This is good stuff thread 2.0

Investment Analysis Clubs Where Angels Fear to Tread
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That is on my wish list too. Just re-listened to the first book in that series to get it fresh in my mind again “Delta-V”.

Also hoping Last of Us will be decent.

Just binged 2nd season of Vikings Valhalla on Netflix, which is set 100 years after events of the History Channel’s Viking series (which I also really enjoyed). It was good. Sort of like House of Dragons to Game of Thrones…similar, maybe not as good as original, but entertaining enough to enjoy watching all the way through.

Update: they still haven’t found gold on Curse of Oak Island, but by gosh they probably will next week based on previews. (I think that every week though)

I read a lot of Anne Rice in my early adult/college years. Was a fan of the Lestat books and read the Mayfair/Lasher books too. I had mixed feelings on the Interview with a Vampire series, but was overall ok and will check out season 2. AMC just came out with the first Mayfair-related series, and I thought the first two episodes were pretty good so far. I saw a mention of yet-another AMC/Anne Rice series mention coming…seems like AMC making a big investment in her works. She died in Dec 2021, and while I am a big Brad Pitt fan, the original Interview Vampire movie wasn’t all that great…you can’t cast Tom Cruise as a blonde vampire…so dumb. Anyways…probably enough time has passed that it made sense to start creating new series from her work, so I am glad to see it happening.

Now if someone could just figure out how to make a decent movie or series using Stephen King novels, that would be nice. They made another The Stand series, which was no better than the first miniseries in the 90s. They made another Shining movie which was not as good as the Jack Nicholson version in early 1980s. But mostly, the greatest written world I ever enjoyed, over probably two decades, was The Dark Tower. What a hunk of crap that movie was, and it had such talented actors in it, too. C’mon!!!

I am enjoying 1923. I never got into Yellowstone, but enjoyed 1883 and now this Harrison Ford-led sequel series. When done right, I enjoy gritty historical backdrops, and it is interesting to see what life was like back then.

Finally, the Mayor of Kingstown is ok and all, but I am just in a mood lately for more uplifting (or at least not outright depressing) settings. With the series largely set around convicts doing time in prison and generally people constantly screwing other people over, it may be good acting/writing, but it feels like a downer to me for some reason.

Dreamer

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That´s exactly what I did last week.

“Yellowstone” is almost perfect - you can rarely see a smart realistic script and so many good actors in a tv show.
Casey´s wife and their whole marriage are the exception (boring and pathetic), but sometimes you have to accept that nobody´s perfect.
I didn´t like “1883” at all (too slow and impossible to watch because of one of the female lead characters ), but I´ll try “1923”.

Although I really like Jeremy Renner, I had a bad feeling about the show and I didn´t watch it.

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Daniel Suarez

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grafik

This is one of the smartest books I’ve read in years.

I often had to re-read certain paragraphs, because my knowledge of The Quantum Theory is minimal. The biography of Robert Lanza, who is one of the authors, is very impressive , this guy is huge.
The book is “very human”: no zombies, no pandemics, no aliens.

“Time doesn´t exist?”
“No, at least not as a real objective or external “thing”.
We only believe it does because our brain´s algorithms are wired to interpret information as occurring sequentially. Otherwise, we couldn´t make sense of the world at all.”

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thanks for that…will check it out.

Finished a few audiobooks lately:

Masters of Atlantis, by Charles Portis, read by Jefferson Mays
If you saw or read secret life of walter mitty, there is a bit of that in terms of the exploration of the nuances of oblivious non-self-aware human foibles, wrapped up in a secret society, and Jefferson Mays is such a great narrator that he could read IKEA manuals and make it sound like poetic prose.

Saturn Run by John Sanford
Good scifi book that is more about the journey and the conspiracies and the humans that make up a space race to Saturn, than actually scifi itself. A good story with surprising turns.

Critical Mass by Daniel Suarez
a very good sequel to Delta-V, and resolved a ton of open items. Also some plausible future looks into issues/challenges/solutions for space expansion. On an investing note, I believe this is the biggest financial opp ever, but we are nowhere near understanding yet of which companies will benefit, plus it is likely many of those companies don’t even exist yet.

Earthside, by Dennis E. Taylor, read by Ray Porter
I have yet to read/listen to a book of his I do not like. Ray Porter always does a good job, too. This was a sequel to sort of like an alternative earth/primitive earth scenario and what it would be like to start a new society with limited resources yet the know-how of modern times.

For Movies:

Hadn’t been in a theater in quite a while…maybe since last Summer seeing “Nope”.

I watched the newest Ant-Man movie. And it was entertaining, if not a top offering by Marvel, and it introduced a fairly good new villain. For me, though, I am all about the eventual secret wars, and the greatest villain of all-time: Doctor Doom!

Dreamer

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The Picard series is so good. Well-produced and they upped the nostalgia factor in season 3. Enjoying it!

Also finished 1923. Obvious that season 2 is needed due to a ton of unresolved issues. I enjoyed 1883 and 1923…and ironically i have never watched much of Yellowstone yet. Also good!

Also finished Last of Us which was pretty good, although a couple episodes were weaker than others. Nice twist on zombies.

Mandalorian season 3 is on deck!

Dreamer

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I abandoned “1883” after the first two or three episodes, because the young narrator´s story was tiresome and her character was really annoying. Not exactly necessary in the script.
“The Last of Us” was also a disappointment and I just couldn´t watch it just for Pedro Pascal. Bella Ramsey was totally wrong for her role and for me she was the biggest problem: she came off too annoying and had none of the innocence from the games, besides she was in a bad mood all the time. The game is one of the best ever and the series should have kept the original idea. Unfortunately it didn’t. After the episode 3, which was completely unnecessary, I stopped watching the show. Maybe my expectations were too high, but for me the show failed.

So on days when I really want to laugh I watch Chapelle, Rick Gervais and Chris Rock.

Bad ideea: the remake of “True Lies”. Who could they? This is a blasphemy.

One of the best books read in the last 12 months is “The Sea of Rust” by C. Robert Cargill. The tale is set in a post-apocalyptic world, where mankind is extinct and the robots have messed up things even more than we did. The book has deep philosophical implications that are obvious to someone reading behind the lines:

“Respect for the dead is a human notion meant to imply that a life has meaning. It doesn’t. Once you’ve watched an entire world wither away and die after tearing itself apart piece by bloody piece, it’s hard to pretend that something like a single death carries any weight whatsoever.”

Another SF masterpiece “Mickey7” has a follow up - “Antimatter Blues” by Edward Ashton.
Truth is that in the world we live in, full of bad news and macabre predictions, books like those are a great joy, especially because they remind me that the human mind can give birth to wonderful things.
Still.

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I happened to listen to audiobook of Sea of Rust last Summer…enjoyed it!

Proof that two views make a market…I loved the narrator for 1883…I could listen to her for a long time. Probably the romantic in me.

I didn’t know the Last of Us game, except by name…but I wondered if the Bella Ramsey notoriety from Game of Thrones got her in the gig. Not knowing any better, I thought the original daughter was going to to be the main character, which would have been cool as I am a big Thandie Newton fan…kept thinking she looked familiar until I realized who her mom was.

Love Chappelle. Prefer Gervais more in sitcoms/shows than in standup, but still good. Rock has moments, but I don’t think his “i’m gonna say someone to shock you and keep repeating it over and over” style hasn’t aged well. Chapelle never disappoints though.

Dreamer

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I had burned thru a ton of audiobooks, and, as sometimes happens in spurts and stops at certain points in time over the years, I suddenly couldn’t find anything I was interested in listening to next.

Rifling thru my “library” I noticed a free audible book, as they have certain selections that are included in my membership for free, that I had downloaded a couple years back but never listed to.

It turned out to be a good one.

“A gift of time” by Jerry Merritt

It is sort of a few books in one, because as the title suggests there is time travel involved mixed with one of the sub-genres I like which is when a protagonist goes back to an early or more primitive time period, still armed with modern day knowledge, and attempts to change the world and game the system.

There is not much waiting around in the book, as immediately the 80 yr old man, who despite a successful professional/scientific career, is prepared to kill himself. And then sees the hole in the ground from the alien spaceship in his yard.

I feel this book would make a good series, as a bit too much ground to cover for just one movie.

Why does the man eventually wish to travel back in time?
To right a wrong, of course. The disappearance of his little brother, who he was walking to school with, and after he was distracted, had vanished.

I liked how this book approached time travel concepts. What can you change, what happens to the future when you make changes in the past?

Interesting characters and an easy listen. I recommend this one.
Now I have to find something new!

Dreamer

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I’ll be on holiday until the end of May and I’ve already put aside some books:

Agency - William Gibson (one of the smartest SF writest ever)
Jack Four - Neal Asher
A Psalm for the Wild-Built: Monk & Robot, Book 1 - Becky Chambers
The Wrong Unit and Where The Hell is Tesla - both by Rob Dircks
Activation Degradation Marina J. Lostetter

Maybe you can find something interesting among them.

Although for some years now I have been reading almost only SF, I have never heard of Jerry Merritt. Anyway, thanks, I’ll put it on him on the list.

A writer whose books I’ve enjoyed without exception is Paolo Bacigalupi.
Have you read any of his books?

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I’m very late to this discussion. “Severance” got really, really good in the last few episodes. A couple twists I did NOT see coming. I’m glad I stayed with it and eagerly await a new season.

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clubber - thanks for book ideas…will check them all out!

kiplin - i struggled with first episode or so…stopped watching. Maybe I give it another chance. I sometimes have a hard time with the irreverent shows, because it was good when Monty Python did it, or Mr Show, or Key and Peele. But then everyone started to do this whole “hey…I am quirky and different…look at me…everyone thinks I am wonderfully funny and intelligent, and so you must too!”.

Like “The White Lotus”…huh? Typically the shows that often win a bunch of awards bore me to tears. I often think it is rich out-of-touch hollywood writers/directors/producers that realize not all of us give a crap what the families on luxury vacations think/act/do. I dunno…just me.

But I can try it again.
I also have had false starts on many shows I later grew to really like.
Parks and Recs most recently.

Dreamer

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Yeah, I gave up on White Lotus after two episodes. Not my kinda thing. Severance has some repetition early on, but again it got better and better in my mind.

I watched Parks and Rec real time during it’s initial run. Brilliant on a couple levels. I can’t believe Andy turned into Star-Lord.

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Watch Extrapolations on Apple TV. A very realistic look at how daily life could be impacted by climate change trends.

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currently nearing the end of seasons for Picard, Mandalorian, and Ted Lasso.

Curse of Oak Island is probably close to end of season, and - shocking spoiler - no massive treasure hoard appears likely to be found. (sigh)

So without too much to watch, I noticed Peacock had all the Battlestar Galactica seasons and miniseries, so I started re-watching it. It isn’t perfect, but it has good characters, a nice scifi backdrop, and there is something appealing about the types of shows that have their protagonists in seemingly impossible and dire circumstances with only each other to depend on; it creates a close-knit “family” dynamic and it also crystallizes the sense of purpose. Meaning you aren’t worried about what someone said on social media or engaged in road rage incidents on the way to the grocery store or sitting at the dmv trying to get your kid’s driving permit. Nope. None of that crap matters when you are focused on survival.

It reminds me of this little story I saw written, in all places on wall of a Jimmy Johns, where a simple island man living a simple fishing life, relaxing in his hammock, is approached by a first-world type guy who explains he could be doing so much more. He could improve his education, and work hard, and own more things. And after 30 years or so, the man could then finally retire and go live the life of a simple island man and relax daily on his hammock. Something like that - you get the idea. We do all of this just to, in many cases, allow ourselves to get back to the basics.

In 3.5 years, my youngest will graduate high school. Goals are good and all, and so I have penciled in this date mentally. I will be almost 54 years old. Finding myself in pretty good shape now, and with a routine I enjoy and that seems sustainable, I am hopeful that if I can avoid bad accidents I will find myself in fairly similar good health in Sept of 2026, and that my port will be healthy also (fingers crossed on that one, folks!).

And all I want to do is go sit on mountainside in New Zealand or Switzerland, and gaze out at the world. Without a problem to ponder. Without anywhere to be. Without a mind busy with distractions.

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Dreamer

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If you enjoyed the theme of a gift of time
, look into Shawn Inmon’s Middle falls series. First book is good and the second is gripping.

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thanks…looks interesting, and added to my wish list!

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Never saw any episodes of Battlestar Galactica. I’ll give it a try.
I haven’t watched the last season of the Mandalorian yet, because I find it very slow. It’s on my wishlist, but only because the episodes are quite short and easy to watch.

The Middle Falls Time Travel series look very interesting.

New Zealand is at the end of the world and although I’ve heard they have a high standard of living, I’d feel too far away… But this could be a big advantage.

I went to Switzerland last year (Bern, Geneva, Lausanne) and enjoyed it a lot. Sure Switzerland, like most countries, is not anymore what it used to be 20 years ago, but it remains a very nice place to visit. And it would definitely be an ideal home, if it wasn’t so (very) expensive.

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Oh, my! Wherever you go, there you are… 30+ years of competition, us versus them. Pretty much 50 years depending upon how aggressive you were in preschool.
:slight_smile: Good luck switching off problems to ponder.
“Without anywhere to be” is what I have labeled “The Curse of Optionality”. You grasped the opportunity, accumulated The Means, can be anywhere you want to be. Maybe you successfully ponder infinity, maybe not. One day that pest on one shoulder shoves a scorecard in front of your nose and accuses you of squandering 10 or 15 or 20 years of “without anywhere to be”.

Choose your mountain wisely.

KC, who reached 80 seconds of dead hang today. Still need better gloves. Previous shoulder injuries not causing problems.

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Give Battlestar Galactica a season or two to warm up.