Time to catch up on what we all have been readin’.
SugarFree
Snowman (1977) by Norman Bogner
Possibly the most deranged Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Yeti/STEVE SMITH novel of all the ones I have read. The Yeti is functionally immortal, having been alive since at least the last ice age, and rides an ice floe to North America in search of food and winds up in the California Sierras, at a struggling ski resort and promptly dismembers and devours a visiting beauty queen. To keep everything hush-hush, the resort hires the only two survivors of a Yeti attack, a Native American tracker, some appropriately-grizzled Vietnam vets, to hunt and kill the lava-blooded 25-foot Yeti with nuclear-tipped crossbow bolts. Ignore the Jaws rip-off plot and just revel in the madness.
The 1977 movie, Snowbeast, with a near-identical plot came out the same year and doesn’t seem to be related in any way.
Toy Cemetary (1987) by William W. Johnstone
I could only produce a faint shadow of a review compared to Grady Hendrix:
Welcome to the Olympics of horror cliches, where splitting up is the only way to do anything, conversations inevitably end the second shocking revelations are teased, and a tiny living doll screaming and stabbing you in the foot is dismissed as “Only the wind.” If Jay was not in a horror novel he never would have come back to this town where his entire family went missing one day when he was 17 and where he’s haunted by memories of “that awful night” when he and some high school friends snuck into the Old Abandoned Clute Place and were attacked by ghosts. But, as the police say, “Lots of folks just take off and are never heard from again,” and as for the ghost attack, he’d prefer not to think about it.
The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe (1973) by D.G. Compton
I’ve known about Compton for a long time and had him “read eventually” pile, which is at least a thousand books long at this point. I even know the basics of the story from the 1980 movie adaption Death Watch. But none of it prepared me for reading The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe. Compton is a fabulous writer, lyrical and engaging. Just amazing. The plot anticipates reality TV, and in the future, where death by anything but old age is uncommon, the biggest shows follow people dying young of the rare incurable disease. Katherine Mortonhoe is given four weeks to live and is assigned Roddy, a journalist with implanted camera eyes to follow her in her grief and mourning of her impending death.
And in the predictive science fiction sense, the novel is eerily prescient. Social credit scores, protests blocking traffic for days on end, a permanent underclass that seeks to avoid ubiquitous government surveillance, the constant social churn of easy divorce.
mexican sharpshooter
I’ve been reading Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction epic: Dune. I get why people like it, and I similarly get why people hate it. I decided if I am to see the movie this weekend, I absolutely need to read the book in order to know how Hollywood screwed it up. And I assume they jacked it up royally.
Swiss Servator
Federal Acquisition Regulation, Volume I, II (Parts 1-53) 1,937 pages of all that is wrong with America. Reading induces nausea, sleepiness, outrage and boredom.
I’m reading “Between the Rivers, a History of Mesopotamia”. The title pretty much covers it, it’s a nonfiction piece about mespotamia from the prehistoric stone age to the death of Alexander. Fairly interesting, but due to the timescale, can’t get too in-depth.
I’m writing… “The Prismatic Jungle” the tale of a guy who’s unhappy about his ugly loot in a multicolored island paradise hellscape.
Finished:
“Throneycroft to SA80: British Bullpup Firearms 1901-2020” by Jonathan Ferguson.
Reading (well, haven’t actually started, but will soon):
“Defying Hitler” by Sebastian Haffner.
Working through the novelization of Coheed and Cambria’s “Year of the Black Rainbow” – don’t think I ever finished it before. Got an anthology of stories set in Ringo’s “Dark Tide Rising” universe up next.
Oooh, that looks like it would be up my alley.
I’ve been reading Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction epic: Dune. I get why people like it, and I similarly get why people hate it. I decided if I am to see the movie this weekend, I absolutely need to read the book in order to know how Hollywood screwed it up. And I assume they jacked it up royally.
It’s been years since I read “Dune”. I think I need to re-read it, but I’m not going to do so before I see the new movie which I’ll watch this weekend.
Yeah…been at least a decade since I last read it – but I’d say its a lot more true to the book than the Lynch version. Being able to not try and cram the entire story into a single movie definitely helps.
I enjoyed it.
The best thing the movie had going for it was to condense, but keep important scenes.
A bunch of murderous tribals led by a drugged-up lunatic try to cripple interstellar commerce.
“A bunch of murderous tribals led by a drugged-up lunatic try to cripple interstellar commerce.”
But enough about American politics…
“And I assume they jacked it up royally.”
Saw it yesterday….it was actually well done, and faithful to the book. I was surprised.
Me too, seems like it glossed over some of the important political points, mostly in dealing with the Guild, but that wouldn’t film well anyway.
The “Twin Peaks Dune” kind of shoe-horned some of that in, but just for the weirdness.
Same here. Read Dune a very long time ago, will not reread before I watch the new flick. Whenever that is.
So….before I have to get ready for work – in response to my tablet interest, Tundra suggested a chromebook as a cheap alternative.
I found this link: https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/best-chromebooks
But open to other suggestions/info – I barely ever use chrome for browsing (except for certain sites that have issues right now). Would I be able to run an MS office suite on that? I know I can with a tablet.
As far as the stuff I was talking about before – are there additional benefits to a chromebook as an interim fullsize windows laptop? Software compatibility, itunes support, USB, etc functionality?
I’ll do some more research browsing when I get into the office this afternoon, but feel free to send links/recommendations. I’ll try and do some hands-on for both types of systems this weekend.
Chromebook advantages are they’re cheap. Downside is that they’re primarily designed to be cloud based. This means you would be able to access O365 or Google Docs for office suite applications.
The Surface may fit your needs, it has the disadvantage of being expensive, but with the keyboard attachment and the like, it can function as either a tablet or a semi-laptop.
Chromebooks are alright if you don’t mind everything living “in the cloud”. It doesn’t have to be Google’s cloud, though obviously it’s going to be easier if you go with the grain, but it’s important to note that they’re not really equivalent to “real” laptops. You can get terabytes of local SSD storage affordably in a real laptop; the biggest Chromebook you can get has only 128 GB.
The big pro of course of cloud-by-default is that your stuff is automagically backed up all the time; the device itself could get nuked and you wouldn’t lose anything except the hardware. The big con is that it’s not yours, it’s theirs, and they can and do change policies pretty much any time they want. Of course, all the major tech companies are slowly trying to drive people away from ownership anyhow, but you still do have the choice.
As stated, the Chrome OS is all cloud based. meaning you can’t do anything if you’re not connected to the internet. The upside is it is backed up ‘in the cloud’. The downside is it is run ‘in the cloud’. It’s not an OS in any meaningful sense. If you can’t run a program in a Chrome browser you can’t run it on Chrome OS.
Chrome OS is a (very unusual) flavor of Linux. You can run locally installed programs on it, and even the “native” apps to the platform can function without “the cloud” if they are designed that way (most aren’t, to be fair, and will, at least, lose some major functionality if used “offline”). But you definitely have to be an “advanced user” to go down that path.
I went a little crazy with the scare quotes there.
So it’s probably simpler to just get a normal laptop, reformat, and install your preferred distro?
That’s the budget issue. I’m looking at a samsung galaxy Tab A7 as a “temporary” stand-in (while my laptop is still surviving) that will give me more “functionality” while traveling – but I’ll keep my laptop set up on station at home for stuff – printing, back-ups, more program functionality, etc – but don’t have to rely on it as heavily for “simple” browsing and videos – which seem to be slowly killing it in terms of processing….
My laptops have never been above the $150-300 range. I don’t know what the price on the Tab A7 is.
Now I’m embarrassed by how much money I spent on my last laptop. That said, I use my laptops until they die, which is 7-10 years. With my last one, I had to go up to Windows 10, which I did not like, but Classic Shell utility makes it bearable.
I put my taskbar vertically on the right. I hear Win 11 doesn’t let you do that.
Mind you my laptop usage consists of typing while on the road, light web browsing, and checking pictures from my camera. So these are not hefty machines.
Yeah…historically I haven’t paid less than $800 and I definitely can’t afford that for the moment (maybe by this time next year – and hopefully my machine will still be chugging along). Although I now know I can look at models that don’t include a built-in dvd-burner – which may bring the price down…
I’ve had to travel a lot with my machines for work/military stuff over the years. Having a tablet would let me do pretty much all the stuff I normally do on the road without needing to lug my laptop on the plane or other trips – and probably smoother connectivity to the wifi than I’ve been having recently in a lot of places.
If you’re seriously considering the tablet route, the iPad is a far better choice because of the support.
You can get a refurb one for the same as a new Tab. I’ve had both, and with the Apple, you don’t get the compatibility problems that crop up with Android tablets.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Apple-iPad-Tablet-9-7-Twister-Dual-core-2-Core-1-85-GHz-32-GB-Storage-iOS-10-Space-Gray-Refurbished/990105807
How would I not have compatibility issues? Everything I have right now is Windows or Android (phone).
I use my laptops until they die – IBM, Gateway, Toshiba, now Lenovo – and I’ve gotten a max of 5.5 years out of them with an average lifespan of 4 yrs before they just give up the ghost (normally the display first). This Lenovo’s on about 3.5 years so far.
Well for one, iTunes/Apple Music will be a native app.
But in general, I’ve had far more problems with Android tablets and discontinued support for models than I have had with Apple. Also, the selection of apps for the iPad is far more extensive and they tend to work better.
And the Google apps you use on your Android phone all run very well on the Apple products, so there’s no loss of access.
I’ll look. I haven’t had issues with my Samsung S7 phone which is now over 3 years old (and paid off) and I’ve had good experiences with other Samsung hardware. Reviews have been very good.
As far as Itunes – I know the big headline earlier this year or last year was that Windows Itunes stuff was “safe” but Apple Music was transitioning to some weird system where your purchased songs might disappear or get rotated out or some other weird function.
I’ve only ever had Apples Ipods. Never really given serious consideration to buying anything else from them.
You can get good refurbished laptops from PC Liquidations https://www.pcliquidations.com/c8—laptops
I’ll add http://www.woot.com as another good alternative. Low end refurb Windows laptops for sub $300 right now. I’m typing on a Lenovo “school issue” laptop I got from there for less than $150 a couple months ago. I wouldn’t recommend going that cheap (*waits for computer to catch up with typing*) but many of the sub-300 laptops seem sufficient.
I have a Samsung Tab and it works great.
I use it for moderate web surfing and my vehicle repair manuals are stored on it.
?
And you get rid of the Googly eyes
Thanks for the feedback. Maybe I wasn’t as clear in my Tablet discussion previously. As a temp/short term laptop replacement. My plan so far involves get a 1TB microSD card and one of those nice cheap USB DVD-burners, and maintain my backups with my external HDs. I *hate* the cloud concept.
I might keep some emails in draft format so that I can access them from different locations/machines – but that’s about it.
Something like this
Thanks again for the comments and feedback. Hope I don’t sound too combative, but this comment format doesn’t always lend itself to back and forth discussion.
Also…sigh….just realized that I did fail to clarify in my initial point one other thing (mentioned in the past but not today).
I do have a Navy-issued laptop that is fully functional. I got it when I switched units last year and I’ll probably keep it (or another one) till I leave this unit or retire whichever comes first (rank has it’s privileges). A lot of reserve-related stuff at my last unit could be done on my personal machine, but with this unit, I have to do it on an official machine. Plus…I can check my email and type stuff up to email to myself for printing, etc – since I can’t plug into my personal printer.
Because of this I actually traveled with 2 laptops this summer for my reserve stuff – one of which had to stay with me/unchecked the entire time for security purposes. A tablet would be simpler in that context as well.
But yeah, tomorrow I will take a look at some of the chromebooks as well for reference. Hesitant to get too far outside my comfort zone when it comes to some tech stuff though…get so used to certain formats/programs/etc – hard to have to switch even when forced to by circumstances.
Finished reading “Mine!: How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives” after hearing the Econtalk podcast with the author. As usual, I got more of the podcast than I did from the book.
Currently reading “Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator”. It’s ok but kind of repetitive and mostly boils down to don’t trust what you read online. It’s interesting to me that it’s written by the same guy who does The Daily Stoic.
As for Dune, I saw the movie a couple days ago and really liked it. I read the book decades ago, so I remember some of the basics of the story, but I don’t remember so much that I’m burdened by worrying about how it differs from the book.
I’m reading “still, about halfway through” A Peace to End All Peace. I keep reading a couple pages then sleep-reading a few more, and then wonder how in the world I got to the page I’m on, and don’t understand what’s happening, so I go back a few.
Anyone else sleep-read? Where you keep turning pages and think you’re understanding/absorbing what you’re reading, but later find out it’s some sort of dream related gibberish, but you have advanced your place in the book physically?
Is that the one about the Middle East, post-WWI?
If so, I read that this year. Way too detailed and not super-well written either. Excellent on information but the execution was not great.
I think I disagree about this book. I like the detail, and it’s written pretty well, as far as historical books go. I often get lost in the weeds when historians write, assuming some knowledge of other or adjacent subjects on the part of the reader, or, even worse, talking about things that haven’t happened yet in the history as if it is understood we knew about them already. Then they come back to the present subject, and then end up in another tangent. I’m not sure why that’s so common in histories.
The sleep-reading is not a function of the book, but of my own state of tiredness when I get around to reading right before bed.
assuming some knowledge of other or adjacent subjects on the part of the reader
Oh have I got the book for you! You’ll hate me and then thank me, because even though it does that shit in spades, it is a great, great book.
From Dawn to Decadence
Wow, did he seriously write and publish that at age 94?
And he published after.
Anyone else sleep-read? Where you keep turning pages and think you’re understanding/absorbing what you’re reading, but later find out it’s some sort of dream related gibberish, but you have advanced your place in the book physically?
Yep. Drives me up a wall.
What happens to me is that my mind starts doing the writing, including dialogue if it’s a novel. Doesn’t usually go on more than a few pages worth before I realize I’m doing it (or, I assume, fall asleep and don’t remember doing it). But it’s a pretty strange experience.
Speaking of movies – Edgar “Shaun of the Dead” Wright’s new original horror/thriller flicks “Last Night in Soho” is out this weekend. Planning to catch that one tomorrow. Dude is definitely a new breed of auteur when it comes to directing.
Any comedy, or played straight?
There might be some situational comedies, but as far as I can tell from the trailers (avoiding spoilers, articles, etc) – looks like the horror will be pretty straightforward more like Baby Driver.
1973 and 1977 are the same year? Apparently SF can bend time.
Warty’s Timecock suit…
*AHEM* Timesuit. The Doomcock of Doom is a separate accessory.
/Canon
I was hoping to elicit a response like this.
But I just always assumed the Timesuit was powered by trillions of massive Timecocks that had been collapsed into singularities and woven into the fabric of the Timesuit.
Hmmm. A good question for SugarFree!
Warty tried that for a few subjective eons, but the expired timecocks became a disposal problem.
“… a separate accessory.”
It’s detachable?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byDiILrNbM4
1973 is a typo. But if you think time is real I’m not sure what I can do to help you.
Just picked up the latest Dresden book as it just hit paperback, hoping to get it read this weekend.
TW: wall of text incoming ;-\
Books September/October 21
Barbara Owen: E. Power Biggs, Concert Organist. Having loved Biggs’s organ recordings of the 60s and 70s, this was a pleasure to read. It’s a bit “arm’s length,” focused much more on his career than his life, but that’s not a distinction he’d have drawn with a sharp line. Recommended to fans of the pipe organ, and to a lesser extent, of recording technology. Biggs’s career spanned the time from radio broadcast to 78s to 33 1/3s, to stereo, and then quadraphonic. (The surround sound SACD of Bach’s Four Great Toccatas and Fugues at Freiburg is a superb recording.)
Mary Beard: SPQR, as recommended some months back. The style was overly chatty for my taste, but it is, as advertised, a good concise history of Ancient Rome.
Bill Fitzhugh: Highway 61 Resurfaced. Fun, although a bit contrived. This is book 2 of 2 in the Rick Shannon series. Lots and lots of Southern Blues history, wrapped up in a murder mystery.
Edgar Froese: Force Majeure, the Tangerine Dream autobiography. Most excellent, highly recommended for TD fans. His writing, especially regarding the early years, is disturbingly reminiscent of Ignatious J. Reilly, but he gives a lot of interesting details, ranging from his interactions with Dali, Branson, Bowie, and others, to the ‘inside scoop’ on the Reims Cathedral mess, the aborted second round US tour in 77, and more, much more.
C. J. Cherryh: Emergence, Resurgence, Divergence. Books 19-21 of her Foreigner series. If you like the characters, this is good stuff. We get more of Cajeiri maturing, more Ilisidi, and Damiri, the aiji’s consort, finally steps up. I enjoyed these very much.
Joseph Fink: Welcome to Night Vale. Well, this is seriously weird. I don’t do podcasts so haven’t heard the original setup. Seriously weird. I think I liked it, but I’m not sure I’ll ever read it again. It was slow to really hook me in.
Joseph Fink: It Devours. The second Night Vale novel. Still weird, but this one has a slightly more recognizable story line. Or else I’m getting used to how the author works ;-\ I preferred the first one, oddly enough; it seemed to have more meat on its bones than this one.
Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash. Re-read this after many years. Enjoyed it more than on the first reading, but Stephenson’s never going to be a favorite author. He wrote a somewhat better ending to this than Diamond Age got, which was nice.
Still, I prefer Max Barry’s Lexicon for an exploration of ‘linguistic programming.’
Jasper Fforde: The Last Dragonslayer. It’s been a while since I’ve read any Fforde. This was okay to good. Typically semi-surreal. I’m bogging down in The Song of the Quarkbeast. Fforde tends to have that effect on me; a little goes a long way.
Greg Stolze and various authors: The rule books for Unknown Armies, third edition. I’ve always been a fan of this RPG. 3rd edition seems to have streamlined some mechanics, better (arguably) organized the over-arching world, but retained the vast majority of what I liked in the 2nd edition. Gameplay has become more character/player driven as opposed to pre-structured scenario driven. Aside from longer (collaborative) setup to launch a game, I’m not sure it makes a ton of difference.
Gail Simone: Clean Room graphic novel. A recommendation by Greg Stolze in one of the Unknown Armies rule books. Intense, excellent, fully in keeping with the Unknown Armies’s atmospherics. Very very good, highly recommended. Echoes of Scientology, plus supernatural/unnatural/alien evil. Many twists and turns, much that is unexpected.
Victor LaValle: Big Machine. Another Greg Stolze recommendation. Horror and hope, filled with beautiful lines and phrases. Way outside my usual sphere, very good.
Scott Stein: The Great American Deception. If Tom Holt is a cheap knockoff of Terry Pratchett*, Scott Stein is a dollar store knockoff of Tom Holt. IMNSHO, he’s trying way too hard, and not really succeeding. The footnote stuff got way old way fast.
Slapstick mystery in highly improbable settings within a highly improbable country-spanning mega-mall. Points for avoiding commerce bashing, but that’s not nearly enough to save it.
*Holt’s actually better than ‘cheap knockoff of Pratchett’ but Stein is definitely cheap imitation Holt.
Christopher Paolini: To Sleep In a Sea of Stars. Poorly written, barely engaged my attention. Not recommended. Woman discovers, and is ‘infected’ by an alien symbiote. Many deus ex machina twists ensue. The characters aspire to be 1 dimensional.
On a somewhat related note, I’ve long been a fan of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe books. I’ve been watching episodes of the TV series with Timothy Hutton and Maury Chakin and quite enjoying them. The only downside is having the same actors frequently cast in different roles. It’s tolerable, but it takes a few minutes to get used to. Nice ensemble work, Hutton and Chakin are well cast. No idea if or where this might be streaming; I was gifted the DVD sets of both seasons.
I used to be a huge Nightvale fan, but I haven’t listened to them in over a year – I checked out some of Fink’s other projects and was really really disapointed. Is Nightvale still holding up?
No idea. My only contact has been the 2 novels. I did enjoy the first, despite/because of the seriously weird, which was well handled imho.
So you have this SACD? I’ve tried hunting down this disk several times – the last time was probably 10 years ago. It was near impossible to find and when you did find a copy for sale it was always very expensive – more than I was willing to pay. People who have heard say it is the undisputed king of low frequency bass, provided you have a large capable high end sub.
Yup. Got it years back, upgrading from the vinyl quadraphonic disc. It’s amazing.
The only SACD surround mix I have that is as good is Roxy Music’s Avalon, which is sheer sonic delight.
But the Biggs album was recorded for surround, and Andrew Kazdin was a phenomenal recording engineer.
Best of luck finding copies of either disc — at one point Avalon was fetching $440!
I have Avalon. I was early adopter of SACD/DVD-A , started collecting them back in 2003. Back then my local Best Buy carried a big selection of both formats. I reckon I have 90+ SACD’s and 60 DVD-A’s. Lots of BDA discs, too. I just did a quick search on EBay- there’s a Bigg’s SACD listed for $599. LOL. Do you by chance frequent the Quadrophonic Quad forum?
That’s about when I dived in, +/- a couple of years. I doubt I’ve got 90, but may hit close to 50. I regret that high quality sound and high quality surround mixes have became rather obsolescent.
Of course, there are those cases where, unlike Avalon, the quality & surround mix expose, um, infelicitous aspects of the original. I’m thinking in particular of King Crimson’s Lizard, possibly my favorite KC album. The chorus is unveiled in the surround mix and I’m not a fan — it should have been sustained tones, not ‘ah ah ah’. ;-(
But Avalon was beautifully recorded in the first place, and the surround mix seems to me to be sensitively and artistically done. It’s my non-classical show-off disc ;->
For earth shaking bass, there are also the two discs recorded on the Flentrop in Seattle with its 32′ pedal diapason. The recordings are great. Performances and repertoire, not so much, imnsho.
There’s a surround mix of Biggs playing the 2 Rheinberger organ concertos available on Amazon that I need to pick up. I’ve got the stereo recording. I quite like these works and Biggs does well by them.
But no, not on that forum, nor plugged on to any user community of surround aficionados.
Going through some of the Clive Cussler books that my uncle left me. They are near-pristine hardbacks so the local library gets them when I finish. The one that I’m in the middle of is signed by the author.
Also thoroughly enjoying the “Night Watch” series recommended by Neph. I’m on “Jingo”, fourth book in the series.
A mini-rant: Misuse of technical terms by people who should know better. Latest example (for me) is someone giving a speed in “knots per hour”. A knot is one nautical mile per hour so someone using the phrase is saying, “nautical miles per hour per hour” which is acceleration, not velocity.
/end rant
Welcome to the Disc. Glad you’re enjoying the Discworld books. The Vimes (City Watch) and Death cycles are my favorite ones of the series, but almost all of them are solid works.
Is that the one they adapted into a TV Show? If so, I really enjoyed it.
No.
There was a series of books that the BBC took the name of, dragged into an ally, mugged, and painted up like a clown that was trotted out as a representation of PTerry’s work. It was so loosely based on the novels that Pterry’s daughter spoke out and said it was the Discworld in name only. They did make some passable movies and mini-series on several of the books (Hogfather being my favorite of them).
I saw Hogfather, I think on your rec, and I loved it.
I also saw that Canadian Krampus anthology and loved it too. It’s informing my Krampus story.
Hogfather is part of the Death cycle of the Discworld books. The early ones set up Susan, while the later ones generally focus on the adopted grand-daughter of Death being forced into action due to Death being sidelined.
Continuing on the Krampus stuff, the American Dad Christmas episodes are entertaining as they make Santa the big bad who just spoils kids throughout the world, while Krampus is trying to help them recognize the errors of their ways and become better-adjusted adults.
In my Krampus story, their roles are basically “fun daddy” and “mean mommy”. Krampus is, i deed, toscare kids straight and she feels her duty is to beleaguered parents by way of a “hellscape” where she takes the kids to see the error of their ways. I didn’t want to make Santa the big bad for spoilage, so his purpose is (because most people take care of the gift-giving) is to visit the unjustly imprisoned to give them comfort and hope via a “dreamscape”. In my story, Santa is taken hostage by a demon to steal his magic and lure Krampus into rescuing him so he can steal her magic too.
The fatal flaw is that not every child who needs comfort gets it and not every child who needs a spanking gets it. It’s the “why does God let bad things happen to good people?” conundrum.
Oh, yeah, and a burgeoning idea for a Hansel & Gretel riff.
Gotcha..since I didn’t read, I can enjoy the show without feeling dirty. 🙂
I was able to enjoy the show so long as I chanted “this is not discworld . . . . this is not discworld. . . .” before I started each episode.
Otherwise, it was a travesty that shit all over Pratchett’s finest characters.
#Metoo.
I enjoyed the show, but only by pretending it wasn’t about a disc shaped world on the back of four elephants riding thru space on the back of a giant turtle.
The turtle moves . . . . .
My brother-in-law had us watch Hogfather a number of years ago–it’s his Christmas tradition. I don’t know if it was that I was tired, or had too much beer, but I had no idea what was going on, and it seemed to go on for hours and hours.
I had no idea until right now that it was a Discworld thing. I’ve never read any Pratchett before, and am seriously reconsidering my intent to try Discworld based on this new knowledge.
The movie is over 3 hours (which is why it’s usually split between part 1 and part 2), the book (mass market paperback) is only 354 pages (based on my copy). So depending on your reading speed, you may be able to read the book in the time it takes to watch the movie.
I kind of felt bad that I didn’t enjoy it, because I didn’t want my BIL to think I was shitting on his taste in books/movies. I’ve also heard great things about Pratchett/Discworld from many people, so I’ll eventually give the series a try.
@db – I have a habit of avoiding works that people recommend to me. Partly contrarian, partly because their praise leads to a level of expectation that makes it hard to like the work, or regard it as exceptional as the recommender did
So, how many knots per hour is a boat typically capable of attaining?
A parsec at least.
What’s that in Specific Gravities?
10 newtons
Fig or Apple?
Mmmmmm fig newtons
Original
fig newtonsnewtons are absolutely delicious. Right amount of gooey fruit to biscuit? cumble? pastry?Royal Agent confirmed!
Drats the damn Yank is onto me. Cheerio!
Have you read Feet of Clay yet? That one is the crown jewel of the City Watch series.
That’s a really good one. I just re-read Raising Steam and Snuff. I dig the later Vimes books a lot.
Night Watch is my favorite of the Vimes books.
Night Watch is my #2, although with Sir Terry, it feels like picking my favorite way to have amazing sex..
Indeed it is. It’s probably Pratchett’s most libertarian book.
Raising Steam is a huge favorite of mine. I think it deserves to be read in conjunction with Kate Colquhoun’s “The Busiest Man in England: The Life of Joseph Paxton, Gardener, Architect, and Victorian Visionary,” a book I never tire of recommending. There are similarities between Moist Von Lipwig and Paxton.
Raising Steam has some problems, and quite a few fans (myself included) are of the opinion that Pterry didn’t finish that one himself (an example was giving a POV section from the Patrician). The Shepherd’s Crown did not have that issue and was a lovely (if sad) cap to the series as a whole.
At least we don’t have to worry about anyone else coming around to try to “finish” his uncompleted works.
Could you have resisted the temptation to make a copy just for yourself?
Probably… but it would be hard.
They can probably still recover the data.
They say they ran the disk through a stone crusher after running it over with the steamroller. I’d bet it’s completely gone.
Also, have a close look at that hard disk. Would you have any trouble believing that Pratchett was still, in 2015, working off of a computer that used a 40-pin ATA ribbon cable? And had no backup anywhere else?
Just finished it. It’s #3 in the series according tothis.
Finished: Black as Knight. Fun. Looooong. Surprisingly little sex. Inside jokes. The Protagonist Is Always Right (I assume that’s a genre convention). Use of Idiot Ball (ditto). Recommended. If Mojeaux has any available sisters, I want to meet them.
Starting: Hyperion. Almost couldn’t get it downloaded. United’s connectivity sucks.
The “[female] protagonist is always right” is actually contra genre convention, especially when she says outright, “I’m always right.” Generally, the female can be seen as a doormat, suffering indignities by the hero instead of telling him to fuck off and cutting him off. This makes for a “likable” and “relatable” heroine. Brigdhe is far too arrogant for a standard genre heroine.
Mojeaux, Is Black as Knight a romance?
I tried to read one of your books before, but I can’t get into romance.
I ejnoy the stories you’ve posted here, but could not make it through the book.
Yes, and no worries at all. I don’t get into scifi or fantasy, either, so I understand the feeling completely. When I was a kid, I was a far more adventurous reader, but now my time is limited and I want comfort reads.
Black as Knight is a romp and I had a good time writing it. It also sets up a contemporary character in the first book I published.
Ugh, continuity.
/snark
Thanks, that’ll be my next fun read after Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge.
Huh. I thought it would feed escapist power fantasies, but I know nothing of the form.
Lots and lots of midlife paranormal romance/cozies/fantasy women’s fiction.
Not reading much at the moment, too preoccupied with the neighbor bullshit.
However, I just watched Copenhagen on Prime. It’s an excellent pondering of the relationship between Neils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg and their unusual meet-up in 1941.
Speaking of, I also highly recommend The Heavy Water War miniseries.
I actually read a couple of books.
Driving on the Rim, by Thomas McGuane; very good. He does “offbeat” characters extremely well.
(Re)read A Canticle for Liebowitz.; mankind is doomed to repeat its self destruction eternally. Some good sly humor, too.
I’m fiddling with my Krampus/Santa story (it’s got a fatal flaw I don’t know how to work out) and my fairy godmother/wicked stepmother (wherein they are the same person) story. I’ve put my ghost story on hold because I’m not sure how to work that out, either.
Are these erotica?
No.
Anything is erotica if you if you use your imagination. That’s why Swiss is reading the FAR.
If you want some statist erotica you could read the CFR; the books they use to fuck all of a America. Sexy times.
Social Security office: Sorry, that isn’t a dire need and we can’t give you an appointment to get a replacement card for your child. Mail in all your personal documents and we will get on it in 4 weeks or so…hope your child doesn’t need any of those, cause we require originals.
DMV: Your child needs his social security card to get a driver’s license, even if you aren’t getting them a RealID
RealID: We no longer need proof of social security, but states can still require it.
Me: This rope looks like it could hold up…
Just read an email saying that we are getting a 5% raise effective the next pay period. So that’s good.
Next payday I’m getting 2% from 2019, 2020, and 2021, retroactive. The new contract ends in… April 2022, where there’s another 2%. Then it will take the union another three to five years to negotiate the next four year contract.
That’ll be a nice retroactive paycheck.
I estimate ~$8k pretax.
Post tax? *shrug*
Will it get taxed as a lump sum bonus?
I have no idea, it’s supposed to be regular salary.
Many years ago I worked for a company that gave everyone a pay cut one year, then raises the next year along with a lump sum that was supposed to be in the amount of the compensation we lost the previous year. But it ended up being taxed as a lump sum bonus, and we all got fucked.
The Pho Cookbook: Easy to Adventurous Recipes for Vietnam’s Favorite Soup and Noodles
Yes, it’s a cookbook. But it’s interspersed with little cultural and historical nuggets like “Decoding Pho Shop Names” and “Protect and Political Pho”. Fascinating stuff if you’re obsessed with the food like I am. Easy read, though, and then after I’ll be joining mexican sharpshooter in trying to finish Dune.
“PROTEST and Political Pho”
Got to sharpen those proofreading skills.
Pho Real?
Sounds fake.
Would you recommend it? My GF loves Pho and I bet it would make a good present.
db, I would recommend it because on top of the historical bits, the recipes seem well explained and followable, and for me that means my first attempt at making it at home. On top of all kinds of pho, she also has a lot of traditional pho side dishes. I think it’s well worth the price of admission.
Oh and some lovely photographs.
thanks!
To Serve Pho?
For fuck’s sake Accenture, why are your official documents white on purple? It’s a pain in the eyes to read that color combination.
You’re not supposed to read the docs, you’re supposed to hire one of their consultants.
One? We’re paying for a whole swarm of them. This document is the “We expect these tools to be available”.
It’s a pain in the eyes to read that color combination.
That is just the first pain of many in dealing with them.
I don’t get to pick these people.
Accenture and their ilk are nothing more than professional corporation bilking operations.
Hey! Back when I worked for them (as Andersen Consulting) they were totes…..
Hmmmm……
Yeah, AC made crazy $$$$ bilking other big corporations. In defense of the greedy sociopathic partners, those big corporations would have spent it on stupid shit. AC Partners spent it on stupid lavish toys and parties. Some of those parties were open to us peons.
Still the smartest/most ambitious company I ever worked for.
Green Tea And Other Weird Stories
By Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Very on theme for October.
Re-read a couple of Discworld Books. Re-read Lamb by Christopher Moore. Very, very funny.
I needed some brain candy before digging back into the heavier stuff. Also, Seinfeld being on Netflix and getting Wild games via ESPN+ has seriously hampered my reading.
Started All Quiet on the Western Front already and have some other WWI books teed up. Thanks to all who recommended titles.
I love Christopher Moore.
I actually read All Quiet on the Western Front.
I have no strong opinions on the work.
I feel like I’ve let everyone down.
I’m sure it was already recommended to you, but Now It Can Be Told is fantastic, but disturbing.
Thanks. I did pick that one up too. Free on Kindle, btw.
“All Quiet on the Western Front” is a good book.
Yep, 12th grade English.
I read All Quiet as a kid. I remember liking it a lot. Might have to go look at it again.
Reading The First Man In Rome by Colleen McCullough. As someone who minored in history and a decent knowledge of Roman history, I’m finding it quite enjoyable so far.
Also re-reading Ozy’s United States v. Members of the Armed Forces.
“MN Rules and Regulations for Hunters, Non-Hunters, Environmentalists, Poachers and Wannabees.”
Best to bring your attorney with you while hunting or appearing in court for not following the rules as outlined in the above 400 page pamphlet.
/Slight exaggeration but not much
You know who else brought an attorney hunting ?
Dick Cheney?
Dick Cheney had the right answer, just poor shot choice.
You want nothing smaller that #4 if your gonna “accidentally” shoot a lawyer.
Truth!
It took me way to long to figure out if our zone was multi-deer or just a single deer zone.
The Minnesoda DNR seems determined to jail every single hunter and fisher in the state. Who cares if license revenue drops to 0? I’m sure all the freeloading tree huggers will step up to the plate and voluntarily pay for the DNR.
Hey Fourscore,
I filled my tag last weekend crossbow hunting. Will spend next weekend cooking for the rest of the guys
Possibly the most deranged…
As an endorsement, from SF, that is more than enough to dissuade me.
Well I of course finished up reading about revolting, so it’s time for a genre change even though I have Pinker’s The Blank Slate staring at me from the top of the pile to be read. I picked up a copies of Plutarch’s Lives and Herodotus’ The Histories and they have been patiently sitting on the shelves.
Im smoking meat all day and night. Friends over, teen’s friends over…so far on the protein side of the house: 2 racks of baby-back ribs, 4 chicken quarters, and a pork shoulder. I was going to do a brisket also, but I need sleep somewhere in there. I think I need another 2 bags of lump charcoal on top of what I already have.
Im smoking meat all day and night. Friends over, teen’s friends over…
Are we not doing phrasing anymore?
You would note that he conspicuously omitted any mention of sausage.
Im still rubbing and beating the meat to prepare it, so….no.
Just finished lunch, wonder what I did wrong?
Used my new stainless meat injector for the first time: butter, olive oil, seasoned salt, and garlic powder. Injected some chicken breasts 3 or 4 times each with the liquid (yes, I prefer thighs too, but breasts were all I had in the refrigerator). Let rest a few minutes then baked at 350 until 165 was reached in the thickest part (probe thermometer used).
Still came out really rubbery and pretty dry. Maybe I should flatten the breasts? Then injecting marinade seems like it’d be tough. Pre-marinate the chicken before injecting it?
You didn’t have steak.
Try dry-brining them next time. I think that helps a lot.
Could be a number of things. Woody Chicken Breast is a thing. I never inject, I brine so maybe while you were injecting with moisture, those holes allowed that moisture to escape and cause rubbery breasts?
Flattening might help.
rubbery breasts
Regardless of Q’s opinions, silicone ruins everything.
Thank you all, I’m going to try each one of those. Including Sean’s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j95kNwZw8YY
flat, rubbery, breasts, is likely someone’s pr0nhub channel.
For the record, the consensus seems to agree with you all. Seems I need to:
1. Dry brine at least an hour before cooking, and
2. Bake at a much higher temperature to avoid drying out.
Injecting wasn’t mentioned anywhere, so I’ll skip it next time.
You can inject, it isn’t fruitless but I would only on a whole chicken (or breasts) that still has skin intact.
Dry or wet brine is the way to go for a succulent chicken.
Here’s a vote for flattening. With a uniform thickness, your odds of hitting the sweet spot between “undercooked salmonella factory” and “overcooked rubber chicken” are better.
And, of course, you can still brine them.
I like — luckily when I discovered Alton Brown a decade ago it made me fall in love with tinkering in the kitchen. I look at them as engineering problems, ones you can eat….
Finished Gun Runner by Larry Corriea and John Brown. About an interplanetary weapon smuggler/ mech pilot who figures out they supplied the bad guys on a deadly planet. Entertaining, like pretty much everything Corriea is involved in. If you like his work, you should like this.
Read The Greengrocer and His TV by Paulina Bren. It’s about the aftermath to the Chzeck uprising and the Soviet invasion of 1968 with a focus on the Soviet controlled TV and the propaganda they put out in the guise of entertainment. Fascinating, creepy, and interesting.
Still working on The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations I read trough it quickly, so far I’m actually reading a notation a day, on new years I’ll start over and actuall take notes on each lesson and see how much that improves the learning. This and the other stoic books have really helped with the ability to not waste energy and time on things that I have no control over. Also they have helped with not getting as mad at things when bolts won’t cooperate or parts don’t want to go back the way they came out.
Soviet controlled TV and the propaganda they put out in the guise of entertainment.
Like what we have now here in the US?
More overt, the heroes were always good communists able to convince others in the error of their ways and the villains were either anti-communists or foreign capitalists.
So, yes.
Also they have helped with not getting as mad at things when bolts won’t cooperate or parts don’t want to go back the way they came out.
I feel rather called out here.
Putting the fuel lines and inter cooler tubes after replacing a head gasket makes me want to throw a wrench sometimes.
My step dad bought me a sign for my garage that says “We are experts at rounded bolts, minor injury, stripped threads, lost tools, rag fires, mechanical mayhem, and the occasional repair.”
I objected “HEY!” “I’ve never had a rag fire!”
I’m not a wrench-monkey, but I suffered for many years under the delusion that various mechanical skills were supposed to be innate with my gender. I still have a very low tolerance for things not going as I want them to in the personal skill realm. The funny thing is, when I took up golf, I knew I would never be good at it and so I’ve never suffered from anger at my lousy performance; I just tend to enjoy the walk and the occasional well placed shot.
To stave off frustration when Im doing auto work, I calmly remind myself that some over-paid union monkey managed to assemble w/e Im working on, and it cant be that hard to take apart.
My real annoyance occurs when I realize how the engineers insist something was assembled. Usually over the top and in the way of w/e Im trying to repair/replace.
Read The Greengrocer and His TV by Paulina Bren.
I posted the interview Bren did with Radio Prague a few months back when they re-ran it and it sounds like an interesting book, although I haven’t picked up a copy.
Cool interview, thanks.
Since you Dune rip off artists are squeeing about your movie…..
My meat space buddies and I are planning our viewing parties for Amazon’s Wheel of Time.
A lot of HATE has been flowing here, but we are all super excited for 11/19.
Shouldn’t they wait for the series to wrap up in 10,000 years?
Wheel of Time was completed, after the author died, someone else wrapped up all the plots in just three more books!
/expects the same thing to happen with Game of Thrones
That was my fault. A buddy recommended WOT to me and I was at about book 3 and enjoying it when Robert Jordan died.
My Loser Aura caused his death. The Universe knew it would totes suck if the author of a good series that you were just started died before it could be finished. So it made it happen.
Jokes on the Universe though. Killing off Jordan was probably the best thing that could have happened. No way he would have ever wrapped shit up. I was hate reading Jordan’s last few books.
The ringer they brought in to finish up did a decent job.
The ringer they brought in to finish up did a decent job.
Yes.
I think I got through the 7th, maybe the 8th. Thought about maybe rereading the series at some point but can’t make myself care. Bit of a contrast to long ones like Sword of Truth or others (I do have the “Legend of the Seeker”/SOT DVD sets on my shelf to rewatch).
From high school, I recall book 5 of WoT being an absolute shitshow waste of time in which a thousand pages were spent doing literally nothing to advance the plot or the characters in any way….maybe I was wrong?
From high school, I recall book 5 of WoT being an absolute shitshow waste of time in which a thousand pages were spent doing literally nothing to advance the plot or the characters in any way….maybe I was wrong?
I think there was more than one of the books that did nothing to advance the plot. Book five might have been one of them.
Our email chain about this had a raging controversy about whether it was Book 6 or Book 10 that was a complete waste of time.
It was 99% Tea Party crap.
Then we came together and agreed it was probably both Book 6 AND Book 10 that were worthless wastes of time.
What the fuck was in them? How could you possibly put that many words to the page that do nothing?
The Silmarillion had a >100 page description of landscape/geography.
Dunno which one I bailed on, partway through. Which is very unusual for me – both quitting a book unfinished and quitting a series unfinished (although I’m doing more of the latter lately). When you start flipping page after page with just a glance, hoping something eventually happens, its time to move on.
Me as well… I think it was the last one that Jordan had written, over 1,000 pages of wheel spinning that took place over the course of a single day that had me truly raging.
I managed to read that whole series, minus the prequels. I’ll pass on an Amazon film take on it.
As far as reading goes, I just finished a bunch of free e-books that Tor.com passed out. I liked them: MurderBot Diaries. Fun without making my brain hurt.
I love Murderbot.
A Perfect Day, With Explosions, Dorothy Grant. Light sci-fi romance. I like Grant, her plots are all the same but she writes well, her characters are engaging and her worldbuilding is good.
She’s better than (the one book by) her husband (that I have read, Stones of Silence). She knows when to not write dialog, if you take my meaning. She can also develop a credible romance, although this book is not as good with that as her previous books.
No, I don’t take your meaning. Can you elaborate?
I will try.
In natural conversation between normal adults, there are frequently things left unsaid, for a variety of reasons. If an author writes a dialog that includes these gaps, and has done a good job of character development, the reader will understand what was not said, and why. Some authors do a good job of capturing this sort of thing, and it feels like how people interact in real life. Some authors do less well, they seem to need to answer even banal statements with some response. The result is a little stilted and awkward, and, depending on how bad it is, can jar one out of involvement in the story.
I see.
Like Swiss, I too have been perusing the latest gov’t foolscap- 40 CFR, Part 60, Appendices A & B. And some of Part 63.
A great cure for insomnia.
You have my sympathy.
Tom Woods show #1996
Matt Asher discusses the prospects for American breakup, and what we should do while we wait.
I hit play on that, thinking it would make good background chatter for the afternoon. First thing that comes up was “Get ready to set fire to the index card of allowable opinion!”
Which is funny since I was just looking at that book this morning. It’s been sitting in my bathroom reading stack for a few years, but I haven’t got to it yet.
Speaking of Tom Woods, a bit of “hit the nail on the head” from his newsletter today:
The idea of a national divorce is interesting, and I feel that it probably will happen in one way or another, but one major problem with it is that many of us have loved ones, spouses, romantic partners, etc., that don’t agree with us. The only way to move away to a place that makes sense and offers us freedom may require a separation from those loved ones. That is an incredibly difficult thing to do. It’s a thing I don’t want to have to do. I also don’t want to get stuck in a deteriorating society just to keep families and friendships together.
It’s terribly concerning.
The separation is happening now. We have plenty of family who are going to flip their shit when I lose my job for being unvaxxed. Not because we did or said anything to them, but simply because we explain our rejection of vaccination in Christian terms, and it picks at their spiritual scabs that we would value following God enough to eschew the conveniences and comforts promised by the almighty dollar.
^^^ Yep. I can already hear my brother (rabid leftist) and sister (middle of the road but I will go along with it).
Yeah, but I’m literally talking about the person I live with. I love her to death, but we don’t agree on these things. It’s not like we are ideologically opposed to each other, just that she’s more of a moderate-to-left progressive type, and the point at which I’m going to find things to be intolerable will be at most mildly uncomfortable for her.
the point at which I’m going to find things to be intolerable will be at most mildly uncomfortable for her
Unfortunately, I don’t think this national/global separation is going to be nice to marriages/relationships that are split along these societal fault lines. I think there are going to be a lot of people choosing between faithfulness to their morality/principles and preservation of their relationships.
In the aggregate, I think there are more progressives willing to dig their heels in and cow their partners than vice versa.
Sorry db.
Thanks. We’ve been together 24 years and it weighs on me terribly. I don’t even know how to bring up the topic with her.
Jesus, that sucks. My wife has come a long way over the past 18 months; the longer this goes on the more she comes around. I still get the fish-eye when I enter, maskless, a business which has a “please wear a mask” sign posted, but that’s about it. Hope things work out for you.
Sorry db, the dividing of families is sickening. I’m reminded of stories where Union brothers are fighting against Confederate brothers. This is what those evil bastards want.
I’m in the same boat, albeit just a decade. It was fine when we could just agree not to talk politics – “there’s more to life”. Now, everything is political and it sucks.
My sister will probably just call me a moron, and not understand why I didn’t just take the shot, I mean it’s just a shot…
Mine too. Whatever, not like I’ll be asking for money. They can deal with it or not.
That is already happening. My wife and I headed to SC for many reasons – one of which that’s the side we want to be on when the divorce happens. Most of our extended family will be on the other side at least physically – some certainly on the other side politically.
I am blessed with my wife, who has the stance of “I don’t care if I have to get it or not, but you aren’t getting it and putting your job, our livelihood on the line so I stand with you and we will go through this together”. I don’t know what I did to deserve that.
That’s excellent.
I am blessed with a wife who told me to quit being selfish and get the jab because otherwise I would not be permitted to be anywhere near our grand kids.
Somebody is confident.
FOX News reported on Thursday that Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe’s campaign made a late-game push before the election, spending nearly $60,000 on a high-profile attorney known for representing Democrats and masterminding some election-related legal challenges.
McAuliffe’s campaign spent $53,680 on the services of the Elias Law Group, a new firm started earlier this year by Marc Elias.
Elias was also previously a partner at the law firm Perkins Coie hired by Hillary Clinton to bring in Fusion GPS and the bogus Trump dossier.
This is certainly a peculiar campaign expense in the waning hours of the campaign unless McAuliffe knows something that the rest of us don’t.
Confidence says you don’t need those kind of services.
Currently in the middle of Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. I’ve read Musashi’s own Book of 5 Rings many times over more years, and a historical biography of him. This current book is historical fiction based on what is known of Musashi’s life that entangles some other of Japan’s historical figures into Musashi’s wandering lifestyle of a dueling swordsman. A page turner for me.
I watched a 3 movie series on Musashi in Japan:
Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto
Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple
Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island
Highly recommend them, apparently they’re on Amazon and HBO Max.
Might have to rewatch them this weekend.
Sweet!!! Thanks for the recommendation. On the list for this weekend for me as well.
Reading Wikipedia, the films are based on the Eiji Yoshikawa book.
Like my reading list wasn’t long enough.
Speaking of film adaptations/TV series…..
Why has no one done one based on Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series?
I really liked that series. I think Logen Ninefingers would be a good character to see on TV.
You might be able to pull off gory/edgy grimdark now after GoT. I was excited when they made the “Legend of the Seeker” / Sword of Truth series – but even with the NZ backdrop and some fun actors, it was a little low budget and definitely couldn’t cover the material very well. Although IIRC they did keep the leather bodysuits – which is why it’s on my rewatch stack.
Tabrett Brethell…drool…
Funny you mention the series I’m reading right now…
*casually throws towel over spy cam*
Yeah, that is strange!
More Good News from the Biden Presidency
Inflation notches a fresh 30-year high as measured by the Fed’s favorite gauge
Headline inflation, including food and energy, rose at a 4.4% annual rate in September, the fastest since 1991.
Core inflation, which is the Fed’s preferred gauge, increased 3.6% for the 12 months, the same as in August but still also the fastest pace in 30 years.
Personal income declined at a faster pace than expected while consumer spending increased and was in line with forecasts.
Employment costs rose more than expected and at the fastest annual pace in 19 years.
Gonna party likes it’s 1991
This cunte hasn’t been run out of office yet?
When asked about the likelihood of shortages of city workers Monday — from sanitation workers to first responders — the Democrat mayor made it clear he has no regrets.
“But no. I am not having second thoughts. We expected that a lot of the vaccinations would happen toward the end of the deadline. We also know a lot of people make the decision once they really realize that they’re not going to get paid. That’s just a human reality,” he said, calling the contingency planning “exceptional” but failing to provide specific details outside of the fact that agencies talked with all the commissioners “in detail” and “feel very confident.”
The best response would be if his personal bodyguard went “Sorry, man, but we didn’t get shot.” and walks off the job while he’s in public.
Uffda. Is it even a mask slip anymore? They’ve been pretty brazen about their authoritarianism lately.
The old “they’ll bend the knee once they get hungry enough” trick is it?
Our company said we were at 83% vaxxed and extended their offer to give anyone showing proof of being jabbed a $100 gift card to Target.
He’s a real treat.
He’s one of the many reasons I have no faith in our ability to vote our way out of this shitshow.
Shee seems nice.
Rutgers professor: “White people are committed to being villains,” “We gotta take these MF’ers out.”
This professor spewed hatred on a YouTube video with @TheRoot.
I’m not sure what she was getting at in that 5 minute word salad but I am pretty sure she is historically ignorant and hates white people.
I watched a little bit, couldn’t handle much.
She actually said black and brown people were sailing over the ocean and there was no subjugation before white people showed up.
That hurt my brain.
Yeah, she needs to take her class on a field trip to Somalia.
The fact that she likely believes her own ignorance is what I find startling.
And if she thinks historically black and brown people lived in harmony w/o “subjugation”, well she should have a look at whats happened in Libya since Hillary de-stabilized the whole region.
Hell, we’re back to open air slave markets (taken from africa) back in downtown Tripoli.
Honestly, I’d love to see her left alone in downtown Riyadh or someplace in Kandahar to see how she fares as an unaccompanied, non-muslim, woman of african descent. Im sure she’d be treated well.
Did she really say that Native Americans had libraries and brilliant inventions long before White People came to Murrica?
The only ones that even had writing were ripping out hearts on the routine to make the rains come. The term ‘stone age’ would be applicable to the technology level of the civilizations, with the aforementioned heart-rippers reaching a neolithic level and could work gold. There is evidence some UPers developed chalcolithic tech and got copper working.
You could say some of their adaptations to being stuck in the stone age were brilliant, but were all of the sort mooted by metallurgy.
pffftt.
That isn’t even that far out. I used to know about of black looneys when I lived in Memphis who were huge on this sort of stuff. They would go on and on about how the Greeks stole all their shit from Africans.
Anything positive ever was invented by a black person and stolen by white people. I mean everything.
The sprint for the finish she does in the final minute or so, spewing whatever free-associated word comes to mind, is aneurysm inducing.
about of black looneys
Uffda. Meant “a bunch of black looneys”. There were about 5 black guys in this one group that were friends of a roommate of a buddy of mine. So you’d go to their house and these guys would be hanging out and something would happen and they’d get rolling on all this bs.
“You know that those Italians didn’t invent the Kart. They straight up stole it from Joseph Jackson who was a video game designer in 1702. Some Italian just happened to be walking by and he saw it, came in and stole the entire idea and called it Mario Kart. True story”
Despite being crazy they weren’t bad guys. I’ve hung around more annoying people in my past. Even the other black guys would roll their eyes and tell them that they were embarrassing themselves.
Al Sharpton gets into his Wakanda theories about a minute into this clip.
Shhh. We don’t need people examining our tricknology; If they culturally appropriated it, we’d lose our life of ease.
Noble savages argument.
Reading Kill Chain right now. Eh. No surprises, it just seems like the newest collection of buzzwords to try and get more money for the military-industrial complex.
Dune is like my Bible. I’ve basically got it memorized and reread it frequently.
Dune and The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
No wonder I’m so fucked in the head.
Back in the early 90s I had a roommate who I told I basically had Dune memorized. We played a game, he would read a line, I would give next one. I was good. Turns out, he was great.
He knew it even better than I did. Which was scary.
I havent read it as much the last 20 years or so, especially the last 10. So might not have it down cold anymore.
Some bright news for a change
GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who voted to impeach Trump, won’t run for reelection
It’s partially because the Illinois Dems have made it known that they will gerrymander the shit out of his congressional district but also because a lot of his constitutes see him as a self serving ass.
My parents live in his district…they were downright bemused by his weird flip.
“In his message he also noted the lack of civility in politics these days. “Dehumanizing each other has become the norm” from social media to the streets, he said, urging people to “put country first.”
Fuck civility. I want someone in there who will fight hard for economic and personal liberty. And putting the country first is nothing more than collectivist dribble. He should be fighting to put individuals first.
I’m with you. Civility is what got us here. Weasels used decency against us.
We should have been screaming FUCK YOU 100 years ago.
Let’s go Brandon.
That’s really quite amazing.
Possibly even a reason for hope.
It is.
Amazon has Bryson’s tagged as a ‘best seller’.
The true #1 Let’s Go Brandon news item
Yes.
I’m waiting for one of you cretins to do something newsworthy so I can watch you get a medal wearing a STEVE SMITH t-shirt.
RELAX, TENSE UP, IT NOT MATTER TO STEVE.
IN THE END IT STILL GONNA HAPPEN.
HA HA, STEVE MAKE FUNNY.
“IN THE END,” YOU GET IT.
That’s fantastic
I guess you can’t expect any better from commie pope.
President Biden on whether the issue of abortion came up during his meeting with Pope Francis: “No, it didn’t … We just talked about the fact he was happy I was a good Catholic and I should keep receiving communion.”
So… can a Pope through action and the rules of the Catholic Church excommunicate themselves through action and/or inaction?
Phrasing?
“Mom said she was fine with me taking the car tonight and going over to my friend’s house. She said I could sleep over too. Don’t bother her now though, she’s taking a nap”
So that’s why you were arrested for Grand Theft Auto.
Growing up, I don’t think we ever owned a car that was valuable enough to count as “Grand Theft”.
A few of the better ones might have gotten you petty larceny. Most of them though would have just gotten you a stern lecture similar to one given to a child caught stealing candy.
We did. When I was 16 we bought an Oldsmobile and the thing cost like $7000. That’s $640,000,000 in Biden’s American if my math is correct.
Commie pope’s gotta commie.
Grinding through the Neal Asher Polity books; roughly aiming for publication order.
I’m on War Factory now though I jumped back to “The Gabble” when I felt I had missed something with the Penny Royal saga (I had – “Alien Archaelogy” – though I still feel like I missed a story describing Amistad finding Penny Royal).
“Shit That Never Happened” for whatever-the-hell amount, Spirit of Alex.
Then why kill the cameras for the meeting between the US president and the Pope? If that is all that it was….
Musk University.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc. and founder of SpaceX, tweeted, “Am thinking of starting new university: Texas Institute of Technology & Science.” He added with a twinkle in his eye, “It will have epic merch. Universally admired.”
The classiest merch. Big league.
Teens hanging outside of class sneaking a fag while listening to Snoop Dogg thinking…when we gonna get into that fit chick’s pants?
Makes sense here. This is exactly where I wanted to post this.
Can I pre-order the T.I.T.S. hoodie ?
/TITS (TExas Institute of Technology) is an old joke
Would that be TITS U? Or would it be U TITS?
Maybe we just keep it to the simple TITS
His marketing is working.
I want a Tesla.
We used to refer to my military trade school as the South Hudson Institute of Technology.
In the farce, we would first call out the Fast Action Response Team. If that didn’t get the job done, a Super High Intensity Technician would be summoned.
Genghis: Birth of an Empire a part of history I’m not familiar with at all. Made for an exciting adventure novel and mostly true. I will be reading the sequels.
A Fistful of Credits: Stories from the Four Horsemen Universe – short stories to go with my stress-shortened attention span. Good authors and space mercenaries – it just works.
Wait, you’ve never read any Mongol history? Wut?
Wait until you find out the Turks are actually the Mongols.
I thought the Tartars were Turks?
That was a joke about the Turks being Mongols. Sorry, somebody on Steam actually said the Turks are Mongols and it caused a giant shitstorm.
Check out the Dan Carlin series on Ghengis if you haven’t yet.
Flight was only delayed 40 minutes getting to ORD. On board to ALB. Flight has not been cancelled yet, though the one at 18:30 is already listed as “delayed.”
Just finished “Hoover’s FBI” by Deke DeLoach. This book is interesting because DeLoach, I believe, was attempting to rehabilitate the FBI’s (and Hoover’s) image and yet it failed miserably, IMO. Stories abound of mission creep and 4A abuses.
Just started Nelson DeMille’s “By the Rivers of Babylon”.
Tree equity.
Fucking tree equity. Really?
If the trees get separated from their sibling saplings , at the border, do they get a million dollars? I mean, come on, we need tree justice as well as equity!
Fucking tree equity.
I’ve seen a few serious articles talking about green inequity where the inner cities don’t have enough green spaces.
fuck em
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnC88xBPkkc
Only band who could actually make a song about tree inequality and it would be a great song.
Sitting here thinking because I keep hearing “Well you took all the other vaccines!” and made me contemplate “are we taking them because of inertia or because they are worth taking?”
I took many as a child when I had no say in the matter, and some as an adult that had been properly vetted and the long term effects were well documented. Wtf does that have to do with the Fauchi Flu?
That’s the point that they magically gloss over. Even with the military folks. Those are long term, tested, studied vaccines that we all lined up for (except anthrax).
Polio, DPT, Smallpox. I think that was it. Despite the dearth of available vaccines, we Boomers are still
rulingruining everything.What’s the death rate on those sicknesses? Much, much higher with a much greater chance of being essentially maimed for life for good measure.
Bad news, every one of them. I just got a tetanus booster. I am not an “anti-vaxxer”, I am anti-bullshit.
I guess you could start and end with “This ain’t a real vaccine.”
Maybe add in a helping of “well, unlike the COVID vaccines, the smallpox and polio vaccines actually worked.”
Right. That’s what I am getting at. Of course, different virus and acts and responds completely differently to a ‘vaccine’. But who is fucking counting.
We eradicated small pox through vaccines. If there was a case reported, global officials would swarm there and vaccinate everyone in the area. Small pox is now extinct in the wild.
Influenza has dozens and dozens variation that come and go each year. In a good year, the vaccine is 70-80% effective in preventing the disease or reducing the impact. In bad year, the vaccine is only 30-40% effective against the strains that are circulating. Influenza can be fatal in a pretty well defined demographic. So, certain people really should be taking it. The bulk of the population, probably not. Either way, there is also a pretty effective treatment (tamiflu). So whether you are vaccinated or not, there is a back up plan if you get the flu.
The powers that be are lying through their teeth when they say we can get rid of covid by vaccinations. The mandates are obscene. Covid should be handled like influenza. High risk populations should probably get vaccinated. Either way, there are effective treatments if you do catch covid.
The real discussion is going to happen when Merck gets is EUA for its theraputic pills. This will definitely undercut the mandates to vaccinate everyone. I actually believe the push to vaccinate is driven by pfizer/moderna cashing out before merch gets its EUA.
Yeah, if the unvaxed can hold out until that’s fielded they might be golden. It’ll be hard to justify treating people like garbage with an unambiguously effective treatment available.
I took this vax for the same reason I take the flu one.
So, certain people really should be taking it.
Over 40 and overweight.
Your calculations may vary.
Right. You made that decision based on data that was available. Millions are being told, we don’t care..take it.
also, “or” not “and”.
And, exactly, making a rational decision based on the data available.
there are effective treatments if you do catch covid.
There are but the only reason the “vaccine” has emergency use authorization (not approval) is under the pretext that there are no effective treatments. The gov’t is violating its own rules and committing a crime against the country.
the only reason the “vaccine” has emergency use authorization (not approval) is under the pretext that there are no effective treatments.
The other great lie.
Well, those actually proven to work, so there’s that…
I wonder what gave them away…
A small group of Tiki torch bearing young men and one woman dressed alike in white dress shirts, tan khaki pants and ball caps posed together in front of Republican candidate for Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin’s campaign bus at a stop at Guadalajara Restaurant in Charlottesville Friday morning. The costumes and props were used to reenact the infamous 2017 White nationalist Unite the Right Tiki torch march in Charlottesville.
Curiously, one of the ‘white supremacists’ posing in front of the Youngkin bus was a Black man.
Local reporter Elizabeth Holmes posted a photo of the costumed men that went viral, “These men approached @GlennYoungkin’s bus as it pulled up saying what sounded like, “We’re all in for Glenn.” Here they are standing in front of the bus as his campaign event at Guadalajara started. @NBC29”.
Reporter Alec Sears posted images allegedly connecting the demonstrators to Democrat operatives.
So the McCunteface camp is about as inept as the FBI.
You don’t think this was more a “You’ll get more of this if you vote for this guy” statement than it was a false flag? It’s stupid either way but they can’t be that stupid.
Maybe, but…
The struggling McAuliffe campaign, via spokeswoman Christina Freundlich, chimed in, “The Unite the Right rally was one of the darkest days in the Commonwealth’s history. this is who Glenn Youngkin’s supporters are” …
Another McAuliffe staffer, Jen Goodman, added, “This is disgusting and disqualifying.”
It’s just hard to believe they’d send a black guy and a chick if it wasn’t performative tongue in cheek.
True and I agree. But also consider “something something malice something something stupidity.”
It would be just perfect if they were actually trying to pull this crap.
And leftists literally called Larry Elder the “black face of white-supremacy” as I recall. So maybe the “black white-supreme” is not outside the realm of what TM’s campaign would consider as a “get-out-the-vote” last ditch effort.
It only gets worse. No one wants the tempo to slow down.
The Pirate Coast by Zacks. Can’t believe they haven’t made a movie of this nonfiction book. Pirates, us seamen and a damsel in distress, a daring rescue by a new US Marine Corps.
Good read.