Dancing With The Stars Season 7 Recap and More!

Maurice Greene and Cheryl Burke – Maurice Greene is a former Olympic Gold Medalist in sprinting, so you have to figure he’s going to be light on his feet, at least.

Maurice has a terrific outgoing personality that will serve him well.  His dancing, however, needs some work.  The judges were right. When he was by himself, he was great.  However, when he was in a hold with Cheryl, he looked somewhat stiff.  Still, as an athlete I’m sure he’ll train hard and there’s definite room for improvement.  I still only see him making it to the mid rounds, however.

Brooke Burke and Derek Hough – Tom Bergeron (probably the best live host out there, btw) introduced Brooke Burke as “The Hottest Soccer Mom on the Planet”.  I think he has a point.  She has FOUR kids and looks like that!  Amazing.

Usually model types don’t do well on Dancing with the Stars, due to the fact that they’re in terrible shape (being thin and being in shape are not the same thing).  However, Brooke Burke is IN SHAPE.  She owned the dance floor, and is a definite contender for that wretched mirror ball trophy.

Ted McGinley and Inna Brayer – Has dancing with the stars jumped the shark?  Has it nuked the fridge?  The spectre of Ten McGinley hovering over the competition cannot be a good omen.

However, old Ted did pretty good!  He obviously worked hard, and I thought he deserved a slightly higher score than the 18 he received.  He also comes across well in the other segments outside of the actual dancing.  We’ll see.

Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer – As a former boy band member, you have to figure Lance Bass, like Joey Fatone before him, has an edge up on the competition.

Hmmmm, I think you have to consider Lance to be one of the favorites to win the show.  He has a built in fan base from his N’SYNC days, and he has the shows X factor in Lacey Schwimmer.  This is her first time on the show, but her personality and aggressive attitude are absolutely incandescent.  Plus, she and Lance have great chemistry.  If it wasn’t for old fuddy duddy Len, their Foxtrot should have gotten the highest score of the night.  As it was, they still got 22.

Cloris Leachman and Corky Ballas – What can you say about Cloris Leachman?  82 years old and still going strong.  A class act all the way and full marks to her.  Nonetheless, the judges were generous with her, and she still only got a 16.  She was also a little over the top during the judges presentation.  She’ll be one of the first ones to go.

Jeffrey Ross and Edyta Silwinska – Jeffrey Ross?  I guess we’re through with the D list and now we’re onto the E list?  Jeffrey Ross?  Why can’t I be on this show?

Looks like I spoke too soon.  Cloris Leachman is going to live to see another day.  Jeffrey is like a less funny version of Adam Corolla with even less dancing talent.  He tried hard and also battled through his eye injury, but it is what it is.  He’s not funny enough to save himself.  I feel sorry for Edyta.  She’s a trooper, but it’s not her season this year.

Kim Kardashian and Mark Ballas – I was only vaguely familiar with Kim Kardashian.  I thought she was one of the Pussycat Dolls, but I was mistaken.  Apparently, she’s a reality TV star.  Attractive girl, let’s see how she does.

She and last seasons winner Mark Ballas performed a foxtrot.  To me, Kim seemed kind of heavy on her feet and tentative.  The Pink Panther music they danced to was pretty cool, but the whole performance lacked something.  I don’t think Kim is going to last very long in this competition, unfortunately.

Susan Lucci and Tony Dovolani – I don’t think soap star Susan Lucci is going to last very long.  She is just so thin, she has no strength in her legs, and it was painfully obvious in the dancing.  What’s worse, I don’t think her personality will help her with the non dancing segments.  I’m not saying she has a bad personality, but some people are just naturally likable and engaging.  Susan just isn’t.  Another candidate for early termination.

Misty May-Treanor  and  Maksim Chmerkovskiy – I always find it interesting to see who they partner with Maks.  He can be such a demanding perfectionist that I think he tended to intimidate some of his earlier partners.  This is why the producers only seem to partner him with really strong women who can match him.  In the past that’s meant Laila Ali and Melanie (scary spice) Brown.  This year it’s two time Olympic Gold Medalist Misty May-Treanor.  This girl is strong!  If she wanted to, I bet she could tear Mak’s head off.

They did a good Foxtrot, but Misty really attacked it.  I think she has to learn to back off a little bit and work on the grace aspect.  However, the potential is there.  Maksim may well be the most popular male dancer, and the audience often likes to pick someone in order to watch them improve.  I think Misty May will benefit from this.  I don’t see her going all the way, but I don’t see her leaving soon either.
Warren Sapp and Kym Johnson – I’m not sure why, but NFL players always do well on this show.  Something about their training makes them incredibly light on their feet.

Well, I just finished watching Warrnen’s Cha Cha, and he’s definitely a contender.  He’s a big guy, but he is So light on this feet.  He was able to match Kym step for step. What’s more, he’s a big teddy bear with an infectious smile and engaging personality.  No one’s going to want to see him go home anytime soon, and he won’t.

Well that was quite a dance marathon, but it’s shaping up to be quite a season.  There are many potential contenders, and few weak links.  Still, I’m betting on Jeffrey Ross going home tonight.  What do you think?  Comments?

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TRON 2 – Is This Real, And Is This A Good Idea?

One of my friends recently sent me a link for a bootleg teaser trailer for TRON 2. According to reports, Disney representatives showed the trailer at this years Comic-Con. Apparently, the fanboys in attendance went wild. What can we make of this?

Scanning the internet, I just can’t find any evidence that TRON 2 is actually being made. You can look up anybody who might be involved with this project (for example, Jeff Bridges, Steven Lisberger) and there is no mention of TRON 2. However, ever since the Matrix came out, there have been rumours that Disney was interested in making a sequel. You know how Hollywood is. Why make something new, when you already have an existing property ( I’ve also read they’re planning on making a Pirates 4. God safe us).

I suppose Disney’s thinking is that the original TRON was a movie that was ahead of its time in a lot of ways. It predated the whole Cyberpunk era of Sci-Fi, and its use of CG was absolutely groundbreaking for the time. John Lasseter has mentioned Tron’s influence on his career in computer animation. Disney might think that a lot of the people that didn’t get TRON the first time might be more receptive to the concepts it presented now. Could it be that Pixar might be involved in this movie in some way?

Is making a sequel to TRON a good idea? Although the original has gathered a bit of a cult following, it really wasn’t that great of a movie (although I still liked it). On the other hand, although the original story wasn’t great, in the right hands, perhaps the raw material is there to make something cool. Think of what Ron Moore did with Battlestar Galactica. If TRON could be “Battlestar Galacticized”, I’d see it. Obviously, computer graphics have advanced light years since the original. They could make an incredible looking computer world. Plus, I am a Jeff Bridges fan …(Who doesn’t want to see “The Dude’ inside a computer playing video games?)

I think what Disney was doing was to put together a TRON 2 concept trailer to try and gauge just what the fan reaction would be. If they showed it at Comic-Con and everyone shrugged, they would have just forgotten about it. As it is, people who saw it seemed to be genuinely excited. I don’t think TRON 2 was a sure thing before. However, given this reaction, there is a good chance that it is now. Time will tell. (And if Pixar is involved, hmmmmmm, it could be really interesting …)

Oh, here’s a funny TRON story I just remembered.  David Warner, who plays Sark and Dillenger in the movie, was home drunk one night when his agent called.  Here’s how t he conversation went:

AGENT: Hey, I just got a script for a new science fiction movie called TRON.  Want to be it it?

WARNER (still drunk): I don’t know.  Who’s directing it?

AGENT: Steven Lisberger.

WARNER: Steven Spielberg!  I’ll do it!

Just shows you the dangers of alcohol, I suppose

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What I’ve been up to and some final BSG thoughts

Well, it’s good to be back.  I’ve been fairly busy recently, which means I’ve been neglecting this blog.  What have I been up to?  Well, two things really:

1) I’m the webmaster for a new site that is really just getting going (I’d say it’s in beta stage, at the moment).  It’s called Lifefoc.us, and it’s a personal improvement website.  If you’re interested in achieving more success in your personal or professional lives, you may want to check this out.  Have you ever been to an Anthony Robbins type seminar?  What happens at an event like that is that you often get super charged up with their feel good messages.  You come out of them feeling like you can take on the world.  The problem, though, is that you have to leave the seminar at some point and actually take action on your own.  I believe this is why most people fail when they try and make a positive change in their life.  You want to do it, but where’s the support and encouragement?  This is what this website will be, a like minded of community of people helping each other.  I’m pretty excited about it.

Check out the website here.

2) I’m also working on a new, fitness oriented website.  I’m making progress on it, but it’s far from complete.  I’ll have more to say about this in the future.

Anyway, I just want to wrap up a few loose ends concerning Battlestar Galactica.  In an earlier post, I mentioned that Tricia Helfer had mentioned that the final episode of BSG (which they’ve already filmed) will make people want to re-watch the miniseries.  Well, I did this, but I didn’t really see anything that jumped out to me.  The only thing that I noticed (and it’s a small, most likely irrelevant detail) is that when Starbuck was replaced in the Galactica ceremonial flyby, she was replaced by a Lt. Anders.  Coincidence?  Most likely, but it’s the only thing that stood out to me that others haven’t commented on.

Another great theory I read on someone’s blog, although I can’t find it now, is that Earth is more like Heaven to the colonials.  In order to get to it, you have to die.  Starbuck had to die to see Earth, and Roslin is always close to death, which is why she has visions of it.  When Starbuck saw earth, she described it as green with trees.  That’s not quite what we saw, is it?  Remember when Roslin’s’ fellow cancer patient friend (played by Deep Space Nine’s Nana Vistor) died, and they had to cross a river to reach a verdant field?  Didn’t that seem very Earth like to you?  The final script (reportedly) reduced Edward James Olmos to tears.  Could it be that both he and Roslin die, and reach Earth together?  That sounds like a Galactica thing to do.  I guess we’ll find out in January.

Some Random Thoughts on Battlestar Galactica: Revelations

I was just thinking about the Battlestar Galactica midseason ending again, and I had a few more random thoughts. Here they are:

At the end of the episode, Earth has apparently gone through some kind of nuclear holocaust. The question is, how long ago did this happen? I’m thinking this catastrophe happened relatively recently. The reason for this? There are still buildings standing. I once saw a Discovery channel type show which talked about what would happen to the Earth if the people on it suddenly vanished. How long would the buildings last? The answer is, not that long. In less than a thousand years (or yaren, if you prefer), most of our modern buildings would be completely gone, weathered by the elements into dust. And that’s assuming the buildings were in tip top shape to begin with (IE, they hadn’t been hit by an atom bomb). So, I’m going to make a guesstimate and say that whatever happened to Earth (assuming it is Earth) the latest it could have happened would be 200 years in the past. However, looking at the final scene again, doesn’t it look a little like nuclear winter to you? I’m not sure how they did it, but is it possible that the other Cylons somehow got to this planet first, and nuked it? I don’t know, but this feels like a Galactica thing to do …

Another thing I’m been thinking about is the prophecies of Pythia. Remember this dialog from the first season?

Roslin: I’ve been taking chamalla for a medical condition.
Elosha: So what have you seen?
Roslin: It started out as dreams of the Cylon that we had executed but I had the dreams before we captured him. The images were…
Elosha: Prescient?
Roslin: Uncanny. And now I’m seeing things while I’m awake.
Elosha: What kind of things?
Roslin: Snakes, there were snakes crawling all over my podium during the press conference.
Elosha: How many?
Roslin: About a dozen.
Elosha: You’re kidding me, right? You read Pythia and now you’re having me o°©n.
Roslin: No. Who is Pythia?
Elosha: One of the oracles, in the sacred scrolls. 3,600 years ago, Pythia wrote about the exile and the rebirth of a human race. And the lords anointed a leader to guide the caravan of the heavens to their new homeland and unto the leader they gave a vision of serpents, numbering two and ten, as a sign of things to come.
Roslin: Pythia wrote that?
Elosha: She also wrote that the leader suffered a wasting disease and would not live to enter the new land. But you’re not dying… are you?

Now, let’s assume that Roslin is the dying leader, and that the new land is Earth. If this prophecy is to be believed, Roslin cannot reach Earth. From the final scene then, either a) Roslin is not the dying leader (remember what Tori said to her “what else are you wrong about?) b) this planet is not Earth ( This could be correct, but it would be a cheap trick on the writer’s part) or c) the colonials think they are looking for Earth, that it is the promised land, but really, they’re looking for something else …

Here’s some more prophecy, this time from one of the Hybrids …

“Soon there will be four, glorious in awakening, struggling with the knowledge of their true selves, the pain of that revelation, bringing true clarity. And amidst confusion, he will find her… Enemies brought together by the apostle, enemies now joined as one. The way forward, once impenetrable, yet inevitable. And the fifth, though still in the shadow yet clawing for the light, hungry for redemption, that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering. I can see them all, the seven, now six self-described machines who believe themselves without sin. But in time, it is sin that will consume them. They will know enmity, bitterness, the wrenching, the agony of the one splintering into many. And then they will join in the promised land, gathered on the wings of an angel. Not an end, but a beginning.”

What strikes me most about this passage is how much it seems to point to Baltar as being the final 5 Cylon. Is there any character on the show who is seeking redemption more than Baltar? Especially since he has found religion and is worshipping the one God? There have been a few times that Baltar suspected he was a Cylon, and even voiced those thoughts. The writers almost seem to be setting up Baltar as a Christ like figure. Might he have to die to absolve us of our sins, not to mention his own? Now, the question is, wouldn’t D’Anna out Baltar right away? Perhaps she knows that Baltar hasn’t been activated yet? Remember when the final 5 were revealed to D’Anna, she apologized to him/her “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” When Baltar was on the Basestar, didn’t she threaten to blow him out an airlock at one point? As well, D’Anna did take Baltar’s opinion pretty seriously when the whole hostage crisis was going on …

Another fantastic theory that I’ve just read here is that Boomer is the final five Cylon. Boomer is looking for redemption too, as much or more that Baltar is. It also nicely explains why there is no Cylon model 7 ….

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How to Become a Six Figure Freelance Graphic Designer

Wow. My last post on Battlestar Galactica is by far the most popular post I’ve ever written. Thanks for the comments and kind words. Obviously, a lot of people are still worked up about the BSG final. I’ve got some new ideas and theories as to what might be going, which I’ll publish in my next post (perhaps later tonight, time permitting). We’ll have to see.

Anyway, this next post is a guest post written by Aaron Abber. I think it’s an interesting article on how you can make money online as a graphic designer. If you’re interested in ways to make some extra money online, you might want to sign up for his newsletter. You can get to it by clicking on the link on the upper left. Here’s the article:

A couple of my subscribers wanted to know how they can make some money selling graphics. Being the overachieving giver I am, I decided to show them how not to make just a few cents, but to…

“Earn $100,000 or more Per Year”

Earning big bucks in any business requires some of the same features:

• A Way to Attract Potential Customers
• An Incentive (or Two) to Get them to Subscribe
• A Product to Sell Them
• An Effective Sales Process

Let’s break these down for the freelance graphic designer…

“Who is the Potential Customer?”

Most “creative” types are not marketing types. That’s OK ’cause and effective business needs both and it is much easier to learn marketing than it is to learn how to be artistically creative. The first thing someone who wants to be a freelancer needs to do is consider who buys products from freelance graphics people.

The Starter Small Business Website

Small businesses understand they need to have sharp graphics on their sites and have a small budget to get it done. Typically they are spending as little as possible to get a banner or logo made. $100 per graphic or logo is probably the limit, meaning you have to attract 300-500 new customers a year (since some of them will buy multiple times) in oder to make $100K.

The Secure Small Business Website

This can be a solid money maker. They have a bigger budget and can see the value of a $400.00 logo. The owner doesn’t want to spend the time trying to create the graphics himself so he is more than willing to get a long-term relationship with a freelance graphic designer. They are still “mom and pop” run, but have the budget to pay you.

“Target the Biggest Mom and Pop Store in Each Niche”

In almost every market niche there are a few websites that dominate the niche. Make a list of the top five or so with contact information. Then visit their sites. See how you could improve the graphic design of those particular sites.

Then contact the owners, offering to do a site redesign free.

“Add Them to Your Portfolio”

Tell them you want only three things from them:

First, you want to be able to add them to your portfolio.

Second, you want to have a link on their main page pointing back to your developer site.

Third, an acknowledgment from them on their site saying you did the redesign.

This accomplishes several things for you. It gives you instant credibility. “If so-and-so used him, he must be good.” It gives you traffic from the link back. It helps your search position by placing a solid keyword phrase on the high PR main pages of authority sites. It provides an instant, high value, testimonial.

“Create a Seductive Hot Resource”

At your site you want to offer your visitors a free download to get them on your RSS and email lists. As a graphic designer you want your download to be something related to how your services will benefit them. It needs to have a compelling, benefit laden title and a professional looking cover.

Page one of the ebook will be the cover. On page two have coupons or other incentives to return to your site and get a service at a deep discount. Don’t make it free, but make it so cheap that any serious prospect just can’t resist. This will move them from the prospect into the customer category.

“Remind Your Subscribers About the Coupons”

Every week when you publish a new newsletter, remind your subscribers about the coupons and encourage them to redeem them with you. Point out what a great value they are.

Over time more and more of your subscribers will be moving from prospects to customers.

“Add a High-End Product/Service”

High end products are key to making big money in almost any market niche and graphic design is no different. It is much easier to get 10 people to pay $10,000.00 each than to get 10,000 people to pay $10 each.

So once you have the infrastructure built to do the above, add a high-end product. This could be a complete site redesign or some other service. You want it to be able to create for you at least $1,000.00 in profit if you pay someone else to do the work for you, even if at first you complete the service yourself.

“Hire Out the Work”

Imagine Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonalds, had tried to make every hamburger himself. He would have lived and died owning one small hamburger stand–and probably worked himself to death there.

Scalability refers to your business having the ability to handle higher and higher numbers of customers while not sacrificing quality. While at first you will be providing graphic design services personally, over time you will want to have more and more people doing the actual work for you while you focus on marketing, high-dollar product creation and servicing only your high dollar customers.

As you run your business and are providing services yourself, document the “steps” that would be required for a reasonably skilled graphic designer to duplicate your efforts. Then hire virtual employees to do those tasks. It is easier than it sounds and will make you tons of money.

“Now Go Do It”

One of the toughest parts of any business is just going out and putting into action the things you already know you can do. It’s scary. It’s sometimes risky (though not as much as we pretend in our minds.)

But when we do it an amazing thing happens: We make money.

“Coming Tomorrow…”

Have you seen those cool “page peel” ads on high end sites? Tomorrow I am going to continue in the spirit of giving by giving you a free page peel script.

You’ll want to stop by and grab it.

This article is a guest post by Aaron Abber of FullTiltBlogging.com.
I am a part of Aaron’s mentoring program where he is teaching me and
others how to make
money blogging. Go visit the site now and grab his
free report “How to Retire on 200 Visitors a Day”.

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Battlestar Galactica Revelations – What the FRAK is going on?

Apollo

It’s a colonial locator signal – and no other wireless in the fleet is picking this up?

Starbuck

Gaeta’s confirmed it. The channel is empty except for this Viper. It’s got to be a signal from Earth

Apollo

You’re reaching Kara.

Starbuck

Common Lee, add it up. I vanish into a storm and ride this Viper to Earth. Coming back I get a vision that leads me to the BaseShip. Its hybrid tells me that the final five Cylons have been to Earth but we need the missing 3, D’Anna, to bring them out into the open.

Apollo

And now we’re starting to get messages from the beyond.

Starbuck

You heard the signal. The final Cylons led me to it. If it’s Earth, they’ve given us the home of the 13^th tribe just the way the hybrid said it would happen. Like it or not Lee, something is orchestrating this for a purpose.

Apollo

A higher power?

Starbuck

Call it whatever you want, but it seems to what us to find Earth with the Cylons.

Written above is some dialog from the “midseason final” (Damn you Sci Fi Channel! Damn you all to hell! Wait until Jan 2009! Frak You!) of Battlestar Galactica. This little scene is probably the most important piece of dialog from the entire series as far as trying to figure out what exactly is going on. What? You say that you haven’t seen the “midseason final” (Damn you Sci Fi Channel! Damn you all to hell! Wait until Jan 2009! Frak You!) episode “Revelations” yet? If you haven’t, watch it now. I’ll wait …

La de da de da. Dooby dooby do ….

Ok, you’ve watched it? Good. So, in the final scene, the colonials and the rebel Cylons reach Earth. What’s more, they land on it (didn’t see that coming!) However, horror of horrors, the big blue marble isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. As Adama runs his fingers through the apparently radioactive soil, the camera pans to show us a desolate landscape. There was a thriving civilization here at one point. However, it has gone through some kind of holocaust, and is now a smoking ruin. No one looks happy. We came all this way for this? Any guesses as to what the Frak is going on? Well, I’m willing to take a stab at it. However, if you’re going to solve any mystery, the first thing you need is clues (that’s what I learned from Scooby Doo, anyway). Let’s look at some, first by piecing together some of the history of the colonies.

Significant Battlestar History Before Cylon Holocaust (BCH)

- The human race originates on Kobol. Human beings live side by side with their gods, known as the Lords of Kobol

- One of the Lords of Kobol, known as the “jealous god” turns on the other 12. The jealous god is cast out, or flees Kobol, on a Starship called the Galleon. There is mention of something called “The Blaze”, which sounds like some kind of Nuclear Warfare.

- 4000 BCH – a group of humans leaves for Earth. Perhaps they are followers of this jealous god?

- 4000 BCH – The Temple of Five is constructed on the Algae planet. It is constructed by five priests who belong to a heretical colonial sect who worships “He whose name must not be spoken”. Although this sounds like Voldemort, it is most likely the “Jealous God”. The fact that there are five Cylons and five priests is not a coincidence, I’d wager.

- 2000 BCH – The rest of Humanity leaves Kobol and founds the 12 colonies

- 55 years BCH – Colonials create Cylons to perform heavy labour

- 52 years BCH – Cylon Revolt begins.

- 42 years BCH – Cylon / Colonial war ends

Now, consider the following events and questions from the series that we have seen so far …

- something saved or recreated Starbuck. Something made her brand new Viper

- something knew how to create a colonial distress beacon, and have it only picked up by that Viper

- Why don’t the Cylons create more than 12 Cylon models? Why can’t they create a new Hub? - The answer (I suspect) is because the Cylons didn’t make the Hub, and they didn’t create the human Cylons. Something else did.

- Saul Tigh met Adama approx. 30 years BCH. Is it possible that a he could be created and then just inserted into human society as a man in his late 30’s? When he joined the colonial fleet, they don’t do background checks? They wouldn’t realize that this guy joining them has no history for the previous 30 years? Adama said that he has watched Tigh age. This means that Tigh started life as a baby, and has otherwise lived a normal human life. However, Saul Tigh is more than 60 years old. He predates the colonial creation of the Cylons by at least 5 years.

- Where did the Cylons get their one god religion from? How do the hybrids come by their prophecy?

- The final five Cylons have all been to Earth? How is this possible?

As of this writing, the final episode of Battlestar is being filmed, and will wrap on June 30. (So why is Sci Fi Channel waiting until January 2009 to show them! That’s a mystery I want solved. Frak!) Here are some thoughts from the cast and crew:

- Ron Moore has hinted that Leoben’s line “all this has happened before and will happen again”, which he spoke in the mini-series is significant.

- Tricia Helfer has stated that reading the final episode was like “a punch in the gut”. Also, it will make fans want to re-watch the original mini-series.

- The song “All Along the Watchtower” is meant to remind viewers that “Battlestar Galactica” takes place in a world that parallels our own. The song played on the show isn’t the Jimi Hendrix or the Bob Dylan version, but an original “Battlestar-ized” cover — performed by, among others, the guitarist from Oingo Boingo. As the show’s composer Bear McCreary put it on his blog, it’s not that Bob Dylan exists in the world of “Battlestar,” but that the idea of Bob Dylan does. Might this not indicate that the Earth the colonials find is not our Earth, but a parallel Earth with its own unique history?

- Both Edward James Olmos and Aaron Douglas cried when they read the final script. Mary McDonnell felt a rush of adrenaline. (I’m just putting in this last point to indicate that the final episode is good. It doesn’t look like Galactica will suffer an Enterprise like fate)

Ok, reading all of this, what can we piece together? Ready for some wild speculation and crazy theories? Well, ready or not, here they come!

The Lords of Kobol were an advanced race of aliens (although most likely still humanoid in nature), perhaps the last of their kind. The “Jealous God” wanted to have followers that would only worship him. This is why he was jealous, he was jealous of the other gods. A war broke out, and the “Jealous God” fled Kobol, and a significant number of humans followed him. The most important of the Jealous God’s followers were 5 human priests. These are the priests that set up the Temple of the Five on the Algae planet. When the Jealous God and his followers reached Earth, their religion obviously became monistic in nature. At some point Earth developed intelligent machines, similar to the Cylons, thousands of years before the 12 colonials did. They may have done this even before the colonials left Kobol. At any rate the Earthlings machines turned on their creators in the same way that the Cylons eventually did to the colonials. This resulted in the destruction of Earth (it has all happened before, and it will all happen again). However, the Jealous God remained in some form. Perhaps he realized that any advanced race is at some point going to develop a machine so advanced that it really is a new form of life ( like the Cylons). When this happens, the race that creates it is in a great deal of danger. How to get the two races to live together, so that both may prosper? Perhaps out of a sense of guilt for what happened to his Earth followers, the Jealous God decides to “help’ the colonials. It creates the final five Cylons based on its five loyal priests (who set up the temple of the five on the Algae Planet) and inserts them into Colonial society. It finds the Cylons and creates for them the Human Cylons and the Hub. Its goal is to keep both races alive long enough to realize that they must work together to survive, rather than wipe each other out. It wants to bring both races together so that they realize they have to work together to survive. It constantly interferes in both human and Cylon affairs to make this happen. The means of doing this? Recreating Earth. Rebuilding it. With Earth reborn and populated with humans and human Cylons, intermarrying and breeding, the differences between the two races will vanish. The Jealous God will have recreated the planet the he/she/it had originally created in his own image.

Obviously, this theory is full of educated guesses on my part. Still, I think it holds together somewhat. I’m still interested in Tricia Helfer’s comment about re-watching the original series. I think I’m going to do that now and see what I can learn. Why not? I’ve got 8 Fraken months to wait to see if any of my theories are correct! Damn you Sci Fi channel!

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Galactica, the Fifth Cylon, and more!

When it comes right down to it, I don’t really watch that much television. However, one show I do watch religiously is Battlestar Galactica. In fact, if it wasn’t for this show, I could see cancelling my cable altogether. If you don’t mind, I’ve been thinking a little bit about it, and I think I’m going to use this post to geek out a little bit. If you watch Battlestar, you may find this interesting. If you don’t, well, you should watch it! It’s the best show on television!

My first thought on the show concerns the revelation that Colonel Tigh had apparently impregnated one of the sixes. Now, this shouldn’t be possible, as it has already been established in the show that the Cylons can’t reproduce sexually. My thinking on this is that the reason the Cylons can’t reproduce is because they essentially can’t die. Till this point in the show (at least until the Hub was destroyed) they are essentially immortal. As far as mother nature is concerned (or God, for that matter), why would you grant the great gift of life to a race that doesn’t need it? Perhaps in the Battlestar theology, the price of the Cylons immortality is that they are not truly alive. Death walks with life. You can’t have one without the other.

Now, what is unique about Tigh and the other 4 ‘hidden’ Cylons is that they are unique. If they die, as far as we know, that’s it. That’s why god, or nature, has granted them the gift to create life. There are some rules of nature you just can’t break, no matter how much you learn or how advanced you are. The price for Cylon immortality may well be that they are not truly alive. This may also be why, now that the Hub is destroyed, that the other Cylons will be able to reproduce sexually. This is just a guess on my part, but I think it’s a possibility. Get ready for a Cylon baby boom!

My other thought is on the identity of the unknown fifth Cylon. When the four were revealed, they all met up in that room on the Galactica. Why didn’t the fifth Cylon show up? I suspect it was because he or she couldn’t. He or she wasn’t on the Galactica. Whoever the fifth Cylon is, he or she is someone who is not regularly on the Galactica. The top two candidates in my book are Starbuck (who was presumed dead at that point) or Tom Zarek (the original Apollo ) . The other thing I like about these two choices is that they all have a name that starts with a T. Consider:

Tigh

Tyrol

Samuel T Anders

Tori

I think Tom Zarek or Kara Thrace fits in nicely here. Of course, the whole T thing could just be a mind Frak played on by the producers. Time will tell … (although not until 2009! FRAK!)

PS On an entirely different note, Aaron Abber has just put out a free report entitled 101 Ways to Grab More Blog Subscribers,
. If this interests you, you should definitely check it out.  As you already know, I am already a member of Aaron’s FREE mentoring group, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.  You may also want to subscribe to his newsletter, which you can get to by clicking on the little graphic on the upper left of this blog.

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Motivation for Monday (and the other 6 days of the week)

As I’ve mentioned before, I originally started this blog as a Make Money Online blog. However, I decided to change the focus of it when I realized that there were already so many other blogs in this niche that were already doing a great job. One of the best is a blog run by Aaron Abber at FullTiltBlogging. Below is a post from his website. I know the article is Motivation on Monday, but I think it’s relevant for the other six days too (especially if you’re trying to set up an online business in order to Making Money Online). I’m in Aaron free mentoring group, and it’s definitely worth checking out. Below is an article from his blog:

“Starting a Web Business is Hard”

Despite what you may have heard in sales copy, it can be tough to start an internet business. Heck, nobody is going to give you $100,000.00 a year for nothing.

But the hard part isn’t finding a product or building a website. Those are things pretty much anybody can figure out with the right tools and the right instruction. The hard part is…

“You Have to Manage Your Emotions”

Let’s look at this honestly–without the sugar coating:

When you decide to start a web business you look like a fool. Your family thinks you’re crazy, your friends think you’re crazy, the guys and gals at work giggle behind your back.

Worse yet, you make the same mistake everyone makes when you start out. You buy some sure-fire, can’t miss product and tell everyone–especially your spouse…

“Next Month You’ll Be Rich”

…or, at least, be making some money.

But you don’t. You try it but there are either previously undisclosed steps you can’t figure out to complete, or you don’t yet have the experience to give your sales copy the right nuances or the “must win” product is just so much fluff.

And you’re embarrassed. Maybe you’re also a little jaded. You’re tempted to give up and everyone around you is encouraging you to give up your “silly” dream.

“Here’s Your Good News”

Guess what? Everyone I know who has succeeded online has had this exact experience. Everyone. E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E

.

Despite how you may feel: You’re not foolish. You’re not stupid. You’re not following some impossible pipe dream.

“You’re Just Normal”

Right after I first started out online in 2001, I was sitting in my friend’s office shooting the breeze. He happened to be the president of my bank. While we were sitting there I made the mistake of telling him about my web site. He instantly typed the URL into his computer.

He laughed. At me. About my site.

A couple years ago he came to me and asked me to help him start a web business. It was sweet.

“This Week You Need to Persevere”

As you pursue your dream, you have company. Others are doing the exact same thing with the exact same struggles.

Will it be emotionally hard to succeed? Of course. Can you do it? Definitely.

And once you succeed no one will laugh any more–they’ll just want your help!

I just put up a new report you will want to pick up.

“101 Ways to Grab New Subscribers”
84 GREAT Ideas,
11 CRAZY Ideas,
5 ILLEGAL Ideas and
ONE MARKETING BABE

http://www.FullTiltBlogging.com/101ways

This article is a guest post by Aaron Abber of FullTiltBlogging.com.
I am a part of Aaron’s mentoring program where he is teaching me and
others how to make
money blogging. Go visit the site now and grab his
free report “How to Retire on 200 Visitors a Day”.

How Will Power can give you the Strength of the Incredible Hulk

Today, I was planning on writing more on Canada’s disgusting “Human Rights Commissions’. However, I was without an internet connection for part of the day (thanks, Telus), so I wasn’t able to do the research I wanted. In lieu of this, here is my summary of another chapter of ‘The Power of Concentration”.

Lesson 6 of “The Power of Concentration” is entitled “The Training of the Will to Do“. Dumont makes the point that the will to do is among the greatest powers that human beings possess. He compares is to electricity, which we don’t fully understand, although we can observe its effects. I found this analogy somewhat quaint, as I believe we do have a pretty good idea today of just what electricity is. However, in the early 1900’s, this just wasn’t the case. I more modern take on this would be to compare human will power to gravity, I guess. I liked his example of the frail woman gaining almost Incredible Hulk like strength when she needed it. As an example of the power of will, it is pretty persuasive. At that moment, she simply has to accomplish this goal, no ifs ands or buts about it. For the briefest instance, she focuses her will and is practically able to move mountains. There is a lesson her for all of us, me thinks. Anyway, here is my summary of Lesson 6 from ‘The Power of Concentration”.

To Dumont, when it comes to human accomplishment, there is no greater power than the will to do. There are literally no limits to it. All things are possible. Despite its great power, however, it is difficult to explain exactly what it is. It is not unlike electricity, in that we can only know it through cause and effect. Anything you do or accomplish, whether conscious or not, are a result of your own will to do. All good and bad habits, as well as the ability to lower or improve your condition in life, are a result of the will to do.

To demonstrate the power of the Will to Do, Dumont tells of the story of a frail old woman who demonstrates incredible strength. First, she experiences something traumatic. For example, her grandchildren are trapped in a burning house. In order to save them, large pieces of furniture must be moved. Although the furniture under normal circumstances is much too heavy for her to move, she does this with ease. She is able to do this because this trying circumstance forces her to concentrate her will to do to an almost laser like intensity. She simply has to move that furniture at that moment to save her grandchildren. Hence, she does.

Used properly, will power is a mighty force. It is greater than physical force, as it also makes use of mental and moral force. Study yourself carefully. Discover your greatest weaknesses and use your will power to overcome them. In this way, you will develop a strong character and personality. If a desire arises within you, use your will power to crush all obstacles until you achieve it. If the desire is negative, use this same power to destroy it.

Slowness in making decisions is an example of weakness in will power. People are often failures for not deciding on things that should be done. Successful people quickly grasp opportunities. This brings them culture, wealth, and health. Lack of initiative is another manifestation of poor will power. He or she imitates others in all they do. As a result, life is one continuous grind. “He seems clever enough, but he lacks initiative” is the common refrain when others refer to this individual. You need to develop the power to think and do for yourself.

You are as good as anyone. If you use your will power, you can lay claim to anything in life. Don’t depend on anyone else, you have to learn to fight your own battles. All the world loves a fighter, while the coward is despised by all. Everyone’s problems are different. Analyze your opportunities and conditions and study your natural abilities. If you are ever in doubt, repeat the following to yourself: “Through my will power I dare do what I do.”

The Disaster of Canada’s “Human Rights” Commissions

I’ve recently been reading more and more about Canada’s so called human rights commissions.  What initially caught my eye was when I observed what a threat they were becoming to freedom of speech in Canada.  However, the more I looked into them, the more I realize that they are a threat not only to freedom of speech, but a direct attack on Canada’s common law tradition, and thereby an attack on Canada itself.  But let me back up a bit.  Just what are Human Rights Commissions?

Well, in theory, human rights commissions are meant to help defend people’s human rights.  They are meant to handle cases that the regular court system can’t handle.  Yikes, I’ve only written two sentences, and red lights should be going of already.  Just what exactly are human rights?  In all of my reading so far, I have yet to get a firm grasp on this.  In fact, as we shall see, “human rights” are an incredibly vague concept.  They seem to mean whatever a particular human rights commissioner thinks they mean, even if it violates all logic.

For example, consider the human rights case that Beena Datt brought against McDonald’s corporation.  Ms. Datt was an McDonald’s employee, but due to a skin condition which was irritated by soap and water, she didn’t want to wash her hands.  McDonald’s explained to her that if you want to work in a restaurant preparing food, you have to wash your hands, particularly after going to the bathroom.  Ms Datt refused, and took McDonald’s to a human rights commission.  What do you think the ruling was?  Well, not only did the commission rule that McDonald’s Restaurants can’t require Datt to wash her hands when she starts a shift, after going to the bathroom, or whenever a bell sounds reminding employees to wash up, they were also ordered to pay Ms. Datt $50,000 for wrongfully dismissing her.  Is making your food with dirty hands really a human right?  Who could think this is reasonable?

Which brings me to the second point that got me tripped up.  Human Rights Commissions are meant to handle cases that the regular court system can’t handle.  Why is this?  Because the regular court system is based on the tradition of Common Law, which has certain characteristics.  Among these are the presumption of innocence, due process, and a delicate balance between the aggrieved party and the defendant.  Human Right Commissions throw all of this overboard.  Is this a good idea?  In theory, I’d say definitely not.  A working, impartial, fair court system is one of the most important characteristics that makes Canada Canada, and not Iran or China.  If you are taken before a judge, you should feel that the process is fair and transparent, and based on law.  Your case should be fairly heard, and is not going to be determined by the whims of the judge or whoever is hearing your case.  From my reading, this is exact opposite of what happens at “Human Rights” trials.  I’m going to sign off for now, but I’ve got a lot more to say on this, in particular with regards to the threat posed by human rights commissions to free speech in Canada.  For now, I suggest you look at the following two websites to get a glimpse into the threat that Canada is facing as a free society. Here are the links:

http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/

http://www.freemarksteyn.com/

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