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A PSA
Driving around France was awesome! However, anyone planning a similar trip may wish to note that the time estimates given by Google Maps for anything besides the autoroute toll highways generally needed to be multiplied by 1.3-1.8 to be accurate. Also the street names known to Google in many cases seemed not to be known to the actual people who put up road signs - were I doing it again, I would make sure to print the detail map for every turn in hopes of correlating the directions with other maps and with actual road features.
Great For Me, Kind of Sucky For Everyone Else
I've been married for a year, which is wonderful and happy, except the damn thank-you notes are now Officially Overdue. Confidential to, uh, way too many people: it's totally not you, it's me, we loved your gift and really do want to tell you so, I'm just a giant slacker.
Why I Hate Summer
I can never remember that it's actually *colder* in my office when it's hottest out; I think this has something to do with trying to run the AC enough that the big lab rooms in the center of the building full of heat-generating equipment don't actually melt down and pull the rest of us down into some kind of black hole of inescapable heat, which seems like a fine agenda, but it means I sit at my desk and shiver if I only bring in the one layer that was sufficient a month ago. Must keep sweater at office. I thought about huddling under a clean lab coat but eventually it occured to me that there was warmth *outside of the building*, and so I actually went and sat in my oven-like car for a few minutes until I was baked back to a reasonable temperature.
What's Up With Christ Figures, Anyways?
This is the kind of thing I think about when I'm up to my elbows in the hood and bored: in modern movies and such, what is meant to be accomplished by Christ analogies, or rather, what audience are they intended for? When Neo or Superman or whoever sticks out his arms in their big sacrificial moment, I personally find it kind of annoying: as an atheist, it really doesn't seem all that surprising or interesting that one story about somebody sacrificing themselves to save some other people would happen to have a lot in common with other such stories. I mean, news flash: Many Star-Crossed Lovers Kind Of Like Romeo And Juliet. I think it's interesting if the *character themself* thinks of themself as a Christ figure, because that's an interesting piece of characterization (if, say, Clark Kent, who was dragged to Sunday school for twelve years by Ma and Pa Kent and who spent some serious time in his early twenties wondering whether Krypton had its own Jesus or whether Earth Jesus saved them too and did they know about that?, thinks of himself as a Christ figure, that's fascinating), and if *other people in the character's world* see them in those terms, that's also interesting (so, suddenly the First Church of Superman is the ninth-largest denomination in the United States...), but if in-world, the character just happens to be flopping his arms around and it's meant for the audience? I don't get it. And it's hard for me to imagine that it adds much to the movie for faithful Christians, either - I mean, okay, it may be kind of sad that [insert movie hero here] got all sacri-fried, but it must look rather trivial and meaningless in comparison with that time their actual Savior gave his life for them. So who does this leave? People who think Jesus is awesome but don't actually love him so much that he can't also be a handy way to make their favorite movie hero look more serious and important? I guess these people must be out there, heck knows there's enough Christ-analogizing.
Driving around France was awesome! However, anyone planning a similar trip may wish to note that the time estimates given by Google Maps for anything besides the autoroute toll highways generally needed to be multiplied by 1.3-1.8 to be accurate. Also the street names known to Google in many cases seemed not to be known to the actual people who put up road signs - were I doing it again, I would make sure to print the detail map for every turn in hopes of correlating the directions with other maps and with actual road features.
Great For Me, Kind of Sucky For Everyone Else
I've been married for a year, which is wonderful and happy, except the damn thank-you notes are now Officially Overdue. Confidential to, uh, way too many people: it's totally not you, it's me, we loved your gift and really do want to tell you so, I'm just a giant slacker.
Why I Hate Summer
I can never remember that it's actually *colder* in my office when it's hottest out; I think this has something to do with trying to run the AC enough that the big lab rooms in the center of the building full of heat-generating equipment don't actually melt down and pull the rest of us down into some kind of black hole of inescapable heat, which seems like a fine agenda, but it means I sit at my desk and shiver if I only bring in the one layer that was sufficient a month ago. Must keep sweater at office. I thought about huddling under a clean lab coat but eventually it occured to me that there was warmth *outside of the building*, and so I actually went and sat in my oven-like car for a few minutes until I was baked back to a reasonable temperature.
What's Up With Christ Figures, Anyways?
This is the kind of thing I think about when I'm up to my elbows in the hood and bored: in modern movies and such, what is meant to be accomplished by Christ analogies, or rather, what audience are they intended for? When Neo or Superman or whoever sticks out his arms in their big sacrificial moment, I personally find it kind of annoying: as an atheist, it really doesn't seem all that surprising or interesting that one story about somebody sacrificing themselves to save some other people would happen to have a lot in common with other such stories. I mean, news flash: Many Star-Crossed Lovers Kind Of Like Romeo And Juliet. I think it's interesting if the *character themself* thinks of themself as a Christ figure, because that's an interesting piece of characterization (if, say, Clark Kent, who was dragged to Sunday school for twelve years by Ma and Pa Kent and who spent some serious time in his early twenties wondering whether Krypton had its own Jesus or whether Earth Jesus saved them too and did they know about that?, thinks of himself as a Christ figure, that's fascinating), and if *other people in the character's world* see them in those terms, that's also interesting (so, suddenly the First Church of Superman is the ninth-largest denomination in the United States...), but if in-world, the character just happens to be flopping his arms around and it's meant for the audience? I don't get it. And it's hard for me to imagine that it adds much to the movie for faithful Christians, either - I mean, okay, it may be kind of sad that [insert movie hero here] got all sacri-fried, but it must look rather trivial and meaningless in comparison with that time their actual Savior gave his life for them. So who does this leave? People who think Jesus is awesome but don't actually love him so much that he can't also be a handy way to make their favorite movie hero look more serious and important? I guess these people must be out there, heck knows there's enough Christ-analogizing.
