Solonor's Inkwell

Haven’t done one of these things in a while. NPR did a strange mash-up of science fiction and fantasy novels that inexplicably left off some great and popular young adult titles (like Harry Potter) and sometimes used collections as one novel and sometimes didn’t. Combine the whole “popularity contest” nature of the thing, and it’s a real mess of a list. Some of these I’ve never heard of. But it’s a list!! So, I’m in.

Bolded the ones I’ve read and added some notes.

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien

2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

3. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card [started to read it, but didn’t get far]

4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert [the movie ruined it for me…every time I tried starting Dune, I got stuck on images from the movie and couldn’t continue]

5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin

6. 1984, by George Orwell

7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov

9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman

12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan

13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell

14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson

15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore

16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov

17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein

18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss

19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick

22. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood

23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King [actually in the middle of this one]

24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke

25. The Stand, by Stephen King

26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson

27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury

28. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman [got sidetracked and left it; gotta get back to this someday]

30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess

31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein

32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams

33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey

34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein

35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller

36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells

37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne

38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys

39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells

40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny

41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings

42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley

43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson

44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven

45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin

46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien [I tried…I really did…]

47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White

48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman [another one I need to get to soon]

49. Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke

50. Contact, by Carl Sagan

51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons

52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman

53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson

54. World War Z, by Max Brooks

55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle

56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman

57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett

58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson

59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold

60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett

61. The Mote In God’s Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind

63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke

65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson

66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist

67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks

68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard

69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb

70. The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger

71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson

72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne

73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore

74. Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi

75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson

76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke

77. The Kushiel’s Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey

78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin

79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire

81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson

82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde

83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks

84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart

85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson

86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher

87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe

88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn

89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan

90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock

91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury

92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley

93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge

94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov

95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson

96. Lucifer’s Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis

98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville

99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony [read some of this]

100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

It’s been less than a month since we unplugged the cable TV and started feeding straight off the internet fire hose. So far, the experiment has been a success, but it hasn’t been without its bumps and bruises (assuming you can call such a “first world” problem of how to watch primadonna women plan their weddings in the bitchiest fashion possible a “bruise”).

First, we switched from Bright House’s preferred internet service, Road Runner, to Earthlink on the strength of reviews about Earthlink’s superior support and the fact that the sales guy didn’t try to bullshit me into paying more for a “turbo” service that isn’t any faster than regular cable. And, miraculously, despite both services coming from the same provider and through the same equipment, we’ve seen the frequent drops of service we were having under RR disappear (except for the mix-up in canceling the TV service when they cut off the internet too). If there is a speed difference between RR Turbo and plain old Earthlink, we haven’t noticed it, and it’s not like we’re light users…with a TV that is totally internet driven and up to four PC’s and a couple of smart phones and guest laptops using the ‘net at once.

For hardware, we’re using the Xbox 360 that we’ve had for games since 2006 or something. We had already been using it for Netflix viewing over the past couple of years, so it was all set up. But, after surveying the content landscape, there was a severe gap that needed filling, and when Apple dropped the price of its Apple TV  to $99, we got one.

For content, we have Netflix for the movies and seasons of shows on DVD and Hulu for current TV shows. (Hulu Plus is required for running it through the Xbox, but you also need a way to see the stuff they mark as “web only”…that’s where PlayOn comes in.)

PlayOn is for anything on the web that has a video feed but that’s not on Hulu Plus or Netflix, including Hulu, CBS, and a bunch of other sites. There are plugins for lots of extra sources at playonplugins.com

We bought the Apple TV for anything we absolutely can’t live without or wait until it gets on DVD (like Doctor Who). As a side benefit, it also has Netflix, and the YouTube channel has gotten a lot of use.

The Good

We are watching less “crap” TV just because it’s in front of us, and we’re not using it for background noise, just having it on for the sake of it. That actually took some getting used to, as I’ve been in a house with a TV that’s almost always on since 1962. We are also watching shows we might not have noticed, like the British show Misfits (which we love), and catching up on series that we somehow missed, like 30 Rock (which I can’t believe I never watched before). We’re not missing our regular morning dose of the Daily Show, lacking in new things to watch (like Wilfred) or feeling left out.

The Bad

We are now really dependent on the internet connection being up and good. We haven’t had a lot of the drops that we used to, but there was the incident where Bright House shut off the internet by mistake (just in time to miss the first episode of Torchwood). And currently we are sitting Xbox-less thanks to our Live account being hacked. Finally, we don’t usually care if a show is in HD, but video quality (with some exception) is not going to satisfy pickier people.

The Ugly

I’m a geek, so having a bunch of different devices to entertain me is not a problem. However, I want to make the experience as easy as possible for the rest of the family. Yes, we’re saving money, but it shouldn’t have to be a chore to figure out which device and service to use for the particular show you want to watch.

Unfortunately, I haven’t found a good all-in-one alternative, yet. As mentioned before, we need Apple TV to be able to rent things that aren’t available for free elsewhere, but Hulu doesn’t play on Apple. Meanwhile, the Xbox has all the other services, but they are on separate menus that aren’t all uniform or easy to follow (not to mention the $50 annual fee for Live and the threat of getting hacked). I tried using Windows Media Center to at least get everything onto one menu, but PlayOn doesn’t want to work through it for some reason.

I looked at Roku to be an alternative to the Xbox, but for some reason they are in a feud with PlayOn. PlayOn says they have a user-created channel that works, but any mention of PlayOn in the Roku forums is immediately stifled. Without PlayOn, you have Hulu Plus but none of the “web only” shows. Boxee has the opposite problem. It will play web-only Hulu, but it doesn’t support Hulu Plus.

I also looked at the Sony Internet TV Blue-ray disc player with Google TV. While we could use a blue ray player, the reviews aren’t glowing and the price tag of $300 kinda eats up the savings we’re wanting to see from ditching cable.

So, on balance, everything is good. Still looking for that magic cable/DVR replacement that plays all available content and is cheap.

So, um, yeah. Yesterday was our 25th wedding anniversary. Can you believe it? Someone has put up with me for over a quarter of a century!

To celebrate, I got picked up from work (down to one car temporarily thanks to a car crash by Pepperkat for those who don’t follow along on Facebook…) and we went to IHOP! Woo!!

Actually, we’re hopping in the car Friday morning, and we’re not coming back for just about the rest of June. Just the two of us driving about and seeing the sights. We’re going up to Chattanooga, first, then winding through the Blue Ridge Parkway for a few days before landing in Washington, DC, for a week. We’ll spend a couple days in Williamsburg and one in Charleston on our way back. Should be pretty fun. The only schedule we have is the pre-booked hotels. Other than that, we’re freeeeeeeeeeee!

When I did a mini-relaunch of the blog and posted my first song in years, I figured there would be bumps, but I didn’t expect to get sent out of town three weeks in a row. That, combined with a lengthy practice session for a bell choir concert last weekend, kinda took the wind out of my sails.

Anywho, I’m back home for the foreseeable future, and I’ve got a stack of tunes lined up to record. In case you were wondering.

Osama bin Laden is dead. Pretty much gave up the thought of ever seeing that happen.

While ascribing all the evils of the last 10 years to one guy seems naive, Osama triggered death and war and a host of terror-inspired curbs on freedom that we’re never going to wipe away with his death. Good riddance. It’s guys like you that make taking Jesus’ commandment to love your enemies nearly impossible.

What disturbed me last night were the cheering throngs in the streets.

We didn’t win anything.

I started to write something similar, but Michele’s post is better than what I would have said. Granted, I’ve got “Ding! Dong! The witch is dead!” running through my head, but this isn’t your favorite sport team’s championship. This is the end of an expensive, bloody manhunt that might have meant something concrete years ago. Now, it’s just a symbolic act of retribution that doesn’t change much. Stop acting like the thugs in the streets on September 12, 2001, who cheered the attack on innocents and felt righteous doing so. Now is the time for quietly remembering all the lives lost over the last 10 years either due to this man’s minions or in the pursuit of justice.