Retief of the CDT! You're the first person I've seen mention him in *ages*.

US Military or other? I knew a few tankers - I was comms.

I've read that one. It was recommended by a bunch of hardcore guys I knew, and I can absolutely see why. It's an excellent antidote to some of the shiny happy militaristic fic, and it's nto written from a command perspective like so much MSF is.

"Armor" is one I've heard referenced again and again by hardcore guys; I think it's the bleak outlook and the concept of survival through impossible odds that make it so appealing. Have you ever read it?

You have to realize that most militaristic sci-fi isn't actually written by people with experience in the military.... :)

Depends on what mood you're in. But honestly, when I was *in* the military I didn't read much. Never really had the time.

Only if we clone more than one and let them hang out together. Nobody wants to be the last of their species.

I wonder if they'll be putting back issues up then? *puzzled*

I just found Baccano on Netflix! Can't wait, it looks awesome. And I've heard a lot about Black Lagoon, really want to read it.

Yeah, true enough; and I hate them equally in any media. Is nobody ever destined for garbage collection in these stories? Honestly.

I'm being gender-equal: it doesn't matter if it's a girl or a guy, Destined for Greatness is a cop-out and sucks every time.

My english teacher described the formula for ever romance ever: person A meets person B. Persons A and B fall in love. There is an obstacle; the obstacle is overcome. They live happily; the end.

Mine falls asleep after sex because I wore him out....

They're not quite all online though yet, are they? I checked out the Shonen Jump site the other day and only saw a few first episodes of manga online there. Do you know if there's more hidden somewhere when you subscribe, or are they still in the implementation phase?

As with any genre, there's a lot of crap and a little gold.

My pet peeve is "Hero(ine) is Destined For Greatness! After a lot of angst, of course." I'm so sick of destiny, prophecy, and all that crap being blithered about in fiction in general, and it's pretty common in manga too...

This seems like an easy tech fix complicated by human fear & cultural inertia. Put it online in a good-quality reliable format, make people pay a little to subscribe either to your site or by-the-manga, and people will pay you money for it. Pretty basic stuff. The scanlations are cool but frequently poor quality; put…

...this wasn't like weightlifting for me, this was for work. I was lifting comms equipment into place. And "place" was sometimes over the head of lil' me. And sometimes the comms equipment was heavier than I was. There was no form or training involved, it was pure "get the damn thing into the rack and don't die".…

It's all situational. Only the people involved can really tell weather it's right or wrong to get involved, but generally, when one person is in a position of authority over another, it's not a good idea.

Doubtful in the top percentiles; I know quite a few women who can do more. Generally it's because they're in training though, and I'm a lazy slack wench who likes her manga more than sweating over heavy things.