I haven't had much to write about recently. I guess I've just been so busy with the planting that there really hasn't been much time for much else. Now that the farming is "done", though, I'm going to make a concerted effort this week to get some content on the ol' blog that is worth a read. Right now, I'm planning on at least 1 open source post and 1 theology post. Let's see if I can actually get both of them done.

I played quite a bit more Etrian Odyssey II today. Such a hard game! So many times I trudged into the labyrinth only to get unexpectedly sliced to pieces by some random enemy. One time in particular was especially harsh. I had spent nearly an hour mapping out almost all of the 3rd floor. I was getting seriously low on HP and TP, so I decided it was time to warp out...only to realize that I had neglected to buy the item in town that would allow me to warp out of the maze. This meant I had to backtrack all the way through the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st floors to the entrance. I was most worried about the 3rd floor, but I miraculously made it through there...only to accidentally bump into a FOE halfway through the 2nd floor. Dead. All that work...gone (because you can only save your game in town).

But, for some weird reason...it's these kinds of difficulties that make this game really fun. In Final Fantasy games, I usually get annoyed at having to constantly go in and out of a dungeon...I just want to move on with the story. But here, because there isn't much story to speak of, the game becomes much more about the strategy of moving through the maze carefully, and knowing when it's time to tuck tail and run. A whole new way of playing an RPG for me.

Sorry...I didn't mean for this to become another EO2 mini-review. Let's just leave it with: OSS and theology posts coming soon! Yay!

Sigh. I really wish I could go to LugRadio Live. It's the last one ever, and it just seems like a really great community. Not to mention the fact that it's in England. Of course, I've heard that Wolverhampton isn't exactly the lush paradise that I found Southampton to be. Still, it would've been a fun time.

I don't know if you've been able to tell from the microblags (via identica, which is awesome), but I've been pretty busy ever since the ground got dry enough to start planting. I was on the tractor pretty close to 12 hours yesterday, and 8 hours the day before. I had some reprieve today, since I was involved with some stuff at church, but tomorrow I'll be back out. I'm hoping we'll get everything planted tomorrow. We should be pretty close, at least.

The recent rain has really made a difference in how the country looks right now. Just a week ago, everything was brown and dusty. It basically looked like we were in the middle of winter, except that it was 90 degrees outside. But even after just under 2 inches of rain, the grass in greening up, and the trees are starting to look much healthier. It's really amazing what just a tiny bit of rain will do. Here's hoping we get a lot more a few days after we finish planting!

So, I played some of Etrian Odyssey II last night. My first impressions of it are: wow, this really is Old Skool RPG goodness. If you're planning on picking up EO2 to try to satisfy some of those modern Square Enix Final Fantasy urges...look elsewhere. There's no Cloud Strife in site. And the clothes aren't even all that funny-looking. The story is EO2 is...practically non-existent. This is not a plot-driven RPG. The look of it is even more like your early computer RPGs, with the 1st-person, walking through the maze perspective.

But let me tell you, the crazy thing is, after playing through much of FF: Crystal Chronicles : ROF (how many subtitles can you get??!) and a little bit of EO2--I had a lot more fun playing EO2. And that's saying something, because EO2 is hard. I mean...really...really...hard. There's a reason why I only got through the first level of the labyrinth in my couple hours of gaming. It took me that long to level-up my characters enough to feel safe going any farther. And then, when I did go to the second level, I promptly got rocked by a mini-boss and had to warp back to town, spend all my money reviving my characters, and ended up licking my wounds the rest of the night. Seriously...difficult. But awesome, in some strange masochistic way.

I don't know if this will be a game that I will actually finish. If the first floor told me anything, much of the game will involve a lot of grinding for level-ups and getting items for some cash. The auto-fight option helps to keep the grinding from becoming too repetitive...but let's face it, grinding is grinding. Though, if FF3 (the original...you know, the one Squeenix re-made for the DS) taught me anything, it's that grinding can be fun when you're earning tons of loot and learning awesome new skilz.

I'll let you know how my trek into the labyrinth goes tonight. :)

Here's something I like:

Rainy days that force you to stay inside and read a good book. (This is made especially good when there hasn't been any rain for months.)

This has been something I like.
What do you like?

If you want to know what life is really like for our soldiers in Iraq, then check out this story from Ed on his blog, Warfighter. He's an amazing writer--all the more to make me worry about his work over there.

So go check it out, and give the boy some love.

Ugh. I feel like a big jerk.

We have a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses who come around every few weeks. We generally try to be nice to them and listen politely. For the most part they're pretty nice people.

But I don't know why...today...they just annoyed me. Usually our conversations end up being me defending some tenant of the Christian faith that isn't held by the JW's (the Trinity is a big one). And that's fine. I do my best to listen to their arguments and give reasonable, thought-out answers.

But today. Well...I lost my head a bit. I'm not sure why. I think I just finally felt like they weren't listening at all to the points I was trying to make. I would quote a scripture, or toss in a point about what he was saying, and he would just ignore it, or pass it off as unbiblical (which really drove me crazy, since I was giving scripture to back up most of what I was saying).

So, I ended up just playing the devil's advocate with everything. I wouldn't let him get an easy point in no matter what the cost. And let me tell you...I argued some pretty ridiculous things. I think the worst was when he brought up the story of the prodigal son, trying to say that the God was a good father, and we are like the prodigal son who goes and makes bad decisions against God's will. Pretty reasonable, right? Yeah, I didn't let him have it, though. I argued that the father in the story was really a bad father and would have been arrested for neglecting his son in any modern, reasonable society. Oh..yeah...and when the JW brought Satan into the picture saying that God taught us how to do good but Satan tempts us to do otherwise. Well...I said the most ridiculous thing ever: I compared Satan to an evil uncle and asked it you wouldn't hold the father responsible for allowing his son to go away under the influence of the evil uncle. Oh man. Just ridiculous.

So, I feel pretty much like a jerk now. It's one thing to debate and argue over things you actually believe. It's quite another just to throw ridiculous things into the argument because you're tired of not being listened to. That's just not good for anyone.

I am bound and determined to apologize the next time they come by.

Incredibly interesting TED talk:

He says much more eloquently and convincingly what I have been going on and on about regarding free software and creative commons licensing. I would like to point out that all of the content on skiasma and BDWHITE.com is licensed under a very liberal creative commons license. This means, just what the talk says, that you can take the content that I create (photos, stories, sermons) and remix them and even distribute them to your heart's content. Legally. (Provided you attribute the original content to me.)

Why do I do this? Well, let's be honest...I create this content mostly for the joy of creating it. I want to share it. I want people to be able to see it and enjoy it. If this is my motivation, then it is really to my advantage to make my content freely available.

But what about making money? Well...in the case of skiasma, I only post my photos at a lower 800pixel resolution. This is high enough resolution to view and enjoy on the web, but it leaves me the option of offering high-resolution prints for sale. (By the way...go buy a print!) This seems like a good balance (and balance is really what we're aiming for).

For another interesting experiment, you should check out Jono Bacon's Severed Fifth project. Especially if you're into Metal music, you'll find it interesting.