Forever Alone Doesn't Have to Be

Poor Forever Alone Guy. He's probably the saddest meme ever made. Forever Alone is a poorly drawn and unpleasant looking face, sometimes with tears on his cheeks. He's put into situations or conversations where he has no friends, no relationships, and no one seems to care or notice him. The thing with FA is that while a lot of the situations are funny in how extreme they are, they can often be close to our real lives, or at least close enough to relate.

We are a social species. We are designed (intelligently designed) to need each other. We have differences to make up for each others weaknesses. In the case of Forever Alone, some problems can arise as he tries to cope. What warning signs can we get from this popular meme?  Feel free to chuckle at these.  They are fiction and written for humor (not by me, these all happen to be from quickmeme.com). The point of these blogs is to laugh but also take something away from the humor to draw us closer together, and ultimately, closer to God.

Forever OK With Being Alone

One way some try to deal with loneliness is to try and convince yourself that you like it that way. It's certainly not fears of rejection or abandonment keeping them from being social, they just prefer to be alone.  The danger here long term is that deluding yourself like this can sometimes work too well, and you'll start avoiding others even when the opportunity is there to reach out.  We need to be a blessing to others, and in turn be blessed by them.  There's Biblical reference to back this up.

¹So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, ²complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.³Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. ⁴Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. ⁵Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 2:1-5 (ESV)

Forever Looking to Fill the Void

Eventually the loneliness will break through the delusion, and the lonely will turn to stuff to try and fill that hole.  Ecclesiastes 6:7 says "All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied." This is why people become obsessed with having things. No matter how many square pegs you get, they weren't designed to fit in the round hole made for personal relationships.

Forever Out of Touch With Reality

Trying to cope with being alone and the discontent that comes with it, a fantasy life can start to develop around how the person would wish to act or be viewed by others. Fantasizing about what you would do or say is pretty innocent in and of itself. I'm sure how I envision my ability to be charming and romantic is very different from how my wife would describe the reality. The trouble comes from living too much in the fantasy.  That girl you like? Chances are she's not going to be swooning over everything you say. You probably aren't going to be MVP every game if you try out for the team. Does that mean don't talk to the girl or go out for the team? Of course not, you should do both, but expecting the fantasy will just set you up to be disappointed even in a positive result.  People might not think you're the greatest thing ever or be swept off their feet, but they might still like you. You might not be the best player, but you can support the ones that are and do your best when it's your chance. I think the biggest reason people aren't happy with their relationships is because the reality isn't living up to the fantasy they had going in.  Hate to break it to you, but it never will, and you, or I should say we, need to start appreciating the friendships we have.

Forever Acting the Fool

You all know who I'm talking about. Adults that act like little kids and act out, either by being goofy or being mean, in order to get attention. Even if it's people yelling at them, at least it's AT them. All this accomplishes is to widen the gap between the individual and the group further and further.

Still with me, even after walls of text and Forever Alone's ugly mug over and over? Good, cause now comes the good part. How does being a Christian help avoid being forever alone? Surely there are lonely Christians.

Lonely, But Never Alone

When we accept the grace of God and forgiveness for our sins, given to us through the death of Jesus on the cross and resurrection three days later, we are promised the help of the Holy Spirit.  There's no schedule for when God will be with us. We don't need an appointment. He's there, with us, all the time. It get's better. He's a perfect friend. He forgives us when we screw up with Him. He loves all your little personality quirks that you're worried will annoy people.  And why wouldn't He? He put them there after all. I'm going to just back this up with a bunch of verses, but there's an important point to make first, and that's for anyone reading that's not a Christian. God is there with you, too. Right now. He's offering that same forgiveness and perfect friendship that you're trying to fill with either imperfect friendships or all sorts of Forever Alone type things. Turn to Him today and see what He's been trying to show you.

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. - Isaiah 41:10 (ESV)

Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. - Matthew 28:20 (ESV)

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:35-39 (ESV)

So what does all this have to do with Forever Alone? Pretty simple really. When we have God backing us up 100% we can rest on that assurance, and let all the worries, nerves, and anxiety melt away. Use His friendship to you as an example to go out there and let the world see the real you. If you're living the life God wants then you're being an example for others to find Him too, and He'll lead you to healthy relationships if you trust Him and give Him time. My suggestion is to start with finding a good church, emphasis on good, because they aren't always. Here's a couple more that I just think are funny. Thanks for reading and I pray that you all find friendship with God and become Never Alone.

SNES Timeline - Part 1: The First Day of the Super Nintendo

Not every post on here is going to have spiritual/moral/religious topics in it. Some posts are just going to be showing some nerd love for things I'm interested in. What better place to start than with my favorite game console, the SNES.

Here's the plan. I'm going to go through every game in the SNES library, by release date. This includes Japanese and European games. I'll go by earliest date for multi-released games. Understand I'm sure I will fail at this, so the goal is to just get as far as possible. Obviously emulation is necessary since I unfortunately lost the giant ebay auction where you could get a full set. I really thought my best offer of $50 was pretty reasonable. Anyway, here's the disclaimer; I'm not selling the roms and neither should you. If any of the games look fun track down a real copy and buy it. They are only for the purpose of this post and preserving the software and anything else saying I mean no harm with them. If any owner of the property happens across this little blog feel free to tell me and I'll remove any images of your game. Also, details can be sketchy with some of this so if you have some information about a game I got wrong let me know and I'll credit you for finding it, an honor which has no cash value whatsoever.
Let's get started shall we?

F-Zero - Starting the system at warp speed

Genre:Racing
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Released:
11/21/1990(JP)
8/13/1991(US)

This might be surprising as the first game, but I'm going by date and title to give some consistency. The SNES release on November 21, 1990 in Japan, and the only games available were F-Zero and Super Mario World. If SMW was a pack in there like it was here in the states that means the only thing on the shelf for the Super Famicom at launch was this game, so I imagine it sold well. F-Zero set the bar very high for early 16-bit racers. It was fast, it controlled well, and the Mode-7 effects were insane for the time. I was really surprised at how well this has held up, gameplay-wise. The only glaring problem is that this was a single player game. There have been sequels on later consoles but none quite had the charm of the original.
If you want to try it out, here's a link to the F-Zero Virtual Console Page.

Game info and buying options:

My Grade: A
Worth Playing: Yes

Super Mario World - Making video games a better place, one Yoshi at a time

Genre: Platformer
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Released:
11/21/1990(JP)
8/13/1991(US)

So let me start by saying this is my favorite Mario game. I like it better than 3, and better than 64. The cape was a great power-up, the map with all it's secrets was a great step forward from 3, and best of all, World introduced us to Yoshi. There really isn't a whole lot else to say. If Nintendo remade this in HD and packed it with the Wii U it would sell them out of consoles. It would be a much better business decision than whatever they are thinking Nintendoland is going to be. Anyway, if you've never played this classic, I feel bad for your childhood and you can see it in action on the Virtual Console page and then dust your Wii off and buy it.

Game info and buying options:

My Grade: A+
Worth Playing: Yes

So that was it for day one of the SNES in Japan. It's not much compared to the hoard of games available at the US launch, but then Japan had the system for almost a year before North America saw it. I am going to break my proposed formula, on the very first post, to put up one more game that released by itself.

Ka-blooey - Try not to blow up the eggplant

Genre: Puzzle
Developer:
Mirrorsoft
Publisher: Kemco
Released:
12/1/1990(JP)
8/1/1992(US)

Released in Japan as Bombuzal on December 1, 1990, this action puzzle game developed by Mirrorsoft and published by Kemco was the third game release for the Super Famicom. It's a fairly generic game where you blow up bombs in order to clear the platforms in each level. I imagine it did OK in Japan since there wasn't anything else like it at the time.  The strange thing is that it wasn't ported to the US until 2 years later. Pretty much all the other games that came out in Japan before the US launch in August of 1991 were either released in America right away or never. It's curious what made them decide to release when they did.  If you're into puzzle games you might want to try this weird mix of Q-bert and Bomberman, but it's not on the VC so you'll have to go online to find it.

Game info and buying options:

My Grade: C
Worth Playing: No

And that's the end of this first step in a really long journey. I hope you enjoyed it and join me further on as we watch how the SNES evolved over the years. God Bless and take care.

Good Guy Greg is a Christian

OK, so I have no idea if the person in the picture is a Christian or not, but the persona of Good Guy Greg (GGG) displays a lot of Christian values. Good Guy Greg is an "advice animals" meme using a picture of a happy guy smoking, where he does nice things to humorous effect. There are other sites that have info about advice animals but fair warning, there's plenty out there that's not family friendly. Basically they are pictures with funny text added.

So what makes GGG so good?

He Loves His Neighbor

30.And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. 31.The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these. - Mark 12:30-31 (NLT)

The majority of GGG posts involve him doing something kind, generous, or thoughtful for someone else. The subjects are funny because they are such simple things, but they are also a little sad because someone doing the same things in real life is rare.

I'm the first to admit that of course non-Christians can do something nice for someone else without any benefit to themselves. Being a Christian and being a nice person aren't mutually exclusive. The reasoning for brotherly love, however, has it's origins with Christianity, and when a non-Christian does something nice they are still displaying a Christian trait, similar to when I heat up some Hamburger Helper I'm displaying a culinary trait, but that doesn't make me a chef.

He's a Good Samaritan.

This concept goes hand in hand with loving your neighbor. The verses quoted above are followed by the parable of the good Samaritan, which can be read here if you're not familiar with it. Basically Jesus is asked who qualifies as a neighbor, and the story is his of saying it's, well, everyone. He takes the concept of neighbor beyond those we share a street with to a broader scale of everyone we come in contact with.

He Honors His Parents (and Significant Other)

Some of us were blessed with good parents and some with bad, but we are to honor them when we deal with them. That doesn't demand agreement, but it does demand respect and patience, and the same attitude applies to our spouses or significant others. GGG has both when a lot of us would fail.

He's Not Perfect 

Even Good Guy Greg makes a bad decision sometimes.  I mean he's even smoking in his now famous picture. Christians don't claim to be perfect. If you find one that does I'd find a different one to base your opinion of Christians off of. What we do claim is that we follow Someone who was perfect; Jesus. And by living that perfect life and dying a blameless death, He paved the way for the rest of us to follow Him.

The important thing in the case of GGG and ourselves it that we acknowledge our mistakes and pray for the strength and wisdom to prevent them from happening again.

So there you have it, my reasoning why as internet goers ask "What would GGG do?", he is asking "What would Jesus do?" Yeah, I went there... Sorry.

As a reward for making it this far without reaching TL;DR level, here are a couple of my favorites, and some advice from Courage Wolf.

Thanks for reading, most posts won't be this long.  God Bless and be safe out there in the wilds of the internet.

An Introduction and Explanation.

Since this is my first attempt and a blog, and I'm pretty much typing blind here, I figure the best place to start is a simple introduction.  My name is Eric.  I'm a thirty-something husband and father.  I'm an avid gamer and also try and keep up with the trends in internet culture and technology, the later being more through articles than purchases.  I'm also a Christian.

The presence of God and Christianity on the internet and in most media outlets is at best tolerated and at worst mocked.  This is a sad generalization for someone like me, who frequently plays online games and loves a good meme.  By the way if you're a Christian on the internet and don't know what a meme is, this will hopefully end up being a good place for you.

It's my belief that God created the heavens, earth, and everything in it, so the aim of this blog is to show that God most definitely has a place on the internet.  As a slight disclaimer, I'm not a biblical scholar.  There won't be any soapbox preaching or attempts to spiritually convict the hoards of the internet.  I plan to write about a variety of aspects of online and video game culture from a Christian perspective, hopefully in an entertaining and humorous way.  I'll also be throwing in the occasional game-related or random post as well.  Comments and advice are welcome, but keep it clean and constructive.  I look forward to writing to you again.