Iceni

Yeah, my best friend is an atheist. We mainly bond over complaining.

I don't remember Mere Christianity at all, it didn't hold my interest. As for that argument, it could be an exhortation to the usefulness of working hypotheses. I'd have to read the book again though. As for needing to be on the same side...I suppose that's true. The two books I read offered insights into how to combat sin that probably would come off as irrelevant for anyone who isn't already Christian.

Blegh. I never liked the Narnia books, they were stodgy and dull. Definitely read his other material, it's a lot more rewarding. By the way, just to clear it up; Lewis was from Northern Ireland, not England - and Tolkein is South African. Yes, I am Christian.

Entirely with you on djent. Maybe it'd be good to use the label of traditional prog to describe some bands. Even though that's kind of an oxymoron...

I recently read C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce and it was superb. Not only was the prose excellent and witty, the book a coherent and tightly packed critical mass of wisdom, but it was also interesting for its mental images. The Screwtape Letters is probably my favorite book, it's very insightful on the dynamics of sin, temptation and the notion of having the right attitude. However, it doesn't provide much 'visually'. The Great Divorce provided a strange and yet wonderfully engaging and powerful world in which its events occur, which provided a lovely immersion as I read. I finished it in one day. On the whole, it seemed like the basis for the mother of all concept albums. One of my favorite quotes was: "What you now call the 'free play of inquiry' has no more or less to do with the ends for which your intelligence was created than masturbation has to do with marriage."

Aesh. My mom's given me some information on Catholic views on birth control (which I did request from her) but wow, this is just so much stupider than I thought. I'm pissed at the witless condescending buttwad who wrote this piece of drivel for insulting the intelligence of everyone reading it. And that's entirely outside the actual birth control policy, the justification is even worse...

Welcome... ...to the Proddie Zone.

Yup. The fool with the loudspeaker can get a surprising amount of stuff done before anyone decides to stop it.

That's a different issue; for what it's worth indie music is one genre I just can't do even if the band in question is technically 'good'. What I was whining about was that black metal fans get their balls twisted when one member of Turgid Frostpeen says 'to be honest, I think Baptists are nice people.' and entirely dismiss the band's catalog on that basis alone.

Perforated? EHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEH

That's a good point. I hate it when people get cynical about politics without realizing that the reason they system is broken is because they don't get off their asses and vote for candidates they actually want.

For whatever reason I get nothing from people when I try to talk to them. Usually if I don't get the impression that I'm wasting their time, then they're wasting my time.

But I'd assume we'd at least keep it to bands that play crap music (whatever that constitutes) rather than bands that don't measure up on the kvltometer.

Interrupting my non-topical discussion. I'm not a prog rock fan so I don't go for the vast majority of what you listed - I like a number of relatively big names in prog like Symphony X, Queensryche, Adagio, Vanden Plas and Pagan's Mind. If I remember aright most of my prog recommendations will be in the progressive metal subforum threads.

Not from a musical perspective.

That's interesting...are you saying that somebody who too closely shares your interests will just be a massive pain in the ass if you disagree on things? I had that notion bouncing around in my head with regards to wanting a relationship where the two individuals 'complement' each other - which can't happen if they're the same person. I'm not sure I'd want to be in a relationship with someone who was also doing African politics since we'd almost certainly have competing opinions on the subject and I'd get the impression that either my turf was being violated or that honestly I wasn't contributing anything useful. If I found someone who was interested in something like, say, theology or philosophy, I think that could be nice.

Where do you attend university? My brother's looking to study computer science so he's on the market for undergraduate programs.

Still not the skits.

My family lived in Houston for a while, I didn't like it at all. Maybe I was around the wrong people. Wasn't much fun living there and being an immigrant family when 9/11 happened.

I was laughing my ass off but the second 'movie' was the most epic thing I'd ever seen. It's funny you should mention Mustang (I'm talking Brotherhood, by the way, not seen the other one) since he's my best friend's favorite character from the series. My brother has also taken to snapping his fingers really loudly to emulate Mustang's ignition. As for fights, I tend to prefer ones with Alphonse and the Chimeras...one fight that really disappointed me was Hawkeye vs. Lust; I think Hawkeye broke down too easily considering how much of a consummate badass she is throughout the rest of the show. However, Mustang's fight with Lust was pretty cool, especially in the ignition of separated hydrogen and oxygen.

The train between Santa Fe and Albuquerque travels at less than 55 mph and takes 2 hours in transit. Kind of a problem since cars usually travel at ~60 mph and take 45 minutes in transit since the road is actually a more direct route.