User:Cassandraleo

I am a graduate of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, with a major in political science. I run a small message board called Fool's Gold in my spare time, and you can also find me on LiveJournal here and last.fm here.

I am an agnostic atheist, and hold political beliefs which, if they must be classified, probably qualify somewhere in the realm of libertarian socialism (although I hate political labels as they almost always serve to do nothing more than restrict political thought), with the underlying thesis that society needs to drastically transform itself before anything resembling an ideal society can be brought about (a potential which honestly seems more hopeless by the day). My views can probably be categorised as anarcho-syndicalist as well, though I don't argue that anarchism will be workable anytime in the near future, probably not even during my lifetime. Then again, neither does any other anarchist I've ever conversed with. If anyone cares, the Political Compass test has me on the bottom left corner, but it's pretty limited, considering that it doesn't ask important questions like "Should private property exist?" (Yes, just not as it's currently distributed) or "Should government be abolished immediately?" (No), not to mention it doesn't really distinguish between free-market capitalism and corporatism.

Apart from following politics semi-obsessively, I am interested in music (particularly extreme metal and progressive rock), fiction (particularly science-fiction and fantasy literature), and video games (particularly role-playing games). My handle is a variation on the Mars Volta song "Cassandra Gemini," with the Leo originating from my Zodiac sign. Though I don't care about astrology at all, as I consider it pretty much bunk.

You can contact me on AIM at Cassandra Leo (surprise, surprise), although you'll probably want to identify how you came into contact with my screen name so I don't think you're just some random wacko. Sometimes I'm not in the mood to talk to random people who IM me unless I know why they're IMing me.

The information below is vastly out of date. I should fix it, but I'm lazy. Especially since I barely edit Wikipedia these days. I've attempted to bring it slightly more up to date but it's nowhere near comprehensive.

Some bands & musicians I have enjoyed in the past several years

!!!; !T.O.O.H.!; Abigor; AC/DC; Agalloch; Akercocke; Alcest; Alice in Chains; Amesoeurs; Apotheosis; Arcturus; Arsis; Astarte; At the Drive-In; Atheist; Ayreon; Syd Barrett; Bathory; Beastie Boys; The Beatles; Beck; Ludwig van Beethoven; Between the Buried and Me; Jello Biafra; Big Black; Black Sabbath; Borknagar; David Bowie; Broken Social Scene; Jackson Browne; Jeff Buckley; Burning Witch; Burzum; Cult of Luna; Cynic; Darkestrah; Darkspace; Darkthrone; Miles Davis; Dead Kennedys; Death; Deathspell Omega; Decapitated; Diabolical Masquerade; Ani DiFranco; The Dillinger Escape Plan; Dissection; The Doors; Dream Theater; Drudkh; Bob Dylan; Edge of Sanity; Emperor; Empyrium; Brian Eno; Enslaved; Ephel Duath; Estatic Fear; Explosions in the Sky; Fairport Convention; The Fall of Troy; Flower Travellin' Band; Frantic Bleep; Peter Gabriel; Marvin Gaye; Genesis; Godspeed You! Black Emperor; Gorguts; Graveland; Green Carnation; Green Day; Guns N' Roses; Hate Forest; Hel; Hollenthon; Gustav Holst; Hüsker Dü; Immolation; Immortal; Iron Maiden; Isis; Jane's Addiction; Jethro Tull; Elton John; Joy Division; Hiroki Kikuta; King Crimson; The Kovenant; Kroda; Led Zeppelin; Lethargy; Limbonic Art; Lunar Aurora; Lurker of Chalice; Lux Occulta; Lykathea Aflame; The Mars Volta; Massive Attack; Mastodon; Magma; Mayhem; Megadeth; Melvins; Merzbow; Meshuggah; Metallica; Ministry; Mirrorthrone; Mr. Bungle; Yasunori Mitsuda; Moonsorrow; Ennio Morricone; Jim Morrison; My Bloody Valentine; Nagelfar; Necrophagist; Negură Bunget; Neurosis; Nile; Nine Inch Nails; Nocte Obducta; Nokturnal Mortum; Nyktalgia; Oasis; Opeth; Orlog; Orphaned Land; OutKast; Pantera; Mike Patton; Pavement; Paysage d'Hiver; Peccatum; Peste Noire; Pink Floyd; Pixies; The Police; Porcupine Tree; The Postal Service; Radiohead; Rage Against the Machine; The Rapture; Red Hot Chili Peppers; Lou Reed; Steve Reich; Reverend Bizarre; The Ruins of Beverast; Rush; Sacramentum; Motoi Sakuraba; Shining; Sigh; Sigur Rós; Silencer; A Silver Mt. Zion; Skepticism; Skyclad; Slayer; Slint; The Smashing Pumpkins; Solefald; Sonic Youth; Soundgarden; Sufjan Stevens; The Stone Roses; The Stooges; Richard Strauss; Igor Stravinsky; Koichi Sugiyama; Summoning; Sunn O))); Tears for Fears; Television; Thorns; Tiamat; Tool; Tortoise; Týr; Nobuo Uematsu; Ulver; The Velvet Underground; Vlad Tepes; Richard Wagner; Tom Waits; Roger Waters; Weakling; The Who; Brian Wilson; Windir; Wintersun; Wolven Ancestry; Wolves in the Throne Room; Wyrd; Yes; Neil Young; Frank Zappa; Zarathustra; Zwan

Some games I like

Bubble Bobble, Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest V, Dragon Quest VI, Earthbound, Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy IX, Katamari Damacy, The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Marathon trilogy, NetHack, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Seiken Densetsu 3, Shadow Hearts, SimCity 2000, Star Ocean 3, Suikoden II, Super Mario All-Stars, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Tetris, Xenogears

Some authors I like

Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Mikhail Bakunin, William Blake, Orson Scott Card, Noam Chomsky, Richard Dawkins, Philip K. Dick, Fyodor Dostoevsky, James Ellroy, Steven Erikson, Al Franken, Neil Gaiman, William Golding, Emma Goldman, Robert A. Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Tracy Hickman, Christopher Hitchens, Robin Hobb, Aldous Huxley, Robert Jordan, James Joyce, Stephen King, Naomi Klein, Peter Kropotkin, Stieg Larsson, Ursula K. LeGuin, George R.R. Martin, Karl Marx, A.A. Milne, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Friedrich Nietzsche, George Orwell, Thomas Paine, Greg Palast, Terry Pratchett, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Philip Pullman, Bertrand Russell, R.A. Salvatore, Jean-Paul Sartre, William Shakespeare, Robert Shea, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, Jonathan Swift, J.R.R. Tolkien, Leo Tolstoy, Kurt Vonnegut, Voltaire, Alice Walker, Margaret Weis, Robert Anton Wilson, Howard Zinn

Some films I like

12 Monkeys; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Almost Famous; Amélie; Barton Fink; Blazing Saddles; The Big Lebowski; A Clockwork Orange; Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb; Fargo; For a Few Dollars More; Good Night, and Good Luck.; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; High Fidelity; Kill Bill; Kung Fu Hustle; The Lord of the Rings film trilogy; The Majestic; Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Monty Python's Life of Brian; Moulin Rouge!; Once upon a Time in the West; Pan's Labyrinth; The Prestige; Pulp Fiction; School of Rock; Sideways; Star Wars (Episodes III-VI), Sybil; Taxi Driver; This Is Spinal Tap; The Usual Suspects; Why We Fight

Some comedians I like

Bill Hicks; George Carlin; Bill Maher; Jon Stewart; Stephen Colbert; Monty Python; Lenny Bruce; Al Franken; David Cross; Sacha Baron Cohen

External links

• Fool's Gold
• LiveJournal
• last.fm
• MySpace
• Facebook