Alive and well! Currently 18,439 people in game as of this moment, according to Steam stats.

I would agree with you that I experienced a contracted version of Christianity. After I left, to continue my journey alone, I did grasp at other religions for some sense of structural stability. I studied a number of them, large and small, and attended the various gatherings. Each rasped against my spirit in the same way Christianity had. After each attempt the quiet whisper became a little more obvious and was saying something like “what you seek is not in religion, it’s an absolute surrender.” A trust fall into the vast bottomless unknowable. In comparison to that, every ‘ism’ or ‘anity’ is contractive, limited, and acts as an intermediary. I suspect anyone who’s had a profound moment that led to a conversion or dedication to any religion, had exactly that experience of unbounded, surrendered ‘isness’, ‘forgiveness’, and ‘innocence’. But the mind is so quick to try and label and understand and attach to something in the world as the cause, or the way to ‘get back to that experience’.

Nice! Of course you did. I do miss the days of having an in-game console that allowed for that much power.

At the urging of my uncle I began reading the Bible every day, twice a day. I was 12 years old when I began. I would read and then pray and contemplate. I read and contemplated so much more than was ever discussed in my church, family, or community. Over the next 6 years, until I graduated high school, I read the Bible cover to cover twice, and then the New Testament 3 more times. One of my daily prayers was to be given the wisdom to understand. In time I started noticing that my interpretations weren’t always the same as everyone else’s.. but in my heart I knew they were for me. By the time I was in my early twenties I stopped going to church. It was clear to me that I the God I knew was taking me beyond the community. It was so disorienting at scary at first. But in time as my intimacy and understanding continued to develop and expand I knew I was on the right path. By the end of my twenties I could no longer call myself a Christian. I couldn’t abide by the label or all that came with it. My journey has been deep and dark at times, and yet my intimacy and faith has only grown more rapidly than I could have ever imagined. My understanding has overlaps with Christianity. I absolutely love and continue to model myself after Jesus. But my understandings are often heretical, and are impossible to unsee for me. So should you read the Bible for yourself? I believe so, and do so without letting any man, woman, or institution tell you how you should interpret it. Let only God speak to you through it.

Strafe jumping and rocket jumping.. These are important skills to pass along to the next generation. I opened a LAN center in 99’ shortly after high school. Four glorious years of my life. I might still boot up a little Quake Champions from time to time.

This is so good!

At what point do we need a set of filters for who has been personally vouched for? (is this WoT?)

I just want to validate one aspect of this message. I am seeing in real time that some of the people in my life are rapidly becoming better communicators with other humans. My working theory is that we’ve had to drop the assumption that we can casually speak, and that we are generally understood. AI is teaching us to be very specific, detailed, and thorough in how we attempt to share. And then to clarify and modify when we notice any minor misunderstanding. What a pleasant side effect.

Not many. Unless you’re in an area that just had its internet shutdown, then everybody who can is using it. There are a number of heatmap websites that show real time global usage. Apparently people have been able to determine where the next big news will come from based on a spike in geographic usage.

ARC Raiders