Re: [Madness Writers] 2/04/2012 12:15:00 PM

hilarious ending.

built a fire pit outside, heatehr did.   enjoyed some marshmallows and the outdoors.  beautiful weekend.  75 today, too hot man.  too hot.  

played hockey, been pretty tired all day after, like usual.  gotta start waking up around 525 tomorrow.

guess one addition to reality is science fiction, more is fiction.  makes sense. im sure there's exceptions.  vonneguts books would probably be considered science fiction, though i'd say they're more post-modern novels. 

his last real one, Time stuck or whatever, that only had one exception.  decent book.  jailbird, that would be dififcult to write that with the time changes and how everything fits together.

had that beauty of a breakaway shot.  right of the slot on the circle, far post right above the pad.no room man, perfect shot.  perfrect goal tending as well, no idea how a goalie could really stop that. 

that short stick really gives me a lot of dangling ability. the stick is really light as well. oh yeah, during the game thursday i had a breakaway coming up the left wing (two guys on the center line got jammed up, puck trickled behind the D, easy pickins) come up, see a teammate to the right in high slot.  saucer pass right to his stick, would have been a perfect opportunity but even I didnt expect it.  then the dman covered his stick pretty good.   then sortly after I have a steal at the blue line, come up, toe drag wrister far corner, hit the goalie's shoulder.  i think the 2nd bets player on the team was open in the slot, i guess a 2 on 0.  i wasnt passing that opportunity, maybe should have considered it.

made real mashed tators, 3 or so lbs of chicken, peas and carrots, and a double layered cake.  got enough food for 3 or 4 days at work.  ill take some cans of fruit and my animal cookies, goods tuff.

oh yeah, a guy near the center line today shoved me into the boards, not hard.  i would dsay not intentional but he tried hitting me, didnt bother me, but i went in at a weird angle, like i was moving left but right half of my body was shoved into the boards.  could break your collar bone or hurt your neck ro something. didnt hurt but definitely a weird angle.

good super bowl so far, no t really watching but close.  no way patrioits should win with their terrible D, 31st overallduring the season.

wow, brady is 10 for 10.   manning i thought was 9 for 9 at the beginning.  

jesus, super bowl for free at nbcsports.com, first time available online for free.  killing the computer though.

probably have PT after work this week.  hopefully a PT test on thursday, then i can be exempt again, assuming I finish the run. 

the right side of my chest gets sore/hurts after working my upper body.  not sure whats up with that.

4 teams in both leagues i guess, i definitely want to play teh A league, maybe next season Ill move up. maybe not, wish i could play both, but waking iup at 530 and playing until 11 isnt gonna fly.  one day a week it would be possible, but not two in a row.  some reason A league starts 45 min later than the B. and B is on thursday, i dont really care if Im tired friday. got the weekend to catch up.

the Prius, you gotta glide a lot, and hitting red lights and stop signs kills the gas milage. 

On Sat, Feb 4, 2012 at 3:15 PM, Madness <nayrrizdaed@gmail.com> wrote:

This is the book revoew on that Dan Simmons book. I take the last sentence to be satire.

Book Review: Dan Simmons's Flashback <http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PartialObjects/~3/cfugO-7dj1c/>
from Partial Objects<http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed/http%3A%2F%2Fpartialobjects.com%2Ffeed%2F> by stucky

[http://www.publishersweekly.com/images/cached/INGRAM/978/031/600/9780316006965.jpg]

The best science fiction, the science fiction that is most enjoyable, that hangs together, that is believable and doesn't strand the reader uses a simple formula: a story set in our world, that plays by our physical rules with one exception. In Asimov's world, robots existed and lived among us. What happens if time travel is really possible? We find out in Back to the Future and The Time Traveller's Wife. In Richard K. Morgan's world of Altered Carbon, downloading your consciousness into another body is possible. Each of these novels follow the same formula. The story is set in our world, that follows the same rules of physics as we know them, with one exception. Any story that allows for more than one is known as fantasy.

The latest novel from Dan Simmons<http://www.amazon.com/Flashback-Dan-Simmons/dp/0316006963>, of Hyperion fame, is a dystopian novel set 20 years in the future, After the Shit Hit the Fan. We don't know what the shit was, but it was major. The United States is in ruins, the remaining population drives shit electric vehicles that can only go 30 miles to a charge, live in fear of constant Islamic terrorist acts (not threats), and are continually fighting off the Mexicans as they take over more and more of the US's territory in the southwest.

Our main character, Nick Bottom, is an ex-cop and father, who's wife has died, forcing him to pawn his only son off on his father-in-law, incidentally a Jewish academic who bumbles through life in this brave new world. Bottom, along with the rest of the country, is addicted to a drug called Flashback. Flashback allows the user to relive any memory, in real time, as if they were an observer in the moment. Through the use of flashback, the country as a whole is indulging its obsession with the past, with little care about the present or the future.

On the surface, this novel is about Bottom's struggle as a flashback addict and private investigator, desperately trying to solve the murder of Japanese businessman's son six years after the fact, reminiscent of a Raymond Chandler pulp. Supposedly, Bottom is chosen because his adept flashback usage means he can go back to the scene of the crime, over and over, to re-examine the evidence that is now lost. Beneath the surface, this novel is a tirade against the left, the progressives, the Democrats and Barack Obama, specifically. One chapter, completely unrelated to the story, describes in detail how Obama's entitlements destroyed the US economy and the country. Using the language (dog whistles, if you will) of the modern day right, Simmons characters rail against every liberal idea currently held in popular regard. Review<http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-review-flashback-by-dan-simmons/2011/07/19/gIQA62F6lI_story.html> after review<http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/07/entertainment/la-ca-dan-simmons-20110807> after review<http://www.npr.org/2011/07/28/137621172/one-rant-too-many-politics-mar-simmons-dystopia> points this out for us.

Indeed, this novel is hard to read if you vote Democrat. Simmons is an excellent author, and you cannot help but cheer for our protagonist as he fights his way through this mystery, facing opposition at every turn. It's when Bottom–who's side you are on–uses his hindsight (helped by flashback) to explain how Obama and the Democrats destroyed the country, the reader can't help but question his or her own beliefs. Even if you're not sympathetic to the gun-toting PI, his liberal father-in-law will also explain for you how he was so, so wrong when he voted in entitlements as well. One hopes you get the idea by now. This book is catnip to the GOP.

Every good science fiction novel, and Flashback is one, follows the same formula: our world with one exception. If you had to guess, the exception would be the drug flashback. This is a red herring. The real exception, the part of the world that isn't real, the one that every review misses is this: This story is only possible if the GOP is right about how the world works.

Flashback is one of the most clever and damming science fiction novels written in recent memory. Simmons never wavers from his thesis, and paints an ugly dystopian future that examines our world should the likes of Santorum and Gingrich accurately predict the future of our current course. Simmons, well versed in his craft, knows he has his readers hooked on the story, and brutally forces the reader to accept as fact that entitlements bankrupted the country into ruin. That Islam is a force of destruction and terror. That Mexico is one or two soft politicians away from reclaiming California.

Remember, this is good science fiction.

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Posted By Madness to Madness Writers at 2/04/2012 12:15:00 PM