out of the blue

I no longer trust mainstream Christianity. I've been on the edge for a long time, and this just pushes me over it. This is utterly disgusting. Utterly.

Has anyone out there read The Purpose-Driven Life, by Rick Warren? Mr. Warren is the leader of a gigantic church in Califoria, as well as the head of an international organization that he likens to "a stealth army of one billion Christian foot soldiers." Now Mark Carver, the international director of Mr. Warren's organization, is endorsing a video game called Left Behind: Eternal Forces. Tim LaHaye, a co-author of the Left Behind series upon which the game is based, also endorses the game along with its violent appeal. "We hope teenagers like the game," he says.

What is the purpose of this game? Well, the Rapture has happened and taken all the good Christians up to heaven, and the only people left around are the non-Christians who are trying to sort things out. Thus begins the final struggle between Satan's forces and God's chosen (before Jesus comes back with the cavalry and his sword-tongue, of course).

Okay, so there's a battle between good and evil. That's not so bad. Tolkien did it. Lewis did it. We like good and evil to fight. Particularly when good is going to prevail in the end. But this video game isn't about good and evil. This game is about appealing to violent kids who like the sort of video games that churches seem to abhor. It's about indoctrinating kids to think that Christians are good and non-Christians deserve to be punished (isn't that what you have to think in order to believe in hell?) It's about taking taking up your cross(hairs) and converting the neutral ones or blowing those away who oppose you. Where is the Christ in that?

Read More

• The Purpose-Driven Life Takers (the first article about it that I read, which has lots of references and likens the game to a joke game on the Simpson's where you fire bibles at heathens to transform them magically into card-carrying Republicans.)
• Official Game Description (involves such goodies as a game trailer and quotes like "Conduct physical & spiritual warfare using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world" and "Recover ancient scriptures and witness spectacular Angelic and Demonic activity as a direct consequence of your choices." Recover ancient scriptures, huh? Like the ones where Jesus says "Love your enemy as yourself while you're killing him. Or maybe they mean actual scraps of the Bible in the original Greek and Hebrew. You never know….)

I've been doing web design all day, and the nice thing about web design is that you have something to show for it when it's all over and done with. Something easily sharable, because it's web design. Unless, of course, you're having difficulties with cross-browser compatibility and with window size, and with enough problems like those you actually have a very limited audience.

But enough of the complaining. If you can see these, you might be interested. First off is what I coded this morning, a drag-and-drop javascript paragraph reorganizer. Go see. It only works in Firefox, right now. It may be useful in some CMS eventually (although there are better functions out there for the same purpose, none of them were coded by me). This was a very difficult project, involving lots of stuff that I hadn't done before. I learned a lot.

(In case you were wondering, random bits of javascript in here were pulled from all over the web, notably Quirksmode and Robert Nyman. I'm sure there are other bits, but I don't remember which.)

The second page doesn't have anything stolen, except for a picture from my sister. It actually contains a bit of content that people might be interested in, about the general process by which I edit photos in Photoshop. It's an image gallery, pretty much, with shiny html and css, and some spiffy javascript functionality. (Nothing impressive. In fact, I could probably do it a lot nicer, if I cared to.) But it was a fun visual design and implementation project. The thing about web design is that it involves tons of different technologies. You might need to know a bit about object-oriented programming, typography, graphic design, html, css, database management… All sorts of stuff. It becomes a bit much to hold in your head. The limitation on this second page isn't browser issues — it seems to work pretty well in all major browsers. The problem is window size: I have a 850 pixel wide image, plus a menu, that comes to easily over 1024 pixels wide. Luckily, I have my monitor set to 1280. But Other people may not be that fortunate. Poor other people.

Anyway, enjoy. If you have Firefox and the right window size, respectively.

I went to Cape Lookout on the Oregon Coast this weekend with my family and Nora and my aunt and uncle. We expected bad weather, and we got bad weather. But Friday was good. The weather was not the disappointment. We were talking about going and seeing X3 on the rainy day, which seemed like a perfectly good activity since almost all of us were interested in it, but Dad vetoed it. This was not the disappointment. After the first night of rain I expected that my tent would remain dry for the entire weekend, but after each of the other nights it was a little damp on the floor. This was not the disappointment. We went out to lunch this afternoon to celebrate my mother's birthday. The food was not the disappointment. It was quite good, actually.

No, the disappointment was upon coming back. Nobody got a Flickr account. I am ashamed of all of you (except Aaron Brown, who had one first, and Nathan, who told me he'd program one for his website, and Cami and Paul, who got accounts when I told them to first). So, get on it, you pansies! Go get accounts, and go take worthy pictures!

And, if you want, you can look at mine.

This weekend my family is going to Cape Lookout to camp. We're leaving today in a few minutes, and we'll be back Monday evening. I hope it won't rain the ENTIRE time. I'll try to bring back some pictures.

Speaking of pictures, everyone who cares to should get a Flickr account. It's a photo-sharing site that has gotten a lot of mention on web design blogs for its impressive user interface design. It is very probably the best photo community site out there. So far I've gotten Cami and Paul to get accounts, and I created an SST/NRST group. (There is also a Gonzaga group for those of you who aren't from SST. I'm sure you can find it.)

Chris' Photos on Flickr

I will be disappointed if there isn't at least one more person with an account by the time I return on Monday. Remember, I'm watching you! (Particularly you, Soren, and you, Aaron. Get on it!)

See you folks in a few days. Enjoy your weekends.

The lovely Camille has done it again. She has once again proven her wonderfulness. Today, it comes in the form of taking pictures during frisbee so I can be proud of jumping all over the place and being crazy. I wish she had gotten a picture of one of the times when I laid out for the disc. I love diving. When you can't get the frisbee just by running, but you can convert some of your potential energy into forward motion to just barely grasp it on the tips of your fingers before slamming into the ground. Ultimate joy.

view the image on Cami's flickr account

"Love should be put into action!"
screamed the old hermit.
Across the pond an echo
tried and tried to confirm it.

-Elizabeth Bishop, "Chemin de Fer"

You know those days where each thing flows directly into the next, and at the end of it all you're not sure where any one stopped and the next begun? I just had a day like that. It was immensely enjoyable. Thanks to Elana, Sarah, Danko and Rusty in particular for their company. It was fun.

Thoughts

• – Elizabeth Bishop just feels good to read on the bus. Oh yeah. I read poetry. For fun.
• – Even though I left over an hour before 12:00, I still arrived at Elana's house within a minute of when I was aiming.
• – Elana's grandfather is, consistent with reports, quite awesome.
• – Elana's grandfather's house is only two miles away from Sarah's house.
• – To walk in the rain can be one of life's greatest plesasures.
• – Sarah and I share a common pleasure in spur-of-the-moment meetings and eating Tillamook ice cream.
• – Cedar Mill Public Library is very close to Sarah's house, and Danko was there to fulfill my hopes and dreams.
• – Danko wasn't nearly as surprised as he ought to have been when I showed up behind him while he was canoodling a drinking fountain.
• – Sarah and I fulfilled our vital mission in Thriftway, much to Danko's surprise and the Library's delight.
• – Sarah's family is both willing to welcome impromptu dinner companions and entertaining to dine with.
• – The art show for high school students in which Rebecca (Sarah-sister) entered a few pieces was very good, and near enough to my house to beg for a ride back.
• – Rusty was willing to stay for a bit and eat a hamburger (cooked by me!) when he dropped my sister off after their health class.
• – Reflecting on these events is nearly as pleasant as experiencing them.

Wow. This is utterly awesome. Holy cow. Look at this.

http://www.worldbeardchampionships.com/

(Stolen from Sarah)

"Lacking bear pepper-spray, I walked home across the garden last night singing very loud bear songs, which went something along the lines of, "Lalala, I am singing very loudly to alert the bear to my presence, Lalala because most of the websites I've found talk about making noise and giving bears lots of time to get away, Lalala also I do not want to startle a bear at all because according to everything I've read on the subject bears do not like being startled." You don't have to worry about rhymes with bears. They don't mind about rhymes. Or tunes. Or scansion. Frankly, hypothetical bears are a very easy sort of audience."

–Neil Gaiman

(I am proud to say that I have sometimes been known to sing bear songs when hiking. Gaiman's words send a wave of nostalgia over me. I should hike more. And sing more.)

[And, on another note, mockups for the next Neil Gaiman collection of short stories, entitled "Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders." Fragile Things is due out in Autumn, and I plan to own it within a couple of days of its release.]

I made it through the long drive from Spokane and Portland, dragging with me my parents and living supplies (like a toothbrush, clothes, art supplies, this computer…). I'm back in Portland! Let the festivities ensue. I may be very busy for the first week or so, and I hope to get a job eventually, but I expect to see a lot of people nonetheless. You are forewarned.