What the Hell Were You Thinking?: Good Advice for People Who Make Bad Decisions!
You say you’re surprised that the boyfriend you created in virtual reality isn’t as exciting as the guy he is based on who dumped you IRL was? The pizza you used your 3D printer to create was inedible, and now you’re thinking of using it as a hubcap for your car? Do you really want a 30,000 year-old virus that was preserved in ice and could cause untold amounts of damage to your body just because one of your classmates got one and you’re jealous of her?
WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?
Poor judgment abounds in What the Hell Were You Thinking? Good Advice for People Who Make Bad Decisions, the sixth collection of Alternate Reality News Service articles written and published by Ira Nayman, and the second to feature the advice columns Ask Amritsar and Ask the Tech Answer Guy. Even in worlds where superheroes pine for the love of ordinary people, unaware that behind their civilian identities they, too, are superheroes, where children swear off technology when their parents fiend them on Farcebook, and where you never know if the eye movement behind the glasses was a wink or a computer command, people make bad, bad, very bad choices. But, just between you and me, bad choices make for great advice columns!
Praise for the Alternate Reality News Service
“There is such a deadpan, realistic feel to the stories that really grabs your interest while the stories have intelligence, wit and political astuteness. Anyone with even a shred of a sense of humour should pick up [What Were Once Miracles Are Now Children’s Toys].” (Antony Jones, Science Fiction and Fantasy Web site)
“This book [The Guide to Love, Sex and Robots] was so funny that it caused me a couple of sleepless nights, because I couldn't stop reading the questions and answers.” (Seregil of Riminee, Rising Shadow)
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Ira Nayman
In his past lives, Ira Nayman was, among other things: a cave painter whose art was not appreciated in his lifetime; several nameless peasants who died before their 20th birthday during the Dark Ages; a toenail fungus specialist in the court of Louis XIV; and Alan Turing’s scullery maid.
In his current incarnation, Ira is the creator of Les Pages aux Folles, a Web site of political and social satire that will be 10 years old in the first week of September, 2012 (that’s positively Paleolithic in Internet years!). Three collections of Alternate Reality News Service (ARNS) stories (Alternate Reality Ain’t What It Used To Be, What Were Once Miracles Are Now Children’s Toys and Luna for the Lunies!) which originally appeared on the Web site have been self-published in print. Two new volumes of ARNS stories – The Street Finds Its Own Uses for Market Lateralization and The Alternate Reality News Service’s Guide To Sex, Love and Robots will be published in 2013. Probably. Hopefully. 2014 at the latest. Ira has produced the pilot for a radio series based on stories from the first two ARNS books; “The Weight of Information, Episode One” can be heard on YouTube.
Alternate Reality News Service
Alternate Reality News Service consists of 6 total books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
