Ah, it's over. Oh, that I had Paranoid sitting on my CD rack, so that I could put it on and breathe in the atmosphere of War Pigs*. Perhaps a strange desire on my part, given the pretentious pseudo-intellectual tendencies that I sometimes present. But occasionally, I think you just need to get back to basics. And what better way than to hear Mr. Iommi do his thing?

I have a fair few comments to respond to, not to mention posts to make. There was something in particular I wanted to write about..what was it? Ah, that's right, I remember now.

There is a set of comics (or tracts, as the website calls it) here that are apparently handed out by (fairly hard-core I'd imagine) Christians to try and convert people to their faith. Nothing surprising about this. But some of the stuff, for instance this one makes me quite sad. I don't know if sad is the right word, but when I read about the person who writes these, I get the feeling that he believes what he says. This is how he sees the world. I think he really does believe that D&D provides "intense occult training", and while initially I must admit I laughed, I then wondered about what it must be like to live with such a mindset.

I hesitated to provide the above link because I thought it might seem like I was mocking the writers. But no, that's not it - it truly is a feeling of pity and sadness.

I don't know whether it's wrong of me to feel pity; it's certainly not mockery in any form, but rather I think it's just a feeling that..ah, I have come to a potentially touchy conclusion on thinking about this. Here goes: I think (I'm not sure though, I could be mistaken) the reason I feel pity is because I feel that God (if he exists) wouldn't want them to live like this (devoting their entire lives to him, telling others why their lifestyle is wrong and that they ought to embrace the one true God, etc.). Ironically enough, by making such a claim, am I not acting in a similar way that they do, taking my own beliefs about God and the universe and then trying to explain why the actions of others are wrong? I think that, as usual, I am employing a double standard. But is there a way to reconcile the fact that it seems to be rational to believe that God doesn't want us to live life like that? As I type this, I think the answer is no, and wonder whether rationality is relative. Actually, I think it would be true to say that rationality's interpretation is relative. Of course, we also have the matter of whether rationality has any place at all when talking about God, but that's a story for another rainy day.

Enough pseudo-philosophical nonsense for now, there'll be plenty of time for that later.

Yessir, the next three months should see this blog once and for all claim the title of greatest accomplishment in the history of mankind. It's time to wash away the filth and sins of the past and rise up and snatch eternal victory.

I can't say that I have any particular plans for this holiday. It just seems like such a long time ago that I was sitting here, blogging about how I was going to spend the last break. I thought that having a blog would inspire me to do interesting things and then post about them (thereby piling on the ego-stroking), but alas, it never came to fruition, or at least, not to the extent that I would have liked. Heh, it would seem that instead, I spent most of the day immersed in Baldur's Gate, which was a fine accomplishment in its own right. For now, I have the blog to remind me of the failures of the past, so that I may look ahead to successes in the future (what am I blathering about?) Anyhow, I'll be sure to keep you informed, gentle reader.

* I can't remember if I mentioned this, but apparently Joy Divison cited their influences as Black Sabbath and Dostoevsky. That just cracked me up when I read it.

Update from Nov '10: I still remember my desire to have Paranoid, and the somewhat suffocating need for it to be "sitting on my CD rack". It took me six years to go ahead and purchase the darn thing. I'm almost tempted to leave it unopened.