Nerd Pride Radio

We are from the American South. We have confederate soldiers in the mix, and we have official records of one slaveholder who owned three slaves whose names we know. There were probably more. We have one ancestor who wrote the definitive text (at that time) of indigenous American cultures and who als...

The Long Mars -- Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter Don't need to describe this anymore. If you are a fan of sci-fi, you should read the first book and it'll suck you in too. I do have to say though that there are aspects (yet again) that are problematic. It is pretty Anglo-centric, and most of the...

Tahlvin wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 3:03 pm Did Mitch McConnell just have a stroke during a live press conference? I definitely don't agree with much of the man's politics, but I hope he's okay.

He almost certainly did. And he says he's fine.

Tahlvin wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 1:46 pm Sinéad O'Connor, 56.

Wow. That surprised me.

Lincoln in the Bardo -- George Saunders This is a tale of Abraham Lincoln and the death of his young son Willy. It is about grief and suffering and the intense love of a father for his child. It is told from two perspectives: the viewpoint of the various dead souls who still haunt the graveyard whe...

We went to pick up our dog from the vet (she was boarding there over the weekend). The guy in front of us in line was in his sixties, and his voice kinda broke a little when he told the receptionist his name and said, "I'm here to have my cat euthanized." While she was grabbing paperwork, ...

Poop!

Noor -- Nnedi Okorafor I will read anything this woman writes. Noor feels very familiar to me. Okorafor has taken me on this journey before: a young African woman with powers and abilities beyond our understanding is on a hero's journey that highlights the blending and conflicts between traditional...

My kids thought I was joking when I suggested Moons Over My Hammy. Then they saw that half the menu was puns. I had a slamwich (a grand slam breakfast made into a melt), and it was incredible. And I don't remember what my wife ordered, but it came with a small cup of maple-bacon-onion jam. It didn't...

So the hotel we stayed at last weekend had a breakfast buffet. Not a free continental breakfast, mind you, but an $18 per head breakfast buffet. They don't serve any other meals here... just $18 breakfast. So we did not have breakfast at the hotel. I couldn't see shelling out $100+ (with tip) for th...

Do it! Do it do it do it! So you don't know if you could do it well? So what? You've repeatedly said you don't feel you do a good enough job with the kids you have now, so you won't be worse off in that regard. But also I've heard you describe the work you've put in and the innovative things you've ...

Gregor the Overlander -- Suzanne Collins Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games, offers up a pretty straightforward YA portal fantasy/epic quest, but she does it really really well. Written five years before Hunger Games, I knew it was YA, but the heroes are 11 and 13, so I wasn't expecting it...

Record of a Spaceborn Few -- Becky Chambers It's Becky Chambers. I loved it! This is a sci-fi story about ordinary people living their ordinary lives... IN SPACE! No action/adventure. Just people. And it's so wonderful! Humans broke the Earth. Some spread out to domed cities in the rest of the sola...

Correct, this court is going to keep spitting out baseless, biased, self-contradictory opinions that are aimed at keeping conservatives in power and protecting the rights of (and ONLY the rights of) white conservative Christian men. I mean, honestly, they should just keep it simple and go back to on...

Phoebe wrote: ↑Tue Jul 04, 2023 4:46 pm Everything Everywhere All at Once

Stunningly well done. We both loved this film. Michelle Yeoh is a treasure.

I hate Rule #20. Three times now.

https://neal.fun/password-game/

Wow... just try it. Im determined to get a password that works

Rhythm of Time -- Questlove and S.A. Cosby Rahim is a 13-year-old nerdy kid from North Philly. Kasia is his genius inventer best friend. Kasia gives Rahim a phone that she built herself, and accidentally sends Rahim back to 1997. Questlove has written an updated (and in so many ways, improved) vers...

Remote Control -- Nnedi Okorafor Nnedi Okorafor is probably my favorite afro-futurist author out there. I love everything she does. In Remote Control, she tells the story of Sankofa, a Ghanaian teen known as the Daughter of Death, who walks through near-future Ghana and seems to bring death whereve...

The Left Hand of Darkness -- Ursula K. Le Guin Kyle already gave a good summary of the tale: emissary from Earth visiting the planet Winter to convince them to join the alliance of worlds called the Ekumen. People on Winter are ambisexual such that they are genderless most of the time and can take ...

Fall Made for just $3 million, this is hands down the scariest movie I've ever watched. It has some bits that defy physics and logic (there's a great one in the trailer below), but it hardly matters, because it's incredibly well crafted. Watch the trailer for a demonstration of the sort of thrill s...

Nobody On random movie night, we rolled up Nobody, a 2021 film starring Bob Odenkirk. We checked with Roku which said it was a rental from the usual services OR... we could watch it for free with ads on a channel called Free. Okay, so we watched... Nobody (2007) We had no idea we were in the wrong ...

Since Gaiman and Pratchett are friends, I really feel like InterWorld inspired The Long Earth.

InterWorld -- Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves Disappointing. 2007 YA sci-fi fantasy. Feels like it's chasing the Harry Potter and Hunger Games trends. Just very 2 dimensional, even for a YA book. This one is apparently the first of a trilogy, and I did not care for it, so I'm going to spoil the firs...

Yeah... hopefully people recognize that this is your mom's day and no one else's. She gets to have as much family as possible around her to celebrate her and nobody needs to be fucking it up. My wife's extended family includes 3 openly gay cousins but also is about 75% red-state mentality. There's s...

To be Taught, If Fortunate -- Becky Chambers Wow. Becky Chambers creates incredible worlds. Her stories are always about people, but the settings she creates to put them in are always stunning. I've been reading her Angry Planet series and her Monk/Robot series, but now here is a stand alone novell...

K.Flay & grandson The only silver lining to having our Texas vacation cancelled is that it means my wife and I got to go see this concert. We're both huge fans of grandson, and I love K.Flay. My wife also likes her, but mostly vicariously through me. The opening act was Jack Kays, then K.Flay, ...

I read your spoiler. That's way better. Watching the movie, I was certain it would go that way, although I didn't see that specific mechanism for it. Way better.

Lesson learned: if I want to read the book, I read it first. Even without your spoiler, I knew I was never going back to this.

The Cabin at the End of the World -- Paul Tremblay Award winning horror novel, made a bunch of Best Of lists, etc. One page in I realized, "Oh shit, this is the novel that Knock at the Cabin is based on (which I haven't seen). This'll be awesome!" I am one chapter in, and we roll up a mov...

The Glass Hotel -- Emily St. John Mandel Emily St. John Mandel delivers engaging prose with deep, well developed characters. The Glass Hotel is a non-linear story that ultimately feels like it is about how people deal with tragedy. The first book of hers that I read, Station Eleven, is mostly about...

I have not read it yet, but now I'm excited for it! Loved the first one. I have another book in line already, but I should get to this by next weekend. Thank you!

My wife loved it.

My family and I saw it together and had a great time. I agree it's not world changing or anything, but it had a bunch of nice touches to it.

This indictment seems straightforward enough and consists largely of things Trump has confessed to proudly in front of cameras. It should be a no-brainer. But I can't get excited, because the man has failed forward so many times that I fully expect him to Berlusconi his way out of it.

Paper Towns -- John Green I love John Green. I just reviewed Turtles All the Way Down a couple books ago, and I loved that. This was a good book, but it was not written for me. Maybe you've read it, or maybe you've seen the movie (I hadn't). Q and Margo are next door neighbors and high school senio...

Wow. I'd forgotten I took that recommendation from you. Thank you!

The Lesson -- Cadwell Turnbull A spaceship full of alien researchers parks itself off the US Virgin Islands. They announce to the world that they will provide beneficial tech to humans (new energy sources, cures for diseases, etc). In exchange they will be allowed to stay on earth to conduct their ...

I'm sorry for your loss. That sucks.

poorpete wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 8:21 pm Oh I'm a fan of Mission Impossible's Rebecca Ferguson

I didn't even know she was in those. I never watched beyond MI2.

Community is a fantastic show overall.

I just really respect what Rebecca Ferguson does. I first noticed her in that sequel to The Shining where she was quirky and kinda ominous (and a little sexy). Then I saw her in Greatest Showman playing Barnum's demure but glamorous mistress. Then I saw her opposite Hugh Jackman again in this near f...

Silo on Apple TV The Silo is 10,000 people living in an underground silo that extends downward for 144 levels. 200 years ago, there was a revolution of sorts, and knowledge of history has since been lost (or intentionally suppressed). They don't know who built the silo or why they are here, but they...

As I am preparing to watch the series finale of Ted Lasso tonight, I start thinking about how much better the world would be if we all watched Ted Lasso. And this got me thinking about TV shows I would evangelize for (and have)... Ted Lasso Parks and Recreation Schitt's Creek The Good Place Steven U...

I'll try it.

Kyle wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 5:15 am I thought you'd already read it. You haven't?

You made me doubt myself, so I checked. No, I haven't. I adored Arrival, but I've never read the source material.

Turtles All the Way Down -- John Green I love the Green brothers. And somewhere in the back of my head, I've always known that John writes incredibly well-received YA fiction. I've never read them and never seen the movies, and knowing his online personality, this aspect of him has always seemed in...

Huh. I guess I have to correct my statement. I never did watch the wiffle ball video. Something about it never appealed to me. Maybe I watch now.

I can't tell you if you're wrong, because I have no way of knowing. It took me a long time to get past Mark's smarmy on air personality, but I kept watching his videos because he's directly in my wheelhouse. I like him a lot now. The fake videos don't bother me, because I can accept his explanation ...

The ads are very bad. Twice I've been sucked into looking at their products and was immediately repulsed by the deceptive listings. They must have a photo studio with a miniature house inside, with 5 foot ceilings and 4 foot doors so that all the items look huge. Fuck Temu.

Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang. You know, this is the type of book that you'd think I'd have way higher on my list. It's won countless awards. It's extremely well-written speculative fiction. It's high brow science fiction that's some of the most well-thought out concepts I've ever re...

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