the da vinci code

I finally got to read Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code after waiting on my library's hold list for months (starting out as the 10th person in line). It lived up to the hype for the most part, with brilliant multi-layered riddles grounded in historical evidence that makes you want to look stuff up. The book is centered around the idea of the sacred feminine and the theory that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus, which has been suppressed by the Church but surfaces secretively in art and music. I was utterly fascinated by the analyses of the symbolism in relation to Mary Magdalene in several of Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings (such as this). I've already had some exposure to the Magdalene-as-Holy-Grail theory from playing Gabriel Knight 3 (which based its research on the same book), so I'm fairly familiar with the basics of the book, but not some of the other clues that the author presented, which were very interesting as well. It makes me want to fire up and play GK3 all over again.

One of my favorite parts of the book is a conversation between the main character, Langdon, and his publisher, Faukman, about his book on the Magdalene-Grail theory:

Faukman was still shaking his head. "But with all these books written about it, why isn't this theory more widely known?"

"These books can't possibly compete with centuries of established history, especially when that history is endorsed by the ultimate bestseller of all time."

Faukman's eyes went wide. "Don't tell me Harry Potter is actually about the Holy Grail."

"I was referring to the Bible."

Faukman cringed. "I knew that."

And there was another sort-of Harry Potter reference that was very intriguing. The 8th Grand Master of the Priory of Sion (sercret society which kept the secret of the Grail) is listed as Nicolas Flamel, who was in the position from 1398-1418. The time period seems to coincide with the other Nicolas Flamel, who created the philosopher's stone. I'll have to look him up some time.

the joys and pains of owning a pda

I recently bought a PDA -- a Dell Axim X30 with wi-fi and bluetooth. I decided upon it after doing much research (reading complaints on Amazon reviews) and visiting Aximsite.com. My Axim is working perfectly so far, with none of the hardware malfunctions some users have experienced. I now have a spiffy calendar/organizer that surfs the net and doubles as an mp3 player.

However, there are downsides to having a spiffy computer-thing -- you want more stuff on it to make it even more spiffy. I bought a Kingston 128mb SD memory card for it before the PDA was even shipped. After I got it, I proceeded to download games, e-books, and application to enhance useability. That's when I found out how much the Windows Mobile OS really sucks. I won't go into detail here, because the list is endless, but suffice it to say that the software CD included with the Axim came with demos of applications that enhance the Windows Mobile interface. If that's not a clue that the interface is lacking, I don't know what is.

And now, my latest quest is to acquire a GPS unit for my PDA, which can be upwards of $100-300. Why? Because I have a thing for navigation systems in cars, and I found out that with a good mapping software and a GPS unit, you can turn a PDA into one. Whee!

i remember!

It came back to me! That is, the thing that I forgot in the previous post. I'd better get this down before I forget it again.

Basically, I've been watching Dr. Phil a lot and reading his books. He says that the number one desire among humans is for acceptance, and conversely, the number one fear is rejection (hence the reason people fear public speaking over death). Kind of obvious if you think about it. But here's the thing. My "aha" was realizing that this is one evidence of how We Are All One, and how, even though we appear separate, all we want to do is get back together again.

one of those things

Do you ever one of those "instant revelations" where you all of a sudden understand the way some aspect of life works? You usually wouldn't write it down immediately, thinking you're going to remember it later -- except you don't. Well, one of these happened to me...some time in May. And I wrote the first sentence of this paragraph, thinking I was going to finish it the next day. Except I didn't. And now I don't remember what it is I had a revelation about. *sigh*