Old News

Great Aleister Crowley quote I just found. I would add most culture and entertainment, including the internet, to "news":

To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worth while. The natural laziness of the mind tempts one to eschew authors who demand a continuous effort of intelligence. The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely to feed the mind with canned chatter.

People tell me that they must read the papers so as to know what is going on. In the first place, they could hardly find a worse guide. Most of what is printed turns out to be false, sooner or later. Even when there is no deliberate deception, the account must, from the nature of the case, be presented without adequate reflection and must seem to possess an importance which time shows to be absurdly exaggerated; or vice versa. No event can be fairly judged without background and perspective.

WTF?

Shakespeare in Gay

Man, life is so weird right now.

I saw this article "Japanese youth goes berserk, kills 7" and thought, "Do people really 'go berserk'? Isn't that kind of description fifty years old? And reading the article I thought, do we really need to put anime and manga in quotations in 2010 or whatever year it is? And was it really supposed to be a balmy Sunday?" And I love how they got a jaded Indonesian tourist to bemoan the decline of Japanese civilization. Why does mainstream news feel more and more like it's written for four year-olds?

I'm hoping to go to San Francisco tomorrow to take care of some business. Today I went hiking in Bodega bay. Cue not very exciting picture!



I've been reading and watching Timon of Athens by Billiam Shakespeare. It's about a generous rich guy in ancient Athens who's heading for a fall. To my delight I finally found torrents of the BBC Shakespeare productions! I watched most of them years ago and can't wait to burn them for the duration. They're a mixed lot and I recommend you at least watch Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, and Henry V (in that order). Oh wait. You guys hate Shakespeare. Never moind.

A complete volume of Shakespeare makes a great oracle. You just ask it a question...
"What should I be doing now that I'm not doing?"

...and flip to a random page and line and get your answer...
York: Ho, who is within there? Saddle my horse.

Of course! I should be saddling hos! Thank you, Billiam Shakespeare, for enlightening the masses. Now get me out of Camp Meeker!