Items and Monsters and Items

Originally I was going to have two of my close friends who was consulting with me on the Darkness Falls: The Crusade remake do much of the creative work for item and monster design while I proceeded on the guts of the game itself.  To that end I am considering writing a program that lets people interested design weapons and monsters for the game and submit them directly to the database.  I am not sure I'm going through with it, but for anyone that reads this, let me know if you're interested and I'll consider tossing the program your way.

Diablo 3 and Magestorm and DFC

Today was the release of the long awaited Diablo 3 game.  I never played Diablo or D2 and don't particularly have any interest in D3.  Unfortunately, most of the Magestorm community does.  Today was extremely difficult to find a game to play for most of the day.  Since my favorite passtime is disappearing, and I now have more free time that can't be filled with the awesomeness that is magestorm, that means WORKING ON Darkness Falls: The Crusade!  So all you guys that search DFC so much and contact me about progress....You're welcome ;)

Marriage and Religion and Marriage

Yesterday President Obama came out and openly supported marriage and all the rights that that entails for same sex couples.  This was a pretty historic event as he is the first Politician to support it either in office or running for the Presidency.  But, today, I want to talk about the backlash and give a brief response to those who oppose equal rights for gay citizens and as it usually is, it focuses around Church and State separation.  The most common argument I hear is that the Christian God says that homosexuality is an abomination.  Okay, fine, your god says that, but the government is supposed to stay out of religion right?  What if the government decided that everyone had to stop what they were doing five times a day, kneel on the floor facing Mecca and pray. I don't think many of these Christian Fundamentalists would like that.  It is the same thing.  I will respect your belief that your religion tells you an act is wrong, but I'll be damned (har har) if I will stand by and let you force your religious beliefs into government and onto everybody else.  Your argument that "God says _____ so therefore the government should do _______" is invalid and has no basis in a serious discussion.  Now say you want to get into arguments like calling it unnatural or counter to propagation of the species.  In those cases, they could be considered valid in the sense that they have nothing to do with religion.  I vehemently disagree with you and could cite many reasons why those points are wrong, but they are still valid to a discussion on government involvement in peoples lives.

In the end, what is more important to you and your religion?  Two members of the same sex performing a consensual act in the privacy of their own home or following many of the other teachings of Christianity like "turn the other cheek," "Judge not lest ye be Judged."  and/or "Let he who is without sin throw the first stone."  I think that is where the real crux of the issue should be for you.


Addendum:  I saw a fantastic article today about how divorce rates are highest amongst conservative Christian denominations compared to others and atheist/agnostic/non-affiliated are dramatically lower.  I lawled.

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/927753/hey_fox,_what_about_this_%22war_on_marriage%22_divorce_rates_are_highest_among_evangelicals/

Women and Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson and Women

I watched a very interesting video earlier tonight of a woman hijacking Sean Hannity's show to attack another guest that she did not know was going to be on the show with her.  Of course this in and of itself was a great treat, but even more of a treat was what she was angry about, and most rightfully so.  She tore into the man about his misogynistic comments he had made in past sermons to which he only gave a rambling response about how he was just telling the truth.  Well, I went out and found the video and it was 12 minutes and 3 seconds of the most sexist comments I've ever heard, all rolled into one long rambling, semi-coherent thought. He is definitely right at home on Fox News.  I hope he went home to be kicked in the nuts by his wife after she heard this.

To paraphrase: "Women can't handle stress, they freak out.  Women can't handle power. Women have no shame.  Women are whores. Women shouldn't be allowed to vote because they elect evil people.  Women are responsible for homosexuality and gay marriage. Women can no longer be put in their place."


We should elect this guy emporererer of Urf.

Jordan Clipston

Normally I am not much for hopping on the bandwagon of internet causes, but after reading this interview I just couldn't stop myself.  Jordan Clipston has a daughter, Ariel.  Jordan Clipston is an atheist.  The mother of his daughter, a woman he was with for 5 1/2 years is moderately religious, but very submissive towards her very religious parents.  In short, the parents didn't like that their daughter had a child with an atheist.  They eventually convinced her to leave him and she took their daughter, Ariel.  There is a transcript of a phone call Jordan had with the grandfather of his daughter in which it is made very clear why it is all happening.  Jordan worked three jobs while they were together to support the entire family while the mother had trouble holding down one for various reasons.  Jordan has been kept from his daughter for far too long.

There is a facebook page to offer support that can be accessed here:

https://www.facebook.com/HelpReuniteArielAndJordan

The intervew can be found here:

http://crackpotchronicle.net/main/2012/05/02/being-an-atheist-is-causing-a-good-man-to-fight-for-custody-of-his-daughter/

DC Cancellations

The time for DC to make decisions on which series stay and which get the axe has come and gone and I'm not terribly happy about it.  There were 6 series cancelled, Hawk and Dove, Men of War, OMAC, Mister Terrific, Static Shock and Blackhawks.  I was not terribly surprised by OMAC, Men of War and Blackhawks.  The story behind Hawk and Dove seemed like it could go places.  Static Shock felt like it should have been given more time to get rolling but it wasn't as good as it could have been, yet.  Most disappointingly, Mister Terrific was axed.  I don't believe it is intentional, but it is worth noting that 3 of the 6 cancelled were minority super heroes (OMAC, Static Shock, Mister Terrific) with Men of War and Blackhawks not really having a specific hero.  Hawk and Dove was the only axed series that focused on white heroes.  As I stated, I don't think this was intentional, it is just unfortunate the dice fell that way.

Now back to Mister Terrific.  I wont beat around the bush, the story and dialogue in general was not that great but Mister Terrific was an odd man out in the super hero world in that he was openly atheist, devoted entirely to scientific discovery and was proud of it.  He was a hero in the truest sense of the word, putting himself on the line to save others, sometimes on a gigantic scale, and he did it all without having to be told what is right and what is wrong.  Now, none of the characters themselves are nixed and will still make appearances around the DC universe, but the comic world is not better off today.  Not at all.

Addendum:  The new replacement titles:  The Ravagers (Teen Titans spinoff), Batman Incorporated (was on hiatus), Dial H, Earth #2, G.I. Combat and World's Finest.

Atheism and Religion and Atheism

As time goes by I find myself falling farther and farther away from the position on religion I used to have.  I used to see it as ones own personal search for enlightenment, and for the most part I still do, but at the same time as I continue to question everything, despite having converted out of Christianity, it just keeps crumbling away for me.  Recently Dan Savage was chastised for his criticism of people who use the bible to justify their hate.  He referenced a long list of things that the bible used to promote or require but that have become generally ignored in the face of modern culture.  Things like slavery, stoning women who aren't virgins, menstruation, and masturbation.  The bible's content on all of those things is ridiculous and it started me thinking about the bible itself.  Christianity bases itself off the teachings of Jesus Christ but the problem is, Jesus didn't record anything he taught.  The bible is a collection of writings from a large assortment of people that was assembled 300 to 400 years after Jesus's death by a group who obviously had never even met any of the writers.  This is beyond 2nd hand information.  It is centuries beyond 2nd hand information.  Now, Jesus may have been what he said he was, I can't prove that wrong, and nobody can prove it right, but honestly, it just sounds like he was a crazy cult leader who struck gold and his idea took off and running and is still living strong 2000 years later.  I still see the pursuit of spirituality as very strong and worthwhile and honor those who truly do pursue that spirituality but out of every 100 people I meet who say they are religious, maybe 5 or 6 are constantly questioning and searching.  The rest were born into their religion, have lived it their entire lives in it and won't dare question anything that was pounded into their heads as children.

It is sad.  I love the search for knowledge.  I wish everyone did.

Question everything.