I thought I might say something about the books I happen to be reading. I had planned a big dissection of themes, followed by a search for hidden connections between wildly disparate texts, but it is after one in the morning, and I doubt I could do such a thing even when well-rested and vigor-filled and boundlessly energetic.

So, anyway, Some Books.

McSweeney's #8: I'm far less than halfway through this. The theme, of course, is fakery, and of the pieces I've read so far, some are about intentional hoaxes, others misunderstandings or misinterpretations. The "deepest" bit of fiction so far, I guess, is "The Name Machine" by Ben Marcus, which turns out to be either an excerpt from his new book or a variation on its theme. It is not about a hoax. The story's narrator relates how, under the auspices of a government program, he and his family proceeded to test a variety of names on his sister, an entity who is not entirely human, or at least isn't without the right name.

Mason & Dixon: The first Pynchon novel I ever read was The Crying of Lot 49, which I picked up on a whim from the campus bookstore for reasons I can't really recall. (Unlike Cosmonaut Keep, by Ken MacLeod, which I bought because "I need some change." Good reasoning me!) I liked it. A lot. Over the summer I found a hardback copy of Mason & Dixon remaindered down to $5.99, so I bought it. I suppose I'll have to buy all his books now. This is less a vote of confidence and more a sign of a rampant and unhealthy completism. But that aside, Mason & Dixon is a wonderful novel. I can certainly see how its style, intended to imitate books of the 18th century, might be off-putting to some, but it really does work, and you catch on quickly.

What Makes Us Think?: A debate between a philosopher and, I don't know, a research psychologist or something. About thinking. Both men are French! At least, I think they are. I have not even begun to read this one, which is bad because it is due back at the library tomorrow. Alas. This is technically for my undergraduate thesis, by the way. I'm not just reading French thinkers debate for the heck of it. Or rather, I am. I guess. But in theory there will be some sort of pay-off at the end.

Republic: I guess it could be The Republic, or Plato's Republic, but on my copy it just says "Plato" and then "Republic." I'll put my faith in the cover design, I guess. I'm supposed to be reading it for class. As it turns out, I already read it, a few years ago, having bought a copy for another class but not actually reading it then. That's confusing. I mean that I bought the book for a course I took long ago, and did not really read it then, but read it shortly after. Anyway, we're using a different translation in this current class, one which I haven't purchased yet, out of the hope that just maybe I could squeeze by with the two (!) copies I already own. But, best not to rock the boat, I guess. Bye bye money. Well, not much money. But enough to go a long way towards, say, a CD. Or a DVD. Enough to see a movie in a theater, even. Hmm...

I guess I don't have much to say about the Republic itself. (As if I've said anything meaningful so far.) It is one of those important books of the western canon. Or should that be Western Canon?

My goal was to restrict this weblog to interesting or amusing links strung together in some sort of vaguely appealing mini-narrative. So far I am not doing so well.

I am sure that I should be in bed at this point, but since I did sort of promise to include a dreary rundown of the evening's events, here it is.

Dinner consisted of: One chili dog. Scrambled eggs. One sausage. A red PowerAde. Truth be told, I don't actually like chili, much, but they were extremely eager to add it. More eager than I was to look like a weirdo by insisting on leaving my hot dog un-chilied. The pseudo-breakfast foods were ok.

Super Mario Sunshine Cleans Up Everywhere report: Apparently there are "moves" that one can make if one is "skilled" with the control apparatus. I am not, and so my sole move consists of a random mashing of the A button. Sometimes this works to my advantage. Often it does not. Nevertheless, I managed to acquire five or six shines, and rescued Yoshi, and defeated a gigantic mechanical Bowser. With rockets. While riding a roller-coaster. YES!

Between system crashes, Blogger outages, and general occurances of an Unfortunate Nature, I haven't been able to be as speedy with the posts as I would like. To make up for that, I have both a story (well, more of a plotless anecdote) to tell as well as a few links to share.

The anecdote: After the most recent crash (Switching from one window to another and everything just freezes. The music stops playing, the mouse stops moving, I start gesticulating wildly. It is bad, and happens frighteningly often.) I decided to wait awhile before trying again, and took a walk down to Mitchell Hall, which happens to be the registrar's office, so as to pick up a copy of the schedule book for next quarter. On my way there I saw: An advertisement for David Spade, about whom I may share more later; a sad news story on TV, and an incredibly gorgeous woman in a grey skirt with a deep slit up one side. She wore these odd shoes that made this entrancing wooden clacking noise which each step, and she seemed to be going in the same direction I was. So, this was good. I mean, I am less outgoing than a very unoutgoing person, a border guard in the former Yugoslavia, say. I was not going to actually, you know, talk to her or make eye contact or anything. But still.

So we both went into the building, but it turned out she had something to do way in the back, behind all the desks and cubicles and subcubicles, and so I just wandered around for a bit looking for the schedule books, and then found the schedule books, and then came back here. The end.

The links: In his speech launching the Viridian Design movement, Bruce Sterling shares the following organizational principle: "All art movements tend to have favorite drugs. We're also interested in drugs. Our pet drug is Viagra . This is the first legal, recreational dope that has swept the entire population in ages. We're interested in biomedicine and life-extension drugs. Mostly we're interested in these drugs because they are the only mind-altering drugs that are well-designed. Because believe me, when you live longer, your mind gets permanently altered."

Well, hooray. And such. But it appears that Viagra may have more concrete environmental benefits as well.

Hey, this isn't quite as bug free as a thing which should be so. Like Off, or something. Not like that. I'll try again.

So, it's a given that the Freemasons are running the country, right? But I bet you didn't know how refreshingly multicultural they are these days. Sufi masons and everything! You know, those Sufis wrote some really great poetry. Of course, they don't have an easy time of it. Lots of more orthodox Islamic interpretations take a dim view of Sufi mysticism. Though I suppose, in light of this information, that that whole minority role is just for show.

What they're really up to, of course, is attacking Russian troops with UFOs. This is a brilliant idea! Who would suspect? In fact, the threat of UFOs has got those kind souls at the Sci-Fi Channel so worried that they're teaming up with ex-cabinet members to do something about it. Finally, our long national nightmare is nearly over. Oh, and hey, the Sci-Fi Channel original miniseries that happens to be about UFOs is almost ready to premiere, too.

Well, it looks like they've got this all wrapped up. But wait a minute. Who's running their Coalition for Freedom of Information? Ed Rothschild?! Uh oh.

Now I am unstoppable, like molasses or fire!