Stephen Kings wonky astronomy

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Jimpy

Well-Known Member
May 22, 2014
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lol... I'm more of a lousy speller than I am a sloppy speller so I turned off Auto-Correction but left on Check Spelling so my misspelled words would be underlined and alternate spellings would be suggested. I turned off Siri too. Siri considered most of my words to be gibberish... I had to correct too many of the words Siri misunderstood. I have a bit of a Southern accent lol.

Tip: You may already know this but... you can take screenies by pressing the sleep/wake button and the home button at the same time. Have you discovered any neat tricks?

The only iPad trick I know is you can get the apostrophe ' by holding down the comma/exclamation point button on the screen keyboard instead of going to the next screen you have to hold down the button till the ' pops up then swipe your finger, don't lift the finger. You can do the same thing for the quotes " with the question mark/period. If you go to the numbers and symbols screens you can get all kinds of symbols. §@¡¿,\•`
‘«„”“»;—=<‰±
 

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
30,011
127,446
Spokane, WA
The only iPad trick I know is you can get the apostrophe ' by holding down the comma/exclamation point button on the screen keyboard instead of going to the next screen you have to hold down the button till the ' pops up then swipe your finger, don't lift the finger. You can do the same thing for the quotes " with the question mark/period. If you go to the numbers and symbols screens you can get all kinds of symbols. §@¡¿,\•`
‘«„”“»;—=<‰±
Yes, but will it change the oil in your car or brush your cat? ;;D Just teasing ya, Jimpy! I don't have an iPad. Can barely keep up with my 'Smart Phone', doncha know? Technology is w-a-y beyond me at this point in my life! I just learned a couple of days ago how to 'save' pics people send to my phone......
 

Jimpy

Well-Known Member
May 22, 2014
75
394
65
Yes, but will it change the oil in your car or brush your cat? ;;D Just teasing ya, Jimpy! I don't have an iPad. Can barely keep up with my 'Smart Phone', doncha know? Technology is w-a-y beyond me at this point in my life! I just learned a couple of days ago how to 'save' pics people send to my phone......

Change my oil, that's why God created lube Stop. As for brushing my cat if I try to do that I get a picture that I can't figure out how to get from Facebook to here. So I feel you on technology.
 

Jimpy

Well-Known Member
May 22, 2014
75
394
65
Yes, but will it change the oil in your car or brush your cat? ;;D Just teasing ya, Jimpy! I don't have an iPad. Can barely keep up with my 'Smart Phone', doncha know? Technology is w-a-y beyond me at this point in my life! I just learned a couple of days ago how to 'save' pics people send to my phone......

I was just thinking, in the old days, let's say when I was in high school (Nixon was president), it would have taken forever for a conversation to turn from the accuracy of full moons in a novel ( yes I am aware Cycle of the Werewolf wasn't written yet) to brushing you cat with an iPad (yes I am aware the iPad wasn't invented then), at least not without some serious drugs. And here we did it in less than 32 hours.

While I was reminiscing about high school I remembered my recent discovery of the evil dark side of the internet. After looking through Facebook not to long ago, I discovered all the hot girls I went to high school with now look like somebody's grandmother. Of course most of them are somebody's grandmother, but my memories are ruined. I guess I kinda knew this was going to happen when I started, but nothing drives reality home for you like reality being driven home.


 

EMTP513

Well-Known Member
Oct 31, 2012
503
1,923
Well, thank God. There's one I didn't notice anything wrong because I'm a paramedic and not an astronomer. I have no education other than paramedic and most people think paramedics are the third choice of people to help in an emergency, calling for a "doctor, nurse or paramedic," not knowing that unless the nurse works in Critical Care all the time, it's not exactly the 'best' choice for a Trauma 1 emergency. If you work in health care you'll know what I mean and that I'm not belittling the profession. I'm just saying that even some doctors - who AREN'T Emergency Physicians - don't understand exactly what we do. They think we drive the ambulance, then lift and manually transfer the patient to emergency staff.
Also, no nurse is allowed to intubate patients. Ask any of them if they can place an intubation tube into a patient. The answer is they can't because the anesthesiologist is on the scene and does it. Or Respiratory therapists do it. Not nurses. So if a person stopped breathing in the field instead of the hospital, no nurse would be allowed to intubate the patient.

My point from that tangential rant is that this medical information that people read in books and is wrong also becomes belief in their minds, and I find that thought more terrifying than all the Stephen King novels combined.
Because making an error when helping someone in an emergency has the real possibility of killing them, and I've seen it happen. They had no idea that what they did was the reason the patient died and we never told them so, but it still happened. That's why I think correct medical information is so important.
I guess that means I'll never be a good writer.
I couldn't lie about information when my editor insisted I lie about. I've never written anything again, but I loved writing before I had that disturbing experience.

In fact, although he doesn't know it Stephen King is the one who inspired me to feel like I could pursue a writing career. I wrote a letter to him in 1994 and one of his people wrote back. They gave me information on how to contact the right people.
They couldn't have known I was going to meet this guy.
I wish I still felt a passion to write something though, regardless of this one editor. Unfortunately, the fire is still barely glowing embers. My spark for wanting to write dimmed so much after the experience that I barely feel any excitement toward writing.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
....no, you are most certainly correct...I am an RN, and in school was never trained to intubate-oral or nasal airways yes, but I for one-don't want that responsibility and very much respect those that have the training and are competent to perform it...further, from working around Paramedics and EMT's-I know they truly are more in-tune with patient needs than many MD's and nurses...so many places are using traveling staff and contract physicians, that they really aren't that skilled at ANY discipline...we have an MD at the prison who is allegedly ER trained, and even after several months of being there, and us without even an IV pump-have to keep reminding him we can't push intravenous meds...sheesh!...
 

Tiny

RECEIVED:Annoying Questions award
Nov 25, 2009
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Wilmington DE, strange little place.
I'm sure it's been brought up before, including by Stephen King himself, but the full moon dates of Cycle of the Werewolf really destroyed the book for me. The worst part was that if he picked his year carefully, he could have had the two big days, the 4th of July and Halloween both have full moons, along with a couple days after thanksgiving and December 29th. He also would have been within a week of New Year's Day, Easter and Labor Day. It happened in 1974, full moon was a day before Labor Day and the day after thanksgiving. It was a week off of Easter, valentines day and New Year's Day.

He either didn't do any research or got all artsy "damn the calendar" on us. Either way (or both) it bothered me to much to really enjoy the book. It took me years to finish it because I'd always cringe at his full moon dates.

Jimpy
If you can't take the heat, don't swim with the big dogs.



dude...there are other worlds then these... In some worlds the full moons happen
of different days then ours.
It all depends on what universe a person lives in . Some universes have Coke-a-cola and some
have Nozz-a-la !!!. Read all seven gunslinger books. Eight if you like ...and Everything E.
 

Neesy

#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
May 24, 2012
61,289
239,271
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
In another thread someone mentioned about north and south, mountains and oceans etc.

Here is an excerpt from book one, segment I of The Wasteland, called Bear and Bone:

Roland shook his head. "Not a compass. I know what they are, of course, but these days I keep my directions by the sun and stars, and even now they serve me quite well".

"Even now?" Susannah asked, a trifle uneasily.

He nodded. "The directions of the world are also in drift."

It goes on to talk about Eddie feeling ill, etc.


My point is, just enjoy the story. Don't dissect every single word.

All this analysis makes me think of the teacher who gave Jake an A+ on his assignment (this comes later in the book) - I got a great laugh out of that! (the Choo Choo train, etc.)
 
Mar 12, 2010
6,538
29,004
Texas
The only iPad trick I know is you can get the apostrophe ' by holding down the comma/exclamation point button on the screen keyboard instead of going to the next screen you have to hold down the button till the ' pops up then swipe your finger, don't lift the finger. You can do the same thing for the quotes " with the question mark/period. If you go to the numbers and symbols screens you can get all kinds of symbols. §@¡¿,\•`
‘«„”“»;—=<‰±

That's a great trick! Thanks :) I just used it in the first word of this post :)

It's (used the trick again lol) been a million years since I've read Cycle of the Werewolf, is that the one that was written in script form?