Digital Integrity and Telling Fables

Digital Integrity and Telling Fables

So I play video games, I try not to over indulge my discussions on them to keep my geek level in check. I love them for the story. Even more than a book or movie, you actually experience the story as you make the decisions and choices. So it’s been a trend in games for the last few years to give you the choice to do good or evil, and still complete the story line (Dante’s Inferno, Spiderman :Web of Shadows, Fable, etc). I was playing Spiderman: Web of Shadows when Mark Martens pointed out to me that In game I was choosing all the darker options in the game. It was taking Mark a lot more effort to beat it, and I was having a lot more fun.  It oddly convicted me though. People use entertainment, fiction, and fantasy to indulge the darker sides of our hearts, we do things in fictional settings we would never do in life (or at least when people can see us). Since then I’ve made an effort to match my personal integrity and convictions as closely as possible with my digital choices. I know it’s a small thing, and really doesn’t effect many people, but it’s a foothold in my life I don’t feel like giving up. This brings me to my latest controller excursion “Fable III.” In the game you are prince, your older brother is king, he’s been a giant jerkface, killing people, oppressing the poor, scandalous junk all around. You are tapped, and pushed to flee the kingdom, and build a resistance to take him down, and become king. You are presented with the options to choose how you live. If you want to be abstinent, if you wanna have sexual encounters, if you wanna get married, have kids, commit crime etc. What really made me look is the fact that when you make choices it not only keeps track but broadcasts them to your friends. Like it showed me how many people Joshua Carpenter had killed, and even showed me that Scott Carpenter has contracted two “Std’s”, anytime a situation presented itself I was informed of the choices my friends made. I know we don’t get a spreadsheet broadcast of our transgressions in real life, but they do show themselves to the people we know. So in the course of the game you have to make promises to people in order to accomplish your goals. You become king, and then it gets hard. There’s an impending doom coming to your kingdom, it will hit in 1 year, and you have to choose how to govern your kingdom to prepare. Your country is pretty broke, and you need to build up strong finances so that you can mount a defense on the impending attack. The complicated point becomes this, if you life honestly, make good choices , honor your promises, and live by conviction, you don’t make enough money, and literally almost everyone in your kingdom gets slaughtered, you defeat the bad guy and are known as a good righteous king, but you are also known as the king who let everyone die. On the flip side, if you break all your promises, be a jerk, and pretty much ruin everyone’s lives, they live, but you sacrifice your own integrity and go down as a tyrant. I chose the righteous path thinking that surely if I make the right choices this will all work together, and that I will find a way to save the kingdom and keep my integrity. I tried to apply Romans 8:28 to a world where God isn’t sovereign, didn’t go so well(that’s not a world I want to live in).  At one point in time I had to choose between going $400,000.00 in debt to build an orphanage, or gain $1,250,000.00 by building a brothel. I couldn’t do it, I know it’s a game, but I couldn’t do it. I hated feeling like the only way I could succeed/be successful/ accomplish something was by abandoning everything I stood for. It appears in this instance at least that was the option for the greater good. It made me be grateful that I’m not in that kinda position in real life. It also made me take a long hard look at politics, and how closely it mirrors American politics, even to the point of allegory. This experience was great in how much it made me think, it was a fun game, good adventure, but hard choices. I kept my integrity, at the cost of 6.5 million people’s lives. I want to live my life with integrity and conviction, with resolution. I just hope that it brings about better results.

“I live my life free of compromise, and step into the shadows without complaint or regret.”- Rorschach

“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain” –Harvey Dent

What Do 701 Cinemas Hope To Gain By Charging Infants For Movie Admission?

This is a letter i sent to the Robesonian, and to the managers/owners of 701 Cinemas.

What Do 701 Cinemas Hope To Gain By Charging Infants For Movie Admission?
So this evening I (29) took my family (My wife (30), my daughter Rosa (2.5) , and daughter Bella (9 months) to see Disney’s “Tangled” at the Town & Country Four Theatre. This was my families second time seeing the film. We went to the 4:45 showing of the film (matinee prices are pretty much essential when we are going out together). To my shock, we were charged 4 tickets instead of 3. This shocked me because we had seen “Tangled” together at the Town & Country Four Theatre this month, and had only been charged for 3. When I questioned the teller she explained that anyone over 6 months old was charged. When we had gone to see the previous movie I had even made sure to inform them that Bella was 9 months old, and we still weren’t charged. I really was taken back. The manager of Town & Country came out to explain their policy to me. I asked for my money back and left. I can understand charging my 2.5 year old admission, she picks up everything (whether you want her to or not), but Bella? Doing activities together with my family is very important to me. My wife suggested just taking Rosa in, and she would take Bella home, but I didn’t think it was fair (my wife loved “Tangled”). I know everyone is tired of hearing of “Tough Economic Times”, but it still is an on-going thing. Families doing things together gets costly, that’s why Buffets thrive when they don’t charge for children under 2, and have discounted children’s prices. I know many people in our area made the switch to the new “Millstone Theater” in Hope Mills, it’s the new shiny thing (it has nicer seats, sound, and screens), and we are a people that jump on the “new” thing. I’ve been several times but I personally like to support our community. I have continued to view movies locally, that is until this incident. The Millstone doesn’t charge for anyone under 2. So I may drive a few more miles, but I won’t be paying for my 9 month old to sit in my lap and sleep. I know Bella will be 2 before you know it, but there’s a whole year and some change between now and then. I also plan for my family to continue to grow, so I will go the more cost effective route. I made Rosa cry tonight when I told her we weren’t watching “Tangled,” but I cannot in good conscious pay for a 9 month old to sit in my lap at a theatre. I don’t pay for her to sit in a high chair and drool when we go to “Golden Corral.” I know that they are a business and need to make money, but honestly, what do they think they are going get out of charging an infant? I know one thing they won’t be getting, my family’s business.
Rev. Hector Miray

Empty Places

When we journey past places our loved ones used to dwell, our heart's remind us that a part of us still remains there. this phrase strikes me as super corny, and like something that would be stitched on a pillow, but i was walking in st.pauls this morning and walked past a friends house, and in the span of 30 seconds i relived 4 years of memories, and it was bitter sweet and left me longing. i think the heart really tethers places to memories, when we pass the places our memories live it's like knocking on a friends door and no one being home.

Too preoccupied for life

We spend our days with our neck craned down like we are in slavery, un relentlessly thrusting our thumbs in an effort to communicate without the task of communication. We spend our days looking at our lives off the reflection of a computer screen, as our life is going on right behind us we click ‘like’ and build networks that work more like nets. Project unrealistic images and expectations on little girls that one day become women, that can’t see past the projection to embrace who they are or feel a true embrace without the  bitter taste of media induced disdain. We established distorted dumbed down hormonal versions of manhood to the point that men don’t know how to be men, and in return don’t know how to treat love, women, children, God, or each other. We are so filled with inner conflict that we aren’t at peace unless we are at opposition. We don’t know how to handle our own internal battles so we battle with controllers, cliques, tongues, and hearts. Our xbox’s are more live than we are. Our friends, parents, wives, and God must compete against whatever's new and shiny for an ounce of our attention, affection, love or worship. We label television ‘reality’ till the truth becomes fictitious. We long for community, compassion, acceptance and love, but it’s hard to hold our arms out and hands open to receive, while gripping our ipads, iphones, netbooks, notebooks, controller, kindles, keyboards, or blackberry. God said “It’s not good for man to be alone”, so he gave us each other. In turn all we have done have created more ways for us to stay in contact, and up to date with how alone we are. Our lives are going on as we speak, but we act like it’s not real till it’s tweeted. In the shelter of each other, we live. While you read this, someone needed you. While you read this, someone missed you. While you read this, you could have been giving someone the love they long for, the hope they needed, the grace they are lacking, or the truth they have been too blind to see. Then again I could’ve too. Oh wait I just got a text, hang on….