Sorry…

I know I have not blogged in a while, but I have been busy with work, and studying, or thinking about studying for my statistics final. I will blog again in a few days…

Scotty

More on Compass…

Just a quick bite about this topic, again. I just caught a bit on CNN about Golden Compass, and the by-line was “is it anti-catholic” and there was discussion etc etc etc… The brief point I want to make is that it does not matter if it IS anti-catholic, or anti-church or anti-ice cream. It does not matter if any movie is anti-anything, because of free speech. In the US and Canada, there is the right to free speech. Granted there are some limitations, but generally one can say (emphasis on say) what they want. Lately, especially in the US, there has been a climate of free speech only when it is polically correct. That defeats the whole purpose. Take for example, the Dixie Chicks. They are a country trio, from Texas (I believe) that mentioned during a concert in London, England a few years back, that they were embarrassed that George W Bush was from Texas. Needless to say, they were dragged over the coals. It saddens and amuses me when people who cling to their freedoms (such as the archaic practice of bearing arms) can so quickly throw them away when it suits their mood. Freedom of speech means that everyone gets to express their opinion whether you like it or not. And the same goes for movies. There should be no controversy over whether or not The Golden Compass is anti-catholic. It is opinion, and even if it is anti-catholic, that does not matter, because the filmakers have their right to say what they want about the catholic church or compasses or daemons or whatever. If you do not like, suck it up and do not see the movie, or better yet, make your own, pro-catholic, anti-anti-catholic movie.

Scotty

Random Ranting and Joyous Shouting

First, the rants. What kind of world do we live in where a rich personhas no problem paying $330 000.00 for a bloody mushroom!!!! Stanley Ho recently bought a 3.3 lb white truffle at an auction. If I was one who used curse words extensively, I might be tempted to say WTF. For more info, check out a BBC news story about the event. It bothers me that we live in a world that has people buying fungus for hundreds of thousands of dollars, while people starve in the streets, wars rage out of control, and the environment is crumbling around us.

On the topic of fungi… There are a surprising amount of choices when it comes to purchasing topical anti-fungal creme. What kind of society do we live in that has a choice of topical anti-fungal cremes… I honestly do not care that there is a choice. I just did not have anything else to rant about, and the topic fit. Although this is a web log, I will not go into details on why I purchased a topical anti-fungal creme. Trust me, you really do not want to know. (Who would have thought that one could use the term “topical anti-fungal creme” three (four now) times in a paragraph. In your face space-coyote!)

Onto the joy. I just received my (warning: Shameless product plug ahead) Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 2.66GHz Quad Core processor and DG33tl Media Series microATX yesterday. Now I can build my desktop. I obtained the processor packages through an Intel retail promotion for people who sell Intel products, and let me tell you, it was a sweet deal. I am now obtaining the rest of the parts necessary to assemble what I hope will be, if not blistering hot top of the line, at least moderately warm and smoking. I have just returned from purchasing an Antec Sonata III mid-tower case with a 500W power supply unit. I also bought 4096 MB of Corsair DDR2-800 RAM, A Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA2 7200 rpm hard drive with a 32 mbs buffer and a samsung dvd burner. I went with a slightly less exciting case than I had originally intended, but I save a good chunk of change, so I will add a splurge. An nvidia 8800GT video card, and maybe a sound card. Then I just need a monitor, and look out. To top off this joy, I recently found out that they make Guitar Hero 3 for the PC! My laptop will not run it, but, assuming everything works, my new desktop should, so Birthday is soon!!!

Ok, enough of that geek speak. For those of my loyal readers who care, thanks for caring, and for the rest, I understand if you just skipped that last paragraph entirely…

See ya…

Scotty

Coming Soon… The Boycott Violence Project – An idea

Have they learned nothing yet… Part 2…

This is an addenenum to my post from the other day about boycotting movies and other such tomfoolery. First a thank you to some loyal readers who have finally posted comments. It is nice to know that someone is reading what I write and agreeing with it. At least its nice to have people agree with me that are not gun-toting crackpots, but that is a story for another time.

I had some thoughts for the people who spend their time making facebook groups and blogs and websites calling for the boycotting of movies or gay marriage or mayo on french fries. Put that organizational and creative energy into something worthwhile. Yes, you may feel deeply about boycotting mayonaise on french fries, and you are determined to get the word out to stop people from being exposed to those hidden messages in that most deadly of combinations, but why not focus that energy on something important, such as, I do not know, helping the poor? Stopping war and violence in all its forms. How about a Facebook group calling for the boycotting of war? The other day, we were driving to Stanley Park, and we travelled down a road in Vancouver called East Hastings. There were literlly hundreds of homeless people along the street, crouched under awnings, trying to keep warm in the snow that was tumbling out of the sky. Why do you not go show God’s love to them. Give them some soup, donate money to shelter, plan a way of solving the problem of homelessness. Is it because you are lazy, and sitting at your computer making boycott sites soothes your guilty concience (I hate trying to spell that word…)?

Aside: Yes the irony that I am a lazy bast@#$ sitting at my computer spouting off instead of going out and doing something has not escaped me. What can I say. I am lazy and a chicken… get off my case…

There are 250 entries on facebook for “boycott golden compass” (some of them are anti-boycott sites, but the majority are boycott sites). Think about all the tangible good that might have been done by those people instead of railing against a movie. Give your self a shake and take your heads out of your arses! There are real problems in the world, stop wasting time and energy on made-up ones. People are dying in unjust and unecessary wars. People are starving and are addicted to drugs and are lonely and sad and lost and frightened. Help them!!!

Ok, enough out of me…

Scotty

Have they learned nothing yet… (or should we boycott Golden Compass?)

I guess the word is not getting out. People are not reading my blog and are not using their brains to think. “Impossible!” you exclaim, “It cannot be true?” Unfortunately it is my loyal readers. So what is the object of my ire today? Campaigns to boycott movies based on content. More specifically the current round of boycottinitis aimed at the movie “The Golden Compass” based on a novel of the same name by Phillip Pullman.

Basically, some people see Pullman as an anti-Lewis (as in C.S.) in that he has written fantasy novels aimed at children wih with deeper messages. Lewis’ happened to be Christian allegory and Pullman’s are decidely not Christian allegory. I will not go into the details of the novels here, as they are easily found by doing a web-search, or better yet, reading them. They definately have a strong message, and it is a message that many do not agree with… Yet here we come to the crux of my point. Many people do not agree with C.S. Lewis’ message either.

When the “Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” came out several years ago (the new live action version, not the old BBC productions) I can remember the storms of controversy as atheist and agnostic groups around the globe called for the boycotting of these movies and their hidden Christian message. No wait, I cannot, as I am pretty sure that it did not happen. (if it did, I apologise, but it apparently did not impact on me or I am just stupid). Now there are groups of Christians calling for the boycotting of the Golden Compass because of its hidden (not really hidden if you had taken the time to read the book first, instead of getting all of your literature in movie form) athiest/agnostic messages. My point is these calls for boycotts are self-defeating.]

Exhibit A: The DaVinici Code: A movie based on a pulp-best seller that would have been a moderately successful action movie became a blockbuster because the Catholic Church urged people to boycott it. “Oh!”, says one undecided and ambivalent movie-goer ” the Catholic Church does not want people to see that movie, than thats the one for me!” We are rebellious by nature, and you all know that as someone tells you no, you desperately want to go find out what the big deal is. It is like 12 year olds who try to sneak into R-rated movies, or children trying to sneak a peek at Christmas presents before the big day. People want what they are told they are not allowed to have. I am sure that the producers of the DaVinci Code loved all the protests and negative publicity. I would not be a good cynic if I did not even imagine a savvy marketing compaign based on forbidding the movie…

What the point of this post really boils down to is that one needs to take an intelligent approach to dealing with movies and other sources of media that disagree with your worldview. Instead of a knee-jerk reaction to things that you might perceive as a threat, take a more calm, dialogue-based approach to dealing with the “threat”. What do I mean? I will attempt to explain. I was reading an article about the GC on a website called PluggedIn.org, which is Focus on the Family’s media review site, where they dissect many movies for everything from spirituality to violence to how many instances of bathroom humour the movie contains. In the article a father was worried about his children getting a wrong idea about God from the movie before they could be sure of their faith, or something to that effect. How about looking at the rating for one: PG-13. That means that anyone under 13 should be with a parent. It is a great idea for parents to see movies with their children and then TALK about what you saw. Or talk about with your children WHY you are not going to see the movie. How many crisis in the world today are a result of rash action based on faith rather than people taking some time to sit down and talk about things. Or read the books before the movie comes out, and talk with your child about it.

I have no problem with people not seeing the GC. I will see it. I love the novels, and I have no problem understanding that they are one author’s ideas and opinions, and that they are not an issue for me. My advice to people calling for boycotts: watch how strongly you push people, as they might just decide to go see what all the fuss is about, and the boycott call is foiled.

There is so much hate and anger in the world, and reactionary protests and controversy and different media outlets with opposing ideological slants battling for ratings from a public eager for a fight, that we need to step back, let cooler heads and rational dialogue prevail.

And you never know… That “Boycott the Golden Compass” group that you just joined on Facebook may have been started by the advertising firm of Gottem, Gettem and Fooledya as part of the promotional campaign for the movie, that will be released on December 7.

Scotty