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In life all of us have to wrestle with love, family, and our purpose in life.  When on the right path one finds everything moves smoothly and when not one finds difficulty.  I’m really enjoying the third season of Chuck and their representation of those real struggles.

By using the intersect and chuck’s ability to access it as a symbol of chuck’s spiritual compass we get to clearly see when his life is out of balance.  Like in life, when one gets so out of balance, there comes a time when a spiritual adviser comes along to put one back on the path.  For Chuck this was the Tao of Morgan.

Chuck Verses the False Choice

Chuck’s purpose in life is facing a false choice between the old Chuck verses spy Chuck.  Unfortunately by working within the confines of labels he is unable to see how both choices are wrong.  Old Chuck denies how he is very capable and spy Chuck denies his emotions which is his source of strength.  He has to find the real Chuck.

To protect Chuck’s family he made a false choice to keep them at a distance.  This false choice is causing great problems in Chuck’s life because it is his family that grounds him.  To protect them he need’s them close and to keep a distance between himself and his spy life.

In love Chuck made a false choice by believing Sarah is not an option.  This false choice is preventing him from finding out what kind of romantic relationship really exists between them.  He is left with unresolved emotions that also prevents any future choices.  Thus the relationship with Hanna is not able to move forward because Chuck has not resolved his position with Sarah.

With all of those false choices Chuck is left lost and out of balance.  This manifests it’s self by his inability to access the intersect.  Then enters his spiritual advisor to put him back on the path.

Tao of Morgan

Chuck reveals his spy identity to Morgan.  One might expect two years of lying to hurt the friendship but not in Morgan’s case because he understands the way.  I love how out of all the people in Chuck’s life Morgan is his spiritual guide.

The Tao of Morgan:  Follow your bliss and be true to yourself.  This is the real secret to our purpose in life and it is a path not a destination.

The Real Chuck

The real Chuck is a very capable person who cares to do the good and protect innocent people from harm.  He draws his strength from his emotions which is directly tied to his desire to do good and protect innocent people from harm.  This is why Chuck’s emotions play such a vital role.

He gets back on the path of following his bliss and being true to himself after putting Morgan back into his life.

The Struggle Continues

Now we must see how chuck resolves his false choices that lead him off the path in the first place.  I don’t see him finding his true self right away since it is his peers that keep perpetuating the false choice between being a spy or being his old self.  Sarah sees the real Chuck but is unable to clearly tell him because of the unresolved feelings between them.

Will Chuck find his true self?

What kind of relationship do you see Chuck and Sarah having by the end of season three?

Buy it from or Amazon:The Complete First Season, The Complete Second Season

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Words can not express how badly I want a 2.4 meter tall Alien King sculpture! Made from recycled parts and welded together.

I went to Robosteel site where there are more awesome pictures of the Steel Alien sculptures and the worse thing ever happened.  They are actually for sale… *drool*

(via Fantasy SF Blog)

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I am so stoked to be able to bring you this review. I’ve been waiting for Black Butler to be translated into English for over a year.

A short distance from London, just beyond the fog-cloaked forest, there stands a well-kept manor house.

Kuroshitsuji, or Black Butler, is an awesome gothic tale about a butler who can do absolutely anything. The art in the manga is the best gothic craftsmanship I have ever seen. In fact, before the English translation came out, I had to talk myself out of buying the Japanese version several times because I loved the art so much. I just wanted to hold such beauty in my hands and study the details even, if I couldn’t read the darned thing!

I just finished the English translation version and I am not disappointed in the least. The story and characters live up to the awesome artwork. So, what’s it about?

The Black Butler, Sebastian, is the kind of man anyone could use around the house. He can clean, garden, make the most delicious sweets, and even rescue you from kidnappers. Most would say that his type of know-how is impossible in a mortal and they would be right. Sebastian’s master Earl Phantomville, a twelve-year-old boy named Ceil who is obsessed with games. Being the head of the family that owns Funtom, Britain’s leading confection and toy making manufacturer, liking games is a must.

The other servants of the house are comical, but useless. After all, who needs maids, gardeners, and man servants when one has Sebastian the greatest butler of all time? These other servants make it difficult for Sebastian to do his job by constantly messing things up, destroying china sets, poisoning the garden, and eating the Earl’s desserts. The Black Butler always saves the day with his quick wit, speedy service, and ultimate all around wonderfulness.

My favorite scene is when Sebastian is riddled with bullets and then stands, his coattails all in tatters and looks at the bullets in his hand. Then he throws all the bullets back at the baddies, effectively sending them to their graves. After the fight, he picks up his master and calmly walks for the room while apologizing that dinner has not been prepared.

As I have said, this artist is awesome. I haven’t been this excited about a manga artist since Kaori Yuki’s Godchild. From ruffled cravats and tailored suits to ornamented chandeliers and elaborate tea servings, every detail is beautiful. Even the chibi portions of this manga are well done.

A fun detail is that each chapter, Sebastian makes a special dessert for Earl Phantomville. The dessert is shown up close with a banner stating things such as:

Today’s Dessert: Apricot and green tea mille-feuille.

This awesome book includes seven pages of author notes with translation notes outlining everything you’d like to know about what is described in the book, including what mille-feuille is.

The author is definitely into portraying authentic Victorian England settings and clothing, but I’ve never seen a manga artist pay this much attention to customs, history of the time, and even what people might have been talking about during dinner.

I’ll leave you with a quote from the author:

I like black…
…It’s a color that can’t be violated by any other colors.
It’s a color that simply keeps being itself.
A color that sinks more somberly than any other…
…It’s a passionate, gallant color.
Anything is wonderful if it transcends things, rather than being halfway.

If you haven’t bought a manga yet, this is the one to start with. Few others are in it’s league. You can find out more about Black Butler at Amazon.com.

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After Avatar premiered on the big screen I noticed it having a strange effect in some of those around me.  Then the headlines pointing out how there was a rise in depression from some who watched the movie.  This cause was pinned on the movie being “a little too real” CNN with that being followed up by pinning it on the intense visuals.

This left me curious, there is a real effect being caused but the explanation of visuals for the cause did not make sense.  After watching Avatar Eric and I talked about the experience and the feelings left behind and he pointed out the cause.

The Cause

Experiencing Avatar gives one a religious experience stimulating metaphysical urges.  If lacking in one’s life this will leave a longing, drawing attention to the emptiness that already exists in their life.  Due to our secular society this whole event is felt but probably not realized on a conscious level.

It’s Human nature

It’s human nature to feel the need for a connection.  This need is what drives us as a species to be social creatures.  This is not only one sought between each other but also between our environment around us and to a greater universe.

This is the deeper purpose that mythology and religion serve as they help us to get connected to one another, our environment and the greater universe.

Without it one is left with a restless longing.  This longing can be ignored or temporally filled but it still persists if those connections are not made.  Our secular society has become quite adept at even distracting ourselves so much that the longing is numbed.

How Avatar stimulates it

Avatar does something amazing by giving the viewer an experience of a beautiful setting in which the characters have a deep connection to each other, the environment around them and to a greater universe giving immediate validation of that connection.

This starts with the viewer being able to relate to Jake who through a dreaming state gets a direct neural transmitted connection to a Na’vi.  Through the Na’vi we are connected to the rest of the world around.

A Na’vi does not just climb on a mount and ride around or fly around on it.  They make a neural connection to the mount, a bond that is very deep and reciprocal.  It is a connection that has immediate reward and shown true through the creatures response.

They connect with those that came before them through the Tree of Voices.  This connects the Na’vi to their ancestors and validates this afterlife with immediate feedback.  Connecting to the Tree of Voices they can hear the voices of their ancestors.

The connection to a greater universe is shown through Eywa and the Tree of Souls.  Through this experience we see the validation of a person’s soul and it’s ability to transfer from one back into nature and even it’s ability to reincarnate transferring from one body to a new one.

The validation goes so far that even Eywa validates the prayers of the people.

The result

While experiencing the movie we also experience the deep connection and the validation of that experience.  Once the movie ends so does the experience.  The audience member returns to their life and if they have a longing it is made apparent and thus the feelings of depression and a strong desire to return to the Na’vi.

The sad thing is because we live in such a secular society many will not realize on a conscious level those metaphysical urges were stimulated.  Then the distractions set in and attempts to ignore the feelings.  Pushing the longing back down into the unconsciousness and Missing the opportunity to take edifying action.

Exploring Avatar’s Religious Elements

Eywa

Eywa is the great spirit of Pandora revered by the Na’vi and represented through the interconnectedness amongst all of the flora, fauna and indigenous peoples.  The Eywa is most represented through the Tree of Souls, Tree of Voices and the Atokirina which are little floating airborne jellyfish like creatures.

Emissaries of Eywa

The Atokirina’ are seeds from the Tree of souls that float around on the air of Pandora.  They are viewed and revered by the Na’vi as spirits sent from Eywa.  Their presence is viewed as a sign to the people to help them and guide them.

Tree of Voices

The Utral Aymokriyä is a tree kind of like a weeping willow but the branches hanging down are full of neural connections.  These trees are viewed as a sacred space.  The Na’vi can connect to the branches and hear the voices of their ancestors, kind of like a prayer space.  They also partake of the more sacred rights under the branches of the tree like marriage rights.

Tree of Souls

The Ayvitrayä Ramunong is a tree similar in appearance to the Tree of Voices except it has a massive root structure that is close to the surface.  The Tree of Souls can make neural connections to the Na’vi and other creatures around it by sending out many small tendrils.  Through that connection one can get a direct experience of Eywa.  They can even transfer souls from one body through Eywa and back into another body.

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Blessed be the Dunecat and all His cuteness. Bless the coming and going of Him, May His passing ease the world. May He keep the world smiling for all his people.

(via Dark Vision Hardware)

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Snake eats alligator move over for we have found a fossilized proof of a snake eating a dinosaur.  At first I thought it was like something out of a 50’s B movie.

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your perspective it turns out that the snake was 11.5 foot long and the dinosaur was a new born 1.6 foot long.

Read the full fascinating tale over at National Geographic

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In Bristol, England a bunch of Star Wars fans put together a flashmob for a huge lightsaber fight on February 13th 2010.  Watch the video below.

I love how this video has a Star Wars type intro though they left out the scroll which would have been a perfect place to put in the back story for the flashmob or to create some story to set up a bunch of Jedi and Dark Jedi fighting in Bristol, England.

The use Duel of the Fates for the soundtrack is a perfect choice for a bunch of lightsaber fighting.

(via /Film)

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During the Congress hearing examining the Comcast acquisition of NBC Universal Rep. Rick Boucher Presses NBC About Hulu Practices Toward Boxee.

Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA): What about Boxee? Mr. Zucker you probably are in a better position to answer that. Did Hulu block the Boxee users from access to the Hulu programs?

Zucker (NBC): This was a decision made by the Hulu management to, uh, what Boxee was doing was illegally taking the content that was on Hulu without any business deal. And, you know, all, all the, we have several distributors, actually many distributors of the Hulu content that we have legal distribution deals with so we don’t preclude distribution deals. What we preclude are those who illegally take that content.

Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA): “Well would you have negotiations with Boxee upon request?”

Zucker (NBC): “We have always said that we’re open to negotiations.”

I’m overjoyed to see congress pressing NBC about their issues with Boxee and Hulu.  They have had past issues with streaming content online and now with Comcast set to take over I fear those issues will only get worse.

Boxee uses a web browser to access Hulu’s content – just like Firefox or Internet Explorer. Boxee users click on a link to Hulu’s website and the video within that page plays. We don’t “take” the video. We don’t copy it. We don’t put ads on top of it. The video and the ads play like they do on other browsers or on Hulu Desktop.

The big difference between boxee and other browsers are that boxee took the effort to make their product available on other platforms that connect easily to the TV.  This is unfortunately perceived as a threat by those studios who don’t get the change in the way audiences want to consume their media.  We go into more detail on Speculative Fiction Today #405 “Many Mini Chucks”.

Zucker’s response makes me cringe because it sounds like the health care debate all over again.  One side says hey lets negotiate on this and the other side says they are more then willing to negotiate yet their actions shows no intention of doing so.

(via Boxee Blog)

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Andrew Watters took a picture of what appears to be a ghostly apparition.  The picture is of the old St Bathans post office near Alexandra.

Could this picture be proof of the afterlife, a more natural phenomenon like clouds or is it faked?

For most they will believe what they want.  For me the value in a picture like this one is it’s inspirational value.  To dare to dream that ghosts walk amongst us.  That phenomenon beyond our current science knowledge occurs all around us. The questions it raises is what makes it worth sharing.

(via The Southland Times)

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Breakthrough pill to help people live to 100

The pill is based on immitating [sic] the effects of three super-genes that make people 20 times more likely to live to be 100 and 80 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s or other similar diseases. The new pill is expected to be ready for testing within three years.

This would be awesome!  Not only give a nice extension on ones lifespan but to reduce the chances of Alzheimer’s or other similar diseases.

Sounds too good to be true?

Possibly, The quest for the philosopher’s stone goes back for millennium and shows up in speculative fiction in many forms.  My first reaction to this is to sigh and think ‘ah, another snake oil salesman.’  What is fun with this pill concept is that they gave it some credibility by tying it to the longevity effects of genes.

There is ongoing research into human longevity.  Most of the successful results are tied to tweaking the subjects (mostly worms) genes.  A while back I watched a fascinating news piece on the longevity research and it’s results.  They were successful in extending even doubling the life span but there was a catch.  It doubled all of the lifespan which means twice as long as an infant, puberty twice as long, and the declining years taking twice as long.  Would this extension and payoff for the extension of life really be any increase in the quality of life?

The ethical questions raised were fascinating.  If one could live longer what quality of life would they get for it?

Would you be willing to take a pill to extend your life to 100 years?  Would you still be willing to take a pill if it had to be taken on a regular basis?

(via Unexplained Mysteries)

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