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Leo
(last edited Nov 23, 2018 04:28AM)
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Nov 23, 2018 04:28AM
What did you have for dessert Buck? Isn't that always pecan pie?
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Leo wrote: "What did you have for dessert Buck? Isn't that always pecan pie?"We decided on raspberry cheesecake ice cream cake leftover from a recent birthday, but everybody was too full. We had naps instead.
Today, Black Friday, the women went shopping. I stayed home and worked (sort of). Whew!
I'm visiting my sons. We bought a car. Not exciting, a very much used one that was necessary at short notice. But at least we did accomplish it, and it's in the driveway now.
My husband went shopping this morning to the Lego store to buy presents for our grandson, whose birthday is three weeks after Christmas. He is turning 8 and has been a Lego fanatic for half his life.
John wrote: "No no pumpkin pie is the traditional Turkey day dessert."I completely agree, but this year my folks bought a pumpkin cheesecake from Claim Jumper and it has got to be one of the most ridiculously delicious desserts I have ever tried. Highly recommended.
We had a pumpkin crunch or something that my wife made. It was good.
The closest we're getting is turkey sausage for breakfast on Thursday, apple crisp today, and probably Indian something with butternut squash tomorrow. It's fun to do things differently.
John wrote: "It's kind of funny what we perceive to be the ideal Thanksgiving meal. The first harvest festival back in 1621 mostly consisted of meat, and the turkey wasn't the center piece. The main meat was mo..."Rather than carrier pigeon it was more likely the now extinct passenger pigeon, once widely served in restaurants as squab.
In Quebec, the same bird was used to make the meat pie called tourtiere. Now they generally use pork. It is often eaten at Christmas.
I know! It's snuck up on me, too. I have almost 2 weeks of vacation to use up next month to only carry 5 days over into next year. Not sure how I'm going to manage that.I did get the 3 boys their Xmas presents. The amount was set by the air compressor that one really needs, though. I spent about the same amount on tools for the other two: a good, light chain, pry bar set, & such. Not much Xmas spirit to it since they're being delivered to their doors in plain brown boxes this week.
The girls are flying out Saturday to go to the oldest boy's wedding in RI. They just got their dresses this past weekend. Snuck up on them, too.
Mod
Take the time off and stay home!
One of my favorite perks at my company for many years is that it would shut down for a week of winter holidays. I loved that!
My current company doesn't do that. So, I'm considering using some "vacation" days to replicate the experience. This company also doesn't allow days to carry over into the next year, except that California law requires them to do so for those of us who live here. So if I use the days now, I'm reducing the number available for next year.
I am not complaining, though. I have a pretty darn good work situation.
My Internet is back up at home, but pretty slow & I'm not sure how stable it is. I've got a busy day Saturday, so I'm probably going to do all the first of the month stuff tomorrow, if work allows. We have kind of a mess with a couple of systems right now, but I wound up twiddling my thumbs for hours at one point today.I got the vacation squared away. We're only allowed to carry 5 days over, so I'm going to take Mon & Tue off the entire month & the whole week Xmas through New Years. I'll get to work three 3 day weeks & have 10 off in a row. Wow! That's a work schedule I could really get used to.
:)
I think I caused a poor policeman to wet himself this morning. Problems with our alarm system & a really crappy alarm rep. He walked in while I was hidden in the alcove behind him fiddling with the alarm. I put my hands up & said, "hi." in a low voice. He jumped, spun, & thankfully didn't draw. I offered to show him ID, but he looked funny & scurried off quickly keeping the front of his body away from me. He wouldn't meet my eyes after that first glance & didn't want any form of proof.Poor guy. It was poor procedure just to walk in like that, but once he was in, I was stuck as to what to do. I guess I should have locked the front door, but I didn't think of it. It's just been that kind of a mess the past couple of days.
Mod
That is worse than playing christmas carols in October.
Merry Xmas! The dogs gave me my present by letting me sleep in until after 5am before they told me it was time to get up & feed them. We had our Xmas dinner last night with Erin & Josh. Corn beef & cabbage! Then we opened presents & talked with one of the other kids. I got the complete series of "Science Fiction Theater".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science...
Merry Christmas!We had our Christmas dinner last night as well, so today I get to relax. And my cat didn't wake me up today, which was nice.
Mod
It's my last day of work for the year & the first day this week. After working 9 whole days this entire month, the regular full schedule in January is going to be tough.My daughter is taking my wife in to have sinus surgery today. I'd go, but I'm not very patient or good in hospitals, so Erin is a better choice of companions. I was told so after my wife wound up in the ER twice this year. I went with her the first time, Erin the second. Marg said I was worse than a 5 year old bouncing around. Sigh.
I'm sure Marg is going to be miserable for the next few days. They're fixing a deviated septum (A horse broke her nose years ago, something else we have in common.) & scraping out her sinuses. A friend had it done & he was miserable. At least I'll be home so I can take care of things, although I'm sure I won't do them properly.
;)
I finished my review of 2018 on Goodreads. It was a super year for my reading! https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
Today is Hogmanay
Tomorrow's Hogmananny
And ah'm gaun doon the brae
Tae see my Irish grannie.
Ah'll tak her tae a ball
Ah'll tak her tae a supper
And when ah get her there
Ah'll stick her nose in the butter.
It is so much easier for me to celebrate Hogmanay than New Year's Eve. Since midnight happens much sooner in Scotland than in my own neck of the woods, I can go to bed at a reasonable time!
Thank you, Ed. And the same to you!
Happy Hogmanay Ed! And now I have to Google if it is a real thing! :)
Smart thinking.Go East young man!
Happy new year everyone.
Thanks, Leo.All the best for everyone in 2019!
anyone interested in ' science through fiction ' reads
Hisacro wrote: "anyone interested in ' science through fiction ' reads"Can you be a little bit more precise what to you mean by that?
something like this Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions I don't know what genre it is but I'm pretty sure it's not sci-fi
Mod
Of course it is real. But only in Scotland. Many of my ancestors lived there once.
And a happy orthodox Christmas to you next week in the Ukraine! (I work with many Ukrainians, or else I wouldn't know about that.)
Mod
For more information, see the manual and/or start a thread in the Librarians Group.
They close the thread without answering the question.
I'm tempted to follow up because I want to understand the policy. But if I do, they'd probably just consider me a troublemaker, so I guess I'll just quietly drop it. I'll just have to accept that "something on the internet is wrong".
Mod
I don't know what genre it is but I'm pretty sure it's not sci-fi"
We have read that book and discussed it here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Whether it is or is not SF is debatable. I don't care to debate it.
If you want to discuss more such books, why not create a separate discussion topic to discuss such books?
I would like to see a thread for books like Flatland. I can't think of any offhand right now, though. I'm assuming we mean stories where the heavy focus is a lesson in science (or mathematics, or technology) and the story is just a vehicle (though in this case it does also include satire).
Ed wrote: "GR support is infuriating! I had a question about why a short story published independently online was marked as "NOT A BOOK", while hundreds of other stories published online on the same website a..."Join the bewilderment club. Last year they decided a lot of The Great Courses were "Not a book" & when a lot of us protested, they modified their weird guidelines somewhat, but I never understood the distinction.
Mod
I also participated in that discussion. The same goodreads official was involved. I may be on their naughty list because of that, so I won't press my luck.
Deciding what is or is not "a book" is as fuzzy as deciding what is or is not the genre of a book. I say, just let it remain fuzzy. But it isn't my website, so I don't make the rules and that is fine.
I just finished The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor & grudgingly gave it a 3 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I'm excited to start Head On which is a sequel to Lock In by John Scalzi. I really liked it. SF mixed with a murder mystery is great reading for me.
Jim wrote: "I'm excited to start Head On which is a sequel to Lock In by John Scalzi. ."I liked the first book too. Yet to read the second, but I heard it is a bit weaker
Ed wrote: "GR support is infuriating! "
The problem with separation of book/not book as well as other issues surprise me - after all there are a lot of short stories and people want to have it in their lists... GR stuff's decisions are strange.
Not sure if was topic already but would you be interested to read more underwater SF?https://futurism.media/why-we-need-mo...
A Darkling Sea is a good underwater, 1st contact adventure. I gave it 4 stars here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Thank you Jim, this looks really interesting indeed!
Mod
I friended someone a few months back because I enjoyed his little reviews of mostly obscure old SF. Often the works would be so obscure that his review would be the only one. But yesterday, when investigating one of his additions, I noticed that his "review" was just copied word-for-word from the Encyclopedia of SF by John Clute. Several others, perhaps all, of his reviews were done the same way. I pointed that out yesterday in a comment on his review and today I find that his review disappeared, he is no longer in my friends list, and he appears to have disappeared completely from the site. (He was also a friend of a few of you on here, so if a 'Bob' has disappeared from your friends, now you know why.)
I guess someone reported him. I didn't, and it wasn't my intention to ban him. I think what he was doing could be OK if he had simply included an attribution and link to the sources of his comments. Though I also am more appreciative when people post their own thoughts.
Interesting. I don't recall Bob. I wonder if he'll turn up again. It's a shame the reviews were lost, but I guess we know where to find them. Still, it's nice to have them turn up in the feed else we likely wouldn't know about them. Too many books.People do odd things on here. There was a guy in a private group that seemed to be going through a really rough time & when someone was traveling in his area, he died. His 'sister' said so. She turned out to be him. Weird.
Mod
Bob was a 'friend' of Susan B. and Dan Q. from this group. Maybe others. His profile said he was over 60. He gave 5 stars to every book he rated, and his rating was only a description, which I later realized he copied from elsewhere.
My take is that he didn't realize that was against rules. He just wanted to share info on books he liked. And he found some interesting ones.
Someone must have 'reported' one of his posts and the admins deleted his account.
I've read stories about similar things done by Amazon, the parent company of this one. They are quick to act on reports of violations, and even when the violations can't be proven, the offender is punished. It is very difficult to fight back.
The stakes on GR are lower: you may lose your reviews and conversations with friends. On Amazon, if you are seller accused of violations, you can lose your source of income. There are now lawyers who specialize in fighting against Amazon for you. Often you can make no progress unless you admit to doing wrong (even if you didn't) and offer steps you will take to improve.
Then again, maybe he was selling e-book versions of out-of-copyright works on Amazon and using this site to stir-up interest. No way to know now, since he is simply gone from sight.
John wrote: "What is weird? What is normal? It is all relative.And as Mark Twain said, “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.”"
That's OK from heights of philosophy, but it is weird, somewhat instructive, & unnerving to find that everything you know about an online 'friend' is a fantasy. There's a certain amount of trust extended to those we chat with here for years. How would you feel if I turned out to be a 13 year old girl or something?
Well, there are clues to match your identity with your persona, Jim. I didn't know Bob or the other, but I'd be willing to bet they had a less strong & encompassing presence than you. Ed, now, he's actually a 13 yo girl from Taiwan, eh> :jk:
I don't remember Bob or his posts. I probably read very few if any of them. About 80-85% of my GR "friends" requested to be so with me, not the other way around, so I don't give their activities much attention. When I bring up Goodreads, the page I have it defaulted to is https://www.goodreads.com/topic. This is because that was what I had it set to years ago before Amazon set the default to what most of you use. I prefer my default page since I don't really care what my "friends" are doing. Seeing recent posts though made me curious about my friends. I think the oddest one I currently have is this guy named Jewish National. I have no idea what his deal is.
LOL, Cheryl! Dan, I feel much the way you do & also use the Discussion page as my landing page. My feed is set only to show top friend book reviews. I check it once every day or two, but I check group discussions frequently.
Mod
The only thing I get sick of is seeing the same old reviews pop up over and over just because some random person commented on it. I can't find a setting to stop that.
Maybe I should limit it to "top friends". That might help.
I appreciate the friends who act like real humans, like Jim. Some others are oddly transactional. There is one guy where if I "like" one of his reviews he will in return "like" my last 10 status updates, whatever they happened to be. That is just odd.
Mod
It isn't a "he". It is a "group", and you are their only "friend"! Plus, they haven't used this site in 2 years.
No biggie. On Facebook, I'm "friends" with a mayonnaise company. Partly because I do like Japanese mayo, but mainly because I like to confuse the bots about what my ad interests are.
I use GR friends much the same way you do, Ed. Every friend I have was at one point vetted, even though now I may not remember how we knew each other.I like the idea of misleading the advertising algorithms/ bots, too.
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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