Torchwood: Fanfic: Naptime
May. 23rd, 2025 12:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badly_knitted posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fan_flashworksTitle: Naptime
Fandom: Torchwood
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Ianto, Twins, Nosy, Flufflets.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 638
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Naps are essential for busy parents as well as for toddlers.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 480: Nap.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
SGA: Old Soldiers Die Hard by Sholio
May. 23rd, 2025 09:09 pmmific posting in fancakeCharacters/Pairings: Genfic, John Sheppard & Rodney McKay, Original female character
Rating: G
Length: 8103
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings apply
Creator Links: Sholio on AO3, Sholio's own site City on the Ocean's Edge
Themes: Angst with a happy ending, Friendship, Families of choice
Summary: The old guy in Room 30B was about the most disagreeable human being that the nurses had ever met. But he did get visitors, including a retired Air Force Colonel.
Reccer's Notes: This is told through the outsider POV of a young volunteer nurse at a retirement home, writing out what happened - for herself, but she tells it as though talking to her mother, who died some time before. Because of that, it's not at first as angsty as it might be, as she doesn't initially like or care about the cantankerous old guy in room 30B. That changes a little as the story progresses, and of course, we feel the angst even if she doesn't, knowing this is Rodney who's old, increasingly frail, and basically dying, while John, not quite as aged and infirm, watches helplessly. Despite herself, the young volunteer gets invested in Rodney, partly as she has enough spirit to stand up to him, which he likes. Also, before he gets really ill he tutors her in his abrasive way as she's had a difficult life and is studying for her high school diploma hoping to eventually go to med school - but until Rodney helps, she's not doing too well. Eventually there's a happy ending, but not before those closest to Rodney like John, Sam, and Elizabeth have grieved for him and come close to despair. Luckily, Teyla and Ronon are on the case, back in Pegasus. The ending is very satisfying, where we see what becomes of Annie, the volunteer nurse who cared for Rodney and put up with him at his worst.
Fanwork Links: Old Soldiers Die Hard
Psalm 103
May. 23rd, 2025 05:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
experimentaltheology_feed
He forgives all your iniquity;
he heals all your diseases.
He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve
or repaid us according to our iniquities.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed
our transgressions from us.
For he knows what we are made of,
remembering that we are dust.
home again home again...
May. 23rd, 2025 07:10 pmtielanSeriously, I like travel, but not when work comes on top of it. Although being away from Sydney for the last two weeks has been good - the rain that is flooding northern NSW is also raining down in Sydney, albeit not as hard.
May need to check up in the roof cavity tomorrow to get an idea of how it's going up there. Might need to do a bunnings trip first for some decent lighting.
(ps. It's been raining pretty hard in Sydney the last couple of weeks. We're due for a few days' break shortly, just as I get back, hopefully enough to get the garden sorted out)
--
Last day on client site in Melbourne. Next week we're being included on the meetings (theoretically) and told about the issues that arise. And so begins the battle for (office) supremacy…
(ugh. I ate too much breakfast too fast and now I am having regret. Or indigestion. *burp*)
One of the issues in any translation from development to support is starting to recognise the issues that are arising and which ones are going to be perennial problem. There's also the manner in which we take on those issues.
I am a "we'll take it as it comes" kind of person.
My colleague (who is the team lead in this instance) is a "prepare for everything" kind of person.
So we are doing a lot of work to map everything out, determine what is going on, identify where things are happening, and look at possible solutions for issues that are not yet happening, but which might.
I personally tend to think that's a waste of time, but I am perhaps a little bit like the guy whose roof never leaks when it doesn't rain. Also, a lot of guys on the tech monitoring side tend to want pages and pages of directions. (Pages and pages of directions sends me to sleep.)
I'd rather dig out the issue myself than be fed what someone else thinks it is. Of course, that isn't how most support guys tend to think of it. And the up-tops really hate the "trust the techs, they know how to fix it" - which, granted, they often would find that maybe the techs in question don't know how to fix it as knowledge is lost between one support group to the next.
Next week, the processing of handing over the reins is supposed to begin. Whether it does, how much of it actually is given to us, and how we handle it? That's another question. I kind of miss the days of my last client, where if there was a problem, I would mostly fix it on my own cognisance. Then again, the system of the last client was set up to expect issues like this and things which might fall through. This client is a lot more insistent that every little issue be logged. I'm bad at that...
Oh well, colleague is on top of that at least. I guess I'm going to have to get up to speed on what's required to do this, that, and the other…
Follow Friday 5-23-25
May. 23rd, 2025 02:49 amysabetwordsmith posting in followfridayHere's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die".
More May Memage...
May. 22nd, 2025 07:17 pmshadowkatTomorrow - Bob Dylan's musical "Girl from the North Country" premiers on Great Performances. I'm enjoying the televised presentations of Broadway shows. Means I can see them, and so can everyone else?
Rainy day. Cool. But I have the A/C and fans on - because they are blasting the heat again. Radiator heat.
Didn't sleep well last night - due to digestive issues and restless leg syndrome. (My legs and back were bothering me.) Hopefully will be better tonight.
More May Memage...or rather I'm catching up
10. Ellen Ochoa was born today in 1958 and was the first Hispanic woman to travel to space in 1993. Would you like to travel to space?
No. I've seen spaceships - they are not made for tall people. Or anyone who is even a little claustrophobic. Also, I get motion sickness. And I know what happens to the human body while it is in space - it's not pleasant. We were not created for 0 gravity. I have enough medical issues.
I rather like what William Shatner said after going to space, which is - there's nothing there. Stay here.
11. What’s your favourite way to eat eggs?
Poached on greens with lemon juice and lemon pepper. Or scrambled with a little cream.
I had coddled eggs with mother, but I prefer poached.
12. Do you regularly moisturize your feet?
No. Probably should. But my feet are a long ways from my torso. I'm six foot, and most of my height is in my legs. I'm long limbed.
13. Do you remember when you bought your first computer?
Yes. It was in the 1990s. A Macintosh - small screen. Prior to that - my parents did - and that was an Apple II way back in the 1980s. Big a clunky, with MS DOS. It was before we had Windows.
14. Have you still got access to an Avon representative locally? Have you ever bought products from Avon?
No. No. Although there were reps at my workplace, I ignored them. I don't like spending money on makeup and buy little of it. Also we can get better products at Wallgreens or Sapphora.
15. Who cleans the toilets in your home?
There's only one. And there's only me. And I refuse to hire anyone to do house work for a one bedroom apartment. So...
( the rest )
Another photo...hopefully you can see it, I never know with FB links.
The Hidden Provision in the Big Ugly Bill that Makes Trump King
May. 22nd, 2025 06:32 pmconulyThere's more linkage here.
I genuinely do not have the energy to read all of this. I will be sending out an email to my senators, I guess.
S.W.A.T.: Fan Fiction: Sleepy Thoughts
May. 22nd, 2025 01:52 pmdarkjediqueen posting in fan_flashworksRating: PG-13
Warnings: No Warnings Apply
Fandom: S.W.A.T.
Relationships: Donovan Rocker/Molly Hicks
Tags: Established Relationship, Fluff
Summary: They both loved naps, even when it turned to more.
Word Count: 2,905
( Sleepy Thoughts )
The Friday Five for 23 May 2025
May. 22nd, 2025 12:30 pmanais_pf posting in thefridayfive![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
thegreymouser.1. What was the best gift you received?
2. What was the worst gift you received?
3. What gift did you wish for, but never got?
4. What was the best present you gave?
5. What was the worst present you gave?
Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.
If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!
The Swan Princess (1994)
May. 22nd, 2025 12:15 pmunshaved_mouse_feedThere really should be a sub-genre for animators who left Disney during the eighties all ready to set up their own animation studio with blackjack and hookers…only for Disney to get their groove back with The Little Mermaid and eat them alive. We all know of Don Bluth, of course, the one who came closest to unseating the Mouse from its throne. And we’ve also met Phil Nibbelink. Well today we’re going to look at another of these would-be contenders; Richard Rich:
So how’s this for some animation bona fides: Richard Rich was the director of not one but two Disney animated features.
Those features were The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron.
Now now, let’s be fair. Disney in the mid-to-late eighties was in its most hellish creative funk since World War Two. The kind of hellish creative funk that would not be seen again until the early 2000s and…now. Of all the hellish creative funks Disney has been in I’d rank it…somewhere in the middle. Bad times, anyway. Disillusioned by working on Oliver & Company (as anyone would be) he left in 1986, convinced that the old studio was a goner and that nothing could ever change that.
After a stint in the desert making religious animation for the Church of Latter Day Saints, Rich watched the Disney Renaissance take off and decided to make his play for the crown with The Swan Princess, an animated re-telling of the ballet Swan Lake, without any actual ballet (thank Christ). Made on a paltry budget of 20 million dollars, it was worked on for four long years before being released in 1994, where it had to compete against The Lion King. The result was pretty much what would happen if you pitted a real swan against an actual lion, but it did have an extremely healthy second life on video. It’s not the worst of the Disney-chasers of this era, nor is it close to being the best. But it is significant for one very important reason. This was the last feature length, cinematically released animated motion picture that was created entirely by hand. Not a single cel of this was touched by the infernal machine. So let me be clear, no matter what I think of this movie…
So remember when I said that The Swan Princess did gangbusters on video? Well, that probably explains why this thing has eleven feckin’ sequels. Obviously, I’m not going to be covering them all here but I did come across one or two interesting factoids about them. One of them is that in all approximately eighteen hours of the Swan Princess Cinematic Universe they never get around to telling us the name of the kingdom where all this nonsense is supposed to be happening. There’s references to places like “Colchester” so presumably this is somewhere in Britain but I honestly have no idea.
Anyway, we begin with the birth of the Princess Odette in the Kingdom of Filenotfound where she is presented to her proud father, King William who proceeds to show her off to the cheering commoners.
Odette’s mother, is never seen or even heard of in this movie, although apparently the eleventh movie in the series, A Fairy Tale is Born, revealed that her name was Queen Aubri and that she died giving birth to Odette.
Which, as you can imagine, casts this scene in a rather grisly light.
Nobles come from all around to pay homage to the young princess, including the king’s good friend Queen Umberta and her young son Prince Derek. And we get a scene of Derek seeing the baby Odette that I’m going to be generous and call an homage to Sleeping Beauty.
William and Umberta decide that they want to unite their kingdoms and that the best way to do this would be to have Derek and Odette marry. I’ve seen reviews asking why William and Umberta don’t just marry each other and save all the hassle but I don’t actually think this is a plothole. If they marry, then both thrones will descend to their eldest child (Derek), cutting Odette completely out of the line of succession. Derek and Odette marrying means both family lines continue to rule. So thats perfectly sensible in a fucked up medieval kind of way. What’s less sensible is that they decide to have both children spend lots of time together so that they’ll fall in love and I think the Westermarck effect will have something to say about that.
While all that’s going on, however, we meet our villain, Rothbart, an evil sorceror voiced by Jack Palance. And that sounds like a great idea right? Unfortunately, Rothbart is probably the most mismanaged element of the whole film. Firstly, the name. That’s not the movie’s fault, of course, Rothbart is the villain of the original ballet but still. Rothbart. We’re already starting in debt. Second, let’s look at this design:
He doesn’t even look particularly evil. This is a design for a comically inept mad scientist. And the movie seems to have no idea what kind of villain he’s supposed to be. Brooding and menacing? Funny and manic? Tragic and misunderstood? The film tries a different mode with every scene he appears in and none of it works. None of it. I don’t know why no one caught basic stuff like “having the villain constantly refer to his arch-enemy the king as “Willie” just sucks any sense of threat out of the character”. It’s head-scratchingly incompetant.
Anyway, operation “Most Awkward Sleepover Ever” is put into effect and we get a montage of the two kids getting to hate each other to the tune of This Is My Idea, our first song which I actually like quite a bit. It’s a little bit “poor man’s Belle” but it skips along merrily and some of the lyrics are good for a chuckle, like when the commoners sing:
At least we’d get a holiday to rest our ploughs and axes
Someday these two will marry
Two lands will be united
And with some luck their marriage may result in lower taxes.
Odette and Derek continue to loathe each other until one day when they meet and suddenly realise that they’re both hot. I wish I was being facetious but it’s really that basic. An engagement is announced and the two dance before the court in a scene that I shall be generous and call an homage to Sleeping Beauty.
But Odette calls the marriage off when Derek says that he wants to marry her because she’s beautiful and can’t actually articulate a single other virtue that she possesses. And I would judge him more harshly if I could either.
So William and Odette return home and Derek gets pilloried by his sarcastic older courtier Rogers, who I will be pretty fucking generous and call an homage to Grimsby from The Little Mermaid.
I do like Rogers, he gives excellent sass.
Odette and her father are ambushed by Rothbart in the form of a gargoyle. One of William’s soldiers is able to reach Derek’s castle and warn the prince who races after them and finds William dying and Odette vanished. William’s last words to Derek are “We were attacked by a great animal. It’s not what it seems. Odette is gone” and peaces out to be with his beloved wife in the afterlife who will presumably have some pretty choice words for him.
Meanwhile, Odette’s been transformed into a swan and taken to a lake near Rothbart’s castle. He tells her that she can turn back into a human if she’s on the lake and the moon is shining on the lake but once the moon stops shining on the lake she’ll turn back into a swan. Rothbart tells Odette he wants her father’s kingdom and so she must marry him or be a swan forever. She, naturally, chooses swanhood.
Meanwhile, get this, Derek has gone fucking insane and convinced himself that not only is Odette still alive but that he’ll find her if he finds the “Great Animal” because beasts of the jungle take fucking hostages now, apparently. To prepare for his new life as Animal Punisher, he forces the court musicians to dress up as animals so that he can practice firing his (non-lethal) arrows at them. This is the kind of shit Nero used to do.
Meanwhile, it’s time to meet our Princess’ coterie of talking animal sidekicks; Jean-Bob the frog, voiced by John Cleese doing his French Knight voice and Speed the tortoise voiced by Stephen Wright doing his Stephen Wright voice. Jean-Bob wants Odette to kiss him so that he’ll turn into a Prince, but Odette refuses because in order to break the spell she must only kiss the man she loves.
Undeterred by her refusal (he is a French cartoon, after all) Jean-Bob tries to get some flowers for her by pole-vaulting over the crocodile infested moat around Rothbart’s castle. The thing about this movie is that there is precious little plot so a lot of the film is time killing nonsense like this. That said, there is some genuinely charming Looney Tunes-esque animation in this sequence and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t love it.
Anyway, after explaining to Jean-Bob that she totally would kiss him but…y’know…she launches into Far Longer Than Forever, the movie’s signature song. Like most of the songs in this it’s competent without being stunning. Interestingly, David Zipple (the lyricist) went on to write songs for Mulan and Hercules so clearly he had the stuff. There is honestly a lot of talent on display in this film it’s just not quite cohering.
Oh yeah, something that bugs me about this song. It kind of makes Odette seem like a massive hypocrite. The song is all about how Derek is her one true love and that he’ll rescue her, but she shit-canned him for not being able to think of any reason that he loved her apart from her beauty. So here’s my question: Why does she love him? Because Derek is the biggest himbo in all creation and if he has some hidden qualities that won Odette’s heart we never seen them. So we kinda have to assume that Odette’s love for Derek is every bit as superficial and based on appearance as his is for her.
The song is interrupted by the arrival of our last (and least!) comic relief character, a puffin named Puffin (brilliant) voiced with a clock-stopping Oirish accent by Steven Vinovich. And between this guy and the evil Irish nuns from last time I am in fierce danger of being radicalised.
Anyway, after she explains the curse to Puffin, he suggests that she flies away and finds Derek and lures him back to Rothbart’s castle so that he can see her transform and break the curse. She says she doesn’t know where he Derek is, because she doesn’t even know where she is, and after 12 movies that still won’t have changed.
Anyway, the animals launch a daring heist on Rothbart’s castle to get a map that will show them where they are and Odette and Puffin fly off to find Derek.
Derek meanwhile, has been doing meticulous research by reading every random book in the royal library and has decided that King William’s last words about the “Great Animal” not being what it seems means that the creature is a shapeshifter than can assume the form of literally any animal. Which is obviously a buck wild leap of deduction but would also mean that Derek’s hope of finding Odette is zero unless he’s willing to go through the kingdom literally killing every creature he finds.
Derek searches a nearby forest and sees Odette in swan form and growls “A swan! Of course!”
He instantly assumes that this random waterfowl is the monster who abducted his love and tries to shoot her. And Jesus Christ, Rich, if you’re trying to compete with Disney maybe don’t make a movie where the Princess almost gets shot by the Prince. You’d never see Disney doing that.
So, fleeing for her very life from her lover who’s trying to kill her…
…Odette flies back to Rothbart’s castle with Derek in hot pursuit. As the moon rises her friends try to persuade her to fly out on to the lake so she can transform and she’s all “yeah…I think he’s a psychopath now who just shoots swans for fun, maybe he’s not #goals”. She flies down anyway and he does very nearly shoot her but then she transforms in a lovely piece of animation.
She fills him in on what’s been happening and he tells her to come to the ball that his mother is hosting to find another princess for him to marry. He says he’ll profess his love for her in front of the whole court which will break the spell. He peaces out but Rothbart has overheard the whole thing and plots to disguise his hench-wench, Bridget, as Odette so that Derek will profess his love to her instead which will kill the real Odette. You know, we never get a scene where we see Rothbart actually laying the curse on Odette because with all these caveats and contingencies it would probably take half the runtime.
Bridget shows up at the ball disguised as Odette in a black dress, to the shock of the Queen who believed her to be dead. She and Derek start dancing.
Meanwhile, Odette has turned back into a swan and has been imprisoned in a dungeon by Rothbart but is broken loose by Jean-Bob, Speed and Puffin. Odette flies to the castle to stop the prince professing his love to someone who’s used magic to impersonate her in a scene I shall be generous and call a complete fucking rip off of The Little Mermaid.
Now, I’m sure you realise where this is going? Obviously, because Derek at first only loved Odette for her beauty, he has since learned to see past that to her true worth as a human being, and so he’s able to pierce Rothbart’s cunning ruse?
No. He does not do that. He thinks that Bridget is the real Odette and professes his love to her.
Rothbart shows up to gloat and tells Derek that Odette will soon die. The Prince races back to Rothbart’s castle where he finds Odette dying and having turned back to human form. For some reason. Derek tells her that the the vow was made for her so really, it should count, and dude, you fucked up. You had one job and you fucked up. At least own it.
Rothbart shows up to gloat and Derek demands that he save Odette’s life and Rothbart agrees if he defeats him in battle because it’s a knock off Disney movie from the nineties and we need our giant monster fight. And Rothbart turns into a massive green winged bat in a scene that I will be generous and call OH MY GOD RICHARD RICH YOU WHORE.
Anyway, Derek may be a shallow idiot himbo but he is good at killing animals and so defeats Rothbart quite handily. Odette is suddenly not dying, she decides that maybe it’s time to lower her standards and they get married. And I’m sure they’ll have many more adventures, each more beautiful than the last.
***
Scoring
Animation: 14/20
Whatever else you may say about his film output, never doubt that Richard Rich had the goods as an animator.
Leads: 05/20
There’s a reason that Sleeping Beauty isn’t actually about the Prince and the Princess.
Villain: 02/20
You’d think the guy who directed The Black Cauldron would know how to create a menacing villain.
Supporting Characters: 09/20
John Cleese could have been Zazu. He chose this instead because he thought Jean-Bob was a more interesting character.
Music: 11/20
Couple of halfway decent songs. For a low budget Disney wannabe from the nineties that’s a bloody miracle.
FINAL SCORE: 41%
NEXT UPDATE: Argh I’m working on a really, really exciting writing project that I can’t…tell…you about but I’ll be back 12 June 2025
NEXT TIME: Oh brave new world! That has such people in’t!
it will be nice to be home again
May. 22nd, 2025 09:20 pmtielanI want my cats. And my house. And my bed. And my space. I want to work from my office desk instead of commuting. (Okay, the commuting might be required going forward.)
I have met some excellent people while on this work trip, but also I am tired and I want to be in spaces which are mine.
On Hope: Part 3, God Can Make a Way Where There Is No Way
May. 22nd, 2025 05:00 amexperimentaltheology_feed
Again, pathway attributions concern our ability to see a realistic and viable route to the goal we are pursuing. If we see a pathway we have hope. But if no path can be found we lose hope.
Snyder's theory makes perfect sense if we restrict ourselves to material causes and effects. Hope for me, as a human being, is restricted to paths that I, as a human being, can travel. But things change dramatically when we enter the realm of religious hope. For God, being God, can always find a path should he choose to open one for me. As the old saying goes, "God can make a way where there is no way."
Biblically, think of Ezekiel 37, the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. The prophet stands in a valley full of bones. The Lord asks, "Son of man, can these bones live?" The prophet can't see a pathway. Deadness has no potential. There is no hope. So the prophet replies, "Lord, only you know." And the Lord responds: "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! You will live!'" God makes a way where there was no way.
A related issue here is how God rehabilitates agency attributions as well. God gives me power. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Even when I lack agency I can rely on the Holy Spirit to assist and empower me.
This is one of the the reasons the prosperity gospel thrives in marginalized contexts. In many ways the prosperity gospel is simply a religious application of Snyder's hope theory. With God we always have agency and pathways. This supercharges hope, and that hope, per Snyder's theory, creates motivational energy, vitality, passion, optimism, and zest in moving toward our goals. And this is exactly what empirical studies have shown, how the prosperity gospel provides hope and motivation to despairing and demoralized people, especially in Third World contexts. This is why, though a critic of the prosperity gospel on theological grounds, I've expressed appreciation for its psychological power and appeal among the poor, something I think elite and privileged people frequently miss.
In many ways, all this simply confirms Snyder's theory. But it also short-circuits the theory and raises other questions. By short-circuiting the theory I mean that the minute God is introduced into the hope equation the hope equation becomes superfluous. Why engage in agency attributions when you have God on your side? Why envision pathways when God can make a way where there is no way? God, in this view, simply replaces hope, wholesale. God is hope. Full stop.
No doubt this is the power of religious hope, its capacity to transcend the material horizon, a capacity for hope where there is no hope. And if the human mind runs on hope, then in many ways the human mind is inherently religious. A diet of nihilism and hopelessness isn't good for us. This is a big part of the story I tell in The Shape of Joy.
But it also raises some questions. First, there is the old Freudian question I try to tackle in The Authenticity of Faith. Do we believe in God for psychological reasons? We need hope and so we posit some supernatural agent to fill that need. Which raises the question of false or delusional hope. Given that God is always, from the perspective of hope, a get out of jail free card, can this card get played in ways that are dysfunctional? A pastoral example here is praying for a miracle. The possibility of a miracle means there is always a pathway, always a hope. But might praying for or depending upon a miracle become problematic in some cases?
Consider some examples. A child is facing a treatable medical condition. But the parents reject modern medicine. So the parents forgo treatment and pray for a miraculous healing. And the child dies. Is hope a problem here?
Consider also the COVID era, how some churches remained open, defiantly so, by making appeals to God's miraculous protection. No masks, social distancing, or vaccines were needed. God would protect. Is hope a problem here?
We can think of other examples. But consider also this question. Say all material means have been exhausted. You reach the end of the road for human power, capability, technology, and ingenuity. All pathways available to humans have been exhausted. Can you, in that moment, reach for religious, metaphysical hope? Is it okay to pray for a miracle in that moment, as a last resort? I expect opinions would differ. Some atheists might say, well, in that instance, no harm no foul. But others of a more stoical mindset might argue that grimly facing the facts and reconciling oneself to a hopeless situation is the better course.
My point is raising these questions is to return to a point I made in the first post, how your ontology circumscribes your hope. Your vision of reality will affect how you think about miracles and the advisability of praying for them when all hope is lost. And even among those who believe in miracles there are issues that need to be discerned, like forgoing medical care in favor of divine intervention. Can you trust too much in science? Some might say so. Can you trust too much in miracles? Some might say so.
But back to the subject at hand. No matter how you think about such questions, introducing God into our agency and pathway attributions blows hope theory up. Once God arrives agency and pathway attributions are always open. All the switches get flipped toward hope. But once that happens we have to enter into theological discussions about what is appropriate to expect of God by way of answer or intervention. Which means that hope has shifted away from the psychological to the theological. And psychology doesn't have a lot to say about God.
We've been trying to go back and watch the sad episode with the future drone
May. 26th, 2025 12:53 amconulyMan, I really love that theme song. Also, I'm gonna just say, maybe it's because it's aimed at a younger audience but this show does the best technobabble - just enough to explain, not enough to confuse or bore.
( Read more... )
(no subject)
May. 21st, 2025 10:39 pmcofax7But I heard a story today that was just fucking amazing, and I cannot repeat it, but! ( Read more... )
And that's all I can say about that.
Anyway I watched the finale of Andor and the first two eps of Murderbot, and lo! they are enjoyable. I have my issues with how Gilroy handled one specific character, but in general, he landed the show really well.
Murderbot is fun and it's nice to see they are hinting at the backstory already. And the casting is excellent.