Suitedjustice's Ongoing Mid-life Crisis

Ozymandias is one of my favorites, brother. I have quoted Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! sarcastically to myself many times. Still, I didn't catch the reference; a bit slow on the uptake today. Thank you for the explication.

one of my more inspired moments
had no idea about the connection

my name is ozzy madness, prince of darkness
look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!

I finished Stephen King's Cujo today. For decades it was the only book of his that I hadn't read, due to King being so wasted on tallboys and nose candy that he couldn't remember writing it. Here we're talking about a period from late 1977 to early 1981.

I figured it would be one of his few early duds, akin to The Tommyknockers, and not worth my time. But it's a solid book, a very good lunchpail 80s horror story with only a hint of the supernatural to add flavor to it. The main driver of the tale is Cujo, a 200lb St. Bernard who catches rabies and stops being a good boy in a big way.

Spoiler

Show

Cujo! Did you get into grandma's preserves again? Cujo?

I'm not sure how the movie wraps up, but the book ends grimly.

What struck me most were the characters. They were effortlessly well developed, living and breathing on the page, as per King's usual output. But how?

Most people in the throes of a years-long alcohol and cocaine addiction cycle have trouble relating to the live humans around them. How did King create new people and set them in motion and live their lives with them while he was in that state?

King made me care about whether or not two advertising executives could avoid losing their main account after a food dye debacle that had the client's breakfast cereal customers shitting bright red. And he did that while getting wrecked on a daily basis.

Would Cujo have been even better if he'd written it while sober? Who knows? It probably would have been different, or not have existed at all.

Speaking of addictions: I've finally finished playing Cyberpunk 2077. No more video games for me for a long time. I got out to the casino and worked more when I was drinking, for Chrissakes.

Now that that's over, I hope to bestir myself soon and be back here reporting numbers.

The Dry 2024-2025 Challenge Update

January: ✓
February: ✓
March: ✓
April: ✓
May: ✓
June: ✓
July: ✓
August: ✓
September: ✓
October: ✓
November: ✓
December: ✓
January: ✓
February: ✓
March:✓
April: ✓
May: ✓
June: ✓
July: ✓
August: UNLOCKED

In terms of keeping sober, it was an easy month. In terms of working and being motivated to work, I would rate my July effort 0/10, no stars, no bullet.

Fortunately, I received some unexpected IRS money back from overpaying on last year's health care premiums; the amount only slightly more than enough to cover for a July's worth of goldbricking, so I've been given one more chance to redeem myself.

The rest of that money is going into the Jeep, which is back in the shop. It has a coolant leak, which is counterproductive for long summer commutes, to say the least. The brakes are also soft, and it needs to pass the yearly state inspection, as the sticker expired yesterday. I should get the Jeep back on Monday, if everything goes well.

Rolling Stone's 465th Greatest Album of All Time: The Best of the Classic Years by King Sunny Adé (2003)

I do not peek at the upcoming albums in this—my extremely slow journey up through Rolling Stone's top 500. And after downing a full plate of sometimes challenging, often enjoyable 1960s psychedelia, 2010s pop country, Mexican tejano, Puerto Rican reggaeton, world nomad Latino, old school reggae, and rap from New Orleans, L.A. and Atlanta, this middle-aged white boy is ready—I'll sheepishly admit—for Rolling Stone to play some Freebird; in a figurative sense, for a given value of Freebird, which for me would be some sludgy album from the grunge years, Badmotorfinger or some such.

Instead, they gave me some juju music, a subgenre of old school afropop, by King Sunny Adé from Nigeria, aka Chief Sunday Adeniyi Adegeye, a chief of the Yoruba people, and therefore an actual king, in the ancient sense of the word.

I really can't complain about Rolling Stone's selections thus far. I started this project to broaden my horizons, and that principle is antithetical to me listening to the same old standard white boy rock over and over again until I'm a doddering old wreck lying in a nursing home shaking my feeble fist at the bewildering songs of the future playing on the duty nurse's smart speaker.

"Sunny Ti De" is the first track on the album, and I love its scattered, sometimes dueling 60s surf guitars weaving in between maracas that sound like they've been riding on The Who's "Magic Bus," anchored by a deep bass and corresponding percussion that keep everything from flying to the four winds. The song is 5 1/2 minutes long, but I could easily listen to another 10 1/2 minutes of the same, and I don't say that about many songs.

This is an album that I could put on in the background while I'm getting stuff done around the house, and it would make my work fly by, as the vibes from the music seem uniformly carefree and positive, particularly through the first five songs, which all seem to operate on the same groove.

The sixth track, the 18 minute long "Synchro System", seems to take a more serious turn, but again I have no way of knowing.

Later on, we have "Afai Bowon", which again puts accompanying guitars into each speaker, and their call and response is bouncy and enjoyable.

I've written before about my deficiencies around foreign language lyrics, but in the case of The Best of the Classic Years, I don't feel like I'm missing out from not understanding the words. I very well could be missing a lot, but I don't feel like I am, which is to say I'm getting something good out of the music alone.

Rolling Stone Says:

King Sunny’s slow-roll guitar stretches out toward the horizon, rippling over verdant grooves to create a spellbinding vibe even (or especially) when a song saunters on for 18 minutes. Talking Heads and Phish are just two of the bands who’ve proudly cited the sound of Adé’s music as a guiding influence.

That's a damn solid paragraph. Nothing for me to counterpoint here.

I hit 30 pushups today, up from the 6 I started with in March. I've taken my sweet time working up to that modest milestone, but the fact that I'm still working the routine affirms the longevity of my "take it easy" approach.

Back when I was a youngster, I would blow up like a novelty balloon whenever I applied myself to an exercise routine; so much so that for a few weeks there were rumors going around my high school that I was taking steroids.

I wasn't. While I've always been a drug aficionado, steroids never appealed to me; their permanent side effects seemed too dire.

Now that I'm a middle-aged dude, I'm still chubby after weeks of pushups and crunches. My belly still protrudes, though it's quite solid now, so it changes direction at the same time as the rest of me, contrary to its former habit of lagging behind for a second. My triceps have shown some decent growth. I like grabbing on to them occasionally. Makes me feel more...stable. Could be why some bouncers like to cross their arms. It's the muscle equivalent of stroking your beard.

Unfortunately, my manboobs are only marginally more square; they're no longer purely mammary-shaped, but still a long way from being classified as pecs. I'd like to get to 100 pushups at some point, but I'm starting to apprehend that my body will not be transformed as I'd hoped, as it was of old.

Still, if I can get to 100 pushups—and a split; let's not forget the split—with a middle-aged dadbod, the potential for showing off and winning prop bets would make it worthwhile.

Just food for thought : I like to combine 10 planks with my series of 10 pushups, as you are already in the said position, hence it is not time consuming (literally 10-20 seconds to add 10 planks to the 10 pushups). GL friend

I'm not sure 1-2 second planks do much.

It is noted that, 1-2 second planks is more than I do.

I might consider adding a one minute plank, but I have to be careful. In the past, slowly adding new exercises until I was fed up with the routine was one of the ways I got myself to quit.

Below is the current Pirate's Booty Bucket list of media to consume.

The numbers in parentheses are either the total number of seasons in the active list, or total number of episodes in the finished list. No parentheses means the show has more seasons coming. After the parentheses come the season and the episode that I'm currently watching.

I'm not making much progress on the book list, as Barnes & Noble has let me down, so I'll have to try either the library, Amazon (eww), or one of the used bookstores in the college towns around me. I don't like Kindle.

TV Shows, Current Rotation

Killjoys (5) 5,6
Louie (5) 3,11
Mad Men (7) 4,4
Only Murders in the Building 2,3
Star Trek: Lower Decks (5) 2,3

TV Shows To Watch

The 100
1899
Absolutely Fabulous
Alice in Borderland
American Fiction
American Horror Story
Arrested Development
Assistant Principals
Baby Reindeer
Barry
Better Off Ted
Black Books (2000)
Brave New World
The Civil War
Clerks: The Animated Series
Community
Dark
Dark Winds
Daybreak
Devs
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
The Dirt
Doctor Who
Documentary Now
Eastbound and Down
The Eternauts
Euphoria
Evil
Extras
Falling Skies
Farscape
Flashforward
Flight of the Conchords
The Franchise
Fringe
From
Hacks
High Fidelity
Hit Monkey
I'm Alan Partridge
The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret
In The Know
Invasion
Invincible
Kaos
Killing Eve
Kingdom
Krapopolis
Lazarus Project
Long Story Short
Love, Death and Robots
Maniac
The Martian Chronicles
Murderbot
NOS4A2
Orange Is the New Black
Orphan Black
Our Flag Means Death
Ozark
Planet Earth
Reservation Dogs
Russian Doll
Sam & Max
Santa Clarita Diet
Schitt's Creek
Seinfeld
Shogun
Slow Horses
Sons of Anarchy
The Studio
Sweet Home
Stargate: SG-1
The Tick (Live Action)
The Twilight Zone
Travelers
Under the Dome
Utopia
Vice Principals
X-Files
The Wire
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

TV Shows, Currently Caught Up

3 Body Problem (2,1)
The Boys (5,1)
Conan O'Brien Must Go (2,1)
Dark Matter (2,1)
Delicious in Dungeon (2,1)
Fallout (2,1)
Foundation (3,1) [9/12]
Good Omens (3,1)
The Handmaid's Tale (6,1)
The Last of Us (3,1)
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (3,1)
Rick & Morty (9,1)
Secret Level (2,1)
Severance (3,1)
Shoresy (5,1)
Silo (3,1)
Ted (2,1)
Ted Lasso (4,1)
Wednesday (2,1) [9/3]
The Witcher (4,1)

TV Shows, Finished

11.22.63 (8)
12 Monkeys (47)
30 Rock (139)
American Gods (26)
Archer (145)
Band of Brothers (10)
The Beatles: Get Back (3)
Better Call Saul (63)
Blackadder (24)
Bojack Horseman (76)
Bupkis (8)
Castle Rock (20)
Chernobyl (5)
Cobra Kai (65)
Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (84)
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (13)
Disenchantment (50)
Drunk History (70)
The Expanse (62)
Fawlty Towers (12)
Fleabag (12)
Freaks and Geeks (18)
The Freak Brothers (16)
Game of Thrones (73)
The Good Place (53)
Gravity Falls (40)
Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law (39)
History of the World Part II (8)
I, Claudius (12)
John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's in L.A. (6)
The Larry Sanders Show (90)
Letterkenny (81)
Mike Judge Presents: Tales From the Tour Bus (16)
Mr. McMahon (6)
M.O.D.O.K. (10)
Mr. Robot (45)
Mythic Quest (40)
Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King (8)
Rome (20)
The Orville (36)
The Queen's Gambit (7)
Red Dwarf (74)
Ren Faire (3)
The Righteous Gemstones (36)
Side Quest (4)
The Sopranos (86)
Squid Game (22)
Station Eleven (10)
Tiger King (12)
Time Bandits (10)
The Vietnam War (2017) (10)
w/Bob and David (4)
Wandavision (9)
Watchmen (9)
Westworld (36)
What We Do in the Shadows (61)
The Wheel of Time (24)

TV Shows, Watch Occasionally

Andor (1,11)
Babylon 5 (1,9)
Fargo (4,5)
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2,7)
The Man in the High Castle (1,8)
My Next Guest Needs No Introduction (2,6)
Parks & Recreation (2,11)
The Sandman (1,7)
Solar Opposites (1,7)
Stranger Things (4,2)
Trailer Park Boys (2,2)
Twin Peaks (2,16)
Veep (1,7)

Movies To Watch

Aladdin
Big Wednesday
The City of Lost Children
Dark City (Director's Cut if possible)
Drag Me to Hell
Dredd
Fanny and Alexander
Fyre
Gothic
The House (2017)
JCVD
La La Land
L.A. Confidential
The Last Detail
The Lego Batman Movie
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Nirvana
Paradise Alley
Pee-Wee As Himself
The People vs. Larry Flynt
The Phoenician Scheme
Safety Not Guaranteed
Sunset Boulevard

Books To Read

Hothouse, Brian Aldiss
Tiger Tiger, Alfred Bester
The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
The Sins of the Fathers, Lawrence Block
The Dispossessed, Ursula Le Guin
A Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge
Blindsight, Peter Watts

I just spent a long time reading this thread, really enjoyable stuff! I live in CT so I play at MGM Springfield occasionally, although Mohegan Sun is my main room. I am also a casual in the AP slots world, having gotten into checking machines about a year ago. The last time I was at MGM Springfield in June I spent a good amount of time on the Ultimate X machines, sorry about that! When I was on the slot floor I did notice that there was a lot of competition which tracks with what I've read in your thread. Of course there is competition at Mohegan too, but it seemed more noticeable at MGM, maybe just because of how much smaller the slot floor is.

I'm curious, have you ever spent any time playing on the regulated online casinos in CT? Those have been the most consistent source of EV for me, and it's what got me into advantage gambling beyond poker. Mohegan Sun's online casino in particular offers a couple hundred dollars worth of promotions every month and they only require a 1X play through on the bonus funds (as opposed to the online casinos in NJ which require you to play through your bonus funds 20x or more to withdraw).

Looking forward to following along with this thread in the future! Maybe our paths will cross at the poker table some day too, if they haven't already.

Fair enough and great that you have kept the routine thus far, which is obviously the most important

I had a personal Muay Thai teacher that taught me a series of incredibly useful exercises, planks being one of them, that being said, the way I used "planks" might of been lost in translation... As if one were to simply hold up on his hands (palms?), it would be 1-3 minutes, but what I meant is that one touches each shoulder with his free (alternating right and left) hand, while holding up the position with the other hand. Which, granted, is not very hard to do and perhaps has a very limited impact on the abs, but a series of 10 also literally takes 10-15 seconds to do, a bit more if one wants to hold up in the plank position. Come to think of it, the term is probably not "plank"...

Hi Dan GK, thanks for reading so much and for the kind words! I haven't been to CTs online casinos. I don't spend enough time in the state to get an account.

Have you found a play at Mohegan's $5, 10-hand Ultimate X machine over in one of their high roller nooks? That would be a $250 spin at 5 coins ($500 for the 10-coin punters), and a dealt royal (or a dealt 4 aces with a low kicker at triple double) would win $200,000, if my sometimes-janky math is correct.

I found a 5-hand play on the $5 once for $125; but no joy, I believe I broke even or lost a little on it.

No I actually don't think I've checked a single machine in the high limit areas. For some reason I just assumed that it would bring extra attention from security. I will try it out sometime though. $500/spin is a bit intimidating, but I'm guessing it's pretty rare to find a leftover multiplier on a spin that big. I am generally pretty conservative on higher denomination slot play, but I think I would feel comfortable taking a shot at a big Ultimate X play.

If you're ever in CT with some down time, the Mohegan Sun online casino offers an introductory deposit bonus of 100% up to $500 (again with just a 1x playthrough, and with plenty of high RTP games to choose from). As close to free money as it gets!

Thanks for the tip! That is a great intro bonus.

As for the high limit X, it's $250 for us as we only play 5 coins and deal once, unless it's a Bonus Streak variant, then we have to pay 10 and make sure there are enough multipliers to cover the additional cost.

Ah gotcha that makes sense. On my initial readthrough of your post, I misunderstood and thought it was $250/spin for 5-play or $500/spin for 10-play. That doesn't make much sense given the $5 denomination though. Pretty sick either way. Would definitely be a great time for a royal.

I actually have never played Bonus Streak before. Learning the strategy for that game is one of the things I will take away from reading your thread. I usually have a very limited amount of time when I am at the casino so by the time I finish my poker session and checking slots, I never make it past more than a couple regular Ultimate X machines.

The set up at MGM where you can easily check Ultimate X machines while waiting for a seat at the poker table is really nice. Definitely wish we had that at Mohegan Sun.

I don't know why I was harping on some little dumb detail. Sorry about that. But all this talk about X is inspiring me to get back to the floor. Hopefully the shop will have my Jeep ready today.

Aww, he thinks he's people.

I finished it, and cleared all the endings and trophies and whatnot. There turned out to be a couple of save points in the secret ending; I'd just missed them on my first go-round.

Good game. I'll recommend it very highly, though the lower-tier console versions are still full of bugs, despite several patches over the years, but so are my other favorite games like Fallout: New Vegas and Skyrim. Gives them character.

Now it's time to ease myself back into reality.

Serious question - How do you survive with no income?

Had some small savings and investments to cash in, did some freelance work, won occasionally at the casino, ran up credit card debt, lived fairly cheaply.

Standard First World idler stuff.

I'm guessing that you made your way around the world for many months in a similar fashion.