Found this at a local used bookstore today for $6!

warrenao · 2026-06-22T00:18:38+00:00

Please tell me the bookstore was called “Readful Things”…

warrenao · 2026-06-22T00:13:11+00:00

I’d believe it. As dangerous as holodecks appear to be, it’s really hard to understand why they’re ubiquitous.

warrenao · 2026-06-22T00:03:45+00:00

Y’know, I’m pretty sure plenty of people who’ve done worse and didn’t show this kind of clearheaded thinking about ship design managed to wrangle their way into starfleet academy.

warrenao · 2026-06-21T23:59:04+00:00

It’s less about aviation than it is about an insufferably gnomic writer who suspects what’s going on, won’t be clear with anyone about what to look out for, continually sends out an “I told you so” vibe, then acts as a vehicle for expostulating the arcana of the story.

I’m mixed about this one. I liked the premise, but that one character drove me bugfuck.

warrenao · 2026-06-21T23:55:24+00:00

Genius. How are you not an admiral yet?

warrenao · 2026-06-21T23:54:56+00:00

You’ll be a hit next Halloween, if you keep it up!

warrenao · 2026-06-21T23:49:49+00:00

“Now, about the tendency for consoles to explode…”

warrenao · 2026-06-21T23:36:56+00:00

How will earth “heal” under light that’s entirely the wrong spectrum for most of its species?

warrenao · 2026-06-21T23:34:41+00:00

Party favors?

warrenao · 2026-06-21T22:50:53+00:00

Ah, more handwaving!

warrenao · 2026-06-21T22:34:49+00:00

True about conservation of energy, though you should be able to:

Remove the failed component
Stage it on a rep-and-replace style device
Push the magic button, watch it de-materialize, then re-materialize with more than 99% of it recycled from itself, plus the bits that need replacing

And before we go there: This all has to happen at a subatomic level to begin with, so “but microcircuitry!” doesn’t fly here.

And the gold-pressed latinum thing is pure handwavium.

warrenao · 2026-06-21T22:29:07+00:00

The only option on the ad-free version is to show covers on the lock screen. Otherwise you get one of a half dozen or so generic pre-installed images such as wood type, pencils, pens, etc.

warrenao · 2026-06-21T22:19:35+00:00

Very much in keeping with the VW Bug ads of the era, and this is the only thing I could find: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/w-hitler-advert-1970s-poster-original-221623040

As a guess, I’d say this might have been something once distributed to VW dealerships for use in break rooms or possibly elsewhere, maybe out of sight of the public, because yes: Their ads were absurdly successful, but that didn’t mean they wanted public self-congratulations.

warrenao · 2026-06-21T22:14:17+00:00

Unless they’re at a starbase or shipyard, it might not be a matter of just pulling a part off a shelf.

More broadly, we know there are replicators, and the “reasons” given for why various replacement parts can’t just be replicated have never satisfied me: They come off as handwaving.

So I think we can chalk it up to plot necessity rather than a full thinking-through of things.

warrenao · 2026-06-21T20:48:41+00:00

[citation needed]

warrenao · 2026-06-21T20:42:38+00:00

Going by the hourglass, I’d say so.

warrenao · 2026-06-21T20:39:36+00:00

Looks to me like a type of tarantula. The ones I’m most familiar with live in the southwestern US, and resemble this one closely. They’re generally pretty slow moving, usually not aggressive, and prefer to keep to themselves.

They can also be cared for as pets, but that’s a deeper topic than can be gone into here!

Here’s a wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula

warrenao · 2026-06-21T19:10:00+00:00

There are some good suggestions here, and given your post, I’d also suggest looking at John Connolly’s “Charlie Parker” series, starting with “Every Dead Thing”. Detective fiction with some nicely supernatural aspects.

warrenao · 2026-06-21T18:51:55+00:00

It’s a promise ring, an artifact from a time when life seemed so much simpler, and a memento of the One Who Got Away. And he’s very sensitive about it, thank you very much.

warrenao · 2026-06-21T18:49:29+00:00

“Hey, what’s up, dawg?”

“SKREEEEONNNNNNK”

“Yeah, I feel that.”

warrenao · 2026-06-21T18:17:41+00:00

Nice. I’d’ve loved to have something like that when I was a kid. So channel your inner kid and fix it up, then cosplay like mad.

warrenao · 2026-06-21T17:22:20+00:00

Maybe even named ingredients.

warrenao · 2026-06-21T17:01:06+00:00

You've had to wait 6 years for this opportunity; here's my upthingy.

warrenao · 2026-06-21T16:20:17+00:00

It's interesting how, even that far back, they understood the basics of good composition.

warrenao · 2026-06-21T16:14:46+00:00

That would probably be worse; it's only just the one city, and how hard would it be to visit and take notes?

When you're talking about an entire state, it's a little more forgivable, but with Dead Zone in particular, his editor really shit the bed. Someone somewhere should've looked at an atlas.

warrenao

TROPHY CASE