Adam Sunny Flanders

I just watched this really incredible documentary called The Cove. It’s focused on the Japanese exploitation and slaughter of dolphins in Taiji. It’s very disturbing, but I’m glad I know about this now – I wasn’t aware that dolphins are still being killed for food in Japan, and in such an inhumane way. This documentary exposes the secrets of the Taiji dolphin slaughters that go on every day between September and March. FMI visit http://www.thecovemovie.com/ or http://www.takepart.com/TheCove

I have noticed recently a lot of films have promoted a more humanitarian perspective. I just saw Avatar in 3D with my friend Jay the other day and the message was clearly about the exploitation of other sentient beings. District 9, another scifi film, reminded me of how people treat those they see lesser than them – the real “District 9″ in the movie accurately represents real concentration camps existing both in history and modern day. There have been countless environmental films and human rights documentaries in recent years. I hope this means we are moving in a direction of conscious raising, and that many of us will take the steps to actually do something about these issues.

I know most of you reading my blog are from Maine. Right here in Turner, Maine we have an issue with the Quality Egg of New England farm, a farm that is abusing its animals to the extreme. You can watch video below that was captured earlier this year:

Christmas was awesome. I bought so much stuff for my family this year! We got my mom a really nice white wool pea coat from Chadwick’s, and my little sister got an iPod Touch – I helped her sync the music with mine. We also got her a Canon camera now that she’s gotten really into photography like me. My big gift was a new HD camcorder. I’m going to be making some special effects videos soon combining my CG animations with real life video, just for fun.

We dressed up the poocademons, too, with little antlers, though their heads were too small so we had to put them around their little waists, haha! They’re so precious. I also got lots of clothes and some Wii videogames – Final Fantasy Crystal Bearers and Jurassic: The Hunted. And then some money, which I’m thinking about using to take a trip down to Florida during winter break, but maybe I should save it for textbooks this Spring, hehe. I posted a short video taken with my new camcorder, though the lighting was really low. Holiday wishes for everyone!

Having to tend to our gym, my dad didn’t have time to buy a Christmas tree this year, so a few days ago I went into the woods to get one myself. It was pretty fun – being able to go into my backyard and find total silence, just the whistling wind and cracking branches – one of the things I like about Maine. Plus, the pride in finding and cutting down my own tree is something I haven’t experienced since I was little. I got the right kind this time – once I brought home a tree that ended up smelling like cat pee, LOL! I’ve embedded a slideshow below, or you can see the full-size photos in my Flickr account. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas! ^-^

Yesterday Mexico City became the first Latin American city to legalize same-sex marriage! The legislative assembly voted 39 to 20 in favor of same-sex marriage, and 31 to 24 in favor of allowing same-sex couples to adopt children. Go Mexico City!

The Fall semester is over and we’ve just begun winter break. Not sure what I’ll be doing yet, but I’d like to share the following information – it’s a basic presentation about transgenic plants AKA GM crops. Plant genetic engineering is the focus of my academic studies and what I’m doing now builds the foundation upon which I will eventually establish a full career. I’m one year away from my BS degree, then I’m getting my Master’s.

It’s important for me to show people that GM food is not dangerous – genetic modification occurs naturally and GM plants are just as organic as any other. In fact, GM plants are good for the environment because they relieve farmers of the need for synthetic pesticides that harm many plants, animals, and often humans as well. Since the Summer I’ve been working with Japonica rice and studying the techniques of DNA transfer. I’d like to share my presentation with you so that you can understand the basics of plant genetic engineering and see that GM foods are perfectly safe, healthy, and 100% organic.

The video plays very fast, so you will need to pause it to absorb all the information properly. All images and photographs are © Adam Flanders.

A new film is coming out that directly examines the relationship between homosexuality and the Bible. It looks to be humorous, but also very serious in the way it debunks the 7 lines of scripture in the Bible that supposedly condemn gays and lesbians. We’ve always known that fundamentalists pick and choose scripture – in the Bible, the Lord calls eating shellfish an abomination more than so-called homosexuality. I think this will prove to be yet another piece of literature showing that anti-gay rhetoric is on its way out as gay and lesbian people are increasingly accepted in American society, and as we move toward full equal rights, including marriage equality.

Second only to Gibran’s The Prophet, Richard Matheson’s What Dreams May Come is my favorite book. A lot of you have probably seen the (also awesome) film starring Robin Williams (Chris) and Annabella Sciorra (Annie), in which they both die and find one another in the afterlife because they are soulmates, proving that not even death can end true love. Chris goes on a journey to save Annie from the Hell she’s created for herself by committing suicide. “Across whatever distance there is, I send you my love.”

A lot of people don’t know that Matheson’s book is primarily a work of non-fiction. That is, everything in the book is based on research and extensive anecdotal reports. At the end of What Dreams May Come, Matheson lists a very thorough bibliography of all his books, and encourages us to read every one (there are A LOT). I have decided to do just that, starting with Appleman’s Your Psychic Powers and Immortality, which I just got in the mail today. It was hard to find this book, published in 1968, but it came from this little private bookstore in Tennessee and the author actually signed the front cover. Books are always better if they have a history.

I’ve always been interested in the supernatural and spirituality. I definitely recommend reading What Dreams May Come – the story goes so much deeper than the film and explains so much about the afterlife and what it means for all of us. Reading between the lines, there is also an important message about living life to the fullest as well, and that we create our own destinies with the choices we make. If you’re a heavy reader like me, you’ll also want to work your way through Matheson’s bibliography the way I have begun. Below is a direct excerpt from his prologue:

“Because its subject is survival after death, it is essential that you realize, before reading the story, that only one aspect of it is fictional: the characters and their relationships. With few exceptions, every other detail is derived exclusively from research. For that reason, I have added, at the conclusion of the novel, a list of the books used for this research. As you will see, they are many and diverse. Yet, despite their wide variation with regard to authors and times and places of publication, there is a persistent, unavoidable uniformity to their content. You would, of course, have to read them all to prove this to yourself. I urge you to do so. You will find it an enlightening–and extraordinary–experience.”