The Vent and Rant Thread

[Stitchawl]

I believe all of the various young adult series, i.e. The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, etc, were originally handed down from father/mother to son/daughter, then handed further down to various ghost writers including quite a few who later came to fame in their own names.

My elementary school library had the 'original' Tom Swift series, which I devoured, while at the same time reading the newer Tom Swift Jr. series. I later found most of the originals being sold at a rural library sale and purchased them for my son. He's been holding on to them for the past 30 years, to give to his children when they are ready. I have copies of them all as e-books now. Can you imagine; "Tom Swift III and His Kindle."


Stitchawl

[wyndslash]

i think i read a few hardy books back in the day but i loved nancy drew

[Freeshadow]

@Stitchawl
It's not only with books - Hägar the Horrible comic strip is continued the same way too.

P.S.: I hope you and your dear ones are well, since the bews from Japan are terrifying.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

all the talk about amazon possibly coming out with a touch screen reader makes me wonder if i should wait... D:

Unless it works as well as the one on my iPad, I hope they don't. I like my Kindle having a physical keyboard.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

ah, ghostwriters sometimes i kind of wish that the original authors don't let others play with their characters. i don't know; i tend to get possessive with my own characters as well, not that i'd ever try to self-publish need to practice more.

ah, i've never picked up the modern ones i see at my local bookstores.

I have a rant about that; COLLABORATORS (Read ghost writers, or how to write a book without actually having to work at it)! I picked up 1632 by Eric Flint for free over at Baen, and loved it. Then I got the next book in the series, also free and also exclusively by Eric Flint. I enjoyed that one also.

Then I began buying the paid ones, albeit a good price at $6.99, but Mr. Flint had begun taking on collaborators, and the series went to hell! I wasn't even able to finish my last read (1634 The Bavarian Crisis) It was so fragmented and filled with minutia that it was difficult to find a story line, or keep the various and sundry characters straight. I just gave up and bought, for re-reading, J.R.R. Tolken's The Lord of the Rings, which I'm enjoying immensely!

[wyndslash]

morning

[desertblues]

goodnight

[beppe]

Originally Posted by desertblues

goodnight

Perfect, just before I retire for the night. Sleep well my friend.

[Stitchawl]

A Japan rant...

Japan is NOT small. It likes to call itself small. It likes to present a 'small' image to the world, for some reason, but Japan is NOT small. Great Britain is less than half the size, but we never think of it as 'small,' nor does it try to project that image.

With all the news about the current disaster, a lot of misinformation has developed. I can see it in the e-mails I get from friends around the world. While the devastation here has been severe, only a small part of Japan has been 'physically' affected. The emotional devastation is world-wide, spread with the tsunami that reached so many different shores.

If one were to lift Japan up and place it over a map of the US eastern seaboard, placing the top of Hokkaido on top of the state of Maine, Japan would reach down to South Carolina. East to west, it would go from the coast all the way inland to the mountain range that extends from the Adirondacks through the Appalachians.

The area 'physically' affected by this current disaster equates to a strip of land along the coast, perhaps going inland for a few miles, from Massachusettes, RI, and a bit of Connecticut. The rest of Japan has NOT been physically affected, although we have certainly all been emotionally crushed. Services are mostly back to normal in Tokyo, and even all the schools are open today. Obviously this is NOT the case 100 miles north of Tokyo. It will be quite some time before that area is functioning normally once again. Of course, the lose of lives, the destruction of property, and the emotional distress can not be, nor should not be, discounted. This has been devastating for Japan.


Stitchawl

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

A Japan rant...

Japan is NOT small. It likes to call itself small. It likes to present a 'small' image to the world, for some reason, but Japan is NOT small. Great Britain is less than half the size, but we never think of it as 'small,' nor does it try to project that image.

With all the news about the current disaster, a lot of misinformation has developed. I can see it in the e-mails I get from friends around the world. While the devastation here has been severe, only a small part of Japan has been 'physically' affected. The emotional devastation is world-wide, spread with the tsunami that reached so many different shores.

If one were to lift Japan up and place it over a map of the US eastern seaboard, placing the top of Hokkaido on top of the state of Maine, Japan would reach down to South Carolina. East to west, it would go from the coast all the way inland to the mountain range that extends from the Adirondacks through the Appalachians.

The area 'physically' affected by this current disaster equates to a strip of land along the coast, perhaps going inland for a few miles, from Massachusettes, RI, and a bit of Connecticut. The rest of Japan has NOT been physically affected, although we have certainly all been emotionally crushed. Services are mostly back to normal in Tokyo, and even all the schools are open today. Obviously this is NOT the case 100 miles north of Tokyo. It will be quite some time before that area is functioning normally once again. Of course, the lose of lives, the destruction of property, and the emotional distress can not be, nor should not be, discounted. This has been devastating for Japan.


Stitchawl

thanks for giving us that geographic perspective, because you are very correct! quite often we hear things along the lines of; "the tiny island country of Japan..." we also base pretty much everything off of the images we get of Tokyo and think of how tiny and crowded it all is. the images of the Tsunami gave proof to that inaccuracy, as we saw what was obviously miles and miles of farmland drowned

[maianhvk]

I'm so hungry I'll make a tour-de-kitchen right now!

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

thanks for giving us that geographic perspective, because you are very correct! quite often we hear things along the lines of; "the tiny island country of Japan..." we also base pretty much everything off of the images we get of Tokyo and think of how tiny and crowded it all is. the images of the Tsunami gave proof to that inaccuracy, as we saw what was obviously miles and miles of farmland drowned

There is a cultural desire to group closely. When you see a Japanese tour group, people are walking with their shoulders touching each other. When a contractor builds a housing developement, there is just barely room to walk, turned sideways, between the houses. Japanese cities are crowded because they want to be crowded. There is plenty of undeveloped space. Yes, most of it is mountain, but that never stops the developers. They just terraform. They cut down the mountain and build their housing projects. It's true that the natural flat land has all been turned to agriculture, primarily rice, but there are new towns going up all the time. There is one right near me! They cut down some mountains and began putting in houses and apartment buildings. Now they are putting up a CostCo!

Tokyo is big, but in actuallity it's just a bit larger than London. If you look at a Japan map, you realize that it's just one of many large Japanese cities. So is Osaka, or Kyoto. By comparison, New York City (Manhattan and the Bronx) would fit inside my neighborhood, with room to spare. It takes about 12 hours to drive from Kyoto to Tokyo via the expressways.

The epicenter of the quake was off of Sendai, north of Tokyo, but Tokyo felt the shocks enough to shut of the airports and train services for the day. However, it was the tsunami afterwards that really did the damage, though all of that was basically coastal, and north of Tokyo.

Stitchawl

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

... Japan is NOT small. Great Britain is less than half the size, but we never think of it as 'small,' ...

Japan: land area 394744 square kilometres.
Great Britain: land area 209331 square kilometres

NOT less than half the size!

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Japan: land area 394744 square kilometres.
Great Britain: land area 209331 square kilometres

NOT less than half the size!

United States... 9.629.091 square km.
Netherlands ......... 41.528 square km.

[wyndslash]

mmm hungry for dinner

hmm so this one story that i really liked from a certain author was apparently plagiarized by said author. he also plagiarized twenty other stories from 4 other authors. so for now, the stories have been pulled

it was a great story too; kind of dark, but at the same time you can't put it down.