Possibly the worst sci-fi I've read
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Ilíon wrote:
Well, sure. But what were you smoking at the time?
Nothing! Honest, I was a 15 year old kid in a small town in Western Oklahoma. As a lifelong science fiction fan, 2001 was a monumental movie. It is easy to poke fun at it now, but at the time, it was really quite an amazing experience.
Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.
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Greg Bear's Eon was momentous for me.
Brady Kelly wrote:
Greg Bear's Eon was momentous for me.
I had to go check on that one because it sounded familiar. When I pick up a science fiction book, if the protagonist isn't a white guy with an anglo-saxon sounding name, I put it right back down.
Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.
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I knew I shouldn't have removed the voting buttons ;)
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
Chris Maunder wrote:
I knew I shouldn't have removed the voting buttons
:laugh: In truth it was a very wise decision. Made this forum all about conversation and debate instead of voting averages.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Both democrats and republicans are playing for the same team and it's not us. - Chris Austin
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Chris Maunder wrote:
I knew I shouldn't have removed the voting buttons
:laugh: In truth it was a very wise decision. Made this forum all about conversation and debate instead of voting averages.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Both democrats and republicans are playing for the same team and it's not us. - Chris Austin
Yes it has. It's been a good experiment. One day I'm going to write my PhD on your lot. <taps finger tips together>
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Brady Kelly wrote:
Greg Bear's Eon was momentous for me.
I had to go check on that one because it sounded familiar. When I pick up a science fiction book, if the protagonist isn't a white guy with an anglo-saxon sounding name, I put it right back down.
Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.
Stan Shannon wrote:
When I pick up a science fiction book, if the protagonist isn't a white guy with an anglo-saxon sounding name, I put it right back down.
One of the things I really liked about Starship Troopers, the book, is that Heinlein very carefully never let you know what the protagonist looked like or what his ethnic background was. Until the end of the book - when you find out he wasn't a handsome blue-eyed blonde, or even a tall dark and handsome Brazilian. Instead he was a Tagalog from the Philipines. I bet you would have shit a brick when you realised you had been rooting for someone with dark skin.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Both democrats and republicans are playing for the same team and it's not us. - Chris Austin
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Yes it has. It's been a good experiment. One day I'm going to write my PhD on your lot. <taps finger tips together>
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Chris Maunder wrote:
One day I'm going to write my PhD on your lot.
I double dare you.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Both democrats and republicans are playing for the same team and it's not us. - Chris Austin
It'll be under a pseudonym. I know you guys are good at hunting people down so I'll take no chances.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Stan Shannon wrote:
When I pick up a science fiction book, if the protagonist isn't a white guy with an anglo-saxon sounding name, I put it right back down.
One of the things I really liked about Starship Troopers, the book, is that Heinlein very carefully never let you know what the protagonist looked like or what his ethnic background was. Until the end of the book - when you find out he wasn't a handsome blue-eyed blonde, or even a tall dark and handsome Brazilian. Instead he was a Tagalog from the Philipines. I bet you would have shit a brick when you realised you had been rooting for someone with dark skin.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Both democrats and republicans are playing for the same team and it's not us. - Chris Austin
Oakman wrote:
Instead he was a Tagalog from the Philipines.
Tagalog is a language not an ethnic group. Besides, as I said, back in the days when I read that I was a raging liberal. But that might well have been what shaped my current attitude. When an author goes out of his way to create an ethnic character he is trying to make a point that has nothing to do with the story line. If I wanted to consider someone's religious principles, I'd just read the bible.
Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.
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Oakman wrote:
Instead he was a Tagalog from the Philipines.
Tagalog is a language not an ethnic group. Besides, as I said, back in the days when I read that I was a raging liberal. But that might well have been what shaped my current attitude. When an author goes out of his way to create an ethnic character he is trying to make a point that has nothing to do with the story line. If I wanted to consider someone's religious principles, I'd just read the bible.
Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.
Stan Shannon wrote:
Tagalog is a language not an ethnic group
The Tagalog people is the second largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group. . . The Tagalog people number about 15.9 million making them the second largest Filipino ethnic group [^]
Stan Shannon wrote:
When an author goes out of his way to create an ethnic character he is trying to make a point that has nothing to do with the story line
You probably should stick to comic books - not DC or Marvel, but Archie won't throw you for a loop.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Both democrats and republicans are playing for the same team and it's not us. - Chris Austin
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Stan Shannon wrote:
Tagalog is a language not an ethnic group
The Tagalog people is the second largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group. . . The Tagalog people number about 15.9 million making them the second largest Filipino ethnic group [^]
Stan Shannon wrote:
When an author goes out of his way to create an ethnic character he is trying to make a point that has nothing to do with the story line
You probably should stick to comic books - not DC or Marvel, but Archie won't throw you for a loop.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Both democrats and republicans are playing for the same team and it's not us. - Chris Austin
Oakman wrote:
The Tagalog people is the second largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group. . . The Tagalog people number about 15.9 million making them the second largest Filipino ethnic group [^]
Well, all I can say is that in the entire time I was in the Phillipines I never heard anyone refer to themselves as a 'Tagalog'. That was the name of the language they spoke.
Oakman wrote:
but Archie won't throw you for a loop.
Now there's a guy who could command a star ship. In fact, now that I think about it, Jughead looks a little like Spock.
Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.
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Greg Bear's Eon was momentous for me.
I felt the same way about David Brin's Uplift Books.
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece. --Ralph Charell
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Intel 4004 wrote:
I thought only mega-nerds actually read sci-fi books.
I read a lot of things unlike you.
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece. --Ralph Charell
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Intel 4004 wrote:
I thought only mega-nerds actually read sci-fi books.
I read a lot of things unlike you.
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece. --Ralph Charell
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Stan Shannon wrote:
When I pick up a science fiction book, if the protagonist isn't a white guy with an anglo-saxon sounding name, I put it right back down.
One of the things I really liked about Starship Troopers, the book, is that Heinlein very carefully never let you know what the protagonist looked like or what his ethnic background was. Until the end of the book - when you find out he wasn't a handsome blue-eyed blonde, or even a tall dark and handsome Brazilian. Instead he was a Tagalog from the Philipines. I bet you would have shit a brick when you realised you had been rooting for someone with dark skin.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Both democrats and republicans are playing for the same team and it's not us. - Chris Austin
Oakman wrote:
Instead he was a Tagalog from the Philipines. I bet you would have sh*t a brick when you realised you had been rooting for someone with dark skin.
Nah, Stan would have shouted PINOY AKO!
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece. --Ralph Charell
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Oakman wrote:
The Tagalog people is the second largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group. . . The Tagalog people number about 15.9 million making them the second largest Filipino ethnic group [^]
Well, all I can say is that in the entire time I was in the Phillipines I never heard anyone refer to themselves as a 'Tagalog'. That was the name of the language they spoke.
Oakman wrote:
but Archie won't throw you for a loop.
Now there's a guy who could command a star ship. In fact, now that I think about it, Jughead looks a little like Spock.
Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.
Stan Shannon wrote:
Well, all I can say is that in the entire time I was in the Phillipines I never heard anyone refer to themselves as a 'Tagalog'.
After your experience in San Francisco on the way to the Phillipines, you were probably afraid to leave the ship. :laugh:
"Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it." -- P.J. O'Rourke
I'm a proud denizen of the Real Soapbox[^]
ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES!!! -
Stan Shannon wrote:
Well, all I can say is that in the entire time I was in the Phillipines I never heard anyone refer to themselves as a 'Tagalog'.
After your experience in San Francisco on the way to the Phillipines, you were probably afraid to leave the ship. :laugh:
"Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it." -- P.J. O'Rourke
I'm a proud denizen of the Real Soapbox[^]
ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES!!!Tim Craig wrote:
After your experience in San Francisco on the way to the Phillipines, you were probably afraid to leave the ship.
San Diego. And considering that I caught the clap three times in the P.I. I had no trouble finding the beach.
Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.
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Tim Craig wrote:
After your experience in San Francisco on the way to the Phillipines, you were probably afraid to leave the ship.
San Diego. And considering that I caught the clap three times in the P.I. I had no trouble finding the beach.
Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.
Stan Shannon wrote:
And considering that I caught the clap three times in the P.I.
Gee, Stan, where were those high moral values you say everyone needs to be civilized? Where were those two millenia of christianity? I think you just got old and cranky and now you're just a humorless prude.
"Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it." -- P.J. O'Rourke
I'm a proud denizen of the Real Soapbox[^]
ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES!!! -
Has to be "The Saga of Seven Suns" by Kevin Anderson. What's the worst you've read?
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece. --Ralph Charell
Don't tell me you read the whole book, I tried this one before I started using a reader, I took great pleasure in hurling it across the room. One of the things I miss about paper books, the really bad ones can be physically abused for being such crap.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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Stan Shannon wrote:
And considering that I caught the clap three times in the P.I.
Gee, Stan, where were those high moral values you say everyone needs to be civilized? Where were those two millenia of christianity? I think you just got old and cranky and now you're just a humorless prude.
"Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it." -- P.J. O'Rourke
I'm a proud denizen of the Real Soapbox[^]
ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES!!!Tim Craig wrote:
I think you just got old and cranky and now you're just a humorless prude.
Some of us like to refer to that as 'growing up'. Maybe you should try it some time.
Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.
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Oakman wrote:
The Tagalog people is the second largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group. . . The Tagalog people number about 15.9 million making them the second largest Filipino ethnic group [^]
Well, all I can say is that in the entire time I was in the Phillipines I never heard anyone refer to themselves as a 'Tagalog'. That was the name of the language they spoke.
Oakman wrote:
but Archie won't throw you for a loop.
Now there's a guy who could command a star ship. In fact, now that I think about it, Jughead looks a little like Spock.
Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.
Stan Shannon wrote:
Well, all I can say is that in the entire time I was in the Phillipines I never heard anyone refer to themselves as a 'Tagalog'.
Say what you will, Stan, you are wrong about this. It is a fact that Tagalog describes an ethnic group. Fact.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Both democrats and republicans are playing for the same team and it's not us. - Chris Austin