In my 'Religion & Its Monsters' class - about the relationship between the sacred and the monstrous in Western civ, we were talking about Dante, and specifically his relationship with Brunetto Latini. In trying to explain here, here's the professor:

"it was a pederastic relationship...in the ancient Greek cultural tradition of older men raising ( Read more... )

I posted this in the combox over at Mark Shea's blog, but I figured I could put it here, too.

May I offer a few bits of advice to my fellow conservative orthodox Catholics?

1) Let’s strive for being more conservative (reserved, reticent, cautious) and orthodox (obedient, submissive, conformed) in our words and thoughts. I struggle with it, too.

2) ( Read more... )

I'm sincerely hoping that the next Battlefield installment is, indeed, Battlefield 2143 ( Read more... )

Walking through IUPUI's School of Nursing building today, saw a young woman wearing red scrubs. I thought, 'Well, there's a proper medicae'.

Yep, big nerd. :)

( Read more... )

Troy Davis is dead by execution ( Read more... )

Overall, excellent. Traviss rescues the story from the inanity of Blezinski's writing, and ties things up rather neatly at the end. Plenty of monsters, some good (if predictable and somewhat overdone) set-piece fights, some very nicely done enemy transformations. Multiplayer seems to be heavily improved.

MASSIVE Spoilers below the cut.

( Read more... )

...and some that don't.

Today, the Successors of Heinlein!

Do: Buettner's 'Orphanage'. I thought this was a lazy Starship Troopers ripoff the first time I read it. Second time, I realized that it was a rather well-done homage to/retelling of Starship Troopers. Buettner hints at a slow-motion dystopia (easy 'reabsorbtion' of pregnancies at 1 month by ( Read more... )

From my friend Josh:

'It shouldn't be called 'Planet of the Apes'. It already is a 'Planet of the Apes'. It should be called 'Planet of the Other Apes'.

Moving a few things around in my bedroom, I came across my copy of Rimrunners.

Opened it up, read a few pages.

Finished it three days later.

I had forgotten how much I liked it.

Now, I've dragged out Downbelow Station, Merchanter's Luck, Heavy Time, Hellburner, Finity's End, and Tripoint.

There's something about these books that I dearly love*, even ( Read more... )