Category: Blog (Page 4 of 6)

Minecraft

August 9, 2019 / The Secular Catholic / 0 Comments

In 2010 my nephew who was about 7 or 8 at the time, wanted me to play a game with him. It was a game called Minecraft.
A game of building and survival. I resisted for a couple months because I was into something else and it was not as easy to get it back then. I went to the game makers website Mojang and looked at buying it. But they were not an american company. They were way out in Sweden. You needed paypal to get it and since it was a purchase outside the USA it was a bit more difficult.

So after I bought the game I played it myself to make sure my young nephew could play it. Once we started playing we were hooked.
We were playing survival back then. I would go on YouTube and look for videos with hint’s and tips to build more and survive better. Recipes for objects were more difficult back then. I eventually found a book filled with all the recipes and tips and tricks. So my nephew and I would build and have adventures together. It really brought us closer because it was something he knew more about than me. He had a bunch of friends that played it at school and he learned much about it.

After a while we found the creative mode. A mode that would let you build anything without mining or gathering materials. That’s when things went from to a fun video game to something we could build and be creative and also be art. Eventually I bought a server so my nephew and his friends and I could build together in one place. That is when I really started watching videos and listening to podcasts about Minecraft. One of those podcasts was a show called Minecraft Me.
MinecraftMe was a audio and video podcast about Minecraft and that’s it. Chase and Joe would show us how to build and what was possible. They also had a server that people could build on.

After that my server became much better. We made much bigger projects and buildings. We made malls, office buildings, hotels and more. But eventually around 2016 or 2017 my love of Minecraft waned, but more importantly my PC died, So I couldn’t play anymore.

But earlier this year I tried playing Minecraft on my Xbox One, it wasn’t the same. I was so used to keyboard and mouse a controller was difficult to use. But I kept playing and eventually I got used to it and started building again. A month or so my nephew and his friends were on Xbox and saw me playing Minecraft and asked if they could join. Once they were on the server my nephew said it was a huge wave of nostalgia.Over the last few months I have become really in to Minecraft. They saw my map and how developed it was and were surprised. I was building on a large island and there were smaller ones nearby so I said they could have an Island to themselves.
They started building and it was like in the beginning.
Minecraft is back baby. It’s the tenth anniversary and it’s just as fun as when I started.

Video Games

August 8, 2019 / The Secular Catholic / 0 Comments

There has been a lot talk of video games lately. People saying video games make you violent. I am here to say “I don’t think so”.
I am a very nonviolent person. I am very Catholic/Franciscan , and can’t say if I have ever hurt anyone.

I have been playing video games almost my whole life.
I am in my fifties, and the first video game I played at home was pong.
I love arcades, always have. But playing a video game at home is great. Not crowd, don’t have to bring a bunch of quarters. Pong was a very early game. Pong had a few modes most were very much the same.
Then a few years later at Christmas Atari 2600. That changed everything for me. We didn’t have a lot of money, so it was family entertainment. Oh and we only had one TV and it was in my Parents room. So we usually played together as a family even my parents.
After a few weeks my Dad and I were developing Atari thumb.
After about 6 months my parents bought a small 12 or 14 inch TV for the Kitchen/Dining room. We ate in our kitchen in a small table and my parents had enough of us kids coming up at 6am to watch TV and play Atari. Because when I was a kid in the 70’s and early 80’s there were a ton of Saturday morning cartoons. So by summer of that year we had a small TV and this was the kids TV. A friend and I would take any money we could get our hands on and bike to the golf course a mile or so away and spend it on video games and a coke. We would play games like Defender, Joust, Space Invaders, Tempest and more.

As I grew older the video games got better. When I graduated high school I bought myself a commodore 64. I had a job at McDonalds and most of the money went to video games. Whenever I was at a mall, I would go to the arcade called Aladdin’s Castle. Ever since I had the Atari I would ask for games for Christmas and my birthday. Eventually I played Nintendo, Sega, PlayStation, Xbox video game systems. With the commodore 64 my love of computers started.
After my commodore 64 I bought the Commodore Amiga. It was so cool because when I would look at PC games there wasn’t much color and the Amiga had really great color and after about a year I was able to buy a Mac emulator for it. After that PC’s did color better so I bought a 386 and so on and so on.

Now we have more power in our phones than my old PC’s ever did.
I have an Xbox one and a PC that has an I7, Nvidia 1060 and a super fast SSD and a terabyte hard drive. Oddly enough my favorite games were the shooters. Doom, Quake, Unreal and more. The more violent the better it seems. Now I play Rainbow Six Siege, GTAV, Red dead redemption 2 and more. With all that video game playing you think I would be violent. Nope I’m just as chill as always. Now video games help me with my stress and help me chill out. The things that get me mad now are traffic, people not being nice and people taking advantage of others. I don’t yell or scream or anything. I just hop on to a game and the stress disappears.

Gods Love

August 7, 2019 / The Secular Catholic / 0 Comments

sun on lake — Photo by Davide Cantelli on Unsplash

Gods love is great and it’s everywhere. God is love. He sent his only son to be human and die for us. He is like a Father. We are his children. He loves us even if we make mistakes. He is always hoping we come to him. If you look you will find him. Knock and the door will open. Know he loves you always.

Sunday’s Readings.

August 5, 2019 / The Secular Catholic / 0 Comments

Oh vanity of vanities. It seems both the first reading and the Gospel were about trimming down and minimizing your earthly goods.
It is one of the hardest things for me to do. Life over the last 50+ years has been about keeping up with the Jones’s. I have been super bad at that. I have been hoarding geeky things for the last 5 years or so. Actually I have been collecting things my whole life. It started with toys like HotWheels and GI Joes. Were talking the old big GI Joes.
But I was a kid and didn’t know any better. Then I found my love of comic books. Man I collected so many of those I had to get special comic long boxes to store them. And when I bought them they came with bags to put them in.

As I got older I started collecting computers and computer parts and such. I also collected video game systems and games.
Man I had to much stuff. I still have to much stuff.
I need to start getting rid of things. I’m not that old yet that I will go to the home or something. So to get it so I don’t collect so much stuff. I stopped getting LootCrate, which is a box of geeky goods. Some I loved some I didn’t. Also I am trying to not buy as much junk as before. I am buying more books and such to make me better . But I still buy to much stuff and I need to stop. Here’s hoping I win the battle of the stuff.

Summers almost over.

July 31, 2019 / The Secular Catholic / 0 Comments

beach at end of day — Photo by Miss Porcelain on Unsplash

Well August is almost here, that means the summers almost over.
Summer is my favorite season of the year, which makes winter my least favorite. I love the warmth, and hate the cold. I live in the great state of Minnesota. Last year we had a few days where it was -50 degrees. So I stay outside as much as I can in the summer.

I have two small dogs and in the summer when I let them out and can sit on the stoop and just soak in the sun. The dogs love it too. They are not big fans of going outside in the winter either, when they do they make it quick. I hope I have time to kick back and relax on the patio and do some reading or watching Netflix. Another great thing about summer are Drive Ins. We have one about 5 miles or so away. They have 3 movies and it’s cheaper than going to see all the movies separately. The end of summer in Minnesota means the Minnesota state fair. Oh food and fun everywhere you can see. It’s also a great place to people watch. But I can’t go every year because to many people and too hot at the end of August. So I hope everyone has a great end to their summers and have as much time outside as you can. But don’t forget to put on the suntan lotion.

Nightlife.

July 29, 2019 / The Secular Catholic / 0 Comments

wedding table — Photo by Sweet Ice Cream Photography on Unsplash

Hello All.
I am an introvert. Actually I am a super introvert.
But usually if its someone I know well I do OK, especially family.
So Saturday night I had a wedding to go to. The only people I knew were my family and the bride. So luckily I sat with my parents and then my aunts and uncles came and sat with us. Everything was great and I got to see my cousin who was the groom and he married one of the nicest most fun people around.

I realized that I don’t get to see my extended family enough. I mostly see my aunts and uncles at weddings or funerals. It’s kind of sad. When we get together we have a ton of fun. Life is to busy and we are scattered a bit. But we used to see each other a lot more when i was a kid. My Grandparents on that side of the family had a cabin that we all went to several times during the summer to hang out. I have not seen one of my uncle in a couple years so it was nice to see and talk to him.
I had fun at the wedding and also fun talking to my family. I didn’t freak out and start running for the hills or anything, and thank God I didn’t have to dance. That would have been awful.

My old problems are new problems?

July 26, 2019 / The Secular Catholic / 0 Comments

cross — Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Hi All.
I had help figuring out one of my biggest problems. For the longest time I really didn’t think I was worthy of Gods love and anything else God had planned for me. I had that problem for 40+ years. Until some friends and a some religious helped. I like to go to retreats. When I had a corporate job I had the money and vacation time to go on retreats. I usually went on Holy Week or in October. My Franciscan fraternity also helped me with that problem. Basically I was told very few of us are worthy and really the only reason we can be worthy is with Gods help. So that really helped with my problem. If I don’t feel worthy I should remember that God can make me worthy.

So onto my new problem. As you all know I am taking classes to be a spiritual assistant. I have a problem with me being worthy of that position and also the fact I really want to do a great job and maybe put a little to much pressure on myself. Luckily I have great people that lead the class and are our mentors. Plus all the people taking the class are super nice and look to help. We are all in the same boat, and just want to be the best spiritual assistants we can be to help our fraternities. I will just have to pray a little more so the Holy Spirit can help me understand things a bit better.

God knows I need it. I can also spend my time better. Instead of watching TV and playing video games, I could be reading or watching my Word on Fire and Formed videos to help me learn about my faith.
If you are a Catholic your Archdiocese may give you free access to Formed. Formed is a bit like a Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Kindle Unlimited for Catholics. You can study, watch, listen and read.
It has a lot of Catholic teaching. And Word on Fire Digital. Which is created by Bishop Barron. Who is a well known Bishop and evangelist
Word on Fire Digital is like Netflix for Catholics. It has a lot of content that most Parishes use to teach. Like Catholicism, Pivotal Players and the Mass. So there is no excuse anymore. Instead of bingeing Stranger Things, I can binge Catholicism or something else that will get me closer to God. So weather I am worthy or not God can make all things happen. He can even make this sinner worthy of his love.

Professional Wrestling.

July 25, 2019 / The Secular Catholic / 0 Comments

Hello all.
I will tell you one of my favorite things when I was a kid was professional wrestling. It started with the AWA back in the 70’s and early 80’s. That was a local group before WWE. Then WWF came around and a bunch of my favorite locals went to the WWF then they switched names to WWE. Back in AWA I had a few favorite wrestlers, guys like the crusher, Baron von Raschke aka “the Claw”, Mad dog Vachon, Greg Gagne and of course Hulk Hogan. As a kid I was into the good guys and shunned and boo’ed the bad guys. Everyone except the Weasel Bobby Heenan. He was my favorite bad guy. When he and Hulk Hogan went to the WWE, I went with them.

This was the Golden age of WWE. And a whole new cast of characters came to wrestle. Guys like Hulk Hogan and Andre the giant were fun to watch but then a real bunch of people came out like. Jimmy Snuka, Iron Sheikh, Junk yard dog and the great Rowdy Roddy Piper. I loved Roddy because he was a great heel and had a great attitude. But I was a little Hulkamanaiac. Guys like the Hart foundation and SGT. Slaughter and more. So many to name I just loved to watch wrestling.

I was really into wresting into the mid 90’s, then the attitude era came and everyone became a jerk and there seemed to be no good guys left. I used to root for Luke and Butch the BushWhackers. Then I stopped watching because it wasn’t fun anymore.

Then about 3-5 years ago a friend who was really into wrestling told me I should come back and watch. And if i started next week it would be a great time to start. It was going to be a draft for which wrestlers went to which show. Either Monday night Raw or Smack down on Tuesdays. So I watched and there were a few wrestlers that I liked
There were good guys like John Cena, Aj Styles, Finn Balor and bad guys like The Miz and Kevin Owens. There are so many good wrestlers but my favorite where the female wrestlers. Becky Lynch, Naomi, Natalya, Charolette Flair, Sasha Banks and More. After watching a few womens matches I quickly found that they were some of the best actual wrestlers and fun matches. I liked new wrestling it didn’t have the attitude era problem where everyone was bad or didn’t care and there were not real good guys. But something is missing. I believe that the people that run the WWE the McMahon family. Should have the younger McMahons run things. Vince McMahon is the one that has been running things since the early 80’s and he needs help or needs retire. I think his family would do a good job running things. But you can’t say no to Mr. McMahon. It’s still fun even though I wish the stories would be better. But I love my favorites and still watch.
I really think the AEW or All Elite Wrestling will take a lot of wrestlers and also their fans to the new organization. Let’s hope that who ever wins the wrestling war does right by the fans.

Dresden Files

July 24, 2019 / The Secular Catholic / 0 Comments

I am a big geek and I love fantasy and sci fi books. One of my favorite series is the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. The last Dresden book he wrote Skin Game in March of 2015, so I have been waiting awhile.
But he just tweeted that he was done with the book and it was out to editors. I love the Dresden books. I love Harry Dresden and all his friends.

You might think since I am a staunch Catholic that I might not the like Dresden Files books, that since they have magic and evil spirits and such I might not like the books. But you are wrong.
Even though Harry may not be a Catholic but he believes in what the Church does. One of Harry’s best friends is a man named Michael Carpenter. He seem like a blue collar man and really he is. But he is also a knight of the cross. A man that wields a sword with a nail of the cross on it. There are other knights of the cross and they have similar swords. Also he has a big dog named Mouse who is smarter than he seems because he is a Foo Dog. Also his step brother is a white vampire Thomas and a friend on the police force Karrin.

Lets just say I really like Harry. He is a wizard but not just any wizard. He is a wizard that tends to take a beating. He doesn’t give up if he is right.He also always tries to do the right thing. It’s the people around him that give him a lot of his power. Harry has a ton of magic power but not as good at being subtle at it. I can’t wait to read it.

Martha and Mary

July 23, 2019 / The Secular Catholic / 0 Comments

bible that says you are loved — Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash

Hello Everyone.
Sunday’s reading was one of my favorites. When I was young I really felt bad for poor Martha. She worked her fingers to the bone to help Jesus and then he just says Martha Martha! You worry and fret.
Where Mary just sat and listened like a sponge and tried to understand. My priest had a great homily to go with it.
About how we are just not about prayer that we need action to go with it. How Mary was right and that Martha wasn’t asked to do anything and she just did it. Also Martha was a good friend of Jesus’s because she can tell Jesus to have Mary help her. There are still times I don’t get it. But every once in a while I do.