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Smiley

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Everything posted by Smiley

  1. Please join us for our next chat in #readers_corner at 8:30 P.M. (EDST) on June 20th, 2015 (00:30 A.M., June 21st (GMT)), for a discussion of Constance's Law by Bridget Hardy. The story is contemporary and deals with current social issues. It is a thought provoking story which I believe we will all appreciate. ' The story is available at: http://www.carvezine.com/story/2015-winter-hardy Carve Magazine is a printed literary quarterly which offers its short stories on line for free. We have discussed several of its offerings in the past several years, and they have always provided a base for an interesting chat. I'm sure this story will prove no exception. Meeting Place: Webchat: http://koach.com/cha...=readers_corner mIRC Users: /server -m chat3.koach.com:6667 -j #readers_corner Hope you all can make it, and don't forget to bring a friend Log Attached: #readers_corner 20150620.txt
  2. And if the governor had missed, his dog would have eaten the coyote.
  3. Please join us for our next chat in #readers_corner at 8:30 P.M. (EDST) on June 13th, 2015 (00:30 A.M., June 14th (GMT)), for a discussion of Zero Hour by Ray Bradbury. The story is set in 20th century suburbia and the normalcy of the setting and characters adds to the macabre development and creepy feeling of the tale. We owe our very own Dash Riprock for recommending this story (thank you Dash), and I believe that I am safe in predicting that you will find very little hidden symbolism in the work. We have discussed several Bradbury stories in the past, so he really needs no introduction. I feel certain that you will appreciate the story. The story is available as a downloadable .doc file from the website: http://chausseclasses.wikispaces.com/Science+Fiction+Short+Stories Scroll down the web page to the entry for Zero Hour Short Story .Doc and click the download link. The .doc file can be opened with Word, word pad, open office writer, and several other word processing programs. As a bonus an audio file to a radio broadcast of the story from 1955 is also available on that web page. Scroll down to the entry for zerohour script of 1955 play.pdf. If you want a copy of the radio script, download the pdf. Better yet click the link to Audio Suspense: Ray and listen to a recording or the actual broadcast in your browser. I must note that the website is an educational one designed for use by students in Freshman year of high school. There are some notes on vocabulary and some discussion points included with the story. I don't think those notes will interfere with your enjoyment. Meeting Place: Webchat: http://koach.com/cha...=readers_corner mIRC Users: /server -m chat3.koach.com:6667 -j #readers_corner Hope you all can make it, and don't forget to bring a friend LOG ATTACHED: readers log June 13 2015.txt
  4. Please join us at 8:30 PM (EDST) June 6th (00:30(GMT) June 7th) when we will discuss the story The Bishops Beggar" by Stephen Vincent Benét. Benét is a celebrated American poet and author. Born in 1898, Benét’s writing dealt mainly with American life and history. His most famous work, John Brown's Body was a book length poem about experiences in the Civil War and how it affected various Americans. The poem was an immediate success. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1929. Benét died in 1943. This story looks at the development of the moral character of the third son of a nobleman in 18th century Italy. Throughout most of European history, the first son inherited the title, the second son became an army officer, and the third son went into the church. I think you will find the story very interesting. The story was reprinted in the November/December 2014 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. It is available for download at http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2014/11/07/post-fiction/classic-fiction/the-bishops-beggar.html Meeting Place: Webchat: http://koach.com/chtura...=readers_corner mIRC Users: /server -m chat3.koach.com:6667 -j #readers_corner I hope to see you all there, and don't forget to bring a friend.
  5. Happy Birthday! and Many More
  6. Please join us at 8:30 PM (EDST) May 30th (00:30 A.M., May 31st(GMT)) when we will discuss the story "Mars Farts" by Ben Bova. The story is a good, entertaining one, and may be found at: http://www.baenebook...81625790958.htm That link will take you to a list of various stories. From that page, click on the link to "contents" in the upper right corner of the web page--it will take you to a clickable index of all the stories. From there a click on the Story's name will magically teleport you to the correct page. (In fairness, there are other ways to get to the story, but they are more arcane than the one described above. If all else fails, from the initial web address above, you may click on next and scroll through each story until you reach your goal by repeatedly clicking the "next" link rather than the contents one.) Meeting Place: Webchat: http://koach.com/cha...=readers_corner mIRC Users: /server -m chat3.koach.com:6667 -j #readers_corner I'll bring a bag of pretzels, bring your own beer. Dont forget to bring a friend. LOG ATTACHED: readers corner 05 30 20515.txt
  7. The chat for May 30th will discuss the story "Mars Farts" by Ben Bova. The story is a good, entertaining one, and may be found at: http://www.baenebooks.com/10.1125/Baen/9781625790958/9781625790958.htm That link will take you to a list of various stories. From that page, click on the link to "contents" in the upper right corner of the web page--it will take you to a clickable index of all the stories. From there a click on the Story's name will magically teleport you to the correct page. (In fairness, there are other ways to get to the story, but they are more arcane than the one described above. If all else fails, from the initial web address above, you may click on next and scroll through each story until you reach your goal by repeatedly clicking the "next" link rather than the contents one.) In any case, I hope to see you in #readers corner both on the 23rd and 30th of May.
  8. The best laid plans of mice and men--well, we know our Bobby Burns. Real life prevented many of our regular members of attending the planned chat on the 16th, so we who were present agreed to postpone the discussion until the 23rd. S.ee changes below: Please join us for our next chat in #readers_corner at 8:30 P.M. (EDST) on May 23rd, 2015 (00:30 A.M., May 24th (GMT)), for a discussion of The Driver's Seat by Adam Gopnik. The story was published in the February 2, 2015 edition of The New Yorker. Gopnik is a staff writer for the magazine. This particular piece does not fit easily into a mold...it certainly isn't fiction, claiming to be true "personal history" of the author (a mini-autobiography if you like). I strongly suspect that most of the action described actually occurred but that most of the dialog (especially the internal thoughts of the writer are significantly embellished. At any rate, it is a story...even true stories are stories...and I believe we will enjoy discussing it. Spoiler alert: The story narrowly escapes being sentimentally nostalgic and barely manages not to be didactically moralistic. (Wow, I would get all sorts of chat points for that sentence if I uttered it in #readers_corner.) Lest I scare you off, let me assure you,however, that the story is a pleasant read. I think you will enjoy it and consider it well worth the time invested in reading it. The story is available on line at: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/02/drivers-seat Meeting Place: Webchat: http://koach.com/cha...=readers_corner mIRC Users: /server -m chat3.koach.com:6667 -j #readers_corner I'll bring a bag of pretzels, bring your own beer (or perhaps in this case, a shaker of manhattans). Dont forget to bring a friend. LOG ATTACHED: readers log 5 23 2015.txt
  9. Please join us for our next chat in #readers_corner at 8:30 P.M. (EDST) on May 9th, 2015 (00:30 A.M., May 10th (GMT)), for a discussion of Cataclysm by Madeline Popelka. The story was published on-line in December 2014. The story is a strange one somewhere between fantasy and faerie tale. I am not a "cat lover" so I am perhaps a bit unsympathetic to the earth shaking consequences of the death of a pet cat. Those members of our readers' corner group who do nurture felines, might be able to explain the implications of this story to me. At any rate, I think you will find the story entertaining and thought provoking as well as a good source of grist for our chat mill to grind. The story is available on line at: http://www.bdlit.com/cataclysm.html Meeting Place: Webchat: http://koach.com/cha...=readers_corner mIRC Users: /server -m chat3.koach.com:6667 -j #readers_corner Don't forget to bring a friend. Log attached: #readers_corner.koach.com.20150509.txt
  10. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_other-performance/my-computer-says-there-was-an-unauthorized-change/23d9e224-cfff-4bfe-9623-8bf235662b0d check out the above linked thread on microsoft.com apparently the issue is peculiar to vista you might want to roll the puter back a few das (before the error message started appearing) with your restore to earlier status.
  11. Please join us for our next chat in #readers_corner at 8:30 P.M. (EDST) on May 2nd, 2015 (00:30 A.M., May 3rd (GMT)), for a discussion of The League of Old Men by Jack London. The story was first published in 1902 but like most of London's works, deals with life on the wild frontiers in a timeless manner. His stories although dealing with the adventurous years at the end of the 19th and early 20th century, all seem to have been penned in a more modern style. London was a journalist by trade; a novelist / short fiction writer by avocation. His tales fall into three very broad categories, those dealing with the wild west, the conquest of the seven seas by sail and steam, and the exploration of inhospitable environs (the exploitation of Alaska--chief among them. This tale examines the invasion by the whit e man into the frozen homelands of the native Eskimo peoples with the inevitable economic and cultural victory of the white man. It's an entertaining tale, exhibiting what might now me considered a political correctness unheard of in the early 20th century. I think you will appreciate it because it is foremost an interesting story but also because it accurately portrays loss of a cultural heritage. I hope you like it as much as I do--I am certain that it will spur on some very interesting discussion. I won't give any spoilers, and I'm sure we will be able to explain the ending during the chat. The story is available on line at: http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/17501/ Meeting Place: Webchat: http://koach.com/cha...=readers_corner mIRC Users: /server -m chat3.koach.com:6667 -j #readers_corner Don't forget to bring a friend. LOG ATTACHED: readers_corner 20150502.txt
  12. The pine pollen is now gone, but the hardwoods an flowering bushes are putting out the microscopic pollen that really causes the allergy attacks. my truck went from mustard yellow (pine pollen) to white after the last gully washer, to brown now with the nasty pollen. It has been a really bad spring for pollen.
  13. It was there originally, It apparently went bye bye when they fixed the server to really upload programs. I will repost if I can find the jpg.
  14. I have a one Gig external I got from Tiger, it has USB 2 line (the highest speed that my old computer's usb bus will handle, and it has a little power supply transformer similar to what you would have with a laptop computer. If you want to lug it around with the laptop, then you would want to go with one of the passport types, they are designed specifically for portability. Winchester and Seagate are both excellent manufacturers, and I have used both as replacements or extra drives to the factory installed ones.
  15. Please join us for our next chat in #readers_corner at 8:30 P.M. (EDST) on April 25th, 2015 (00:30 A.M., April 26th (GMT)), for a discussion of Four Days in Dixie by Ambrose Bierce. We have read several of Bierce's stories, all of them as I recall, being tales of the supernatural or spiritual. This one is an exception, for athough it deals with the American civil war (the setting for many of his more chilling tales) it is a typical soldier's war story--without ghosts, zombies, or near death experiences. It deals with the adventures (or perhaps misventures) of a Union Army officer captured by the Confederates. The American Civil War, aka The War between the States in the North and the War of Yankee Aggression in the South, while a exceptionally bloody affair, was marked by a lack of malice by the combatants. This type of anecdote was not uncommon during the war and may very well be a retelling of an actual occurrence. I hope you enjoy it. The story is available on line at: http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/20052/ Meeting Place: Webchat: http://koach.com/cha...=readers_corner mIRC Users: /server -m chat3.koach.com:6667 -j #readers_corner Hope you all can make it. Don't forget to bring a friend. Log attached: readers corner 4 25 2015.txt
  16. Wow, I wish my spell checker worked that well. Thank's to whomever fixed the pic upload.
  17. God puts it there, and He is responsible for removing it....it gradually washes downstream and/or bio degrades. 99% of it is pine pollen and since the pines stopped breeding about a week ago, almost all of it is now gone.
  18. Took the attached photo of the surface of the lake behind my house to graphically show why many of us in the Sandhills of Carolina are under the weather with asthma type problems. The dock in the picture is approximately 7 meters (22 feet) long, so you can judge the size of the pollen coating the surface. pollen in lake.bmp
  19. Please join us for our next chat in #readers_corner at 8:30 P.M. (EDST) on April 18th, 2015 (00:30 A.M., April 19th (GMT)), for a discussion of Crucible Invictus by Konstantine Paradias. The story is a contemporary one; a somewhat tongue-in-cheek examination of our current film fixation with comic book heroes. I think you will find it a fertile source of grist for our criticism mill and an enjoyable examination of at least one element of pop culture. Konstantine Paradias is an author of science fiction and fantasy stories, with several books and collections available on Amazon (and presumably at various book stores). Although he seems to have published many stories, this is my first encounter with his writings. Please note: the online story is several pages long (Web page 19 through 23) -- far less than the page count threatened at the close of our last chat . At the bottom of each webpage is the link to the next (just click the "continued" link, at the bottom right side of each page). The story is available on line at: http://www.bdlit.com/crucible-invictus.html Meeting Place: Webchat: http://koach.com/cha...=readers_corner mIRC Users: /server -m chat3.koach.com:6667 -j #readers_corner Hope you all can make it, and don't forget to bring a friend. Log attached: Readers_Corner Log Apr 18 2015.txt
  20. Please join us for our next chat in #readers_corner at 8:30 P.M. (EDST) on April 11th, 2015 (00:30 A.M., April 12th (GMT)), for a discussion of The Inconvenience of it All by Jen Knox. The story is a new one from the Saturday Evening Post. I think you will enjoy it. The wife and I have been down with bronchitis for the best part of the past week (that'll teach us to visit the grand-kids without wearing our bio-hazard suits). That's why I have been late in getting this story circulated. I think you will all enjoy the subtle comment on pop culture. The story is available on line at: http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2015/04/03/post-fiction/contemporary-fiction-art-entertainment/the-inconvenience-of-it-all.html Meeting Place: Webchat: http://koach.com/cha...=readers_corner mIRC Users: /server -m chat3.koach.com:6667 -j #readers_corner Don't forget to bring a friend. Hope you all can make it, and don't forget to bring a friend Log attached here: #readers_corner 20150411.txt
  21. I remember, vaguely, a primitive web browser called ie....does it still exist?
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