Dear Esther, Why are you so beautiful?

As I walked through the fingernail scarred cliff faces, I thought to myself, "why?" As I crept  through the majestic, magically illuminated caves I thought to myself "Who am I" The answer was simple, I was the unnamed protagonist. My experience was abruptly cut short by the message flashing into appearance along the bottom of the screen. "Frog is now playing Half Life 2: Deathmatch" I was astounded. For the last few minutes I was the unnamed protagonist.I've never experienced such deep immersion before. What caused it? The lack of a HUD? The slow, almost tedious walk across the surreal landscape? The awe inspiring, beautiful voice overs?

Welcome the Half Life 2 mod, Dear Esther. It would be rude to call  Dear Esther  a game, it is one of thechineseroom's numerous projects in first person story telling. The game is, simply, a walk across a landscape. There is no action and basic controls. Movement is limited to walking, crawling or jumping.Trust me on this, you want to walk.  A voice in your head is  constantly speaking to you. The "voice in your head" is your voice, not the protagonist's voice, your voice. The dialog was split up into multiple sections, with one of three pieces  playing when you pass certain landmarks on your long journey. This works surprisingly well, and you  have to challenge your self to put the story together, piece by piece. I am not going to say anything about the story, it will be better for you to find out for yourself. You must download this, really. It will change your  mind on what a first person game can be, and what it is.

What is a spiritual gift?

What is it? It's a blessing God has given you to glorify him. It's a special ability that you enjoy and can use to spread the gospel.

Some people use gifts in sports. They will play their sport for charities.

Some people are musicians that write music for God.

Some people are artists that can draw out Christ's meaning and story.

Some people are friends, were they can give support to other when in need.

What is your gift?

Internet and Free Infromation

With the rise of the internet we are seeing one thing becoming more and more popular, free information. Back in the 80s and early 90s what did you do when you wanted to know how tall the Empire State building is? You spent $5-$20 on a tourists guide the the Empire State Building or asked a friend. (who usually didn't know) With the rise of the internet things have changed. For a small fee every single month you gain access to an answer to almost every single answer you can think of. All you have to do is Google it, the only price is having to look at a few adds on the side of the page. Yes, the information is not free, you have to pay a monthly fee, but you pay the fee for internet access, not for information.

• Why Information is Better on the Internet.

Information is  better on the internet because it is FREE and, most of the time,  written by people like you, people with a sense of humor. OK, I was joking, information isn't real free, there is a cost. That cost is having to look at an add.Unless you are watching a video are have some mental disorder which causes you to stare at adds for long time spans, adds do not take any of your time, money (unless they convince you to buy something)  or energy. Anyway, in a tangible form of information such as a newspaper or magazine, there's still adds. 

•  If both internet Information and Tangible information have adds why do I pay for tangible information? 

I can think of 2 answers for this question. First, the cost for producing Tangible information is much higher. Unlike Internet information whose only cost is a one time payment for a computer and writer, (both of which you still have to pay for when producing tangible information) you have to pay for printing and shipping, two very large fees. Secondly, tangible information is, well, "tangible." It's much nicer to curl up in bed reading a magazine then it is to curl up in bed browsing a website. Screens haven't been perfected to the point where they are easily readable in the dark and over long periods of time without eyestrain. 

•  Will it always be like this?

No, I don't think so. I think tangible sources of information such as magazines and news papers will die within the next 20 years. E-Readers are on the rise, and with 3Qe (I know I'm spelling that wrong) screens, reading without eyestrain will no longer be a problem. With 3g networks you can look up information with these E-Readers anywhere in the US. I'm eagerly looking forward to these great days of free information that will allow humanity become much smarter.

I Made More Changes

I made some more changes to the blog. Blogger recently released a WordPress style template MOOO (Sorry, I have a cow in my office) editor and I just had to mess around with it. Tell me what you think.