It gets better. In Florida, because insurance companies are not only refusing to insure new clients, but yanking insurance away from existing ones (that would be our family this year), we are all having to purchase...
...wait for it...
government-provided insurance. Citizens Insurance is, by the way, about four times more expensive than any other insurance policy. People who live close to the financial bone are often choosing to forgo insurance (if they own their homes outright), because it's either insure or eat.
Well, you have to understand that an Insurance Company is all about the Company first... the whole Insurance thing is incidental.
It simply doesn't make sense from a business point of view to provide hurricane insurance in an area where there's a significant chance of there being a hurricane. It's like selling flood insurance to people who live on ten-year floodplains. Now, sell flood insurance to people living on hundred-year floodplains and you're making money. Maybe you should move to Ohio. I hear the hurricane insurance rates there are very reasonable.
As for the expensive government insurance, you have to understand that the government has to somehow support itself. Since it's completely unreasonable to tax the well-off (because, you see, they count and you poor plebs don't), they must make their money by "taxing" the worse off in the manner you just described. It's a win-win situation... if the poor buy the expensive insurance, then the tax cuts are financed. If they don't, then they go away after the hurricane and mansions can be built. Everybody who counts is happy!
Speaking of Burma, does anyone have any idea of what's happening in Myanmar? The lack of news from there is quite unsettling.
I may be a little behind here, but wasn't it supposed to be called The Enchantress of Dzur Mountain? It just seems more consistent. Plus, I'd finally learn how to pronounce "Dzur".
It's been a weird winter here out west. One week ago, we had record cold... -12 celsius. Today, record heat... 12 degrees celsius. The snow's supposed to start again next Wednesday. Considering that this is Vancouver and it usually snows, like, once a year, I'd say this is bizarre.
Oh, and FranW, convey my regards and appreciation to PeterJ (yeah, you're never going to hear the end of this).
I'm sure we must be talking about different things. Everybody I knew throughout highschool (this was the early-mid 90s) had read Dragonlance. Not only that, but everyone they knew and everyone those folks knew had read the Dragonlance trilogy. I'm talking about Weis and Hickman's original works. They were pretty good books for kids, although a bit, well, unsatisfying now.
You saw folks reading Dragonlance in the canteens, during sports events. Dragonlance even was common comfort reading material in the barracks.
OTOH, nobody had read the Earthsea trilogy. And, even if I thought it was a great read, no one could remotely relate to it. I mean, they sure wouldn't have read it if I hadn't lent it to them and they sure didn't want to reread, nevermind go out and purchase it (as if it was available at that time). It too is a kids' trilogy, but in terms of depth, quality of writing and sheer general greatness goes far beyond Dragonlance.
And which is more readily available and sells better? The Dragonlance trilogy is virtually being given the Lord of the Rings treatment. Hard or softback omnibus volumes, with or without authors' annotations. Individually bound volumes and beautifully illustrated gift sets. On the other hand, the Earthsea trilogy is usually found here and there in bits and pieces. And finding a set with consistent bindings? Not even on Amazon. If the sales quantity of the two series is comparable, well, it's only because one has been out longer than the other. And it won't stay that way for long.
A lack of good science fiction RPGS? Like Fallout, Fallout 2, Knights of the Old Republic (highly recommended, even if you're not a Star Wars fan) and... and... someone help me out!
Oh, and I'm not so sure about the assertion that it's not enough to conform to standard fanatasy tropes in fantasy novels. After all, AD&D books still sell remarkably well, R.A. Salvatore, Weis and Hickman built a career around standard fanatasy; their more adventurous attempts sold nowhere near as well as their Dungeons & Dragons stuff.
People like their fantasy to consist of obtaining the shiny dongle and/or defeating the big foozle. Look at how well Diablo 2 did compared to Planescape: Torment on the RPG side. How many more people have read the Dragonlance trilogy as opposed to the Earthsea trilogy?
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2008 | 1 |
| 2006 | 1 |
| 2004 | 3 |
| 2003 | 8 |
Total: 13 comments. View all these comments on a single page.
The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by cheem:
Show all comments by cheem.