How dare they mock the Old One in such a fashion:

I am always wandering around the web, exploring, digging for information, and learning; yeah we will call it learning.  If you know me, you know I am not particularly a religious person either, sure I believe in God but I do not really care for an established church. In my observations, modern churches are usually nothing more than a social organization that gives people a place to gather. In many cases the churches and people therein, are nothing more that hypocritical folks who think they know better than someone else. Not all mind you, but many, and that has turned me away more times than not. First and for most, for anyone to claim they know the right way to a higher being, in my opinion is rather arrogant and a complete jump in, well, faith. One thing to add, because it has relevance to the next paragraphs, is that I have never understood how people around the world accept Christianity. I mean, can you trace your family back to Israel? I doubt it. Odds are your family can be traced back to Europe or Africa. So why do you accept a God who may or may not be the creation of some people from the middle of nowhere in the Middle East? If a guy from the Middle East was to tell you that you needed to live a certain way today, you would laugh him off, but here we are, millions of us, worshiping a god whose origins come people you are not connected to in anyway.

Anywho. Not why I came today. I stumbled upon this religion called Asatru today and started reading around their website, they make some interesting points. Remember that my family can be traced back to Scotland, this helps, trust me.

Perhaps the best way to understand Asatru is to compare it with the more familiar American Indian spirituality. Both are tribal. Both honor the ancestors and both have much to teach us about our connection with the natural world around us. Both offer a noble set of values. Most relevant to the point we are trying to make, the Germanic Way and the Way of the American Indian are both native religions – the indigenous religions of specific peoples…..What is truly strange is to adopt a religion that began in another part of the globe, among people who were not our ancestors!

The above quote from this page, they make the point that we as a society accept ‘native’ Indian beliefs, those that are emerging out of Africa, yet when people bring up the ancient religions of  OUR VERY OWN ANCESTERS we consider them a cult, witches, etc. I think this comes directly from middle to late Middle Ages efforts of the Catholic Church to brandish people who followed similar beliefs as heretics and witches, they even took them to the stake. So this could merely be some manner of hold over belief that has been passed down. I am sure if I told my grandmother I was a Wiccan now she would immediately ask if I was a witch or if I was a Satan worshipper. I think it is a natural reaction the Church has been very good at promoting since around the 1500s. I have to say I agree with them. I have never been to Israel and until the US Army deployed me to Iraq, I had never crossed paths with anyone who walked in the Bible (I have been to a well that Mary supposedly drank from and crossed the paths that numerous people in the Bible walked, locations they visited). So what is my connection to them?

I really wonder about this. I think if you asked most of us if we felt a connection to the people in the past, most would say something to the effect “M family comes from______(fill in a European country)” and yet when asked about their religion, they claim ancestry with a religion that has absolutely nothing to do with where they people come from at all. To top it off, they are comfortable with it.

In short, Asatru is not some strange cult, nor something we have taken up casually, nor a historical hobby group. It is a native religion of a large and important part of the Earth’s population – the peoples of Europe. As such, it deserves respect just like the religion of the Indian peoples, the African nations, or any other group on Earth.

I have to say, these guys make some compelling and interesting points. Plus, I always thought Thor was a badasses.

I read a two part story called The Risen Empire a few years ago and thought it was some of the most amazing writing I had read in a long time, in fact I had not been reading for a few years and stumbled upon these two books and it got me back into reading. The story was sci-fi military and very fast paced. The first book ended abruptly and I later found out that it was actually one book the publisher split. Either way, it was an amazing read. I never got into the author’s other, YA books, b ut I found out today that he is about to release a new series that is right up my alley…steampunk! And to top it all off, it is alternative history too! The site has a few of the interior art pieces (the book will have over 50) and they look pretty neat, a new twist on some old steampunk, very cool stuff.

They even have a pretty neat trailer for the book:

Watch the trailer on YouTube

Learn more about the book and the author:

http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/

I love the internet. I have a knack for the inability to stay focused (I am sure there is a medical, if uninteresting term for it) and I often find myself wandering to new, unexplored places on the internet. Wikipedia is a drug I have become addicted to and on a lazy day I can find myself wandering from a page on the recently discovered Lechuguilla Cave (5th longest cave in the world!) and somehow end up on a page about Banana Sex and the possible bananageddon (Damn Interesting is a great site as well for obscure and strange information). Do not ask me how, but I find these lazy, twisting journeys quite interesting and the information gleaned from these paths, well, priceless.

For example, did you know that all the Golden Hamsters in the United States and Israel come from the same litter of 6 hamsters born from a single female in 1930? Amazing, thousands and thousands of hamsters can all be traced back to the same female over 70s years ago. Very cool. This means my hamsters I had as a kid are related to the two hamster my daughters had recently.

Or check this out, the Big Blue Hole, a massive sink hole you can dive in. Pretty cool, not into scuba, but made that would be a neat place to go.

A website with common grammatical errors we frequently make (I am victim of one I see here, I often make the “Alot” mistake).

An island I never want to visit, even if it was decontaminated.

The Seattle Underground, I think I saw this on an episode of “Ghost Hunters” but I could be mistaken. Neat and spooky as hell. You won’t catch me there.

A contaminated, and then concrete covered lake (who thought that was a good idea??) in Russia, the site of nuclear testing. Gotta love those Ruskies.

Carrying on with the spookiness, how about abandoned subway stations and levels in New York, surely not for the faint of heart (read: me).

And check this little gem: Silent UK. A site dedicated to finding and detailing lost places in the UK, some of their photos are simply stunning.

Forgotten Detroit traces famous, and in some cases lost, places in the city I hope to never visit.

Hey look, that great country Russia has  killed people using their nuclear testing! Awesome! Least we were smart and put it on islands out in the middle of nowhere so only the local small population and some fish got irradiated. Geesh! Those Ruskie barbarians.

The very cool story of how our lives today might have been completely different if this had been successful, I give you the Wardenclyffe Tower! The scary part of this it is actually coming to fruition: Wireless Power today!

So to recap, I started somewhere in caves, went through huamn and natural disasters and ended up an wireless power. God I love the Internet.

If you are reading this, then odds are you know my laptop took a crap on me, and given that I leave Iraq in about 5 weeks, I am just sucking it up until I can get home and get it fixed. Until then, I am bumming a older lappy from a friend here who was nice enough to offer it up to me within minutes of finding I was without lappy. Good fella.

Anyway, another friend of mine is writing a game for Game Chef 2009 and he is interested in including a story that fits with the genere and setting of the game. In the time since my lappy has died, I have somewhat reflected on how much time I wasted on gaming that I could have been doing other, better things. One of these was write. I have long been wanting to write something, it ust crawls through my viens, like a thick patch of blood that slithers in and out, hidden from view occassionally, but alway eventually rears its head and shows up again. So here we are again, matt wants to write something, to help his friend out, but also to prove that I can write something…..better yet, COMPLETE something.

So, wish me luck….