Mark Bee

My folks have an old mac stereo system from the 70s. Teak, with a glowing green dash. Still sounds spectacular though.

Very interesting. I'd love to see that exhibit.

I couldn't agree more. Well said.

@RoryQ Thank you very much for this reply. I appreciate it. I think I'll give Hamilton a try soon. (I've got a huge stack on the Kindle to get through.) I'll start with the Mandel trilogy, as I am a fan of the police procedural. I was initially drawn to Hamilton because I do enjoy a massive cast and epic tale, but it also worried me because it is so difficult to do well. I ended up dithering and reading some more Scalzi instead. Looking forward to picking up the first book. I was up and down with Banks. I read Consider Phlebus, and enjoyed it, but not enough to read any other books in the series. I really enjoyed some of his non-SF. I loved The Crow Road and The Wasp Factory. One of the great opening sentences in English literature has to be, "It was the day my grandmother exploded." In terms of SF I am still waiting for a series to grab me the way Simmons' Hyperion Saga did.

I agree that selling off the used pile is a good solution, but I just can't bring myself to unload books. I'm a book hoarder. I loved The Terror! Great fun. I keep eying Hamilton, but I have yet to read him. How highly would you recommend his work?

I've been collecting books for decades. I have thousands lining my apartment. In the last two years I started buying fiction on a Kindle. Yesterday I was in a local bookstore and realized I really don't want paper books anymore. I prefer reading on an e-reader. There are some very disturbing downsides to ebooks. Top on the list is the realization that we don't actually own these books. It's more like a lease. That is a seriously bad trend. But the other side is that I find reading experience more immersive with e-readers. I miss going to my local bookstores, but the simple fact is, I am out of room for print books. I'll always buy my academic or non-fiction in paper form, largely because I need to flip back and forth from foot or endnote. It was a kind of stomach twisting realization that I have abandoned paper fiction.

Ha! If I read more carefully I would have known you were in Vancouver. My bad!

@Graeme and @Pugilist Looks great! I saw this on instagram this morning as well. Was this at the same shop we walked by in Montreal after poutine?

Creepy guy. Very creepy guy.

I have one tattoo on my leg with a very thick outline. It's a style I'd be wary about overdoing, but I really like the way it works on my hand of glory. It makes a nice contrast from my other tattoos.

@Boiled Dove If you start an instagram account, look for the thread here - many of us are on it and post regularly. Sometimes tattoos, sometimes travel, always cats.

I'm anxiously awaiting the new year so that I can finish up my chest piece. It will be very nice to finally let the hair grow back. Then hopefully at the end of January I'll get to the stomach piece I've been struggling to get done for the past year. I'm in no hurry to get back to work, though. So I'm torn.

If you end up in Chicago go to Great Lakes Tattoo. Currently you could get tattooed by Nick Colella, Mario Desa, Mike Dalton, Erik Gillespie, Frank William, or Matt "Beatdown" Ziolko. That's six killer tattooers right there. Not to mention, it's one of the coolest shops I've ever been in. Check out their work on Instagram. If you have to wait a bit to save up for the trip, it will be well worth it. Good luck with your hunt for great tattoos. This forum is a great resource. And if you ever get a chance to cross the border, come visit The Pearl in Toronto.

@JoshRoss I've always avoided the tattoo subreddit. I don't know why, I just always suspected it would be depressing.

I'm a little late to this, but this was a great clip. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for posting, @Iwar.

Welcome!

Very nice and I couldn't agree more. Best of the season to everyone here!

That's my favourite Gaiman book. American Gods is good too.

I've done this before. Frankly, I find it a great deal of fun to pop in and get something done.

Awesome!

Looks great, @Shaun1105!

I wish I could do this - there are some really great tattoos here.

I didn't set out to get sleeves, it just kinda happened. I started at the top of my shoulder and every few weeks or months I'd head in and get something new. I had a couple of much older tattoos to work around, but they didn't prove to be a problem. I thought I'd have to get them covered up, but the people at The Pearl talked me out of it - I'm glad they did. In fact, everything they told me has been confirmed by the advice I've seen others give here. After a while I realised that I needed some help figuring things out. I set up an appointment with Tim and we mapped out a series of small/mid sized pieces, that still left room for some fun little filler pieces. I think @clatattooing 's advice is great. We each do things our own way, but there are some underlying principles that if we are open to hearing good advice, will serve us well. Good luck!

Yeah me too. My knees can't take it. I'll stick to tattooing them instead!

Fun list! I've read those and enjoyed them all. I thought The Passage was particularly good.