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neurological dryer lint

dirty deeds... and the dunderchief

 

eat your salad day deathbed motorcade

i am excited about reaching post 1000 today, but even more excited that wack mc's beat me to it. that site has been a rousing success and is one of the first places i hit every day, i'm thrilled that it's been consistently entertaining and interesting. bravo, y'all.

on the contrary, reading back over four years of my own material has made me cringe more than smile. i enjoy revisting some of the more interesting conversations about faith, church, government, gaming, popular culture, etc... but yeah, about 95% feels like drivel.

however the remaining 5% (about 50 posts) that i feel were significant to me, i think i'm going to compile them into a book. it may appear that i am arrogant and self-important enough to think that people would pay to hear what i have to say - i don't, however, this would simply be for my own sake. i wouldn't sell it, i'd just use cafepress's self publish feature to throw one together, carefully formatted with the most substantial comments inline.

why? in ten or twenty years, blogger probably won't exist, and i will have been too lazy to back up the content. but this is an important period of my life - and although when i'm forty or fifty i doubt i will care what i thought of phantom hourglass, i do think that some of the realizations i've had about my relationship with God will be good reminders.

so here's to another thousand. let's kick it off - youth ministry using first-person shooter video games to reach kids - totally legit or disgusting abomination? GO.

 

for this post

 
Blogger B-Call Says:

every month, i look back at that same month the previous year. sometimes i laugh, sometimes i figure out how stupid i am. but mostly, it just makes me realize how quickly i need to get to 500 so i can shut the thing down.

 
 
Blogger Nickolini Says:

Question: Are you shooting pagan hedonists in this game? If so, why not. Every kid who comes to know Christ should feel that urge to shoot an abortion doctor or the head of GLAAD. Hatred for liberal activists is a healthy part of the conversion experience. PLEASE know that I am being SARCASTIC.

 
 
Blogger scott d Says:

absolutely, fire away. halo has been a part of our youth ministry for years.

 
 
Blogger Justin Hall Says:

i hear that in the Left Behind game, you can kill innocent civilians, something you can't even do in Halo. uh oh, that comment might get me a cease & desist letter.

i do see the incongruity between an admittedly violent game like Halo being encouraged by followers of Jesus. but their intentions aren't to lure kids into a life of murder and destruction. the assumption in the article is that kids are going to become more violent because they played the game - a typical fallacy used in this argument, and one that doesn't hold water, especially if you've spent any time with that generation or played a round of Halo.

on the contrary - shared experiences of that sort (and others, like paintball, basketball, etc) build community and strengthen relationships. i do think that organized stuff like this is a little weird, though, and that kids deserve a little better than these bait-and-switch tactics - "Come play your favorite games and we'll ambush you with a spiel on our belief system!" yep, sign me up...

 
 
Blogger Nickolini Says:

"we'll ambush you with a spiel on our belief system"

Hey....you just described Young Life.....you ambusher you.

I've played Halo and I've only murdered a half dozen or so. I figured I would kill at least 10 by the age of 30, so if anything, Halo has made me less violent.

 
 
Blogger B-Call Says:

Nick, then you've got a lot of killing to do before May. At least let me get through Saturday night. Then you can have your way with me.
GO BEARCATS!!!

 
 
Blogger Justin Hall Says:

you're totally right - i just described one of the things that has always kind of surprised me about YL, actually. eight years of club talks and i never really got comfortable with what i felt like was ambushing new folks... it's not like we were talking much about religion, though, or a 'belief structure' - we spent our time talking about Jesus, a person, a relationship - but it still felt a little used-car-salesmen-ish... does that make sense?

 
 
Blogger Nickolini Says:

I think if you referred to Him as Jebus, the kids would have felt more comfortable.

 
 
Blogger Simon Says:

Hey Justin thanks for pointing out that 5% of 1000 is 50. What would we have done without you mang!

 
 
Blogger Justin Hall Says:

flaunting that public school education. respect, son!

 
 
Anonymous Anonymous Says:

Check out lulu.com for publishing. I don't know jack about cafepress', but lulu looks cool.

 

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