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Post by papaof2 on Aug 19, 2020 19:02:58 GMT -6
The Twilight Zone episode about a couple who lived near a power substation and were always concerned about when and for how long the power might go off? They had some not-yet-available appliances (robot vacuum, for example) which they explained away as the husband being in R&D.
They disappeared during an extended power outage and they had left a note for the neighbors with the basic content of "We're from the future where they have time travel but conditions are very bad so we, like others, sought refuge in the past and always near large sources of electrical energy so we couldn't be tracked while the power was on."
Maybe there's more than one reason to have backup power? ;-)
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Post by 9idrr on Aug 19, 2020 21:20:44 GMT -6
Don't recall that episode but like the premise.
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Post by willc453 on Aug 25, 2020 22:41:21 GMT -6
Yeah, don't remember that one either. But there was that one from the Twilight Zone where one couple had a nuke shelter under their house, with the neighbors laughing at 'em, saying nothing will ever happen to justify such a cost. But things got ugly, real quick when it looked like nukes might be coming down like rain drops. Then there was that Outer Limits one where the govt. was REALLY oppressive. A family made it to some rocket launching facility and able to take off in one of the rockets designed for deep space exploration. At the end of it, they found a compatible planet....which was earth. Anyone watch DUST on Youtube? They've got some really good short stories, like up to 30 minutes long. One of them has a story similar to the Outer Limits story.
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Post by papaof2 on Aug 26, 2020 4:21:11 GMT -6
I said "Twilight Zone" because that's where I think it was but there were two or three other edge-of-belief programs in the same time frame so perhaps one of those. I've always liked the "We have high tech but we can't tell you about it" aspects of that episode. The couple in that story weren't the only ones to have mechanized house cleaning - do you remember a story with mechanical rats coming out of the walls to eat the dead body of the dog who starved because the family was killed by a nuke but much of the house survived and the computerized kitchen was still cooking meals?
One of the stories in "The Martian Chronicles" is about two families using their "pleasure rockets" for a much-longer-than-spec'd trip to Mars to escape the oncoming nuclear war on Earth and parents taking kids to see the "Martians" in the canal (their reflections).
I might have been a teenager when I first read "Chronicles" (hardback was published in 1950 so who knows when I read the book) and it's still one of my favorite sci-fi books, other than the technology being dated. Once you shift mental gears for the time it was written, it flows well. A 1997 edition moved all the dates forward by 31 years making the years covered 2030 to 2057 but the "people" concepts are timeless.
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Post by willc453 on Aug 26, 2020 14:42:38 GMT -6
Oh yeah, I've read The Martian Chronicles, though it's been years. Add to this was the I, Robot series and Ray Bradbury's books. Still reading, including having a couple of books in the truck when I hit the local casino/restaurant or a fast food place. There's only 1 author I'll buy new when he comes out with it in paperback and that's Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series. It's about a guy who's a wizard in Chicago...wizard as in actually using magic to defeat bad guys/women, demons, etc. Thing is, bad things happen to good people and he bears the guilt of this even when it's not his fault. Still have all my John Carter of Mars paperbacks and thought the movie was outstanding. Why it was a flop, no idea. I didn't even know a movie had been made of it until I saw it in the $5 dvd bin at Walmart?! In The Shed, is my collection of Gor books by John Norman which I started reading around '82. Really enjoyed them until the later books was basically filled with nothing but master/slave training bs. Another series was The Survivalist which was a guy who'd fly around the country giving seminars on how to survive disasters, whether man or natural. WW 3 comes along with its emp and he's scrambling to get home several states away. He got too outlandish in his later books such as finding hibernation chambers for his wife, 2 kids, himself. Didn't like it with the author detailing by brand name the gear this guy used. Harry Turtledove has some good alternative history books. There's Out Of The Ashes series by William Johnstone which I thought was pretty good and possible. But by the 6th(?) book, it got unrealistic. Like some of the Rebels as they called themselves, blew themselves up to kill the latest POTUS. Also, for a really scary as F book, there's William Forstchen's book where terrorist start attacking all over the U.S., specifically targeting elementary schools. Looked for, but couldn't find the title to it.
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Post by papaof2 on Aug 26, 2020 17:07:24 GMT -6
There was a promotion for the "John Carter of Mars" movie with only people named John Carter eligible - the prizes were that person and a guest would be part of a group of people named 'John Carter' on a trip to the area (Central America?) where much of the movie was filmed.
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Post by spacecadet12364 on Oct 15, 2020 12:37:45 GMT -6
Oh yeah, I've read The Martian Chronicles, though it's been years. Add to this was the I, Robot series and Ray Bradbury's books. Still reading, including having a couple of books in the truck when I hit the local casino/restaurant or a fast food place. There's only 1 author I'll buy new when he comes out with it in paperback and that's Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series. It's about a guy who's a wizard in Chicago...wizard as in actually using magic to defeat bad guys/women, demons, etc. Thing is, bad things happen to good people and he bears the guilt of this even when it's not his fault. Still have all my John Carter of Mars paperbacks and thought the movie was outstanding. Why it was a flop, no idea. I didn't even know a movie had been made of it until I saw it in the $5 dvd bin at Walmart?! In The Shed, is my collection of Gor books by John Norman which I started reading around '82. Really enjoyed them until the later books was basically filled with nothing but master/slave training bs. Another series was The Survivalist which was a guy who'd fly around the country giving seminars on how to survive disasters, whether man or natural. WW 3 comes along with its emp and he's scrambling to get home several states away. He got too outlandish in his later books such as finding hibernation chambers for his wife, 2 kids, himself. Didn't like it with the author detailing by brand name the gear this guy used. Harry Turtledove has some good alternative history books. There's Out Of The Ashes series by William Johnstone which I thought was pretty good and possible. But by the 6th(?) book, it got unrealistic. Like some of the Rebels as they called themselves, blew themselves up to kill the latest POTUS. Also, for a really scary as F book, there's William Forstchen's book where terrorist start attacking all over the U.S., specifically targeting elementary schools. Looked for, but couldn't find the title to it. Day of Wrath is the Forstchen book you are thinking of. I just finished reading his One Second After, One Year After, and The Final Day books. Scary thing is, the premise is not unbelievable. O.O
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Post by willc453 on Oct 15, 2020 19:06:24 GMT -6
One Second After is what I based The Layover on. It's in the completed section of stories because the last time I'd posted any other chapters was at least 5 years ago? Plan is once our Dads estate gets settled (possibly December?), going back to Oregon and Idaho so I know what I'm writing/talking about. It's about a 50+ year old truck driver stranded in Portland, Oregon who is there when it's hit by a massive earthquake. Then emp attack ala One Second After, but this guy was a kind of, sort of prepper and had his bob (bug out bag) and some weapons with him. It's based on what I know, have tried and own for better realism.
When I finished Day of Wrath, asked brother who lives in Florida, north of Tampa. His oldest boy is a deputy sheriff and had him ask him their procedure for mass school shootings, then sent my copy to brother to give to his boy. And I think someone took that scenario and made a story out of it here.
About finished page 1 of chapter 13 of Thor's story and I love the night life is at page 2.
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