Sitting In Awe Of The Lord’s Light Show

The warmer months are some of my favorites – unless it gets really hot, that is.  That being said, one of the coolest things to watch are thunderstorms – even though I am really afraid of ever being out in them.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  One time, when in grade school, our teacher thought it would be great to go out into the field to play kickball, even though it had started raining.  We just about get to the field (which has a huge METAL backdrop), when a bolt of lightning lit that thing up like a neon sign.  Needless to say, you never saw third-graders high-tail it back into the school so fast in your life.  Another time, I was at one of my relative’s wedding receptions, when the house we were in got hit by lightning.  Nothing happened aside from a really bright flash, a really loud boom, and the power going out.

Yeah……..being that close to that much electricity is just not something I relish being around, although I have been told that being in your car or in a house is the safest place to be if at all possible, so if I’m in one of those locations, then I love watching it.

We were out at Amusement Park Drive-In Saturday night, waiting to watch the new Star Trek: Beyond movie, when the storm rolled through.  I mean……this was one of those nice, big storms that has a huge light show accompanying it.  Naturally, I wanted to get some good shots of the event, so I whipped out my phone, and started recording.  I did about 10 minutes of what I thought were some of the best parts, even though I was told there were other angles that also had a lot of action (guess I should have had more cameras).  The roller coaster at the theatre I thought was a great backdrop, and the lightning lit it up nice and creepy-like, so I have no complaints.

I have the whole video up on my YouTube channel, and will get it up here as well, but I wanted to share one of my favorite stills from that video, and it came out wonderfully!  I may have to scope out more places to take videos now, because these freeze-frames came out so nicely, I think.  Ah lightning…….you make the night sky a little more exciting…….as long as I’m not caught out in it.

I’m Tired Of It: Online Multiplayer (aka I Don’t Play Well With Others)

Nowadays, people are more and more into going online to play games in multiplayer mode.  They say this is to encourage more interaction and have fun with others online.  That all sounds pretty on paper and in concept, but the truth is far uglier than some may be led to believe.

When I play games, I play them to immerse myself in an online world where I can be the hero, the villain, or like the picture I used for this article – the vigilante.  I play games to be encompassed in a story that I can have fun with, and not have to worry about some bully ruining the experience.

There are many ways this happens, but the most common are those who prey on the newbies.  These people have high-level characters or monsters that can easily obliterate the new characters, so they go out purposely stalking out these people and pounding them into as many component pixels as possible.  What fun is a game where you can get smashed repeatedly by some overpowered buffoon before you even have a chance to get your feet wet in the game?  All this does is just cause hurt feelings and make people want to rage quit the game to play something else.

You leave – they win – they brag and get a bigger ego.  Sorry……….I would just rather play something else than let this waste of effort get a bigger chip on their shoulder.

“But why don’t you practice and get better so you can beat them?”  Why would I be interested in just getting in some pissing match with somebody who has been playing longer – or worse yet, exploited the system so they can’t be beaten, just to have them wallop all over you again.  If that is your cup of tea, then fine………have fun.  Go at it.  Maybe you might actually beat them.  I guess that is what competition is all about.  It’s also why I quit playing games like Destiny, and refuse to ever install World of Warcraft on my computer – it’s not fun when you have to spend all of your time fending off overpowered monkey-brained fart-trumpets all the time you’re online.  In fact, one of my favorite games – Watch Dogs – has an online component where you can hack into other people’s games and they can hack into yours.  The problem is………people there cheat as well.  They find some exploit in the system that gives them a place to hide where they can get at you, but good luck getting to them.  I just turned off the online feature after that.  Maybe I’ll turn it on again someday if I play through again……….maybe.

Anyone who knows what games I play knows I go for single-player games with good stories and fun gameplay.  These days, along with the aforementioned Watch Dogs, I am playing Shadow of Mordor, Fallout 4, Witcher 3, and GTA V (I know GTA V has online – I just haven’t done much with it).  I don’t do Battlefront at all, even though I love Star Wars.  I probably won’t even do No Man’s Sky, but that one is for other reasons (you can’t build bases and you would probably never even find your friends if you tried).  Maybe I’m just getting picky in my tastes as I approach the half-century mark – or I have just lost the patience for stupid……..which tends to pop up a lot in online multiplayer.  I’ll just stick with what I like, and leave the battles to those who have more time and patience for it.