I met Zophia very recently, and I've only hung out with her once, at a Halloween party, but I already have some amount of respect for her, especially for the work she does.
I want to post about her because one of her current projects deserves to be highlighted, and she deserves any help that finds its way to her. Her medium is metal and fire, sculptures built with found and recycled metals through her studio, Burning Art.
Her website is HERE where one can see some of the amazing work she's done. But what I really want to tell you about is her Dreamz with Wings. I don't know the whole story, but if you go HERE you can learn more for yourself. I do know that she is creating sculptures and selling them to raise financial support for a friend who is battling cancer.
I've seen her work up close and am happy that, though I barely know her, I do know someone capable of this sort of thing. I hope that my brief mention here can bring her support as well as new admirers. It's a worthy cause, so please at least visit the links I've provided.
And when you visit the Dreamz page, make sure to check out the cat with wings. I was taken a tiny bit aback upon seeing it because it reminded me of a tattoo idea that's sort of in the back of my head
Monday, December 22, 2008
oh no he dituhn
Remember a few days ago when I explained the real problems with Anakin Skywalker's epic battle with Obi-Wan Kenobi? It was a great post, and it basically contained my arguments in regards to the fail that George Lucas created by allowing both these characters to live. The post came about due to a late night and possibly slightly drunken discussion/argument with my friend Franklin who you should by now be aware of.
This conversation was reenacted with slightly different points made a couple of evenings later, and Franklin has now posted on his own blog with his sorely misguided counteraregument. Yes, I do indeed intend to not let this die.
One mistake in Franklin's post is his contention that the younglings took no effort to kill in that they are in fact younglings and have not had the same training that a true Jedi or even a padawan would have had. He seems to miss my point in this instance, though in general I find that he and I have equally valid points assuming one accepts the difference in the Star Wars univers and reality.
I'll point out that I accept the difference in created fiction and reality, but at the same time, no matter how much suspension of disbelief one allows for, one also has to accept that, given the similarity in physical laws evident there are some things one has to accept.
First to the younglings argument. My point has nothing to do with their lack of skill and training. Of course they are young and weak and untrained, but it's just that innocence that Anakin so wantonly destroyed that, in my opinion, allowed his use of the dark side to grow. It's the difference between killing uniformed soldiers versus decimating a city block with anonymous bombs. The willingness to face the soldier versus the willingness to kill with no regard allows one side to accept that there are no limits to how low one will stoop. It's the difference between slapping a man in the face as opposed to sneaking a kick to the nuts from behind.
Now, on the the next bit of the debate, that raw power can never equal skill. Anakin was highly skilled and well trained to the point where he should have been given full Jedi Knight status instead of being held back. I'll use Franklin's judo argument. As he points out, one skilled in judo will easily be able to use his knowledge to defeat a much larger and powerful opponent. However, given the same amount of expertise and training in judo between the two opponents, the fight will most likely go the way of the larger and more powerful of the two. Add on to that skill and training the willingness to accept no limits and the larger opponent becomes that much more formidable especially if the weaker opponent is willing only to work within the set skillset percieved to be true judo.
I'm more than willing for any other points to be argued. I'll listen to anyone nerdy enough to join this exchange. I'm pretty sure that of my couple of readers I have some scifi fans with an opinion on this subject, and I welcome any points of view.
This conversation was reenacted with slightly different points made a couple of evenings later, and Franklin has now posted on his own blog with his sorely misguided counteraregument. Yes, I do indeed intend to not let this die.
One mistake in Franklin's post is his contention that the younglings took no effort to kill in that they are in fact younglings and have not had the same training that a true Jedi or even a padawan would have had. He seems to miss my point in this instance, though in general I find that he and I have equally valid points assuming one accepts the difference in the Star Wars univers and reality.
I'll point out that I accept the difference in created fiction and reality, but at the same time, no matter how much suspension of disbelief one allows for, one also has to accept that, given the similarity in physical laws evident there are some things one has to accept.
First to the younglings argument. My point has nothing to do with their lack of skill and training. Of course they are young and weak and untrained, but it's just that innocence that Anakin so wantonly destroyed that, in my opinion, allowed his use of the dark side to grow. It's the difference between killing uniformed soldiers versus decimating a city block with anonymous bombs. The willingness to face the soldier versus the willingness to kill with no regard allows one side to accept that there are no limits to how low one will stoop. It's the difference between slapping a man in the face as opposed to sneaking a kick to the nuts from behind.
Now, on the the next bit of the debate, that raw power can never equal skill. Anakin was highly skilled and well trained to the point where he should have been given full Jedi Knight status instead of being held back. I'll use Franklin's judo argument. As he points out, one skilled in judo will easily be able to use his knowledge to defeat a much larger and powerful opponent. However, given the same amount of expertise and training in judo between the two opponents, the fight will most likely go the way of the larger and more powerful of the two. Add on to that skill and training the willingness to accept no limits and the larger opponent becomes that much more formidable especially if the weaker opponent is willing only to work within the set skillset percieved to be true judo.
I'm more than willing for any other points to be argued. I'll listen to anyone nerdy enough to join this exchange. I'm pretty sure that of my couple of readers I have some scifi fans with an opinion on this subject, and I welcome any points of view.
feel it or not, here it comes
There's every chance I've mentioned this by now, and perhaps over the past couple of years I've made similar points, but this is Christmas season, and I suppose I could make the point again.
This one is different though. I may have hated Christmas in the past, but the combined efforts of Momma's love of the season and my own desire to give my children some of the assumed magic of the season has worked to make me less of a Scrooge.
I'm not feeling the exact Scroogely leanings I may have in the past, but I'm just not feeling Christmas at all this year. I did take a couple of minutes earlier today and found the two songs that almost always work. And they basically failed. I could almost feel a little glimmer of the light as Little Elf sat down in Santa's chair, almost feel a spark of the joy as Run, DMC and Jay found Santa's wallet and returned home for Mom's chicken and greens, but even Christmas in Hollis wasn't enough. I'm not sure what I expected from The Ramones other than getting to hear one of the greatest bands ever, and really, Merry Christmas Baby isn't the most inspiring of songs when it's the cheer and joy of the season you're after.
We have a tree. I had no part in choosing or decorating it. Last week in my little town was warm enough to have gone out any day, but Momma worked most days, and it rained every day. She broke down and bought one from the hardware store to avoid missing out. It was decorated while I was at work.
The tree story doesn't really bother me. I wonder if I'd been part of the picking and putting and related decorating if I'd have begun to get the feeling, but I don't really regret not being part of it. It isn't really bothering me. On top of that, the remains of the decorating, the unused ornaments, the various baubles that are not tree bound decorations, still sit around in the floor, taking up space. The kitchen is a wreck and has been for days. The recycling is piling up, empty but rinsed beer cans, rinsed and flattened milk jugs, overflowing paper bin, roasting pan in the sink filled with disgusting grease water and various other dishes that have found their way onto the pile.
With the separation of Momma's and my finances I've been unable personally to purchase any more than one gift and that for The Boy. I did help Momma pick our usual pile of books, but she paid for them. The other gifts for them she went shopping for, and my only help there was reading off, over the phone, the list she'd made and forgotten.
I'm sure the financial situation is not helping. My first check from the new job was for most of a week, and my next check is due the day after Christmas, and I'm not really getting the hours I need to make it a reasonable size. Giving Momma money to cover some of the gift load will help me feel that I've helped purchase gifts for my children, but I was only actually present for those I've mentioned. She and I haven't discussed gifts between the two of us. I don't know what family plans there are, and I don't know how she plans to work her boyfriend into any of this.
So I'm back to the just not feeling it this year. That it's only days away doesn't have the same creeping yet suddenly there feeling of years past. I kind of just want it to be over. January promises to be the month of change as I look forward to moving out. My own family is getting together a week and a half into the new year for our annual family get together, and my mother would very much like for us all to be there. There's a whole nest of potential vipers in that one brother has a new wife this year, one brother apparently just left his girlfriend to return to his wife, and one brother (me) has finally told the family that he's gay. I almost don't want to bother with the possible situations and discussions I can only imagine. And will Momma and I be able to coordinate our schedules and money to be able to make the drive south?
I just want all of Christmas, every single last little bit of it, to go away. It's not so much that I want it to be over because that suggests getting through it. I don't want to bother with having to do the stuff that Christmas is so much as just want it to go away.
I'm not celebrating an interstellar entity coming to earth to fornicate with a human woman and recreate himself in human form who is both father and son in one divine package, and solstice, though it celebrates the return of the light and the growing day always just seems like another lie as we actually look forward to more winter and colder days and nights. I hate the cold, and I'm already tired of my feet being cold and my fingers being clumsy and stiff. I want spring and renewal and a new love.
But, as the time honored saying suggests, I can wish in one hand and shit in the other. I think we all know which one will find itself fullest quickest.
This one is different though. I may have hated Christmas in the past, but the combined efforts of Momma's love of the season and my own desire to give my children some of the assumed magic of the season has worked to make me less of a Scrooge.
I'm not feeling the exact Scroogely leanings I may have in the past, but I'm just not feeling Christmas at all this year. I did take a couple of minutes earlier today and found the two songs that almost always work. And they basically failed. I could almost feel a little glimmer of the light as Little Elf sat down in Santa's chair, almost feel a spark of the joy as Run, DMC and Jay found Santa's wallet and returned home for Mom's chicken and greens, but even Christmas in Hollis wasn't enough. I'm not sure what I expected from The Ramones other than getting to hear one of the greatest bands ever, and really, Merry Christmas Baby isn't the most inspiring of songs when it's the cheer and joy of the season you're after.
We have a tree. I had no part in choosing or decorating it. Last week in my little town was warm enough to have gone out any day, but Momma worked most days, and it rained every day. She broke down and bought one from the hardware store to avoid missing out. It was decorated while I was at work.
The tree story doesn't really bother me. I wonder if I'd been part of the picking and putting and related decorating if I'd have begun to get the feeling, but I don't really regret not being part of it. It isn't really bothering me. On top of that, the remains of the decorating, the unused ornaments, the various baubles that are not tree bound decorations, still sit around in the floor, taking up space. The kitchen is a wreck and has been for days. The recycling is piling up, empty but rinsed beer cans, rinsed and flattened milk jugs, overflowing paper bin, roasting pan in the sink filled with disgusting grease water and various other dishes that have found their way onto the pile.
With the separation of Momma's and my finances I've been unable personally to purchase any more than one gift and that for The Boy. I did help Momma pick our usual pile of books, but she paid for them. The other gifts for them she went shopping for, and my only help there was reading off, over the phone, the list she'd made and forgotten.
I'm sure the financial situation is not helping. My first check from the new job was for most of a week, and my next check is due the day after Christmas, and I'm not really getting the hours I need to make it a reasonable size. Giving Momma money to cover some of the gift load will help me feel that I've helped purchase gifts for my children, but I was only actually present for those I've mentioned. She and I haven't discussed gifts between the two of us. I don't know what family plans there are, and I don't know how she plans to work her boyfriend into any of this.
So I'm back to the just not feeling it this year. That it's only days away doesn't have the same creeping yet suddenly there feeling of years past. I kind of just want it to be over. January promises to be the month of change as I look forward to moving out. My own family is getting together a week and a half into the new year for our annual family get together, and my mother would very much like for us all to be there. There's a whole nest of potential vipers in that one brother has a new wife this year, one brother apparently just left his girlfriend to return to his wife, and one brother (me) has finally told the family that he's gay. I almost don't want to bother with the possible situations and discussions I can only imagine. And will Momma and I be able to coordinate our schedules and money to be able to make the drive south?
I just want all of Christmas, every single last little bit of it, to go away. It's not so much that I want it to be over because that suggests getting through it. I don't want to bother with having to do the stuff that Christmas is so much as just want it to go away.
I'm not celebrating an interstellar entity coming to earth to fornicate with a human woman and recreate himself in human form who is both father and son in one divine package, and solstice, though it celebrates the return of the light and the growing day always just seems like another lie as we actually look forward to more winter and colder days and nights. I hate the cold, and I'm already tired of my feet being cold and my fingers being clumsy and stiff. I want spring and renewal and a new love.
But, as the time honored saying suggests, I can wish in one hand and shit in the other. I think we all know which one will find itself fullest quickest.
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