And another one gone

Today, while scanning our guild forums at eternitymatters.net, I came across a post from Chris, the person who, along with Jon, started the guild three years ago stating that he too was leaving the game after much soul searching and careful consideration. While his leaving the game had nothing to do with the game itself, or the people in the guild, it was a necessary decision on his part to prepare himself for what lies ahead. He is getting close to graduating from college (one more year) and needs to start focusing on his real life responsibilities and priorities in order to prepare him for the seminary after college. While he (like Jon and Callie) will be missed, I commend them for putting God and His priorities first. It is refreshing to see young people (yes, I can call them young people, since I'm an old fart of 41) taking responsibility and putting God first in a world where many people put themselves and their own wants and desires above anything else. Again, Cristobol (my nickname for him) will be greatly missed, and I wish him luck in his future endeavors (and he can bet that I'll hunt him down if he doesn't keep in touch). On a closing note, it was Chris that sent me the initial guild invite so many years ago, so I owe him a big debt of gratitude. Thanks Bro for asking me to join the Family that helped guide me back on the path to God :D Love ya Bro.

The Value of Love

The following was written by a friend of mine, and I couldn't have said this better myself. I would rather be this kind of rich, than have all the money in the world. Enjoy!
---
The Value of Love
By:
Patricia Hilbrich

“Are we rich mommy?” my eight year old pondered as we made our way through the toy store. I glanced down as he was standing amidst isles of extravagant and fancy gadgets. I contemplated my answer for a moment or two and then happily declared that we indeed are rich. “Then why can’t we buy this?” as he held a new game system in his hands. With heartache I explained we could not afford it. I, as most parent, would love nothing more then to be able to provide my children with all their hearts desires. Though after a messy divorce and starting over ends are extremely hard to meet.

His inquisitiveness turned to confusion as we made our way to the register. “If we are rich then how come we can’t afford it?” he asked perplexed. “What makes a person rich sweetie?” I inquired. At that moment he gazed at me as if I were insane. “Money!” he eagerly explained. The cashier looked up in amusement of his respond. It was at that moment I understood that my sweet son’s ideas of riches were askew.

Explaining the difference would be one of the most important jobs I ,as parent, could ever perform. In this age of immediate gratification and excessive unnecessary possessions, how do you challenge the value of money over the value of love? “Having money is not what makes you rich”, I rationalized as he stared blankly at me. “ Being rich is how you live your life not what you have.” I went on to translate how to determine a persons’ real value. I informed him that the richest people in the world are those who love themselves as well as other. How someone lives and loves is what indeed makes them truly rich.

He looked softly at me, almost as if enlightened by the information, and smiled. “Well then I hope I’m rich when I get older.” Still unsure if he grasped the concept I laid out, I probed for the nature of his hopeful wealth. He fervently stated love. Enjoying the warm feeling within, I confirmed to him that waiting was not necessary. Young, old, boy, girl anyone can possess all the riches in the world. Well you would have thought he won a million dollars when hearing this.

A month later my son had a few friends over to celebrate his birthday. They fluttered around the house as my son showed off his room and toys. Clearing the plates of left over cake and broken balloons I over heard one of the boys state how rich his father is. Pretending not to listen I was surprised to hear my son quiz his buddy over this new found fact. “What does he do?” he began with to which the boy responded quickly. “He works”, he exclaimed. Bewildered my son struck back, “yeah but what does he do?” His friend went silent not understanding the question. “Does he help others, treat people nice, and do all he can to be a good person?” The boy looked down shaking his head no. “Well then I guess my mom is richer than your dad”, he affirmed. They trotted off leaving me standing there in awe.

As I might have thought I taught him a lesson what my son taught me that day was immeasurable. It’s not about having the best game system or that i-pod they think they can’t live without. What kids genuinely need it to be taught the value of love. This Christmas my son wants to volunteer at the soup kitchen, to give our love to others so they may feel as rich as we do. So next time you are battling five other parents for that last Elmo doll ask yourself if that is the lesson you want your child to learn.

Going through the motions?

"Every single night, the same arrangement, I go out and fight the fight. Still I always feel this strange estrangement. Nothing here is real. Nothing here is right.
I've been making shows of trading blows, just hoping no one knows that I've been
going through the motions, walking through the part. Nothing seems to penetrate my heart..."

Those are the words from the opening scene in the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More with Feeling" Musical episode. And all too often, these words are all too true. How many times have I stopped to evaluate my life, only to realize that I've fallen back into the same old rut, and am just going through the motions, and really going nowhere? Too many to count. As Christians, life should be about more than repeating the same old rituals, the same old actions every day. The more we do this, the less effective we become for accomplishing our goals in life. Then we must stop and re-evaluate our position, and refocus on doing God's will, and get our lives back on track. Once we do, then our own lives will be more meaningful, and we will become more effective in carrying out God's work. Just some food for thought.

April Fools = Not Funny (aka Darth Vader and his 56k modem)

Today, before leaving for school, I decided to log onto WoW in order to gather screenshots for my upcoming visual aid speech on the Eternity Matters guild for my Oral Communications class. Things were going fine, as I had captured a couple of screenshots for my first character and was loggingoff to switch to the second character. The login seemed normal enough until I was literally blasted out of my seat by the sound of a 56k modem making a connection. I was baffled by this, and asked in guild chat if anyone else had experienced this, to which the reply was "no". I thought maybe it was something going on in the background, as I had one or two sites open behind the WoW screen, and shrugged it off. Second character captured in a screenshot and repeat logout/login procedure for the third. Again with the modem sound. By this point, I was beginning to get a little freaked out and thiking that maybe someone had hacked my account, so I opened up a GM ticket, and repeated the procedure for the rest of the characters while waiting. Once I had gotten my screenshots, I logged back onto my main character, and saw that I still had 20 minutes to wait until my ticket was answered, so decided to do some google searching on the subject while talking to my best friend to see if she had encountered the same thing. I think she either thought I was nuts, or trying to play a mean April fool's prank on her because she hadn't experienced it when switching her characters. Just then, I got an IM from some random joe in the game and again with the sound effects. This one was Darth Vader breathing, and really got me scared, as the player messaging me had a name something akin to MajorlyPwned or something along those lines. I promptly closed the window, and resumed my google search. That was when I had found the culprit here (reprinted below for those who don't wish to clicky on the link):
================
News

04/01/2009 - StarWars Episode 7

March 31, 2009, 05:24:53 PM by Pazza
Quick reply regarding the April Fools Joke:

1. I am sorry if this scared the crap out of you. That wasn't my intention. I thought it would simply raise a brow and go "wtf?!". I guess that was my mistake. So if you want a formal apology. I'm sorry.

2. A quick way to stop the sounds which doesn't involve modifying code. Go into your addons directory and navigate to "WIM/Sounds" and delete the 2 files aping1.wav and aping2.mp3. You will no longer be bothered by Darth Vader and his crappy modem.

3. If you feel I betrayed your trust, don't. Or do for that matter. The choice is up to you. Whether you use WIM or not doesn't affect me. I don't get paid for the time I put into it. In fact, it costs me money. I've invested about $2,000 into it over the past 2 years in hosting to make it easily accessible for everyone.

4. It's April 1st everyone. I even wrote this storyline for it...




StarWars

Episode VII
The Wrath of Dialup

As the rebellion continues to strengthen after teaming up with both the

Alliance and the Horde to help destroy the empire, Vader tries to

sneak below radar by infiltrating Azeroth and tainting the minds of many

World of Warcraft players. Unfortunately, Vader's plan is foiled! After being

destroyed so many times, the Death Star is no longer equipped with

broadband, so Vader's only option is DIALUP! Vader's determination leads

him to continue his quest hoping that users will have their sound muted

as to take over their Warcraft experience undetected! God... What a noob!



Never Fear however, to help combat against Vader and his evil storm

troopers, you might get lucky and have R2-D2 come to your aid!



Good luck noobies round the world and may the force be with you!
====================
Thanks a lot Nubcakes for nearly giving me a coronary at 42.

Shortly after I found this, my ticket was answered, and I explained the problem, and told the GM what/who the culprit (WoW Instant Messenger) was. I apologized for bothering him, closed the IM, and logged off and hurried out the door to go to school, all the way vowing that the next person to prank me today would regret it.