Monday Morning Rambling for January 7th

Well, we've firmly established ourselves as part of 2008. To think, just a few decades ago, this was the dreamed-of time. Flying cars, the Jupiter 2, even giant black obelisks were all thought to be widely available by this time.

Instead, we've got an out-of-control Federal government, and no sound plan for what happens when said government inevitably falls under its own, bloated weight. But, hey, that's what speculative fiction is for; from the novel I talked about last night, Republic, to Card's Empire. Even the greatest of all totalitarian novels, 1984, could well apply to our nation in just a few short years.

Alas, such is my mind.

Anyways, I've finally managed to get myself a library card for the Madison County Library system, and while the Madison branch is less than stellar in regards to SF, I'm hoping the Ridgeland branch comes off better. That's not to say that there is no SF at the Madison branch. In fact, I brought home Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land (been too long since I've read it) and the latest Pern offering, Dragon Harper.

For the anime side of things, I'm happily consuming the latest offerings. With a few exceptions. H20 is actually better than I was expecting, while Rosario + Vampire is much worse. In fact, it's little more than fanservice at the moment, and I doubt I'll bother with episode 2. Truth be told, I didn't even really bother with all of episode 1.

As for Ani-Monday, Tactics and Noein are playing tonight, and it's the start of the series again (for Noein at least), so I may DVR them, which should allow me to watch the entire series in one fell swoop.

Amusingly enough, I've also started recording Avatar: The Last Airbender. Much to my surprise, it's actually a good show. I hadn't watched it previously, because I was not expecting all that... well good of a show to come out of the NickToons labs. Consider me schooled.

I've not seen a movie since my Christmas week gluttony of the things. Hopefully, we'll have found a babysitter soon, or at least in time for our Anniversary. Though I expect my wife will wish to pick the movie on that particular evening. Oh, well, I'm certain the movie will be good.

I'm still in the midst of writing my reviews for the various novels I've finished recently, and am waiting on the last episode of Skygirls. The other review I promised sometime soon, won't be sometime soon. I had thought that Shugo Chara! was a 12 episode series, well, I was wrong. I'm not quite certain how long it is going to be, but my new estimate is either 24 or 26.

Finally, Cory Doctorow has another great article up over at Locus dealing with artist's rights. Like everything he produces it's a highly interesting read, and I'd be ecstatic to hear what others think about it.