CSI: Effect

Face it. Media affects our lives. Take a look at the hit television series, CSI... Over 100 episodes of riveting forensics suspense. Entertaining, educational, and emotional. But how does it change our lives?

Well since the show came out, universities and colleges have had a major influx of applicants to their forensic sciences and criminology programs. And criminals have become smarter: using things they've learned from the show, like bleach to clean the crime scene.

And what's funny, is some of the aspects of the show aren't even real. Like in the real world, there's actually dozens of people involved in the forensics and investigation, all highly specialized. The person who does the arrest doesn't actually do the forensics work themselves.

Whether we choose to believe it or not, media really does change how you think and feel. It sets fashions, determines purchases, and changes morals and politics.

So is it really affecting your life? Try the Full Tilt Media Challenge. Go 30 days while only listening to positive Christian music and media, and then go back to your old habits. You'll find a huge difference.

Image Banner

Here's an interesting ideas to help eyes stick to your church site.

Use flickr to make a website badge. Load some photos from your church events onto flickr, or if you're handy with server programming, write your own script to randomly display a series of images. It will keep things interesting, and always changing.

I tried something similar to that on the Celebration! Church page. Just below the main menu, there's a button that, when clicked, will randomly open up an image from within the massive photo gallery hosted on the site. There's lots of potential for something like this on church websites, so check it out.

Also, take a look at some other ways you can use the free flickr service.

Men's Blog

Some of the leading men over at Celebration! Church have banded together to start a group blog. Wholly Yours will cover all sorts of men's issues, inspiration, accountability, life discussions, media, games, and a whole lot more.

If you're a guy, I would definitely suggest you head over there and get into the community. Learn, grow, strive. You don't have to be part of the church either, everyone is welcome. It's a great place to throw out ideas and thoughts. It's a pretty diverse group, so I'm sure heads will butt now and then, and not all things there will reflect yours own or my own beliefs, but at least it will always be interesting.

For the girls out there, feel free to start a similar idea, as it will be very beneficial to you and your other female friends. Or, of you're just curious about what sort of things occupy a guys mind, go check it out.

Gamer Parents

For all of us gamers out there, joystiq has some reasons why we would make excellent parents.

When it comes to Birthday and Christmas presents, they'll know which games to get the kids.
Gamer parents know which games not to let their kids play. Ratings are there for a reason.
The kids will always have someone with whom to play multiplayer games.

It makes perfect sense to me! Just so long as the parent does in fact play with his children. Also, they need to stand up for their families, and prevent the creation of yet another game widow. While I do enjoy the occasional video game, I realise that there is a life outside of my computer/xbox/whatever.

My own father was temporarily addicted to games for a while, back when I got my first console. He stayed up for all hours of the night until Blockout and Road Rash drove him nutty. Thankfully, he quickly recovered, quit cold turkey, and years later, now occasionally challenges me to a Burnout Revenge crash.

So before you settle down for another night of leveling up your character, defeating the boss, saving the princess, or capturing the flag... go kiss your wife, say your prayers, and tuck your kids into bed.

Living Together

Over the last 30 years, the percentage of people living together before marriage in North America has grown over 1000%. Why is this? And why is this ruining marriages in our country?

Focus on the Family had some interesting broadcasts on the issue, with all sorts of statistics. Here's an example of just a few reasons why you shouldn't live together before marriage.

• Women are 6 times more likely to be assaulted.
• Men are 4 times more likely to cheat on their wife.
• Women are 8 times more likely to cheat on their husband.
• Divorce rate is 75%
• 2 out of 5 couples live together before marriage
• 62% of parents promote it
• much more likely to develop drug or alcohol adictions
• upon pregnancy, most men will leave within 2 years
• relationship often does not end up leading to marriage
  

So why do so many people thing they need to live together before marriage? There is an idea that they should "test drive" a relationship before fully committing. They feel like they need to test the compatibility of their personalities and sexual abilities. There are financial benefits, and even their parents support it. They also say that they're "in love" and "will get married eventually".

What's the truth? In reality, out of 8 couples that live together before marriage, 4 will break up, and 4 will get married. Of the 4 married couples, 3 will divorce, and the final one will harbor all sorts of emotional issues. Marriage is based on commitment, yet living together beforehand is conditional and performance-based. There is no standard of trust or commitment. It's funny, but the highest sexual satisfaction is amongst couples who were not sexually active before marriage.

What do you do now? Seperate immediately! And examine what your relationship is really based on. If you're a christian, ask how important is your relationship with God? Since God does not approve of the situation (John 4). I urge you to build a God-pleasing relationship, and save physical intimacy for after marriage.

Xbox For Your Grandparents

This is just awesome. A church somewhere is teaching grandparents how to play Xbox!

during a denominational retreat for retired ministers, a workshop session will be dedicated to teaching seniors how to play Xbox. Apparently, in a pre-event survey asking these retired ministers what kind of topics they would like to have addressed in the upcoming retreat, several of them mentioned that they wanted to learn how to play video games with their grandkids. Church Marketing Sucks

But when you think about it, it makes sense... in a weird sort of way. I would love to play a videogame with my grandfather, or even my parents. It's a great way for them to get to know their grandchildren better, and involve them in the childs own activities.

I wouldn't be surprised if my own grandfather ended up doing well at it. After all, he's already doing more with his computer and digital photography than my parents.

Anyone up for a seniors game of Halo 2?