Thursday 4 September 2003

Pic of the day: Another "brilliant road". (I really like that expression, if you couldn't tell already ... not just because of the beautiful song either, because I like "shining path" too, and that's the name of a murderous communist guerilla group.)

Another of those days

Well, things have not improved much since yesterday ... I had to type and mouse at work again today. I remain amazed at the sheer destructive power of doing those things at work. I guess it may be a conditioned reflex by now, kinda like Pavlov's dogs ... except I am certainly not salivating. It hurts before my finger first hits the keyboard. And the effect lasts through the day at the very least.

I also have a slight headache. It is quite moderate though, and only came in the evening. Perhaps a sinus thing; my nose has been kinda clogged lately. Still, I guess I'm not too badly off for my age... ^_^

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And I have started reading the third book in the Darkness series by Harry Turtledove. It is more of the same, of course. I really recommend starting at the first book here; they are very sequential. Also if you don't get the first book, you will have trouble understanding how the Algarvians can possibly be so evil. Unless you are familiar with the history of our own earth, I guess. It is all too clear by now that Algarve is Nazi Germany. Or, more exactly, Germany. The ideology is never given much inspection. The fantasy nation of Algarve is a monarchy, and the monarch is ruthless and the people follow him, beginning with the nobles and continuing down the chain of command. There is, as of yet, no attempt to explain how this one person and this one age in history should fall to such depths, except that it is now technically feasible. I don't feel that is enough. But if you read the first book, you can see that the common people start out as nice enough chaps, before the reality of total war combined with bad literature gradually leads them down the path of genocide.

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Today I considered buying the second Lord of the Rings movie on DVD, it is for sale locally now. But thinking back to when I watched it, I realized that I can still remember it in such detail that there is really little point in watching it again, certainly not in such a less overwhelming environment as a computer screen. Perhaps I would have gone to see it again in a movie theater. Anyway, the sad thing about this is that I saw it with my very best friend ever and certified attractive young woman, and I still remember the movie quite clearly. Ah, the years of dust ...