Forbidden Planet

Don't you understand? You're on every street - you're in their homes. You've got their children. Of course they're gonna fight." The Doctor explaining to a Cyberman why humans are not acquiescing to their presence. From the Doctor Who Series 2 episode Doomsday. Image recycled from a previous post .

A woman died and went to heaven. As she stood in front of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, she saw a huge wall of clocks behind him. She asked, "What are all those clocks?" St. Peter answered, "Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone on Earth has a Lie-Clock. Every time you lie the hands on your clock will advance one minute." "Oh," she said, "whose clock is that?" "That's Mother Teresa's. The hands have never moved, indicating that she never told a lie." "Incredible," she said. "And whose clock is that one?" St. Peter responded, "That's Abraham Lincoln's clock. The hands have moved twice, telling us that Abe told only two lies in his entire life." "Where's [insert favourite politician's name] clock?" she asked. "Oh [insert favourite politician's name]'s clock is in Jesus' office. He's using it as a ceiling fan."

Winter. Spring. Summer. Fall. Normal grammar rules state these words are not to be capitalized (unless used at the beginning of a sentence, naturally). I think that is wrong. I love to capitalize the names of the seasons. So, I often, deliberately, break the rule when writing. Yesterday was a very warm Spring day. It got up to 25C (77F).

Today is Tania's birthday and she is 8 years old. I still remember when she was born, when I held her in my arms. She is my princess and always will be, no matter how old we get. Picture is of Tania and two of her cousins. Photo credit: Richard of Forbidden Planet.

I can control my action. I cannot control the outcome. I can control my reaction.

Jason asked me this about a month after my mom died. I told him that it wouldn't be until the resurrection and Second Coming (my eschatological beliefs include Jesus coming again to judge the living and the dead, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting - it should be a pretty standard, non-controversial Christian belief). Jason then started praying, "... and I pray daddy won't die." I had to explain to him that everyone will die and that if he prays for me not to die, then he will be disappointed, because I will. We all will. Now he has changed his prayer to, "... and I pray daddy will not be too old." I guess that is better. Image nabbed from here .

noun the raising of hairs on the skin as a result of cold, fear, etc; GOOSEFLESH. [late Latin horrilation-, horripilatio , from Latin horripilare to bristle, be shaggy, from horrēre to bristle, tremble + pilusa hair] Definition taken from the Penguin English Dictionary .

How much is your time worth? How do you choose to spend the time you have? For the average man living until 74, he has about 650,000 hours available to him. For the average woman, living until 80, she has about 700,000 hours available to her. We each have 8760 hours in a year (8784 in a leap year), do we make best use of our time? I know I don't. Image nabbed from here .

From time to time, I will read in the media how some organization or other claims Google Maps as a security threat because it claims that the high resolution photos permit monitoring of troop movements and so forth. I think this is untrue because when I look at the maps of areas I know, they are out of date - it appears by years, not days or weeks - since I fail to see more modern structures. Here is a photo taken today from Google Maps which shows a park on the western tip of Montreal Island. As you can see, the trees are in full foliage. At the moment, the trees are bare and there is still some snow on the ground. In fact, this map has not changed in the year I have been monitoring it.

While most cosmologists agree that the big bang is the most reasonable explanation for the origin of the universe, it is not without its problems. One principle problem is that the universe is too big by several orders of magnitude. The age of the universe is estimated at 13.7 billion years (I am using billion in the American sense of thousand-million, not the British sense of million-million). It is assumed to have a naïve radius of 13.7 billion light years or a diameter of 27.4 billion light years. However, based on current understanding of how energy, particles and fundamental forces interact, this is too big - 300 million light years would be much more reasonable. To resolve this, it has been proposed that shortly after coming into existence, the universe underwent a period of extreme inflation where it expanded exponentially rapidly. Introducing the concept of hyperinflation also resolves a number of other issues such at the universe having too uniform a horizon. If the universe h...

Why? Because we really, really want to. The truth does not sell very well. It is an ugly, sweaty thing requiring work and discipline. We want to believe there is an electrical device that, when strapped onto our love handles, will give us a meaty abdominal six-pack while sitting on our fat asses eating Milk Duds. We do not like the truth because it is simple, we do not want the truth because it is hard, and we do not trust the truth because it is free." - Pat Walsh, 78 reasons why your book may never be published and 14 reasons why it just might , excerpted from Reason #38: You Fell for Self-Publishing Hype I highly recommend this book and The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman as must reads for anyone who wants to write and get published (or, like me, who dreams of writing and getting published one day). They give a lot of food for thought. Now, all I need is some electronic device I can strap to the back of my head to short out my inhibitory reflexes and get me to just do it (ac...

Forbidden Planet is now a rambunctious 2 year old toddler (it happened 2 days ago). I think it has been more of the same this past year - perhaps a little less self indulgent whining and more arrogant assertiveness. Work circumstances made blogging a little trickier the past year – and it just keeps gets harder to grab some surreptitious time at work. I continue to enjoy the wonderful diversity of thoughts and experiences I encounter through out the blog-o-sphere – expanding my horizons always appeals to me. I love the thoughtful comments. I love the interesting interaction. I suppose the next year will just continue to be more of the same. So, maybe some of you will begin to tire of my questions and oddball perspectives. I have no idea were the picture came from, but if you do, then let me know and I can credit the source.

Image grabbed from here .

ADAM: Me thou madest, Lord, of clay, And gave me Paradise in to play; But after my sin, sooth to say, Deprived I was therefro, And from that weal put away; And here have lenged sithen ay In thesterness, both night and day, And all my kind also. DAVID: Ah, high God and king of bliss, Worshipped be thy name, iwis! I hope that time now comen is To deliver us of danger. Come, Lord. Come to hell anon, And take out thy folk, everyone, For those years are fully gone Since mankind first came here. From The Harrowing of Hell , from the Chester Pageant of the Cooks and Inkeepers. Image nabbed from here .

Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Oh . . . Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree? Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree? Oh . . . Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree? Were you there when they pierced Him in the side? Were you there when they pierced Him in the side? Oh . . . Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they pierced Him in the side? Were you there when the sun refused to shine? Were you there when the sun refused to shine? Oh . . . Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when the sun refused to shine? Were you there...

He took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, "Take; this is my body." Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many." Mark 14:22-24 Image obtained from here .

I have not and will not sign any document authorizing donation of my organs. Why? Because I want to be good and dead not just brain dead. You cannot harvest organs from a corpse. Organs must be harvested from a body with a still beating heart and still functioning lungs. Once the heart stops, the body's tissues begin to suffer from oxygen deprivation, which deteriorates them (not to mention that lack of flowing blood also mean waste products can't be removed – further deterioration) and makes them less than useful. The way organs are taken from bodies with beating hearts, is by declaring the person brain-dead with no chance for recovery. It is preferable that the decision be made quickly, since you don't want to harvest organs from someone who has been in a coma for months or years on end (again, because organs deteriorate). The best organs come from healthy young person involved in a car accident: "We're sorry, but your child is brain dead and will never recover. ...