Are we not all, in some way, looking for our cow?

[vovat]

Yesterday, bethje and I caught part of a History Channel special on the Antichrist. I already knew a lot of the stuff they mentioned, but now I'm kind of interested in reading the writings of the guy who came up with the stuff about the Rapture and such. I can't remember his name, but I'm sure I could find it. Another thing from the special that struck me was someone saying that a lot of fundamentalist Christians are nationalists because they fear that globalization is a tool of the Antichrist, or something like that. I guess that's why fundamentalists like Jack Chick are always bashing the United Nations. Of course, the UN isn't really a governing body (at least not in the sense that the Roman Empire was), but this apparently isn't a concern for them. And they act like they love the United States, yet they hate that stuff about separation of church and state, even though Jesus was reported to have said, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Jimmy Carter actually mentioned this passage on the Daily Show a few weeks ago.)

The program made me think about how so many self-styled Christians concentrate so much on the more negative parts of the Bible. The thing is, I'm fascinated by the Book of Revelation. I took a course on apocalyptic literature in college, and it was one of my favorite classes. I love the stuff about seven-headed dragons and the Four Horsemen. But this is from a Bible-as-literature perspective. Demons, monsters, and the end of the world make for great stories, but the fire-and-brimstone preachers seem to think that Revelation is of much greater religious significance than all the other stuff in the Bible about love, tolerance, and all that junk. And, of course, it's all relevant to stuff that's happening today. Never mind that it can be (and has been) just as easily applied to pretty much any period in history. This just goes back to everyone wanting to think their own lifetimes are of great historical significance, I suppose.

Anyway, I got my other presents from Beth today. They were a volume containing all of the Chronicles of Narnia, and Terry Pratchett's Where's My Cow?, the latter of which has pretty good art. I like Melvyn Grant's take on Vetinari, Dibbler, Gaspode, and other familiar Discworld characters. I also think it's clever that Vimes is reading from a book with the same cover as the one he's in. It might have worked better if it hadn't had Terry's name displayed prominently on the cover, though. I don't think the Discworld author of Where's My Cow? was ever mentioned in Thud!, although Where's My Cow? itself does identify the publisher as Rouster & Sideways, located at 22b Gleam Street in Ankh-Morpork. I'm probably much more amused by fake publication information than I should be.

I finished posting the liner notes (such as they are) for my end-of-the-year mix. I also posted a few for my religion mix.

Let's see. What else? I've been eating a lot of Christmas candy, because I usually forget about it if I save it until later in the year. And I also listened a few times to Beth's new April March CD, Triggers, which was released back in 2003. Most of it didn't really grab me, but I did like the song "Somewhere Up Above." It kind of reminds me of "The Scheme Of Things," from the newest Hypnotic Clambake album.

I figured that someone would have posted a survey or something that I could steal. I remember there being several floating around at this time last year. Oh, well. There WAS this one quiz that daveychu took.

True English Nerd You scored 83 erudition!

Not only do you know your subjects from your objects and your definite from your indefinite articles, but you've got quite a handle on the literature and the history of the language as well. Huzzah, and well done! The English snobs of Boston salute you.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 84% on erudition

Link: The Are You Truly Erudite? Test written by okellelala on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Comments

[obsessical.livejournal.com]

I don't remember if I told you that I got the mixes you sent me. They're very, very cool. Thank you!

(Disregard this if I already told you.)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

No, you hadn't told me before. I'm glad you liked them. Are there any songs in particular that you enjoyed?

[colleenanne.livejournal.com]

I saw "Where's My Cow" at a Borders in Northern Kentucky, and it seemed awesome. I will need to get it for some of my friends that have kids. And myself.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Speaking of Discworld tie-ins, have you seen The Art of Discworld? I looked through it at Borders before, and thought it looked pretty neat.

[colleenanne.livejournal.com]

I think Jay and I looked at it at Jo-Beth awhile back. It's a pretty book.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I ordered a copy with the Amazon gift certificate my mom gave me for Christmas, but it hasn't been shipped yet.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Somebody on my friends page posted a survey, I'm sure I'll take it and pass it on to you. It's not at all related to this time of year or anything though.

I'm probably much more amused by fake publication information than I should be.
I'm probably much more amused by this line than I should be, too.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Thanks. {g} One of my favorite bits of fake publication information was in the version of L. Frank Baum's The Enchanted Island of Yew published by Buckethead Enterprises of Oz. There was a note on the copyright page about how anyone who violated the copyrights would be turned into a june bug. (It's funnier if you've actually read the book, mind you.)