Whitsunday 15 May 2005
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Pic of the day: "Let us talk with pure hearts." No ecchi today, in honor of Whitsunday and the Holy Ghost. Also, I think it is nifty to see what kind of impression the Japanese have of our (well, at least my) religion. Screenshot from the anime My Hime (or Mai Hime). A mixed bagIt is Whitsunday, or Pentecost as it is also called. For most Norwegians simply an excuse for a longer weekend (we have the Monday off, and this year also the Tuesday because it is our National Day). Grown-ups generally know that the Holy Spirit was involved somehow with Pentecost, but it is not something most of them think much about. Perhaps they should, whether they believe in Jesus or not. We don't really know anything about the Pentecost even except what is written in the Acts of the Apostles, a book in the Bible, written by Luke of gospel fame. Part of the book seems to be eyewitness account, but this starts well after the church is established. So we have only third hand accounts of what really happened. Even so, it was pretty dramatic. From a disorganized and confused bunch of fishermen and relatives of Jesus, the Church and the religion of Christianity suddenly exploded onto world history. It would still take a few hundred years before western civilization was changed beyond recognition, but it goes straight from there to here. And contrary to eager protests from atheists and agnostics and probably some competing religions as well, Christianity is probably essential in the creation of modern civilization with democracy, capitalism and compounded wealth creation. It doesn't seem likely, perhaps, but take a look at two world maps. Take one and color the countries that are predominantly Christian, and take another and color the rich and democratic countries of the world. Then try to guess at a glance which is which. Despite all protests that Christianity is authoritarian, anti-democratic and primitive... the fact remains that it is the only culture in which our civilization could arise. Whether capitalism is a work of God or, on the contrary, Satan's desperate attempt to finally neutralize Christianity... the jury is still out on that. Certainly the society I see today is nothing like Christ or the Holy Ghost were encouraging. Greed, shameless adultery, more greed, sloth and gluttony, greed and hypocricy abound. But I suspect most of us still prefer this age over the one 2000 years ago, where life was nasty, brutish and short. Still, I wish there was a time telescope or something so I could see what happened then. Of course, most people at the time never noticed, and most people today don't notice the change that is coming. Even I can only sense it as the end of the things I know. As if my memories of the future are coming to an end, and a static disturbs all my attempts to look further ahead. Something big is coming, and I don't know what. But that's the human condition, I guess. "If we had lived in the time of our ancestors, we would not..." ***In my personal life, ketogenesis continues apace. I took a more than hour-long walk in the hilly terrain, burned 850 kcal. I hadn't eaten much neither yesterday nor today (in fact, mostly drinking watered juice and low-fat milk). I could feel that I was a bit depleted, to use a fine word. I kinda ran out of energy half way through. On the bright side, my muscles seem to have taken no damage. They just ran out of fuel for a while. One funny detail is that whenever I stopped, my heart rate climbed. Not just a little, but quite a bit. As if the body waited with something big as long as I kept moving. I wonder what that could be. Perhaps it is just that the movement of my steps was helping the heart move the blood. I think I have read something about that, that the veins in the legs have some kind of one way opening that allows the movements of the muscles to push blood toward the heart but not the other way. More disturbingly, after I return from even moderate exercise, my stomach is acting up. It did so yesterday and even more so today. It pretends to be really hungry, which would make sense. But if fed, even with moderate amounts of fluids, it soon starts to hurt and continues this way for several hours. Only in the evening could I safely eat again, and even then I have done so very cautiously. This does not seem very smart of you, body. When more fat is burned, you can eat more, not less. ***My Sims, on the other hand, are doing quite well. Cairn, the son of Mazrim Spanner and Audrey The Cow, is in university now. He had maxed several skills before getting that far, and the rest were pretty high. Well, except cleaning. He is an irredeemable slob. Despite years of encouragement from his father, he only went up 1 notch in neatness. That's just enough that he will clean the dishes when he realizes that no one else is going to do it. Anyway, Cairn got a hefty grant because of his academic prowess, and went off to live in the same dorm where his father lived. Sadly the game locked up as he was moving in ... the controls never came back after the intro movie, probably because he spent the whole movie playing his handheld game! During that period, I could see some of the other dorm mates, and they looked like the ones that lived with his father. But when I eventually broke off the program from Windows and started again, he was still in the dorm but had other clothes (than the ones he changed to in the movie sequence) and the other students were changed. Most of them looked familiar, but I guess there are only a certain number of stereotypical students after all. Or perhaps they were children of the original students... the names are new, anyway, and some of the faces. But all the stuff his father bought is still there, so he doesn't really need all that money. I'm not sure if that is because of the crash, perhaps if I get through another generation of Sims I will find out. Oh, and Mazrim has opened their home to Marsha Bruening, Cairn's best friend from grade school. She is technically very shy (2 out of 10) but she kept phoning Cairn at the college at least once a day and also his parents at home. So I decided to cheat a little and take her in as a member of the household. (She is not adopted, though. I used a testing cheat to add her to the family. That's the only way I can age her so she can get to the university with her childhood sweetheart.) For now, Marsha is staying at home with Cairn's parents and growing up so she can go to the university. But she is not aware that Cairn has met another very likable girl there. Also Audrey may not be able to avoid old age for much longer. Mazrim stays young through his dedication to the family, but his wife has not had the same success with her career. And will Cairn be able to produce the six grandchildren of Mazrim's dream, thus ensuring his survival for another generation? Or will I get bored and do something else again, as I usually do with all things? |
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