Monday Miscellaneous

1. Of the making of marketing ploys there is no end. Halo, a popular video game, released it's third version recently. Mountain Dew joined the marketing of the game by releasing a Mountain Dew "Game Fuel" edition. Apparently Halo is so tough to play that unless a player consumes Tahitian Treat levels of sugar and Red Bull levels of caffeine he won't have a puncher's chance.

Products to follow:
Halo UnderWar: Fruit of the Loom underwear with extra padding in the seat for hours of comfy sitting.
The Halo LaZerBoy: By La-Z Boy, a lounge chair with a built in "toilet tube" attachment that reduces the need to leave the action after drinking too much Mountain Dew Game Fuel.
Halo ProZakAttak: An antidepressant to be marketed by Lilly Drug to help gamers deal with how much of their lives they missed while staring at pretend warriors and shooting pretend weapons, in a pretend world.

2. Speaking of Halo, Carol Norris sent me a link to this NYTimes article on churches that are using Halo to attract youth. The game has a mature rating, but some churches are using it to attract early teens to their church. Hmmm.

I have to admit that Grandview has had, at times, a Gaming Group. The Group has done a good job of connecting some of the men of the church to each other. There is some truth to the need to attract people where they are. But that truth can be a slippery one. Without the right leaders, a group like that turns inward and accomplishes nothing of value.

I think the biggest problem with video games is the same problem we have with other things in our lives that serve to distract us from our lives. Excessive book reading, video gaming, tv watching, crossword puzzle doing--whatever--these things simply take us out of our lives and our relationships. We don't have that much time on earth. We should try to be present in our few years (by the way, the same goes for blogging). The economic term is, I think, the "opportunity cost." I'm afraid that at the end of my life I will wish I had spent my time in more productive ways than I do.

The best quote in the article? “

"If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it,” said James Tonkowich, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a nonprofit group that assesses denominational policies. “My own take is you can do better than that.”

3. The Gators lost again Saturday night. I'm disappointed, of course, but not upset. They played above their heads for 3 quarters. They moved the ball against a good defense. They're just missing that extra oomph you need from defensive lineman. Sadly, though, with the loss the Gators' streak of basketball/football championship ends. I would be ungrateful to complain. Hopefully we can get another shot at LSU in the SEC championship ... just need to win out and hope that Tennessee stumbles.

4. The "Welcome to Grandview" class seemed to go well yesterday. We had 5 people during the first worship service and 17 during the second. I hear that Mike Sweeney did an excellent job in the pulpit. What I'm discovering about these "Welcome to Grandview" Sundays when I step out of the worship services is that I really, really miss worship. I think I'm going to have to find an early service somewhere for the Sundays when I teach during both services.