Just a neglected ore mule

One of the things Stein said about MMORPGs I disagreed with, the mood is not always playful.
"The general mood in third places is playful and marked by frivolity, verbal word play, and wit."
Often times the conversations degrade to young horny men insulting each other with sexually explicit insults and poor grammar.


With almost complete anonymity online games can bring out the worst in people.


But I won't repeat the ones that actually drive my point home.

Other times however I must admit the online community can produce some amusing things, an example from bash.org, " There was a 23% drop in temperature.
That's almost 25%!
... That was one of the most worthless comments I've ever heard."

Or, " some girl on the street asked if i was saved yet
i told her i saved at the checkpoint a couple minutes back
and can reload from there if i die
she was confused"

That last one I kinda like.


But I must also admit there is something beautiful in two players helping each other out in the virtual world. A stranger whom you may never meet, taking the time to heal you out in the wild even though it is of no benefit to himself reminds me of the good Samaritan. I have heard of high level players stopping to help out beginners and giving them items just because it is the decent thing to do.

Maybe in the online world people are just that, people. The good and the bad and all the pent up sexual frustration that comes with it.

All Your Soul Are Belong To Us

I am gonna have to go with M & M on this one, the meduim is the message, that is regardless of how well written a sermon is on a website the message people are most gonna take away from it will still be, "look I am a website, everything is quick and easy, don't like that? Don't read it! Do you like this? Click on this link! Wanna comment on what this nameless idiot wrote? Do it! There's no responsibility here! Wanna connect with someone? Do it, and you you can never talk to them again if you decide you don't like them, but you will want to accumulate as many friends as possible because the interactions are so shallow!"

Yes, it is an incredible tool, you can reach billions of people, but when it comes to gut wrenching, heart tearing spiritual contact, it just can't compete.

Marshal you got it right... both of you. Also the candy you guys got it right too.

You can't fool me Mr. Cruise

I wonder if any superheroes are Mennonites?

No, probably not.

Superman is a Methodist.
Batman is a Catholic.
Spiderman is a Protestant.

Somehow it fits, but I wonder if villians are atheists? or practice scientology?

But some of the most inspiring and moving pieces of literature I have read would be Calvin and Hobbes. Particularly when Calvin finds a wounded raccoon which he takes in and tries to nurse back to health but unfortunately it dies during the night. Some parents would rather opt for a happy ending but I like what Tom Carmody said, "If we are dishonest, if we hold things back from children, they discover that later and there's a backlash. 'You weren't honest with me.' 'You didn't trust me.' 'You didn't empower me to deal with that.' Bye, goodbye, and they're gone.

These particular mediums are therefore, the most important because they are the favored of children and the young at heart.
To dismiss them would be silly.

But seriously, why are we Mennonites so lame?

Oh, well. Then we wouldn't be Mennonites.

"Bleeech!" puked the bald man behind me

"In the name of Jesus, I cast out the demon of anal fissures!"

A grim demon to have on your shoulder.

I hope that isn't the punishment for reading Harry Potter...

But when Matt Taibbi went undercover for RollingStone and infiltrated a Christian Zionism retreat I found myself just as shocked as non-Christians would be, those guys do some crazy "batshit!"

"When the word of God is in your mouth," he said, "the demons can't come out of your body. You have to keep a path clear for the demon to come up through your throat. So under no circumstances pray to God. You can't have God in your mouth. You can cough, you might even want to vomit, but don't pray."

Yipes!

Matt had good reason to be scared but I think a small grain of salt is needed.
Most of the things they did during the weekend I would have no problem with and would encourage others to do so but everything they did was slightly skewed. This doesn't mean that speaking in tongues is wrong or healing wounds but from the way Matt described it they had different views on how to go about it, craaaaaazy views. At the same time Matt is biased going in and the constant snide remarks weaken his arguments like a holy-vomitus/demon-exorcism.

Throughout the article there are hints of Matt's bias, his upbringing was upper class and a struggle with drugs. Dealing with wounds and the past should be something of interest to everyone. Just weed out the ones that make you puke.

Nevil was a cool guy, until he asked to meet in RL

Welcome weary traveler on this Hallowed eve's eve.
I have seen the future in mine crystal ball and I see you navigating away from this blog very satisfied.
I also checked my F book page.
But I left my crystal ball logged on and Dave Ward started fooling around.
He updated my status to, "Steven is trangling, as in "keep on tranglin'"... it's like strangling but without the S, and it means something different than strangling, as in "going about in a jovial yet aloof manner,""

I Love facebook, don't have to talk to all those people, just write on their wall.

I asked Dave or Dward what he thought about Facebook, he answered,
"Facebook is the devil. Wait no, Facebook is a guy named Nevil... wait no I just met a guy named Nevil on Facebook. That's what I meant to say.

That's not even true.
But it does introduce your topic of facebook."

I agreed.
Well, I listened.
But I sympathize with what I think he means, real "face time" is being replaced by online interactions.
It's nice like the article said, that we can keep in touch with people to use them for our benefit or job offers in the future.
Sounds dirty but it is a necessary evil, especially in the media, "it's who you know".
But when we start using these shallow communication alternatives with people we can actually talk to in real life, baby unicorns cry.

Luckily Dentyne has our backs in a recent commercial called, "face time". Cause the more we communicate online, the less gum we need to buy to avoid blasting our loved ones with rancid breath.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26894021#26894021

Toenails in your stir fry

I would like to go on a pilgrimage to a sacred place. Or take a vow of silence and spend a year meditating in a remote monastery. Maybe learn a few martial arts.
But like me, many people are just too lazy to do things for real, instead of going to the movies we stream Iron Man off the internet.
Instead of reading we play video games, eat Mr. Noodle instead of cooking up stir fry. Wear a hat instead of combing our hair, never take off our socks instead of cutting our toe nails, but that is why the Holy Land Experience exists. Israel is just too far away, and far too dangerous. And if people are having genuine spiritual experiences I am inclined to agree with Mark Taylor from Loyola University in Chicago, "We have to be careful about judging the personal taste of others at meaningful times in their lives."
But while I would love to visit Dollywood or the Creation Museum and see the 50 foot Jesus, spiritual enlightenment should not be undergone in the same fashion as making a snack. It should be hard, it should be dangerous, it should take lots of time. Convenience and garish entertainment simply have no place in soul searching.
But I guess if I will never get around to real soul searching then the Holy Land Experience may be better than nothing. And even though the feeling of a luke warm Mr. Noodle sliding down your throat is delicious and sates your hunger for a few hours, there is something more rewarding, more satisfying and probably healthier about picking up fresh ingredients and taking the time to roll up your sleeves and make a real meal.
Not that I ever have.
I am still metaphorically sitting on the couch, hungry and thinking about getting up. I make fun of the guy eating instant noodles but am tempted myself, sometimes I even just eat them dry... just crunch them up in the bag and add seasoning.
I wonder if we have any...

Dumbventures with Clint

6:00 p.m Monday evening, 21 hours before the blogs are due Clint and I head down to the library to check out the reserved readings.
We ask the clerk for the New Media binder and wait.
She comes back with a black binder and we go over to the photocopier, turns out we need change, no wallets.
We look through the binder and can't find the right articles; she has given us the Writing for the Media binder. We bring it back and she gives us a giant magazine and warns of naughty pictures in the back.
After looking at the naughty pictures we give it back and explain we are looking for the New Media binder. It's not there.

2:00 p.m Tuesday afternoon, 1 hour and 20 minutes before the blogs are due Clint and I head down to check out the reserved readings.
We ask the clerk for the New Media binder, and it's there! But this time we need our student cards. We bat our eyes and drop pens on purpose to change her mind. Doesn't work, and we didn't have money for the printer anyways.
2:15 Tuesday afternoon, 1 hour and 5 minutes before the blogs are due Clint and I head down to check out the reserved readings.
We put the paper into the copier and insert our money, it pretends to make two copies but nothing comes out. We try again.
We are down 50 cents.
We sit down and read the shortest article about Ipods being Icons.
On our way back to dorm we discuss how Steve Jobs secretly wrote the article to sell more Ipods.
Back in our room David Ward is playing Soul Calibre and we tell him about our dumb adventure, which he promptly dubs "Dumbventure".
I can't wait until libraries catch up to the efficiency of Ipods. They still feel like Cathedrals.