O canal Sci-Fi vai exibir hoje (quarta-feira) a pré-estreia da série “Stargate Universe” às 22h. A trama mostra um gurpo de soldados, civis e cientistas que são obrigados a passar pelo famoso portal, o Stargate, depois de sua base ser atacada. Os sobreviventes acabam parando em uma nave antiga que está seguindo um curso pré-programado e agora o grupo terá que tentar descobrir uma maneira de voltar à Terra.

O elenco é recheado de nomes conhecidos, como Robert Carlyle (Dr. Nicholas Rush) Diamond Phillips (Coronel Telford) Justin Luis (Coronel Everet Young), J. Smith (Matthew Scott ) e Elyse Levesque (Chloe Armstrong).

Brad Wright e Robert C. Cooper, co-criadores de “Stargate SG-1″ e “Atlantis” são os  produtores executivos, o piloto da série foi dirigido por Andy Mikita, que também já dirigiu episódios da séries citadas acima.

SGU pretende mostrar um lado diferente das outras séries, com foque na sobrevivência dos humanos e com menos alienígenas. A série que estreou em outubro nos EUA e repetiu o sucesso das outras franquia de  Stargate.

Title: Never A Dull Moment
Author: AstroGirl
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 2085
Characters: Romana II, Daniel Jackson, Fourth Doctor, Jack O’Neill

I don’t watch Stargate and I just loved this. It’s sweet and funny with lots of cliches of the shows being exploited, Romana being both terribly clever and enjoyable company and the Doctor and O’Neill run around in amusing ways while hairy aliens attack and things blow up. What more could anyone ask for?

***

Title: A Dubious Ally
Author: Kerr Avonson
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 2333
Characters: Fifth Doctor, Jack O’Neill, Nyssa

Okay, are there any bad, incomprehensible Stargate crosses? This is great with the Doctor getting tangled in Jack’s world and it being pretty much business as usual for the Time Lord. With a very entertainig ending. Lovely! (There’s a double drabble of a sequel here, too.)

Dr. Rush – Stargate Universe

Hang on as the Christ-in-yous stretch the “Outer Limits” and take “One Step Beyond” what many already see as the “Twilight Zone”.

The Stargate has been opened and we are about to look a the reality of what is really happening in our midst.

1 Corinthians 3:16-22

16 Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? 17 God will bring ruin upon anyone who ruins this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you Christians are that temple.
18 Stop fooling yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you will have to become a fool so you can become wise by God’s standards. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God.
As the Scriptures say,
“God catches those who think they are wise in their own cleverness.”
20 And again,
“The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are worthless.”

Can you believe what you have just read? God’s wisdom is making fools of the people who are hooked to this world.

Now don’t think that the people of the world are going to see their foolishness. They are blind to the greater truth. They have no understanding of God or His realm. They think that this world is all there is and all that matters. This, in itself, is foolish to those who have been awakened to eternity.

The problem is now trying to open minds to the truth. Those who do not believe cannot be convinced. They must come to believe. Belief is a journey in which the traveler is seeking and searching for truth.

People of the world are not seeking for truth most of them don’t believe there is truth greater than their personal knowledge. Their blindness to the greater truth must be healed by a miracle of God. How does this miracle become reality? The same way miracles happened in the Bible. People came to Christ.

Have you ever noticed that there are no miracles of spiritual blindness being overcome or spiritual death being resurrected to new life outside of Jesus Christ? Why not? Because the blind need to come to life in Christ or they are still lost in their worldly foolishness.

Ephesians 1:9-14 N.L.T.

9 God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure. 10 And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us from the beginning, and all things happen just as he decided long ago. 12 God’s purpose was that we who were the first to trust in Christ should praise our glorious God. 13 And now you also have heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God.

The Temple is being built. The stones that are being laid are living stones. They are those who are being awakened and transformed into new creations in Christ. We, the Christ-in-yous, are the living stones. We have been purchased at a high price and have become a possession of God and we are now being built up into the kingdom of God who serve our King Jesus Christ.

1 John 5:1-5

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

Tomorrow we are going to look at the rewards of overcoming this world through our faith and belief in God through His Son Jesus Christ.

This is a blog post for wannabe nerds.

So, you want the prestige of being a nerd? You want the smug smarminess of having seen EVERY SHOW on the sci-fi channel ( I refuse to call it syfy) without actually sitting through episodes of Lexx and Ghost whisper? Well I am here to help you seem like you know something. Here’s a nerd’s guide to Stargate Universe.

If you have never seen Stargate Universe, don’t worry, I’ll tell you what I do and don’t like about it. That way if you ever find yourself in a group of nerds you have a handy list to consult to make you seem like you’re in the know.

MUST KNOWS:

-Stargate SG-1 is the original. Basically a group of four people: Leader, sarcastic awesome cool guy Jack played by Macgyver- Richard dean anderson. Token girl/ science geek/ physicist GENIUS Sam. Cool arse, black, muscle alien Teal’c. And archeologIist, glasses wearing, oddly attractive nerd Daniel Jackson. Note: always call him Daniel Jackson, not Daniel. It gives you cred.) Ultimate enemies: The Goa’uld, the Ori.

Say this is your favourite  in the franchise if you honestly have no idea about anything. That way you don’t have to back up the claim with anything substantial. You just have to say, “Yeah but I like it because it’s the original and the best.” and then make everyone else who likes stargate atlantis better feel inferior with haughty glares and smirk’s when they talk about the wraith.

- Stargate Atlantis is a shit-good spin off set in the Pegasus Galaxy. You might want to be more daring and say this is your favourite. Claim the main character, John Sheppard, is a bad arse who is younger and hotter than RDA ( if you dont know what these initials mean, may good have mercy on your soul). Say Rodney McKay is funny ( not annoying), and that Ronan Dex is way scarier than Teal’c. NOTE: You’re a newbie, so don’t get in over your head. Only people who have had  much experience/ detailed argument can get away with saying taylor is the greatest character written. Main Enemy: Wraith

- Travel accross the stars is possible because of the stargate that uses wormholes to link planets. Ships do exist and are important though.

NOW ONTO UNIVERSE: This is helpful guide for both newbies AND seasoned stargate viewers who can’t be bothered with this new installment.

People might not agree with you, BUT if you say these standard things, they will not realise you haven’t actually seen it. Say these phrases ( even if you have no idea what they mean or who you are talking about) to appear legitimate:

1. Doctor Rush Is the Shit.  If you don’t know who he is, don’t worry. Just keep saying ‘you can’t deny Robert Carlyle is a brilliant actor’

2. If you are among people who clearly have problems with the show, join in with the bitching to gain acceptance. The most obvious comment is: “It’s so stupid. They have magical stones which let people swap bodies. Why dont they get carter or rodney or Daniel Jackson in to solve the problem? And if they’re unavaialale, why not Jack? He would at least solve the stupid leadership problems.

3. If the group of nerds is divided the main thing to remember is to STAY COOL. Be in the middle so that no one hates you too much. Say “it’s a good idea, and a different spin on an established franchise. it is a bit soap opera-ish though.”

4. Don’t be timid. the worst mistake you can make is letting on about your ignorance. agree with people loudly. Speak confidently and give people looks of disgust, as though they know nothing. No one will suspect a thing if you act like an obnoxious, know-it -all.

NOW FOR MY PERSONAL GRIPES

So, you’ve made it through this blog and you have seen stargate universe? Good. I finally have someone to discuss it with.

1. started good but is rapidly becoming boring

2. The girls are shit. Why is it so hard for people to write and cast quality females? They’re always lame bitches. grr (note: I like Carter, so don’t get all up in my grill saying i don’t like any girls).

3. about the women on the ship. WTF IS WITH TJS HAIR?! IT IS SO FUCKING RIDICULOUS. IT MAKES ME WANT TO SLAP HER TO DEATH. seriously? Her hair is this idiotic perfect blonde do. They’re on a spaceship, out in the middle of the nowhere. In a galaxy with no other humans, let alone HAIR PRODUCTS. She is both in the army and a medic. I have NEVER seen anyone in those professions with hair like hers on a daily basis. Let alone people stranded on a ship where things are going wrong ALL THE TIME. It is like she is going to a formal/ prom with perfect, intricate twists. ARGH! *has tantrum* it is fucking ridiculous

Here’s a pic:

She has that hair ^^^^^^^ in space…. when they are always life- threatening emergencies…. and there’s no hair products…. and she is an army medic … and no one else notices she looks like she is about to go to a ball!

4. I WANT ALIENS, SHIP FIGHTS, ALLIANCES, PLAUSIBLE ENEMIES AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT THAT ISNT BORING AND OVER_DRAMATIC

5. There’s no sense of friendship and camaraderie. I didn’t know until I watched this, but I like the whole team thing.

6. i dont hate EVERYTHING. Obviously i am still watching. Robert Carlyle rocks and Rush is one of the few characters who is deep without being whiney/ soap opera-y or annoying. I appreciate that it is trying to be different, and a lot of the special effects are cool. Eli mentions star wars sometimes. that’s cool. I like that the stones are there as a way of contacting earth. I just wished that people who are supposed to be smart would grow a brain and send in people who are intelligent/ can read ancient to see if rush is lying/ have proper leadership skills. Keno’s have potential and so does a whole new area of space to be explored.

7. Can I get another story besides “we’re running out of ——- *insert vital need such as power, water, air, food, hairspray here*?

Okay so I no doubt will blog about this again. For the moment I am done ranting. Don’t be discouraged from watching stargate. It rocks. It brings joy to my life. Watch atlantis, especially season four. Watch the original. and try to watch universe. It does have potential and without support it could flop.

p.s maybe I should have introduced myelf/ talked about something worthwhile in my first blog?

Ok really confused now, so we left them all about to die last week, this week I’m expecting them to find some cool and inventive way to capture the venemous aliens, extract a cure and save the crew.. Instead it’s all back to normal, with everyone going about their day-to-day tasks, WTF?

I’m actually feeling a bit pissed off about it, so what could of happened, did they switch to some alternate time line, has Sky shown the episodes out of sequence, or did someone just assume the outcome was so obvious it wasn’t worth filming..?

Anyway, so what about this episode, well I think Marvin the robot said it best, “Life, don’t talk to me about Life”, writers should pay more attention to Marvin. I don’t know, maybe it’s the expectations left over from last weeks cliff hanger, but it was a bit on the boring side.

It started to look up with them exploring the ship and finding a chair room, until it turns out not to be a proper chair room, but some sort of knowledge repository room, which Young won’t let anyone try out (except Rush, and I doubt he’ll risk his life on it). So do they continue searching? Nope another tangent, Rush manages to get the sub-space link to the gate builder ships working and then (as it turns out) fabricates a planet rich with natural naquadria, and the promise of a way home, or not. (natural naquadria? Don’t get me started)

What else, well a few of the crew get a chance for some personal home visits, Camiel visits her girlfriend / partner, I’ve read some other posts about how pro-lesbian / poignant the scenes were, tricky for me to comment, I think I was a bit too grumpy by then to appreciate them, and considering the other scenes they’ve done in previous episodes (even this one), these seemed a bit tame (how long had they been apart?).

Mat got to visit his ex-girlfriend, finds he has a son and his ex is now a ‘dancer’, then, just when you (well I) think he’s trying to get clearance to tell her who he really is, he makes a fake call to himself to give her his pay cheque..?

Now, I know Mat’s had some bad ‘press’ in the past, and even Brian J. Smith, the actor playing him has taken some stick, and I don’t want to contribute to that in any way, but come on writers, you’ve shown Mat in a brave light, given us a glimpse of his honourable side this week, now show us how he can stand up for himself, following orders is one thing, but he’s clearly more than a military puppet, let’s see it!

Oh and then Mat has an odd dream with Telford & Young’s wife, so Young makes a visit to confront him, but gets switched back just before the fight. Then goes back pretending to be someone else, and ambushes Telford.

It is interesting to see the small holes appearing in the whole communication stones thing, I guess it leaves them with a way out, in case the writers decide to cut Destiny off from earth, or at least a new ways to mess with the characters.

Glad to see they gave TJ a bit of a rest this week, being ordered to gossip with the crew, she must have had some fun, though like Eli said, might be difficult in weeks to come.

Eli as usual had some good scenes, foot in mouth with Mat, then yoga with Chloe, not quite up to his usual humor level, but considering my grumpy mood, he did manage to prise a chuckle out if me towards the end.

It’s difficult to pick out any favourite moments or characters this week, it was all a bit ‘flat’. I guess if my arm was twisted, it would have to be Young beating up Telford, but even there I’m thinking Young should just forget his wife and get back with TJ. I wonder what repercussions there will be for that little outburst.

At this point I would normally say I’m looking forward to next weeks episode, but Sky’s announced a weeks break. WHY? surely the episodes finished, they stopped filming weeks back. No doubt some sort of US holiday, though why that would mean a break I don’t know, you’d think they’d make it a double, if everyone’s off work, more time to watch TV..?? And thanks but if I wanted to watch Continuum again, I’d put the DVD in.

Maybe I should have written this after I’ve gotten over the whole skipped episode thing..

Welcome back! Only four posts left in this series.

Today we are going to look deeper into this indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Imagine that God, who lives on the other side of the Stargate, who sent His Son through the Stargate to save us, whose Son ascended back through the Stargate to sit on the Kings throne, is now going to send His Holy Spirit through the Stargate and by way of this Spirit He will be able to live in, indwell, or possess the person of those who will submit to Him.

Romans 8:9 N.L.T.

9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them are not Christians at all.)

As I said in an earlier post Christians are actually Christ-in-yous.

We are a new creation created by the impartation of the Holy Spirit.

We are no longer our own but we have become a possession of God’s. We are no longer the same as the other earth dwellers. We are new creatures. We have a Holy Spirit in us. The self-desiring spirit has died and given way to the Holy Spirit. We have died to the ways of this world and have been resurrected to a new way of holy living. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God and this is guaranteed by the presence of the Holy Spirit who indwells or lives within our earth suit controlling our living soul.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 N.L.T.

26 And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command.

Colossians 1:27 N.L.T.

27 For it has pleased God to tell his people that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. For this is the secret: Christ lives in you, and this is your assurance that you will share in his glory.

Romans 8:9-10 N.L.T.

9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them are not Christians at all.) 10 Since Christ lives within you, even though your body will die because of sin, your spirit is alive because you have been made right with God.

2 Corinthians 13:5-6 N.I.V.

5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? 6 And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.

John 14:15-20

15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world at large cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you do, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. 18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. 19 In just a little while the world will not see me again, but you will. For I will live again, and you will, too. 20 When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Those who obey my commandments are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them, and I will love them. And I will reveal myself to each one of them.”

I know it may seem a bit unrealistic but I am not making this stuff up. All I’m trying to do is open your mind to accept the fact that there is more than one dimension, one realm, one reality at work here. God is real. He has come into this realm in the person of His Son and dwelt amongst us. He has sent His Holy Spirit to those who will receive it.

There is a present reality known as the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is the King, Lord, and Master of this realm. We have been called to this realm and if we would just come to God by way of the cross, where self is crucified, we could have our eyes, hearts and minds opened to this reality.

We will all exit our earth suits and travel back through the Stargate. Some will travel to a home in heaven and yet most will not be so fortunate. If people could only wake up to the reality of the eternal realm it sure would change the world we are presently residing in.

I hope you’re becoming more anxious for the greater truth with every post.

What u sayin???

As you may have noticed HexDSL has gone a bit Guild Wars crazy with this Guild Wars Bard blog, even ArenaNet has noticed or whoever runs that GW2 twitter has anyway. We talked this week about how its not okay to play a blog a day because it prevents proper sleeping patterns, we talked about how Gh0sty is a member of the legion of Modern Warfare 2 fans and the disappointment that Borderlands holds for him. Its not the cake he wanted. We also talk a few moments to mock Stargate Worlds.

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It occurs to me, more and more as I get deeper into the bizarre and insanely rewarding world of writing for film, that there are a lot of really inexcusable things done in genres I absolutely love. I’ve been a fan of science fiction since watching the epic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Best of Both Worlds with my dad and older cousin when I was a kid. I was instantly hooked by how scary the Borg were, how intense the character drama was, etc. etc. etc. Having seen the episode after some higher education, I still think it holds up insanely well and is a masterpiece of science fiction storytelling. The stakes were high and the tension higher.

This moves me into the actual topic of this article: writing in mainstream science fiction has gotten really, really lazy.

People who disagree with me will instantly jump to the defense of Battlestar Galactica, I’m sure. BSG strikes me an an insanely formulaic and therefore easy show to write for. The only real challenge would be constantly keeping the dark tone week to week. Especially in the jump of a number of years, it instantly absolved characters of the immediate consequences of their actions, and allowed the writers to do something completely different with their show. I don’t begrudge them for that move (because BSG was insanely successful and ultimately lent legitimacy to the genre), but I dislike that move for the same reason that I’m having difficulty getting into Stargate Universe.

The hardest part of not really liking SGU is how great it looks.

There is a lot going for SGU. It’s the dark, political Stargate that I always wished SG1 would become in the last couple seasons. It’s the character drama that Atlantis strayed towards occasionally before failing utterly in its last couple of seasons. SGU has coopted the shaky-cam documentary-style cinematography that helped make BSG so visually interesting. It looks and sounds great; the sets alone are a marvel of production and the post-apocalyptic aesthetic is stunning to watch–a quick redress would allow these sets to be used for a Fallout feature. The characters are unique and flawed and have insane amounts of backstory, much the reason I like Defying Gravity as much as I do. The acting is generally solid, with the inestimable Robert Carlyle being intensely watchable in the role of Dr. Rush and Justin Louis being my favourite Stargate Command mission leader thus far in the tormented character of Everett Young. The stress of not having enough supplies and being thoroughly lost hearkens back to some of Star Trek: Voyager’s more interesting episodes. It’s an interesting amalgamation of the most interesting aspects of its own franchise and the broader genre, and in theory, there’s nothing wrong with this.

However, it also fails dramatically by drawing on the worst aspects of those franchises as well, and stalls at a number of generic cul-de-sacs.

The most criminal aspect of SGU was the bane of Stargate: Atlantis for the series’ entire five-year run: the infallibility of Ancient technology. In the Stargate mythos, the Ancients seeded the galaxy with the gates, devices that allow instantaneous travel between worlds and galaxies via man-made wormholes. They also built the hyper-advanced flying city of Atlantis where SGA was set. They also built Destiny, the wankily-named ship that serves as the main (and often only) setting for SGU.

Spoilers are ahead here, so if you haven’t seen SGU thus far, you may want to go back and watch it a bit, or drive forward not caring about spoilers.

In the third and fourth episode of SGU, Darkness and Light, respectively, the archaic and damaged ship is completely out of power and careening, out of control, towards a star. There is no solution to this problem, and, in fact, it looks for all the world like the ship is going to be destroyed, or at least be damaged enough to make the show even more tense. In what appear to be the last moments of the crew’s life, the ship deploys solar panels, recharges, and pimps away. The entire crew is saved by Ancient technology coming through in the clutch yet again. The only saving grace of this episode is Rush’s self-interested arrogance, taking himself out of a lottery to escape the ship on a shuttle because he knew that the ship would save itself.

Destiny deploys its Deus Ex Machina device.

If the show is about human drama, let the humans do something to save themselves. This deus ex machina device that Atlantis leaned on like a crutch right from the pilot (remember? “OH NO, THE CITY WILL BE CRUSHED BY THE OCEAN oh wait, it’s surfacing by itself!”) is boring and lazy. In addition, it’s a reductive move for your characters, as well. Human beings operate on their own agency, and it’s disappointing to see that agency ripped away from people when they have an opportunity to shine. Honestly, the idea of the ship doing its own thing and having the humans along for the ride is intriguing and can easily result in some interesting storytelling, but for a character-driven show, the characters have done shockingly little thus far.

Next up: time travel.

The most awesome single shot in SGU thus far: an alien pulling an Alien through this girl's back. Sweet.

Time seems to be getting fairly good reviews, and I understand why. It’s intense, dark, heavy on character, thick with atmosphere, often scary, and very ambiguous. However, the events in the episode never happened.

Rather than have the characters narrowly escape with their lives, everyone in the episode dies. The gate is malfunctioning because of nearby solar flare activity (a shtick already used in both SG1 and Atlantis). Black mark number one: obvious reuse of a plot point from a previous incarnation of the franchise. Second, the actual events in the episode–meaning what the characters are actually doing–consists largely of Eli and the others getting sick and watching footage from events that never transpired, thanks to that old standby, time travel. The footage sent back to the Destiny crew warns them off enough to prevent the death and atrocity they view in the alternate timeline.

Ultimately, the episode was not bad, just noncommittal. Having cool things happen and then having them rewritten by time travel is the sci-fi equivalent of “and it was all a dream.” I honestly think that the best thing to come out of the episode was a single shot: Rush having a Hamlet/Yorick moment with what was presumably his own skull. Atlantis pulled this twice: a solar flare makes the gate malfunction and send Sheppard into the far apocalyptic future, only to return and undo all the nasty that happened; they also slip into an alternate universe near the end for a CSI-themed episode that accomplishes nothing helpful.

There is a lot of good in SGU, but the storytelling thus far has operated too much for my liking on cliche and generic convention. If they never use deus ex machina or time travel again, it’ll be too soon.

The following passage is very similar to the Galatians passage from the last post. I wanted to use this passage to emphasize a message that the Apostle Paul was wanting his readers to understand.

1 Corinthians 6:9-20 N.L.T.

9 Don’t you know that those who do wrong will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, 10 thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers, and swindlers—none of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God. 11 There was a time when some of you were just like that, but now your sins have been washed away, and you have been set apart for God. You have been made right with God because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God have done for you.
12 You may say, “I am allowed to do anything.” But I reply, “Not everything is good for you.” And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, “Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food.” This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them. But our bodies were not made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise our bodies from the dead by his marvelous power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead. 15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which belongs to Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don’t you know that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her?
For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.”
17 But the person who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
18 Run away from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Or don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

I know that this is very harsh teaching in the touchy feel-good world we live in. But we have to come to understand that the Kingdom of God is an exclusive place for those who have come to know God and desire to reside with Him for all eternity.

God doesn’t want His kingdom looking like this world. He doesn’t want all the sin and self desires coming back into His realm.

It amazes me how many people will state that a good and loving God wouldn’t allow all this sin and tragedy. Then they turn around and don’t think God will exclude all the sin and tragedy from His kingdom.

God set this realm up as a place of freedom. He is allowing us to do as we wish here. Some wish to serve self and others wish to serve the Lord. Through our life of desire God is separating His Kingdom citizens from the residents of this world. We are allowed to freely choose our destiny.

Job 14:5 N.C.V.

Our time is limited. You have given us only so many months to live and have set limits we cannot go beyond.

The New Living Translation says…”You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer.” Since God knows the days and hours of our lifetime on this planet he also knows who will return to Him.

God is not picking and choosing people to go to hell or be separated from His kingdom for all eternity. We have the choice. He has placed eternity upon our hearts and leads us to seek and search for Him with all of our hearts.

God, as well as many of us, know that some people are much more set on the things of this world than they are on the things of God’s kingdom. This then puts our opening passage into perfect perspective.

Not everyone will inherit the kingdom of God. It is not based upon how much good or bad a person does in this life but upon our belief, knowledge, understanding, awareness, and acknowledgment of God and His realm. If we truly believe in the Lord our lives will reflect our beliefs. If we do not, we will look like those who are chasing after all the self-satisfaction this world has to offer.

It’s not a bad thing to have the opportunity to live here on earth. Through this journey we will come to know the true desires of our hearts and we will be judged accordingly.

C-ya tomorrow.

Yesterday we ended with our awakening to the eternal realm and the transformed life that makes everything new.

As we start today we are going to come to understand how we have become a special possession of God’s.

James 1:18 N.L.T.

18 In his goodness he chose to make us his own children by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his choice possession.

1 Peter 2:9-10 N.C.V

9 But you are a chosen people, royal priests, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. You were chosen to tell about the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 At one time you were not a people, but now you are God’s people. In the past you had never received mercy, but now you have received God’s mercy.

Galatians 5:19-25 N.L.T.

19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, 20 idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22 But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

Those who have been awakened to this new life are now different. They are no longer the same ordinary earth dwellers they were before. They are no longer people looking for a way to do good or get right with some imaginary God.

The awakened are called Christians or Christ-in-yous. they are new creations. They are a people possessed by God. They have been chosen to be God’s ambassadors here on earth to make other earth dwellers aware of this eternal life in God’s kingdom.

The Christian is different. He has been set apart for God’s good purpose. They live differently led by a Spirit of Holiness and not the self spirit. Many of the things that excite the earth dweller are no longer attractive to the Christian. The Christian is seeing life from a higher way or standard of living. They are in the world but no longer of it. They are residents of another dimension, another realm, an eternal world that encompasses our physical realm.

One of our passages told us “when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.” How does this happen? Once you see life from the eternal perspective you will have great compassion for those who have not yet been awakened. You will desire in your inner most being that they come to see and receive this new awakening. You will love your fellow earth dwellers with a love you have never experienced before. Your life will be so changed that those around you will begin to think you are an alien, stranger or even foreigner to the earth. In reality, you are.

See you tomorrow.

Stargate Universe Episode 9 – titled -Life – wasn’t as good as the last episode but it was still kinda neat.

The background song -It’s been the worst day since yesterday – was so cool at the beginning and at the end it just fit so well.

We know Col Young’s wife was with Telfrod, and get that they had nice fight at the end.

The whole thing with Scott having a son,kinda interesting and just gives us more insight into his troubled nature.

Then there was the Lesbians (with Camille) -

Oh and we found out there is a ship’s slut, though it isn’t Lt. James.

And once again we see that Rush is a scumbag. What’s up with him lying about an icarus type planet a year away?

Overall a decent character development episode for the major SGU characters – though Eli got little screen time.

Life on the Destiny isn’t like other Stargate shows, there aren’t constant attacks by G’ould, wraith or Orii – it’s mostly a lonely existence.

And just in case you want to hear that great song again – it’s from a band called Flogging Molly – enjoy!

Last week, as I’m sure you noted, I reviewed Roland Emmerich’s effects-riddled disaster opus 2012. I did not think it was very good. So you might be wondering, “Eric, you myopic jerk, why are you reviewing ANOTHER Emmerich film so close to your first?” Well, trust me, my rapier-witted friend, I have a reason. You see, after combing through the filmography of Mr. Emmerich, or, as I like to call it, the $5 bin at Wal-Mart, I noticed an alarming trend; all of his movies, while not without their merits, pretty much suck. I mean, it’s alarming how much his movies have made considering their poor quality. And while that must really say something about us as a nation that we would all rather go see mindless shit rather than well-told and well-executed films, it also says something about Emmerich’s style.

In an odd way, he’s making movies based on what we want to see rather than a vision or his own ideas. Movies like Independence Day, 2012, and especially The Patriot are, in an aesthetic sense, his critique of American taste. And, based on his box office clout, he has hit the nail on the head with a forklift, which is what he uses to haul all that American money away. It’s a shame that they’re all terrible movies, though, and a real shame that Americans identify with them and roll with it anyway, like a pig being teased with a slice of bacon. Today’s film, Stargate, is probably my favorite example of this strange phenomenon. It’s still not very good, but you can look at it as a surprising indictment of American Imperialism and our rough-and-tumble cowboy attitude and really get a lot more out of it.

So, basically, in the late 20s, archaeologists discover a mysterious stone ring near the pyramids in Giza. It seems to have some sort of purpose, but nobody can understand the meaning of the hieroglyphs. The mystery stays a mystery until a woman named Catherine Langford, daughter of the man who found the ring, figures it all out. It seems to be, believe it or not, a transport that can teleport people across worlds (!!!). The US government steps in and has all of this information classified, working on it in top secret, trying to get this “Stargate” to work. Eventually, they uncover how to do it, and they put together a team to go through the gate, which now has a thin sheet of rippling liquid suspended in the ring. Commander Jack O’Neil leads the group, along with Dr. Daniel Jackson as the brains, Lt. Col. Charles Kawalsky, and some dude played by French Stewart; together, along with some Red-shirts, they bravely enter the Stargate, and are indeed transported to another world. But it’s not one they like very much.

Apparently, the Egyptian god Ra was actually an alien (!!!) who came to Earth thousands of years ago for slaving purposes. He captured and bred Egyptians so they could serve him on his alien world, with the Stargate as the link to new, fresh Earth slaves. O’Neil is flabbergasted by all this, but even more so by the fact that they, in their current state, can’t return to Earth because the coordinates are missing somewhere. So, for the time being, they’re stuck on an alien planet full of hostiles devoted to Ra and a bunch of Egyptian slaves that don’t really speak their language. Great! They’re going to be in for a bumpy ride on this planet, and what at first was a recon mission soon becomes a skin-of-their-teeth plan to both destroy Ra’s evil endeavor and get back home alive!

Whew! Crazy, huh? It’s a pretty out-there concept if you think about it too much. Even crazier is that someone threw $55 million dollars at this nutty idea! But somehow even crazier than that is the philosophy behind it. If you look at it from a certain angle, it closely resembles our relationship with countries overseas and our wars across the globe the past 100 years. From the Spanish American War to the troubles in the Middle East, Stargate does a fair job in emulating what we do in other people’s countries. We topple the current regime without anyone asking us to, leave a whole lot of rubble to clean up, and expect everyone to thank us for all the things we did that they should have done on their own, just like Mr. Jack O’Neil. What are the slaves supposed to do without Ra? They never planned for a life without him, or a body to replace him, so why is toppling him such a good thing when the people doing it aren’t even invested in the fight and have no intention of staying around after the fighting is over? It’s a pointed question I think Emmerich had in the back of his mind while he was making this, and even if he didn’t, he’s somewhat of a savant for making something that’s vaguely political.

Of course, maybe I’m looking into it a little too much, but I think that something’s definitely there. Stargate is a rather dumb, preposterous science fiction movie otherwise, and it helps if you interject your own thought processes into it so it doesn’t drag like an Egyptian ball and chain. With middling effects, an over-wrought cast filled to the brim with soldier and scientist cliches perpetuated by phoning-it-in A-listers Kurt Russell and James Spader (I feel like I slipped into Starship Troopers for a few seconds of this movie), and a whole lot of ear-screeching dialog, it’s pretty much on par with the rest of his work as far as quality and taste. There is some interesting set design and some of the props are shiny and attention-grabbing, to be fair, and Jaye Davidson, who plays Ra (and subsequently the famous Dil from The Crying Game) is a good character actor, but nothing really meritorious about it. It’s a Sci-fi Original with $55 million behind it. Excuse me; Syfy Original. But if you put your thinking caps on and try digging a little deeper on this, you might find that you can stomach it. All things considered, I give Stargate 6 Americans on foreign soil out of 10.

Keep an eye out for my second review later today or tonight! Until then!

Yesterday we ended with the following passage of Scripture…

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 N.I.V.

19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

As you know we have journeyed through the Stargate with eternity set upon our hearts.

We are now residing in the realm of time which is encompassed by the realm of eternity.

We have searched and sought out to find the truth and have found that it is available to us through a relationship with God the Creator.

This relationship was made possible by His Son, Jesus, coming into our realm and purchasing us back to Himself with His own shed blood.

Now that we can come back into communication with the Creator God, who resides on the other side of the Stargate, we are told that He can send us a Helper, Counselor, Comforter, a Spirit of Truth that will live in us. This indwelling Spirit will empower us to have life in two realms, eternity and time, at the same time.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 N.I.V.

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

This form of godliness is what earth dwellers call religion. It’s an earth based way of making people good and right and hopefully acceptable to God if there really happens to be one.

This is not very powerful. People will only get involved in religion if they see that it is good for them or it works for them to get what they desire.

This Christianity thing is not a religion but a point in time and space where a person comes to realize the truth of God’s realm and desires to be a part of it. They want to have this eternal power that helps them to live life as God has designed instead of living the self life blind to the reality of eternity.

The Christian has been awakened and wants to know and understand the greater truth.

Colossians 1:13-14 N.L.T.

13 For he has rescued us from the one who rules in the kingdom of darkness, and he has brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son. 14 God has purchased our freedom with his blood and has forgiven all our sins.

1 John 4:4 N.C.V.

4 My dear children, you belong to God and have defeated them; because God’s Spirit, who is in you, is greater than the devil, who is in the world.

Romans 8:9-10 N.L.T.

9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them are not Christians at all.) 10 Since Christ lives within you, even though your body will die because of sin, your spirit is alive because you have been made right with God.

1 Timothy 2:5-6 N.L.T.

5 For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and people. He is the man Christ Jesus. 6 He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message that God gave to the world at the proper time.

Ephesians 1:7 N.L.T.

7 He is so rich in kindness that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his Son, and our sins are forgiven.

1 Corinthians 1:30 N.L.T.

30 God alone made it possible for you to be in Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Christ to be wisdom itself. He is the one who made us acceptable to God. He made us pure and holy, and he gave himself to purchase our freedom.

Ephesians 1:14 N.L.T.

14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God.

I hope these passages have helped you to better see what is happening to you as you journey in this realm of time and space.

I’ll be back tomorrow.

Frequências de saudação abertas:

Você está convidado para a 4a. FicSão Paulo
Auditório da Livraria Cultura – Market Place Shopping Center

Domingo – 29 de novembro de 2009
Horário: 13h00 as 18h00

Estaremos comemorando 9 anos de eventos, e você é nosso convidado especial!

Preparamos várias surpresas para você! Serão exibidos os episódios piloto das novas séries “Stargate Universe” e o remake da aclamada série “V – A batalha final”, ambos INÉDITOS NO BRASIL.

Para o público trekker, exibiremos um fanfilme feito em animação tradicional, baseado em Jornada nas Estrelas – série clássica.

Para os fãs de Star Wars, preparamos um bloco com vídeos sobre este universo.

E falando sobre ciência, você já parou para pensar como são calculadas as trajetórias das naves e sondas espaciais? Como ter certeza de que irão percorrer milhões de km e mesmo assim chegarão ao seu destino? Seguindo nossa filosofia de divulgar ficção, cultura e ciência, haverá uma paletra sobre Johannes Kepler, 1o. astrofísico e também 1o. escritor de Ficção Científica da história, e que elaborou 3 leis que regem todos os movimentos do universo, de planetas a naves espaciais.

Serão sorteados 1 DVD original de Jornada nas Estrelas, 1 camiseta de Star Wars, 1 action figure especial, posters e muito mais. Brindes para todas as crianças presentes.

Tudo isso em um confortável auditório com telão e ar-condicionado. Confira como chegar em www.livrariacultura.com.br ou http://www.marketplace.com.br/page/index.asp

Programação*

13h00 – Abertura do evento
13h05 – Fanfilme “Starship Farragut – episódio “The power source”. Animação baseada no universo de Jornada nas Estrelas – série clássica – legendado
13h40 – Episódio piloto da refilmagem de V – A batalha final. V – Visitors foi lançado este mês no EUA e é Inédito no Brasil – legendado
14h30 – Palestra sobre Johannes Kepler, 1º autor de Ficção Científica e descobridor das leis que regem todos os movimento do universo, de planetas a naves espaciais. Palestrante: Prof. Tasso Napoleão
15h15 – Intervalo
15h40 – Apresentação dos fã-clubes presentes
15h55 – Episódio piloto da nova série Stargate Universe – legendado – Inédito no Brasil
17h15 – Especial Star Wars com vídeos diversos:
• Darth Vader comandando uma orquestra
• Star Trek x Star Wars
• George Lucas in love
• Paródias de Star Wars
17h45 – Sorteio
17h55 – Comemoração dos 9 anos de eventos do Grupo Zona Neutra
18h00 – Encerramento

*programação sujeita a alterações.

Sinopses:

Starship Farragut: Neste episódio a nave Farragut, sob o comando do capitão Glenn, é enviada em busca da USS Azrael (NCC 517). Mas acabam descobrindo que eles é que podem estar sendo procurados.

Stargate Universe: Nova série que estreou em outubro nos EUA, mostra as aventuras de uma equipe de jovens e ainda inexperientes exploradores a bordo de uma nave dos Antigos chamada Destiny. Sem saber que ela está programada para percorrer vastas regiões não exploradas do Universo, o grupo fica preso na nave e precisa lidar com a nova realidade de que não voltará mais para a Terra. A idéia é que este tipo de situação sirva para trazer histórias mais íntimas e ligadas aos personagens, divergindo das tramas mais fechadas das séries Stargate SG-1 e Stargate Atlantis.

V – Visitors: Refilmagem da série dos anos 80 “V – A batalha final”. Alienígenas répteis humanóides chegam a Terra, mas mostram um aparência idêntica aos humanos. Suas verdadeiras intenções são tomar o controle do planeta com manipulação da mídia e golpes políticos. Felizmente, um grupo de terráqueos descobre o plano, formando uma resistência com a ajuda de uma facção alienígena contrária aos planos de seus líderes para dominar a Terra.

Especial Star Wars: Neste bloco serão apresentados alguns vídeos baseados no universo de Star Wars.

Sobre a palestra: Você tem ideia de como são calculadas as trajetórias das naves e sondas espaciais? Como ter certeza de que chegarão ao seu destino?

Nesta palestra você conhecerá a aplicação de 3 leis que governam todos os movimentos do universo, descobertas há 400 anos por Yohannes Kepler.

Kepler foi o 1º astrofísico, o último dos astrônomos-astrólogos e o 1º autor de ficção científica da história, com sua obra “Somnium” sobre uma viagem à Lua.

Sobre o palestrante: Tasso Napoleão é diretor científico do REA / Brasil – Rede de Astronomia Observacional – www.reabrasil.org e um dos coordenadores do programa Brass (Brazilian Supernovae Search) de busca de supernovas extragalácticas
http://brass.astrodatabase.net

Também é professor do CASP – Clube de Astronomia de São Paulo
www.astrocasp.com.br

Apoio: Livraria Cultura

Loja Coleciona http://www.coleciona.com.br/

Almirante Sílvia out
Presidente Grupo Zona Neutra
Presidente Grupo de Ficção Científica Alpha
Diretora de Eventos FFESP

E demais membros da equipe

Fonte: Grupo Zona Neutra

So, one of the first bloggers I contacted to find out a little more about was TRAV.  He graciously answered my questions – even the jellybean one!  I thought it would be more fun to hear about his favourite things – sort of like when Oprah has her ‘favourite things’ TV episode… So here are my questions for TRAV!

bread & butter pudding by jules:stonesoup from flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stone-soup/2582782905/

Favourite book as a child? The Magic Pudding

Who is your hero or role model? My Mum and Dad. They are just fantastic and I love them.

Thanks to Trav for those answers – do you like any of the same books?  Who is your favourite character?

Jahapp, då har även jag tagit ett steg in i framtiden och investerat i en BluRay spelare. Jag har letat länge efter ett billigt alternativ och det slutade med att införskaffa denna spelaren.

Sony BDP-S360

Absolut allt annat än en värstingspelare, men den har BD-Live och stödjer alla nödvändiga ljudformat som jag är ute efter. Dessutom var den under 2000kr och det var min maxbudget nu. Det är ju julafton runt hörnet och det är lika bra att köpa den nu så kan jag önska mig film i julklapp….nej, alltså jag menade ju såklart lika bra att köpa den nu innan jul eftersom man skall köpa julklappar, hehe.

Specifikation

- BD-ROM (BonusView, profil 1.1)
- BD-ROM (BD-Live, profil 2.0)
- 1080p-utgång (via HDMI)
- HD-uppskalning med Precision Cinema (DVD-uppskalning till 1080p)
- D/A-omvandlare för video: 12 bitar/148,5 MHz
- 24p True Cinema
- x.v. Colour
- Utgång för progressiv avsökning
- Precision Drive HD
- Deep Colour
- 8-kanals linjär PCM Bitstream-utgång
- Dolby TrueHD-avkodning
- Dolby TrueHD Bitstream-utgång
- DTS-HD Master Audio-avkodning
- DTS-HD Master Audio Bitstream-utgång
- D/A-omvandlare för ljud: 192 kHz/24 bitars

Utgångar

• 1x HDMI
• 1x Komponentvideoutgång
• 1x Composite-videoutgång
• 1x Digital koaxial ljudutgång
• 1x Digital Optisk ljudutgång
• 1x Analog stereoutgång
• 1x Ethernet

- Snabbstart: 6 sekunder
- XrossMediaBar^TM (GUI)
- BRAVIA Sync
- Uppdateringar av inbyggd programvara via Ethernet
- Skärmsläckare
- Strömförbrukning: 220-240 V
- Strömförbrukning (under drift): 22 W
- Strömförbrukning (i viloläge): 0,19 W (i normalt viloläge)
- Automatisk avstängning: 30 minuter
- Mått (BxHxD): 430 x 56 x 216 mm
- Vikt (kg): 2,1

+ andra onödiga spec´s som tex display på fronten, fjärrkontroll och massa annat självklart tjafs.

Pris: 1979.- inklusive frakt

Jag passade självklart även på att köpa på mig lite film så jag kan njuta av vår nya leksak direkt. Vi har iof 2st BD filmer sedan innan , Click & Terminator 2, men ändå, man vill ju ändå ha lite nytt när man ändå investerar eller hur?

Här är lilla listan på nyinköpta filmer, klicka på bilderna för att komma till beskrivningen av filmen om ni inte känner igen dem.

Transformers 1 & 2 – Mega Edition (4 disc), Rec, Cloverfield, Hellboy 2, Stargate, Inglourious Basterds

Tyvärr är det fortfarande för dyrt att köpa BluRay (BD) filmer till fullpris, speciellt boxar så som det ser ut nu får det bli att rota runt i billiglådorna och kika efter kampanjer ett tag till. Boxar får köpas på DVD så länge tills priserna sjunker. I stort sett alla filmer som jag köpte nu är på kampanj på cdon, men Inglourious Basterds vill jag ha direkt den kommer så den fick det snällt bli till fullpris. Transformers filmerna är dock ett måste så även den fick det bli köp på direkt, dock till ett lockande specialpris på 399.- Så från och med nu kommer jag inte bara tipsa om köpfilm på DVD utan även på BluRay.

Morena Baccarin has really hit the big time in the new television re-make of the 1983 science fiction series called “V”which recently premiered on ABC.   

The premise of the show for those of you who may not have seen the show is about a race of aliens who suddenly visit earth in 29 gigantic spaceships claiming to come in peace…their tagline is.…”We are of peace. Always.”  (Yeah, right!)

Morena Baccarin, a 30 year-old Brazilian born New Yorker, who has starred in a variety of programs such as Firefly and Serenity as “Inara” and a Stargate SG-1 alum, as “Adria” is now playing “Anna,” the supreme commander of the alien race currently hovering over all the major cities of the planet earth.  

Sporting a brand new haircut, remnicient of Audrey Hepburn and Halle Berry and probably being blessed by every hair salon across the country, “V” has done wonders for ABC ratings with 14.3 million viewers among adults 18-49 on the night of the premiere, on November 3, 2009, easily the best numbers for any new show this season.

 “V” will air in two parts, with four episodes before the holidays, and the remainder in 2010 right after the Olympics are over.  During this hiatus, you can catch Morena Baccarin in the upcoming big screen drama “Stolen Lives,” alongside Josh Lucas and “Mad Men’s” John Hamm.

 Watch “V” on Tuesday nights at 8 pm on ABC

For more information about the show visit:  

IMDB.com

 TV Guide Interview

Sources:

Various