was starting to realize he could hand a stack of old dish towels to his publisher and his publisher would do their best to turn that into a new horror novel by Stephen King. I think it was about then his substance abuse issues really started to get their claws into him, too. Whatever the case, I stopped being an avid fan, and started being a 'maybe I'll read this when I can get it out of the library, if someone else tells me it's any good'.
Around this time – the early 80s – a lot of King material started bubbling up in various places. His first Gunslinger short story came out in THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, and I was very disappointed by it. Another story followed in the next issue of F&SF, “Night of the Tiger”, and it was pretty bad too. I had absolutely loved pretty much everything in King's first collection NIGHT SHIFT, so between CUJO and this nonsense, I was really starting to rethink how much I liked King.
Then DIFFERENT SEASONS came out, and it was all great, especially “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption”. But I wasn't swayed; King's own introduction told me all four novellas had been written earlier in his career, when he was still doing fine work. When CHRISTINE came out I was like “haunted car? No thanks”. But a guy I was living with at the time said “No, it's good, give it a shot” so I did and I loved it. And as it turned out, it was the last book by Stephen King I would ever wholeheartedly love, but to this day, I think CHRISTINE may be one of his finest works every. Great characters. Great villains. Will Darnell, Wretch In Residence. The awfulness that was Roland D. LeBay. And of course, that central doomed romance... not between Leigh and Arnie, or Leigh and Dennis, but between Arnie and Dennis.
CHRISTINE was an absolute masterwork, King back fully in control of his talent and his craft. And it was the last time he ever was, as far as I can see. Every thing he's put out since has just been one disappointment after another. Some are worse than others – there's really just no excuse at all for his two exercises in towering self pity, MISERY and THE DARK HALF – but none of them manage to ever get better than, well, kinda interesting. There's a real story somewhere in INSOMNIA, but King would have needed to work to polish it and he didn't want to and no editor was going to make him. SCENES FROM A BUICK 8 has a lot of interesting stuff in it. DESPERATION and THE REGULATORS were certainly a cool idea he had no idea how to make work. It's all just a flow of trash, junk, and mediocrity. NEEDFUL THINGS seemed like some kind of gleeful revenge fantasy where he got to dole out horrible, EC Comics style come uppances to thinly disguised versions of everybody he was mad at. TOMMYKNOCKERS and DREAMCATCHER were just bewildering.
Over the past few years I've seen bits and pieces of King's work I liked, but mostly it is still disappointing. THE INSTITUTE is pointless junk. REVIVAL seems silly but that ending is pure raw high octane Lovecraftian terror and almost worth sludging through the rest of the narrative to get to. DR. SLEEP is offensively stupid; King's characterization depends on presenting narrative events from the third person-first person viewpoint of his characters, and we spent far too much time behind Jack Torrance's eyes to be willing to believe he'd ever had an affair, much less one that knocked the girl up.
One of the sections of HEARTS IN ATLANTIS, about the kid who gets involved with the guy who escaped from the Dark Tower and is being pursued by Low Men In Yellow Coats, is actually really enjoyable; it inspired me to write one of my own novellas.
Still, for the most part, if you haven't read CARRIE, SALEM'S LOT, NIGHT SHIFT, THE SHINING, THE STAND (not the uncut edition, if you can avoid that, do it, King badly needs gifted editors), THE DEAD ZONE, FIRESTARTER, CHRISTINE, and DIFFERENT SEASONS, you haven't read King's best work, or probably the finest horror novels produced in the 20th Century. I would also throw in there two Bachman books – RAGE is a much better book than it is given credit for and deserves far better treatment than to be taken out of print because it predicted a contemporary social evil, and THE RUNNING MAN is one of the best things King has ever written.
Once you get through those, though, the pickings get very slim. There's some glitter in the dirt, but it is mostly fool's gold and often it's buried in big piles of shit.
Still, a lot of great writers publish really bad books. My other favorite writer ever, Roger Zelazny, has written some truly unreadable tripe. But he also wrote LORD OF LIGHT and I'll forgive him any number of DAMNATION ALLEYS for that. King wrote SALEM'S LOT and FIRESTARTER and CHRISTINE and “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” and I can forgive him a great deal of fucking nonsense for giving the world those stories. (It is more difficult to forgive the truly terrible TV and movie adaptations his works seem to near universally inspire, but that is another long post entirely.)

Hustler STL has been my home club for a few years now. I'm pretty regular, going weekly and dropping $750-$1500 a visit. Not huge money, but consistent.
I stopped going recently for one key reason. They now want $30 for any drink bought for a dancer. Water, soda, well vodka, doesn't matter. That's the same price as a private lap dance! I can get 2 drinks for that at the ballpark, which is notorious for its insane drink prices.
I may have the money to, but I'd still refuse to pay that if even after I dropped 100x that on a private suite. It's the principal of the matter. I only have money to spend here because I understand spending for value. There is just no value in it and I'd basically be deciding between an additional dance or a drink for the entertainer.
To make it worse, during my last visit I watched dancers about to get on stage or come off stage and get told they needed to pay $30 for a water for themselves. So it seems the rule is just a blanket one. These girls looked thirsty and one was getting yelled at by the bartender about it. I was appalled!!
All of this after the club already raised drink and VIP suite prices this year due to all the inflation. At least that bit is understandable. But another absolutely massive increase feels grubby.
I've written reviews and asked about it on the Instagram, but no responses from this usually responsive club. Am I nuts or does anyone else think that's bizarre and exploitative of both the customers and the dancers?
The price gouging has really turned me off of this club. It's unnecessary, they're doing just fine. Going to check out Diamond Cabaret to see if it could be my new home club. It sucks because my favorite dancers are all Hustler, but I don't go to the club to feel taken advantage of or watch other people get degraded like that.
It just screws with the whole dynamic. When choosing between a drink or a dance, who chooses buying them a drink when there is so little value there? The customer experience has really declined since, and I won't be back until that nonsense is gone.
What are your thoughts? Would you buy a dancer a drink if it cost the same or near the same as the private lap dances? Is $30 expensive for a drink to you at a Midwestern club?

I was so excited to buy a lightning. This community has been great and I've been super excited to read about all things lightning since they were announced. I reserved within 24 hours of the initial announcement and have never owned a Ford vehicle.
Unfortunately, the unavailability of pros or XLTs before the price increases was a deal breaker for me when I was later invited to purchase again and again at much higher prices much later. We live near Boston in Mass and managed to stay a one car family for over a year after moving here. The plan was to replace my wife's 3 row SUV with the F150 lightning. We just purchased a Chevy Bolt EUV instead as a second vehicle. Ended up getting lucky with someone else's cancelled order at the old lower MSRP with $10k of state and federal credits. Anyways, I'm sad to move on from the F150 lightning and hope to see things change for the better in the future. I don't hold it against Ford for adjusting their pricing with the market, but I will not be reserving a vehicle ahead of availability with them in the future (they can get their interest free loans from other suckers) and they did lose an opportunity to convert someone who had never purchased a Ford before (and whose wife will likely never be on board with buying one again).