Cha cha cha...

Note: You shouldn't eat chicken and sausage jambalaya after it has been sitting in the refrigerator for more than a week; it might do bad things.

Growing and grown?

Little Toot's monthly check-up was today. Momma has gained a reasonable amount of weight. Little Toot's heartbeat is still strong. Apparently LT likes a lot of room, though. My fundus was at the height for 18 or 20 weeks not 15 (which is how far along we are). No other little heartbeats, though, so LT is taking all that space for herself (or is it himself?). Since I haven't felt the little fluttery feelings of baby movement yet, the NM said we were just 15 weeks.

I was wondering how LT could be older than he/she actually is, though. There is a specific point before which LT could not have lived, and I didn't understand how the size of my uterus could somehow nullify that immovable timeline.

Anyway, we'll have one more check up in Mississippi (and will get to see LT in person! sort of) before the move to Texas.

Speaking of weight gain, I think LT is hungry. I'm going to go get food.

Praise the LORD!

At 11:30 this morning I received a call from Dick Jones, pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in New Braunfels, TX. He told me that the session voted to extend me a call to be their Assistant Pastor of Youth and Family.

I responded with a resounding "yes!" We could not imagine a better place to be. I will be doing exactly what I have been longing to do, and we could not find a better match for my philosophy of ministry. There is every reason to go to this church. Pastor Dick kind of reminds me of my PawPaw too.

The area is certainly different from anywhere Hilary or I have ever lived. We'll be living in the hill country of Texas. New Braunfels is 20 minutes Northeast of San Antonio on I-35, and it's about 45 minutes from Austin. Compared to Jackson, New Braunfels is paradise: its population hovers around 50,000; the crime rate is non-existent—they have an average of one murder every 2 years; the economy is booming (Texas is one of the economically strongest states, mostly due to their conservatism; isn't it odd that the former president was previously the governor?); the housing market is stable, and Texas largely avoided the sub-prime loan fiasco. New Braunfels is also a tourist trap: it is home to the top-rated water park in the USA, Schlitterbahn. It is going to be drastically different from Jackson and Redeemer; but, Redeemer is not where God has called me to be. 

God has not called me to multi-ethnic ministry at Redeemer. Many people have asked me why I am not applying for their youth ministry position. This is the primary reason. I simply do not feel the call or the gifting.

I certainly have a heart for reaching the local community—that around the (any) local church—and that always means ministering to those who are different. I certainly believe that the body of a church should reflect the local community. I also reject the ecclesiastical trend to move a church wherever the folks in the church are moving, so that it stays white, middle-class, and suburban. I fully agree with Redeemer's vision, and I love what they are doing, and I love all the people with whom we have fellowship and have ministered among. But, it is not our home any more.

We have not set a moving date yet, nor do I have a date I am supposed to begin work. We want to move soon; Hilary will only get bigger, more tired, and less mobile as Little Toot grows. We hope to be there in two months. There are still many things to sort out before the move, and the main factor will be how quickly we can get them done. Number one on the list is finding a place to live; we don't want to move there to live in a cardboard box and a storage unit—not that the church would let us, of course.

The top five things we are looking forward to are (not in particular order):

1. Being in/near a city with better birthing options than Jackson,

2. The opportunity to do full-time ministry in exactly the capacity I feel called,

3. Being in a great church that is Word-centered, growing, and engaging the culture,

4. Being near April and Chris,

5. and, Being near the Bassetts, who are like my third favorite family, after my own and my in-laws. Hilary likes them a lot too.

It is going to be very, very, very hard to move so far away from our families and all our friends who are in Jackson and up-and-down I-55. We know that God is giving us even more family in Texas, but we will miss our close friends, family, and the folks at Redeemer tremendously; we do not want to lose touch. It will be nice to be able to establish our own family and traditions; yet we know we will be missing the help of our parents in the child-rearing process. Though, we certainly want visits as often as possible; and there are always extended stays with family.

My posts always seem to find more length than I intend to give them. So this is the end. Bye Bye, now! 

Brutal Legend & Afro Samurai

My wife posted just before me, so you ladies can skip this for the next post about babies.

Gaming is a multibillion dollar industry. In the three years since its release, Microsoft has sold more than 28 million units of the Xbox 360; the earnings on Xbox live in that time—buying subscriptions, gamer-pictures, downloadable games, etc—has topped $1 billion. This year was their biggest yet. The number of 360 units sold outstrips the Playstation 3 by 8 million worldwide.

Playing video games has become as ubiquitous to American life as watching movies: at least, for those of us who have been born since 1970. Movies have been considered for their artistry and depth for some time, and now video games are taking on some of those same characteristics. The artistic quality and technical effort put into video games has skyrocketed since the release of the original Sony Playstation in 1994; and with the development of the "Next Generation" systems (Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Wii), the only limit on what game makers can do is their imagination. These systems are capable of absurd realism and visual effects that match Hollywood.

Therefore, gaming has become the cutting-edge of cultural expression. Though there has been artistry and astounding creativity in making games for quite some time, the world of gaming has seen continual growth in artistic expression, especially in recent years. 

This trend took its first giant leap when companies like Squaresoft (now Square-Enix) and Capcom began hiring gifted composers to do scores and soundtracks for their games, notably Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger), Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy series), and for Capcom, Yasuaki Fujita (Mega Man 3–4, Metal Slug), and began producing games with deeper and more complex stories. The role-playing genre brought gaming to a new level: it insisted that there be a story, and a character with a history. Few games succeed without them; those that do, succeed solely due to their immediate gameplay value, such as racing games, puzzle games, and fighting games.

Formulaic games—with the same basic plot, characters, and action—are becoming less and less likely to succeed; along with them are games based on movies. Innovation is the name of the game, and game developers are being forced to take risks. In the past year, the games that have succeeded, and that have won the gaming awards, have been the games that have done something different.

These successful games, such as Bioshock, Fallout 3, and Grand Theft Auto 4, have a cinematic quality to them. Cinematic concerns like lighting, setting, sound, and music are breathtaking and create a believable and dramatic world in these games. Their plot lines are deep, and the twists and turns are sometimes jaw-dropping. Character depth and development take an 

unprecedented turn for the profound; Grand Theft Auto—which some have said to be the best game of all time— traces the story of Niko Belic, an immigrant who follows the promise of work from his cousin in America, as he finds himself entangled in the underworld of Liberty City; as the story develops and Niko digs himself deeper and deeper into the world of crime, the player can see and feel the sickening of Niko's heart as he becomes a darker and more foreboding character.

And now I finally get to the point of this post: I am excited to see this movement towards depth and artistry continue. I am most excited to see the use of voice actors for NextGen games. Already announced is Brütal Legend, an action-adventure journey through the world of heavy metal album art featuring Jack Black as the voice of protagonist Eddie Riggs—this looks to be an awesome game in its own right, when the design process consists of "What do you think of this creature? Would you see it on an album cover?" 

Also in the works is the Batman game, Arkham Asylum, which will be voiced by several actors from The Animated Series, including Kevin Conroy as Batman, and Mark Hamill as The Joker. Not only that, Samuel L. Jackson is voicing the lead for Afro Samurai, which will be released on the 27th. Of course, Ghostbusters: The Video Game will have the original actors doing voices, including Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd.

Games that already have been released using voice actors, and I just found this out: Liam Neeson plays the role of the protagonist's father in Fallout 3; and, Keifer Sutherland plays the role of Sgt. Roebuck, and Gary Oldman plays Sgt. Reznov in Call of Duty: World at War.

Gifts and Options

Baby received her (or is it his?) first gift this weekend from April, Chris, and Ella. The Baby Book and two precious cloth diapers! One diaper has little pandas exploring a bamboo glade and the other has fuzzy creatures that say "ooga booga". Suitable for Baby Boy or Baby Girl. It's funny to think that Baby is one or the other, but we just don't know.

The cloth diaper option remains, even though I waver back to the "disposables are easier" mentality occasionally. The truth is, of all the people I have talked to who use cloth diapering, no one has said it's too much work to handle or that they tried it for a while and couldn't stand it any more. They all love it. I even have one friend who has been a disposables user, but is getting into cloth diapering and loving it.

My current thought is that there are so many options for cloth diapering and all require a certain routine or system (just like disposables, truthfully---think about it, you have to make trips to the store, fill and empty your little diaper pail, and buy more diaper pail refills---that's a routine), and all it takes is finding the one you're most comfortable with. Since Trey and I haven't had a baby before, we'll be getting used to all new routines and systems, so we might as well give the cloth diapering a try. I'm at least going to do some more research.