The Beautiful Seasons, Autumn

I'm rather late, waiting for our first snow, to post these photos. But here's some shots I took this fall along the Sammamish river in downtown Redmond.

An alternate path of the Sammamish River Trail:


Autumn Colors on the Sammamish River:





Reflections at a Storm Pond:









~ Photography by Basil

The Golden Compass

There's a great new movie out, and I suggest you all go see it!

Ok, perhaps I'm waxing a bit hyperbolic here. I really don't care whether you see it or not, but I think the great sensationalism about this movie among various Christian denominations underscores one of the most significant difference between Orthodox Christianity and all other forms of Christianity.

In a nut-shell both Roman Catholic and Protestant ethics is based on the heresy of Gnosticism, specifically Gnostic Dualism. Basically the idea is that there are two inseparable realms: the physical and the spiritual. These two realms are irreconcilable. The irreconcilability of these two realms leads to the obvious ethical consideration: we punish the physical in order to attain the spiritual. You see that in Protestant and Roman Catholic ethics all the time.

The only problem is, it is a heresy. Self-mortification was decried and confirmed as heretical at one of our Great and Holy Seven Ecumenical Councils. Not only that, but maintaining the concept that the physical and spiritual realms are irreconcilable denies the very heart of Christianity: the Incarnation in the Flesh of God. The fundamental point of our faith is that these two realms are no longer irreconcilable. God Himself became a man to prove that. God Himself became man so that spiritual and the physical may be united in one. It is only through that act that we, cut off from the spiritual here in a physical world, are actually able to attain the spiritual without leaving behind the physical.

The author of these books, and movie, believes that: Christianity is all about "ideological tyranny and the rejection of this world in favor of an idealized afterlife" and as such he is a self-proclaimed atheist. Have you read about Phillip Pullman's god? I'd be an athiest too if I believed God was like that!

The big problem here is not that this guy is an atheist. The big problem is that this guy has so much truth to draw upon to support his atheism!

For hundreds of years Christians have talked about this idealized world, and the rejection of this physical world we are in. But the problem is, that's heresy according to the Orthodox Christian teaching. We are in this world to transform the world, to elevate it to the realm of the ideal, to bring this world closer to God: not through suffering, not through self-inflicted pain, not through tyranny and oppression, but through liberation, through love, through through goodness and mercy. This is what the Orthodox Faith is all about.

Unfortunately, Orthodoxy has been under the yoke of Western teaching for quite some time now. I've actually heard Orthodox priests teach that God wants us to suffer. This concept has crept into the Church through several means: (1) In Orthodox seminaries in Russia in the 19th century most of the teachers were Jesuits; (2) Oft times our new "converts" fail to fully convert from their western ideology when they enter the Orthodox Church.

In these days when we have Muslims practicing and teaching Gnostic Dualism far and wide (for it really is one of the fundamental concerns of their faith that they destroy this world in favor of the next one), it is far more important that Christians return to the truth, return to the roots of Christianity: that God became a man so that we may become like God, not in the world to come, but in THIS world!

~ Basil

No Tea and Exploding Plates
The latest in Basiland

Well, here's a couple of the items I've been working on lately.

First there is No Tea, a web site (blog) devoted to my wife's grandmother's memoirs which were written in Russian, and then recently published in English Translation. Check out NoTea.org and NoTeaForFruit.com and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Next there's Exploding Plate, my exciting new blog at www.explodingplate.com - a place where I can grumble about all the trash we buy in our stores that breaks down shortly after you get it home and lose the receipt or shortly after the warantee expires. This way I won't have to pollute the noble FlyInTheHolyOil with my raving about the downfall of America because of unrequited consumerism. I plan to expand that site slowly, first with photos and more information about my gripes, but eventually with a message board / forum where folks can join, log in, and post about their own product gripes.

Both of these sites are powered by the WordPress blogging software. I really like WordPress because it gives you both the capability of a CMS, and a blog all in one. You can have blog entries that scroll away as blog entries usually do, and also have "pages" which are always available right there from your menu. Having these pages here in English using WordPress also helps me get used to using word press, which I plan to also install in Russian and hook into my site yagovo.ru (one of my more ambitious and long-term projects where I hope to someday provide free blogging to Russians.)

As a side-line, I'm going to be shortly incorporating google ad-words into my blogs (all of them) starting with explodingplate.com once I've got some more content up there. Currently I've got three or four products slated to grumble about and am just waiting for my camera battery to recharge so I can get some photos off my camera.

Cheers!
Basil

Bad Times for the Entertainment Industry: A Great Day for Bloggers

Let's face it. The entertainment industry is going to suffer on account of the Writer's Strike (Wow! has anyone ever seen so much creativity all in one place!), and now the Broadway Stagehand Strike. I don't really know how much it will suffer at the passing of Norm Mailer (I've over a thousand books in my personal library and not one of his - never read him!) So, what does everyone do now for entertainment?

Browse the Web!

(I reckon a few of them will go out to eat dinner at a fine restaurant too.)

So, I figure it is a great day for bloggers. Folks will have nothing to read for a while (ya, right!) and so they are going to be meandering the dark catacombs and sunny glades of blogger, wordpress, lifejournal, and myspace.

I guess maybe my point is: who cares that the Hollywood writers are on strike? Is the world going to suffer if all those couch potatoes out there have to watch re-runs for a few weeks? I think not. Is the world going to suffer of a hand full of movies are released later than planned? Again: I think not.

I do feel mildly sorry for the Hollywood and/or New York writer: mostly because they have to live in Hollywood and/or New York where the cost of living is 100 times what it is anywhere else in the country. But, in a way, I don't feel sorry for them too: because it was their choice.

And, what I think the Hollywood types don't recognize is that everybody is suffering these days. The economy is going to hell. Costs are going up and people are making less and less money. (I haven't gotten a salary increase in two years now, and I'm busting my butt to make my company profitable.)

So, I guess I change my mind. I don't feel sorry for them.

Enjoy cyberspace!

Cheers!
Basil

Our Civil Liberties, Police State, and the Proper Government Substitutes for Intelligent Citizens

I've been following the LA Fires in the news, as I suppose so many others have been.

I figure it is probably a terrorist act, now that they are fairly certain that the fires were deliberately set. Will we ever know? Maybe not. Our government doesn't want us to know too much. Might make us panic. Might make us elect someone else. You know.

Anyway, I'm considering the citizens of Souther Cal fairly heroic for their bravery in the midst a very difficult situation. This is their September 11th, and we should honor that.

Meanwhile, in one article:
On The Difficulties People are Finding Getting Back to their Homes

There is this great post by a local resident. I think it both sums up the truth of the situation, the Great American Spirit of individualism that made our country great, and the impoverished ideology our current government has (which is really demoralizing to the country, and threatens the future of our country more than terrorism does). Now, I don't want to read too much into what this guy says, but he has a way with words, and I agree with him 100%:

John E. wrote on Oct 25...
" The topic of 'mandatory' evacuations raises very significant issues regarding civil liberty. Our lawsuit-happy and risk-averse society is in danger of morphing into a nanny state, in which Big Brother knows best and John Q. Public is treated as a buffoon who always knows less than the so-called experts. If I had a wooden-roofed house atop a chaparral-covered slope, I would probably choose to evacuate even before the reverse 9-1-1 call, but if I had a reasonably fire-resistant house at the bottom of a canyon, with 'shelter in place' landscaping and a good water supply with a backup generator for a pump, I might decide to stay. There is no substitute for clear, rational thought, personal responsibility, and risk assessment. "

Bravo, John, and thanks for both your words ans your bravery!

There are also some great words on the page from a feisty Grandmother, Ada.

I hope you folks stay safe and well.

Cheers!
Basil

Interesting Russian News

http://www.itar-tass.com/level2.html?NewsID=11997278

Stop Mucking with my %$#@$##@$ Operating System!!!

It is a simple thing, but it makes me really mad. The Federal Government should step in and STOP Microsoft from arbitrarily making changes to the O/S that affect ordinary behavior. It is not so much the fact that they make changes to the O/S - that part I accept. If there is a security vulnerability, then by all means, upload it to my computer with the regular updates so that my computer will function the way it is supposed to (safely). But what is not acceptable is for Microsoft to upload changes to my operating system without me knowing about it, and then try to pass them off under the cover of security updates.

It is simply unethical, Bill, never mind where it is legal or not. I can assure you, Mr. Gates, that you have reserved seats at the fireside show in HELL, because you have no conscience about what your company does to everyone's computer!!!

Here is my case in point. I well know, after many years of using MS operating systems, what I want out of an operating system. Sure, there are ideas I've had for making the O/S better. For example, when I drag and drop a file because I want to make a copy of it: why not allow me to specify at that time how I'd like the copy renamed - or better still, give me access to a registry key I can change so that my files are renamed in a certain manner when I drag and drop. Maybe even using a regular expression.

Okay, but that aside. What I do not want. What I cannot accept. What is ABSOLUTELY unacceptable to me, is when you Morons (yes, the M in Microsoft, I'm sure, is for Morons) change my operating system without asking me, without telling me about it, without anything, AND try to pass this off as a security update!!!! It is altogether unethical, and it should be illegal.

So, here is my problem. For years (it seems like centuries) when you drag and drop a file to make a copy of it, it makes a copy with the numeration of what (nth) copy it is of that file. For example, I drag File.doc once, and I get "Copy of File.doc" - I drag it twice and I get "Copy (2) of File.doc" and so on. If I drag "Copy (2) of File.doc" I get "Copy of Copy (2) of File.doc" - If I drag and drop that I get "Copy (2) of Copy (2) of File.doc"

At least, that's how it has always been. Now all of a sudden some genius at Microsoft has decided that that's dumb, and so now when I drag and drop "Copy (2) of File.doc" I get instead "Copy (3) of File.doc".

Well, that's a great idea. And we would all agree it's a great idea. Sure, you can put that in VISTA and if we are all so inclined to purchase VISTA we can switch to the new methodology. But it will be a conscious choice.

But the problem is, that's not how it worked before. That's now how it has always worked. And, I find that you ba$tar6$ changing my operating system on me without my permission, without asking me, without informing me, to be wholly unacceptable.

I have my operating system turned on in such a way as to download updates, and then prompt me to install them. But this does not permit you folks to change the way my operating system functions. I am expecting patches. Patches are something that fixes something that is broken. They are not something that completely changes the behavior.

Okay, well, I've said enough.

Grrrrrrr.....

Back to work now.

~ Basil