Author Topic: EP146: Edward Bear and the Very Long Walk  (Read 57302 times)

Heradel

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Reply #100 on: April 03, 2008, 05:03:46 PM
If you linked to Amazon, I probably did side in and alter the links. 

We had a full disclosure thread, but since it has fallen down the boards a bit, I'll restate it here.

EP has an Amazon account.  This means that if you click on any of the altered links and buy the item, EP gets a cut.  Almost every website that links to Amazon does this.  We're just trying to get Steve his cut. 

As far as my Netflix list goes, we don't add links to your post.  If you want it to become a paying link for EP, you need to put in the Amazon link.  Then one of us will slide in and alter it.  Most of the time we add a note that we did it.  I often forget to do that.  We aren't hiding anything.  I just have a shitty memory.

We, We have a shitty memory.

I Twitter. I also occasionally blog on the Escape Pod blog, which if you're here you shouldn't have much trouble finding.


birdless

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Reply #101 on: April 03, 2008, 09:12:48 PM
Noted. From now on, I'll try to start taking the time to add the appropriate link to Amazon. And for my part, notes noting the new notation are not needed, nanks nanyways.



Tango Alpha Delta

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Reply #102 on: April 04, 2008, 02:26:27 AM
If you linked to Amazon, I probably did side in and alter the links. 

We had a full disclosure thread, but since it has fallen down the boards a bit, I'll restate it here.

EP has an Amazon account.  This means that if you click on any of the altered links and buy the item, EP gets a cut.  Almost every website that links to Amazon does this.  We're just trying to get Steve his cut. 

As far as my Netflix list goes, we don't add links to your post.  If you want it to become a paying link for EP, you need to put in the Amazon link.  Then one of us will slide in and alter it.  Most of the time we add a note that we did it.  I often forget to do that.  We aren't hiding anything.  I just have a shitty memory.

We, We have a shitty memory.

Mind like a steel sieve, this one ... that's why I whine to the Mods for help with "complicated" stuff like links...

 :-[

This Wiki Won't Wrangle Itself!

I finally published my book - Tad's Happy Funtime is on Amazon!


stePH

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Reply #103 on: April 04, 2008, 05:15:57 AM
Seems to me that all one has to do for Escape Artists to get a kickback from an Amazon purchase, is to add "/escapepod-20" to the end of the link, am I right?

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SFEley

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Reply #104 on: April 04, 2008, 06:52:50 AM
Seems to me that all one has to do for Escape Artists to get a kickback from an Amazon purchase, is to add "/escapepod-20" to the end of the link, am I right?

I think so.  To tell the truth, it's mysterious to me too what works and what doesn't.  It's hard to tell, because of course, if they aren't giving us the affiliate credit, we usually won't know about it.  >8->  The support really means a lot, though.



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Russell Nash

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Reply #105 on: April 04, 2008, 09:11:12 AM
If you linked to Amazon, I probably did side in and alter the links. 

We had a full disclosure thread, but since it has fallen down the boards a bit, I'll restate it here.

EP has an Amazon account.  This means that if you click on any of the altered links and buy the item, EP gets a cut.  Almost every website that links to Amazon does this.  We're just trying to get Steve his cut. 

As far as my Netflix list goes, we don't add links to your post.  If you want it to become a paying link for EP, you need to put in the Amazon link.  Then one of us will slide in and alter it.  Most of the time we add a note that we did it.  I often forget to do that.  We aren't hiding anything.  I just have a shitty memory.

We, We have a shitty memory.

The problem is we alternate who gets the memory.  I get it Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and alternate Sundays.



Tango Alpha Delta

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Reply #106 on: April 04, 2008, 12:36:41 PM
Seems to me that all one has to do for Escape Artists to get a kickback from an Amazon purchase, is to add "/escapepod-20" to the end of the link, am I right?

That's what I thought, but I couldn't tell where the link "ended" and all my search/cookie garbage began. 

Not that I tried very hard... there was a Dark Sorcerer Wizard with a small, blue golfball named "Kervin" leading his older brother, a Wheel Warrior (with a wheel named "Kirby") and his little sister, Link (who carries a purple whip named Doris), through the living room, each bellowing their own theme music at full volume.  TGIF, and we leave for school in 10 minutes.

This Wiki Won't Wrangle Itself!

I finally published my book - Tad's Happy Funtime is on Amazon!


wintermute

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Reply #107 on: April 04, 2008, 01:19:09 PM
Seems to me that all one has to do for Escape Artists to get a kickback from an Amazon purchase, is to add "/escapepod-20" to the end of the link, am I right?

That's what I thought, but I couldn't tell where the link "ended" and all my search/cookie garbage began.

Amazon links are mostly garbage. All you need is http://www.amazon.com followed by /dp/ followed by whatever the next section is. Everything else you can strip out without harm. Example:
http://www.amazon.com/Nightfall-Bantam-Spectra-Isaac-Asimov/dp/0553290991/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207315010&sr=8-2
and
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0553290991/
both go to exactly the same place.

Science means that not all dreams can come true


Russell Nash

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Reply #108 on: April 04, 2008, 09:32:42 PM
Seems to me that all one has to do for Escape Artists to get a kickback from an Amazon purchase, is to add "/escapepod-20" to the end of the link, am I right?

That's what I thought, but I couldn't tell where the link "ended" and all my search/cookie garbage began.

Amazon links are mostly garbage. All you need is http://www.amazon.com followed by /dp/ followed by whatever the next section is. Everything else you can strip out without harm. Example:
http://www.amazon.com/Nightfall-Bantam-Spectra-Isaac-Asimov/dp/0553290991/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207315010&sr=8-2
and
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0553290991/
both go to exactly the same place.

There's a little more to it if the code is being used.  We are purposely not giving out the code.  Links used in the forums will be converted by one of the moderators unless the poster doesn't want us to do it. 

For those of you who would like to buy something from amazon and donate to EP at the same time we already have this little thread.



eclipse

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Reply #109 on: April 18, 2008, 08:00:23 PM
i loved this story.
thank you.
i also blogged about it on lj to make all my friends listen.
it made me cry.



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Reply #110 on: April 30, 2008, 07:27:07 PM
Add me another person who absolutely loved this story.
From the beginning and the great way it introduces the situation to the end which brought a tear to my eye, all brought to life by great narration.
Thankyou. 


DDog

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Reply #111 on: June 02, 2008, 10:39:19 PM
Unfortunately I listened to this story awhile ago so my comments may not be relevant.

I think I liked it. I am also inclined to agree with the "everyone is on a hero's journey" view voiced at the top of the thread, or fool's journey a la tarot cards. I realized it was Pooh fairly soon, but was a little confused why the references were oblique instead of direct. I really liked the idea of the character, and that he was given ultimate knowledge while plugged into the ship but could only store so much of it in his own "little brain." That and the hallucinated cameos at the end were probably my favorite things.

I'm glad that song made it into the post-episode comments!

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Prince Bacarrati

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Reply #112 on: June 03, 2008, 03:11:23 AM
Great story.  Loved the bear and the idea of such nice machines.



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Reply #113 on: June 20, 2008, 12:00:55 AM
Wow, what an interesting story.
I've only listened to it once and liked it well enough.  Though now more than week since I ingested it I'm still thinking about and appreciating more and more the profound emotional effect of this piece .  There is a lot in there is a lot of room for exploration in this gem.  I think I will be listening again and try figure out why this story of a robotic teddy bear in outer space has spoke so strongly to my soul.
~Robert



wintermute

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Reply #114 on: June 20, 2008, 01:22:19 AM
...but was a little confused why the references were oblique instead of direct.

Copyright.

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goatkeeper

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Reply #115 on: June 20, 2008, 02:01:13 AM
...but was a little confused why the references were oblique instead of direct.

Copyright.

Hadn't that about that.  Good example of crafty appropriation.  If Fox owned Winnie the Poo they would still have found a way to sue though.  Then it would be Edward Bear and the Very Large Settlement.



Windup

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Reply #116 on: June 20, 2008, 02:26:40 AM
...but was a little confused why the references were oblique instead of direct.

Copyright.

Hadn't that about that.  Good example of crafty appropriation.  If Fox owned Winnie the Poo they would still have found a way to sue though.  Then it would be Edward Bear and the Very Large Settlement.


Actually, I think suing the principals involved would violate that important doctrine enunciated by that great legal mind, Steve Dallas: "Never, never, never, sue poor people..." 

The exception being, of course, "Unless this poor person losing now will help you win with a rich person later..." 

"My whole job is in the space between 'should be' and 'is.' It's a big space."


birdless

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Reply #117 on: June 20, 2008, 06:10:20 PM
Actually, I think suing the principals involved would violate that important doctrine enunciated by that great legal mind, Steve Dallas: "Never, never, never, sue poor people..." 
All i needed to know i learned from Steve Dallas. Have they started putting warning labels on those cameras, yet?



Russell Nash

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Reply #118 on: June 23, 2008, 09:50:48 AM
Actually, I think suing the principals involved would violate that important doctrine enunciated by that great legal mind, Steve Dallas: "Never, never, never, sue poor people..." 
All i needed to know i learned from Steve Dallas. Have they started putting warning labels on those cameras, yet?

No just on Sean Penn's forehead.



Jacin Redeaux

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Reply #119 on: June 24, 2008, 04:05:45 AM
I liked this story quite a bit. I let my 6 and 11 year olds listen in the car after I had screened it. I always appreciate (and act on) the warnings! In this case, it really was a spring board for my older son to use in his own writings. I pointed out how this story takes a fairly well known idea and adds a new angle making a whole new story. In business, an idea only has to be 10% new and wham the market grabs it(Starbucks did not invent the selling of coffee), this seems the same kind of thing. My younger son really liked how Edward got to be a true hero, had real fights, and in the end added real significance to his "life".

Good one!

Jacin Redeaux


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Reply #120 on: August 31, 2010, 04:42:18 PM
I liked almost all of this story, but the oblique Pooh references really bugged me.  They should've either been more direct or more subtle.  If they weren't direct for copyright reasons, as suggested, well then maybe you shouldn't write a story so clearly based on a copyrighted character.  The story would've been the same without the Pooh references.  For me it got especially annoying near the end when he started hallucinating about his 100 Acre Wood friends, which served no purpose for me except to just cram a few extra references in the last bit.  It struck me in the same way that much of X-Men 3 struck me--there are a LOT of characters from the comic in X-Men 3, but most of them are only on-screen long enough to be introduced, and if they're lucky they get one speaking line.  So instead of using them as part of the story, like in the first two movies, it was just a "Let's see how many campy references we can cram into 2 hours, it won't be irritating at all, I promise!"  Yeah, this was like that for me.

I liked the quest, I liked the slow reveal.  I liked Edward's thought process.  I was sad that he died, though by that time I was annoyed enough by the oblique Pooh references that I wasn't as sad as I would've been.

I've been fond of Winnie the Pooh since I was a kid.  I watched the Disney version a lot, and also watched the cartoon on Saturday mornings.  I'm not sure I've ever read the books, but I definitely want to.
A bit of trivia for you:  Did you know that the voice of Eeyore in the cartoon show and movies is also the voice of Optimus Prime in Transformers (both the 80s cartoon series and the Michael Bay film).  Peter Cullen, I believe his name is, and his IMDB list has dozens of 80s cartoon cameos for voice acting.  I'd been big fans of both Eeyore and Optimus for nigh on 20 years before I realized that!  :)



Talia

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Reply #121 on: August 31, 2010, 05:28:27 PM
Heh. I was all about to say I was surprised anyone would have any kind of negative reaction to the stories - this is solidly in my top three favorite EP episodes of all time - but then I went back and read the old comments and this story was really divisive, either people really liked it and were shocked at the negative comments, or exactly the opposite.

Must be a stylistic thing - something about the format either REALLY works to some people's tastes, or REALLY doesn't.




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Reply #122 on: August 31, 2010, 05:39:40 PM
Heh. I was all about to say I was surprised anyone would have any kind of negative reaction to the stories - this is solidly in my top three favorite EP episodes of all time - but then I went back and read the old comments and this story was really divisive, either people really liked it and were shocked at the negative comments, or exactly the opposite.

Must be a stylistic thing - something about the format either REALLY works to some people's tastes, or REALLY doesn't.

I was sort of in the middle actually.  I liked the story, but hated the Pooh references.  Those references could easily have been removed and then I would've loved it without reservations.  You can write a story about a bear of very little brains without it actually BEING Pooh, just reminiscient of Pooh.



eytanz

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Reply #123 on: August 31, 2010, 05:44:38 PM
Must be a stylistic thing - something about the format either REALLY works to some people's tastes, or REALLY doesn't.



Actually, if you look back to the initial reactions, everyone who commented negatively (and I guess I should include myself there, even though I liked the story) was mostly complaining about thematic issues and the use of the Winnie-the-Pooh character, and there are almost no negative comments about anything stylistic. The complaints about the writing style are relatively late in the thread.

As to whether it was a good idea to use the Edward bear character or whether it would have been better off using a novel bear character, I can only say that at this point, two and a half years after I heard the story, I remembered it mostly as "the story that used Winnie-The-Pooh references for no good reason". I didn't remember anything else about it. I was actually surprised, going back to my early post in the thread, that I seemed to like everything else about the story, given that that has been overshadowed entirely in my mind.



Talia

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Reply #124 on: August 31, 2010, 06:06:16 PM
I didnt express myself clearly, but I'm having trouble putting it into words, so never mind.