Abandoned ship
Monday, 19 February 2007 16:15:32

Just over a week ago the snow lifted north of us for a morning. Since I really couldn't afford to miss another week of work, we threw everything we could in the cars, dug ourselves out, and bailed. We have been camping on the floors at my grandfather's house. The hot water heater apparently decided to die sometime before our arrival, but luckily I tossed some kitchen stuff in a 5 gallon brew pot, so we've been able to make water hot. We have heat and light. We do not have internet. We had a working toilet until this morning. :crap: We have no idea what's wrong, but the sink's been burping when you flush for the last two days. The vent is not blocked. We're hoping it's not the septic system. I'm up at the snowed in house today waiting for the crew as what's going to dig our roof out from under that which shall not be named and is measured in yards at this point. Doing laundry and laughing as warm water comes out of a faucet when you turn a knob. One of my cousins died Saturday. He was not quite 30. I don't know anything more other than services will be Friday in PA. At least I'm on vacation this week so *this time* I don't have to argue about whether or not I can have time off to go.

Jayne’s possible story line if “Firefly” was allowed to continue.
Monday, 19 February 2007 16:33:48

So, I decided to take Asian Religions this semester at my university because my public school education was very limited when it came to eastern cultures. I have already taken Western Civilizations my freshman year, so I felt I’d be wasting my time taking another history class like Eastern Civilizations. So, when it came time to pick a philosophy course, I thought that perhaps the best way to learn about a culture is through its religions, thus the Asian Religions course. (If I’m wrong anything in the fallowing on Jainism, please feel free to correct me. What can you really learn about a whole religion in a 50 minute class?) Today we learned about Jainism (pronounced like Jayne-ism), which some would say is sort of like a sister religion to Buddhism. The root for the name Jain comes from the Sanskrit word “jina” meaning “conqueror”. A jina is an enlightened being who has conqured material existence, and he/she is release from the cycle of rebirth and moves onto a higher spiritual level of existence. Jains don’t believe in a god, but a jina becomes something like a god, though no prayers or devotionals are offered up to them by mortals. Jains also believe in non-violence (which is a philosophy that influenced Mahatma Gandhi and later Martin Luther King, Jr.). Jainism was founded by a series of 23 tirthankaras, who are people who lived 2500+ years ago and became jinas. The most recent of these tirthankaras was a man named Mahavira (599-527 BC). The Sanskrit roots of his name are “maha” meaning “great” and “vira” meaning “hero”. (“Vira” is pronounced the way Jayne called his favorite gun, Vera. See the “Our Mrs. Reynolds” episode.) Jains are also vegans. So what does all of this have to do with our man Jayne? I’m thinking that Joss was planning something very interesting for him. I think he was going to make Jayne into some sort of enlightened monk or religious leader. I’ve learned in screenwriting that the most interesting stories are the ones where a character grows from one way of thinking into another. So, going from an uncivilized, violent mercenary to a non-violent monk does sound like an interesting storyline. Note that Jayne’s name and his gun Vera have root connections to Jainism. (“Vera” also comes from the Russian root meaning “faith”.) Knowing Joss’s practice of killing off his characters, Jayne might have been killed off in peaceful protest after reaching spiritual enlightenment. But we may never know that… [b]Damn you FOX! Damn you to Hades! … [undistinguishable curses]… DEVIL NETWORK!![/b]