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For some reason I asked myself earlier in the day, what could be the worst curse one can have? Midas came to mind, as did Sisyphus, but as I looked over my bedside table, I settled on a singular answer for today… August from John Crowley’s Little, Big.

Why? August had made a trade, a deck of cards in return for power over the hearts of all women. Cursed he had become.

He learned, though slowly, what all great harrowed lovers learn: that love is what most surely compels love–is perhaps, except for brute force, the only thing that does, though only (and this was the terrible gift he had been given) when the lover truly believes, as August could, that when his love is strong enough it must surely be returned–and August’s was.

…he came to know that it did not and had not ever contained his power over women: his power over women lay in their power over him.

Imagine having the love of every woman. Imagine not being able to stop loving them. Imagine not being to stop their love from being returned. Imagine endless heartbreaks. A curse indeed.

His role in the novel wasn’t major and in fact there are characters with even more tragic happenings, heroes even, but his short role in those pages was… refreshing. Seeing a gift in a different light. But I guess, sadly, it seems to be one of those curses that you must experience yourself to truly fear. I wouldn’t mind being rewarded with this curse (or cursed with this gift), as I’m sure all of you wouldn’t mind either.

So how did I spend my Saturday and Sunday? Quite nicely, I told some friends I had some plans and couldn’t hang out with them (the truth it was) and continued to start and finish (literally 10 minutes ago) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Only took about a year, literally, I bought the book the day it came out, actually, pre-ordered it two months before it was released.

Yes, I am quite ashamed that it took me so long to begin reading it, I don’t really know why I waited, and I just wanted to read it now for some reason.

All in all the weekend was lazy and relaxing, I’m glad it revolved around food, ice-cream, and reading. The reading part I loved, just makes you lose touch with your surroundings, you know?

So… who wants to discuss the book with me now?

I sit here at work holding a cup of green tea in one hand, typing with the other, and all the while trying to get lost in some music. My body may be on this world, but it did an exceptional job of fooling me a few times during my walk downstairs as I stepped sideways more often than forward. Walking has become an exercise in negotiation as my muscles fight gravity as if their rivalry surpasses that of the Montagues and Capulets.

I didn’t realize how difficult it could be to order a tuna salad sandwich when one can not utter a word clearly. I believe I lost the battle with the quickly agitated sandwich lady… tuna mediocrity won again: wheat, tuna, lettuce. And it surprisingly hid a disgusting amount of salt for such a little sandwich. And by the way, shouting “cucumbers please” with a sore throat is more painful than one imagines, it’s best just to shake your head signifying a Yes or a No.

On the lighter side, I believe I’m fulfilling the rights of my species quite thoroughly today, for as we all know, the males require the pampering of a newborn when ill for our suffering is rather grave and we are required to abuse the rewards of this illness until every heart feels sympathy towards us.

The Things that Make us Happy
Make us Wise.

– John Crowley

An apt quote for the past few weeks of my life. Came across it while reading Little, Big these two days I’ve been home.

I just viewed the trailer for 300, based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel. 300 is one of my favorites, but strangely enough it doesn’t get enough love in the comic book world. I mean, it isn’t considered bad, it just isn’t considered Frank Miller’s best, which is understandable, he is the man who wrote Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One (upon which Batman Returns was based), Daredevil: Born Again (THE Daredevil story, also created Elektra), and of course…Sin City. Shame his newer stuff is…sub-par.

Well back to 300, before viewing the trailer, I had extreme expectations, I mean, this movie is based upon writings that are close to my heart. Verdict? This movie just may be THAT good, it looks stupendous…or maybe I’m just being influenced by the Nine Inch Nails song that played during it (which I doubt will be in the movie, another shame). On the plus side, I didn’t recognize any of the actors, which is great I think personally, because usually the “famous” actors suck up a lot of a movie’s budget and the characters are re-tooled to fit the actor instead of the other way around.

Well I’m converting, no more MP3s for TB. I’m going all AAC baby. Why you ask? Well…

AAC has better compression and better audio quality. Well so do other formats, for example, Ogg Vorbis, which I am HUGE fan of, but alas the hardware support is lacking.

AAC works in my iPod, my PC, and my cell phone. But not my Portable MP3CD Player or my Car MP3CD Player. But on the bright side, I haven’t used my Portable MP3CD in a couple years and my new car doesn’t have a MP3CD Player (…bright side?). While Ogg Vorbis only works on my PC (maybe on my MP3CD Player with a firmware upgrade, but I haven’t bothered to check).

Stupid companies and their proprietary support for their codecs. Ogg Vorbis is free and open source with no royalties to pay to anybody, but good luck trying to get Apple to support it in the next iPod. Also, I won’t be buying any music from the iTunes store anytime soon. Their AAC songs are DRM coded, much like every online downloadable music store (except AllOfMp3.com, those guys rule). Bastards telling me where I can and can not listen to music that I paid for and bought legally.

So I’ll be ripping all my CDs to AAC now and I don’t believe I’ll come across any major problems. Maybe a few PC players, but I think Windows Media Player is the only major one that doesn’t come with an AAC codec, but who the hell listens to music through WMP anyway? Winamp, Foobar, iTunes…

Top 20 Geek Novels

1. The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — Douglas Adams
2. 1984 — George Orwell
3. Brave New World — Aldous Huxley
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? — Philip Dick
5. Neuromancer — William Gibson
6. Dune — Frank Herbert
7. I, Robot — Isaac Asimov
8. Foundation — Isaac Asimov
9. The Colour of Magic — Terry Pratchett
10. Microserfs — Douglas Coupland
11. Snow Crash — Neal Stephenson
12. Watchmen — Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
13. Cryptonomicon — Neal Stephenson
14. Consider Phlebas — Iain M Banks
15. Stranger in a Strange Land — Robert Heinlein
16. The Man in the High Castle — Philip K Dick
17. American Gods — Neil Gaiman
18. The Diamond Age — Neal Stephenson
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy — Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham

Ouch, I only scored 4 points, I feel like a lowly geek. Still, the list is sorely lacking, I mean, Lord of the Rings, Ender’s Game, Alice In Wonderland, The Alchemist, Frankenstein, Flowers For Algernon…only some of the more famous geek-ish novels that are awol from the list.