I don't presume to know how many of my negative one readers know what casual games are, so I will describe them briefly. A casual game is usually a small, often Flash-based, game that can be played in a limited amount of time. Casual games often include puzzle games, room escape games, simple platform games, arcade games, and even some adventure and shoot-em-up style games.
These games are usually short, but that rule has been broken many times as casual gaming has migrated over to big name game systems such as Playstation 2, XBox, and WII. More common platforms for casual games include the PC, PDAs, SmartPhones, and mobile phones. As mobile technology becomes high technology and computers become smaller and able to handle more, the mobile community becomes a prime target for casual gaming.
I have come to love casual games for their simplicity, addictiveness, and challenge. Some are little more than a few graphics that some developer drew up. You can also find traditional games like checkers, chess, or even Monopoly. And some of them have rich graphics and MP3 audio making the game more immersive.
I admit that my favorite casual games come in the form of point-and-click adventures similar to the Myst series or even the Hugo series later on. One such game is Exmortis and its sequel Exmortis 2. These are horror survival style games in the fashion of more popular games like Silent Hill or Resident Evil, but they do not require any action skills as they are simply point and click games. Another type of game I really like is the arcade genre puzzler genre. This includes Sokoban, Bejeweled, Collapse, and similar games.
I invite all to play any of these games. Most of them are worthwhile. Someday maybe I'll make a casual game. I have a lot of ideas, just not the resources currently. Anyway to check out some of the games I just told you about and more I have listed some links below.
http://jayisgames.com/best-games/
http://www.greenapplegames.com/
http://www.microsoftcasualgames.msn.com/
http://www.casualgames.com/
Friday, August 29, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Darkness and Light
It seems to me that we as a people do not speak of darkness very much. It's not necessarily a bad thing because darkness is not something that we should dwell on. It is the light that we should have always in our thoughts and things of light. As Jesus Christ stated,
Also it is well known that light drives darkness away, or that darkness cannot be present when light is present. This is both a physical and spiritual truth, or an eternal truth. As an example you cannot think about both something good and something evil at the same time. It is a physical impossibility of our mind.
Now it is my opinion that if we do not understand how darkness works then it is difficult to avoid it or cast it out. There are many scriptures which talk about this sort of thing. One of the most quoted comes from the Bible.
From this we can learn that fasting and prayer give power to cast out devils. And why? Because fasting and prayer strengthen light within you.
Now let me explain an experience that I had while on my mission. It was a scary experience and not one that I would have chosen to had, except I had known that it would have taught me these valuable lessons, and strengthened my faith in Jesus Christ. This experience happened in my first mission area, Darmstadt, Hessen.
On one Sunday morning my companion and I met an investigator at church. We walked into the chapel and sat down. This was a particularly good Sunday to have an investigator at church because it was fast Sunday. For those who don't know fast Sunday is the first Sunday of the month, on which the membership of the church around the world forgo two meals and donate the money that would have been spent on those two meals to the church as a fast offering. This money is used as needed to help members in need and others in need of temporal assistance in the ward. Also on the fast Sunday members of the ward are invited to stand up at the pulpit and share their testimonies of the Gospel with others. Because of this the Spirit is usually very strong and it gives us as missionaries and members an opportunity to help investigators learn how to discern the Spirit and tell when truth is being taught as well as strengthen our own testimonies by feeling the Spirit.
At the beginning of the meeting it was not unlike any other fast and testimony meeting I had previously attended, but as time went on, one of the members got up and began talking to one of the young men. Something was said along the lines of him being a good example, and then something unusual began to happen. The member began saying a prayer but it the prayer were many bad things said, and it sounded like a prayer of curse upon the young man. The Spirit left the room and darkness started to creep in. You could feel the cold. I don't know about anybody else, but I began praying for the Spirit to come back as soon as I felt the darkness. And while I was praying it felt like the room was spinning around me.
The Bishop got up and asked the member to sit down, and the member seemed to ask for one more minute. The Bishop let him go on for another minute, then he got up and asked the member again to sit down at which time the member became irritated and I think he kind of swung his arm to hit the Bishop. Then the first and second counselors got up and they tried to sieze the member. The member froze up and appeared in shock as the first and second counselor and Bishop of the Bishopric carried the member outside of the building and cast the bad spirit out of him (I assume because none of us saw this happen and we saw him the next week and he was fine).
Elder Uchtdorf, who at the time was one of the Quorum of the Seventy, was in attendance as this was his home ward in Germany. When the Bishopric had left the chapel Elder Uchtdorf stood up at the pulpit and explained something about what had just happened. He said that what we had just felt was not the Spirit of God, but rather it was the Spirit of the Devil. And he talked a little bit more and bore his witness that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on the Earth today. And that Jesus Christ lives and leads and directs His church through a living Prophet and that that prophet was President Gordon B. Hinckley. He continued and as quickly as it left the room when the member had begun to say his evil prayer, the Spirit came back into the chapel, and we were all able to discern it and tell the difference.
It was scary but it was also a wonderful teaching and learning opportunity. As far as I know the member involved was not repremanded and did not remember this experience at all. But it goes to show that we must live our lives in such a way that we keep the Spirit with us at all times. We must obey the commandments of God given to us through His living prophets. Today His living prophet is President Thomas S. Monson. I know the Jesus Christ lives and leads and directs His church through President Monson. And I know that because the Holy Ghost tells me that it is true. For "...by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." (Moroni 10:5)
And whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do good is of me; for good cometh of none save it be of me. I am the same that leadeth men to all good; he that will not believe my words will not believe me—that I am; and he that will not believe me will not believe the Father who sent me. For behold, I am the Father, I am the light, and the life, and the truth of the world.
Also it is well known that light drives darkness away, or that darkness cannot be present when light is present. This is both a physical and spiritual truth, or an eternal truth. As an example you cannot think about both something good and something evil at the same time. It is a physical impossibility of our mind.
Now it is my opinion that if we do not understand how darkness works then it is difficult to avoid it or cast it out. There are many scriptures which talk about this sort of thing. One of the most quoted comes from the Bible.
And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying,
Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.
And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.
Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.
And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.
Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
From this we can learn that fasting and prayer give power to cast out devils. And why? Because fasting and prayer strengthen light within you.
Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.
Now let me explain an experience that I had while on my mission. It was a scary experience and not one that I would have chosen to had, except I had known that it would have taught me these valuable lessons, and strengthened my faith in Jesus Christ. This experience happened in my first mission area, Darmstadt, Hessen.
On one Sunday morning my companion and I met an investigator at church. We walked into the chapel and sat down. This was a particularly good Sunday to have an investigator at church because it was fast Sunday. For those who don't know fast Sunday is the first Sunday of the month, on which the membership of the church around the world forgo two meals and donate the money that would have been spent on those two meals to the church as a fast offering. This money is used as needed to help members in need and others in need of temporal assistance in the ward. Also on the fast Sunday members of the ward are invited to stand up at the pulpit and share their testimonies of the Gospel with others. Because of this the Spirit is usually very strong and it gives us as missionaries and members an opportunity to help investigators learn how to discern the Spirit and tell when truth is being taught as well as strengthen our own testimonies by feeling the Spirit.
At the beginning of the meeting it was not unlike any other fast and testimony meeting I had previously attended, but as time went on, one of the members got up and began talking to one of the young men. Something was said along the lines of him being a good example, and then something unusual began to happen. The member began saying a prayer but it the prayer were many bad things said, and it sounded like a prayer of curse upon the young man. The Spirit left the room and darkness started to creep in. You could feel the cold. I don't know about anybody else, but I began praying for the Spirit to come back as soon as I felt the darkness. And while I was praying it felt like the room was spinning around me.
The Bishop got up and asked the member to sit down, and the member seemed to ask for one more minute. The Bishop let him go on for another minute, then he got up and asked the member again to sit down at which time the member became irritated and I think he kind of swung his arm to hit the Bishop. Then the first and second counselors got up and they tried to sieze the member. The member froze up and appeared in shock as the first and second counselor and Bishop of the Bishopric carried the member outside of the building and cast the bad spirit out of him (I assume because none of us saw this happen and we saw him the next week and he was fine).
Elder Uchtdorf, who at the time was one of the Quorum of the Seventy, was in attendance as this was his home ward in Germany. When the Bishopric had left the chapel Elder Uchtdorf stood up at the pulpit and explained something about what had just happened. He said that what we had just felt was not the Spirit of God, but rather it was the Spirit of the Devil. And he talked a little bit more and bore his witness that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on the Earth today. And that Jesus Christ lives and leads and directs His church through a living Prophet and that that prophet was President Gordon B. Hinckley. He continued and as quickly as it left the room when the member had begun to say his evil prayer, the Spirit came back into the chapel, and we were all able to discern it and tell the difference.
It was scary but it was also a wonderful teaching and learning opportunity. As far as I know the member involved was not repremanded and did not remember this experience at all. But it goes to show that we must live our lives in such a way that we keep the Spirit with us at all times. We must obey the commandments of God given to us through His living prophets. Today His living prophet is President Thomas S. Monson. I know the Jesus Christ lives and leads and directs His church through President Monson. And I know that because the Holy Ghost tells me that it is true. For "...by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." (Moroni 10:5)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
