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All right, to reaffirm my geekiness (and not simply my political-ness), and since I know some of you are fellow World-of-Warcrack-heads, I invite the teeming hordes that are my LJ friends to join our wonderful new (Alliance) WoW guild on the Garithos server, <Tavern of Lost Souls>:  (yes, that image took me a ridiculously long time to create, even with a stolen foundation - I'm no graphic artist, just a programmer) The guild was mostly for me and my friends, but anyone who is interested is welcome. We even have a Teamspeak server...for when we're not all lowbies and can actually do some raids. Send a whisper to Exitialis or comment with your character's name and I'll invite you. Ask us about our Instant-Level-Five Technique. Tags: games, geekery, life, people, wow
Current Mood:  geeky
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Last Updated: 2006-01-10 10:53:45 PST
Books I want to read/am reading/need to finish reading:
- Aquinas, Thomas - Summa Theologica
- Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics
Card, Orson Scott - Ender's Game- Friedman, David - The Machinery of Freedom
- Hayek, Friedrich - The Road to Serfdom
- Heinlein, Robert - Time Enough for Love and
Friday
- Hitler, Adolf - Mein Kampf
- Hobbes, Thomas -Leviathan
- Hofstadter, Douglas - Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
- Kant, Immanuel - Critique of Pure Reason and Logic
- LeFevre, Robert - this bread is mine
- Marx, Karl - Das Kapital
- Mises, Ludwig von - Socialism and Human Action
- Nozick, Robert - Anarchy, State, and Utopia
- Pirsig, Robert M. - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph - What is Property? An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government
- Rand, Ayn - Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead
- Rothbard, Murray - Man, Economy and State
- Smith, L. Neil -
The Probability Broach
- Spooner, Lysander - No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority
- Stephenson, Neal -
The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, and "The Baroque Cycle"
- Vinge, Vernor - A Deepness In The Sky and
A Fire Upon the Deep
- Wilson, Robert Anton and Shea, Robert - The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Zamyatin, Yevgeny - We
I'm going to try to update this list as I finish books or find new ones. This list is by no means exhaustive yet.
If you have suggestions, post them in the comments and I will add them if I am interested. Tags: books, life
Current Mood:  busy
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Serenity on FRIDAY! ? You will comment, and you should call me. The plan:Our usual theater, Century Stadium 25 ( 1701 W Katella Ave, Orange, CA 92867), has a showing at 10:30pm. You should buy your tickets in advance on Fandango.com ASAP, just in case it sells out (it's not a huge movie, but this is opening night after all, who knows). We should get to the theater at least by 10:00pm to get good seats. We may go to dinner at JT Schmid's first, which is just down the street from the theater on Katella. If we do so, we will meet there around 7:30 or 8:00, and you should let me know in advance if you are coming so I can reserve the right number of seats. If you just want to meet us for the movie and skip dinner, that is fine too, just let me know. Feel free to call my cell phone about questions or concerns you may have, or to let me know you are coming. If you don't have my cell number, leave a comment and I will get it to you. Tags: entertainment, events, geekery, life
Current Mood:  excited
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- While coming to meet up with us,
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ki_pat's car was viciously attacked by another car, ending in a busted tail light - Hurt my back somehow. Ouch.
- Got to Pacific Amphitheatre in time to catch last couple songs by The Decemberists. They were quite good, check them out.
- Met the sheriff. He freed us from the the pull-ties that bound our chairs. For some reason he didn't look how I pictured - I had been expecting a handlebar moustache.
- Ate concession-stand hot dog, which made stomache sad.
- Saw Beck. Technically 4th row, but effecitvely front row (we were on the end, in the pit, and once standing could walk up to the stage). w00t.
- Wandered fair. Made fun of AARP members from afar. I want to go back, stand in front of them looking expectant, hands on hips, and say: "Well?"
- Drove home.
All praise and thanks go to bashful_dwarf who stealthily purloined our tickets from her boss. Well, by "stealthily purloined" I mean "obtained legally", but I wanted to say "purloined". In the end, not a bad evening - despite my stomache, back, and ears (loud!). I look forward to the sequel. Tags: entertainment, events, life, music
Current Mood:  exhausted
Current Music: Beck - Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime
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Since I Am A Consumer Whore™ and bought myself a paid LJ account, I want to take advantage of every new service I have. So to start, I am going to create a poll. And you are all going to answer it. This means you. If you are having trouble, you may use the WSPQ and Wikipedia to help you. Poll #501976 Political Affiliation
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14 This is my primary political identity: I have sympathies or leanings for these ideologies: I have a very strong aversion to these ideologies: On political issues, my beliefs are coincide this much with my parents: Tags: life, politics, polls
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<rant> There is a part of my personality that many of you know, and some of you maybe do not - I am an information whore. I read about absolutely every subject that catches my eye - from the mundane and trivial to the deep and complex, I question everything I see and try to discover the underpinnings. I practically live on Wikipedia and LiveJournal these days, and I keep track of scores of blogs - at least, when I am not playing WoW. This other day, for example, I spent a good deal of time researching the ancient city of Carthage up to the point of it's conquering by the Roman empire. Today I was reading about the legend of William Tell, and the various accounts regarding his historicity. This led to some readings about the Habsburgs...and went on from there ( Switzerland actually fascinates me, and I would like to visit there one day). I also read some fascinating entries today on Catallarchy and Cafe Hayek (still two of my favorite blogs). Now, the point of all this is not that I have some grand plan to master all human knowledge of the Universe. I certainly am not dedicated (or motivated) enough to do that. But what I would like is to be able to converse with anyone - at least minimally, and insightfully - on most any given topic that is likely to come up. I have found this knowledge extraordinarily useful, particularly for the discussion of history and cultures, when I can draw parallels from one culture to another (for example - between Christianity and Pure Land Buddhism, or between the political philosophy of John Locke and the Thomas Jefferson - contrasted with most modern conceptions of political theory). But I can also carry on useful discussions on the subjects ranging from quantum physics and evolutionary biology to Henry David Thoreau and Friedrich Hayek. Most of these subjects I can not speak on with any authority, of course, and I find myself constantly referencing and re-referencing the source material, but my working knowledge is sufficient to hold my own in most lay audiences, and ultimately that is as far as I need to (or have time to) go in most subjects. I have often said that my ultimate pet peeve is willful ignorance. I can not stand not knowing about something when the knowledge of it is attainable. To willfully ignore the wealth of human knowledge that is right at your fingertips, and instead espouse falsehoods and un sourced claims (which I see people do absolutely every day) is anathema to my way of thinking. This isn't to say that I am never wrong, but it is to say that I do my homework - and if you can find evidence to the contrary, I welcome it with open arms. My point of view in this regard is, I think, rather alien to most people. It seems to me that most people are perfectly content to wallow in ignorance and in self-delusion. The unexamined life is the enemy of a man's future. I do not hold myself up as some saint in this respect - I hold my own biases, just as everyone else does, regardless of what some may claim. But at least I am trying, which is more than I can say for many people. </rant> Anyway. We return you to your regularly scheduled programming. Oh, and I would like to leave you with some quizzes for Entertainment Purposes Only (from what I have seen, IQ is mostly quackery). Tags: life
Current Mood:  cynical
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 "Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government."
"If something about the human body disgusts you, complain to the manufacturer."
"The 'what should be' never did exist, but people keep trying to live up to it. There is no 'what should be,' there is only what is."
"Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God."
"Capitalism is the best. It's free enterprise. Barter. Gimbels, if I get really rank with the clerk, 'Well I don't like this', how I can resolve it? If it gets really ridiculous, I go, 'Frig it, man, I walk.' What can this guy do at Gimbels, even if he was the president of Gimbels? He can always reject me from that store, but I can always go to Macy's. He can't really hurt me. Communism is like one big phone company. Government control, man. And if I get too rank with that phone company, where can I go? I'll end up like a schmuck with a dixie cup on a thread."
Tags: entertainment, history, life
Current Mood: inspired
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Just because I know someone would hate it if I cluttered up her journal with ramblings about politics and economics, I'm going to post my own analysis to a particular article right here. With regards to Arnold's "economic girlie-men" comment, I thought it was just meant as a joke. What he's referring to is that the economy's getting better, and while I actually do share many of Bill Mann's concerns as well, I don't think that's necessarily a reason to be "pessimistic" - though we certainly should be cautious. Frankly, Arnold and the president differ quite a bit ideologically about the economy, and I heard rumblings among Republicans on the John Ziegler show last night about how they felt Arnold's speech wasn't enough of an endorsement of Bush. I think that's because Arnold is two things - he is economically more conservative than Bush and socially MUCH more liberal than Bush. The fact that he grew up in (and left) a socialist country, and many years ago showed up at a Reason Foundation banquet leads me to believe he has some fairly libertarian leanings. I'm sure he has no illusions about the economy being perfect, or about America being perfect. What I do think is that he was under a lot of pressure from the Republicans to come out and endorse Bush (who he's been fairly luke-warm on since he was elected). Arnold's statement about the economy being better is reflective of a larger problem - not just Democrats, but most people seem to still believe that the economy is stagnating and not improving. There was an article in The Economist a couple months ago on this subject. Contrary to popular perception, inflation has remained relatively low and stable this year and job creation has been skyrocketing compared to what it was over the last two or three years. None of that really has anything to do with Bush, of course - though his piddling tax cuts may have helped, they weren't the reason. What is happening is that we are recovering from the recession. Yes, job creation is slower than it was before - but that's because we're recovering from a recession. Now, I've still got reservations about the economy, though I still wouldn't call myself pessimistic. Some of the things I've been reading lately leads me to believe that the fed hasn't been doing so hot a job lately, that they authorized too much monetary inflation which could catch up with us over the next few years. That's impossible to predict, however. For the time being, I remain - if not optimistic, then at least realistic. The economy will work itself out. What I do know is that I do not trust either Bush or Kerry to handle it when it does (for good or ill), though. Makes me almost want to waste my vote. In other other news, I'm single again.Tags: economics, life, politics
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Just figured I should give everyone an update on what's going on in my life... So, my grandmother (mom's mom, in Tucson) has cancer, they found out about it a few months ago. Now she's in a hospital bed in her living room, sleeping most of the day, and they give her about two weeks. I'm going to be flying with my dad to Tucson tomorrow morning to see her, but it's doubtful I will get to spend much time with her since she is so weak. My Nana's always been there, and I don't really know what to do. It has been a while since anyone in my family has died, and I don't know if I am coping too well with the possibility of someone I love so much being gone forever. I had hoped she'd be around long enough to play with her great grandchildren, but I guess that will never happen now. I can honestly say that she is the sweetest, kindest person I have ever known. I have never seen her angry, and she has always, in my experience, reflected a truly Christian attitude. I don't know what we will do without her. Now I only wish we lived closer, so I could have seen her more often. Two or three times a year is not nearly often enough. She has lived a long and mostly healthy and happy life, and I will celebrate having known her. She certainly has left her shining example for me...her only major flaw, to my knowledge, was her smoking - which is the main reason she will not be around much longer. If only she had listened to me when I told her to quit when I was 8. I love you, Nana. Update: They said it is down from two weeks to two days. I hope I get to see her one last time :'-( Tags: life
Current Mood:  sad
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happy
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