Sunday Library Meetings (from 2nd Week, 19th October)
are held from 8pm till late in Thomas's room, in Holywell Street 6/7
(map),
room 14.
Go through the big wooden door to the Merton College Annexe on Holywell Street
(nearly opposite the New College entrance).
The closest door to Holywell 6/7 is immediately to your right, just before the porter's lodge
(another map).
Ring the buzzer for room 14 to be let in.
Inside you need to go upstairs, downstairs, and up to room 14 at the top.
You can ask at the door to be collected if you think you might get lost.
(If the buzzer doesn't work, ask the porter to ring Thomas Keyton.)
These evenings are an opportunity to socialise, and chat about life, the universe
and everything, whilst also perusing and borrowing from
OUSFG's library of over 2,400 books.
Wednesday discussion meetings (see below for topics) and author talk are held at 8pm in St Hilda's College (map). The Sibthorpe and Lady Brodie Rooms are next to each other are in Hall Building, which is the first one you see directly opposite you as you go through the gates. The rooms are signposted as soon as you enter the building. The Vernon Harcourt room (for the Charlie Stross talk) is above the dining hall in South building (see below for directions).
Wednesday video meetings (see below for programme) start at 8pm (except 8:30pm in 6th Week) in New College (map). Lecture Rooms 4 is marked "C" on this map (or PDF).
Sign up for the ousfg-announce mailing list to receive a reminder and detailed directions for each meeting.
| 12 Oct | Sunday | 1st Week | Freshers' Drinks |
3-6pm in St Hilda's College MCR.
St Hilda's is at the end of Cowley Place (on the right just over Magdalen Bridge, at the end of the High Street
- see map).
Past the college entrance, head to the right (and to the right of Hall building,
map)
where there are some outside stairs. The MCR is at the top. Drop in for relaxed obligation-free drinks and nibbles, introductions, and conversation! |
| 15 Oct | Wednesday | 1st Week | Discussion | Desert Planet Books (or 10 books to read before you die). Discussion in St Hilda's Sibthorpe room. What are the ten SF/fantasy books most worth reading? Come along for a lively discussion and argue for your favourite book, or just for reading ideas — don't feel you have to say anything! |
| 22 Oct | Wednesday | 2nd Week | Video | Blade Runner in New College Lecture Room 4. Ridley Scott's Science Fiction noir classic, loosely based on Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. A 2004 Guardian poll voted this the best SF movie of all time. If you haven't seen it before, come find out whether you agree. If you have seen it, come see it afresh: we will watch the recent "Final Cut". Tim will give a brief introduction, explaining some of the background to the long-running critical discussion of this film. |
| 29 Oct | Wednesday | 3rd Week | Discussion | Does non-human intelligence exist? Discussion in St Hilda's Lady Brodie room, led by (and between!) Colin and Oliver. The first intelligent aliens we contact will have evolved... here on Earth! It's usually assumed that if we discover alien intelligence, it'll be from somewhere out there. But as we learn more about animals here on Earth, and how swiftly evolution can work, there is another possibility. The debate will be led by a physicist and a biologist - all are welcome to contribute. |
| 5 Nov | Wednesday | 4th Week | Video | MirrorMask. An extraordinary dream quest to rescue a world out of balance. Written by Neil Gaiman (Good Omens, American Gods, Stardust,...). |
| 12 Nov | Wednesday | 5th Week | Discussion | Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse Discussion in St Hilda's Lady Brodie room, led by Alex. |
| 13 Nov | Thursday | 5th Week | Quiz | Oxford Geek Quiz — battle of wits and knowledge against Docsoc, Tolksoc, RPGsoc, et al. Please bring your own round of questions if you have one (don't tell anyone the answers). 8pm, St John's College, North Quad Lecture Room. |
| 19 Nov | Wednesday | 6th Week | Video | We had planned to see WALL-E, but it wasn't yet out on DVD. Hopefully next term. It's Pixar animated comedy SF. What more can anyone want? |
| 26 Nov | Wednesday | 7th Week | Discussion | OUSFG Awards. Discussion in St Hilda's Lady Brodie room. This will start the process of selecting the 5th annual OUSFG Award, which is for the best "speculative fiction" novel published in paperback during the preceding year (i.e. October 2007 to September 2008 in this case — see here for background). Come along to find out what's new, and discuss suggestions of what to read. We will pick a short-list next term, and have a final vote in the summer. |
| 29 Nov | Saturday | 7th Week | Christmas Party | from 6:30pm in the common room at Castle Mill. Castle Mill is down Roger Dudman Way, which is the first road to your right past the railway underpass if you're coming from City Centre on Botley Road. |
| 3 Dec | Wednesday | 8th Week | Author |
Science Fiction and Fantasy writer, Charlie Stross, will
speak to the society in St Hilda's Vernon Harcourt Room. The Vernon Harcourt room is above the dining hall in South building; on entry to Hilda's veer around to the left. South building will be to your left (it faces the river) — enter the door in the middle, go through the mini notice-board corridor, in the next hallway take the door to your left, then up the stairs (the stairs do have a sign mentioning Vernon Harcourt room on). When on the landing take the stairs to the right — the Vernon Harcourt room will be on your right. |
We also aim to hold bonus video meetings, depending on what takes our fancy. This term we saw Firefly on Saturday afternoon/evening of 6th Week (22 November).
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ousfg/misc/termcard-08mt1.html last
modified 5th December 2008 by Tim Adye, <T.J.Adye@rl.ac.uk>