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Books Eragon (Inheritance Cycle): The Inheritance Cycle [post] will consist of 4 books by Christopher Paolini. Eragon [2002-2003], Eldest [2005], and 2 unreleased books. ... [more later]

Harry Potter: I don’t think I really need to explain anything about the Harry Potter book series, as anyone who isn’t living on Mars knows about it. The books are incredibly fun reads, and the writing is spectacular for a book aimed at children, but more than enjoyable for audiences of any age. I can’t say much for the movies past #3 though... While no other book outstrips my love of this series, I still consider it just behind Snow Crash in terms of my favorite books.

Lord of the Rings (and other Tolkien works): Lord of the Rings ... [more later]

Snow Crash: Snow Crash, by Neal Stephens (1992), is my favorite book. It is a thrilling cyberpunk novel with brilliant writing, satire, black humor, plot, characters, and well, everything ^_^. It centers around Hiro Protagonist, whose business card simply reads
Last of the freelance hackers
Greatest sword fighter in the world
Stringer, Central Intelligence Corporation
Specializing in software-related intel
(music, movies & microcode)
The book has multiple interesting main themes including life in a post-apocalyptic type America, the technology which drives the world economy and society, the metaverse (basically the Internet), and ancient mythology centering around Sumerian myth and the Tower of Babel. The book itself can be credited to have helped bring about the Internet revolution, and has been cited as an influence by some of the largest names in the technological industry as an inspiration. It (kind of) coined the word Avatar, and its view on how the Internet should be is still being strived for.
I would HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone, except I know some people might not appreciate a few things in it including:
  • It’s discrediting of Christianity (I can’t go into why without ruining the plot) - though I consider it silly to not read a good fictitious book due to faith concerns
  • Very frequent ‘strong’ language, sometimes with cursing being the least of it
  • Some minor sexual innuendo throughout the book, ending in a sex scene near the conclusion
  • It is very much written for a Generation Y+ audience, and Gen Xers (and older) might not be able to appreciate its sense of style.
TV DuckTales: DuckTales (1987-1990, 2 seasons, 100 episodes, 1 movie) ... [more later]

Heroes: Heroes (2006-NOW*, 2 seasons, 34 episodes) is a very exciting mystery/action/drama involving way too many characters to keep track of with an interweaving inter-character relation chart that would give a spider a migraine. It is fascinating, exciting, plot-twisting fun, and Hiro (obvious Snow Crash reference) is a bad ass (actor IRL and character). I’ve been hooked since episode 1.

Futurama: ... [more later]

Gargoyles: Disney’s Gargoyles [post] (1994-1997, 3 seasons, 78 episodes) was a cartoon following the lives of 8 or so gargoyles (stone by day, guardians by night) who had been frozen as stone ‘for all time’ by a magic curse for crimes they did not commit, and were rewoken 1000 years later in Manhattan, NY when a billionaire was able to lift the curse. Pretty decent plot(s) and a lot of fun. If you ever need something to watch with your kids, I’d recommend it.

The Simpsons: The Simpsons [post (past halfway point)] (1989-NOW*, 19 seasons, 419 episodes) ... (first 3 seasons) [more later]

Stargate: Stargate [post (past halfway point)] currently has 1 movie (1994), which started the franchise; 2 series, SG1 (1997-2007, 10 seasons, 214 episodes) and Atlantis (2004-NOW*, 4 seasons, 80 episodes); and 2 (both 2008) straight-to-DVD movies both from the SG1 series. I highly recommend SG1 for the first 7 seasons (and maybe a little of 8, IIRC), at which point the plot quality starts tapering off severely. This pretty much happens when they lose Richard Dean Anderson as one of the main cast members, which ruins the inter-character dynamic and humor of the main team.

Star Trek: If you don’t know of Star Trek [post] (please don’t confused it with Star Wars...), you have probably been living under a rock most of your life. Its first series, just titled “Star Trek” (or TOS for The Original StarTrek) was a pioneer sci-fi show starting William Shatner as Captain James Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as First Officer (Mr.) Spock. It is a source of many pop-cultural references, and a reason for many of the advanced technologies we strive for today. It holds great reminiscent value of times past (as it was made in the late 60s [1966–1969, 3 seasons, 80 episodes]), and it often great for a good laugh.

While Star Trek itself was incredibly campy and more hand-to-hand action oriented, it’s predecessor, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (STTNG, 1987–1994, 7 seasons, 178 episodes) was much more socially and technologically oriented. I have many fond memories of growing up with this show as a child. It is by far my favorite in the star trek universe and I have much of its paraphernalia including an autographed Patrick Stewart photograph. I would highly recommend it :-).

Next came “Star Trek: Deep Space 9” (DS9, 1993–1999, 7 seasons, 176 episodes), which was a little harder to get into, and took its time in letting you learn to love the characters. It was also a very different format than all the other star treks, in that it was much more series plot driven with episode continuity, where all the other series are more episode by episode oriented with each introducing and finishing a plot you never heard about again. As I said, it is harder to get into than any of the others, but once you do, it’s great stuff.

And then came “Star Trek: Voyager” (1995–2001, 7 seasons, 172 episodes), which was more of a family-type oriented, often mushy (not romance wise), show. The crew is less military formal and more like a family due to their situation, namely, getting thrown across the galaxy and trying to make it back to Earth. While all the goody-goody type stuff can be annoying at times, it’s still a lot of fun to watch and easy to get into.

Finally came “Enterprise” (2001–2005, 4 seasons, 98 episodes), which is a prequel to all the other series. I only watched the first season of this, and wish I hadn’t, as IMO, it was worthless. They were going for a younger generation with frivolous plots and crap in the episodes, for example, a worthless sex-like scene in the first episode in which the first officer (female Vulcan) and the captain (male human) rub each other down with some sort of anti-radiation gel, IIRC. It was the only Star Trek series since STTNG that didn’t run for 7 seasons, having only run for 4 seasons before being canceled, just like the original [3 seasons]. Unlike the original, however, I’m pretty darn sure it will never amount to anything more.

Star Trek didn’t only have TV series though. It also has numerous novels (as do most sci-fi series) and movies. There were 6 with the TOS crew, 4 with the STTNG crew, and one prequel in 2008 with the crew from TOS while they were still in Star Fleet Academy.

South Park: ... [more later]

Cowboy Bebop: ... [more later]

Fullmetal Alchemist: FMA [post (past halfway point)] (2003-2004, 2 seasons, 54 episodes, 1 movie) is an action/drama following Edward and Alphonse Elric (the Elric Brothers). The series itself is absolutely amazing and is by far one of my 2 most favored anime series [along with Nadia]. The series itself is very dark and ominous (and contains some minor gore) throughout the Elric Brothers’ treacherous and spectacular journey.

GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka): GTO [post] (1999-2000, 2 seasons, 43 episodes) is a romantic comedy about a perverted young adult, and once legendary martial arts expert, named Eikichi Onizuka, who wants to become Japan’s greatest [school] teacher. It is a lot of fun and quite hilarious, but sadly, the series degrades to aimless subpar stories after the main plot arcs conclude in episode 19. Please note the show is heavy on fan services. While this usually implies compensation for a poor story, this does not hold for GTO, as it supplements the plot and protagonist.

.Hack//Sign: .Hack//Sign (2002, 1 season, 26 episodes) is one anime series in Bandai’s Project .hack franchise, which consists of many shows, mangas, games, and novels, all in the same ‘universe’ with a central plot. All I will talk about however is .Hack//Sign itself and one of the set of games, as the rest of the franchise is pretty worthless IMO.

I fell in love with .Hack//Sign from the very first episode. A quick sum up of the story is that the main, chronically depressed, character [Tsukasa] is trapped in a MMORPG world [called “The World”, with millions of players], and the other main characters are trying to find out why, and help him get out.

I played through all 4 of the [first set] of PlayStation2 games [Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, Quarantine], and enjoyed them, but do have to admit they weren’t very good.

Anyways, The game’s main console pretends to be a futuristic operating system entitled ALTIMIT OS, an absolutely secure system which is used by most all computers in the world due to a computer virus named Pluto’s Kiss ‘Crashing the Internet’ in 2005, which leads in to the project I did.

I would not really recommend .Hack//Sign to anyone as it is extremely slow paced and mostly just dialog. There is virtually no action to speak of, which I know is not most people’s cup of tea. If you watch stuff more for great plot and character development though, go for it!


Kodomo no Omocha (Child’s Toy): The best way to describe Kodocha [post (past halfway point)] (1996-1998, 2 seasons, 102 episodes, 1 OVA) is an overly shojo insanely super-hyper-spastic romantic drama/comedy. The series revolves around 11 year old child actress Sana Kurata and her otherwise ‘normal’ school life. The story itself is intensely touching, but the very heavy shojo-geared way the series presents itself would make it not enjoyable for many people. You’ll know by the end of the 4th episode if you will like the series or not. The main [numerous] plot arcs converge and end in episode 19, where the best part of the series ends. The rest if still fun, but frivolous. A spectacular watch if it is your thing, and one of my favorites.

Hayao Miyazaki’s Films: ... [more later]

Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water: Nadia [post] (1990-1991, 2? seasons, 39 episodes, 1 movie), created by Gainax, is one of my 2 most favored anime series [along with FMA]. You can find most of the info you need in the post about it.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: More commonly referred to as just Eva (pronounced A-va) (1995-1996, 1 season, 26 episodes, 4-7 movies) was a ground breaking anime series by Gainax. It has mechas in it, but they are just a plot device, as it is really about the characters, who are all pretty dysfunctional, and their relations. It’s a rather... weird... series, but spectacularly executed, and well worth a watch.

**Many of these also have manga counterparts which often came before the anime, with their story following the manga.
Movies The Lion King: The Lion King, and Aladdin (Robin Williams FTW :-) ) are the only 2 post-1990 Disney film’s I’d say are spectacular and everyone should see if they haven’t (what are the chances of that, right :-) ). I looked over the entire list since 1990 to confirm this after I wrote it just in case too. Nothing else much to say about them. Also, please don’t contradict me on this, I know Disney (not including Pixar) had other good movies, but nothing I considered noteworthy.

The Matrix: ... [more later]

Games The Journeyman Project: ... [more later]

ZZT: ... [more later]