Ok Ok … I’m putting the soapbox away and actually going to go against what might be my better judgment (This in itself is a paradox as if I am lacking in judgment how do I know if I am having good judgment to begin with). For all the talk that I did in my last post about video games I am going to get in my car and go see what potential there is. To be honest I am not sure what I am going to find down there as I have been removed from being a member of the world. Now I come and view from the outside looking in, and I’m not sure what I will see.
I know on the surface I will see a large number of individuals playing computer games and having a good time. What I am scared of is finding out what is underneath that facade. I think one of the dangers is seeing my own dark side, or at least a shadow of it. Understand that I am aware that I still have my dark side tendencies. I normally don’t have to go very far either. Now as an ‘outsider’ looking in what will I see? Or maybe better yet is what will my reaction be?
One of [Professor] Chap’s biggest things about doing youth ministry is to be looking at a group of kids and to see, understand, and feel for the kids; and as a result be unable to hold back the tears. One of my mentors in my younger years commented on the difference between seeing the crowd and seeing the faces of the individuals. I have seen the crowd most of my life, and while I have seen the individual faces it was a smaller group and there was no crowd to blur the lines. To be talking to a larger group of people and to see the difference between the crowd, as a single unit, and the individual faces. To see the individual needs, wants, aspirations, pains, joys, sorrows, trials, and so on.
One of the topics of discussion that came up in our foundations small group was a youth pastor’s role; specifically in the difference between being a friend and being an authority figure, spiritual as it may be. My personal mode is of a friend; I have not been in the situation where I had to be the authority figure. I take that back, I choose not to be in at least one situation. (It is a good story, but not presently applicable.)
What am I going to see when I go down there … I’m not sure. I am sure I will see glimpses of myself. I am sure I will see glimpses of my future ministry without knowing it. But I am not so sure I will see the faces come out of the crowd.
Note: After typing this whole thing I looked on my calendar and realized I am working on that night … figures.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Soapbox: Video Games and Youth
I am a video game addict. Not was, am.
While I have done ok through the course of my seminary career I still have my ear to the sounds of the electronic gaming industry. I realize that I could open up a whole can of worms here, and I might.
What is often missed is that people are not very stupid anymore. Sony made a very very large advertisement mistake this Christmas when they hired an advertisement company to use ‘viral’ marketing. (viral Marketing is basically a word of mouth marketing, but using internet tools such as myspace, blogs, etc etc) Three days later: Sony had removed the information from the site and had been found out. (Link) Next fun thing is the Christmas releases of both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. How bad was it? Gaming stores gave individuals redeemable tickets after robbers held up a line waiting outside overnight.
Now I don’t care how anything really gets advertised, more than anything I normally buy second hand stuff in a technology oriented system. Any computer is outdated normally by the next year, and video gaming systems have a life span of about three. Here is where it gets fun: video game consoles (Xbox, Playstation, Wii) all have price tags starting at $400 and up. That is more money than I spend on food in a month. Add on the joy of games at $50+.
Now I have never been a true console gamer, I normally try to barrow a console and play the games that I want to once through and then be done with them. My vice has always been computer games. Most notable was the modification for Half-Life called Counter-Strike. In my heyday I could sit down and play for 5 hours straight with only breaks for a refill of my soda, or get another snack. I can rationalize the time spent as well; at least to myself, others might disagree. Shortly after college I got out, and let that part of my life go.
Even in college I had my limits: it was the age of Everquest. One of my early rules in playing games was that I would not pick up a game with no ending, nor would I pay money beyond an Internet connection to continue to play the games. Today there is World of Warcraft. How popular is it? It has been on Jeopardy.
Blah blah blah … so what’s the point I’m trying to say here? Seminary class: Youth and Evangelism Final project. One of the choices is to spend some time in an area where youth hang out and just listen in on conversations. In the back of my head I want to find an Internet gaming café and hang out there. I know of a 300 computer/100 Xbox café south of Irvine (40 min drive) that is open till 2am on Friday night. One of the largest fights in my ministry to youth has been that of dealing with technological attraction to video games. The literal truth in some cases has been that paying for the kid to play on the computer is cheaper than a baby sitter and the kid has more fun. Now granted most conversation over video games are those complaining about how the game is cheating them or some other player is cheating, but there is a who culture of video gaming that I would say (blind guess) 85% of males have been exposed to, what is scary is the slow growth of female population find interest in the games. (At least of people that I know) One of my old high school girls could probably put on a clinic at some console games. (She can also hurt me if she really wanted to, so I try to stay on her good side.)
I concede the point that there are some people who should not play video games. Not for reasons that uses up time, but for reasons of mental instability. I know of multiple stories where individuals have logged onto games, then killed themselves while logged in. (I just don’t feel like using my google-fu) I have had friends where the relationships within games were more important than those outside. I could take this into a whole different realm of online anonymity, but that takes a whole rant unto itself.
Part II to come next week when I get some free time ...
While I have done ok through the course of my seminary career I still have my ear to the sounds of the electronic gaming industry. I realize that I could open up a whole can of worms here, and I might.
What is often missed is that people are not very stupid anymore. Sony made a very very large advertisement mistake this Christmas when they hired an advertisement company to use ‘viral’ marketing. (viral Marketing is basically a word of mouth marketing, but using internet tools such as myspace, blogs, etc etc) Three days later: Sony had removed the information from the site and had been found out. (Link) Next fun thing is the Christmas releases of both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. How bad was it? Gaming stores gave individuals redeemable tickets after robbers held up a line waiting outside overnight.
Now I don’t care how anything really gets advertised, more than anything I normally buy second hand stuff in a technology oriented system. Any computer is outdated normally by the next year, and video gaming systems have a life span of about three. Here is where it gets fun: video game consoles (Xbox, Playstation, Wii) all have price tags starting at $400 and up. That is more money than I spend on food in a month. Add on the joy of games at $50+.
Now I have never been a true console gamer, I normally try to barrow a console and play the games that I want to once through and then be done with them. My vice has always been computer games. Most notable was the modification for Half-Life called Counter-Strike. In my heyday I could sit down and play for 5 hours straight with only breaks for a refill of my soda, or get another snack. I can rationalize the time spent as well; at least to myself, others might disagree. Shortly after college I got out, and let that part of my life go.
Even in college I had my limits: it was the age of Everquest. One of my early rules in playing games was that I would not pick up a game with no ending, nor would I pay money beyond an Internet connection to continue to play the games. Today there is World of Warcraft. How popular is it? It has been on Jeopardy.
Blah blah blah … so what’s the point I’m trying to say here? Seminary class: Youth and Evangelism Final project. One of the choices is to spend some time in an area where youth hang out and just listen in on conversations. In the back of my head I want to find an Internet gaming café and hang out there. I know of a 300 computer/100 Xbox café south of Irvine (40 min drive) that is open till 2am on Friday night. One of the largest fights in my ministry to youth has been that of dealing with technological attraction to video games. The literal truth in some cases has been that paying for the kid to play on the computer is cheaper than a baby sitter and the kid has more fun. Now granted most conversation over video games are those complaining about how the game is cheating them or some other player is cheating, but there is a who culture of video gaming that I would say (blind guess) 85% of males have been exposed to, what is scary is the slow growth of female population find interest in the games. (At least of people that I know) One of my old high school girls could probably put on a clinic at some console games. (She can also hurt me if she really wanted to, so I try to stay on her good side.)
I concede the point that there are some people who should not play video games. Not for reasons that uses up time, but for reasons of mental instability. I know of multiple stories where individuals have logged onto games, then killed themselves while logged in. (I just don’t feel like using my google-fu) I have had friends where the relationships within games were more important than those outside. I could take this into a whole different realm of online anonymity, but that takes a whole rant unto itself.
Part II to come next week when I get some free time ...
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Decompression
Seminary is amazing, but there are times when there is no choice but to react and not think about some of the things that are being taught in class. Nor are you given time to fully stop and consider self-belief in some of the topics brought up. So here I am with about 2 weeks to consider my last quarter/year of seminary and think about some of my personal beliefs on each of the topics. These are boring and uninteresting to common readers, or at least they bore me.
Yet I am sitting typing this, waiting to go out to dinner with my Arroyo Grande friends for all you can eat pizza, I am turned back to a simple cross that is around my neck and what it means. It is odd to think that it was not a month ago I was in Texas at Cursillo, and I had a whole post on the sudden shock of going back into the real world, and not much changed about my life. With the sudden dunking of papers, finals, midterms, third declension of Greek nouns all looming over my head, I was just able to scrape by to Thanksgiving, and then crawl my way through finals week and into Christmas break. I have only one regret about Cursillo: That I did not go out and stand in the Texas Thunderstorm, despite every instinct to do so.
So now I am at my parents house and have just been listening in on some of the things that my Dad has commented about being in ministry. About problems, about congregations, about governing Presbyterian bodies. He is getting close to 20 years at the same church with is a statement of commitment to his goals, but being in Seminary has shown me many things that have just gone wrong in churches. The question hasn’t come down to ‘why are there problems?’ but has become more along the lines of ‘which problems do you want to deal with?’ Slowly I am beginning to see how each church is a living breathing thing that has a personality (or multiple) that needs help in more way than one.
So here I stand with this understanding of agape love: a love that loves until the object of the love gives in. Looking back at the ‘work force’ that I am going into, I wonder how I could ever give up on someone. I look back and can see that I wasn’t able to help out everyone, but to give up on someone who had invested time in? My little brain cannot compute that equation. Maybe it is that I am tired at the time of writing this, but I know I am able to remember my failures more so than my successes. Yet when it comes to this I can only see the faces of the kids who I ‘know’ were affected by my presence and interaction.
Sometime later …
Back in Pasadena and reading this over again. Not much has changed, and I don’t have any answers to the questions, or worse the answer only produces more questions. I have finished one year of schooling, and have 2 more to go. With school starting on Wednesday (for me, I have no Tuesday class this quarter) I'm looking ahead with the question of: will I have time to ponder all of my questions? Wondering where I might be in two years is a little ambitious, maybe just three months out is far enough.
Yet I am sitting typing this, waiting to go out to dinner with my Arroyo Grande friends for all you can eat pizza, I am turned back to a simple cross that is around my neck and what it means. It is odd to think that it was not a month ago I was in Texas at Cursillo, and I had a whole post on the sudden shock of going back into the real world, and not much changed about my life. With the sudden dunking of papers, finals, midterms, third declension of Greek nouns all looming over my head, I was just able to scrape by to Thanksgiving, and then crawl my way through finals week and into Christmas break. I have only one regret about Cursillo: That I did not go out and stand in the Texas Thunderstorm, despite every instinct to do so.
So now I am at my parents house and have just been listening in on some of the things that my Dad has commented about being in ministry. About problems, about congregations, about governing Presbyterian bodies. He is getting close to 20 years at the same church with is a statement of commitment to his goals, but being in Seminary has shown me many things that have just gone wrong in churches. The question hasn’t come down to ‘why are there problems?’ but has become more along the lines of ‘which problems do you want to deal with?’ Slowly I am beginning to see how each church is a living breathing thing that has a personality (or multiple) that needs help in more way than one.
So here I stand with this understanding of agape love: a love that loves until the object of the love gives in. Looking back at the ‘work force’ that I am going into, I wonder how I could ever give up on someone. I look back and can see that I wasn’t able to help out everyone, but to give up on someone who had invested time in? My little brain cannot compute that equation. Maybe it is that I am tired at the time of writing this, but I know I am able to remember my failures more so than my successes. Yet when it comes to this I can only see the faces of the kids who I ‘know’ were affected by my presence and interaction.
Sometime later …
Back in Pasadena and reading this over again. Not much has changed, and I don’t have any answers to the questions, or worse the answer only produces more questions. I have finished one year of schooling, and have 2 more to go. With school starting on Wednesday (for me, I have no Tuesday class this quarter) I'm looking ahead with the question of: will I have time to ponder all of my questions? Wondering where I might be in two years is a little ambitious, maybe just three months out is far enough.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Merry Christmas
Sometimes others have better words than I do. Today is such a case.
And the first time that you opened your eyes, did you realize that you would be my savior?
And the first breath that left your lips, did you know that it would change this world forever?
And I, I celebrate the day
That you were born to die
So I could one day pray for you to save my life
Pray for you to save my life
- I Celebrate the Day, Relient K
And the first time that you opened your eyes, did you realize that you would be my savior?
And the first breath that left your lips, did you know that it would change this world forever?
And I, I celebrate the day
That you were born to die
So I could one day pray for you to save my life
Pray for you to save my life
- I Celebrate the Day, Relient K
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Christmas Nostalgia
Around Christmas time I get nostalgic for some very specific memories. One of them is hunting up a copy of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation if only for the sledding scene. With the invention of YouTube I have found a pair of hi-larious claymations from my younger years. I found the whole thing in a Three Part Series. But there are two classic pieces that are here now for your viewing pleasure:
Angels we Have Heard on High (No Penguins were harmed in it's making):
And - We Three Kings:
Angels we Have Heard on High (No Penguins were harmed in it's making):
And - We Three Kings:
Monday, December 11, 2006
Post finals wrap up
Today is Saturday. Today is the first ‘official’ day of Christmas break. Today is the first day of me being a second year at Fuller.
Since school is out that means I get to return to one of my joys in life: Running like a crazy man after a Frisbee. This is sometimes called therapy for me, if only because any frustrations are run out on the field and put out in a friendly game of who can catch the flying disk. For those in the audience who are wondering: ‘Frisbee, therapeutic … not quite sure I follow.’ While yes it normally wipes me out for the rest of the day, It allows me to just enjoy a day of doing little to no work. While I had intended to clean my apartment, prepare some food so I could make fried rice later, and go out to replace my now empty supply of cream soda. Instead I watched a movie, played a little guitar and still might go out for the cream soda. Priorities people … gotta have ‘em.
I have a really boring Christmas break coming up. I mean I’m going to go home, do my favorite vacation activity (as little as possible), and then come back to Pasadena. I will get to see the family and talk to my home church but for the most part it should be a nice week of relaxing and enjoying the rest. I do have a week to watch Season 4, courtesy of Blockbuster. If I don’t emerge from my apartment for 2 days, send for help.
It is a little odd to think that I am 1/3 done with my seminary career, but it is true. I can no longer claim ignorance in the face of questions of how things were done the year before. Not that I won’t try, but still it is sometimes nice to play dumb. Either way it is the first time that I have enjoyed school. It is weird to have professors walk in and say that teaching doesn’t feel like work, from what I have seen I believe it though. There is not an all campus aura of stress, and struggle to try to figure things out. I sometimes wonder if I am make-believe land where life is perfect and nothing is ever wrong.
Well maybe not … A buddy of mine just had his first son. One of the classes we shared this quarter was patristic theology covering everything from post-apostles up till about Augustine in the early 400s. We talked about baptism and opinions. While I’m not really in the mood to rant it has brought up an interesting consideration. While it is not limited to this one topic I have been challenged in areas where I don’t know the answers. For all my fear of systematic theology, I am beginning to wonder if I should start taking some.
Sunday:
Season 4 - 4 disks down, 2 to go. I call 24 my drug of choice, I’ll be admitting myself to rehab Monday night.
SHORTEST
YEAR
EVER!
YEAR
EVER!
Since school is out that means I get to return to one of my joys in life: Running like a crazy man after a Frisbee. This is sometimes called therapy for me, if only because any frustrations are run out on the field and put out in a friendly game of who can catch the flying disk. For those in the audience who are wondering: ‘Frisbee, therapeutic … not quite sure I follow.’ While yes it normally wipes me out for the rest of the day, It allows me to just enjoy a day of doing little to no work. While I had intended to clean my apartment, prepare some food so I could make fried rice later, and go out to replace my now empty supply of cream soda. Instead I watched a movie, played a little guitar and still might go out for the cream soda. Priorities people … gotta have ‘em.
I have a really boring Christmas break coming up. I mean I’m going to go home, do my favorite vacation activity (as little as possible), and then come back to Pasadena. I will get to see the family and talk to my home church but for the most part it should be a nice week of relaxing and enjoying the rest. I do have a week to watch Season 4, courtesy of Blockbuster. If I don’t emerge from my apartment for 2 days, send for help.
It is a little odd to think that I am 1/3 done with my seminary career, but it is true. I can no longer claim ignorance in the face of questions of how things were done the year before. Not that I won’t try, but still it is sometimes nice to play dumb. Either way it is the first time that I have enjoyed school. It is weird to have professors walk in and say that teaching doesn’t feel like work, from what I have seen I believe it though. There is not an all campus aura of stress, and struggle to try to figure things out. I sometimes wonder if I am make-believe land where life is perfect and nothing is ever wrong.
Well maybe not … A buddy of mine just had his first son. One of the classes we shared this quarter was patristic theology covering everything from post-apostles up till about Augustine in the early 400s. We talked about baptism and opinions. While I’m not really in the mood to rant it has brought up an interesting consideration. While it is not limited to this one topic I have been challenged in areas where I don’t know the answers. For all my fear of systematic theology, I am beginning to wonder if I should start taking some.
Sunday:
Season 4 - 4 disks down, 2 to go. I call 24 my drug of choice, I’ll be admitting myself to rehab Monday night.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
A Small Problem
I have become a Latte snob ... of the Vanilla persuasion. I have spent mornings driving down Lake to get one at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf rather than walk to the closest coffee bar. I feel like less of a person. I will be seeking help after finals.
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