Author: Tim Froehlich

Quiz-tacular! (O.o)

Your soul is bound to the White Rose: The
Pure.

“I’ve been waiting in the dark for a long
time, shining my beacon of hope through the
shadow. If you see me, don’t you hide your
eyes from me.”

The White Rose is associated with purity, honor,
and chastity. It is governed by the goddess
Artemis and its sign is The Cross, or Agape.

As a White Rose, you are a person of your word.
You may have a strong moral code, but
regardless of your virtue, you always stay true
to yourself. To you, love is the most pure of
emotional forms and it’s just a matter of
waiting for it to bless you. Some people may
say you are too idealistic, but it’s only
because you don’t want to mess things up.

What Rose Is Your Soul Bound To?
brought to you by Quizilla

Wort wort wort.

O.o

Christmafying step III!

This is an ornament Jonathan made back in his elementary years, which is a favorite of mine:

[2012 edit: lost forever]

Elvsers!!!

[2012 edit: lost forever]

I’ve always like this one…

[2012 edit: lost forever]

Before…

[2012 edit: lost forever]

And a some light-room after pictures!

[2012 edit: lost forever]

And some dark-room pictures…

[2012 edit: lost forever]

That’s about it. That’s just the livingroom, I decorated the rest of the house too, but that was the main piece.

O.o

Update stuff:

New Christmas List is up on the archive, and my Halo 2 stats are up over there as well. A note about the list: it’s not a guideline for what you should get me, it’s just there for my own amusement and to see what you guys thought of it. I don’t want you guys to get me anything as I can’t give you anything back, if you really want to, go ahead, but that’s just my personal preference.

Don’t be stupid on the comments, post however much you want, but there needs to be a point to the post. I will present to you my step-by-step process of Christmafying my house through pictures! Step 1: the tree and boxes.

[2012 edit: lost forever]

Step 2: tomorrow!

O.o

That last post was quite therapeutic. Yay. I finally have time to do all this stuff I’ve been wanting to do. I tried out this program from tracking all your stats on Halo 2, it’s running right now. It makes me want to learn Perl now (as it’s programmed in Perl). It has to download a LOT of HTML. First, it has to get all the list pages of the games you’ve played, and then all of the pages for each of your games (About 6 per game). At 17 pages of games, and 25 games per page, that comes out to 2500 pages of HTML it has to download. Then, it has to extract a whole crapload of stats from each of those pages (Kills, Deaths, Suicides, Headshots, Medals, Shots Hit, Shots Fired, Score, you get the idea) and then it calculates a few useful stats, like K:D ratios, averages, totals, most kills in a game, etc.. It’s gonna be really cool once it’s done. I’ll post the stats of the Archive once they’re done. The reason Bungie can’t do this is it would take terabytes of bandwidth which would get very expensive, very fast. They have to purge the stats after a month or so to prevent useless pile up.

For now, I leave to go get a Christmas tree!

O.o

I was in a great mood, until, randomly, I recieve this.

[15:00:12] TheMysteriousMrZ: www.gamerankings.com so, i see that half-life 2 has remained in the top five while halo 2 is conspicuously absent from the top ten altogether.

[15:00:25] *** “TheMysteriousMrZ” signed off at Sat Dec 04 15:00:25 2004.

THIS is why Half-Life 2 sucks. THIS is why Half-Life sucks. I didn’t want to have to make a post about this, but I’m gonna have to if I’m gonna get my point across.

Sure, four weeks ago I was confident that, according to Gamerankings, Halo 2 would have a higher score. In reality, I didn’t care, it was just a fun bet with BEN (not Zach, mind you). I would have liked to see Halo 2 stay up there. The retardacity of this is that somehow the ranking score has turned into a numerical value of how good a game is. It’s a summary, not a statement. I find it enough that IGN, Gamespot, and GMR all found Halo 2 to be a better game. I could care less about “Boomtown” and “eToyChest”‘s ideas. You know why Halo 2 has such a low score? Because 6 sites, none of whom I’ve ever heard of, decided it’s a bad game. I read them. As reviews, they SUCKED. If quality of reviewers could be measured, they wouldn’t be included. Nonetheless, they are there, pulling Halo 2’s score down a full percentage point or two.

That being said, HL2 has a higher score, fair and square, I suppose.

As for MY opinion of HL2 and why I think it sucks, I’ll try and convey that now. I’ve seen HL2. I watched Zach play it for an hour, and to be honest, I was not amazed. From what I’ve read (I’ve read 3 or 4 reviews on it) and seen (I’ve watched a number of movies and screenshots), I can make some pretty fair statements here.

Graphics: Yeah, they’re good. That is, if you have a good rig. Zach’s machine definately isn’t bad, (It’s like 2.2 AMD with a 9600P, right?) but it didn’t look outstanding on his rig. Good? Yes. Personally, I don’t find the recent graphics of Doom 3 and HL2 all that amazing, they look dreary and dull. Elder Scrolls IV? Now that’s beautiful, and it’s not even a finished engine.

Physics: Get ready for this: Halo 2 and Half-Life 2 use the same physics engine. They both use the Havoc engine – HL2 uses a slightly more advanced and souped up form that allows some water effects (bouyancy) and just a little more detail all around. Personally, I could care less if the world I’m playing has realistic physics. The physics in Halo 2 are detailed enough that I can have loads of fun just screwing around rolling barrels and rocks around. Ben said something about the ragdoll not being good in Halo 2 – I beg to differ. Watching myself die is almost a treat – it’s like a reward for doing badly. If I’m sniping and I get sniped back, my guy will fall backwards (not doing the flailing thing) and roll down the stairs slowly. So far I’ve never seen any unrealistic poses (think back to when ragdoll had just come out) or anything annoying and stupid. Yes, every now and then when you get blown up your guy will flail around, but so what?

Storyline: Keep in mind, I speak from ignorance and base what I know off of the Gamespot review. According to them, the storyline was weak, and not very good in general. The end was anticlimactic and ended with you fighting a weak enemy with an overpowered weapon. This is just what I read – don’t look at me for innacuracies. Halo 2’s storyline owned. I have to say, it was really good. Did the cliffhanger ending suck? Absolutely. I wanted the game to keep going very, very badly. That just raises the bar for Halo 3 – I expect a lot from its story now (Bungie has unoffically announced it in the recent Q&A). Apparantly HL2 still doesn’t have any cutscenes, or third-person events for that matter, and Gordon Freeman never speaks. That doesn’t seem like much room to make a plot. I don’t think I’d like the entire story being told by people talking to you.

All that being said, there is still more to mention. Halo 1 had a higher average review score than Half-Life 1. When I compare HL1 and HL2, I don’t see much difference. They look the same, they feel the same, they even SOUND the same (they didn’t even put in new sounds for some parts of the game). HL2 = HL1 + graphics and physics. That’s all I see. When I look at Halo 2, I see worlds of difference. H2 = H1 + much improved storyline/single player in general + huge gameplay changes (new weapons, vehicles, maps, dual wielding, no health, I could go on and on about the fundamental differences) + xbox live + graphics + physics. When I say HL2 sucks, I don’t mean it’s a bad game. I mean that by my standards, compared to what I enjoy playing, it is not a fun game that is worth my money. Steam alone is enough to push me away – I read the Game Revolution review, and that was a big enough factor to really change their score. Anyone with a non-state-of-the-art computer will have to deal with loading times and general annoyances. The implications of Steam are awful – if every company did this, PC gaming would go down the tubes.

That’s just what I have to say.

…

I haven’t gotten any sleep the past 4 days. I don’t really know why I’m continually compelled to stay awake, but it ends tonight. Break’s over, but it was mucho fun. Friday I went bowling with partially the same group as Tuesday (Gwen, Amy, Eileen, Sarah, Mollie, Veda, Megan, Paul, Ben, Ryan). I suck at bowling, but I had fun anyways. Saturday was Daniel’s LAN party, which was mucho fun as well, that went from 11:30 AM – 8:00 PM. Church was ok (I was in the nursery again, but it’s more fun as I get better with babies. Having done it like 5 or 6 times now I’m almost semi-competent at handling babies!) and I opted not to do anything. I took a four hour nap and woke up to a little kid who came up from Pennsylvania just to see me (his parents were in town for the day).

Today sucked. I’ve failed (or rather, barely passed, but I really don’t see the difference between a D and an F) all the tests I took last week (Math – D, Programming – C, Chemistry – D, Engineering – D (a journal check actually, but we don’t have tests in there, so…) and I have yet to recieve the results of a Global test I took. This proves my theory – my grades rely on sleep. In case you don’t know, I don’t study for tests, I’ve never needed to, but I don’t absorb the information if I don’t have 7+ hours of sleep. In essence, now until Christmas break is crunch time as far as school goes. Whether I actually put that into practice is yet to be seen, but it will definately require more of my attention.

One of the things that made today suck was the announcement that the student teachers will be leaving this month. All of mine are really cool, mostly better than the normal teachers, but this also means work loads will decrease as the teachers get more work. It also means I have to deal with lower quality teaching. Global won’t really change, but Chemistry, ay ay ay, Ms. Smith is so boring, I shall die a thousand deaths under that teacher.

The walk home was nice, though, it was unusually relaxing.

O.o

Woo, Thanksgiving. It did not live up to previous Thanksgivings. We had dinner at a couple’s house (they go to my church) as there were only 3 of us, which would be a very boring Thanksgiving dinner. The food was lacking (no corn, not very good mashed potatoes or rolls…) and I was pretty bored the entire time. However, I don’t want to be complaining on Thanksgiving. I shall now compose a generic, cheesy list of all the things I’m thankful for today:

-My Friends (meh, you all know who you are, i’d be bored out of my skull and very very confused without you all)

-My Family (my parents are good parents, i’m used to them. my brothers own, though i never get to see them anymore)

-Electricity (yes, this ranks third, as it powers my xbox, computer, phone, and refrigerator)

-My Church (yep, technically this should be ranked as first, as it goes in the “God” category, but i’m too lazy to put it up there. sunday school owns!)

-My House (i like living in the basement!)

-Food (as ben pointed out, we have meat everywhere in my house, but i especially enjoy the cereal selection. it’s quite good)

-My Computer (boy would I be bored without this buddy)

-My Blog (it’s suprisingly therapeutic writing in this thing…)

-My Techno (it’s good for listening to doing anything – playing halo 2, doing homework, talking, it owns)

-Hugs (these should be up higher too, but i’m still too lazy to change that. woo!)

-Halo 2 (bahahahahahahahaha)

-everything else i’m too lazy to capitalize, punctuate, or think of

wewt.

^^

Yum, yum, yum, yesterday was incredibly awesome. After school, Amy, Gwen, Kristen, Ben Feldman, Ben Myers, Paul, Zach, and I all walked to Amy’s house. Zach left shortly after arriving, but the rest of us stayed and ate loooots of food. Amy has a food-tacular house, to say the least. Her sister (Annika) and a random person whom I can’t recall the name of were there too. (I might note that Gwen and I did all the DISHES!) After a while, Kristin and that other person left. After a couple of hours those of us remaining (except Annika) went down to the Fall Creek Elementary playground and fiddled around there. We tried playing wallball and frisbee, but Ben M just owned at it, and our frisbees weren’t very good. Like, you’d throw it, and it would jump up two feet from a little gust of wind. We retreated back to the house after an hour, and piled on top of eachother on the couch, played Mancala, that type of thing.

We all went to my house (at this point it was 6:30), this time with Kristen and Annika along. We chilled there for 20 minutes. I showed them BANANA PHONE, and some of my techno. They (Amy in particular) toyed with my guns, did horrors to my Xbox, which it may need counseling to recover from. We wandered down to Belle Sherman and played Structure Tag until Julia, Crawford, Rachel, Katie (Clay), and Steven showed up (around 7:30). Then we played kickball and soccer for a few hours (Zach showed while we were playing soccer). While we were waiting for Gwen’s mom to show up (to pick up Amy, Annika, and Kristin up too) we huddled together in a big hug circle to keep warm (it was cold!) which was absolutely the coolest thing ever. We all departed to our own ways (around 9:30 or 10:00). Ben and Paul spent the night at my house, too, which was sort of the icing on the cake.

I got about 10 hours of sleep last night, though my power went out, and I took a nap during that. I’m really tired right now, too. I dunno where all my energy went.

Gwen and Ben and Amy were really good to me last night, they make life less confusing.

As most of you know, Caitlyn and I broke up, for some pretty good reasons. I think we just didn’t have enough in common. Neither of us are bitter about it though, which is tremendously good. I don’t have any regrets about it, as I learned a whole lot from the experience, which is the only valid reason (at least I believe) for dating as a teenager. So my reason was fulfilled, to say the least.

I’ve spent a lot of today contemplating and in a generally not-awesome mood. I keep having these retarded arguments with Daniel about making me a Clan overlord, and as I’m arguing I’m thinking “dude, be mature, just drop it.”. Stupid stuff like that keeps setting my mood down. Like when I started this post, I was at a “^^” state, but now I’m more “…”. I’ll leave it at “^^” just for the awesomeness of last night.

O.o

Oy, I haven’t posted for a week. It’s not that I haven’t had anything to post about, I just didn’t feel up to it, I guess. Overall the week has been okay. Lots of Halo 2 playing has occured (I’ve played well over 300 games now). My Clan and I actually played against Bungie (and won!). Proof that Bungie owns, right there. 😀

I stayed home from school because I’m a lazy, lazy bum. I woke up this morning thinking a lot of things. “My homework is done.”, “I have no tests today.”, “I’m tired.”, “I’m going to be late for school.”, and “Thankgiving Break is too short. Let’s make it longer by one day!”. So I stayed home. I slept until 12:30 (making for a total of 12 hours of sleep!), and just lazed around for most of the day.

Daniel stopped by for a few minutes a little bit ago. He came and picked up some of the money I owe him (27/66 bucks). *shuffles slowly towards his Xbox*

EDIT: I was a little bored, so I decided to revise a report I did on Global Warming for my Global History I final report. The beginning and end are a little cheesy, as I had to cater to my teacher’s political leanings at one point or another, but the point comes across. I presented a rather weak argument in favor of the common theory of Global Warming, but to be honest, there isn’t much of one.

http://oftimarchive.blogspot.com/2004/11/report-global-warming.html

Have fun picking it apart. Since it’s been a year, I forgot the sources for that solar info (about the earth’s axis and rotation), but you’ll live.

[2012 edit: looks like these gems are lost forever]

O.o

In light of Half Life 2 being released, I need to make a statement.

Half Life 2 is not compareable to Halo 2. Halo 2, while intended to be a single player game, is really a multiplayer masterpiece. Half Life 2, while it has mod potential, is in essence, a single player game. Halo 2 has the most amazing mutliplayer I’ve ever seen. Half Life 2 will probably have the most amazing single player I’ve ever seen.

I understand the extreme mod potential, but in reality, most of these mods will suck. It’s a fact of life. Maybe a handful will be pretty cool, but in reality, none can compare to a system that has a) been tested for bugs b) been tested for balance and c) been tested for everything else you can think of. The fact is, Halo 2 MP combines anything and everything that’s been good about any other multiplayer. Voice, the party system, dual wielding, vehicles, assymetrical maps, and hijacking. You can’t beat it.

Half Life 2 has the graphics, the physics, the story, and the mods to make the SP equally mind-blowing. Neither of the games introduce much anything new – it’s all improvement on what’s already there.

I’m sure both games are worthy of a 10.0. But my Halo fanboi-isms remain, and in my mind, Half Life cannot redeem itself of Counterstrike.

Beating Dead Horses (O.o)

“A title?!”, you ask? I felt the need to include that. HIJACKED FROM WEILIN!

+||SECTOR ONE: Currently

1. Name: Tim

2. Nicknames: Froehlich

3. Feet size: 10.5 or 11

4. Do you have a crush: I guess if liking my girlfriend counts?

5. boyfriend/girlfriend? (see above)

6. Age you act: Bored – 7 Regular – 15 (I can’t really be the judge of that..) Happy – 15 (again?)

7. Where Do You Live: the good old US of A

8. Where you want to live: Sweden or finland, iceland aint bad either.

9. How many siblings: 2 bruthas

10. Favorite Salad Dressing: salad = teh suck

11. Ever gone skinny dipping? nay

12. What are you watching? my moniter

13. Last person you talked to: ben myers

14. Favorite movie: unbreakable, i think

15. Favorite Book: books != cool

16. Favorite Type of music: trance/techno/dance and some classical and some alternative rock

17. Favorite types of cars: ….fast cars?

18. Favorite Saying: i dunno, probably woot

19. Favorite Fast Food: wendy’s!

20. Favorite Ice Cream: cookies and cream

21. Favorite Alcoholic Drink: uh, wtf mates?

22. When Do You Go To Sleep: varies

23. Most Embarrassing Moment: not a clue

24. Stupidest Person you know: as far as actual intelligence goes, I’d have to say…phil.

25. Funniest Person you know: karel

26. Favorite holiday: thanksgiving or christmas.

27. Favorite Food: mashed potatoes, maybe turkey, corn off the cob (that’s why i like thanksgiving)

28. Favorite Song: clocks (coldplay)

29. Favorite Television Show: cosby show

30. Favorite Radio Station: i just listen to the techno streams…

31. Favorite junk food: twix

32. Favorite happy love song: no.

33. Favorite Drink: coke

34. Favorite article of clothing: generic, loose, crappy pants.

35. Favorite Animal: penguin

+||SECTOR TWO: The Future

1. School: RIT, RPI if I feel like doing the work

2. Where You Want To Live: Sweden (i thought this was asked already)

3. How Many Kids You Want: 2-3

4. What Kind Of Job You Want: unsure, electrical or computer engineer most likely, possibly biological engineering of medical engineering.

5. Wedding song: ….wtf, mates?

6. Pets: two dogs

8. 5 years from now: college

9. 10 years from now: double major and engaged to be married. 😛

+||SECTOR THREE: Have You Ever..

1. Done Drugs: nope, and never will.

2. Run Away From Home: newp

3. Hit A guy: i’m gonna assume this was meant to be for girls, so I’ll assume it’s asking me if I’ve hit a girl. so no.

5. Stolen Anything: software and music

6. Broken A Bone: no

7. Cheated On A Test: newp

8. Cheated On A girlfriend/boyfriend: no

9. Gotten Drunk: no

10. Been With Two guys/girls At Once: no

11. Been In The Hospital: nope

12. Let a friend cry on your shoulder: yep

13. Fell asleep in the shower/bath: a long time ago. it was scary.

14. Gone to Church: every sunday.

15. Never slept during a night: yep

16. Ever been on a motorcycle or motorbike: once

17. Been to a camp: a bunch

18. Sat in a restaurant w/o ordering: nope

19. Seen someone die: nein.

20. Gone a week w/out shaving: aye

21. Didn’t wash your hair for a week: yuck, no.

22. Broken something valuable: probably.

23. Thought you were in love: nay

24. Streaked the streets: no

25. Screamed at someone for no reason: you know it

26. Said I love you and meant it: nope

27. Been hurt by a guy/girl you loved: newp.

28. Stayed up till 4 am on the phone: does IM count?

29. Pulled a prank? not really

30. Made fun of someone? uh huh

+||SECTOR FOUR: Which Is Better..

1. Coke Or Pepsi: Coke

2. Cats Or Dogs: dogz

3. DVDs or VHS: ….what a retarded comparison. DVD.

4. Deaf Or Blind: blind. sight is cool, but life would suck without music and voices.

5. Pools Or Hot Tubs: pools

6. Television Or Radio: TV

7. CDs Or MP3’s: don’t care, really

8. Apples or oranges: both

9. Strawberries or Blueberries: strawberries

10. Gold or silver: silver

11. Vanilla or chocolate: chocolate

12. Movies or music: music

13. Park or Beach: park

14. Hot or Cold Weather: hot

15. Sunset or Sunrise: sunset

+||SECTOR FIVE: When is the Last Time You..

1. Took a shower: this morning

2. Cried: not a clue

3. Watched a Disney movie: shrek 2, that was a while ago.

4. Given/gotten a hug?: today.

5. Been to the movies: friday, saw the incredibles, it was highly amusing

7. kissed someone: never have…

8. Said I love you: never.

9. Danced: never danced in my life

10. Did a survey like this: a few months ago.

+||SECTOR SIX: What is..

1. Your Fondest Memory Of This year: i dunno, probably word of life..

2. Your Most Prized Possession: my computer. or xbox. or halo 2.

3. The Thing That Makes You The Happiest: halo 2 and sleep and friends

4. Your Favorite Food For Breakfast: s’mores pop tarts

5. Your Favorite Food For Dinner: lasagna

6. Your Favorite Slow Song: ….i know of none

7. Your Ideal BF/GF?: O.o

+||SECTOR SEVEN: What do I feel about…

1. Bill Clinton: teh suxxor

2. Love at First Sight: nope. not true love anyways.

3. Abortion: oh, you KNOW what I think.

4. Smoking: retarded, but I don’t care.

5. Death: i’m not afraid of it, if that’s what you’re asking.

7. Rap: yuck.

8. Marilyn Manson: double yuck.

9. Premarital sex: pretty retarded, some people just don’t know how to wait. it’s bad.

10. Suicide: i was going to be callous and say something like “it’s for the weak”, but I guess most people do it for a reason. still pretty retarded.

O.o

Today was eventful. I haven’t actually played Halo 2 today, my will was crushed by still not getting a headset, I really want one. I’m also really tired as it’s getting late, and I had a busy day in general. I went and saw the Incredibles, it was funny. I like Pixar. After that I got dropped at Sho’s house, at which Sam, Kerry, and Colette were at. We talked and played Apples to Apples (funny game), and watched Farenheit 9/11, which made me want to strangle Michael Moore.

Why, you ask? That’s why.

Beyond that it was fun, I got to spend an hour or more talking to Colette and Sho after Sam and Kerry left as they played with my hair. (I guess I smell like Jing? Supposedly that’s a good thing…) Colette’s mom drove me home, and now I sit here about to sleep. Good day. I’m hoping I can get my headset thing all sorted out tomorrow.

O.o

Oh goodness, the only reason I’m sitting here typing this is ebcause none of my friends are online to play HALO 2 with. I’ve made about a dozen or two dozen friends playing online, the voice chat really makes the game more personal. I don’t have a headset to chat with, but I’ll fix that, hopefully tomorrow.

I’ve beaten the campaign (I beat it last night), so I can finally give some form of a final word on that. The cutscenes, as I mentioned in the comments, are not outstanding. The earlier ones have gigantic texture pop-in problems, but that gets better after a few levels or so. The plot itself is better than the first, it’s highly involving and pretty interesting. As for the levels, they’re far, far better than the first. No more hallway crawls (excepting the next to last level, which is slightly reminiscent of Doom 3, it’s quite freaky). For those of you that car (absolutely no one) there will be some story spoilers up ahead.

All the levels are highly fun. There are only two levels which have anything close to repetitivity or a hallway crawl. And they’re still fun, despite that. You only spend a short time on earth, then you kind of romp around on another halo, a gas formation, and the covenant homeworld. You switch roles into a coveneant heretic, who does not join forced with the humans, but serves his own purposes until the end. Speak of which, Halo 2 has the biggest cliffhanger of all time. Knowing there will not be a Halo 3 for a very long time, it was quite painful as endings go. The last level is quite fun, so you’re all pumped, and the cutscene shows the master chief flying back to earth, and the Arbiter (covenant heretic) is with some of the humans and stuff, it’s all crazy, and then it just ends, cut to the credits, bam. It hurt.

Beyond that, the single player was still really fun. The multiplayer, on the other hand, is perfection in action. All the maps are incredibly excellent. The variety of weapons is huge, they’re ALL unique, but still balanced. Dual wielding is intricate and balanced, as well. The way the game plays discourages camping, as standing still means you just get owned, no matter what. The no health system is so liberating, it’s incredible. I dunno if I can ever go back to the old system. The new vehicles are akin to the weapons in variety and improvement. All the vehicles are fun to use, and none of them are too powerful, and that includes the banshee. Boarding vehicles is awesome. It puts so much more strategy and thought into using vehicles, as well as how to fight them. XBox Live is also perfect. There’s never lag. I’ve had a spurt now and then, but only in big 16 player games. Once you get above 10 people it gets stressed sometimes, but never anything bad compared to the standard lag playing PC games. Voice chat and proximity owns too.

This was just a summary, I’ll make a real detailed breakdown and review in a week or so.

^^

Halo 2 owns, I’ll bother with a real update later. I have a final gay marriage conversation, with Paul. It’s the 5th one (4th one is one Zach’s blog). When I was debating this whole thing with Kevin, I knew all my reasons, but it seems I’ve just forgotten them. I had a legitimate argument, I just burned myself out on this particular topic. Oh well. Because this one is short, it’s getting posted directly.

[20:52:53] Salandarin: paul…
[20:52:54] Salandarin: “Maybe it’s because he doesn’t have an argument besides “God hates fags”.”

[refer to comments on zach’s blog]

[20:52:56] Salandarin: come on man
[20:53:11] Lemonadeyeti: what’s your argument?
[20:53:21] Salandarin: it’s certainly not that.
[20:53:24] Lemonadeyeti: what is it?
[20:53:59] Salandarin: why does it matter? you’re just gonna transform what i say into opinionated Christian-isms
[20:54:20] Lemonadeyeti: do you want to tell me what it is? because if you don’t, then I’ll think you don’t have one.
[20:54:25] Salandarin: i never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever said God hated anyone.
[20:54:44] Salandarin: you know I have one. i have four arguments on it.
[20:55:05] Lemonadeyeti: tell it to me…
[20:55:59] Salandarin: no. you know why I don’t want to? because it’s not gonna make a difference. it’s gonna set you deeper in your belief that I’m in blind believer in something that doesn’t exist, and that I’m trying to legislate morality and my beliefs.
[20:57:43] Lemonadeyeti: ok, you took offense to my comments. they were insensitive and inappropriate, and for that I apologize. I know you are very religious and faithful, something I could never be, and I respect that.
[20:58:05] Lemonadeyeti: but I don’t see your argument outside of religious/moral standpoint and if it does exist I would like to know it.
[20:58:16] Salandarin: thank you
[20:59:19] Salandarin: my personal goal would be to remove marriage benefits, and just seperate marriage from the government. that way marriage is back at the origin/foundation of religion.
[20:59:44] Salandarin: the government can supply civil unions for those who want marriage outside the church.
[21:00:09] Lemonadeyeti: marriage is an ambiguous word because it is sanctioned by the government
[21:00:19] Salandarin: doesn’t matter.
[21:00:32] Salandarin: if it weren’t sanctioned, we’d be better off
[21:00:44] Lemonadeyeti: as it stands now, marriage based on sexual preference is discrimination, because it is not limited to only christians/ those of specific other faiths
[21:00:58] Lemonadeyeti: if it were to be run by the church, then it wouldn’t be
[21:01:10] Salandarin: what’s your point?
[21:01:52] Lemonadeyeti: my point? as long as marriage is a governmental institution it shouldn’t be limited by the specific beliefs on a single faith
[21:02:26] Salandarin: and you’re right. morality from any one point of view cannot be enforced.
[21:02:31] Salandarin: and should not.
[21:03:32] Salandarin: i’ve given up on arguing over gay marriage. personally, i don’t want it to happen, but, there’s nothing I can do.
[21:05:44] Salandarin: are we clear?
[21:05:56] Lemonadeyeti: transparent.

I am still opposed to homosexuality in itself, for reasonsbeyondmy faith. If you want them, ask me.

HALO TWO OWNS ALL!

^^

Today was good. I once again managed a good 15 minutes of sleep in Chemistry, it make the class so much more enjoyable. I think the only reason they never stop me is because they know I know the material. Overall the day has gone by quickly. I got the upstairs TV set up with 7.1 surround sound, in preperation for Halo 2. I’m going to Scouts for the first time this seasons, from which I’ll go to Daniel’s, and then we go to the mall and wait outside EB to get Halo 2. I may go to his house or go back to mine, I’m not sure, but I’m not gonna be at school tomorrow, that’s for sure. Tomorrow I’ll probably go to the Halo 2 Tourney at school, which should be fun.

I can’t wait for this game. My goodness, I’ve never anticipated a game this much, ever. So far 13 reviewers have said it was perfect. The lowest review score is an 88, out of about 25 reviews, and the NEXT lowest score is a 93.

😀

Wewt.

O.o

Today was pretty good. I woke up at 8:00, and I was like “Meh, I’ll take my time.”, so I got to school at about 8:45. Most everything in school has been going pretty well, though Chemistry is SNORE-TASTIC. I slept a little bit in there, as it’s just so boring and easy to understand. I had a much more extensive and interesting debate over abortion with Paul. We ended on the note of having to discuss Evolution, which will be understood once you’ve read it. Semi-long.

Abortion #2

Much more detailed, and probably a little more interesting. As a side note, if you wannaflameme for my beliefs, don’t do it on my comments. I just gets annoying having to do it over the comments system. If you have a question or something to add as support or counter-point, go ahead, but don’t flame.

[2012 edit: looks like these gems are lost forever]

…

I’ve had so many conversations it’s ridiculous. So many arguments. This is getting out of hand. But I’m gonna let it go on, because it’s interesting. If you feel the need to discuss or debate with me on anything, go RIGHT ahead. Don’t let anything stop you. But don’t be stupid. I don’t wanna see a lot of misinformed Bush-bashing.

That being said, I have a few recent conversations to show you.

Gay Marriage #1

Gay Marriage #2

Abortion #1

My disclaimer for talking over IM – the conversation, unless overtly personal, will get posted on here.

 

[2012 edit: looks like these gems are lost forever]

…

GIVE ME A FRICKING BREAK. I swear, if I see another rant on how Bush shouldn’t have gotten elected, someone’s throat is getting slit and it’s not going to be mine. I’m glad we all have opinions, but don’t treat them as FACT. It is your OPINION that Bush is bad, not a FACT. Anyone who treats it as a FACT is simply IGNORANT. I’m not saying this because I like Bush – I’m saying this as a general rule of life.

That being said, I’m glad he won. I went a little overboard and “in yo face!!” at school, but not too badly, I hope. A couple girls in my Global and English class decided that Republicans don’t deserve to have a fair argument, so 1 minute into a discussion on embryonic stem cell research, one of them starts screaming “NO! NO! NO! YOU’RE WRONG! I AM RIGHT! I KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT! NO! NO! NO! YOU ARE WRONG!” “Well, you’re just ignorant!” and it went downhill from there. Stuff like this pushes my buttons like nothing else.

I don’t wanna see a political discussion in my comments – if I do, I WILL BAN YOU FROM COMMENTING FOR A WEEK. Yes, I can do that. Now that I have that out of my system, I can continue. I was up till 4 AM watching the results and stuff. I sort of slept my way through chemistry, testing out various ways of looking alert but be asleep. Chemistry is interesting only because we have so many slackers in our class. So if they aren’t up to par, it’s a snore fest.

I’m getting really, really psyched for Halo 2, it’s only 5 days away. Can’t wait…*repeats mantra*

^^

I just felt like sharing a conversation I had with Greg tonight, because it helped me understand a bunch of stuff. And I’m in a really good mood. So here you go.

[21:22:22] Steak220: and he asked the most OBVIOUS question i should have been able to answer off the beat
[21:23:36] Steak220: “god hates us because we sin?” “no, he loves us despite that.” “he loves us even though we sin, no matter what we do?” “yeah” “so we can do whatever we want?” “err….”
[21:23:36] drakos7: and you choked, eh.
[21:23:55] Steak220: it’s a question i always stumble on, and I can enver give a good answer to
[21:24:48] Steak220: i’ve been told like twice before how to answer it, but i always forget
[21:28:21] drakos7: You need to remember the essence of the gospel and always go back to it. Prevent them from wandering off to their own topics.
His love is based upon what Christ did on the cross, and not what we do. BUT, what we do shows how much we love God. Anyone actively commiting sin would be greatly deceived if they thought they were redeemed. AND, God’s love says nothing about God’s chosen for salvation. Difference between mercy and grace. God not punishing is mercy (not gettng what we deserve), God giving eternal life is grace (gettin what we don’t deserve).
[21:30:33] Steak220: i don’t quite understand
[21:30:41] Steak220: like..
[21:30:43] drakos7: what part?
[21:30:56] Steak220: God’s love is based on how much we show our love for him?
[21:31:12] Steak220: i don’t think that’s true, but that’s what it seems like from what you said
[21:32:43] Steak220: i mean, you can fall into sin, and still truly believe in God, can’t you?
[21:32:48] drakos7: My very first sentence of that paragraph: His love is based upon what Christ did on the cross, and not what we do.
[21:33:03] Steak220: right, but also look at
[21:33:09] Steak220: “Anyone actively commiting sin would be greatly deceived if they thought they were redeemed.”
[21:37:27] Steak220: this is what i don’t really get
[21:37:50] drakos7: right. If you are actively pursuing some(or many) sin with no repentance, should you really hope that you are redeemed? If God’s love abides in us, then we know Who we belong to. There is no scriptural evidence that unrepentant sinners will receive mercy or grace. The calloused heart is easily decieved.

Now, what about “assurance of salvation” and “perseverence of the saints” you may ask. Those who persevere are obviously saints. Those who eeke by are still saved “but as through the fire”. Still saved but not pretty.
[21:38:30] drakos7: And like I said in SS, we cannot ultimately arbitrate who gets in.
[21:38:35] Steak220: so your faith isn’t permanent?
[21:39:04] Steak220: i was always taught that if you believe once, that’s all it takes
[21:39:53] Steak220: like, taking shelter in Jesus’ death sort of kept you there from that point on
[21:46:03] drakos7: yes. but what if the object of your faith is not real? what if you believe with your whole heart that Jesus saved you but you also believe that Jesus=ReverendMoon? In that case you would be sincerely believing something that is not worth believing in. Many “accept Christ” just because of the social benefits, fear being punished eternally, did not have a father figure, … They are often trusting in something in their own imagination (or someone elses) and not in the Jesus of scripture (and reality).

So that is why we talk about objective faith, that we have a specific object in mind and we need to know who that is.

Yes, I do believe that some truly trust in Christ and then are ensnared by Satan and his minions. They are still saved, no doubt, but are not glorifying God.

So when I say “actively commiting sin greatly decieved” it can only be directed to one’s own heart and not applied to others. I need to search my own soul and decide whether running amok is a sign of the Spirit in me. Does that help at all?
[21:47:15] Steak220: i think so
[21:47:44] Steak220: i understand the whole first part
[21:48:09] Steak220: but what do you mean objective faith? faith that is in the eye of the beholder?
[21:49:36] Steak220: and when you say actively commiting sin greatly decieved
[21:49:40] Steak220: you mean, decieving yourself?
[21:55:24] drakos7: objective: that the object is true. you believed that before you sat down that the chair would support your weight. Now if I had snuck in and sabotaged it, your faith would still be the same, but the object would be faulty (and you would plummet!) so if the object of your faith is an idol, no matter how sincerely you believe, and even if the name is Jesus, then, well… You can come up with numerous analogies along these lines because in truth, we live most of our lives in faith. Faith that our water is not poisoned, faith that our car will not blow up, faith that the bus’s steering will not fail, …

yes, deceiving yourself (and quite possibly/often deceiving others as well). If I claimed Christ but tried starting a cult of highschoolers who would take over Ithaca at gunpoint, my Christ is not the true Lord of scripture.

Huzzah!