#partially for archival purposes so i can link in my about post

[alpinelogy]

Since other people are having opinions; here is my driver tier list as well

I am not a hater so this is more of a guys that I will not shut up about. Anyone except no <3 I love and adore and I can see myself getting attached to them

[lacefuneral]

pretend this is a voice memo:

(cw i talk about trans death here but it isn't the main subject of my ramblings)

So. I consider myself to be a kind of amateur archivist in the way that like. A person might have taped a VHS of their favorite TV show back in the early 2000s. Like it's not something that I'm super organized about this kind of shit. But there are some things I'm trying to hang onto and hopefully you know in the future other people can have access to them too

And one of the projects that I am working on - have been working on for a while - is the project where- it's twofold because part of it is for the here and now for people to see themselves and seek solace in during a very politically charged and uncertain time. But the other purpose is for it to serve as a time capsule for this period of time and for it to be helpful for people in the future to see where we were

Anything that we have access to in the here and now, from the past, is something that was preserved in someway. I was able to read things like femme sharks and the transfag rag because someone said "this is important and I need to share this with other people".

and I was having a conversation last night with my friend. And I mentioned something offhand that I  have talked about many times in my answers to inquiries sent by gay trans men.  to the point where, to me, it is integral reading for transmascs of any kind.  And I forget that these are just articles that someone typed up on medium that I happened to stumble across,  and not say, a well-known book. And that websites like this are not permanent.

and my friend said that ze had never heard of them before. And I thought to myself OK I'll just look them up on Google and send the links over.   and because I'm an amateur archivist, I thought that I would back them up on the wayback machine while I did this. but when I went to grab them, the links were down.  The author had deleted these pieces.

 and I felt such a strong surge of loss and anxiety. Because this is why people archive things. Because things this important can just disappear out of nowhere. And while I was having a panic attack, my friend calmly checked the wayback machine to see if someone else had backed them up. and to my utter astonishment,  both of them had been.

The scary thing too is I know that services like the wayback machine are also ephemeral.  in truth,  everything is ephemeral.  Cloud services could disappear tomorrow. Someday my USB drives will be as worthless as floppy disks. Books go out of print.  And it's a scary thing to think about.

if my house suddenly caught fire, all of the trans art and artifacts that I have been slowly accumulating would be gone. 

and to be honest, I don't know what the answer is. I don't know what I should do in terms of archiving. Do I download Tumblr blogs? Do I try to rely on a service like the wayback machine that may not be there five years from now or sooner or later? Do I keep physical printed copies of websites? Do I put things on a USB drive and hope that I'll be able to transfer the files from such an obsolete an archaic technology onto something more modern which too, will someday be obsolete.

I care so much about this subject because so much of queer history has been lost to time. Partially because of  deliberate censorship, partially because in any era  ephemera is taken for  granted. I care because Leelah Alcorn's blog and Brianna Ghey's tiktoks were deleted after their deaths. And the little insight that we have of these young women and who they were are the words that they posted on social media. And that those words were preserved by other archivists. Blake Brockington i knew of before his death - he was an instrumental figure to me as a GNC trans man - and some of his posts I found were unintentionally archived by long-abandoned trans positivity blogs due to the way that this website works. every reblog is a record. and i was able to see his smiling face again, so many years later.

I hate the idea of people being names on a list. of being abstractions. trans people live rich lives. we are all multifaceted human beings. and we deserve to be known. we deserve to be remembered, to be celebrated, to be mourned.

there is a friend-of-a-friend. not someone i know personally. someone that, i assume, most likely hates me. and i was on their blog one day, out of curiosity. and i saw their meticulous archiving of a friend who had passed away. selfies and text posts. i read their loving words about her, which painted a rich picture of who this woman was. a woman that i would not know existed, were not for their efforts to keep her memory alive.

i feel that this sort of thing is important. our existence as trans people matter. regardless of notability. things like, a teenager's tiktok. like a selfie of a man post-op. a poem written by someone who will never be formally published. a clip of a trans woman singing an original song.

and i feel this sort of. pressure. and this fear also that. while i have narrowed my archival focus to transmasc people, there is so much. and i do not know where to put these things when they are archived. i do not know how i will share them. if i painstakingly export my sideblog - the thousands of photographs and videos and audios and text posts. who will view them?

and am i putting too much pressure on myself? is this anything i should worry about at all? because all life is ephemeral? i do not know.

[museum-spaces]

Hi I saw the recent post about displaying human remains in museums and had I guess a related question.

I once saw an exhibit displaying Neandertal remains. There were signs letting you know you'd be viewing remains and while you couldn't skip those parts of the exhibit you could skip the entire section. With remains that old there's not really discussions with descendant communities but one thing I noticed is that while some of the remains were real many were replicas as the actual remains couldn't leave their home museums.

If people are so adamant that displaying human remains in museums is for educational purposes do you think this could be a partial solution? Having highly detailed replicas will show whatever you wanted a guest to learn, such as what an improperly healed bone looks like while not putting actual people's remains on display. Or since it's accurate replicas would you run into similar issues of consent and not wanting to display your ancestors?

oooh I like how inquisitive people are today.

short answer; yes

long answer; replicas can be used to substitute delicate objects including, but not limited to, human and animal remains. this is done with some anthropological objects, like the ones you saw, many paleontology objects - every dinosaur you've ever seen likely, and other historical objects such as the human casts from Pompeii.

all of these objects are considered too delicate to move. so throughout the years museologists - and other -ologists - have come up with ways of making accurate casts from literal plaster casting to 3D printing.

there are some people who believe that museums should be made up of 100 per cent replica objects - though i don't know what they propose to do with our archives.

so lets pretend that tomorrow every ancestor in every museum was magically replaced with a very good replica. the question is still one about ethics. i don't want a facsimile of my grandmother on display for people to stare at anymore than i want her actual body there. she deserves more dignity and respect than that.

but what about non-human objects you ask

the Haisla people of BC created a facsimile of the G'psgolox pole for the Museum of Ethnography in Sweden during their efforts to have the original returned to them - it was successfully repatriated in 2006. using this as an example, replicas are a great way to facilitate repatriation both nationally and internationally.

but human remains, ancestors, are another question entirely.

i am linking a few ICOM sources for ethical questions and guidelines. as i sad for the other post, it has been a while since i've dealt with ancestral remains, so i want y'all to have other places to look for information.

ICOM Natural History Museum ethics

ICOM general ethics

as ever, my fellow museum and museum-adjacent tumbles, please feel free to chime in

[thewertsearch]

If you're using the collection I think you might have unlocked some stuff from the time period which Andy was interacting with the Fandom.

I did indeed!

Most of the news posts are pre-Homestuck, but interesting nonetheless. A lot of it's just housekeeping - announcements about donation commands, thank-you messages to contributors, short hiatuses from the comic, etc, but there's also a lot of interesting stuff to highlight.

Turns out Problem Sleuth really was bigger than I thought, enough for it to have millions of hits and a sold-out merch store.

I'd been assuming that Homestuck was Hussie's big breakout comic. Maybe it was, but they had a pretty sizeable following before it ever started.

Really everything that's happened so far [by the end of Act 1] probably serves as more of a prologue than a first chapter.

Hussie talks a bit about Act 1 after it ended, saying that the entire thing is essentially a prologue to the comic proper.

This is definitely the impression I got. The whole Act is just an elaborate tutorial sequence for John, after all.

Glancing backwards, I can't help but monitor my progress. 55 days, 247 pages (with 295 images). That's a little more than 5 images per day, which is almost the exact pace I set with Problem Sleuth over the course of a year.

Their pace at this point was an astounding five pages per day.

This is an average which includes time spent making gifs and Flash animations, so I'm kind of losing it over this. Webcomics are notorious for the exact opposite of this update speed, and there must have been a lot of optimization behind the scenes to make it work.

It's especially impressive considering that they were only updating a couple of times a week back in the Bard Quest days. They seem to have found their rhythm in early 2008, because this is a hell of a jump in productivity.

John's shirt, which of course appears to be Slimer from Ghostbusters, is actually a depiction of an Asian knock-off of Slimer called the GREEN SLIME GHOST. Rose's shirt was once a depiction of a character from a fake cute cartoon show which I totally made up called "Squiddles!". She then went about defacing this shirt to make it look mean!

We get a bit of flavor on the kids' symbol shirts. This newspost predates Jade's introduction by several months, so we finally have an answer for where the name originally came from, which I was wondering about earlier.

A familiar refrain with pages like this I have found is something like: "Is that all? Can I do anything else? Can I kill the imp? Is there an objective I'm missing?" The answer is, what you see is what you get! These are not really fully functional mini-games with the sort of objectives you would expect to see from such things. They are partially interactive pages in a story, leaning on certian traditional elements of gameplay to convey the story-purpose of the page.

Bit of commentary here about the 'playable' pages. They're intended to be interactive cutscenes, rather than actual games. There isn't going to be any 'hidden' content, just obvious beats that progress the story in a format that looks like a videogame.

We get a hint that there's a secret in Jaspers' flash, which apparently is no longer clickable on the website version of this animation. This pretty much immediately destroys my assumption above that these things won't have any hidden content in them.

It's not any secret lore or anything, though, just a cute little animation giving us a look into Rose's head. She really is an animal lover, isn't she?

This archive link to a poll on what items John should have alchemized no longer works, which breaks my heart :'( I'll see about finding it later, I guess...

Anyway, I'll be back here later, when there's more to read.

Someone remind me to check out the Blogspot later, too. It looks super wordy, and I wanna get back to the comic!

[rogue-fangirl]

Life and Death in the Family - Come Marching Home

Hi guys, guess who posted an aangsty (yes, the typo was on purpose) one-shot? I did!

The book is called Life and Death in the Family and the one-shot title is “Come Marching Home”.

The book will be a bunch of one-shots of characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra being born and dying 😀👍🏼. “Come Marching Home” is about (can you guess?) Iroh dying. The one-shot takes place during his funeral and is Zuko-centric.

Because I’m feeling nice, here’s an excerpt of “Come Marching Home” (some things have been altered from its original publication to avoid “spoilers” for the one-shot. If you’d like to read the full thing, links to read it will be towards the end of the post.):

Zuko turns around to address his friends and family. He pulls out a piece of washi from his netsuke and clears his suddenly dry throat before he starts speaking. "Thank you all for coming. I know that my uncle would've loved to know that he was so popular," he says with an awkward laugh. "We are here to remember the life of a man who has impacted all of our lives. Iroh was a lot of things to a lot of people. He is..."

Zuko stops speaking entirely and looks at the faces that are starting to blend together. He didn't mean to say that. He's trying so desperately to keep his tears inside, but his already impaired vision is becoming blurry. Aang opens his mouth to say something, but the Fire Lord takes a shaky breath and plows through his misspeak. "He was a great man," he corrects himself.

He takes a deep breath and continues with his uncle's eulogy.

I had a lot of fun writing this and I hope you guys will check it out. If you do, constructive criticism is welcome!

So far I don’t have a set schedule for when the other one-shots for this book will be posted. If you’re interested in reading more, let me know and stay tuned for those updates!

If you want to read it you can find it on:

WattPad: https://www.wattpad.com/1140786806?utm_source=ios&utm_medium=link&utm_content=share_reading&wp_page=reading_part_end&wp_uname=rogue_fangirl&wp_originator=eLQiiOJ73eOrjfzx2sFaydrWGLvUE%2FiYdclaMr8hgQQheutWPiDILtVw%2FxJrh1b2h%2BMNNwOicuYaLW2ujMYI5yWusipe%2BAufZw1z5K9uYn1XZ7jMVv3X68od2maLzgvQ

Archive of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40885011/chapters/102455262

FanFiction.Net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119968/

Here is the cover for the book:

The artwork is not mine. I just made the cover. Credit goes to Devin Elle Kurtz here on Tumblr and on art station. I found the image in Google.

Here’s a piece of fanart that I found that partially inspired me to write this and also had the vibes I was trying to go for:

Unfortunately I couldn’t find the artist, but I found the image on Pinterest.

[lucky-sevens]

mechanisms basics & lore

welcome to my updated mechanisms intro post! this post will cover both the topics discussed in my mechanisms basics post, which is geared towards people who don’t know what the mechanisms are, and my deep lore post, which aimed to be a comprehensive compilation of all the important character and world lore. this post should serve the above group, but it’s geared towards people who have listened but feel there’s a lot of lore that seems to be common knowledge they’re missing. we’ll start out with a basic introduction, and then go into crew lore and a semi-comprehensive guide on where to go for further information.

basics

the mechanisms were a steampunk concept band, known for their queer representation and their tragic stories. they are no longer together, their last performance being january 2020, but several of their members are still creating related spinoff content.

they follow the trope many steampunk bands do, which is albums that tell a story; think similar to listening to a musical soundtrack, but geared to a visual-less experience. what distinguishes them is 1) narration tracks between each song, making the plot very easy to follow, and 2) being meant to be watched live, meaning there’s layers of meta that are more easily understood by watching recorded gigs rather than studio recordings of albums. specifically, there’s a focus on the narrators, known as the mechanisms or the crew of the aurora, who are immortal space pirates telling the stories and occasionally inserting themselves into them. though they are tragic figures themselves, their banter serves the purpose of bringing a lightheartedness and dark humor to the stories. if there’s an aspect of the lore you’re confused on, it’s probably related to the narrators!

to watch the mechanisms live, you can find recordings on youtube, dropbox, google drive, soundcloud, or vimeo, which are all compiled in this post (including transcripts!). if visuals aren’t your thing, i’ve linked the studio recordings later on in this post when they come up, and here are the mechanisms’ official spotify, bandcamp, and youtube, as well as an unofficial comprehensive lyric videos channel. 

the albums

regarding the albums specifically, there are 4 main ones (once upon a time (in space), ulysses dies at dawn, high noon over camelot, and the bifrost incident), 2 that are compilations of miscellaneous songs (tales to be told 1 & 2), 1 single (frankenstein), and 1 album that’s a high-quality recording of their last live show, including an alternative performance of the bifrost incident, 2 songs only performed at live shows, and 'the deathsong’, which details how they all eventually die (death to the mechanisms).

as you might have been able to tell from the titles, they’re all based off of various myths, folklore, literature, and/or fairy tales, using different genres on top of a sci-fi setting to add a fresh twist to them! for example, high noon over camelot is a western based on arthurian mythos, set on a space station. (the albums are known for all ending in tragedy, so be careful if that isn’t your cup of tea!) if your goal is to get into the mechanisms, i’d suggest sitting down and listening to them all in full; links will be provided below, or alternatively you can watch once upon a time (in space) live here, ulysses dies at dawn live here, or the bifrost incident live here. (there is no full live recording with visuals of high noon over camelot, sadly, but there are partial and audio only recordings.)

once upon a time (in space) - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

ulysses dies at dawn - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

high noon over camelot - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

the bifrost incident - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

tales to be told, volume 1 -  spotify/bandcamp/youtube

tales to be told, volume 2 - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

frankenstein - spotify/bandcamp/youtube

death to the mechanisms - edited video with the stream corruption fixed + subtitles / stream / spotify / bandcamp / youtube / transcript pt. 1 / transcript pt. 2

reading the fiction is integral to understanding both the albums and the mechanisms themselves. the fiction is a collection of short stories set in the mechanisms universe posted on their website here and compiled by me here, with an extra high noon over camelot story here. (there are also audio versions for ‘mirror mirror’ and ‘a rebel yell’ included on both the website and the compilation).

the crew of the aurora

as for the crew, at their peak there were nine members played by people, as well as the ex-member dr carmilla, who has extensive solo lore and is still active (which we’ll touch on in a few paragraphs). there is also their ship, the aurora, who is sentient and has her own lore. in fact, every member of the crew has their own backstory, set in a different genre or historical period; for example, nastya rasputina's is historical, jonny d’ville’s is a western and marius von raum’s is a mecha anime. however, they’re all still different flavors of steampunk! below, i’ll list each member, their performer, and the main sources of lore about them. for the majority of them, they have their own song in tales to be told, but there are a few outliers. everyone also has their own bio up on the website, which can all be found here. 

the aurora (n/a, ship)- on aurora (meta)

jonny d’ville (jonny sims)- one eyed jacks (song), jonny before he was mechanized (meta)

nastya rasputina (anonymous)- cyberian demons (song)

ivy alexandria (morgan wilkinson)- archive footage (fiction), crew bio

ashes o’reilly (frank voss)- lucky sevens (song)

drumbot brian (ben below)- lost in the cosmos (song), crew bio

the toy soldier (jessica law)- the story of the toy soldier (fiction)

gunpowder tim (tim ledsam)- gunpowder tim vs the moon kaiser (song/minialbum)

marius von raum (kofi young)- the death of byron von raum summary (blog post)

raphaella la cognizi (r l hughes)- crew bio

if you’ve noticed the crew bio doesn’t say much about raphaella, that’s because we know little to nothing about her backstory. the only thing we have to go on is a quote from the tv tropes page, which looking at the edit history, was likely written by one of the mechanisms. the quote is ‘Science officer who may or may not have cheated her way onto the ship after becoming a little too interested.‘ and the page is here.

the majority of fandom content is about the crew, working off of what we get from the tales to be told songs, the live gigs, and the fiction.

dr carmilla

speaking of characters with obscure lore, let’s talk about dr carmilla! rather than linger, i’ll just link my carmilla basics post, which is a comprehensive summary of who she is in and out of universe. to summarize, she’s a character based on the novella ‘carmilla’ by sheridan le fanu, commonly regarded as the first vampire novel, but her lore has diverged heavily from that original starting point since then. she is the oldest out of all of the crew, and made the majority of the other crew members immortal. she, as well as aurora, is from a planet called terra, which was destroyed partially as a result of her actions. her character is defined by her immortality and how she deals with it, her experiences on terra, her relationship with the mechanisms, and her dysfunctional relationship with her ex-girlfriend loreli, the last of which is the most covered by her songs. out of universe, she is played by maki yamazaki. all her lore lines up with what happened out of universe, and ties to the fact the mechanisms were originally dr carmilla and the mechanisms. she has two solo albums and two singles, which i’ll link below.

ageha (prototype edition) (album)- bandcamp | youtube

exhumed and {un}plugged (album)- bandcamp | youtube

the city {nex:type mix} (single, in-character cover)- bandcamp | youtube

eleven (single)- bandcamp | youtube

the majority of her lore is still to be officially revealed, and will be in the trilogy of albums maki yamazaki is working on.

further reading

if you’d like to delve further into the lore, there are a few sources i use! there are official, in-character, blogs, as well as things that are harder to dredge up; i won’t link them here, but some sources include @/thedreadvampy (the band’s artist, as well as morgan wilkinson’s sister and kofi young’s partner; don’t bother her for lore or anything, but she’s previously made posts sharing previously unknown information), old websites and deleted content found on the wayback machine, the tv tropes pages, and most notably the lore doc.

the ‘maki forbidden lore doc’ is an archive of all the lore maki yamazaki has shared on the mechscord, the official mechanisms discord which she’s on, and her own personal server, where she’s running an arg (alternate reality game) as a way of relaying more lore about the dr carmilla universe. for an idea of the scale, the doc is currently 91 pages and 28346 words, and recontextualizes much of what is known about dr carmilla and maki’s canon of the mechanisms universe. it is confidential to anyone not in her discord or the mechscord, as she’s said that this lore isn’t thought out nearly as much as the albums and is subject to change, so she’d rather it not be out in the open. however, information on how to join the mechscord can be found here. there is also a non-canonical fan project based on the arg in progress, but information on it is also confidential for now.

with regards to the above phrase ‘maki’s canon’ it’s worth noting that all of the individual band members have their own idea of what counts as canon and what doesn’t, and as you foray deeper into lore that division becomes more and more apparent.

with that, here are the mechanisms’ blogs. they are all both run in-character by the main nine band members and inactive unless i note otherwise.

twitter

tumblr

facebook

website/wordpress (run ic by tereshkova’s ghost, the blogbot, for the most part)

carmilla twitter (active, run ic by dr carmilla)

conclusion

now that we’re coming to the end of this, i’d like to thank whoever got this far, and to say a few words. my interest in the mechanisms has been slowly fading, and i’ve been writing less and less meta and lapsing in keeping up with new lore myself. honestly, i’m pretty worn out by how much i’ve done on this blog and in this fandom, and the commitments i’ve assigned myself. i do have plans for future meta, but it’s unlikely they’ll come to fruition. so, i thought i’d do a new version of my two oldest posts on this blog, and hopefully enable other people to look into the lore and theorize themselves with the new information.

to find more information, remember there’s a mechanisms wiki, and that my askbox is always open.

thanks for reading!

[fireheart223]

Fireheart's Masterlist!

Hello, I'm Fireheart! You can call me Fire for short! I'm 18 and have ADD, and tend to go off on rambles when I get excited. I use she/her pronouns. I also like lots of things, and I'm in MANY different fandoms and tend to abruptly switch whichever one I'm hyperfixate on! Right now, I'm obsessed with G.I. Joe, specifically the Sunbow cartoon! I'm currently trying to learn German on Duolingo! Below is some stuff on my blog you can check out! Just be warned, there's a lot of stuff down there! Art tags are: #my art, #fireheart draws, and #fireheart art! Original posts tag is (well, mostly original posts (because I briefly forgot the purpose/meaning of some of my tags a while ago...) #fireheart speaks

I hope you enjoy your stay!

Other Social Media Accounts:

My YouTube Main Channel

My YouTube Backup Channel

My Discord: Fireheart223

My Deviantart Account

My Twitter Account

My Backup Twitter Account

My TikTok

My Instagram

Contact Email:

thunderclan223@gmail.com and tabalugafan224@gmail.com

Lost Media Dubs:

Below is a list of Lost Media that I'm searching for. Red means the dub is Completely Lost, Green is unknown/unsure about it's existence, Yellow means the dub has been Partially Found, and Orange means that I am unsure if it's actually missing episodes or not because of lack of information/nothing mentioning the actual episode number of the dub/contradicting information from different sources (whether it be almost every/every source contradicting or some/a few/several sources contradicting each other). If you have any footage, information, corrections, or are interested in helping me search for these dubs, you can contact me at either of the emails above. Thank you!

Arabic Dub:

تابالوغا التنين الأخضر/تابالوغا/Green Dragon Tabaluga/Tabaluga

Still compiling info, all episodes were supposedly dubbed, but only the pilot, the Season 3 intro and 58 seconds of an episode after the intro ends remains of the dub so far

Basque/Euskera/Euskara Lost Media:

Donkey Kong eta bere herrialdea/Donkey Kong and his country: Compiling info, all episodes were dubbed, and at one point we're most of the episodes were found, but they were taken down by I guess either Nelvana or Nintendo (I say this because the people who posted the links weren't aware of the links no longer working) and now the intro is all that remains of this dub. UPDATE (12/2/22): ALMOST THE ENTIRE BASQUE DUB HAS BEEN FOUND! ONLY 3 EPISODES ARE MISSING NOW!!! Here's the link to where the episodes are!

Catalan Lost Media:

Tabaluga (Compiling Info)

Chinese (Cantonese) Lost Media:

Tabaluga Cantonese Dub: Compiling info, title of the dub is unknown, no footage is left, and I am left unsure whether or not this dub even exists at all.

Spanish (Spain)/Español/Spain Spanish/Castilian/Castellano/Español de España Lost Media:

El País de Donkey Kong (Castilian/Castellano/Español de España Dub)

Danish/Dansk Lost Media:

Tabaluga (Danish Dub): Compiling info, the Season 1 intro, I believe, I'm not sure, it was one of the intros though, was on YouTube, but my stupid lazy ass didn't archive it, and it has become privated, so unless someone has archived it, the only footage of this dub has disappeared.

Finnish Lost Media:

Donkey Kong Country Finnish Dub (Still Compiling Info)

French/France French/France Français/Français/Française Lost Media:

Tabaluga Saison 1: It seems that Season 1 may have been dubbed in Français, however, any footage of this season have been lost to the sands of time except for two videos that show a Saison 1 intro

Greek Lost Media:

Ταμπαλούγκα (Alter Version): Compiling info, but it seems only one episode and a possible second version of the intro has survived, but I don't know how many episodes were dubbed

Ταμπαλούγκα (PIK2 Version): I don't know how many episodes were dubbed, and I haven't anything on this second dubbing and no footage seems to be left, so I am unsure if it even exists

Hindi Lost Media:

Donkey Kong Hindi Dub (Compiling Info)

Hungarian Lost Media:

Tabaluga Hungarian Dub (M2 Version)

Icelandic Lost Media:

Tabalúgi (Compiling Info)

Italian Lost Media:

Donkey Kong Italian Dub (Apparently completely dubbed and finished off, but was Unreleased)

Korean Lost Media:

타발루가 / 꼬마용 타발루가 (Tabaluga/Tabaluga For Kids): (Compiling Info, but the link has the info I've found thus far)

Norwegian/Norsk Lost Media:

Donkey Kong Country Norwegian/Norsk Dub

Polish/Poliski Lost Media:

Donkey Kong Polish Dub (Compiling info)

Portuguese/Europe Portuguese/European Portuguese/Portuguese (European) Lost Media:

Tabaluga Portuguese Dub: (Compiling Info)

Donkey Kong Country Portuguese Dub: (Compiling Info)

Portuguese/Brazilian Portuguese/Brazil Protuguese/Portuguese (Brazilian)/Portuguese (Brazil) Lost Media:

Donkey Kong Dublado

Romanian Lost Media:

Tabaluga Romanian Dub: (Compiling info, but a Romanian dubbed version of Tabaluga and Leo does definitely exist

Russian Lost Media:

Табалуга (CTC/STS) First Season 2 Dub: (Still compiling some info, but most of the info I've found can be found in the link)

Swedish Lost Media:

Donkey Kongs Värld

Ukrainian Lost Media:

Табалуґа (Compiling info)

[puyopreservation]

Update: 1 April 2022

(Links in the pinned post)

Hi. Hello there.

Mod Mamono here, happy April Fools.

No jokes from us this year. But I am gonna use it to break my self-imposed formality rule we have on this blog and just talk casually for a bit. Talking about this blog for a bit, some actually important, some side notes, to horribly off topic from this blog and even Puyo Puyo and maybe recommend some video games.

I’ll make sure to get some important stuff out of the way first:

I’ve commissioned someone to translate the first chapter of Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon.

(Of which you can find the untranslated version here.)

My intent is to set up a crowd fund to get it fully translated, so I thought I might as well pay for a chapter myself as a preview. I was gonna pitch into the crowd funder myself anyway.

The translator is still working on it, I got no preview for you.

Puyo Puyo Preservation Place and you.

Puyo Puyo Preservation Place shouldn’t be the only fan Puyo Puyo Archive out there. I just wanted my opinion out there.

Totally! Puyo Puyo Volumes 2-6 are still being cropped.

(Of which you can find Volume 1 here)

Mod Frank, who’s in charge of cropping (partially because my right arm is REALLY over worked to the point of pain), is taking his time. Which is fine. We’re only a two person operation here. And Mod Frank carries everything with his passion as honestly speaking, my passion for this franchise has deflated.

I still have a lot of fondness for it. And it’s honestly kinda cool seeing I have had influence over the Puyo Puyo fandom because I rip books and scan them and buy stupid expensive CD-roms of which I can later find the art on the Puyo Nexus wiki. But I am looking for something I can really like a ton like I did Puyo Puyo for a while. (Probably Donkey Kong or Crash Bandicoot.)

Not gonna scan and rip stuff for a while.

Like 6 months or so. My room is really heat absorbent. I’ve said this several times now. And it usually starts around March.

It has been heating up. But as if life itself is pulling an April Fools joke. It’s snowing outside now. Which is a rarity this past decade.

We’re still looking for stuff.

We are always looking for stuff. The list is here.

The important stuff is over, irrelevant stuff incoming.

Just gonna talk about stuff I wanna talk about. Keep reading you’re okay with that.

An Ordinary Puyo Puyo High School AU

We work on a fanfiction for fun. IT’S ITS TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSEY! We uploaded the first 3 chapters on April 1st 2020.

What if everyone went to a high school were magic is a rarity. It’s a bit of slice-of-life. You can read it there. People seem to like it.

On a hiatus to get our continuity straight.

I “designed” that logo myself. It’s bland on purpose. Even if the fic is not (I hope.)

Kremling video

With Mario Strikers Battle League announced I got reminded of an annoying claim regarding the Donkey Kong and Mario series which could’ve easily been disproven back in 2014 with Smash Bros. for 3DS. I wanted to make video I can just point to and go on with my day.

I’ve been working on this video for about a month now. And I just happened to finish it on April 1st.

Robot Jones ReAnimated

I entered as a joke and I got accepted. Here’s my first clip: 

It’s in the Zelda CD-i style, you know the one. I finished it in 2 days.

My next clip is taking me way longer because way more characters, my hand hurts badly from the extensive mouse usage...

They’re still accepting applicants as of writing.

Controller Companion

This is what I’ve been using while waiting for my arm to heal. So I can still mouse comfortably enough using a controller. Because while using a mouse hurts, controllers thankfully don’t.

I edited the final 1/4th of that Kremling video with a controller.

It’s keyboard function is functional but not very fast though. It’s still a useful tool for me at this moment.

Here’s the website: http://controllercompanion.com/

It’s on Steam and Itch.io.

Recommending Video Games

Mainly from the Nintendo Switch. (In alphabetical order.)

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling

This is basically the Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door sequel people have been wanting.

I’d say it’s a more smartly designed TTYD, the main three party members have great synergy. Though that also means less variety then TTYD offers with the Partners I wanna say.

The game can be as easy or hard as you wanna make it. Personally I like the basic hard mode. Makes winning feel amazing.

This might be one of my favorite games ever. Top 15 for sure.

It uh... Did take me a second playthrough to fully love this game though. So uh... keep that in mind.

Demon Turf

It’s a real damn good 3D Platformer in which you actually platform a ton. Not many 3D platformers can boast that.

Imagine Mario 64, but they actually had the time, money, and space to make 30 something levels instead of 15 which you have to do several objectives in.

It’s a really interesting artstyle too. It’s kinda like DOOM (1993) or more accurately DOOM 64 in that it’s 2D sprites in a 3D world. You’ll get used to it, the main characters look nice though I think the townspeople kinda look amateurish.

I’m still playing through this one, but I love it more each time I pick it up, this one’s a keeper.

Though piece of advice. When the game points you in the direction of the first world, just go there. Feel free to talk to the towns people in the main hub world, but don’t do any side content yet. My first impression was a little soured doing things above my skill level while I haven’t learned all the ropes yet or gained any upgrades.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

(I can’t link anymore videos, I didn’t even know there was a limit. So have links to trailers instead.)

This is one of my, if not just outright, favorite games. And honestly, I don’t have much to say much about it. Besides that I’m miffed the Switch version changed the credits song. It would’ve been okay if it was just for Funky Mode, but it isn’t.

No shame in using Funky Mode, which is the easy mode, but if you liked the game enough, I suggest you try regular mode as well.

Downwell

(Trailer)

This 3$ game gives you such bang for your buck.

You decent into the well trying to get to the bottom and gun boots to stave off the creatures that live down there.

It’s semi-roguelike. Power-ups, shops, gems and enemy formation are randomized each time.

Only recently finally beat all of it. I recommend it because it’s fun just to see how far you can get. The real Downwell was the seeing yourself get better along the way.

And if you don’t like it. You only spend 3$ on it.

Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition & Guacamelee! 2 Complete

(Trailer) (Trailer)

These two games are equal part Metroidvania (or Search-Action if you prefer >_>), beat’m up, 2D Platformer, and in love with Mexican Culture. And amazingly none of those are half-baked. 

Personally the 2D platforming impresses me most. The stunts you can pull off with the combat moves left me impressed on more then one occasion. And combine that with light/dark world swapping and yeesh.

I’m hard pressed to say which one I like more. Gameplay-wise I wanna say Guac 2 is better but I felt it was missing something. Just can’t put my finger on it.

These are some funny games, but beware of it’s reference humor and Mexican memes that are outdated now.

Oh! Seizure warning for Guacamelee Gold on Steam.

New Super Lucky's Tale

(Trailer)

This game has kinda become a comfort game for me. It’s a simple 3D platformer that doesn’t demand too much from you. Like if I’m in a 3D platformer mood but I’m not feeling up to it, New Super Lucky’s Tale is a good choice.

Don’t have much else to say about it.

Snake Pass

(Trailer)

Think like a Snake.

I think that what the tagline for this game was. You control a Snake and you gotta move like a Snake. It’s like a 3D platformer but instead of jumping you climb on poles like a snake would

This game justifies itself existing on that unuiqe idea alone.

And as icing on the cake the game’s music is scored by David Wise of Donkey Kong Country 1, 2 and Tropical Freeze fame. If nothing else, search Sog-Gee's Realm on YouTube.

It’s a really, really good mood. Both the music and the game. Does take a while to get used to the controls though, so be prepared.

Streets of Rage 4

(Trailer)

This is the best beat’m up ever made and if they ever make anything better please point me into it’s direction.

I don’t have much to say besides maybe that, if this genre isn’t for you, this might not change your mind????

The TakeOver

(Trailer)

This game is discount Streets of Rage 4 to me. Meaning it’s still good, it’s just that I have Streets of Rage 4.

I love the classic Killer Instinct look of it~

And that’s all!

Hopefully your April Fools isn’t too annoying for you. Have a nice day.

[eldritchteaparty]

Chapters: 18/22 Fandom: The Magnus Archives (Podcast) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist Characters: Martin Blackwood, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives), Sasha James, Rosie Zampano, Oliver Banks, Original Elias Bouchard, Peter Lukas, Annabelle Cane, Melanie King, Georgie Barker, Alice "Daisy" Tonner, Basira Hussain, Allan Schrieber Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Fix-It, Post-Canon Fix-It, Scars, Eventual Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, I'll add characters and tags as they come up, Reference to injuries and blood, Character Death In Dream, Nudity (not sexual or graphic), Nightmares, Fighting, Spiders

Summary: Following the events of MAG 200, Jon and Martin find themselves in a dimension very much like the one they came from--with second chances and more time.

Chapter summary: Spiders. Also some unexpected information gives *some* of the archive staff renewed hope.

Chapter 18 of my post-canon fix-it is up! Read above at AO3 or read here below!

Tumblr master post with links to previous chapters is here.

***

“Martin.”

Martin lay in the bed, bleary eyed. Despite how early it had been, he’d fallen asleep almost as soon as he’d laid down after his conversation with Melanie in the hallway bath; he hadn’t even gotten undressed, just crawled under the covers in his clothes. He stayed still, not sure if he’d actually heard Jon say his name or if he had imagined it.

“Martin,” Jon said again, and this time he knew it was real.

“Jon?”

“I need you to listen to me.”

“What are you doing? Why are you—” Jon sounded like he was somewhere near the bedroom door, and Martin couldn’t see a thing. “Turn on the light.” He started to sit up.

“Wait.” Martin froze. Jon had an edge of concern in his voice that made Martin much more nervous than if he were yelling. “Don’t—don’t move. Just listen.”

“Jon, what’s going on?”

“I—I’d rather not say just yet. It’s probably fine.”

“Oh, god damn it. Can you—can you at least—” He sputtered out. Arguing would make this take longer, and that didn’t seem like a good idea.

“You’ll—you’ll be fine. I’m being cautious. Will you trust me?”

“I—do I have a choice?”

Do I ever have a choice?, he thought, but didn’t say out loud.

Jon sighed. “Yes. If you need me to tell you, I will, but—yes.”

Oh. Martin hadn’t expected that answer, and somehow it made not knowing easier. “It’s fine. I trust you.” He knew it came out sulky, like a child agreeing to a chore, but that was the best he could do in the moment.

“All right. Move to my side of the bed, but—stay under the covers.”

“Jesus.” Martin slowly and cautiously did as Jon said, half expecting to make contact with something in the dark, or to feel a weight on the bed, but there was nothing.

“Now—put your feet on the floor. Try not to move the covers too much.”

He swung his feet around under the blankets, slipping them out until he was sitting on the edge of the bed. He kept his hands in the air, not wanting to touch the quilt.

“You’re doing—you’re doing great, Martin. Now stand up. Slowly.”

The drop in his blood pressure reminded him that he had just been woken from a deep sleep; despite standing slowly as Jon asked, he had to concentrate to make sure he stayed steady.

“Now walk toward me—normal, but—slow.”

Martin sighed.

“Please,” Jon said.

“All right, all right.” Martin walked slowly toward the doorway; his eyes were starting to adjust, and he could see the outline of Jon in the dim light from the hallway.

“Stop.” He was probably about five feet from Jon.

“Jon—what is—" Despite the darkness, he was pretty sure he would have been physically aware of anything between him and Jon at this point.

“One big step. One big step, and then—”

Only partially conscious that he was doing it, he looked down.

“Oh shit.” Although he couldn’t see the floor directly in front of him, the hallway light was just bright enough to see a thin, broken line that cut across the floor near the corner of the door frame.

That line was moving. Crawling, in fact.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.” Martin cleared the remaining distance between himself and Jon in a single leap, heart suddenly pounding. “It’s spiders, isn’t it—shit, shit—”

“Martin, my—”

“Oh. God.” He hadn’t realized how hard he had grabbed for Jon, and he immediately loosened his grip; Jon, still facing the bedroom, continued to hold Martin. “Is that it? Just that? Or is it—”

“I think—I think that’s it. If she were going to do worse, I think she would have done it already.”

“That’s not actually all that comforting.” Martin took a moment to breathe in Jon’s arms and let his heart slow before he looked down at the floor again. Now that he was in the hallway and could see better, he realized the line of spiders was moving away from their room, not into it. He couldn’t help himself; he turned back to the room and flipped on the light.

“Oh.” There were at least a dozen crisscrossing lines of small black spiders moving back and forth across the room; they were on the floor, the walls, the bed. They were walking right over where Martin’s sleeping body had been lying until just now. After a moment he was able to trace their origin to a single spot, a corner of the room where the ceiling and the walls met. They appeared to be coming down from the room above them, although the crack they entered through must have been very tiny.

“Come on.” Jon put his arms around Martin’s waist again, gently pulling him back from the door. He hadn’t quite turned away when they heard a voice down the hall.

“Jon? Martin? Are you all right?” He looked to find Sasha in the hallway, with Georgie not far behind. “We heard shouting and thought we’d—Wait, what is that? Is that—ants?”

Martin noticed that as the line of spiders drew away from their door, they broke off in two directions—one line went into Sasha’s room, and the other went into Melanie and Georgie’s room.

“It’s spiders,” Jon said, in the same calm voice he’d used when waking Martin. “Get everyone else from the—”

“The Admiral,” Georgie said, panicked, and ran to the door of their bedroom. Martin started to shout at her to wait, but Jon put a hand on his chest.

“It’s all right.”

Georgie screamed from inside the room.

“Jon, she doesn’t sound—”

“Georgie?” Melanie burst into the hallway. “Geo—”

“He was eating them.” Georgie came back out, cat tucked under one arm while she brushed furiously at various parts of him with her available hand. “That’s disgusting.”

Martin exhaled, relieved.

“What is going on?” Melanie looked into the room Georgie had just left. “Oh my god. Spiders aren’t supposed to do that.”

“No,” Jon said, continuing to move Martin back toward everyone else. “No, they’re not.”

Elias and Tim had joined the group by the time Jon and Martin reached the middle of the hallway.

“What the hell.” Elias walked past Georgie and Melanie’s room, peering in as he did; he threw open Sasha’s door when he reached it and did the same. He looked back at everyone else as he reached Jon and Martin’s door. “That—that is weird, right?”

“Yes, that’s fucking weird,” Melanie answered. “Jon, this is—this is her, right? The woman that—”

“Annabelle.” He merely acknowledged her name, carefully lending no weight to it. “Yes. Well—I can only assume. She’s—she’s good at concealing herself, but—this seems like a clear message.”

“What’s the message? That she doesn’t like us?” Melanie asked, having turned to swipe at Georgie’s arms as she continued fussing with the Admiral. “Too bad. Let her show her face instead of this nonsense, and we’ll see how she likes us with my boot up her ass.”

Martin stifled an incredulous laugh; the thought was ridiculous. He was reminded that Melanie knew virtually nothing about Annabelle.

“What?” Melanie asked, annoyed. “Did you ever try it?”

“I—I can’t say that I did.”

“Hm. Maybe you should have.”

“Elias.” Everyone looked up when Jon said his name; Elias was walking toward the stairs that went up from the foyer.

“I’m going up to get rid of them.”

“Is that safe?” Sasha asked.

“Well—” Elias spoke more quietly this time. “Allan’s up there too, and since we haven't heard anything from him—I figured it was ok.”

“Yes,” Jon said. “It’s ok.”

“I’ll go with him,” Tim said. They watched as the two of them disappeared up the steps.

“Back to the sitting room then?” Sasha asked. “Until, um—that’s done?”

Martin walked slowly, letting everyone else go ahead so he could have a private moment with Jon. “They really don’t get it.”

“No.” Jon shook his head. “Are you surprised?”

“No,” Martin said, “and I’m glad they don’t. I’m just thinking—that means that message was for you. Us.”

“Yes.”

“Ok, so then—why? What is she telling us?”

Jon shrugged. “That she’s aware of what we’re doing. That she knows where we are, and that we haven’t accepted her—truce.”

“OK, but—” Martin swallowed. He still hadn’t bought into her offer, but Jon’s interpretation seemed otherwise valid. “Why didn’t she do worse? That was—that was almost nothing. From her, that was a joke.”

“I’m not sure she could do worse, actually. Not here. Not without me knowing, and possibly exposing herself. She’s likely still recovering.”

“So you think she’s letting us know that she’s still weak? Why would she do that?”

“Who knows. It’s not like it’s made her vulnerable.”

Martin frowned. “That’s not like her, Jon. She’s nothing if not deliberate—she’s always had a reason for everything. If that’s true—if that’s the best she can do, or even if she just wants us to think that—she’s let us know on purpose.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying—I still think she’s trying to push you.” He rushed ahead, trying to get the words out before Jon could tell him he was wrong. “If you know that she’s still getting stronger, that it will get worse, that might push you to act too soon and—”

“Martin,” Jon said, taking him by the hand. “If that is the case—if she’s pushing me—what would you have me do?”

“I’d have you wait,” Martin said. “Just wait. Don’t do what she wants. Whatever comes out of this—give it time.”

“Wait?” Jon repeated. “Give it time, while she gets stronger and murders all our friends? Or worse?”

“No.” Martin tried to sound confident, although he could feel his argument slipping. “No. We’d protect them. You’d protect them.”

“How?” Jon asked. “I can’t. Not after a certain point.”

“But—”

“Never mind. Let’s say we could protect them,” Jon continued. “What about everyone who isn’t them? Everyone she can already reach? Well, her and the Web and the other fears. What about Carlos Vittery and Oliver Banks and—”

“Bad things happen,” Martin said. He knew now that he had lost, but he kept talking. “No, it’s not good. It’s wrong. It’s still terrible. But bad things happen even in a world with no entities, with nothing to live off the fear, with just—”

“Not these things.” Jon turned Martin’s hand over, enveloping it on both sides with his own. “These things—they’re my fault.”

Martin lowered his head. There it was—the conviction he could never shake.

“Martin, look. I don’t know that we have an option other than waiting. I have no intention of—of ending things, not right now. It doesn’t solve anything. It doesn’t stop anything. It doesn’t save our friends, not in the end. It doesn’t save you.” Jon traced the tendons on the back of Martin’s hand lightly with his fingers. “But I will never—never—let them out again. And when it comes to that—when it’s time to choose—”

Martin nodded, but did not look up again.

***

As it turned out, it was incredibly easy to destroy the spiders. Tim and Elias had discovered a massive nest in the room above the one Jon and Martin were staying in. Elias had grabbed a supply of insecticide from the attic and they had started to spray, prepared to run when spiders inevitably scattered, but that didn’t happen; they hadn’t diverged from their path at all. That was when Tim and Elias had realized the spiders weren’t just walking out of the nest, but also into it. They were coming back to the second-floor room from one of the bedrooms below, re-entering the nest, and waiting until they received some silent cue that it was time to leave again. The two of them had then stopped and watched as every single spider, without fail, returned to the nest to die in its turn.

“Fucking creepy,” Tim said, after he had recounted it, “but it did make things pretty easy.”

“So,” Sasha said, as they once again found themselves on the floor of the great room. “I take it no one wants to go to bed just yet.”

“Not anymore,” Melanie said. She leaned over Georgie’s shoulder to rub the Admiral’s ears as he sat contentedly in her lap.

“Martin, are you ok?” Sasha asked. His face reddened as everyone turned to him.

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I think so.” He’d almost forgotten about the way he’d left the group earlier that evening.

“Do you mind if I ask some more questions, since we’re here?”

“We’re fine,” Jon said, and she redirected her attention to him. Martin was grateful.

“All right. Let’s start with Annabelle. She came here from the other dimension, right?”

“Yes.”

“And so did you—part of you, and Martin, also.”

“Yes. That’s—yes.” Close enough.

“And that’s it? Other than the entities?”

“Yes. I—I believe so. Well, also the—the body.”

“Right. Do you know how that all worked?”

Martin recognized Jon’s expression; it was the one he made while trying to simplify something complicated that already made complete sense to him. “We were connected to them—the entities—us to the Eye, Annabelle to the Web—in such a way that when they were expelled, we were too. Or really, they were expelled, we were dragged along with them.”

“Just the three of you were connected like that?”

“Yes. Our connections were—very strong.”

Sasha nodded. “What about the dimensions themselves? What do you know about them?”

“Not much. I only—saw them, for lack of a better word—for a moment. Or—the equivalent of a moment. Time doesn’t really—never mind. It was—it was a lot. Even for the Eye.”

“So there were very many of them. Dimensions, I mean.”

“Yes. More than I can attempt to describe. Infinite doesn’t—it’s too simple.”

“Are they all like this one? With versions of us, I mean, and—”

“No.” Jon clearly found the idea absurd. “Well—some of them are. But so many more are—different. I think. Different people. And—not people. And then—”

“You know who loves this shit?” Elias sat back on his hands, oblivious to his interruption.

“Um—who?” Sasha asked, after realizing he was waiting for an answer.

“Allan. Allan loves this. He can talk about it all day.”

“Talk about what exactly?”

“You know, alternate universes, wormholes, interdimensional travel—I mean, this is pretty much his thing.”

“Oh my god.” Tim smacked his own forehead with an open palm. “Go get him.”

“Right now?” Elias grew hesitant. “It’s pretty late. Maybe we could—”

“We both know what kind of hours he keeps, and anyway, his light was on when we were upstairs. He’s awake. Just—go get him.”

Elias looked at Jon, who shrugged. “It’s entirely up to you,” Jon said.

Elias hesitated a little longer, then stood up. “All right. Ok.” He disappeared up the stairs.

Sasha turned to Tim. “Care to explain?”

“Allan’s a physics professor. Theoretical physics. And he’s brilliant, and he does love this shit. I mean, he doesn’t really do it at work, it’s not the sort of thing that gets funding unless you’re Stephen Hawking, but—anyway, he’s obsessed with it. Manages to bring it up every time I’m around him. I can’t believe I didn’t think about it.”

“Oh. I suppose maybe he could tell us something helpful. That is, if he doesn’t think we’ve collectively gone mad.”

“Oh, he absolutely will, but he’ll pretend he doesn’t,” Tim reassured her.

Several minutes later, Allan was there. He fit a certain academic stereotype almost perfectly, at least in appearance; roughly the same age as Elias, he was completely grey, and had several days’ worth of beard growth that would have driven Martin crazy. Although barefoot, he was still dressed from the day in a pair of khakis and a rumpled polo shirt, and Martin suspected he might end up wearing them the next day as well if nothing interfered.

“Hello, everyone.” He stood outside the group, awkward but cheerful enough, given the time and circumstances.

Elias stood next to him and pointed out each of them in turn. “So this is Jon, Martin, Georgie, Melanie, Sasha, and—you know Tim.”

“Wonderful,” Allan said, following Elias’s lead in stepping carefully between Jon and Martin to join the semi-circle they had formed on the floor.

“So what has Elias told you?” Sasha asked.

“Not much, only that you are all engaged in a deep conversation regarding the nature of the universe itself, and I thought, it’s only 12:30 in the morning.” He smiled, but the expression quickly faded as he looked around again at the group. “I see we’re tackling the easy questions tonight.”

“Here’s the thing,” Sasha said. “We’re dealing with something that—well, frankly, isn’t all that believable, unless—unless you’ve experienced some part of it.”

“I’ll play along.”

Sasha took a few seconds to gather her thoughts. “All right, here goes. Several months ago, a number of very powerful entities from another dimension entered ours, and—they live off our fear. And Jon and Martin sort of—well—versions of them came here, too, and now they’re both of themselves, and they experienced all of this in that other dimension and—well, if we don’t find a solution, then—um—humanity is doomed.”

Allan looked around at the group again; he had a very different look on his face this time. “I’ll admit that’s not exactly what I was expecting—” He looked at Elias, who nodded slowly and then shrugged. “All right. Let’s start with these entities. Tell me about them.”

“Jon, you’re probably the best one to—”

“Yes, all right.” Jon cleared his throat. “Like Sasha said, they are extremely powerful. Just to give you an idea—some people in the other dimension thought of them as gods. They aren’t, of course, but—they aren’t exactly part of our reality, either.”

“So—they had their own dimension as well?”

“No. They were from our dimension—the other one. They were born there, and they co-evolved with us, I suppose. But not really with us, it was—it’s hard to describe. They weren’t—physical, maybe that’s the way to say it. Not in any sense I’m aware of.”

“Hmm.” Allan furrowed his brow. “I assume you mean you couldn’t see them, or touch them. In that case, how did you—well—know about them?”

“We didn’t, for a long time. Most people never did. They acted through things—people, animals, objects—and then, later, I—”

“Jon communicates with them,” Tim interjected.

“One of them,” Jon corrected him. “Insofar as they are separate. And—sort of.”

“Really?” Allan asked. “What’s that like?”

“It’s, um—” For a moment, Martin really understood what Jon had to accomplish when asked to explain things; he could not imagine any single way to sum up Jon’s relationship to the Eye. “Well, for one, I can—I can know things. Things I couldn’t know otherwise.”

“Really?”

“Ask him something,” Elias said.  

“All right. Is my research assistant going to show up in the morning?”

“Oh—well—that’s the future. I can’t know that because—well, I assume because it hasn’t happened, and therefore doesn’t actually exist. But”—he thought for a moment— "she didn’t show up today. In fact, the last time she came in was Monday.”

“Ok. From the past, then—what street did I grow up on?”

Jon paused, concentrating. “Technically there were several, but you’re thinking of Church Street. You stayed there a bit longer than the others, and it was the one you liked best. There was a park nearby where you learned to ride a bike.”

“And what was the name of our dog when we lived there?”

Jon concentrated again, a little longer this time. “There wasn’t one. But you had—rabbits. Hm.”

Martin decided to intervene, as he was pretty sure Jon would keep going until he hurt himself. “Ok, look, this does take a toll on him, and tonight’s already been hard enough.”

“I’m fine.” Jon looked at Allan, who was regarding him with renewed interest. “Anything else?”

“That’s more than enough. I’m—I’m quite impressed.”

“Oh,” Elias said, “also we found my body in the tunnels under the Institute the other day. Well, not my body, but—you know, my body from the other dimension.”

Allan looked at Elias with concern. “Ok, I’m—I’m not sure what to do with that, but—ok. We’ll come back to it. So these beings, they’re not from another dimension, and you can’t physically interact with them—not directly. But you—and maybe others—can interact with them, say, mentally, and they can influence the physical world.”

“Yes,” Jon said. “Yes, I think that’s fair.”

“What I’m getting at is that everything that makes up the universe—everything we are aware of—is classified as either matter or energy, and the two are equivalent in a sense. Well, there’s also evidence of dark matter and dark energy, but—never mind about that for now. And although there’s been no evidence of it, it isn’t impossible that there could exist some sort of life form that, rather than being made up of physical matter, is made primarily of energy.”

“Oh. That’s what a lot of people think ghosts are,” Melanie said.

Allan nodded. “Of course, there are some problems with the idea of energy beings. For one thing, energy, as we define it, is always associated with motion and change. Light, for example, which has no mass, transmits energy as a function of its momentum alone—but it must always be moving. Or we can define potential energy, which does not require momentum, but is always associated with a physical body. And for energy itself to be sentient in any way—well, it’s not clear how that would work. If there were sentient energy beings, they would be so different from us that it’s unlikely we would recognize them at all, except through the ways in which they interacted with the physical world. That sort of goes along with what you’ve said so far, as I think about it, but—tell me, when they left the other dimension and traveled here, was there any sort of medium involved? Some sort of physical matter?”

“Yes,” Martin said, surprised that he knew an answer. “The tape.”

“The tape?” Tim asked. “What tape? Like—sellotape?”

“No, like cassette tapes. The actual tape inside them. There was—”

“You didn’t mention that before.”

“Well look Tim, there was a lot to explain, ok? And that was—”

“It’s fine,” Tim said. “Go on.”

“I’m not sure I follow,” Allan said.

“Yes. Tape. Um, so—there was a crack, a gap, in our reality that led to the—the space between the dimensions, so to speak. That seems to have been a natural occurrence—”

“It’s possible,” Allan said.

“—but the tape, that was—that was something Annabelle did. The recordings on the tape were—relevant to the entities. It allowed them to bridge the gap without destroying themselves. It was—I honestly don’t know how she—”

“Annabelle put spiders in our upstairs guest room, by the way,” Elias said. “That’s why Tim and I were up there earlier.”

Again, Allan looked at Elias with concern. “You’ve been having a time of it, haven’t you?”

“Pretty much,” Elias said. “Sorry for not mentioning it sooner.”

“Quite all right,” Allan said. “This does explain some things. Just so long as you know you could have told me.” He looked at Elias a little longer before turning back to Jon. “Annabelle, she’s—one of them?”

“No, but she—she serves one of them.”

“So she is a physical being that they act through.”

“That’s—yes.”

“All right. So let’s see—this gap existed, the physical medium of the tape was placed there—how did they get to it?”

“Well—I suppose—we destroyed their other physical means of attachment to our world, and they were forced out the only way they could go. Into the gap.”

“How did all of that happen, exactly?”

“Well—you have to understand, there was an apocalypse, things had shifted, time and space didn’t necessarily—” Jon sighed. “Gas main. We blew up a gas main.”

“Oh.” He now gave Jon the same look of concern he had given Elias earlier, and the conversation momentarily quieted.

“This is—this is good,” Sasha said. “I mean—it’s good to have another perspective on this. Thank you.”

“Well, quite honestly, I’m not sure what to make of it, but—” He stopped. “You all really believe this, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Sasha said. “And if you don’t mind humoring us a bit longer—well, the reason we’re all in your house, and perhaps this is obvious, but—given that we do believe these entities are here, we’d like them not to be here.”

“Understandable. It would be bad for us, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes. So let’s say that we were able to—push them back toward this gap again, somehow. Would there be a way to—direct them? Make them go somewhere specific?”

“Hm.” Allan rubbed his hand over the stubble on his face. “Without really knowing more about them, but assuming we’re on the right track—I’m guessing we’d need access to the tape. Think of the way a wire conducts electricity. If they are sentient in some way, maybe they could choose their path along it, but—”

“I see.” Sasha frowned. “Jon, is that—is that even a possibility? Getting to the tape?”

“No,” Jon said. “I don’t—I don’t think so. Not for us.”

“Right.” Sasha, who had been crossing her legs, moved to stick one of them out in front of her. She took a moment to flex her foot, and then straighten it again. “Ok, what about this? And please understand, I have no idea how any of this works and I’m only throwing out ideas—could we move everything else? Like us? And leave them here? I mean—Jon and Martin came here, and Annabelle came here, and—the body.”

“Maybe,” Allan said.

“What—really?”

“Well—assuming this is all true, then it’s already been proven that physical matter can be transported from one dimension to another, because—like you said, it’s been done. Of course, the situation would be reversed from what we were just talking about. If energy requires matter to move across dimensions, matter most likely requires energy. In fact, I’m certain it would. Moving across dimensions is not the same as moving across space, of course—but the principle would be the same.”

“How much energy?”

“I can only assume enormous amounts.”

“Like—I don’t know, a nuclear bomb?”

“Well, how much mass are you talking about?”

“Humanity. The world.”

“A nuclear bomb would be a mere drop in the bucket. It would barely register.”

“Hm.”

The group fell silent again. Martin didn’t really know how to feel about any of this; he imagined the others were feeling the same. Allan’s thoughts on all of it made sense, at least as far as he understood them. In the end, though, it didn’t really present any new options, did it? Messing with the tape was almost certainly impossible given that Jon, even when his power had been at its height, was lost within seconds of trying to know its path. And the way Allan had described the amount of energy required to move everything else and leave the entities behind—even if they had some idea of how to do it, that was just too much, right? Could that much energy even exist?

“I might have a way,” Jon said quietly.

It only took Martin a moment to understand what Jon was suggesting.

“No,” he said firmly. “No. Absolutely not.”

“What just happened?” Tim asked.

Neither of them responded.

“Please,” Sasha said. “If there’s something—obviously we need to consider anything very carefully, but—if there’s a possibility—any possibility—”

“I could start another apocalypse.” He met Martin’s eyes; Martin looked back at him in disbelief.

“Ok,” Sasha said. “I have to say, I’m not sure how that helps.”

“When I—started it, before—when I said the words, and they—” Martin could see how hard Jon was working to hold back the misery of it, to hide the guilt and the torment he’d carried with him since that day. Martin’s instinct was to reach for him, to stop him before he crumpled under the weight of it, but at the same time he wanted it all to come out. It wasn’t that he wanted Jon to hurt; it was that he wanted them to see it, to understand how stupid this was. He wanted Jon to break now, just a little, so he wouldn’t destroy himself later. “When they entered our world, in that moment, the sheer amount of power they brought with them—it was—”

Martin lost it. “And what, you’re going to control it? Jon, that’s insane. Even the idea is—”

“Jonah did,” Jon answered. “Jonah controlled it, before he—where do you think that ridiculous tower came from? Jonah Magnus, king of a ruined world. Do you think the Eye gave a shit about his ego? Jonah made that world, Martin. He laid out the domains, preserved his own place in them just so he could—”

“Jon—"

“—and if I take his place in the ritual and retain the role of the Archivist, I believe I could—”

“No. Don’t even say it. It is way, way too—”

“All right,” Sasha broke in. “Stop. I’m sure I’m not following all of this, but you are talking about deliberately starting an apocalypse and—somehow using it? I take it the apocalypse wouldn’t actually take place, then?”

Jon considered. “Well, it would, but everyone would be—somewhere else. If I succeeded, no one would ever know it happened. And the entities would be left here to burn themselves out.”

“And if it failed?”

“If I failed, then that would be it,” Jon said. “There would be no going back. The opportunity would only exist for a moment.”

“That does sound incredibly risky.” Martin was briefly relieved; surely that would be the end of it. “But on the other hand—”

“What?” Martin’s desperation tumbled out of him. “You can’t be serious. It’s too much. It’s too dangerous.”

“Just—listen, Martin. Please. No, actually—all of you, listen. We are making no decisions tonight. We don’t understand this well enough. But if this is even a possibility, I think we have to consider it. It’s the only option we’ve come up with so far that doesn’t end with spreading the fears or sacrificing literally everything in our world. Everyone else—what are your thoughts?”

Uncomfortable silence pervaded the group; Melanie was the first person to speak. “I don’t know. It sounds like a lot could go wrong. And don’t take this the wrong way, but—it puts an awful lot of— pressure on Jon.”

“Yeah,” Georgie said. “I agree. I’d want to be a little more certain about—well, a lot of things, but like— what does that even look like, moving everything to another dimension? I mean, given what happened with Martin and Jon—well, if we didn’t just blow ourselves up or something, we wouldn’t want to crash land on top of a world filled with our own doubles, for example. Or end up somewhere worse.”

“Yes,” Sasha said. “We’d need to know a lot more—as much as we can. Allan, is there—is there any way to—I don’t know, check on any of this?”

Allan looked like he had been run over. “Keeping in mind, of course, that this is all very—um—”

“Yes. We know.”

“—I’m willing to do what I can. It sounds like the place to start would be wherever this supposed gap is. Do you happen to—”

“Yes,” Jon answered. “Hilltop Road. In Oxford.”

“All right. I’ll go in the morning. I’ll cancel my classes for tomorrow. I’ll take anyone else with me who wants to go. We’ll stop by the university and pick up some equipment on the way out. Let’s say 8 am.”

“Thank you. That’s—that’s very helpful. Anyone else? Any thoughts?”

Elias shook his head.

“Tim?”

“Well, just that—” He looked around at everyone, then shook his head once. “Never mind. It will wait.”

“Fair enough. All right. I know tonight has been a lot for everyone. Too much, really. We should sleep. Is everyone comfortable going back to their rooms?”

There was another bout of silence, and again Melanie was the first to speak. “I am if Georgie is.”

“Why not,” Georgie said, standing as she carefully balanced the Admiral in her arms. “I sort of doubt this one would let us sleep through another midnight buffet. Ugh.”

“Jon? Martin? What about the two of you?”

Jon reached for Martin’s hand; he didn’t pull it away. “We’ll be all right.”

“Martin, I’m sorry for—”

Martin turned away, and Sasha let her apology drop off. He heard Jon say something quietly to her, then accepted Jon’s encouragement to get to his feet. Sasha would have to forgive him later. He could tell they were still talking, although their words had become indistinguishable to Martin. He could hear Tim’s voice; somewhere behind him, Allan and Elias were having an exchange.

“Come on.” Jon’s voice, close to him. Martin’s body ached as if from a low-grade fever as they walked. It was a relief when Jon shut the door of the bedroom behind them, turning off the light that had been left on earlier. They faced each other in the dark.

“Martin—"

“No.”

“I know how you feel about this.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I guess you do. It just doesn’t matter.”

“Please.” Jon reached for him; Martin allowed him to turn his head, but would not let his eyes follow even though neither of them could see. “What if this—”

“Don’t. Don’t you dare. Not you.”

“All right.” Jon kissed him. Martin responded simply because he needed it; he needed the comfort. He wanted Jon close to him, and always would. He was too exhausted to fight it.

“Can you sleep?” Jon asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Just lie with me, then?”

He nodded, his forehead pressing against Jon’s in the dark.

Jon held him, and Martin lay awake for a long time.

[johnchiarello]

Sunday sermon

Sunday Sermon

  [Post below]

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NOTE- Every so often some of my sites think I am Spam- or a Bot- I am not. My name is John Chiarello and I post original content [all videos and text are by me]. I do share my past posts from my other sites- but it is not spam- Thank you- John.

 [TODAY’S POST BEGINS HERE]

   Habakkuk 2:1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

Habakkuk 2:2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

Habakkuk 2:3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

  Sunday sermon videos-

 https://youtu.be/smTOw7EJSjY

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10205026402177950/ 

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMhBp1wgu7lU34dS_Z

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0wagjiywi1hbl43/11-11-18%20Sunday%20sermon.mp4?dl=0

   NOTE-

Church Unlimited- Mass - https://youtu.be/DiRNv2hp3aU

https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/5-28-17-c-u-mass.zip

https://ccoutreach87.com/5-28-17-c-u-mass/ 

 [I talked from the verses used in the Sunday Mass- and the verses from Church Unlimited]

  I added the above videos at the time I made this post. Overall I tried to challenge some of our mind sets about the ‘End Times’ and how 20th [and 21st] century Evangelicals look at these passages. The Mass readings for this date did cover some of the more popular passages about the End Times. Some [most?] might disagree with the perspective I tried to talk about- and that's ok. The main point I was trying to make was End Times teachings should be seen in the light of the overall redemptive purposes of God. Revelation [the book] is a beautiful picture of Christ and the Church. And yes- there are passages about ‘violence’ how the Word ‘slays’ people- but in a redemptive context- yes- the Word of God- and those who submit to the Lordship of Christ- are ‘put to death’- or ‘buried with him in death/baptism’ so these perspectives are what I tried to share on the video- For those who want to go deeper into the end times and different ways Christians have viewed these passages- just Google Preterism- partial Preterism- and you can see a different perspective rooted in scripture as well. I am not a ‘full Preterist’ meaning I do believe in the literal 2nd coming of Christ and the future resurrection to come- but some of their ideas are worth listening to-

John

 Here are a few links I just found- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preterism

https://www.ligonier.org/blog/preterist-approach-revelation-unfolding-biblical-eschatology/ 

 ON VIDEO- [Past posts below]

.Ascension Sunday

.Cathedral city

.We are the 2nd book- Bishop Mulvey

.Dead words versus life in the Spirit [manifested thru us- the Logos made flesh once again]

.Tertullian ‘Have we chased God into a book’?https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tertullian 

.Gnostic writing in the first few centuries

.Pseudepigraphy https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pseudepigraphy 

.Life in community

.Logos

.Watch Tower

.Theresa of Avila http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=208 

.Catholic Mystics

.Contemplative prayer

.Hebrews- James- context

.Paul and James

.Faith and works

Correction- On the video I mentioned a quote/book from Theresa of Avila- the book was called ‘The Interior Castle’ written in 1588 - the quote I used was ‘Cathedral of the mind’.

   PAST POSTS- [Past teaching I did that relates to today’s post- Verses below]

 https://ccoutreach87.com/galatians-links/

https://ccoutreach87.com/hebrews-updated-2015/https://ccoutreach87.com/hebrews-updated-2015/

https://ccoutreach87.com/romans-updated-2015/

https://ccoutreach87.com/james-2015/ 

https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/06/01/acts-13/ 

 CHAPTER 11: [see commentary on Acts 21]

END NOTES-

JUSTIFIED BY FAITH.

TORTURED- BY FAITH?

REJECTED MONEY- BY FAITH?

THEY ALL WAITED FOR THE CITY- THE CHURCH.

  ‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, FOR BY IT THE ELDERS OBTAINED A GOOD REPORT [JUSTIFIED]’ This is the key verse to the chapter. Paul will go on to prove that all the Old Testament figures that ‘pleased God’ did it by faith, and not by works! ‘Through faith WE UNDERSTAND that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear’ Faith is not ‘blind’. It informs and gives understanding. This understanding is real! Let me show you what I mean. All of the universe and creation had a beginning point. Science did not always know or believe this. Today science teaches this. It is called ‘the point of singularity/density’. Science has traced back the origins of all things and has found scientific evidence to prove that all things had a ‘beginning point’. Now if you were to ask science ‘what did you have right before the beginning point’? They are stumped. Some of course believe in God and will boldly proclaim him at this point. To the others they can not answer this question. Why? Because they realize, thru science, that matter is not infinite.

 Some have theorized that either all things always existed [which science has now disproved] or that at one point nothing existed [which science also teaches that if this were true then you would have nothing today. You can not get something from nothing!] So all true science has gone back to this ‘point of singularity’ and can not see what is right before ‘the point’. The Christian ‘sees’ God at this point! He ‘understands’ that by necessity there has to have been something that existed before creation, science teaches this. This something can not have been created also, because then where did the ‘being’ who created ‘it’ come from? So science teaches us that whoever got the ball rolling [Saint Thomas Aquinas calls this the ‘prime mover’] had to have been preexistent/ self existent in order to have done it. And we know that creation couldn’t have done it by itself, so therefore all reasoning and understanding leave us at the philosophical point of ‘there had to have been something/someone who existed forever in order for anything to be today’. So now you see how ‘by faith we understand that all things that now exist were brought into existence by someone who we can not see’. FAITH UNDERSTANDS!

 As we go thru the rest of this chapter I want you to focus in on all the references of justification by faith. You will be surprised [I think?] on how many examples Paul gives to Israel from their own history [his too!] on God justifying people by faith. I will also try and show you [if I remember] how this chapter links the division between Paul’s epistles to the gentiles [Romans, Galatians] with James letter to the Jews. James was one of the lead Apostles at Jerusalem [Acts 15] and the Judaizers who were always accusing Paul of preaching grace in a way that justified sin, they came out of Jerusalem. James and Paul were rivals in a sense. James had the difficult job of overseeing the Church at Jerusalem, who had all the Pharisees who believed, while Paul was preaching this radical message of grace. This is why James’s letter [book of James] focused so much on faith and works. James was seeing the Genesis 22 account of Abraham’s justification when he offered Isaac on the altar. James will say ‘see how Abraham was justified by his works’. While in Paul’s letters he focuses on the Genesis 15 account of Abraham believing God and being made righteous. James was not contradicting Paul; he was showing the actual outcome of the life of a person who was previously justified by faith. James was saying ‘When God made Abraham righteous [Gen 15] he later actually became what God made him!’ [Gen. 22].

 Now when Abraham would later do righteous things, he only did them because he previously had faith in Gods promise. But the fact still remains that when Abraham did a righteous act, God still justified him [in a sense, God has the prerogative to say ‘good job son, I am pleased with you’ so this can be described as an act/function of justification]. Well, now that I already showed you all this, I guess I wont have to remember telling it to you later. The point is in this chapter Paul will go down and show all these examples of Jewish leaders acting by faith and doing righteous deeds. This sort of bridges the gap between the strong emphasis on faith in Paul’s letters, with the strong emphasis on works in James letter. Paul is telling Israel ‘yes, all the old saints did do good works that pleased God, but they did them by faith!’ ‘Faith without works is dead’ [James]. So in a sense this single chapter bridges one of the key divisions in the early church between Jerusalem and Antioch [Acts 13 and 15]. Note; I believe all the chapter references above are correct, I write all this from memory so you might want to go back and double check the references. I know all the stories are right.

 ‘By FAITH Able offered …by which he obtained witness that he was RIGHTEOUS…by FAITH Enoch was translated…he had this testimony that he PLEASED GOD…without FAITH it is impossible to PLEASE HIM [all these ‘please him’ references are like saying ‘being justified’ when a person is justified by God, God sees him as acceptable, pleasing. ‘Thou art my beloved son in whom I am well PLEASED’ God to Jesus!] By faith Noah… prepared an ark to the SAVING of his house…and became heir to the RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS BY FAITH [wow, he makes this one real plain] By faith Abraham…went out into a strange land…and sojourned’ interesting, both the aspect of ‘going out to a new land’ and ‘staying in it when you get there’ are both functions of faith. Let me throw in some practical stuff here. Over the years of ‘doing ministry’ I have seen and been a partaker of both of these experiences. Sometimes it takes an act of faith to uproot us from familiar territory and move on to the next level. And do you know what can happen next? The enemy will try to intimidate you once you get in the land of promise, and tell you ‘you cant stay here, look at all the people who hate you. Look at all the mistakes you made’ and it often takes an act of faith to STAY IN THE LAND. Don’t leave the land of your destiny; all true leaders will go thru both of these dealings.

 ‘For he looked for a city which hath foundations [Jesus is the foundation of this city!] whose builder and maker is God’ All of these great heroes of the faith were looking forward towards a future promise of being in Gods true church, the ‘City of God’ the Bride, the Lambs wife. Paul shows Israel that this 1st century appearing of Messiah was for the purpose of Israel coming into the ‘new land’ the Body of Christ. It is important to see this. There are many preachers today who are treating natural Israel as in if everything is just fine. It isn’t! They need Christ as much as the Muslim does. God was telling Israel ‘come into this new city’ [New Jerusalem versus Old Jerusalem] he wasn’t appealing for them to stay in ‘old Jerusalem’ and be a ‘completed Jew’. [I know this sounds harsh, but I want to emphasize to all my evangelical friends that Jews need Jesus, they play a special role in Gods plan, but ultimately they need Christ!]

 ‘Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed’ it takes faith to produce spiritual offspring! It might look impossible, but with God all things are possible. ‘Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky and the sand by the shore’ sometimes God will allow you to bring forth one ‘seed’ [person or act of ministry] and you will be surprised how much fruit can come forth from this singular effort. This is why it’s so important to simply hear and obey God. Often times in ministry we do tons of ‘leg work’ which is OK. But when God gives you an idea or mode of function that you weren’t even thinking of, go with it. These are usually the ‘little seeds’ that produce the great harvest! ‘THESE ALL DIED IN FAITH, NOT HAVING RECEIVED THE PROMISES’ I want to emphasize here that it is possible to live your whole life in faith without actually seeing the fulfillment of all that God has told you.

 Now faith does obtain promises [verse 33] but sometimes we also see things many years down the road and we must realize that the measurement of faith is not whether or not you are currently getting the actual promise. In the above [and below] verse’s we see Abraham and Sara being told that their offspring would number in the millions. They believed these promises, but it is obvious that they didn’t live to see it fulfilled, but they sure knew that after they were gone it would come to pass. So I want to exhort you to believe to see certain things fulfilled in your life time, but have some greater goals that you initiate while here on earth, knowing that after you depart they will be fulfilled. ‘And truly if they had been MINDFUL of the country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned’ what is Paul saying here? The greatest threat to the gospel taking root in the Hebrew community was the desire to go back to old law and culture. How many believers ‘revert’ back to an older form of church simply because they missed the old culture and ‘feelings’ that they had when they were younger? Many of the Jews would not go all the way with the gospel because they were ‘mindful’ of the good old days of law and sacrifice.

 I just watched a show the other day that told how even some gentile believers began celebrating certain feasts of Israel with their Jewish neighbors. While it is good to understand and see the significance of the feasts, yet we know Paul wrote the early believers and said ‘you observe days and times and feasts, and I am concerned about it’. So when we [or 1st century Israel] are ‘mindful’ of the ‘good old days’ then there is always a danger of going back! ‘By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac…of whom it was said in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure’ Abraham exhibited characteristics of the Father [God] as well as Isaac being a type of the Son [Jesus]. It’s interesting that these verses show that Abraham knew for a fact that God was going to give Isaac millions of children, Abraham also knew the voice of God so well that when he ‘thought’ he heard God say ‘offer up this boy’ that in the mind of Abraham, the only way these 2 things could be reconciled, is he came to the conclusion ‘I guess God will have to raise him up, being he has told me this boy will have millions of children, plus he is telling me to kill him’. Most of us would not have come to this conclusion! We would have doubted either the original promise, or said ‘surely this can’t be God telling me to offer Isaac’ [most likely we would have doubted the latter!].

 There is a real important reason for Abraham to have been a real man of faith. God wanted this ‘picture’ of the offering up of Isaac for a type of the Cross and Resurrection. The only way he could have shown this example was to have had someone so radically filled with faith, that he would have come to this conclusion of ‘well, I guess God will just raise him’. It was necessary for the figure to have been truly fulfilled. It took Abraham many years of hearing and believing God before he would get to this stage. The part of Abraham’s mind that said ‘God will just have to raise him up’ was important for the figure to truly work. God knew he could only bring someone to this conclusion by arranging the whole scenario around a person of faith. It truly took a real person of faith to have come to the conclusion of resurrection as being inevitable! [For Abraham to fulfill the type of God, he had to have been convinced beyond all doubt that after he offered up his son, that he would be raised again. This is exactly what the Father [God] believed and knew about his own Sons death. So not only did Isaac fulfill the type of Jesus in this story, but Abraham also fulfilled a type of God!] [NOTE; Today is September 22, 2007. Israel’s Day of Atonement. I just heard a brother preach on the feasts of the Lord [I have done this also] but he preached it in a way that said ‘because God said you were to observe these feasts perpetually, therefore all gentile believers need to start observing these days’ he added ‘I know Paul taught the law passed and all, but these feasts are supposed to be forever because God said so’.

 How are the feasts ‘perpetual’? Thru the fulfilling of them in Christ! Paul makes this plain all thru the New Testament [as well as this letter!] I was surprised to hear the brother preach that the first 2 feasts [out of the 3 main ones] were fulfilled and memorialized, but the 3rd one [Atonement/tabernacles] has yet to be fulfilled! What? Jesus fulfilled Passover and Pentecost for sure, and they are still being ‘fulfilled’ God is still bringing people in thru the blood of Christ and the Spirit is continually being poured out on people, and of course the ultimate reality of our atonement thru our high priest is a daily reality [he ever lives to make intercession] that is ‘fulfilled’ all the time[ I understand what the brother meant, that both Passover and Pentecost were fulfilled at the Cross and the day of Pentecost, and Tabernacles still has a future fulfillment. That Jesus will ‘ingather’ all peoples to himself at the end. The way he said it was in a way that he said Atonement, the beginning of Tabernacles/booths, still has to be fulfilled. It really came out badly!] I just thought it worth noting that today is natural Israel’s feast day, and we hold this feast in reality 24/7!]

 ‘By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of pharaohs daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward…by faith the harlot Rahab perished not…’ I want you to see that faith in Moses situation caused him to forsake great riches and leave a successful future. This is in keeping with all the times Jesus called people in the Gospels ‘forsake all and follow me’ mentality. We too often equate the ‘treasures of Egypt’ with following Jesus; the scripture puts a different spin on it! Also Rahab ‘perished not’ because she ‘believed’. Paul teaches in Corinthians that those who believe are ‘being saved’ and those who don’t believe are ‘perishing’. I want you to see that Paul is really making a theological argument for ‘being saved by faith’ in this chapter. Even a harlot can be saved! Wow. The law seemed to have no mercy on someone like that!

 ‘Who thru faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, stopped the mouths of lions…women received their dead raised to life…others were TORTURED not accepting deliverance…others had mocking and scourging and bonds and imprisonment, they were stoned, cut in half, were slain with the sword… being destitute, afflicted, tormented…they wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth, ALL THESE [both the ones who shut the mouths of lions as well as the one’s who were tortured without deliverance] OBTAINED A GOOD REPORT THRU FAITH, AND RECEIVED NOT THE PROMISE’ Faith does not always cause you to be better off in this life. I am very familiar with all the verses of God blessing us and providing for us ‘the blessing of the Lord it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow to it’. I believe and claim these verses just like the next guy. I also don’t want to tell people ‘give your life to Christ and all will go well’ did it go well for the ones who were tortured not getting delivered? Sure did. It went well the moment they saw the face of God. The same for those who were cut in half. It also went well for the women who received their dead raised to life. The point is ‘going well’ is not always defined by your outward circumstance.

 We must see the overall biblical worldview of all things here being temporary, while all true spiritual riches are eternal. Moses actually was ‘less rich’ by the choice to follow Christ. But he was ‘more rich’ in that he fulfilled Gods purpose. It is important to see that many of these great heroes of the faith died without fully seeing the promise in this life. Now the last verse does say ‘that they without us should not be made perfect’ and this does show that the promise is now fulfilled thru Christ. We have all become recipients of eternal salvation thru Christ. The Old Testament patriarchs have ‘found that city’ in that we are all now members of the great ‘City that comes down from God out of heaven’ we are all in Christ today, even our Old Testament brothers who had faith. The point is don’t always measure a persons faith by their outward wealth and condition. James rebuked this idea in his epistle, he taught us not to show partiality to people who were rich while despising the poor.

 When believers see faith only from the standpoint of outward things, they are missing the true riches. Jesus taught that all these outward things were not the true riches; I am surprised how many believers spend so much time hoarding and storing things that will all pass away some day. Let’s close this chapter on a good note. Paul has offered Israel all of their Old Testament heroes as an example of being justified by faith. He is saying ‘look, all the great fathers of the faith pleased God, just like you have said and taught for ages. I am declaring unto you they were all ‘justified/pleasing to God’ by faith, not law’. Therefore if you want to follow the example of Abraham and Moses and all the other wonderful fathers, then you too MUST BELIEVE!

END NOTES-

JUSTIFIED BY FAITH.

TORTURED- BY FAITH?

REJECTED MONEY- BY FAITH?

THEY ALL WAITED FOR THE CITY- THE CHURCH.

This chapter is loaded with the history of the Jewish people-

I could teach on each story- but that would be a bit much-

So I pasted the verses below to show that the writer is saying ‘see- all of our forefathers were justified- received a GOOD REPORT- by faith’.

Wait a minute- they DID THINGS- in these stories-

Isn’t that WORKS?

If you read the letter of James- and the letters of Paul- some scholars says there is a disagreement-

Paul says a man is justified by faith- and not by works.

James says ‘see how a man is justified by works- and not faith only’.

If this letter [Hebrews] was written by Paul- then it’s a true masterpiece- because he is combining the examples that James uses [Rahab- and Abrahams Genesis 22 experience- which James uses to say ‘see how works justifies’].

So- to me- Paul would be saying ‘no- I’m not contradicting James- we both believe/teach the same thing’.

If the letter was written by Barnabus- then it also is a masterpiece- because Barnabus might be trying to bridge the gap between Paul and James.

We read about this tension in Acts chapters 13 and 15.

This chapter is certainly not showing us how to obtain stuff [money- etc.] thru faith- because look at the examples- ‘Moses chose to suffer- and reject the wealth of Egypt- BY FAITH’-

‘SOME WERE TORTURED- SUFFERED- CUT IN HALF- by faith’- ‘CHOOSING TO not be delivered- because they had faith’.

We also see the heavenly city- as the goal of the patriarchs- they were all waiting for THE CHURCH- the city that the apostle John spoke about in the book of revelation.

The writer says ‘if they were mindful of the city they came out of [a reference to the law covenant- meaning if the Jews kept clinging to the law- the ‘city they came out from’- they will have a hard time moving on- into the New Covenant revelation of Messiah].

I didn’t quote verse 2- but we could teach modern physics from that one [the bible says all things were made from something invisible- modern physics has come to that reality in the 20th century- yet this verse was penned 2 millennia ago]!

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

So yeah- lots of good stuff in this chapter- but the main point is these ancients were justified by faith- the example of Noah and Abraham actually use that very language- salvation/righteousness [it’s a bit clearer in the King James Version- the above verses are from the NIV].

Yes- the writer is saying ‘everything is based on faith- and even our ancestors were justified by faith- they did all these things because they believed God- and God saw their faith- in action- and they too were made righteous- by faith’.

By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[e] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

  CHAPTER 12:

END NOTES-

A HEAVENLY CITY.

DON’T BE SAD, HE’S TREATING YOU LIKE A SON.

NO REPENTANCE- OUTSIDE OF CHRIST THAT IS.

CULTURE SHOCK IS HARD ON US ALL.

 ‘Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses [all the heroes of the last chapter!] let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us’ a few practical things. Paul compares the journey to a marathon, not a sprint! The patient runner who paces himself will receive a reward. The sprinter will look good at the start, but you never see him again! I have been blessed by so many gifted people over the years. Some who were on radio, or were doing some type of ministry for the Lord. The gifts and callings were truly on these people. A few years would go by and they were no where to be found. Where did they go? Some of them jumped on the latest ‘Christian movement’ [I am not against movements from God, I just feel we get enamored by them and give up on the main thing the Lord has called us to] some walked away from the Lord.

 I have come to realize that God will put certain things in you from the early days, things that he predestined for you to fulfill before you were born. These are the things that you should be faithful to. Don’t abandon the original calling, it’s still there! You can spend your whole life leaving one ‘track’ and ‘sprinting’ in another. But God wants you to stay on the original course and run it with patience. It might not seem as glamorous or exciting as the newest race in town, but at the end you will receive a reward. ‘Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him ENDURED the cross, despising the shame and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that ENDURED such contradiction of sinners…and ye have forgotten the exhortation that speaketh to you as children [remember what we said about this type of privileged language in Hebrews? It is speaking to Israel] my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art REBUKED of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons’.

 Now, for many years I read this just like you. That God was telling Christians that he disciplines them. True enough. But in context what is Paul saying here? He spent 11 chapters ‘reproving’ Israel. He told them that all the sacrifices and wonderful holidays and family traditions are no more. That Messiah has fulfilled it and you can’t keep doing it. Now, how would you feel if some know it all preacher came along and totally dismantled your whole way of worship? And you knew in your heart he was right! You would take offence. You would feel like you just got ‘chastened’ up and down and all over. Your initial reaction would be ‘this is too much correction in one letter, I am tired of reading it!’ so Paul is telling Israel ‘Don’t take all this reproof the wrong way, Gods intent is to get you to move on with the program. He loves you guys; don’t forget that scripture [Old Testament] says ‘who God loves he chastens’ hey, God is just dealing with you as children who he loves’ get it? ‘We have had fathers of the flesh that corrected us…shall we not much rather be in subjection to the father of spirits and live?’ Paul is saying ‘you guys want to live [eternal life] then you need to submit to the correction the father is giving you’.

 ‘For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness’ Now, God does chasten believers for the purpose of holiness. Scripture says ‘those who have suffered in the flesh have ceased from sin, that they should no longer spend the rest of their days in the flesh pursuing the desires of the flesh, but the will of God’ ‘before I was afflicted I went astray, but after I kept thy word’ ‘thou in faithfulness hath afflicted me’ ‘though he were a son yet learned he obedience from the things he suffered’ ‘the captain of our salvation was made perfect thru suffering’ [the last 2 are in this letter, the others are some where in scripture, I just quoted them off the top of my head. As you can see I have some familiarity with this subject! Ouch] In context Paul is saying to Israel ‘you have tried to attain holiness thru legalistic means, by keeping the law [Romans 9-the last few verses] but until you submit to Gods chastening, and have faith in God, you will not truly have his ‘holiness’ [righteousness].

 So God is disciplining them thru this letter so they will ‘believe and become righteous’ as opposed to staying in the old system of law. ‘Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous [old brother Paul, he sure knew how to understate things!] nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of RIGHTEOUSNESS to them that are exercised [or exorcised! Just kidding, but it can feel like this at times] thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down…and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame [broken] be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed’ David said ‘restore to me the joy of your salvation that the bones which YOU HAVE BROKEN may rejoice’ The danger of chastening [both for Christians and Israel] is that we get so broken that we never fully recover. Paul is telling Israel ‘I know it’s been hard on you guys to hear so much rebuke. Don’t walk away totally discouraged. There is a danger that you might respond to Gods correction the wrong way. Lift up your hands, shake off the depression, and let yourselves be healed. God wants to restore you!’

 ‘Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for HE FOUND NO PLACE OF REPENTANCE though he sought it carefully with tears’. This is another reason why reading Hebrews in context is important. One of the themes of this letter is ‘if you miss out on it now, you can’t repent later!’[Chapter 6]. We know that Pauls other letters to the churches leave open future repentance for those who have sinned. In Paul’s letters to the Corinthians we see this being done. But in Hebrews the idea is ‘if you pass on the Cross, you can not find repentance thru any other means. There is no other place for repentance’. So this is the reason why Hebrews has this theme of ‘no future repentance’ thru out the letter. Paul is certainly not telling Israel that if they decide to repent and accept Christ at a future date, they can’t! But he is saying ‘if you pass over this sacrifice of Christ, all the other ‘sacrifices’ and means of repentance that are contained in the law will have no future effect, remember Esau!’

 ‘For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched…but ye are come to Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem [the church]…and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Able’ Here Paul comes back to a ‘scarlet thread’ that runs thru out this letter. He says ‘hey, you think the first covenant was a fearful thing, watch out! If you disregard this covenant [Jesus blood] then you have gone against something that is much greater than the law’. Also the ‘blood of Able’ cried out from the ground for vengeance, the blood of Jesus cries out from heaven for mercy and forgiveness! It ‘speaks’ better things than that of Able! ‘See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth [Moses and the law] much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him which speaketh from heaven’ again Paul repeats themes he hit on earlier in this letter. He says ‘Moses spoke Gods Word [law] to you from an earthly mountain and place, you are come to a heavenly mountain [Sion-spiritual Jerusalem] and Jesus is speaking to you from heaven. This is much more strict than he who spoke from earth’.

 ‘Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom that can not be moved, let us HAVE GRACE, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire’ Though Paul doesn’t say it [I think he should have!] but this alludes to the ‘God’ of Moses day, who did not consume the burning bush, compared to the ‘God’ of today [new covenant] who will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire! This fits in with the theme of a harsher punishment for those who reject the covenant of grace as opposed to those who rejected the covenant of law. I know these themes are not popular, but this is clearly the way Paul is presenting them. I also am not saying the ‘God’ of the Old Testament is different from the ‘God’ of the new [this is the heresy of Marcion! I think that was his name. He was an early Christian heretic who comprised the first canon of scripture for a ‘new testament’ it included basically Paul’s letters, and he taught that The God of the new testament was different from the God in the old] but Paul is presenting the new covenant in a way that says ‘don’t neglect this new way of salvation, those who do will receive a harsher judgment than those who rejected the law’.

END NOTES-

A HEAVENLY CITY.

DON’T BE SAD, HE’S TREATING YOU LIKE A SON.

NO REPENTANCE- OUTSIDE OF CHRIST THAT IS.

CULTURE SHOCK IS HARD ON US ALL.

Once again we see the contrast between ‘he that spoke from earth’ [Moses- the law]- and he that ‘speaks from heaven’ [Jesus covenant is more strict- to those outside of it and reject it- because he has heavenly authority- Moses had earthly]. Hebrews 12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

 The writer says ‘don’t be sad- God disciplines every son who he receives’- though this certainly applies to Christians- Hebrews 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

Hebrews 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Hebrews 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

Hebrews 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

 Remember this- though the message of grace and Jesus as the Messiah is wonderful- especially to us Gentile believers-

Yet- it was indeed a cultural shock to the 1st century Jew-

Why?

Even though Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophets- yet in order for the Jewish person to accept this [Like the apostle Paul]

He had to accept a real cultural change in the religion he practiced from his youth-

He was being asked to stop the animal sacrifices- to ‘move on’ from the Law covenant- and to embrace Christ.

Now- in reality- it would be the fulfillment of all that was contained in the law- but it’s often hard for anyone to ‘move on’ from former religious practices that are embedded in his culture.

So- in context ‘Don’t be sad- God is disciplining you- showing you new stuff- and it’s tough for sure- but he does this with all the sons he receives’.

We also see the promise of the heavenly city- As opposed to the earthly one. Hebrews 12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

Hebrews 12:23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

 The writer is speaking about the church- and how both Jew and Gentile are part of this spiritual community coming down from God out of heaven.

And again we see the warning- of no repentance- for those who keep sinning.

I stress that this is never taught to the Gentile churches- as a matter of fact the Apostle Paul wrote the Corinthians- about a sinning brother- sleeping with his father’s wife [his step mom].

And In the 2nd letter- this brother repented- and Paul exhorted the church to receive him back into fellowship.

But to the 1st century Jew- still not fully in the covenant- he says ‘Hebrews 12:17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

In keeping with the theme of the letter- Jesus is now the only acceptable means of repentance- and if you reject him as the Messiah- and continue in sin- then yes- there is no repentance.

[parts]

ACTS 1- Luke, the writer of this book, feels the need to document the ongoing work of Jesus and his revolution. He already wrote a gospel and believes this to be the beginning of the story. In essence, the reality of Jesus and his resurrection are just the start, we have much more to do and become on this journey. Most writers jump to chapter 2. We have churches and music groups called ‘Acts chapter 2’. Why does Luke seem to wait till chapter 2 before getting to ‘the good stuff’? Chapter one records the 40 days of Jesus showing himself alive after his death. Luke feels this singular truth to be important enough to simply stand alone [I do realize the early letters did not have chapter and verse divisions like today]. The real physical fact of Jesus bodily resurrection is without a doubt the foundational truth of the gospel. The outpouring of the Spirit and the whole future of the church depends on the reality of the resurrected Christ. Paul will write the Corinthians and tell them if the resurrection were not true then they are the most miserable of all people. Luke tells us Jesus gave instructions for the Apostles to wait at Jerusalem for the Spirit. They will be witnesses of him to all the surrounding nations after the Spirit empowers them. We also see Peter emerge as the key spokesman for the group. He quotes freely from the Psalms and reads their own history into the book. He sees the prophetic verse from David on ‘let another take his office’ as referring to Judas betrayal and death. They cast lots and choose Matthias as the one to replace Judas. Peter shows the importance of Judas replacement to come from one that was with them thru out the earthly time of Jesus. Someone who saw and witnessed Jesus after the resurrection. Scholars have confused this with the ‘ascension gift Apostles’. Some scholars have taken the truth of the early Apostles having the criteria of being actual witnesses of Jesus, and have said ‘therefore, you have no Apostles today’. Paul will teach in Ephesians that after Jesus ascension on high he gave gifts unto men ‘some Apostles, others Prophets, etc.’ The New Testament clearly speaks of Apostles as an ongoing gift in the church. Barnabas will later be called an Apostles [Acts 14:14] as well as many other references in the original Greek using the same Greek word for Apostle. But here we find Peter seeing the need to replace Judas. Other scholars think Peter might have jumped the gun. They see Paul’s apostleship as the possible person the Lord picked out as the replacement. You do find Paul referring time and again to his Apostolic authority as one ‘born out of due time’ who saw Jesus on the Damascus road. If Paul was simply an ascension gift Apostle, why would he refer time and again to his authority based on being a witness who also saw Jesus? It’s possible that Paul was in this group of ‘Apostles of the Lamb’ who had extra authority based upon their testimony of being eyewitnesses. So in chapter one we see that Jesus appeared for 40 days giving instructions to the early leadership and told them to wait at Jerusalem for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We see the incarnational purpose of God, Jesus was and continues to be the express image of God to man. He was not some ‘phantom’ like the Docetists will claim, but a very real physical resurrected Lord. Luke begins the early history of the church with this reality being important enough to stand on its own.

 ACTS 2- The Apostles are gathered together in the upper room. As they continue in unity and prayer the Spirit of God comes upon them like a rushing wind. There appear ‘cloven tongues’ like fire above each of them. Why this image? Why not ‘ears’ or some other sanctified body part? God is going to give supernatural power to the words that they will speak. In a few chapters we will read how an angel will supernaturally deliver Peter from prison and say ‘go, speak the words of this life’. These tongues are a precursor to the tremendous fire that will be loosed from their lips. James says the tongue is a little member but boasteth great things, it has the ability to start fires. Jesus said he came to earth to ‘start a fire’ and how he wished it were already burning. Here he gets his wish! Now the Apostles and early believers experience the gift of tongues. They begin speaking and prophesying in the unknown languages of all those who are gathered together to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost. God ordained this event to be strategically done at this time. All the surrounding regions heard the believers speak the ‘wondrous works of God’ in their native tongue. Peter stands up and delivers a scathing message! He basically tells Israel ‘this is that which the prophet Joel spoke about’ he goes on and says this outpouring is part of Gods predetermined plan to pour out his Spirit on all flesh in the last days. He speaks of divine manifestations [dreams, visions] and carries the prophecy right to the end of the age. He then speaks the gospel of Christ and tells Israel ‘this is the Jesus you killed’. Wow, these guys are bold. Peter leads them to faith in Christ, their public baptism is the immediate sign of their willingness to be identified with Jesus and 3 thousand Jews become believers this day. Now, what is the church? This corporate group of first time followers do 4 basic things. They ‘continue in the Apostles doctrine and breaking of bread and prayers and share their goods with all in need’[true fellowship]. This early community was a brotherhood who actually gave priority to the teachings of Jesus passed on to them from the Apostles. Don’t miss this! Many will develop all sorts of practices and beliefs that ‘make up church’. Some will justify extra biblical beliefs under the guise of ‘the Apostles doctrine’ as in if it were something totally contrary or not known thru the gospels or the writing of scripture. Paul will tell Timothy to stay true to the traditions he passed on to him. But I want to focus on the fact that the Apostles doctrine was not something different then the basic instructions Jesus left us in the gospels. Paul will add to this basic body of Christian doctrine thru his letters to the churches, as well as the whole New Testament. But we do not see a bunch of strange or unknown doctrines that come from this time period. The basics are mentioned above. I do want to stress the fact that this early expression of church life had no ‘Pastor’ in the sense of their gatherings being a time where a singular authority figure had oversight of the entire community. They had strong leaders to be sure, but would avoid the Protestant idea of Pastor. They had no church building or belief in a strong liturgy. The ‘breaking of bread’ was a common meal where they all shared together in a real life setting. And of course their giving was radical, it was not ‘a tithe’ and it was done to meet the real needs of the community around them. All these elements are basic to what the New Testament church is. A functioning society of people in whom Christ Spirit dwells and who see themselves as a real spiritual community of people. As we progress thru out the history of the church as seen in Acts we will never lose this basic mindset. It will be carried into the epistles of the New Testament and remain the best idea of ‘local church’ as found in the first century. There is a trend going on right now in Evangelicalism that says ‘lets return to the ancient practices of the church and see what we can find’. As an avid reader of church history I am not totally against this movement, but I do see a danger in thinking ‘the ancient practices’ are the 2nd or 3rd century development of liturgy and Eucharist and other early ideas, and by passing the ‘real ancient’ story in the book of Acts. To put it simply, some of the Protestant and Evangelical ‘practices and beliefs’ that have developed since the reformation are ‘ancient’. I believe we all have a long way to go, but the ‘low view’ of the Lords Table [low as opposed to ‘high church view’. Though I personally believe in the Lords table as a memorial, not as the actual Body and Blood of Jesus. Yet I personally don’t like referring to such an important practice as low!] seems to be the true ancient practice as seen in Acts. The absence of the Priest officiating over the altar is no where to be seen in the actual ‘church’ setting. This ancient church is really a simple brotherhood of believers having all things common and having the resurrection of the Son of God as the central organizing principle of their lives.

[parts]

The Donatists taught that the Sacraments were dependent upon the ‘holiness’ of the Priest who ministers them. That if you were in a Parish where the priests were bad- lived in sin- rejected a holy life- then if you were Baptized by these men- that the Baptism didn’t ‘stick’.

 The Donatists formed there own break away church in the 3rd century- and a few very influential men would join the group. A well respected early church father- Tertullian- eventually joined their ranks.

 Augustine argued against the Donatists teaching- and taught that Gods grace- and the grace given to believers thru the sacraments were not derived from the holiness of any priest or preacher- but if a believer in good conscience received the sacraments- that that’s what really counted.

 Saint Augustine is one of the titans of church history- he is loved by Protestants and Catholics alike. He is famous for his belief in the doctrine of Predestination [that those who are saved were chosen by God before they were born] and for this reason he is loved by the original protestant theologians [Luther, Calvin, etc.]

 He also taught a very ‘Catholic’ form of Ecclesiology [church govt.] and is well loved by many Catholics as well.

 The Catholic Church refers to him as the Doctor of Grace- later on in the 13th century we will meet Saint Thomas Aquinas- who the church refers to as the Angelic Doctor.

 Both of these men played a major role in the development of western thought and Augustine made an effort to distinguish true Christian thought from the philosophy of Neo Platonism which was very strong in his day.

 When reading Augustine [he wrote a lot] you need to be careful to distinguish some of his earlier writings from his later ones.

 Early on you still see forms of Platonic thought in Augustine- but as the years rolled by his thinking progressed more and more towards historic Christian thought.

 For those of you who are interested- the Confessions of Saint Augustine is considered one the classics of Christianity- you can pick up a short version at most good bookstores- it’s well worth the time to read.

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com

 [parts]

The church has debated for centuries on whether or not Philosophy should be taught to Christians. One of the early church fathers- Tertullian- said no- his famous quote is ‘what does Jerusalem have to do with Athens’.

 Meaning what does Philosophy have in common with Christianity [Athens- Greece was the seat of philosophy in Jesus’ day].

 For the most part- the early church fathers would embrace the study of philosophy- and try to make arguments for the Christian faith by presenting Christianity as ‘thee’ philosophy that best answers the questions of man.

 These early Christian thinkers are called Apologists- men like Justin Martyr are in this class.

 Apologist is a word we use to describe those who defend the faith- it comes from the Apostle Peter’s letter in the N.T. where Peter says ‘give an answer to those who ask you about the faith’. In the Greek language- the original language the N.T. was written in- this phrase is talking about a defense- an ‘apology’ in the sense of ‘making the case’ not in the common sense of apologizing.

 In the book of Acts- chapter 17- we read the famous sermon of the apostle Paul- given at Mars Hill. He was in Athens at the time- and he was debating with all the philosophers of the day. He tells them ‘as I was looking around town- I saw that one of your altars is addressed to The Unknown God’.

 He would go on and declare unto them that this Jesus is the true God- the one raised from the dead.

 Paul also said ‘in Him we live and MOVE and have our being’. Kind of a popular verse quoted by preacher’s today- but we often overlook the significance of the MOVE part.

 I mean- why say we MOVE in him too? Paul was a smart guy- he knew these children of Socrates questioned where motion came from [Remember Thales?] So he was basically saying ‘I am declaring to you the one true reality- the true 5th Element- the missing God particle from your system’ and he went on and preached Christ- being raised from the dead.

 Paul knew that you can’t really do true philosophy- to grapple with the questions of life and being and ‘motion’ without realizing that God is indeed the ultimate answer to all things.

 Even Peter Singer- who claimed that you don’t need God or religion in order to do Ethics- even he unknowingly quoted Jesus in attempting to give a basis for his Philosophy- yes- he quoted a God- one unknown to him- just like the altar at Athens- but a God never the less.

 An inescapable 5th element- the missing part to the whole puzzle.

 www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com

 [parts]

Let’s do a little more on Eschatology [end times stuff] today. Over the last few weeks these things have been in the news because of the Harold Camping prediction and you have heard various news folk- as well as believers giving their slant to all the popular verses that deal with the subject.

 Some media people were quoting ‘no one knows when the last day will happen- not even the Son, only God’. Then you have had a few other popular verses seep into the flow. The main portions of the bible that deal with the end times are Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. John’s gospel does not have an ‘end times’ discourse- possibly because he covers the subject in length in the book of Revelation.

 The main gospel on the subject is Matthew- Mark’s gospel seems to be a shorter compilation possibly taken from Matthew. By ‘taken’ I mean Mark was a scribe/recorder- he was the personality we see in the book of Acts- John Mark. If you remember- he had a falling out with the Apostle Paul and Mark ‘went home’ while Paul took Silas and they embarked on the great missionary journeys of the Apostle.

 You don’t hear that much about Mark after the ‘falling out’ but we know that Mark would later pen the 2nd gospel and he was also a recorder [secretary] for the Apostle Peter [might be important to remember this- if I get to it?]

 So anyway mark seems to have borrowed from Matthew [some scholars think the familiarity between the gospels should be attributed to another unknown common source- referred to as Q- I prefer to simply see it as the writers being familiar with what the other writers were writing- and in the 1st century you did not have Plagiarism as we do today- where it would be illegal to copy something verbatim from another writer- that’s why Mark- who also probably penned 2nd Peter- not as a Plagiarist who used Pseudepigraphy- writings by authors who pretended to be someone else- but as a scribe who was familiar with the other source documents of the time. 2nd Peter has come under scrutiny because chapter 2 seems to have borrowed heavily from the letter of Jude. At some spots it looks like a direct copy. But as Peter’s scribe- it would not have been out of the ordinary to have included- verbatim- a passage from Jude and to have attributed the entire letter to Peter. Or Peter might have simply been familiar with Jude's letter and it would not have been wrong according to 1st century writing standards to have done this. But skeptics in our day try to use this to say the bible is a forgery- so that’s why it’s important to be familiar with the debate and to have a good response.]

 Okay-lets at least try and start a little end times stuff. Matthews 24 begins with Jesus and the disciples walking away from the Temple and Jesus says ‘see all these buildings- truly I tell you that there will not be left one stone on top of another’.

 The disciples then ask Jesus ‘when will this happen- and what will be the sign of the end of the age/world, and the sign of your coming’. Now- this sets the stage for the entire scope of the answer. Jesus told them one thing ‘the temples coming down some day’ and they ask a few things.

 Some scholars believe that the entire answer Jesus gives- about the end of the world and the coming tribulation- some teach that all these things did happen by A.D. 70- that’s when the Roman general Titus [future emperor] attacked the city of Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. Jesus prediction about ‘one stone not being left on another’ was fulfilled to the tee because the temple stones were overlaid with Gold and the looters burned the stones to melt the gold and in the process they literally laid every stone out.

 In the Matthew discourse Jesus also warned the disciples that ‘when you see these things beginning to happen- let those in the city flee to the mountains’. As Titus made his way towards Jerusalem some early communities took his words literally and did use the mountains as a place for protection. The community at Qumran hid their writings in ‘the mountains’ that overlooked the Dead Sea- some 2 thousand years later these writings [scrolls] would be discovered- those are the Dead Sea Scrolls of today- one of the greatestarchaeological finds of history.

 And there were Jewish believers at Jerusalem who did indeed flee to the mountains and they escaped the slaughter. So there certainly were things that Jesus spoke about in his 'end times’ teaching that were fulfilled in the 1st century.

 But what about the other famous portions? As various media persons were quoting a few famous parts of this discourse [this is the 4th famous discourse known as the Olivet discourse in Matthew- 5 famous long sections of Jesus’ teaching] it would help us to know the entire context of the discourse [which includes chapter 25 by the way].

 One of the famous verses is ‘when you see the fig tree putting forth leaves- you know that summer is near- so when you see these signs you know the end is near’. In American evangelicalism this verse has been made popular by men like Hal Lindsay who teach that the fig tree is ALWAYS a symbol for the nation of Israel and therefore Jesus was saying that when Israel becomes a nation again [which happened in 1948] that within ‘a generation’ the end will happen.

 This view uses a few other verses to come to this conclusion. Jesus famous ‘this generation will not pass away until all these things happen’ and a few other scriptures. Simply reading the chapter in context does not seem to be saying this at all. The parallel passage in Luke says ‘and all the trees’. It seems like Jesus is simply saying ‘just like when you see a tree blossom- so when you see these signs know that the time is near’.

 There really is nothing in the actual text to indicate that this is speaking about 1948. But because of these verses having been used like this many preachers have tried to date the coming of Christ within ‘the generation’ from1948. Lindsey put out a book saying that 1988 was a ‘special time’ why 88? 1988 was 40 years [biblical generation] from 1948. Then some changed the biblical generation to 70 years- which makes this decade real important.

 The problem with all these dates is there based on a faulty premise- that Jesus was saying that within a generation of the ‘fig tree blooming’ the 2nd coming will take place- he never said that. As far as I can tell 1948 plays no significant role. Of course Israel becoming a nation again at that time was a great thing- but as a date to begin setting off some type of spiritual clock- that’s not in the bible.

 Okay- maybe I’ll do a few more of these over the next few days. Try and read these chapters the next few days and get a feel for the overall meaning [the context] when we become familiar with the overall meaning of the passage- it keeps us from getting lost in the Fig Tree ones.

 www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com 

THE RAPTURE?

 I spoke with a friend yesterday about the Harold Camping prediction that obviously failed. They know someone who is really into Camping and that person was being set up for the disappointment. On CNN they had a Baptist preacher who warned against this type of date setting- yet he spoke confidently about ‘the Rapture is the next event on Gods calendar- followed by the 7 years of great tribulation’.

 I’m sure this fine pastor felt like he was providing a balanced voice compared to Camping’s date setting- yet I felt his interpretation was almost as ‘bad’ as what Camping was doing. Why?

 My first introduction to ‘the Rapture’ came as a new believer who started attending a fine Baptist church- they were an ‘Independent, Fundamentalist, Pre-millennial’ Baptist church – and yes- they managed to fit all this on the sign!

 The standard teaching says that in the New Testament there are 2 separate events that make up the 2nd coming. The first event is called The Rapture- that Jesus secretly comes all the way back to the earth and stops short in the sky [his feet don’t touch the ground] he ‘catches away’ all true believers [normally the Catholics, Orthodox and other historic churches get ‘left behind’] and then begins a 7 year tribulation period.

 After the tribulation you have the other part of the 2nd coming- called the Revelation of Jesus- some Christians say this happens after 3.5 years of tribulation- others after the 7 year period.

 Some say Jesus comes back after a 1000 year literal reign on earth [post millennial] others say before [pre- millennial].

 And then you have various ways they interpret the end time judgment- some say you have what’s called ‘the Bema seat’ a separate judgment for believers- and then the ‘Great White Throne judgment’ the general judgment of the wicked.

 O.K. does the bible specifically teach that the Rapture event is a separate event from the 2nd coming? No- in my view the bible does not teach this. Now- I’m sure that most of my Protestant readers are surprised that I hold to this view, because in American Evangelicalism this view is almost like the Trinity- in some circles it divides the true believers from the heretics.

 Classic Christianity does not hold this view- this idea became popularized the 1800’s under a man by the name of John Nelson Darby and the idea spread to America in the 1900’s- primarily thru the revivalist strain of Christianity- and the ‘bible school/conference’ movement.

 The historic churches just stuck with the classic idea that there will be one second coming- and there will be a resurrection and final judgment. I pretty much fall into this category myself.

 You would be surprised how much thought has gone into this idea- I mean you have entire schools of thought- who call the other side heretics- just because they believe a 3.5 year tribulation as opposed to a 7 year one.

 The word rapture comes from the Greek phrase used in Paul’s 1st letter to the Thessalonians- chapter 4. That’s the rapture chapter. The apostle says that Jesus will return and catch up [catch away] the believers into the air- they will forever be with God. This event is biblical- I believe it will someday take place. I simply believe this event to be the 2nd coming- not another event that you would define as the rapture.

 I believe if you simply read the 2nd coming passages in the New Testament- that you would see this to be the most acceptable view. Jesus actually says ‘after these things [the great tribulation] then the sign of the coming of the Son of Man appears in heaven’ and he goes on to say ‘one will be taken- the other left’. It seems pretty clear to me that the event where ‘one is taken- another left’ takes place ‘after these things’ Jesus actually gives us the time table.

 To be fair- the other side has many-many ways to ‘get around’ these verses- I just feel that after all is said and done- that the best way to view The Rapture is to see this event as the actual 2nd coming.

 I have written a lot about this over the years [under the End Times section] and my purpose today is not to ‘prove’ whose view is right- I have found those tasks to be next to impossible. My point is if a believer [or group of them] chooses to break away from the historic church’s position on anything, then you need to think thru it very carefully. Most classic Christian churches have had very wise and knowledgeable men who thought long and hard before they articulated doctrine.

 This is not to say that the majority view is always right- but it’s simply a safe guide to stick with the majority Christian view most of the time. I’m very aware of the minority report when it comes to the Rapture doctrine- I just feel like the portions of scripture that are used to ‘prove’ the doctrine are not strong enough to overthrow the classic belief.

 The plain teaching of the New Testament is that there most definitely will be a Second Coming- and this event does not take place in 2 stages- the Rapture is the 2nd coming.

 www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com 

  VERSES- [These are the verses I quoted or taught from on the video for this post- Other videos below]

 Acts 1:1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

Acts 1:2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

Acts 1:3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

Acts 1:4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

Acts 1:5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

Acts 1:6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

Acts 1:7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Acts 1:9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

Acts 1:10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;

Acts 1:11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

Acts 1:12 Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey.

Acts 1:13 And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.

Acts 1:14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

Acts 1:15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)

Acts 1:16 Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.

Acts 1:17 For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.

Acts 1:18 Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.

Acts 1:19 And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood.

Acts 1:20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.

Acts 1:21 Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,

Acts 1:22 Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.

Acts 1:23 And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.

Acts 1:24 And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,

Acts 1:25 That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.

Acts 1:26 And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Matthew 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

2 Corinthians 3:6

Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

John 16:7

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

Psalm 85:8

I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:

12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

Kings 19

Proverbs 20:27

The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

Proverbs 4:26

Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

Proverbs 30:5

Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

[these are the verses for the video made 11-11-18]

November 18, 2018

 « November 17 | November 19 »

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 158 Reading 1DN 12:1-3

In those days, I Daniel, heard this word of the Lord: "At that time there shall arise Michael, the great prince, guardian of your people; it shall be a time unsurpassed in distress since nations began until that time. At that time your people shall escape, everyone who is found written in the book. "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace. "But the wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever."

Responsorial PsalmPS 16:5, 8, 9-10, 11

R. (1) You are my inheritance, O Lord! O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup, you it is who hold fast my lot. I set the LORD ever before me; with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed. R. You are my inheritance, O Lord! Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices, my body, too, abides in confidence; because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption. R. You are my inheritance, O Lord! You will show me the path to life, fullness of joys in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever. R. You are my inheritance, O Lord!

Reading 2HEB 10:11-14, 18

Brothers and sisters: Every priest stands daily at his ministry, offering frequently those same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But this one offered one sacrifice for sins, and took his seat forever at the right hand of God; now he waits until his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering he has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer offering for sin.

AlleluiaLK 21:36

R. Alleluia, alleluia. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to stand before the Son of Man. R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GospelMK 13:24-32

Jesus said to his disciples: "In those days after that tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. "And then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds' with great power and glory, and then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky. "Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the gates. Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. "But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

 Other videos- [These are the videos I post every night- Links to all my sites below]

 Kings 4  https://youtu.be/OLW-5PVlzV8

John 19  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg3M4Hh28mYlGWq8a

Friends  https://youtu.be/cZLwTwxkESc

Its all a gift  https://flic.kr/p/2iD9qA3

11-3-19 Sunday sermon  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMjE2X0-DUqPwM4brX

8-27-17 Sunday sermon  https://www.dropbox.com/s/bh48my17zjp506z/8-27-17%20Sunday%20Mass.mp4?dl=0

2nd Samuel 22 [NYC]  https://www.dropbox.com/s/wlwkjbm5nozgcdn/2-22-17%20Day%20Kennedy%20died%20%5B2nd%20Sam.%2022%5D.mp4?dl=0

Isaiah 53  https://dai.ly/x7m5j3q

4-10-20 Good Friday  https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10207012789156383/

https://youtu.be/m6YP7RNWYUk

The good Sabbath  https://youtu.be/YFhTQFRQurI

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10207016524209757/

I have come to start a fire  https://youtu.be/pyu0kSBYBO8

Acts 3  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg3FpIZPaevEu4-sx

Homeless friend  https://youtu.be/C25zsHNg1J8

Acts 4  https://www.dropbox.com/s/mbpzi567ay7iebq/2-2-17%20Acts%204.mp4?dl=0

4-16-17 Sunday sermon  https://www.dropbox.com/s/synraurg0yshfr2/4-16-17%20Easter.mp4?dl=0

Teaching  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMilxNimhHJ5e9WBqc

10-11-15 Sunday sermon  https://ok.ru/video/1589887109687

6-10-18 Sunday sermon  https://www.bitchute.com/video/Vn8oXrAMhd1G/

Zech. 2  https://youtu.be/RXCFjghyBHY

Homeless friend  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg2-i-JrQQgw8G34T

City of refuge  https://youtu.be/BicEi6AvmFE

Waters cover the sea  https://flic.kr/p/2iCpydt

6-19-16 Sunday sermon  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMhjgVDOmEQJQeDwpr

11-13-16Sunday sermon  https://www.dropbox.com/s/tra4vdf2ut8tmsc/11-13-16%20Christ%20Church%20%5BC.U.-%20Mass%5D.mp4?dl=0

Samuel 17  https://dai.ly/x7m5j3r

2nd Samuel 21 [NYC view]  https://www.dropbox.com/s/jt2dvbku9roav3e/2-20-17%202nd%20Sam.%2021%20%5BNYC%20view%5D.mp4?dl=0

This generation  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg2uGrLczW3CETdD2

Homeless friends  https://youtu.be/iWQnkKPnIpo

Spiritual Rock  https://flic.kr/p/2iBjXwB

12-30-18 Sunday sermon [Part 2]  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMil1muwvXJPNC3BNn

Colossians 4  https://www.dropbox.com/s/u3urlhqn0uohehn/4-26-18%20Colossians%204.mp4?dl=0

Fatima- 2nd Mile [N.J.]   https://www.dropbox.com/s/3b8obhv6chhub8h/2-19-17%20Fatima%20%5B2nd%20mile%5D.mp4?dl=0

Revelation 6  https://dai.ly/x7m20nh

 Acts 9  https://youtu.be/VBw6tOxifc4

10-11-15 Sunday sermon  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg3CWH34dXfqKGZEA

Not a performance  https://youtu.be/hipVuk4m6JY

Colossians 3  https://www.dropbox.com/s/l5uniom6iw4j1tm/4-12-18%20Colossians%203.mp4?dl=0

10-5-19 Sunday sermon  https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMjElNfB6A3ly1GW_g

Acts 25  https://ok.ru/video/1588890503735

Teaching in NYC  https://www.dropbox.com/s/31al0l8zx4e0m0r/2-18-17%20Teaching%20in%20NYC%20%5B2nd%20Sam.%2020%5D.mp4?dl=0

5-6-18 Sunday sermon  https://www.bitchute.com/video/LhHGVKYdg6we/ 2-26-18 One https://youtu.be/a0dxi27SeD8 2-25-18 Update https://youtu.be/8VhbTy6MgT8 Galatians 5 https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMejbeju1g4BLexRc Fatima [North Bergen] 2nd mile https://youtu.be/YcfnxpqOOo4 Acts 2 https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMe74Uzp8M7zlLwek 2nd Samuel 21 [NYC view] https://youtu.be/ahBwNwiQ1s0 Acts 2 https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMe74Uzp8M7zlLwek  

 Twilight of the Idols https://youtu.be/OUQg7muqpzU

 The carnival https://youtu.be/71ACh0RVuZo

The hornets nest https://trello.com/c/zRamqon8/275-4-9-16-the-hornets-nestmp4

Neil- and Rick Hart- who died about a month ago- https://dai.ly/x6xcitv 

Talking church https://www.bitchute.com/video/bbqifwCZs72d/ 

https://trello.com/c/iffb3zTX/276-talking-church 

Acts 12 https://youtu.be/SRmccCVfFTQ 

11-20-18 News update-

https://youtu.be/iZj8l-K_jEU

 11-19-18 Bank robbery https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos/10205029651339177/

https://youtu.be/KkL1ZUIoiqs 

Bethlehem christians https://youtu.be/3QiH9JSXn90

Ride thru Lincoln tunnel https://bit.tube/play?hash=Qmc5Di9G5JQ2F9PDScSnU4WNvBpiiR5WDLCuTuWeG6mpyy&channel=160276 

  8-26-18 Sunday sermon https://dai.ly/x6xafhp

Homeless friends- Bill Hagan https://flic.kr/p/JSJQEH 

Acts 3 https://youtu.be/Zdx2ZP4VqOo 

Hebrews 12 https://www.bitchute.com/video/QqXiog6LDAwW/

Holy Savior https://d.tube/v/ccoutreach/b4uq9ws4

North Bergen- Fatima- 2nd mile https://bit.tube/play?hash=QmQHdUN2Ao9UrzZpuJ8Z4v2L1i6kVVfrUZUdQat4hkBgok&channel=160276 

Friends https://youtu.be/XXl-Rw0xByk 

 2nd Samuel 1 https://ccoutreach87.com/2018/11/20/2nd-samuel-1/

Corpus Christi https://ccoutreach87.com/2018/11/21/corpus-christi-4/ 

2nd Samuel 2-3 https://ccoutreach87.com/2018/11/23/2nd-samuel-2-3/ 

  MY SITES [Please Like, Share, Connect, Follow and Subscribe to the sites below- Thanks]

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https://voat.co/u/ccoutreach87/submissions

 http://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/one-link_18.html [Link to past teaching]

 Video sites- [Can view and download my videos free of charge]

Streaming sites-

Youtube  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4GsqTEVWRm0HxQTLsifvg?view_as=subscriber

Youtube Playlist- https://ccoutreach87.com/youtube-playlist/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ccoutreach87/ [Most viewed]

https://www.dailymotion.com/ccoutreach87/videos [India]

https://www.bitchute.com/channel/jsS961GkXUSn/ [Most viewed]

https://vk.com/videos533663718 [Russia]

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5/videos?lst=1779330793%3A1779330793%3A1546906912  [My Facebook videos]

https://www.instagram.com/john.chiarello/channel/ [IGTV]

[Ukraine-Most viewed]

https://ok.ru/video/c2081847?st.cmd=video&st.m=ALBUM&st.aid=c2081847&st.ft=album

https://www.brighteon.com/channel/ccoutreach87

https://vimeo.com/user85764413

https://ccoutreach87.com/youtube-catalog-2020/ [Youtube catalog- 2020]

Cloud sites-

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg0G_aInmCi8XUC-C

https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=kZ1sXP7ZardKGRUxFByiFYi667jeup7MD1Sy

https://mega.nz/#F!7WQCSIJR!-4v9-zUQRq4MIQbBfI2n4A  

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d43nhtrgysqg493/AAAlCszxZXJoRtk8UudtuR9ma?dl=0

https://ln.sync.com/dl/3e1f4c5e0/tcnm9p32-xiwe4nbu-zjbkitqj-4fvemf6m

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Aocp2PkNEAGMg0MwmUCJ1XM3q9ui  

https://icedrive.net/dashboard/#/cloud

Cloud sites- https://ccoutreach87.com/cloud-links-12-2018/

 Inactive- work in progress-

https://sites.google.com/yahoo.com/ccoutreach87/home

http://johnchiarello.doodlekit.com/

http://corpus-christijohnchiarello.simplesite.com/

https://spark.adobe.com/page/6INKwX1tFT7WA/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxWXKfaFDZrfNUzloSqg8Kg?view_as=subscriber 

Beta

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYlLmUkKiB6VoWE9CB1UQew?view_as=subscriber ccoutreach87

https://www.facebook.com/ccoutreach1/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel&eid=ARCo7sBBI_1fHMUwrHJbFUGf73C6FmpZxtgTcWET2gVwpdHCKmXSGxs6wyeA-qGCnbsr2ILaXqpd4ACt  [my page]

 These are some of the first posts ever made, I hope to share some of them over time in between my regular studies. Of course they are ‘dated’- and it would be too difficult to edit each post. Some have old news comments in them, but if I also taught on the posts, I’ll post them ‘as is’. Hopefully they will be a benefit in some way- John.

All past posts can be found here- https://corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com/p/links-to-past-posts-up-to-12-2017.html

 Note- Please do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on-  Copy text- download video links- make complete copies of my books/studies and posts- everything is copyrighted by me- I give permission for all to copy and share as much as you like- I just ask that nothing be sold. We live in an online world- yet- there is only one internet- meaning if it ever goes down- the only access to the teachings are what others have copied or downloaded- so feel free to copy and download as much as you want- it’s all free-

 Note- I have many web sites- at times some question whether I’m a ‘bot’ because I do post a lot.

I am not a ‘bot’- I’m John- so please- if you are on the verge of deleting something- my contact email is ccoutreach87@gmail.com - contact me first- thank you- John

[kmp78]

DISCLAIMER AND RULES

These are the UPDATED directions/guidelines for all who want to participate/contribute to this blog. Our topics of conversation revolve mostly around 30 Seconds to Mars/the Leto Bros, but we have been known to also discuss various other current events around the world.

By reading, and especially by contributing, on what goes on around this blog, you are willingly agreeing with all guidelines and directions I have mentioned below - no exceptions.

I am willing to give a space to those who wish to discuss Mars (or other topics), and I am washing my hands from any and all fuckery that may ensue from other people´s opinions.

Also worth mentioning: I am fully aware that some people who publicly and very vocally denounce any interest in either this blog or Mars gossip lurk around this blog and then spread shit elsewhere on the internet. 

By doing that, you are essentially outing yourself as a quiet kmp78 admirer, so to speak. 

Or a fangirl, if that suits better. 🤗

Alright then... READ.

1.  This blog is laced with sarcasm, jokes, stupid and often very dark humor and PERSONAL OPINIONS - both mine and the people who participate in our conversations. This is not CNN, BBC or even Fox News - this is a personal blog run by a (sort of) fan. Not someone with inside information, and not someone whose opinions and views should be taken too seriously, and definitely not as gospel. I have no direct access to anyone in the Mars organization, and I do not work for them.

2. Nor do I work for YOU. This may be a blog which is mainly used for discussions about all things Mars and all opinions and topics are welcome, but the only one in charge is ME. I decide if a message gets published, if a message gets edited, if a message gets deleted - and if the sender gets blocked.

And not that it really needs to be said, but here goes anyway: I do not work for any Leto troll either.

3. And speaking of blocking: 

those who send threats or offensive messages will be blocked, as will anyone who I deem block-worthy. Rest assured, I never block anyone without a reason, so if you should discover that you have been blocked, that means I had a reason. I may or may not inform publicly when a person has been blocked, depends on my mood.

4. Everyone who sends messages is responsible for their own words - I do not accept any blame for other people´s opinions. Misunderstandings by accident or on purpose are not my headache. If I suspect a message will potentially cause unnecessary problems or annoyance for me, I will not post it (or will edit it), and  I don´t owe anyone any explanations as to why I´m not posting it. I may explain, or not - that´s up for me to decide. 

In any case, as I said: I will not take responsibility for anyone else´s words other than mine, and screaming at me over here or elsewhere online regarding comments someone else made and I posted...

Well, that´s just infantile. 🙄

5. All opinions are welcome, positive AND negative. A positive opinion does not automatically make you a sheep, and a negative opinion does not automatically make you a hater. 

Readers to this blog should be adult enough to handle both sides.

6. Calling women sluts or whores is not ok here. 

You also need to be able to tell the difference between calling a woman a whore and calling a Leto a whore. If you can´t understand the difference, then get out immediately.

SPECIAL CLAUSE:

the term “YACHT GIRL” when used in connection with an actually legit model who YOU ARE JEALOUS OF BECAUSE SHE GETS TO BONE A MAN YOUR FLABBY LOINS BURN FOR, actually is the equivalent of you calling her a whore, so kindly DO NOT.

Use whatever brain cells your parents genes bestowed upon you and make them at least somewhat proud. That should hopefully partially make up for the disappointment they most probably are already feeling knowing you actually read and participate in this shit.

7. What is also not ok is accusing people of crimes, calling them psychopaths, or threatening others with physical violence etc. - not even sarcastically or as jokes.

Think of it this way: 

when typing your message, if at any point you think that what you are writing might come across differently or more seriously to the person reading it than to you while writing it - then do not write it. Any innuendo about people´s potential “social diseases” is not welcome either, and neither are accusations of “obsessions” and people “stalking” the men this blog is focused on. Be VERY careful when using these terms. 

YOU are responsible for your own words. I cannot stress that enough.📣

8. We use a lot of initials and nicknames in our conversations - for a reason. 

Do not use people´s real names in messages. 

If you do not know who a particular person is, please come ask via chat (directions on how to use the chat feature can be found here). I may or may not blur out a name in a message if I think it´s necessary.

9. I post a lot of pics, gifs - and most of them are found from Google using various search terms, and sadly have no tags or indications as to who is the owner/maker. I don´t own any of the pics or gifs, or videos for that matter either (except the ones I have made and labeled as my own). If you find something of yours posted and prefer not to have it up or to have your name added as credits, please let me know and I will remove it.

As for links to either newspaper articles, IG accounts, other blogs or the like: you can find credits to the sources by either clicking on the links, or if I have decided to post screen caps, in the pics themselves. Again, I do not write articles or make videos and very, very rarely post anything other than other people´s comments - after all, this is prominently a discussion blog now. Opinions/messages from other people represent THEIR views and thoughts, my views/thoughts can be seen in my answers (in case of submits or multi-part messages, you will find my contributions to the message after this sign: ***).

To make this very clear: we don´t make news here, we discuss them.

10. When sending submits, if you are unsure of others potentially seeing your “ID”, please mention in your message that you want to remain anon and I will post it anon. Also please remember tho that there is no such thing as complete anonymity - so be careful when writing down your thoughts. Censor yourself if necessary - don´t make problems for me or others, or yourself.

11. I use Statcounter on this blog, which means I can see IP addresses from people visiting this site. However I choose to use that information is up to me, so if you are scared shitless of being outed due to your own actions/words, then DO NOT COME HERE.

If I out your IP, then there is a reason for it.

Don´t give me reasons if you want to remain in the shadows.

(And same goes for chat messages btw: don´t pretend to be my friend in private, but then turn your back and stab me in it in public. More often than not I WILL find out, and if I choose to then out your bullshit by posting private messages, THAT´S ALL YOUR OWN DOING, KIDDOS.

Play nice with me and you have nothing to worry about.

Start kicking dirt in my face and...🤷‍♀️

12. If you are addressing your message directly to someone (= other than me), please say so CLEARLY in your message, for example by starting your message with “For anon who said...”, or something along those line. I have had it with misunderstandings and unnecessary messes due to unclear messages! BE SPECIFIC!

13. ONLY write either in English or Finnish. I won´t waste my time on Google Translate, I have enough on my plate as it is and your weirdo mongrel lingos are boring as hell anyway.

14.  DO NOT SEND MESSAGES WITH THE SOLE PURPOSE OF STIRRING UP SHIT - OR TO INSULT OTHER COUNTRIES OR NATIONALITIES. That would rank quite high the PATHETIC categories...

15. I won´t post content from so-called private/non-celeb accounts such as Leto trolls (= VK for example IS a celeb so whatever she posts is most deffo getting posted, but anything posted by Lesser´s harem probs won´t be).

16. READ PREVIOUS MESSAGES! READ PREVIOUS MESSAGES! READ PREVIOUS MESSAGES! READ PREVIOUS MESSAGES! READ PREVIOUS MESSAGES! 

I´m beyoooooooond bored answering the same questions over and over again, sometimes in the space of just a few hours! The archives and search option are available on my blog for a reason! USE THEM. 😠

17. When sending messages containing info or “receipts” or whatever it may be that you think we should be made aware of, either clearly state WHERE that info can be found and WHO you are talking about. Do not simply send a message a´la “VK can be seen on Monica´s/Richard´s/Beatrice´s IG”. We don´t know who these people are! You may, but we don´t! I do not follow a single model or fashion industry creeper on social media so FIRST NAMES mean fuck all to me. GIVE FULL DETAILS OR SHUT THE FUCK UP. 

18. IF I SAY A TOPIC IS OFF-LIMITS, THEN YOU WILL RESPECT THAT.

19. I usually try to post messages in the same order they have been sent - with a few exceptions: 

If a situation arises which calls for “immediate attention” (new troll pics or other sudden Mars-related activity, for example), I may leave older messages for later and focus on newer ones first. Also when I am operating on my mobile, I am often unable to post certain messages (videos etc.), so those will be left for later when I am back to an actual computer. 

20. More often than not, tumblr fails to deliver messages to my inbox. If you suspect that yours has not been delivered, please send it again. I don´t mind getting duplicates.

21. If I feel that a message offers no relevant or needed content, I won´t post it. For example, a message such as “JL & XX in Japan bang bang” is unnecessary and pointless and not worth posting. I only have 250 allowed posts per day, and on busy days I have to make judgments on what is worthy of posting and what is not. I apologize if I therefore have to skip some messages. 

When I run out of allowed posts here, I will let everyone know that I am switching over to use the secondary blog which can be found at @kmp78secondaryblog

(PLEASE NOTE: That blog is ONLY used when we run out of room here, and I never go there unless I have to so please don´t send any messages to that blog unless I inform we have to move there!)

AND FINALLY PLEASE REMEMBER:

THIS IS A FANDOM FOR A BAND. NOT A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH. ACT ACCORDINGLY.

Creating hater accounts dedicated to POSTING PICTURES OF MY BLOODY EYEBALL (that btw actually happened because of course it did! This is the echeLOOOOOON after all! 👍) won´t make me quit this blog, so...

Yeah.

Anyway, for further information, please contact me via private message here, on my IGs, or at kmp78@yahoo.com.

Thank you. 🙏

PS: In case you run into accounts/comments made under my tumblr “identity”, or otherwise unauthorized “kmp78″ activity outside of tumblr which you recognize as being linked to this blog in any way (such as my posts being tagged with JL´s tags etc.), please report them immediately, both to the admins of the sites you found these accounts on, and to me directly so I can take appropriate action, thanks.

Any of my personal pics taken from this blog have been taken without permission and I have never and will never give permission to post them anywhere. And when I say I “appropriate action”, I mean just that. If need be, I will be contacting the authorities, like I did when I received public death threats. 

Be very aware that my tolerance for that is less than zero - and also be aware that these guidelines and my rules may change whenever I feel the need to change them.

#DEAL ✌️

[picometre]

[Shinen Resist] Service end, thoughts, plans

Hi everyone, it's been a while. Fair warning, this post will be pretty long and will probably contain emotional sappy shit.

So. News hit this morning for me: Ensto will end service on April 26. It was kinda surreal to tweet about. I expected it but at the same time I always hoped it'd happen the latest possible. In the end, the game will end service before it turns a year old.

It's kind of the first time it happens for me. I mean... seeing a game I deeply love ending service. But this isn't about me. I'm sure a lot of people feel sad about the news too. It's just that Shinen Resist is kind of the first game I got so into I ended up loving all the characters in it, if it makes any sense. So I'll definitely miss the game.

Anyway! I didn't start this post just to mope so here's what I'm planning to do during March and April with the Twitter I'm running and my own projects.

1. Continue updating the Twitter until the end: Alright, this is one of those "wow thanks we would have never known" points but I felt like it still had to be said. If any 'final event' of some sort is ever announced, I'll be on the lookout and deliver the updates.

2. Record the game's main story: This is more for archive purposes than anything, but I plan to record the game's main story. Even if a partial offline version of the game is planned, who knows how long it'll last. So to be sure each seiyuu's amazing work remains, I'll record everything. If possible, I will upload it on YouTube as unlisted. I'll give a link to a playlist once everything is done.

3. Continue translating the game stories: I had to take a very long hiatus from translations for a while, but I'll be back on the groove at my own pace. I hope I'll be able to post new translations very soon! Plus, I have logs of all events so it'd be a shame not to keep translating.

4. After service has ended, dedicate the Twitter to manga and translation updates: Even if the game ends service, the manga won't stop being published. As such, whenever the manga updates I'll be here to report it, that's the least I can do! And of course, whenever something is translated I'll post it.

5. Eventually, translate Shinen Resist CURE: I've always had some plans to translate the manga, and I feel like it would be the natural continuation after game content is done being translated. If it happens, you'll see me posting about it.

So yeah, since a bunch of things are planned, there's no way I'll mope. To end this post, I'll just thank everyone for supporting Shinen Resist thus far!

[astrogeoguy]

Sunday’s Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse Explained, and Venus Kisses Jupiter in the Morning!

(Above: Michael Watson of Toronto is an avid moon and eclipse imager. He captured the April 15, 2014 total lunar eclipse and assembled this beautiful composite that clearly shows Earth’s circular shadow.)

Hello, Stargazers!

Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of January 20th, 2019 by Chris Vaughan. Feel free to pass this along to your friends and send me your comments, questions, and suggested topics. I repost these emails with photos at http://astrogeoguy.tumblr.com/ where all the old editions are archived. You can also follow me on Twitter as @astrogeoguy! Unless otherwise noted, all times are Eastern Time. Please click this MailChimp link to subscribe to these emails. If you are a teacher or group leader interested joining me on a guided field trip to York University’s Allan I. Carswell Observatory or the David Dunlap Observatory, visit www.astrogeo.ca.

I can bring my Digital Starlab inflatable planetarium to your school or other daytime or evening event, visit DiscoveryPlanitarium.com and request me. We’ll tour the Universe together! 

My latest column for Space.com talks about using astronomy apps to enjoy Sunday night’s total lunar eclipse. You can find it here. 

(Above: Once the moon wanes and rises later towards the end of this week, enjoy the sights of the Winter Milky Way, which rises through Canis Major, Monoceros, Orion, Gemini, and Auriga.)

Public Astro-Events

If skies are clear on Sunday night, January 20, starting at 10 pm, York University’s Allan I. Carswell Observatory will host a free public viewing session for the total lunar eclipse on top of the Arboretum Parking Garage. Parking charges will apply. Details are here. 

Every Monday evening, York University’s Allan I. Carswell Observatory runs an online star party - broadcasting views from four telescopes/cameras, answering viewer questions, and taking requests! Details are here. On Wednesday nights they offer free public viewing through their rooftop telescopes. If it’s cloudy, the astronomers give tours and presentations. Details are here. 

On Friday, January 25 from 6 to 7 pm, the Royal Ontario Museum and the Canadian space Agency will hold a free session entitled Getting to Know Bennu: Updates on the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample-Return Mission. It will be held in the ROM in the Signy and Cléophée Eaton Theatre, Level 1B. Details and registration is here. 

On Saturday, January 26, starting at 7 pm, U of T’s AstroTour will present their free planetarium show entitled Grand Tour of the Cosmos. Details are here. 

The Super Blood Wolf Moon (Total Lunar Eclipse)

Last week, I wrote about tonight’s (Sunday) total lunar eclipse and posted it with diagrams here. Read on for an update on that information.

You’ve probably seen references to Sunday’s lunar eclipse as a Super Blood Wolf Moon, or a permutation of those words. These dramatic terms might elicit chuckles and/or eye rolls from astronomers, but they serve a purpose – to capture the imagination of the public and get them to head outside and look up! There are valid reasons for using each part of that label. Let’s break that down. 

Blood Moon - The Earth is a solid sphere.  The sunlight shining on Earth casts a circular shadow into space opposite from the sun. When an object, such as the International Space Station or the moon, passes through that shadow, no direct sunlight can reach it, so the object darkens. Some of the sunlight streaming closely past Earth passes through our atmosphere. The air refracts (or bends) the rays of sunlight because it slows the light down a little, and that refraction allows a small percentage of the sunlight, bent around the Earth’s perimeter, to reach the moon and slightly illuminate it. If Earth had no atmosphere, the moon would turn completely dark during a lunar eclipse! 

During totality, only red light reaches the moon because our atmosphere scatters some wavelengths of light more than others. White sunlight is composed of a rainbow of component colours. The sky is blue in daytime because the molecules in the air scatter shorter wavelength blue light and lets longer wavelength red light pass straight through. Try this experiment. Shine a flashlight through a glass of water placed near the wall in a darkened room. You’ll see a distorted beam of white light on the wall. Now put a few drops of milk in the glass and the entire liquid will glow with a bluish light! If you didn’t add too much milk, you might also see that light on the wall is a now a warmer colour because the cool, blue wavelengths have been scattered throughout the liquid rather than passing through. The same effect causes sunsets to turn red, and only that reddened light can reach the moon during totality – colouring the moon a rusty red, or blood, colour. 

Wolf Moon – The moon has always shone down upon humans on Earth. Eventually, people began to seek to understand our natural environment and to take advantage of the annual variations in the seasons to schedule planting, harvesting, hunting, and to celebrate life events. The twelve (sometimes thirteen) full moons per year acted as obvious celestial markers. Full moonlight allowed people to be out at night; hunting, or working the fields for extra hours to get the harvest in.   

Each society around the world has its own set of stories for the moon and every month’s full moon has one or more nick-names. The Wolf Moon term is likely derived from North American First Nations traditions, although some think it has an Anglo-Saxon origin. In either case, it’s likely that hungry wolves were calling to one another in the dead of winter, and left an impression on people before our modern era. The January full moon, eclipsed or not, is known as the Wolf Moon, Old Moon, or Moon after Yule. It always shines in or near the stars of Gemini (the Twins) or Cancer (the Crab).  

Super Moon – The moon orbits Earth every 27.3 days. The shape of the orbit is an ellipse that brings the moon alternatively closer and farther from the Earth. The difference in distance between perigee, the point in the moon’s orbit when it is closest to Earth, and apogee, when the moon is farthest away, is about 50,000 km. That causes a perigee moon to appear about 14% larger than an apogee moon – about the difference between a Canadian $1 and $2 coin when held at arm’s length. It’s not that much – visually. The closer moon will also be slightly brighter. 

The term supermoon was coined to describe a full moon that happens while the moon is at or near perigee. January’s eclipsed full moon will occur fifteen hours before perigee, making it appear about 7% larger than average and generating high tides globally. 

The supermoon aspect of this eclipse actually works against us. When the moon is near perigee, it is moving faster in its orbit, so it will cross the Earth’s shadow in a shorter time. The closer moon is also larger, so it remains fully eclipsed for a shorter time. 

(Above:  NASA’s Lunar Eclipse Page lists past and future eclipses. Each event has a web page with diagrams showing the path of the moon through the Earth’s shadow, where on Earth the eclipse will be visible (white areas), and the times for each stage of the eclipse in UT (equivalent to  GMT). The partial eclipse stage will begin when the moon reaches position U1, and the moon will be fully eclipsed from U2 to U3 (about one hour). The second partial eclipse stage will end when the moon reaches U4 - 3 hours and 16 minutes after it began.)

Total Lunar Eclipse Visibility and Timings - This lunar eclipse will be visible start to finish in North and South America, the eastern Pacific Ocean, and westernmost Europe. Much of the eclipse will be seen in central and eastern Europe, but observers there will miss the later stages of the eclipse because they occur after moonset. For the western Pacific region, the moon will rise after the eclipse begins. 

The partial phase, when the edge of the moon begins to darken, will begin when the moon contacts the Earth’s umbra at 10:34 pm EST on Sunday evening in North America (or 7:34 pm Pacific time and 03:34 UT). Starting at that time, look for the darkness to creep over the moon, growing from along its lower left edge. 

At 11:41 pm Eastern time (8:41 pm PST), the last strip of brightly lit moon will vanish as the moon finally entirely enters the Earth’s umbra. The darkened and a coppery red appearance won’t be obvious visually or in photos until the moon is well into the shadow. The moon will stay fully within the shadow (referred to as totality) for 62 minutes. It will pass deeply through the shadow, and the moon’s southern half will appear darker than its northern half. 

Greatest, deepest eclipse will occur at 12:13 am EST. After this, most people will head to bed because the second half of the eclipse mirrors the first half. The total eclipse phase will end when the moon begins to leave the umbra at 12:43 am Eastern Time on Sunday. At that time, look for a growing strip of illuminated moon to appear along the moon’s lower left edge. The partial phase of the eclipse will end at 1:51 am Eastern Time. 

Now you know what to look for, and when to look. If you have a telescope, of any size, hold your phone’s camera over the eyepiece and take some photographs, or prop up  your tablet or phone somewhere and take a time lapse movie of the eclipse. Hopefully the skies will be clear wherever you are! Don’t let cold weather keep you indoors for this one. The next total lunar eclipse won’t occur for the GTA until May, 2022. 

The Moon and Planets

After Sunday night’s total lunar eclipse, the moon will spend the week waning and rising later. On Tuesday night, the moon will pass only two finger widths to the left of the bright, white star Regulus in Leo (the Lion). After mid-week, you can look for the moon in the western morning sky on your way to school or work. 

Next Sunday afternoon, the moon will reach its Last Quarter phase, when it will rise at midnight and appear half-illuminated – on its western side. (Directions on the moon are opposite to sky directions.) 

This week, Mars will shine as a medium-bright, reddish pinpoint of light in the southwestern sky. It will set at about 11:30 pm local time. Mars is slowly shrinking in size and brightness as we increase our distance from it. 

(Above: Mars is the only bright planet in the evening sky nowadays, sitting above Neptune and below Uranus, as shown here at 8 pm local time.)

Blue-green Uranus is about 1.5 finger widths above, and slightly to the left of the modestly bright star Torcular (or Omega Piscium). This week, Uranus will be at its highest point, over the southern horizon, at about 6:30 pm local time – the best position for seeing it clearly. Dim, blue Neptune will set shortly after 9 pm local time, so look at it before 8 pm, while it’s higher. Neptune is sitting about two finger widths to the upper left of the modestly bright star Hydor (Lambda Aquarii). Hydor, and a pair of stars to its east (upper left), form a sideways narrow triangle with Neptune inside of it. 

(Above: On Tuesday morning, descending Venus will pass very close to Jupiter in the southeastern pre-dawn sky, as shown here at 7 am local time. Saturn will be climbing higher every morning.)

Both Saturn and Mercury are too close to the sun to be seen this week, but next week Saturn will join the other two bright morning planets, Jupiter and Venus. Spectacularly bright Venus is now swinging back towards the sun, while not-as-bright Jupiter is being carried the other direction – west and higher. The two planets “kiss” this week. On Tuesday morning, Jupiter will be positioned only 2.5 finger widths south (to the lower right) of Venus. They will both fit within the field of view of binoculars. Look for the bright, reddish star Antares, the “rival of Mars” sitting a palm’s width to the right of Jupiter. 

Keep looking up, and enjoy the sky when you do. I love questions and requests - so, send me some! 

[natureload826]

Ssh File Transfer For Mac

Mac Transfer To New Mac

Ssh File Transfer For Mac Os

Ssh File Transfer Mac To Linux

Secure Shell (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. Typical applications include remote command-line, login, and remote command execution, but any network service can be secured with SSH. SSH provides a secure channel over an unsecured network by using a client–server architecture, connecting an SSH client application. Mac Terminal SSH file transfer? Ask Question Asked 9 years, 1 month ago. Active 2 years, 8 months ago. Viewed 93k times 12. Is there a way to transfer files directly from a Mac to another using only Terminal? Perhaps using SSH? Mac ssh terminal. So far in this series of posts on ssh on macOS. Quick Introduction to ssh for Mac Admins; SSH Keys, Part 1: Host Verification; SSH Keys, Part 2: Client Verification; Transferring files with ssh (this post); SSH Tunnels (upcoming); Please consider supporting Scripting OS X by buying one of my books! In the previous posts we looked how to connect with ssh to a remote computer (host) and how to. WinSCP is a popular free SFTP and FTP client for Windows, a powerful file manager that will improve your productivity. It supports also Amazon S3, FTPS, SCP and WebDAV protocols. Power users can automate WinSCP using.NET assembly. It can act as a client for the SSH, Telnet, rlogin, and raw TCP computing protocols and as a serial console client. Version 0.63; WinSCP is a free open-source SFTP and FTP client for Windows. Its main function is to secure file transfer between a local and a remote computer. Beyond this, WinSCP offers scripting and basic file manager functionality.

Do you have a file on your Linux PC that needs to be transferred to your Linux server and you are not sure how to do this? This article teaches you how to copy files via SSH to your remote Linux server. It presents two methods for achieving this file transfer in a secure way. One based on the scp program and one based on the rsync program.

Background

Once you have your own Linux server up and running, you typically access it through SSH. SSH stands for Secure Socket Shell. SSH enables you to securely log in and access your Linux server over an unsecured network. Through SSH you can install, configure and update software on your Linux server, to name just a few common Linux server administration tasks.

While administering you Linux server, sooner or later you run into a situation where you have a file on your own Linux PC and you need to transfer this file to your Linux server. So you SSH-ed into your server and you are staring at your terminal screen, wondering how to go about this task. Unfortunately, you cannot directly transfer a file from your own PC to your remote Linux server through this active SSH terminal session. Luckily though, several methods exist that enable you to copy files via SSH. This article presents you with two of these methods. Namely, by using the scp and rsync programs.

System setup

A typical system setup consists of your Linux desktop PC, connected to your local network router, and a remote Linux server somewhere in the cloud. Instead of setting up a cloud server somewhere for this article (think Digital Ocean or Linode for example) , I decided on running a Linux server as a virtual machine (VM) on my laptop. Pes 2010 for mac os. Below you can find an illustration of the system setup:

My trusty Lenovo Thinkpad T450s serves as the Desktop PC. I run Debian 10 on this PC and its hostname is set to tinka. The Linux server VM also runs Debian 10 and its hostname is set to debianvm. I configured the same username on both the PC and the server. It is set to pragmalin. Refer to this article in case you would like to setup a similar Debian server as a virtual machine with VirtualBox.

Connecting to your server via SSH

While explaining the steps for copying files to the Debian server via SSH, I’ll occasionally SSH into the Debian server to verify that the files actually got transferred. Here follows a quick refresher that explains how you can log into your server via SSH.

The command from a Linux terminal on your PC to connect to your server is: ssh <username>@ip-address or ssh <username>@hostname. In my case the hostname of the Debian server VM is debianvm . My username on this server is set to pragmalin. This means that I can log into this server via SSH with the command:

ssh pragmalin@debianvm

To close the SSH connection, simply type the exit command:

SCP versus RSYNC

Before diving into the actual file copying via SSH, we should discuss the two commonly used programs for this, namely scp and rsync.

The SCP program

The scp program is a secure copy program. So basically a secure and remote version of the cp program that you locally use for copying files. Pretty much all Linux server distributions install the scp program by default, including Debian. Now, if the already installed scp program does all we need then why would we ever need another program for the same task? Read on and you’ll see that rsync does offer some benefits.

The RSYNC program

The rsync program is labeled as a fast, versatile and remote file-copying tool. But it is not just a plain file-copying tool. The rsync program features build-in synchronization functionality. This means that it only copies a file to the remote server if it is not already present. In contrast, the scp program blatantly overwrites the file. Furthermore, rsync can compress the files during the transfer. In other words, rsync is faster and uses less network bandwidth.

By default rsync does not communicate in a secure way. Luckily an easy fix exists for this. You can force rsync to use the SSH protocol by specifying the -e 'ssh' option when calling the program. Another minor disadvantage is that rsync is not installed by default on all Linux server distributions. Of course this is merely a one time inconvenience. You can simply install it with sudo apt install rsync. Just keep in mind that the rsync program needs to be installed on both sides. So both on your PC and your server.

When should you use scp and when rsync? They both work, so it partially comes down to personal preference. Personally, I use scp for small quick file transfers as its syntax strikes me as more intuitive. For large file transfers, I opt for rsync, because it is faster and uses less network bandwidth. For example when I need to restore a complete backup to one of my servers.

WordPress archive

For file copy via SSH testing purposes, this article uses the latest WordPress archive. WordPress is a hugely popular website content management system and runs on millions of websites, including the PragmaticLinux blog. We are not actually going to install WordPress, but just use the WordPress files for file copy example purposes.

Go ahead and download the latest WordPress archive from https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz. On my PC the file wordpress-5.4.2.tar.gz is now present in directory /home/pragmalin/Downloads/ Free mp3 to m4a converter for mac.

Copy a single file

Let’s start out with copying just a single file to the server via SSH. Open your terminal and go to the directory that holds to previously downloaded WordPress archive. Next, run either one of the following commands to copy the file to your remote server. Just replace the /home/pragmalin directory name with the name of your home directory on the server and replace the pragmalin@debianvm part with your username on the server and the hostname of the server, respectively:

scp wordpress-5.4.2.tar.gz pragmalin@debianvm:/home/pragmalin

rsync -e 'ssh' -avz wordpress-5.4.2.tar.gz pragmalin@debianvm:/home/pragmalin

If you now SSH into your server, you can verify the presence of the wordpress-5.4.2.tar.gz file in your user’s home directory. Both the scp and rsync commands have a similar structure. It is:

(COMMAND) (OPTIONAL ARGUMENTS) (SOURCE) (DESTINATION)

As you can see in this example, the scp program does not require any arguments. However, the rsync program does: -e 'ssh' -avz. For detailed information on the command options, you can refer to the program’s man-page. Alternatively, you can make use of the excellent explainshell.com website. Here are the links for an explanation of the previous two commands: scp and rsync.

Permissions

Note that you can only copy files to a directory where the username you specified has write permissions. That is the reason why I specified the home directory in this example. If you need to store the file in a directory where your user does not have write permissions, then you would have to connect to the server via SSH afterwards and move the file with the help of sudo mv.

Reverse transfer direction

You can copy the files via SSH in the other direction too. So from the server to your PC. You just need to swap the (SOURCE) and (DESTINATION) in the command. For example:

scp pragmalin@debianvm:/home/pragmalin/wordpress-5.4.2.tar.gz /home/pragmalin/Downloads

rsync -e 'ssh' -avz pragmalin@debianvm:/home/pragmalin/wordpress-5.4.2.tar.gz /home/pragmalin/Downloads

Copy all files in a directory

Another common operation is to copy all the files in a specific directory via SSH. We need a few files to try this out. Since we already downloaded the WordPress archive, we might all well extract its contents to get a bunch of files for testing purposes:

tar -xvf wordpress-5.4.2.tar.gz

The newly created wordpress subdirectory now holds the archive contents. To copy all the files in this directory to your remote server, run either one of the following commands. Just replace the /home/pragmalin directory name with the name of your home directory on the server and replace the pragmalin@debianvm part with your username on the server and the hostname of the server, respectively:

scp * pragmalin@debianvm:/home/pragmalin

rsync -e 'ssh' -avz --no-recursive * pragmalin@debianvm:/home/pragmalin

If you now SSH into your server, you can verify the presence of the files such as index.php, wp-config-sample.php, etc. in your user’s home directory.

Copy all files in a directory recursively

In the previous section just the files in a specific directory were copied. This did not include subdirectories. If you want to copy everything, so files and subdirectories, run either one of the following commands. Just replace the /home/pragmalin directory name with the name of your home directory on the server and replace the pragmalin@debianvm part with your username on the server and the hostname of the server, respectively:

scp -r * pragmalin@debianvm:/home/pragmalin

rsync -e 'ssh' -avz * pragmalin@debianvm:/home/pragmalin

The output of the command is a bit too long for a screenshot. However the following screenshot from the directory contents listing on the server show proof that the copy operation worked. You can verify the presence of the files such as index.php and wp-config-sample.php, but also all the directories such as wp-admin, wp-contents, etc. in your user’s home directory:

Wrap up

After working through this article, you now know about two programs (scp and rsync) that enable you to copy files via SSH. Both commands get the job done. The syntax of the rsync command is a bit more complicated so you might prefer scp. Keep in mind though that rsync uses less network bandwidth. As a result rsync is faster especially when transferring a large amount of data.

The syntax for both commands is not hard to understand. Nevertheless, it is complex enough that you probably won’t memorize them, unless used frequently. For this reason I recommend bookmarking this article. That way you can quickly reference this information when needed.

Connecting to every server. With an easy to use interface, connect to servers, enterprise file sharing and cloud storage. You can find connection profiles for popular hosting service providers.

Cryptomator. Client side encryption with ​Cryptomator interoperable vaults to secure your data on any server or cloud storage. Version 6

Filename Encryption File and directory names are encrypted, directory structures are obfuscated.

File Content Encryption Every file gets encrypted individually.

Secure and Trustworthy with Open Source No backdoors. No registration or account required.

Edit any file with your preferred editor. To edit files, a seamless integration with any external editor application makes it easy to change content quickly. Edit any text or binary file on the server in your preferred application.

Share files.

Web URL Quickly copy or open the corresponding HTTP URLs of a selected file in your web browser. Includes CDN and pre-signed URLs for S3.

Distribute your content in the cloud. Both Amazon CloudFront and Akamai content delivery networks (CDN) can be easily configured to distribute your files worldwide from edge locations. Connect to any server using FTP, SFTP or WebDAV and configure it as the origin of a new Amazon CloudFront CDN distribution.

Amazon CloudFront Manage custom origin, basic and streaming CloudFront distributions. Toggle deployment, define CNAMEs, distribution access logging and set the default index file.

First class bookmarking. Organize your bookmarks with drag and drop and quickly search using the filter field.

Mac Transfer To New Mac

Files Drag and drop bookmarks to the Finder.app and drop files onto bookmarks to upload.

Spotlight Spotlight Importer for bookmark files.

History History of visited servers with timestamp of last access.

Import Import Bookmarks from third-party applications.

Ssh File Transfer For Mac Os

Browse with ease. Browse and move your files quickly in the browser with caching enabled for the best performance. Works with any character encoding for the correct display of Umlaute, Japanese and Chinese.

Quick Look

Quickly preview files with Quick Look. Press the space key to preview files like in Finder.app without explicitly downloading.

Accessible

The outline view of the browser allows to browse large folder structures efficiently. Cut & paste or drag & drop files to organize.

Transfer anything. Limit the number of concurrent transfers and filter files using a regular expression. Resume both interrupted download and uploads. Recursively transfer directories.

Download and Upload

Drag and drop to and from the browser to download and upload.

Synchronization

Synchronize local with remote directories (and vice versa) and get a preview of affected files before any action is taken.

Integration with system technologies. A native citizen of Mac OS X and Windows. Notification center, Gatekeeper and Retina resolution.

Keychain

All passwords are stored in the system Keychain as Internet passwords available also to third party applications. Certificates are validated using the trust settings in the Keychain.

Bonjour

Auto discovery of FTP & WebDAV services on the local network.

Finder

Use Cyberduck as default system wide protocol handler for FTP and SFTP. Open .inetloc files and .duck bookmark files from the Finder.

Notifications

Notifications in system tray (Windows) and the Notification Center (Mac).

Windows

Reads your proxy configuration from network settings. Encrypts passwords limiting access to your account.

We are open. Licensed under the GPL.

Come in. You can follow the daily development activity, have a look at the roadmap and grab the source code on GitHub. We contribute to other open source projects including OpenStack Swift Client Java Bindings, Rococoa Objective-C Wrapper and SSHJ.

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Ssh File Transfer Mac To Linux

English, čeština, Nederlands, Suomi, Français, Deutsch, Italiano, 日本語, 한국어, Norsk, Slovenčina, Español, Português (do Brasil), Português (Europeu), 中文 (简体), 正體中文 (繁體), Русский, Svenska, Dansk, Język Polski, Magyar, Bahasa Indonesia, Català, Cymraeg, ภาษาไทย, Türkçe, Ivrit, Latviešu Valoda, Ελληνικά, Cрпски, ქართული ენა, Slovenščina, українська мова, Română, Hrvatski & Български език.

[destinationtoast]

TOASTYSTATS: Top fandoms on AO3

As of February 26, 2017

I’m doing some stats for Femslash February, and as part of the prep, I pulled scraped info from AO3 on all fandom tags with at least 500 fanworks.  You can see the top 100* (in terms of fanwork production) above, and you can view -- and make use of, if you like! -- the raw data here for over 800 fandoms.  The spreadsheet also includes top ships, crossover fandoms, tags, ratings, etc.

Edit: Because of quirks of AO3 search, some things you’ll see above are misleading (e.g., not all of the “top” characters are truly the most common; not all of the “top” ship categories are the same category as the primary ship).  Also, there are other major factors like recency that affect the stats.  Please read the notes and caveats below before writing meta or making use of this data. 

Edit: Also see the top femslash fandoms!

Notes below the fold, including a lot of clarifications in response to reader questions:

Why just the top character?  That’s just an artifact of the screenshots -- the actual spreadsheet contains WAY more data; everything in the AO3 Sort & Filter sidebar (top ships, crossover fandoms, tags, ratings, etc.).

There are no F/F top fandoms?!  Not exactly. Several of the fandoms have a top ship in a different category than the top category listed. E.g., OUAT and The 100 have F/F ships as their most productive ships despite F/M being the top category, for reasons I’ll get into more in Femslash February stats.

Hux is most popular?!: Nope. If you’re upset about Hux being most common, that’s not true. I explain the methodology and tag splitting in more detail below, but suffice it to say that the way I scraped data only returns what AO3 shows in the Sort & Filter sidebar for the tag, which doesn’t add together the characters/fandoms/etc who have multiple commonly used tags, like Ben Solo | Kylo Ren.  Also, read up on recency bias below to understand why other characters like Luke, Leia, Han, etc. could actually be the most common on the internet.

Is there a recency bias? Strongly so. AO3 has only been around since 2009 and has been growing way more popular each year, so there’s a substantial recency bias. Because of this, and the fact that so many other archives exist/have existed, there are many older fandoms that are underrepresented here, and many long-running fandoms like Star Wars where the older stuff also hasn’t necessarily migrated over.

AO3 is not all of fandom!  Yes! I cannot emphasize this enough. It’s what I’m using here because it’s easiest to get stats from, and I’ve done this comparison over a number of years.

What is "top?” “Popular” and “top” can mean many things, many of which I’ve explored in various other posts. In this post, it only means the ones that have the most fanworks on AO3 as of right now.  I used that term because AO3 used that terminology.

Which fandoms are included? / [X] fandom tag shouldn’t be in there.  They are all the ones that are listed as having at least 500 fanworks according to the AO3 media lists.  I scraped them off those pages with a python script. There are all 858 fandoms in this set. *Note that there are substantially fewer fandoms than that once you eliminate the near synonyms and the ones like “Real Person Fiction” that are too broad to be used by very many fans.  I haven’t tried to do any deduplication or elimination here, because the results vary depending on editorial choices.

Where did the stats for each tag come from? After I scraped the list of the top fandoms, i obtained the statistics (number of works, ratings, etc) by using another script to go to the Works page that you get to when you click on each fandom’s AO3 tag.  The script took the Num Works from the top of the page and the other numbers from the Sort & Filter sidebar.  

Some of the numbers seem inaccurate.  Some of the numbers are underreported, because the Sort & Filter sidebar only reports the literal uses of other tags that occur with the fandom tag, and not any child tags.  E.g., if “Lizzie Bennet Diaries” + “Angst” occurs 40 times, but “Lizzie Bennet Diaries” + related tags like “Fluff And Angst” occur 16 extra times, then only 40 occurrences will be reported (even though a joint search for “Lizzie Bennet Diaries” and “Angst” will return all 56).

Some data is missing. There was an error in my scripts that means it failed to properly create URLs for fandoms with non-English characters in the names.  :(  (I had this problem before and though I’d successfully debugged, but still needs more work, apparently.)  I went through by hand and filled in partial data for those fandoms (enough for my Femslash February purposes), but the rows are still unfortunately incomplete.  However, you can follow my procedure above and go to the Works page for the tag to find that data yourself.

Let me know if you have questions! Have fun playing with data. :)

EDITS

Clarified above the fold what is in the notes, and that the dataset contains 800+ fandoms.  A few brief wording clarifications also.

Added note about popularity.

Added clarifications from here: http://destinationtoast.tumblr.com/post/157739967319/hi-but-in-star-wars-fandom-ben-solokelo-ren-is  

Added bold formatting/headers to Notes section.

Clarified that this is all from scripts used to scrape AO3 and no editorial choices were made.

Added link to top femslash fandoms follow up post:  http://destinationtoast.tumblr.com/post/157769665349/toastystats-fandoms-with-the-most-femslash-on-ao3

[More Toastystats] [#fandom stats on Tumblr]

[dirtyfilthy]

Alex Tizon and epistemic cultural relativism

I have to admit, when I first read Alex Tizon’s “My Family’s Slave” [1] my reaction was “wow, that’s pretty fucked up” and then immediately moved on to reading about the next fucked up thing in my ever growing itinerary of fucked up shit to read about. It’s only when a friend posted [2] a link to a discussion between Americans and Filipinos about the article that I got really interested, particularly with the meta-discourse that’s happening on cultural relativism, epistemology and defensiveness.

I say epistemology because there’s an argument going round that “in-group can never understand out-group’s experiences” and I think what that means for a theory of knowledge is quite fascinating. Let me restate the question slightly: What does it mean to “understand” something, and to what degree can you ever understand something you haven’t directly experienced?

Defining understanding turns out to be quite difficult, and I think its easily possible for two people to use quite different meanings of the word at any one time, even from occasion to occasion. I’m gonna propose a fuzzy-wuzzy vague definition of degrees of understanding, ranging from a deep emotional and intellectual resonance of the subject at the top, to replacing the real idea with a cardboard cut-out at the bottom.

So there’s a purely intellectual and distant sense in which I can understand the experiences of others. “Slavery in the Philippines is quite different from chattel slavery in America, it has it’s own unique cultural pressures and stems mainly from economic, rather than racial, discrimination”.  The words in that sentence are logical. I understand all the concepts involved, at least in an abstract way. Not that it matters for the purposes of this argument, but I even happen to agree with the premises. This is the way a full-time economist might understand unemployment.  It’s a pale shadow of actually being poor and unemployed.

That said, because human beings have empathy we can move beyond a “ropes and pulleys” conception of another’s experience and imagine “what it would be like” to be in their situation. I gotta admit, it is much much easier to empathise with somebody when you have direct experience of something similar yourself. Your friend is going through a bad break-up, you think back to bad break-ups of your own and you wince cos you know how bad that feels.  But imagine instead you’d never been through a bad break-up. Now you can still “sort-of” empathise with them, perhaps you know what being very sad feels like, or you’ve lost someone so you understand mourning, etc. You can put at least some of the pieces together. On the other hand, because you’ve never felt the full force of the experience maybe there’s parts of the puzzle you don’t even know are missing. Or maybe even if you have experienced it, but there are crucial differences in the concepts and the feeling of it between the two of you, so you get a kind of “false empathy” where there are you believe you understand the situation when you’ve gotten it completely wrong.

This is what I mean about degrees-of-understanding. And right at the bottom of this ladder I put replacing the idea with a two-dimensional cut-out of the idea, for example, substituting thinking about the actual situation of slavery in the Philippines with a sign that says “SLAVERY UGH!”.  Don’t get me wrong, I know that as an every-day heuristic it’s an incredibly useful one.  I rarely have the time to try empathising with slavers, neo-nazis etc. But... I think if you really want to engage with an issue and truly begin to comprehend it, you kind of have to.

Part of the reason I am arguing for a fuzzy conception of understanding -- and that we can understand, at least partially and to a greater or lesser degree, the experiences and situations of others -- is that I think the converse is a very dangerous idea. If we can’t understand other cultures, at the very least abstractly and more preferably with some degree of emotional empathy, then we can’t have conversations.

It places culture beyond external criticism. Like it or not, we live in a global society, and call me a classical liberal but I believe the free and frank exchange of ideas benefits everybody. Are we willing to say South African apartheid was beyond criticism? Because that is the natural consequence of this line of thought. While I will never understand it like someone who lived through it, I don’t think that stops me from condemning it.

Which brings me to cultural defensiveness. It’s perfectly natural to be defensive when somebody criticises a group you a part of and that makes up a significant part of your identity. It feels as if you are being personally attacked and it sucks. I’m not sure how much of the “you can’t judge me / my culture” argument stems from this reason. I have to say though that some of what’s been written by the Filipino community on Alex Tizon goes beyond pleas for understanding the cultural nuances and strays into apologeism or direct minimilisation of the issues and their consequences.

I think it’s perfectly fair and reasonable to ask people to take the time to try and get a grip on the cultural, economic and colonial factors involved, but it’s not reasonable to use this to deflect criticism without engaging with it. I get it, criticism is painful, but if Alex Trizon’s article has sparked serious conversation about modern day slavery, both in the Philippines and further afield, then it is to be considered a success.

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-story/524490/ [2] http://andyouknowit.tumblr.com/post/160824011141/sinbadism-queen-elisabitch-fuckrashida