“You know, when we fought the Cylons, we did it to save ourselves from extinction. But we never answered the question, why? Why are we as a people worth saving? We still commit murder because of greed, spite, jealousy. And we still visit all of our sins upon our children. We refuse to accept the responsibility for anything that we’ve done.” — William Adama, Battlestar Galactica

Based on the way we treat the Earth, I sometimes wonder if humanity is worth saving. Look at what we did to the Gulf of Mexico. Even before the oil spill, there was a giant dead zone.

The oceans are so vast, and yet we humans are ruining them. We’re doing the same to the atmosphere. CFCs were stopped, but we’re still polluting and still contributing to global warming.

We treat our home, our own and only tiny planet, like shit.

Yes, I guess we should do what we can to stop global warming. Maybe, though, we should stop and ask if humans are even worth saving.

WARNING: There are going to be SPOILERS in this post, if you haven’t seen the finale.

I have a hypothesis about how Amon was able to take away bending. I think he used blood-bending to block your chi. The chi-blockers hit your pressure points to temporarily block your chi, which makes it so you can’t bend. Amon probably adapted this technique, but uses blood-bending to make it more permanent. You can use blood-bending to break an arm, so you can probably “break” those pressure points, I guess. (This still doesn’t really explain how Katara couldn’t figure out how to reverse it, but I guess she wasn’t practiced enough with blood-bending.)

What Amon does is different from Aang because I think Aang is actually bending your chi. Chi is basically spiritual energy, so it jibes with what the turtle island was saying about this technique. Summarized: Aang bends chi; Amon blocks chi.

I think this also explains why Korra was able to air-bend. Amon blocked her chi for all fire-bending, water-bending, and earth-bending. But he didn’t block it for air-bending. So, when Korra tried to bend, all her chi was directed into air-bending. It’s as if water was pouring out of several spigots and then forced into just one.

I’m guessing Amon never really knew how to block airbending and may have failed with Tenzen too.

None of this explained how she got her spiritual powers so fast at the end. In general, I’ve been pleased with the pacing (others will disagree) of the show, but I thought everything resolved itself way too quickly at the end. (Tarlock loses his powers way too fast, and then it’s a whirlwind from there.) In fact, I’m disappointed the season didn’t end on a cliffhanger.

I am really doing this. I’m upending everything in my life. I’m moving, changing jobs, losing use of a car, being relieved of hosting duties for our weekly gathering of friends.

The furniture in my apartment is slowly disappearing. I gave away a bunch of books. I signed papers that say I’m moving out. I notified my boss that I’m leaving my job. Everything is so real now. It used to be something in my head — a vague plan of the future that couldn’t come fast enough. Now time’s speeding up and everything is happening all at once. I keep passing these points of no return.

From my apartment parking lot, I looked up at the stars and realized that I would soon lose this particular view forever. With all these tangible details of the changes happening in my life, the sense of loss finally hit me. Everything is going to be different.

It’s all so exciting, and I know it’ll all be worth it.

Right now, I’m not scared by any of it. Well, except for the loss of financial security. I’ll have to actually pay attention to my expenditures. But like I said, it’ll all be worth it. It’s worth trading that for the exciting adventure to come.

I’m so obsessed with this song. I have to sing it while rafting, before attacking other boats.

Listing my favorite iPad games…

• Continuity 2
• iBlastMoki 2
• Osmos
• Kingdom Rush
• Lego Harry Potter, Years 1-4
• World of Goo
• Contre Jour
• Machinarium
• Lost Winds
• Lost Winds 2

These games are in no particular order. Machinarium is probably my favorite. I love point and click adventure games, and Machinarium is so beautiful. Art, even.

As you can see, I mostly like puzzle games. I’m not a big fan of platformers on the iPad, but Lost Winds is really good. World of Goo is an amazing game that translates really well to the iPad. You’d think the game was designed for it. Osmos is mesmerizing puzzle game. Contre Jour has beautiful graphics and music. Kingdom Rush is just a blast to play. I can’t really judge it compared to other tower defense games, since it’s my first one. The levels are designed well; it has a good learning curve. The game is cute and fun. iBlastMoki 2 and Continuity 2 are good puzzle games.

Other games I like: Eliss, Monkey Island, Angry Birds, Scribblenauts, Scramble with Friends, TwinGo, Great Little War Game.

What are your favorites?