Random Rants 76: Argh! Augh! Ahhh!

[aimeeandbeatles]

Most people who say things like this are people who have never had to do it themselves, and it's not just the distance. Unless you get a lot of lightweight things, you can't realistically tote any reasonable amount of groceries home on foot (or even on the handi-bus; I'm limited to what I can carry myself because the drivers don't help with that). This is why most of my groceries are either delivered from my regular grocery store across town or ordered from Walmart.

It also doesn't help that people keep trashing shopping carts (they're always getting dumped into waterways here), so the stores react by doing anti-theft stuff. It's completely reasonable but borrowing a shopping cart to carry the groceries home makes things a lot easier.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

It also doesn't help that people keep trashing shopping carts (they're always getting dumped into waterways here), so the stores react by doing anti-theft stuff. It's completely reasonable but borrowing a shopping cart to carry the groceries home makes things a lot easier.

I used to do that when I lived in the same neighborhood as my grocery store. But I told the manager I would like to borrow the cart to get my stuff home and promised to bring it back. He said it would be okay, as I also brought back whatever other carts I found that other tenants had left in our alley.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I believe some stores have magnetic strips that lock up the wheels when trying to leave the property. I don't think any of the stores around here do that, though.

 

[Broken_Erika]

The Beaker People would disagree with you there.

This guy?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Aren't all cups cylindrical? I wonder what you could be drinking out of were it not the case. To me, a mug is a squat cup that's more or less as wide as it is tall, and by definition has a handle.

All cups? No, definitely not. As Valka pointed out, there are round cups and there are tapered cups, with this one being a marginal example. I wouldn't argue if someone said that was close enough to call a mug. The local coffee cup here at my gf's house is twice as wide at the top as the bottom, so a better example, but I don't have a picture. I don't think height to width ratio is an issue. Most beer mugs are much taller than they are wide, and they're still mugs.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Minor rant: I've stalled on my reading list, mostly because I'm stuck on a not-so-great book and I'm too stubborn to leave it unfinished.

 

[The_J]

I started working on a cyberpunk project last month that I've since dropped due to time constraints. I'd never read anything cyberpunk, or really watched anything cyberpunk except for Altered Carbon last year, so I asked a friend for cyberpunk book recommendations. He suggested Snow Crash.

Truly a horrible work. Awful. Terrible writing style and the premise is just absurd. You can execute the person delivering your pizza if it takes longer than a half hour, and then you can sue the company. There's a university for delivering pizza. Sword fetishes.

It was bad enough that it's worthy of a dedicated rant. Complete trash. By far one of the worst books I've ever read.

I haven't read it myself, stil on the list, but you need to know that this is a pretty famous book, and apparently has coined the word "cyberspace", if I remember it right.
Just as a note.

 

[Synobun]

I haven't read it myself, stil on the list, but you need to know that this is a pretty famous book, and apparently has coined the word "cyberspace", if I remember it right.
Just as a note.

Why do I need to know that?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I haven't read it myself, stil on the list, but you need to know that this is a pretty famous book, and apparently has coined the word "cyberspace", if I remember it right.
Just as a note.

Nahhh. Gibson beat him to that by ten years, at least.

 

[The_J]

...er... I guess you don't need to.
But is maybe important to have some context.
If someone was ranting about that he recently read this really crappy piece called "Hamlet" by some some old English author, and thinks it's total crap, then I'd probably still point out that it's a major work of literature. Even if I've never read it.

Yes, this is not exactly comparable, I know.

EDIT: @ Tim okay, then it was something different, don't know .

 

[Synobun]

Well, Hamlet sucks too. I still don't know why it matters that other people liked it if I didn't.

 

[The_J]

It doesn't really matter. Just a piece of info for you. Feel free to ignore it.


EDIT: Ah, found it now on wiki: The book coined the term "avatar".

 

[Cutlass]

Minor rant: I've stalled on my reading list, mostly because I'm stuck on a not-so-great book and I'm too stubborn to leave it unfinished.

What do you want to read?

 

[Ajidica]

I started working on a cyberpunk project last month that I've since dropped due to time constraints. I'd never read anything cyberpunk, or really watched anything cyberpunk except for Altered Carbon last year, so I asked a friend for cyberpunk book recommendations. He suggested Snow Crash.

Truly a horrible work. Awful. Terrible writing style and the premise is just absurd. You can execute the person delivering your pizza if it takes longer than a half hour, and then you can sue the company. There's a university for delivering pizza. Sword fetishes.

It was bad enough that it's worthy of a dedicated rant. Complete trash. By far one of the worst books I've ever read.

Snow Crash is a fun book if you have ready other cyberpunk novels and that it is basically a satire of the genre coupled with Neal Stephenson's trademark "Let me tell you about this thing I just learned!".
The whole X-TREME pizza delivery thing is a good example. Stephenson's poking fun at the tendency of (cyberpunk) protagonists to be low-level delivery guys but have special forces level combat training. Couple that with his turned-up-to-eleven 90's suburbia joke and it becomes quite funny. Haven't read the book in a while, but IIRC it makes Hiro seem like a sort of street samurai, but increasingly drops hints that he is just a pizza delivery guy.

But yeah, Snow Crash should not be your first cyberpunk novel (and suffers from Stephenson's complete inability to write a half-decent ending, a fate shared with Diamond Age). First one has to be the original, Neuromancer, by William Gibson. If you don't have enough time to read the book, the BBC put together a pretty decent audioplay version that comes in at about 2 hours.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

What do you want to read?

I'm not sure. I have a lot of books.

Rant: The hinge of my 3DS XL finally snapped apart. When I looked into doing a warranty replacement with Nintendo, they wanted over $100 (including shipping) for it. I could probably get another one for less than that but I like the one I have. The only alternative is doing a shell swap, but I'll never manage it.

 

[Synobun]

Snow Crash is a fun book if you have ready other cyberpunk novels and that it is basically a satire of the genre coupled with Neal Stephenson's trademark "Let me tell you about this thing I just learned!".
The whole X-TREME pizza delivery thing is a good example. Stephenson's poking fun at the tendency of (cyberpunk) protagonists to be low-level delivery guys but have special forces level combat training. Couple that with his turned-up-to-eleven 90's suburbia joke and it becomes quite funny. Haven't read the book in a while, but IIRC it makes Hiro seem like a sort of street samurai, but increasingly drops hints that he is just a pizza delivery guy.

But yeah, Snow Crash should not be your first cyberpunk novel (and suffers from Stephenson's complete inability to write a half-decent ending, a fate shared with Diamond Age). First one has to be the original, Neuromancer, by William Gibson. If you don't have enough time to read the book, the BBC put together a pretty decent audioplay version that comes in at about 2 hours.

Neuromancer is on my holds list but it says it's still 7 weeks out until I can read it.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Well, Hamlet sucks too. I still don't know why it matters that other people liked it if I didn't.

You should watch the Gilligan's Island version.

 

[Ajidica]

Neuromancer is on my holds list but it says it's still 7 weeks out until I can read it.

I hope you enjoy it. Neuromancer is one of my all time favorite books.
Of the sequels, Count Zero isn't bad but Mona Lisa Overdrive is a bit of a mess.

Also, seven week wait? Can't you just request it from a different library branch, or has the ability to request books from different library branches not reached the untamed wilds of that barbaric land known as Canada?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Also, seven week wait? Can't you just request it from a different library branch, or has the ability to request books from different library branches not reached the untamed wilds of that barbaric land known as Canada?

Interlibrary loans are a thing in Canada.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Snow Crash is a fun book if you have ready other cyberpunk novels and that it is basically a satire of the genre coupled with Neal Stephenson's trademark "Let me tell you about this thing I just learned!".
The whole X-TREME pizza delivery thing is a good example. Stephenson's poking fun at the tendency of (cyberpunk) protagonists to be low-level delivery guys but have special forces level combat training. Couple that with his turned-up-to-eleven 90's suburbia joke and it becomes quite funny. Haven't read the book in a while, but IIRC it makes Hiro seem like a sort of street samurai, but increasingly drops hints that he is just a pizza delivery guy.

But yeah, Snow Crash should not be your first cyberpunk novel (and suffers from Stephenson's complete inability to write a half-decent ending, a fate shared with Diamond Age). First one has to be the original, Neuromancer, by William Gibson. If you don't have enough time to read the book, the BBC put together a pretty decent audioplay version that comes in at about 2 hours.

I hated the 1st episode of One Punch Man.

After being told the show was satire, I loved the rest of the series.

The best stuff is a bit hard to tell that it really is satire.

Did like the super mini gun.
And the tude.