Movies: Avatar

Naturally, spoilers ahead. If you don't want to know about the movie, or the plot, don't read this.

We saw Avatar the other night. It was quite an awesome movie to watch! Long, yes, to be sure, but I think it was worth it. An incredibly beautiful movie to watch, there were both times where it was obvious I was watching something that wasn't real, and other times where I was sure I was watching something that they did in real life, just like that. It was very impressive.

As far as plot went, it wasn't particularly unique but I still think it was fairly well done. I figured some key figures would die, and was a little surprised when Norm didn't. I also thought Norm would blast back in to save the day, but I guess we only watched him wander off with a gun so we'd know he wasn't in the facility, not so we could expect him to save Jake. But that's ok, Jake's girl rescued him with the aid of a huge cat, and what could be hotter than that?? But the moment they tried to transfer Grace to her Navi body, I knew they'd do it with Jake. Half expected them to do it then and there. And it was obvious early on that Jake would become "one of them" and side with the Blue's over the Whites. Er, I mean Navi over the Sky-people/Humans.

Felt like Cameron was writing Native American history the way he wished it went: Westerners invade America, Native Americans realize what is happening early enough to band together, and manage to send the invaders packing with the aid of Mother Nature. Eiwa = Gaia/Mother Earth, Avatar = small pox blankets (something that looks friendly but caries the source of destruction), unobtanium = land, gold, whatever it is the White Men wanted, and were happy enough to take. Only unlike most of Earth history, on Pandora the nature-loving, balanced, mostly primitive people manage to kick the bejeezus out of the invaders, mostly because since they are nature-loving and balanced the whole freaking forest bands together to run amok over the marines. Quite cool, but also figured it would be the massive dinosaurs stampeding through the jungle, since the horsemen had failed miserably. The "Company is Evil" theme seemed similar to Aliens, along with the "most military is not to be trusted in the long run" and "scientists mean well, but aren't very helpful" themes.

But despite the themes being very similar to a number of things I've seen (or played! Boy but didn't that feel like a video game), the movie was good. The voice and live acting was solid, and so was the plot. Predictable, but solid, and solid is often lacking (case in point: everyone's complaints about the Matrix and Pirate of the Caribbean trilogies seem to focus on the fact that the plots seem to fall apart and go gooey. Pirates who don't pirate. Trying to end the Matrix doesn't end it. Neo's an Angel? The sexy pirate hero is undead, or immortal, or, um, what? Say what now?). And I like the wounded-warrior theme, Jake was a character who I think believable would switch sides, only after careful experience. And the best choice for someone to be born again into the Navi culture. A Scientist would remain learning. A Healed Warrior would have no reason to switch. But a Wounded Warrior is looking for a way to be remade whole, and Jake found it in the Avatar, and found a new way to experience life with the Navi. He became everything he used to be, and realized he would never attain it to the same degree if he remained with the humans. Or such is my interpretation of it, anyways.

So, unique? In some ways, yes. In many, no. Solid? Very much so. Gorgeous? Stunning beyond imagination! All in all, I loved it.

Good-bye 2009. Hello Weird.

I don't read much news, as far as news goes. I do read headline feeds from a number of sources, including a local paper, CNet and Slashdot (tech stuff), NY Times, BBC, USA Today, and some general sources like Yahoo and Google. Keeps me up on what's generally happening that people think I should know about. It gets repetitive, but sometimes one source will be highlighting something that the others are ignoring.

Today, the last day of 2009, it just struck me how odd the whole collection looks together. Of course a lot of things are reviewing 2009, and the decade. But in normal headlines, we note that 8 Americans died in a suicide attack, 20 people died in a double suicide attack elsewhere, Bali (I think) is warning that they expect terrorist attacks on the New Year, some places are going to start using full body scanners, war here and there, the Sheens are looking to be reconciled (and those all delight in poitning out "despite arrest and assault charges"), and a 22-year old duck died in UK (supposedly the oldest duck in the UK). Some unniversity posted their usual end-of-year list of word abuse, and decided that sexting, and obama-anything, are overused and should be tossed from the lexicon. Apparently people who weren't American, like 5 Canadians, also died in that suicide bombing in Afghanistan.

It struck me that the majority of the news was about war and death. And yet in the same news sources, there was this random junk about ducks and movie stars...

Good-bye 2009. We may miss you. But 2010 promises to be even weirder.

The End of an Era?

I finally did it. I got rid of my old computers. Three computer cases, basically fully tower systems, have been haunting me for years. The first was the first computer that was fully mine, and was upgraded a couple times. Then I upgraded to the second tower, which also saw a number of different upgrades. Finally I bought the third tower. That was last upgraded in 2003. And these towers have stuck with me since then. I had good intentions of doing stuff with them, like getting them in working order and selling them. And then as time passed, I thought of just giving them away. And I never did.

When Luta and I moved in July we decided we needed to get rid of stuff, including our computers (we had acquired laptops for each of us at that point). We tried selling her Dell and my custom PC's at a garage sale, but no one took the bait. We got rid of her Dell to one of her coworkers a month or so after we moved, and I have been trying since then to sell my stuff on Craigslist and Cheapcycle, to no avail. So, finally, I posted them for free, and got a dozen emails over night! Third try found someone who would pick them up (he tinkers with old systems and gets them working, then gives them to people who can't afford new systems).

So tonight he came by, took my three towers, 19" CRT monitor, old printer, and some other archeological finds (like my parallel port Zip drive). And they are all gone. I no longer have computer stuff haunting me. No longer the excuse that I'm going to do something with them someday.

Well, I still have a few cables I didn't want to part with. Never know when you might need some of that stuff! But otherwise, it feels like the end of an era.

No, I don't do that anymore.

I'm not a computer guy, technically. Yes, I like them, and still play with them, and may be smarter than your average bear when it comes to making them do tricks. But I am not really a computer guy: my field is not in computers, I don't get paid to get annoyed by them anymore, and when it comes to actual tech support knowledge I am well behind in the field. To sum up: I do not use my bachelor's degree in Computer Science. And I am very fine with that.

I expect to some degree I will always be tech support for some friends and family (except for those times where I can dump it on my brother). Luta just called me to figure out how to make Gmail stop intercepting mailto: links. I was able to sort that one out, with some nice guesswork. No problem.

But I didn't expect that random people spotting me in a hall at work would think I was the computer guy. I stepped onto an elevator on the first floor, and a couple visitors and a doctor (who probably has to duck when going through doors he is soo tall! Not relevant, but it was quite the impression) stepped on with me. The doctor I've seen before, and maybe he recognized me though we haven't really met. And he said to me (with an accent), "You computer guy?" "No," I responded, "Pastoral Care." And immediately started wondering what it was that made him think that.

I was wearing a white shirt and a tie. I had my BHE name tag that says "Chaplain Resident" under my name and "Pastoral Care" at the bottom for the discipline, but I can understand he might have not been able to see that and for the most part the tags blend together if you can't read them (Blue = doctor, Grey = student, Green = visitor, Red = everyone else such as Nurses, Techs, Food Services, Janitors, Volunteers, Chaplains, etc.). But I wasn't carrying anything, or wearing anything particularly computer-ish (two pagers, but that's not really special around here).

The visitors exited. Doctor and I continued on to sixth floor. "Pastoral Care. So, that's like Pastor..?" he asked. "Chaplain," I said. "Oh." And after a pause "You're young."

I never know what to say to that. And I don't think a doctor has told me that yet, though I'm sure plenty have thought it. "I think people hear 'Pastor' and would expect someone older." Sure. Just like they hear "Nurse" and don't expect all these women who look like they aren't old enough to graduate from college. Or "Doctor" and not people who look like they were partying at the Frat House last night. But that doesn't mean we aren't skilled, or trained. Oh well, appearances matter, I guess. I wonder about some of these teenage-looking people who are shoving needles in patients...

So was it my age that made him think "computers?" Or something else? I left the elevator laughing, but also confused.

Final Evaluation

CPE is more than just doing chaplain visits in a hospital. In fact CPE can be done in settings other than hospitals, though medical settings still seem to be the most common. But the main goals involve developing the person of the pastor, and helping the pastor become better suited to give care to other people. And one of the key ways this is done is by helping the pastor explore his-/her-self, and interpersonal interactions with other people. It can be hard to explain how this works, since it's pretty emotional, touch-feely, and relationship oriented, which I find are things that I have a hard time explaining in words.

The end of our first unit has arrived, and with the end of the unit comes the final evaluation. I thought maybe if I posted the questions that we have to answer, it may help reveal a bit of the process. Though they may need some clarification, so go ahead and ask!

1. Give a brief biographical description of yourself
2. State your progress toward your learning goals and the CPE Outcomes.
3. How did you use your own religious heritage to minister in this setting? What new pastoral skills, resources or other religious traditions have been helpful? Include clinical material and critical incidents.
4. Describe your ministry to patients and staff this unit. How did your presence affect them? What did you learn from them?
5. State your understanding of how this experience has impacted your theology.
6. Discuss your understanding of how your personal strengths and weaknesses are utilized in your ministry. How does your personal story (including your family background and relationships) impact your pastoral identity and ministry?
7. What have you learned about yourself from each of your peers? Describe these relationships. How have you used your peer group for support, clarification and confrontation?
8. Evaluate your relationship with your supervisor. How have you used supervision? What have you learned about the way you relate to authority figures?
9. What are your future learning goals and how will you work toward your goals?

Each CPE student is required to write a report answering all of these questions. Then on our final group day, we will gather together and go over them. This is from the memo about that meeting:

The goal is to give your evaluative impressions, ideas and feelings about each person including you and the supervisors. Please include your assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of each person. This can be done directly, or through the use of images or under the umbrella of "Blessings" and "Hopes" for each person. You may include what the person has meant to you and your learning or growth. Base your assessment on whatever context or ways that you have observed or experienced each person. Please share briefly how you have worked on your goals as part of your group evaluation.