aigeanta's blog

Yesterday I stood in line to get good seats for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and it was completely worth the wait. Tremendous vistas lend timeless grandeur to every scene, and I could feel my mind’s eye recognize the land that Tolkien described and I traveled to in my imagination in the final chapter of the tale of the Ring. Minas Tirith stands strong like the bones of mountains, while Minas Morgul and the Vale glow with sickness and insane despair.

Last night I watched Whale Rider on DVD and I really loved it. It was adapted from a novel about a Maori girl named Paikea in New Zealand whose tribal community is disintegrating due to the encroachment of modern society and the lack of leadership from her harsh grandfather who is a chief without a male heir. Interweaving traditional Maori art and culture, breathtaking views of the New Zealand coast, and a mystical story about grabbing your destiny and never letting go, Whale Rider is a meaningful and beautiful film that deserves viewing.

My friend has a page of Free Gift Ideas for the 2003 Holidays that are oriented for those of us who are sickened by the rampant commercialism of the season. There are many opportunities for creative recycling this time of year: for example, re-use last year’s gift bags and remember to save packaging for next year, and make ornaments out of dead lightbulbs by painting them and attaching a hanger. Try to remember that the most important gift is your love.

this is my prayer
to live simply
to not seek that which i do not need
to recognize god in every face i see
and to always be the change i wish to see in the world

sunshine

The disconnect between print, television and internet news has grown increasingly evident lately. For years, only profit-engendering news was deemed worthy of space on the paper that once grew as trees in our forests or the airwaves that belong to us all.

I just had an idea…what if you threatened all your friends that if they didn’t vote, and didn’t threaten all their friends similarly, you wouldn’t associate with them anymore? Based on the six degrees of separation principle, wouldn’t this get most everybody out to the polls? Or is this an overly hostile action that could backfire and make a bunch of non-voting enemies, or worse, Republicans?

On 2001-09-13 I wrote the following in response to the terrorist attacks and subsequent debate over how to react.

An Eye for an Eye vs. Turn the Other Cheek

A few days ago, if you had asked me, “Should we ever bomb our enemies?”, I would have given you the pros and cons of shooting weapons at people: destroying your enemy, but occasionally killing innocent victims. It was easy for me to distance myself from the so-called ‘collateral damage’ because I didn’t have to be bombarded with the imagery of, say, innocent Yugoslavian people jumping from the burning buildings on which we had just dropped a couple of missiles. But everything is different now, everything has changed; we are now the victims, and we have a choice - to treat our enemies as they have treated us, or to turn the other cheek, so to speak, and to refuse to stoop to their level.

If the moon can pull our oceans, it can pull our bodies. At the very least, lunar and planetary cycles have some gravitational effect, and solar cycles have magnetic influence on earth’s environment. At the most, human civilization has been psychologically influenced by the cosmic rhythm and disasterous disharmonies wrought by the universe.

Indie street musician Wesley Willis has died after years of struggling with schizophrenia, homelessness, and finally chronic myelogenous leukemia.

This is an email I wrote to a journalist who got hit with the Blaster worm:

In response to your article “Worms Shouldn’t Break Windows“ :