Why Pacific Rim Worked

One of the pleasant movie surprises this summer has been Pacific Rim. When I first saw the trailer a few months back, I rolled my eyes.  It looked like a mash up of Transformers and GI Joe - neither of which were worth more than a Netflix view.  Godzilla like monsters attack coastal cities and we fight back with giant robots, piloted by guys who yell and high five each other every few minutes.  Sigh.... I already had my allotment of building crashes during Man of Steel.

Fortunately, a few friends saw it and recommended it highly. So we got a group of guys together and hit the theater. It turned out to be a very, very good summer action popcorn flick. In fact, I liked it better than either Man of Steel of Iron Man 3 - which I find interesting. I have been pondering why, and here is what I have come up with so far.

First - Pacific Rim was believable.  WHHHAAAA?? you say.  It was believeable.... not within our world, but in its own.  It stayed consistent within the rules it had set up.  Whereas there were times in Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel that things struck me as being absurd.  It was like those movies were violating the physics they had set up within a game and it made things look odd and stand out in a non-complementary way.  I think this happens when a director or storyteller wants to do something in a particular scene, but they don't take care to see if it violates any parameters they had set up in other scenes (e.g. R2 sprouting rockets in Episode II).

Second - It had great pacing. I remember when I was in the play Into The Woods last year, our director was specific about pacing.  He once said something along the lines of "This is a long show and we need to keep the story in constant flow. I don't want to give anyone reason to start thumbing through the program." I've noticed pacing a lot in plays and movies since he said that. I was keenly aware that if I got up to go to the bathroom during Pacific Rim, I was going to miss something.

Third - I felt like I knew the characters.  They were all engaging and fun to watch.  Both IM3 and MOS had numerous characters who appeared to simply be along for the ride.

I am sure I will think of some more things later, but that is what comes to mind presently. Somehow this movie about Hong Kong-smashing monsters fighting giant robots was good enough for a round 2 today with my son.

I have to add one more item that PR did that I hope comic movies take heed of in the future. The first 10 minutes filled you in on all of the backstory you would need. Having laid a quick foundation, they moved ahead to the story they wanted to tell.

With all of the reboots we will face with various comic properties in the decades come, I think we would all be better served if we started to skip the origin story or maybe just set up a quick 10 minute recap, then move on to a story we HAVEN'T heard. Batman and Spiderman have both done origins twice now, it is territory we do not need need to retrace. Let's just take it as read that we know the general framework and approach it James Bond style. There have been 20+ Bond flicks and we all just move on.

That's my opinion, what's yours?

Hide A Bluetooth Speaker

Since getting a Galaxy Nexus smartphone last fall, I have become somewhat Bluetooth obsessed.  I bought an adapter for my car that plays audio from my phone to my radio. I have a great pair of Bluetooth headphones that I use when walking. I got an adapter so any Bluetooth object can play through my main stereo or out to my backyard speakers. Well, I found another use today.

When I cook or clean in the kitchen, I like to listen to something - books, music, lectures, movies... whatever. I have had varied solutions to this over the years, but I am always looking for a more efficient system. Like the designers of the old Palm Pilot OS, I strive to accomplish a task in as few steps as possible.

My original solution was to keep a pair of old computer speakers housed within a drawer in the kitchen to take out when needed. I also tried USB powered speakers that would hook directly to a laptop. A few months ago, I found a USB charged, golf ball sized, speaker which worked nicely. All of these had drawbacks - too cumbersome, limited to laptops, lost in the land of missing dryer socks. Even my new Bluetooth headset required the burdensome task of finding it.

Now I believe I have come upon the final solution.  Amazon had the Bluetooth speaker pictured above on sale for 15 bucks.  It is a little smaller than a baseball, and I placed it behind some decorative vines above the cabinet. This speaker is unmoving, out of sight, constantly powered, and can be tapped by pretty much every audio device I own. The sound level is plenty loud for the kitchen, if a bit thin (hey, it was 15 bucks).

Wondering what Bluetooth solution I haven't thought of yet.....

There it sits

Unseen

What Does It Mean To Believe In God?

"I just couldn't in good conscience vote for a person who doesn't believe in God."

Contact was a great movie and an even better book. In it, the author Carl Sagan does a particularly adept and wonderful job addressing the human investment in belief.

If you are not acquainted with the book or movie, here is the gist - the atheist scientist Ellie Arroway discovers an alien message that contains directions to build an interstellar spaceship. In the movie, she develops a tentative romance with the President's religious advisor, Palmer Joss. Palmer is part of the team that selects who will ride in the single seat spacecraft. Palmer does not select Arroway and this is part of the conversation that follows:

ELLIE ARROWAY - Why did you do it?

PALMER JOSS - Our job was to select someone to speak for everybody. And I just couldn't in good conscience vote for a person who doesn't believe in God. Someone who honestly thinks the other ninety five percent of us suffer from some form of mass delusion.

ELLIE ARROWAY - I told the truth up there. And Drumlin told you exactly what you wanted to hear.

Two things catch me about their exchange. First, Palmer makes a common religious move here regarding belief. He speaks as if only atheists believe religious people are deluded. In reality, most religious people are of the opinion that anyone holding to a religious belief other than theirs is deluded. Belief is not the monolith that Palmer implies.

Second, Arroway makes the point that she is being punished for being honest; she sees no reason to believe in God, and says so. Dr. Drumlin's belief in God is one of convenience. He knows the right words to say to set the believer's mind at ease, but his belief does not go much deeper than that.

This reality makes me ponder what we mean when we speak of belief in God. We seem to have a sliding scale in terms of what we believe, and we also have varied motivations as to why. When entering into these discussions, we almost need to set the ground rules of what God we are talking about. Here are the four gods I primarily hear about: (for the following, I am going to speak mostly in terms of American Christian, since these are the waters I swim in).

GOD - THE ONE THE ONLY
This is the God of the team player; the God of the Tribe. If you believe in anything other than this God, you are doomed. This is the God of Franklin Graham, Michelle Bachmann, and the Religious Right.

God - God Lite 
This god is similar on paper to the god of the Religious Right, but with lots more wiggle room. He has calmed down a bit since the old days, and most of what was said of him during that time was misreported. Nowadays he is all about the love! A lot of religious young people fall into this camp. They loudly proclaim their allegiance to god, but they also want their gay friends to get married and they have started voting democrat. There is a lot of movement between this group and the group above. There are plenty of folks out there who want their God to look more loving, but still want to keep Hell stoked for said homosexuals and democrats.

god - god of The Secret 
This god is very airy and hard to pin down. It is more like a set of laws of the universe. How you think, believe, and visualize your reality is very important. This is the god of Wayne Dyer, Benny Hinn, and Oprah Winfrey.

god - The Watchmaker 
Some people believe that a Force brought the Universe into existence, but does not intervene. Like Jefferson, they believe he wound the watch and it now runs on its own.

Amidst these varied definitions of god, there is also the WHY to be considered. For folks like Dr. Drumlin, belief in God is just a point to be acquiesced in order to move along in this world. For others, it is an insurance policy, or a security blanket, or a belonging mechanism, or a learned fear, or a dear hope. The gods worshiped and the motivations are as varied as the people clinging to them.

So the next time someone tells you they believe in god, you may want to ask for a clarification.

Facebook Faith # 22 - Invisible, Undetectable, and Not There

"Ya got me... I am just making this $#!^ up!"

In our world, where hundreds of things distract us from God, we have to intentionally and consistently remind ourselves of Him.
~ Francis Chan

A friend posted this quote by Christian author and pastor, Francis Chan. Francis is right... and I would add constantly to his list. Francis travels in evangelical circles, and if there is one thing evangelicals do... it is to endlessly remind each other how present their invisible god is.

This mantra lifestyle makes sense. If you don't fill the gap of silence, emptiness, and the general non-interaction of this deity, the believer might start to notice that there is no fundamental difference between the behavior of THEIR god, and the behavior of all the OTHER gods of this world whom they are convinced do not exist.

To me, they all look exactly the same...

Facebook Faith #21 Hell Is For Wimps

David Hayward posted the following cartoon this morning on Facebook. Though a believer, he always does an excellent job of holding up a mirror to critique his community's beliefs and practices.

Of all the beliefs that I have abandoned since leaving the faith, Hell is the most absurd. Has there ever been a doctrine that is believed by so many that makes so little sense on so many levels? The only way anyone could believe such a batshit crazy idea is through indoctrination.

* Hell is for Wimps is the title of a CD by the Christian band, The Newsboys - who I was VERY into at one time. Their lyrics were highly reflective of this cartoon - but they were not trying to be ironic or sarcastic.

Facebook Faith # 20 Mormon Staying Power

I was defriended on Facebook a couple more times in the past week.  You might think that with having  600+ friends, it would be hard to figure out who it was.  However, my short list of usual suspects are my conservative evangelical friends, and 99% of the time I am right.  It is not uncommon for a Christian Evangelical to defriend me within 24 hours of the friending.

Even before I declared my Atheism last year, the Christian Evangelicals were giving me the boot.  Simple things like the Christian me questioning the inerrancy of scripture,  or eternal punishment, were enough to hit the eject button.  Professional clergy were the primary ones giving me the heave-ho even before I left the faith.

The declaration of Atheism brought a huge drop off; I lost an easy tithe.  People who had been friends with me my whole life found this move to be too much.

I still have a lot of religious friends on Facebook, in fact, I would have to say the majority of them are religious.  I find it interesting that through all of these years of theological and philosophical shiftings, my Mormon friends have been the most solid.  This is curious, because in many respects I think they are similar to Evangelicals ... but on this issue they are extreme opposites.

Do you get defriended much?  If so, who are your primaries and what are the issues?

Facebook Faith # 19 - A Demon Around Every Corner

This morning on Facebook, someone shared an article from the Huffington Post which addressed Christian communities that believe children are practicing witchcraft. The examples were extreme, but it made me think of the evangelical circles in which I travelled, where people CONSTANTLY referenced sickness, calamity, and death as being the result of evil spirits. People feared granting these spirits a "foothold" through music, tv, movies, alcohol... almost anything you can imagine was a potential doorway for giving an evil spirit power in your life circumstance.

I know that not all Christian churches speak this way, but in my previous church community and the church communities I grew up in, someone might mention that they were under attack by Satan as casually as they might comment on the flavor of their morning coffee. I contend that this superstitious view of reality is bad, bad, bad for the psyche.

I have been out of the church for 2 years and an Atheist for about a year. The amount of good and bad in my life is occurring in exactly the same proportions as before. Seeing evil spirits (or divine favor) in your circumstances is no different than imagining a cloud formation looks like Scooby-Doo.

Quick Review: Man of Steel

Just got back from Superman... I give it a good, solid B.  It is enjoyable.  However it fails in the way that is common for most SciFi to fail these days : the story is used to support the effects, rather than the effects being used to support the story.

Have you seen the previews?  Then you have seen roughly half the dialogue used in the movie.  It would be interesting to compare the Reeves script and the Man of Steel script in terms of word count.  I would assume the present script is a fraction of Superman: The Movie.  Back in 1978... if you were going to fill 10 minutes of movie time, you had to write clever banter for Gene Hackman to deliver.  Now you can have 5 buildings crash in on each other....

... and that is the majority of time spent on the Man of Steel.  How can we make things crash...

It had its moments.  The actors all did their part admirably.  I just wish they were given more to say.

Selling You What is Yours Already

"Homer! That mower is already mine!"

My friend Kevin shared with me a great podcast from Mormonexpression. In it, there is a round table discussion about how religion takes what is yours, repackages it, and sells it back to you with their brand name now stamped on it.

I saw an example of this recently. My son is part of a Boy Scout troop that is run by our Mormon Ward (as are most troops here in Utah). We were doing an overnight camping trip that was going to allow the boys to complete a number of badge requirements. One of the tasks was to learn compass navigation. Since none of the dads from the Ward had this skill, the scoutmaster had enlisted the help of his neighbor, who was proficient with a compass. This neighbor was going to be joining us later. The scoutmaster let us know, "He's not an active member (of the LDS Church).... but he is a good guy!"

Notice the underlying message. The default position of a church member is that they are good - generous with their time and willing to help. Someone outside the church might be these things as well... but it is stated more as an exception to the rule. I heard that kind of talk all the time as I was growing up in evangelical circles.

When someone hears that I am an Atheist, the first question they typically address is morality. They imagine that a lack of belief in their god must create a moral vacuum. This demonstrates how successful their religion has been in taking their morals, repackaging them, and selling them back. The simple, human desire to be courteous, kind, and just has been hijacked and declared to be only within the purview of the particular religion. I have been told no less than a dozen times, "Yes, you are an Atheist, but you still cling to Christian values!"

It reminds me of an episode of the Simpsons. Homer and his family are moving, so they have a yard sale.  Homer is trying to sell the lawn mower to Ned Flanders when Ned mentions that the mower, and half of the lawn equipment in the yard sale, was originally borrowed from him. Homer is confused as to what point Ned is trying to make.

Religion pulls in all the good humans do, and claims it for itself. The religious person is trained in passing along the credit. A doctor heals, but the deity is thanked. A stranger assists you, but it is a blessing from above. In the Christian circles I grew up in, it was common to hear someone utter something like, "There is nothing good in me except what Jesus brings".

The reality is, most people are good, friendly, courteous, trustworthy, etc. No religion brings these things about. Yet most religious sects have trained their adherents to assume all this goodness flows from, and is peculiar to, their religion.

However, when one removes the religious lenses, it is easy to see that good people exist in all religions, tribes, nations, and political persuasions. No one needs a particular religion to be morally upright.

In fact, one doesn't need religion at all.



It is really an excellent podcast and I encourage you to give it a listen.  Though the analogies tend to be LDS, the ideas carry over to religion in general.

Facebook Faith #18 - No Does Not Mean No

Over the past few days, Facebook has had many repostings of various opinions concerning Roy Costner's graduation speech.  He was the young man who, after submitting his speech to the coordinators, chose instead to tear it up while on stage and pray to the god of his evangelicalism.

Of course, depending on one's Facebook following, such postings had varied reactions. At the pages of evangelicals there was a lot of fist-pumping and high-fives. Sticking it to the non-Christians in the crowd was almost as much fun as their Chick-fil-A run last year.

Over at the more liberal and hipster Christian sites, there was a lot of hand-wringing and facepalming. Once again, the more reasonable voices in the religion were going to have to clean up after the defecating neanderthals of the family.

One thing that became clear to me through this event is that, to many Christians, no does not mean no. There is no polite refusal accepted... there is no angry refusal heeded... they are going to foist themselves upon you, regardless of your resistance.

Christians hold the arrogant position that they have something you need... whether you know it or not. Therefore, like Roy Costner, they will lie, cheat, and inappropriately take over a public event while claiming the side of love, truth, and holiness.

Christopher Hitchens observed that it is really impossible, given their worldview, to do otherwise:

 "there is a real and serious difference between me and my religious friends, and the real and serious friends are sufficiently honest to admit it. I would be quite content to go to their children's bar mitzvahs, to marvel at their Gothic cathedrals, to "respect" their belief that the Koran was dictated, though exclusively in Arabic, to an illiterate merchant, or to interest myself in Wicca and Hindu and Jain consolations. And as it happens, I will continue to do this without insisting on the polite reciprocal condition—which is that they in turn leave me alone. But this, religion is ultimately incapable of doing." 

And about this one of my Christian friends said, "Thank God!"