The Musings Of The Consensus

When I was a child, I once heard someone say "the older you get, the less time it seems you have in a day" At the time, I didn't get it. A day has 24 hours for everyone, so how could it decrease as you get older? Now that I'm in my thirties, the point is starting to make sense. When you're a child, and the only thing that takes up most of your time is some form of compulsory education, you ironically can't wait for time to speed up so you can get past all that boring stuff, or at least skip the seeming drudgery of reading textbooks and answering questions by bubbling in or circling answers on tests. In reality, school is basically the last time time seems so slow you want it to speed up, because as you graduate and enter world proper, time starts to decrease. Excepting college, and even that is variable depending on whether you also work during college, time decreases exponentially because you are subtracting the time spent working a steady job from ti...

I've seen a ton of people going Chicken Little over COVID-19 outside of China, and frankly, it's inane panic I refuse to indulge. First off, this is not the Dark Ages. Humanity has gotten to the point a nasty strain of influenza is not going to be the death knell of civilization. The Spanish Flu was pretty bad after World War I and killed more people than most battlefields did, but we've gotten a lot better at handling disease since. I won't deny it's foolish not to see a doctor if you think you contracted it. By all means, seek IMMEDIATE medical attention, but otherwise, don't assume you are at super high risk if you live outside China unless you travel frequently and have a reasonable chance of crossing paths with someone who is from that area or you've spent a lot of time on planes with people who have been to areas where those who caught it are high. And unlike all the people who are hyperventilating about it being a superweapon or some intentional...

I've written for ChristCenteredGamer for some time now, and given I started around May 2019, am still around Feburary 2020, and have every intention of sticking around as long as I can, I just want to reflect on what I'm thankful for since I started working for them. First off, working for them was not something I immediately considered. I was aware of them long beforehand of course, and while I liked their work, I never thought I'd consider writing for them, until one day I realized they didn't review a game I had in my Steam Library and figured if no one else was going to write it, I could write it for them. That got the ball rolling to where I am today. I've written game reviews before, as well as reviews for other media, mostly here on this blog, and, I admit, I have written reviews for some very adult media on this very blog. I'm not ashamed to admit that because I no longer have an interest in doing so. I'm not removing any of what I wrote, I have...

One of my primary hobbies is the study of history. Contrary to what some may believe about me, a lot of my interests are of a technical and to some, rather tediously educational nature. To be specific, I like researching historical archives of various events for amusing or revelatory information. In this case, I discovered something hilarious when researching Herbert Yardley, an Army Major who did cryptography work for the United States government during the 1910's and 1920's, and who published a book on his experiences called The American Black Chamber . This text is a nonfiction book written in novel-like prose about Yardley's own experiences in this profession, covering many highlights of his career in the cryptographical fields and challenges he was devoted to during this period. While the book is certainly revealing, his critics at the time claimed he endangered the cryptographic security of the United States by spilling the beans on a lot of the things he did in...

George Carlin hit the nail on the head concerning certain social and political doubletalk used to argue certain positions, and I'll paraphrase below: "Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent a kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it." The man was a prophet because there are several topics where this exact problem prevents an honest discussion between people of differing views because one or both have to cloak it in soft language. I shall cover a few of these topics below. 1. Illegal Immigration Now, this one is subject to a strange form of doublethink by some parties. While willing to admit to greater or lesser extent the immigrants in question have violated the laws, there are numerous attempts to soften the reality, like A. Undocumented immigrants. B. Undocumented citizens. C. Undocumented aliens. Now, I find this series of euphemisms is little more than an attempt to not so much conceal the truth as to try and blunt the...

I have a policy for my life that may seem odd, but I don't believe I should measure my accomplishments by any negative things I've done. Sounds obvious, but I include all acts of destruction in that definition, and since some things are bad that need destroyed like a termite-infested house that is torn down for being a hazard, it sounds strange that I would not include an act of destruction done for positive and beneficial reasons on my list of accomplishments. Now, I never tore down a condemned building, that was just an example, but I always have venerated those who create over those who destroy because destruction is easy, both of things and of people. Not everyone can write a book, but it takes far less effort to burn one. Not every person can talk a suicidal person off a ledge, but it's much easier to drive them to it. And to be more specific, everyone can tear down and demean others, but not everyone can build others up. As a Christian, I found even the Bible s...

From the title alone, I'm quite sure this post will raise some hackles. I also admit upfront that I am a practicing Christian, but I will not be bringing my religious beliefs into this article. In fact, to argue against something on religious grounds is to argue based on a moral opinion, and I'm not doing that because this is a matter objective fact can more than argue against just fine. Now, before I continue, I also want to say I'm an absolute advocate of free will and personal conscience, and it goes both ways. If someone wants to be transgender and has decided of their own free will it's the best choice for them, then so be it, I have no right to complain. However, I reserve the right to regard them as what they are, someone who cosmetically changed their appearance to match a sexual appearance based on another gender, but they still remain the gender they were born as. In fact, here's objective argument number 1: It is unethical to make someone pretend a pe...

Awhile back, I reviewed Girls Frontline for ChristCenteredGamer , and while I gave it good review even then, that series has continued to surprise and amaze me. For one, I'm an amateur gun nerd. Not exactly the kind of guy you'll find haunting gun forums, but I can appreciate firearms lore, and Girls Frontline manages to sneak in a ton of that. The community for it is pretty awesome. It's one of the better gaming communities, the main subreddit is a pretty chill place patronized by the developers at times, and speaking of the developers, they maintain a very warm relationship with the fans. The game is produced by a Chinese developer, and while a lot of Chinese game developers and companies tend to have a bad reputation in some circles, Mica continues to surprise me by making a game where you do NOT have to spend a dime to have fun and I usually don't, though you are free to do that is whaling for costumes and other cool swag is your thing. Another thing I lik...

This is something of a reflection article, but since it's content are relevant to my current day activity, one I feel necessary for anyone who has doubts about me. First off, when I say I no longer consider myself an activist, I mean I no longer consider myself an active participant any any political or social drama. I say that not out of cowardice, I will still take a stand on anything I deem to be a firm moral principle, but when it comes to being on the front lines of drama, I prefer to refrain these days. Now, I was on the pro-GamerGate side of that little debate back when it was actually relevant. I don't apologize for it, and I don't regret my involvement. I do admit some of the decisions I made then were unwise to some extent, and perhaps I shouldn't have been so naive in some ways, but what's done is done, all I can do is keep those moments in mind for future reference. I also have taken a step back from drama both on the Internet and real life in gene...

I recently finished "The Wages of Destruction" by Adam Tooze , and being a history fan, I thought it was a great book. Unlike many books that examine Nazi Germany, this one examines it from a primarily economic lens, and while it does not discount the political and social aspects of the Nazi regime, it argues that while they were key elements, they all had a cooperative effect with economic motives and vice versa. One of the main points it argues is that economics was key to setting the stage for Hitler's rise to power, the impetus of his platform while in power, and had a sizable degree of influence on his fall from it, and the Third Reich was also far more in pawn to its economic limitations than most give it credit. The author spends a fair majority of the time going into profound detail at every stage of the interwar and WWII period covering all the economic factors that underpinned the German economic backdrop and how that influenced Nazi policies, which, as th...

Now, warning before I go further: This is going to be a breakdown of one of the most sexually explicit and vile sounding parts of the Bible. I am referring to that infamous chapter of Ezekiel where there is a story of two prostitutes (who were stand-ins for Israel and Judah, the two wings of God's chosen people post splitting after the reign of King Solomon) and they are described with all sorts of language doing things that are obscene and the whole thing comes off so crass it's going from PG to NC-17 on the rating scale compared to most other parts of the Bible. I'm using the New English translation version of this Bible chapter, courtesy of The SWORD Project. (My comments will be in bold, the original verses cited will be in italics) 1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, there were two women who were daughters of the same mother. 3 They engaged in prostitution in Egypt; in their youth they engaged in prostitution. Their breasts were squeezed there...

If you read the Gospels, one recurring theme that was constantly used against Jesus was his enemies trying to use his own words against, trying to reveal him a traitor to own morals, and otherwise trying to make him the bad guy because they hated what he stood for. In modern day, not much has changed. Even if you are like me and live in a fairly free country to be a Christian, you will encounter much the same scorn and hatred from those who will treat you with contempt for your faith, and here' some of the most common ways this manifests. 1. Trying to use you own morals against you. A common tactic those who hate Christians will use is trying to hold you to your morals and mercilessly trying to make you look like a stupid hypocrite for not living up to them 24/7. This is dishonest for several reasons, here's some quotes from scripture on why that's the case. Romans 3:9-20   English Standard Version (ESV) No One Is Righteous 9  What then? Are we Jews [ a ]...