Taylor's World

Life Update

2006-01-15T19:25:00.000-05:00

I've been so busy that I totally forgot that I had a blog, so here's an update. I'll try to update at least once a week.

Well, this is my final semester at NVCC. I'll be graduating this May. If I can maintain my 4.0 GPA, then I'll be graduating honors Summa Cum Laude (whatever that's supposed to mean). I also was nominated for the National Dean's List. Half of 1% of all college students in the nation are on this list, so this gives me something nice to put on my resume.

If you don't all ready know this, I'm a big fan of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. I've read a few books from both authors, but even though I enjoy their stories, I'm more a fan of their lives and how they spent their time together as friends discussing their writings in a group called The Inklings. It was a literary society at Oxford University, where they taught. Also, the conversion of C.S. Lewis interests me greatly. I am currently reading a book on the Inklings called "The Inklings" by Humphrey Carpenter. The way Carpenter puts it together makes the whole history of their lives together very intriguing. Even after C.S. Lewis' "so-called" conversion took place, his understanding or belief in the sound doctrine of Christianity was scrambled. He was confused in his thoughts fighting the strong atheist background that he developed before his years at Oxford. But since I can't talk on forever, I'll leave you with this. The following was C.S. Lewis' "motto for the conducting of his life."

Man, please thy Maker and be merry,
And set not by this world a cherry.

Quick Update

2005-12-19T20:45:00.000-05:00

Well, I've finished my third semester at college and so far have a 4.0 GPA. Even though it was tough, I was able to maintain that GPA throughout the time I was at college. I have one more semester to go at NOVA and then I plan to graduate with my A.S. in Computer Science and then transfer to a four-year university or institution.

Our church video crew went out with Dirk to shoot street interviews today. It turned out all right, but unfortunately we have some improvments to make. We plan on going to other places like Washington D.C., malls, colleges, and universities in the Northern Virginia area. So who knows, maybe we might catch you going to the grocery store or shopping in the mall and ask for your interview.

Christmas is almost here. In fact, five more days until Christmas. I'll be playing trumpet during the Christmas Eve service at our church.

The Washington Redskins beat the Dallas Cowboys a whopping 35-7 on Sunday. The Redskins play the Giants on Christmas Eve. I hope the Redskins win because I really want them to make it to the playoffs. All the Redskins need to do is win their next two games against the Giants and Eagles, and they're making it to the playoffs. The Eagles I'm not worried about. It's the Giants I'm worried about. I just hope that the Giants make many turnovers. They need to stop Tiki Barber as soon as possible. He's the main threat. They need to minimize the Giants' possesion time.

Sorry for the late update. I'll try to update it a little more often.

Thanksgiving Around the Corner

2005-11-10T14:41:00.000-05:00

I can't wait until Thanksgiving. I'm thankful that it's Thanksgiving which is a time to be thankful for what you are thankful for. Be thankful.

(Man, I really need something else to say)

Hardships of Creating Christian Material in a Secular World

2005-10-18T14:09:00.000-05:00

A famous writer once said:

"I am no disbeliever in spiritual purpose and no vague believer. I see from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. This means that for me the meaning of life is centered in our Redemption by Christ and what I see in the world I see in its relation to that. I don't think that this is a position that can be taken halfway or one that is particularly easy in these times to make transparent in fiction." - Flannery O'Connor

This is true today. It is very difficult to take your Christian views and values and make them "transparent in fiction". Why? Well, you have to understand that writers have to write "a hit" in order to remain in or transistion into a state of financial stability; otherwise, they would have to do some other type of work on the side. Unfortunately, this was the case for O'Connor. She had to work outside of being a writer to be able to support herself. We don't want great authors like her to have to do that. Even today. They could be using that same time writing great stories instead of waiting on tables.

This also applies to other entertainment mediums like film, dramas, and video games. Anything that involves fictional story. It's very difficult to do. However, there are some living examples of this today. Frank Peretti books seem to do a good job, but I would question it's popularity compared with "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Chronicles of Narnia". Just because these two were written by self-pronounced Christians doesn't necessarily mean they have deep Christian values embodied in the text. I'm not against J.R.R. Tolkien or C.S. Lewis; in fact, I'm a fan of theirs. What I'm saying is that you just need to be careful and study the text before making conclusions that the story reveals Christian meanings and values. Christian video game and movie producers have this same problem to. Don't even get me started on the horrible reputation that Christian video games have now. As much as I am for Christian video games, I have to ashamedly admit that they have successfully made horrible games. Successfully.

There are at least two reasons why this happens. First, it could be partly because they do not make the Christian meanings and values "transparent in fiction", so they don't become "hits" among the consumers, Christian and non-Christian. Also, I think the Christian values and meanings they bring into the game somehow interfere with gameplay. I mean, come on...what eighteen year old wants to play a bible trivia game? Wow, you answered question #105. Now you can go brag to your friends about your highscore.

"Wow, Joey that's awesome. So what did you get in return? Did you unlock a new level or something?"
"Yeah, I unlocked a new memory verse to look at"

I'm sorry folks. You can study God's Word, but when you play a game...it should be a game. Interactivity. It's all about interactivity.

All of this is the same for Christian movies.

I'm stopping now because I have to go do homework. Don't even think I'm finished yet.

Thompson losing support

2005-10-17T17:57:00.000-05:00

Here's an interesting article on Jack Thompson and NIMF. It can be found here.

Violent youth + violent video games = no correlation

2005-10-13T13:49:00.000-05:00

Everyday I receive an e-mail from Game Daily Biz for game industry professionals. Yesterday's news had an interesting article on violent video games and violent youth which you can read here.

Pass the link to all your anti-violent game friends and family members. From the outside you've only heard one side of the story which are a bucnh of lies coming from the media and politicians. In the case of politicians like Senator Joe Lieberman, who is consequently well known among the game industry, they tell these lies for publicity. Most politicians will do anything around election day. And the media is obviously jealous of it's new competition; otherwise, it wouldn't be making up such lies about violent video games.

Fiat power vs. real power

2005-10-12T19:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I was talking about debate with someone [who I am not allowed to name]. He told me that he was making a case that would change the laws for medical malpractice among the states.

"Oh, so it's a federal law?" I asked.
"No, it's against the constitution for the government to enforce a federal law on the states concerning medical malpractice", he said.
"Oh, so then each state can decide individually on whether they want to abide by the changes in the law which you are making a case for?" I said.
"Well, in real life that's what would happen, but in team policy debate we have something called 'Fiat Power'," he said.

Fiat power? Fiat power to real power in a debate is like fantasy football to real football. Of course, I guess I can't blame the NCFCA for this rule in team policy debate. Not everyone can tell the difference between reality and fantasy. If everyone could, there would be no such thing as professional wrestling leagues like WWF or NWO.

So if we don't have fiat power, then we'd have to debate whether or not the states abide by these new laws. That wouldn't work. It'd be too much work anyways. Besides, this is just team policy debate, so we just debate real topics with fake power. But what's the solution you may ask? Hmmm...well you could extend the debate topic duration to more than a year, so that you could have time to debate on what states should abide by these new laws. Or you could squeeze that same amount of work into an entire year. Either way you'd be debating real topics with real power. Just like in the real world.

I'm thinking of starting an anti-debate blog.

Revolution Controller

2005-10-05T17:42:00.000-05:00

For you Nintendo fans out there, I'm sure you've seen the new controller that will ship with the Revolution sometime next year. If you haven't, I'd recommend checking out IGN's coverage on it. They offer the best information and news about video games and video game systems. They don't have a separate section for the Revolution because "Revolution" is only a codename until Nintendo reveals the actual name of the system. Go here to find out about the Revolution: http://cube.ign.com/

It's awesome. I can't wait until I can get my hands on it.

First Post

2005-10-04T14:38:00.000-05:00

This is my first post to initially start the use of this blog. I had a hard time figuring out a good name, but since I was in a rush to get this done I just called it "Computers, science, and literature". I'll try and think of a better one. Anyways, this is the place where I'll just post anything that I think is interesting. Since I don't have much to say right now, I'll just end with a quote.

"Computer programmers are philosophers in a way because of their work involving logical reasoning and sophisticated logistical mathematics." - Dr. Joyce Brotton

I kind of spruced it up a bit because I forgot the exact wording, but it was very similar to what is stated above.