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I thought at first Marco had morphed shark eyes in this scene. That'd be rad. What's the line from that old STDH? "This kid... is inhuman!"
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# ? Jan 13, 2021 03:11 |
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# ? May 24, 2024 17:10 |
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Animorphs-Book 15:The Escape-Chapter 17quote:Saturday morning, we flew out to the same narrow beach on Royan Island. Now that we knew for sure that the Yeerks were there, just under the water, we were very careful. My heart just hurts for these characters, because they're trying so hard to be strong and don't realize what it's doing to them. quote:“I’ve been ready,” Rachel grumbled. So, it's true of some sharks that they have to keep moving or they'll die. Sharks have gills, which means they take in air from the water that passes over them. Most sharks have what's called a buccal pump, which lets them suck water into and out of their gills, the same way that you or I breath. Some sharks, though, like mackerel sharks, great whites, and hammerheads, don't know. They have manually pass water through their gills by swimming or they'll die (This is called ram ventilation, btw). There are actually sharks that are ambush predators, laying on the ocean floor, camouflaged until something tasty comes by, at which point they strike. But, what Marco is saying is true for hammerheads. Chapter 18 quote:Sharks had been swimming Earth’s oceans for hundreds of millions of years already when the ancestors of Homo sapiens were still trying to figure out how to peel a banana. So, just for the record, some of it is true, some of it is not. It's true that sharks aren't good parents. They don't take care of their young once they're born. I think there's a species of shark that will carry its eggs in its mouth if they're threatened, but that's the closest you get. What's not true is that sharks aren't playful. Stereotypes aside, some shark researchers have found that some species of shark tend to be curious and even playful. An organization tracking sharks, the Global Finprint Project, captured a video of a Great White Shark off the coast of New Zealand who found one of their cameras. It swam around it, nudged it a few times, tasted it, and then picked it up, took it up to the surface, let it drop down, and then did the same thing three times. This was just curiosity. It had never seen a camera before, and was trying to figure out what it was. You also have cases of shark researchers observing sharks, and finding that the sharks will get to know the researchers, and keep coming back to the areas where they're diving, and in a lot of cases, after they become familiar with them, actively seek out contact. Some sharks like to be petted. Sharks aren't very smart animals, and they probably don't have very deep emotional or social bonds, for the most part, and they're predators and can be unpredictable and dangerous. But they are actually more than just unemotional killing machines. quote:The shark turned toward the scent of blood. My long tail pushed lazily at the water. My hammerhead worked like a diving plane to let me turn this way and that. My vision was surprisingly good. Almost as good as human vision. Honestly, I think that line there is less about the shark and more about Marco. quote:This time we expected to be able to pass right by the supersharks who had almost taken us out when we’d been in dolphin morph. "Hi, mom."
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# ? Jan 13, 2021 05:59 |
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This is a good book and kinda makes the previous one stand out as more bizarre in comparison. I like Marco books in general. The dynamics between these kids are really complex in a way that I'm pretty sure I didn't pick up on when I read them as a child.
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# ? Jan 14, 2021 02:43 |
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Animorphs-Book 15:The Escape-Chapter 19quote:<Now what?> Tobias wondered. <We got past the guard sharks.> If you don't have underwater Controllers, create them. Who better to fight the Leerans. And credit to the last book, it did establish Yeerks could infest animals. Chapter 20 quote:<We have to find out more,> Jake said. <It’s time to get out of the water and go look around in this place.> So no idea how implants work with Z-space. Apparently, if you morph and put an implant in you, it stays in you when you morph back?
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# ? Jan 14, 2021 04:39 |
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quote:<Flies,> Cassie suggested. <Everyone except Tobias has a fly morph.> Man, this one's on you. You've had time to catch up with the regulars - you need a fly, a roach, an owl, a seagull and a dolphin. Fair enough that the dolphin wasn't too easy but no excuse for the others. Also I know most of you are all obviously reading this in winter, but I have to say this book has a nice summer vibe. California sun, sand, surf and saltwater. Loving it.
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# ? Jan 14, 2021 05:58 |
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"Sharks are stupid brainless automatons that never notice anything that's not about hunting and they go insane at the smell of blood and they can't even jump and dolphins are so much nicer and cheerful and less monstrous. "PS: Marco's having a really bad time right now, isn't he?" -K.A. Applegate, 1998. I don't know if this stuff just wasn't known in the 90s, or they just didn't have time to do any research on shark behaviour before the book was due. It's just funny how off it is. Also, it's probably a good thing that Marco gave up on trying to morph a trout so quickly in the aquarium. Didn't being a trout in saltwater go really badly when they tried it in book four?
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# ? Jan 15, 2021 02:57 |
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Animorphs-Book 15:The Escape-Chapter 21quote:Me, Ax, and Tobias. We couldn’t morph anything small with the Yeerk control devices still implanted in our heads. Not bugs, anyway. So how we were supposed to go wandering around the underwater facility without being noticed? Ax and Marco make terrible birds. quote:<Okay, let’s demorph,> I said. <There’s no one around, and Ax and I aren’t going to be flying till we remorph.> Ouch. The big question is, will Marco be able to remember and deal with the fact that Visser One isn't his mother. Chapter 22 quote:She looked the same. Yep. "Oh, Visser Three killed them." will always work as an excuse. quote:My mother raised one eyebrow contemptuously. “If that clown Visser Three thinks he can damage me in the eyes of the Council of Thirteen by sabotaging this project, he’s a bigger fool than I thought.” I mean, Christ, that's the most vicious line in this book. quote:“No, Visser,” I said in a whisper. “I will try harder to control my host.” I admit, I love Visser One. In a lot of ways, Visser One is a better villain than Visser Three, because it manages to combine utter ruthlessness and coldness with this sense of overwork and this frustration that there's yet MORE bullshit to straighten out.
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# ? Jan 15, 2021 05:10 |
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Epicurius posted:I admit, I love Visser One. In a lot of ways, Visser One is a better villain than Visser Three, because it manages to combine utter ruthlessness and coldness with this sense of overwork and this frustration that there's yet MORE bullshit to straighten out. As a kid, it's the aliens and monsters that stand out in these books. As an adult, it's the office politics! e: From a PYF thread, but getting strong Andalite vibes of some of these. Tree Bucket fucked around with this message at 07:50 on Jan 15, 2021 |
# ? Jan 15, 2021 05:58 |
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Salutations! My name is Jacob. I'm afraid I can only tell you my Christian name, on account of all the Ne'er-do-wells in these parts. And if you know your onions, you'll understand why.
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# ? Jan 15, 2021 10:56 |
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quote:Me, Ax, and Tobias. An absolutely solid team that will be getting a lot of play in the future. I can't point to exactly where or when or why, but I definitely remember that for whatever reason, Marco just seems to find himself on a lot of missions with those two. Tobias and Ax have a close friendship for obvious reasons, but I feel like Marco becomes the third buddy in that trio more than, say, Jake. Three Stooges hurrah! Epicurius posted:I admit, I love Visser One. In a lot of ways, Visser One is a better villain than Visser Three, because it manages to combine utter ruthlessness and coldness with this sense of overwork and this frustration that there's yet MORE bullshit to straighten out. Applegate's thumb is obviously on the scale here (as if they would ever just walk around a Yeerk facility in their human forms!) but I can appreciate why she wanted to have this scene. Probably it's just me but I find myself unable to feel any kind of anger towards Visser One, and it's almost certainly just because she's the first-person POV protagonist in the Visser Chronicles. From memory I don't think she even really presents any kind of sympathetic viewpoint towards the Yeerk empire (even though by that point the series has established that there is one, by exploring the horror of what it is to be born a deaf-blind worm and introducing the Yeerk peace movement) but just because it provides you with a sympathetic view of her as a person, as somebody who cares about the children she birthed in her human form and who's fighting for her life in a trial.
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# ? Jan 15, 2021 11:35 |
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Tree Bucket posted:As an adult, it's the office politics! I've had the same experience with Star Wars, going from "Wow the Rebels are amazing heroes!" to "Wow the Imperial bureaucracy and office politics are hosed up and sabotaging them at every turn."
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# ? Jan 15, 2021 14:18 |
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How crushingly awful must it be for Eva right now, seeing her son in person for the first time in years and horrified that, as far as she knows, he’s also a Controller. And then you have Edriss practically gravedancing over the moment just making it infinitely worse. Fuuuck.
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# ? Jan 15, 2021 15:38 |
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She's creating an awful racket.
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# ? Jan 15, 2021 15:41 |
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Spoilering this because it involves characterization we don't have yet. Besides being heartbreaking, the remarkable thing about that scene to me is that, on a reread, we know how strong and strong-willed Eva is. And we've seen multiple instances at this point of hosts getting so upset (Chapman and Tom, who themselves are dealing with high-ranking Yeerks) that they momentarily interfere with the Yeerk's absolute control. And you'd think it'd be worse here, because Eva has been a host for years and it's probably been a damned long time since she was provoked anywhere near this hard. And yet Edriss doesn't lose a shred of composure for a second, and only acknowledges Eva's "awful racket" when she thinks Marco's host is rebelling and needs to say "get your poo poo together, look at me, I'm not having any problems." That's one hard-rear end loving Yeerk.
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# ? Jan 15, 2021 17:57 |
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Epicurius posted:I mean, Christ, that's the most vicious line in this book. The most disturbing thing about this is that now Marco's mom, already experiencing the hell of being a Yeerk host, now also thinks her son is a Yeerk host (while previously she could have at least felt some solace in the knowledge that the vast majority of humans aren't controllers yet, likely including him).
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# ? Jan 15, 2021 19:44 |
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Animorphs-Book 15:The Escape-Chapter 23quote:I followed her out in the hall, but she walked away. Swaggering. Like the Yeerk Visser she was. I watched her for longer than I should have. Then I ducked into a side door. The room was dark. It's kind of ironic....the whole "Make shark controllers, defeat the Leerans in battle" is the sort of thing that Visser Three would be good at, while the "infiltrate Earth, subert it from the inside" is the sort of thing Visser One would be good at. But, because the Yeerks are notoriously bad at HR.... quote:“Great. Now can we get out there and help Rachel and the others?” Tobias demanded. He hadn’t waited for an answer. He was already demorphing. Red-tailed feathers were sprouting from his hands. Keep in mind, he knows Visser One/his mother will have no way to breathe. Chapter 24 quote:We ran from the room. I morphed as I ran. I morphed into a gorilla. We were going into a fight. And although the gorilla isn’t a mean or aggressive animal, it is amazingly powerful. Visser Three isn't the only arrogant Visser, obviously.... quote:I beg your pardon for disagreeing. Visser. But - Yeerk computer warnings are extremely polite.
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# ? Jan 16, 2021 04:12 |
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Epicurius posted:Yeerk computer warnings are extremely polite. Look, after the third time Visser Three slashes the alarm speaker to pieces halfway through an announcement because it tried to tell him what do to, you make some changes.
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# ? Jan 16, 2021 04:22 |
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Piell posted:Look, after the third time Visser Three slashes the alarm speaker to pieces halfway through an announcement because it tried to tell him what do to, you make some changes. Oh gosh. Imagine being Visser Three's IT guy. Explaining why his computer has gone all slow or his phone isn't working. Aaaagh. Aaagh.
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# ? Jan 16, 2021 05:15 |
Props to Marco for shutting up the telepathic alien by punching it in the mouth.
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# ? Jan 16, 2021 08:00 |
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Hey, telepathy or no, a gorilla smacks you in the mouth you're about to have other things on your mind.
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# ? Jan 16, 2021 08:15 |
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Comrade Blyatlov posted:Props to Marco for shutting up the telepathic alien by punching it in the mouth. I mean... it's well and good, but security-wise... you're actually gonna have to murder that alien.
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# ? Jan 16, 2021 09:26 |
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freebooter posted:I mean... it's well and good, but security-wise... you're actually gonna have to murder that alien. Otherwise, he might tell the Visser something the Visser doesn't want to hear, which helps guarantee a long lifespan?
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# ? Jan 16, 2021 19:53 |
I really doubt that Visser One is so murder-happy on her underlings. I'd guess she'd at least hear them out, and only kill them if the information was no good.
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# ? Jan 16, 2021 20:13 |
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Epicurius posted:Otherwise, he might tell the Visser something the Visser doesn't want to hear, which helps guarantee a long lifespan?
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# ? Jan 16, 2021 20:15 |
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Animorphs-Book 15:The Escape-Chapter 25quote:“Containment failure in two minutes and fifty seconds. Have a nice day!” Marco's in a Yeerk punching mood today. quote:Ax himself was covered with the same disgusting green slime. Don't know what to say here other than poor Marco. Chapter 26 quote:I found them in her office. That’s where she had gone to override the computer. She stood, defiant behind her desk, with a handheld Dracon beam. Poor, poor Marco
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# ? Jan 17, 2021 04:52 |
These Yeerks clearly have never heard the proverb "never stand in punching distance of a gorilla"
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# ? Jan 17, 2021 04:59 |
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Yeah, I definitely did not read this or the last book. Huh. I must have missed them.
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# ? Jan 17, 2021 13:36 |
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quote:Jake’s a natural hero. Heroes always know what’s right. I really like this line.
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# ? Jan 17, 2021 17:06 |
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Animorphs-Book 15:The Escape-Chapter 27quote:The sharks were waiting for us. The super-hammerheads. They were there, circling the facility. I don’t know how, but somehow they’d been put on alert. Or maybe the destruction of the facility just had them agitated. Tobias, of course, doesn't know. quote:It was just the kind of thing I would have said. So Marco chooses to believe he'll see his mother free again. Next book is "The Warning". It's a Jake book. It's....a book that I don't think could be written today.
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# ? Jan 18, 2021 05:37 |
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It's been interesting going through these books now after reading them as a kid. I read the first 13 or so repeatedly so I remember them very well. However, while I remember the plot outlines of this book and the books through about number 28, I don't remember many of the details. I was probably aging out of them at this point in the series and while I still read them, I was starting to read adult fiction by this point. Fake edit: Yeah, I just looked up the publication order and I had started 6th grade (middle school) when book 11 was published. My language arts teacher pushed me to read more mature books at that point.
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# ? Jan 18, 2021 06:26 |
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GodFish posted:For some reason the ocean world shark heist chapters are the only ones I can remember from this book. The random controller guard must have really stood out to me. Okay it turns out I also remembered Marco pretending to be a Controller to his mother. Still not sure why I couldn't remember anything else, like the super sharks. Good book though, drat.
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# ? Jan 18, 2021 06:55 |
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Does that book end right there? Interesting choice - I feel like most of them have a little '90s-sitcom-esque debrief back at the mall or whatever. Also, (end series spoilers) if I'm remembering correctly Marco really does get to do all of that - both of his parents make it through the war and he's also one of the few genuinely happy and well-adjusted Animorphs afterwards. Epicurius posted:Next book is "The Warning". It's a Jake book. It's....a book that I don't think could be written today. Lol this is absolutely going to feel sillier than the horse book
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# ? Jan 18, 2021 07:12 |
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Animorphs-Book 16:The Warning-Chapter 1quote:typed “Bball24.” So the standard intro, more or less. quote:I connected at 38,400 bps. I wish I had a faster modem, but at least this one is better than my old 14,400. For those who don't know, in 1998, the cutting edge modems were 56 kbps, and modems Jake's speed were starting to get outdated. quote:Some offers popped up on the screen. Would I like to apply for a Web Access America Visa card? No. Would I like to buy a new antivirus program? No. I just typed Yeerk into Google. There are currently about 49,200 hits. Also, obviously. Web Access America is America Online, even down to the "You've got mail!" notification. Chapter 2 quote:“There’s a Yeerk home page?” Marco asked incredulously. “What do they have there? JPEGs of Yeerk slugs? Links to other alien invaders’ Web sites? Ads for Yahoo’s alien parasites selection?” Just checked. My current internet speed is 202 Mbps. So, at least Ax won't be so scornful of my connection. quote:Rachel rolled her eyes. “Yeah. It’s a swell sound. Sometimes I just lie in bed for six or seven hours doing nothing but saying ‘million.’” This still freaks me out a little in all the Jake books. "This is my cousin, Rachel. Of course, I don't think she's beautiful, because she's my cousin, but if she WASN'T my cousin....." quote:But Rachel isn’t about looks. I know this sounds corny, like something from a sword-and-sorcery game, but Rachel is a warrior. I don’t know what she’d have become in her life if this war with the Yeerks hadn’t happened. But once it did happen, it was like Rachel had found her place in the List of famous Yeerks: The President, The Vice President, The Speaker of the House, The Spice Girls, a high school vice principal. . . . quote:Cassie nodded. “Good question. Maybe they don’t know about The Sharing.” We're chatting about Yeerks! Epicurius fucked around with this message at 04:26 on Jan 20, 2021 |
# ? Jan 19, 2021 04:16 |
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"I'm not an archaeologist" is a sick burn.quote:Marco rolled his eyes. “You really need to think about joining up with this century, Cassie. A cookie is a Web browser tag that can give a Web site some information about you. Not you, you. But your screen name.” Thanks for the explainer, European Parliament
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# ? Jan 19, 2021 04:53 |
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I wonder if there ever was a goon who regged Bball24 as their user name and if they did, what became of them?
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# ? Jan 19, 2021 05:16 |
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This series has always been an exciting window into the mid-late 1990s but this sequence is just
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# ? Jan 19, 2021 05:20 |
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nine-gear crow posted:I wonder if there ever was a goon who regged Bball24 as their user name and if they did, what became of them? I'm pretty sure they can't tell you. Because they have a secret. A deadly secret. About yeerks. Yeerks. See,
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# ? Jan 19, 2021 05:22 |
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I liked this book as a kid. Now I love it, but for totally different reasons.
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# ? Jan 19, 2021 05:37 |
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Tree Bucket posted:I'm pretty sure they can't tell you. Because they have a secret. A deadly secret. About yeerks. Yeerks. (USER WAS INFESTED FOR THIS POST)
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# ? Jan 19, 2021 05:55 |
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# ? May 24, 2024 17:10 |
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For a crushing example of how time, technology and the internet have moved on since this book was written, here’s a tweet from Michael Grant getting pissed off at Dropbox like a weird old boomer https://twitter.com/MichaelGrantBks/status/1348704337954967552
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# ? Jan 19, 2021 12:56 |