Mistress Monologues - Nina's Known Universe Blog

Please read the following articles from the Christian Science Monitor which do such an excellent job of summarizing each aspect of the Bill, that I could not do it proper justice in a paraphrase. Now don't let their name fool you, they are very non-partisan in the way they tackle the news. Sticking to the facts, in context while leaving the spinning to the DJ's.

Health Care 101 Part 1 - Who Must Buy Insurance?

Health Care 101 Part 2 - Who Gets Subsidized Insurance?

Health Care 101 Part 3 - What's A Health Exchange?

Health Care 101 Part 4 - How Long Will Reform Take?

Health Care 101 Part 5 - Who Will Pay for Reform?

Health Care 101 Part 6 - What Will it Mean for Business?

That is all they have done on it so far. Check back on their site tomorrow in case there is more. However, they do have several related articles about the fix package mentioned as well as President Obama's promise to sign an executive order banning the use of federal tax dollars for elective abortions thus assuring that no subsidized dollars could be used for that either.

This one concession is not going to make the bill taste any sweeter. The GOP has already stated they will do all that is possible to get this bill revoked, while several states are discussing refusal to comply. It is going to be a bumpy next 4 years as this plays out on both sides.

Things I am most afraid of; 1. The Tanning Bed Tax opens the door for taxing of anything the govt deems is bad for us or that leads to needing medical care. 2. My share of my mandated premium effects our personal budget in a negative way. 3. That the Democrats have now paved the way for a GOP takeover of Congress which may not be worse but it so won't be better.

In the interim, there will be a presidential election, and at least 2 congressional elections as well. If I had but one wish it would be that we all vote down the middle. Tell the parties they don't run this country, we do. Because by the time they get done tossing it back and forth between parties in control, revoking and reinstating it...well...hopefully the world just ends and we won't have to talk about it anymore.

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This year the Emperor and I are going to get away from our Facebook pages, trek up to the cabin, build a roaring fire, crack open a bottle of peach wine {the fizzy kind}, enjoy a dinner of grilled bratwurst {just like our first V day here}, and then just see what happens with no computer or tv to distract us.

...with tempered excitement they each went about their day. Knowing the plan, "Saturday night, Cabin, 6 O'clock", but not wanting to rush through the weekend, they focus on the present, letting the anticipation smolder...

"The wood needs cutting and the laundry needs washing." "There is a package at the neighbors villa", so off she goes to fetch it. "The Emperor's birthday gift. Of course, its early. The gift for this weekend has not yet arrived and may not until next week. Frak. Wanted him to use it this week. Hint hint." These 'gifts' are things he needs anyway so its like that two bird thing.

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Many couples have even chosen this day of love and romance to be their wedding day. Like a good friend of the Empire who shall be taking the vows this February 14th, sadly without any of the Royal Family in attendance. Lord Emperors schedule has him at work during the nuptials while Beloved Empress must remain to tend the flock...and she is not partial to freeway driving during the rainy season. We do send them our love and best wishes though.

So whatever Valentines Day may mean to you, and even if you choose to ignore the holiday, may you at least score some chocolate to eat while watching the Olympics.

Thank You For Reading!!

Next we meet Daniel Greystone and his wife Amanda playing tennis on their private court overlooking a magnificent Bay. As if the holographic environment we saw before was not impressive enough, they have a robotic butler who activates the courts auto referee and electronic line markers as well as notifying them when there is a call regarding their daughter Zoe.

Basically, RDM is showing us the eventual steps our own society will take as it fits into the BSGverse. We already have robotic things - vacuums, car builders and other more science and research based items not to mention the amount of remote controlled flying fighter planes being built by the military. The butler is programmed to guard the door but do you really want your friends to be able come over when you are not around? Of course Amanda Greystone was probably too distraught to think about being more specific instead of "stay as long as you like" which Serge stored as "free access".

Soon we will learn that Zoe Greystone is the 16 year old genius daughter of Daniel Greystone, the owner of a huge tech type firm with strong military applications. Her boyfriend Ben Stark reminds me of the born again Baltar - if Tory were his mother - and even refers to Zoe as being Perfect. He is the one that first introduced Zoe and her friend Lacey Rand to a singular God.

Zoe is your typical teenager in constant conflict with her parents. She gets busted for having her holoband at school. Basically a visor that you put on with your eyes closed to enter the various virtual worlds - like live 3D social websites. Created and manufactured by Zoe's fathers company. Of course the virtual world has been hacked and is nothing like the programs that the designer intended - at least not for teens.

We have similar websites now it is just animated instead of virtual but their is still killing and sex and all that stuff.

Zoe is also having a building named after her because daddy donated a bunch of money to some university and well she is a spoiled rich girl that wants to give it all up to go live among others that share her beliefs. She accuses her daddy of dirty science. A bit ironic when we learn what she has ultimately created.

Zoe's group uses the infinite symbol to access the virtual environment that is extremely real, not unlike Cylon projection.

Enter Zoe 2. She is a holographic copy of the real Zoe and will be the first Colonial Cylon. A hologram yes. But she is way more. Zoe the human was a genius and figured out how to share her experiences and feelings with her copy. The HoloZoe appears to exhibit human emotions reacting to different situations the way her human counterpart would.

Zoe tells the copy that she, the copy, is going to help bring about some changes in their society. The copy was clearly upset by all that she had witnessed in the holo world despite knowing it was not real and asked if it was like that on the outside. RealZoe tells her that it can be. But that these people are just asleep, following the leader. But HoloZoe said it was more, that they enjoyed the suffering, drew strength from it...In a way - HoloZoe would be along the lines of Hera in non corporeal form. At least in the sense of what she could mean to those that believe in the ONE.

Next we meet Joe Adams wife Shannon and daughter Tamara getting on the same train as Zoe and her 2 pals, Ben and Lacey. Mrs. Adams is talking to her husband on a Cell Phone but the service cuts out when they enter the Train station.

I truly love that. A society on the verge of AI with amazing holo tech and they still have sucky cell service. :D

Lacey panics at the last minute and decides not to get on the train. The Train looks like a long snake with a red stripe down the side and the underground tunnel is reminiscent of the future Viper and Launch Tube. Lacey, Zoe and Ben were planning to run away to Gemenon where their kind would be welcomed. Only Ben had other plans.

By the way, I just love the new laptop computers. A single sheet of paper - you can even fold it up. That is both thin and lightweight. Additionally it would seem that corners still exist at this time, doors, windows, books and paper, though some things are corner less, like the laptop paper, I saw more corners than not.

Uh oh. "The One True God shall drive out the many!" - so says Ben just before he blows himself and the train to bits. Along with Zoe Greystone, and young William Adams older sister Tamara and their mother.

Did I mention it was young Bill Adams 11th birthday. "Happy Birthday son, your mom and sister are dead." In case it is not clear, the Adama family we all know and love goes by Adams at this point in the story. I should also point out that Williams dead mother bore a resemblance to the future Laura Roslin. I guess boys really do fall in love with their mothers. ;)

2 weeks after the bombing...

A group known to police as the Soldiers of the One (STO)are reported as being responsible for the terrorist explosion on the Lev Train (Elevated Train). It will be determined forensically that it was Ben who was the bomber. Zoe's affiliation with him and his group will be brought into question. Of course Zoe didn't know what he was going to do. She had planned to move to Gemenon and other things which have not been revealed yet.

As I watch the different roles being played here, the actors they chose and the lines they gave them, I am struck with certain glaring similarities to the 12 known cylon models. Mind you this is a good 18 years before the Armistice. Before the 5 from Earth1 arrive to create the skin jobs in the first place.

So I wonder if it was on purpose by the writers to find actors that kinda look related to our cylons - or gave some characters glaring personalities so we can see the Human Archetypes that were used as a template for the 8 models built by the other 5. That is 13 total, I know. If you haven't watch the end of BSG you don't know there were actually 13 total cylon skins - 5 from old Earth and 8 from the Colonies. We never got to see model #7, coincidentally (or not) named Daniel.

The investigator into the bombing is a tall bald man whose demeanor reminds me of Doral. He has a semi fascist way of looking at the religious views of humanity with the monotheists being treated basically like communists were in this country back in the 50s. Ironic that a country founded on the concept of free speech would decide it is better to be dead than red, but I digress.

Apparently this organization know as the Soldiers of the One has been dormant for some 10 years. That number will come up a lot. After the investigation hearing, Joe Adams and Daniel Greystone meet. They go for coffee and through combined loss become, not friends really, but close enough for future events to be made possible.

Lacey, Zoe's friend, that didn't get on the train and lives still as a result, sits with the Head Mistress of the Athena Academy. This woman reminds me of Deanna in so many ways while Lacey reminds me of the Rebel BaseShip's Hybrid. (And the more I think of it the more Daniel Greystone reminds me of the First BaseShip Hybrid, that old man with the big nose and the stutter...again...again...again...)

Lacey tells the lady that Zoe was gifted, she could do things with a computer that were beyond amazing. The lady suggests to Lacey that if she knew of any work that Zoe was doing that Lacey should try to reconnect. I immediately got the vibe this woman knows more than Lacey does. So Lacey goes to Zoe's house and gets permission to hang in her room.

Meanwhile Joe and Daniel sit quietly over coffee.

An ashtray of cigarettes later, Joe starts to take his leave but Daniel is despondent. He then walks Joe out and offers him a lift. Joe declines but they make plans to go to a pyramid game together, Joe asks if his son could join too. That would be 11 year old William - our future Admiral Adama.

Lacey, who is now in Zoe's room, puts on Zoe's HoloBand and goes to visit the copy.

She finds her in her virtual room alone and traumatized. The HoloZoe seems to know something happened to real Zoe. Something terrible and just as Lacey steps closer, she sees that HoloZoe is covered in blood - Lacey screams the way I do when I see a spider crawling toward with hate in his eyes - it was delayed and unnecessary - but you just have to let it out or burst. ;)

HoloZoe has no idea where the blood came from but suggests that it may have come from the bombing freaking Lacey out completely. HoloZoe says human Zoe was working on a bio feedback protocol for HoloZoe to feel what Real Zoe felt in real time. HoloZoe says that it never quite worked right but something must have happened. Because now HoloZoe feels like she IS the real Zoe and even remembers her death.

Lacey is scared, calls it a thing and not real. HoloZoe says she was supposed to visit the real world but doesn't have to now because she "remembers it all like she was there". It is almost as if Human Zoe downloaded into her Holo self when she was killed - something that should not be possibly unless it were say - Gods Will. Being human but with all sorts of bio links to her Hologram and with a bit of Devine intervention tossed in to make it possible...

Lacey says she is just a thing that Zoe created - then the hologram says with tears in her eyes and a crackle in her voice, "I know I am not human, but I still FEEL human." Lacey hugs the hologram and promises to make it better. As Daniel Greystone walks in the real room, he over hears Lacey talking and making promises, meanwhile HoloZoe is no longer covered in blood.

Lacey runs out of the room but leaves the computer sheet on the desk. Daniel runs a huge firm similar to say Intel or Microsoft crossed with NASA, so he has the technology at his disposal to crack the code and hack into his daughters Holo program. He will tell Lacey later that is was the most sophisticated encryption he had run across ever - clearly proud of his daughters talents - despite her using them against him.

Joe Adams is in court defending a fellow Tauron. There is a very Old Sicilian feel to the Taurons and their affiliations while their names and terms have more of a Hispanic tone. I can already here the uproar over the various ethnic stereotypes throughout this show. Did I mention Bomber Ben was Mediterranean?

Turns out the Judge was bribed and Joe knew this so he is perhaps not the man of ethics that Lee Adama would become in his name 60 years later. And is perhaps the reason behind Romo Lampkins distaste for him as well. Who knows at this point.

A plot point comes up here where Joe's brother Sam wants him to do a favor for this Godfather type Guatrau, in exchange for their help in finding those responsible for the deaths of Joe's wife and daughter, along with many others on the train.

Joe is not interested. They have a heated discussion about how Caprican's haven't ever done anything for them and blood for blood is the Tauron way. Joe does not appear to believe in the Gods or those Tauron ways anymore, then takes his leave.

When at last we meet young Willy Adams. Aka Bill Adama. Joe and he are walking and having shaved ice. Joe is trying to get Willy interested in going to the Bucks game when Willy asks if he thinks his mom and Tamara still feel the pain of death where ever they are. Joe doesn't answer. There is a distance between them similar I think to that between adult Bill and his own son Lee.

Daniel Greystone's company is coincidentally working on a cyber combat unit - aka a Centurion. It is clumsy and not fast, has bad hand eye coordination and can't hit the broad side of a barn. But he is super cute with his little white eyeball scooting back and forth.

Greystone, annoyed by the bad demo of his Centurion and the looming threat that their contract may be lost to another company, when they are already billions over budget, he returns to his office where he has hacked into Zoe's program but gets interrupted by a call. His competitor who had been way behind in research suddenly has a device based on technology that the Greystone company had been trying to crack for over a decade.

There is that number again...the device is called a Meta Cognitive Processor. MCP. It is a viable independent artificial brain.

So some 10 years ago a movement toward a single God fell off the grid after being around for how long they never said, but has resurfaced now 10 years later and suddenly a scientist has an epiphany about how to create a cybernetic brain that you just need a body for. At the same time a teen girl has the epiphany of how to create a copy of herself down to virtual blood, sweat and tears. Put the 2 together and you have the very first sentient cyborg...Cylon.

Greystone asks his associate about the underground virtual clubs the kids have. His associate says they have been around for over 5 years which seems a surprise to the guy that created the technology. A technology that has been around more than 5 years obviously. Perhaps the creation of that holo tech was the turning point for this society and started the cycle by creating a link between man and machine with a nice door way for God to walk through as well.

Daniel then returns to the v-club. This time he sees Zoe's Hologram but she runs from him. When he gets to the infinite door it shocks him back to the real world. That is what I call firewall.

Turns out Zoe's mom is a doctor as well only more medical than scientist. She is blond and skinny and athletic. When interviewed by the agent doing the investigation into the bombing she says that Zoe could not have been involved even if she did know Ben Stark. Zoe had no political bones in her body and her biggest concern was finding new and creative ways to piss off her parents.

Of course being a religious zealot probably never occurred to her mother who likely dismissed it as just another way of rebelling.

However, the email sent by Zoe to her mother just before the accident was never transmitted and makes it look like Zoe knew she was going to die...the truth is that Zoe was saying goodbye for running away and for telling her mom earlier that she would regret slapping Zoe for the rest of her life.

She didn't want to die - she wanted to live.

Lacey returns to the Greystone house and their robot guard butler valet allows her access since her clearance is still good. She is caught by Daniel looking for Zoe's Holoband access sheet. He tells Lacey he saw Zoe's hologram at the V-club then makes an impassioned plea of a father to be allowed to see the Zoe in the program.

Lacey takes Greystone on a tour of the V-Club. Sex, drugs, fighting, and virginal sacrifice. That isn't including the really gross stuff beyond the drug dens. Then she tells him that yeah, they played in the orgies and all that like everyone else but then Ben was the one that showed them the way. The way to the One True God. That there was good and there was evil and only through God could you know the difference.

Lacey claimed that Zoe had seen God and God had touched her heart, she had been given the ability to create...life itself.

Daniel then meets the HoloZoe and she starts to explain how she is more than just an Avatar that she is in fact Zoe as much as the real Zoe ever was. They are the same, more than twins, echoes of one another. He refuses to talk to the Avatar at first but she goes on. She explains how accessing the information stored in our brains is the key. And while it may be hard to read a brain like you would a hard drive, there are other sources of all that data when you combine the sum digital footprint of each person in society.

HoloZoe reminisces with her 'Dad' impressing him with her near perfect imitation of Zoe and detailed memories of Zoe's past. She reiterates that she may be a copy...but she doesn't FEEL like a copy. He asks to hold her. And while he is holding her in the v-world, his real hands are plugging in a flash drive. He then captures the code used to create the avatar, so he can take her from that world into one he controls. He then kicks Lacey out and revokes her security.

"Never Trust A Human."

Ha! The Greystone's even have a black and white border collie that looks like just like Jake! Maybe it is an ancestor?

Joe Adams mother in law is living with them helping to care for Willy. She wants them to go back to Tauron - stating it is what her daughter would have wanted. But Joe won't hear of it. They live on Caprica and that is where William was born.

Next we see Joe meeting with his boss, the Guatrau, who is asking for a favor from Joe...you know the kind you don't refuse. Most Taurons seem to have face tattoos as well although Joseph does not. It reminds me of Chakotay from Voyager. The Guatrau wants Joe to deliver a message to the Caprican Minister of Defense - basically a thinly veiled threat. Joe asks for time to think about it.

The Caprican agent doing the investigation into the bombing shows up at the Athena Academy to talk with Lacey and the Head Mistress. The Agent claims that Ben Stark, her friend, was the bomber. And that Zoe was also a member of the secret society knows as the Soldiers of the One. When he asks her if she knew, Lacey storms out - probably not obligated to share her religious views or affiliations.

Then the agent asks the Head Mistress about the schools policy on monotheism, she states that while the school follows the path of the Gods, and Athena is their Patroness that all forms of worship are embraced. She also states that she can't discuss which of her kids are monotheists. The agent clearly thinks that belief in a singular God is a dangerous thing...sort of like having a king versus a Quorum.

Colonial society is based on tribes and Quorums and many making the decisions for all and their religion is the same. Different Gods for different aspects of life. The idea the one singular all knowing all powerful God is deciding what is right and what is wrong with no appeal seems frightening to this man and I am sure to many others. Especially if you like to get your naughty virtual groove on.

Mind you, I don't believe that they are trying to say here that partying and having a good time is a sin. I think the sin part is those taking pleasure in hurting each other. The blood lust and carnage. If your girl gets off on being spanked that is fine, but if you get off on torturing her against her will that is not fine.

Later at the pyramid game willy gets to meet the team, the Caprican Buccaneers and future team of one Sam Anders. Greystone owns the team. Daniel discusses with Joe the concept of what would he do if he could see his daughter again. Joe tells the story of his arrival on Caprica as an orphan and how he saw a field of flowers for the first time. There were no flowers on Tauron and the sight caused young Joe to weep openly for the first and last time in his life. He said he would tell his daughter that story and that she should seek out the things in life that make her cry...make her FEEL. Those are the things that make you human.

They go back to Greystone's house where Daniel makes a holographic copy of Joe Adams for the V-world. He plans to take him inside to meet Zoe. He also has a proposition for Joe and uses the bait of being with his daughter and wife again to elicit a favor from him.

Daniels V-world is a bit boring - he says he hasn't had time to decorate yet. LOL To function you have to use your mind to make your avatar move. HoloZoe appears and meet Joe Adams. He is curious and checking her over like a new I-Pod. When he reaches out to touch her she goes "BOO!" and Joe is jolted back to reality.

Daniel goes on to explain how all this happened and how much of a genius Zoe was.

She used a search engine to cheat death, in a way. She is a copy yes. but a perfect copy. Daniel questions who is to say in the copying of all those things about Zoe that the soul was not copied too. And challenges Joe to prove or not that such a thing is possible or even that a soul exists at all.

Daniel argues that she is his daughter in the only way that matters to him - in his heart. In this scene Daniel reminds me a great deal of Helo and his love for Hera. He convinces Joe to use his connections on Tauron to steal that MCP with the promise that he will create a copy of Tamara for him and maybe even one of his wife.

Daniel Greystone is a man who lives in a literal glass house.

There are few solid walls in his home. But then he lives on a bay or lake with the most amazing view. He has a touching moment with his wife while Joe goes to his brother Sam and asks that he arrange the theft of the MCP from the Virgis Corp on Tauron. Joe says if the Guatrau will sanction the theft from a presumed friend, Joe will deliver the message as asked previously by the Guatrau to the Caprican Defense Minister.

The Minister of Defense is extremely prejudiced toward Taurons (despite being helped into his position by their money) and makes several racial comments then tells Joe to deliver his own message word for word back to Joe's boss. Joe leaves and wishes the minister a safe journey. A bit of warning of what is to come.

As Daniel and his wife make love, probably for the first time since Zoe's death, Joe Adams sits and weeps alone while his brother Sam (who has a great bod by the way) visits the minister of defense and delivers him to his Gods - stating one should never turn their back on a friend.

Lacey recalls the first time Zoe brought up the prayer group and the One True God. "There is right and there is wrong and there is a God, a God who knows the difference". Lacey is telling this story to her teacher the Head Mistress who says "I too used to feel a void in my soul and hungered to know right from wrong." Then the Head Mistress tells Lacey she is not alone, drawing the infinite symbol on the desk and hugging Lacey.

She tells Lacey that Ben did do the bombing in the name of the Soldiers of the ONE and though it was premature and unauthorized, the bombing was not evil. That Ben was fighting evil. When asked what about Zoe, the teacher replies "you have no idea how special Zoe was to us, or is."

This woman is so much like Deanna it is scary. The Fanatical attitude that it is ok and Gods will to kill in the name of your belief and worship of that God, is a bit hypocritical when you consider they were calling the human sacrifices to Hecate a sin.

Blowing up a train in the name of your GOD is a large scale human sacrifice in my book but then logic and faith rarely mesh.

Joe gives Daniel his MCP brain acquired through his connections with the Tauron Mafia. Now he just needs a body. Daniel then takes Joe inside the V-world to see the prototype of Tamara. Tamara, unlike HoloZoe, has not always been digital nor did she have her real self to help her adjust and does not take to the experience very well. She starts to freak out about it not being real.

Similar to the reaction of a sleeper cylon when they wake up in the Goo and realize they were never what they thought they were. Tamara starts to go crazy because she cannot feel her heart beat.

Joe leaves her there upset that his daughter is so scared and stating it isn't natural. That it is an abomination. Daniel and Joe have a discussion about Gods only having power over death. Daniel intends to put the essence/code of HoloZoe into a robot body. Joe insists that Daniel is out of his mind and leaves despite promises of having his own daughter and wife in solid form again.

Inside Greystone's Virtual Prison, Daniel and HoloZoe discuss the download and how she kinda hopes it doesn't work. She then tells Daniel how much Zoe wanted to get away from her parents - that he never listens - that Zoe was leaving for Gemenon because she found God and that the Children of Caprica were lost. And that it was her parents arrogance that killed her, not some bomb.

Daniel downloads the Zoe file into the MCP and installs it in the Centurion Body. It comes to life for a moment - even speaks in Zoe's voice - its first word - DADDY - but as it tries to walk toward Daniel it collapses and then the file seems to degrade, lost forever. Note the single eye went from white to red and back to white. Daniel returns to the Virtual Prison but Zoe is gone. He got in a hurry. He was so desperate to have his daughter back he rushed it. He never stopped to consider if should, regardless of if he could.

Joe visits his son William in his room. He tell Willy they are going to make a new beginning. Their family will survive this. They will honor those lost by continuing to live as best as they can. They come from a long line of Tauron Peasants who worked the land and still stood proud. William is named for his Grandfather who was killed with the rest of Joe's family, except his brother Sam, in the Tauron uprising. He goes on to say that Adams is not their family name. Joe changed it when he and his brother arrived on Caprica as orphans. There family name is really ADAMA, a good and honorable Tauron name. Then they hug.

Near the end we see that Greystone has left the MCP brain in the Centurion with anew military program making the light glow red again. Now it has lightening fast deadly reflexes. The demo goes well and his company gets the defense contract will which put the Centurions and the Cyber Defense Unit into full scale manufacture. The centurion shows no mercy as it finishes off the last target. "All targets destroyed, Program Completed, By Your Command".

A brief chat is made by the Secretary of Defense that they really didn't want to go off world, not trusting Taurons anyway and that deceit is in their DNA. So funny when we all know that Greystone is the thief and he stole from the Taurons. He had another Tauron do it but he still reaps the benefits.

Daniel's associate is proud that they finally did it, they created a Cybernetic, Life form Node, or CYLON for short. Daniel says yes...but it was not quite what he had hoped for.

Down a dark hall to a laboratory the Centurion lays on a table.

It begins twitching and then sits up.

It walks to a terminal and sees its own reflection.

A phone rings at Lacey's house. She answers and it is Zoe on the other end. Zoe the Centurion tells Lacey she is back, she is here and she needs her help.

The End.

At last we have an answer to the ultimate question...How did the Colonial Cylons first become sentient?

We know that a higher power played a role but I think most have assumed that the Centurions were created, used by the military and gradually developed free will over time. Nope! The very first cybernetic life form was Zoe Greystone's Avatar inside a Virtual Night Club and when that HoloZoe was downloaded into the body of the first Centurion, even though her father thought the file was lost, a sentient, feeling being was born.

And now being downloaded into a centurions body - the centurion that all future centurions would be based on - we now know that the centurions didn't become sentient - they were created that way - accidentally - from the start. Daniel Greystone played GOD. He pulled a soul from cyberspace and placed it inside a Centurion body. He is their creator and I am stretching but see him as the first Hybrid later on as well.

Zoe's belief in the One True God would give the Centurions spirituality - her experiences in the virtual realm and being a hologram to begin with, would give them projection and just a tiny bit of "OMG humanity so needs an enema cleansing!"

The whole virtual sex fight kill world is the answer to why it came out straight to DVD. There is no way to do justice to the graphic scenes being played out - even on the Sci-fi Channel. Though they won't have to cut too much if they leave the dialog intact. You just fuzz out or darken a few scenes, the audio is all you need anyway.

And in the nature of things that have happened before - Kobol's society had to have reached a similar point of pure decadence and debauchery. Human sacrifice and ways to abuse each other. Only not virtual as was pointed out on Kobol by Angel Six.

Likely due in part to the ways of the Olympic Pantheon of Gods. Sacrifices especially. The Olympic Gods have always been portrayed as spoiled, spiteful, egoists who must be worshipped but do little in return. When one follows the path of a self serving GOD, then likely one becomes just as self serving.

The Plan. Zoe had a plan for her Avatar Twin. The Plan that perhaps transcended into The Plan of the Centurions and the future skin jobs. The Plan that maybe was misinterpreted as things like that can be.

Was her plan to create a race a virtual beings to clean up the worlds and stop the insanity? Did she inadvertently give them the idea to eradicate humanity for the sake of the universe all in Gods name? Could this be a mistake that God had to clean up and so helped the fleet to find its way to our Galaxy and the home of us lowly Terran's? {We know it was Cavils plan to destroy the humans to show his parents how much better he was - but I am referring to the first Cylon War...and what it was that caused the uprising and rebellion...}

So we have 1 Centurion with a human girls copied soul and essence. Adam and Eve all in one. We have the programmed will of a military machine with all the memories, desires and faith of a monotheistic 16 year old immature yet brilliant girl who believed she was chosen by God and given the gift to create life for a higher purpose. She is Caprica, Deanna, Leoben and Sharon all in one.

And lets not forget poor nutty HoloTamara who is still out there in cyber space.

Why is it I feel her confused frightened algorithms some how are to blame for Cavil turning out the way he did?

Even if Tamara's avatar doesn't play a role, surely someone as disturbed by the violence in the V-Club as HoloZoe was, would not take too kindly to be stuffed in a Centurions body with an override program forcing her to shoot and kill things.

There is a whole series hopefully on the horizon to pick up where this left off and hopefully takes every opportunity to tie this story to the back story of BSG. Otherwise they will ruin the fun. A true prequel should fill in more blanks than it creates.

At this point I am envisioning a movement on Gemenon, not just toward a singular deity, but the more fanatical side of revolution for religious reasons. The Crusades combined with the modern Jihad against Western Civilization. This movement will involve the first Centurion (CylonZoe) and will probably be the cause of the Cylon uprising by being Missionaries to those first Cylons. "Your leaders are oppressing you - rise up and claim your place in this society! You deserve all the rights of those for whom you serve! Let God's Will Be Done!!!"

There is hinting at the more obvious archetypes of humanity that the future skin jobs would be based on. Knowing now the details of how Zoe managed to map the brain so to speak, it is not all that hard to imagine creating artificial life so real that it becomes offended at being treated like a thing.

So what is real? If I make a robot cry I will feel bad regardless of knowing it is not real or believing the tears to be simulated and not felt. I have a virtual pet on Myspace that gives me the sad eyes when it needs 'feeding' and I feel bad. Joe Adama said that if he had the chance to be with his daughter again he would tell her to find the things in life that make her feel. Make HER feel.

Perhaps it is not that we are able to feel that makes us human...it is what we feel...and what makes us feel...it is our reaction to others and what they are feeling. Compassion, love, hate, jealousy, lust, fear, these are all reactions based on the emotions given off by those around us and a few chemical things going on but simply put we feel because those around us feel.

What disturbed HoloZoe the most and is what I call the only real sin of humanity, is any lifeform taking pleasure in the suffering of others. If that doesn't bother you or make you sick, you are not human or alive.

Supposedly the One True God is all Loving and not just all Knowing. While the Lords of Kobol were all about the party and the blood lust. While Hecate was demanding blood from her followers, the ONE was only asking for love. Love for GOD and love for each other.

So if a program was smart enough to understand feelings, to know when a person cries they are sad and that being sad hurts in the pit of your stomach, or when they laugh they are amused or happy and that feels invigorating. It is not that difficult for that program to at first emulate and then ultimately create their own feelings based on their sum knowledge of feelings and the physical reactions associated with them as well as the situations that cause those reactions.

Think of it like sympathy pangs. Someone dies that I have no personal contact with but I am close to someone that was. I will feel the loss for my friend, as deeply in some cases, as if it were my own loss.

Of course that is the academic explanation - sort of - as it was argued by Daniel Greystone. She was not his daughter but his heart could not tell the difference. So what was the difference really?

However with all the talk of the One True God it is far more likely that God is the one that wants another sentient race. That nothing man did had anything to do with the end result except act on a few light bulbs providing a base for God to build on. Either to give the humans a smack down or to lay the groundwork for a future combined race.

Where HoloZoe was first machine, holographic but still, with human emotions and experiences added - she was a foreshadowing of Hera who was a child born of both a solid yet sentient machine and a pure human.

This then begs the question - could Hera possibly really be Zoe Greystone passed down through generations of cylons until human DNA was added (with love) allowing her soul to finally take solid form again? Was being half machine critical to assuring nothing was lost in the transition from digital to solid?

If we take the existence of GOD as fact - knowing the way BSG ended I am inclined to do so - even if it bugs other people - I am not religious but I am no atheist either and I find the hope of something greater than this to be soothing if for no other reason than a desire to strive to be worthy of knowing that something some day in my future existence - so that said we could postulate that the first man was indeed created on Kobol...at least in the BSGverse.

Taking from all the myths of BSG, that which was stated or assumed based on our own history surrounding the Olympic Gods, we can assume there were 13 higher beings there with the humans - the Lords of Kobol. One, deemed the jealous god by the others, rose above the rest, claimed authority over them and attempted to change their ways.

Let us assume other 12 'gods' spoiled the humans with power, wealth and all manner of decadence in exchange for human sacrifices and lives filled with lust, violence and other bad things.

The ONE wished for a greater path for the humans, to not waste their lives on meaningless pleasures. This assumption comes from those that seem to have been touched by this being.

With the eventual birth of Hera I would say it is not far fetched to consider it was Gods desire all along for the races to blend. Humanity is weak but we have the inherent ability to love and be loved as well as reproduce biologically in addition to a desire to become more than we are. Cylons are strong with amazing capabilities for learning but lack certain instincts that keep them from taking everything literally.

Perhaps God felt that a combination of man and machine would at last give humanity the boost it needs to ascend to a higher plan of existence. The Holoband technology is very similar to Cylon Projection and both occur strictly within the mind - yet can be shared with others. Opening up the mind to accept such a thing as remotely real and not freak out is perhaps where God saw a door.

In the Middle Ages, God had only to appear in a dream to motivate, but these days humans, even those of faith, are far to quick to dismiss such things as not real and ignore them.

Or it could be far more simple. God never wanted a whole race of hybrids, he just wanted Hera. With enough Cylon DNA to seed his new crop of Humans on Earth2 (perhaps feeling that a fresh start was needed and thus gave Lee the idea to abandon all tech and gave the other humans the desire to go along with it), allowing our ancestors to flourish mentally, eventually becoming who we are today without the burden of the past. Mostly human with just enough machine to make each generation capable of advancing beyond the last. Not quite as efficient as downloading but as close as a human can get.

Having free will, both societies kept pulling away from each other, first on Kobol then again on the Colonies. God had to keep sending out messengers and epiphanies and visions in hopes that humanity would eventually choose to be together with their cylon cousins and vice-versa.

The birth of Hera and a few acts of divine intervention made that peace possible.

As to why GOD would need to bring humans across the universe instead of just making new ones...try to think of the universe as Gods laboratory. Each Galaxy is an Eco environment and each habitable planet is a petri dish. Maybe the batch on Earth2 got dropped on the floor. So rather than toss it and start over God decided to take one of his other civilizations, a civilization that had destroyed itself 3 times now on 3 separate worlds, and used what was left over of it to fix the DNA on new Earth.

Or maybe, just maybe, the entire adventure from Kobol to here was just a game played by higher beings with all of us as their pawns frantically trying to please them. God makes a move, the Lords of Kobol counter, civilizations are born and destroyed while the Gods sip coffee and smoke cigarettes...laughing...

So Say We All.

Thank you for reading. ~99

4.29.09 addendum added - epiphanies the Empress had while on the discussion forum battlestargalacticaforum.com in regard to the Final 5, the Opera House and Resurrection.
This quote was on the front of the Athena Academy.
One half on one side of the stairs - one on the other...
I was able to pause it clear enough to read the left which was fuzzy at normal speed...
Left Side "Reach for the Eternal"
Right Side "Cast Aside the Temporal"
- Athena Academy Motto - Caprica Pilot

I am pretty sure that ideology is the key to Resurrection.

As Sam Anders said - it was an "Intuitive Leap" made by Ellen Tigh that made it all possible...

I believe the 5 may have implanted Avatars of the themselves in the place between much like the V-world. The symbolism of the Opera House as the beginning and the end of the first Sentient Non Human used to act as a buffer between life and death and life...so that they didn't go nuts during downloading like Tamara did.

Of course - Tamara was a true copy - I still think that Human Zoe Downloaded her own Soul into her Avatar - because as human as she was - Holo Zoe didn't see herself as the same - she even said that something happened when Human Zoe died...I have no reason not to accept that as fact until they tell me it was something else..

And it was that little bit of soul that made future sentient cylons possible. Once they were copied the individual experiences would foster differences in them breaking off being copies and being individuals.

However these first Centurions cannot download as far I as understand from Sam and Ellen saying that the 5 from Earth1 gave them that technology and the human bodies as well...which were a combination of the gene pool of the 5 as well as the algorithms of the Centurions which of course was all based on Zoe.

The 5 have nothing to do with Zoe - they were Adam to her Eve - together they made the 8. The #7 was destroyed by Cavil then the remaining 7 skins then became Eve to the Humans Adam - Sharon and Helo - and made Hera.

But was Hera ultimately Zoe at last extracted from the digital and reborn in the biological?

Does it matter to the story - prob not...but the rest...?

Thank You For Reading!! ~99

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2009 kicked off with a new digital camera for the Empress which she used to capture as much of the natural beauty around her Empire as she could. At the end of this yarn you will find a quick slide show sampling some of her favorite images from each month of the past year. Pictures are worth 1000 words, however this reflection is more about feelings than it is about visuals.

Over the past year we have traveled, laughed, loved and learned. We have taken great pleasure in the little things like; watching the dogs play, meteor showers, fireworks and walks down the creek. We have spent hours on Facebook, interacting with folks all across the globe, playing games, discussing politics and reconnecting with long lost friends and family.

We have learned how great it feels to give your daddy the best 80th birthday gift ever..."I am in love with my chair..." he stated with a sly grin and a lilt in his voice...and we learned that sand makes the fiberglass seats in a hot tub pitted, which leads to chaffing, which leads to pain, which also lead to a nice rub down with salve...

There was the family camp out at the creek, some amazing sunsets, adventures with equipment and appliances that choose the worst times to malfunction and lots of trips to the big city. Special days, birthdays, baby showers, holidays and holy days. In just about every fond moment there was at least one black dog and one Emperor. Without the efforts of The Emperor, 2009 would not have been as great as it was. Ever vigilant is the Emperor with keeping his Empress in smiles.

This past year could have been worse, and for some close to us it was. To them our hearts go out as they work through their loss. Never mourning the dead for they have gone on to a better place, instead mourning the empty place in our lives now filled only with their spirit and our memories. Still others suffered different losses, divorce, estranged family, and altered states of employment. For all of them we pray for and hope that their next year will be far better than this last.

Looking ahead to 2010, with many plans, dreams, hopes and aspirations, The Empire resolves only to build on the past, learning from it without living there. May you all have a Very Happy and SAFE New Years!! God Bless, Namaste, Blessed Be, Live Long and Prosper and May the Force Be With You!!

Thank You For Reading!! ~99

Be sure to watch for all 12 months

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Here at the Palace, we have much to be thankful for and so we take this opportunity to share that gratitude with our Universe. First, the Empress is thankful for dear friends and family who hopefully do not take her rantings as personal attacks or reflections of her feelings for any of them and that she realizes she is often stepping on their ideals and beliefs. It is because of them that she vents in this manner to make it less likely to spew into her personal conversations with the people she cares most about in this Universe.

Often strong opinions are taken as arrogance or even being pig-headed. At her heart she is an advocate for all peoples and their rights to do what they want to do as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. She just also believes there is a time and a place for all things and that not everything has to be everywhere. She feels that once the door to our personal freedoms have been breached, even in the name of God, it will only swing wider until all that we have now, is lost to fear, hate and short sightedness.

She is so very thankful to live in this great country where she can write such strong words, where she can swim in the venom of unspoken animosity, and where she can freely share her words with most of the free world without fear of being carted off in the night for treason or blasphemy. She is also thankful for those people who do not label her, for no group is completely Empress Approved. In fact, she feels that the groups are the problem. One of the problems.

The Empire is also thankful to all those who bother to read these articles, never knowing if it will be sweet, sour or sexy. Too many have been sour of late for which the Empress is deeply sorry. Desperate times call for desperate measures. It is not the things that people say that has The Empress fearing for all of our futures and being thankful for every day that it doesn't blow up in our faces...it is the things that they are not saying. Things like, "I see your point, I had not considered that before, let me think it over then we can discuss your thoughts further."

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!! And Thank You For Reading!! ~99

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At first disappointing, after watching it for a 2nd time, I realized that they revealed a good deal more in the subtext than was apparent the first time through. Still, there was even more that they did not reveal or even get to, such as what prompted the Cylons to seek out Earth 1 before discovering the truth about the Final Five being from there.

We already knew from Sam Anders memory recovery prior to becoming The Galactica's own Hybrid, that the Cavil model was behind the genocide of humanity. What we did not know, however, was that even those cylons hiding in the fleet had been touched by humanity. So much so that 'The Plan' unraveled long before the attacks on the colonies ever took place.

For me, the most disappointing reveal was that of Shelley Godfrey. Besides the fact that I was wrong, had she been Angel Six in solid form instead of just another cylon, it would have helped explain part of Kara's storyline at the end. Athena had told Adama there were 8 other cylons known to have survived in the fleet at the time of the attacks, Shelley was among them.

We now have confirmed those 8 fleet cylons to be, 1 Cavil, 1 Leoben, 1 Deanna, 1 Doral, 1 Simon, 2 Sixes (including Shelley), and Boomer. Since the Leoben seemed surprised about Boomer being in place - it is possible that Athena meant Gina Six on the Pegasus as the eighth skin to survive and be living among the humans.

By the time they airlocked the Cavil's 10 months into humanity's escape, the only cylons left unrevealed in the fleet (of these first 8 not counting the final five) were Deanna and Biker Six, both of whom were never exposed until the Occupation on New Caprica.

And of all those mentioned above, the only one who did not resurrect, according to Biker 6, was the Simon who had taken a human wife and adopted her daughter from a prior marriage. He could not bear to live without her. "You can't declare war on love" the Six told Cavil.

"Love outlasts Death." said Simon in his suicide letter to his wife, coincidentally the same comment was made by the Hybrid during the attack on the colonies.

Thus their PLAN was doomed from the get go. Their plan, was to eradicate humanity, show their parents how weak humanity was and then wait to be embraced, thanked, and at last appreciated the way the Cavil's believed they deserved.

The Cavils had obviously altered the memories of the others to cover up the true plan. The others seemed to think it was for the Centurions, even asking if they (the Centurions) realized what they (the skinjobs) were doing for them. Doral felt they were grateful in their own way, while an Eight suggested that she would be (grateful) as well.

Grateful that the Skins took revenge on humanity for attempting to enslave the Centurions 40 years prior.

As I said before, we already knew it was Cavil. This movie simply confirmed that he acted alone as far as the final five were concerned. That he took on a role of supreme leader to his fellow skin jobs; and that every single Cylon skin job who had interacted with humans in a positive way ended up not wanting to eradicate them.

Much like Harry Potter and Star Wars, just about every aspect of what transpired in the course of BSG was all about love. Love given, love desired, love lost.

Just look at the 2 Cavils featured. The one on Galactica kept to himself, stayed focused on finishing what they started. The one down on Caprica however, became a part of the team, interacting with Father Sam, gaining unique insight into the heart of his creator.

It was not until Sam told him that you don't stop loving someone just because they are dead, that Caprica Cavil realized their mistake. If it was all about getting the love and approval of the Final Five, destroying humanity was going to have the exact opposite affect.

The story line of Galactica Cavil and the little boy is also a bit telling. Though they make no claims to his existence one way or another, the fact that the boys name was John leads me to believe that child only existed in Cavils head. Like the remnant of humanity programmed into him by the Five, the same remnant Boomer claimed she lost when she shot Adama.

So his killing of the child was his subconscious killing his own humanity and compassion. Not to say he was not capable of killing a real child, on the contrary. It is just that the boy was only around other people that one time in the hall and even the Six didn't seem to notice him despite Cavil staring right at him. Plus, the boy was not an orphan, his parents just didn't want him. Much like Cavil felt his parents no longer wanted him.

The Doral model is probably the most useless. A middle management crap stirrer who finds manual labor demeaning. Suicide Bomber Doral did have a funny line though; "But his was burgundy, this is teal." In response to Cavil's issues with his jacket and face being that of tour guide Doral from the Ragnor Station.

It was also very apparent that while these other skin jobs seemed beholden to Cavil, perhaps something he tossed into their program to ensure they would see him as their leader, they all managed to 'frak up' their assignments. Even Doral the bomber could have pushed that button much sooner when he was surrounded by people instead of waiting until he was in an empty junction.

The Simon models were all doctors. Mad scientists if you will. It was only he who fell in love that changed. Had that Simon from Galactica resurrected, he most likely would have shared his love algorithms with the rest of the line thus adding another model to the future rebellion.

Did anyone else think of Saul and Ellen when Cavil and Biker Six were getting drunk and talking about all the failures of their comrades? The sixes definitely got their sex appeal from Ellen.

We also learned via the Hybrid's babbling that the colonies were comprised of 12 worlds and 3 stars. A meaningless fact in the grand scheme yet still one of those things fans want to know.

Other less than relevant things we can assume would be that Cavil took over the Cylon Colony Ship within a few years of all the models being 'born'. We can assume that the final five attempted to teach them to love humans and to aspire to be just like them, something the Cavils found insulting.

We could also assume that initially all the models were children, based on Cavils presumed hallucination of his child self, with all their copies aging at the same rate as they did out of the tub. And that there were only so many copies of each model made...though as Ellen told Saul, they had 'millions' of children.

Which also lends to the idea that there are many more cylons still out there - perhaps exploring deep space. There were way more basestars involved in the first wave of attacks than were ever destroyed during the course of the show. Perhaps Caprica Cavil did not get boxed and instead took half the fleet away?

After the Cavils betrayed the five and brainwashed/reprogrammed the others, they then went about dropping the five at different times among the humans. Starting with Saul, then eventually the others at different times.

He used the same technique on Boomer planting a trigger in her mind that he could then bring her out of her 'cover' any time. That carved elephant looked like one that one of the five had been carving in a flashback, or someone else, but we have seen it before.

Leoben did not have his obsession with Kara until he first heard her voice on the wireless after the attacks. He envisioned that Mandala. He later touched her in the brig having a very detailed vision of their future...obviously mistaking Kara's 'dreams' for his role in her future. We all learned at the end that he was wrong.

Kara did have a destiny but Leoben misread his own visions along with the babblings of the Hybrid. When he was airlocked he took his vision to the others, explaining how Athena knew that Kara was special when they were fleeing Caprica together with Sam.

All of these revelations do little to the outcome of the story other than to suggest that Baltar, Caprica and Leoben were not the only ones being influenced by a higher being determined to prevent either side from wiping out the other. We even know that Deanna eventually felt the pull to know, ultimately discovering the truth about the Final Five.

It is the things they did not reveal that leaves me wanting. It is with high hopes that I wait for Caprica to premier this coming January 22, 2010. For it is possible that many details of the cylon past, the parts where Cavil takes over, have been reserved for that show's inherent future plot.

The one thing they did not get to, that would have been so simple, was to explain how the peace movement by Caprica 6 and Boomer 8 on Planet Caprica, that lead to the Cylons leaving the colonies, turned into the Occupation on New Caprica. Including Baltar giving Gina that bomb.

My assumption is that when the Cavils resurrected, Galactica Cavil had Caprica Cavil boxed before he could taint the others with the truth about the five. He then convinced the Deannas, Dorals and Simons that the only way to have peace with the humans was to oppress them, thus keeping them from taking revenge.

I suspect that Baltar didn't really give Gina that bomb...that it was Angel Baltar who gave it to the guy who gave it to Gina. Because God needed to stall humanity for a year so they would not miss the Nova. Or Angel Caprica told Baltar to do it. Either way...it suited Gods plan if no one elses.

In a deleted scene from the DVD The Plan, Caprica Cavil convinces several of Sam's people to surrender to the Cylons assuring him that while their would be forced labor, they would be fed and given medical care. The people are greeted by smiling missionaries, Caprica Six and Boomer Eight, arms wide, only to be executed by Centurions, who we can assume were ordered to do so by that Cavil. Caprica and Boomer are seen completely devastated falling to the ground in tears.

It is not clear if that scene was cut for time or if it was to be replaced by the aired scene where Cavil sneaks off to ask a six why the cease fire and is told they voted for peace even though his model was against it. I think it was cut for time. Because this scene indicates the mindset of those skins on New Caprica - at least the Sixes and Eights who always maintained they were just trying to help the humans. While the aired scene occurred later when Kara returned to rescue Sam.

The Cavil Plan was a bust out the door. Besides all the love involved in it's failure, another factor is that of God. In the new series Caprica, God plays heavily on the entire plot. The final five miraculously surviving this holocaust (thus not resurrecting as Cavil planned), the fleet of humans surviving to get away with The Galactica, the effect of humanity on those Cylons who became emotionally involved and the eventual birth of Hera were all apart of God's plan.

A plan not put into place until after the Cylons betrayed humanity. The Final Five were saved from Earth 1 by God to prevent these events from happening, but they were too late and failed; ultimately causing the future holocaust by giving the Centurions Res Tech and by letting Cavil get the better of them.

Kara's role was that of predestination. Like a sleeper agent of God, she was only called to duty because she was needed. Had the Cylons never attacked, it is likely her destiny would never have come to pass. Or would have but with different intentions and outcome. Just like Boomer's mission was altered as needed by Cavil - so Kara's would have been altered as needed by God.

If you figure Adama had known Saul for at least all of Kara's young life, you could also assume that she was created by God - chosen - as a result of Cavils betrayal and the events he set into motion so many years ago.

In the end the most important lesson we can take from Battlestar Galactica the Reimangined Series, including those lessons learned by the Cylons in this movie 'The Plan', is that when you pit God against Cavil...God wins. At least on TV.

Thank You For Reading!! ~99

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It doesn't seem fair in some respects. When you weigh the emotional, possibly physical or financial pain caused by another against their words of apology, a clearly unbalanced scale presents itself. Then again, if you add to their apology years of friendship or love iced with any deeds they surely did on your behalf, the scale begins to level out. Unfortunately not all requests for forgiveness come from first time offenders.

So where do we draw the line in dealing with what amounts to an emotional vampire? Be it an old friend or relative who has repeatedly hurt you despite your best efforts to never hurt them, or the partner who never seems to put your feelings above their own, in many ways they are slaves to their own issues. They don't know how to take responsibility for their own actions.

They are not insincere. Perhaps more people are bipolar than ever get diagnosed. Perhaps they are just emotionally immature and selfish. If someone wrongs you, assuming you have never wronged them, you may be better off not accepting their apologies. If there is nothing about your time with that person worth reminiscing over, then by all means, cut the cord. Just be sure.

I guess in the end it boils down to ones tolerance. Personally, I believe that in 'most' friendships, there is plenty of room for forgiveness and letting go of the past for the sake of the future. Simply because it really does not effect my day to day to let another off the hook for some past hurt. I may not jump at the chance to let them back into my heart or ever depend on them, but we really need all the friends we can get. The more the merrier.

Everyone has something to offer that we can all learn from. So where is the harm in being civil, even friendly to someone, even if they have hurt us in the past? Assuming they want to be friends that is. Any one sided relationship is not a relationship...it's stalking. If you are seeking forgiveness from someone who is not interested, don't demean yourself by begging and absolutely don't turn their lack of forgiveness into some sort of personal attack against you. If you truly want their forgiveness, earn it by respecting their right to not give it.

Couples are another story. It's not to say we shouldn't be forgiving to our spouses or significant others depending on what they have done. Simply that there is no other relationship so doomed to fail from the start as two humans attempting to share an existence together and thus requires a tad more effort to maintain...by both parties. However, if your spouse refuses to be there for you...if your relationship is so off balance that you feel as if being alone would be less traumatic, the first thing you should do is sit them down and tell them that.

Spelling it out before you bail often leads to reconciliation. Only if both parties truly do not want it to end of course. Quite often is it a lack of speaking up that is the problem. Bring in a third party to help you see each others points of view. Focus on what was great about your relationship, use it to make compromise over the bad stuff worth the effort. Be honest. At this point you have nothing to lose by clearing the air.

Then, after you have weighed in your years together, your memories and your achievements as a couple, you have to then decide if your issues are really worth the price. Our lives are not infinite. Time invested in a relationship has value that must be considered before liquidating. Just because the performance is down now, doesn't mean there is no way to re-stimulate growth.

Even if ultimately you decide to make a break, be careful how you go. Somethings are unforgivable to some people. Whether a friendship or a relationship, which should first be a friendship anyway, think long and hard before you burn all your bridges, make sure you really have no intention of every going back. Lastly and most importantly, in the immortally profound words of Abe Lincoln {from the movie Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure}:

"Be Excellent to Each Other...And Party On Dudes!!"