11:52 PM
Slowly, inch by inch, Tribes 2 continues to draw me back into its web. Played for a couple hours tonight with some LLJK folks, and had a blast. Capped once, played the flag-carrying heavy in a protracted stalemate, and got to play my usual Defender/Repairman role for a while. I'm not sure if the average skill in the game is going down or if mine is coming up, but I don't seem to be getting whacked quite as often...

Before I go sleep, a new book to go with the Wilburys: The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief by Ben MacIntyre. I read a lot of books, and if people ask me to reccommend just one, this is it. An incredibly well-written biography of a fascinating person.

Worth was born the son of a cobbler, and aspiring to more he ran off and joined the Union Army just in time to be taken to the Battle of the Wilderness--one of the Civil War's bloodiest battles. Determining that the life of a soldier was no better, Worth faked his own death in mid-battle and fled to New York City, where he began to insinuate himself into the criminal underclass. For several years he ran with various street gangs, but kept getting caught--neccesitating multiple escapes from prison.

Eventually Worth got fed up with the idiocy of the common criminal and struck out for Boston, determined to steal for nobody but himself. Renting a storefront, Worth set up shop and made a good living selling snake oil to Boston's upper class. He did this for months, until one Monday morning his true purpose was revealed: his shop was located next door to Boston's biggest bank, and for weeks Worth had been drilling through from his basement directly into the bank's vault. One Friday night he cut through, took everything, and slipped away. By that Monday morning, he was already halfway to Europe with the proceeds of the biggest bank robbery in American history in his trunks.

And that's just the early days of his career.

Most notably, Worth is the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character Professor Moriarity, the titular "Napoleon of crime". But the biography also shows his connections to the founder of the New York Times, the musical Cats, and TWA Airlines among other things. I didn't read many biographies until I read this book, and now I read quite a few in the hopes of finding as good a book--and as interesting a person--ever again.

'Night, all.