Boxing Day and sports in real life
12.26.07 (5:45 pm) [edit]I like sports. I used to play a whole lot of them, but none of my friends are into it anymore, so I don't get to participate much. But I've also come to realize that sport instinct can be applied to other elements of everyday life--now that I can't play the real thing anymore.
I used to be into amateur radio, but then the Internet came along, and the need to work a complicated radio in an unreliable medium to communicate w/someone half way around the world evaporated. Communication just became too easy, and the sport in building a power supply, antenna tuner, antenna tower, and getting the right radio was lost. (And the sport of building the radio was lost before I got into it)
I remember around 15 years ago I yearned for a sound card for my computer. Now that I've graduated and have a job that gives me a comfortable income, I can afford all the computer hardware I want. There was sport in lusting after computer hardware that I couldn't have (like I do after a flat-screen TV) and looking for the next best deal, but no more. Not only that, but I don't even like upgrading my hardware, because the next generation CPU takes more power, which creates more heat, and you have to have noisier and more numerable fans in your box. Getting new hardware is no fun anymore.
And today is Boxing Day. Over the past week I've been telling people that I intend to buy some x-country skiing equipment on Boxing Day, and their wide-eyed stares betrayed their incredulity. Most of them would deprecate the madness that this day is. Well, when I walked into the mall today, 15 minutes before the sporting goods store I targetted opened, I looked around, pounded my chest and said "I was born for this!" I haven't been shopping on Boxing Day in over 15 years, so I didn't really know what it's like. Unfortunately, I knew what I was going for, and so I went straight to the department that had the ski equipment and picked out my kit. So I didn't get to enjoy the rough and tumble of going from place to place, fighting through crowds, stepping on countless toes, witnessing fist-fights, and the like. I did get stuck in a mini-jam in the parking lot trying to leave, but I never like traffic anyway. And I only got to hear one irately long horn as I was walking to my car.
So I guess I'm just going to have to do this again next year, and the year after that! Maybe I'll go for something a little hotter, and more leading edge, like a flat screen TV! Until then, there's always eBay.
The Golden Compass and the endurance of the church
12.08.07 (12:11 am) [edit]From what I hear, the Golden Compass is due to be released soon. I've also heard that there is a lot of controversy surrounding the anti-religious message it is based on. So how come I've not heard of this movie outside of the secular media? So, far I've heard of the movie (along with the "controversy") in the newspaper, on the radio, and the Air Farce did a sketch where a religious zealot pickets a movie cinema and slams Ian McKellen for being gay. I don't think Christians are paying as much attention to, and giving this movie nearly as much negative publicity as it would like.
This calls to attention the bragging rights of the church: that it has been able to withstand 2000 years despite some very determined efforts to snuff it out, and a lot of liberal ideologies that could not completely penetrate it. And the church withstood these attacks because of its intrinsic value, and not by any ideologically artificial means. Islam, on the other hand, owes its success to conquest and coercion; it does not easily tollerate dissent.
So Chistians aren't making a fuss about this movie, because it is not a threat. The church has squared-off against far more serious adversity. No, the church owes its legitimacy to things like the Golden Compass.