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John Simm sex dream #2. Much of which was exciting Life on Mars action in the style of a video game, with Sam Tyler and self doing kung fu vs villain on unicycle. (Sam shot at baddies' car while shouting "Bang! Bang! Bang!" Bunch of tough-looking guys arrive while we're under siege and I ask him "Ours or theirs"? "Ours," he replies, and we are saved.) Tragic romance involved incredibly complex thing where Mr Simm could turn into his sister (?!) whom it turned out my brother had once dated. But we both knew it was doomed because this couldn't possibly be real. Broken-hearted, I was driven home by my dad in an awesome red convertible (after the usual dreamly public transport difficulties).

WHERE THE BLOODY HELL WAS MR GLENISTER DURING ALL THIS I ASK YOU?! *bangs brane in hopes of getting it working properly*

The sleep doctor explained that antidepressants push your REM sleep closer to morning, which is why you remember all this malarkey in such vivid detail.

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In further Bible study news, I've only just clocked that in God's beautiful speech admonishing Job, He has both male and female characteristics:

Does the rain have a father?
Who fathers the drops of dew?
From whose womb comes the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
when the waters become hard as stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen?

(That's the NIV rendering of Job 38:28-30.)

(Those are amongst several images of God as creator and organiser of the cosmos - besides these biological ones, there are references to building, cutting irrigation channels, giving orders, looking after animals, pottery, textiles, and metalwork.)

Shadow in the Dark

I haven't seen Miami Vice 3.6 Shadow in the Dark since high school, but it stuck in my brain at the time, and I'm so pleased to discover it still works: it's atmospheric and stylish; has marvellous, simple, doomladen music; the dialogue avoids being too on-the-nose; Don Johnson's acting is adequate to the task; and the guy who plays the bizarre burglar who draws Crockett into his madness, Vincent Caristi, does an extraordinary job, almost entirely without dialogue. Even the viewer feels like there's method in his madness by the end of the story.

Also, Castillo does have brown eyes. Was Edward James Olmos wearing contacts then? Is he wearing them now? wtf?

More of the Biblical God as Mother

This is very interesting, I had no idea!

Deuteronomy 32:18 (NIV):

You deserted the Rock, who fathered you;
you forgot the God who gave you birth.

Now this gets more interesting when you investigate the original Hebrew: according to scripturetext.com, the word rendered above as "fathered" could also be translated as "to bear young, to act as midwife". I think, though we're pretty safe with "gave you birth", since the Hebrew word, meaning "twist", is used to refer to a mother writhing in labour.

Now, the NIV renders Deuteronomy 32:11 thus:

like an eagle that stirs up its nest
and hovers over its young,
that spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them on its pinions.

But the KJV is explicit about the eagle's gender:

As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:

Then again, the ASV has:

Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
That hovers over its young,
He spread His wings and caught them,
He carried them on His pinions.

Well, here's the Hebrew. thegameiam, is it a lady eagle or a gentleman eagle - or can we not tell? :)

If you're interested, there are further examples in Isaiah 42:13-14, Isaiah 45:9-10, Psalm 90:2, and Numbers 11:12. biblegateway.com is a brilliant resource.