2012: Some of My Observations

2012: the Movie
My wife and I went out to see 2012. As a “global” disaster movie goes, it was pretty good. But there are a couple of things to note in way of critical observation.

2012: the Accuracy
As with any movie of this type (Deep Impact/Armageddon/Damnation Alley), what we all want to see is a meaningful and engaging story, no matter how improbable the event could really be. It at least has to be conceivably possible and cohesive. So, to do that, there are some things in line of poetic license or just good story-telling that we will allow. So, for this story, we let popular ideas of what the Mayan calendar predicts to be right–if we have their calendar reading correct, of course!
According to an older USA Today article, the Mayan calendar simply ends a single 5,000 plus year cycle at the Dec 23, 2012 date, which would reset to zero.
But here’s one obvious item. In this movie, they have short shots of planets in alignment, and the sun erupting prominences or flares. There’s one quick pan from a near planet (Mercury?) down to the solar surface all full of fury and activity. The first thing I noticed is that planet showing as a crescent.
Now, as far as this solar system is concerned, all light comes from where? The sun, of course. And if we are seeing planets from the surface of the sun, how should the planets appear? Well, it’s from where all the light comes, so we would see a planetary face fully lit up.

Technically, this view would be impossible.

Also, I don’t see how the alignment of earth and the sun to other planets or to other celestial objects, like the Milky Way, can have any kind of impact on the entire solar system like they portray.
2012: the "Salvation"
Once more, the only answer to keep people alive is the action of human government (i.e. The STATE), which is the secular humanist savior. In this story, there’s no Divine intervention, no strength in prayer, as many people in the midst of praying get wiped out. It’s true that there’s a slap on the wrist for the U.S. government. They did some bad things to keep the destruction of the world secret, like murdering dozens of scientific and cultural leaders to keep them from talking. But every other world leader is shown as a loving, caring person, who has done all possible to save a few from certain doom. How nice!
Now even though there are no Divine interventions, like I said, there is one thing these governments do that is just like what God did once in the Bible to save a few of mankind from complete destruction. I won’t give it away and totally spoil the whole movie for you, but I will just give a hint: look up Genesis chapter 6. I think it’s rather ironic.
Personally, I think it’s extremely unlikely that anything so completely catastrophic to the whole world would be able to be kept under wraps by all the governments of the world. There are too many people with conscience enough to keep that from happening.
2012: the Bible
Of course, if you know me, you know just what I would say here. The end of the world will not be along the lines of this idea, or whatever any group says will happen in 2012. On Christmas Eve of 2012, we will be able to tell millions that what Jesus said is what we can count on, not this Mayan stuff. The Bible has a “calendar” set up, and when God starts it, THAT will be very reliable.
True, things like what we see in these movies will happen to some extent: nuclear bombs detonating, mountains falling into the sea, asteroids hitting earth, the earth’s crust unstable (As it says in Isaiah, the earth will reel to and fro like a drunkard.). But if we are trusting in the Lord, we can be confident that whatever happens along these lines, we are taken care of in His hands.

The GoKart was Never the Same

We own a 1993 Ford Escort LX wagon. We bought it as a family car when our two oldest kids were toddlers. It seemed bigger than our Horizon, and the Sundance I drove to work. When we bought it, it had 21,000 miles on it. We found it in a dealership’s used car lot. Long since paid off, it has been a fairly faithful little car.

We have driven it to the moon and back, with a total of over 301,000 miles on it. Most of that was freeway via trips up north and many round trips to work and home. I am very thankful to God for the sixteen years we have had this little car. I also pray He will make it last at least another year.

Since I have been unemployed from mid-summer until now, I have had some time to put into fixing it up somewhat for returning to long journeys to work and back (if that will ever happen). I had some great help from a neighbor/church friend who helped me find suspension parts and replace the worn out struts and springs (Thanks, Tom!).

Of course, the body is a rust heap practically at this point. Somewhat from some years of neglect on my part. And also, we have no garage. I never neglected regular oil changes, though, and that’s probably one good reason why the engine is still running!

Anyway, I took it upon myself to at least seal up the rust holes that have eaten into the trunk area. Once water started leaking into small holes there, they just kept getting eaten into larger holes. I would like it in the dry through the winter and spring. So I am also very grateful for the lingering nice weather during this November. To have a stretch of days hanging in the low 50s is a great help to me.

So I pulled out the extension cords, the only electric drill I have (a hand-me-down from my dad), got a few grinding and stripping wheels from the local hardware store, cleared out the trunk, took off the rear bumper, and then I started to try stripping away rust down to the metal around these holes. This was precarious work, as there is more rust actually than solid metal any more. I won’t try kicking this little Escort anywhere.

It was doing this, that I have discovered something interesting about this car, which we were never told when we bought it, of course. It appears to have been hit in the rear in its infancy of low miles. After this accident, it was all straightened out, maybe new fender panels put on, perhaps. However, while I was trying to strip to the metal, I kept finding sections of putty. The entire length of its trunk had been seamed together with this putty stuff. Not even fiberglass resin, just putty.

That explains the extreme rusting that has taken place in that area to some extent, because as soon as that putty started to give way in any little spot, that opened up ever so much more each season.

Well, I don’t really feel like getting mad about being cheated at the time we bought this Escort. It’s been way too long ago for that. But it does open up a little more history about it for me. I mean, these Escorts were good little cars for many years. I still see a good deal of them on the road, in much better shape than ours. Why would someone want to have gotten rid of theirs at just around 20,000 miles? That’s barely broken in.

It must have been the thought of keeping a car that had been broken, and was no longer pristine. Oh well, up to this point, it has served us well.

Commemorative Cup?

My wife and I swung by an Arby’s last Friday. We ordered medium drinks with our other items. Without realizing it, we received two “commemorative” Vikings cups. These held way too much pop to drink, but that is beside the point. What I realize now is that these are probably by no means true Minnesota Vikings cups! We have been had.

Marketing your brand, or some other company’s brand to build incentive is fine. A marketing partnership for tie-in promotions is also a common thing. It builds relationships, good-will and can actually make more sales for both parties involved. But I wonder about the ethics of a company that makes a pseudo promotion to sell its products, and probably also to save on costs for such things as licensing fees, and so forth.

Here’s the goods, and you let me know if this is OK or not. Now I assume, Arby’s is promoting this commemorative sports cup for a larger sale. Buy a medium instead of a refillable small. There’s an extra buck in their pocket. The cup has the Vikings colors on it, or at least they’re close. It says “Vikings” on it. It shows football players in purple and white garb. OK so far.

I wonder about the ethics of a company that makes a pseudo promotion to sell its products.

While I was washing it, I took off my glasses and zoomed in for a closer look. It looks like the Minnesota Vikings logo for the most part. But I realize there is no registered trademark or copyright or anything like that. Now I thought the Minnesota Vikings should have that. And, as with any other National Football League team, aren’t they property of the NFL? No mention of the NFL on this cup either. No legal line that says anything about that. There’s a legal line for Arby’s, of course.

Also, what about the team name? Isn’t it officially Minnesota Vikings, not just Vikings? Looks like a loophole to me. Also, there is not anything on the pictured football players that can pin down exactly which team they are a part of. The helmets are set in such a way that you can’t make out any Minnesota Vikings horns. The quarterback does have a number 4 on his jersey, but no real likeness to Mr. Favre. I guess somewhere in this country there must be one high school or college football team called Vikings.

So, what is the value of this cup? If it was evaluated by real Minnesota Vikings or NFL memorabilia collectors, it would probably be deemed as worthless.

What also alarms me is that Arby’s is probably doing this in every state it does business that also has a football team. (Is there anyone from another state who can verify this?)

I know one thing useful for this “commemorative” cup: it does have a recycle symbol on it.