You approach Satan's wretched city where you behold a wide plain surrounded by iron walls. Before you are fields full of distress and torment terrible. Burning tombs are littered about the landscape. Inside these flaming sepulchers suffer the heretics, failing to believe in God and the afterlife, who make themselves audible by doleful sighs. You will join the wicked that lie here, and will be offered no respite. The three infernal Furies stained with blood, with limbs of women and hair of serpents, dwell in this circle of Hell.

God, those Furies are hot! And I'm proud to be labelled first and foremost a heretic. HellYeah!

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!

Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
Level | Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)| Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)| Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)| Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)| High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)| Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)| High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)| Extreme
Level 7 (Violent)| Extreme
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent/Malicious/Panderers)| Very High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)| Very High

Level descriptions:
Take the test:

and just you try'n stop me.

Why do it? I'm not bothering to ask myself. First reaction was, sounds fun! Buncha naked people and I get a free print. I haven't seen the terminal yet (is it really gonna do so much more damage to me naked than clothed?), so it's a good excuse to finally get there. I believe firmly that people need to get over themselves, and a great way to do that is gettin' naked. Everybody looks funny in real life. Take Brad Pitt and Nicole Kidman, put'em naked on the street, and you'll soon find that they're human too. Probably got a mole here or a stretch mark there. When the only naked people you see are yourself and the people in the magazines you can't help but feel inferior. Give yourself studio lights, hair designers, and computer airbrushes and you can be that fine too.

Is he taking advantage of us for doing it? Is Ansel Adaams taking advantage of the Grand Canyon? Did Warhol take advantage of the campbell soup can? Yes, he's gonna make money from it. But so many people are making money from other stupider things. I give him credit for daring to go there in the first place (before he gained "status" he faced many hurdles for this type of art), and I don't see why it was OK when he was "on the fringe" but now that he's gained acceptance he should be shunned. Shouldn't we be happy that he cracked the puritanical armor that America has erected against nudity in general?

But, again, I didn't want to think about it so much, Ima juz gon' git nekkid.

Apparently it may have been confusing that in my entry about paradise I refered to zen. Was it because I am somehow intertwining the holy religions of the world (though who's to say they don't need a little intertwining, splicing, and advice?)? Perhaps I don't "get" Buddhism. I probably don't (the book of Taoist I Ching in my bathroom may be confusing me). What I meant though was just genreal thoughts of "spirituality". The general, who am I? where do I belong? how do I fit in? and such. I understand that a central tenet of Buddhism would be forsaking this egoist search. You must be as a pebble in the stream who, through making no effort on its own behalf, interrupts and redirects the flow. Of course the effort is in allowing oneself to be that pebble, to shirk the worldly, the pettiness of desire...

What I think, going back to the top, is that all these religions have things of vast import to impart unto the world. The problem is that people (yes people, for the most part deities have had very little involvement) have been using these religions and subtly changing (dare I say, hope I say, perverting) them. People have interpreted Christ and somehow decided that killing can be justified. People have used Buddha to enslave others in communistic non-choice. What we need is to understand that Christ and Buddha would be great friends, and would both abhor what we have used their words for. What if someday people thought you so cool that they wrote books about you. Your message of peace and understanding was so succinct, pure, and just that they couldn't help it; you spoke to their souls. And then you died (as does every prophet on earth). You watch as the words and deeds you wrought on earth are transformed before your eyes. You see as people kill each other debating the worth of your views. You see them defending slaughter with your name. You hastily check the records (you have, of course, kept a comprehensive journal of everything you tried to teach while on earth) and reassure yourself that you never sanctioned any of these heinous acts, your words were only about peace, brotherhood, and unity.

So, do you think that Jesus, or Buddha, or any of the rest, are "up there" now, wondering if it was worth it? If they had known the deeds that were to happen because of their philosophy, would they have continued? Do they watch right now (and for the last couple millenium) and weep for the pain they have caused, however unitentionally and indirectly?

tonight that stupid man at the copshop on Lex and Elm wouldn't sell me beer in the bottle. He said it wouldn't fit through his hole, it was ridiculous. I bet the cops get beer in the bottle if they want it. What if I wanted donuts in the bottle, would that have fitted through? Stupid asshole. I bequeath you a scathing curse of achy ass. I hope that every time you need to use that ass of yours that it just aches and aches. So there. I even danced a little shaman dance. You achy-assed muthafucka!

the word is paradise!!

That's right, paradise. It comes from two Persian words, pairii (around), and idaeza (a wall), according to Dalrymple:

"The word was brought west by Xenophon, who introduced it into Greek when describing the fabulous garden built by the Persian Emperor Cyrus at Sardis; from the Greek paradeisoi it passed into Latin as paradisum; and hence into Middle English as paradis."

Funny that our vision of Heaven actually derives from an enclosed Persian pleasure garden. Paradise means enclosed by walls, which is not really to my liking. Perhaps that is the reason I don't want to go to heaven. Sounds so boring. God's watching you all the time. Everything's all ordered and good and right. Don't you see? It's all balance. Perfect white is no place to live a life. And you can't see in pitch dark. That's why the blend is so important. A little good, a little bad, a pinch of order, and a handful of chaos. Why strive for perfection when you can strive for life.Live to Learn. Learn to Love, and Love to Live (and all the other permutations).

Hey! Sometimes, you need your cheesy Zen entries. No?

The car needs a steady supply of quarters in order to function. It makes a syrupy cough sound that lets you know to pop another in. There was more to this dream but...

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will monitor the American presidential elections iin November . Think it'll make a difference? Will the people who elected George in the first place (the 9 in black) give a darn what the international org. thinks when it decides the race this time?

I wish I had a video of my gandma dancing.

Keith, I'm doing the naked picture thing too.

what more can a boy ask for?

Today we went for a trip to devil's hole in Niagara Falls. Paul's like, I know where it is, no problem... Paul sat in the back with Matt. I was shotgun, with (e:lilho) driving. We get to the first questionable part...which way Paul?...Paul...PAUL...bPAUL...oh ummm...left.... The choice has unfortunately been made. And it was wrong, and the situation would repeat...4 or 5 times. We went to Niagara Falls...we went to the love canal...everywhere but devil's friggin' hole. Three hours later, we've spent 15 minutes outside of the car. Very fun. I guess the moral is: don't pretend to be no naviga-TOR if you ain't no naviga-tah. WTF?

I am publicly apologizing for the two errors made last night while judgement was somewhere left behind:

To (e:diana): My comments last night were purely jocular in nature. There was no harm intended. My humor gets dumber as the night goes on, and the quips leave my mouth without traversing the terrain of my mind. Though I still think that if you're gonna call me T-bag, I can call you D-licious or Di-uretic, but I won't again.

To becka, sorry for confusing you for Nicole. It's just that just about everytime I see you you're together...lame excuse, but yeah...

and so very adaptable.

I mentioned that the latest novel in my India phase is City of Djinns by William Dalrymple, and because I've heard that my journal entries are too long, I'm just going to post a couple random bits of triivia. All the following words were exported for English use by those great chaps at the British East India Company, but have their origins in a variety of India's languages:

• pyjamas (apparently this is how you spell it in high-falutin' England)
• cummerbund
• veranda
• bungalow
• pundit (how did that get in this list, I wonder?)
• candy
• ghoul
• thug
• [/list]
• And here are some that crossed-over and were used colloquially but didn't survive the journey back to the motherland and thence to us:
• [list]
• goont-from the Hindi meaning pony (don't look a gift goont in the face?)
• shikar-sport(s) (I am constantly amused to hear how Brits say sport instead of sports)
• cheese (as in it's the real cheese)- from the Hindi chiz meaning thing
• chummery-bachelor quarters
• rum-johny- mistress, from the Hindi ramjani meaning dancing girl
• goglet-water bottle

[inlink]chaibiscoot,29[/inlink] (e:chaibiscoot) thanks for responding and adding your input into this discussion. My very limited knowledge of everything India (sorry, I didn't choose my fucked-up westerncentric education) makes me feel like a political voyeur. White Mughals is great, you'll definately enjoy it, and recognize many of the places since it's your hometown. Even I now feel like I have a sense of the city, albeit a two hundred year old sense. I'm on to City of Djinns now and a VS Naipul book. Thanks for the recommend.

and (e:emily), the Reinstein Park really is nice. I finally got there yesterday and it was a little rainy and there were deers (even a pair of cute little fawns) and turkeys and pretty pink lily pads. [inlink]emily,188[/inlink]