The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion
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Stu wrote: "Seen 330 species of birds in NC and 471 species lifetime"As a mostly backyard birder, I don't keep a life list. I stopped keeping track a long time ago. I did get about 120 different species on 35mm slides. That's how long ago it's been.
I had no idea there were so many birders here. Do any of you do the Great Backyard Bird Count? I've done it a few times & found it really helped with my bird identification. It makes me pay more attention.
I’ve done a bunch of Christmas bird counts. For some reason my area does the backyard bird count on Mother’s Day. I’d end up divorced if I did it.
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I have a friend whose son came out of the womb already in love with birds and wants to know everything about them. So she got roped into becoming a birder because of her son. He's real popular with the other birders because he's so young.
Our anniversary falls on Mother's Day fairly often. Her birthday is just 2 weeks after Valentine's Day, too. It's terrible. I never know what to get her & it gets worse as the years & decades go by. My daughter helps some, but we pretty much get what we want when we want. If we don't get it, we can't afford it.
Give her things that don't cost anything. Write a love letter. Draw a picture. Give her a coupon book for things like foot massage, taking over one of her chores for a period of time, extra kisses. Next time you see violets or strawberries from horseback, get off and pick some for her.Little things to let her know that you think of her often and want her to feel cherished.
Also, bear in mind she's supposed to be doing thing for you, too. If she does, use her ideas as cues. If not, have a good conversation about why not.
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I was running some errands and the traffic got stuck. I wondered why. Turns out it was the damn turkeys again. They trot all over town with no respect for traffic laws. Honk at them and they'll just honk back at you. Recently a group of them has moved into a lot near a major intersection and cross the road for no obvious reason. (Why did the turkey cross the road?)
!! Well at least they're not Canada Geese.
I saw a headline about a 70 year old guy getting killed on his motorcycle because of a turkey. I didn't read the details. There are a lot of them around here, but they're fairly skittish since a lot of people hunt them. In town, it's the Canadian geese that are the traffic hazard.
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I think I finally understood that. You mean snow that remains on the ground after most has melted?
At first I thought it was a reference to remaindered books being shredded into confetti. I've been so long away from snowy areas!
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Sad. Almost happened to me on a bicycle once. The dumb fowl jumped from a tree branch down to the road in front of me at the bottom of a hill.
Geese are not a problem in my neighborhood, but they do go to some grassy areas not far away and poop constantly.
As a trail runner I’m been attacked by three species of birds. Fortunately no damage. First was a Blue Headed Vireo, then a Black and White Warbler, and last a Roughed Grouse. I’ve heard of Barred Owls attacking runners in the Seattle area along common trails.
Our grand children are visiting this week so we've been spending time at the beach. Yesterday afternoon a pair of bald eagles perched in an Australian pine oversaw the kids swimming and shell hunting.
That's really neat. I haven't seen any eagles around here. A lot of hawks, a couple have perched on our porch railing & on the fence, but the only eagles I've seen here are at the Salato Center where they're living out their lives after being hurt really bad. I don't think any have been able to return to the wild.
When I was a senior in High School way back in 1979 I took a class in Science Fiction Literature. Early on in the class I walked in reading Treason by Orson Scott Card and the teacher said "What's that trash you're reading?" I told her and also told her Card was a Hugo and Nebula award winner. She said still trash. Only thing we read in her class that semester was Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451. I to this day dislike that book. Don't know if it's because of her attitude or the book itself.
They are not uncommon here - a couple dozen nesting pairs in our county. I see them from time to time. It still is something of a thrill to an eagle. There is a nest not far from where I live, plainly visible from a busy road in an urban residential area. They raised three young who just fledged last week to the delight of photographers and birders parked by the side of the road every morning.There is another nest near me, also not far from a busy road in a suburban area, that has a live eagle cam. If you google Ozzie and Harriet eagle, you can find it. There are a couple of young about to fledge.
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Ha! Old folks and young folks just can't agree on art, can they?
My husband and I took a train trip across Canada in 2017. In the section between Jasper, Alberta and Prince Rupert, B.C., we had to spend time on sidings waiting for the freight trains to pass because they had the right of way. During one of those stops we got to see a bald eagle leave a tree, go fishing in a lake nearby and then flying back to the tree with the fish in his talons.Seeing that was worth the waiting.
Stu wrote: "When I was a senior in High School way back in 1979 I took a class in Science Fiction Literature. Early on in the class I walked in reading Treason by Orson Scott Card and the teacher said "What's ..."That's one of my favorite books by him. Why did she think it was trash?
I really liked Fahrenheit 451, so you might want to give it another go in the future. I've had teachers ruin books & even authors for me, too. I was assigned The Red Pony 3 times in school & HATED it. I wouldn't read anything by Steinbeck after that until my youngest boy got me to read Of Mice and Men. I loved it & went on to read a number of his books after that. I really liked them, too.
I didn't like Fahrenheit 451 a lot when I read it in high school, but on rereading it a couple of years ago, I was blown away. Now I plan on reading a lot more of Ray Bradbury's works. I recently read The Illustrated Man.
Fahrenheit 451 was one I liked when I was a teenager, I recently re-read it and it blew me away how good it was. Especially for a short novel that was written very fast and barely edited.I agree that being forced to read things in school can turn you against them forever. Lord of the Flies was one I don't think I will ever be able to go back to and several of my friends scorn favourite books of mine because they had them inflicted in school.
I reread Lord of the Flies a couple of years ago and got a lot more out of it than the first time around. The author is really good at creating atmosphere.
Thursday we got up to 80. Yesterday was cold & rainy, colder & stormier as the day went on. We got 1.5" of rain. This morning it is 34 & snowing. Big, fat flakes that aren't sticking & are kind of pretty against all the trees & bushes in bloom or with new, green growth. The forsythia, pears, & daffodils have been done for a while. The redbuds, plums, & crab apples are losing their blooms as they leaf out - a pretty mixture. The dogwoods & tulips are in full bloom.
We had 6 inches of rain with thunderstorms yesterday. First time in three years I have peaches growing on my tree. Seems like we alway get a hard frost when they bloom.
Congrats on the peaches, Stu. I saw our first hummingbird yesterday. I always put out the feeders the first of April, but don't put much in them, just replace the water every 4 or 5 days. I thought the front one was possibly emptied by the storms, but I saw a male Ruby-throat (the only kind we have) on it last night. I was wondering since the back feeder hadn't been emptied. Nice to finally see him.I hope we have a lot of hummingbirds this year. Last year we started with just 2 pairs, but had almost 2 dozen by the end of the season, IIRC. Some years we start off with a dozen & then they keep me hopping. One year I had 4 feeders out & was feeding a quart of sugar water a day.
Jim, I’m in Western North Carolina. We get Ruby Throats & Chimney Swifts around 15 April every year. I occasionally get wintering hummingbirds. Multiple Rufous, a lone Allen’s once, and Broad Billed at a park down the mountain from us. Only had one Rufous hang around till the Christmas Count. Stu
Jim wrote: "The redbuds, plums, & crab apples are losing their blooms as they leaf out - a pretty mixture. The dogwoods & tulips are in full bloom."I grew up in the Atlanta area. I always loved it when the redbuds and then the dogwoods would bloom. There was always a dogwood festival but they usually timed it wrong. I remember one year there was a cold snap and the dogwood blooming got stretched out for several days. That's one of the things I miss about living Upnorth - the dogwoods.
We have migrating birds passing through this time of year, warblers mostly, and stopping for a few days to fill their tanks after crossing the Gulf. This year, in the backyard, we've got painted buntings and rose-breasted grossbeaks. A grossbeak crashed into a window glass yesterday and knocked itself senseless. After wobbling about on the ground for a bit, it flew up, hit another window, and finally found a perch. Eventually it was able to fly away.
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They will share a feeder when they are migrating. But when they pick a home they will not share and become very aggressive. I got a good video of two having an epic fight. Those bills make great weapons.
I had a feeder for a while, but now I prefer to plant flowers that they like.
We usually have 1 male that hogs a feeder, but the others seem to share pretty well. I usually stick out a second feeder if that happens. Sometimes it will try to hog both, but that never works well. We also have a lot of woodpeckers & no matter how aggressive the piggy hummingbird is, he won't mess with them. Some of the Downy like the sugar water & last year a juvenile Red-bellied liked it. The latter would cling to the post next to the feeder & drink. We have a lot of flowers that they all love, although the bee balm hasn't been doing well the past couple of years. Looks like it is doing better this year, though. Only the red seems to like it here. The purple always dies off in a few years. I have trumpet vines on the fences which they love, too. Actually, our yards are pretty much bird havens. We have 2 bird baths, but they really like the fish pond which has a shallow, long stream running into it. I'll see several birds using it at a time.
If you have a bunch of feeders it’s too hard for a male to defend it as territory. Then you’ll likely get dozens of birds at your feeder.
EBird is offering a course on bird ID. They're running a promotion where you can get it for free.https://ebird.org/news/win-a-free-spo...
I've never seen Wood's drawings. Are they sketches? I really like Eric Sloane's sketches. It always amazes me how clearly some artists can communicate with a few lines.
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The whole thing is on Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1593/1...
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He in fact did write SF, as well as non-fiction, and has a crater on the moon named after him, but nobody nominated him in the linked thread unless they subsequently deleted their post.
Oops! Ignore that! Someone did nominate one of his books.
The Man Who Rocked the Earth.
Thanks! I glanced at the beginning & I think that it would be fun book in print format, especially HB size. I only see what I think is a trade PB size on AbeBooks & it's pricey there. Only 3 copies available, one for $20, another closer to $90, & the last for $120! https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sear...
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Well, that's up to you! I bought a paperback copy once at a national park gift store. It is out-of-copyright, so cheap or free versions are available.
I didn't intend to really discuss that book. I was just making a joke about how I can't recognize birds well enough to tell them apart from flowers. Though that isn't actually true. Yesterday a goldfinch was eating seeds from my rosemary bush and let me get within 3 feet of him. At that distance, the birds and flowers were distinctly different looking. I tasted one of the rosemary seed and I don't really see why the bird liked them.
Ed wrote: "I think I need to start with the basics: How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers"How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers by Robert W. Wood is absolutely delightful. Thank you. I give it five stars.
Today is our anniversary & Mother's Day is this weekend. After almost 4 decades together, trying to figure out one gift for my wife is tough, but 2 so close together is about impossible. I'm building her a taller, better mounting block than the portable one we've been using, so that solved one, but what else? Fate took a hand & solved part of the problem for me last night. She cooked a steak on the grill along with asparagus from our patch that she'd just cut minutes before. She turned off the grill & we sat down to eat. The grill was still smoking & started smoking even more. I finally had to put it out with the fire extinguisher. It's toast. At least it didn't set the table on fire.
I scrape it out each year, but there were growing lumps coating the bottom half & those were burning hot. It was boiling the grease in the pan underneath, so she's getting a new grill for our anniversary.
We've been using a portable mounting block that's only 22" tall. We're getting older & fatter, so some extra height with a bigger & generally sturdier platform on top made sense. I cut my raised vegetable garden in half this year, so I had 2- 2x10-12 for the project. The buried edges were a little eaten up, but basically they were in good shape. Other materials were a couple of 2x4s & some treated deck screws (TDS). It took most of the morning to make, but I had it placed by lunch time.There were a few things about it that tickled me. I was able to find my framing square buttons & laid out the stringers properly on the first try. Neither should be a big deal, but it's been 15 years since I last made one & we've moved since then.
I only had a couple of feet of the old 2x10s left. I cut the 2 stringers & one tread out of one with the 2' of waste. 4 treads used up the other completely. Great use of recycled materials.
I used up most of my odd TDS. I keep a 5 gallon bucket with dividing trays in it filled with assorted sizes of TDS, drywall screws, & nails. Lately each time I buy more TDS, I get a different head. Phillips used to be the standard, but one batch was Torx, & now the standard seems to be #2 square drive. It's a PITA to constantly change bits in the screwgun. I've pretty much got them all down to square drive in all the sizes now, though.
This would have taken me a full week. And probably collapse at first use.
If you're a fan of Game of Thrones & Monty Python, you'll probably get a kick out of this. Warning, it contains spoilers for last week's episode of GoT.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVyxn...
Here's a picture of me on Red, my new horse, & the mounting block. The height is perfect, as you can see. We haven't put a stick on Red, but I guess he's 15.2h, so it's nice to be able to step into my bareback pad from a 28" platform. My bad foot loves the ability to dismount that way, too.
I've been a fan of Frank Frazetta since I saw the Lancer editions of the Conan books & they sucked me into reading them. I knew his art was pricey, but now it has set a new record. The Egyptian Queen, which originally graced the cover of Eerie magazine, just sold for $4.5 million!https://www.ha.com/heritage-auctions-...
Jim wrote: "I've been a fan of Frank Frazetta since I saw the Lancer editions of the Conan books & they sucked me into reading them. I knew his art was pricey, but now it has set a new record. ..."Setting a record too! It is a great painting in so many ways.
As I can't find a "Stupid Questions You Blush to Ask but Really Wan't to Know the Answer to" topic, I'm going to put mine here.1) Is there a way to make the comment list for a discussion automatically show as latest first? I know how to change the order but when I first go into a topic it seems to revert to oldest first.
2) In adding books to my personal "Books I've read" list I'm sometimes not finding the edition I've read - audio books in particular - I've found out how to add my version but it is a bit tortuous and I wonder does it matter if I just pick any old edition. I mean, I suppose, is it against the spirit or ethos of Goodreads to do so. (I did say the questions were stupid)
3) I'm not finding this site all that easy to navigate. To look at posts from this group, for example I go to Community / Groups/ The Evolution of ... but I'm only in 2 groups so I feel like I should be able to favourite them to my home page or something and can't work out how.
Basically all tips on navigation and getting the most from the site gratefully accepted.
Fine place to ask & NOT stupid. There are all sorts of little links around. They're often hidden & hard to decipher.1) Yes, click on the "date" to the right side of the top of the comment column. I generally keep the Discussion page (see #3) open, right click on the topic, & open it in a new tab.* Do that to one topic & thereafter they'll continue to open in the date reversed order with the comment box on top. You'll have to do it once or twice a day, at least I do. Cookies get reset or sometimes you'll click on one sorted in the default order.
* I actually click on the scroll wheel of my mouse which does the same thing in one click.
2) Editions are great to do, if you can find them since they occasionally make a difference. Some times librarians play & split them, so try to get something as close as possible. That said, I've got 3500 books shelved since GR opened & I've only run into issues once or twice a year.
3) The Home page used to be the Discussion page. They decided to change that, so I changed my shortcut to GR to land there instead.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic
should work for you.
If you navigate to it via the home page, it's Community dropdown - Discussion.
Hope this helps. If you don't feel like asking in public, feel free to PM (message) me.
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It is entirely up to you. Some people care, some don't. And it is possible to later click a few buttons to move your review to associate it with a different edition. The biggest pain is books that have 100s of editions in multiple languages.
The Evolution of Science Fiction
Books mentioned in this topic
A History of the English Speaking Peoples, 4 Vols (other topics)Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer (other topics)
A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? (other topics)
Bleak House (other topics)
A Night in the Lonesome October (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Winston Churchill (other topics)Roger Zelazny (other topics)
Felix Salten (other topics)
Sam Kean (other topics)
Chuck Tingle (other topics)
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For listing I use Lifebirds Journal. It was created by a guy here in NC. I’ve contacted him a couple times and he’s vary responsive. A nice feature is you can take a list of sightings for the day and send it via email directly to eBird.