Cold! A $18 dollar weekend.

Rode my bike into work this morning. Froze my ass off in the process. It was a little too cold for motorcycling. It should warm up by this afternoon though.

Really sleepy, and just plain tired.

I spent $18 on two books this weekend. I'm not close to them right now, so I can't remember the titles, but they are part of a series called, "The Horus Heresy". They were good mind-candy. Set in the universe of Warhammer 40K, they are describe the Warmaster Horus and his decision to turn against the Emperor of the Empire(Impurium?) of Man. Definately a downer though b/c by the end of the third book(I already had read the first one), only 4 people escaped and all the warrior heroes up until this point were killed off. Oh and uh spoilers btw. Well unless they bring them back in the 4th book, but surviving an orbital bombardment wouldn't but a stretch for these super-soldier guys.

It is interesting though from a faith aspect though. The Emperor is a human but has been genetically altered to be perfect/immortal. Warmaster Horus as well. People are starting to worship the Emperor as a God, and there are 'miracles' to go with the worshipers. Horus starts his campaign against the Emperor b/c he feels that Emperor is seeking to become a God and that he has abandoned the Crusade. The Crusade is the war to bring all worlds under the domain of Man and establish the rule of science and technology as the only true 'religion' and that everything else is barbaric superstition. Horus though unknown to him is being corrupted/lead by the gods of the Warp, a sub-fabric of space&time, where chaos holds sway.

From the humanist perspective, the emperor worship as a divine 'perfect' human seems right b/c humans are the pinnacle of evolution therefore a most perfect human would deserve worship. Other things I don't understand though, a devotion to doing things for some ideal of the Crusade, that science & technology have all the answers (or at least most of them). Working in science I know that's not true, really it always leads to more questions. It seems though they've gotten their science far enough and put a stamp on it as "good" and therefore don't need to expand on it any more. It was strange reading, a totally alien (to me) way of viewing both religion and science, leading to a way of life dedicated to killing people.

It was an entertaining way of spending a weekend though, 2 books, for $18.