skinnerclan.org

My usual gaming gathering on Fridays was a no-go this week, so I RSVPed that I’d be at the FCBG meetup. It was great to see a bunch of people I really don’t get to see that much of, plus some new faces.

Fairfield County Board Games

Matt Loter and Steve Wood were playing Memoir 44, and had out some kind of airplane expansion that looked pretty cool. Matt was also involved in a game of Blackbeard when I left, which is a game I’m definitely interested in playing from what I’ve heard of it. Don had his blimp game out, and another group was playing Hamsterrolle (a fun looking dexterity game).

When I walked in with this guy Ed, Ricardo and Greg were both idling. We looked over some games, and chose Glory to Rome. Ricardo had played before, but Ed and Greg had no so I taught the game. Ricardo was to my left, Greg to my right, and Ed opposite me. The first client I pulled in was a Merchant; the second a Craftsman.

I built a Storeroom first off, allowing my clients to act as Laborers. I gathered another Merchant client, added the +2 clientele and +2 vault cards. I don’t recall what my other card was, but I had a max of 11 cards in my vault at game end. I filled it, and ended the game with the Catacombs for 47 points.

So my pastor has spoken on the topic of Christian suicide before. I believe his position on this issue stems from his belief in the doctrine “Once Saved Always Saved” (ie you can’t lose your salvation once you’re a Christian). Anyway, I was listening to the Bible on my commute home last night and I heard something that may conflict with his espousals:

1Co 3:16-17 ESV Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? (17) If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Hab 1:2-4 ESV O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? (3) Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. (4) So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.

Last night, I was watching this 2.5 hour long documentary on abortion called Lake of Fire. I figure it’s something I’ve been taking a stance on lately and it’s worth watching something like this. The documentary is supposed to be “even handed”, and to a certain extent it is. But they spend about half of it covering Christian and Catholic vigilantism.

Anyway, regardless of the inherent spin the documentarian put in it, those are actual incidents and rationales. I kind of felt like there was a flaw in the rationale for the vigilante, however. I mean, the argument is as follows:

1. Babies are human beings from conception
2. Human beings have a right to life
3. If I kill someone in defense of a human being, it is a justified action (defending the life of another)

1. Therefore, killing an abortionist who would kill a human baby in the womb is a justified action

So these guys go out and take a shotgun to abortion doctors.

Friday night bowling

Usually I play board games in Meriden on Fridays. This past Friday was different in that the men’s ministry at the church had a bowling night. It’s been a while since I’ve bowled, and I was looking forward to it. I bowled 170 the first game, 155 the second game, and 114 the third game. There were two other scores amongst the 16 guys who bowled 3 or 4 games that night: 175 (I think perhaps Jay got that) and Nelson’s crushing 188! The other bowlers kept on speaking about the fluid style I bowled with, occasionally saying it was very “zen” and “smooth”.

I didn’t really tank on the third game. They turned the lights off and the black lights on, and had these runway lights along the bowling lanes. So you pretty much couldn’t see the lane, but the pins were lit up in normal yellow light. With that, I decided to “unzenify” myself and just toss the ball down the lane.

Normally when I bowl, I see and feel the pins and myself in relation to them. I feel the ball. I adjust my placement until it just “feels right”, and then I slowly walk towards the throwing line. I release the ball and send it, not fast, down the lane. I am able to be fairly accurate this way: even to the point of targeting single pins leftover for the second shot.

There is this site called SoapBoxxer I ran across today. On the front page, I came across the following statement, which (as a user of the site) you are encourage to “Agree” or “Disagree” with.

The statement

The statement in question was this:

“It was pretty cool of the Christian god to sacrifice (unto himself) his own human incarnation in order to placate his own voracious thirst for blood.” — Logomotive (468 auth) on April 07, 2008

This is the “Have you stopped engaging in bestiality?” kind of question. Answer “Yes” and implicit in it is that you in fact did engage in bestiality at one point. Answer “No”, and you admit to it!

My response

For posterity’s sake (and because the formatting was stripped from my response on the site, making it less readable), my response is recorded here:

A very unfair way to phrase the statement. God does not have a “voracious thirst for blood”. But blood does have a place as a meaningful sacrifice, and:

What an awesome, full weekend.

Housatonic Range Trail

(pics)

Saturday morning came and I headed up to a portion of the Housatonic Range Trail north of Danbury. I jumped in my car and listened to a book on the way up there. I left early just in case I got lost; most of the other people going were car pooling from near Hartford. I chose not to join them in this because they were scheduled to be returning at 6pm, and I had a gaming session scheduled for 6pm in West Haven. So I ended up getting there like a half an hour or 45 minutes early.

We were scheduled to meet at the trailhead for Tory's Cave. I found the trailhead, and hung out. I busted out with M­aelstrom and checked out some of the factions I hadn't seen before. I did some pushups. I went across the road and down over the bank and filled up my purifier water bottle from the river. When 9:15 came around and they hadn't arrived, I went back to the directions and made sure I was in the right place. I was, but that didn't stop me from scouting around in the car. I came back, waited a little longer, and Kevin came up in his caravan.