Random Musings.. Showing 201-250 of 1,161

[Dara]

I tend to read the Gawker websites as well. It seems like the quality of Gizmodo has gotten better and io9 has fallen.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

I haven't noticed a difference in i09, but then I've never read it regularly, I just skip headlines in my reader.

I still probably click through to more i09 stories than any other source though.

I like feedly, but one think I miss from Google Reader is the statistics. Like I could see how many articles I read from a feed each day vs. how many articles were posted.

I have no real sense of that anymore.

I know SFFSignal is one T&V seem to reference, same with the wertzone I think. I haven't read either of them.

[Bill]

The only things I check everyday are GR and ESPN. Outside of those I probably spend the most time on food sites.

[Lindsay]

I regularly read the Australian news sites (I don't watch much TV, so these are my primary new source), a few SF&F sites (io9.com, tor.com, sfsignal, mybookishways.com), a few science sites (Pharyngula, Bad Astronomy, Starts With a Bang) and some miscellaneous ones which I recommend:

Real Monstrosities - This is a "creature of the day" biology blog with a wonderful snarky sense of humor. It's been around for a while and because of that it's more an encyclopedia of weird and wonderful in biology than just a blog.

The Bloggess - Jenny Lawson is something of an internet celebrity as well as being a hilarious writer who speaks candidly and clearly about her struggles with depression. Most of her posts are funny, light and absurdest, but every now and then she drops something poignant that makes you look at mental wellness from interesting angles.

Lowering the Bar - Another long-running blog, this one cataloging some of the inanity that happens in various legal systems (mostly US ones). It's funnier than you'd think.

I also read a dozen or so blogs by authors and critics I like including John Scalzi, Charles Stross, Ian Mond, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Natalie Luhrs and Foz Meadows.

[Sky]

Yeah, I am mostly GR, ESPN, twitter, and other than that mostly sites like hackaday.com, dangerousprototypes.com, etc.

[Dara]

Thanks for your suggestions, guys! Should keep me occupied during downtime at work.

[Justine]

I like Tor.com too ... I've been pretty lucky on their giveaways which come up pretty regularly.

[Dara]

The 7 Stages of Falling out of Love with Your Fandom

Super accurate for me. Been there a few times and currently going through it with Game of Thrones. What about you guys?

[Geoff]

I was also really bored with Game of Thrones this season.

[Dara]

Chuck Wendig's assessment is pretty much how I feel about it. Game of Thrones almost always leaves me feeling like someone beat me up, threw me in a muddy pit, and dumped the contents of a porta potty on me. I feel sad and horrified and gross. I have to be done with that show.

[Bill]

Has anyone played Fallout Shelter on ios? I was enjoying it up until I found out my ipad 2 is too weak to play it after reaching a max of 30 dwellers. It made me go back and play Fallout 3 for a few hours the other night.

[Justine]

Dara wrote: "Chuck Wendig's assessment is pretty much how I feel about it. Game of Thrones almost always leaves me feeling like someone beat me up, threw me in a muddy pit, and dumped the contents of a porta po..."

I'm glad I read that...I actually thought it was just me. I'm just not sure why the show has to go that way...oh well.

[Scott]

I've been playing Fallout Shelter on my iPhone 5 and it has been working pretty well. Haven't had any hiccups or bugs so far. It's seriously addictive ...but that might just be because I'm so excited for Fallout 4 and anything related to that would hold my attention

My 360 broke down finally so I can't get back in to 3. November 10 can't come soon enough

[Geoff]

Hopefully Fallout Shelter comes to Android soon. I'd really like to try it.

[Lindsay]

Geoff wrote: "Hopefully Fallout Shelter comes to Android soon. I'd really like to try it."

I hear it is the Game That Will Eat Your Life (tm).

[Bill]

I am excited for it to get to android also so I can actually play it.

I am 100% still on the Game of Thrones bandwagon. I thought this season was great.

[Scott]

I just finished season 1 of Game of Thrones so I'm nowhere near that point. It is a show I can't binge watch like Breaking Bad or Lost though. I have to pace myself, more like I did with The Wire. I could see people getting to the breaking point, especially with no end in sight for the books

[Justine]

I like The Walking Dead.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

I've seen 8/10 episodes of GoT Season 5. I didn't like the change they made with Sansa. I think it dramatically changes the story. But otherwise I've enjoyed what I've seen, especially episode 8.

[Lindsay]

I just listened to the latest Midnight in Karachi podcast.

Kate Griffin is Claire North.

Mind blown. I realize it wasn't a secret; it's right there on her goodreads profile, but it was a surprise to me.

Now I have to read The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and Touch.

[Justine]

Both books are excellent, and are interesting to read close together and think about the similarities between them. One book has an essentially immortal character reliving the same life over and over in the same body; the other features an essentially immortal character who lives through taking over the body and life of another person for periods of time.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August just won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for 2015.

[Justine]

OK, now that is hilarious. :)

[Scott]

The bottle caps story was great

[Dara]

I just started playing Fallout 3 for the first time. It's kind of depressing. Everything is so dreary and desolate. I got bummed out and switched to Skyrim.

[Scott]

Anyone playing Elder Scrolls Online? Game has become my new addiction

[Bill]

Unfortunately not. I considered getting it for my xbox360 but don't know how badly the gameplay would be affected since it was designed for the xbox one.

Does anyone know if there is a way to view audiobook progress on the Audible app? Been going by chapters complete but would like to be able to just see what percent complete I am.

[Sky]

you could always go to progress -> full book and divide minutes complete by minutes left

[Bill]

Thanks. I guess thats an option. I do that now but with chapters as the numbers are usually easier to remember.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

I do what Sky suggests. I've requested a % complete feature a few times, but I guess no one has had the 5 minutes that would take to implement it.

[Dara]

I'm not playing ESO but I did create a new Skyrim character last weekend. I'm playing as a mage for the first time. It's different but fun. Usually I hack and slash at enemies. Now I have to be smart.

[Scott]

Yeah I'm playing a Mage in ESO. It's been pretty fun so far. I'm not paying much attention to the story but it's been fun questing with friends. Feels a lot different than Skyrim, don't seem to get rewarded as much for finishing quests and caves/mines.

[Dara]

I am all about the rewards, haha.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

I pvp as a mage in WoW.

[Dara]

Not entirely related but I've been watching Critical Role on Geek and Sundry and now I really want to play D&D. Titansgrave is a lot of fun as well.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

I miss playing D&D. Loving Titansgrave. What is critical role?

[Dara]

Critical Role streams on Geek and Sundry's Twitch page. It's a D&D game lead by Matt Mercer and the party is made up of 8 voice actors. It's a lot of fun because they all have voices for their characters. They've been playing for 2 years I think. Laura Bailey is also in Critical Role.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Oh neat. I'll have to look into it.

[Dara]

The episodes are long. Three hours each usually but some of that time is taken up with their character intros (with are about 15 minutes and play twice. Beginning of the episode and when they take a break about halfway through).

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Doh. I probably don't have time for that. I'm already behind on a lot of other TV as it is.

[Dara]

Yeah, it's a bit of a commitment. I don't watch the episodes live because I don't want to sit there for 3 hours so I'll watch them in chunks. An hour here, hour there.

[Bill]

Rob wrote: "I do what Sky suggests. I've requested a % complete feature a few times, but I guess no one has had the 5 minutes that would take to implement it."

Ok thanks. I just thought I was missing some really obvious setting somewhere. Seems like something that should definitely be available kind of shocked it isn't.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Bill wrote: "Ok thanks. I just thought I was missing some really obvious setting somewhere. Seems like something that should definitely be available kind of shocked it isn't. "

Yeah. It's ridiculous. I've also requested goodreads integration to automatically fill in the book/% done, since Amazon owns them both. But I'd settle just not to have to do the calculation each day manually.

[Sree]

hey so i just Finished The Goblin Emperor and i really enjoyed it esp all the court stuff. Anyone know of any book in the similar vein something about court politics and ruling an empire?

I mean I've read all of sandersons stuff so theres some of it there. And dagger and coin has some aspect of ruling an empire albeit through economy. I was thinking of trying Prince of Fools. Anyone got any other recommendations?

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Long Price Quartet maybe. Starts with A Shadow in Summer

[Lindsay]

Fantasy books with lots of court politics that leap to mind are:

The Mordant's Need duology by Stephen R. Donaldson (that's the omnibus edition). It's a portal fantasy where the heroine gets brought to a castle from our world to be some sort of savior but she appears to be without power. I don't think the characters even leave the castle in the first book. Court politics everywhere.

Another one that leaps to mind is the Fortress series by C.J. Cherryh that starts with Fortress in the Eye of Time. Cherryh's stuff is always political and this series is all fantasy nobility politics.

EDIT: Missed the obvious; Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy that starts with Assassin's Apprentice is full of court intrigue.

[Sree]

Thanks for the recs, I tried reading assassins apprentice but it was so depressing I couldn't get past 1/2 way point might give it another shot

[Mark]

Sree wrote: "hey so i just Finished The Goblin Emperor and i really enjoyed it esp all the court stuff. Anyone know of any book in the similar vein something about court politics and ruling an e..."

Try The Emperor's Blades

[Sree]

Hey I just read hollow world. Anyone know of any other book with interesting social structures?

[Bill]

I really need to finish Hollow World. I got flooded with library books when I first read it and ended up dropping it halfway through.

[Sree]

It's good-ish, and it's really short. The MC feels odd though he's supposed to be 60 but doesn't really feel like it.