Little Green River

The Good:

Webcomics are awesome.

The Bad:

The Left Behind franchise now has a video game, “Left Behind: Eternal Forces.” Description:

[Y]ou are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission – both a religious mission and a military mission — to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state – especially moderate, mainstream Christians.

Uh, eek! Read the whole article… I can’t express how WRONG this game is. WRONG WRONG WRONG. Someone tell me this is a parody? Please?

There’s also an option to play as the anti-Christ, and unleash howling goat-footed demons on tasty Bible-beaters. Mmm. Unfortunately, though, there’s no option to play as, say, a freethinking Christian-type who just wants to leave well alone instead of shoving self-righteous hatred down others’ throats with the barrel of a shotgun. What?

Perhaps more disturbingly, the company producing the game is tied to Rick Warren–y’know, that megachurch magnate who wrote The Purpose-Driven Life. If anybody knows how to make a best-seller, it’s him–and Left Behind’s planning to use similar marketing tactics by distributing copies of the game through Warren’s megachurch network.

Next I’ll be hearing kids at Normandale whining, “Mommm! Why can’t OUR church have a video game??” And then in a few months the ELCA’ll start marketing “Luther The Burninator” or some other monstrosity. And then I’ll decide: disavowal of organized religion or self-inflicted lobotomy?

Actually, that’d be kinda hilarious… “I will nail these 95 theses… THROUGH YOUR HEART! RAAAUGGHHHH!”

Anyway.

The Ugly:

Jenny, don’t watch this. Or may do watch this and be warned, for this commercial’s targeted at boys your age and younger:

OOZINATOR!

If you don’t understand why this is horribly, horribly wrong… good.

• Maybe it’s the fault of the construction, but the Philly airport has ridiculously bad signage. Despite having followed the arrows on the signs posted, I ended up marching through two and a half terminals before I finally found the baggage claim for my flight. Employees weren’t very helpful, either. Boo on you, Philly airport.
• Uf da, it’s warm. But it’s still not as bad as it is back home, though–100 degrees?? That’s just ridiculous!
• My host family seems pretty awesome so far–very relaxed and informal. I haven’t met their son Nick yet (he’s at the beach), but from the D&D stuff laid out in the basement and the PC gaming setup in his room, I’m guessing he’s a total nerd. Like most of my friends! :)
• I accidentally missed two trains today. In a *row*. I win at life.
• The nearest Wells Fargo is in the middle of Philly and I had almost no cash. I suppose service fees could serve as practice for currency exchange rates…
• I just bought enough food for about sixteen lunches and dinners (plus an undetermined number of breakfasts and some fruit) for about $20. I love grocery stores.
• Two nights ago I played with an in-progress Tryad track, Breathe, and recorded some vocals. Check it out.

Now I shall go dinnerify with the Nelson and co.