Monday, March 12, 2007

Quick SciFi/Fantasy Booklist.

The following list of the 50 most significant SF and Fantasy books comes from here.

Books in bold are ones that I have read.

The Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years, 1953-2002

  1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
  2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
  3. Dune, Frank Herbert
  4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
  5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
  6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
  7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
  8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
  9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
  10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
  11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
  12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
  13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
  14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
  15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
  16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
  17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
  18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
  19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
  20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
  21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
  22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
  23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
  24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
  25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
  26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
  27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
  28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
  29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
  30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
  31. Little, Big, John Crowley
  32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
  33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
  34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
  35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
  36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
  37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
  38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
  39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
  40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
  41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
  42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
  43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
  44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
  45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
  46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
  47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
  48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
  49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
  50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer
I haven't even completed half! However, this list is missing A Song of Fire and Ice series so I'm not sure I agree with the entire list!

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Meetings

Subtitle: too many cooks spoil the broth

We are preparing for the entire scheduling process for next school year (it's an enormously complex undertaking). Almost every school finds themselves behind the eight-ball in late August and vows to start earlier next year. Our high school secretary, Tech-assistant, and myself planned a meeting this morning to get the ball rolling. We invited several others who we felt had a great deal of experience/knowledge to contribute to the planning. Our guidance counselor, middle and high school principals, and the Tech-head all showed up. Our plan had been to lay out a timeframe, and gather some basic information to start the process.

Last year, we used our new computer system to schedule the entire district. It was a massive learning experience. And when I say we, I mean the high school secretary, tech-assist and I did it all. I volunteered about 50 hours during June to learn the computer system and begin the build process. None of the other invested parties bothered to learn anything about how it worked. Head-tech implemented a system change over in July before the new master schedule was built which instantly disabled many of the built in computer tools. Principals 'forgot' to inform us about minor things like teacher changes, class requirements, new electives, other pieces that added up to about another 70 hours of work. Counselor was too computer phobic to tackle the entire process (he has since come around and is much better).

Even with these hurdles, which are completely typical of any school, our trio managed to make some initial mistakes that only became apparent much later. There was a great deal of sweating by all involved with less than two days to go in August but we pulled it off.

Having learned massive amounts of useful skills and some key things to avoid, the trio went into this morning's meeting with huge expectations. What we got were the usual suspects once again not understanding the process and what we could actually do. They spent the entire meeting rehashing old arguments that are irrelevant or beyond our control. Instead of gather the information we needed from the individuals who are supposed to have it, we spent the meeting defending our ability to complete the task. We were the ones who pulled it off last year while learning the system and yet the sentiment seemed to be that it wouldn't work this year. The really frustrating thing was that the doubters didn't seem to realize that we weren't discussing an optional task. It has to be done and it has to be done with the computer system! Why not contribute what we need now and save the rhetoric for later?

Color me bemused with a tint of frustration.