1 year ago. . .

It is hard to believe that exactly one year ago today I sat foot in Scotland. I really can't believe that we got to go, and it is easily one of the best things I have done. Here are some pictures that I not posted before. If you have any desire to see all of the pictures from Scotland that i have put on the internet, you can find them here.

Job Update

I have not talked about my job in a good while. Actually for the past few months my posting in general has been down, because my job has been so busy! I have a lot going on, and for those interested here is what is brewing:

The youth group actually meets at a house that the church owns. However, the house is rather sterile and plain. I have been given permission (and money!) to make the basment into a proper youth group room. The youth decided on a beach theme and have made curcial design decisions all along the way. Everything is coming together and we will assemble the room on June 7th. Then on June 18th I take the Jr. High to Heifer Ranch in Perryville Arkansas for a camp/mission trip. Including myself there are 19 going, so that should be cool. Then not to long after that the Sr. High is taking a mission trip to Cayman Islands. I have mentioned before, but I am a little nervous about this trip. Not because I think it is going to fail, because we are in very, very capable hands as far as contact in the Cayman Islands go is helping us plan everything. I am nervous just because of the scope of this trip! Taking 32 people on an international trip is huge, and quite honestly feels to big to be the kind of stuff that a 25 year old like me is suppose to be in charge of. I am not all that worried though, because if God truly did not want us to go on this trip there is no way the financial and logistical obstacles this trip presents would have been conquored already as they have. Later in July, two traditions that started when I was in college, and I continued at Old Capitol, will be continued here. The first is making bad action movies, and in july the youth group here will make one, and the second is Kung-Fu night. Speaking of making movies, out an act of desperation, I decided to get experimental with the Junior High Sunday School class by having them design a video based curriculum. They pick the scripture, make a video about it, and then come up with disucssion questions for the video. They finished their first one last week, and it is not to bad.

In addition to all of that, I have several things already brewing for next fall. We are planning a White Water Rafting trip over labor day in North Carolina, it will be a big trip but it is one they have done several times in the past. As a form of community outreach we are going to be starting a free SAT study group. Appearently, this is a rising need among parents to have available to their teens, so a free one will be very appealing we hope. Finally, and this might be the biggest, in the Fall we are going to completely restructure the way the youth group works. There are not enough Sr. High to divide them off from the Jr. High completely, but we are going to half divide. Group acitivites like games will be done together, but discussion/teaching moments will be done by age group. This will present some unique scheduling challenges, but if I can recruit one more dedicated volunteer then I know we can pull it off.

Switching Sides . . .

First . . . apologies for not posting here in such a long time. For the past two weeks, I have really had video games on my mind (more than usual). I have not updated here for two weeks, but over here, I have updated close to every other day (certain people do not want me blogging about games very much).

Anyway, this week is E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) in the world of video games this is the big week where all of the new stuff is announced and shown for the first time. I have been following it fairly closely. I have listened to daily podcasts, I watched an Nintendo Press conference live, and I downloaded the microsoft one (yes I am a nerd, leave me alone). Anyway, what has emerged from this is that in the next generation of video game consoles I am getting an X-box 360 over a PS3. There are several reasons why I am abandoning Sony and joining in with the evil empire

The first is the price. The PS3 is going to cost $600. $600!!!! The reason for this high cost is because the PS3 is a blu-ray player. If you are a tech-head then you know that a next-gen DVD format war is brewing with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD being the contenders. I am still trying to upgrade all of my movies from VHS to DVD, so I really don't care about a new media format that I need a high def TV to enjoy in the first place. I want a gaming machine and that is it.

The 2nd is X-box live. I love to play games online, and X-box live is the absolute best way to do it. From my understanding it is completly worth the subscription fee. On top of that, I love the idea of the Marketplace. This allows classic games like Pac-Man to be bought for a low cost. It also includes original games like Geometry Wars and puzzle games AJ loves like Zuma. In addition to that, Microsoft is posistioning it to be the "Sundance" of video games and allow independent, small developers to experiment and share their creations. Plus I have real friends who have a 360, so I can play with them (Stephen check out ShadowRun)

The third reason is games. I have always been a bit of an oddity in that First person shooters are my favorite type of games yet I have a PS2 over an X-box (which is considered the FPS haven). While, I have enjoyed PS2 games, there are not a lot of games that really tie me to the system. A lof the Playstation big name exclusive games (Metal Gear Solid 4, Devil May Cry 3, Final Fantasy XIII) are games I do not care a lot about. Now, by switching to the X-box I will miss out on Killzone 2, which I was pumped about (and it looks good too!)

While, I won't get to play Killzone I will get to play equally awesome looking games like the X-box exclusive Gears of War

Not to mention that X-box is also the home of this awesome guy:

However, most of the games that I care about the most, are 3rd party games available on both systems.

The final element that really shifted me to go X-box 360 is the opinion of a professional. John Davison is a former Editor in Chief for the Official Playstation Magazine. He then went on to be the man in charge of 1up.com. I sent him a message asking which system I should get if my primary concern is to have the most fun playin games, and he answered that in his opinion it was hands down the X-box. In November the price of the 360 will most likely drop from $400 to $350, and we are beginning to save now so when that happens we can get one.