Gizmo's oddities

So I bought today a CD. Its the Cistercian Monks of Stift Heilgenkreuz. It is a cd of Gregorian Chant type music.

Ill wait till some of the people that are reading this to wake up from the shock ;)

Its odd. The first time I really heard it was in High School, during a class. I was taking a Humanties class, which in some ways was one of my favorite classes during High School. The class was done in the theatre at the school, so the speakers when playing it was rather loud. It was very serene and this was before I had much access to the internet (I did, but it was dial up so I could not accomplish even a fraction of what I can now), so even though I enjoyed it more than most of the other music we played (though im a big fan of the art, especially believe it or not religious art), I largely forgot it.

The next time I heard something similar was the intro to Halo, which while your at the main menu screen you get a cool picture of the Halo with a chant behind it, which was quite nice and I found myself leaving it on the menu screen for a while just to listen. On a side note I also suppose you can count to a certain degree the chant in Monty Python's Grail, though in general its in the middle of things (as well as during part of it) that im laughing my ass off, so I can't really sit back and listen without the comedy aspect).

I just bought the aforementioned Cistercian monks Chant - Music for the Soul which im listening to. Also recently I bought Paradise Lost by John Milton as well as Dante's Divine Comedy. I had not really done much looking into Paradise Lost, but im quite a fan of Dante's Inferno cause I think it has quite an interesting look on hell and the punishments that one supposedly is relegated to dependent on their sin. Not sure how long it will take me to read them (Im starting with Paradise Lost only cause I got it first, I won't get Dante till Monday). Im sure its going to take me a while to get through it, as unlike with other books of which I can skim read and understand it, I feel I have to read these far more carefully to make sure I get all of it (and im sure even then, I won't on the first read).

So yes, for those that think im going to hell, you can be rest assured I will read what others think that place is like. Luckily, I don't believe it exists, but I can still love the idea of reading about it. I also like the art associate with hell. Matt Dillahunty, from the Atheist Community of Austin, of which I became a member of (yes I realize I don't live in Austin, but there are members other than just Austin, and I have become a very large fan of the Atheist Experience shows (http://www.atheist-experience.com) and the Non Prophets Radio show (http://www.nonprophetsradio.com)) did a lecture on Hell and especially the art and beliefs associate with it. It can be found on the ACA website in the lectures section. http://www.atheist-community.org is the ACA website. http://www.atheist-community.org/lectures/speakers.php?id=34 is the direct link to the lecture with a video.

Anyways, didn't really have a major point to this, figured I would post something for the 1st. Heres to hopefully a better year for the economy, the country in which I happen to live in (hopefully Obama works out and we will see soon enough) moves in the right direction, less violence in the middle east (I don't have a huge amount of hope for this one, but who knows) as well as for those that are down on their fortune.