I’ve just gotten around to starting to watch the third season of the new Battlestar Galactica. So far, so good – the planet-side setting adds a different dimension to the show for a bit, while the socio-political commentary continues.

Related to this are several links I’ve come across recently.

Firstly, FlowTV – ‘a critical forum on television and media culture published by the Department of Radio, Television, and Film at the University of Texas at Austin’ – recently had a focus on Battlestar Galactica with a selection of articles and posts about the new series. You can find it at FlowTV | “Battlestar Galactica” Issue.

Secondly, I found that link via Confessions of an Aca/Fan: Resources for Science Fiction Fans.

And lastly, Paul Walker, over at Out of the Cocoon had a post Out of the Cocoon >> Science Fiction and the emerging church. I’m not sure I’d agree with his comment that religion is toned down in the new version of BSG, rather that is has become more complex than the religious dualism – humans (religious) / cylons (secular) – present in the original series. Certainly, both human and cylon in the new series seem to have to wrestle with issues surrounding religion in interesting ways.

Related link: Greenflame · The Theology of Battlestar Galactica’s Cylons

Later this year I’m co-lecturing a course called “Spirituality in Aotearoa New Zealand” (which will also be offered in onsite and online modes). My bits focus particularly on Christian spirituality, the theme of peace-making, and connections with the ‘everyday world’. Somewhere in there we’ll be looking at how some Christian traditions that have tended to ignore things like contemplative spiritualities or spiritual disciplines from the wider Christian community.

For example, this sort of thing: The unexpected monks – The Boston Globe (Hat top to Ian Mobsby).

Clearing out old web links I’d saved over the past few months I came across this one.

John La Grou’s reflections, microclesia >> AI Jesus, on interacting the AI Jesus over at www.godsbot.org.

We went down to Hamilton today to watch day four of the NZ-England cricket test. Great day all round – though the excitement of the NZ second innings collapse could have been done without. Armed with deck chairs, rugs and our chilly bin the 6 of us, plus another 5 staked out an area on the bank and sat back to watch the game. A slow start, which picked up after lunch and then the excitement of the final session.

Is it unique to the Waikato to have people with drenching packs of sunblock walking through the crowd squirting out free sunblock to anyone who wants it?

Highlight of the day for the kids was playing on the field at lunch time. See photos below.

An interesting post about a set of interviews with US scientists about religious and spiritual beliefs and practices. Part of a follow-up to a larger survey and indicate that religious/spiritual inclination might be much higher than is commonly portrayed in a science vs. religion conflict model.

See The Immanent Frame » Blog Archive » Beyond The God Delusion

Related links:

• CTNS–Science and the Spiritual Quest
  • “Science and the Spiritual Quest: New Essays by Leading Scientists” (Phillip Clayton)
  • “Faith in Science: Scientists Search for Truth” (W. Mark Richardson, Gordy Slack)
• Counterbalance : Science and the Spiritual Quest – Interviews

Three weeks into the new job and it’s been very, very busy.

So far I’ve been to a large number of meetings (School of Theology and University), met faculty (incl. a nice lunch at the Catholic Institute of Theology (next door)), helped lots of students with course selections and enrollments, organized my courses for this semester (including a new online course we’re offering this year), come to grips with the university IT systems, familiarized myself with the uni’s online learning management system (CECIL), continued my predecessor’s work on a new online course on spirituality for second semester, attended various training sessions, attended various orientation events (including a nice commencement chapel service), organized a powhiri for new students next week, attended a powhiri for myself (and another one next week), run the undergraduate section of the School of Theology orientation day on Friday, and put in a proposal for the AAR consultation “Transhumanism and Religion”.

I’m very tired but I think I’ve won more than I’ve lost, and I’m really looking forward to teaching starting next week now all this preparation work has been done. My fellow faculty and staff have been brilliant at helping me get established.

Next time though I’ll hopefully start a new position with a little more time before the start of the academic year, and with a more graceful transition into the job.

In the next few weeks we’ll be wanting to get a basic Windows notebook computer for home for Kim to use for the various things she does. Looking around the place there seem to be a plethora of low-end models selling from between $800-$1000 depending on the rebate given by the manufacturer.

I was wanting to know if anyone who reads this blog has had any advice to offer on minimum specifications or brands that worked (or didn’t work) for them. We’ve had good experiences with our Acer Aspire desktop (including very responsive servicing) in the past, but I know that different companies load a heap of third-party ‘rubbish’ on PCs which you end up having to cull off when you get the machine.

In a perfect world we’d find one running Windows XP Pro (which we quite like), though most seem to have Vista Home Basic (VHB) on them. Moving to Vista Home Premium (VHP) adds between $200-$300 to the price of the computer, and my understanding is that VHB runs find in 1GB RAM, but VHP really feels better in 2GB of RAM.

The notebook only needs to do this kind of thing: word processing, spreadsheet, Windows media player, web browsing. No real need for DVD authoring (though burning DVD backups would be very useful), nor will it be playing any recent games (so video requirements are low). Hard disk requirements are modest too, as it won’t have games or lots of media loaded on it.

Basically, we’re looking for a reasonably well-made, reliable budget notebook PC that can do the above. And preferably one we can see in person first at a store so we can check out the keyboard feel.

BTW – If you want to make a Vista PC look like XP (and reduce the processor requirements) then this video is useful: Quick Tips: Make Windows Vista look like XP video – CNET TV.

P.S. To all the Mac-heads out there (including myself ), a MacBook isn’t the right choice for this job. Firstly, cost-wise it’s $800-$1000 more expensive, Kim wants to use Windows (so bootcamp would require buying the OS on top of the PC), and we have an unused Office 2003 package so we don’t have to buy Office. Now if I was buying one for me, then I’d be keen on one of the new MacBooks with the extra RAM.