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The Star, The Tower, Judgement

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

I recently started playing the amazing Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together remake for PSP. When I bought it, a freebie deck of Tarot cards came with it. “Why not”, I thought, “do my own Tarot?”

So I did. I shuffled the 22 card deck and went with the relatively easy 3-spread reading. This entails drawing 3 cards randomly, where the first represents the past, the second the present, and the third the future.

Here are my results:

The Star (my past)

Keywords: Calmness, Tranquility, Hope

This card designates renewal of body and soul, and hope for the future. In the years past, it seemed, my future was bright!

The Tower (my present)

Keywords: Chaos, Crisis, Downfall

This card is an ill omen, foretelling calamity. This is my present, thus the future looks grim.

Judgement (my future)

Keywords: Forgiveness, Salvation, Absolution

This card may represent the imminent resolution of decisions delayed or put aside. It may also represent the return of old friends, or even old situations. However, some believe it represents a preoccupation with the past. This is my future. Will my future be my past?

I am a man of science, and do not believe in mysticism. However I must be honest with you, my dear reader: before doing this reading I removed two cards from the set of 22.

Posted in Family, Games, The Unknown | Comments Closed

The Impossible Astronaut

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

This post is about the season opener of the new series of Who. Spoilers here for Australian fans, or those in America that haven’t watched it yet.

The Impossible Astronaut was a strange episode, very unlike almost every previous Who episode ever. I left it strangely unfulfilled, but as I have thought about it these past few days I think my admiration has grown. From the start I loved it as a mad Doctor Who fan, but I think I thought it lacked the bang a season opener should have. I think I still feel that way, but as the episode has grown on me I can only hope it may have grown on others and when we all tune in for the conclusion this Saturday all our questions will be answered and (slight) doubts put to rest.

On to the specifics:
– Nixon was a bit crap
– Matt Smith was superb, especially as his older self
– The long shot of the Doctor being shot on the lake shore was one of the most cinematic shots ever in Who, with some very nice (and subtle) effects going on
– River knowing how to operate the TARDIS is always funny
– The Doctor calling River ‘Mrs Robinson” was even funnier 🙂
– On that point, there were a great many funny lines in this episode 🙂
– I don’t think the aliens are the best designed ever. They have that amateur ‘Buffy’ look to them 🙁
– The alien gimmick is fun though, and I expect quite scary for kids!
– They didn’t use America enough. Five minutes of external shots isn’t half as impressive as (say) the use of Spain in The Two Doctors or Lanzarote in Planet Of Fire
– Seeing Amy and Rory’s apartment was strangely satisfying. I wonder where they live?

And then the mind-bending stuff that made the episode grand for Who maniacs but just confusing for everyone else (major spoilers here):
– Doctor #11 lives for ~200 years? Of course he can’t (since he won’t die) but… but… what if?
– Think carefully about what River Song tells Rory. That she’ll die when the Doctor no longer recognizes her? Since we follow the Doctors time line, we’ve already seen that happen. Go and re-watch Silence In The Library: The Doctor doesn’t know her, and she dies at the end.
– Speaking of River dying, why’d she shoot at the astronaut? Why was she not surprised she missed? Who is that little girl? Who could she be, that the Doctor knew everything about her as soon as they met? What was it River said to Rory again?
– The ‘other’ TARDIS control room from The Lodger reappears. The aliens have a similar power to whatever was upstairs in that episode. Does this mean the aliens were upstairs, or something else is involved? Is it really another TARDIS? (hint: the BBC had a contest in 2009 in which children were invited to design a new TARDIS console room that was eventually used in the series…)
– Time lords can be killed mid regeneration? Unprecedented with regards to the Doctor, but I believe this may have been established (in a related sense) in Mawdryn Undead.
– With what he’s doing with the show, and time in general, I think it’s long past time Moffat dispelled the (legendary) Blinovitch Limitation Effect. Certainly the entire premise of this two-parter seems to violate it!

Ok, ok, time to take the anorak off and return to the real world.

Overall: I think it was a great episode albeit perhaps a bit off-putting to new viewers. I can only hope the charm of the characters and writing make them want to return to see how it resolves!

Posted in Otaku, The Unknown | 2 Comments »

Tales From Green Hell: The Legend Of Father Feehan

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

As children, my brother and I were often told stories of life in New Guinea. My parents met there as Catholic missionaries, and dad in particular spent over a decade in the jungles. Often these stories would include mention of a priest named Father Feehan.

I never met him, and indeed was too young to remember him, but the mental image I had of this missionary priest was probably something like this:

From what I had heard over the years, Father Feehan was a friend and mentor to both of my parents. They spoke of him fondly, and he was even (I think) Godfather to my brother. He was a man of caliber, a man to trust and man to never forget.

Now my dad can tell a good tale, but occasionally he omits what I consider important details. In particularly, I question the fact he waited until I was in my late 30’s to tell me Father Feehan carried a gun and wasn’t afraid to use it!

The details are deliberately ignored vague, but you can imagine my surprise when dad regaled me with tales of Father Feehan striding through the jungles with a revolver on his hip fighting off things like man-eating cassowaries,

Headhunters,

and – although dad never mentioned was strangely elusive about this topic – surviving dinosaurs:

Father Feehan, as it turns out was a warrior priest, and someone possessed of the true soul of a man. It probably should have occured to me earlier, but someone doesn’t spend decades living in the Green Hell without having a spine, and once dad opened my eyes I was forced to reconsider my mental image of the man, which now more closely resembles this:

Father Feehan passed away last year. I wonder if he fondly remembered the lawless days he spent striding the jungles of The Lost World, six-shooter never far from his hand? Exploring the lost temples, fleeing from hoards of gibbering pygmies and eating animals unknown to science?

Father Feehan may have spent his last years in Boston, but I’m guessing his soul will forever reside in the still-unexplored jungles of Papua New Guinea.

Posted in Family, Miscellaneous, The Unknown | 2 Comments »

Born Into The Land That Time Forgot

Monday, April 18th, 2011

Here is where I was born:

The first thing I saw was the doctor that delivered me:

The second thing, the nurse that cut my cord:

Here is what my backyard looked liked those first few weeks of my life (before we fled to Germany):

Oh the memories I have of this place!

Would you like to hear some of them?

Posted in Family, The Unknown | 1 Comment »

Ningen

Friday, April 1st, 2011

It’s time for a new cryptid!

Today I give you all… the Ningen!

About four years ago, on a Japanese forum, someone posted a story about gigantic (20 – 30m) long semi-humanoid creatures that had occasionally been witnessed in the antarctic oceans by researchers and sailors,

They are said to be ghostly white, very large, with humanlike faces and two long wing-like ‘arms’. They are often sighted at the surface, but are believed to be deep-sea creatures. Apparently they are slow moving and non-aggressive.

Other reports soon followed, and this cryptid was picked up by a magazine from which the story spread. All of a sudden there were many anecdotal reports of Ningen, accompanied by a few (obviously fake) ‘photographs’ (including the ones in this entry).

A ningen has even been spotted on Google Earth:

And here is a video of one, allegedly taken by an underwater ROV (this is particularly creepy):

Hostile or not, I wouldn’t want to run into that underwater 🙂

So, what do you think? Real or not?

Posted in Miscellaneous, Pets, The Unknown | Comments Closed

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