The due date for the next The Fannish Life column is not until sometime in April, but I want to share some of the wealth of fannish delights that have come my way without waiting for that deadline.

This one, Cycles, is for a fantastic video in the truest sense of the word "fantastic." My favorite part of it is the exploding teddy bear. Thats not too much of a spoiler. I think theres a good chance youll be as fascinated by this video as I was when I first watched it.

TV theme song lovers have to take a look and listen to these two guys named Frederick. Theyve got a great mix of the old and the new and they can play and sing quite well.

Many people dont realize how creative science folks are. They believe that art and science dont mix, but I think that science geeks are some of the most creative people around. They routinely think outside the box.

These two science music sites are proof of my hypothesis, Geek Pop and Symphony of Science.

If you are a fan of Twitter as I am, I have a few suggestions for fun people to follow for you. The creator of many a Marvel hero and a driving force in POW is @smilinstanlee. You can join his force of loyal brigadiers and get in on the planning of a new nation.

Late night talk show host Craig Ferguson, @CraigyFerg, is building his skeleton robot army via Twitter.

A couple of science guys you should follow are astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, @neiltyson, who turns out to be pretty darn funny sometimes, and theoretical physicist Michio Kaku who is on a mission to popularize science.

You can get quite a lot of sci-fi news from @nerdvana, @Syfy, @scifiwire and, of course, @AirlockAlpha.

If you for some truly strange and possibly misguided reason want to follow me, just look for @tama_ann.

I dont get as much reading done as I would like, but when I do need a new book to read, I just poke around my house a bit and find one I havent read before. This is not difficult because I live in a house with six other science-fiction and fantasy fans. Its very likely that we have more science-fiction and fantasy books in my house than in the local library.

Recently, I read an older science-fiction book by Vernor Vinge, "The Peace War," for which he won the Hugo award. If you want something that is very different and intriguing, this book will fit the bill.

A couple of other books I highly recommend are "Way Station" by Clifford Simak and "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. LeGuin. These two probably wont be in your local bookstore but can be gotten from sellers on the Internet.

Sellers of hard to find used books that Ive had good results from are Amazon.com and AbeBooks.com. Even with shipping, the used books cost less than new ones do in the bookstores.

Now we come to the telly. My current must-see TV list is pretty short because some of my faves are not on right now. The shows Ive been watching regularly are The Big Bang Theory, the show that has shown the world that geeks are lovable; Chuck and Survivors. When they return, Ill be watching Better Off Ted and Doctor Who.

It seems that I have managed to get on a list at Syfy to get review copies of some of their original movies, which is kind of cool because I dont have to wait for Saturday night to get my creature feature fix.

Just last week, I watched Dark Relic, which will air March 27. Andy Briggs, who wrote the screenplay, must have heard the same thing in his history classes that I did; the Middle Ages were the thousand years without a bath. Theres a bit of humor associated with that concept in the movie.

The relic is neither the Holy Grail nor the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch but its a pretty interesting one as relics go.

Some things I particularly liked about Dark Relic were the costuming and scenery, and the fact that the actors were not forced to speak goofy supposedly medieval dialogue. They spoke in modern English without current slang and that worked well.

Another thing that entertained me was that the main character voiced doubts about the wisdom and the purpose of the Crusades. Since my own thinking is that the Crusades were a monumentally bad idea, I liked that bit. I wont say more so as not to give spoilers.

This past weekend, I saw Repo Men with Jude Law and Forest Whitaker, It's based on the novel "The Repossession Mambo" by Eric Garcia. Repo Men is one of those movies I am finding I like more and more as I think about it. Its not only a thriller. Its real science-fiction.

While reading the credits, I noticed science-fiction author Ben Bovas name. I couldnt make out what the job credit for him was but after mentioning that Id seen his name to my husband, said that Bova had mentioned to him that he was a consultant on the movie.

Although the entry for Ben Bova at IMDb, hasntbeen updated to include the consulting credit for Repo Men, It does have this wonderful quote. If you're going to write science-fiction, you will have to know what science is doing. Poets who sing about the beauty of the stars, without understanding what makes them shine and how they were created, are missing more than half of the real splendor of the heavens.

One thing leads to another. You might enjoy Ben Bovas Web site.

Ive given you enough to keep you busy for a good while, so its time for me to leave you with one last fannish delight from @live2tivo.

Take care and have fun.