Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction discussion

I don't know what I should call this thread so the name may not stick.
This is the thread for generally random conversations.
The weather. The price of a haircut. Whatever. Chat away. :-)

Argh!!!
These bad gateways and 'Goodreads will be back soon' messages is driving me crazy.

The site has been patchy for the last few weeks. If I am working online or I jump online every now and then to check notifications half the time I get stuck on here too long while waiting for Godoreads to come back online. It is dropping out while I am posting or trying to send a message. Frustrating!!!!!

Well, I am glad to know that it's not just me. I honestly thought that my kids were taking all of the bandwidth...

Definitely not only you. :-)

Sometimes I have to give up and let a post be lost. I can't keep waiting around for Goodreads to come back online so I can resend a post or msg.

Yeah, I have encountered these errors as well, and it has been relatively recent. Looks like GR is experiencing growing pains.

ib.

It had these dramas about middle last year and then one day, there were all these new features including a brand new home page interface and the new personalised recommendations feature.

I know they introduced a new in group challenge function recently and I have implemented it in another group that I'm in. It is very cool.
I was going to suggest it here, but didn't know how many people would be interested in a Challenge.

So I just noticed Bernie, that you put on The Fort on the main page of the group...Being Read BY: Berbie.


rofl!!!!!!!!!!! Now if that didn't give me the biggest giggle. :D

(for those who don't know. Bernie misspelled his name once as Berbie, and he copped some teasing)

Seems our fellow member, J. R. Tomlin, has her book available for free download for a limited time via Amazon U.K and U.S.
I have taken advantage of the offer. :)

You know we speak about staggered release dates of books and how weird it can be.
I was looking at the details of the new Robert Low book on the publisher, HarperCollins website, and it has U.K release September 012, Ausralian release (I am Australian in case new members of Ancient & Medieval don't know) March 2014!!!! How can this be! Surely they mean 2013! I would not be happy about a 2013 release, let alone a bloody 2014 release date!!!
I'll have to use my sneaky colonial ways to get it at the end of the year. :)

Looks like Crowbone by Robert Low releases in September 2012 in Canada too.

Everybody is lucky but us. :)

RE: March 2014 release for Australia
I refuse to believe that they would do that to us. It has to be March 2013 if Canada and the U.K have a 2012 release date.
I think when Prow Beast was released it was the same. End of year release for the U.K and beginning of the following year release for us.

Off to see the band TOOL with my son tonight. Can't wait! Besides Zeppelin, this is probably the really only band on my "bucket list".

As a complete opposite to that......I'm going to see the Vancouver Symphony tomorrow. Where a soprano will sing famous bits of opera and I will get tea and biscuits.

Opposite's attract, my wife has season,s to the theatre. Have gone once or twice, but, respectfully, I find myself noding off.

Well, we were going to go see Absu...but that fell through. I was kinda happy about that and was thinking of sending hubby on his own with the mates we were going to go with. Those boys don't need this girl hanging around like a bad smell. I can live without another trip to see Absu.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absu_%28...

This is a comment I made to Dawn over in the Upcoming Releases thread and I thought maybe we should come over here with it. :)

Well done BC. :) Yes, we have our fair share of hippies and environmentalists around here too. When the country is rich in soil and nature it generally becomes rich in hippies too. :)

That is impressive that the majority of your power is hydro. What percentage is coal fired do you think? And where do you get it? Alaska? Or is that oil?

This is where we started talking about this if you want to get up to speed.
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/6...

There is something about living in a place with lots of natural beauty that makes you want to keep it looking that way.

Okay, took me a little research but this is what I found.
BC Hydro were trying to put up two coal electrical plants in the Interior in 2005 but they didn't manage to get permission. The last thing I found on it was in 2007 saying that the project may not be dead, so far so good though.
86% of BC's power is hydroelectric and the rest seems to be natural gas thermal power plants, as far as I've been able to find there are no coal powered plants in BC. We only burn coal in the manufacture of cement.
Until a couple years ago I didn't realize that most electricity was coal based, all I ever learned in school or read in the newspapers was about hydro electricity.

Bernie wrote: "Opposite's attract, my wife has season,s to the theatre. Have gone once or twice, but, respectfully, I find myself noding off."

Theater, as in plays?? 'Cause that's where my sister loses me too. But we have season's tickets to the the Vancouver Symphony, Vancouver Opera and UBC Opera. I think that is a total of 19 shows this season, all of them two hours away in the big city.

I think that is bloody brilliant that BC uses hydro not coal. Why shouldn't they too, you got yourself a lot of water up there. :)

I mean it does have its downsides in regards to aquatic fauna and I know despite fish ladders and the like, migrating salmon (amoungst other species) get massacred against the grates of those things. But...compared to coal..it is certainly the lesser evil.

I wonder why they are pushing for these coal plants. That might signify a need or reliability issue with existing power sources, like perhaps a future shortfall based on projected population and industry growth.
Whatever their reasons for wanting coal power, I hope they fail and find other ways to fulfil their future power requirements.

Terri said: "That might signify a need or reliability issue with existing power sources, like perhaps a future shortfall based on projected population and industry growth."

That is the reason for sure.
If we don't find another way to get more power then we may be doing the rolling power outages, similar to California, in the summer when all the air conditioners put the extra load on the system. So far not and they are doing alot of upgrades to the existing systems, hopefully it will be enough.

Yes, hopefully it will. I'll cross my fingers for you. :)

We rely heavily on coal over here. they are working towards incorporating more 'green' sources into the grid, but because we are such a resource rich country it is too easy for the government to sit back getting lazy on the royalties.

Water supply and power supply and oil. We'll see big changes in these sectors in the coming decades. For the better I hope.

Hi Chris,
Yes, I am with you on dams. I have a bit of an issue with inappropriate dam construction for water supply needs. I don't think they should be built at all if half their allure is recreational.
Unfortunately, some dams are needed, but on the same hand, many are not.
I am somewhat familiar with the dams and hydro and aquatic fauna issues in North America and Canada. And the hatcheries....:\ Lots of environmental issues there. As you may know, stocking with hatchery bred instead of preserving wild salmon spawning habitat and migration is a contentious issues. :)

Water is more precious than many people realise. Not only to us, but of course to ecosystem already under pressure from other manmade avenues.

When you mentioned the FB data farm I had a look for images to see what it looked like.
Prineville, Oregon


I saw this also. I wonder how much heat these things emit. Might not snow in that 100 acres again. lol (despite what the computer generated mock up presents)
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/1...

New one in California.
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/wp...

Egad. Sheep shooters Assoc'..I haven't even got the words for how bad that is.
If I start bad mouthing recreational water areas do you think they'll after me with their guns?

FBs need for cold water in a high desert area. I also don't have the words for this. Ridiculous.
That is ironic is it? That they have built the data farm on a road named for an environmentalist State Governor.

I recently deleted my FB account. I didn't find it was all it was cracked up to be.

Oh my. Now there are Star Wars ones...I assume you get those family stickers overseas too?

http://starwarsspoofs.com/star_wars_f...

Terri wrote: "Oh my. Now there are Star Wars ones...I assume you get those family stickers overseas too?

http://starwarsspoofs.com/star_wars_f..."

If I wasn't so opposed to putting family stickers on cars I would totally get the Star Wars ones. They are so funny!

Dawn,
I know! LOL! They are pretty funny and I thought for .5 seconds of how funny they'd be to have on the car...but then...I am deeply opposed to those family stickers too and I just wouldn't 'go over to the dark side'.

Maybe I could just put one...an At At to represent our beloved pet. :D No, no...I must not..not even one.

Chris wrote: "Tax breaks for Facebook: To entice FB to locate in Prineville, city and county officials offered FB a 15 year property tax exclusion, a significant local economic decision. S..."


On the positive though, it must have injected some money into the local economy?

I was perusing the thinkgeek online store this morning and I can't stop laughing at this shirt! rofl
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-appa...

Was perusing Ebay the other day looking to see if they had any volumes out on DVD for the Fire and Ice series that is shown on HBO when I came across some interesting finds on the book series. I, myself do not purchase to many books since the library is in walking distance from my home although lately find myself buying more ebooks because of the limited selection or the waiting times from the library. My find on Ebay was a first signed edition of "A Game Of Thrones" for, get this, $1200.00!!! So my question or random thought is: How much have any of you fine people paid for a novel? I don't think that I ever even paid the $30 plus for a hardcover! I respest that some people are willing to pay the price for an exclusive or limited edition book as this may be their hobby or passion such as wine collecting but was just interested to see if we have any fine book collectors in our little forum.

I don't collect "fine books" but I love Diana Gabaldon (go ahead and start fussing at me, but I don't really think of her stuff as typical romance). I have bought first edition hardcovers of all of her books and all, but the latest two, have been autographed by her. Might they be worth something in my future grandchildren's day? I also collect old/ antique cookbooks but only small dollar ones. I hope that the fact that it is quite an extensive collection might contribute to its future worth.

I have spent up to $100 (the same as US dollars, give or take a dollar or two) on cookbooks.
Novels, never more than about $35. I can't justify anymore than that even for my favourite authors.
At least when I buy cookbooks I can justify it because I will use them over and over. Novels, one read and they're done in most cases, so it is harder for me to spend up big.

These days, I don't like to spend over $20 on a novel.

Hockey Day in Canada today. Huge come tonight-Montreal Canadians vs Toronto Maple Leafs!! If my Habs don't come through, this will be a costly weekend!

I should try and watch this then! We get the games live over here on ESPN.

Help me out!! Where your Habs jersey! Don't have one, just ask and I'll send you one! you'll be treated like a queen in the great land of OZ.

Man, I'd love a habs jersey!! Send me a jersey!!! that would be awesome!! :D
You can ask my hubby. The Habs have always been my fave Ice Hockey team. I love watching them play (and win).

I will help as much as I can!!

Damn. They aren't playing the Canadiens v Maple Leafs on Fox sports or espn. That's weird. No live games until Tuesday (our time).

I need to see if I can find it online somewhere.

Nope, it isn't online. I can't bloody believe it. They play most of the feature games on cable. (not ESPN as I thought, but Fox Sports 3). I've been watching the games all week live or recording the games and watching when I have a chance.

For most of my life I have played Field Hockey (finally gave it up about 8 years ago) so Ice Hockey was always a natural to get into watching.
I would have gotten a blast out of playing it I think, but, alas, no ice up here and I sucked at rollerskating, so I would have been a mess at ice skating. :)

Anyone for a bath?

Has anyone watched the new series on the History channel called Battle Castles or checked out the web site. Saw the first castle today and it was very cool, very well done and informative. check the web site out.

http://battlecastle.tv/?meta=home#home

Looks very cool I shall have tp keep an eye out for it over here. Thanks for the heads up.

I saw a nifty series called Inside the Medieval Mind, or something like that..maybe it was life not mind..but anyway, it was educational. I should look into it to see what it was called.
It was on the History Channel. Had a few too many re-enactments for my taste. Still learned some things, which is always the plan. :-)

Been flat out busy these last 4 or 5 days. Hope everyone is doing well. I am crossing everything for some quality time in the group soon. Once the schedule calms down.

Wondered where you were. All is well here, though the group is a little quiet without you. :)

I suppose I can get a little noisy. :-)
The other problem, is that for the last week everytime I can get on GR it is offline or is dropping offline. I have to battle the 502 gateway and Alice in her chair with the 'we'll be back soin' logo. Super frustrating.
They should schedule their outages like most popular websites. Not on, of, on, off, on, off. And you have to grab the chance to quickly post something before it goes off again.

Anyone seen Viva Elvis or Zumanity by the Cirque du Soleil??

I have tickets for both on April 9 and 10 respectively and I'm curious what anyone thinks of them.

Nope. I haven't seen anything by Cirque du Soleil.

It will be the first time I've seen them, video or otherwise. I've heard really good things about them and specifically heard people rave about Zumanity.

Thanks Chris, these are terrific stats. I enjoyed them.

For the record..(referring to the Australian/self help books stat)...I have never read a self help book in my life. I don't need other people to sort my life out for me. lol .. Just sayin'. :)

All these stats were fascinating but the last one is depressing.

I agree. :(

In relation to the last three bullet points that sounds like masochism. Why don't they use giant POD services like Lightning Source? Anyone know?

I appreciate that production costs are much less per volume for offset printing but with those sort of losses and adding the carbon footprint it creates surely they could get a comparable per volume deal for POD.