My reading list is mutating as I go through my bookshelves to find titles I never finished reading. Golden Bough, for example -- A fine study of the development of mythology, magic, and religion in primitive peoples. Mind you, I think all peoples are primitive. Actually, I think the same thing of most religions, too. *shrug*

I finished off Thompson's Screwjack, but it was a fast, light read. Thompson is brutal and ugly, at times, and these short stories, while not as engaging as his 'nonfiction' work, catch and compress his style into bitter, dark nuggets. I've moved on now to Black Dahlia, by James Ellroy, whom you might remember from L. A. Confidential. I highly recommend his work if you want savage noir stories that never give you a moment's comfort or an easy, clean ending. American Tabloid was brilliant that way. You know how some stories make even the villains seem like attractive characters? Well, Ellroy makes even his heroes seem like harsh, unattractive monsters. Um...in a good way.

James put up a little link to some Phantasy Star Online V2.0 information yesterday. I thought he might like to look at Famitsu US's preview, which has a lot of information his link yesterday didn't have (no offense).

Apparently, there will be a new Ultimate mode, a soccer game (located in the lobby), and a sort of PvP-style battle mode, so all you cheaters out there will finally have a better reason to cheat than just getting the cool items and annoying the legit players. Oh, wait, no you won't. bastards.

KOMPRESSOR DOES NOT DANCE

I found this band on a visit to Exploding Dog, and I couldn't be happier. He's funny.


*sigh*
how much more work until I don't have to work anymore?

I still live, and woe to those who forget.

I'm busy, but I live.

CNN.com - Kamal Hyder: Destruction of Afghan Buddhas - March 12, 2001: an interesting explanation of the 'logic' that helped the Taleban decide to destroy the Buddha statues.

More photographic evidence of the presence of evil:


and I quote:
"The destruction work is not as easy as people would think," he [Taleban Information Minister Qudratullah Jamal] said. "You can't knock down the statues by dynamite or shelling as both of them have been carved in a cliff. They are firmly attached to the mountain."


it bothers me how matter-of-fact all of this is. That their information minister is describing this like he's leading a tour through the bloody Jungle Cruise in Disneyland seems all the more inhuman to me, like the destruction itself wasn't terribly important, like it's infinitely more interesting to focus on the various problems they encountered in obliterating human achievements.
As a friend of mine observed, we see in the Taleban a government that will refuse money equal to many times its national earnings, offered to preserve the Buddhas, and a government willing to spend many times its national earnings in blowing those same statues up. This is a government that only controls 10% of its nation, and a government under which 4 million citizens currently face starvation.

Currently in musical rotation:

• Aion: Dead Can Dance -- it's setting the mood for some work I've got to do right now.


• Mule Variations: Tom Waits -- If you don't know Tom Waits, go buy either this album or Rain Dogs right now.


• Welcome To Earth: Apoptygma Berzerk -- retro-80s technogothy dance stuff from outer space.

I'm of a mind that governments can perform actions so meaningless and cruel that they ought to be obliterated outright. Book burnings fall under this category, and so does the wholesale destruction of cultural artifacts, artifacts that ought rightly to be considered property of the world, artifacts that, simply by an accident of geography, happen to be found within the borders of regions controlled by those governments. One cannot blame the religion for this--religion was simply an excuse used by the Taleban to justify their actions. The government is solely responsible for this monstrous act.

*sigh*
Did I mention that I hate the world? hate hate hate? I didn't mention that? I should have. Hate.