Originally posted on the Benrik website: http://www.benrik.co.uk/...
Nate is READING: Plutarch, "Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans"
LISTENING TO: Cruachan, "Pagan"
WATCHING: House, M.D.
Damn, that Plutarch is slow going. It took me forever just to get through the Life of Pyrrhus. At least it's interesting.
The Book: http://www.amazon.com/...
As per usual, I'm going to start off the blog entry by pimping my serialized online novella, Ghost Dance, which is the story of a boy, a girl, two swords, two pagan gods, and one very old and very powerful undead spirit that's very, very pissed off.
I finally posted Chapter 6, which is the chapter where Frank and Linda finally have sex.
You can read the most recent chapter here: http://authorofghostdance.wordpress.com/
If you haven't been following or if you're just joining us, it starts here: http://authorofghostdance.wordpress....
CHAPTER SEVEN WILL (PROBABLY) BE UP BY THIS TIME TOMORROW!
And as before, I've got a MySpace page up and running. http://www.myspace.com/...
Essentially, the MySpace page is the same as the Benrik blog, except alot more ergonomic.
So . . . yeah.
Today's Task, according to the U.S. version of the Book, was to spend some time in church. I'm not a member of any church, so I decided to make one up.
I'm a Christian, and Atheists often ask me how I can believe in a benevolent God when there's so much evil and suffering in the world. My answer is simple: God is an anti-utilitarianist. If God went around righting every wrong and stopping all suffering, it would create at least as many problems as it would fix; if you don't believe me, just look at what happens when governments reach out and try to "help" the people they're governing. Instead of creating a one-size-fits-all world that alot of people (most, I think) would hate, God gave us a cold and indifferent world in which one can carve out one's own place for onesself.
So for today's Task, I decided to found the First Libertarian Church of Jesus Christ, a Christian anti-organizational "church" that values individual liberty above all else. Its six tenants are:
- Jesus was the Son of God, and if we accept His word and sacrifice and we try to follow His teachings, we will be absolved of our sins.
- There is no king but God, and no voice of authority but the Holy Spirit as it speaks to us individually.
- God does not interfere in earthly happenings. At all. Period.
- St. Paul was a blasphemer, and his writings were only included in the Bible for academic purposes.
- In order to develop a personal relationship with God, people must be free to think, act, and worship as they will, without interference from religious or secular leaders.
- All human beings, regardless of race, gender, belief, or sexual orientation, are garunteed by God the right to Life, Liberty, and Property.
And the flag is pretty badass, if I do say so myself.
That's the end of the political-y section. If you don't really care about taking a gander inside of my sketchbook (because that's what this blog is, not really a journal but a writer's sketchbook), you can stop reading now.
Enough! Enough holy-rolling and Jesus-jumping. I now shall speak of that most decadent and depraved of Earthly persuits: Writing.
Finished that reincarnation poem. It's a blank-verse bit about an Indian brave who dies in battle and is reborn as a fighter, again and again and again.
My story along similar lines that I was going to use for the contest is already over the thousand-word maximum, and Eric has only just now met Marcus and the hoplites. Ah, well. I'll just have to write another.
My main flaw as a writer is a lack of discipline. My short bits and individual passages are good; sometimes I like to read over them just to marvel at how so flawed a man as myself could've created something so lovely and so well-expressed. Much like my relationship with Hot Emma; I can't wrap my head around why the most beautiful and totally awesome girl on God's green Earth could love a sad little punk like me. But you see, that's the problem: I'm always working on parts of things, always half-assing, never doing anything to completion, always content to revel in the majesty of those Few Good Bits. I need to start finishing things, seeing things through to the end.
Speaking of Hot Emma. I need to write more love poetry. She plans to go to Italy for Spring Break, and (alas!) I can't come. I'm merely paranoid, I'm sure, but I anticipate that Letter that all men are afraid will come: "Dear Nate, I'm sorry but his name is Enrico Gorlomi and he has a huge . . ."
Why do I pour so much energy into these blog entries? Because if something unfortunate should happen to me, I'd like for to leave something at least half-descent for them to refer to as "his last words."