Re: Announcing my new Sci-fi Book

Tina_Hall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Tina Hall) wrote in
news:MSGID_2=3A240=2F2199.13=40fidonet_615f4874@xxxxxxxxxxx:

Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taustinca@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tina_Hall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Tina Hall) wrote
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taustinca@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tina_Hall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Tina Hall) wrote

not something based on fact. If they literlly "don't make
enough to live on," they'll *die*.

That's looking at it a bit too, well, literally.

If it wasn't meant to be taken literally, it wasn't a
documentary, and thus isn't a credible source of facts.

Even documentaries don't sound too credible all too often.

Rather the point, yes?

I
have no idea what this was supposed to be and, have no reason
to defend it.

And I have no reason to believe it. Especially given that virtually
everything that shows up on western television is, in fact,
propaganda.

The point of the example was to have some less random numbers
than making some up.

Less random in the sense that someone else made them up?

You don't like one sentence in it, fine.
Call me something and have it over it. (Anyone entering into a
conversation with you automatically agrees to be called
something by you If You See Fit. :) )

You would probably believe that "gullible" isn't in the dictionary,
sure.

But this isn't important enough to me to argue about; I don't
care either way (it's no news that people elsewhere get paid
badly), I just used the example.

Did they mention the actual wages?

Probably. They do at times. I just forget.

No doubt.

Did they compare those wages to the average wages for the area
the factory is in?

If they mention the wage, they tend to say how much it's worth,
like - to make up some random numbers because I forget them -
they might earn a euro a day, with 1.20 being enough to feed
one for a month.

Hey, maybe they have another job. I didn't watch enough to know.
Some reports or documentaries mention that.

But I don't really care.

You're spending a lot of effort defending something you don't care
about.

They never do. A man making a dollar a day is pretty well off
in a country where the average wages are 30 or 40 dollars a
year.

I know. They're not comparing that to what's the
government-decided minimum here.

In fact, they generally are, but don't want you to realize it.

(They call that 'Existenzminimum' here. Which one can still get
fat on if fifty euro is taken off that each month, like, for
the phone bill and a book - neither of which is strictly
necessary.)

The ones who have jobs in the factories aren't the ones who
starve. In fact, they're generally the beginnings of a middle
class. The ones who starve are the ones who *don't* have jobs
for pennies an hour. Hell, even child labor isn't kids who
would otherwise be in school or playing with puppies and
sunshine. They're kids who would otherwise being literally
begging in the streets for food, and literally starving. Or
sold to a brothel because their parents can't feed themselves,
much less the kids.

What annoys me there is why they're having all those kids in the
first place, if they can't feed them.

Because sex is a basic, fundamental biological drive, that most
people can't live without, because they maybe don't have all that
clear an understanding between sex and pregnancy, because in
agrarian societies, children are an asset (slave labor) rather than
a liability, and because in much of the third world, birth control
isn't available.

I have no idea what the normal margins are for clothes, since
I work in the retail hardware industry. But your average door
hings, for instance, that sells for $10 probably costs the
retailer around $5, and probably costs the manufacturer
around $1-2 to actually make. If you were to mail order it
direct, they could sell it for $3-4, plus shipping (which can
be highly variable, depending on weight) easily enough. We
don't see all that much competition from mail order/direct
marketing/internet sales, because we deal in home repair,
mostly by homeowners, who come in (and pay more) for the
advice as much as the merchandise.

At least in hardware stores, you can get lucky and find one of
the staff[*] and get some genuine advice.

Depends on where you go.

Probably. :)

My favorite one has
always been nice on that so far. (Especially nice since my
apprearance is obviously one that has some staff in other
stores - mainly electronics - seem to view as not worth
bothering with. They quite obviously don't want to bother
with me as I'm not going to make them big bucks.)

[*] There are scetches about them deliberately hiding, not
completely without truth behind it. :)

We have two varieties of stores where one might buy home repair
products. One is the local hardware store, represented by Ace
Hardware or True Value. These are generally locally owned (both
are coops owned collectively by their dealers), customized to
the local neighborhood, and cater mainly to homeowners doing
their own work.

The other is the "home improvement center," like Home Depot or
Lowes, which is a discount retailer, usually corporately owned,
has the same product mix everywhere, and caters (by preference
- they won't turn you away, of course) mainly to contractors
and handyman types. They rely on buying and selling in bulk to
make up for slimmer margins, and their employees' real job is
not helping customers, but stocking shelves. They resent having
to help customers becaues it interferes with their *real* job.

Heh.

I have no idea whether the one I go to is either or something
else, only that it's some kind of chain. I haven't seen anyone
stocking shelves, though it could be that I missed that.

The local hardware store, on the other hand (my employer
included), is quite used to providing *much* higher levels of
sevice for the higher (and generally not that much higher)
prices. We hold you hand (literally, if necessary) through the
whole process, assemble and deliver barbecues and patio
furniture, draw little diagrams with detailed instructions,
etc.

:) Nice

(On the other hand, I recall quite a few years ago, Ace
Hardware was trying to break in to the international market
more, and had opened some test stores in Germany. They
apparently had a hell of a time finding employees who could
grasp the American ideals of good customer sevice. By our
standards, the best they could get were surly, lazy, and
uninterested. Or so I've read in the trade rags.)

Heh. I trust there's at least some truth in it. And just perhaps
they looked at the wrong wage category for what they wanted.

Retail is a rough business that doesn't pay well. That's the
reality.

If the ads aren't as annoying as Billy Mays, you may just not
realize it. Any ad with a phone number to call to order is
part of this market.

I could have been lucky to have missed them (I do try to evade
commercials, usually taping stuff I want to watch and then
just fast forward past them).

DVRs are your best friend. I almost *never* watch commercials
any more.

That would be more than I can affort (yet - the price of them
might one day reach affordable levels).

$10/month from the cable company. Or you could build a MythTV box
of your own from an old PC.

Besides, I would just use it for the same as the video; taping
and fast forwarding. I don't need a DVR for that. I'd much
rather just buy some more series.

DVRs have a couple of advantages. They can hold a lot more video -
even a cheap one can usually hold at least 40 hours of programming.
And the better ones can record multiple channels at a time. Not
good for stuff you want to keep a copy of permanently, though.

Unless you mean downloading stuff and putting that on to DVDs...
I may be weird in prefering to pay for what I find interesting
enough to want to watch, or just get it off TV.

That's actually quite difficult to do, because of the retarded
copyright laws. Here, at least (and Europe doesn't seem to be any
more sensible.)

It's only hell if you realize how pointless it is. Since most
of them seem to have some kind of compulsive shopping
disorder, I have doubts as to how much they suffer.

They just don't realize where their suffering comes from.

Sure they do: their suffering comes from not being shopping at
the current moment of time. Hell, for these people, is having
the shopping channel on all the time and _not having a credit
card_.

Heh.

Can't recall having met one personally, though.

In person, they're obnoxious, cranky, and often mean.

What, just like people? <g>

Yeah, only more consistently cranky. Which is to say, they're
probably smarter on average, and know better than to be
cheerful.

Being cranky is just a waste of energy. No fun. I get more out
of being cheerful. :)

Being cranky *is* fun.

Actually, it *is* a natural mutation, similar to the way
possums sometimes play dead.

They just wouldn't survive that way in the wilderness, so the
mutation would die out. It's the farmer that bred for it.

Not the ones I'm familiar with. There are wild animals that do
similiar things, after all.

For them it obviously has some purpose. For a goat that's chased
by a wolf (or whatever), it does not seem such a wise idea to
stop and topple. <g>

Evolution works in mysterious ways.

I'm more in favour of sharks though.

Shark porn? Now that you mention it, I think there's already an
active market.

Ew. No. Just sharks.

And you wonder why you're not rick.

Porn has the flaw of showing too many people's faces that
pretend to enjoy themselves. Boring.

That's why amateur stuff is so much more popular.

Does that Survivor show you mentioned take place at a beach
with
sharks? If not they should.

IIRC, the first season's most horrifying moment (for the
constestants, at least) was when they had to cook and eat a
rat. Pussies. Rat is quite nutritious, and tasty if cooked
right.

Poor rat. :)

It was dead at the time, and thus, had lost its vote.

(I don't even want to remember their names, only can't help
it with some. And I'd be much happier with just computer
generated people, if, as mentioned, they looked real.)

You, personally, make television suck more, you know.

How I?

By encouraging the involvment of fewer and fewer creative minds
in the production of shows. Actors contribute far more than
most people realize, creatively. With virtual actors, you lose
that.

That's like saying books involve fewer creative minds. My hope
is that once it's wide spread, other people do the stories,
just like now writers write the stories.

The acting is an art form in and of itself, in addition to the
writing behind it. There's a reason people tend to watch TV or
movies instead of read books these days.

It's interesting how much I have in common with him despite
fifteen years no contact, and not much before that. He's only
found me last year (after apparently searching for years),
with google of all things. Especially my anti-social
tendencies, if anyone's ever going to complain about that
again, I can blame my Dad. <g>

We all grow up to be our parents, on way or another. A
horrifying thought, for some of us.

Yeah. I cling to the hope that all I've got from my supposed
mother is part of the looks. :)

Just keep telling youself that.

I've often wondered why the folks that call the expensive
phone numbers don't just go to a brothel. It would be a lot
cheaper.

Because it's far easier to get a cell phone the wife doesn't
know about than a credit card.

Cash is not an option?

How many husbands balance the family checkbook? "Honey, what
are these $400 ATM withdrawals every other day?"

Heh.

How would that work better with a credit card? (Genuinely
ignorant on the matter.)

It doesn't, and that's the point. Phone sex can be done with an
anonymous phone you bought at a convenience store, with new minutes
bought using a money order bought with cash squirreled away a few
bucks at a time. Much easier to hide than a credit card bill or ATM
withdrawals.

I wouldn't have expected prostitutes to take credit cards.

You'd be surprised. In places where it's legal (like most of
Nevada), it's the normal way to collect payment. Elsewhere,
where it's not legal, it's a violation of the merchant account
rules, and if they figure it out they'll cancel the account,
but only because it's illegal. And cell phone based mobile
terminals are cheap and easy to come by.

Cell phone based mobile terminals for credit cards? That's news
for me.

They're not the standard thing here, but they're very common. Used
by anyone who travels a lot, like convention merchants.

Perhaps that's cultural, or me just not being familiar with
the subculture.
:)

From what I understand, credit cards are far less common in
Europe than in the US, where people get cards for their kids
(legimately), and often get cards for their *pets* (because the
banks don't check the applications too carefully sometimes).

Oh dear. :)

Yeah, it's one of those "why is this even a story any more, it
happens so much?" things.

Nearly everyone has one or more. Most people have several,
usually with enough total credit to buy a new car. And it is
very convenient to not have to worry about having enough cash
(or losing it).

For me, personally, I would find it a bit silly to pay my
groceries with a credit card.

Credit cards and debit cards are pretty much interchangable in most
people's mind, and are used the same way. If you pay off the credit
card every month, there isn't much difference at all.

Never mind the extra charge that
would cost (I'm too tight to be willing to pay that).

Credit cards are cheaper for the consumer here (no additional
charges, and, in fact, it's technically a violation of the merchant
agreement to charge more for credit card customers - though not,
apparently, to give discounts for cash). Debit cards often have
per-transaction fees for the card holder.

The only charge I pay is at the cash machine because that's less
than a tram ticket there and back to where it wouldn't cost
anything. (Where I could go on my bicycle, but I'm lazy most
months.)

I'm more than twice that age,

Well, that can be worked with, I suppose.

Because I'm getting senile and forgetful, so you can run off
with the profit and claim I've already spent it? <g>

From what I read, MILFs are quite the rage now.

Military Fantasy? Military Females?

Mother I'd Like to F**k. In other words, as baby boomers reach
retirement age, porn tastes have trended towards older women.

Ah, right. (No mother me, though.)

One need not actually have any children to quality of a MILF,
apparently. Only be old enough you can't pretend to be a teenager
any more, and reasonably attractive. And, of course, willing to be
slutty.

Sorry, I get enough hits from idiots that think I'm on the
market even though I tell them I'm not, even without meeting
many people.
:)

Then it sounds like you qualify.

I've got two theories on that: 1. I've got honey running out of
my ass, or 2. they think I'm so ghastly I'd be grateful for any
looser who takes mercy.

There's a theory that if one is willing to accept the near
universal rejection (and occasional slaps) that a man can
occastionally - maybe one time in a hundred - get laid by walking
up to every woman he sees and saying "Hey, bitch, wanna ***?"

But mostly, men are willing to screw anything that will sit still
long enough.

Bloody idiots.

If you hit them with something sharp, yes.

I might look like a tank, but I wouldn't be any good trying to
be one. <g>

Looks are largely irrelevant in porn. It's all about how
disgusting you're willing to be.

Would it count as sufficiently disgusting to bash in heads with
a big club, of anyone trying to take my clothes? <g>

In fact, there is a submarket of just that, so long as you put out
in the end. Or you could go the bondage S/M route, which isn't
sexual at all if done right.

but sort of allergic to wearing no clothes. :)

But that's just Doing. It. Wrong.

I like comfortable, and pockets.

Well, naked should be comfortable, since we evolved that way.

Not here. But I've been in favour of the idae that I'm a
mutant for years. (That or an alien, abandoned or forgotten.
This place is just too strange.)

If you are not lactose intolerant, and you're probably not, you
are, technically a mutant.

<g>

Whee! I _am_ a mutant.

Nearly all of us are, but hey, whatever gets you through the day.

How about some sort of strap arrangement that consists *only*
of pockets?

Ew.

They'd just pull and pinch at every corner. I'd freeze when
it's
cold, and have icky sticky skin when hot. And I couldn't sit
anywhere.

I doubt these will sell well in countries that border the North
Sea, now that you mention it.

Heh.

They'd sell (Germany has enough weirdos), but you'll have to
find someone else for the production. But I'm sure you could
find enough local airheads for the production.

I'll just film the commercials here with some typical beach
bunnies. IIRC, Baywatch was insanely popular in Germany.

Now we have a secondary product line we can sell. Porn and a
clothing line we can call Porn Pockets(tm). (We'll have to
make sure some of the pockets are vibrator shaped, for
convenience.)

I think you need to find someone else for that venture. :)

You're no fun.

We've already found that out. :)

Want me to polish your boots again in shame?

I'm telling you, there's money to be made in that fetish.

You should have plenty of people nearby who like to drop their
clothes at every opportunity. It's all they ever do on those
clips showing the biggest fools on talk shows. <g>

Add a little (or a lot of) alcohol, and stir to taste. (I've
been told, by a woman who had her first alcohol related
blackout before she learned to drive, that the reason that
drunks take their clothes off is because the alcohol thins the
blood, which makes one feel hot. I'll take her word for it.)

:)

They'll give any cheap excuse. Thing is just, a brain preserved
in alcohol doesn't work very well in the thinking business. It
drops the thin coat of the technological age and go right back
to cave huggers. Which is more likely the reason they drop
their clothes, what with not being used to them. They'd
probably be happy with a few lengths of fur. <g>

Unless you, too, have been an alcoholic for longer than you haven't
been, I'm inclined to take the word of the obvious expert. :)

(You wouldn't find me watching an actual talk show, but the
clips, with appropriate commentary, can be quite
entertaining.

We have a show called Cops, which consists of cameramen riding
around with police officers on duty, detailing the crap they
have to deal with. Mostly, drunks, drug addicts, and domestic
abuse calls (with the majority being men hitting their wives,
but not by as much a margin as you'd think). Any time you feel
like your life sucks, all it takes is five minutes of that show
to remind you that there are people who are *far* bigger losers
than you. (Unless you've been on it, of course.)

Heh.

There's some show here that's like that. I've only seen bits of
it, but it's that or a similar show. Imported from the USA,
with voice over rather than dubbing.

Could well be the same show.

Though the USA stuff, again, only if not dubbed. There it's
not just the dubbing, but very idiot dubbing, with
nightmare-inducing voices.)

I'm reminded of the tale I got from a military buddy of
watching Bonanaza (a western from the 60s, I believe) in Japan.
It was a serious drama, but the comedic relief character was
Hoss, a slang term for "horse," because the actor (Dan Blocker)
was the size of one. But in Japan, the comedic relief character
*must* have a high, squeeky voice. Said friend didn't
undertsand a word of Japanese, but he said it was *far* funnier
in Japanese than in English.

LOL.

The supposed stars (and wannabes) themselves seem to be pretty
obsessed with very horror-movie-fitting looks, too, what with
turning faces into a plastic mask by means of some nerve
poison injected beneath the skin.

True beauty just can't be bothered with it. (Speaking from
experience here.)

No arguments from me. A woman who is too perfect becomes more
an asthetic object d' art, and not so much a woman. Flaws add
character and personality to a person's looks. The flaws are
what's *interesting*.

I wouldn't agree with that,

Women never do.

but trying to remove them doesn't
improve the actual looks, they just make it worse. Like the
plastic mask faces with rubber dinghy lips.

I've met women who were pretty much perfect by birth, and while
it's less so, the same principle still applies. (Mind you, looks
aren't the top of my list anyway. Never have been, and get less so
as I get older.)

So you're something of a tomboy, then?

I thought that were girls that climbed up trees.

More broadly, girls who don't act girlish.

Ah, right.

You won't find me climbing trees. :) The only one I liked
climbing was the easy apple tree (with something almost
approaching steps) in the back yard of my grandmother.

I'm not one to hang out with the guys. I might if they did
something interesting, but even then men seem to have a
problem with not seeing me as female-that-needs-to-be-hit-on.
Well, the stupid ones, who wouldn't do anything interesting
anyway.

I'm not one to hang out with other people, mainly because I
haven't yet met many people who do something interesting, and
don't get on my nerves.

I suspect you never will, either. :)

Yeah.

There's one friend whom I'll call if I have a problem with the
computer or bicycle (or just talk on the phone for hours now and
then), with whom I would spend time doing whatever, but he's
mostly whizzing around Hannover on his bicycle around all the
different people he knows. He's the type who gets on with
pretty much everybody.

My Mum (my Dad's wife, not my birth mother) is like that,
getting on with people easily. And I concluded that people like
he or me do need someone like that to have some contact with
somebody. :)

Friends will help you move. Real friends will help you move bodies.
Some of us have little use for mere friends.

(Though I also never liked browsing in bookstores, for the
same reason, and that, at least, I gather some male readers
like to do, too.)

I got sternly repremanded at the book store the other day for
sitting on the floor reading the dust jacket. Sigh. I have a
bad hip, and I *can't* kneel down for more than a few
seconds, and I can't *see* the bottom shelf any other way.
She was very understanding. But made me stand up anyway.

Poor you.

Indeed. I bought a book anyway, just to spite her.

LOL.

I can sympathise; I can't kneel well either (bad knees),

Got those, too, and bad shoulders.

Ow.

My shoulders are fine, fortunately. It used to be that my right
shoulder had an occasional ache like someone twisting a knife in
the back of it, but that was when I was much much younger.
Somehow that hasn't happened for years and years now.

My wrists don't like me leaning on something flat-handed,
though.

I am prone to what the doctor called "traumatic athrithis." Any
time I injure a joint, I get arthritis in it a few months later.
About 15 years ago, I had a nasty bicycle accident that injures
pretty much every major joint that wasn't already messed up. Not a
huge deal, mostly, but everything aches when the weather changes.

(Are we going to compare our aches now like some granny club?
<g>)

It's a sport one can play without having to get out of one's easy
chair.

My hips are just arranged the wrong way, so I can evade long
walks by saying I'm not allowed to do that. <g> (They do
actually start to hurt after walking too much, but otherwise
rarely bother me - though they would if I tried to sit on the
floor. Normally they just click at every step climbing
stairs, which I find amusing rather than annoying.)

A very wise woman once pointed out that getting old is not for
sissies.

Hey, I'm not that old! (And I was born with those hips.)

Some of us were born old.

Unfortunately, it would need more than that to get me
running. <g>

Unfortunately, what with the bad hip and all, plus being
very, very lazy, I'm unlikely to run away in the first place.

Lazy, yes, that would keep me waving you on instead, too. :)

I suspect I'd get tired watching you expend that much energy,
waving and all.

LOL.

Right, don't want to strain you.

Laziness is a subtle art. Mostly, because the artists are too lazy
not to be.

I'm more the "light something on fire to distract you while I
call a cab" sort of person.

Ow. <g>

If I do it right.

There's a chance of you failing?

With me, there's always a significant chance I'll light myself on
fire. Even if no combustion source is involved. I've been known to
trip over stray air currents.

I remember some bit in Stargate:SG1 (repeats) where it looked
a lot like they pasted what'shisname... O'Neill and T'alc
into some space flyer thing.

That was probably matte shots (real actors in front of a green
screen), background either CGI, a painted matte, or some actual
shot, combined in post production. For the most part, Stargate
didn't use CGI for people (though they did for anything that
wasn't humanoid, like the replicator bugs), and for backgrounds
on the green screen stuff. (They certainly used real actors in
real prop spacesuits. I know the guy who comes with the suit
when you rent it, from the only company in the business with
realistic looking space suits. He worked on both Stargate shows
multiple times.)

Interesting.

Has the best stories, he does.

My favorite games at this point are Civ II (which was,
IIRC, a Win95 game originally)

What does it need now?

It run OK, if you use a cacked version that has the correct
configuration file for XP. Other than there's apparently a
limit on the total number of military units that can be in
play. When you build more, it just silently deletes some at
random. The computer players use that to capture cities
sometimes.

Ouch.

Yeah. Really pisses me off.

I'd probably start cheating, I tend to when the computer gets on
my nerves. :)

I always save before every battle. Just in case.

The message arrived here split (too big I guess), so I'll
continue in the next one...

We're both chatterboxes who don't snip.

--
Terry Austin

Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more ***. -
David Bilek

Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.
.