Posted by
syl_DUPE1, around 18th December 2006:
I found this in one of the second-hand bookstores which I love to frequent. I remembered that Cal had it on here, so I bought it. I've started reading it. It's quite weird, reminds me a bit of The World According To Garp by John Irving. Also quite similar to Kurt Vonnegut's style.
What are you reading these holidays?
Posted by
Sul_DUPE1, around 18th December 2006:
I'm in the middle of
A Short History of Tractors Ukrainian. Bought it months and months and months ago for the title alone and finally got round to reading it. I'm not finding it quite the page-turner others seem to have. It's ok.
Posted by
WarHead, around 18th December 2006:
This morning I've been reading/writing my job description and personal performance plan, even though I'm actually on leave today. Apart from that I've not read any books in months. My recreational reading these days seems to consist of Private Eye Magazine and the Olympus E500 Advanced Manual.
However, Santa should be bringing me Terry Pratchett and Robon Hobb's latest offerings.
Never read Garp, but I saw the film, which I found disappointing. Didn't enjoy Vonnegut's book or film of Slaughterhouse 5 either.
slaughterhouse5 is insanely talked-up by the literary pseuds. and within a dozen pages it's clear just HOW much their own personal problems colour their every pronouncement.
which is a pity, because while it's not a
great book, it's not a
bad book. it's actually several different books. and perhaps should be seen more as a drunken evening with the author than a normal book.
i parTICularly like the opening chapter --which (like LotR) is a completely different book from the remainder-- for his hilariously recognisable "Drunk Dialling".
which i reckon has become in the modern age: "blogging".
Posted by
syl_DUPE1, around 18th December 2006:
haha. Speak for yourself, Sal, my blog entries are boringly sober. (Need to do something about that)
...drunken evening with the author :)
Posted by
WarHead, 28th December 2006:
I also thought 'On The Road' by Jack Kerouac was a waste of time, although I made the effort and read the whole thing. However, I gave up on Gabriel García Márquez's '100 Years of Solitude' after a few chapters. I tried Paul Scott's 'Jewell In The Crown' as well, but it was terribly slow and once I put it down I couldn't pick it up again.
Hello. Been quiet around here. Slaughterhouse 5 is ace, I thought. How the devil are you all? Did you have Christmas? Was it?
Posted by
WarHead, around 29th December 2006:
1) I am OK, within acceptable parameters.
2) Yes, I had Christmas, as did the rest of my family.
3) Yes, it was.
The only geeky thing I got from Santa was a wind-up torch/phone charger. I must take a pic of it as I know you'll all be interested in it.
1) I'm ok too
2) yes we had Christmas too
3)definitely
We have moved house on the 16th, then worked for another few days, then drove to england (for sad reasons as steves granddad is very ill), then we drove back to holland on boxing day, then we spent a little time at my mums, then we came back to our new home yesterday and now we have a few days off.
Posted by
syl_DUPE1, around 29th December 2006:
1.I'm good, but a bit lazy (slept away four hours this arvey)
2.Yes
3.It was good, except for some nasty family arguments :( always at fucking Christmas time. Scuse the french.
Posted by
WarHead, around 30th December 2006:
Family arguments come as standard at Christmas, that's another reason why I don't like it.
I try not to be confrontational at Christmas, as I know I only have to be closeted with all my family for a few hours, so I try to ignore any little irritations in the name peace and harmony. But it's not easy.
Posted by
Grim..., 1st January 2007:
1) I am coming off the back of having the 'flu.
2) Yes
3) Shit - I got shot in the eye with a toy gun and was blind from Christmas eve to the 29th =[
Posted by
Grim..., 1st January 2007:
I'm reading The Nutroniam Alchemist (spelt wrongly - Vol.1 in the Night's Dawn trilogy) and the QI book, both of which are really good.
I recommend Altered Carbon to Salt if he hasn't already read it.
oh no
toy in your frikkin eye ?!
Posted by
Grim..., 1st January 2007:
FOAM MISSILE IN MY FRIKKIN EYE!
Ouch Grimothy, that sucks.
Posted by
ellipse, 6th January 2007:
hawel better than a potato missile
i got drunk on crimbo, sobered up and then got drunk again
Posted by
WarHead, 8th January 2007:
What, in all that is completely bonkers, is a potato missile?
I also wondered this, briefly. ;)
1. pretty good, tho a bit bloaty-feeling. apparently, and i have this on febrile authority, drinking vast amounts and doing no exercise is not the tippest of tip-top things, tip-top-wise
2. yes
3. fresh lamb and chicken and veg roasted over charcoals, homemade veggie soup on the stove, corridor cricket in the passageway in the morning then later in leadenhall market
"Altered Carbon", eh, grimæ? wot's it about? who's it by? did the butler do it?
Posted by
Grim..., 9th January 2007:
Richard Morgan's debut SF thriller Altered Carbon isn't for the faint-hearted. Its noir private-eye investigation races through extreme violence, hideously imaginative torture and many high-tech firefights.
In 2411, death is not forever. Afterward, they can read your personality from an implanted "cortical stack" and upload you into a new body--at a price. Hero Kovacs has worn many bodies on different worlds as a former member of the UN Envoy Corps, programmed killers to a man. Now the incredibly rich Bancroft brings him to Earth to investigate a killing... of Bancroft himself, restored from his digital backup and rejecting the police theory of suicide.
Half the vice-lords of 25th-century San Francisco are soon chasing Kovacs with futuristic surveillance, drugs and weaponry. Virtual-reality interrogation means they can torture you to death, and then start again. There's a bleak slave trade in rented or confiscated bodies--and Kovacs finds his current borrowed face is all too well known to both police and underworld.
Ultraviolent set-pieces follow, sprinkled with philosophical asides such as this reflection on a stungun: "It was the single forgiving phrase in the syntax of weaponry I had strapped around me. The rest were unequivocal sentences of death."
There are some James-Bondian implausibilities, such as Kovacs's final confrontation with the villain he's sworn to kill: rather than shooting and leaving fast, he discusses the plot for 10 pages until... but that would be telling. This is high-tension SF action, hard to put down--though squeamish readers may shut their eyes rather frequently.
Oh my God, that sounds HORRIBLE. Torture with no promise of death. I can't read things like that.
beautifully informative and well-typed answer, grim..., thanks. it's almost like a professional review of the book!
if kovacs has sexwale relations with himself, is he gay or is he masturbating?
how will squeamish readers know when to re-open their eyes?
Sounds good, Grim.... I was hoping I'd be able to get it for a long flight next week but Amazon reckon 2-4 weeks. Damn.
Posted by
Grim..., 9th January 2007:
Play say '24 hours':
www.play.com/Books/Books/4-...
Aha - purchased. It better be good.
can i re-open my eyes now? i am no longer full of squeam.
Speaking of squeamish, have any of you seen the movie Monster? I didn't watch it for ages because I wasn't up to it. Saw it a couple of months ago. What did you think? I didn't think it was that bad.
Posted by
Grim..., 10th January 2007:
It was an alright film - it didn't cause any squeam, though.
And The Passion of the Christ? I still can't watch that one.
Altered Carbon turned up today along with an order I'd placed on the 1st Dec 2005. Way to go Play.com. Now I've pretty much got over my Crazy Frog uber-hate I have no real need to destroy the keyring I bought for nought. Oh well. Better late than not at all I suppose.
Have recently started Carter Beats the Devil. It's looking good so far. Olde American Magiciany Story. Yes that's a genre.
Posted by
Grim..., around 31st January 2007:
Sul:
It better be good.
What did you think?
Posted by
Sul_DUPE1, around 31st January 2007:
Sorry, I meant to mention. Fantastic read. I didn't really have any peeking-through-the-fingers moments but it really was good. Two thumbs up. Thanks.
Posted by
aeiou, 31st January 2007:
yaaaaaawn. how dull.
Posted by
Desmond, 31st January 2007:
does anyone here actually have genitals besides me?
no one in their right minds would put their genitals beside you.
I'm so glad I have to pay data charges to check-in when I'm at work now. Request time.
May 22, 1997 With the airing of the "Ellen" episode in which she comes out as gay, it occurred to me that zoos probably won't have such an episode for at least a couple decades. While it's wonderful to think that someday, being zoo will be no more objectionable to the public than being gay/les/bi is now (not that the gay community has an easy road to begin with), have we given much thought to the
potential _damage_ of being "accepted" or at least acknowledged publicly?
Here are some (vaguely) possible negative side-effects, listed in no particular order. Many of these sound dire, even doom-and-gloom-ish, but knowing the way the human mind works, all of these scenarios are possible.
1. An increase in the number of animals being neutered. With the realization that many thousands (millions?) of people are zoo, many non-zoo pet owners (or parents who fear their kids may be "converted" by the media publicity) may have their dogs/horses/whatever neutered just to be on the safe side. After all, little Rover may spend more time with that neighbor boy than at his own home, so perhaps the boy is a zoo, and to "protect" Rover, his owners neuter him. "We had to destroy him in order to save him."
2. A lessening of public affection shown by non-zoos to pets and/or livestock. Most non-zoos won't want to be confused with being zoo, so in order to avoid comments like, "boy, the way you hug Fido, you'd think you were zoo," the non-zoo might simply pat the dog on the head and be done with it. As a result, animals would receive less public (and possibly less private) affection from their human companions, which would hurt their emotional balance. Animals need affection from their pack/herd-mates, and when this affection is withdrawn, the animals become insular and harder to train/live with.
3. A reduction in the number of animals adopted from animal shelters. "Little Johnny wants a puppy, he says. He's been talking about it for months now, ever since he saw '101 Dalmatians.' As interested as he is, I'm worried he could be a zoo, so we should probably hold off getting a dog until he's had counseling." This attitude will result in animals not getting homes, and ultimately being put to sleep.
4. An increase in the number of animals confined to homes, kennels, or fenced pastures. While the good side of this is that a caged animal doesn't roam and breed with other animals, producing unwanted offspring, most animals don't fare well in tight confinement. Animals large enough to be intimate with are even less comfortable in a home or small kennel, and will often tear up a home or become stir-crazy, leading owners to blame the animals and put them in the pound, where they may fall victim to doom-and-gloom #3.
On the other hand, here are some possible benefits: 1. An increase in the availability of hard-core animal-only porn. One thing that always remains the same is that, if there is a financial market for something, someone will tap it. And once the capitalists find out that people will pay good money to watch videos and buy magazines and books depicting explicit scenes of animals mating and, well, doing other things naturally, such materials will appear in droves.
"a flock of sheep"
~=
"a drove of zoos"