ASOIAF humor

Someone jokingly suggested that Hot Pie was the Prince Who Was Promised. Bronn replied, "Might as well make Hot Pie The Emissary of the Prophets of Bajor, The Uncrowned King of Gondor, The Once and Future King, The One Chosen to Restore Balance to the Force and the Kwisatz Haderach while you are at it.

Front row seats to the war

What would it be like to be Hasham?

The Americans had come to establish a defensive line on Salman Hasham's property, near this city on a branch of the Euphrates River about 100 miles from Baghdad.

Swinging pickaxes, Marines dug trenches and fighting holes outside his front door. Others armed with M-16s asked to search his house. Across the road, a Marine relieved himself in some shrubs.
--Baltimore Sun (3/31/2003)

No global GPS blackout.

Quote :: A Psalm for Our Troops

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

--Psalm 91

Quote :: Alone in the Dark

Oh, but you are alone! Who knows what you have spoken to the darkness. In bitter watches of the night, when all your life seems to shrink, the walls of your bower closing in about you, like a hutch to trammel some wild thing in.
--Grima Wormtongue
The Two Towers (2002)

...it is utter terror and loneliness that drive a man to address the void as Thou.
--Edna St. Vincent Millay

More radio news

Audio archives for the Nick Digilio show are available in the event one falls asleep before it airs.
update: If the above link isn't working. Archives can also be found here.

Fresh Music

Hungry for war news, I tuned into NPR. After the news, I was surprised to hear them playing something other than jazz. Their World Cafe program plays an excellent selection of alternative music.

Watching the War

Watching the war on television is like gaping at a bad car accident -- it is difficult to look away. What the hell... death is fascinating.

My dvd collection.

The leaflets that U.S. forces are dropping over Iraq.

ASOIAF News

A Storm of Swords is now available in paperback. It is rumored to contain a chapter from A Feast for Crows.

Vacation Plans

My brother and I are planning a road trip to the Coral Castle this summer. The story behind its construction is remarkable. We may also catch a few Civil War re-enactments along the way.

Quote :: Democracy

The state is the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly it lies, too; and this lie creeps from its mouth: `I, the state, am the people.'... Everything about it is false; it bites with stolen teeth.
--Frederich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra

ASOIAF News

The prologue to George R. R. Martin's A Feast For Crows is available in the March issue of Dragon:

WHAT IS 'EILEDON'?

A made-up word found in a Stuart Adamson lyric:

First, there is Eildon, a historically notable "beauty spot" whose ancient inhabitants opposed the Roman occupation... Second, there is the word "eidolon" which suggests something which is seen but not quite real. This word can connote something dark and ominous, as in Poe's verse (and in Stuart's warning that "reckoning is drawing near"), but can also mean an ideal, an imaginary thing which is yearned for by the writer. By combining these two distinct words -- Eildon and eidolon -- into "Eiledon", Stuart creates his own ideal "place to call my own". Eiledon is an imaginary place, but it still provides "strength... to see the future through." In the same way that MacDiarmid's old (and slightly inebriated) man reflects on the past and imagines a future Scotland, Stuart elegantly imagines his own. This song is both a tribute to and a comment on MacDiarmid's vision.
--Christian Jennings

updated: I dislike the utopian implications... decided Anorakish was a more suitable title.

VERSE

By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
on a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule-
From a weird climate that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE - out of TIME.
--Edgar Allan Poe, Dream-land