So, the blog has been a little quiet for the last week or so – and I apologize for the lack of notice – I was out of town…but didn’t really want to broadcast that for the entire world to know. I know, I know, my audience consists entirely of fine upstanding individuals – but on the off chance that some creeper was out there looking for a chance to break in, I figured it would be best not to disclose. That said, I’m back and its time to start writing again.

Today I’d like to talk about Kingdom Bound (where I’ve been for the last so many days). Kingdom Bound is an annual Christian festival held at Darien Lake in Darien Center, NY. Darien Lake is a pretty amazing place in and of itself – a gigantic amusement and water park with numerous rides…and when you are attending Kingdom Bound you get free access to all of these for the entire multi-day festival:

• The Predator – A huge, old wooden rollercoaster that still delivers serious thrills as it shakes and rumbles along the track.
• The Viper – With its multiple loops and underground tunnel has not decreased in excitement with age.
• The Mind Eraser – Legs dangle free, flips abound, and once in a while a poll or the ground feels just a little too close – an exciting and breathtaking ride.
• Ride of Steel – Want to drop around 208 feet and reach speeds exceeding 70 mph? This is your ride.
• Tornado – Affectionately nicknamed by some “The Toilet Bowl” its a fairly crazy water ride for two to four individuals on a water tube that drops into what appears somewhat like a giant toilet bowl – whirling you around the sides and then down and out into a large pool of water.
• One could go on and on to mention the Big Kahuna, Grizzly Run, Shipwreck Falls, OCC Motocoaster, and the Boomerang…but you get the picture.

Now add onto this a seriously unbeatable and diverse lineup of Christian musical artists that in and of themselves are worth the price of admission and you have a must-go event. When I attended this year I saw Skillet put on perhaps the best live concert I have ever seen. I listened to Hawk Nelson getting everyone hyped up with their bouncy, upbeat tunes. I was there when Michael Tate led the Newsboys in an absolutely amazing concert and was joined by the original lead singer. Ahh, but that is just the start – other bands I personally saw include Salvador, Family Force 5, Pillar, and Relevant Worship. Other awesome artists included Matthew West, Francisca Battistelli, Natalie Grant, Israel Houghton, and on and on. While I’m not a hip-hop guy myself each day there was four solid hours of hip-hop!

Finally, there are the speakers and seminars. Kingdom Bound always brings in several high quality speakers who present on important issues of Christain faith. This year the highlight for me was David Nasser, an individual who during a regime change in Iran needed to escape with his family or risk the death of his father (a formerly high-ranking general). Nasser has an amazing and convicting message of his pursuit of happiness in the world and God’s eager pursuit of him.

Various seminars are available on a number of topics – including numerous seminars are various aspects of leading musical and drama ministries as well as topics such as personal modesty and a compassionate engagement of those who disagree with conservative Christians on gender identity topics.

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I’m a picky gamer. My personal preferred genre is turn-based, historical strategy/tactical wargames. A mouthful, huh? Why do I like these games so much?

• They offer an educational experience with (generally) highly detailed maps and historically accurate units and commanders.
• They offer a intellectually stimulating experience require the use of significant analytical skills to determine the best methods to victory.
• They offer significantly more hours of gameplay than most other genres of games, especially simple-one path games like most first person shooters (FPS).

Within this genre one game that stands out as an excellent example and worthwhile purchase as an entertaining and educational resource is Creative Assembly’s Medieval II: Total War. This game is part of a old (in gaming years) and venerable line of “Total War” games beginning with Shogun: Total War and most recently culminating in Empire: Total War. While the graphics and artificial intelligence have improved with the years, the basic gameplay has stayed remarkably the same.

Each Total War game represents a distinct historical period – in the instance of Medieval the period is somewhat obvious – it covers the medieval time period (e.g. crusades, early discovery of the new world). One takes command of any of a variety of historical nations and oversees one’s countries progress – first at a strategic level that includes town management, technology development, political negotiations, and military recruitment. Then when combat occurs one has the choice to enter into the tactical arena and to command one’s troops in beautifully rendered 3D worlds through a pausable real-time interface (bringing the best of cinematic historical combat with the intellectual challenge of turn-based combat).

I’ve never exhausted the bounds of a Total War game. Playing as each nation is a unique experience. Each nation has its own unique historical advantages and disadvantages (e.g. England must rely upon naval power while nations in Eastern Europe face continuous threats to varied influxing enemies) and playing through a single nation’s history in a single game can be a process of scores – if not hundreds of hours. Medieval II: Total War is not a game one sits down and plays in a day or a week or even a month – its meant to last month after month (for the casual, moderate gamer) and then one has only finished the game as that nation!

Medieval II: Total War also have a worthwhile expansion pack called Kingdoms which retrofits some features in Medieval II: Total War along with adding several additional campaigns (each of which could be a game in and of itself) including the Crusades, Americas (early conquistadors, inter-tribal warfare), Teutonic, and Britannia.

MII:TW is now available at bargain prices…as are older titles in the same series. So go to Amazon and grab both titles for less than $20 (the cost of two movie tickets, or four dvd rentals): Medieval II Gold Pack (Total War, Total War Kingdoms). Yes, of course, I get a referral fee – but seriously – these games are awesome.

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Perhaps a year ago I wrote an article praising Blockbuster Total Access and explaining why I preferred the service above Netflix – now the tables have totally turned. What happened? Well the main factor was Blockbuster’s decision to essentially kill the Total Access program. They performed price hikes several times within a several month period – the last one to somewhere around $40/mo. The second factor which killed Blockbuster was Netflix’s offering of Watch Now, which allowed instant availability of several thousand movies and television shows for free with a paid Netflix DVD subscription. Blockbuster could have been ahead in this game, but dawdled for reasons unknown to me and even now after acquiring market leader in online video rentals Movielink they still lack a program similar to Netflix. All that to say – its possible in six months if Blockbuster gets their act together again that I may switch back and write another article – but it will only be if Netflix completely drops the ball like the great Blockbuster already has.

But enough analysis, let’s talk about the Netflix service. The most common program costs $17.99/mo. and gets you three DVD’s at a time. You can have a queue of up to 500 DVD’s (why the limit Netflix?) at any given time. When you return a DVD they send you another. While I have three-at-a-time I rarely use this service anymore, instead preferring to utilize Netflix’s Watch Now service which offers thousands of movies and television episodes instantly and for free. Netflix has also just begin offering an inexpensive set-top box that you can use to effortlessly view these on-demand episodes/movies on your television set.

What is the future for Netflix? If they are smart they will begin offering their entire collection via the Watch Now service. They should consider utilizing technology from a company like Joost or Bittorrent to faciliate reduced bandwidth and storage costs. If they can’t afford to allow all movies to be instantly viewable, they need to acquire or start a service similar to Movielink and offer discounted prices on instant movie purchases – e.g. even $2/title would ensure I stayed home and used their service rather than visit Blockbuster or download from iTunes.

Netflix makes financial sense. Its significantly less expensive than cable ($50+/mo.), costs the same as four DVD rentals from blockbuster (at nearly $5/ea.), and reduces gas expenses. Alternatively, if one has a good local library many have begun stocking a significant DVD collection there as well. One can also go for a lower Netflix program – as low as $9.95/mo. one still receives the Watch Now service.

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