The Occasional Solipsist

Transubstantiation.

It is the change of the substance of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ occurring in the Eucharist according to the teaching of some Christian Churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, while all that is accessible to the senses remain as before.

(from Wikipedia)

Before I looked it up, I had never heard of the word myself, though having been raised by the poster-girl for fundamentalist religious zealotry, I knew all about that whole crackers and wine bit as the flesh and blood of christ. But in all the many, many reasons for ridiculing the world's various religions, and the particularly offensive one that is catholicism in particular, I somehow totally missed this.

I mean, if you're a fundie, and you go to church, and you step up to the buffet line for a whole heaping helping of the eucharist, and you are a believer, you actually think that your priest just magically changed that cracker and wine into someone else's flesh and blood. And you ate it anyways. Ergo, you (at least in your head) believe yourself to be a cannibal. Like there wasn't enough material to make fun of here.

This all comes up because I listened to this week's Skeptic's Guide to the Universe podcast, in which there is a long discussion about a kid who had received death threats for taking a eucharist cracker out of church. When a rational individual came to his defense, and in that defense was hit with a few death threats himself, the story made quite a stir.

Here's a great little article that discusses the whole kerfuffle (crackerfuffle?) in much more detail than I am prepared to.

If you're a fundie, give this article a wide miss. But if you are a fundie you already know to give most things a wide miss. Things like evolution, rational debate, critical thinking, the scientific method.

If however, your brains haven't fallen out of your head and been replaced with divine goodness, this whole death threat over someone mocking transubstantiation is awesome. Pack of fucking lunatics if you ask me. Pack. of. fucking. lunatics.

What's even better is that I very soon get to have a visit with my favourite fundie, in the form of a visit for a few days with my Mom as she comes to stay with us over my vacation.

As an aside, this brings up a recent choice I had to make: Sharing a hotel room with 3 people (and a bed with another dude) while milling around with a whole shitload of comics geeks at Comic Con, or spending a few days trying to survive a visit with my Mom. I stand by my choice. That whole paying to go on an unpaid working vacation in the middle of the summer without the girls with money I don't have AND having to share a room with three strangers (and a bed with another dude) or hanging out with my sometimes loony Mom really wasn't much of a choice at all.

Either way, I am seriously thinking of bringing the whole Crackergate thing up when she comes up tomorrow just so I can watch her explode in a puff of self-righteous outrage.

Labels: atheism, everything else, rants

I have long been a fan of the X-Files. The pilot aired something like 16 years ago, and I spent the first few years of the show's lifespan in an adolescent altered state, and since I was already a hardcore scifi fan anyways, it was a natural fit for me to get into the show.

I have really been looking forward to the new movie, and was one of the faithful fans hoping that it would have gotten made years ago. The above clip is a decent, spoiler-free interview with Producer/Creator/Mescaline-freak Chris Carter about what viewers can expect from 'The X-Files: I Want to Believe', and maybe the future.

For my end, I consider myself a skeptic in the face of the supernatural, (I even hate the word 'supernatural', what a cop-out phrase) but there are many things that I do indeed Want to Believe in. I even have the poster to prove it:



I'm not going to get to go to Comic-Con this summer as I had planned. I was to have attended as press with the company I review movies for, but because I would have paid too much of the expenses out of my own pocket, it just wasn't something I could justify spending the money on.

But I am particularly bummed that I am not going because the movie debuts over the course of the event and it is certain that there would have been a screening, and an interview panel. I might even have gotten to interview Gillian Anderson, or Duchovny. But that's maybe for the best anyways, cause if I did interview Anderson my inner fanboy might have won out and I might have just sat there giggling at her, and with Duchovny I would probably have just kept repeating how fantastic he is in Californication and forgotten all about the movie completely.

However I do get to see it, I Want to Believe that this movie is going to rock. And [begin irony] I have faith [end irony] that it will.

Labels: movies, scifi

Labels: movies, scifi

Ok, so I am at work last night, and I was being inundated with bullshitty things that, though small, were cumulatively working to put me in a very bad mood. Just one little thing after another.

And then, just when I see my cell ringing and I think I am going to get some relief from the one person who I can reasonably expect it from, Superwife calls and immediately picks a fight with me about how this one person who I started the same day as is now my boss, and how much it pisses her off that I am not more aggressive at work. And then she hung up on me. Fucksakes, that one put me over the top. Truth be told, I am still mad about that one.

It just served to remind me that at the end of the day, as supportive as she usually is sometimes is used to be, I am really out here on my own. Good thing I occasionally think everyone else is in my head, or I might get depressed.

EDIT Ok, so now that I have gotten some perspective, I know I am not at all on my own. And if Superwife can put up with me for the litany of shit that I don't talk about, she should be entitled to rain on my parade once in awhile.

Labels: rants, work

Just came home from a 12 hour night shift, and for some reason I don't feel like falling down asleep in bed the second I've gotten in the door. And with no one else around to keep me company, I'll have to settle in for a gigantic bowl of shreddies and some random blathering.

I don't think I do enough of stream of consiousness type writing here. I use the blog, as I have for years, to post my thoughts, but I think I don't keep in mind that this is for me way more than its for anyone else, and keeping a journal is cathartic even when you have nothing seemingly meaningful to talk about.

I was telling a friend at work the other day how I haven't been being a very good consumer lately. How I haven't been reading anything other than comic books, haven't bought any movies or new videogames or gadgets, basically how I haven't spent any money on anything other than the bills in awhile. But then I realized that I have been listening to audiobooks on my iPod, watching movies that I have either downloaded or been doing reviews for, so I have been doing plenty of consuming. I just haven't been paying for it.

Those aforementioned comics that I have been reading lately include the spectacular Dynamo 5, which I highly recommend, as well as the summer series from the big two, Secret Invasion and Final Crisis, both of which are really good, but bear the distinct smell of off-shoot books that I am never going to buy any of.

And I got a big stack of Blu-Rays to review from the company I review for, so I will be continuing to consume those without paying for them. I actually wasn't sure if the guy who owns the company was going to have me work for him anymore; I thought he might have been a little sore that I bailed on going to Comic-Con on him. But the bottom line there was I just couldn't justify spending money I didn't have on something so frivolous, no matter how much fun I might have had doing it. Not when Superwife isn't working, and there are always things I could be doing for her, my daughter, the new house. Either way, it seems like there are no hard feelings.

And as far as gadgets go, I have been very close to taking the iPhone plunge lately, in light of the new data plans released along with the 3G, but the bottom line is the iPhone blows for taking pictures, and if I can't get a smartphone that shoots at least good pics as the cell I have, what's the point of trading up at all. So no consuming there either.

What else? I have been twittering a lot lately, both following and updating myself. I see that it could be mildly addictive, but not in the pervasive way that things like facebook and myspace were for me.

I opted in for the hundred pushups challenge. In 6 weeks, following the program, one is supposed to be able to do 100 push-ups in a row. I took the intial test and could do a grand total of 18 before I collapsed on the floor. So I have my work cut out for me.

And now that I feel a little more tired than when I sat down, here's to hoping that if Trin wakes me up early this afternoon, its a little more pleasant than the rude awakenings her tantrums have been waking me up with the last few days.

Labels: everything else

We shall be waiting for your answer.
The decision rests with you...

There is not one self-respecting science fiction fan that doesn't know the meaning behind the words Klaatu barada nikto, the key phrase used in the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. And even though its been around since 1951, this movie carries a resonance with it that no other movie that I have ever seen has been able to beat.

It is a cautionary tale that pre-dates the bulk of the cold war that tells the story of first contact with a visiting alien, and the very human reaction to the visitation. But second to the very knee-jerk and certainly plausible reaction of the panicked humanity is the reason for his visit. Because the movie was made as the proliferation of nuclear weaponry was in its infancy, it was Hollywood's first real good warning on the dangers that these weapons posed not to just to ourselves, but to a fictional (?) galactic community. Personally, I think a lot of people could use a watch of this timeless classic. I'm looking in your general direction North Korea...

The Day the Earth Stood Still is a really, really cool flick that holds up just as well almost 60 years later as it did when it was first shown. I highly recommend it. If you haven't seen it, seriously go get yourself a copy and enjoy.

Now that being said, I am so very cautious about the remake that is coming out this December, starring Keannu Reeves. As much as I loved The Matrix movies, I am not 100% sure that Neo should be running around Washington pretending to be the alien threatening humankind's extinction. I guess we'll know after this December if remaking this one was a good idea or not.

I will probably see it, but I don't know that my mind will be as open as it normally is. I certainly don't want to be one of those fanboys crying foul at their treasured memories. And I won't be watching this one and doing a frame by frame comparison, or whining about the horrible mis-casting of Mary Jane Watson. Oops, wrong movie. But I will have a hard time figuring out why this movie is being remade at all. Maybe someone has decided that its time to bring the metaphorical slap in the face back into movies; 'March of the Penguins', 'The Day After Tomorrow' and 'Wall-E' notwithstanding. But regardless, I am kind of looking forward to seeing what modern CG can do for Gort.

Labels: movies, scifi

As part of my ongoing effort to write a letter to my daughter every month, I have been double posting here and on a site I set up just for her.

I just wrote Trin's 3rd birthday letter, and I have decided that from now on I can't bring myself to print my letters to Trin on this blog any longer. I am going to continue to post a letter for her every month, but I am going to keep them on her own site at letterstotrinity.com.

There's just entirely too much swearing, atheist cheerleading, ranting, whining and otherwise non-Trinity-related commentary on this site to keep throwing in my monthly letters to my little girl along with them. That, and as she gets older I am going to get likelier and likelier to also use this site to grouse about the not-as-much-fun aspects of raising a three+ year old, and my monthly love-in to Trin probably wouldn't look all that congruous alongside.

That being said, I might link to them here, in case anyone who follows the blog, family or otherwise, is interested in keeping up with the goings-on of my little princess each month. This month's letter is posted here.

Labels: trinity

Canada is the best country in the world, on this day or any other. I just thought it needed to be said, for any that weren't familiar with that fact, or for any who needed reminding.

Sure there are lots of things to bitch about (this new Canadianized DMCA intent on ruining the online experience for all Canadians, a pending two-tiered national health system, a right wing government intent on helping only those who already have plenty, and a lot of ridiculous collective guilt over the treatment of so-called indigenous or distinct societies) but all things considered I would rather be here than anywhere else in the world.

I'm just glad I live in a country so awesome that those are the things that I have to complain about.

Labels: everything else, politics