Well, in the past few days I've read two books: Beneath the Wheel and Harry Potter V. I feel like a bloody fool for saying it, but I liked Harry Potter better. My thoughts on Hesse's book tomorrow.
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HP was an excellent book. Rowling's managed to top herself with each addition to the series; this one blew me away. I neglected friends, chores, and music to read it. So without further ado, here's a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of my reaction to The Order of the Phoenix. And there are SPOILERS.
Chapter 1: Looking good, nothing too different here. Nice to be reading a new HP book after such a wait, isn't it?
Chapter 2: Tee hee...them Dursleys is funny!
Chapter 3: Ah, we're finally getting into things.
Chapter 4: What the hell is going on?
Chapter 5: What the hell is going on?
Chapter 6: What the hell is going on?
Chapter 7: What the hell is going on?
. . .and so forth to. . .
Chapter 27: OMFG! Wow, Dumbledore's a badass.
Chapter 28: What the hell is going on?
Chapter 29: What the hell is going on?
. . .and so forth to. . .
Chapter 31: Wow, I hope McGonagall isn't the character to die. (Note: Before reading the book, I had heard that a character would die.)
Chapter 32: What the hell is going on?
Chapter 33: Ha! Got what she deserved, the hag!
Chapter 34: O god...what if Hermione dies? I'd rather Ron die than her...
Chapter 35: Cannot...put...book...down. Also: feelings of relief that Hermoine was not killed, feelings of relief that Sirius was killed rather than Hermoine, feelings of guilt for feeling relief.
Chapter 36: See reaction to Chapter 27.
Chapter 37: Ahhhhhh.
Chapter 38: When's the next book out?
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You bastard, Ed.

Well, I don't go to Ignatius, but I certainly want to, so I did this:

You are Morpheus, from "The Matrix." You
have strong faith in yourself and those around
you. A true leader, you are relentless in your
pursuit.


What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Interesting - I got Trinity the first time, but I think I'm much more like Morpheus because he has a penis and Trinity doesn't. Because she's a girl. And girls don't have penises.
One of the questions the form asked was "Which of these do you value most?" The choices included "Honesty" and "Trust." This was probably the most difficult question for me to answer, because I'm not sure where the two don't overlap.
I value my ability to Trust that other people act Honestly towards me, and I value my Honesty towards other people, allowing them to Trust me.
Not that I don't lie, I suppose - certain situations can't be handled any other way, sadly, if being Honest with one person means betraying the Trust of another. In those situations, Honesty and Trust are certainly oppposed. But I always feel badly about lying, and certainly try to avoid it whenever at all possible.
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Bad joke of the day:
If a certain supporting actress named Selma of Legally Blonde fame and everyone's favorite British PM Tony made a bad comedy/parody movie, they could call it The Which Blair? Project.
Ha!

Are we sleepwalking through our waking life or wakewalking through our dreams?
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Sometimes, I wish people were more true to their words. It's quite confusing when they aren't.

It rained today, but for some reason I'm in high spirits.
Could it have to do with having two days off work, books, and spirits of another kind?
Why yes, yes I do believe so.

Pessimism as a worldview is inherently irrational, and therefore a waste of both your and my time.
Humanity is self-serving; men want what makes them happy, and the vast majority of choices are made with the intention of predicating and fostering happiness. Rationally, it is best then for one to consciously make choices with the intent of creating happiness for oneself.
Pessimism, as an outlook on life, is the view that everything will or does have negative consequences. It is seeing the worst side of everything. It is directly opposite Optimism, which is the view that everything will or does have positive consequences. Optimism is seeing the positive side of everything. For purposes of this discussion, nebulous worldviews such as "realism" will be disregarded.
Since pessimism is seeing the unfavorable side of things, and leads to unfavorable feelings, it does not promote happiness.
Some might argue that pessimism allows them to be happy - that it fosters such low expectations that anything positive is encountered with greater joy than otherwise. However, this is incoherent and contradictory - it is feeling optimistic about pessimism.
Since pessimism does not promote happiness, it does nothing to further the ultimate goal of all men, and is therefore for all realistic purposes an obstacle to happiness.
Given that it is an obstacle to happiness, and that happiness is man's ultimate goal, pessimism should be avoided by those who wish to live happy lives, e.g. all of humanity.
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This is an example of why people over a year removed from any formal logic course should avoid trying to create syllogisms.
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But I still think I'm right.

I've got nothing profound to try to say today, and I'm even out of masturbatorical questions to ask. More tomorrow.
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Probably something on optimism.

"The vessel with the pestle holds the pellet with the poison, the flagon with the dragon has the brew that is true."
-The Court Jester
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Of course, the person offering this advice could have been lying.
The point is, trust is essential to human relationships and life. One trusts that people don't lie always, that fast food hasn't been shat on, that gravity works, that this is the real world and not a construct. Trust is inherent to the human psyche. Realize it's important and move on.
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On a related note, buy The Animatrix.

"He has about eight words in his vocabulary that he uses to describe everything"
-Woman I overhead, in reference to her son
Childhood is odd. I don't really remember mine; even my elementary school years are a blur-with-occasional-flashes-of-remembrance. But I'm particularly enamoured, currently, with the mind before Language is learned. What, I wonder, must it be like to see dozens of things and refer to them with the same word? Surely the mind, underdeveloped as it is at that time, must distinguish between one thing and another. But if so, why then use a single word to collectively Name them? Does the child's mind simply perceive things in a radically different manner, making connections and therefore grouping objects in ways that more mature minds are unable to? And what about before any recognizable verbal Language is used at all? Can there be any recognition, any thought? As I write this, I conceive it was words, and therefore as ideas. Before I had words to describe ideas, could I have had the ideas, or would it have been impossible to conceive of even the most basic concepts, much less abstract thought?
If I didn't find interacting with kids so repulsive, I'd breed them for the purpose of research.
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In other news, there are certain things that can best be settled over a relaxing shisha.

I realized today why squirrels run in front of cars. It has to do with gang initiations - like the human one where kids drive around at night with no lights on and kill people who flash their brights. The gangmember squirrels have the newbies run in front of an oncoming car in order to join. If the newbie survives, he's in. If not, ehh...
You may say to yourself, But squirrels are solitary creatures except when mating. And I would say to you, That's what they want you to believe.
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In other news, I hope that this squirrel revelation is the only thing that's not quite as it seems.