First heard Devon at the Tennessee Baha’i School back in 2007. I bought his CD. It gets a spin when I need to contemplate. This one like so much of his music makes use of a small part of Baha’u'llah’s Writings. In this case from a prayer for protection….

Armed with the power of Thy name nothing can ever hurt me, and with Thy love in my heart all the world’s afflictions can in no wise alarm me.

Technorati : Baha’i, Baha’u'lah, Devon Gundry, music, video
Del.icio.us : Baha’i, Baha’u'lah, Devon Gundry, music, video

Pyyhkala, 36, of Boston, said he has read the book and seen parts of the film. He said his grievances stem from the film’s potential to sway public attitude about blindness. He said the movie exacerbates stereotypes and gives false information to uninformed viewers. [Link] (Since starting this post now requires a login?)

I haven’t seen the film or read the book, but the trailer for the films shows the people being put into quarrantine for a medical epidemic where people go blind. Stories generally portray people as acting incompetent and fearful when they are trapped in an unfamiliar situation. The whole point is to create an environment whereby a person, the hero or heroine, who is the bright light of reason and to whom everyone else appeals can rise to the challenge.

Blindness happens to use people who are blind, most likely because a the author was trying to be creative and use something readers would find new. Jose Saramago: ”Stupidity doesn’t choose between the blind and the non-blind.” [Link]

Chris Danielsen, a national federation spokesman, said while he understands that the film plays on the public’s fear of sudden blindness, the idea that loss of sight is equal to incompetence and immorality is “outrageous” and “vicious.” Everyday tasks like getting dressed and using the bathroom do not become impossible if a person loses their sight, Danielsen said.

Works of fiction do not depict reality. Otherwise… they would not be fiction. Stop giving movies more meaning than they actually have. Otherwise, you give them power they didn’t already have.

The Catholic Church’s opposition to the Golden Compass made me read the book and go see the movie (latter was awful). I wouldn’t have cared otherwise. Denouncing it made me wonder what they had to fear from something so silly as a book and movie. After seeing the trailer, I wasn’t interested in Blindness. After reading about the opposition, I am interested. I don’t have much luck with movies from books lately, so I may go book first.

aya1081 and brittsaqt invited me out for dinner with some others. Good trout and ‘tater pancake and desert.

So now I am home and killing time before doing the maintenance for work tonight. At least that will be short. I won’t even get to catch up much on TiVo like last week’s (10pm to 2am).

arfore has cool Music Video Friday series at his real blog.

I’ve been thinking about playing with the Firefox 3 Beta.

I really want a legitimate (pays the studios) copy of Macross Zero. All I’ve seen in US stores are obvious pirated copies. Why do the companies make it so hard to play by the rules?

What do you use for RSS feeds? I’ve used Bloglines, GReader, FeedDemon, NewsGator, BlogBridge, Firefox Livemarks, and Thunderbird. Lately I have taken to playing with Feedreader 3. So far it seems the best.

He also pointed out the videos for Namboozo and Scientific Love on Youtube.

Bling the Children Back Home @ Georgia Theater, originally uploaded by Ezra F.

for AthFest 2007 Friday night.

This was a fun band to which to listen and watch. http://myspace.com/blingthechildrenbackhome

Huh? Is Prince a fan? Really? Odd.

Everyone has a mortgage to pay.
…
(Narrator)The Yuppie Nuremberg Defense.
…
Well, 99% of everything done in the world good or bad is done because of a mortgage.

Dance monkey! Dance!

At his site he has some great audio on various topics that I’ve listened to over and over. I guess this is the latest?

technorati tags: ipod, dj, bars

The complaint alleges that XCP violates a number of Italy’s computer security laws by causing damage to users’ systems and by acting in the same way as malicious software, according to Andrea Monti, chair of the ALCEI-EFI. “What Sony did qualifies as a criminal offense under Italian law,” he said.
Police Called In To Investigate Sony

Why would I want to buy something that is going to mess up my computer? It sounds easier to just not buy any CDs at all than to figure out which ones are good and which ones are bad. My computers are my only CD players. So if I cannot trust putting audio CDs in them, then there is no reason to buy CDs.

It sounds like my decision to go to iTunes was a good one. At least there I can burn them to a non-destructive audio CD at some point.

My friends out there who have purchased CDs recently may wish to check that their anti-spyware software will check for this and possibly remove it. They should also seek out the fix on the Sony web site.