Posts by Nicholas King62

dmj said:I didn't bring him up myself either... 😳 Though, if some people are already questioning whether he even fits the definition of a sci-fi author, what can one really say about him?

Forget about genre constraints for a second, right? 🙂

Personally, I don't even shelve him in the sci-fi section; he just sits there with the general fiction, but if someone were to ask me if his work qualifies as sci-fi, I’d probably lean toward saying yes—perhaps more within the realm of speculative fiction than strict science fiction, though there's no need to split hairs over semantics.🙂

anti-person said:The top 3 worst writers, excluding Stephen King:

1. R.A. Salvatore
1. Mary Higgins Clark
1. [Redacted]

🤣

raliSHA said:Oh, you skeptics... 🙄

Fair enough, some of those picks are 🙏 🙏 , though I'm not entirely sure how strictly they fit the SF mold—I'm thinking along the lines of Zelazny or Wolfe.

I could probably list another 🙏 🙏 names, but then we’d be looking at a top 50 list instead of a short one. 😬

My mistake, I completely overlooked Vonnegut. 😳

And Sturgeon is wonderful too, though in my defense, I haven't picked up his work in years. I actually wonder if all his collected short stories have been released yet—those white books? I've only ever seen and read the first two.

Simmons isn't strictly a sci-fi writer either. To be honest, I find him best when he steers clear of the genre entirely; for whatever reason, I just can't get into Hyperion, though that might just be due to a poor translation.

It seems like Zelazny struggles with collaborations. I've only read one Sheckley story, and even that was lightyears better than that mess involving Zelazny. When it comes to the whole good versus evil trope, with angels and demons wandering around, Pratchett and Gaiman's Good Omens absolutely runs circles around anything else in that vein.

stormywolf39 said:My Top 5 Sci-Fi Authors

1. Dan Simmons

I truly hope we never see a reality where he’s considered the absolute best of the bunch.

If authors could just deliver those first two hundred pages of brilliance and then stop, life would be much easier.

So, here goes nothing:

1. Gene Wolfe
2. Ian McDonald
3. Roger Zelazny

Michael Newman50 said:And why hasn't anyone mentioned how much more intense the old American soccer leagues used to be?

How could they not!🙂 Where else would you go to see such an impressive collection of edgy urban hairstyles? Those guys from the local factory team were practically walking pieces of high fashion.

Man, even their name was poetic: Spartan🤣

What really stuck with me—the old workers' club from Chicago—was founded back when it was known as Anarchy United. They used to wear those striking black and red jerseys 🙂
.
My three favorite spots to catch a game:

1. That old field down by the coast, the one with the steep stairs leading up to it. 🙏
2. The community park downtown; our benches were always occupied, so we’d end up bothering decent folks just trying to relax... now there's just some silly fountain sitting where we used to hang out.
3. The big stadium, where if you knew which gate at the entrance was missing a bar, you could pretty much slip right in.

Yeah, let's be honest—chaos isn't romantic.

Michael Newman50 said:They're disqualifying me just because of my beard.

But you have a beard too, 😕

Melissa Collins41 said:And I honestly thought you had been gifted an orange for your birthday.

🙂

lonebison37 said:You try to say it, and you immediately realize that saying "cross through" just doesn't work—it’s like trying to drive a car with a flat tire; you intuitively know you have to adjust the phrasing to "cross over" instead. It’s almost like an automatic mental correction because the original way sounds so clunky and offensive to the ear. But honestly, you already knew that, so I'm really just asking a silly question here. 😁 😁 😉

It isn't really a matter of tradition or ingrained habit; rather, the fault lies entirely with the Mexicans. 😠

😁

Generally speaking, I believe in approaching things with a sense of measured restraint. 🙂

It’s a helpful bit of advice, really.

The definitive rankings of the greatest hits:

If I had to narrow it down, here is my definitive ranking of the top three.
Here are my top five picks.
Here is my personal take on the top ten rankings.

~Autumn said:Oh, come on! You pronounce it just so you know how to spell it, get it?😁 It’s like saying "color" instead of "colour"—it works just fine either way in the States.😎

Wait, I don't follow! How am I supposed to know what I'm saying if I don't have a guide? For instance, if I'm trying to figure out whether to write "walk across," "cross over," or "pass through," how does the sound help me choose the right spelling?

Mrtva_mrkva said:Šolta. 😬

Well, I suppose if you find Šolta charming, then so be it.😬

The northern coast is pretty much a mystery to me, aside from the fact that I've spent quite a bit of time lately looking at aerial footage of the coastline near the Rockies. There must be something interesting to discover there, assuming you aren't too worried about surviving the drive along those winding mountain highways.

Oh, and by the way, Vis is fantastic.

~Autumn said:Honestly, we have a bit of a built-in advantage here. Back when I was just a kid 🙂 and wasn't quite sure if a word should be spelled one way or another due to regional dialect shifts, I could just mentally swap it over to a more standard Midwestern pronunciation and the puzzle would practically solve itself 😬

Pronunciation isn't really my hurdle; to my ears, those subtle vowel shifts almost sound identical anyway—I haven't quite developed that specific auditory training yet, since my hearing is mostly tuned to a very flat, standard "i" sound 😁—but I find that the spelling can get a little tricky from time to time.

I end up saying something like "Osage" regardless.

And using "to squat" is often just written without any accent marks at all 🙂

The letters č and ć feel entirely redundant to me, yet since we were forced to study them back in school, they’ve stuck. I’ve lived in New York for so long now that I’m even starting to distinguish between them when I speak 😳

Instead of dealing with all those messy vowel shifts and pronunciations, I’d much rather see us bring back the old ways of distinguishing things—like whether something was thick or thin, though I can't quite recall the specifics 🤔

Here is my current list of grievances at the office:

1. This forum is painfully slow
2. The blinds on my window are broken
3. That guy who won't stop gurgling while he eats
4. The loud guy from the suburbs

Look, I don't quite get where this sudden shock is coming from. That whole situation has been around since forever, much like 😕

Ponor said:What’s the point of music then?

Is it an extra layer of enjoyment? I'm not entirely sure, but I personally find that nothing beats getting lost in a good book, and music has never once felt like a distraction from that experience. It's likely just a matter of habit at this point, though there is almost always some kind of background melody playing in my house while I'm settling in...

Ponor said:I find that listening to music while I read is a complete disaster. Reading demands your full, undivided attention; otherwise, you just end up wanting to toss the book right out the window. That goes especially for the heavy, serious stuff.

That is absolute nonsense!

It really just comes down to finding a bit of focus...

Dana Anderson4
It’s like she thinks anything that doesn't originate right here in the States isn't legitimate... if it didn't grow up in our backyard, it must be suspicious to her.

Those are just Sorosev's hired guns for the hypo industry.

Exactly. I mean, it's hardly a coincidence that the new headquarters for that hypo bank ended up being situated so close to the reserve...

michael_jackass said:I just can't seem to find any common ground between those pork rinds and you. 🙂

It seems I always end up leaving the wrong impression. 😁

When they’re prepared with care, chitterlings can be absolutely divine. But when they’re botched? Honestly, it’s one of the most unpleasant culinary disasters you can encounter. It’s a delicate dish, really—it takes a certain level of finesse to respect the texture of those stomach linings without turning the whole experience into something quite unpalatable. 😬

stormyviper11 said:I’m with you on the second point, and honestly, Brankica is a total cultural icon, pure and simple. If I ever catch a rerun of "sipa" playing on TV, I’ll be sure to record it just so I can play it on loop to annoy all of you at every single party we go to. 😬

I can't help but imagine how incredible it would be if she produced some intense, nature-focused documentary filmed deep in the heart of Africa—something where you might actually see a hippo get taken down by the elements.

Or she could just simply vanish into one of the lakes tucked away within her stunning garden.

It doesn't really matter to me.

gentlepuma20 said:cypress trees are the best kind of trees 🙂

I don't know... they feel a bit like cemetery trees. Is that your musical background talking? 😬

Carol Jackson45 said:Dust, specifically that earthy dust kicked up from a dirt road.
Pine resin.
Cypress.
The scent of salt hanging in the air.
The smell of summer rain. Or a sudden afternoon thunderstorm.

🤣

As soon as a little rain hits the pavement in Chicago, everything changes 😁

There's something about contradictory scents—things that smell pungent while they're being prepared, but result in something beautiful once finished:

1. breakfast sausage
2. stuffed cabbage rolls
3. salt cod

Tyler Grant86 said:At first glance, I assumed the whole article was just some sort of trolling aimed at mocking his announcement regarding the upcoming promotional sale for the new Franz Ferdinand album, but it turns out the news broke just two hours before his actual post... now I’m left wondering if the guy is actually 😲psychic, 😁 or if someone simply played games with the timestamp of the news release.

A man with that kind of eloquence is almost certainly clairvoyant. How could anyone even entertain the doubt?

Good grief, the guy is clearly a cult icon of the trash genre... definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Carol Jackson45 said:Personally, I’m totally over her. 😁 If you had caught her back in the early nineties, she was all about those neon colors, baby clothes, and those bright rubber bracelets everyone used to wear...

Has she ever actually dressed any other way? 😕

I remember her leading aerobics classes near the local Whole Foods—right in front of my high school—so I used to see her all the time. To be honest, she actually intimidated me. 😁>

Ponor said:Dragas claims the album is a masterpiece, so I’m definitely leaning toward picking up a copy🤣

Don't take Dragas too seriously; honestly, you can listen to his stuff without much trouble, but it isn't life-changing😁

It's nothing out of the ordinary, though... just a decent enough record

Dead Carrot said:I was actually thinking about this newer model. If I had to rank them, the original version would easily land at number six on my personal list. 😎 Somewhere out there, past that old classic Chevy parked near the curb and just beyond that vintage hippie van, you’ll find it. 🙂

It honestly looks like some sort of illegitimate offspring of their design; just a bizarre, nonsensical mutant. 🙂

It actually brings to mind that one brilliantly ridiculous single-seater—was it a BMW or maybe a Ford?—that used to open up right from the front.

I honestly find that Kangaroo model to be a bit much; there is something about its design that just feels off to me. I can't quite wrap my head around who actually designed a car like that.

Yeah, you're right, that Chevrolet Suburban too. 👎

I think you might be thinking of a Renault, though I honestly can't picture what that model looks like. 🤔