Actually, no

I did my time in high school staring out the window, bored out of my mind.

(Via TSO.)

[0] comments (1218 views) |  link

Books, books, books

Here's yet another List of Books, this time the alleged Top 50 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books. Those I've read are in bold. Favorites are asterisked.

1. The Lord of the Rings*, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea*, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451*, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun*, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz*, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big*, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle*, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man*, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination*, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape*, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

As usual, the list is as interesting for what isn't on it as for what is.

(Via Sun and Shield.)

[0] comments (1407 views) |  link

Words, words, words

It's been a while since I posted a pointless quiz to tell me what I already know. Here's one Robert the LLama found:

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader   You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Literate Good Citizen
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Book Snob
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

Special bonus quiz, via Mark Sullivan:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West   Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The South
The Inland North
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

[0] comments (1249 views) |  link

Thirty-three books

I just got back from an enjoyable trip and I'm too tired to resume work on the Major Project, so let's do a pointless meme. Here's one Shamus found. I vaguely remember seeing this many months ago, but I don't think I did anything with it then.

In 2005, Time magazine picked the 100 best English-language novels. Mark the selections you have read in bold. If you liked it, add a star (*) in front of the title, if you didn’t, give it a minus (-). [I’ve added, if you feel totally indifferent or just can’t remember, mark it with a question mark (?).] Then, put the total number of books you’ve read in the subject line.

The Adventures of Augie March - Saul Bellow
*All the King’s Men - Robert Penn Warren
American Pastoral - Philip Roth
An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser
*Animal Farm - George Orwell
Appointment in Samarra - John O’Hara
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret - Judy Blume
?The Assistant - Bernard Malamud
*At Swim-Two-Birds - Flann O’Brien (it's fun, but I liked The Third Policeman better.)
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Beloved - Toni Morrison
The Berlin Stories - Christopher Isherwood
The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
The Bridge of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder
Call It Sleep - Henry Roth
*Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
?The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
*A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
The Confessions of Nat Turner - William Styron
The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon
A Dance to the Music of Time - Anthony Powell
-The Day of the Locust - Nathanael West
Death Comes for the Archbishop - Willa Cather
A Death in the Family - James Agee
The Death of the Heart - Elizabeth Bowen
Deliverance - James Dickey
Dog Soldiers - Robert Stone
Falconer - John Cheever
The French Lieutenant’s Woman - John Fowles
The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing
Go Tell it on the Mountain - James Baldwin
Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
-The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Gravity’s Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon
*The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
*A Handful of Dust - Evelyn Waugh
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers
The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene
Herzog - Saul Bellow
Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson
*A House for Mr. Biswas - V.S. Naipaul
I, Claudius - Robert Graves
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
?Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
?Light in August - William Faulkner
*The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
?Lord of the Flies - William Golding
*The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Loving - Henry Green
Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis
The Man Who Loved Children - Christina Stead
Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
Money - Martin Amis
*The Moviegoer - Walker Percy
Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
-Naked Lunch - William Burroughs (I never made it all the way through, but I've read enough)
Native Son - Richard Wright
*Neuromancer - William Gibson
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
*1984 - George Orwell
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
-One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Ken Kesey
-The Painted Bird - Jerzy Kosinski
*Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov
A Passage to India - E.M. Forster
?Play It As It Lays - Joan Didion
Portnoy’s Complaint - Philip Roth
Possession - A.S. Byatt
The Power and the Glory - Graham Greene
*The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark (my favorite of all these that I've read)
Rabbit, Run - John Updike
Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow
The Recognitions - William Gaddis
Red Harvest - Dashiell Hammett
?Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates
The Sheltering Sky - Paul Bowles
?Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
*Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
The Sot-Weed Factor - John Barth
The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner
The Sportswriter - Richard Ford
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - John le Carré
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
?To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller
*Ubik - Philip K. Dick (a particularly odd choice; it's hardly Dick's best. Why not The Man in the High Castle?)
Under the Net - Iris Murdoch
Under the Volcano - Malcolm Lowry
*Watchmen - Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
*White Noise - Don DeLillo
White Teeth - Zadie Smith
Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys

This is an exceedingly arbitrary list, most interesting for what isn't on it. I can easily think of at least twenty novels that should have been included, and I'm sure you can, too.

[0] comments (1255 views) |  link

Beware of top-heavy bookshelves

Here's a rather difficult classical music trivia quiz that I did surprisingly well on -- 51 right, out of 74. I sure didn't know 51.

(Via Mystic Chords.)

[2] comments (1286 views) |  link

Which five fictional characters would you like to meet?

I.e., ones whose company I would actually enjoy.

Latro
Smoky Barnable
Morris Zapp
Gabriel Syme
The 1,387,229th Eastern Subordinate Incarnation of a Lohan (or an Arhat)

These are all guys, I know. However, the overwhelming majority of my favorite TV characters were gals, so it balances out.

(Via Mark Sullivan and Dale Price.)

[0] comments (1101 views) |  link

Booked

I'd hoped that I would escape this one, but, alas, Banshee tagged me.

1. One book that changed your life:
O'Neill's Music of Ireland -- Instead of just listening to the Chieftans, I began playing reels and Carolan tunes. This soon led to building hammered dulcimers, hanging out with musicians and other deplorable behavior.

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:
Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking-Glass In my youth, I knew Carroll the way people nowadays know Monty Python and Douglas Adams. I still do.

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:
("Thompson's Guide to Practical Shipbuilding" -- Chesterton) The thicker, the better: The Norton Anthology of English Literature.

4. One book that made you laugh:
James Thurber, My Life and Hard Times.

5. One book that made you cry:
None in a long time.

6. One book that you wish had been written:
It's already written, but it needs to be compiled, edited and published: The Complete Short Stories of R.A. Lafferty

7. One book that you wish had never been written:
Anything by James Fenimore Cooper.

8. One book you’re currently reading:
Tim Powers, Expiration Date.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
Gene Wolfe, The Wizard.

10. Tag 5 people.
There've been many similar memes, and most of the obvious people have been tagged already anyway, so I'm not going to call on anyone. If you want to play, go right ahead.

[4] comments (3141 views) |  link

More leftovers

MamaT has revived the Friday Feast. It's Sunday now, but so what?

Appetizer: What is a word that you use that would not be considered common?
Ordinarily, I prefer the demotic to the recherché. When I do use less common terms, it's generally when I'm discussing subjects with specialized vocabularies, e.g., Japanese words in the context of anime, or botanical terms with cacti and mesembs.

Soup: What theme of calendar do you have on your wall this year?
Just two calendars this year, one ballet and one Tolkien.

Salad: What is the age span of the children in your family ... and the children in the family you grew up in?
In my own family -- not applicable. In the family I grew up in, thirteen years, if I counted on my fingers right.

Main Course: Do you care about fashion? What do you especially like to shop for?
Present-day fashion, not in the slightest. Past, future or fantasy fashions, yes (look for me at Costume-Con 25). I hate shopping. Period.

Dessert: What is the last beverage you drank?
Coke.

Soundtrack: Steve Morse, "Southern Steel"

[0] comments (1415 views) |  link

This week's quiz

Via the LLamas:

Which country should you REALLY be living in?
 
My Results:
 

 
Russia
 
A vast terrain filled with beautiful scenery and interesting characters. You don't trust the world. You feel they are always up to no good. Which is why you'd make a great Russian.
You want life to be simple and have no desire for riches, fame or wealth - and thats the only way your government would have it.

[1] comments (1217 views) |  link

Wasting time efficiently

Grab the nearest book.
Open it to page 161.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the sentence along with these instructions.
Don’t search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you.

From the book that is actually next to me right now:

Clip: When reading beyond the end of the table you get the value of the last cell.

-- Reaktor 4 Operation Manual (English)

Fascinating, isn't it? Let's cheat a little. The next nearest book, The English Dancing Master, doesn't have 161 pages, so here's the specified sentence from the third-nearest book:

Kiki drank tea from her favorite teacup and tried on her old, fancy dresses in front of the mirror to her heart's content.

-- Kiki's Delivery Service, by Eiko Kadono, translated by Lynne E. Riggs (which is as good as, but very different from, the movie).

From the book I'm currently reading:

Pedestrians on Vagankovsky Lane stopped by the courtyard gates and marveled at the gaiety that reigned in the branch office.

-- The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov, translated by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor

I've seen this game at various sites, most recently at Video meliora ....

[2] comments (1724 views) |  link

Pick one

You're The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!

by C.S. Lewis

You were just looking for some decent clothes when everything changed quite dramatically. For the better or for the worse, it is still hard to tell. Now it seems like winter will never end and you feel cursed. Soon there will be an epic struggle between two forces in your life and you are very concerned about a betrayal that could turn the balance. If this makes it sound like you're re-enacting Christian theological events, that may or may not be coincidence. When in doubt, put your trust in zoo animals.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

You're The Catcher in the Rye!

by J.D. Salinger

You are surrounded by phonies, and boy are you sick of them! In an ongoing struggle to search for a land without phonies, you end up running away from everything, from school to consequences. In this process, you reveal that many people in your life have suffered torments and all you really want to do is catch them as they fall. Perhaps using a baseball mitt. Your biggest fans are infamous psychotics.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

I haven't read either in decades.

(Via Barbara Nicolosi.)

[0] comments (1202 views) |  link

Sugar shock

Before I post the next round of the SF anime babes poll, I though it might a nice change of pace to determine who the cutest anime character is. There are plenty of kawaii youngsters in anime, but in my opinion there are ultimately just three choices. See if you agree, and vote for the cutest.

Who's the most kawaii of them all?

[5] comments (1189 views) |  link

Huh?

The results of this one are a bit bizarre:

You scored as Anarchism. Anarchism 92% Republican 75% Socialist 42% Communism 25% Green 25% Fascism 17% Democrat 8% Nazi 0% What Political Party Do Your Beliefs Put You In? created with QuizFarm.com 'Imunimaginative's Deviantart Page'

If you consider libertarianism to be a subspecies of anarchism, then the results make a little sense, but this is still hard to explain.

(Via TexasBestGrok.)

[2] comments (1560 views) |  link

This week's quiz

You scored as Violin. woot. good for you. Violin 75% Viola 75% Oboe 67% Tuba 67% Cello 67% trombone 67% Trumpet 58% French Horn 58% String Bass 58% Bassoon 42% Flute 42% Clarinet 33% Percussion 33% If you were in an orchestra, what instrument would match your personality? created with QuizFarm.com

(Via Sarah.)

[0] comments (1172 views) |  link

I don't fit anywhere, really

Let's get this week's quiz over with early:

You scored as Babylon 5 (Babylon 5). The universe is erupting into war and your government picks the wrong side. How much worse could things get? It doesn't matter, because no matter what you have your friends and you'll do the right thing. In the end that will be all that matters. Now if only the Psi Cops would leave you alone.

Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)		88%
Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)		81%
SG-1 (Stargate)		75%
Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)		75%
Serenity (Firefly)		69%
Moya (Farscape)		63%
Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)		50%
Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)		44%
Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)		44%
Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)		38%
Enterprise D (Star Trek)		38%
FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files)		38%

Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

Well, okay, but Cowboy Bebop probably has the better soundtrack.

(Via the LLamas.)

Postscript: whoever coded this one did a sloppy job. Expect to do some editing if you post the results on your site.

[2] comments (1703 views) |  link

Words and numbers

It's been a while since I found a quiz worth posting. Here's one via TulipGirl:

You scored as English. You should be an English major! Your passion lies in writing and expressing yourself creatively, and you hate it when you are inhibited from doing so. Pursue that interest of yours! Biology 92% English 92% Linguistics 83% Mathematics 83% Philosophy 83% Dance 83% Psychology 75% Chemistry 67% Journalism 67% Engineering 67% Art 50% Sociology 42% Anthropology 42% Theater 33% What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3) created with QuizFarm.com

As a matter of fact, my majors were English and Mathematics, though I took classes in dance and music (which is missing from the quiz) when my schedule permitted.

[1] comments (1523 views) |  link

Clarification

Some notes on the SF babe poll below:

I intended this poll to be an adjunct to the TexasBestGrok SF babe polls, and I therefore restricted the choices to characters from science fiction series or movies, and science fiction only. Lum may be the archetypical anime babe, but although she's presented as a space alien, her tiger skin bikini reveals that she's actually a creature of Japanese folklore, and thus belongs to fantasy, not SF.

Perhaps it's because I didn't read enough comic books in my youth, but I've never considered super-powers to be legitimate science fiction. Much as I would like to have included A-Ko, I can't quite call her an "SF" babe. (I might loosen the restrictions in a future poll.)

I set a minimum age of 18 for all candidates -- this poll is about babes, not jailbait.

While a good figure is part of babehood, it's only one qualification and not the most important. Attitude also counts, as do personality, intelligence and independence. I tried to pick candidates exemplifying a variety of approaches to babeness.

This is not intended to be the definitive poll but rather the first in a series (assuming that there is enough of a response to make continuing it worthwhile). I could have listed Major Kusanagi, Kei and Yuri, Ryoko and Aeka, Priss and Faye Valentine all at once, but what would I do for an encore? Also, there's plenty I haven't seen, and I've therefore probably missed several outstanding candidates.

[0] comments (1972 views) |  link

Eye candy II

I figured that someone ought to do an anime version of John L.'s SF Babe of the Week, so I went ahead and put one together.

SF Babe Poll, Anime Edition

All the candidates are from science fiction stories. The chances are that most of you will not be familiar with them. That's okay; just pick the one who looks most interesting. (I've seldom heard of any of the women in John's polls, but that's never stopped me from voting.) The pictures are safe for work; I'm more interested in the nominees' personalities than their figures. You can vote once every day.

One of the candidates is from a sequence of series that I haven't yet reviewed, Crest/Banner/Banner II of the Stars. I'll eventually write at length about them, but I'll note for now that the three series form an unusually good war-in-space story, and I recommend them to anyone who'd rather read Robert Heinlein than watch George Lucas. (There are at least two other major babe candidates in the series, by the way, whom you might see in future polls.)

More anime fun: Anime Galleries dot net features thousands of screen captures and scans of anime and manga. There are plenty of sites with even more art, but what makes this one distinctive is that you can make a java jigsaw puzzle out of any picture there. Miyazaki is represented by Mononoke Hime (or Princess Mononoke) and Nausicaä, and there is an impressive number of pictures from Haibane Renmei; anime non-fans might enjoy these.

Fans of James Cameron might want to visit the page for Battle Angel Alita (or GUNNM) for a preview of his current project. Here's an interview with GUNNM's creator.

Soundtrack: Camel, "The Homecoming"

[2] comments (2140 views) |  link

8 x 4

Blame this one on TT & OGIC:

Four jobs you've had in your life: reporter, janitor, cook, nursery hand

Four movies you could watch over and over: None; I am just not a movie-watcher. Instead, here are four books I frequently re-read: Gene Wolfe, The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories; R.A. Lafferty, Nine Hundred Grandmothers; Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; The Complete Works of Saki;

Four places you've lived: New Jersey, Virginia, Utah, Texas

Four TV shows you love to watch: Haibane Renmei; Serial Experiments Lain; Jubei-Chan: Secret of the Lovely Eye-Patch; Angelic Layer (These were all initially shown on television, so they count)

Four places you've been on vacation: Atlantic City, Pennsic, Fresno, I-70

Four websites you visit daily: Pibgorn, NRO, Ballet Talk, Chizumatic -- plus innumerable weblogs

Four of your favorite foods: fried chicken, brownies, steak, salmon

Four places you'd rather be: Lothlorien, Guri, Blandings Castle, Mythgarthr

[0] comments (1282 views) |  link

More Saturday leftovers

This week's Friday Feast:

Appetizer: When do you feel impatient?
When do I not?

Salad: How many times in your life have you had a broken heart?
Approximately 2.718.

Soup: Name a book you would like to see made into a movie.
If I like a book, I don't want a movie made from it. If you insist, though, I might be interested to see something based on C.L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry; it would depend on whether the script gets as much care as the special effects.

Main Course: If you could thank one teacher for what they taught you, who would it be and what would you thank them for?
My Restoration Comedy professor, who assigned Colley Cibber's The Careless Husband. Discovering that there really are people who study Cibber seriously cured me of any remaining desire to do graduate work in English.

Dessert: What is your favorite kind of pie?
Eskimo.

Soundtrack: Kaye, "Tha mi sgith"

[0] comments (1529 views) |  link

Maybe not

Maybe
Result: 35. Your score isn't an achievement, it just is.

Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues at Cambridge's Autism Research Centre have created the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, or AQ, as a measure of the extent of autistic traits in adults. In the first major trial using the test, the average score in the control group was 16.4. Eighty percent of those diagnosed with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher. The test is not a means for making a diagnosis, however, and many who score above 32 and even meet the diagnostic criteria for mild autism or Asperger's report no difficulty functioning in their everyday lives.

My test tracked 1 variable.
How you compared to other people your age and gender:
You scored higher than 99% on points.

The Asperger's Syndrome Test written by beachbummer on Ok Cupid.

I'm not autistic, just asocial.

(Via Fred.)

[0] comments (1325 views) |  link

By threes

THREE THINGS I DON’T UNDERSTAND:
1. Cell phone addiction
2. Comment spam
3. 42

THREE THINGS ON MY DESK:
1. Keyboards (QWERTY and MIDI)
2. Eighth Day Books flyer
3. Someday's Dreamers

THREE THINGS I’M DOING RIGHT NOW:
1. Listening to Helium Vola
2. Coughing
3. Missing dance class

THREE THINGS I WANT TO DO BEFORE I DIE:
1. Write a great novel
2. Record a great CD
3. Get a good night's sleep

THREE THINGS I CAN DO:
1. Program a sequencer
2. Build and play a hammered dulcimer
3. Cross my eyes

THREE WAYS TO DESCRIBE MY PERSONALITY:
1. Quiet
2. Acerbic
3. Mostly harmless

THREE THINGS I CAN’T DO:
1. Grand pliés in fifth position
2. Enjoy spectator sports
3. Smile on command

THREE THINGS I THINK YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO:
(I don't think I need to mention Bach and Mozart)
1. Klezmer
2. Bluegrass
3. The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart

THREE THINGS I DON’T THINK YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO EVER:
1. [C]rap and hip-hop
2. NPR
3. Billy Jeff Blythe

THREE THINGS YOU SAY:
1. However
2. Hmph
3. No

THREE THINGS YOU’D LIKE TO LEARN:
1. More music theory
2. More math
3. More botany

THREE BEVERAGES YOU DRINK REGULARLY:
1. Apple juice
2. Coke
3. Water

THREE SHOWS YOU WATCHED WHEN YOU WERE A KID:
1. Moose and Squirrel
2. Dick Van Dyke
3. Green Acres

THREE THINGS YOU WISH PEOPLE WOULD LEARN TO DO:
1. Turn the teevee OFF
2. Turn the radio OFF
3. Turn the cell phone OFF

Blame Robert the LLama Butcher for this one.

[1] comments (1184 views) |  link

Whatever works

Scipio You scored 66 Wisdom, 74 Tactics, 56 Guts, and 44 Ruthlessness!

You're most simillar to Scipio in the fact that you're smart and ruthless. Scipio beat Hannibal by luring him back from Western Europe (where he was crushing legion after legion of Roman soldiers trying to gain support from local tribes) by laying seige to his home country of Carthage. Hannibal returned to defend his home and was defeated at the Battle of Zama. Ruthless, but it worked. Scipio was the conqueror of Hannibal in the Punic Wars. He was the son of Publius Cornelius Scipio, and from a very early age he considered himself to have divine inspiration. He was with his father at the Ticino (218), and he survived Cannae (216). The young Scipio was elected (c.211) to the proconsulship in Spain. He conquered New Carthage (Cartagena) almost at once (209) and used the city as his own base; within several years he had conquered Spain. As consul in 205, Scipio wanted to invade Africa, but his jealous enemies in the senate granted him permission to go only as far as Sicily and gave him no army. He trained a volunteer army in Sicily. In 204 he received permission to go to Africa, where he joined his allies the Numidians and fought with success against the Carthaginians. In 202, Hannibal crossed to Africa and tried to make peace, but Scipio's demands were so extreme that war resulted; Scipio defeated Hannibal at Zama (202), returned home in triumph, and retired from public life. He was named Africanus after the country he conquered. His pride aggravated the hatred of his enemies, especially Cato the Elder , who accused the Scipio family of receiving bribes in the campaign against Antiochus III in which Scipio had accompanied (190) his brother. It was only through the influence of his son-in-law, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, that Scipio was saved from ruin. He retired into the country and ordered that his body might not be buried in his ungrateful city. Later he revealed his great magnanimity by his attempt to prevent the ruin of the exiled Hannibal by Rome.

Link: The Which Historic General Are You Test written by dasnyds on Ok Cupid

(Via some silly hippie.)

[1] comments (1096 views) |  link

A quiz for Lynn

You are Berg's ridiculously complicated Chamber
Concerto. No one will ever figure you out and
when they do, it probably won't be right.


What major work of Alban Berg are you!?!?!
brought to you by Quizilla

(Via Music in a Suburban Scene.)

[0] comments (1081 views) |  link

BXVI

speculative catholic's first quiz:


Ratzinger! Your personality reflects that of the
shy but friendly Benedict XVI. You prefer
thoughtful, refined themes in your music and
liturgy, and a smaller, purer Church.


Where do you fall on the Wojtyla-Ratzinger Continuum?
brought to you by Quizilla

[0] comments (1180 views) |  link