No Good Deed...

To understand this event, I need to give a little background about myself personally. I am, at the time of writing, a 30-year-old vegetarian woman who lives in a 3-bedroom house with her 6 cats, 2 dogs, fishtanks, and numerous houseplants (including some fascinating carnivorous species). Due to a multitude of health issues, I have never had a chance to marry, nor do I have the energy to spare for courtship. To make matters worse, even if I did someday wish to pursue a romantic relationship, my health would make it nearly impossible for my boyfriend/husband to touch me, and absolutely impossible to do anything "else".

Because my health also limits my ability to get out of the house and get my much-needed doses of social interaction, I invite the few local kids who still live in my tiny, western Kansas farm town to come over to my place to hang out. I have a laptop computer with internet, a Wii (also with internet), a PS2, 2 DS game systems (a DSi and a 3DS), and numerous boardgames they are welcome to play with while visiting my home. I also buy them a nice amount of snack food every month (when I go on my monthly shopping trips) and some small "fun size" candy bars, of which they are allowed to pick 2 per day. Since our local library is only open a few times a week for a couple hours at a time, my house has become the local hang-out for the two families of pre-teens and teens (as well as a few young adults from those families) who live in this town.

As a final personal note, I should mention the rules of my house. I do not permit profanity (at least not within my hearing range), nor do I permit lude or inappropriate jokes. As I tell them, "If it's not G-rated, it doesn't need repeated." I also ask that if they use something, they put it away when they're done, and if they make a mess, they clean it up. If they want to earn a few extra dollars for themselves, I frequently have chores they may do for me to get paid, if they wish to do so. As for the computer, the first rule I tell every person who comes over to use it is, "No porn". I will not tolerate any use porn in my home, and it's one of two things that they've been told will earn them a permanent ban from my house (the other is stealing).

On that note, I'll relate what one of the kids told me yesterday. He has a friend from a town about 15 minutes drive away who sometimes comes over to visit or stay the night with him. When his friend comes over, he says that they can't come over to my house because his parents forbid him to come to my house. They think, according to him, that any 30-year-old woman who lets kids come over to her house and gives them free candy must be a child molester.

Now, I'm not offended by this baseless accusation. Goodness knows I've been accused of other crazy things before, such as a few supposedly religious people saying that all my health problems stem from the fact that I play a video game as evil and Satanic as Pokemon *eyeroll*. It did, however, make me stop and think. I had always assumed that it was impossible to offend people merely by being kind. I now see that this is, in fact, not true. I considered what I would do in such a situation, and I honestly feel that a better solution would be to come and meet the 30-year-old woman. Sit down and talk with her. Find out why she has no children of her own and yet loves to be around children and makes a place in her home for them to visit and enjoy themselves. I think that I would find out more about someone before I proposed the possibility that they might be a child molester and forbad my child from visiting their home.

In short, I feel that we should all try to be slower to take offence and quicker to bear one another's burdens that they may be light. Perhaps, if we do so, we'll be able to change the common saying from "No good deed goes unpunished" to something more positive, such as "No good deed is ignored" or "No good deed goes unpraised".

~Quaggy

Jehovah Who?

(Reposted from my Website Blog Page - Original Post from October 7th, 2011)

I recently participated in a lengthy (but friendly) discussion on Click Critters with a couple of people who insisted that Jehovah was the name of God the Father, not Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Afterward, I wanted to see if this is a point of confusion for most of the Christian world or unique to those with whom I was speaking. Looking up the word "Jehovah" in a normal dictionary quickly told me that this misconception is quite common, and I find myself perplexed by it. I had always thought the Bible more than sufficient to ascertain the identity of Jehovah (and with modern scripture, it becomes unmistakable). Thus, I decided to compile a list of scriptures that seem to make this point abundantly clear.

Creator

1. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men." (John 1:1-4)
   
   • If he was with God, i.e. the Father, and all things were created by him, then John is saying that the "word", i.e. Jesus the Christ, is the creator.
     
   • Note the usage in "the Word was God". We'll come back to this idiomatic expression later in this section.
   
   
2. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." (Gen. 1:1)
   
   • So, the creator is often referred to as God, also.
   
   
3. "In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." (Colossians 1:14-17)
   
   • Through whose blood do we find redemption? By him were all things created. Unless "mainstream" Christianity is trying to say that we find redemption through the blood of God the Father and *not* Jesus Christ, His Son...
   
   
4. "Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;" (Isaiah 44:24)
   
   • Again, who is the Redeemer of mankind? We are once more told that the Redeemer "maketh all things".
   
   
5. "And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land." (Jonah 1:9)
   
   • The creator is also called "the Lord, the God of Heaven", another name we can then ascribe to the Savior, Jesus Christ.
   
   
6. "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people" (Luke 1:68)
   
   • So, the Lord God of Israel is also the redeemer, and who is the redeemer, again? Thus, we can add yet another reference to the Savior to our list.
   
   
7. "Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me. I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. ... Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour." (Isaiah 45:11-12 & 15)
   
   • This passage makes clear a distinction between "the Lord, the Holy One of Israel" and "his Maker". Who could be the Maker of the Lord God of Israel except God the Father? Thus, the Lord God of Israel must not be the Father Himself, especially since God the Father is not our direct Savior. Everyone together now, who is our Savior? :)
   
   
8. "And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:" (Ephesians 3:8)
   
   • Again, God (the Father) created all things *by* Jesus Christ, denoting Jesus specifically as the creator. If the Lord God of Israel, Jehovah, created all things, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, created all things, does it not stand to reason that Jesus the Christ *is* Jehovah, the Lord God of Israel?
   
   
9. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;" (Hebrews 1:1-2)
   
   • Once again, Jesus is specifically designated as the one by whom the worlds were made.
   
   
10. "And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all." (Colossians 3:10-11)
    
    • Christ is once again designated as the creator, but I didn't include this passage just to repeat the point again. I included it to note another occurrence of the idiomatic expression I mentioned in the second note to Point #1 (John 1:1-4). "Christ is all and in all". Obviously we are not all Jesus Christ. This expression, while somewhat difficult for most people (myself included) to understand, seems to denote a close relationship, so close that two become one.
    
    

I AM

1. "And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." (Exodus 3:13-15)
   "And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say." (Exodus 4:10-12)
   
   • I lumped both of these together because they are from the same conversation, specifically Moses speaking with God in the burning bush, but for the sake of brevity, I cut out the passages inbetween that don't pertain to our stated topic. Now, we've already established who created all things, thus, if "I AM" created all things (including man's mouth, the seeing, and the blind), then "I AM" must, logically, refer to the creator, which we've already established to be Jesus the Christ.
     
   • Also notice that "I AM" promises to be with Moses and, in the verses I didn't include, specifically ones like Exodus 3:20, the Lord promises to "smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go". Thus, the deliverer of Israel is also "I AM", i.e. Jesus the Christ. This will be relevant in a moment...
   
   
2. "Then the Lord said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord: And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them." (Exodus 6:1-3)
   
   • So, the deliverer of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was and is Jehovah, and, as we've already established, the deliverer of Israel and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was and is "I AM", who is also known as Jesus Christ. Thus, Jesus Christ = "I AM" = Jehovah. To drive this point home, I'll add the words of the Savior Himself...
   
   
3. "Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by."
   
   • The footnote here points out, "The term I Am used here in the Greek is identical with the Septuagint usage in Ex. 3:14 which identifies Jehovah." Since the Septuagint predates by centuries any English translation of the Bible, we can only surmise that the reason the Jews took up stones to kill him (by stoning, a common punishment in that day for blasphemy) was because he claimed to be "I AM", i.e. Jehovah, the God of Israel. If we, who believe on the name of Jesus Christ, believe him to be a sinless man, must we not, therefore, accept his word when he calls himself "I AM", i.e. Jehovah?
   
   

Latter-Day Scripture (a.k.a. the Cheat Sheet)
(I need not make any content notes here. These speak quite clearly for themselves, one obvious advantage to the use of Latter-Day Scripture.)

1. "Yea, I know that ye know that in the body he shall show himself unto those at Jerusalem, from whence we came; for it is expedient that it should be among them; for it behooveth the great Creator that he suffereth himself to become subject unto man in the flesh, and die for all men, that all men might become subject unto him." (2 Nephi 9:5)
   
2. "For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases. ... And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary." (Mosiah 3:5 & 3:8)
   
3. "And also that ye might know of the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and of earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and that ye might know of the signs of his coming, to the intent that ye might believe on his name." (Helaman 14:12)
   
4. "And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. Amen." (Moroni 10:34) (See Romans 14:10 if you don't know about "the judgement seat of Christ", or...)
   
5. "Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?" (Alma 5:14)
   
6. "Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters. And never have I showed myself unto man whom I have created, for never has man believed in me as thou hast. Seest thou that ye are created after mine own image? Yea, even all men were created in the beginning after mine own image. Behold, this body, which ye now behold, is the body of my spirit; and man have I created after the body of my spirit; and even as I appear unto thee to be in the spirit will I appear unto my people in the flesh." (Ether 3:14-16)
   
7. "Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world. And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning." (3 Nephi 11:10-11)
   
8. "Behold, I am he that gave the law, and I am he who covenanted with my people Israel; therefore, the law in me is fulfilled, for I have come to fulfil the law; therefore it hath an end." (3 Nephi 15:5 - Jesus is speaking)
   
9. "We saw the Lord standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit, before us; and under his feet was a paved work of pure gold, in color like amber. His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah, saying: I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father." (D&C 110:2-4)
   
10. "Listen to the voice of Jesus Christ, your Redeemer, the Great I Am, whose arm of mercy hath atoned for your sins" (D&C 29:1)
    
11. "And he bore record, saying: I saw his glory, that he was in the beginning, before the world was; Therefore, in the beginning the Word was, for he was the Word, even the messenger of salvation— The light and the Redeemer of the world; the Spirit of truth, who came into the world, because the world was made by him, and in him was the life of men and the light of men. The worlds were made by him; men were made by him; all things were made by him, and through him, and of him. And I, John, bear record that I beheld his glory, as the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, even the Spirit of truth, which came and dwelt in the flesh, and dwelt among us." (D&C 93:7-11)
    

Conclusion

I feel that I've provided ample evidence, both Biblical and from Latter-Day Scripture, to support the assertion that Jesus Christ is Jehovah. Thus far, I have yet to find any evidence to prove that Jesus is *not* Jehovah other than the traditions of men (which usually have little or no connection to scripture). With Latter-Day Scripture, this fact is unmistakable, but even with just the Bible, I think it's a very clear point. Unfortunately, I suspect that the larger problem is a difficulty finding faith in the divinity of Christ, upon which all Christianity, of necessity, is based and without which it inevitably falls.

~Quaggy

Advertising and Adoptable Sites

Yeah, I know it's been a while since I last posted. I tried several times, but I guess I was posting at peak times and the server wouldn't add my post (after half an hour of trying each time). Anyway, hopefully today's post will upload.

My first topic today is advertising. It's everywhere these days, and many websites subsist only upon the revenues from advertising. Understandably, advertisers want to get their name into the heads of consumers, and some advertisers seem to think that annoying people is the best way to do this. While I admit that it's a good way to get people to say, "I'll never buy or support *insert the name of company with a horrible ad like Quiznos or Geico*", I can't see how that does the company a service. With Internet ads, some advertisers seem to think that they have to make flashing ads to get people to pay attention to the ad. I've got a newsflash for them. First, flashing ads, which are detrimental to certain health problems, make many people disable all ads just to get around them. Second, flashing ads cause complaints to webmasters who then must manually block the offensive ads. Third, people do pay attention to ads if they have something meaningful to say. Most web surfers know to ignore the "Click here for your free Wii" and "You are the 1 millionth visitor, click here for your prize!" ads. They are little more than scams. Since many websites gain a limited pool of advertisements, most regulars on any given site have seen ads for a game before. Making a new ad that flashes just annoys people (there's a reason that HTML no longer supports the BLINK tag), and makes people want to avoid your website. In short, stop making annoying ads, inappropriate ads, and idiotic ads. People are numb to stupid tactics companies concoct to get their money, and an ad that annoys someone is more likely to drive them away than bring them in.

Now on to my second topic, which is only tenuously connected to the first: Adoptable sites. (Adoptables are, in themselves, a form of advertisement for the website that distributes them.) These seem to be the fad of the year, with new ones cropping up regularly and a pre-made script or two being distributed for use by anyone with the inclination to do so. Everyone seems to have their own way of encouraging players to click other adoptables on their site such as: paying site-specific currency (ex: Valenth, Whimpsters), giving random site rewards (ex: DragonAdopters, UniCreatures), giving out exclusive adoptables (PokePlushies, Virtuadopt), listing those who have clicked on one's adoptables that day (ex: Global Pokedex Plus), and some sites have no incentive at all (ex: Dragon Cave and Arvyre, as well as all the other sites using the same cookie-cutter code that Arvyre uses). Of all of these methods, I'd have to say that none of them seem to be especially effective. There is another option that many adoptable site players use: Click/Link exchanges. These exchanges give click for click. If you click on another's adoptable, you eventually get a click in return from someone else. There are downsides to these systems also, such as the resources required to run them. In short, it seems that no adoptable website I've seen has managed to solve the problems with making adoptables more interactive without rewarding unwanted behavior (like spamming or leeching).

~Quag

PS: The idea of adoptables is not really new. My first computer graphics projects over 10 years ago were animating "adoptable" Care Bear images, but the adoptables were nothing more than HTML image links back then. There was no "leveling" involved, primarily because it was very expensive to purchase a hosting package that allowed the user access to the kind of server-side programming needed to give adoptable images levels and names.

Is The Golden Compass Anti-Christian?

In the past month, two friends have directly asked me about this topic and a third has discussed it in passing with me. I read the Golden Compass in High School years ago, and I am very excited about the new movie. Of course, I suppose I should have expected these questions and comments, since the news channels keep running idiotic stories about it. So, here is my answer to the question, "Is The Golden Compass anti-Christian?"

First, let me summarize the book. A young girl, Lyra Belaqua, lives in a world in which a religious organization, the Magesterium, concocts secret plots for power, in more ways than one. Their Oblation Board, overseen by Lyra's own mother, seeks out children they consider of low worth to abduct and conduct medical experiments on, experiments that ultimately lead to the childrens' deaths. When a friend of Lyra's is taken by the Oblation Board, she turns her back on the prospects of riches and power her parents could gain her to set out into the dangerous frozen north to rescue her friend. Along the way, she uncovers a plot by the Magesterium to gain control of the warrior nation of snow bears by holding the promise of "baptism" over the head of the leader, if he can prove that he is equal to the Human race (and does what the Magesterium wishes).

I suppose one's answer to the question at hand depends entirely on how you personally define Christianity. If you believe that Christianity is best exemplified by the actions of the Magesterium in this book, by deception, murder, kidnapping, and an insatiable lust for power and money, then you would be correct in saying that this film speaks out against such things. If you believe that Christianity is best defined by the courage to turn your back on money and power for a friend in need, by honesty, loyalty, courage, and kindness, then this movie honors Christianity.

Perhaps most ironic of all, is that those who stand on their soapboxes screaming about how this movie dishonors their religion are themselves saying that they belong to a religion that practices dishonesty, murder, and secret combinations, which are built up to get power, gain, and glory of the world. If their religion does practice such things, I would reply to them that they would be better off looking for the source of corruption within their organization, the reason that such secret combinations have hold upon them, than to criticize a movie or suggest that all religion is represented by the evil Magesterium of The Golden Compass.

~Quaggy

A Fix For Maple Story's Shop System

I've had this in my head for months, so I finally decided to do up a post about it. Though I feel it unlikely this will be seen by anyone with the power to consider the idea, still I will do my best to convey the idea whether or not it is ever implemented (because I think it would greatly improve the experience of playing Maple Story). Above is an image I've drawn up to show the new addition to the Free Market that I'd love to see added to Maple Story Global someday.

It would work something like this: players wishing to sell in the Super Market would stop at the NPC sitting behind the Front Desk to retrieve Sale Tags (a stackable item that would look somewhat like the rough image below). Those who cannot or will not buy NX would get 1 Sale Tag for free. Additional ones could be purchased for a certain amount, like 5,000 NX each. Once an item sold, the tag would return to the desk for the user to retrieve (along with the mesos from the item(s) sold). To be absolutely clear here, these tags would be PERMANENT. The Cash Shop has enough temporary stuff in it already that too few people buy. The last thing we need is more temporary electronic items to pay real money for, especially when there is a whole game full of free items that last forever. But I digress, back to the point...

Those who wish to buy from the Super Market would go right past the front desk to the 4 door portals, each marked with a sign over it saying (in order) "Eq.", "Use", "Set-up", and "Etc.". Depending on the type of item the user wishes to buy, they would choose a door. Items for sale would be displayed as if they were drops laying on a shelf (that no one can pick up). Below each item would be a crate (that players can't break), which sellers would click on to leave one of that item for sale at whatever price they feel is reasonable. Above the shelf would be a blackboard which buyers could click on to see a list of that item currently for sale on their server, in order by price. (If they want certain stats on Equipment items, they would still have to scroll down through the available items to find what they want.) Leaving an item or single stack of items would require 1 Sale Tag. When the item or stack is sold out, the Sale Tag returns to the desk to be claimed by the owner so they can sell something else.

While I realize that this would reduce the number of players using Owls of Minerva and Shop Elves, it would also improve the game (which should be the first concern of any game developer). So many players I know just NPC their unwanted items instead of trying to deal with the hassles of the Free Market (and some of them on slower connections can't even use the Free Market because they lag and then DC). Many buyers go to websites like Basil Street to deal in items or stand and spam the ch. 1 Free Market until they get what they want instead of trying to spend hours searching for the right item and price checking it. The Free Market is chaos, and I know I hate dealing with it. To make matters worse, players who have no NX often plant themselves in the Free Market and spam it like there is no tomorrow (because they have no other choice). Players with NX do anything they can to get a good spot to leave their character and computer on all night (or school day) in the hopes that someone who happens to want what they are selling might find them and buy from them. Not only does this add unnecessary drain to the Maple servers, but it causes unnecessary wear and tear to people's computers. My new system could be implemented without getting rid of the Free Market stalls, though if I were a betting person, I'd bet people would drop the Free Market stalls like a hot potato within a week of this being released.

The only downside to this idea that I can think of would be revenue. I'm not sure if the revenue from this idea would be more or less than is currently earned through the Maple Story shop system. It could be more profitable because people are always more willing to buy something permanent, especially in a game, than they are to buy temporary electronic items. On the other hand, the revenue could be slightly less because people aren't being scalped every which way to try and buy and sell in-game items. If the latter case happens, the lost revenue could easily be made up and exceeded (in my opinion) by simply offering some Cash Shop clothes that never expire (perhaps at slightly higher prices). Perhaps other types of items could be added too, like a $15 Water or Eternal Life for pets (so they never turn back into dolls). As Ive said, players always seem to be more willing to spend money in support of a game when the items they buy are permanent.

It's just an idea, but it's one that I think would greatly improve the experience of playing Maple Story.

~Quaggy