Shush dear, the grown ups are talking.

Twice in as many days, I was made aware of people's attitudes towards sexuality. Once by evilness, the other by ignorance. And I have to ask, why? I simply don't get it. I mean, in some cases, its religion. OK, fair enough, its something you love and sustains you, but I don't think it should explain or justify hate (God is love, unconditional love). In others..... Well, its even odder for me to get. Could it be sublimated bicuriosity? Feeling some interest in some other sexual preference and denying yourself to the point you rot inside and lash out?

I don't get it.

I'm blessed with friends and mates all over the spectrum, straight, gay, bi, trans, ace, queer, you name it. And they are lovely. Every single one of them. And that's amazing.

People quote Darwin all the time saying 'survival of the fittest'. To begin with, good old Charles never actually said it (it was a press thing to explain his theory in easy terms), and they usually miss the 1st part of the theory: there must be VARIATION withing the species for it to evolve and adapt.

People should just shut up at times. Seriously. Get on with their lives, live and let live. And it would be so much better.

I cannae break the laws o'physics, cap't!

I get annoyed when the laws of Nature get broken in movies. Not in an obvious way, Odin's Beard, I love sci-fi and all the suspension of disbelief that comes with it. It's a milder, more subtle affair. One of my favorite peeves concerns radiation. a) Radioactive rods are NOT green-glowing and b) Gamma radiation is also not green. Furthermore, in no particular order: c) Shooting a car doesn't explode it, d) I'm sick and tired of seeing harmless Hissing Beetles playing fetid cockroaches, e) DNA and finger scans take days or weeks, not 42 mins (1 hour episode, minus commercial breaks), f) filling a computer with data would give you a computer with a lot of data, not a self-aware computer. Thats pretty much it. Oh, and finally, g) Vampires should not glow. Under any circumstance.

Facebook, where art thou....?

I soooooo hope this is working....

The Darkness and the Light

Last week was weird. I lost someone, someone very close. Someone that, in theory, would have been responsible for me if the worse had happened. Trapped in a dark, dank cell of her own making, she couldn't take it anymore. And so she left. Seeing my grandparents shrivel and pass beyond the veil was tough, but they were old, with more days before than after, and sick. To see someone go through similar when she was neither is very weird. And brings back the old adage, people need to want to be helped, before than can be helped.

At the same time, the borrowing African mammal has been a beacon of niceness and hope. She's been a strength, a base of operations. Not only has she been there all the time, not 1 hour ago, she asked me how i wanted to cook in June, suggesting many dishes herself. And thats (it all) why I love her.

From the depths of darkness, to a new world of light. I love you, Jo. So much. And goodbye, aunt Cid. I shall see you too, Beyond the Veil.

I love old sci-fi and there's nothing you can do about it!

I think the keyword here is context. I love to include, to surround my stories with the context in which they were written. I like to know dates, countries, who, how, why.

Perhaps I should explain.

Stories, all stories, and sci fi is no exception, are a mirror to ourselves. We pour into them our fears, our dreams, our fantasies. Sci fi in particular, as a form of future prediction, is moulded by what is around when it is written. In E. E. 'Doc' Smith's Lensman saga, everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is nuclear powered. Cars, planes, trains. Everything. And women are idiots. Well, at best, useless. (Although later in the series he introduces the first women sci fi character ever that is not stupid). Why? He was writing in 1949. The atomic age was 4 years old. And women were silly animals, kept at home.

And of course, a lot of the sci fi of the 50s, 60s and a bit of the 70s had to do with post-cataclysm Earth (the Cold War would do that to you)

The examples continue. In the original The Day the Earth Stood Still, Klaatu the robot is as scary as a dead bunny to 2011's eyes, but at the time? An unstoppable, all powerful robot? People must have been pooping themselves. Oh and you see doctors smoking in a hospital. I kid you not, its amazing.

And of course, the Daleks. Can you imagine a stupider design for a dangerous being? But at the time they appeared, they were evil incarnate. No emotion except hatred. Weapons powerful enough to destroy everything. How the kids must have been scared out of their wits.

How does current sci fi equate? With difficulty. But there are still a few groundbreakers. Either having humanity taking all its crap to the stars (Babylon 5, Firefly), or having bad guys that are 'unstoppable' not because they are wildly advanced, but because of their beliefs (Battlestar Galactica).

Oh and the original Star Trek series has an episode with alien hippies. I am so serious, you have to see it to believe it....

I love it. And there's nothing you can do about it!