Thursday
Another workday gone by. Quickly.

I listened to more Harry Potter today. Something about that has been lurking in the back of my mind for the past few weeks… today, it finally coalesced into a coherent thought: Harry Potter reminds me of two things: the Dragonlance setting (AD&D) and parts of the Superman mythos. How so?

  • Dragonlance
    • In Harry Potter, young wizards attending Hogwarts are sorted into one of three Houses (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin). On Krynn (the world of the Dragonlance setting), wizards above the initiate level must declared their allegiance to one of three orders (White Robes, Red Robes, or Black Robes); these orders are also dictated by the wizard’s alignment (good, neutral, evil), but since this is not a game discussion, I won’t go into that here.
  • Superman mythos
    • Both are sent away to be raised by foster families after the death of their parents.
    • Both are outsiders to some degree – one by choice, the other by circumstance.
    • Both grow up to discover that they have “…powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.” (Sorry, couldn’t pass that one up.)

I’m sure that there are other similarities, but these are the first ones that came to mind.

NPR/PRI Programming
Talk of the Nation talked about the Catholic Church and the desire of some members of the laity to have more say in affairs of the Church. There seems to be a LOT of opinion on this issue – some feel that the Church should remain more or less “as is,” while others think that a return to the openness that was supposed to follow “Vatican II” is in order.

The World had a few interesting stories:

  • The grand assembly (also known as the Loya Jirga) has chosen Hamid Karzai, current head of the interim administration, to be the new head of state.
  • The U.S. military is considering using dirigibles (blimps) to monitor our borders. You read that correctly: Dirigibles. Flying at 70,000 feet (21,336 m), they would be easier and less expensive to reposition than satellites.
  • A British man, positioning his dish in an attempt to find new channels on satellite television, picked up images being transmitted from NATO spy planes over the country formerly known as Yugoslavia. These pictures were unscrambled and had a real-time clock on them. When the man contacted the Pentagon to inform them of what he had found, they told him that they knew about it. *shrug*

I’m going to watch the end of the Belgium-Russia match (currently 2-1 with 10:30 to play) and then hit the rack.

Peace.