Alan’s Blog of Monkey Bloginess

It’s no secret that Barnes & Noble’s eBook pricing has seen come recent changes. The $9.99 blanket price for new releases has been blown away and expect to see high prices on average. But the nook supports a variety of file formats and DRM schemes that allow you load eBooks from a various sources, shopping around for the best prices.

Free & Cheap Books from Barnes & Noble
Prices are going up, but that doesn’t mean all the prices are going up. Mostly new releases are getting hit the hardest. Many older releases aren’t seeing dramatic, if any, price increases. There are free books available, and still plenty of books in the sub-$5 range.

Barnes & Noble Big Deals (most eBooks in the $1-5 range)
Barnes & Noble Free eBook Search (currently lists 951,754 results)
Barnes & Noble – All Product Search, Under $5 (currently lists 61,380 results)
Free Nook Books

Public Domain & Open Licensed
Public domain is the rule, copyright is the exception. Most of the greatest literature of the world is free, available to the everyone as part of our collective culture. Get intellectualized and read the classics. Additionally, some authors recognize value in giving their work away and provide their art under creative common or other open-license model.

Google Books
Project Gutenberg
Feedbooks
ManyBooks.net
epubBooks
Scribd

Cory Doctorow’s craphound

Independent Publishers/Authors
Sometimes going with the major distribution system isn’t a possibility. There are other avenues for some great small or unknown authors to distribute their work and make a little money by charging far less than what the major publishing houses think we should pay.

Smashwords
Baen Books

Other eBook Stores
Competition is a good thing, and sometimes competing eBook stores have different prices. Check out some of these other stores and make sure you’re getting the best deal for the books you choose to pay for.

Koko Books
Fictionwise

Library
Many libraries offer digital lending using OverDrive and Adobe Digital Editions. Check to see if you can load content loaned from your library that you’re already paying for with your taxes.

OverDrive

Blogs
The best news is by the (wo)man-on-the-street. People finding free eBooks and letting everyone else know. Here are blogs of people keeping the rest of us informed.

Finding Free eBooks
Free Books Blog

If anyone else has any other sources of getting free or cheap eBooks, or any alternatives to using Barnes & Noble for comparative price shopping, please share them. Also, any eBooks posted on the net by the authors for free distribution would be great to hear about, too.

I originally posted this on the Barnes & Noble message boards.

A note before we get started: I have software 1.2 and have not used the nook with any previous versions of the interface software. I’ve read a lot about the previous versions’ shortcomings, but I approach the nook’s software and responsiveness as a newcomer.

So last Tuesday I got my first e-Ink eReader and Android-powered device: a Barnes & Noble nook. I had been anxiously awaiting its arrival and have greatly enjoyed my initial time with it. It’s not without its quirks and shortcomings, but the experience has been overall fantastic.

I’m not a big reader. It’s not to say I don’t enjoy stories, but that I find paper books to be cumbersome and inconvenient. I’ve used every portable device I’ve ever owned to read eBooks in an attempt to find the perfect paper replacement: Sony Clie, Nintendo DS, iPod, iPhone, laptop, netbook. They all suffered from one of three issues: (1) too large and bulky to carry around, (2) too small to read, and/or (3) staring at a light source to read causes eye strain after several hours. First and foremost, none of these devices were designed with eBooks in mind. But with the rise in dedicated eReading hardware using e-Ink displays, my lifelong quest of a good paper replacement for reading has finally been realized.

Where the first part of my life can be remarkable because I can count all of the novels I’ve read (and finished) on a single set of fingers and toes, the next phase will likely be notable for the amount of literature I’ve discovered and enjoyed.

e-Ink You Say?

Have you witnessed first hand what it’s like to read on an e-Ink display? No? Do you know what it’s like reading a book while staring into a light bulb? It’s nothing like that. You’ll get an experience very reminiscent of reading ink on paper as compared to reading on a computer screen – a light source.

Though all the eReader devices use the same screen. So if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all. If you haven’t had a chance to see an e-Ink display in person, then you should head to your local Barnes & Noble to see a nook in action, or check out any major electronics retailer to see Sony’s eReader displays for screen demos.

Two Screens Are The New Black

What sets the nook apart from many other eReaders on the market is its use of a secondary color touch screen to facilitate the majority of the navigation throughout the device. Nintendo started a trend with the DS for having a dual-screen device with a touch screen, and using a nook after years of owning a DS felt very natural.

The bottom, touch screen turns off after a predefined set of time to (1) save battery power and (2) to not distract you from the real reason to use this device: reading books on the e-Ink screen. The time can be adjusted in the Settings area, as can the brightness level. In the week I’ve been using it, the only complaint I have is that I wish there was a button to explicitly turn it off when done and ready to read; having to always wait for it to time-out is not ideal.

Where To Get eBooks

Barnes & Noble
Obviously, the first place you’ll want to get books with the Barnes & Noble nook is from Barnes & Noble. At least that’s what the brick & mortar store is hoping. And it’s likely true, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only place to get books to read on your nook. Barnes & Noble, in the interest of selling a consumer-friendly device at the potential cost of vendor lock-in, has been gracious enough to release a device that accepts various formats including open formats.

Barnes & Noble still has a secret ace up its sleeve for cheapo readers (like me, I don’t like to spend a lot on books. At least not at the moment): Google Books. There are 500,000 free public domain books available in the Barnes & Noble eBook store provided by Google Books. Good luck finding them, though, as I believe whenever there is a version of the book by a publisher, that is displayed because I’ve found many public domain books for $9.99 where there are free versions available in Google Books if you go through Google directly. Which brings us to…

Free Public-Domain and Creative Commons Books
Public-domain is the rule, and copyright is the exception. That’s the model creative works are suppose to exist under in the United States. There is a great deal of amazing literature that is actually free for everyone to enjoy, and there are websites dedicated to providing these works in your format of choice at no cost. In addition to these works that form the foundation of our culture, there are contemporary authors who distribute their work without copyright and make it available through these sites as well. Some great sites for getting free content viewable on the nook are:

Google Books
Project Gutenberg
Feedbooks
epubBooks

Your Local Library
Believe it or not, but your local library may end up being your best friend with the nook. For example, the Denver Public Library, where I have a membership, has eBook lending in the ePub and PDF formats, both of which are supported by the nook. DPL uses Adobe Digital Editions to manage its DRM, and the nook supports Adobe DRM on ePub and PDF formats. In exchange for some of my tax dollars, I can check out books at no additional cost when a licensing slot is available. With DPL, I can checkout up to 20 eBooks at a time for up to 21 days each. The Adobe Digital Editions program supports the nook and will recognize one that is connected and authorized with the computer. Open your checked-out eBooks in the Adobe Digital Editions program, and simply drag & drop the books onto your nook.

Make Your Own
Since the nook supports the open ePub format, which is an XML-based format, you can convert your own files into eBooks to display on the nook. The nook does not support plain text files, but converting various types of files into ePub files is fairly easy with the proper tools. Check out this tutorial. Personally I’m finding the Windows and Linux versions of Sigil to be the best ePub creation tools with the power of a lightweight WYSIWYG editor. And Sigil is free open-source software.

Connecting The nook

Connecting the nook to a Windows or Linux PC (sorry, no Mac here for testing) is easy. Connecting the nook via the provided USB cable brings up the nook’s 2GB internal memory as a USB drive with folders already set-up for audiobooks, B&N downloads, documents, music, screensavers, and wallpaper. If you install a MicroSD card, then that card will appear as a separate USB drive, so that you can transfer files to the nook or the MicroSD card.

When you add files to the nook, you’ll need to update the library afterwards. Also, the nook’s interface does not categorize content, so the folders are for your benefit only; the nook scans the internal and MicroSD drives for all content to display in your library, and drops it all in one bucket in the interface. Well two, all ePub & PDF files will be shown in the documents area of your library, and all MP3s will be playable through a single playlist in the music player.

Wallpapers and screensavers are the only folders that maintain significance. Add single images to wallpapers and the image will be available in the Settings area to change your nook’s wallpaper. Add a folder of images to the screensaver folder and the name of that folder will appear as a screensaver option in Settings.

For connecting the nook to Wifi, that was significantly easier than previous reviews have led on. Gone are the days of manually entering network IDs, it seems, because my nook automatically found my home network and identified its security type. I only needed to select the network and enter my password. Usually, the built-in free 3G connection to AT&T wireless will be more than enough to satisfy any wireless needs.

What I Want

I really enjoy using the nook, but it’s not perfect. Most of the issues I have with it are software-based and hopefully could be addressed with updates and not requiring me to get new hardware.

• TXT File Support - Not that I particularly have a super strong need for support for TXT files, it just feels particularly weird that the nook does not read TXT files, and for the TXT files I would like to put on my nook, converting them to PDF or ePub is total overkill.
• Book & Music Categories/Folders - Putting books and music in file directories on the nook does nothing for organizing the media actually on the device. This makes using audiobooks useless if you ever want to listen to music. Playlists would also be a nice feature for organizing music to play in the background while reading.
• Special Audiobook/Podcast Player - listening to audiobooks and listening to MP3s are slightly different affairs. Primarily an audiobook should remember where in the audio you left off, much like a book will remember a page number, even if you play other audio files before returning. This audiobook player would also serve well as a Podcast player.
• RSS Reader with Internet feeds - an RSS reader to pull in news from any RSS source would be a great feature of the nook and make the Daily section something worth using.
• Text-to-Speech Reader - Yes, text-to-speech readers are lousy. But something is better than nothing. Add in an ability to swap back and forth between reading and speaking, and the nook would become the ultimate road warrior tool for keeping sane on long driving trips.

Wrap Up

And so there you have it. I’ve had my nook for a week, and I’m loving it. It’s re-opened a world of reading for me because it’s much more accessible and convenient. It’s brought to fruition a long-time desire for me to have tech fill in the issues I have with printed literature.

My biggest gripe is with book publishers sabotaging eBook pricing for their own misguided desire to prop-up hardcover book sales. Most new books are $9.99, as with Amazon, but publishers are starting push on booksellers to get eBook prices set closer to $12.99-14.99 without adding any additional features when they should be able to drop the price with increased demand and sales. As a new customer (I usually spent less than $20 a year on books before getting my nook. The two books I’ve purchased so far through Barnes & Noble have been older releases and were about $5 each) who could be tempted to buy eBooks if they were priced fairly, their desire to want me to purchase hardcover versions will inevitably drive me to download public domain and creative commons licensed literature and support writers who give away their work in exchange for exposure and self-satisfaction. Or seek to read newer and copyright restricted books through the library system.

And if they continue pushing and limiting options and choices, while pushing to drive up prices past reasonable levels, there’s always the torrent sites and P2P networks.

I like to have fun here at my Blog of Monkey Bloginess, but I want to put the cardigan sweater on and have a serious chat with you for a moment. It’s that important time in every young person’s life when the uncomfortable topic of protection needs to be discussed. I know, I know, nothing bad is going to happen to you. We all say that until one day it does happen to us, and some things can’t be undone. That’s why we need to have this talk now about how well your data is protected.

Recently I had the unfortunate circumstance of having a hard drive physically fail on me. And by hard drive, I mean, well, a hard drive. It’d be 10 years since last that happened, and I was feeling pretty confident in my ability to retrieve lost data from pooched hard drives. I had too much data to back-up on CD or DVD and banked on a delicate balance of luck and geek knowledge to see me through data mishaps and issues. But there’s only so much one can do when a hard drive physically starts to shit the bed and here’s my solution that has me resting easy once again.

Redundant Storage
The key to data protection is simple, it’s not an easy easy answer, but it’s a simple one: Redundancy Redundancy Redundancy. If the data is in three places, then you would need three simultaneous catastrophes (or one really big one) to cause you total loss. The first step is in storage, where if your storage solution uses redundancy inherently, then a single hard drive failure can be easily recovered from.

I’ve chosen to purchase a Drobo 800, which uses EnhancedRAID technology to combine the powers of multiple hard drives into one super drive that can recover if one of the drives should happen to fall. The Drobo also pools all the hard drive space together so multiple 1.5TB drives act as one 4TB drive. The Drobo isn’t the end solution, there are scenarios where it wouldn’t be enough: two simultaneous hard drive failures or destruction of the Drobo unit would spell disaster for the data on it. But at 4TB worth of data, there aren’t many other back-up options available; I know what’s first on my list to grab in case of fire. I can build a new computer, but that Drobo is coming with me.

Beyond the Drobo, or if you can’t afford $350 for peace-of-mind, I also have two 1TB drives (one installed inside of my PC and one in an external USB HD enclosure) where I use Microsoft SyncToy to back-up the contents of the internal drive to the external drive on a nightly basis. This puts all of my music, pictures, and personal files onto an easy to remove & run device. Unlike the Drobo where between four hard drives the space of one is lost, the direct back-up method results in a 1:1 usage of space, so two hard drives only give the space of one.

Off-Site
As previously touched upon, a fire is still my worst nightmare. If I’m not home and my PC, Drobo, and external HD all melt and cinder, then having multiple levels of redundancy doesn’t amount to much when everything is in the same physical location. To protect against this problem, my most important files, my pictures, get uploaded to an on-line back-up service: Mozy. At $5/month for unlimited back-up storage, I put all of my photos on Mozy so in case all hell breaks loose, my most irreplaceable files are protected somewhere else entirely that I can then download onto a new computer.

Don’t Interrupt
Lastly, I added one more piece to my data protection puzzle: an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS). We had a couple of 30 second black outs recently that were enough to shut my PC down. Shortly thereafter I started getting hard drive issues. I had my hardware on a surge protector, but when the lights go out, there’s nothing to protect against. I believe improperly shutting down may have contributed to my problems, so I picked up an APC UPS system that hooks up to my PC via USB to provide one more level of protected for my hard drives and data: in the event of a power outage, the UPS system will send a shutdown command to my PC so it will properly power down instead of instantly die.

That’s my three pronged attack to prevent any more painful data loss at home. Redundant file storage, online back-up, and a UPS device. Depending on your storage needs, you can bypass the local redundant storage entirely (such as you don’t need 4TB of storage space for video files and have less than 160GB of music) or use burnable optical media, and then only pay $5/month for unlimited on-line back-up space. More important than copying my set-up which fits my needs is that you follow the first point: Redundancy Redundancy Redundancy. Just get your important files into multiple places, ideally in multiple physical locations.

See larger image Data Robotics Drobo 4-Bay USB 2.0/FireWire 800 SATA Storage Array DR04DD10 (Electronics) List Price: Price Not Listed New From: Check Amazon For Pricing In Stock Used From: $349.00 In Stock

According to The Onion, meat is America’s no. 2 condiment. What people want topped on their food is meat. Particularly, this is what it had to say about bacon:

Johanns cited the rise of bacon as a condiment as the most universal example of this trend. “By 2015, our researchers predict bacon alone will supplant condiments as diverse as mustard and Worcestershire sauce,” Johanns said. “Crumbled ‘bacon bits’ are a classic addition to salads, and in recent years, slabs of bacon are increasingly used to wrap vegetables, fruits, and seafood. Adding bacon as a topping to cheeseburgers is old news, but now we are seeing bacon-topped meatloaf, bacon-covered chicken wings, and deep-fried, bacon-wrapped bacon sprinkled on pork chops.”

To prove this point, let’s take a look at the top 5 Bacon Food Stuffs that take bacony-goodness to the next level.

Gummy Bacon

This is not really made out of bacon as it’s gummy candy made to resemble bacon. The idea of visually putting uncooked bacon in your mouth and then experiencing the taste & texture of gummy strawberry is disturbing to say the least. I’ve been given a package of Gummy Bacon, and I am not ashamed to say that I was too scared to eat it. I did not want to taint the idea of bacon in my head with this monstrosity of culinary science. A braver soul than I may be able to stomach the beast.

order Gummy Bacon

Baconnaise

I don’t like mayonnaise, but the idea of adding bacon to it makes a bit more palatable. The taste of bacon makes everything better, so I don’t see how this would be an exception. If it’s good enough to put mayonnaise on, it’s good enough to put bacon on! Though I wouldn’t necessarily hold the inverse to be true.

baconnaise.com

Bacon Salt

Add the flavor of bacon to any meal with a simple flick of the wrist. Bacon flavored salt is the easiest way to improve the flavor of your foods. Bacon-flavored french fries. Bacon-flavored popcorn! BACON-FLAVORED BACON! The culinary possibilities abound with bacon salt. If you can add a little bit of salt, then you can add a hint of bacon. Getting your sodium for the day never tasted so good.

baconsalt.com

Bacon Jam

Spreadable bacon. Did you ever think you’d see such an amazing food product. The first thing that comes to my mind: peanut butter & bacon sandwiches. Can you imagine a lunch-time offering that would make a child more popular in the schoolyard? You’ll probably need to pack your munchkin two: one for him or her, and one for the school bully who’ll undoubtedly want to jack such a succulent sounding meal. At $17 for an 8oz. jar, the stuff ain’t cheap, so you may want to make your own.

order bacon jam
make your own bacon jam

Bacon Candy Bar

Chocolate & bacon. Sweet & salty. Flavor combinations that may not sound too keen at first, but really play off of the palate. The packaging contains a lovely story about the creator’s love of bacon and chocolate and the story of how the two came to meet. If it were an eHarmony commercial, bacon and chocolate would match on 27 of their 29 dimensions of compatibility. Perhaps bacon & eggs are the only worthier couple in the bacoverse.

order Mo’s Milk Chocolate Bacon Bar

If you’ve been paying attention to the claims of the various media lobbying groups, you eventually come to realize that they are liars, have politicians in their back pockets, and are pretty much suing and greasing legislation that is trying to grab money from everybody from soccer moms to cell phone ringtone users. They’ve been twisting and warping interpretations of copyright laws to the point where copyright no longer serves the function for which is was created.

In this process, I’ve come to realize: I’ve never paid for music. I used to have an impressive CD & cassette tape collection thanks to memberships in BMG and Columbia House (10 CDs for a penny!). For all my life, when I’ve given money to music companies, I’ve been buying CDs and tapes, not the music on them. To prove the point, if I were to damage my CD, if I had bought the music then I should get a new CD; but I bought the physical CD, not the music on it, so damaged CD means I lose access to the music on it. Music has been free for consumers, we’ve only ever been purchasing the physical delivery mechanism. And music should be free for consumers.

In a digital world with infinite copying and marginal cost delivery methods, why should the dynamics of paying for music change? If I didn’t pay for music before the Internet, why should I start paying now? Music belongs to The People, and copyright is only supposed to grant a temporary monopoly while the artist creates their next artwork; copyright is not intended to construct concepts of ownership around the non-physical aspects of artwork.

Dungeons & Dragons Online has done something that every other MMORPG should have done years ago: gone free! As a casual gamer, I will never pay a blanket monthly fee to play a game. In particular, I would never, ever pay $50 for a game and then pay $15/month access fees on top of that. D&D Online has actually gotten me to play a MMORPG for the first time by making the game free.

Now, 100% of the game is not free, but to play, have fun, and experience the game is free. As you get to higher levels, some character races and classes require in-game points to access. There will also be in-game accessory packs and level packs available for purchase through a store, but those are all optional. The points can be purchased with real world money, or you can earn them in-game for free. So, it is possible to play the game 100% free and get the additional content. But personally, if the game is able to hold my attention that long, I’d likely be willing to shell out a couple bucks for the content. Show me that I want to pay money, and I’ll happily give it.

This is the direction media consumption is heading. Music, movies, TV, games; pretty soon basic content will be free, money will be made on add-ons that bring more value to the basic product that people will want to pay for. Of course, music has always been free, it’s been physical delivery methods that people have actually paid for.

Turbine is beginning to recognize this, and they recognize that by giving their basic game away, they’re really investing in marketing. More people play the game because the price of entry is $0, and then they tell their friends about the game, and their friends try it out because the price of entry is $0. Eventually, they’re hoping to make add-on content compelling enough to get enough people willing to pay. It’s a marketing plan that has worked for decades in the illicit drugs black market with great success.

The game itself seems pretty interesting. My major complaints come from not enough mouse interaction. I feel like I shouldn’t need to use the keyboard except in extreme cases. Such as, movement is done with the W A S D keys, where as I would prefer to right-click a place on the screen and have my character walk to it. Quick weapon switching would be nice, as would the ability to mouse click from weapon to spells instead of having use the interface to select options from icon menus, which takes precious time and concentration away from the game. In the heat of battle, this can be more than obnoxious. Perhaps with more practice transitioning between weapons and spells will become second nature, but as a beginner the interface leaves much to be desired for efficiencies.

Character customization seems impressive with enough options to create the visual type of player you want to be. Classes are fairly standard for D&D, as well. Though in both cases, not all classes and races are available to free players. Some require those points that can be earned or purchased. For me, I was able to create an elf necromancer, which is slick, though Drow elf will require money if I wish to ever go that route and recreate my last table-top character.

Adventures can be played solo or in a group, and common areas exist to interact with other players. Still in the beginning areas of the game, I haven’t seen if there’s an expansive free-roaming area. I used to play text-based RPGs in the ’90s, and I hardly ever went for any missions instead preferring to venture into the wilds and kill whatever was unfortunate enough to stumble in my way. I have yet to see that level of experience recreated here, but maybe I haven’t found it yet.

All in all for the steep price of FREE, I cannot recommend at least trying this game enough. If it’s not your cup of tea, then toss it out and move on. No loss.

In 1987 “The Tracey Ullman Show” aired on a fledgling network called FOX. As bumpers to ease the show in and out of commercials, a short cartoon was produced. Conceived of by Matt Groening, “The Simpsons” quickly won over my 7 year old heart. I would stay up late Sunday nights to watch “The Tracey Ullman Show” with the hopes of catching “The Simpsons” bumpers. It’s not that I didn’t like the rest of the show, ’cause I did, just that “The Simpsons” were the highlight for me. The antics of the Simpsons family resonated with me, along with FOX’s other original program, “Married with Children”. FOX’s dysfunctional family trend was a great balance to NBC & the wholesome “The Cosby Show” (which I also watched and enjoyed).

Then in December of 1989, as if ol’ St. Nick wanted to reward me for having been the best little 9 year old boy in the world (I hadn’t), “The Simpsons” received their own half-hour show for Christmas with “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”. I anxiously awaiting the premiere, counting down the days more anxiously than Christmas morning itself. The day finally arrived and then more, even better news: what I thought was just a Christmas Special was actually the start of a regular series to begin in January 1990. Happy 10th Birthday to me! (”Bart the Genius” aired just 6 days before my birthday)

And thus it began. Here we are, over 22 years later and “The Simpsons” are in their 20th season having already been renewed to 22, and I am still a fan. To the right is a picture of me wearing my favorite t-shirt in 1990. That shirt disappeared one day, I never found out where it went. Presumably my mom threw it away as it was nothing more than technically a shirt after a couple years in that a halo of fabric kinda of wrapped itself around me. I had a plethora of Simpsons related merchandising from Bart Simpson dolls to stickers and posters. As I’ve gotten older, my Simpsons merchandising has simply matured. Instead of a simple t-shirt, I have a Pin-Pals bowling shirt and a Kwik-E-Mart shirt that button up to a Homer Simpson full-head rubber mask. Through gifts I’ve been given puzzles, card & board games, dolls & action figures, post cards, key chains, hula dancers, coasters, Magic 8 Balls … just about a little bit of everything. The one item I’ve always wanted and have never gotten: Simpsons Chess.

Now people may chime in with their idea on when the Simpsons have “jumped the shark”. As in the point in the shows history where it reached its apex of quality and signals that we are now on the slow decline of the show. While the show really experienced its heyday in the mid-to-late ’90s, it’s still managed to hold strong throughout the ’00s. And I’ve always contested anyways: even a bad episode of “The Simpsons” is still better the best episode of most other TV shows. As with a hometown sports team, I stick with the show through good episodes and the bad episodes, ride the low seasons along with the high seasons. In the end, the show still makes me laugh.

This is just about one of the most moving songs I’ve ever heard. It takes speeches given by Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, John F Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Barry Goldwater and puts them to a techno beat to create one of the best liberty-minded songs ever created. Please check out the video and really listen to the chosen words.

This is the first design I’ve added to Urban Gibbon in a year and a half. It’s a simple but powerful design that states “wake ‘n’ bacon”. I’m hoping to get a bunch of new designs up. Very many of them bacon themed.

The best part of waking up is bacon in your gut. Let your intentions be known as you stumble into the kitchen. First things first: bacon. View Products

Purchasing products through Urban Gibbon is a great way to help support this weblog. But more to the point, increasing bacon appreciation and awareness is of great social and political importance.

Returning to that vintage year of 2004 for me and blog writing, I’m pulling another look into the nature of my spirituality with the post “Pop Culture Theology” from August 10, 2004

So, Seth lent me volumes 3 & 4 of the Sandman comics. I’ve gotten hooked on them. They are so good. The fourth volume deals with Hell, and Lucifer getting sick of running Hell and quitting. God needs Hell to give meaning to Heaven and in the end appoints two more angels to run the place of eternal suffering. This reminded me a lot of another story that shaped my ideas of good and bad.

There are, actually, two bodies of work that I can pinpoint that have had a profound influence in my ideas of good and evil and balance. The first being Anne Rice’s Memnoch the Devil, the fifth book in the Vampire Chronicles; and the second being Se7en. I find it mildly embarrassing that these two works of entertainment have had a profound spiritual influence on my views … but then I also realize one can pull influence from anything, it’s all a matter of your perspective.

I remember reading Memnoch the Devil, most noticeably the scene where the devil and God are talking and God telling Memnoch that he needs him to run Hell. The story is remarkably similar to the Sandman story, where Memnoch was tired of being evil incarnate and wanted out. But in doing so would diminish the power of Heaven. And Memnoch was cast from Heaven not because he was evil … but simply because he did not agree with God.

This opened my eyes to the relatively of good and evil. One cannot exist without the other. They are two sides of the same coin. In being such, evil is not evil, but only so because of one’s perception of what is evil. One person’s evil is another person’s good. It’s a matter of perspective.

Hell exists because if it didn’t exist … if the Yin to Heaven’s Yang was absent … then Heaven would also not exist. Good cannot exist without evil. Because it is relative. If there was no evil, then the not as good would be evil. It’s simply a matter of degree, based on a person’s perceptions, a person’s judgment.

Next, comes Se7en, which spoke of the seven deadly sins. They represent excesses of humanity’s traits. Indulgences. From this I pulled my ideas of noble living. I’m not a religious person … I don’t think if I sit around, get fat, watch TV, and screw like a rabbit, that I’m going to Hell. I don’t view those as negative traits at all. I can see a societal function to getting people to believe that doing that would be bad, because our natural tendency is to do just that … why work when we can lounge, why not indulge in excess. But, how would one view their life when it is time for it to end? Would one look back and feel good about their time on Earth?

I’ve developed my sense of living a life that I would feel good about. This was helped by a previous revelation in my life several years previous where I thought about how I was living and how it wasn’t making me happy. When I was 14, I realized that lying, cheating, and stealing weren’t making me happy. I felt bad doing those things. And it could hurt people. So, I renounced those things and worked hard to no longer do them. I vowed to no longer lie, cheat, or steal. Though I’m not always 100% successful and occasionally give in to temptation, I try my best to be honest and to not hurt people.

This was fueled by Se7en when I thought of temptation and decided I would try hard to live nobly, to do my best to live my life to cause the least amount of pain in other people’s lives. I found that being aware of my actions and feelings, and how they related to these sins, helped me realize how my actions effected those around me. Now, I am by no means perfect and falter on these regularly, but I try to live as nobly as I can.

After seeing Se7en a couple times, I became sort of obsessed with the seven deadly sins, writing them in various notebooks and working them into an early version of my website I worked on in high school.

So, that’s how two examples of popular culture have shaped some of my spiritual views. There have been many other influences from people that I have crossed paths with at various times in my life, to other books and movies. I pull influence from everything around me.

Since writing this post, a couple other movies have shaped my ideas of spirituality beyond the Christian ideas of Memnoch or Se7en. Most notably Interstate 60, Bug and to a lesser degree I ♥ Huckabees.