Curse words

Hey, jus’ because I’m a Christian does not mean I don’t understand everyday problems. It doesn’t mean I don’t know what ordinary teens go through in their lives. I am a teen as of this moment and I struggle hard not to fall into temptation, as I seem continually to do. This blog I write in is for my continual improvement in my relationship with God. Now, I don’t want to run full steam ahead with “Godly attributes” ‘cause I don’t want people running away on me. First let me see if I can understand you’re situation (if you have one). So first you want to say, what’s wrong with swear words right? Well, let’s cover this fast. First, we, as human, weak, sinful beings, we have no authority to send someone to Damnation, or to Hell. So it’s really absolutely pointless when we say things like that. Then there is taking God’s name in vain, that’s an easy one. Bullshit is just plain crude humor, not polite in many cases, so I wouldn’t recommend it. In general of all swear words, Ephesians 4:29 says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” 1 Peter 3:10 says, “For, Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.” So that area is clear. But I understand a need to express ones self. Saying inappropriate speech will make people listen to you more. Hey, that’s a case. Barbarians honored those who died first in battle. Ok so maybe a little different but you get my point. This is, using such words may get you respect or attention that you want. Hey, I’m with you in saying that using the words will get you attention. That’s obvious, though you may get into trouble with elder authorities. But is that attention the kind of attention that you want? It could be, so this lessen will be completely worthless to you. However, if you want attention, but would like to do it in a clean wholesome way, I would suggest that you open a thesaurus. Find one at your local library or something. But anyway, what I’m getting at sis that you will be respected and looked upon as a better, intelligent, cool person in general if you can express your opinions in such a way that you do not use swear words. That is the cold hard truth, that using swear words is not the greatest way to go for attention. Now, the way I speak of is slightly harder, but trust me, it works best in the long run. You will be respected by better people, ones that will help you in your life better then anyone else. Whether you’re applying for a job or gaining a friend, better language is simply better. now I don’t think that crazy nice talk is going to get you anywhere either. Instead of saying, yo whats up dog, I got some da*n sweet deals on some fr***en Bluetooth merchandise, you gotta come check it, you could say hello, how are you trusted comrade? I got a really good deal on some of the Bluetooth products, it would be entertaining for you to come over to my house and play around with it. No, no, no, that’s just lame and stupid. Try something in between. Hey, how’s it going? I got a cool deal on some Bluetooth stuff; you should come check it out. Is that too much to ask? Maybe start building up your vocabulary so when you see something really cool, you don’t have to yell out some curse word, but something that’s moderate and appropriate. Awesome, overwhelming, interesting, appealing, there not crazy far-out words. Just try it, see what happens. (Although it might not help if you hanging out with the wrong company in the first place, but that’s your call).

Half Life Review

Half – Life 2Well, here is the game that got 35 game of the year awards, received a 98% from PC Gamer Magazine, and got an “Editors’ Choice”. It claims that it has new, startling realism, better and advanced AI, and physical gameplay. Now the question is, is the game all it’s made up to be?

Well, I have to say yes, I’ve never seen graphics as good as these before, and at the same time having the ability to work on a windows 98 computer, it’s mind boggling. The water is perfect in reflecting light and images, the ripples, and the underwater effect. The only problem is the submerging between air and water and that’s impossible to fix. Other then that astounding effect, there’s the texture on the walls, dirt and filth on the streets, blood marks, zombies, headcrabs, etc. then there is the reality of moving objects. When you run into or jump on barrels, they wobble a little and/or topple down. You shoot objects, you not only see a mark, but you see the actual impression of the bullet! It’s just astounding what they’ve done with the game. I could spend forever with the graphics but I’ll just stop now.

The story plot is awesome too, fitting in story with game is incredible, and it’s all done from Gordon Freeman (you) in the first person view. No overhead shots, so you really get the feeling that you in the game. You are Gordon Freeman!

There are also the computer generated players, which tend to be very stupid and slow in most games, these actually kill guys and aim better, which is a total sigh of “finally!” unfortunately, they follow everywhere and sometimes get in your way, so you have to run up against them to get them out of your way

The weaponry is awesome as well. Introducing the gravity gun, a gun that reverses the gravity of objects and “shoots” them and gravity sends the items (toilet seat, sink, cement block, wooden plates, crates, barrels, explosive barrels (yay!), etc.) into your enemies. Immense fun! There’s rocket launchers, crossbow, shotgun, submachine gun, an alien type of machine gun, grenades. Etc!!!

Then there are the two bad parts. The first is the gore and horror. The game is full of it, but it’s expected right? It’s a FPS, duh. But this one is exceedingly gory. Now me, I kinda like it, it being cool graphics and all, but most other people might be squeamish. Luckily, you can no longer go up to the bodies and chop them up into tiny bits like the last half life, but this game has predesigned scenes to creep you out, with so much blood on the floor and walls. There is one part where you have to go through a huge zombie infested town, with little ammo, so you have to use your gravity gun. This means shooting little circular saws and the zombies and cutting them in half, watching the upper body fly high in the air and come down next to the other half. Yeah. It’s pretty bad. Even I was disgusted. The second bad part is the language in the game. There are sever parts where the characters curse, so that’s a slight problem. Other then that, this game is a FPS dreams come true. LITERALY.

Special effects: 10

Blood/gore: 4

Language: 6

Sexuality/nudity: 10 absolutely nothing.

Thrill/adrenaline rush: 10! 10! 10!!!

Story/plot: 10

AI: 9

Realism: 9

So the end result is that this games about 68/80 for clean gamers. Actually, clean gamers just stay away from this game lol. But for those who are really into games, then I would give it a 100/100, this game is so awesome and you can easily overlook the gore and language. There is not too much language, Just enough to put it into “moderate”. The rating ESRB game this game is “M” for blood and gore, language, and intense violence. I guess it’s up to you to decide weather it is appropriate for you or not.

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish you all a merry christmas! And in the spirit of Christmas, here’s a great laugh for you all!

‘Twas The (Politically Correct) Night Before Christmas.

‘Twas the night before Christmas and Santa’s a wreck…
How to live in a world that’s politically correct?
His workers no longer would answer to “Elves”.
“Vertically Challenged” they were calling themselves.
And labor conditions at the north pole
Were alleged by the union to stifle the soul.

Four reindeer had vanished, without much propriety,
Released to the wilds by the Humane Society.
And equal employment had made it quite clear
That Santa had better not use just reindeer.

So Dancer and Donner, Comet and Cupid,
Were replaced with 4 pigs, and you know that looked stupid!

The runners had been removed from his sleigh;
The ruts were termed dangerous by the E.P.A.
And people had started to call for the cops
When they heard sled noises on their roof-tops.

Second-hand smoke from his pipe had his workers quite frightened.
His fur trimmed red suit was called “Unenlightened.”

And to show you the strangeness of life’s ebbs and flows,
Rudolf was suing over unauthorized use of his nose
And had gone on Geraldo, in front of the nation,
Demanding millions in over-due compensation.

So, half of the reindeer were gone; and his wife,
Who suddenly said she’d enough of this life,
Joined a self-help group, packed, and left in a whiz,
Demanding from now on her title was Ms.

And as for the gifts, why, he’d ne’er had a notion
That making a choice could cause so much commotion.
Nothing of leather, nothing of fur,
Which meant nothing for him. And nothing for her.

Nothing that might be construed to pollute.
Nothing to aim. Nothing to shoot.
Nothing that clamored or made lots of noise.
Nothing for just girls. Or just for the boys.

Nothing that claimed to be gender specific.
Nothing that’s warlike or non-pacific.

No candy or sweets…they were bad for the tooth.
Nothing that seemed to embellish a truth.
And fairy tales, while not yet forbidden,
Were like Ken and Barbie, better off hidden.

For they raised the hackles of those psychological
Who claimed the only good gift was one ecological.

No baseball, no football…someone could get hurt;
Besides, playing sports exposed kids to dirt.
Dolls were said to be sexist, and should be passe;
And Nintendo would rot your entire brain away.

So Santa just stood there, disheveled, perplexed;
He just could not figure out what to do next.

He tried to be merry, tried to be gay,
you’ve got to be careful with that word today.
His sack was quite empty, limp to the ground;
Nothing fully acceptable was to be found.

Something special was needed, a gift that he might
Give to all without angering the left or the right.
A gift that would satisfy, with no indecision,
Each group of people, every religion;

Every ethnicity, every hue,
Everyone, everywhere…even you.
So here is that gift, it’s price beyond worth…
“May you and your loved ones enjoy peace on earth.”

I wish you all a merry christmas! and on last laugh. . . . . (I hate eggnog!)

“You’re Better then Drugs”

“Tell me that you will listen/ your touch is what I’m missin’/ and the more I hide I realize/ I’m slowly losin’ you.” These are the lyrics to my new favorite band, Skillet. Very cool, excellent band, as I said they’re now my top favorite, but these lyrics, are they praising God? Are they glorifying him? Or are they simply his song to a lover, or someone he has a crush on? That almost what it seems. You can never tell for sure, he gives no references. Here are lyrics to the same song, your better then drugs. “Feel you when I’m restless/ feel you when I can not cope/ you’re my addiction, my prescription/ my antidote/ you kill the poison/ ease the suffering . . .” so on and so forth. These might be good lyrics, but is the chorus so necessary? “your better then drugs/ your love is like wine/ feel you coming on so fast/ feel you coming to get me high/ your better then . . .” what the heck is he describing, a spiritual high? Is he “On Fire for God” (which I covered in a previous blog)? Is it just a seller? But hey, don’t get me wrong, I love that song, one of the better ones in fact, the music is awesome. I’m just trying to analyze the Christianity of this particular song. Some have different opinions, but here is a guideline that I use for these kinds of songs. Does it glorify God? Well, it does say God helps us in our lives, healing suffering, and poison, so on. So this is an o.k. Does it help understand God? This is where I think it fails. This is a typical praise song, giving glory to God, but doing nothing else. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good song that way, and praising God is good, but that’s all it is. It’s not going help you in your spiritual life. So yeah, this song is awesome, but it’s not special just because it’s Christian.-Bo

creative writers club

Well, I just thought that I’d throw in an advertisement about our new club!!! You know me, you know will, and soon you will know more people, or at least, that is the hope, and that you will be able to contribute too! Well, what me and Will have started is a creative writers club. We basically post some of what we put on pen and paper, as long as it is creative, not copying others work, nor something that drones on like a biography of someone. If you would like to participate, or see what we have done so far, please go to our site and enjoy!

-Bo

a nutshell life.

Oh yes, joy to the world, peace, good will toward men. Yay me! Lol we are having fun now! I’m really excited as I monotonely punch in these keys as I type on my key board. Meanwhile, it is 11:40 and I am not in school, nor am I doing homework. I haven’t been this happy since our Hawaii trip, (which isn’t all it’s made up to be folks). I really want to get a good deal of homework done early, so I don’t need to do it all at the last moment. But still, doesn’t mean I have to work full throttle right off the bat do I? No, of course not. But still what else is there to do? I have no appointments for anything, no reason to leave the house whatsoever, in fact, and almost nothing to do here except homework and writing (which I DO enjoy), because the internet is conked out until 4:30. So where does that leave me? To catch up on my writing of course!!! So here I am writing, la dee da. But I’ll soon fix that. On Thursday, I think, the mail will come, and with it, I hope to have HALF-LIFE 2!!!!!!! Yay! I can’t wait folks. As soon as I get it a play it for a while, I’ll tell you all about it. The only thing I am worried about is the fact that it’s rated M for blood and gore and violence (which my dad is perfectly fine with) and language (which my dad is NOT perfectly fine with). So the only hope I have is that the language isn’t too bad. Dad was willing to get it for me, but if the language is too bad, then I’ll have to return it. Oh well. There is my life in a nutshell. What’s yours?

-Bo

Party party party!!!

Woo hoo! Yaya! We havin’ lot a fun now! Lol, sorry, letting the excitement getting to my page. *sigh*, I love Christmas. The time of giving. Haha. Well, I have a party at a youth group on Saturday, and I’m still waiting for the details. I’ve got another youth group party on Wednesday, then on Thursday, so I’ll be busy for a while! A popular game to play when we’re at the youth groups is the white elephant game. That’s a game where you bring a gift that is funny and utterly useless!!! Haha, many people don’t seem to get that, but that’s what your supposed to do. Lol oh well. It’s always fun to go around and give and get gifts that are stupid, and watching the peoples faces when thy open the gifts. Other then that, I don’t have much going on, except the fact that I get to have my second Christmas on the 24th!!! Yay! Haha, as a Dutch tradition, we have our family Christmas on the 5th of December, so I have that party, then I get the gifts from all the relatives on the other date. It’s so much fun! See everybody later, when I have another chance to write!! haha.(I think you can tell I’m in a happy mood. Well, mom just killed it, just brutally murdered my happiness! Haha, I have to go clean the van out now. But hey, what’s a little fun without work? Nonexistent.)

Safe or not so Safe?

That’s the question. We, as humans, naturally sin, and we understand that. Others though, do it anyway. This is the whole issue. Well, we want to take the guns away from the killers right? Well, yes, naturally. But will that mean the only solution is to forfeit the right to bear arms? We have proof already that when that happened, there were more crimes then ever. Also, what about such a plain thing as helmets? Down in Florida I think, they made a law that all bikers had to have helmets. A must. Well guess what happened. There were more accidents then ever. People got hurt a lot more. Why don’t I throw in accidents? There was an issue several years ago about putting a light in a certain intersection. Well, after that, there were more accidents! Can you believe it? Well, the key is that when you give people the means to be “safe” then they think they are invincible. When you have something that is not safe, people are naturally more careful. Take away those silly laws and a couple lights and people will be a lot more careful. Of course that goes with guns as well. Evil people will take advantage of anything, and a law against guns especially. You need people to have the means of being safe by themselves. Give them police, give them alarm stems, give them stop signs, but don’t give them means to be less careful. I’m not saying it a horrible world out there, just that people need to grow up and not leave themselves to the mercy of the government.

Bo

Man on the Roof

i did this in school last year when asked to do an assignment to see how well we could do descriptive writing. it’s a story of a guy going through hard times and looking for hope, so then he meets this getto dude and he finds help. lol, thats it in a nutshell. here is the long version.

I do not think I will ever forget the man on the roof. My mom had just been in a car accident and I was waiting in my apartment for the doctor’s call. At last, I couldn’t stand it. I climbed to the top of my apartment building and stood near the edge.

I stood there for a while, wondering how unjust the world can be and if it’s worth living. Suddenly I heard a noise of metal scraping metal, and I whirled around. As I look back on it, I realize how dangerous my part of town was, and the risk I was taking of being on the roof was great. Nevertheless, there he stood, the man I could not forget. He had long black hair and it did not look like it was washed. His skin was rough and dirty. His eyes were dark and took in his surroundings quickly. He looked at me, and we looked at each other for several long moments. Then, I think he noticed my tears. I did not know I was crying, so deeply was I in my thoughts. He started walking toward me, and as he approached, I saw the gun sticking out of his belt and the gleam of the knives along the belt on his chest. He looked tall and forbidding. I looked in his eyes and saw something in them. Compassion? No, that was not it. It must have been knowledge, understanding of what I was going through. 

He was about three strides away when he stopped. He whispered, “your living”. I was confused at first, but then I began to understand. “Your living,” he said, “and as long as you’re living, things can only go bad for a while, but keep living. For at the end, it can only get better”. I was scared, but more curious then scared. As if in answer to my thoughts, he slowly shook his head, and turned to slip over the other side of the building.

 I then returned to my apartment to hear my mothers voice on the answering machine.  I understood then, what the man said, and since then, I have never forgotten it.

On fire for God

On many occasions, and from many mouths, I hear the phrase, “On fire for God”. So I’m wondering, what does this mean exactly? I means that you feel like God is with you, and that you feel that God is helping you, and you’re ready to tell everyone about him. Like you’re a commander of an army, leading your forces against the darkness in the name of lord. Sounds really cool right? Well, let me tell you a story. There was once a man, who felt like he was “on fire for God” This man’s name was peter, and yes, I’m talking of peter in the bible. This man, on the Passover, when Jesus announced that he was going to be betrayed, he said, “surly not I lord!” He was convinced that he was not the one who would betray him. When Jesus said “I will die” peter said that he would lay down his life for Jesus. When in the olive garden, and Jesus was to be taken captive, peter sprang forward and cut off the high priest’s servant’s ear. He did not want his king to be taken captive. Surly, this mans motives were honorable, and to all, it would seem that he was “On fire for God”. However, while Jesus was in the synagogues under trial, peter was among the officials and servants crowded around a fire. When asked, he denied all knowledge of Jesus.  He refused to say that he had anything to do with the man. This was the man who was so on fire for God!!! The point I’m trying to make here is that just because one seems to be close to God and has God in his heart, doesn’t mean that you are a perfect. Nor does it mean that you are in for blessings or for God’s love. Maybe your being a bit too proud? Maybe this was the way for God to humble Peter. I’m sure there are other reasons involved, but I’m just saying that saying or “being” on fire for God, is not as cool or as neat a thing it maybe built up to be. I don’t like the phrase either. Just because you’re on fire for God, does that mean that those who are not on fire are less for God? BS!!! We are for God or against God. Not on fire for him.

 Bo