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Ol’ Monkeyface and I were having one of our strange quasi-religious, quasi-mystic discussions about Enoch (חנוך) who, among other things:

• fathered Methuselah
• lived the events of the Book of Enoch
• did not die, but was taken by God’s hand
• is called Idris in the Koran
• taught humankind mathematics, writing, astronomy (perhaps this is why the character Enoch Root is named such in Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon cycle of books?)
• May have been “translated to an angel” at the hand of God

More on Enoch

While we were discussing this, OlMF made this very cool drawing. I said that if I ever have a band I will use this on the cover art. It’s appropriately Radiohead-ish but much more Byronic, Lovecraftian — it’s simple and it speaks to that same strange transcendentally recognizable thing that makes the evil video strangeness from “The Ring” so damn compelling.

Well done, and he did it in about 30 seconds:

My good friend Mike has the bad luck to be saddled with Microsoft applications. He also bears an unusual last name that Word suggests be changed to either:

Social

or

Bobcat

Three cheers for Mike, the “Social Bobcat”.

Here is the rough story of my visit to Maui

Friday 24 September - Woke up early (0400), shower, cab to Mountain View Caltrain, train to Millbrae, Bart to SFO. - Check in was moderately painless. iPod and a bunch of magazines in the backpack and I was all good - Flight was good, ATA food was good, they showed this movie with Jim “Jesus” Cavizel playing Bobby Jones. I don’t know much about golf - I didn’t care much - Arrived in Maui. I was hot in jeans and a shirt - Picked up a Chevrolet Classic. Has a nice bit of low end for an econobox - Drove to Ka’annapali (henceforth K’pali). - The water in Hawaii is not blue. It is cobalt. It is not blue like water, it is blue like dye. It’s beautiful. - I arrive at the hotel: receive lei and plumerias - I get room upgrade - beautiful view of beach, garden, two balconies and tons of AC - I am tired - I get my bearings and make phone calls to surf shops etc. - I take a momentary splash on the beach - I shower and head to reception luau - Meet with Norbert’s cousin James - Meet with other guests - Luau - Go home - Fall asleep on chaise lounge on balcony

Saturday - Wake up at 5am - Sunrise yoga - Hit the pool - Eat a $12 ham sandwich - Drink a maui mist - Shower, go to wedding - Am appropiately moved - Head to reception - Hear great wedding day speech from groom - Am appropriately moved - Wonderful night - Plan on going out, by the time we get back to Lahaina Town everyone is tired - Go home

Sunday - Sunrise yoga (not because I’m intrepid, but because I keep waking up at 5 in the morning) - Hit the pool briefly - Go to post-wedding-day-brunch! Fun! - Return in the afternoon, hit the pool - Go out that night with wedding revelers to Lahaina town. Eat sushi at kobe restaurant. Drink expensive drinks. I’m falling asleep in my chair. Dammit! “Place was dead anyway”. Go home.

Monday -Supposed to go snorkeling. I didn’t get the directions right and miss the boat, literally. - Go surfing instead - Come back exhausted, hit the pool, read book: Started The Time Traveller’s Wife about 11 that morning. Realize I am in love with this book about page 30. Realize I will not stop reading this thing until it’s done - Develop a sick stomach (sushi? travel? ) I don’t care, I’m reading an amazing book - Overcome with sadness about 50 pages from the end - Finish about 11pm. I’m overcome with anger at the protagonist. - Trying to lessen anger at protagonist - Keep replaying scenes of the book. I’m incredibly sleepy, but incredibly mentally engaged - Toss and turn. Stomach doesn’t hurt anymore. - Sleep

Tuesday - AM yoga, thoughts of TTW keep interrupting. Crabs come out to watch me on the sand. They are cute and creepy at the same time. - Hit the morning surf. I step on a sea urchin and, inbetween waves, pluck spines out of my left big toe. I can still stand on the surfboard. Keep surfing. - Hit the pool and read books - Watch a ton of law and order - Notice I look healthy with a tan. I should try this vacating in warm places more often

Wednesday - AM yoga - Hit the morning surf - Hit the pool and read books - Watch a ton of law and order - Notice I look good with a tan. I really should try this vacating in warm places more often

Thursday - AM yoga - Hit the morning surf. BIG SURF DAY. - Read book - Went to bed early

Friday - AM yoga - Breakfast brunch - Go to airport - Fill up with 2.66/gallon gass - Return rent car - Catch flight home - Return to SF, take train back to MV, cab from MV home. - Leave bags in living room. Get Carl’s Jr.

In Salon they are reporting that photos from the 1st debate show a rectangular something strapped to GW’s back.

Here’s the pic (from a CSPAN feed):

New meaning to “talking points”.

Legend of Zelda-themed tatoo:

[ Link ]

I wrote in a previous entry that I thought Elyse Luray-Marx was an ideal woman (still think she is, but married ).

I think that Zelda is certainly a Platonic ideal of a woman, er, elven woman - er 8-bit-video-game-elven woman.

When kidnapped by an evil machinating wizard (Ganon), Zelda had the Triforce of Wisdom broken into several pieces that were hidden in several dungeons throughout her kingdom (Hyrule). The only way these pieces could be reunited was by a cutting display of wit and and flash of elven steel.

And it would truly be a most munificent (Thanks Sid Meier’s “Civilization” for that 25-cent word) leader that chose to hide the Triforce of Wisdom not of Power — because power is always overcome by wisdom (a fact apparently lost at the Pentagon).

There was something wonderful and blissfully innocent about the days when video game technology was too weak to render action as “real-life”. Instead we had glyphs that were rich enough to trigger our imagination, characters that were noble and good, and rich fantasy worlds that - to this day - call us back like sirens. Heck look at the still-popular game Nethack - the enemies and characters were “@”s and “$”s.

Even today, I own Legend of Zelda for my GameBoy Advance, and plan on picking up Super Mario 3 (landmark!) and playing those games again and again. It’s hard to imagine that 10-20 years later kids are going to want to visit the nihilistic festival that is Grand Theft Auto or Doom when their Playstation 10’s will be delivering “real adrenal cortex feedback”.

OK - the Pepto ads where the people are doing the butt cheek grabbing conga. Ugh!

I also find ads that celebrate being a selfish snit irritating, thus i dislike the McDonalds momma’s eatin’ her chicken ad.

Currency speculator and managerial guru George Soros (who’d you expect, Warren Buffet?) has a blog now. Soros is a pretty smart cat.

Check it Out

“Waking up with the King” from Burger King.

Some plastic headed monarch is on the other side of the bed when I wake up? HELL NO. That’s almost as bad as the Charmin scat bear ads.

Now added! Enjoy here

Here they are:

I thought this was an interesting book. I picked it up thinking that it would be a book on the “clash of civilizations” perspective on the West versus Islam (see Hunington’s The Clash of Civilizations). Interestingly enough, the thesis was different than I expected.

Thesis: The globalizing marketplace creates conditions which accelerate and abet Jihadism (not strictly Islamist but Nationalist, Segregationlist, pro-Quebequois, etc.). Their interplay is bad for democracy.

{ Finished The Gnostic Gospels, reviewed in consumed media}

This was an amazing book! Brilliant, beautiful, Romantic, touching…I’ll be reviewing it in its own post. Recommended by counselor James Dedman.

A funny and sardonic, Edward Gorey-esque, story. Ostensibly a kids book, i\ t’s Victorian mort noir sensibility was a lot of fun.

What a pleasant surprise! I was expecting something along the lines of The daVinci Code - old artifacts, researching, shadow conspiracies, etc. There was an element of that, but what I thought was special about the book was the way it dealt with the topic of students in their senior year of college.

The students were hard working and intelligent, but they were all questioning against that great mysterious wall of graduation.. I loved the dynamics of 4 guys in a house — the disparate interests united by intelligence and ambition — it really captured the magic of your last semester — well my last semester (and year) anyway