http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/20/cindy-mccain-noh8-photo-m_n_430004.html

DAMN

Well, now that the LOST ship has sailed (:cry: ), I have barely even turned on my television in the past months. But recently I heard of a show coming to PBS, a BBC series.

This. Show. Is. Freakin'. Awesome.

It's made by the same guys who made Dr. Who, which means absolutely nothing to me, as I've never seen Dr. Who. But what's really cool about this show is: It's only three episodes long. They're making three more next year, but so far the entire series consists of three hour-and-a-half episodes of pure, unadulterated kickass.

Tonight was the last episode, but they can be watched on pbs.org or bought on DVD (as I will probably be doing).

Well, I was inspired by a little story I heard in humanities about King Louis XIV and decided to open a story with something like that. It's slow--I like exposition in my openings, sue me--but read the whole thing. You might actually like it. :P

The city slept in the shadow of the great Palazzo like a child in its mother's arms. The light of the stars receded, gave way to the overbearing light of the rising sun, which turned the black sky into a tinted blue. The towers of the Palazzo stretched towards the heavens, its façade loomed over the sleeping households. In its two belltowers were bellringers, up before the sun to await the messages from the king's servants to begin the day.

They came early that day. The bellringers pulled the massive ropes with all their strength, using their whole bodies to bring the bells to life. Their cacophony echoed across the city, given physical shape in the form of shuddering walls of the homes closest to the Palazzo, waking the men and the women and the animals of the city. On the minds of every citizen above the age of four was the omnipresent reality of life: with the king wakes the bells, with the bells wakes the world.

Inside the Palazzo, the king's elect waited in the antechamber, some rubbing the crust from their eyes. A short steward emerged from the king's bedroom, his short height emphasized by the great double doors behind him. He announced to the men as though he spoke to the entire world:

"The king has awakened!"

The men all stood and filed into the bedroom. A great bed capable of holding ten full families stood in the center, covered in sheets of exotic purple material. To the far right of the bedroom stood the king, garbed in the royal finery becoming to his post, his sword strapped to his waist. Without a word, the king stepped toward a great door in the far right wall into a hall large enough to hold a menagerie. The elect followed, still rubbing their eyes, though careful not to let the king see.

As the men walked down the hall, the scent of potpourri and lavender touched their noses, followed by the sweet smoke of an oiled torch. The torch was lighted above a large hole dug deep into the ground.

Upon approaching the privy, the king stood, about-faced, dropped his royal trousers, and defecated in front of the spectators. When he had finished, without a word or so much as a shift in his noble countenance, he led the group back down the hall. The steward escorted the men out of the castle, all of them aglow with having been bestowed such an honor. The king undressed and returned to bed.

With that, the day began. Story

*Fangirl squeal*

Till We Have Faces is an awesome book.

Really depressing, but awesome. Aqua is a god.

That is all.

The movie. It's on. Now. I can't. . .It's. . .it's like he swallowed a balloon and it merged with his throat. . . .He sounds like an alien. A very, very gay alien. Like, what the ****.

If thine eye offends thee, pluck it out. Yes, sir, Mr. Jesus, sir! *Plucks*

Ahh, that's better.

Yes, this article is as old as the Bible, but it's still quite relevant today.

I have $334.32 worth of books in my Amazon.com shopping cart, waiting patiently to be checked out. They are:

The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

The Night Angel Trilogy (box set) by Brent Weeks

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin

The three Wheel of Time boxed sets (so that's Wheel of Time books 1-9)

The Dhammapada

The Bhagavad-Gita

The Qur'an

The Book of Common Prayer

The Study of Anglicanism by Stephen Sykes

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Ulysses Annotated by Don Gifford

Here, There be Dragons by James Owen

Master Class in Fiction Writing by Adam Sexton

The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (in two books)

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Watch this video. The best part begins at 3:00.

If you haven't seen this movie (shame!), see it now on Youtube or something, if only for the fantastic music (done by Hans Zimmer--need I say more?). It is one of the best animated movies ever made and by far the best Dreamworks movie.

Pliny the Elder believed that Ibises could administer enemas to themselves by using their long beaks.