mcbigski

You're a Minnesota dude. Just check your supplies when you land and then stop at Target.

I didn't overall like clown Stilgar though. I chuckled most of the time at his comedic bits, but it was almost too much like the National Lampoon Doon - the scene where Paul sees IIRC the pretzel sign, and the Liet Kynes analog remembers the scripture that says something like "His hearing will be excellent, as for his eyes, we don't don't, he may wear glasses" And then the Kynes analog says "Even this is consistent with the legend!"

Going to reread the last two before worldcon. Though a tleiaxu empire out of guild space seems a little off. Unless it was the Ixians that built a Navigator substitute? Been a while.

Really? Margo Martindale was probably the best antagonist apart from Boyd and I think that was season 2, (Mags Bennet.) Whatshisname that other guy from the show with the plane crash and the money and that one guy from that sci fi series was also a great villian.

I read Heretics and Chapter House over 30 years ago. (yikes!) Planning on rereading them soon. Did KJA just make up the bit about AI, or was that actually what the Honored Matres were fleeing from in canon when they came back to the formerly imperial space? That would make a whole lot of sense narratively, but I feel like reading the KJA books was like watching season 6 or 7 on HBO or watching the Two Towers movie.

Discovered that the Thieves' World anthologies are current part of Kindle Unlimited. Read them all in the 90s as a teen. Interesting to reread them now after being a whole lot older and also having read a bunch of stuff by Farmer, Brunner, Anderson, Asprin, Haldeman, and Bradley. Happened upon it back in the days when I had a membership to the Science Fiction Book Club probably in the late 80s. Took a chance on Robert Lynn Asprin's Myth Adventures series, and figured the Sanctuary three book anthology would be similar. Not exactly but... Rereading it, I mostly prefer the Asprin, Abbey, and Offut stories for the continuing narratives, but the Haldeman story was probably my favorite from the first book. One Thumb is a hell of a character name. Interestingly, "The Fruit of Enlibar" in the second book is largely about an attempt to replicate an ancient sort of steel for sword making. Features magical forging, the knowledge of which has been lost, a sort of rippled patterned alloy like Damascus steel (or Oathkeeper!), and a quenching of the blade. The blacksmith in this story used sea water brine, but did say that in the Empire they prefer to use the heart of a slave (Nissa Nissa!). Rereading that gave me huge Valyrian steel vibes. Could be entirely parallel evolution, but reading that story in particular made me think GRRM probably mined that vein as well. Zelazny was supposed to write for the first book or two but backed out due to other obligations, and I think that was well before George moved to New Mexico, but I'd be surprised if he hadn't read that back in the day.

Eh. I wouldn't concern myself at all about age difference. Five years is basically nothing once you've hit late 20s. Not that I'm the poster child for stable long term relationships, but... Dated one woman for 3 years plus who was ten years younger than I was (Started around 38/28). Age was never an issue. She pretended to not know what Raiders of the Lost Ark was, but when we actually watched it, it was clear she'd already seen it. Incompatibilities unrelated to age difference led to the break up. Also dated a woman about 19 years younger than me for several years. Age difference wasn't a deal breaker there either. There were plenty of things that we had very different views on, but I could say the same for women I've dated my age or older. OTOH, a friend of mine married a woman 9 years older than him and they're great together. If there's mutual interest between consenting adults, then who cares? If you're able to lower the stakes in your own mind, I think that would help a lot. It sounds like you're comparing yourself to some sort of perfectly ideal partner. Really you just have to be mildly entertaining/endearing and a better alternative than time alone, in the shorter term. Statistically speaking, the next person anyone goes on a date with isn't going to turn into a life partner. So relax and have some fun. Don't go looking for TRUE LOVE. Socialize with people and set much smaller goals like do at least one thing during an interaction to earn a smile. Do that enough times and someone will be there that wants to earn yours.

Put a pin this. When the next pandemic comes it is highly likely it will also be engineered. And the "thankfully" just figured it out cure will be profitable, and pushed relentlessly through social engineering. Made a shit ton of money last time around. What the fuck did I do to deserve to live in a world where pharma is taking sequel advice from 2020s Hollywood?

As for the gas and electric ranges, I've seen conclusions from studies that purport to say that. People have been living around well ventilated fires for a while, probably since before we were modern humans. Frankly if asthma or similar are spiking now, I'd suggest looking more at injections affecting the immune system, since I'm pretty sure I have better ventilation and less smoke in my house than my great grandparents grew up with. (Jakob was a fine man for the record.) Maybe the chemistry they taught me back in the 80s isn't woke enough. I don't see how powering an electric oven from a hydrocarbon plant because we can't ever have on demand wind or solar, is somehow more efficient than just burning the gas on site, especially when the actual desired output is heat. But gas ovens have to go for some reason. As for nutrition, are you even serious? There have been a few protests in a couple of food exporting countries about, effectively, cutting agricultural production down by about half. Sri Lanka had a terrible experience following the left globalist ag policy as well, as you might have seen if you looked outside the echo chamber. As far as the environment at large, as a "conservative or maga type", I'm all for more fission. No carbon, plentiful energy. Let the kids 10000 years from now figure out fusion. I'm not sure where you fall on this one, but if you're anti fission, you're effectively either pro carbon or pro reducing the global population.

They don't like gas grills or gas range tops. We're going mostly electric it seems, despite the lack of requisite battery tech or embrace of fission to actually power shit. I don't think it's a stretch that control freaks who want to come for my auto, my grill, my mobility, and my nutrition aren't also going to come for my caffeine. Who's being naive Kate?

Thankfully its still a drug we can wake up with for now. I see the day coming where coffee is colonialist and problematic. And let's not get started on tea. Let's face it, consuming coffee is adding too much to CO2 emissions. You roast it, then you boil the water brew it. Really if you're not chewing unroasted beans to get your caffeine fix, then I don't want to hear you talking about my real doll's carbon footprint.

I don't think Fauci is an underpants gnome specifically. But his MO seems to have been: 1. Fund gain of function research to increase contagiousness. 2. Set up royalties for mRNA vaccines. 3. Release a far more contagious SARS variant. 4. Sub out mRNA patents to the companies that give decent kick backs. 5. Use the power of centralized health care to demonetize treatments that aren't currently under patent. 6. Profit!!! Missing the ??? step here somewhere.

Today was a lovely day in Connecticut. Work in the am, golf in the afternoon. Low seventies, 294Kelvin or so for the scientifically snooty. Though if the haruspexes on the telly are any judge, we're definitely about to enter the April Showers Bring May Flowers part of New England weather.

Mayhaps.

BCHS 91, UConn 95 here. Satisfied with the result.

Well since we re all talking about gin and worldcon, what are the top stories/novellas/novels that have any cocktail as a plot point?

Well if the forecast Monday morning for northern NE is cloudy then I'm just staying home and playing golf. But the astronomy nerd child in me wants to be able to drive up to nearly the Canadian border and see the totality.

Dave, I will look into that gin, but gin has a pretty wide range of flavors, may or may not work with my recipe. Some gins more piney than floral, and then there's the Aviation sort that gets raves but tastes to me like licorice and gasoline. If there's an official or even semi official BWB party, then I'll probably dish out martinis pre game. Can't speak for Tav, but we're staying in the same hotel and we could probably turn one room into a party room, though I don't think we'd be on a party floor officially so would have to walk a line or two.

Weather looks good so far for Monday in New England. Thinking about finding a park in Stark, NH, because why not?

Sounds lovely. Was the vermouth just served straight up? I think I've only had it cocktails. Saw an orange at the store yesterday with a particularly fine skin, so I'm making my house martinis tonight. Can't even taste the alcohol, though to be fair, it's mostly water, chemically speaking. They're a black out threat, to be sure, but mild to no hangover, for me at least.

Also have to see the schedule when we get there, but definitely want to do a martini happy hour at some point, probably at the Hilton on William where Tav and I have booked. Saw some rather nice orange for peel yesterday at the grocer, and so I'm thinking I'll pack my shaker, the orange bitters and a peeler. Assuming we can acquire oranges, vermouth, and Bombay Sapphire in the UK without much difficulty. X Ray and Mr X taught me a thing or two about cocktails, and I have fond memories of the first half of the covid era zoom gathering drinking the same, where I woke up the next morning to find we had plotted a Vegas meet up. (Which was awesome.) Pay it forward.

I've started asking myself, what's different this time? Dont mean it in a dick way, and I'm all for happily ever after as a goal, but home work, compare, contrast etc. What's different this time seems like a question that should always be asked, probably others too, but do you have an answer for this new flame?

It's been almost a joke in my family the last 15 years or so. My father asks me, what do you want for your birthday dinner, and I say lamb. So we get filet mignon. My father does an excellent job preparing most foods but does tend to make the beef medium well even when you ask for rare. I'm a medium rare guy overall but trying to play to the judge. The last few years he'd made a bit of lamb for me and beef for the heathens. Last year he, with all love, particularly did not nail the lamb. Yesterday, I got to their house and there was a beautiful rack of lamb, with maybe 20% too much garlic, ready to be cooked. Grabbed a glass of red, and Dad said, looked it up online and they said cut the fat off the top of the cut, pan sear it and bake in in the oven. Apparently the steaks cooked faster because he asked it if it was ok to finish it on the grill. Said sure. Brown without black on the outside and so tender and juicy in the middle. Absolute perfection this time. Going to work on my nephew who is turning 8 in June to ask grandpa for the same, as he preferred the lamb too I think. Came out way better than the steak.

I think Sisters Without Standards won the day in Dublin, but I'd like to suggest again the Boarders Without Boundaries idea as a theme. It's actually kind of a pun, which I didn't even realize last time. Primary inspiration is the doctors without borders people, but also acknowledges our global nature and shall we say encompasses the less socially adroit in an inclusive way.

Well, you'll always have Tywin.