1.
This was a pretty rough week for me. Amplifying
my usual ‘moods’ was the fact that our beloved family dog, Smuckers, took a
turn for the worse over the weekend and finally departed this life on Tuesday
evening at the age of 14. The knowledge of what was coming, and the shadow of
that loss has pretty much hung over me all week, making every individual
frustration and depression that much worse. I’m feeling a bit better now, now
that it’s over, but still sad.
2.
To take my mind off my depression, I’ve been
writing like a fool. Unfortunately, I only just realized that I’m a little
behind schedule: the halfway point of the 15th is tomorrow, and I’m
just shy of 19,000 words, while I should be topping 25,000 by tomorrow night.
I’ll have to put in some extra effort to make up the deficit. In any case, I’m
enjoying the effort of writing this story very much and am pretty pleased at
how it’s coming along so far.
3.
I had a good deal of amusement this week over
what might just be the single stupidest example of the “secret history of Jesus
and Mary Magdalene” trope I’ve ever seen (by the way, why is it always her?
It’s not like there aren’t any other female disciples to choose from).
Supposedly, researchers in the British Museum discovered an ancient document
that tells how Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had two children, thus (how do
they always put it?) “raising intriguing questions about the all-male
priesthood” and “adding to our knowledge of a more authentic form of
Christianity.”
So, what is this
document? Well, it’s written in code, you see. Jesus is called ‘Joseph,’ and
Mary is called ‘Asenath.’ Yes, just like the Old Testament figures, Joseph son
of Jacob and his briefly-mentioned wife, Asenath, the daughter of an Egyptian
priest. Yes, on the surface it seems
like it’s just a pious retelling of the story in Genesis, describing how Asenath
converted to belief in the one true God, thus making her a fitting spouse for
one of the great patriarchs of the Bible, and yes, that’s how everyone who has
ever read it in the past century and a
half that it has been published and available to the public has understood
it, but obviously it’s really a
secret history about Jesus and Mary encoded to shield the authors from the
wrath of the all-powerful Church of the first and second centuries, and we know
that because…
Because shut up,
that’s why!
4.
Whenever one of those “the Hidden Truth of Christianity”
things pop up, I’m reminded of this issue of Hark! A Vagrant (which is very funny and often very clever, for
those interested):
5.
So, I saw Big
Hero Six last weekend and liked it a good deal. I’d rank it below both Wreck-It Ralph and Tangled, but it was much
better than Frozen. I think I’m going
to have to go see it again, because it wasn’t quite what I was expecting and I
have the feeling I’ll enjoy it even more on a second viewing (rather like my
reaction to Brave). Flaw-wise, my
main problem was that the four friends were underdeveloped and didn’t really
have much to do in the story; I think the film could have stood to be maybe ten
or fifteen minutes longer just to flesh them out a bit. I felt rather like I
was watching one episode of an ensemble TV show (i.e. Teen Titans), where one select individual or pair out of the group
is the focus of this story, because you know they’ll have time to develop the
others in subsequent episodes. I really hope there’s a sequel that delves more
into the supporting cast. On the other hand, they do a good job of sketching
the characters in shorthand and the six heroes really do come off as close and
loyal friends who have each other’s backs and are intimately familiar with each
other’s quirks. Most importantly, the central relationship between Hiro and the
robot Baymax was well-developed, touching, and really made the film. Plus,
Baymax is probably the funniest and most endearing sidekick in recent memory.
The story is tight and flows well, and the theme is clear, honest, and
well-realized, giving the movie a solid moral core. It’s funny, sweet, has an
immensely likeable cast of heroes, and is just a whole lot of fun. My rating:
4/5.
6.
You know, I complain about my job fairly often
(probably more often than I should), but I do want to make it clear that the job isn’t really the problem. In fact,
this is probably the best job of its type that I could hope for: people are
decent to work with, boss is decent, I mostly get left alone and no
micromanaged, times flexible, etc. The problem is that I am not a good person to do this job. I have a natural resentment
to being forced to take an interest in things I don’t care about, and I can’t
think of anything this company does that interests me in the slightest, let
alone the things I’m obliged to handle. Add to that…well, put it this way; have
you ever had one of those old, crappy computers where sometimes when you click
on something the computer just sits there, and you’re not sure whether it’s
processing the command, didn’t register the command, or has frozen solid and
will need to be restarted? A large chunk of my job basically feels like that.
7.
And our traditional end quote:
(on a ‘sawing the woman in half’ trick)
Alfred Hitchcock: “All I can say is that the saw worked
perfectly, but the wand didn’t.”
-Alfred Hitchcock
Presents
