Farwell to 2012

I leave you to close 2012 with a little song about life, The Garden.  Great solo.

 

 

"The Garden"

 

In this one of many possible worlds, all for the best or some bizarre test?
It is what it is and whatever, Time is still the infinite jest.

The arrow flies when you dream, the hours tick away, the cells tick away.

The Watchmaker keeps to His schemes; the hours tick away, they tick away.

The measure of a Life is a measure of love and respect: so hard to earn so easily burned.

In the fullness of Time, a garden to nurture and protect.

In the rise and the set of the sun 'til the stars go spinning 'round the night.
Oh, it is what it is, and forever; each moment a memory in flight.

The arrow flies while you breathe, the hours tick away, the cells tick away.

The Watchmaker has Time up His sleeve; the hours tick away, they tick away.

The measure of a Life is a measure of love and respect: so hard to earn so easily burned.

In the fullness of Time, a garden to nurture and protect.
(It's a measure of a Life)

The treasure of a Life is a measure of love and respect, the way you live, the gifts that you give.

In the fullness of time, it's the only return that you expect.

The future disappears into memory, with only a moment between.
Forever dwells in that moment, Hope is what remains to be seen.

End of Line

  So this is it, the end of the year, or at least what approximations most humans mark as the end of a solar orbit cycle.  U2 always said it best when they sang, "Nothing changes on New Year's Day" (though the rest of the song seems to be of the "love" variety and doesn't really mean much just so it can rhyme).

  Had a good year?  Well, some did, I recon.  I had a rather interesting one myself with no major tragedies nor victories and a few close scrapes.  I refuse to make a revisited list or a "best of 2012" list because I, for one, don't need that.  I know some people do, particularly the shallow, empty kind who really like pop-music but are over age 16.  There's a few "adults" where I work that really really like "Call Me Maybe".  They have no real hobbies.  Sad.  Void music for void folks.  Ah, void people making void kids to a void world of.. void.  The Void Generation (tm).

  Well, it's not all doom and gloom.  There's a few sparkles of hope scattered here and there with people I meet.  People with interesting opinions that are willing to consider others'.  People who know how to use the apostrophe correctly.  People who didn't vote for the DoD to be crushed and make me unemployed and make Adam Ant's song, "This is the USSA" come true.  Shrug.  There's always Australia.  Lex Luthor thought that one out early-on.

  The movie The Hobbit was rather good with some Silmarillion in there for taste.  It was nice to have a Doctor Who actor as "Radagast".

  I think I've carefully maintained my alignment as "Neutral Good", though I'm sure I've slipped here or there once in a while.

  Hope you liked the last few posts of "Best Movies of the Decade" series.  Rather a lot more work than I'd have liked to have produced.  I'll have to think twice before undertaking that one again.  The last bunch got a few grumbles here and there, but I knew this because it was close to home for those who can't remember much so it's all they cling to.  I really can't imagine living in a fog like most humans.  I have usually sharp memory except when it comes to actor's names.  I can remember their character names but the actual actor?  I trip it up from time to time.  Ah well.

  Next year seems to offer a great selection of movies, from the second part of The Hobbit to Thor 2 and Iron Man 3 and others.  Though most know me as a huge Star Trek fan, the next film seems from what I've seen to be a bit too.. "kaboom".  Star Trek has always been a game of chess where Star Wars more of a checkers game.  Still, Disney has Star Wars now and that should prove to be something.  Seems they got their 3rd wind lately.  Tr3n looks also to be promising (aka Tron 3).

  Cheers to you all, and see you tomorrow.

Zombies Hate Brains

 Hi, my name is Mike Cronis, and I'm an expert.

 

  So I'd say I'm pretty much an expert on Zombie-Lore.  I know origins from Haiti as the nzumbe, the zonbi, the resurrection-technique of Voudu (voodoo) and its requirements for success et. al. (ie. don't use a pigeon when it calls for a chicken) for the purpose of work detail or other, less savory reasons.  I'm violently familiar with George Romero's works, as well as other pop-culture pulp-fiction recent junk, such as the kiddish Walking Dead series geared for the pre-teenage mind.   I know how to stop them via disintegration, burning, decapitation.  I know how to distract them via bright lights ala City of the Dead.  I know they have retained some initial memories ala Day of the Dead.  I know they can learn things. 

  I know of real accounts of undead zombie resurrection by way of In Search Of from the 1970's when I watched it when it was prime-time TV.  I know of the AD&D zombie culture, such as the ollam-onga variant, the ju-ju more-intelligent variant from the Monster Manual II, all the creature-variants and zombie-lords, the yellow-musk-creeper zombie from The Fiend Folio (I had the 1st edition in 1981 personally).  I literally could go on for hours and hours.

  I know that typically in media, the same formula time and time again.  For some reason, people love the same stuff like little kids.  It goes like this: 

• World gets a zombie infection, and structure breaks-down
• Group of survivors form over time, but eventually kill/fight each other pointlessly.
• Loved character gets bit and has to be put-down (boo-hoo),
• Walking-zombies are often considered nonthreatening at a distance until it's too late.
• Zombies take-over despite efforts, one person may escape (pointlessly by now).
• Sometimes government military show up and save everyone (alternate ending versions).

  Yawn.  Same-old, same-old.  Still, one truth seems to be amazingly, falsely popular amongst zombie-fans that my wife Becky brings-up, and that's zombies don't actually eat brains.  When have you ever seen this?  I have not in any zombie media.  Not ever. 

  Zombies will bite-into people, eat their entrails, gnash at limbs and infect others, but you never see a zombie actually pull-off someone's head and actually eats the brain-pan nor go for it right-away?  Indeed, perhaps for sake of shock-factor, directors, (even G.Romero is guilty of this) show entrails, guts, sinew, etc. being gnashed and chewed but not actual brains.  You think if they wanted brains so much, they'd go right for that, no?

  Upon more consideration, I suspect zombies (like those who watch Robin Meade on CNN whom actually tells of no news whatsoever and is just Miss Ohio eye-candy with passive-aggressive behaviour against her counterpart Jennifer Wethoven) are actually just saying "brains" as if they're indicating that their brains are affected by something and they can't control themselves, but somehow know their brains are ailing.  Indeed, it seems to be that they're asking for help, rather than indicating a desire for cerebral-cortex-consumption.  It's as if they're saying in shorthand (as they seemingly can't complete a full-sentence) "Hey, my brain is messed-up!  You gotta help me!  Something's totally wrong here, and I seem to want to gnash at body-parts now!"

  If we only listened.  Poor devils.  Well-done, Becky.  Well-done.