u/GetInTheBasement

It's interesting how even long-time fans of his work can have mixed feelings about McCarthy's punctuation choices, or lack thereof.

For instance, when I first picked up Blood Meridian, the lack of punctuation was a little jarring and alien at first, but I quickly got used to it and it kind of grew on me from there. Meanwhile, I had a friend who's a huge McCarthy fan who found his lack of punctuation frustrating, and the lack of conventional punctuation was one of the only things he disliked about McCarthy's writing while loving everything else.

I was curious to hear how some of you felt about it, whether it's good, bad, mixed, neutral, etc.

I currently live in a unit with no carpets (LVP flooring) and one short hair cat, and no kids, and was thinking about getting a Miele Classic C1 Turbo Team because I heard it was great for homes with short carpets or no carpets, and was both powerful and compact and easy to carry around.

I've never owned a Miele before, and was looking to get some feedback from people on this sub who may have had experiences with this vacuum, both positive and negative, before taking the plunge.

I just want something reliable, and long-lasting with powerful suction that's good for vacuuming hard floors, base boards, and heavy dust/hair/fur.

I have a 16-in MBP that I recently upgraded to Tahoe 26.5.1.

Ever since the update, I've noticed that every time I turn on or log in again, the default output sound setting always gets reset to FonePaw Recording Audio Driver instead of staying at the Macbook Pro Speakers default sound output.

I'm tired of having to manually going back into my sound settings and switching it back to Macbook Pro Speakers every time I log in or power it on again, and was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to deal with this?

I don't believe I ever had this issue with Sequoia.

To give some background, I've been using CSP EX Version 1.13.2 since 2023 and haven't upgraded or used any newer versions since (currently device is a 2024 Macbook Pro).

Despite being frozen in time for three years, the program has been great to me, but a friend recently sent me a link to Graphixly having a huge sale on CSP EX Ver. 5.0, so after using 1.13.2 for three years straight, I finally caved and bought EX Ver 5.0.

I haven't opened it yet, but even though I'm excited to finally be using a more recent version of my favorite art program, I'm also a little nervous about what to expect because I've basically been using the exact same version of 1.13.2 for three years with no updates, and have also since updated my laptop to a 2024 Macbook Pro since then.

Before I jump in, I wanted to ask if there's anything I should expect as someone who's only used 1.13.2 for the past few years, or if I should anticipate any unexpected changes or interruptions to my workflow when trying to transfer my workspace over?

Likewise, I wanted to ask if my saved workspace from 1.13.2 will seamlessly transfer over as long as I've updated and saved it to the CSP Cloud?

I almost feel like a caveman stepping out of time on this one, so any advice or input would be greatly appreciated before I take the leap into a whole new version of CSP EX after using an older version for a long time.

Throughout the novel, Judge Holden is frequently described as holding a cigar or actively smoking one, including in the very first scene in which he's introduced in the church.

My main guess is it's to show how detached and affected he is from the environments he's in, and maybe playing into the aspect of his character that thrives on domination and disregarding social norms (like openly smoking in the church), but I was curious if there were other reasons that went beyond that.

I know multiple people have tried and failed to bring Blood Meridian to the big screen over the years, but I read the most recent attempt involves an adaptation by John Hillcoat that's supposedly in the works by New Regency.

For those wondering, John Hillcoat previously directed another McCarthy adaptation, The Road (2009), and the screenplay is said to be written by John Logan, who co-wrote Gladiator (2000).

I believe the project was first announced around 2024-2025ish, and is still ongoing, but I haven't seen any major filming updates since then.

A know a lot of people have mixed feelings on BM being potentially adapted to film, but I'd be curious to hear what your thoughts or musings on the most recent undertaking?

Do you think Hillcoat's attempt will be more likely to make it to screen? Do you think it's stalled? Is there another director you think would be better suited to adapt the material?

Long story short, I recently found out one of the hobby groups I've been attending for roughly the past year that was hosted by a male friend was created mainly as a way for him to meet women, and he wasn't upfront about this (will explain how this relates to 4B later on).

For the record, I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with people wanting to join hobby groups or clubs with the intention of meeting people, forming connections with others, making friends, or meeting potential romantic partners, but I feel like it's an entirely different ball game when you form a group where the the primary underlying core purpose is meeting women and/or increasing your chances of coupling with said women, all while trying to sell it as a general all-inclusive hobby space for shared passions, discussions, and socializing.

The male friend in question never made a move on me and was fairly respectful in most group settings, but I recently found this out after there was a falling out our shared friend group (not going into super specific details due to privacy reasons), and I'm mostly just pissed that he advertised the group as a place for people from different walks of life to come together and respectfully talk about, analyze, and engage with shared entertainment-based interests and others who felt the same with zero romantic or dating-related overtones mentioned whatsoever.

What's weird is he could have just as easily advertised it as a hobby-related singles or mingling group, but chose to portray it as a general hobby group despite the core purpose being mainly for him to increase his chances of meeting and coupling with women who just happened to like the same things as him, which raises additional questions.

For what it's worth, I'm fully aware that the practice of men scheming up weird ploys just to increase their chances of meeting women or disarming and "getting close" to women isn't anything new to me, but it's mainly how often they:

1. aren't honest, direct, or upfront with their intentions and
2. seem to get off from the subterfuge of it all. Like they get an ego boost from drawing us closer to them via outright lies, or lies by omission, and that just makes their "conquest" and acquisition of us all the sweeter to them.

Time and time again, I keep seeing this play out at multiple levels in how they date, marry, and befriend women.

So many of their interactions with us are built on lies (including lies by omission) or deception, and we often don't find out until there's a mask slip, or we start to notice weird recurring patterns in their behavior that don't add up.

I still remember a video I watched ages ago where a woman talked about how men will pick up certain hobbies or careers with the primary purpose of getting more access to women via fame, money, success, musicianship, acting ability, fanbase, etc. and basically just shape their entire lives around potential access to women.

What sucks is I legit met and made some enjoyable friendships with a number of people in the group, but I'm probably going to peace out in the near future and just hang out with those people in other settings on our own time.

If any of you have similar experiences with men using hobbies, meetups, or "hanging out" just to get closer to you (or other women in general), feel free to share.