FORUM COMMUNITY OMNIBUS AMA THREAD

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I originally made one of these on Religion & Theology but then deleted it after only one question because I decided it was a dumb trend to jump on.

However it's got to the point where it wouldn't be right for the top poster to not have one. So ask away!

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What does your Christian faith mean to you and does it help guide you in decisions you make in your life?

It's pretty fundamental to me and it shines through in most aspects. Often very oddly. For example an odd convo that once occurred in my Ingress chat:

Player: Hey new guy, do you love Jesus?
Player: Because Other Player does.
Me: I do!
New guy: No, I'm not too fond of fictional characters in general and when I do it tends to be more sci-fi than fantasy.
Player: Ha, seriously BRTD?
Me: Guys, Jesus was the original Resistance. And the Pharisees were Enlightened.

And yeah my decisions have become a lot more selfless in general since I was so touched and filled with the Spirit.

And it played a big role in my single most important decision of the past year: I picked Resistance over Enlightened because I thought the Enlightened doctrine was blasphemous and heretical.

Why do you suggest that atheists like Seth McFarlane and I "accept Jesus"?  You've called me a great poster, you've lauded the genius of Mr. McFarlane, but at the same time want to change something that certainly plays a role in how we go about things and the opinions that we have. 

Thing is Seth's Christian-bashing is some of the least funny stuff he does. Now if the show was exactly the same otherwise but he was a Christian it'd be even better. Even the best can be improved. Similarly I'm trying to imagine you as part of the Atlas Liberal Christian Clique and how cool that'd be.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Why do you frequently change your displayname?

Running gag sort of. It's an integral part of my forum persona.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

If The Obamanation was a Pokemon which one would he be?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I have a friend who interrupted coitus for Ingress. Is that considered normal behavior?

Ha, probably not. I've yet to hear of it at least.

Why do you think we care about Ingress?

Obviously not everyone does. Some people do. Some have asked me questions or info on the iOS release (which just came out by the way.) I figure people who don't care can just not read the threads on them, just like I barely read about the World Cup.

Are you a Boy Scout? Because you tie my heart in knots

No, and I'd never join that homophobic POS organization. If I had been one as a kid I'd renounce any affiliation.

Sneakers O'Tool vs Jesus?

Obviously Jesus is better than any fictional character. But comparing the real Jesus to Sneakers O'Toole is kind of pointless. It would make more sense to compare him to Jesus the Family Guy character. In which case he's a great character but come on, this is Sneakers O'Toole he's up against. No contest.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

top 5 films/top 5 90s indie bands

Good one. I'll have to think about this for a bit for films. The only ones I know for sure that'd be on the list are Donnie Darko and Mean Creek.

For 90s indie bands let's go with Superchunk, Mineral, Jawbreaker, Rainer Maria and Sunny Day Real Estate.

In the KY senate race, who will win Magoffin County and Pike County?

Tough one. Normally I'd expect any Democrat to win those in a close race, but they flew against Obama so badly he might actually taint all Democrats there. But Grimes is white, and it's really hard to imagine a Democrat losing those in a close race in Kentucky. So I'll say Grimes for both, but this is a really tough call and I look forward to seeing that map.

opinion of suburban irish catholic metalheads who watch south park

HP

What's Minnesota like to live in?

I find here wonderful. One of the best things about Minneapolis is it's one of the most affordable big cities with comparable cultural amenities to places like San Francisco. Also the state is well educated and not dysfunctional in general, and as a state pretty interesting, even rural Minnesota isn't very homogenous and can be interesting to visit. The biggest complaint most people have is the weather. However people forget that's only a couple months of the year, and right now I'm very glad I'm in Minnesota instead of th Sun Belt. Even the brutally cold temperatures and really bad snowstorms (which never happen together by the way, everyone needs to remember their middle school science classes about what causes snow. It can't happen in subzero temperatures) are only a couple days out of the year. Now compare that to the Gulf with the hurricanes...yeah I'd much rather be here. 20F isn't really that cold anyway if you have an appropriate jacket and adjust properly, which anyone here does.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Opebo vs. Ingress?

Which has amused me more? Probably opebo, but I had 10 years from him as opposed to one of Ingress.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

How would you vote for in an election between The Obamanation and Marine Le Pen?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

A bunch of my geek friends have all suddenly decided to start playing this weird LARP thing called Ingress in the past couple months, and now my Facebooks and blogspaces are jam-crudded with all sorts of incomprehensible stuff about hosing blue and somesuch.  How do I get them to shut up?

You got some weird friends then, because most Ingress players hate Facebook and actually primarily use Google Plus instead (yes there are people that use G+, although pretty much all fall into very specific groups) and hate discussing it on Facebook, some even consider it a sort of defilement or something that's beneath the game. Oh and about 85% of Ingressers hate LARPers too, especially the LARPers who play Ingress and look completely insane to everyone else.

But my advice: Join and sign up and it'll make more sense. Plus it's on iOS now too if that's the phone you use.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Why?

Why not?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Ingress players:


LARPers:

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Found that on a Google image search for "larpers" and posted thatas the most rridiculous one.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What's your opinion of liberal Protestantism?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Ingress players:

That's a lot of people who all willingly chose to purchase the wrong phone.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

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The funny thing is Apple's most recent updates are just adding features Android has had for a long time. Plus Android doesn't have anyone dictatorilly vetoing what you can install on the phone. Even iOS Ingress out now has some features disabled because they violate Apple's ToS for what can be in the App Store. Kind of funny to see Joe taking the hipster position here too.