Bit of a tizzy over Massey offering a paper on witchcraft and stuff. This is just one paper being offered, entirely as an elective, for students who are interested to take. No-one is being forced, and it's presented as just a topic...
But read the comments to that article. Apparently this one paper will bring about the downfall of civilisation, and is a concerted attack on that minority of all religions: Christianity. Yeah. Like there are no Christian related papers. How dare people be exposed to this anti-religious indoctrination, when there is perfectly good religious indoctrination to be had!
Oh, and then there are the comments about how this isn't real witchcraft, and how one shouldn't do this or they will unleash dark forces... what? Seriously? Unfortunately, I can't say I'm surprised. Of course people are witches and warlocks. They really are out there, and do not approve of this analysis of their ideas. How dare people be exposed to this kind of power without proper indoctrination into the truth about witchcraft!
Just as well there is no actual curse power here. Yes, words have power, and making people believe they've been cursed can be just as if they really were. But, let's just try and for a moment face reality: MAGIC ISN'T REAL!!! Witchcraft and curses and spells and... it's all rubbish! It makes for popular series of books, but one important difference: fiction! Not fact!
I'm interested in that paper myself. Learn about a not well viewed piece of history, and pick up on some interesting psychology about how people view this supposed "power". But as for the worry about learning actual spells and access dark powers? As Tui has it: Yeah, right.
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Saturday, 16 August 2008
Voodoo on you
Friday, 15 August 2008
Near miss
I don't read the RottenTomatoes, but I don't need to when they put out a press release that is picked up as an easy news item. In particular, they've put out their Worst Films list for the past decade (what? they don't think they'll be around another three years that we need to acknowledge this particular decade of films? [yes, yes, it was because they had reached ten years...]).
Of their list, I can only admit to seeing two of their Bad Pics, one of which I knew was terrible before I saw it (say 'hello' Battlefield Earth), but the other one I saw just looking for a movie to pass the time, and, to be honest, Jawbreaker wasn't that bad. Godzilla came out then, and how many people hold that movie up as an abomination?
But of the others, never seen 'em. Never heard of some of them. How about you? What's your Worse Films score?
[END]
Thursday, 14 August 2008
Go, go, kissing!
Some ploys are obvious. For example, when Katy Perry starts singing about I Kissed A Girl, watching the video is enough to tell anyone that she is either trying to create or enlargen her heterosexual male fanbase. There are a lot of women dressed provocatively, moving hands around their bodies in suggestive ways... although there is a complete lack of kissing(*). (That it also became a popular song amoung lesbians should have been a predictable response as well... although it isn't that great a song.)
The idea of women kissing women is rather popular amoung the male dominated society we live in, but I would like to see the reverse. Where is the hot male singer singing I Kissed A Boy? The closest we get is Jimmy Kimmel F'ing Ben Affleck (although still no kissing).
Where's the call for equality? Where's the call for fairness? Where's the call for Katy's boyfriend to kiss other guys? Eh? Eh? Who's with me?
(*) Tatu still holds the record for going far enough in that direction...
[END]
Wednesday, 13 August 2008
The Chronicles of Risan: Part the Third
Interesting day today. Got attacked by pirates. Yeah. That was fun. I was once again the damage magnet as most of the blaggards were on the main deck, as was I, as was not my allies. (Speaking of which, our valiant paladin was out of action for the meanwhile, but we did have our Elven archer, Feydan, at hand.) While we finally managed to put paid to the brutes, and their ship was sinking, we suddenly faced a dilemma as screams from the bowels of the pirate ship was heard.
Myself and Lia dived for the prisoners, while the rest of the team raided the Captain's quarters. (It's good to know that if push came to shove, my teammates would rather grab the treasure chest than save the hostages...) We rescued some recently captured slaves, and were presented with a number of options: return the slaves to their primitive isle, go to a nearby trading port, or try to find the floating pirate base.
Finally, sanity prevailed and several days later we returned the freed ones to their village. Their island looked very interesting, with resources for the taking, and while we considered cutting them down and taking everything, we eventually pumped for finding out about the big teeth monsters they were having trouble with. While heading into the bush, we passed a temple erected by previous travelers to this land, and there is definitely something to followup on, but not right now.
Getting into a cave, we came across Drakes (overgrown lizards). Battle was joined, and we came very, VERY close to many of us dying (myself was this close to the point of death). Eventually we overcame the odds, and found the remainders of the lizards cowering from us and something else deeper in the caves.
Pausing for a rest, we resolved to investigate further...
[END]
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
The Gamers
This is one of those defining movies for the genre, available via YouTube for whatever dubiousness quality that affords. Part 1:
Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.
[END]
Monday, 11 August 2008
Saturday, 9 August 2008
Scriptin' fools!
There are two great sources for movie scripts.
One is Drew's Script-O-Rama, for actual movie scripts, movie transcripts and scripts for unmade movies (and TV programs as well). I'm not sure about the legality of it all, but I do remember grabbing one of the Batman scripts (Batman Forever, I think), and... wow... the movie actually made sense from a character arc point of view! Amazing! Never thought it would be possible! Definitely the first place to go for finding these things.
However, far more entertainingly, is The Editing Room. This has "Abridged" scripts (you may recall the one for The Phantom Menace which circulated humour areas), but there are tons of them, and they all make for great reading. Note that he has no concern for spoilers, so if you want to avoid them, make sure you've seen the movies before reading these script versions. Check it out for brilliant takes on the big blockbusters!
[END]
