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New Year's Reflections 

Women Changing the Course of History: Eliza Tibbets 

Weekly Transformers Feature: Cryotek 


Christmas in a Time of Uncertainty 
BotCon 2009 to be in Pasadena, CA

The dates will be May 28-31.

I guess I'll be going this year! Woo, hoo! 


Reflectionary: Scripture for Worship on Christmas Eve 


Silverstreak: A Christmas Parody

(to the tune of "Silver Bells") 


Weekly Transformers Feature: Energon Downshift 


Fundamentalist Zeal and Feelings of Being Threatened 


The (Economic) Value of Relationship 

Weekly Transformers Feature: Camshaft 


KB Toys is Going Out of Business 

The Blagojevich Scandal and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 


Things I've Done Meme 

Weekly Transformers Feature: Mirage 


The Exile of the Westminster Larger Catechism

Or perhaps this bit from Mark 7:9-13: 


Blog Comment Day 2008 

Big Transformers Club News Today! 


Weekly Transformers Feature: Cybertron Primus (Black Friday edition)

In the United States, the day after Thanksgiving is often referred to as "Black Friday." The idea is that the day after Thanksgiving is supposed to be the busiest shopping day of the year (this usually isn't technically correct--that honor going to one of the weekends just before Christmas--but it's certainly near the top of the list every year). Merchants often try to take advantage of the high volume of potential customers by doing special promotions. In 2006, Wal-Mart did one such "Black Friday" promotion by releasing the then-current Cybertron Primus toy with four previously unreleased Mini-Cons as a bonus. Since I didn't yet have the Primus figure, I took advantage of the offer. Like Unicron, this is a figure that homages Transformers history going back all the way to Generation One. As the story went back then (in the Marvel comics), Unicron is a "god" of chaos from whose existence predates our own universe, and whose only function is destruction. When our current universe was created, it sought to defend itself by creating a corresponding "god" of light, called Primus. They battled for ages, never able to destroy the other. Eventually, Primus tricked Unicron by fleeing into an asteroid. Unicron did likewise, believeing that Primus had found some advantage in this celestial body. But what really happened was that both were now trapped in their respective asteroid prisons. Over time, both found themselves able to shape the worlds in which they had become embedded. Unicron became a giant planet capable of consuming other worlds and of transforming into a gargantuan robot form. Primus, on the other hand, became the planet Cybertron, homeworld of the Transformers. This origin was modified a few times over by the time the Unicron toy was created for the Armada line, and again by the time Primus was actually created as a toy for the Cybertron line a few years later. For one thing, the Marvel comics never gave any indication that Cyberton/Primus (or "Cybertron Primus," as the toy was called, although that gives the impression that the two-word phrase is the character's name) was able, itself, to transform into a robot. Rather, the origin at the time suggested that Primus' creations (the Autobots and Decepticons) were given abilities that mimicked Unicron's ability to transform, implying that Primus himself was unable to do so. But this toy transforms, and in order to do that, you need this device, called the Omega Lock. You don't really need to have the Cyber Planet Keys shown here in order to make it work, and in fact, I don't have the specific keys you're "supposed" to have if one goes by the storyline (I never got any "Giant Planet" toys, and therefore don't have the key for the Giant Planet). Basically, the Omega Lock serves as a key to unlock certain parts of Primus' transformation to robot mode. It does a few other things, too. For example, here you can see how the Omega Lock lights up when you stick in the hole at the top of Primus' planet form (although, technically, this is still supposed to be the planet Cybertron, it's still hard for me to reconcile this ball with the planet I always knew in Generation One, and it's easier for me just to refer to this as the "planet mode" instead of calling it "Cybertron." Just bear with me...). If you move the key forward, parts of the planet slide away and two massive cannons flip out. With a couple of slight modifications, this may be considered an "attack planet" mode (The instructions don't actually give it a name). I shudder to think of what all these transformations must do to any Transformers unfortunate enough to still be on the planet's surface! But I'm nowhere close to done yet! When preparing this entry, the instructions reminded me of yet another mode that I'd completely forgotten about, and will likely never, ever use again. This is Primus' "battle station mode." I'm not at all sure what viable function a planetary body needs with a "station" mode, nor can figure out how this mode is supposed to be demonstrably more "battle ready" than the "attack planet" mode earlier. Indeed, it seems to me that the Death Star did just fine without constantly reconfiguring. Or, at least, it used to.... All this finally gets us to Primus' robot mode. As planetary Transformers go, I actually like this transformation better than either Unicron or the Darth Vader/Death Star. It's an actually spherical planet that turns into a robot with a minimum of shell-forming. Not that a robot mode at such a scale makes much sense, of course. I mean, with Unicron, whose purpose was destruction, you could at least get iconic images like this one of Unicron about to rip into the surface of Cybertron (Note: at the time of the 1986 Transformers: The Movie, Primus as a character wasn't even established, much less the idea that the planet Cybertron was Primus!). But what's a "good guy" planet-sized robot supposed to do? As is typical of Transformers toys of this size, Primus has gimmicks besides the actual transformations. Here, for example, we that Primus has robotic arms embedded within the giant robot's feet, perhaps intended to interact with Transformers at something somewhat more closely resembling their actual scale (although still way too large to be useful, realistically speaking). If you plug a Cyber Planet Key into Primus' arms, they each can release a double-barreled weapon that, presumably, can be used to attack planetary-scale threats. So, that's Primus. So far, we've covered the basic toy, which any non-Black Friday-shopping fan would have been able to pick up. The "Black Friday extra" was this set of four Mini-Cons. From left to right, these are Strongarm, Offshoot, Knockdown, and Nightscream. These four Mini-Cons were released with the "Black Friday" Primus set for the first time, but were made more widely available when the "Classics" line came out more properly a few months later. However, when the Classics versions of these Mini-Cons came out, some of the names were changed. Offshoot became Dirt Rocket, and Nightscream became Thunderwing. Nightscream can be especially confusing, because an entirely different toy, sold with the now-named-Thunderwing toy, was called Nightscream.

No one ever said that keeping Transformers toys straight was easy!
Posted by Mark Baker-Wright at 12:00 AM 2 comments 


Being Thankful in All Things

There's a verse in 1 Thessalonians that is often pulled out at this time of year:

When circumstances are good, of course this instruction isn't difficult to follow. But when times are harder, as I expect they are for many this Thanksgiving season, I expect that it's not only hard to follow this word, but the advice can sound both unrealistic and trite. We all know the usual platitudes: "You should be thankful for life itself!" "Everything you have is a gift from God!" And these are true. But if a person doesn't think much of his/her life, or doesn't see anything good that he/she has, hearing platitudes like this can be more than a little offensive.

Sometimes it helps to remember that Paul himself didn't exactly have an easy life. Indeed, his physical well-being might well have been better had he never come to know Jesus Christ. By following Christ, Paul found himself subject to imprisonment, beatings, a shipwreck, and was almost certainly executed for his attempts to spread the gospel. But to say that a person who suffered in these ways told others to "give thanks in all circumstances" isn't necessarily to say that "if he could do it, anyone could." We could just as easily claim that Paul was insane!

Whether or not Paul was insane, or whether we should follow his advice in Scripture, is ultimately up to each individual believer to decide. For me, it helps to note that the words are not "give thanks for all circumstances," as if to emphasize the fact that God can use even a horrible situation to some ultimate good (I did find one translation that attempted such a rendering, but I think it's just plain wrong at this point. All 19 of the other translations I consulted are in general agreement). Even if I'm thankful for that ultimate good, I don't think I should be thankful for the horrible situation itself. Rather, Paul says "give thanks in all circumstances." Yes, times are hard. But we have ultimate hope. God cares about us, and promises to help us. God proved this by sending Jesus for us. Even if things are hard now, we can give thanks for that hope.

It definitely takes effort to give thanks in all circumstances. It can be hard to remember the evidences of God's love and care for us. But that's also why this holiday exists. It's not really there so that we can spend time visiting with family and eating turkey, as good as those things can be. The Thanksgiving holiday exists because there are times when we need to be reminded that we still have things to be thankful for, even if times are rough. I pray that we will have eyes to see those good things, that we will have hope in what God will continue to do for us, and can find ways to give thanks for it all.
Posted by Mark Baker-Wright at 9:00 AM 1 comments 


Doctor Who at 45

Yesterday was Doctor Who's 45th Anniversary. There's not a whole lot to say that a lot of other folks won't be saying more of, and better, but I couldn't just let this kind of an anniversary go by without so much as a mention.

But while I'm at it, I should include a link to the web comic "The Ten Doctors." Yes, it's got pretty much every fanboy dream crammed into the story, but it's surprisingly well done for fan fiction, and is worth a look. Be warned, it's already made it up to 145 parts, so you have a fair bit of catching up to do if you want to go back to the beginning.
Posted by Mark Baker-Wright at 12:00 AM 0 comments 

It's Not Just True for Biblical Materials: All Translation Is Interpretation

This past weekend on NPR, I heard a report on some of the issues inherent in translating works of literature from one language to another. Although there were no issues of religious doctrine involved, some of the comments sounded remarkably similar to concerns over biblical interpretation.

"There is no such thing as a literal translation, by nature of choosing one word or another, you influence the next step," (Bea Basso, an Italian translator) says.

If people are saying this about works for which lots and lots of native speakers can still be found, just how much worse must it be for works that are at least 2000 years old?

Of course, finding native speakers can be a problem for more recently-written works, too.

...regional linguistic differences can factor into a work, too — which is why Basso (who's from Venice) found it odd when she was asked to translate plays by Neapolitan author Eduardo De Filippo.

"Every region in Italy is so dramatically different ... the dialect, the customs, the food," says Basso. "Eduardo De Filippo uses an old dialect [from] the late 50s, so not even my Neapolitan friends would always know, they would have to ask their grandmothers. That happened several times."

This just underscores what I say all the time: "all translation is interpretation." There's simply no way around having to make choices as to which word most accurately represents the original intent. And one person may well make different (significantly different) choices than another person.


"Rabelais, the author of this very strange book, ends the chapter with a sputtering iteration. I believe it's something like 43 different words in French for s- - -,"* says Raffel. "My problem was finding 43 different words because English is not so plentiful in these things."

I wonder if the French have greater or less difficulty finding an appropriate translation for σκυβαλα as found in Philippians 3:4b-14?

*That's not my censorship. NPR did that themselves, both in the text link and in the article heard on the radio.
Posted by Mark Baker-Wright at 7:15 AM 1 comments 


Weekly Transformers Feature: World's Smallest Transformers Thrust

In 2003, Takara developed a new line of Transformers designed to take advantage of the ever-present popularity of the Generation One characters. This line is referred to by fans as "World's Smallest Transformers" (the TFWiki indicates that this name is erroneous, preferring "Smallest Transforming Transformers," but I have to admit that I've never heard that phrase, and since we're talking about a translation from the Japanese anyway, I'm going to defer to widespread use over strict accuracy just this once. However, instead of writing out "World's Smallest Transformers" each time, I'll just use "WST" hereafter). These figures were sold blindpacked, meaning that you actually didn't know what toy you were getting until you actually opened the box. This is a strange concept to most Americans, but is actually fairly common on such small items in Japan. Still, if one thinks of these figures as being sold similar to how trading cards are sold, and how people will buy up multiple packs hoping to get a particularly rare card, you've got the concept pretty well. WST Thrust is not one of the rare figures, but rather is a figure you're likely to get lots and lots of copies of if you buy boxes of WSTs hoping to find a less common one (say, Jazz or Bluestreak, for example). This toy is, basically, a scaled-down version of the Generation One original (as, indeed, are all WSTs). Thrust's modified F-15 fighter jet mode is shown here alongside a quarter to give you an idea of just how small this toy is. I should note, for the sake of accuracy, that the square "heat sticker" seen on the figure isn't something that the toy came with originally, but rather is something I bought from Reprolabels to evoke the idea of a "small version of the G1 toy" even more. Thrust transforms almost exactly the same as his larger-scale counterpart, although the WST toys tend to rely on pegs rather than screws and such, so parts are a bit more likely to just pop off. No real harm, though. Just plug the part back in and you're good to go. Cartoon-purists often like to flip the plane's nosecone up on top of the head to give Thrust the "conehead" appearance he had back in the original cartoon, but I've never cared for that look at all. It looks pretty dippy on the cartoon, and even worse on the toys, which were simply not designed with this transformation in mind. Since these toys were sold blindpacked, the box they originally came is pretty generic, and doesn't really make for a good display item. For this reason, I decided to make my own. I've shown this box before, but here's a shot of just my custom WST Thrust box on its own. I still have the Photoshop files in case anyone would like to try their own skills, but be warned that the files are quite large, so if you have a specific character in mind, let me know when you try to contact me by e-mail, so I can send you just the most appropriate files, rather than clog your e-mail server more than necessary. 


Reflections on Stewardship and Giving

At most churches I've ever been a part of, the season just before Thanksgiving is devoted to Stewardship. In a lot of cases, this is translated as "that time when the church doesn't only ask you to put money in the offering plate, but asks you to tell them how much money you're going to put into the offering plate over the next year." Needless to say, such a characterization makes Stewardship season somewhat unpopular. This sentiment seems to be shared by membership and leadership alike.

Especially given the economic difficulties throughout the news these days, with so many people not even sure how secure their jobs are, I expect that the difficulty is even more pronounced in 2008 than it is most years. But, as hard as it is for most of us, times are tight for churches, too. And since churches do depend on donations from the people who attend, there's little avoiding the need for churches to ask for those donations.

There are, of course, Biblical instructions on giving to God, but I'm not really looking to argue whether or not people should be giving tithes (generally understood to be 10% of one's income) or some other "expected" formula. Rather, I'm thinking about how a church that wishes to be sensitive to the needs of its people (including those to whom giving any amount, let alone 10%, might well be an excessive burden) yet also faithful to the mission God has given to it, not to mention just faithfully paying whatever staff works there (Let's be honest. It takes money to do these things, and besides my reflections on this matter in the past, I'm reminded of Luke 10:7, which tells us that "workers deserve their wages") manages to juggle these responsibilities.

I'm a strong believer that how one asks for money can make all the difference. I've seen some attempts that were downright insulting, and which certainly didn't encourage me to give, no matter how much the money might have been needed. I think that a successful request for funds (or, more properly, pledges to give in the future) must acknowledge that giving can be difficult, and won't lay on the guilt too thick (there are those who argue that tithing, let alone giving, is an obligation. Even so, I don't think guilt is the way to go if you're looking for people to actually do it!). Moreover, I think that giving is (or at least, should be) an act of worship, and so a Stewardship letter does well to acknowledge this.

My wife was asked to compose a Stewardship letter for the church in which she works, and I think she successfully kept all these concerns in proper balance. With her permission, I share the text of that letter below:

The month of October is a time when we give greater attention to what is commonly called “Stewardship.” While considering how to wisely and thoughtfully give of our money, time, and abilities is a year-round activity and an integral part of our life of faith, October is when we as a community will consider this more deeply together. On November 2, you will be invited to respond to the invitation to be a part of our vision of “Building Up, Reaching Out” by making a financial commitment to the ministries of (our church) for the coming year.

As I write this, I am particularly mindful of headlines these days. Talk of money is in the air in unprecedented ways, and many of us are doing an extra review of our budgets to make sure ends meet. While talk of Stewardship may seem insensitive at this time, please consider this season an invitation to consider how our faith and our money relate to each other rather than as a burden. Committing a portion of our financial resources to the Church is an important way to recognize the connection between what we believe and what we live. If you have been especially hard hit by current financial circumstances, please consider this letter instead an invitation to receive prayer, the love and concern of our community, and the further pastoral support that (our church) can offer you.

Our Stewardship theme—“Building Up, Reaching Out,”—sums up a critical aspect of what it means to be church. Through our learning and response to Scripture, through our sharing the bread and wine of the Eucharist, and through sharing life’s ups and downs, we become able to reach out and offer Christ’s love to our community. While pledging is about giving money, it is also on a deeper level about giving of ourselves. Pledging is also the primary way that we address the very real budgetary needs that must be met in order for (our church) to continue its vital ministries. Every pledge towards this end helps, big or small. Thank you for taking the time to consider how you can make a commitment to the ministries of (our church).