Back from the Void

So yeah.  First post in 7 years.  Why?  Cause for a long long damn time I really didn't give a shit.  Still don't really, but I'm thinking of starting a gaming blog so I resurrected this one for convenience's sake.  Dunno how much I'll actually post on this blog tho.

I will however give a quick overview of the last 7 years in case anyone that knew me back in the day stops back by.

Things that Changed:

• My dad lost his leg in 2010 to an aneurysm.  We lost dad in 2013 due to chemotherapy (that the VA was giving him for lung cancer).  Two days after my birthday.  He's in Valhalla now.  (Do you disagree with that last bit?  Fuck you then.  Keep it to yourself, I don't wanna hear it).
• Almost lost my mom in 2015 due to a strangulated hernia.  She pulled through and beat the odds and is doing fine at 80.  This is a gift from the gods.  (Again, if you disagree with that last bit?  Fuck you then.  Keep it to yourself, I don't wanna hear it).
• I looked into Christianity again, per my Lady's request.  For 4 years.  I did not forsake my paganism in doing so.  My conclusion?  Fuck Christianity.  (You want details, reasons, logic, whatever?  That's nice, you ain't gonna get em.  I don't wanna deal with it.)
• Wanna argue religion et al with me?  Don't bother.  I don't do that anymore.  It ain't worth my precious time.  Same goes for politics.
• Got engaged in 2014.  Never will be able to marry her though (financial reasons).  She lives with mom and I now, and helps me take care of mom.  Pics will be posted when I feel like it.
• We got cats - started with my fiancee's dead grandmother's cat, lead to more.  Again, pics will be posted when I feel like it.

Things that Haven't Changed:

• I'm a pagan.  Focused on the goddess Hekate and the Norse pantheon (mainly Odin).
• I'm a chaos magician.  Don't practice a whole lot anymore, save in times of need.  Who has the time?
• If you where my friend before, guess what?  You still are.  I don't give a damn what your beliefs are.  Beliefs are just thoughts, transient, ephemeral.  Actions are what matter.
• Still a gamer.  Focused on my own homemade system these days, but like D&D 5th edition, Shadowrun 4th edition, Star Wars SAGA, and other various systems.  Still playing video games too, mainly Diablo 3 at the moment.

So there we go.  That's kinda where I'm at now, for anyone that cares.

Prehistoric Scribbles I - What Would Jesus Do?

I've decided to post here a series of articles I wrote waaaaaaay back in the days when I was on Delphi, now that I've found them again. Here's the first.

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What Would Jesus Do?
One of evangelical Christianity's favorite questions, second only to "Who do you think Jesus is?" I've got a better one for you though. If Jesus was on Earth today, what would he be doing? Would he have a TV show, preaching the "good news" globally in 24ish different languages? Would he come out in an Armani suit, discuss the news from "God's perspective", and preform miracles live? Would he go on tour, performing miracles as he moved from town to town with his entourage, staying in the best hotels and renting civic centers for the tour? Would he run for president? Would he go apeshit and beat "cult" leaders to within an inch of their lives for impersonating him? Would he beat gay people in his own name? Would Jesus be on-line? Would have a website, and get hundreds of e-mails a day? Would he hang out in chatrooms and message boards, starting flame wars when someone disagreed with him? Would he spam and troll the boards run by people of other religions? As Ray Stevens said, "Would Jesus wear a rolex on his television show?" Would he?

I don't think so. In fact, I'm of the opinion that if Jesus was here today, he would be nauseated by the activities of his so-called followers. I'm reminded of his rantings at the Pharisees and the episode when he cleared out the temple. It becomes quite obvious to almost anyone who reads the New Testament with an eye toward the cultural climate of the time that the popular image of Jesus is not quite right. The picture that comes out if you read it without bias is quite different.

Jesus was a rebel. He did not acknowledge any form of authority other than his own, be it civil or ecclesiastical. He didn't even really acknowledge "God" as having any authority over him, due to the simple fact that he claimed to be the son of "God". If someone questioned him on a matter the response, again and again, is "It is my father's will." Who would question him after that? Jesus hung out and traveled with whores and tax collectors and failed fishermen, the outcasts of society. He traveled the region, crashing wherever anyone would let him and living off the willingly given resources of his admirers. He partied, contrary to the popular opinion. The incident surrounding the "water to wine" miracle is very clearly stated as a wedding party. The wine ran out so he turned water to wine in order that the party could continue. And don't give me this shit about the water in the Middle East not being drinkable, so they drank wine instead. That's a cop out. It seems pretty obvious from the context of the story that the water in question was drinkable, being that it was sitting around in jugs that the party goers didn't seem to have any problems drinking out of. He did the miracle 'cause he wanted more wine, damn it.

So, what's the point? Simple. If Jesus was alive today, he wouldn't act anything like what his followers believe he would. And he certainly wouldn't be on TV asking for donations. If Jesus were alive today, he'd probably be a biker. He'd drink, he may or may not smoke, and he'd probably hang out in bars and strip joints. He'd ride around the country - I envision him on a Fatboy - living as he could from city to city.

Why? Why do I say this? In the New Testament, Jesus helped individuals. Yeah, there were times when he preached to large groups, but in that time, it was more personal even in larger groups. At the time, "larger groups" meant a very different thing than it does now, maybe a thousand people, tops. Jesus's style was mostly individual and, above all personal.

And that's what I see him doing. Getting to know people. Real people...and giving them hope.

Hunting Jesus

Much and nothing have happened since my last post. Call me lazy or call me unmotivated, both are likely true. It's been a years of trials, that's for sure. The comfortable norm upset. And in a way that's a good thing. I'm rid of baggage that I'm better off without, and moreover once again motivated to do things. To imagine, to write, to dream, and to work my Art. It's amazing how stagnant and dull one can become when someone else takes over your life.

But enough of that. As I type this I'm in the process of perhaps the oddest project I've undertaken to date. At my Lady's (insistent) prompting, I am endeavoring to become a Christian again. What the fuck, I know. Though I don't understand her reasoning at the moment, I'm willing to trust. So I go attempting to re-engage (rebuild, recreate?) the faith I once had. Not easy going mind you, as I now know so much of my previous errors. So in a way it becomes an exercise of suspension of disbelief - on a personally epic scale.

So shhhhhhh, be very very quiet. I'm hunting Jesus...

My Birthday Present

My birthday was on the 19th of this month, but it was on the 20th that I got my real present. On the 20th of this month, a new president was inaugurated into the highest office of this country. Barack Obama, our first black president. And yes, I said black not African-American - I am not a creature of political correctness. At last, for the first time in 8 years, we again have a president that was voted into office. But that isn't the greatest part of why I consider this man's ascension to the presidency as a personal birthday present.

A year ago at Xmas time I posted this. And in the spirit of that post I returned to a nest of vipers that I had left (along with others) in order to give them another chance to show me that there was a way to avoid the cultural war mentioned in that post from turning ugly. I'll be frank - I was of the opinion that, given time, this country would face another civil war, with the lines being drawn mainly by religious affiliation this time. A silly idea? Perhaps. But I doubt many can honestly look at the heat of the rhetoric on both sides and honestly tell me that such a thing is completely out of the realm of possibility. Likewise, I defy any of my (non-existent) readers to tell me that concentration, err re-education camps are totally outside the realm of possibility in the long term if the likes of Palin were to take the presidency and continue Bush's methodical demolition of the Constitution.

So, with hope of finding a way to co-exist or reason with the other side of the cultural war, I went back to the web of deceit and arrogance known as ExWitch.com. In case you're wondering gentle reader, I was not looking to save the world here - I am well aware that one website and my meaningless babble have precisely zero real effect on the world. No, this was more of a social experiment, to see if that two larger groups could indeed avoid the outcome I foresaw by examining the matter on a smaller scale. Regardless, I didn't have high hopes, having clashed with most of the moderators in the past and knowing their methods (self-righteous censorship, arbitary bannings, and good old fashion lying, not to mention gaslighting and other amatuer attempts to "persuade" their audience). However, I wanted to give them a chance to prove me wrong. The experiment lasted til May. To be fair, yes I was banned (temporarily at first I think, but permemantly due to pressing the matter) for "bad behavior". I guess demanding justice - ie that others are not banned arbitrarily for no good reason - and calling out the moderators on their hypocrasy and lies if bad behavior in such circles. In any case, they failed, and proved me right.

I did learn an important leason from the Jesus Nazis there however - one cannot reason with a fanatic, especially in groups, especially when they are in power. One need not be a genius to see what this lesson means on a larger scale.

BUT...as it often does, reality surprised me. On November 5th, a clear majority of this country's population joined together in rejecting the dogmatism, intolerance, greed, and insanity of the Religous Right (in their unholy union with the Republican party), and instead chose tolerance, compassion, diversity, and pragmatism by electing this man, Barack Obama, to the presidency. And so, two days ago, I received one of the greatest birthday presents anyone could have ever given me.

Hope.

A Much Needed Vacation

So, for the first time in a couple of years I'm on vacation. This time, like many before, that means heading West. To clarify, I live in Wisconsin of all places, so west means (generally speaking) South Dakota, Wyoming, and the like. In fact, I'm setting in a motel in Mitchel SD as I type this. It's rather nice, not a pricey or fancy place, but I like it. The Thunderbird Lodge in case you're wondering (if you know the area). Intending to try for Yellowstone, if things work out right.

Anyway, I've been largely silent for the past few months, with only a few half-snide allusions to spending too much time on World of Warcraft as explanation. While that is partly the truth, and I meant no offense to anyone with said allusions, the other half of the truth is that I'm burned out. I'm sick of discussing, debating, and arguing about religion and related matters. In some senses it's all become way too personal, and in many many others it has simply become far to frustrating. After all, it's not like there is any real, objective answers or evidence involved in religion and spirituality to begin with, and as a result it's rather difficult to debate a point to begin with but ultimately determining and discussing the truth of any religious or spiritual matter is essentially as fruitful and meaningful as discussing the flavors of ice cream available on Mars.

This doesn't mean that one cannot disprove things of a religious/spiritual nature - if an idea is internally inconsistent or simply logically untenable it's a pretty fair bet that concept is false. However, while proving this in debate/discussion is rather easy, convincing people to accept that such common sense is actually true can be a matter of Herculean proportions. Discussion only works as a means of learning if both parties are willing to learn and grow.

Anyway, enough babble. West has always been sort of a spiritual thing for me, and in addition to mundane fun I'm sort of looking forward to actually experiencing again rather than merely talking. But someone else wants to use the computer here, so off I go.

Ex-Witch Dot Done

Well true believers, it's finally happened - after all this time, the fanatics at ExWitch.com finally done banned this old dog :D Not that it was unexpected of course - my recent shift in style to "in your face truth, screw the niceties"combined with their even more recent descent further down into the dark depths of Jesus Nazism was simply a recipe for such an event. Truthfully, I'm amazed that they put up with me for this long actually, but it doesn't matter in the end. My job and the lessons I needed to learn there have been done there for a while, and it's past time I moved on to another trench in this war of ideas. But first, a break for a while - gots to make me some more WoW money y'all :D.

To my friends on EW - those few that remain as I see the exodus I predicted has begun - I'll see you around in the funny papers, nothin but love for ya :D This includes CountryGal/Shadowvoices, Anita, Catfantastic, Azlan'sTraveler, LadyGarnetRose, Nuisereset, PrayerPower, Butterfly, and Ithril (though I have the feeling I'm forgetting someone).

And to the unnamed management of EW, thank you for once again showing your true faces. Keep it up, you're an excellent argument against your own religion HA!

The Passing Of An Era....

Tromping around the internet this morning, I stopped by Dumpshock, what I consider the premire Shadowrun fansite. Upon looking around I was dismayed to find that, while they had fixed many of the errant links on the site, they also seem to no longer be hosting two sites that for me are a rather large portion of Shadowrun history - the Shadowrun Archive and Blackjack's Shadowrun Page. Neither of these pages has been actually updated since 2000, so it's understandable to stop hosting them, but...

Blackjack - one Branson Hagerty - is a personality that is likely little known to the wider populace, or to newer Shadowrun players for that matter. A notoriously...grumpy...individual who mainly GMed rather than played the game - something he constantly complained about - Blackjack apparently switched to 3rd edition Shadowrun when it came out, but his site never reflected it. Indeed, said site - and his Blackjack's Corner column on the Shadowrun Archives - was full of his uniquely crusty humor and NERPS as well as a good deal of his philosophy and opinion on how to play and GM the game. His writing was quirky, sarcastic, vaguely nostalgic, and downright bitchy......and I loved every bit of it. His philosophy of gaming had a large effect on mine, even though I never interacted with him directly. These two sites were two of the first Shadowrun sites I ran unto when I first got access to the internet back in the fall of '94, and they were "places" I loved.

And now they are well and truly gone. Yet another sign that I'm getting old.

For those interested, portions of these sites can be viewed via the Wayback Machine here:
Blackjack's Shadowrun Page
The Shadowrun Archive - Blackjack's Corner