MMA News Forums » Website Forums » Site Suggestions/Feedback

[Fedorlei Gomipierre]

Originally Posted by Cat--Smasher

Assumption being you have already listened to it or think he is full o shit (and I assume if I searched it we have already discussed this) but have you listened to the JRX with Sonnen talking about DB being a family friend?

IMO, it is very highly unlikely that Sonnen is being legit.

Fact is, if he was taken even remotely seriously and his information could've been everso slightly regarded as legitmate, the FBI would've crawled up his ass and stayed a while, as the FBI still has a massive hard on for Cooper after all these years. I don't know if they'll ever nail down who Dan Cooper ever really was(or even if he survived the jump), but the FBI is still taking information on leads to this day.

[lordpyro]

Originally Posted by rivethead

Depends on what era strikes you closer to home.

Declare deals with British espionage in WWII and the Cambridge Spy scandal. Nice allusions to T. E. Lawrence, and I'd just read the Golden Warrior before it came out.

Last Call is about poker, tarot cards and the Fisher King saga. It was the first one I read. Deals with the founding of Las Vegas by Siegel, fractal mathmatics and chaos theory, and is the first--and best--of a 3 part series.

Expiration Date deals with T. A Edison's ghost, and a culture in LA that is addicted to inhaling ghosts. Not a sequel to Last Call, but the second in the trilogy. Earthquake Weather manages to tie in the first two and complete the series. The time setting for all of them is contemporary CA.


The Drawing of the Dark deals with post-Crusade Europe from the perspective of a brewery in Vienna besieged by the Turks in the early 16th Century. Deals with beer making, Finn MacCool and Arthur mythos.

Anubis Gates deals with time travel and Egyptian mythology, set in the 20th and 18th Century. Probably best time-travel book I'd read.

Stress of Her Regard and Hide Me Among the Graves deals with the romantic poets [Byron, Shelley, Keats] and vampires. Graves is the most recent book Powers has published, and it's killer.

On Stranger Tides was made into a crappy disney Pirates' movie. I haven't done any of the research, but I think they offered him the book deal because the first Pirates of the Caribbean film stole so much of his ideas that they didn't want to get sued. The movie sucked, but the book is pretty great: BlackBeard as a voodoo practicioner, looking for the Fountain of Youth. Zombie pirate crews, swashbuckling, jungles, stuff like that.

Three Days to Never also deals with time travel, Einstein, the Mossad. It's pretty killer. Contemporary CA again.

I go through phases on which one I think is best. They're the kind of book you can read more than once.



I haven't found any of Power's stuff as an audiobook, but I did find both Snow Crash and The Cryptonomicon from Stephenson as audiobooks, that were awesome for when I was traveling a lot this summer. I don't generally enjoy audio books as much, but the humor in these really came through perfectly in the medium.

rh

I will look for some of those at the bookstore when I head to lunch.

I thought Cryptonomicon & Snow Crash were both awesome, but I really loved Cryptonomicon. At the time I read it I was actually working on encryption protocols for offshore banking transactions which made it even more awesome.

As general recommenation for everyone, look for Raptor or Aztec by Gary Jennings. They're sort of historical fiction, but only marginally. Raptor is about a hermaphrodite that winds up fighting with Charlemagne, and Aztec is the story of the rise and fall of the Aztec empire as told to the Spanish Priests by an Aztec. Raptor is the best, as the whole concept leads to some believeable though hiliarious situations.

He has another one called Journeyer about the travels of Marco Polo, I haven't read it but it's been highly recommended by some friends.

They are kind of in a similiar vein with a juxtaposition history, fiction, and down right hiliarity.

Job: A Comedy of Justice is similar too, though it was written by Heinlien. If you've got a good sense of humor about religion its awesome.

[noahm]

Zhuan Falun

[Y2JUBAE]

Originally Posted by lordpyro

LOL, you're doing better than me. The only languages I know other than English are programming languages.

Actually, I started reading a very young age, and inadvertently taught myself how to speed read. I use a similar method to the one they used to advertise on TV.

What's your native language, French? (Sorry if I'm being a dumbfuck but, I've heard French is widely spoken up your way. Its pretty common here too, ecspecially down along the western Gulf Coast of Louisiana)

What is the method? I skim and skip and can't read that fast lol.

[rivethead]

Originally Posted by lordpyro

Job: A Comedy of Justice is similar too, though it was written by Heinlien. If you've got a good sense of humor about religion its awesome.

Lamb by Christopher Moore is outstanding if you liked Job. It's the Gospel of Biff, Christ's childhood friend. It deals with the time in Christ's life that isn't documented in the gospels, from when he was a teenager to the point where he assumes his Ministry.

rh

[Thamob]

Originally Posted by rivethead

Lamb by Christopher Moore is outstanding if you liked Job. It's the Gospel of Biff, Christ's childhood friend. It deals with the time in Christ's life that isn't documented in the gospels, from when he was a teenager to the point where he assumes his Ministry.

rh

Is it a comedy? It sounds interesting.

[rivethead]

Originally Posted by Thamob

Is it a comedy? It sounds interesting.

It's very funny, but I can't call it a pure comedy.

I've actually talked with Christopher Moore, and he basically wrote he book without every wavering from the concept that Josh--the name he uses for the Christ figure--was the son of God. He isn't trying to make fun of that. He does a great job exploring unique Christ's relationship with the sinner, and Biff is a tremendous sinner, and that is absolutely hilarious. But ultimately, the book is pretty insightful and meaningful. I've lent it to several very, very Christian friends--and the pastor who married my wife and I--and they loved it.

Moore has a great quote to start it, indicating the mind of the reader. I found it on the web, which is good, cause I'd have ruined it paraphrasing:

If you have come to these pages for laughter, may you find it.
If you are here to be offended, may your ire rise and your blood boil.
If you seek an adventure, may this song sing you away to blissful escape.
If you need to test or confirm your beliefs, may you reach comfortable conclusions.
All books reveal perfection, by what they are or what they are not.
May you find that which you seek, in these pages or outside them.
May you find perfection, and know it by name.

But a great sample of his work is:

It’s sarcasm, Josh.”

“Sarcasm?”

“It’s from the Greek, sarkasmos. To bite the lips. It means that you aren’t really saying what you mean, but people will get your point. I invented it, Bartholomew named it.”

“Well, if the village idiot named it, I’m sure it’s a good thing.”

“There you go, you got it.”

“Got what?”

“Sarcasm.”

“No, I meant it.”

“Sure you did.”

“Is that sarcasm?”

“Irony, I think.”

“What’s the difference?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea.”

“So you’re being ironic now, right?”

“No, I really don’t know.”

“Maybe you should ask the idiot.”

“Now you’ve got it.”

“What?”

“Sarcasm.”

Christopher Moore (Author of Lamb)

rh

[lordpyro]

Originally Posted by Y2JUBAE

What is the method? I skim and skip and can't read that fast lol.

For lack of a better way to describe it, I don't read line by line. I read two pages at a time.


It's actually pretty easy to do. You start by reading whole paragraphs, look at it, fix it in your mind, and let your brain churn on it while your eyes are looking at the next paragraph.


Eventually, you'll be able to hold both pages in your mind at once.

The theory is that your brain can process the data faster if you don't focus on it. Let your "subconscious" do the actually reading, so all you get is a movie.


Bear in mind though, that there is a trade off between speed and comprehension. I can read a novel much faster than a technical text, because the sentences tend to be shorter and less complicated, and the subject matter is much less dense.

[Thamob]

Have you read the stupidest angel? I keep meaning to get that one.

[rivethead]

Originally Posted by Thamob

Have you read the stupidest angel? I keep meaning to get that one.

I haven't.

Tell me how it is, if you read it.

rh