newnumber6 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
newnumber6) wrote2008-10-19 12:49 pm
newnumber6) wrote2008-10-19 12:49 pm
Food Foo, Book Foo, and Random Foo
Yesterday had Thanksgiving Dinner (a week late), and it was quite good. Turkey, stuffing, ham, carrots, corn, turnip, potatoes, gravy, bread and pumpkin pie. Mmmmm. And of course was nice to see the family again even if there was nobody there I hadn't seen in more than 2 weeks anyway.
Finished: Blindsight, by Peter Watts (reread)
Started: Consider Phlebas, by Iain M. Banks (reread)
Already read Blindsight, so no extended thoughts on it, but I do have a selected quote (not really spoilery at all) I liked behind the cut. Before that, I might as well mention that it rereads very well - Still has some of the same problems, but I think I'm actually more impressed with it after the second read. It's very bleak, from general outlook to view of human relations, but sometimes extra bleak is good. To me, at least. Anyway, quote:
"Watching the world from a distance, it occurred to me at last: I knew exactly what Chelsea had meant, with her Luddite ramblings about desaturated Humanity and the colorless interactions of virtual space. I'd known all along. I'd just never been able to see how it was any different from real life."
Just one of those things that kinda resonates with me, with respect to real-life interactions vs online.
Finished: Armor, by John Steakley (reread)
Started: Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazny (reread)
Armor's a reread, but it's been so long, and in fact I think the last time I read it was in the 90s, long before I had LJ. So I'll go a bit into my thoughts, and a teeny bit spoilery (general plot spoilery): In general, liked part, other parts only okay.
Armor sort of deals with two stories. One, the story of Felix, a "Scout" in the Antwar, and interstellar war with a race of ant-like aliens. He's deployed to the planet Banshee and (like everybody) wears powered armor that increases his strength and allows him to survive hostile environments. But the Antwar is hell, more horrific than he ever imagined, and he has to become almost a machine inside to deal with it. The story also takes place several years later, when a famous pirate/celebrity lands on a planet with the intent of scamming somebody out of something big, brings along Felix's scout armor as a sort of gift to get in good with the scientist. The scientist discovers a way to access the recording pod, but for (technobabble) reasons three people have to watch it at once. And so the three share Felix's life as it was in the armor and as the story progresses.
Now, I've said a number of times that I'm not really much of a action/battle reader. When I read long battle scenes, my eyes tends to glaze over and I occasionally start to skim. So it might be odd to say that the Felix parts are my favorite part of the novel (maybe it's because when I choose a book like Armor it's what I want), but that's the way it is. That was about the only part I had much memory of the specifics of plot in the time since I first read it. I remembered the idea of the three people sharing his life, but that's about all I could remember of that plotline. It's not bad, it just didn't really grab me. If I put on my Inner Movie Producer (as I did a few times while reading), I could film Armor's A-plot easily without the B-plot, although I think I'd probably radically revamp it because some of the ideas and themes it expresses (about our mixed feelings towards military service) are pretty cool. It's just the actual plot of it that was kind of mehy to me.
Worth rereading, anyway... not one of my favorites but I might still read it every decade or so.
Anyway, I probably won't go through the whole Amber series again, but I might read the first couple books of it.
In other bloggage:
Assorted questions I've been pondering lately:
1) If you _were_ the subject of the song "You're So Vain (You Probably Think This Song Is About You)", it wouldn't be vain to think so, right? I mean, it'd just be factual.
2) If every living thing on Earth, right down to bacteria and viruses, suddenly died (no radiation or anything, just call it sudden magic death syndrome), except for ONE human being and the bacteria that naturally live on and inside them, would they alone be able to spread enough to reseed the world with life (not human life, certainly, but enough bacteria that could survive long enough outside the body to breed and evolve and so on).
3) Do individual episodes of Deal or No Deal really need their own promo? I mean, it's a frakking game show! It just seems a lot of pointless busy work to have a promo for every episode that says, "On the next episode of Deal or No Deal... This guy/girl you've never seen before may or may not win lots of money!". I never see individualized promos for Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune.
4) Long Time No See? How did such a grammatically messed up sentence enter our commonly used phrases?!
5) Assume the kids of Harry Potter were forced to fight to the death, Battle Royale style. What would be the outcome? Who teams up with whom and who survives to the end? Assume it's circa Goblet of Fire, and only those people in Harry's year. Also, something magically inhibits magic. Is the outcome different if magic is allowed (except magic that might be used to escape the death-collars)? Now, see, of course it's a natural that Harry, Hermione and Ron try to team up, although I bet they'd be separated for a while due to their last names being spaced out (Potter might well be between the Patil twins).
Still, I think they'd find each other eventually and try to work together, but Potter would think the others were trying to kill him or emo about being all alone in the world or something and snap first and attack the others and, since his name's on the title of all the books, end up surviving to the end.
Finished watching The Girl From Tomorrow... I guess I did actually see it to the end, since there were elements I remembered, I'd just forgotten what it was. Still, I hadn't seen the beginning and it was worth a rewatch. Watching some Avatar now but probably won't get through the third season after all.
Since I was at my Grandmothers, I was able to watch Wolverine and the X-Men there instead of downloading it. If it was any other episode I might have done both (because occasional people talking and such can make it hard to follow), but, well, it's really not my type of episode and so not worth following up on anything I missed. Couple good moments though.
Finished: Blindsight, by Peter Watts (reread)
Started: Consider Phlebas, by Iain M. Banks (reread)
Already read Blindsight, so no extended thoughts on it, but I do have a selected quote (not really spoilery at all) I liked behind the cut. Before that, I might as well mention that it rereads very well - Still has some of the same problems, but I think I'm actually more impressed with it after the second read. It's very bleak, from general outlook to view of human relations, but sometimes extra bleak is good. To me, at least. Anyway, quote:
"Watching the world from a distance, it occurred to me at last: I knew exactly what Chelsea had meant, with her Luddite ramblings about desaturated Humanity and the colorless interactions of virtual space. I'd known all along. I'd just never been able to see how it was any different from real life."
Just one of those things that kinda resonates with me, with respect to real-life interactions vs online.
Finished: Armor, by John Steakley (reread)
Started: Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazny (reread)
Armor's a reread, but it's been so long, and in fact I think the last time I read it was in the 90s, long before I had LJ. So I'll go a bit into my thoughts, and a teeny bit spoilery (general plot spoilery): In general, liked part, other parts only okay.
Armor sort of deals with two stories. One, the story of Felix, a "Scout" in the Antwar, and interstellar war with a race of ant-like aliens. He's deployed to the planet Banshee and (like everybody) wears powered armor that increases his strength and allows him to survive hostile environments. But the Antwar is hell, more horrific than he ever imagined, and he has to become almost a machine inside to deal with it. The story also takes place several years later, when a famous pirate/celebrity lands on a planet with the intent of scamming somebody out of something big, brings along Felix's scout armor as a sort of gift to get in good with the scientist. The scientist discovers a way to access the recording pod, but for (technobabble) reasons three people have to watch it at once. And so the three share Felix's life as it was in the armor and as the story progresses.
Now, I've said a number of times that I'm not really much of a action/battle reader. When I read long battle scenes, my eyes tends to glaze over and I occasionally start to skim. So it might be odd to say that the Felix parts are my favorite part of the novel (maybe it's because when I choose a book like Armor it's what I want), but that's the way it is. That was about the only part I had much memory of the specifics of plot in the time since I first read it. I remembered the idea of the three people sharing his life, but that's about all I could remember of that plotline. It's not bad, it just didn't really grab me. If I put on my Inner Movie Producer (as I did a few times while reading), I could film Armor's A-plot easily without the B-plot, although I think I'd probably radically revamp it because some of the ideas and themes it expresses (about our mixed feelings towards military service) are pretty cool. It's just the actual plot of it that was kind of mehy to me.
Worth rereading, anyway... not one of my favorites but I might still read it every decade or so.
Anyway, I probably won't go through the whole Amber series again, but I might read the first couple books of it.
In other bloggage:
Assorted questions I've been pondering lately:
1) If you _were_ the subject of the song "You're So Vain (You Probably Think This Song Is About You)", it wouldn't be vain to think so, right? I mean, it'd just be factual.
2) If every living thing on Earth, right down to bacteria and viruses, suddenly died (no radiation or anything, just call it sudden magic death syndrome), except for ONE human being and the bacteria that naturally live on and inside them, would they alone be able to spread enough to reseed the world with life (not human life, certainly, but enough bacteria that could survive long enough outside the body to breed and evolve and so on).
3) Do individual episodes of Deal or No Deal really need their own promo? I mean, it's a frakking game show! It just seems a lot of pointless busy work to have a promo for every episode that says, "On the next episode of Deal or No Deal... This guy/girl you've never seen before may or may not win lots of money!". I never see individualized promos for Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune.
4) Long Time No See? How did such a grammatically messed up sentence enter our commonly used phrases?!
5) Assume the kids of Harry Potter were forced to fight to the death, Battle Royale style. What would be the outcome? Who teams up with whom and who survives to the end? Assume it's circa Goblet of Fire, and only those people in Harry's year. Also, something magically inhibits magic. Is the outcome different if magic is allowed (except magic that might be used to escape the death-collars)? Now, see, of course it's a natural that Harry, Hermione and Ron try to team up, although I bet they'd be separated for a while due to their last names being spaced out (Potter might well be between the Patil twins).
Still, I think they'd find each other eventually and try to work together, but Potter would think the others were trying to kill him or emo about being all alone in the world or something and snap first and attack the others and, since his name's on the title of all the books, end up surviving to the end.
Finished watching The Girl From Tomorrow... I guess I did actually see it to the end, since there were elements I remembered, I'd just forgotten what it was. Still, I hadn't seen the beginning and it was worth a rewatch. Watching some Avatar now but probably won't get through the third season after all.
Since I was at my Grandmothers, I was able to watch Wolverine and the X-Men there instead of downloading it. If it was any other episode I might have done both (because occasional people talking and such can make it hard to follow), but, well, it's really not my type of episode and so not worth following up on anything I missed. Couple good moments though.
no subject
no subject
no subject
Generally I'm placated with smiles and nods.
Just sayin'!