Day 4 - My Favorite PC Game

Starcraft



This one is not even close. Favorite computer game of all time.

Day 3 - My Favorite Arcade Game

NFL Blitz



I was never really big into arcade games, but this game (both on the arcade and on Nintendo 64) is the one game that I was always reasonably confident I would win at. There were a handful of others I liked, but this is the one arcade game I'll still stop to play whenever given the chance.

Day 2 - My Favorite Game Ever

Ok, I know it's only been a few hours since the last post, but it's technically the next day and I'm super excited about this challenge. So I'm tackling day 2 now.

Like the last category, several games could have made the cut. I could probably make a case for all of these games being my favorite. Final Fantasy VII, Goldeneye, and Ocarina of Time all get some mention, but these two games sparked an interest in franchises I wasn't that into when I picked them up. These games win simply based on how much time I've spent playing them. So, my favorite games of all time are...

1. Fallout 3



I bought this game on a whim during finals of fall semester my last year at Ole Miss. I didn't actually have any finals...maybe one...and it was like Thursday of exam week. So I went to Wal-Mart, saw that this was the game of the year or whatever, and bought it. I stayed up playing it all night the first night, and I've played all the way through it at least 5 times, as well as bought all the expansions and played the crap out of them, too. Just something about being on your own post-nuclear apocalypse and surviving is awesome.

2. EA Sports NCAA Football



I wasn't always the sports fan I am today. A big part of why I became such is the NCAA Football series. The first one I bought for myself was NCAA Football 2006, with Desmond Howard on the cover. I've bought it every year since.

Day 1 - The FIrst game that got you hooked on gaming

There are a handful of good options here. I started off with the NES and also had a Sega Genesis, and a couple of games got me started. So, before I get to THE game, a few honorable mentions. These are in no particular order:

1. The Legend of Zelda - NES



I don't know if I actually had this game (I think I did...) but I know my cousin had it, and somebody I know, though I can't remember, had the original gold cartridge. I didn't really know what I was doing and I never actually beat it, but this was one of the first games I remember loving. It's also a precursor to the game that got me hooked.

2. Super Mario 64 - N64

One of the first Nintendo 64 games, this game was freaking awesome. I never really was quite sure what the story was (besides the princess getting kidnapped and Mario having to save her) but this game was just awesome.

3. Goldeneye 007 - N64

This was my first foray into FPS games, and man...it was awesome. We spent hours upon hours playing the multiplayer, which was the coolest thing about it. I remember in 7th grade or so the way to trash talk people was to say you were better at Goldeneye than they were. And then of course you'd play and the winner would have bragging rights forever. I probably would have put Perfect Dark here, because we played that a lot more, but Goldeneye was the first. But Goldeneye was awesome.

4. Final Fantasy VII - Playstation

This was the first RPG I ever played, and I was obsessed. I've played through it several times, and it never gets old, even if the graphics are a little (OK, a lot) outdated by now. Still though, awesome game, great story, and it takes a looooooong time to beat. Vincent Valentine is still one of my all-time favorite video game characters.

5. Starcraft - PC



This and Final Fantasy VII are like 2a and 2b for my favorite game of all time. We spent hours playing this online and talked about it at school all the time (I was in 8th and 9th grade...didn't have a lot else going on). There's really not much to say other than...this game is awesome. I still play it sometimes and Starcraft II was amazing as well.

But, finally, the game that got me hooked...

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - N64



This game was just awesome. I played the crap out of it and want to play it again. It was the first game that I wanted to get 100% of everything (all the gold spiders, growing the plants, finding the masks, etc.) and I did. I mean, just an awesome game all around. One of the best ever, in my opinion, and definitely the one that got me hooked.

So...there's day 1. I'm a nerd.

30 Day Video Game Challenge

I did the 30 day song challenge on Facebook, but I thought this might be a little too dorky to put out there on FB. I'm a gamer, and I'm not ashamed to admit it, so I'm going to do this here. This is the list:

30 Day Gamers Challenge

Day 01 - The first game that got you hooked on gaming

Day 02 - Your Favourite Game Ever

Day 03 - Your Favourite Arcade Game

Day 04 - Your Favourite PC Game

Day 05 - Your Favourite Console Game

Day 06 - Your Favourite Game Intro/Teaser/Trailer

Day 07 - Your Favourite Fighting Game

Day 08 - Your Favourite Third Person Game

Day 09 - Your Favourite Console

Day 10 - Your Favourite FPS Game

Day 11 - Your Favourite Game Soundtrack

Day 12 - Your Favourite Survival Horror

Day 13 - Your Favourite Driving Game

Day 14 - Your Favourite Hand Held System

Day 15 - Your Favourite Game Character

Day 16 - Your Favourite Shoot Em Up

Day 17 - Your Favourite Online Game

Day 18 - Your Favourite Hand Held Game

Day 19 - Your Favourite RPG

Day 20 - Your Favourite Facebook Game

Day 21 - Your Favourite Simulation Game

Day 22 - Your Favourite Puzzle Game

Day 23 - Your Favourite Free Game

Day 24 - Your Favourite Sports Game

Day 25 - Your Favourite Music/Family/Social Game

Day 26 - Your Favourite Side scrolling Beat em up

Day 27 - Your Favourite Platform Game

Day 28 - What game would you like to see made into a movie

Day 29 - Name the most over rated game

Day 30 - What’s the next big game your most looking forward to

So, the Westboro folks are coming to town...

By now I'm sure you're aware that the Westboro Baptist Church folks are coming to town to protest a marine's funeral. I've seen a lot of people saying a lot of different things about them, and it's hard to not join in the criticism and it's even harder to not want to see them get their teeth kicked in. But while reading up on them some (they have several websites that say God hates...well...everyone except for them...) I was reminded of a passage from the Gospel of Matthew:

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your father who is in Heaven. For He makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:44-48

The WBC guys are persecuting everyone. So what's the proper response? Pray for them and love them. I mean, it's easy to get caught up in getting mad and wanting to fight and yell and scream and do whatever, but the most powerful thing you and I can do is to pray - pray for the family of the fallen marine, pray for the safety of our soldiers caught in war, and pray for the members of Westboro Baptist Church.

Right now, it seems like we're in such a time where people are caught up in the extremes of God's character. You have people on one side saying that God is love and there is no divine punishment and this and that is OK. Then you have people on the other side that are saying that God is judge and full of wrath and he hates everyone and everything. The truth is in the middle - yes, God is love, but yes, God is also a just God (along with several other qualities).

So, next time you see them on TV or in person or whatever, remember that Fred Phelps and his family (who make up about 80% of the WBC congregation) are sinners in need of grace just like the rest of us.

So, yes. Protest their message. Protest their methods. But remember - love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. It is completely justified to be angry and hurt over this, but remember this, as well:

Be angry, but do not sin.
Ephesians 4:26

I hate that this is happening. I hate that the name of God (notice these folks never talk about Jesus...) is being invoked in this message of hate. But those folks need Christ like the rest of us.

Just some thoughts.

Brandon, Mississippi

I don't want this blog to become my "dear diary" complaining page. That's not at all what I want - I typically try to write insightful things that might inspire the one person who stumbles upon this every so often.

But, I need to vent.

I HATE BRANDON.

One of my major struggles right now is being OK with where God has me. I thought I saw a light at the end of the tunnel, but due to circumstances beyond my control, that light is flickering. I know God has a plan in all of this, and the original situation may very well work out the way it felt like it originally might, but the thought that getting out might not happen as soon as I had hoped is pretty crushing.

This place is like a solitary confinement sentence.

I can't handle it much longer.

Stranger Than Fiction...

As I'm about to go to bed right now, for some reason this thunderstorm has gotten me thinking about what is probably the most bizarre thing that has ever happened to me. Some people have heard this story, some people haven't. But for whatever reason I feel the need to put it in writing.

During my junior year at Ole Miss (2005-2006 I think...it was the year before my marathon of senior years that ultimately resulted in me being a super-duper senior) I got a job working at everybody's favorite late-night chicken wing delivery place, Coop DeVille. My dad knew a guy who knew a guy and I wound up working there. I fried wings and made sandwiches. It was exciting stuff. Anyway, the next day, we hired a new guy. I won't mention his actual name here, in case he searches for his name and this comes up and he comes to my house and kills me. But anyway, this new guy had just moved to Oxford from out west to live with his girlfriend (and, as we would find out later, her mother) whom he had met in a chat room. We didn't think to ask what kind of chat room, which would have been a fantastic idea, but hindsight is always 20/20. Anyway, the day after I started working, they hired this new guy to be a delivery driver. He was an interesting looking dude, about as tall as me with long, nappy hair and a beard. Descriptions aren't important because there's video evidence of him later on in this story.

Delivery drivers need to have some kind of sense of where they are going. This guy didn't. It wasn't entirely his fault, because he was new, but he never really seemed to make an effort to figure out where he was going. It would take him literally over an hour and a half to make a few routine deliveries, and it was pretty frustrating because we'd get really backed up. He was a super nice guy though, just...well, he was one of those guys that was TOO nice. Example: one day I was working on something...can't remember exactly what...but he came up and asked me if I needed help. I said something along the lines of "no thanks man, I got it" and I thought that was it. Later on that night, he came up and was like "hey man, I wasn't trying to be an or anything, I just wanted to make sure you didn't need any help. Sorry about that."

So anyway, we started to notice that said some really weird things. He volunteered a few things that nobody really asked about. For example, he told us he was both bipolar and bisexual and just kind of left it open ended. He also told us that he liked to sit in graveyards at night and take pictures and then would try to find orbs and such in the pictures. Then, the weirdest comment of all - one night as I was cleaning out the freezer getting ready to go home, he said this: "Man, I just really like blood." And walked away. So...yeah. What do you do with that?

I also remember the night that hurricane Katrina hit. We were the only place open, and freaked out and went and got his girlfriend and she sat in the kitchen and just stared at everyone. It was creepy.

Things moved on like that. Little weird confessions here and there, until finally he told a co-worker that he would be on an A&E special and would likely become famous and he would quit and we would never see him again. My first thought was "that has never happened to anyone" but then I thought...wait...that's weird. The show was to air the Friday night before the Ole Miss/Auburn game, which would be in Auburn, and I started joking around with people that I worked with a vampire.

So that weekend rolls around, and I had gone to Auburn with a few friends. We were actually staying in Columbus, GA, at a friend's house, and everybody went out except for my friend Taylor and me. I remembered that would be on TV that night, so I looked up the program guide for A&E that night and sure enough, there was a documentary on vampires. I got a little nervous, but we turned it on, and this is what I saw:

Modern Vampires pt. 10

"Terran" was my co-worker, and "Tanneidhe" or whatever was his girlfriend. When I saw this, I freaked out. I mean, here is this guy I work with, on TV, sucking his girlfriend's blood. My only response was to grab the phone and call Coop. I asked for Jamie, who was a co-worker, and all I could say was "DUDE... IS A VAMPIRE. A VAMPIRE." (please note that I'm not a huge fan of profanity and I realize I should have used a different word. But...how many times has one of your co-workers been a vampire? Probably none. The level of freaking out was incredibly high. I had no idea what to do.)

Anyway, after recapping the story, I had no idea what to think. We went about our weekend, Ole Miss lost (of course), and then I went back to work. When I went back, I found a "Vampire FAQ" on the break table. I looked over it a little, but the only thing I remember was this question and answer:

Q. What does it feel like to be a vampire?
A. A lot like dancing naked in a warm summer rain.

Yep. So...that's what it feels like. Anyway, I quit shortly thereafter because, as I said before, was a vampire. I had a class with another guy I worked with the next semester and I asked him if still worked there. My friend said that he didn't. I asked why. His answer was "You mean besides the fact he went on TV and sucked someone's blood?" And I said...yeah, that's what I figured.

So...yeah. That's the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me.

Crazy Pro-Lifers and a Sobering Reality...

Today, Facebook and Twitter were abuzz with status updates about a van with pictures of dead babies and a pro-life message seen driving around Oxford today, and apparently one (or some) of the members stood in front of the student union and spoke/yelled/preached did something that made people mad. My response was much the same as what everyone else's was - disgust, perhaps slightly offended, and a little mad that these people were doing this in the name of Christ and they were misrepresenting...something.

But then, after thinking about it for a while, and thinking that my disgust, offense, and anger at what was happening was misplaced somehow, I realized something.

I was disgusted with myself.

I mean, think about it - what these crazy pro-lifers are saying is true. Those pictures, whether you find them offensive or not, are the grim reality of abortion. And I, as a Christian, have become so complacent that my offense is placed in someone exposing the reality of what is basically genocide.

I'm not saying that the right way to express disgust or moral indignation or...whatever...over abortion is yelling at people and showing them pictures of dead babies and standing outside of abortion clinics and picketing. But I do think it's a more complicated issue than we make it out to be.

Think about this - I see a commercial of starving kids in Africa, asking for money to donate, and I feel sympathy. Same with commercials for the humane society - I see pictures of starving, abused, and neglected dogs and cats, and my heart breaks. But I see pictures of dead babies and I'm offended that the people showing the pictures are misguided? What is wrong with me? I mean, when I see the pictures of abused animals, I think..."man, those people need to be put in jail." When I think about starving kids or invisible children, I think "man, where is justice here?" But when I see pictures of dead babies, I just label those people right wing nutjobs and try to push those images out of my mind as quickly as possible.

Shame. On. Me.

Right now, Matthew 25 stands out in my mind. It's the passage that I hate thinking about - the one that Jesus tells people "For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me." Then the people answer "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?" And Jesus responds "Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me." And then those people go to Hell forever.

So...what? I mean, it's my tendency (don't know about yours) to look at those pictures and those people holding the pictures and turn away in disgust, but why am I not broken over it? Why am I not in despair over death and destruction to that level? Why am I not saddened by children who never get to breathe a breath here on earth, who never get the opportunity to grow and develop and...well...do all the things people get to do? Why am I not crushed over the hearts of those mothers who had to face the choice?

None of that is true of me. No, I just look and think "man, how can those people be so wrong" and I walk on my merry way and I never give it a second thought. Part of the Gospel is God acting on behalf of those who are helpless. I mean, this is probably a pretty vulgar example, but what if God saw pictures of us, dead in our sins, and just thought "man, what's wrong with those people?" about the people holding the signs?

I don't know. That's not a great example I'm sure - but what other great sin against humanity do I treat like that? I mean, I don't treat Invisible Children movement like that. I don't treat the Humane Society like that. I don't treat...I don't treat anything like that.

These thoughts hit me like a ton of bricks tonight in class, and it's all I've been able to think about for the last several hours. I pray God will forgive me for my indifference. I mean, I don't want to go out and hold up signs with pictures of dead babies. I'm pretty sure that's not necessarily the right way to handle it. But when was the last time I prayed or felt convicted over this issue? Ever? I don't ever want to see one of those pictures and not be broken over sin. I don't ever want to think about abortion and not be hurt for a world around me that is dying and going to Hell apart from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And maybe these crazy pro-lifers are on to something. Instead of serving as a point of disdain or disgust, perhaps these people should serve as an alarm clock. Maybe it's more like a loud, clangy alarm clock instead of the gentle harp sound from my iPhone, but hopefully it wakes me up one way or the other.

Windy Gap

Right now is one of those times I need to be reading, but instead I'm unwinding with some college basketball and a little writing. It's a perfect end to a pretty good day. But days like today always get me thinking and usually make me feel a little (ok, a lot) nostalgic. And by "days like today" I mean a completely blue, beautiful sky and great all around weather, though it was a little too cold to sit outside and read. And when I have "beautiful day" nostalgia (I am just now realizing the incredible opportunity I missed by not singing it with Bono at the top of my lungs with the windows rolled down) I go to one of two places - Malibu or Windy Gap.

Today it was Windy Gap, and I spent most of the day wishing I was sitting at the Sippin' Parlor in one of those big rocking chairs watching the various goings on around the lake...people getting blobbed, people playing disc golf, the ducks swimming, and knowing in all of these instances the gospel is being proclaimed to kids that have maybe never heard it before. And therein lies the beauty of that place - everything about it is a carefully, well thought out, intentional (although not always obvious) way to share the gospel. But I'll get to that later.

What do I miss about it? The beauty of it. I mean, it's up there in the North Carolina mountains. Everything is green. I remember clear days there - the bluest skies and greenest grass I have ever seen. Even on rainy days, it's a peaceful, calm, steady rain that just feels like it's cleansing the earth. On a clear night, you can see more stars than seemingly anywhere else. I always loved the "20 minutes of silence nights" when I got to lie in the grass and look up at the stars and KNOW I was having a conversation with the very God that put them into place. However, one of my fondest memories of Windy Gap came one night, during one of the 20 minute periods everything was turned off, when it was really cloudy. I actually remember being disappointed that the kids (and myself) wouldn't get to see the stars and I remember praying that God would show his glory anyway, and what I saw was the most incredible display of fireflies...well...fireflying that I have ever seen. It was phenomenal...you could see them all over everywhere and I thought about how much God loved us that he would create an insect that lit up like stars for no other reason than the fact that he could. That we could (and should) enjoy it. And then there's the view you get when you hike up the hill and overlook camp. There is nothing like it anywhere. It's great because it's beautiful but also because it reminds me how small I really am.

I miss it because of the memories I have there. Most are some of the fondest memories of my life, a few are very painful memories, but all of them are memories and experiences I can point to as growing experiences. It's the place that the wheels really started turning for what it meant to be a Christian (a process that took years, no doubt, but the process was significantly impacted). It's the place that I fell in love for the first (and only, so far) time. It's the place that I was blasted in the face with the reality that that same love was gone. And in the process of all of that, I learned and grew closer to the love that is greater than every other love - the love Christ has for me. Some of my closest friendships in the entire world were either begun or seriously cultivated there. It also was the place that I started to feel out of place in my situation at the time, if that makes sense. So there are just a lot of emotions that come up when I think about that place and want to be back there - physically and mentally and emotionally and spiritually.

I also miss it because it's literally holy ground. I never thought about it until a friend of mine pointed it out, but literally everywhere you stand on that property, somebody's life has been forever impacted and changed by the gospel. Think about that - where is a place, besides a Young Life camp - everywhere you stand, everywhere you see a person has come from death into life in Christ? (And I mean that seriously - where? Not in the sense that the answer is nowhere else but in the sense that I really want to know. So if you read this I'd love to hear your thoughts). Everything there, as I mentioned before, is specifically designed for the advancement of the gospel. Whether it's something as simple as Christian music playing in the background at the store or the Sippie, or the excellent, joyful service by the Work Crew and Summer Staff, or the way things are really spread out so that you can walk far enough to have great conversation about the beauty around you or the message from the speaker or just life in general during the trip. The gospel is presented in music, in talks, in example...I mean seriously, every way you can imagine. And, in addition to all that, you really get to be a kid again.

All this might sound cheesy. It probably is, and that's fine, because anybody that's been there gets it. It's an experience I wish everyone could have, and one I wish I could have again. And I will because you can go as an adult guest. So...when I have a family...we're so going to Windy Gap.

Just some thoughts,
-chanchan