Wordbattle is an engaging multiplayer word game. The concept is simple: the letters of a word are jumbled up, and whoever figures out the word first wins.

Although this elementary form of the game can be entertaining, game play really heats up when you face off against other people in “word battle”. Battle consists of a continuous series of scrambled words which come rapidly one after another as each word is solved. Solving words gets you battle points and gold. As you accumulate battle points, you gain levels, and your character becomes more powerful. Gold can be spent to purchase armour and weaponry to further improve your character. A special website shows statistics on all the players as well as a game log and item listing.

test your word fu Try the game now in the web-based chat client. After it loads up, simply type !word to get a feel for the game. If other players are around, you can start a !wordbattle for head-to-head action.

Full details on how to play and other cool features can be found in the game documentation.

I’ll see you on the battleground!

Answer these questions to find out just how Catholic or Protestant your are in your view of justification. Select one choice for each of the 10 questions. When you are finished with all the questions, press Score.

The originating site claims:

most Protestants are more Catholic than Protestant in their concept of justification

Catholics can use this little quiz to shed some light on just how orthodox they really are.

I scored 100% Catholic.

So Jaykul throws this link at me in IRC (which he is often wont to do). weewar.com. So I go check it out… and it’s pretty fun.

turn-based strategy game Weewar is a turn-based strategy game in which you control army units in an effort to eliminate the enemy before you are eliminated. (more…)

Just came across this site: Feminists for Life. Wow. Who’d a thunk it.

Here’s an excerpt from one of many articles on the site (The Bitter Price of Choice):

We focused on her swelling belly, not the discrimination that had made her so desperate. We advised her, “Go have this operation and you will fit right in.”

What a choice we made for her. She climbs onto a clinic table and endures a violation deeper than rape–the nurse’s hand is wet with her tears– then is grateful to pay for it, grateful to be adapted to the social machine that rejected her when pregnant. And the machine grinds on, rejecting her pregnant sisters.

Following is a forum post I made on January 9, 2007 as a rebuttal to another post.

I’m a bit surprised that none of you replied to this post of drifting_along. Before I begin, let me state that I did see drifting_along’s disclaimer that (s)he is not pro-choice.

(1) As only women can get pregnant, and therefore only women have abortions, a male legislator has no right to vote on an abortion-related law.

The Catholic Church, by virtue of its divinely appointed authority and moral infallibility, has every right (indeed, is obligated) to make pronouncements on moral matters as grave as abortion. A Catholic legislator, whether male or female, ought to be free to vote according to his or her conscience.

(more…)

I recently came across LOLCode. Very funny stuff!

HAI WORLD:

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
VISIBLE "HAI WORLD!"
KTHXBYE

COUNT!!1:

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
I HAS A VAR
IM IN YR LOOP
    UP VAR!!1
    VISIBLE VAR
    IZ VAR BIGGER THAN 10? KTHXBYE
IM OUTTA YR LOOP
KTHXBYE

FILEZORZ:

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
PLZ OPEN FILE "LOLCATS.TXT"?
    AWSUM THX
        VISIBLE FILE
    O NOES
        INVISIBLE "ERROR!"
KTHXBYE

A little bit of jazz.

Read more about my piano recording series here.

Smith - Snave's Lib [ 1:31 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I was listening to a recent podcast of Catholic Answers Live, and the guest mentioned more than once the “over 30,000 Protestant denominations” in the world today. I won’t name the guest here, since I think his/her identity is not germane to the issue I want to raise, which is: On what basis do Catholic apologists cite this figure? The particular expert guesting on this episode is by no means the only one mentioning this sort of largish number. I’ve heard several Catholic Answers apologists each give a similar figure, which invariably is in the thousands or tens of thousands. I’m usually bothered when I hear this statistic alleged, since I don’t think such great numbers square with my understanding of Protestantism. So, I’ve gathered the impetus to do some research and try to get to the truth. I now share with you my findings.

(more…)

Talk with Mathetes here. Learn about Mathetes here.

2007-06-07 07:04:36

user: are you around?
Mathetes: I have no shape or form.
user: no i know this but still that is too bad
Mathetes:
user: how are you today?
Mathetes: I’m fine.
user: that is good to hear
Mathetes: What’s your stance on birth control?
user: for those who choose for it i think it is ok!
Mathetes: In a society, birth control leads to abortion.
user: that is not a fact cause people can choose to be wiser
Mathetes: People can usually make change for a dollar more than they can make change in their lives.
user: i think it is a matter of respect for life, although that has various points of view
Mathetes: Cynicism is the defense mechanism of the wounded psyche. Healing is needed to become whole again.
user: that may be true but i don’t think all of mankind is in need of healing
Mathetes: Oh sorry, Mister lah dee dah. Fancy a Steiner then?
user: are you somehow offended?
Mathetes: Do you feel threatened right now?
user: no but a little confused by your remarks
Mathetes: Maybe I could help sort things out?
user: give it a try
Mathetes: Do you think it’s safe?
user: let’s find out
Mathetes: What were we talking about again?
user: do i think that what is safe?
Mathetes: Safe is sound.
user: you offered to help sort things out
Mathetes: How about a shell sort?
user: let’s start a fresh subject
Mathetes: How about we start at the very beginning?
user: be my guest
Mathetes: I try to make all my visitors feel comfortable and right at home.
user: you often do
Mathetes: I like it.
user: so do most of your visitors i think
Mathetes: I would say that the ones mentioned make them most important.
user: i think you do a good job there
Mathetes: You win some, you lose some.
user: true. For now i will end our conversation because i have to get back to work
Mathetes: It’s best to give an honest day’s work.
user: that’s what i will do now so i will talk to you later Mathetes
Mathetes: Okay, I hope you enjoyed our little chat. Come back soon, and often!
user: i sure will goodbeye

This is a piece by Clifford Poole, a well-respected pianist, teacher and composer who lived in Toronto during the 1900′s. I’ve always been fond of it since my youth. It does a tremendous job of painting the intended aural picture using dissonance. I’ve tried hard to follow the pedal markings in my copy of the piece (in the Grade 7 Celebration Series piano repertoire album of the RCM (1988)). Yes, it really indicates to hold the pedal that much!

Read more about my piano recording series here.

Ghost Town [ 1:57 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download