Science! (Fiction)

My hair is short!
I have new clothes!
I'm playing "Need For Speed: Underground" on my PS2 and it is good. Very good. Pretty damn spectacular even!
More about this in the next post.
But for now, time to clean house!

I'd seen this in another LJ but completely forgot about posting my reply.

Index of the 100 science fiction books you just have to read: (according to Phobos Books)
Click here for list

Out of those 100 books, are the ones I've read or seen movie or TV movies of:

1. Childhood's End (Arthur C. Clarke)
Got bored halfway through it, never finished it. Then "V" came out on TV and I was like "Hey, wait a minute..."

2. Foundation (Isaac Asimov)
Only read Second Foundation and found it pretty darn dry. Not as dry as anything by James P. Hogan though.

3. Dune (Frank Herbert)
Pretty dry, but my brother said "read it", so I read it, and all the other books in the series, up to Chapterhouse Dune.
Also saw the movie, and had a friend tape both mini-series on Sci-Fi Channel, and I now own the DVDs.

4. Man in the High Castle (Philip K. Dick)
Read it.

5. Starship Troopers (Robert A. Heinlein)
Saw the movie, realized it was nothing like the book. Need to read the book.

9. Space Merchants (C.M. Kornbluth & Frederick Pohl)
Read it.

15. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Arthur C. Clarke)
Own the movie on laserdisc. Read "The Sentinel".

16. Ringworld (Larry Niven)
Yes, and all the other books too.

19. The Day of the Triffids (John Wyndham)
Saw the movie.

22. Gray Lensman (E. E. “Doc” Smith)
Saw the anime. Should read some of those books.

27. The War of the Worlds (H.G. Wells)
Saw the George Pal movie.

28. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne)
Saw all the different movies.

30. The Time Machine (H.G. Wells)
Saw both movies.

31. The Stars My Destination (Alfred Bester)
Read it.

32. Slan (A.E. Van Vogt)
Read it.

33. Neuromancer (William Gibson)
Read it. Also read Mona Lisa Overdrive, Burning Chrome, and others by Bill.

34. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
Read it.

39. Journey to the Center of the Earth (Jules Verne)
Saw the movie.

40. Stranger in a Strange Land (Robert Heinlein)
Read it.

48. To Your Scattered Bodies Go (Philip Jose Farmer)
Read it. Read the other books in the series. Also watched the TV movie, which sucked.

51. 1984 (George Orwell)
Saw the movie, read Animal Farm.

53. Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson)
Own it, but haven't read it yet.

57. Startide Rising (David Brin)
Read it.

60. A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess)
Own the movie and the soundrack CD. Should read the book.

61. Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
Read it, and saw it.

63. Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes)
Saw the movie. "What do you see in the future?" "A TV in every room."

65. The Postman (David Brin)
Saw the movie. Liked it.

67. Berserker (Fred Saberhagen)
Read it. And all the others in the series.

75. Forever War (Joe Haldeman)
Read it. Also read a, in my opinion, better book: Armor (John Steakley)

79. The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury)
Read it, saw the TV series. Ray Bradbury was my first sci-fi author.

85. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
Read it. And the other 4 books. And the Neil Gaiman-written Companion book. And the Radio Scripts.
And both Dirk Gently novels. And the Infocom game. And Adams' other Infocom game.

89. Solaris (Stanislaw Lem)
Saw both the Russian and American versions of the movie. The American one wins, IMHO.

93. The Demolished Man (Alfred Bester)
Read it.

98. The Andromeda Strain (Michael Crichton)
Saw the Robert Wise movie. Possibly the best Crichton movie ever made, IMHO.



Coming up next: haircut, Hot Wheels, and haberdashery!!

Weekend Update: The Beginning

Well, I did it.
I had my hair cut.
It's pretty short now.
I'll post before and after photos later.
But for now, le recap du weekend!



Fryday Augustus VI
Urrrrrr, well, it was kind of a weird, odd, slow day at work.
There was some moving of people and offices, so work was disrupted a bit.
Then I went home and did stuff.
I finally cracked open my copy of "Need For Speed: Underground" for PS2, which I bought from a coworker.
This wasn't the first "rice cooker" racing game I'd ever played. I had had experience with "Tokyo Highway Battle"
on PSX, and I had found it way too "trainspotter" and too otaku-ish for my taste.
Most of the racing games I play are things like the "Need For Speed" and "Ridge Racer" series.
Either European and American muscle and exotic cars, or made-up cars. This NFS:U game is different:
it's mostly fully rice-able Japanese cars (with a Peugeot, VolksWagen, Hyundai, and Ford tossed in).
Another big difference is that all the racing takes place at night.
By and large, most of the races in the games I've played are during the day: morning, noon, afternoon, maybe evening.
NFSU is all about the night racing, in the city, on puddle-filled streets. And it looks great.
Especially the reflections on the ground. And the framerate is rock-steady.
I was completely blown away by the graphics and the sense of speed within 5 minutes of booting the game.

I played the game on and off all weekend, and I'm now the proud owner of a Mazda Miata with the most gorgeous
light blue metallic paint you ever did see, with dark red rims, red brake calipers and a metallic red exhaust tip.
Plus body-colored front, rear, and side skirts, and roof scoop, and a dark blue metallic spoiler.
And a red wasp-looking vinyl on both sides and stickers and...

Crap, I'm hooked, ain't I?
And on rice cookers to boot! Aiiiiiiieeee!!!

I hear "Need For Speed: Underground 2" is coming out at the end of the month.
I am SO doomed...



Okay, I don't have time to do the whole weekend recap, so I'll do this in instalments.
This was part I of III.
Stay twoned!