I'm planning to get a Verse Pro, this week, to replace my deprecated Kindle. I get most of my books via Libby, but if I want to buy some books I gather Pocketbook can't access Amazon? Where would I buy from?
Sorry to be so naive.
The original music for the game really is great. It successfully evokes a beautiful ambience on the ship as the diurnal cycle progresses and helps add to the distinctiveness of each island destination.
I'm thinking of replaying the game with a deliberate strategy of having as many spirits aboard the vessel as I can who play music that makes other spirits cheerful. Apart from Atul, who should I be collecting?
I loved learning about the Tasmanian Tiger when I was a kid, but unfortunately, it’s believed to be extinct. I’d like to believe there may be some out there still, but I’m very doubtful. Thoughts?
Dear Bahamians, I just wanted to voice my **appreciation** of you for being such nice hosts. We are sailors and have spent two winters in your beautiful nation. From Grand Cay, to Little Farmer's Cay, to Alice Town, to Little Harbor Cay, we've encountered only kindness. I get mad when I see foreigners posting here about negative experiences; the complainants always seem to have weird expectations. Hope to see you again in December!
This will be a short post. If there were ever to be TV/Cinema adaptations of these wonderful books, I'd love to see them in the visual style of "Scavenger's Reign". That is all.
I've seen a lot of praise for several of the novellas, like The Churn and Strange Dogs, but not for The Vital Abyss. I've just finished the latter and wanted to offer some praise for this great novella.
If the heroes of the nine novels of The Expanse are the crew of the Roci and their allies, then the villains (in my opinion) are the humans seeking to abuse the protomolecule to their own ends. These people (not The Free Navy, or the protomolecule, or the Goths) are the bad guys. But who are they? We certainly get to learn a bit about Mao and Duarte; these are the guys at the top who are trying to utilize the protomolecule to change the arc of history. But Mao and Duarte have no technical skills, so who is actually doing the deeply unethical work with the protomolecule? Paolo Cortázar and his team, that's who! This team is the hidden enemy from the very beginning, right from Book One. We hardly ever see them; we get very little info on who they are, where they work, or why they do what they do. We get chapter after chapter about Murtry, Inaros, Trejo, and Tanaka, but these people aren't the true enemy. Holden's real enemies from the very beginning (though he's mostly unaware of them) are Cortázar and his team. It's somewhat paradoxical that the antagonists of a nine novel series are almost invisible and that the protagonists should be so oblivious to them for so much of the story. The Vital Abyss is a huge contribution to the universe of The Expanse because it finally gives the reader a glimpse of what was really happening all along. At last we get to see what was really driving the story through nine novels.
Regarding the novella itself: the writing is chilling. The warped psychology of Cortázar and his team of engineered psychopaths is beautifully portrayed. His discussions with Michio Pa are revealing but not heavy-handed. The decision to write in the first person (unique in the oeuvre of The Expanse) is brilliant because it reflects the complete selfishness of the engineered psychopaths on the protomolecule team; they can only see their own point of view and they exist in the first person only.
The Vital Abyss is a very well written glimpse into very damaged humans and is a crucial piece of the puzzle for readers who want to know what was really going on in the nine novels (not just dealing with poisonous slugs on a mining colony).
Over the past fifty years the Federal government has (through our elected representatives in the legislature, through the policies of our elected Presidents, and through the rulings of judges) created Federal laws that set minimum standards that public schools must meet for the education of students with disabilities. For example: IDEA, and Endrew F. These laws remain on the books and are **NOT** being "*passed to the States.*" The Department of Education provides a) money, training, and resources to help schools comply with these laws and avoid getting sued by the parents of disabled students and b) an office to which parents can complain if the school which is attended by their disabled child does not meet the legal requirements. What will happen next is that HHS will take over the former and DOJ will take over the latter. **Not the States.** Organizations representing disabled children and their families are concerned that HHS & DOJ lack the experience, mindset, and concern to perform these roles (in addition to their existing responsibilities). What this might mean is lax enforcement of federal law by DOJ (allowing schools to treat disabled students worse and worse) and reduced support of schools by HHS (stripping schools of the help they need to comply with the law and treat disabled students well). This concern is well founded, since HHS sees disability through the lens of sickness, not the lens of maximizing a student's potential, while DOJ has bigger fish to fry (like drug cartels).
​
Ultimately, this has nothing to do with handing "power to the States" and nothing to do with helping disabled children maximize their learning potential in public schools.
Where is the best thrifting for men's clothes in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary?
Where is the best thrifting for men's clothes in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary?
Where is the best thrifting for men's clothes in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary?
Where is the best thrifting for men's clothes in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary?
Where is the best thrifting for men's clothes in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary?
I keep getting the error message No space to save data on SD card 1 - Depth recording will be paused. I do not want depths to be recorded and if I look at Settings > Depths the toggle switch for "Sonar logging" is OFF. Where else might I have to turn off depth recording, please?
I do love Smart Launcher. However, on my old Pixel, and also now on my new one, when I adopt Smart Launcher I often get a ten second freeze when unlocking my phone. The screen DOES get updated/refreshed by App activity, but for about ten seconds it does NOT respond to user input. Anyone had a similar experience or found a fix?
I bought a pair of Kiwi Cadenzas and was very disappointed by the bass. Having read a few posts here, I was encouraged to try pushing them in harder and at different angles and also to try different tip sizes. They are now performing much better, using the smaller tips that came with the Cadenzas and pushing them in harder.
**Please recommend** alternate tips I might try with these Cadenzas. I really want to give them a chance to shine.
I just finished the nine novels (I loved them) and I'm about to begin the novellas. I have a few random thoughts, though I doubt they're very original:
* I was sad that Naomi's son never resurfaced. I thought he might usefully reconnect with his Mum, after taking her name.
* I was bummed that Alex chose to go with his son and grandson. They were such incidental characters, living most of their lives off-screen in the time jump. They weren't his real family.
* I don't feel as though there was ever an adequate explanation for Amos abandoning his mission to rescue Jim from Laconia. The text implies that he jumped at the chance to undertake the risky mission, but then when he arrived he decided to become a hermit, instead. I don't buy the idea that he was put off by the possibility of hurting Tiny, whom he did not even know to begin with.
* I appreciate the bittersweet representation of the reality that we usually don't recognize "the last time" something happens, except with hindsight. When was the last time that Jim, Naomi, Amos, Alex, Bobby, and Clarissa were all together? There were two entire books after that!
* It would have been nice to hear something from Drummer, after Jim left Laconia.
* It was very interesting to see how Naomi's character grew while Jim was detained. When we remove the tall plants that cast shade, some of the smaller plants can grow into something greater.
* I loved the return of Miller. Who wouldn't?
* I guessed the twist in the epilogue. How do I claim my prize?
* I can understand why the TV adaptation concluded where it did; the final three books almost felt like a different series. Like many people, I hope there will be an adaptation some day, but a break seems wise.
* The temporal scope of the nine books is amazing. The first one felt as though it was just around the corner from us; the last one felt like something very, very remote.
Anyway, just a few thoughts from someone who enjoyed it all.