First X-Men Movie

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I have just emerged from the X-Men movie. Pretty good! Well, it was no great superhero epic that will go down in the annals of movie history like Superman did, but I have to say, the creators did a good job of adapting the comic world to an entry-level movie that satisfies X-Men fans and newcomers alike.

Great casting, great script and screenplay, great effects, great directing. Not as much character development as I would have liked, but then, how much development can you cram into a two-hour movie for that many characters? At the very least they’ve established the setting and the team, and managed to make it parallel the status quo in the comic (more or less), down to the white streak in Rogue’s hair.

Some notable characters from the comic were missing, however: Beast. Angel. Gambit. And Iceman was just one of the students. I don’t think the team would be reasonably complete without the original X-Men there. I hope they can find some way to bring them into the story somehow.

Still, all in all, the movie works beautifully. Maybe a bit too fast in the progression (what action movie isn’t nowadays?) and somewhat contrivedly hanging at the end, but I’m edified.

Gosh, this is the first time in a long time I’ve gone to watch a movie all by myself. Last time I did this was with Star Trek – First Contact. Hmmm. I forgot … there’s a war going on down south; terrorist extremists usually target malls for bombings. Maybe I should get out of here.

Oh, another thing that bothered me about the X-Men movie just occurred to me: At certain parts of the movie, Anna Paquin looked a lot like a baby-faced Demi Moore. I don’t like that; I’m fond of Anna Paquin as an actress, but I’m not particularly fond of Demi Moore.

Blogging from Universe Cafe

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I’m in Universe cafe in Glorietta. Gonna have lunch with Mom now. That’s all. Just enjoying the fact that I can blog from anywhere in the world there’s an internet connection. : )

Lazy day, lazy day

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Lazy day, lazy day. I can’t wait till work starts. I should be going to Hong Kong tomorrow, but the trip got moved. But that’s pretty cool: I can tell people, “I’m going to Hong Kong on business.” Nyerk.

The “sago drinks” hoax

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The “sago drinks” hoax is slowly dying out now; the forwards and inquiries about the forwards have stopped coming. That was so fun. Here’s my compilation of refutals on FB4F — made possible only with much help from other contributors.

Hey, cool! I can use HTML tags! Where was my brain all this time?

The Paper Stack

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Today has been a busy, busy, busy day. Isn’t it annoying how much of modern life is governed by a huge pile of documents and numbers? Tax certificates, passports, licenses, bank accounts… Errands to do, errands to do.

SEND HELP

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Yesterday I saw two of the most tragic Far Side comics I had ever seen. One showed a man on a deserted island writing a SEND HELP note on a piece of paper. Behind him, a coconut had fallen and shattered his only bottle. In the other, a butterfly which had just emerged from its cocoon flew straight into a spider’s web. I don’t know where Gary Larson gets his ideas. Only he can make such futile tragedy seem utterly hilarious with such perfect style. Aw, too bad he retired.

Judeo-Christian Strawman

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I read a little philosophy paper refuting Aquinas’ proof of God as the “ultimate cause,” preferring the explanation that “physical matter is the ultimate cause.” It’s standard sophomoric philosophy taking potshots at the stereotypical strawman he seems to have mistaken for the Judeo-Christian tradition of God. While he makes a convincing argument for “physical matter as a better absolute cause than God,” he works only on the level that God is a mere philosophical abstraction who can only be proven by the semantic logic of causal progression. Fortunately, we have other sources of objective and experiential evidence which, with a mustard-seed-size dose of faith, have proven God to be overwhelmingly real to Christians around the world through the ages.

Wow. Theological epistemology in compound-complex sentences. Life is good.

Bombing the Abu Sayaff

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The Philippine military has begun bombing the Islamic rebels in the south. No, calling them “rebels” is wrong. The Abu Sayyaf kidnapped locals and foreigners and held them for ransom. As the government fumbled and waffled through negotiations, Libya paid the ransom, and hostages were released. Then, emboldened, the Sayyaf went out and kidnapped more: an American and a few Malaysians, then demanded more ransom.

They are mere thieves and bandits: bully-boy cowards who hide behind their twisted perceptions of Islam to revel in their own violence and hedonism. Negotiate with them for the release of victims, and they will only use the ransom to further victimize the country and its neighbors with more terrorism and abduction. The only alternative left is war.

And so the war is on. The Sayyaff bandits have threatened to behead the hostages. Already innocent people are being killed, homes and lives lost. Our economy is likely to plunge, making life harder for an already suffering populace. Here in Manila, despite its distance from the conflict in Sulu, militant Islamic groups are threatening to bomb malls, trains, and other public establishments.

I can only pray that things get better.

Up to You

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(Backdated entry, copied from a reply I made to a very old email thread. The original thread was about born-again Christians being too exclusive, and rather aggresively asking about the fate of people who have never heard the Gospel. Please note that while I finish on the tone that the decision is “up to you,” I am still of the mind that the ultimate conviction is from our Lord, to whom one cannot call unless one is first called by Him. Some vestiges of Arminian thought remain.)

I am much agreed that you don’t have to be a Christian to live a good life and to have a concept of goodness. But that doesn’t change the fact that Jesus said He was the only Way. Not His teachings and values, but He Himself. He didn’t say that the way to salvation was to follow His teachings; He said that the people who would be raised up would be those who looked upon Him and believed. (John 6.40)

Is that an exclusivist way of looking at salvation? I don’t think so. The Scriptures are clear that with Jesus’ sacrifice, salvation has been made available to ALL as a free gift, accessible simply by faith. Remember how the curtain in the Temple tore when He died? That was a real-life symbol for Jesus bringing the redemption of God to all humankind, not just those who subscribed to the tyranny of tradition and ritual. That’s about as inclusive and universal as you can get.

Regarding those who have not heard the Good News, I can produce no satisfactory reply to you. I only know that God is an infinitely just God who will give everyone his fair chance who has not heard. He tells us rather, not to judge those outside the Church, but instead bring them the Good News.

Do not think for a moment that by stumping a Christian with the question of the unsaved, you are off the hook for having heard the Good News and not believed it. This News you have received is clear that, despite your attestations to having lived a good life, you have NOT, in fact, lived a life that is spotless and absolutely free of sin. I know of only two kinds of entities who can claim that: a newborn or unborn baby who hasn’t yet acted out the stain of original sin — which you are not — and God Himself — which you are not.

The man who thinks that God will save him by virtue of a good life must first search the Scripture to see what a good life is. The New Testament’s first painting of Buddy Jesus isn’t quite so buddy-buddy, is it? Just the thought of sin is as bad as the sin itself. Just being angry with your brother will put you in danger of judgment. Even the Pharisees, much renowned for their “spotless” lives, He denounced for their hypocrisy.

That was precisely why Christ said He was the only Way: We cannot save ourselves on our own by our good works. But we have a much easier, much simpler Way in Him. Far from being an exclusive gospel, this Good News we bring is one of loving, universal redemption in the God who died for all people that all would be saved — simply by accepting Him into our hearts!

Other people who haven’t heard the Gospel? God will worry about them, and rest assured that He will be fair. What I’m worried about is YOU. You have heard the most compelling Message that man has ever heard: that your redemption and assurance of eternal life are fixed simply on your acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior. His hand is open to you, He knocks on the door of your heart. Will you let him in and embrace Him as your Lord?

Or will you continue to believe that truth lies somewhere else other than in the One Man who claimed to be God and Savior of the World — and rose from the dead to prove it?

You claim that none of us will know where we’re going until we’re there. I beg to differ. I know where I’m going, and I know it with all my heart. Whether you want to come along for sure is up to you.

First Real Post

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Greetings. I think I’ve gotten the format down solid, and I can now blog in earnest.

It figures that I should be transitioning my web presence like this just at a time that my life itself is in a state of transition. I’ve just resigned from a short tenure as web design executive for a local dotcom in favor of a better job in video production and multimedia design. It’s a big decision, which means shelving my plans to migrate to California indefinitely, and devoting myself fulltime to this new profession. But it looks like God intends for me to stay in the Philippines longer, and if it’s His will, then I know it’s best.