This video (which according to the "storyline" of The Lost Experience game was filmed by an anti-Hanso activist) was originally seventy different fragments that had to be spliced together to make the complete film. Among the things you'll find in it: what the DHARMA Initiative is up to (including what the acronym DHARMA means), Alvar Hanso addressing the camera, the origin of "the numbers", footage of the Swan Station being built, a possible explanation for the disease, and what sounds an awful lot like not-Henry Gale wearing a lab coat with his back turned toward us. All of this may or may not be relevant to the actual show (meaning it could just be stuff the show's creators pulled out of a hat to keep us all happy and content throughout the months until the third season starts) but just in case - and especially if you are hungering for even a tiny morsel of Lost to get you through the next week or so - here's the complete "Hanso Exposed" video...
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Can't wait a few days for more LOST?
Friday, September 22, 2006
Luke Skywalker is DEAD!
But, I have to give Dark Horse Comics some credit for boldness with this series. Because in Star Wars: Legacy #3, something happens that I never thought I'd see happen in any Star Wars project: Luke Skywalker has died! Now, Legacy takes place a hundred years or so after Luke's heyday, so I guess his eventual death had to be in there somewhere. But still, it's quite astonishing to see him make an appearance as a shimmering blue "Force ghost" a'la Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Empire Strikes Back. Luke, in full traditional Jedi garb and looking as young as he does at the time of the classic movies, visits his descendant Cade Skywalker (I still hate that name) and scolds him for (a) his drug addiction and (b) turning his back on the Skywalker heritage. Cade makes the astute observation that the Force sure hasn't done the family that much good: just look at what it did to Luke's father.
It's enough to pique my curiosity a bit more about Legacy, and maybe give it a few more chances to convince me that this is a worthy addition to the Star Wars canon (whatever the heck that is supposed to actually be). But in the meantime: Luke Skywalker is dead. The most well-known heroic icon of my generation has passed away. Luke Skywalker is six feet under. Pushing up daisies. Joined the choir invisible. Gone to meet his maker. Dead as a doornail. Pretty depressing, ain't it?
(I think they should have drawn him to look somewhere around 80-90 though, and let us see what a much-older Luke would look like. That's my only real complaint about this issue though. Other than that, I thought it was pretty good.)
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Considering immortalism
'Immortalist' finds home at VantagePersonally, I find exploring this subject matter to be utterly fascinating. All the more so because it wasn't that long ago that I would have agreed with the motivation of these people and thought that it would be a worthwhile goal to achieve physical immortality.Paramount Vantage is getting into the Bennett Miller business. The indie unit, along with producer Plan B, will develop Miller's latest project, "The Immortalist." The project, which has yet to be written, is a "character-driven drama set in the emerging world of life extension." Details of the plot are still under wraps, but Miller describes it as "not a science fiction film ... (but) a drama set in the very real world of those pursuing biological immortality." He adds: "It's a pursuit that attracts some extremely brilliant, wealthy and influential people. It also attracts tragic figures. This story follows one such person on his disturbing foray into it."
But today, I don't agree with it at all. Some of my reasons for that have to do with practicality: the chances of "reviving" a dead person who has been cryogenically preserved are infintesimally small, because of a lot of factors (simply repairing the damage from freezing at the cellular level is probably the biggest hurdle). But mostly it has to do with how I've come to understand what it means to grow as a person... and that like it or not, death is part of the growth process, too.
Three of the biggest sagas of fantasy storytelling have explored this theme. In J.R.R. Tolkien's realm of Middle-Earth, the people of Numenore lusted for physical immortality so much that they dared attempt to seize the Undying Lands by force... and incurred the wrath of God Himself. They failed to take something on faith: that death - at least in Tolkien's worldview - was not a bad thing at all. In fact death was a gift to Men from God so that Men would not have to forever be bound within the circles of the world. Incidentally, the Elves of Middle-Earth were envious of their mortal kindred, because it was the Elves' lot to be bound to the world and endure all the mounting weariness that ages upon ages would bring with them. In The Lord of the Rings Tolkien went to pains to describe the curse that comes with physical immortality: living, but not gaining any more life, until every moment was a weariness. Clearly, the spiritual nature of Men and Hobbits was not intended to remain indefinitely anchored to the physical realm: trying to do so had horrific consequences on both body and mind (see Gollum and the Nazgul for evidence of this, as well as the later Numenorean kings who refused to lay down their lives when weariness overtook them). It was only when a person surrendered the attempt to control his mortal fate that he was then able to grow again, as Bilbo did when he gave up the Ring.
More recently, immortalism was touched upon in the Star Wars movies. In Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Anakin is looking for a way - any way at all - to stop what he believes is Padme's inevitable death. And in the process of leading him toward the Dark Side, Palpatine told Anakin the tale of Darth Plagueis: a Sith Lord so powerful that he was able to stop people from dying. But doing so was something that Palpatine hinted at as being "un-natural" (not that THAT would stop somebody like Palpatine). But Palpatine was very much correct: trying to extend one's life past the point when it should be finally surrendered can be considered an accursed thing. It marks the conscious end of life as a growth process and the beginning of physical existence for its own sake... and the only way to ensure that is to accummulate more and more power for one's self. This was something the Sith had embraced completely... but it was not something compatible with the understanding of one such as, say, Yoda. Yoda too realized that death was a natural part of living and growing, and that death was something to be rejoiced for in many ways, not to grieve and be bitter about. And I'm really looking forward to 2008 when a novel about Darth Plagueis is published, written by James Luceno. When it comes out we should come to know a lot more about the Sith and the Jedi and how each, in their own way, pursued immortality.
But lately, the most fascinating examination of the consequences of physical immortality has been found in the pages of the Harry Potter novels. We were given a lot of clues in the first five books but it was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince when things really fell into place about Lord Voldemort and what desire it is that has motivated him to commit such horrible crimes. For all his power and influence and in spite of all the fear that others have of him, Voldemort is a person who is afraid to die, which he sees as something shameful and contemptible. It is this fear of death - and his failing to realize that there are things in this world that are worse than physical death - which is Voldemort's greatest weakness, according to Professor Dumbledore. In Half-Blood Prince we learn that when Tom Riddle - the future Voldemort - was a student at Hogwarts, he became fascinated with the subject of Horcruxes: physical objects containing a portion of one's soul. After leaving school Riddle set out to create seven Horcruxes, committing one murder for each one so as to split his soul and imprison a portion of his being into each object. Destroying a Horcrux will destroy that portion of Voldemort's soul with it... but so long as one Horcrux remains intact, Voldemort is physically immortal and cannot be killed. But his immortality is not without its price: Voldemort no longer even looks fully human, so shattered has become his essence. But Voldemort does not care about the damage done to either his body or his soul: death has been cheated, and that is all that matters to him.
There is one more Harry Potter book left, and I have to wonder about what is ultimately going to happen to Voldemort. As Dumbledore put it in the very first book, "to the well-prepared mind, death is but the next great adventure." It certainly seems that Dumbledore accepted his own death without reserve... but how much of Voldemort's mind and soul is there that will meet his almost-certain final destiny? It could very well be that we will come to understand fully what Dumbledore meant when he said that there are things worse than death that can happen to a person.
These may be examples of how the realm of fantastical fiction handle the very real notion of life and death, but I believe there are some great truths to be gleaned from them. As a Christian, I am reminded by them how the world we now live in is not our true home, and that we are not meant to abide within it forever... so why should we desire to have power over it at all? Trying to bargain for more life or more control over the time allotted us just takes away from the time we do have to try and make it worth living while we still have it to live. That's not time I want to waste trying to lord over other people and situations for my own sake, when it's not even within my grasp to have absolute control over it anyway.
Well, I could write more about this, but it's getting late as it is. And I can always write more about this or anything else some other time if/when the notion crosses my gray matter to do so. In the meantime, it's time to give the ol' synapses some much-needed downtime :-)
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
The officially YouTube hosted WHITE AND NERDY video
Gnosticism is alive: "Christian" children worship President Bush at Bible camp
This movie is about a Bible camp for children in North Dakota. As a Christian, I'm compelled to ask the obvious: why does a Bible camp need a large cardboard cutout image of President Bush at all? What's the purpose of it being there?
The kids are clearly shown praying and raising their hands toward the image of Bush. Are they praying for the man or to the man? If they're simply praying for him, why do they need a physical object representing him to pray toward at all?
The Bible had a very neat word for what this sort of thing is: "idolatry". These children are giving their reverence to a physical object representing something other than God. How is what these children are doing really any different from having a statue of Baal to appeal to in hopes of having some rain?
It's actually a form of Gnosticism that these kids are being taught to practice. They are imbuing a physical thing with spiritual power and hoping to use that to sway God.
Here's the clip. Watch it and judge for yourself...
P.S.: Why does a Bible camp... or any Christian function at all... need to display the American flag so prominently? Personally, I think it's a form of idolatry too when we put the American flag in our church sanctuaries. I mean, do you think the apostle Paul would have ever approved of sticking a Roman "S.P.Q.R." standard in the corner of the church at Antioch?
WHITE AND NERDY: The Video is now online and legit! Plus: a guide to who's who and what's what in the video.
And now, as I promised earlier, here is...
02 seconds: The two gangsters in the car are being played by Jordan Peele and Keegen Micheal Key of MAD TV.As more stuff is found, I'll be adding them to the list. In the meantime, go watch the video: IMHO this may the funniest one that Al has done to date yet!15 seconds: The red candles make out the outline of Pac-Man.
37 seconds: MC Escher was an artist who specialized in drawing paradoxes.
43 seconds: That's Seth Green wearing the green jacket. In addition to his acting, Green is known for his love of action figures and writes for Toyfare magazine every so often.
44 seconds: Several of the original Star Wars action figures are on Al's shelves in addition to other classic toy lines being represented.
46 seconds: Al is reading "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking.
50 seconds: The people on Al's Myspace page (not his real one) are from top left clockwise: Bill Gates, Napoleon Dynamite, Mr. Peabody from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, Albert Einstein, Screech from Saved By The Bell, Frodo from the Lord of the Rings movies, Pee-Wee Herman, and Myspace Tom. Additionally, Al has exactly 27 Myspace friends (27 is Al's favorite number).
1 minute 10 seconds: The questions on the Trivial Pursuit card are as follows:
G – In what city is the largest ball of twine built by one man? (a reference to Al's earlier song "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota".)1 minute 21 seconds: The equation behind Al and "Krayzie Bone" is a Schrodinger equation (has to do with quantum mechanics).E – What's the deal with Lindsay Lohan? I mean, seriously?
H – F.D.R. – was he faking it?
AL – On what page does Harry Potter die in the next book?
SN – What is the melting point of a gorilla's head?
Covered-up – How many Wicket Men are there on a 43-Man Squamish team? (a reference to a classic 1965 article in MAD Magazine).
1 minute 22 seconds: "Krayzie Bone" is being played by... DONNIE OSMOND?!?
1 minute 25 seconds: A reference to the "Star Wars kid" video.
1 minute 40 seconds: Al is wearing a shirt with Carl Sagan's face on it.
1 minute 51 seconds: HILARIOUS!! Al is editing the Wikipedia entry for Atlantic Records to say "YOU SUCK" in giant letters. Atlantic Records, which is James Blunt's label, wouldn't let Al use "You're Pitiful" – his parody of Blunt's "You're Beautiful" – on the Straight Outta Lynwood album.
2 minutes 30 seconds: Al is buying a bootleg VHS copy of "The Star Wars Holiday Special", which George Lucas has said he would personally like to hunt down and find every copy so that he could burn them.
Monday, September 18, 2006
I will finally become the Anti-Christ!
So help me, I have been in a giggle-fit of hysterical laughter all morning ever since installing the playable demo of Left Behind: Eternal Forces (191 MB download). Based on the best-selling novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, Left Behind: Eternal Forces is a real-time strategy game that pits you in warfare - spiritual and otherwise - against the forces of Nicolae Carpathia, AKA the Anti-Christ. Or: play devil's advocate and run the armies of the beast in head-to-head competition against other players. You can play the demo now and the full game will be available for sale in November.
It sounds like a good concept. But for a RTS game... well, let's put it this way: judging by the demo of this game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces makes Star Wars Force Commander seem downright exquisite. And I was probably one of three people that actually liked Force Commander! From the moment I saw the animated logo for Left Behind Games (a deep-space swoop past the Earth as thousands of stylized "souls" fly from the surface) I was tearing up from laughing so hard. And it only got worse.
Well, you can download the game from the above link at FilePlanet, and play it and see for yourself. But I just had to make a post about it. Here's some photo evidence that I waded into this... thing:
Mission select screen...
Character bio screen, which shows if the person you have highlighted is a Tribulation Saint, on-the-fence straddler or lost soul damned for Hell...
Every Christian videogame should have a place where you can train your special-forces commandos...
This is a Disciple right after I selected for him to "Pray". The woman was just converted (and got a nice shiny white new set of clothes the moment she saw the light)... 
"COMBAT! In Color..."
The only appeal this game would really have for me is if I let the little "id" thing on the dark side of my intellect come out and thrill to capturing the good guys... before hopefully getting to dispatch them for the crime of not taking The Mark(tm). You know, that part of every guy that likes to play games like Quake just to watch your buddies get gibbed? Otherwise, and this is the serious Christian of me speaking: I don't really see at all how this could possibly be a tool for witnessing for Christ. It... I hate to say this but it kinda makes us pretty laughable. Like the first Left Behind movie (that's the only one of the series I've seen): some Christian commentators noted at the time, it really seemed like not even a half-hearted effort. That's what this game feels like too, just going by the demo. Or maybe the videogame medium just isn't really cut out to make for effective witnessing: that's possible too.
But not just that either, 'cuz Left Behind: Eternal Forces has a really clumsy player interface... one of the worst I've seen in an RTS game, even. When I said that Force Commander looks incredible beside this game, I'm not kidding: for all the camera craziness of that Star Wars RTS, it was a hella lot more easy to control than in Eternal Forces. And I didn't have to feel conflicted about moving all those Imperial Stormtroopers around either...
Well, like I said, try it if you like. If nothing else than because you simply have to see what it's like to fulfill the Great Commandment by going out to set up Combat Training Centers to build up an army for guerilla warfare.
Papal controversy and the very small god of Islam
And these Muslims are proving that the quote by Manuel II Paleologus is inaccurate... how?
I mean, it sure seems to me that if someone was telling others that yours is a bloodthirsty faith, and you wanted to prove it otherwise, the logical thing to do would be to strive to practice unconditional love toward that person, no matter what they were saying about your religion. Or as Someone much greater than I once said, "Love one another..." and especially your enemies.
Islam is certainly coming across as a religion without much confidence in the god it professes to believe in, given threats like these being made toward Pope Benedict XVI and others, be they Christian or Jewish or whatever. I mean, if you truly believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing God, you are supposed to have enough faith to know that He doesn't need your help to defend Himself before petty humankind. He definitely doesn't need you to kill others in His name. So to what extent can Islam really claim to have faith in God at all?
Muslims such as those who threaten "the infidels" do nothing to uphold and build-up their faith, and do everything possible to destroy its credibility. Pursuing God and what He would have us do is supposed to make us flee from our carnal instincts, not cling to them with maddened lust. To follow God and mean it is to be changed in His image, not become more like our own... which you have to admit, on its own human nature tends to be a pretty ugly thing.
I'm not saying this as a Christian pushing my own religion. I'm just trying to say this as perfectly an objectionable person as I can be: that the god of Islam, as those that threaten the pope are presenting him to us, would absolutely appear to a neutral person as a very small and hollow thing that could only possibly appeal to those with the very least of regards for their fellow man. And that those who are making such threats should reconsider what it is that they are doing, if they want the religion they claim to be worthy of any respect and consideration at all.
I have seen the WHITE AND NERDY video
(Want proof that I've seen it? Okay, how's this: pay very, VERY close attention to that Wikipedia page that Al is editing.)
This is the first real video that Al has done in seven years (if you don't count the one he did for "Bob" on the last album, the last one he did was "It's All About The Pentiums"). Personally, I think the "White and Nerdy" video is brilliant!! And very funny :-)
Sunday, September 17, 2006
My interview with "Weird Al" Yankovic
The 25 Worst Web Sites
Well, Mirsky may not be cataloguing them anymore but PC World continues his legacy with a new article featuring what they consider to be the 25 worst web sites on the Internet. Some of the bad sites include InmatesForYou.com, Windows Media Update, BidForSurgery.com (sort of like a Priceline for plastic surgery) and Neuticles.com... a site advertising testicular implants for your pet. Wait 'til you see what made PC World's #1 worst web site!
Celebrating Constitution Day
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Chamillionaire praises new Weird Al parody
The multi-platinum artist is happy to hear the new version, and holds no grudges towards Al. Cham said, "He's actually rapping pretty good on it, it's crazy...He's Grammy-nominated, man. He goes platinum. It's really an honor when he does that. I remember when he redid Michael Jackson's 'Bad.' Weird Al is not gonna do a parody of your song if you're not doing it big. You gotta be a big dog. He shot the video, and people will see it pretty soon. It's crazy."Now we know what Chamillionaire things about having Al parody his work. I can't wait to hear "Do I Creep You Out" and see what Taylor Hicks thinks about that one :-)Weird Al is highly regarded for his ability to closely mirror the original song, something impressed Chamillionaire as well.
"He's spittin' just like Krayzie Bone on the second verse...It's actually very funny if you listen to what he's saying. The way Krayzie is harmonizing, he does the same thing. It surprised me. I didn't know he could rap like that."
"Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs..."
The next phase of my campaign for school board is about to begin. Namely, the one where I start to seriously spend money. Here's the debut of the first major expenditure...
This is the yard sign that I'm gonna be planting in as many places as I possibly can over the course of the next month or so. Now, something that hadn't entered my mind... or that I'd even really understood... until our station's head producer told me at work the other day is that in making my signs blue in color, that some people will take that as meaning that I'm a Democrat. Which I'm not: I'm unaffiliated and as non-partisan as you can probably get. All this time I was trying to figure out where this "Red State/Blue State" nonsense came from, and I'm just now getting it. He said that blue has always been the "Democrat color" while Republicans get red. Well what the *@$# color am I supposed to make this sign: green or orange or screaming violet? It's a really dark blue 'cuz of the knight chess piece logo: when did you ever see a chess piece associated with red? Who makes up this "Democrat=red / Republican=blue" crap anyway?! And I didn't want to use black either 'cuz I'm putting out signs for a campaign, not a funeral. But anyhoo, this is the final design and I quite like it a lot. So did everyone else on my staff that I showed this too.
Y'know, for something that seems so simple, designing the yard sign was a major headache. I've had to figure everything from how it's going to look, to what kind of material to have it made from, to what size to make it, how many to order, quite a few other factors. More than I care to recount here. The colors were originally going to be reversed but "Weird" Ed suggested making the lettering, logo etc. white so as to be more reflective at night, and I thought that was a darned good idea.
So that's what'll be popping up around Rockingham County as soon as they get delivered. If anyone living here wants one in their yard, e-mail me at knightforboard@gmail.com and I'll get one to you pronto.
Friday, September 15, 2006
The Bush administration won't get serious about sending illegals back to Mexico...
Rep. Tom Tancredo has published a letter about it. I'm not that big a fan of "Dog" Chapman, but this stinks to high heaven.
ERAGON trailer hits online
The top five videogames of all time
If anyone asks, here's my personal top five videogames of all time, for various reasons:
- Pitfall II: Lost Caverns - Atari 2600I first played Pitfall II: Lost Caverns in 1984 and even today, after completely memorizing how to play a perfect game on it, it's still engrossing. TIE Fighter is bar none the finest Star Wars game ever created. Super Mario Bros. 3 was the NES at its best. Doom... well, as one person so eloquently put it: "Doom will never die... only its players will". And Halo is so beautiful that Lisa was utterly amazed by it the first time we put it in our Xbox. There are other games that come to mind too, - like Tetris and Wing Commander and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis - but if you were to strand me on a desert island and give me five games to keep me from going completely mad, those five would be them.
- TIE Fighter - PC
- Super Mario Bros. 3 - Nintendo Entertainment System
- Doom - PC
- Halo - Xbox
EDIT 3:55 PM EST: Why didn't I think to put Donkey Kong Country on this list somewhere? Maybe I should just post a Top Ten Videogames list someday :-)
