I have liked Science Fiction since my teens. It is a great way to explore what is possible, and to comment on current trends in society.

Favorite Television Series Ever

Firefly - Imagine a western set in space, i loved the characters, the universe, the plots.. It only lasted one season, but wow.

Babylon 5 - Politics, intrigue, great friends, enemies.. complex and fascinating.

Favorite Movie Ever

I actually don't have one at the moment. I have many i love.. but a favorite? It had been Star Wars for years, but it is amazing how much different that movie seems to me now when I see it compared to when i saw it in earlier decades.

I tend to really like well done 'all-ages' movies, Shrek, Finding Nemo, The Little Princess.

Great Video on the Web

It has a very unlikely name, but it was done by the same person that did Firefly, Joss Whedon, and Nathan Fillon one of its stars ..I really didn't hope for much. But I loved it.

Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog

This is just funny, the better you know Star Wars, the better.

George Lucas In Love

I Love books, and haven't had much time to read. I started

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett writes the discworld series of novels. They are part fantasy, part satire, are a lot of run to read, and are quite insightful. Some of my favorites are Going Postal, Jingo, the Fifth Elephant, and the Monstrous Regiment. I love the recurring characters

Orson Scott Card

I really like the Ender's game series, especially Speaker for the Dead

 

Great NonFiction

Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond

Why was it that Columbus discovered America, and not the other way around? What factors sped or slowed down the grown of civilization? An amazing book

Tomorrows Table by Pamela C. Ronald

I just ordered this book after hearing about it from my plant biologist sister Jenifer, who is both pro-organic, and pro-science. The book talks about genetic engineering and organic farming and why these two ideas don't have to be mutually exclusive, something I have been saying for a long time.

You Just Don't Understand by Deborah

An amazing book that talks about conversation style differences between men and women, in terms of report talk, and repore talk. Very Illuminating

 

 

Favorite Poems

Mary Oliver is my favorite poem because of these two poems... Ask me to recite "The Journey" sometime

http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/MaryOliver.html

 

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver
published by Atlantic Monthly Press
© Mary Oliver

 

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.