Did I Say That?

Two discussions

1. Me: Is it me, or is it x?
   Him: It's x. And it's you.
2. Him:You're such a x.
   Me: Yes, I know I'm a x, and I've learned to live with it. Now I'm waiting for the rest of the world to catch up.

List: Twelve

It's been quiet lately, I know. And I don't care. I'm not getting paid for this. And even so, I still wouldn't care. Here's a list.

• For the person who might quite possibly be the only reader I have left: hair product or digital audio?
• For the Dapster, who surprised the hell out of me for wanting to read Dante's Inferno: a soundtrack.
• For Guust: The Communist Party
• For whoever the hell might need it: 79 versions of "Popcorn"
• One of the things I love about the internet are websites that do one thing, and one thing only. Like Signalling Incorrect Spaces.
• Or documenting Lowercase L's in otherwise uppercase signs.
• Or showing nothing but pictures of cute girls at tea.
• Less strange is this weblog dedicated to strange maps.
• Which brings us to one of the more disturbing single-issue sites: photo's of pierced third nipples. Weird. Very weird.
• We interrupt this list for some flamebait breaking news: Nightwish find new singer, announce new album will be a pirate-themed.
• My Flickr account has almost 1.000 views, and this is just shameless self-promotion. And a bridge to two photo-related links:
• Exactitudes documents the dress codes of various social groups.
• More Turns is similar. yet different. And how's that for a helpful description.
• And from photo's it's just a small step to film. Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Martin Scorsese directed Sesame Street? Well, wonder no more.
• A scene from Pulp Fiction, done with just typography.
• I've junked most of my semi-obligatory digs at religion, but there's no way I'd pass on this Sinfest episode.
• And just because it might become handy sometime: page2rss, for when a page doesn't have a feed.

First Lines: The Dead Zone & Lyra's Oxford

In The Dead Zone John Smith gains the psychic ability to see the past, present and/or future of some of the people he touches after being in a coma for four and a half years. With these visionary powers, he is able to identify a serial killer, but he also learns that a sleaze-bag politician (now there's a concept) will one day be president of the United States and cause an apocalyptic nuclear war. Mr. Smith becomes obsessed with stopping this man, which he finally does.

In my mind, this book should be one of King's lesser works. Wherever I got that idea, I don't know, but apparently, I was wrong. Dead wrong. The Dead Zone is a hell of a fine book. It's another one of those "a-typical" King books that don't focus on the horror and gore, but rather on the psychology and the characters like Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.

Stephen King — The Dead Zone

By the time he graduated from college, John Smith had forgotten all about the bad fall he took on the ice that January day in 1953.

Lyra's Oxford contains a short story and some additional material linked to the His Dark Materials trilogy. With just over fifty pages, it's short, and there isn't a whole lot say about it.

Philip Pullman — Lyra's Oxford

Lyra didn't often climb out of her bedroom window these days.

First Lines: Knielen op een bed violen

Put shortly, Knielen op een bed violen tells the story of a man who loses himself in religious fanaticism.

While I'm anything but religiously or spiritually inclined — in fact, I'd go as fas as describing myself as a pretty convinced atheist — I find it endlessly fascinating to see otherwise sane and normal people lose all sense of perspective and go completly nuts when religion is involved. I think this goes also a long way towards explaining why I occasionally enjoy reading Maarten 't Hart.

But anyway, I found Knielen op een bed violen a very intriguing read. It's not something that I would have picked up myself — it was a birthday present — but before I knew it, I was speeding through chapter six. The unlike the last time that happened <cough>The Da Vinci Code</cough>, I wasn't let down all. It's hard to tell why, but I just really liked this book.

Jan Siebelink — Knielen op een bed violen

Wie vanuit het oosten komt, van bij de Duitse grens, ziet ten slote, over het onafzienbare veen, een grijze streep aan de horizon, en wie voor de eerste keer die weg aflegt en de rivier wil oversteken, denkt dat hij voetveer en Veluwezoom al nadert.