Difference between revisions of "User talk:Concerned Reader"

Latest revision as of 20:18, 30 August 2009

Welcome to Shifti! Always glad to see new contributors. This is a bit of a standard boilerplate introduction that will hopefully help get you started on some of the basics you might not have noticed. Firstly, there's a main index of help pages at Help:Contents - a link is provided in the default sidebar titled "Help." It's a good idea to browse through the table of contents there so you'll know what information is available should you need it.

If you're here to post stories, there's a guide specifically for the basics of that over at Help:Posting stories. General editing assistance is at Help:Editing, and information about how to use talk pages (like this one) is at Help:Talk pages. If any of the formatting seems esoteric at first, don't worry - wikis are collaborative and other editors and administrators will come around to help tidy up anything that's left in a messy state, if you want. The more complex details can be learned later as you go.

You can set up a personal homepage for yourself at your root user page, which you can find by clicking on your user name at the top of the page. Use your user page however you see fit; most authors generally list their stories there, along with a bit of biographical information about themselves and perhaps some links to other websites. See Help:User pages.

If you have any questions, you can either click the edit link for this page and write it here or you can follow the link in my signature to my own home page and leave it in the talk page over there. You can find a list of Shifti's administrators at Shifti:Administrators. Once you've got your bearings, feel free to delete this welcome message from your user talk page. ShadowWolf 04:53, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Yep - you just got the welcoming boilerplate that everyone gets. Anyway, thanks for the interest in the PAW Collab - reallife has interfered, but it might get back on the road to being completed! As the official "Story #200" for Shifti, it really should be finished, no?

Oh, and let me extend a hand and give you a hearty "Welcome to Shifti" shake! -- ShadowWolf 04:53, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks a lot for the links on my talk page. I just thought I'd reply on YOUR talk page. The program is cool, but frankly speaking, Infocomm Studies is one of my worst subjects in school. I just somehow fail to grasp it (that's why I'm so depressed about my chances of making Bungie). But still, thanks. Can't believe you remembered that I mentioned that. :) --Drake, 2:59, 1 July 2009 (+0800 GMT)

Reading

• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick

I actually have this one on my bookshelf. The movie is good, but it cannot match the intricate and twisted story that PK Dick weaves in the novel.

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein

Another one that is on my bookshelf right now. This book was one of the inspirations for the 'Hippie' counter-culture movement. Do you Grok it ?

Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein

Again, this is on my bookshelf right now. A chilling look at a futuristic quasi-fascist world-state and warfare that shoots to the heart of how militaries were run during WW2.

The Otherland Saga - Tad Williams

A modern cyberpunk novel in which all the main characters are tied together through the events that occur in a secret, ultra-high-tech virtual reality constructed by a set of rich magnates. I can't say much more without destroying the hours of fun it is to read this one novel that is spread across four volumes - and was sold as four different books.

Old Man's War - John Scalzi

The first of a trilogy about war in the far future, fought by earths elderly that have been given new bodies. Scalzi manages to give the combat a feel of urgency and immediacy that is rarely matched and the intricate machinations hinted at in this novel are explored and fleshed out in later novels in the series.

... There are many, many more. But I can't just keep going on and on with this :) -- ShadowWolf 23:36, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

I'll have to look into some of these. The Otherland Saga sounds like "Serial Experiments Lain" mixed with "Ghost in the Shell." I, in my younger years, watched the Starship Troopers Cartoon that aired on UPN's morning run. I haven't had a chance to read the book yet, but have heard conflicting reviews.

A book that I think most people should read, especially if they're interested in future tech and government, is Cory Doctorows "Little Brother". --Concerned Reader 21:04, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Starship Troopers quality depends on whether you can separate yourself from your own political views long enough to see what points Heinlein is trying to make. 'Otherland' is... 'Otherland' - you have to read it to understand it, really, but your statement seems close. And... I follow Doctorow on Twitter and lots of other media but actually have not yet read a single one of his novels. I'm currently making my way through an action series that is still being printed ('The Lost Fleet') and don't have much money free other than that. -- ShadowWolf 02:32, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Congratulations!

Yep - you heard me. Congratulations on going to college. Good luck, too. I dropped out after one semester and have been regretting that decision recently. -- ShadowWolf 22:44, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Ooh, grats on college CR! You must be nervous, I know I am and I'm moving into residence tomorrow =( --Lloyd Brunnel 00:07, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks y'all. I've actually been moved in since wed. 8/26 and I've been enjoying the freedom. I'm nervous about classes, which start tomorrow. And the campus is huge. Thankfully, I live right across from food, so that wont be a problem. --Concerned Reader 01:18, 31 August 2009 (UTC)