James Skemp's StrivingLife

You know what grinds my gears?

When people say that they wasted time playing a video game.

For example, 'I was playing Fallout 3 and it began freezing at this certain point, twenty hours in; since I can't proceed, I've wasted twenty hours of my life.'

Hello? What do you get for finishing the game? Not the hours that you spent playing it.

Or did you? If you spend 80 hours and beat a game, how is that really different? You beat it?

But isn't stopping after 20 hours because of a bug different than stopping because you got tired of the game? Sure it is. For the latter the game wasn't any fun; there's no point in wasting any more time. But for the former, the game is fun, and you want to spend more time with it.

But you can't. So suddenly the entire 20 hours becomes wasted time.

But then they fix the issue and you're able to continue. Yay.

But since you wasted 20 hours, why waste any more? Or did you really not waste those 20 hours? (Or did you, and wasting 20 hours wasn't a bad thing?)

Tagged xbox 360 since a video on Fallout 3 freezes was the reason for this post.

I work at the State Bar of Wisconsin, the membership of which elects a president every year. (Technically they elect a president-elect, but that's moot.)

One of the things my co-workers and I (Rob and Dan) bounced off each other was a blog for the president-elect, for the three years they serve (president-elect, president, and outgoing (?)).

With the Obama administration, I wonder if the time of weekly addresses is out, and the time of a more timely blog is in. (Obviously, had Palin been elected, this wouldn't even be an issue, which is pretty scary.)

Not only could this serve as a more personal look into the White House, but also into our President.

Granted, he has a number of other 'Web 2.0'/social networking outlets, but these aren't directly run by Obama. And of course, a blog probably wouldn't be him directly filling it in either, but ... he may at least generate the ideas and feelings behind it.

Could it be possible? Looking ahead, when would we see another who actually stands a chance of being the first?

I'm afraid I can't be as eloquent as everyone else; I'm a little mentally drained on nights.

That said, Obama called for all American's to be ready to make sacrifices. There is little doubt that greed (part of the great motivator) is what brought this country to the knee it now rests on.

Maybe I'm wrong, but with that in mind, I'm not sure we should be focusing on any possible worlds outside of this one. It's been quite a while, but I seem to recall that the focus of scripture is not on the next world, but the one that we live in.

We ought to do 'good' now, in his world.

Of course, it's rather simple to do so, as it can be contained in just a few words. Love, for example. Or, Compassion.

Unfortunately, the task that Obama has asked of us is more than compassion. I can show compassion but still keep what I have. To sacrifice, however, is to give up. To some extent, to act agressively against our striving/will.

You're right that when we focus on this world we focus on the 'now.' Heck, in a couple of months that which drove so many people yesterday will be a distant memory.

And of course it's easy to talk of sacrifice. But, again, this existence is the only one that we know.

If a man was lying on the street bleeding to his death, what would Christ do? Would he talk to him of God and the eternal? Or would he instead help him to live?

Yes, this life is transitory, but does that make it any less real?