...and non-believers

We got thrown a bone. Maybe it was because of all the ruckus we've been raising lately. Maybe it's a genuine desire to move past the divisiveness of the past. Maybe it's because President Obama really is a closet atheist. For whatever reason he saw fit to include that 16.1% of the population that had never been included in an inaugural address before. He said: "... [W]e know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers." Sorry Sikhs, Pagans, and Buddhists. Better luck next time.

He threw us this bone even after we filed suit, for the third time, to keep "So help me god" out of the inaugural oath. Although there was valid legal grounding (the phrase isn't in the constitutional version of the oath) the larger secular community was heavily divided regarding the wisdom of such a stunt. Many, perhaps rightly, feared the backlash such an obviously futile gesture would bring about in the general public. Others, also perhaps rightly, saw value in standing up for the separation of church and state.

He threw us this bone even after we angered the nation by launching an ad campaign on DC buses over Christmas asking "Why believe in a god?" That campaign lowered the national dialog to the level of bumper stickers by provoking Christian ads responding "...Because I created you! - God." (Who knew God spoke through marketing!)

He threw us a bone as Americans which means a lot when you remember that it was only three presidents ago when #41 said "No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God." What a slap to the face of 21% of the military. I guess they were all just worm dirt.

Those three little words mean a lot coming from the new president, but what about the rest of the country? According to one blogger at the inauguration the only time there were boo's for Obama was when non-believers were mentioned. On TV the next day, "The View" commentator Joy Behar (the liberal one!), said, "I've never heard a presidential speech where they also acknowledged non-believers. I mean, there was a lot of Jesus and a lot of religion, but to actually say we're reaching out even to you pathetic atheists out there, you know, who don't believe, I thought that was a great thing." Sure, she was trying to show it in a positive light, but can you imagine the uproar if she had said, even in passing, pathetic Jews, pathetic blacks, or, Allah forbid, pathetic Muslims? Fatwa's all around! Considering that there are more non-believers than Jews in America, it seems absurd that the level of disdain directed toward us is, not only unchallenged, but spurred on by the popular media!

But this gesture does give me a good feeling about the direction the new administration is taking. They are being inclusive, and maybe that's not so surprising. Remember, Obama was raised in a very secular home. His father was born a Muslim but became an atheist as an adult. His mother was raised by non-practicing Methodists and Baptists and he freely admits that he grew up with a "healthy skepticism of organized religion." So when the inaugural oath had to be repeated last Wednesday evening because of the flub-up during the ceremony Tuesday, perhaps it's no surprise that it was done without the bible. Although I'm assuming they still used the "So help me IPU," bit.

It's too damn cold

The average January temperature for Boise is -1.6° C (which is 29° F for you 3rd world folks). My average body temperature is 37° C which is a discrepancy of 38.6°. The wind chill factor at 40 mph (which is about what I do on my scooter) puts the perceived temp down to -10.3° C. That's a perceived difference of 47.3° C (110.6°F!). I don't think my face is meant to withstand such things, I should get a helmet.

Can you tell I'm getting ready for my physics class?

oh man, it's poo

Ok I kinda watched a couple of more episodes. I'm not even in nitpick territory any more. This show sucks.

Why bother basing a show on a set of decent books if your just going to defecate on them?

When the webmaster of the forum for the book series has to delete whole threads and threaten to ban people if they aren't 'nice' to the TV show you know someone has sold out. They actually split up the site into a section where comparisons to the books can be made and where they can't. Let me repeat: They split it up so there is a section of the forum where THE BOOK THE SHOW IS BASED ON IS NOT ALLOWED TO BE COMPARED TO THE TV SHOW.

Zedd you suck, you should be leading the angry mob! Instead you've played the sycophant.

BUT: It's still a good time to be a fantasy fan. Apparently Terry Goodkind isn't the only one making TV shows behind my back. George R. R. Martin is doing it too! This is even more exciting, and scarier. Like I said I wasn't ever a very big fan of the Sword of Truth series. But A Song of Fire and Ice? Oh yeah, me likey.

If they screw this up, I'm going to be pissed.

On the rediscovery of old pastimes

It is a good time to be a fan of fantasy. Apparently they started making a TV series based on the Sword of Truth series without telling me. Legends of the Seeker is available on Hulu up through episode 8 as of now. Now I don't make a habit of watching television shows, especially not before a series is finished. It's usually too much of a time investment for something that might turn out to be utterly disappointing. Given the fact that this is a fantasy series the only other shows I can even remember to really compare it to are the old Kevin Sorbo - Conan and Xena shows. Well these are definitely a step up. Of course it has been years since then so I would hope that production values have gone up.

The show certainly isn't quite up to Heroes production levels but it's good enough to please me. I've only ever been a modest fan of the SoT series (Terry always seemed to be borrowing a little too much from the Wheel of Time for me), so I'm sure I'm not as picky as other fans but that's not going to keep me from nitpicking a little anyway.

Spoiler alert!

So knowing that Rahl is Richards father I can't help but think that they should have cast someone older to play the ruler of D'hara. I guess that actor could be in his late 30's but he seems more mid-30's to me, a little young to have a 23 year old son. Even if I could forgive the age discrepancy the guy just doesn't seem all that menacing. He's more Snape than Voldemort if you'll excuse the cross-creation analogy. Meh, maybe he'll get scarier as we go.

The cheesy explosions are bothering me a little bit too. Seriously, I know it's only TV and there are budget concerns and whatnot but I've seen smoother FX transitions on stop-motion lego you-tube videos. Get some new fire effects too, the wizards flame wasn't bad but whatever they were using at the end of the 2nd episode for the battle at the boundary was weaksauce.

My last nitpick may be minor but exemplifies the problems with screen adaptations of novels. Kahlan just doesn't seem regal enough. Sure she looks good and fits the description fairly well (am I the only one who really thinks her hair ought to be a LOT longer though?) but the TV version doesn't strike me as a character used to being in command. In the same vein the Gar's seemed to ugly, I know, I know, they are supposed to be ugly, but remember our boy Richard is going to be dragging one around for a long-ass time once this gets going (if it gets going...), and I'd rather it be something a little easier to look at.

That last bit brings up another concern. Are they really serious about this? I mean it took an hour and a half to get through just the first little bit of the first book. How much of the series are they planning to do? A season for each book? It seems like they would need that much time. And what will that mean for the plot? Books aren't written with a neatly tied up mini-story every chapter, how will audiences react?

I don't know how it's going to turn out, and to be honest I'm more exited about it because of what it means for the Wheel of Time. Red Eagle Entertainment is now talking about making a live-action movie with Universal based on The Eye of the World to go along with some new video games and I hope they are paying attention to the mistakes being made in Legend of the Seeker. Of course this is the same group who let us down with the New Spring comics. Seriously, who puts out the first 5 of an 8 part series and then stops? That's just rude!