Dave Switzer's Favourite Activities
Card games I like to play include bid euchre, hearts, and trump (also known as screw-your-neighbour). Board games I like to play include Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Elfenland.
I play the piano, and until recently I sang a choir for many years.
Tennis is a sport which I learned only a few years ago, but I enjoy it very much. I also enjoy volleyball and ping pong. Once in a while I like to bowl, water ski, and climb mountains.
I plan to live to be 120, and by then I should have travelled most of the world (and possibly farther). So far I've travelled to various parts of Canada and the United States, and I went to Europe a few years ago. In 2000 I went to Egypt and Israel, and in 2001 I went to Trinidad and Tobago. I would also like to go to Africa to see great apes in the wild.
I studied Computer Science and English at the University of Waterloo, and I have a teaching degree from Queen's University. I taught Computer Science at the University of Waterloo for many years, and taught computer studies at St. John's-Kilmarnock School for one year. I also worked as a developer and technical writer for Int3s.
Current TV shows I like are The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The Big Bang Theory, Castle, Glee, and Raising Hope. Here are what I think are the 8 best science fiction and fantasy TV shows:
- Angel
- Babylon 5
- Battlestar Galactica
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Firefly
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
- The X-Files
I read a lot, mostly fiction, and of that most is science fiction and fantasy. Here are my favourite books, of the ones that I've read in the past few years:
- Science Fiction
- The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov
- Evolution by Stephen Baxter
- The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
- Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
- Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
- The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin
- A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
- Golden Fleece and Starplex by Robert J. Sawyer
- Hyperion by Dan Simmons
- A Door Into Ocean and Brain Plague by Joan Slonczewski
- The Diamond Age and Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
- A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
- Passage by Connie Willis
- Darwinia and The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson
- Fantasy
- The Tales of Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card
- Someplace to be Flying by Charles de Lint
- Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly
- Tigana and A Song For Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay
- The Earthsea series by Ursula K. LeGuin
- The Witching Hour, Lasher and Taltos by Anne Rice
- The Initiate Brother and Gatherer of Clouds by Sean Russell
- Nobody's Son by Sean Stewart
- Other
- Shogun, Gai-Jin, Tai-Pan and Noble House by James Clavell
- Too Many Blackbirds by Ken Ledbetter
- Ishmael, The Story of B and My Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
- Memorable Short Stories
- "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov, in Nightfall and Other Stories
- "Fondly Fahrenheit" by Alfred Bester, in Virtual Unrealities
- "Unaccompanied Sonata" by Orson Scott Card, in Monkey Sonatas
- "Tower of Babylon" by Ted Chiang, in Stories of Your Life and Others
- "Expedition to Earth" (aka "History Lesson") by Arthur C. Clarke, in Expedition to Earth
- "Mythological Beast" by Stephen R. Donaldson, in Daughter of Regals & Other Tales
- "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" by Harlan Ellison, in Paingod and Other Delusions
- "Muffin Explains Teleology to the World at Large" by James Alan Gardner, in Gravity Wells
- "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" by Ursula K. LeGuin, in The Wind's Twelve Quarters
- "...And Then There Were None" by Eric Frank Russell, in Major Ingredients
Last modified: October 21, 2011. Return to Dave Switzer's Home on the Web.