Every now and then I tilt my head a little bit to the side and Christianity sounds like a science fiction story. A lost planet, originally under the rule of an alien empire with it's own laws, has gone it's own way, under the rule of a rebellious offshoot of the royal houses. An ambassador was sent to bring it back into the fold, a prince in fact, but was summarily murdered. One day, sooner or later, the emperor will arrive, crush the rebellion and reintroduce galactic law to this backwater planet. Christianity is the faction betting on the galactic emperor, and hoping adopting what it believes to be galactic law now will guarantee safe zones or evacuation when the emporer's battleships finally arrive in orbit.
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Friday, October 16, 2015
Work harder, not smarter
Maybe the fucked-upedness of the world takes this shape:
Mind fuck #1: The already rolling in it assert you too can be rolling in it if you just worked very, very hard for a while, as they assure you're they're likely to have done. Or their parents. Or their underlings. The point is, someone worked very hard to get them where they are now, so if you want to share in the wonder of rolling in it, you'd better get to working hard.
Mind fuck #2: The typical american worker is generally NOT working hard, given the amount of time they spend on the internet when they should be working, and is too worried about being called out in their lack of productivity to put voice to the idea that plenty of people work hard and yet aren't rolling in it. Nor have they really tried working as hard as the rolling-in-its insist one should, to really confidently assert that the "work makes you rich" as a universal to truth to be empirically bullshit.
Mind fuck #3: Everyone actually working hard enough to please the ones who roll but who, inexplicably to one who rolls, still do not have the money to afford people to tend to life for them so they too can spend their days rolling in it, are just too damn tired to deal with the nonsense inherent in mind fucks #1 and #2.
Mind fuck #1: The already rolling in it assert you too can be rolling in it if you just worked very, very hard for a while, as they assure you're they're likely to have done. Or their parents. Or their underlings. The point is, someone worked very hard to get them where they are now, so if you want to share in the wonder of rolling in it, you'd better get to working hard.
Mind fuck #2: The typical american worker is generally NOT working hard, given the amount of time they spend on the internet when they should be working, and is too worried about being called out in their lack of productivity to put voice to the idea that plenty of people work hard and yet aren't rolling in it. Nor have they really tried working as hard as the rolling-in-its insist one should, to really confidently assert that the "work makes you rich" as a universal to truth to be empirically bullshit.
Mind fuck #3: Everyone actually working hard enough to please the ones who roll but who, inexplicably to one who rolls, still do not have the money to afford people to tend to life for them so they too can spend their days rolling in it, are just too damn tired to deal with the nonsense inherent in mind fucks #1 and #2.
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Dark Continuums
Canadian TV has blessed me with two out-of-the-blue SF shows on Netflix recently. Continuum, which I believe just wrapped up a final half-season that I have yet to watch, has been a pretty decent ride. I keep thinking the tech kid is Frankie Muniz though for some reason. But it's had some good material. I recommend it, for the most part.
Dark Matter I'm still a little on the fence about. Among the highlights are the FTL drive effect (and name). If you're not shouting "launch all fighters!" in an SF show, I'll take "spin up the FTL!" Although they may have never actually shouted that. The android character is pretty interesting, although most plots involve her getting incapacitated because she's kinda the deus ex machina character and having her conscious trivializes most plots (which is a formula they may want to re-think for season 2). The CGI is spectacular for the most part, if infrequently used, presumably for budgetary reasons. And Stargate actors drop by once in a while!
The main downside is it has all the energy of a casual afternoon in the living room. I'm not sure what it is exactly but the tension is generally loose enough to play jump rope with and, especially in the first few chapters, boredom is a frequent problem, both ours and theirs. I don't know if it's that the hook really wasn't compelling enough to drive more than the first couple episodes or what, but the series drags frequently, until it gets to the episode with Stargate actors, and then it gets about 10 times better.
The last few episodes started to pull some kind of chemistry and momentum together, which it can hopefully roll into a solid second season, assuming it's getting one? I don't know, I'm not a professional TV commentator so I don't really bother to look this stuff up before I talk about it.
Also, has anyone else noticed how much more violent TV has gotten in the last 10 years or so? I'm not complaining exactly, I always though television norms were a teensy bit too puritanical and over-obsessed with the possibility of some child somewhere seeing a boob or hearing a swear, but my god do action shows seem to be splatter-fests now. Both in continuum and this people are getting shot in the head, sliced to pieces, burned to death, etc. I'm not sure what's driving it, but I find the change interesting.
Dark Matter I'm still a little on the fence about. Among the highlights are the FTL drive effect (and name). If you're not shouting "launch all fighters!" in an SF show, I'll take "spin up the FTL!" Although they may have never actually shouted that. The android character is pretty interesting, although most plots involve her getting incapacitated because she's kinda the deus ex machina character and having her conscious trivializes most plots (which is a formula they may want to re-think for season 2). The CGI is spectacular for the most part, if infrequently used, presumably for budgetary reasons. And Stargate actors drop by once in a while!
The main downside is it has all the energy of a casual afternoon in the living room. I'm not sure what it is exactly but the tension is generally loose enough to play jump rope with and, especially in the first few chapters, boredom is a frequent problem, both ours and theirs. I don't know if it's that the hook really wasn't compelling enough to drive more than the first couple episodes or what, but the series drags frequently, until it gets to the episode with Stargate actors, and then it gets about 10 times better.
The last few episodes started to pull some kind of chemistry and momentum together, which it can hopefully roll into a solid second season, assuming it's getting one? I don't know, I'm not a professional TV commentator so I don't really bother to look this stuff up before I talk about it.
Also, has anyone else noticed how much more violent TV has gotten in the last 10 years or so? I'm not complaining exactly, I always though television norms were a teensy bit too puritanical and over-obsessed with the possibility of some child somewhere seeing a boob or hearing a swear, but my god do action shows seem to be splatter-fests now. Both in continuum and this people are getting shot in the head, sliced to pieces, burned to death, etc. I'm not sure what's driving it, but I find the change interesting.
Hey, what's this?
Oh my god, I totally forgot I changed the design of my blog. Was it a good idea? Hell if I know. I just like to re-arrange things every now and then. But truthfully, this blog has never quite been what I wanted. I either need to design a better one or find a better platform.
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