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Flashman...

weetyskemian44 wrote:Flashman...

LOL! That's the other inspiration he used to make Cain, at first Cain was 50% Black Adder and 50% Flashman, eventually Cain became an entirely unique character after that.

some good literary conversation going on here... have you heard about the tv adaption of dirk gently holistic detective agency..? this is and long dark teatime of the soul are my favourite adams books, at the moment iam reading american gods by gaiman .

Always good to see Gaiman and Banks being referenced

The AI's in Banks' stuff have some of the funniest conversations I've come across, and Gaiman's a goddamn genius - although unfortunately none of his other stuff quite reaches the heady heights of 'The Sandman'.

Which Bank's book would be good for an introduction to his work please?
(New thread maybe so as not to clog up Vik's thread?)

Vik
I like the idea of little blimps as drop pods.
The other thing that occured to me was based on the whirligig toys. Drop pods could use a similar unpowered rotor system like a gyrocopter to slow the descent and fly into position.
It would mean having to source more of those propellors but would be cool imho.
just a thought

If you like short stories then The State Of The Art, otherwise I'd say any of the earlier stuff like The Player Of Games or Use Of Weapons. The books are all stand-alone, although several of the SF ones are set in the same continuity - the Culture novels. For his other stuff any of them really, although I know several peeps who didn't like A Song Of Stone much, didn't think much to the actual story, whereas I found I was entranced by his use of language in that one particulary.

back on topic - I like Chibi's idea of rotored drop-pods, sycamore pods full of stiff-upper lipped gentlemen ready to sip tea and kill xenos cads.

the moment i read chibis post i also thought "sycamore "...
hmmm to bad i had one of the skiffs cut a door into...if i do a sycamore droppod surley it shouldnt fall broadside down to earth? or rather then two rotors then?

dear ladys and gents clog all you like, i would fear i soon lose this new level of intake on literature then^^

and at neil,

i´ve read long dark teatime of the soul too, was a present from my irish born eglish teach in university...we had lots of funny conversations about british swearwords during class no other ones unnderstood LMAO there are so few people here in germany that could swear in english...me i think its an artform all by itself...to bad we got here the swearfilter on...

we could do a real contest of a heated insult thread^^

vik

lol soon we will get out of original orcmoticans by that...


and &%&=($%/) wouldn´t quite do the same work...


vik

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries...

No need for those nasty swears see

Think I heard something about Dirk Gently, isn't it supposed to be a one-off one hour thing ? Going to have to lose an awful lot of stuff to get it in that time-frame if so.

has someone a link for that already...considering asgardians and all the other weid stuff in this novel there is bound to be a truckload to get lost in visualizing that for such a short time frame...to bad... either they do it to serve the matter right or they should let us stick to the mindcinama we are used too...

saw the going postal fim and wasn´t that bought on it to be sure...was.t that big of a book to begin with but the characters should have been casted better...also i think with pratchetts tv adaptions the design goes way more into victorian sets as in a more meadival setting...as i would deem morre fitting...

vik

A few years ago , when the kids were about 7and 9 me sat the kids down because their friends were using some rather foul language , and although my kids dont use bad language , well at least around me, i wondered what sort of stuff they had heard. so after our evening meal we said , right this is a punishment free zone, what swear words do you know.... and i have to say the amount of swearing one upmanship that came out theire mouths was shocking to say the least.. it was a really funny thing and the kids loved it when they go into the swing of it lol and although they still do not swear i thought it was quite catrhartic for them to use language that would normally get them grounded. its a strange thing but i think it really helped take the secretive power and attraction of bad language out of the mix for them. although i swear like a sailor sometimes , bastich !

this sounds like a good idea. we came a bit around the grounding idea as some swear words are just to hard to avoid...when you hit your finger with a hammer then sugar wont do it...
so some of the more faecal orientated words are rather common in our house under ceratin circimstances...
tho most of the kids are only in kindergarten they will get in contact with these at least when they get to school...for me nowadays the part in life where every thing can go utterly wrong or just a bit meh...this is the place where innosence gets lost on a daily base...rather sad really...

vik

shrike wrote:anyway- I don't want to be snowed in, just 6" or so per year

MY PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED! 15cm OF SNOW!!!

ha we got 20cm last night...i really hate that white stuff now...the wife and the kids still love it tho and all want to me outside in the mids of that white mess...

arghhh....

If you're annoyed out them for dragging you out into the snow, why not give them what they want? pelt 'em with snowballs and get inside before they return fire!

well it´s always four agains one then...even the two year old gets better at throwing...and although i am feared for my nasty and evil snow tricks there are limits to a natural born fighter...ever made a cossak dance in snow when charging on a victim? thats something to get the returnfire to cease^^

vik

uuh, no. can't say I have.
I'm more krieg-ish- while the enemy contents itself to making snowballs, i spend 2 hours building a 4ft wall of solid ice. they build a snow wall in 20 minutes, and I spend 1 minute per snowball, making them solid ice, and punching holes through thier fort, while lobbing snowballs high into the air to bombard them. By the time i've thrown 40 snowballs, they have half a wall, covered in snow and I am bone dry. works every year.

lol...

Turns on light.... Yup electricity still works!
Drops pen ...Yup Gravity still works! ....ya gotta love Dirk Gently!

although i have to say i took me two turns to understand the teatime book...

That just reminded me of Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith, everything in this guy's apartment is piled up in one corner due to all the fancy artificial gravity generators in the place having failed at various times


Shrike - your enemies spend 2 hours stockpiling snowballs whilst you build a wall? See I'd have snuck off had a nice hot cup of tea, then come back the long way, appearing behind your wall with 5 snowballs just before you finish your wall, pelt you, then return home for another refreshing brew

monkeytroll wrote:That just reminded me of Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith, everything in this guy's apartment is piled up in one corner due to all the fancy artificial gravity generators in the place having failed at various times


Shrike - your enemies spend 2 hours stockpiling snowballs whilst you build a wall? See I'd have snuck off had a nice hot cup of tea, then come back the long way, appearing behind your wall with 5 snowballs just before you finish your wall, pelt you, then return home for another refreshing brew

ah, but if I see you sneaking off, I'd build a load of snowballs and follow you. If you begin to get inside i'd pelt you, then pelt your house, then go inside or find someone else to pelt.

yep, thats the spirit, cant imagine someone actually investing that amount of time on a mere built of a snow wall...what point is there at all to build defences??? you sream you charge...you claim your victory...really in all my games my oponents have found out that i allways play with high odds, either win or loose but i tend not to play for safe...and beside, isn´t it the whole point of getting snowballs thrwon at you too when doing a snowballbattle? though i have to admitt i would rather stay at home und just be happy to sip on my tea instead all that pointless violence....really...

vik

Oh owh , Now this thread has snowballed

technology should always help us and make life easier...

vik

If you see me sneaking off fair enough, as that would mean I had failed in my sneaking

That is awesome vik, I do hope that is a removable scoop for fast reloading Think you could pull off a cossack dance with one of those in each hand - that would certainly send the enemy running

Viktor von Domm wrote:


technology should always help us and make life easier...

vik

it'd make a great christmas present for a friend of mine...
got it!:
http://www.arctic-force.com/

Would be more fun in an ice cream parlour!
As long as no one puts a flake in the scoops.

Could have someone's eye out...

You know someone will end up putting syrup in theirs and someone else firing sprinkes immediately after to "tar and feather" someone icecream style