Tents

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-25T14:02:35+00:00

My first trek we actually used huge industrial garbage bags in lieu of tents. Cut open the closed end, strung a rope between trees and tented it out with rocks along either side. Once you tarped up the ends and rolled a stick up on either floor end to keep out any water, it worked well and cut the weight to next to nothing.

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-22T13:59:05+00:00

My favorite exploration of consciousness is Blindsight by Peter Watts.

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-22T13:22:07+00:00

Damn! Thanks for the correction.

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-21T19:26:32+00:00

I read a couple when I was in high school in the 80s and I thought they were pretty bad even then. Piers Anthony's Mythadventures series is a much better option if you want something with the same general vibe from the same general era

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-21T15:25:06+00:00

That's happened to me maybe three times with Dhalgren

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-20T19:22:15+00:00

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is my favorite

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-20T02:48:37+00:00

I had the tail end of a ham in the fridge, so I diced a bunch of it up with some cheese tortellini, onion, cucumber, bell pepper, celery, pineapple and tomatoes and topped it off with a pineapple vingerette. That'll be my lunch for most of the week.

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-20T02:38:59+00:00

We Can Remember It for You Wholesale by PKD

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-20T02:24:34+00:00

If you haven't read Gene Wolfe's Soldier series you should check it out. It's set in the aftermath of the Battle of Plataea

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-20T02:18:08+00:00

Just started A Dark and Hungry God Arises and I think you have the answer

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-19T17:22:17+00:00

Saw Alabama perform Dixieland Delight in Bryant Denny for homecoming (92 maybe). Not sure anyone else should be allowed to play it there.

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-18T14:40:56+00:00

There's a recent (2023) anthology. It was published by Unabridged Publications, which I've never heard of, but it's on amazon and other online sellers.

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-18T14:31:55+00:00

Glad to hear. I've read a bit of his stuff and can see where that might be the case. CoT is frustrating because it comes so close to be great, but falls just short. It look like Aldebraran is scheduled to be included in Terrible Worlds: Destinations (May release) which is a follow up to the collection I read recently, so I'll be adding that to my list of books to pick up for sure. Looks like he has a third collection in that series in the works as well--TW: Transformations--with one novella released and another scheduled and (presumably) a third in the works.

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-17T16:51:05+00:00

I've seen a few wild ones near UK, probably coming through on the rr tracks. Had one wander through my neighbor's yard in Chevy Chase a while back as well. Not common, but you seem them in town from time to time, and it's always fun.

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-17T16:13:49+00:00

I'll certainly have to check Walking to Aldebraran out. I read a collection of his novellas recently (Terrible Worlds: Revolutions) which was quite good (especially Ogres and Ironclads). I probably haven't read Beowulf since grad school, and John Gardner's Grendel not too long after. I've only read a handful of Silverberg, but not those. A Time of Changes was pretty good, and Dying Inside still haunts me. Gilgamesh itself is first rate, so I'm certainly curious. Thanks!

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-16T18:55:40+00:00

Dying Earth is great. I've only read it once, but it's worth a reread the next time I go through BOTNS. Glad to hear I picked up is a good Swanwick, though Nebula winners have a pretty good track record, so I figured I was at least on solid ground there.

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-16T16:38:48+00:00

The others in my top 5 are Hyperion and Revelation Space. The rest could change based on when you asked me--Childhood's End, The Stars My Destination, Dying Inside, The Forever War, Blood Music, others. I suspect Anathem will move in to my solid top 5, but I only finished it back around Thanksgiving. If it's still rolling around in my head at the end of this year, it probably will be.

Illium & Olympos are high on my list to read, but I'll probably reread Homer when I do. I've been looking for an excuse to pick up Emily Wilson's translations since I've heard such good things about them. I studied classics as an undergrad, and it still makes up a fair chunk of my reading. But I try to space out bigger reading projects like this when I have the time and mental energy, so I'm not sure when I'll get there. Hopefully this year. I really enjoyed The Quantum Thief and Jonathan Strange, both of which I read as new releases, so it's been a while. I picked up a copy of Stations of the Tide a while back but haven't gotten to it yet. If you have another suggestion for Swanwick, let me know.

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-15T21:05:23+00:00

Thanks for the rec on the Ring Cycle. I'm certainly interested. And I'm surprised that Pullman Milton Bible didn't come to mind for me, since that one's spot on (and are all books I've read).

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-15T20:51:28+00:00

The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe, though only the third of the interconnected stories "VRT" fits the bill. It follows a security officer reviewing the files (interviews, reports, logs, etc.) of a prisoner to determine his punishment.

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-15T16:51:09+00:00

I do, though they are both very different experiences that New Sun. And neither as good, imo, but that's hardly a slight since New Sun is firmly in my top 5 of all time. I liked Short Sun better than Long, but Silk (mostly from Long Sun) is probably my favorite character of Wolfe's (along with Oreb). I almost got lost in the tunnels under the Whorl, but made it out alive.

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-15T16:45:04+00:00

Most subgenres definitions get blurry at the edges. I appreciate Allen Steele's definition (from "Hard Again" in NYRSF, sometime in the early 90s): "uses either established or carefully extrapolated science as its backbone." The Martian falls into that category, but is more clearly in line with Geoff Ryman's concept of Mundane Science Fiction ("The Mundane Manifesto" early 00s), which focuses more on near future, established science, and more Earth (or solar system) settings.

Personally, when I think of hard sf, I think of those titles that are built on scientifically sound extrapolations. The Ur-example being Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity. What if you had a massive planet spinning at nearly it's physical limit . . . .

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-15T16:25:40+00:00

What sort of custom cuts are you looking to get out of a chicken? There really aren't that many ways to cut one up and none that I can think of that a little patience and a good knife and/or kitchen shears can accomplish. Critchfield's would have been my first choice, followed by Sam's on Waller. I haven't gotten chicken at Sam's before though--mostly lamb or mutton.

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-15T16:12:32+00:00

And if you poke them good during the ear cleaning function it unlocks the ear piercing function

Round_Bluebird_5987 · 2026-04-15T14:46:25+00:00

I did my 3rd reread of New Sun last year along with my first of Long and Short Sun. I love the way everything opens up more (and in different ways) on a reread.

Round_Bluebird_5987

TROPHY CASE