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    • my current favorite author is Grisham: finished up The Whistler while in Chicago last month while the kids were in Europe and I was dogsitting Dakota.

      meat wrote:

      Mountain-Mike wrote:

      I recently read "The Ledge" by Jim Davison. It's about surviving a climbing accident on Mt Ranier. Weird part for me was one of the people who helped with the rescue was my ice climbing instructor.
      reading a book or work is always that much more rewarding for me when I know a little bit about the person on some level or a backstory, sometimes just knowing that can shed a lot of light into choices the author made or didnt make...and then sometimes it begs a whole set of new questions.
      The book I am currently reading, "Forces Of Nature" by Graham Spence which Amazon says is: The incredible and courageous story of two pet rescuers after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, was given to me as a Christmas gift by the main person in the book who I have known for almost 30 years. She had told me that she had been rescuing animals in NO after Katrina but sort of only glossed over it. Reading what she did is just incredible; she is a true heroine. If you are an animal lover, I would recommend it.

      max.patch wrote:

      chief wrote:

      JimBlue wrote:

      Clancy was investigated several times the government was concerned about where he got his information. All he had done was extrapolate from known and public info.
      i call bs on that!
      me too!
      i also call bs on the rumor that obama had clancy assassinated.

      it's true that clancy was investigated by the government. but not because he somehow had access to confidential information. vice president dan quayle considered him as a white house consultant for the space program. the thinking was that someone like clancey in this role would pump up the public's enthusiasm for the program. so an initial screening was done in this regard.
      Talking about the space program, I saw Hidden Figures last night. Wow; good movie but embarrassing how backward our country has been. As far as I'm concerned, there's only one race: the human race. Additionally, intelligence is not restricted to any one subset of the human race; not to just men, nor to those whose skin pigment is devoid of color.
    • Since I started making the 2 hour drive to Charlotte twice a week I signed up on Audible and have listened to several books. Currently I'm listening to Ty Cobb by Charles Leerhsen and reading The Big Burn by Timothy Egan. Both are really good books. If you're a baseball fan then I HIGHLY recommend you read the Ty Cobb book. The author dispels a lot of the BS that has previously been strewn about Cobb.
      If your Doctor is a tree, you're on acid.
    • Foresight wrote:

      Since I started making the 2 hour drive to Charlotte twice a week I signed up on Audible and have listened to several books. Currently I'm listening to Ty Cobb by Charles Leerhsen and reading The Big Burn by Timothy Egan. Both are really good books. If you're a baseball fan then I HIGHLY recommend you read the Ty Cobb book. The author dispels a lot of the BS that has previously been strewn about Cobb.
      Got the Cobb book on my shelf, looking forward to reading it once I get some work related stuff done.
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General
    • Recently finished The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. Explains that while the internet provides a lot of convenience, it is making us lazier and dumber. Goes into a lot about how the brain works, which may be interesting to some folks, but then not so much to others. It was written back in 2010, so some examples are a little dated (for this "internet" age that we live in).

      Just started The Glass Cage: How Computers are Changing Us, also by Carr as a follow up. So far I am enjoying it more.
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General
    • I had downloaded Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain on my phone from Kindle for free. They were running a special for the audible for it for like 49 cents, so I got it too. Listened to it as I walked. Not for sure if it was the format (ear buds while walking) or just that I do not enjoy Twain as much as I did 40-45 years ago, but I did not get that much out of it. I enjoy listening to books in the car when traveling, but I think I focus even less when walking. I guess I have never had a Doberman bite me when I was driving.
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General
    • Astro wrote:

      I had downloaded Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain on my phone from Kindle for free. They were running a special for the audible for it for like 49 cents, so I got it too. Listened to it as I walked. Not for sure if it was the format (ear buds while walking) or just that I do not enjoy Twain as much as I did 40-45 years ago, but I did not get that much out of it. I enjoy listening to books in the car when traveling, but I think I focus even less when walking. I guess I have never had a Doberman bite me when I was driving.
      i normally listen to podcasts when day hiking.

      however, i've tried books on audible and it doesn't work for me. i'll be walking along and realize i haven't paid attention to the book for awhile. so i "rewind" back to a point i remember. and it wasn't the fault of the content; the first book i ever listened to was "kitchen confidential" by anthony bourdain and i really enjoyed it. i think listened to 3 books and gave up on audible while hiking.
      2,000 miler
    • max.patch wrote:

      Astro wrote:

      I had downloaded Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain on my phone from Kindle for free. They were running a special for the audible for it for like 49 cents, so I got it too. Listened to it as I walked. Not for sure if it was the format (ear buds while walking) or just that I do not enjoy Twain as much as I did 40-45 years ago, but I did not get that much out of it. I enjoy listening to books in the car when traveling, but I think I focus even less when walking. I guess I have never had a Doberman bite me when I was driving.
      i normally listen to podcasts when day hiking.
      however, i've tried books on audible and it doesn't work for me. i'll be walking along and realize i haven't paid attention to the book for awhile. so i "rewind" back to a point i remember. and it wasn't the fault of the content; the first book i ever listened to was "kitchen confidential" by anthony bourdain and i really enjoyed it. i think listened to 3 books and gave up on audible while hiking.
      Thanks, I will have to try some podcast.
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General
    • Astro wrote:

      I had downloaded Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain on my phone from Kindle for free. They were running a special for the audible for it for like 49 cents, so I got it too. Listened to it as I walked. Not for sure if it was the format (ear buds while walking) or just that I do not enjoy Twain as much as I did 40-45 years ago, but I did not get that much out of it. I enjoy listening to books in the car when traveling, but I think I focus even less when walking. I guess I have never had a Doberman bite me when I was driving.
      Being stung repeatedly while driving is interesting until you find a place to pull over. I would never use ear buds in rattlesnake country. I've heard and then seen a rattler on the AT. A great Dane held my arm but did not inflict any pain.
    • TrafficJam wrote:

      jimmyjam wrote:

      I have discovered another author similar to Tony Hillerman: CB McKenzie. I am reading Bad Country, a winner of the Tony Hillerman Prize. Next up I two of Hillerman's books to read: Listening Woman and The Sinister Pig.
      I looked up CB McKenzie and guess what? He thru-hiked the AT.
      How cool is that!?!
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference
    • meat wrote:

      jimmyjam wrote:

      WanderingStovie wrote:

      Thermodynamics and the Descent into Chaos, by N. Tropy.
      I had to take Thermodynamics in college. We affectionately called it "Thermogoddamits" lol brings back memories
      Cof124 dats funny!
      One of the toughest classes I never used. Right up there with Theoretical Calculus. Now Mechanics of Particles and Statics I have used. A lot of stuff you are forced to learn in school is useless except for teaching you how to learn and how to organize your time.
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference
    • jimmyjam wrote:

      meat wrote:

      jimmyjam wrote:

      WanderingStovie wrote:

      Thermodynamics and the Descent into Chaos, by N. Tropy.
      I had to take Thermodynamics in college. We affectionately called it "Thermogoddamits" lol brings back memories
      Cof124 dats funny!
      One of the toughest classes I never used. Right up there with Theoretical Calculus. Now Mechanics of Particles and Statics I have used. A lot of stuff you are forced to learn in school is useless except for teaching you how to learn and how to organize your time.
      I was teaching some students how to draw blood from a baby and said, you can do it the way you learn in school or you can do it the way that works, I'm showing you the way that works.
      Lost in the right direction.
    • TrafficJam wrote:

      jimmyjam wrote:

      meat wrote:

      jimmyjam wrote:

      WanderingStovie wrote:

      Thermodynamics and the Descent into Chaos, by N. Tropy.
      I had to take Thermodynamics in college. We affectionately called it "Thermogoddamits" lol brings back memories
      Cof124 dats funny!
      One of the toughest classes I never used. Right up there with Theoretical Calculus. Now Mechanics of Particles and Statics I have used. A lot of stuff you are forced to learn in school is useless except for teaching you how to learn and how to organize your time.
      I was teaching some students how to draw blood from a baby and said, you can do it the way you learn in school or you can do it the way that works, I'm showing you the way that works.
      when my daughter was little she had to get stuck 9 times, the first 8 by one nurse (which didn't produce) and once by this much much older nurse they asked in. Yey old school nurse. gif.014.gif
    • Speaking of classes you don't need, I took 33 hours of Math with my Computer Science degree back in 1984. In the last 30 something years the only time I used Calculus was when describing in a Bible class how grace and our works was like limits approaching but never quite reaching in Calculus.

      Now my middle son is majoring in Computer Science and instead of all that Math I am having him get a minor in International Business (he wants to work in Singapore where he was born or China). He uses the Chinese he is learning everyday, unlike all the Calculus and advance math he would use in that class and never again. Really think they had us take all that math back then to weed people out.
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General