“Gay probe coming to save me. Got it.”
― The Martian
― The Martian
“I didn’t want to distract the people who were saving my life, so I muted my mic and screamed like a little girl. It’s true, you know. In space, no one can hear you scream like a little girl.”
― The Martian
― The Martian
“The NSA?"
"Yeah, they called and offered to help out. Same software they use for enhancing spy satellite imagery."
Venkat shrugged. "It's amazing how much red tape gets cut when everyone's rooting for one man to survive.”
― The Martian
"Yeah, they called and offered to help out. Same software they use for enhancing spy satellite imagery."
Venkat shrugged. "It's amazing how much red tape gets cut when everyone's rooting for one man to survive.”
― The Martian
“Problem is, they soak up a lot of power, and they have to run all day long. The rover batteries have 18 kilowatt-hours of juice. The oxygenator alone uses 44.1 kilowatt-hours per sol. See my problem? You know what? “Kilowatt-hours per sol” is a pain in the ass to say. I’m gonna invent a new scientific unit name. One kilowatt-hour per sol is…it can be anything…um…I suck at this…I’ll call it a “pirate-ninja.” All told, the Big Three need 69.2 pirate-ninjas, most of that going to the oxygenator and the atmospheric regulator. (The water reclaimer only needs 3.6 of that.) There’ll be cutbacks.”
― The Martian
― The Martian
“Each crewman had their own laptop. So I have six at my disposal. Rather, I had six. I now have five. I thought a laptop would be fine outside. It’s just electronics, right? It’ll keep warm enough to operate in the short term, and it doesn’t need air for anything. It died instantly. The screen went black before I was out of the airlock. Turns out the “L” in “LCD” stands for “Liquid.” I guess it either froze or boiled off. Maybe I’ll post a consumer review. “Brought product to surface of Mars. It stopped working. 0/10.”
― The Martian
― The Martian
Joel’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Joel’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Joel
Lists liked by Joel












