Someone poke me with a really, really sharp stick. And hurry, pleaseandthanks. I’m actually falling asleep while I’m typing. I keep standing up and moving around, trying to wake myself up, but it’s not helping. I hate knowing that I’m nodding off and not being able to do anything about it. It’s awful.
Day: April 13, 2006
And in Not-So-Awful Christian News…
Check this out:
Check out, too, their core beliefs:
From the section on Christian Love of Neighbors. Number 8 is especially heartening, in light of the Ramsey quote D referrenced.
5. Engaging people authentically, as Jesus did, treating all as creations made in God’s very image, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental ability, nationality, or economic class;
6. Standing, as Jesus does, with the outcast and oppressed, the denigrated and afflicted, seeking peace and justice with or without the support of others;
7. Preserving religious freedom and the Church’s ability to speak prophetically to government by resisting the commingling of Church and State;
8. Walking humbly with God, acknowledging our own shortcomings while honestly seeking to understand and call forth the best in others, including those who consider us their enemies;
Thank you! The whole thing is quite short. I recommend reading it.
Instant Review: Degrassi
Since Netflix has decided to start sending me random titles, I spent tonight not watching season 4 of Little House. Instead, I spent it watching Jay and Silent Bob Do Degrassi. Go ahead, laugh. I know you want to. The thing is, I love, love, loved the original Degrassi shows. They were amazing, in that they treated kids with dignity and allowed their voices to be heard. There wasn’t, and isn’t, anything else like it on television in the US.
I’ve only seen the first season of Degrassi: the next generation, but so far, it seems to have just as much integrity as the originals. So, at one point, I placed Jay and Silent Bob Do Degrassi in my queue (cuz, why not?), and via the magic of the Netflix Queue Randomizing Elves, it showed up in my mailbox yesterday.
I really enjoyed it. The DVD contains three episodes (plus extras) from the new series. I don’t know which season they were from. Only the first season has been released on DVD, I think, so it’ll be awhile before I’ll have a chance to see them in context. Though they stand alone fairly well, considering the soap opera-esque nature of Degrassi, it would be nice to see how they connect up with the rest of the shows. And that brings me to perhaps the most important point: do not watch the DVD thinking it’s a Jay and Silent Bob story. It’s not. It’s a Degrassi story, and if you aren’t familiar with the show, you’re likely to be a little lost and a lot disappointed.
About the extras: There is an interview with Kevin Smith, in which he talks about being a fan of the old series and how he ended up working on the new one. He makes some interesting points about what makes the whole project is so different from US teen television and about why the same shows could not ever be created here. He also talks about how some folks “get it” and some don’t, and why. It’s funny. My high school was just like Degrassi in some ways, and not in others. It was small and everyone knew everyone else. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s like living in a small town, in that everyone knows everyone else’s business. That level of familiarity can foster tolerance and understanding, but it can also lead to bullying and all manner of meanness. There was a lot of both going on in my school. There were plenty of mean kids (lordy, the girls on the volleyball team were insufferable!), but some really cool ones, too. Luckily, I didn’t have depend on my classmates for social interaction. Instead, because the school was located on a college campus, I spent my free time on campus. College kids were much easier to get along with, I found, and a lot more willing to take you as you were.
So, anyway, thanks to the Netflix Queue Randomizing Elves, I’ve spent the entire evening thinking about high school.
Speaking of Awful Christians…
So I was reading an article about the discovery of fossil evidence of a missing link between Australopithecines and Ardipithecus. Basically, this critter is the elusive missing link. That must really piss off the Christian Fundies. Actually, it probably doesn’t, because they don’t seem to be too concerned with science in general (e.g. the insistence that emergency contraception is an “abortion pill,” when in fact, that is not at all how it functions). Science-schmiance, eh?
Even given Fundies’ total disrespect for science, I don’t understand their refusal to acknowledge evolution. It’s such a basic process, and it occurs right under our noses. How do they think virus mutation works? Surely they understand that HIV, avian flu, colds, and other viruses change over time? That’s the reason why vaccines are so difficult to produce. If viruses didn’t evolve, we’d’ve long since cured the common cold. And bacteria do it, too. We now have antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis, enterococcus, staphylococcus, streptococcus, pneumococcus, gonorrhea, sinusitis, salmonella, e. coli, blah, blah, blah.
red paper boat 