Jing and Zo led the errant priest to the data terminal where they had witnessed the hack in progress. The data spool was still in place and hadn’t been re-wound yet. Even with the all the analytical engine mainframes down, electricity still fed into the complex from the windmills and the nearby river, stopped-up by a hydro-electric dam. The terminal couldn’t connect with the engines in its current state, but it could display the data that was recorded onto the spool. Zo pulled down one lever to re-wind the roll of punch paper and pushed it to stop, and then hit a button to play the data.

Ikaya grabbed the cable that connected the monitor to the the keyboard, the telegraph key, and the engine when the day’s data come on. He had Zo fast-forward the roll to the point when the mysterious access happened. He had clearly sensed something before, even if he didn’t say it. When the source with no origin appeared on the screen, it confirmed that there was something more to this than a masked identity. He knew something.

“You’re terrified,” Jing oberved. “That much is clear. Can you tell us what you know?”

“I was about to tell you when you cut me off. Clearly, your hunch was correct. This is the work of psychic. And yes… I know who this is.” Ikaya took a deep breath before continuing. “As I said, we’ve been following this case for some time. There had been a string of engine hacks in some of the major cities – Shusa, Hladdat, Hitonnen, and even Tiago. Your former employer in Tiago was of the companies affected. There have even been people from His Holiness’s office who have been following this rogue for quite some time. And some of them are now dead or have been injured.”

“Couldn’t the gendarmes or some other kind of police apprehend them?”

“We’ve shared as much of our information as we can with the Agency and local police departments. Unfortunately, ordinary people are no match for a Level 7 telepath.”

Ikaya took a few seconds. “Level 7 is the strongest level of psychic power that’s been observed in human beings. Most priests tend to be anywhere from Level 3 to 6. There is unlimited potential in what a Level 7 can do, and those powers must be used responsibly.”

“And what do you know about responsiblity?” Jing asked. It was more a dagger than a question.

“When are you going to let it go? It was seventeen years ago. Mura and I just happened and it works. And how can you kick me when I’m here to help?”

“Just like an Itanese to take whatever he wants,” Zo interjected. “And the priests are no better. I really don’t get you people.”

“Just like a Tanesh to be crass and disrespectful.” Shortly after Ikaya made this remark, Jing grabbed him and pulled him away from the cable. Jing told him, “You can go. I am going to call Shusa and ask for another expert.”

“Someone’s on the way. Probably on a train or dirigible. But they sent me to make the initial assessment.”

“Stick around, go, I don’t care. But I’m calling Shusa. No, I’m not.” Jing paused and told Zo to hook in the telegrapher key’s cable to the outgoing pocket for Shusa. “Please tap out to the Office of His Holiness that I find this agent Ikaya to be unsatisfactory, both in the present and in the past for behavior unbecoming for a priest.”

“You wouldn’t dare! Do you really think they’ll defrock me over something you said?”

“The many faces of the gods! We have a problem here, one that affects many jobs and your precious big city ordinators. As you said, this culprit has cost the lives of some of your colleagues, and all you can think about is saving your own skin. Zo, please tap in what he just said and that nice comment about you. Also, mention that our dear friend Ikaya has harmed me in the past.”

“I’m already on it,” Zo said, tapping out the longs and shorts. The engines were down, but the telegraph system still worked. Jing pointed to her proudly, “That’s someone who knows how to do their job!”

The beeping of the longs and shorts continued for a few minutes more, and then the message was transmitted. The gendarmes were coming soon and Jing still needed to look at the entry and exit logs for the data library. As for Ikaya, Jing hoped that he’d be professional enough to share what he knew with the Agency police and his fellow priests what he knew about the psychic hacker. As for what lie in store for Ikaya’s priesthood, Jing did not know if it would be the cruel face of Compassion or the kind face of Destruction.

to be continued…

Life after grad school also had its share of impermanence as I continued at the urban community college and had a brief stint teaching English at the FIDM. I then tried jumping ship by getting a more “regular” job at one hot mess of a labor union’s headquarters. That lasted for six months, followed by six months of unemployment. Then, during that time, I courted English department chairs and a director of a foreign language school, and I found myself on the freeway flier circuit in the fall of ’07. After a year and a half, I didn’t return to any classes with one district, continued to work for another until I got laid off.

After having been through the constant semester by semester patterns of working, with new students and new curricula every time, you’d think that I’d be used to impermanence. Even with the jobs that didn’t work out, you’d think I’d be equipped for it. With jobs of a temporary nature, such as the language school, it’s not every day that I get that “Mrs Peel, you’re needed” type of phone call. Even with being back at the urban college and working another education-related gig, things aren’t so permanent. After the end of the semester, I always have to figure out my employment situation for summer and beyond.

Despite my Asian roots (OK, only half my roots), I’ve longed for an American life and enjoying what it had to offer. When I was a young Army brat, we moved around quite a bit and we even got to live in Okinawa for a few years. I haven’t been back since. My mother is disappointed with me that I never took the opportunity to teach in Japan when I was younger and she still pushes me to do so. Perhaps it’s not too late. The American life I hoped for was a pipe-dream that sustained me through a McJob, college, and grad school, and even my pursuit of making a living after graduate school. Perhaps getting the MLIS is an extension of that, but I also want to gain skills where I can do something other than teaching. I could take that abroad with me, and every day, Japan or China doesn’t seem like a bad idea.

Whether one works as a contingent member of the workforce, as a freelancer, or both, no job situation is ever fully in place. One may have those long-term relationships with employers and/or clients, but they can be easily terminated by either party. Constantly having to find work and sources of income is a reality that something that most people don’t really have to face until times like now, when companies look out for their bottom line and trim jobs. This is definitely an upsetting lesson in impermanence as those who may have worked at their jobs for many years may come head on with financial difficulties and even have to deal with fundamental changes to their identities.

While there is a cliché in our culture that we are not our work, it’s not true. Many people do draw a sense of who they are from their jobs or professions. Seeking to define oneself professionally is a driving force in seeking and preparing for a career. These people would not be in their lines of work if it didn’t interest them and the pride they take in their jobs helps show their identification with them. With career change comes a shift in identity. People shift careers in good times, but that is often the result of much thought and soul-searching. In times like this “recession,” many people who lose their jobs are no longer who they thought they were. Being unemployed is depressing, even with the benefits, because it can deal a serious blow to one’s self-worth. Being defined as unemployed can feel worse than death. Even if one comes out of joblessness or even manages to escape it, the jobs may not be in line with what they prepared for or are interested in. For some people, the work they procure may be “beneath them.” For example, in Tokyo Sonata, a laid-off Japanese executive first pretends to go to work and then hides his job from his family when he finally gets one. He has gone from managing an office and not really knowing what he does to cleaning floors and toilets at a shopping mall. It is certainly not an easy period of adjustment.

Even then, joblessness and bad jobs do not last forever. Like the desirable careers, these two things are subject to change. It can spell doom for some, as losing one’s unemployment benefits or having them changed, or losing the awful gig that served as a lifeboat in the current economic storm. Or, these things don’t last because whoever needed them was able to move onto something else. Given that, I greatly hope the impermanence of this crisis will be a good thing.

I came across this public service announcement for the New York Public Library, which is awesome. It’s wonderful to see the famous and fabulous shout out the library system of New York City. It’s great that the A-listers shout it out for the New York Public Library, but other library systems all over the country need support. In a cash-strapped California, where the State has no money and threatens to take funds from the counties and cities, making sure that the libraries keep going is even more of a necessity.

Even with public schools, community colleges, and state universities, the public library is a place that teaches more people than all the mentioned educational institutions. Whether it is children’s books, novels, car repair books, world history, or DVD’s, the library is a place where one can learn about anything. Of course, Borders or Barnes & Noble provides the same materials, but those items have price tags and that can get expensive. Here, everything is free, provided it’s returned on time. School is not for everyone, but anyone can be an autodidact. That’s certainly the case with Ray Bradbury, who learned more from the libraries offerings than he ever did from any school. He’s also written many many fantastic novels, among them Fahrenheit 451. Quiet with lots of books – who knows what else could be produced. Even if one doesn’t write the Great American Novel, what one learns is priceless.

In this bad economy, the library has become an important resource for those seeking jobs. The reference section is stocked with career and testing books, along with ones to help anyone craft the killer résumé. More importantly, in our online world, the libraries also provide computers for those who don’t have them, enabling them to work on those résumés and upload them to the various company or job websites. Some branches even have career centers to help those job seekers negotiate through the various procedures of trying to get a gig. Before glibly telling someone to get a job, consider that they should have the tools to do that.

Some patrons are remarkably competent with using a catalog search and finding their way around the library, but the librarian and their support staff are there for those who aren’t. Even in this online age, many still need the help with the Internet or other applications, such as Microsoft Office for those résumés, and who else is there to help them? Unlike certain bureaucratic arms of local governments, those who work for the libraries definitely approach what they do with a great deal of care and compassion.

For those of us in San Diego, there is the wonderful San Diego Public Library and the San Diego County Library. As for any library, none should become a casualty of this economy. This institution should not be allowed to become extinct. Everything the library does for the public is not quantifiable and full benefits are yet to be seen. All that said, support your local public library. You will not regret it.

Part one: Hard Gay’s visits Yahoo! Japan‘s headquarters, gets a headshot done with the color copier, then sexually harasses some male employees. The guy who walks into the massage room really doesn’t put up much of a fight.

Hard Gay crashes a staff meeting, sexually harasses the boss presenting, and puts his first cap up for auction on Yahoo! Japan, hoping that will be impressive enough for the ad. In the end, Hard Gay takes matters into his own hands. Ya…… hoooooo!

Like many people, I have one of those high-powered freebie e-mail addresses affiliated with one search engine or another. With GMail, there’s infinite space for all my love notes and more. So much space that my inbox recently got cluttered with 8000 messages. Were most of them important, like love notes? Not really. It’s safe to say that 90% of the messages clogging up my inbox were automated messages I subscribed to, like job search sites or an airmiles program or some other thing that sells itself as what modern life needs. I checked these messages with the mindset that I’d read them later, but later never came. I also held on to various e-mails that held one password or another or other seemingly important account information. Again, I never check them. Ultimately, I felt overwhelmed and the casualties were e-mails that were important, whether they were from friends or work. After all, if it were important, they could call me on the phone, right?

Which brings me to the work-related e-mails. Having taught at two community college districts, I’ve had to deal with something similar to my “personal” e-mail. In this case for each district, every chancellor, president, dean, department chair and every program director has to e-mail everyone in the system. Since most of this stuff isn’t urgent, I gloss over the subject lines and move on. Who has time to read the equivalent of 50+ pages a day in e-mail. I more or less got to the point where I tuned out, and the casualty were my students, who frantically tried to get a hold of me. Of course, their messages were urgent. In the past, I gave students my personal e-mail, but stopped because it felt like an intrusion into my personal space. That and some scary monsters and super creeps.

Unlike all the search engine-related freebie e-mail systems, the schools seem to have a finite amount of space for their .edu e-mail addresses. On one hand, all these college brass were flooding my inbox with stuff that doesn’t directly affect me (which makes it easier to ignore truly urgent messages from them). Then, I would occasionally get messages that my inbox was too full. Of course, a web-based Outlook isn’t as user-friendly as GMail, especially on a Mac. Which makes deleting all those e-mails too much work.

Yesterday, I worked on deleting much of my e-mail, whether it was personal or work-related. I tried saving the important stuff and even discovered I missed a party invitation for last Saturday. However, I got to the point where I indiscriminately deleted the rest and it felt good.

Now that I’ve reduced my inbox and archived the rest, I now have to think of an e-mail policy. I’ve considered setting up a time where I check my e-mail once in a day, reply to those who need one, and delete whatever I’m not going to read. After that, even with an iPhone, I’m not going to read them. Or, at least I’m not obligated to. As for the school e-mail, I should also use that same block of time to do that and make it clear to my students that I only check my e-mail once a day during a certain time. Ignoring e-mails was an attempt to find a sane solution to something insane, but it didn’t work. The once a day thing is saner. Oh, if I find that I’m bombarded with 800+ messages in one day, they’re all going down the digital trash can, unread.

With Battlestar Galactica coming to a close in Hitchhiker style, Sci Fi (or is it SyFy) were quick to notice the vacuum in the fans’ lives, one that they have decided to temporarily fill with the pilot for the upcoming Caprica series, a prequel with events leading up to the destruction of the Colonies.. After a few years in development hell, Ronald D. Moore and company give us a finished product that is just as impressive as the prototype Cylon created by Daniel Graystone, the brilliant scientist who gets involved in a bromance gone bad with Joseph Adams, a Mafia-connected defense attorney. Of course, there’s more to Caprica than that, as it is a tale of the dangers of the unwise uses of technology and religious extremism, issues that resonate with us today.

In contrast to Battlestar Galactica, Caprica’s pilot is land-based, mostly taking place on Caprica City, capital of the planet Caprica. This is a world peaceful and prosperous 50 odd years before the Fall, and the technology’s much more advanced than what was seen aboard any ship on BSG. Virtual reality online sites, sophisticated touchscreen computers, computer sheets, and domestic robots are some of the devices seen so far. Corded telephones are nowhere in sight as everyone uses mobile phones and some even use Bluetooth-like headsets. Even in peacetime, the military industrial complex is constantly building, which brings us to the most frightening aspect of the story – the invention of the Cylon.

What makes the Cylon creation arc successful is the emotions surrounding it. Daniel Graystone is drawn to resurrecting his daughter from the digital information she compiled about herself. Zoe has already created a sentient online avatar before she died, but Daniel seeks to use the means he has before him – data storage, stolen technology, and a prototype robotic soldier he created to secure a defense contract – to make her alive again. In his grief, he becomes fast friends with the classically handsome Joseph Adams, whom he has steal a crucial component to make his robot fully functional. As Adams is horrified with Graystone’s attempt to resurrect his daughter, also killed in the same accident that claimed Zoe’s life, the fallout between the two men should help fuel the drama in the series.

It’s not enough to have the genius scientist (a stock character which Moore is well familiar with from his Star Trek days) or a goody goody lawyer. There’s a lot of complexity to Graystone as he alternates between his grief and opportunism. Regarding Adams, he’s a Tauron Immigrant who has attempted to assimilate into Caprica with a white collar profession and by changing his name from Adama to Adams. However, he is closely tied to the Tauron mob, known as the Halatha. He’s retained by them to give them some legitimacy, but also to do their legal dirty work. Even without any tell-tale tattoos, Adams doesn’t escape Caprican bigotry towards Taurons.

BSG was largely a show with adult characters, though it had it fair share of children. Caprica gives some equal time to its teenage characters – Zoe and her friends, Tamara Adams, and a William Adams (later Adama) who is entering adolescence. Zoe and her friends are portrayed with intelligence without sacrificing the intensity, idealism, and rebellion many teenagers have. Add religion to the mix, and Ben takes Zoe along on trip that would claim the lives of a small number of people in the name of God, including them.

BSG introduced monotheism first through the Cylons and later through Baltar’s cult. In the time of Caprica, monotheism is illegal and considered dangerous by the polytheistic society of Caprica and some of the other Colonies. Here, the seeds of a Cylon God is sown, even though Ellen Tigh claims the Final Five programmed worship of a Loving God in the Eight after the Cylon War. Now the mystery is how did the monotheists ever come to embrace Baltar as their half-baked Messiah?

Caprica is definitely a competently put together production, better than most of the shows and original movies that Sci Fi (or SyFy) Channel puts out. Esai Morales embodies Joseph Adama and conveys his emotional intensity, especially in those very quiet ways. However, he doesn’t have the same charisma as Edward James Olmos, who set the bar very high as William Adama. I didn’t initially expect much from Eric Stoltz, but he did surpise me with a character who was sympathetic, but showed that deceit was also in the Caprican DNA. There is definitely a strong sense of place, as the technology and even the city give us a sense of the Caprica before the fall. Given that the series is set to air next year, hopefully Caprica will grow into a great series. BSG left it with some pretty big shoes to fill.

The Caprica pilot is available on DVD and iTunes. Also, check it out on Netflix.

I created a new blog, The Shindobrarian, to chronicle my journey through the MLIS program through San Jose State University. I’ll post about the process of starting and what happens in my studies along the way. Also, I plan to post Library and Information Science-related material on the Shindobrarian. I have yet to determine a posting schedule, so I’ll post as I get my thoughts together on these subjects. I may cross-post here, but it helps to have a blog focused on that subject. Since I’ll do a great deal of my coursework online, it helps to have a place to point my classmates to outside of the cyber-classroom. There’s always Facebook too.

On the Shindobrarian, I’ve been working on a curriculum vitæ. It’s definitely a work in progress.

I’m delaying the latest installment of Resplendence for another week.

Also, I’ll post the entry for the rooster picture soon.

Stay tuned.

I looked on Hulu for a clip of Deadpan Chick giving a recap of “Daybreak,” and it’s not up yet. Darn.

Anyhow, this lead-up to the finale has resorted to a Lost style of story telling where there are lots of flashbacks. Baltar wears a white outfit because he thinks he’s John Lennon or Jesus or both. However, he treats his father with the coarse Arelon brogue badly in front of his Cylon girlfriend. In keeping with some of her ironically humane touches (like killing an infant before the Cylons bombed Caprica), Six arranges for Old Man Baltar to be put in a retirement home where he’ll only have a few days, months, etc., to enjoy life before the end of civilization.

Roslin wears dresses that are too young for her and eats sushi. Where in the Colonies sushi comes from is a mystery. Before learning she has breast cancer, she gets the news that her family dies in an accident and takes a shower in the city square’s fountain.

Adama accepts the assigment of closing the Galactica in civilian clothing. Then, the flashback turns on the rest of the Adama family, as Lee first hangs out with his brother and Kara at her place. Lee then drunkenly tries to chase a pidgeon out of his apartment, a scene which I don’t understand at all.

In the present, Sam Anders is still a naked bald man in a bathtub, though there’s a flashback of him in the bathtub after a pyramid game. Kara Thrace tries to get him to decode “All on the Watchtower.” but she and Adama wind up learning the location of the Colony instead.

Tyrol, now in the brig, cynically sees all the Eights as blow-up dolls and tries to convince Helo the same. Only blow-up dolls don’t argue back, which is what Athena does when Helo tries to reassure her finding the Colony is good news as they’ll soon rescue Hera. Athena, knowing Cavil much better, is morbidly convinced that the One model is intent on cutting her daughter up to find the desperately needed secret for the survival of the Cylon race.

Hera’s photo is up on the Wall of Remembrance, and Adama looks at it in a grandfatherly way, which shows how he views Athena as his daughter. In the original series, Athena was Adama’s daughter. Rescue is part of his object, but also striking at the Cylon colony is a part of that too. Humans attacking the colony directly would mirror how the Cylons struck the Colonies in the beginning.

Baltar tries to seek representation for his cult, but fails to do so. He is right in a previous episode when he makes the comment that these people have no representation in the new Quorum. The Cylons do, but this group of representatives is ship-based. His interior Six tells him he’ll write the end of humanity, but we’ll have to see if she’s right.

As for humanity’s final battle against the Cylons, the line has been drawn on the deck with red masking tape. Gaeta definitely drew lines with his mutiny, as did Adama in taking his ship back. In assembling a crew for Galactica’s most dangerous mission yet, there are those who go to the port side of the tape, indicating they’re not joining the mission. Since Kara Thrace helped Adama make the red tape line, this must be one of the actions that makes her the Harbinger of Death, as if destroying the Resurrection Hub and leading them to a nuked out Earth weren’t enough. Stay tuned.

Buildings have their stories, so imagine what kind of a story is within this Downtown house. While this is indeed a very specific location, don’t be so literal. Who or what lives in this building? Create a short vignette and send it to me. I will publish the best submission.

Here are the rules:

1. Written piece must be based on the picture above.
2. Entries must be brief written pieces:  prose (100-300 words) or poem (20 lines max).
3. Check your work before you send it. I cannot make corrections.
4. Submissions must be sent by e-mail. Send all entries to shinichi@shindotv.com and put “On Ash St, Vignette for ShindoTV” in the subject line.
5. Include your name, location (city, state, country), and website URL (if available) in the e-mail. Put “Copyright” or © next to your name at the bottom of the work.
6. Vignettes must be submitted by March 6, 12:00am PST.

The winning entry will be posted on March 16, 2009. Be creative.

Missed this contest or would like to try again? The next photo and vignette contest will be posted on March 23, 2009.