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Hellraiser97

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by Hellraiser97

  1. Been considering picking this up.  I'm finally just about done with Pillars of Eternity.  I tend not to like turn based combat though, so not sure I'm going to like BG3 despite being a huge fan of the originals.

  2. In addition to what I wrote on the SciFi Thread (Second book of the Stormlight Series), which is all on Audible, I've been reading through How to Become a Rainmaker and Atomic Habits and trying to put those lessons into practice in my day to day life.

  3. On 2/10/2024 at 5:30 PM, MadTrapper said:


     

     


    I'll check out Undying Mercenaries based on this because we have a bit of overlap looks like. Thanks.

    The first four novellas of Murderbot Diaries are awesome, too. Loved them all and saw that Apple TV is picking it up. They seem to be targeting the scifi market from what I can tell.

    Currently on The Girl with all the Gifts at the moment. Not bad so far...

     

    The Murderbot Diaries is a science fiction series by American author Martha Wells, published by Tor Books. The series is about a part robot, part human construct designed as a Security Unit (SecUnit). The SecUnit manages to override its governor module, thus enabling it to develop independence, which it primarily uses to watch soap operas.

     

    Yeah, I'm going to have toa dd that to the queue!  Thanks!

    • Like 1
  4. I loved To Kill a Mockingbird.  I hated it at first because, and this was in high school, we were forced to read it and I primarily read SciFi/Fantasy.  But after a short bit I realized it was really good!

    I hated the Great Gasby.  I went through a phase in the early 2000's trying to read some of the 'classics' I'd missed.  That was one.  Just absolutely hated it.  I understand the nihlism of the day, but I just didn't enjoy a book where basically nothing matters and when you die no one is going to care or go to your funeral.

  5. 11 hours ago, hornian said:

    Did you ever read the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons? It's 4 books. It's very good. Kinda prescient because it deals with AI (he calls it the Techno-Core). It gets a little weird in the last book, but all in all I enjoyed it. I just re-read it again. The Shrike is one of the best "monsters" ever. 

     

    Forgot to add those. I only read the first two. Loved them. Forgot the are two more books, I might have to add those!  Thanks

    8 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

    You must do audiobooks.  The Frontline series is written by Mark Kloos, but the audiobook was narrated by Eric Dove.

    Yeah, got that one mixed up.  I mainly do audio books as I spend a ridiculous amount of time in the car.

     

    I'm currently on The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.  I'm about 35 hours into it (it's 42 hours long).  He does an amazing job of world building but damn I feel like everything so far has just been build up and I still have basically no idea what's going on.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  6. I've been blowing through series in recent years.  

    Series I have finished:

    The Silo Saga, Hugh Howy - 3 books, enjoyed all of them

    The Final Architecture, Adrian Tchaikovsky - 3 books, loved them all

    Children of Time Novels, Adrian Tchaikovsky - 3 Books, they are exceptionally well done, but I can't say I really enjoy them.  They frankly make me feel sad

    Undying Mercenaries, BV Larson - 19 books so far.  They're light, fun military Sci-Fi.  As long as you don't take it too serious, they're a blast.

    Steamborn Series, Eric Asher - 7 books so far.  I love the setting of steampunk, but have never reallyr ead much in it.  This came on some amazon recommendation and I've enjoyed it so far.

    Expeditionary Force, RC Bray - 15 books.  Much like Undying Mercenaries, it's light, fun military Sci-fi and absolutely hilarious.  Loved it.

    Frontlines, Eric Dove - 8 books.  I think this series is finished.  More serious military Sci-fi, but not too deep.  Enjoyed it as a light read.

    The Long Winter, AG Riddle - 3 books.  Loved the first one, kind of liked the second, really didn't care for the third one.

    The Interdependency, John Scalzi - 3 books.  I read the first one back in 2015 and completely forgot about it.  Picked up the last two last year and while it wasn't bad, definitely not his best work either.

    Academy, Jack McDevitt - 8 books.  I read these on and off for years.  Loved the early ones but really felt the last few fizzled out.

    Stand along books:

    The Doors of Eden, Adrian Tchaikovsky - He's a really smart author.  This book was a little difficult at the beginning, but I really liked it overall.

    Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir - Not as good as the Martian, better than Artemis

     

    • Like 1
  7. How does the SEC broadcast Texas games if someone else owns the media rights? The network that broadcasts the games without owning the rights is the one who would be sued. Media rights are a big deal for networks, they aren't going to just do it to make you happy.
    Do you really think the Big 12, that desperately needs the best TV it can get for the future, most likely from ESPN, is going to sue ESPN? Even if they do, it will never go to court. It will simply be bargaining power for negotiations to settle everything.

    We may play in the Big 12 in 2022, there's basically zero chance now that we are playing in 2023 or that Texas and OU are going to pay $80m each.

  8. 35 minutes ago, Sbbruin said:

    Campbell doesn’t recruit at a high level.  His classes have been in the 40’s and 50’s.  But he does more with than anyone out there.  Frost does less with more.

    man just watch part of his presser.  He opens with basically calling out his players as a bunch of fuckups.

    Well hey it worked so well for Herman here....

    • Haha 1
  9. I think the Pac, for example, wants it god damn for certain that they automatically qualify.  I think you're right in that even the current set up, the Big 12 leftover champ is probably getting in.
    I think the bigger format issue for say, the Big 10, was keeping the rest of the field from being an SEC circle jerk.  Plus, (and I'm not saying this to take a shot) the completely underhanded way the SEC and ESPN were using the Big 12 in this discussion while colluding against them in secret gave the other conferences some major pause, and that relationship in and of itself is making them wary.
    Yeah imagine a scenario where there's an upset at the conference championship game that makes it so one if the P5(4)'s champion isn't actually one if the top 6 conference champions. I guess the likelihood of that with these mega conferences is less than it was with 12 team leagues that kept getting unbalanced so badly, but it could still happen.

    Sent from my bathroom using Crapatalk

  10. This may be a dumb question, but anyone have any idea how to get VY's autograph?  I have something I've been carting around and wanting to get signed for the past year or so and I have been unable to find anything like an agent or whatever that might show where he makes appearances.

  11. Hello Surly bretheran (yes, I know I need to update that one thread, I'm working on it),

     

    Looking for some guidance.  My kids cub scout pack did our pinewood derby virtually.  We ran all the cars and got a kid from UT to edit it into a pretty awesome video that we're going to show via Facebook Live to the scouts.  Well, cool as it is, we decided we need something more to keep them engage.  So I've been tasked with this and came up with the idea of having the scouts pick the winners of each race and then rank them on who picks the most correct.  Seemed straight forward enough, but I can't find anything online that would work.  We've used Kahoots! before for Trivia and it works great, but I don't think it will work as it uses a timer and you can't pause.  I've looked at CrowdPurr and a few others and they all seem to function the same way.  Additionally, I don't want extra points for selecting faster, just points for correct or not. 

    I'm going to be watching the live feed, so I can run the game from my laptop, I just need some type of online platform that allows me to choose when to cut off selections for that race and then keeps track of results.  I already have a list of which cars win each race, so that's not a problem, I don't have to do it realtime.

    So the work flow would be:

    1) set up the 'trivia' - number of questions is the number of races (I think we had about 60), name/number of each car are the options.

    2) As soon as one race ends, I'd manually advance it to the next question, then cut it off as soon as the race starts

    3) At the end of the races, after we announce the winners at all the levels, we'd announce who won the "pick 'em" on the Facebook Live feed.

     

    Any suggestions?

     

     

  12. Ok, so some of you that know iOS better can maybe answer this.  I mainly use an Android phone, but I have a second phone using a free line we had that is an iPhone.  I used it to access email at my old firm that I was still consulting firm.  They had all this security stuff required and I didn't want that stuff messing with my main business.  Anyway, I have NEVER given that phone number out.  I don't even know what it is.  I do have an Apple ID that has all my info.  So a couple weeks ago, a friend I haven't heard from in years texted me and it went to the iPhone.  I asked him how he got that number and he never responded.  He worked at Apple at one point, so I figured maybe he still does and was able to find it via the data they collect or something. 

    Well a couple days ago, a guy I know from my daughter's cub scout pack texted me on that phone.  I've checked the pack roster, the only numbers there are my regular cell phone and home phone.  I only just noticed it because I basically never use that phone anymore (I still use it for tethering if my main line runs out of high speed data).  He's out of town now, so I'll ask him when he gets back, but I'm freaked out.  How the fuck did these guys find this number?  I've now gone and deleted all my personal info out of my AppleID and turned Siri off for everything, but will that do it?

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