I've never understood this particular phrase. Isn't it a threat that you promise to carry out, thus making it both a threat and a promise? Or is this a way of trying to make something that is rather unscary sound really scary? If so, I don't get how that works either.
Posts: 1256 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
He's saying his threat is not an empty one.
Hey Blayne, how are you going to feel about all these inane posts you do 20 years from now when they're still googlable? I assume Blayne Bradley is you're real name. Could you at least post under an alias? Something that won't cost you a job down the line?
I know when I google up posts I made in the 80s I want to crawl under a rock and die. I'm just thankful I was wise enough to use an alias.
Remember, some forums don't prune regularly like Hatrack does. And just because it disappears off Hatrack doesn't mean it's gone forever. There ARE internet archiving sites out there with more disk space than common sense.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Puppies in costume for me. Seriously, are none of you gaming geeks impressed that I get to (if I want) hang out with the guy that wrote the "scripts" for Halo?
I mean, I'm not impressed because I haven't played a computer game since Pong, but still...
Posts: 11187 | Registered: Sep 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head: Squicky wins.
True story!
-----
Primal Curve it's not as if you NEED Blayne's approval, and you certainly don't NEED to make fun of him. I'd really appreciate it if you held off on declaring all out war on Blayne within this forum. Please just leave him be.
I can't see any good coming out of it, just ignore Blayne's posts or at least ignore his responses to your jabs.
I am positive you knew that insulting the Halo novels would be akin to arming the bomb waiting to explode, please try to refrain from doing it.
posted
Other people were criticizing Blayne's tastes first. Blayne apparently has a much lower tolerance for criticism from Primal Curve, though.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
What caught my eye in Blayne's list wasn't the specific authors/franchises, but that it was almost exclusively franchises. The best authors don't write in those (except possibly when they are just getting started.)
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Out of curiosity, how many people here (apart from Blayne, obviously) have actually read the Haloverse novels? I haven't, which is why I nobly refrained from laughing at their being called smart SF.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Jon Boy: Other people were criticizing Blayne's tastes first. Blayne apparently has a much lower tolerance for criticism from Primal Curve, though.
It's not clear whether you're just talking about this thread -- Blayne and Primal have some pretty negative history.
Added: I haven't read the Halo novels. I've considered it, since I enjoy the Halo storyline, but I haven't gotten around to them. I do know what transpires in them, though, because I went through summaries of all of the available backstory before starting Halo 3. While the backstory is complex, it wouldn't fit my definition of "smart" SF. However, not much SF does. Peter Watts comes to mind. Actually, KoM, I think you'd like Watts -- he reminds me of Richard Dawkins. Check out Blindsight, which you can get on Watts' website for free if you can't find it in a library or bookstore. It more or less defines smart SF, for me.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by twinky: It's not clear whether you're just talking about this thread -- Blayne and Primal have some pretty negative history.
That's basically what I meant. Several other people effectively said that Halo novels are not "smart" sci-fi, but Blayne didn't blow up at anyone besides Primal, presumably because their history has given Blayne a lower tolerance for him.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
tom: try googling up an old alias some time.. if you ever used one, that is. How long ago did you get on the net?
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think that Tom got online when he was a zygote (and high school junior).
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
The Halo novels to me are of the same thread, the same emotion that the Enderverse novels instelled in me, if you took Ender Wiggin and made him just a Captain or a Sargeant about fighting the nitty gritty ground war against the Formics the books to me have the same appeal covering different aspects of a losing war against an enemy suporior in every way. Insulting Halo is to me the exact same thing as insulting Ender's Game.
IP: Logged |
posted
So, basically, you're looking for plot-heavy military sci-fi and aren't picky about what else is in the book?
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Okay guys, I have less patience for Blayne than just about anyone (you may remember my reaction to his joining Sakeriver) but criticizing his taste in books just strikes me as petty.
He's got his own website now, which he has at least started to blog in. That's what we all wanted. Now, he's getting plenty of attention about it (which is what HE wanted). Let's not make that attention too negative.
Posts: 5656 | Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by King of Men: Out of curiosity, how many people here (apart from Blayne, obviously) have actually read the Haloverse novels? I haven't, which is why I nobly refrained from laughing at their being called smart SF.
They're pretty straightforward and unremarkable reading that can be condensed into "Master Chief is cool, here's why" and "Check out these twelve pages of Master Chief killing some dudes" and do just enough to flesh out the game world to give appreciable context when playing the games, like 'oh hey, I just got a radio transmission from Oni!'
I wouldn't give any of the novels more than a C grade, though -- they're just route fanboy franchise.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Blayne: you might try out some of the following books/series/authors
Most things by Elizabeth Moon (an ex-marine), particularly her Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy and Heris Serrano trilogy. Military fantasy and science fiction, respectively, with strong characterizations and lots of grittiness. (Both of them are trilogies available in single volumes for $18).
The Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold. Imagine a young, extremely intelligent, hyperactive, but crippled before birth member of a military aristocracy on a world of honor and tradition . . . who through a series of events ends up with his own mercenary fleet to take among the stars. Several of the books have been re-issued in multi-book volumes.
The Midshipman's Hope series, by David Feintuch. I won't say too much, except that it is very gritty, well written science fiction, told over the career of a member of the UN navy in the future, starting with his first interstellar voyage. It is inspired by the Horatio Hornblower series (another series you should check out sometime), but not particularly derivative.
The Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell. This is historical fiction about a captain in the British army who rose to that level through the ranks during the Napoleonic wars. It is excellent from military and historic viewpoints. There's also a very good television adaptation starring Sean Bean (and it made a big impact on him; he now works references into it in almost everything he does -- you might have noticed his exclamation when he cuts his finger on Narsil in one of the LOTR movies).
The Misplaced Legion series, by Harry Turtledove. A legion of Roman mercenaries patrolling Gaul is transported by mysterious magical means to a place not of this world, where they have to make a home. Turtledove has his flaws in writing, but this is one of his better works, and draws from a period he knows best: Byzantine history (he has a PhD in the subject, after all).
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I don't know if you care about this, twinky, but you're at 9999 posts right now. Just in case you hadn't noticed.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote:The Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold. Imagine a young, extremely intelligent, hyperactive, but crippled before birth member of a military aristocracy on a world of honor and tradition . . . who through a series of events ends up with his own mercenary fleet to take among the stars. Several of the books have been re-issued in multi-book volumes.
This series is probably my favorite space opera.
(FWIW, Blayne, I'm also a big Babylon 5 fan. I just got finished watching the entire Babylon 5 series again.)
I'll also second Starship Troopers and I'll add in Forever War.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
I was just at Chapters and the Ben Bova books look interesting but grrrg hardcover for the lose.
I have read afaik all of the Sharpe novels. I even have the mp3 of Over the Hills and Far Away.
IP: Logged |
posted
Definitely to Starship Troopers and the Forever War (I was looking at my bookshelves for the most part, and sadly don't have either of those on them -- I read my parents' copies).
Oh, you'd probably like any of Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai books (aka the Childe Cycle), too. That reminds me, I should pick up the ones I'm missing.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I strongly disagree with the recommendation of Elizabeth Moon. Her characters clunk like robots and she can't really do military writing either.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Have you read either of the Moon series I recommended, KoM, particularly the Deed of Paksenarrion?
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
It isn't when you have insufferable boobs writing faulty scripts and MySQL code on it all day.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
| IP: Logged |
Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
yo, ya, where can i find the system linux dictionary, im using fedora.
IP: Logged |
Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
I added some more site content, my programming projects page with links to my web programming projects. I'll upload my ASP course content eventually.
IP: Logged |
Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
Updated site, now has my pciture.
IP: Logged |
posted
Hey, Twinky, I really enjoyed Blindsight. I thought it was a fascinating look at consciousness and our brains. The extensive notes at the end were great too.
Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
Ack, I put in a docttype and it got rid of my font colour, what happened?
IP: Logged |
Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
quote:The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has removed the <font> tag from its recommendations. In future versions of HTML, style sheets (CSS) will be used to define the layout and display properties of HTML elements.
posted
Suggestion: That photo should probably be JPEG instead of PNG. Sure, JPEG is lossy, but on a photo like that distortion should be near invisible to the naked eye. PNG has its uses--this, generally speaking, isn't one of them. Be kind to your uni's bandwidth.
And as the previous poster noted, things are coming along.
Posts: 433 | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
