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Read news at these links. Mainstream journalism is dead.

When I'm not obsessing about the corporate takeover of our democracy, I do have some semi-normal interests, such as blowing up bad guys in Half-Life 2, or Bioshock. I really enjoy bicycling and LOVE camping, as well as sci-fi/fantasy (Reading, viewing, and writing), Classic Rock, movie scores, and computer gaming... you know, all that geeky stuff!

Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Dream Theater, the Doors, Matchbox 20, Cloud Party (an Indie band from Reading, PA), Battlestar Galactica or Pan's Labyrinth soundtracks. Every once in a great while, I'll even throw on something artsy such as Vangelis or (betraying my age here) Art of Noise.

Fahrenheit 911, An Inconvenient Truth, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Almost Famous, Gladiator, Minority Report, Children of Men, Apocalypto, Pan's Labyrinth, American Psycho; and I have a soft spot for some older flicks: Conan the Barbarian, all three Indiana Jones flicks, Aliens, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and Stargate I am one of those rare people who thoroughly enjoyed Starship Troopers

Discovery documentaries like Planet Earth, or Ant Wars. Television doesn't do much for me these days. I like to catch a rerun of Seinfeld, Scrubs, or That 70's Show once in awhile (if I must pick some sitcoms). And of course there's the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report. The only other show I watch religiously is the best show on television bar none, the "re-imagined" Battlestar Galactica on Sci-fi.

I recently discovered the show "Firefly" which the Fox Network ran for about 15 episodes. They showed them out of order and basically did everything they could to kill it. I also gave "Lexx" a try. The first miniseries was cool. Extremely so. It was quirky, weird, and decently written. It reminded me of a creepy sort of "Fifth Element" with a solid dose of Evil thrown in. (Warning - it aired on Showtime, so they were able to be extremely brutal and graphic with certain parts of the story. If gore bothers you, don't watch it!)

Unfortunately, after this encouraging start, the show settled into standard television fare (read: blah) and lost my interest after only a few episodes. But I would suggest watching the first miniseries if you are into something different.

Stephen King, Stephen R. Donaldson's Gap series and the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant from the same author, Glen Cook's Black Company series, Stephen Brust's Jhereg series (It appears that I tend to like books by people named Stephen!), and Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series (mostly the earlier books before it turned to schlock.) George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire is easily the darkest, bleakest fantasy series I've ever read. Some may find the characters in that series to be excessively cruel and brutal, but it's worth reading because it's a sharp change from the typical "boy meets princess and falls in love while saving the Kingdom from the Dark Lord of Darkness" types of fantasy that is everywhere out there.