Tag Archives: religion

Birds, Bionics, reBoots, Balls, Batgirl, and a Bunch of things that don’t start with B

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This entry is part 15 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

What’s sure to eventually be the big news is that it’s been clearly stated now that the decades worth of stories, characters, and places built up in the Star Wars Extended Universe is not at all cannon. (Oh, but, Lucasfilm says, they’ll happily pillage what they want from it as they’re building their new continuity.)

This isn’t at all a big deal for me. I’ve read, I think, two of the Han Solo books and a few issues of the comic from the 80s. I know a whole lot of E.U. stuff, but only because so many people I know dig it so much. So, I’m not going to miss it at all.

I do, however, expect there to be raging battles in various geek circles about this. Maybe not quite on Jar Jar Binks level when it comes to vitriolic hate, but it’s going to be a rough road.

The other big (and more important to some) news is that Catholics are about to get two new saints… both former popes, including John Paul II, who is just shy of being the most fast-tracked saint ever (I think). It’s kind of neat to think that I now grew up during the same span of years that a couple of saints walked the earth. It has a bit of an anachronistic feel to it. Modern saints don’t seem as flashy or awe-inspiringly amazing as the old ones do. Miracles are more subtle things now than they are in the Bible and the “amazing” life is often equally subtle. A steady push to be better, to do better, to put oneself out there and bear the ridicule and hardship of others as your own. In some ways, it makes sainthood seem just that much more attainable. Which, I think, is a good thing… maybe more people will work toward it.

Some stuff from the weekend and more

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This entry is part 11 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

I’m running exceptionally later than planned tonight.

In between doing stuff at work during the day and up until about ten minutes before I’m typing this, I’ve been involved, on and off, in two completely awesome discussions over in my FB stream. One’s been about faith, religion, and atheists, the other has been on people trapped in low-paying (minimum wage) fast-food jobs.

And I’ve also been working on getting some promo stuff lined up for this year’s Taste the World in Fenton Village event (which is happening on May 4).

Over the weekend, I spent a lot of time at the second annual Awesome Con. I didn’t take a lot of picture, but other people did… some of them are in the feed rundown below. Mostly, I just had a great time being surrounded by fantastically creative and energetic people who were deeply involved with things they absolutely love doing. It was a good and refreshing change from the daily grind.

But, now I’m way over due to go to sleep for the extra early meeting I have on Tuesday. Soooo… here, here’s a bunch of stuff to scroll through.

Guns, Crabs, “That’s not cutting a rug”, Dancing, Homeless Jesus, and SCIENCE!

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This entry is part 6 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Today’s stream of stuff, plus a few from over the weekend… the most popular of which was quite the discussion about the Second Amendment.

I’m at the computer far later than I’ve been trying to be lately. Mostly because I was at a Silver Spring Citizens’ Advisory Board meeting earlier in the evening. That always throws my schedule off. (Though not at much as those good ol’ town board meetings I covered when I worked for the paper up in rural NY… some of those ran until near midnight.)

There’s a lot that goes on in the Silver Spring area. There’s a lot more that’s going to be going on in the next decade or so. There seems to be a bit of misunderstanding–and distrust–of the process. I’ve seen that before (re: the aforementioned board meetings way back when). That’s a common problem when it comes to the public and government. I don’t have a good solution to offer, but it’s would have to involve the government finding time and money to more actively engage the public than it does while cleaning up any actual incorrect information. Of course, that requires people not being so paranoid about the government lying to them… which, of course, is a sadly earned reputation the government has acquired over the years.

So, here’s the thing: If you’re even close to being a concerned citizen when it comes to any topic, make an effort to look not just into the situation that has you concerned, but also get familiar with the process it goes through and check out other projects that have gone through that same process. Then, at least, you’ll know if you should be paranoid or not. You’ll also be able to (nicely?) let your officials know if they’re screwing something else or saying things that could confuse others.

Or, y’know, everyone can just continue to shout at one another… whatever… 😉