myrrh's recent activity
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Comment on Once we were ALL spacemen in ~tv
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Comment on What is your top, unknown, non fiction recommendation ? in ~books
myrrh Link...just a few random titles which immediately come to mind, no particular theme nor critical grouping, but these are each books i've appreciated sufficiently to buy additional copies as gifts for......just a few random titles which immediately come to mind, no particular theme nor critical grouping, but these are each books i've appreciated sufficiently to buy additional copies as gifts for close friends...
Temperament (Stuart Isacoff)
Inventing Reality (Bruce Gregory)
Inside the Machine (Jon Stokes) -
Comment on Sony pulls back from PlayStation games on PC in ~games
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Comment on What’s your preferred work monitor setup? in ~comp
myrrh (edited )Link||-- (arrayed circumferentially around a nintety-degree corner desk with coplanar portrait displays serving as a single unit, effectively triple-head) ...i believe that they're all 2560x1440, but...||--
(arrayed circumferentially around a nintety-degree corner desk with coplanar portrait displays serving as a single unit, effectively triple-head)...i believe that they're all 2560x1440, but the two portait displays are smaller (and thus greater pixel density) than the landscape pair, nearly a square form-factor when used together for displaying two-page document spreads; i use the larger displays for technical drawings and miscellaneous windows...
...while i'd prefer a pair of curved 4K displays, or even better a single 8K curved display, curved televisions are tough to find these days and my current arrangement works well-enough for general productivity...
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Comment on What's an obscure book/series that you've read that you would like to recommend? in ~books
myrrh Link Parent...greg bear was originally grouped with hard-science fiction but i'd probably place the corpus of his work more genre-straddling, with an substantial element of thriller plotting (in fact his......greg bear was originally grouped with hard-science fiction but i'd probably place the corpus of his work more genre-straddling, with an substantial element of thriller plotting (in fact his later books were marketed as pop-fiction crossovers despite his science-fiction roots)...that said, greg bear's science-fiction chops are on-par with the other killer-Bs (gregory benford, david brin) and especially his early work is brimming with ideas...
...i find greg egan's work substantially more cerebral; although greg bear's a breezier read, that's not necessarily a bad thing...one interesting aspect of greg bear's quantum logic cycle is that he wrote the books in a loosely-reverse chronology, which means that his more-accessible later books (set earlier in the series) also serve to ease a reader from the present world into a more technically-fantastic future (ending with the hard-SF books written earlier in his career)...
...if you can find a copy of tangents, short-story anthologies are a great way to sample an author's work, but his most notable science fiction works are probably the way series, the forge of god series, and of course the novelisation of his original blood music short story; darwin's radio / children also had a substantial buzz early this millenium but medical fiction isn't really my jam...
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Comment on Spotify's strong revenue isn't reflected in its stock market performance – investors fear growth will stall, while artists are voicing frustration over what they consider a miserly compensation system in ~finance
myrrh Link Parent...bandcamp's pretty much that, and it's been refreshing to see some high-profile artists embrace the platform in recent years......bandcamp's pretty much that, and it's been refreshing to see some high-profile artists embrace the platform in recent years...
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Comment on Babylon 5 S01E02: "Midnight On The Firing Line" - Episode Discussion in ~tv
myrrh Link Parent...in the pilot, of course; they toned it down a bit for the ongoing series...Londo has the best haircut in television history.
...in the pilot, of course; they toned it down a bit for the ongoing series...
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Comment on Babylon 5 S01E02: "Midnight On The Firing Line" - Episode Discussion in ~tv
myrrh Link Parent...i don't think they were universally awful, but definitely produced on-the-cheap and for the most part their pulp heritage shows through...the whole selective-canon thing was mostly JMS being......i don't think they were universally awful, but definitely produced on-the-cheap and for the most part their pulp heritage shows through...the whole selective-canon thing was mostly JMS being JMS, although as he became more involved in production of the later books i think they grew a measure of editorial veracity alongside reputable authorship...
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Comment on Babylon 5 S01E02: "Midnight On The Firing Line" - Episode Discussion in ~tv
myrrh Link Parent...i read the first batch of paperbacks, yes, although i can't remember much off the top of my head besides that they were terribly formulatic and perennially plagued by writers unfamiliar with......i read the first batch of paperbacks, yes, although i can't remember much off the top of my head besides that they were terribly formulatic and perennially plagued by writers unfamiliar with the source material simply phoning-in genre filler...
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Comment on Babylon 5 S01E02: "Midnight On The Firing Line" - Episode Discussion in ~tv
myrrh (edited )Link...holy exposition, kosh!.. ...i haven't watched this episode in over twenty years but tonight it feels like thirty: how evocative is christopher franke's score!..how sumptuous is peter jurasik's......holy exposition, kosh!..
...i haven't watched this episode in over twenty years but tonight it feels like thirty: how evocative is christopher franke's score!..how sumptuous is peter jurasik's performance!..how thick is claudia christian's hair!..
...i'm sure i'll have more thoughts this weekend after a full night's sleep but at first blush, so many little teases woven throughout; loved seeing the grand diplomatic stage of the advisory council + league of non-aligned worlds; still don't feel character swaps after the pilot constitute a spoiler; should be labelled S1E01; what a fantastic sortie of fighters sallying-out to meet the threat of the week; costume designs are tremendously emotive; kosh's voice is so much more lush than my memory carries it and did you know that ardwright chamberlain was also a writer for robotech, true fact!..
...so, i used to head our university babylon 5 group (before moderating usenet) and besides facilitating tape-trading and printed VHS sleeves amongst fans, we also screened an episode each week on the big library projection-screen, which after blowing up the youtube presentation to properly fill my 4:3 ipad display just a couple inches from my face, i had total flashbacks of similarly-immersive presentation consuming my field of view, albeit at much-greater resolution than my staid S-video DVD collection ever offered...
(might be a little-bit drunk at the moment; best way to enjoy vintage video)
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Comment on What's an obscure book/series that you've read that you would like to recommend? in ~books
myrrh Link Parent...heads is just a short novella and was only my second greg bear after tangents, but it blew my mind at the time and left me hooked on chasing down his other work......heads is just a short novella and was only my second greg bear after tangents, but it blew my mind at the time and left me hooked on chasing down his other work...
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Comment on Babylon 5 S01E02: "Midnight On The Firing Line" - Episode Discussion in ~tv
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Comment on Babylon 5 S01E02: "Midnight On The Firing Line" - Episode Discussion in ~tv
myrrh Link Parent...i think individual topics work best so folks can pick through them at their own pace, especially if we're only doing one episode per week......i think individual topics work best so folks can pick through them at their own pace, especially if we're only doing one episode per week...
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Comment on What's an obscure book/series that you've read that you would like to recommend? in ~books
myrrh Link...obscurity is relative, but i've met few people familiar with greg bear's quantum logic cycle: quantico / mariposa / queen of angels / slant / heads / moving mars......obscurity is relative, but i've met few people familiar with greg bear's quantum logic cycle: quantico / mariposa / queen of angels / slant / heads / moving mars...
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Comment on Anyone get into caffeine (coffee/tea) as an adult? in ~food
myrrh Link...i didn't get into caffeine until nearly fourty years of age, when i started drinking a giant glass of iced tea (and chomping the ice) to stave off the afternoon doldrums, which was honestly......i didn't get into caffeine until nearly fourty years of age, when i started drinking a giant glass of iced tea (and chomping the ice) to stave off the afternoon doldrums, which was honestly transformative to my productivity at work; these days i'm nursing a glass of iced tea throughout the day and think nothing of it...
...maybe a decade later i stumbled upon yerba mate drinks; it took me awhile to find something reasonably natural + unsweet, but most days now i go through one or two cans depending upon how desperately i need a boost of energon to power through my obligations...that's where things get dicey: i try to avoid yeba mate on the weekends if i can, as there have definitely been a few occasions where desperate situations required unhealthly doses to make it through two-or-three-day obligations without sleep, which leaves me stupid-exhausted and takes a good two or three useless days of recovery afterward just to restore baseline functionality...
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Comment on Legacy sequels and remakes you think were actually good and worth making? in ~movies
myrrh Linkinvasion of the body snatchers (1978 philip kaufman remake)invasion of the body snatchers (1978 philip kaufman remake)
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Comment on Third spaces: What do we want, and how do we get them? in ~life
myrrh Link...used to be that public schools provided a commons for all manner of vibrant community activity, both indoors and outdoors, but they've been locked-down and systematically defunded this......used to be that public schools provided a commons for all manner of vibrant community activity, both indoors and outdoors, but they've been locked-down and systematically defunded this century...even public parks now require fees for organised activity and chase off disorganised loitering in the name of security...
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Comment on Third spaces: What do we want, and how do we get them? in ~life
myrrh Link Parent...hours, mostly, but also restrictions on boistrous activity......hours, mostly, but also restrictions on boistrous activity...
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Comment on Slop and guilt in ~talk
myrrh Link Parent...c'mon now, thundercats doesn't stoop to the level of he-man...I will say, I went back to watch He-Man and Thundercats, and I was like, "wow, I must have been trash as a 6 year old for liking this."
...c'mon now, thundercats doesn't stoop to the level of he-man...
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Comment on Final piece of Sagrada Familia’s central tower put in place in ~design
myrrh Link Parent...the sagrada familia is certainly an anachronism, but most of the great stone catherals were constructed on the order of centuries; it's typical in that regard......the sagrada familia is certainly an anachronism, but most of the great stone catherals were constructed on the order of centuries; it's typical in that regard...
...the scenes were obviously filmed separately (each cast member at their own home) but that hokeyness is played up for camp...