Entitlement

Remember that one time I had a blog? Yeah... that was a good time.

I'm working on learning a little bit of Game Maker right now (search it on Google... I don't feel like linking...) It's good times.

As I was sitting outside in the beautiful sun today, I was watching some bugs move around on the grass. I figured maybe it looked fun. Maybe I should make a gameplay experiment about jumping around on different sized platforms, just to see if I can make it fun.

Then I remembered: I want to be a game designer and I should probably learn and make some...

Church was good this morning. We've been going through 2 Chronicles something or other: "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will hear their land." Today was "turn from their wicked ways." Good times.

Jason said something this morning that resonated a bit with me, though, that I'll share here. In talking about sin and specifically some things in the congregation, he mentioned that "out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." But how much moreso our bodies act? What is the heart behind my actions? (A question that has been plaguing me for some time...)

I guess lately, I've had a bit of an entitlement attitude. I've been expecting life to go my way without any hard work. I have not been learning how to design video games, I have not been spending time outside of my schoolwork writing or concepting. I only applied at a few places to work this summer - no wonder I'm stuck at a movie theater working weekends!

If I feel entitled now and act this way now, how much more so will I act when I have a college degree? In my observation, jobs don't come from hard work. I've always been taught that "It's not what you know, it's who you know." It's not how hard you work, it's knowing people that will give you a job anyway. That's not how the world is going to work out of college. We don't know anyone (at least, I don't). I need to kick this entitled attitude right in the rear now.

Another thought I had in church: In America, we feel entitled, like it is our right to freedom, our right to riches, our right to upper-middle class subdivisions, an SUV, and 2.5 children. This is exactly the attitude that our forefathers fought against! We feel like we deserve what we get - they worked hard to get it. There are many days that I wish I was more like generations past in work ethic and attitude.

Anyway, that's enough rambling for now. (These things are always longer when I look at them than when I type them...)

Back of the head voices

It's funny. Every so often, I get these things in the back of my head that tell me things.

Lately, they've been saying a lot - get ahead on your homework, here's a story idea, be a game designer, Story is King, pursue God, etc. But lately, I've heard a new(ish) one about leadership.

I'm not sure what exactly it's saying, but I feel like I may need to do something leadership-y soon. If it really is a gift that people point out to me as they have, then I should eventually do something about it.

So that's something I've been thinking a little about lately. If any of you have an prophetic truth to speak into my life in this area, feel free to go at it. If not, that's cool. I'm sure God will eventually be pretty clear about the matter.

URGH!

Half-Life 2 does not - repeat - does not have a good story.

There is no motivation. No character. A plot that in the first 4 hours is totally absent. I have no idea why I'm running through a city full of alien zombies.

The most frustrating thing is that my progress is blocked by a chain link fence. Not just a chain link fence, either. A partially knocked down chain link fence. A chain link fence that I could crawl up. A broken chain link fence is stopping me, Messiah and war hero Gordon Freeman, from escaping the psycho alien zombie creatures from eating my flesh.

Come on, level designers, could it at least have been a locked wooden door? Even a chain link fence with barbed wire would make more sense.


That felt good. I needed to rant a bit against popular opinion there for a bit. A more intelligent engagement with Half-Life 2 and Gordon Freeman will show up on my game blog within a few days (theoretically).

Fear me

So apparently, I'm a stud. A warrior stud...

Kemp - comes from the Old English kempe, meaning brave, athletic, bold, or strong.

Brandle - hard to track, but goes to a pet name for South German brand, which hearkens to Germanic for sword.

Lyons - comes from Middle English lion (meaning lion), which came to be a nickname for a fierce or brave warrior; alternatively, it comes from the Celtic god Lugh, who had a sword that drinks blood and was a kickin warrior and originator of art.

So, pretty much I'm a stud with a sword.

I suppose...

So I'm really bored right now.

Not sure what to do with myself, so I figured I'd update this here blog thing.

Umm... Is blogging without significance bad? Should we endeavor to respect the privilege of being able to freely share our thoughts with others by sharing only thoughts of worth?

One of the current trends in, well, life, is the democratization of various forms of industry. With the Web 2.0 phenomenon and websites like YouTube popping up everywhere, it is more and more feasible to create our own anything.

With that, however, comes the reality that not everyone is a trained film maker (using YouTube as an example). We see hoards of filth, both morally and artistically, invading the internet and filling our servers. We hope that by submitting our work to the masses, we would be able to find what truly appeals to people. But what truly appeals to people? Sex. Low comedy. Popular music (There's lots of music videos being checked out on YouTube...).

Very little is real people trying to put together real stuff. It's mostly just people saying, "Wouldn't it be funny if...", pulling out their HandiCams, and uploading.

Which brings me to my point: should my posting here be all about me? Should it be about meaningful thoughts? Or should it be whatever I can think up at the time? Is blogging a useful activity after all?

Just some thoughts that came from having nothing to talk about. (I've always wanted a "meta" tag!)