Tuesday, August 31, 2010

BTIES: Sci-F-eye chart...


Thanks to JD for the linkspam! =)

I'll chuck my answers in a comment.

* September 9, 2010. Posted an updated list of answers with my gaps filled by responses found in comments. Still can't get or commit to the first and last logo characters from the last row. Boo.

* September 8, 2010. Revisiting and thinking—What? No LOST? No LOST IN SPACE? No SPACE:1999? No B5? No TWILIGHT ZONE (or could that be FANTASTIC FOUR =)? No WHO or HORRIBLE, Phd? Perhaps the chart is limited by font rights (copy- not civil- =) issues? I have not sought out an answer key. Do feel free to correct my erroneous guesses in the comments.

Keep on geekin on~

Monday, August 30, 2010

BTIES: Jesus Christ! =)

Tripped over this in a random The-Bible-Is-Awesome thread at Amazon. =)


Keep on keepin on~

LOST: Emmy farewell (*spoilers!* =)

I was pretty much oblivious to Emmy-ness this year. The most thought I'd given to the awards were a couple of off-hand remarks to people about how Jason Stackhouse and Jesse Pinkman deserve some recognition. Now I've seen that Pinkman actually got it—Watch BREAKING BAD!!!! Very cool...

The only real-time recognition of the Emmys I can acknowledge were some AMC bumpers *during* last night's MAD MEN congratulating the show on the awards it had just won. =)

Anyhow, this little ditty from last night's awards show came floating at me via the interwebz today. Not awesome, but somehow, just the right tone, y'know? Smiley-nostalgia-inducing. If you haven't watched all six seasons but plan to, beware: it's got some one-liner spoilers.



Keep on keepin on~

BTIES: "The Saddest Thing You'll Read All Weekend"

"The Saddest Thing You'll Read All Weekend" aka "Facebook Explains Gravity."


I don't have a Saddest-Thing-I-Ever-Saw category, but maybe I'll have to consider adding it...

*sigh*

Y'know those STAR TREK episodes where the Enterprise comes upon a civilization with a decent to sophisticated level of technology but an infrastructure that's falling apart and a scantily clad populace that has no clue how to maintain it (or adjust the collision course of their world-ship, or reprogram their artificial intelligence caretaker-turned-god) because over generations its citizens have taken that tech for granted and allowed the science and knowledge behind it to fade into forgotten history?

This is how it begins.

Keep on keepin on~

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

TRUE BLOOD: wuzzon

3x01 to 3x09

I've watched all but the most recent episode this season, so, up to episode 9, "Everything Is Broken," and just wanna review and collect some thoughts. The melodrama between Bill and SuhKAY continues to be frickin tedious, but I gotta say, there's some interesting stuff going on.

What up with the Magic Garden?

So, she's near death, and while unconscious, astrally visits some kind of magic garden, a nicely landscaped playground full of lush and blooming vegetation, populated by frolicking hot little women and men.

Is the environment actually a bright and green version of a location we've seen in Sookie's waking life? I *think* there were headstones...? A graveyard?

Anyhow, one of them—the leader? was her name Maia? * Later. It was Claudine, my badd—seems to recognize Sookie. Sookie does not recognize her, her frolicking friends, or her surroundings. Sookie seems to be one of them, but suffering from amnesia, unaware of her origins and heritage. Claudine is not helpful at all in filling in the blanks.

All of the magical Maypolers scarper off (did they all descend into the pool?) as the garden is overtaken by shadow. Coincidentally, in the waking world, Bill arrives at Sookie's hospital bedside.

Of course, we've seen since then that Bill has visited this garden, also encountering Miss Claudine, who is instantly fearful of him. Bill begins to declare his love and protectorship of Sookie, but after a few seconds seems to give in to a Vampire's desire for neckness, and when he lunges for her, we see Claudine dispatch him with a familiar joybuzzer move.

Bill's entrance into the garden was thru an apparently subterranean access. It appeared to be a (his?) basement earthen chamber, with a wooden trap door, somehow set into the same pool thru which all the Maypolers exited. I forget—is that how Sookie arrived when she visited?

So, it seems to me that Bill is granted access to the Magic Garden thanks to the amount of Sookie's blood that he's drunk. The same blood (over)dose that allowed him to survive being chucked into daylight by Tara and El Cid during their Mississippi getaway drive.

Sookie's Magic Gardeners seem to be by nature in direct opposition to vampires. Bill's encounter with Claudine established that for me. What is the opposite of a vampire? A vampire, = the reanimated dead, fueled by the blood of the living, fearful of daylight... The nearest thing I can think of is an angel. Could there have been a fallen or wandering angel roosting somewhere high up in the Stackhouse family tree? The trappings of the frolickers don't exactly speak to me of angels, tho. More like a Greco-Roman posse belonging to Bacchus or Dionysus. But we've alredy gone there with Mary Ann whatzherhead, right? How frickin annoying was all that? Still... There are all manner of Greeky types to mine for a fun supernatural heritage... Nymphs. Are there boy nymphs, too? Himphs? Maybe they're an offshoot of vampires? Or perhaps the progenitors of vampires? Supernatural Eloi to the Morlockian vampires?

Hrmm... But Claudine seems to KNOW Sookie. As if she existed before. Like one of XANADU's muses, y'know? A supernatural who visits the mortal plane every once in a while. So, maybe Sookie has chosen to walk the earth, but as a mortal, isn't allowed memory of her supernatural, Magic Gardener self. The Stackhouse bloodline, for SOME reason, allows these Magic Gardeners to be born into the mortal plane for such visits.

I wonder if she can meet her nephew in the garden. And maybe the bellhop from that Dallas vampire hotel...? Hrmm... What if everyone in the garden is also a telepath in the waking world? What if this is their common, kinda lame, astral playground...?

Why do any vampires want/track/care about Sookie?

The revelations that Bill was in the employ of the Queen, and that he was supposedly on sabbatical from his job when he met Sookie, leads me to believe that his meeting Sookie and bonding with her IS in fact part of a plan. The Queen—and perhaps Bill, but let's say just the Queen for now—have been tracking the Stackhouse family and its gifted members for generations. Their gift is the sign of a supernatural ancestor in the family tree. The Queen believes that the blood of one with this gift is the key to some greater power, or perhaps an advantage over other vampires and supernaturals.

That's one way this could go, at least. Bill himself, a servant of the Queen, may be serving her while also looking to forward a plan of his own. Altho he honors the laws of vampire society, he certainly doesn't seem to care for advancement within the vampire world. Does Bill want to be human? Does he want to be human to be with Sookie? Does he want to be human to die a human? I'm not sure I've seen that there's a serious motivation for Bill to want to be human, especially now, a century plus after his living breathing loved ones have passed, but, let's just assume he's got a reason. Maybe he's discovered, on his own or via the Queen's research and plans, that Sookie's blood is the key to regaining his humanity, to "curing" vampirism. Or, maybe just countering the vulnerabilities...?

A probably dead-end thought about the Queen...

The Queen has been around, and she seems steeped in the supernatural, beyond vampire tradition and culture. She's the one who filled in the blanks for Bill about Mary Ann, remember? Her interest in and possession of such knowledge lends some strength to my above thoughts about tracking the Stackhouses and using/planting Bill in a position to protect and/or collect Sookie herself. It also got me thinking about another possibility...

Yes, she/her estate is in dire financial straits since the Great Revelation. We've seen her scratching lottery tickets in the hopes of a big payoff that will cover her debts to the IRS. We've also learned that she ordered Sheriff Northman to distribute V, vampire blood. Whose blood is it, tho? Having seen the way Eric tricked Sookie into drinking his blood so that she would unwittingly forge a blood connection with him, I had the thought that the Queen might be using HER OWN BLOOD to sell as a drug, establishing psychic blood connections with every human who takes it. We've seen her vampire-hedonistic ways, and this sort of thing seems consistent with that. We've seen that vampires are aware of when their blooded human companions are in danger, and perhaps to some degree of their general location. In what OTHER ways might a vampire be connected to a blooded human? Imagine if the Queen's blood, as V, connects her to thousands of humans. What must that be like for her senses? What kind of additional powers or abilities might it grant her? Perhaps in combination with a boost from Stackhouse blood...?

Eric v. Russell

I LOVE the Northman backstory, and really enjoyed his interview w the V-Feds. That was a very sensible story move, having him waylaid by them, which essentially, temporarily, put him in their protection, safe from Russell. The outcome, with the Authority basically enlisting him as their black ops agent against Russell, was pretty cool. Alas, disavowed and unofficial, he can receive no help from the Authority. Now, though, in light of Russell's very public declaration of war against humanity, I'm thinking that Authority will be launching its own operation.

I kind of hope that Eric continues to pursue Russell using only his own resources and connections. Do we think that Russell's wolfpack is not so much in play any more? Hrmm... Will Russell find other vampires to join his crusade openly? Some of those Texas $hitkickers we met in Dallas?

I would love to see Eric recruit a few familiar human faces (and maybe a shifter?) to help him in an assault against Russell and his wolves. He could V/blood them up, making them the supercharged matches for werewolves and vamp thugs.

Geez, would the Authority team up with the Children Of Light against Russell? Maybe Jason could raid their armory.

A couple of last things...

WTF is up with Tommy? He, and his family, are turning into the Mary Ann subplot of this season. Bleah. I don't know what Tommy adds to the unfolding stories at all. His smartmouth and punk attitude do serve to destabilize Sam a bit, who's been a rock since the start. But in what world is that a good thing? Granted, I liked watching him beat the crap out of Crystal's drug-dealing were-dad, but that whole situation was just weird and out of place, somehow. Why wouldn't were-dad fight back? Is Tommy somehow in cahootz w them? Is there something to gain from somehow turning Sam to a dark side?

I like Deb and Hoyt together.

I like Pam's devotion to and empathy for Eric.

What's up w the Hot Shot racist meth-dealing werewolves? They ARE all werewolves, right? The guy they tied up left his clothes behind and all, just like one of Russell's boys.

Thing is, I still feel like Crystal is Something Else. A supernatural being who has somehow been captured or tricked into the life she lives w these hillbilly drug dealers.

Hrmm... Just thought of something. Eric kicked their asses on Lafayette's behalf and didn't mention anything about their supernature. Hrmm... That tells me they can't be werewolves. WTF?

But it really seemed like Sam and Tommy identified Crystal's dad, by scent, as a werewolf, right?

Hrmm... Maybe there's a serum? A "W" like there is a "V?" Werewolf blood that bestows upon a human the powers of a werewolf for a limited time. Or perhaps the Hot Shotters' wolfiness is powered by Crystal's supernature, a fake, artificial, magicked-up werewolf-ness. One that carries a scent, but not the same aura.

Allright, that's more than enough crazy TRUE BLOOD talk for now.

Keep on keepin on~

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Vote (even tho it'll be rejected): Kiss your Namaste goodbye!

Cobbled together this LOST-riffic reference non-design for shirt.woot's "The End Of The World" derby. However, hopped up on cold&flu meds as I was, I failed to do proper due diligence before putting it together and discovered that there are already shirts Out There with a similar design (duh!), grounds for rejecting a derby entry.

Nuts.

Still, here it is. Give it a vote if you don't think it's totally lame. =)


Namaste.

aka

Keep on keepin on~

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

BTIES: "Space ain't BLACK enough to hide from him..."

By the power of Greyskull! Check out BLACKSTAR WARRIOR =)


Awwh yeah... Mr. Calrissian is gonna land the Falcon in the Starcave of ThonBoka and blow her Mindharp of Sharu.

Thanks to Sister M for the low-down. =)

Keep on keepin on~

p.s. IS that DEXTER's Sergeant Doakes?

Thursday, August 05, 2010

LOST: The End - It's the Omega Point, duh.

The afterlife, aka the Sideways, is a simulation created in the far-flung future in which all consciousness has been united and recovered. This point in time is known as Omega Point. Note that I'm pulling this notion out of my science fictional travels, so my discussion of it is not going to be very sciencey, but based on my collected encounters with the phenomenon (or situations which resemble the phenomenon) in various astounding tales. =)

If any reader out there has a more detailed handle on the philosophical, scientific/technological or futurist aspects of Omega Point, please do share, comment, or correct my para-remembered understanding.

The basic idea is that the universe and life in it progress over time toward an increasingly complex state, leading to greater and greater (approaching infinite) intelligence, knowledge, creativity, and altruism, allowing for more and more information to be saved, recovered, and restored. Ultimately, all things and their states over time, which would include human beings, their actions, their memories, and if you can accept that personalities, thoughts, and emotions are a manifestation of the arrangement of bioelectric energy and pathways, their consciousness, can be remembered and virtually reassembled, sometimes as a distinct individual, or as part of a massive collected consciousness. As virtual, bodiless, consciousness, an individual at Omega Point has as much time as one wishes, to do, live, or re-live whatever one may imagine.

The method and mechanisms involved vary. In Kubrick and Spielberg's A.I., sophisticated machine intelligences (the continually evolving offspring of humanity) are approaching Omega Point, and able to re-create a single human being, in body and soul (apparently), from material and memories preserved from her lifetime. At true Omega Point, as superintelligent minds, these further/fully evolved intelligences would be able to remember and replay everything, and restore any and all of their human preogenitors.

In Greg Bear's BLOOD MUSIC, a localized Omega Point is reached when a quantum physical event that "tilts" and rewrites macro/Newtonian physics in the region of Earth results in the creation of a biological astral plane inhabited and shaped by all living things on the planet.

In Robert Sawyer's FLASH FORWARD we get a glimpse of the ultimate possibility of an evolved humanity of disembodied energy and consciousness that can actually begin within our (extended) lifetimes.

LOST's season 6 Sideways doesn't let us in on the How (surprise surprise, it *is* LOST after all), but the Whos, Whats, Wheres, and Whens that we get to witness are exactly the kind of experience an Omega Point would enable. The restoration of individuals' consciousnesses, long after their original lifetimes (and deaths), in a simulated environment that would appear and feel familiar, shaped by their own memories, but would not have to adhere strictly to the laws of physics as we know them. And it follows that one could visit the Omega Point via a time-projected consciousness (not physical time travel, or reality-jumping), as both Desmond and Juliet demonstrate.

So, technically, yes, an after-life, in that it is a return to (apparent) temporal existence for our Losties long long long long long after their physical deaths. But, not a supernatural, spiritual one. Not one that defies science and reason. And yes, a reward, in the form of "moving on," which at Omega Point might entail joining others who have moved on, into a purer form, unconstrained by the notion of physical bodies, space, time, and the filter of five simple senses through which they experience the universe.

The experience of an after-life makes sense as a gateway to Omega Point for remembered/restored souls like those of our Losties. Only those beings who were alive upon reaching Omega Point experienced the evolution—of physicality, consciousness, emotions, society, civilization, and morality—to their ultimate state. Those beings who pre-date Omega Point and are revived then-there, would need a way to ascend those evolutionary steps and join their super-progeny as equals. Perhaps what we witnessed in the Sideways chapel is only a first tier. Next come lessons in telekinesis and temporal projection. And after that, the verbal.

Could the Heart of the Island (or the Island and its pocket dimension as a whole) be the extension of Omega Point thru time? Might a projection of Omega Point throughout time exhibit the properties and behavior we've seen associated with the Heart—responsible for life, death, and rebirth? Creation?

Is there an intelligence behind or within it? A morality? A collective one? A collective one that could program the physical laws of the matter, living and not-living, within the boundaries of the Island's snowglobe dimension in such ways that human minds might interpret as Rules? Does it make a kind of sense that when an unevolved being arrives at Omega Point without any transition (aka a living human being enters the Heart), it would be transformed or converted into a creature we've come to know as a Monster? Disembodied consciousness, bound by Rules to the realm of Omega Point? Sure, cuz... why not?

But Why?

*sigh*

Keep on keepin on~

* August 7, 2010. Floated this ramble at The Fuselage.