Evil Genius

Morning Devotions

We always have a Monday morning devotion at work. This morphs into a Tuesday morning devotion when the Monday is a holiday.

I got volunteered to do it this morning.

So I gave them some Bono mixed in with a bit of the book of James.

Life is good.

Attention Viewers!

Rhett has a new blog and it's damn sexy.

Thank you.

Chad: Mass Evacuation Viewed from Space

This is what a mass evacuation from a city looks like from space. Using satellites orbiting over Africa, human rights groups published UNOSAT satellite imagery to show, in very simple terms, the human cost of violence in the Chadian capital city of N'Djamena. Over 10,000 people are crammed on a bridge, trying to escape into the neighboring nation of Cameroon. The black dots are people, and the yellow dashes are vehicles, most likely trucks and buses. It's a chilling portrait of the human future, wracked with violence and recorded via space-based surveillance devices, taken on February 27. Click on image for larger view.

This is a story that requires few words to tell.

Time Traveling Catholics!

I like comics and graphic novels because of their visual style. If a comic or graphic novel fails in the visual department then (for me) it fails as a whole. If I want to read a novel, I'll read a novel, If I want to be able to gaze at a visual feast whilst immersing myself in a gripping saga, I'll find a good looking graphic novel (slash comic).

Which brings me to Pax Romana, Which looks at what could happen if the Catholic Church sent a team of time-traveling mercenaries to 4th Century Rome with the aim of changing history to prevent the rise of any other religion.

Oh yeah, thats something to chew on ain't it?

But better than the possibilities of time traveling mercenary Catholics, is the stunning visual style.

Even better is issue one being put online for free.

Check it out now.

Joel Osteen Stretches It.

I had to scan in the cover for Joel Osteen’s Become a Better You today, the cover I had been using was from Amazon and was not the International Cover, so I had to actually handle a Joel Osteen book.

Now it’s easy to jest about dear old Joel, but other than seeing him on YouTube, I didn’t know if my views of him were valid or not, so given the opportunity, I figured I would read the start of his book, just to see If I could relate to his teachings.

The first page (I skipped the intro, so I started on page three) starts out great, with a quote from Frank Lloyd Wright, and setting up the whole premise of striving to do better.

Joel keeps the ball rolling – and me happy – by telling the sad fact that many people are living below their potential and not using their gifts an talents.

Then he says that God “wants every generation to be increasing in happiness, success, and significance.” (Emphasis mine)

I’m sure God wants us to be happy and successful doing His work, but I’m not sure about the significance part. Though, when you think about it, Billy Graham was a significant figure in American Christianity so we’ll let this one go.

Joel goes on to expand on this point however, and tells us that we should “always be reaching for new heights… in our finances, careers…” (Emphasis mine)

Now I shouldn’t be surprised that Joel is talking about money in his book, he is, after all, somewhat known for his prosperity teachings. But to bring it out one the first page really shows where the guy is coming from. Good on him for knowing his audience, but for me this only confirms my suspicions that Joel and I read the Bible differently.

The Bronze Snake

Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor, taking the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient with the long journey, and they began to speak against God and Moses. “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” they complained. “There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink. And we hate this horrible manna!”

So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died. Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people.

Then the Lord told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!

Numbers 21:4-9

Now I'm no Bible scholar and I have been struggling with this Old Testament jazz, but I'm sure it wasn't so long ago that the Lord was chastising wanting to destroy every last one of them for worshiping a Golden Calf. So tell me, is the Lord being a hypocrite or am I missing some subtle subtext? Part of me just wants to think the Lord is laying on a bit of thick sarcasm to get his message across, and is actually getting a kick out of watching His people gaze up at a bronze snake...

Retro Gaming...

Check out the cover for the new Delirious CD, not only do they have two (Mac haters beware!) iPods, but they also have an old school joystick!

Games Rhett Missed

This is a quick response to Atheist Rhett’s Geek-Out Part 2: My 20 Favourite Games Ever post. It summarises a couple of games that young Mr Rhett missed out on his list, but is by no means an exhaustive list of any type.

The BBC Micro was an early innovator of computer games, despite being overshadowed by its more popular competitor, the small and rubbery ZX Spectrum. Two genre-defining games that ruled my early computer gaming memories would have to be Revs and Elite.

Of course of recent years, not many real gamers play on PCs anymore, preferring the stability and (relatively) cheap option of the game console. It was the birth of the console that brought forth Codemasters mastery of the motor sports game with it’s long running racing series that started with TOCA.

For those Sony geeks still holding onto GranTurismo, I’ve played it, and Microsoft took the crown away from you with Forza.

Then there’s the real kings of the gaming world, the First Person Shooter. Infinity Ward owns the current generation, first with Call of Duty 2, and more recently with Call of Duty 4.

As for those Halo geeks, forget it, Marathon (on the *gasp* Mac) was a better trilogy of games…

That's Just Cruel.