I was surprised that they are reasonably priced.

Looks like I may be able to climb as well as Trent after all. Ken has the scoop (and was up way too late/early if you ask me).

News would be so much better is we had 10x the number of stories that were 20x as short and repeated 2x as often.
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If mankind has ever created a more beautiful melody than the second movement of Beethoven’s Sonata Pathetique, I have not heard it. It is gorgeous! Listen now! This site has a better version.

I have been practicing the piano. I can play the first two movements of the moonlight sonata pretty well along with a bunch of other Beethoven. Following the last time I was playing piano (back in High school), I refuse to play anything non-Beethoven. His minor harmonies are unparalleled. When I listen to or play Beethoven, I feel like the piano transcends to the metaphysical and channels pure emotion woven by Beethoven into my mind. Man, what a rush!

It is even cooler to start playing something I haven’t heard before. I have nearly no ability to sight read. It is like reading by putting a single 100pt font word on each page–excruciating and tedious. Still, there were numerous times when I hit a new chord on the Pathetique and I thought, “oooh, that’s pretty!” as chills ran down my spine.

The good man Trent sends word that one should be wary of what one posts to his blog when applying for a job.

I hope all my readers are smart enough to already know this. To those that don’t: any and everything you attach your name to on the internet is but a quick google query away. Remember that.

Dvorak certainly does.

As I see it, this leaves to options:

• Become clinically paranoid and schizophrenic and create a separate, anonymous alias for each of your online personas.
• Do not think things you are not willing to defend.

At the very least, don’t write things you aren’t willing to defend publicly. Then again, doing so weans down the eligibility pool. So go ahead.

At least one of us is posting on his blog!

Slate, the preeminent beacon and intellectual lighthouse, makes a good point about why we must argue for liberalism through originalist interpretations of the constitution.

As I see it, text without context is empty. Constitutional interpretation heedless of enactment history becomes a pun-game: The right to “bear arms” could mean no more than an entitlement to possess the stuffed forelimbs of grizzlies and Kodiaks. (And if history no longer constrains, why should spelling? Maybe the Second Amendment is about the right to “bare arms” and other body parts—e.g., nude dancing.)

Perhaps we can extend this to include the duty to bear bare arms (and other body parts)?

side note: Note again Slate’s sex obsession.

final note: Anyone notice the increased percentage of WaPo links? I rather miss the good ole MSN days of the magazine (excepting the msn toolbar).

Stellar. Through the help of Andrea, I have finally found an author who rivals Orson Scott Card’s ability to touch upon the human spirit. Mary Doria Russell’s book, The Sparrow is nothing short of phenomenal. She has so many poignant, significant things to say about humanity. The main character’s suffering is immediate and immense. As a catholic turned atheist turned jew, her understanding of Catholicism is deeply textured and human, exposing both its strengths and weaknesses. I would call it an interstellar rendition of the story of Job.

Buy it. Read it. Now!

Contact. Speaker for the Dead / Xenocide. The Sparrow. Why do all the best stories about extraterrestrials tackle the metaphysical and theological (counterpoint: Spielberg)?

Our deep yearning to know, to discover, to make contact is, at heart, our desire to learn about ourselves. We yearn to understand our soul–to learn who we are. To meet God.

Aside from the fact that it is inherently more interesting than just about anything else (and hence my repeating it), why is Slate going on about pornography, anal sex, everything else sexual?

Cause no matter how far away you are, despotic buddhist countries will reduce human trafficking with a smile.

In other despotic news, Syria has discovered it is the origin of the world because of the indisputable fact that “the life of human beings in Syria started very early in history”.