FIRST I hope people know I'm a NiGHTS into Dreams fanboy. It's a classic Saturn game and is one of the things that has made a gigantic impact in my life. NiGHTS has helped shaped Charles-then into Charles-now? I've also always been a pretty rabid Sega fan as well.

So as I'm sure somewhere between FEW and NONE of my readers are aware, NiGHTS is not going to be playable in Sonic and Sega All-Star Racing, which is PURE MADNESS. NiGHTS is pretty much right behind Sonic in terms of mascot potential. And nobody wants to see the character fade into obscurity.
So there's a campaign underway to get Sega to have NiGHTS included as DLC. A number of fans have made video responses. AND NOW I AM ONE OF THEM:



I didn't even white-balance the camera. BUT MAYBE SOMEONE WILL THINK IT IS AMUSING! Because I'm so awesome to watch, especially while feigning English snobbery?

Because being foolish to an internet audience is what LIFE IS ALL ABOUT!

So I returned to my parents house for Thanksgiving, reuniting me with many books which I have yet to transport up to Buffalo. I needed something to read and found the urge for one book overwhelming... SCIENTOLOGY: The Fundamentals of Thought by L. Ron Hubbard.
I trust everyone remembers that I bought a bunch of shrink-wrapped L. Ron books at a used book sale for $0.50 each last year?

Well this book was written in 1956 to serve as an introductory text which could easily be translated into other languages. I will say that YES it does follow its own logic system and if you believe what it says you CAN structure your entire life around Scientology-based concepts. But do you want to?
L. Ron claims to be a master of communication, in 1955 he wrote "Dianetics 55!" which is supposedly "the complete manual of communication." But he really writes in a confusing style. He likes to take words and re-define them for his own purpose and structures phrases in a really odd manner. Presumably the reason is to make things sound more "scientific" even though there is no actual science anywhere NEAR Scientology. Yet L. Ron is still stating things are "scientific facts" without backing that up in any way.

Anyway, Dianetics was "Book One" but this is "Book One of Scientology" and Scientology apparently made much of Dianetics obsolete. Which makes me wonder why Scientologists stress Dianetics as being at all relevant? Anyway, there are new "discoveries" (the thetan/soul as being senior to mind or body and disconnected from either, new lists of 'facts' to memorize, new rules to follow) but none of them really interest me. The only people I can imagine caring about this are uneducated folks who are unaware of philosophy and psychology. L. Ron entirely trashes those studies as outdated foolishness. Apparently the only thing a Scientologist should study in regards to the Humanities is Scientology.

Oh the book also provides some instruction for "processing"/"auditing". This is kind of interesting and if someone really likes the book, they can probably get some sort of benefit by doing these things with a friend who also really likes the book?

However there is a lot of not goodness within. Mostly that you get the beginnings of "Church of Scientology" fascism. For instance, a Scientologist is forbidden from saying anything negative about another Scientologist or related organizations. Um, yeah...

Scientology might have some sort of benefit to SOMEONE but certainly not as it is practiced by the Church of Scientology, in my opinion. (In Australia, the branch is accused of torture and forced abortions... PRETTY WACKY!)

I wouldn't recommend this book since the "discoveries" it reveals are kind of lame. I don't know who Scientology is supposed to appeal to although I've heard there are some disillusioned Qabalists who drifted towards it. But it seems lacking in comparison to the various mystery traditions -- I guess the concept of a clearly defined end-goal that you can reach if you spend enough is appealing. It also claims to be very scientific but I've never heard of a Scientologist with a doctorate. As I said earlier, I feel it's really for the uneducated. People who want to be engaged with academic concepts but are unaware of what actually goes on within academia. Kind of a trap for those unschooled in philosophy.
The book's influence can therefore be seen as negative, steering people away from potentially valuable ideas (ie Hubbard dismisses the entire field of psychology as worthless and misguided). But judged on its own it's more "meh" than anything else.

There is one deep mystery I am left with upon finishing this book... what the hell is it that draws me to keep reading this crap?

THE LAMENTATIONS of Jeremiah is a pretty short (5 Chapters) and I'm done with it.

Basically Jeremiah really loves God. But God is pissed at Israel and Jeremiah is really sad that everyone sinned so much to bring about God's wrath.
Except it's written in a fairly personal manner, which makes it better (IMO) than the actual Book of Jeremiah. Not that it's anything I feel too strongly about, but if you were to choose between the two, go with Lamentations.

Finished The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah yesterday, go me.

So this book is pretty far into the Old Testament, I have less than 150 pages left now that I'm done with it. BUT FOR SOME REASON LET'S REWIND TO THE SECOND BOOK OF CHRONICLES! Because this starts before the Babylonians started wrecking Israel's shit.

So Jeremiah is all "Dudes, you know these books Moses wrote? I am pretty sure we're supposed to be doing what they say. I KNOW 'CUZ GOD TOLD ME!"
And everyone is all "WHATEVER Jeremiah, God thinks we're the best and we're going to go worship false idols now, 'k?"
And God is all "LOL, BABYLON WILL FUK U UP - Y'ALL PISS ME OFF... ISRAEL WILL BE A DEN OF DRAGONS! but I did kind of make a deal with Jacob so I won't have all the Jews totally killed or anything I guess. BABYLON WILL BE A DEN OF DRAGONS!"

So Babylon fucked up Israel's shit. And Judah's of course. And King Solomon's Temple? TORN DOWN OMGOOSE!

Jeremiah just couldn't get NO RESPECT! Oh and in my Bible is name is punctuated as "Jer-e-mi'ah." And I'm not sure why but "Nebuchadnezzar" is "Neb-chad-rez'zar"... what is with the 'r' instead of the second 'n'? I do not know!

Yeah this is another book that really has no bearing on my life. People who say "read the Bible, and its illumination will awaken your heart" and things like that are talking crap, I'm pretty sure. As per usual, I've still got pretty much no clue what the symbolic meaning of Israel or Zion is supposed to be.
I'm going to assume the only lessons modern-style Christians get out of it is "be faithful to God" -- yeah, I would not have heard that anywhere else in the Bible. One of these days I should crash a Bible Study Group and start and raise a ruckus... I probably won't though.

Oh and towards the end God starts referring to Israel (the kingdom/peoples) as Jacob and then starts name-dropping Esau. LET ME TELL YOU THIS IS A BIT CONFUZZLING! Pretty much everything in the Book of Genesis went way over my head in terms of real world meaning. So extensions of that do not help.

So some readers may be curious as to what I did for Halloween. LET ME TELL YOU!
On Friday I drove to Emily/Nate's in MA (this is a long drive). There was exquisite corpse jack o'lantern carving which turned out greatly. Also listening to The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack, watching Frankenstein and The Addams Family, eating toasted pumpkin seeds and ghost Peeps -- all around SPOOKY TIMES (kind of).

So Rue Morgue has an internet radio show called "Rue Morgue Radio" and last Friday they had a contest giving away 3 copies of Rue Morgue's DVD "Curious Stories, Crooked Symbols" (three short films by the founder).
It was just for the first THREE people to email. I was listening to it many hours after the podcast went up but I thought it was worth a shot to enter.

AND I WON A COPY! I think this is pretty seriously awesome! Seriously, it's rare for me to win things like this.

Oh and if anybody is curious, mixing Boo Berry, Count Chocula, and Franken Berry is actually pretty awesome if you like sugary cereal. I dub it a "Monster Mash Breakfast" and the flavors work together a lot more than I expected.

So today I finished The Book of the Prophet Isaiah. Let me tell you, this man had a lot to say. And I don't even know how to START. The symbolism is pretty dense, you guys!

Isaiah 6:2 gives the first visual description of angels (beyond "a man with a sword"): "Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly"
PRETTY NEATO! Now I have to admit, I do not know a huge amount about angels. But Qabalistically, the Seraphim and could be rendered in English as "flaming serpents" and are associated with the Geburah. But apparently Christian tradition puts them as the "highest order of angels"? According to Wikipedia at least. Apparently they show up in Revalation so that might clarify a bit?

ALSO you get the first mention of Lucifer!
14:12 "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lu'ci-fer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!"

PLUS you get the promises of a "Prince of Peace" and other things Christians love to point to and say "JESUS, THE MESSIAH, WAS PROPHESIED HERE". If the word "messiah" appeared I must have missed it but I guess this is the start of messianic prophecy?

For the most part though, Isaiah is just yelling like a crazy guy. To imitate his style in modern language, he's the guy shouting "You HAVE SINNED before GOD and beside spider's webs and Cocatrice eggs but the STONES WILL CRUSH those who have not BEHELD the land of the FLYING SERPENT! For this Land of Israel is UNWORTHY for the covenant made with Jacob - IDOLATRY! HATH THE LEVIATHAN SWIM to your banks!"
Yeah, he's throwing around all kinds of mythological animal things and is basically pissed at Israel for not being as awesome as they should be.

Kind of like Job, this seems kind of neat. (Although Job is more poetic about it.) Basically I was a pretty confused Charles!
Next up is Jeremiah, the most depressing prophet!

Charles: Oh boy, today is the first day of class registration. Even though it's already evening, I'm sure I'll be okay to sign up for what I want.
UB: HAY! DID U WANT TO BE SIGN UP 4 AWSUM CLASSES?
Charles: Yes, please.
UB: LOLZ, MAYBE 2 OF THEM WILL BE ALREADY FULL.
Charles: : (
UB: kekekekeke ^___________^

So instead of taking "Organization of Information" and "Archives Management" I'll be taking "Public Libraries" and "Government Information". Now, Public Libraries may very well be pretty awesome but Government Info sounds LIKE NOT SO MUCH FUN! Extra annoying is the fact that Organization of Info is a required course so my last semester is already 50% predetermined...
BY THE WAY, GUESS WHO IS ALSO TAKING THREE, THREE-HOUR CLASSES ON THE SAME DAY? It is me. I SUPPOSE I WILL STOCK UP ON RED BULL AND BACCHUS-D!

(I just wanted to complain some.)

And I'm hoping I can take a Practicum during the summer - hopefully at the George Eastman House.

ALSO I NEED TO FIND SOME SOURCE OF INCOME! I applied for a reviewer job at Anime News Network and am SERIOUSLY HOPING I get that. Because that is pretty much the best non-library job I could possibly get. If nothing else happens, I'm pretty sure I could find some library work on campus during Winter Term which would hopefully carry over to future semesters?

So everyone likes top 5 countdown lists, right? Well here's one for Halloween movies. Not to be confused with horror films in general, these are movies that are somehow related to the Halloween spirit. I was going to make this a top 10 but realized that by #10 I would be stretching. These movies are REQUIRED VIEWING for people who love Halloween.
And if you don't love Halloween, you're wrong.


5. Halloween - forget all the bullshit hype about Michael Meyers from the sequels. He's not even a real character. This is a movie based on all those urban legends about an escaped mental patient who either kills teens while they are making out or menaces the children some teenage girl is babystitting. Pretty great.
4. Killer Klowns From Outer Space - IN SPACE NO ONE CAN EAT ICE CREAM! This movie is GREAT - it's a loving 1980s tribute to films like the blob that manages to be really fun without ever allowing itself to get stupidly wacky.
3. May - I cannot imagine someone watching this and not falling in love with the title character. She's very awkward and socially inept but seems so... sad. You watch her failed attempts at romance and friendship and then things get PRETTY FREAKY-DEAKY. Much bloodshed but only of the HIGHEST CALIBER.
2. Halloween III: The Season of the Witch - aside from the first one, it's the only worthwhile film in the series. No Michael Myers. But you get a crazy corporate conspiracy? Spoilers are the only way to tell how cool the movie is - they use STONEHENGE in order to make techno-magic-evil masks that SUMMON BUGS AND SNAKES out of kids' faces. SO COOL!
1. Trick 'r Treat - the ultimate tribute to all things Halloween. It's an anthology film that centers on a particular town and kind of shifts around in time. But I cannot imagine anything being more definitive of what Halloween IS and SHOULD BE.

PS - if anyone's curious the best Halloween book is "The Halloween Tree" by Ray Bradbury. CAN YOU TELL THAT I HAVE BEEN ON A KICK FOR SPOOKY STUFFS!?

I just have to say that Dragon Warrior III (aka Dragon Quest III) is the best 8-bit RPG I've ever played. And I've played a considerable amount of them.

I just wish I could have free time again...