Howdy Mischief!

Anyone know of any good commissioners? I have a few extra dollars this month and would like some art

I'm still trying to get the hang of livestreaming and such (mostly getting ready for a CFF project that's coming soon), but I wanted to ask a question. For a long while, I've been debating doing regular write-streaming. What do you guys think?

Now, the fandom and the streaming-genre in particular are very visual. In the fandom, artists get top billing. Action games with minimal downtime are more exciting to watch than others. So, naturally, I'm not all that confident it would be well-received. But I do think it would be an interesting thing to do to stir up motivation. I've written short things here and there, but haven't really taken pen in paw and created as much or as deeply as I'd like.

I think I may just do it anyway so I have some sort of scheduled catalyst to action. But yeah, what do you guys think?

It's sort of funny how Providence works things out.

1) I've been limiting my time on FA, mostly so I can try to get a side business venture going. There was an opportunity to buy a pet store in the next town over, and while that was a bust, the opportunity for a pet store there isn't.

2) AC wasn't an option this year, but it looks like Memphit could be! Maybe I can bum a ride with someone on their way to Memphis? I'll know for sure in a week or so.

3) I got a really cool new icon from  DraconicMentalist I love it!

Overall, this ratty has been keeping busy, I think.

If Stitch becomes the new mascot of the gay rights movement, I think I may move to Mars.

So does anyone know how much a complete wardrobe and hairstyle make over for a 34-year old rat would cost?

Maybe not a complete makeover, but I would certainly like my disparate love for sweater vests and tank tops find its way out of my head and into the real world. I'd like to get my dreads back too...

Comment, and I'll...

1. Tell you what animal/creature you remind me of.
2. Tell you what color I think fits you.
3. Tell you how I feel about you.
4. Insult you. (I don't mean the insult mind you)
5. Tell you my favorite OC of yours.
6. Tell you what season you remind me of.
7. Tell you what food you smell like in my head.
8. Think of a random nickname for you.
9. Tell you what element you remind me of.
10. Ask you to put this in your journal without using the words 'tag' or 'dare'.

This is the day that we Christians, at least those who are Christian in more than just a label, celebrate the the resurrection of Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In the most important day in history, Jesus has conquered death, pardoned us from sin, saving us from the wrath of God, and now works to make His people as righteous and as holy as he is.

Christ is Risen!

A quick question, somewhat odd being the place I'm asking this, but how does one find artists to commission for art work.

I'm looking for someone(s) to make new icons since the one I've been using I don't think I've swapped out in 5 years.

Merry Christmas everyone!

taking a break from the internet for about a week to think and mull over some things.

"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered his words." Luke 24.1-8

Thanks everyone for all the happy well-wishes.

by Jon Bloom of Desiring God Ministries
http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/pos.....ution-for-2014

Pursue love. (1 Corinthians 14:1)

Resolutions are good things. They’re biblical: “may [God] fulfill every resolve for good” (2 Thessalonians 1:11). And I think developing New Year’s resolutions is a very good idea. A year is a defined timeframe long enough to make progress on difficult things and short enough to provide some incentive to keep moving.

A resolve is not a vague intention, like “one of these days I’m going to get that garage cleaned” or “I’m going to read the Bible through this year,” but without any clear plan to do it. Resolves are intentions with strategies attached to them. You don’t just hope something is going to happen; you are planning to make it happen. To be resolved is to be determined.

Make Love Your Aim

But resolves can either be rooted in our selfish ambitions or in the love of God. We must think them through carefully. So as we make our resolutions for 2014, God wants them to all serve this one great end: “pursue love” (1 Corinthians 14:1).

“Pursue” is a very purposeful word. The Greek verb has an intensity to it. It means to “seek after eagerly,” like a runner in a race seeks eagerly to win a prize.

The RSV’s translation of this phrase is clearer: “Make love your aim.” It has a sense of single-minded focus to it. The NIV falls short: “Follow the way of love.” It has no edge to it. It sounds like a platitude that the most polite company could smile and nod to without feeling unnerved. It does not capture Paul’s intensity.

No, this is an aggressive verb. In fact, it can mean to “pursue with hostile intent.” That’s why in the New Testament, it is frequently used to mean persecuting or harassing someone.

That sounds like Paul, the former persecutor who became the persecuted. What he is saying to us is that we should pursue love with no less fervency and determination that he once pursued Christians to Damascus — only our aim is not to stop love, but to unleash it and be captured by it, or, I should say, by Him (1 John 4:8).

Plan to Make Love Your Aim

Let this be the year that we pursue love. Let this be the year that we stop talking about love, that we do less regretful moaning about how little we love and how much we need to grow in love and actually be determined to love more the way Jesus loved (John 15:12). Let this be the year we actually put into place some strategies to help us love.

Each person’s situation is so unique that we can’t craft strategies for each other to grow in love. It’s something that we must each do with God, though some feedback and counsel from those who know us best are helpful.

But here are some of the Bible’s great love texts to soak in during 2014 that can help loving strategies emerge:

* 1 Corinthians 13: soak in or memorize it and let each “love is . . .” statement in verses 4–7 search your heart. With whom can you show greater patience, kindness, and more?

* John chapters 13–15: soak in or memorize them. Ninety-five verses are very doable. You can memorize them in 3–6 months and be transformed.

* The First Epistle of John: Soak in or memorize it. You can do it! Forcing yourself to say the verses over and over will yield insights you’ve never seen before.

* Take 2–4 weeks and simply meditate on the two greatest commandments according to Jesus (Matthew 22, Mark 12, Luke 10). Look and look at them and pray and pray over them. You will be surprised at what the Lord shows you.

* Read Hebrews 13:1–7, take one verse per day and prayerfully meditate on what you might put into place to grow in each area of loving obedience. It may be one thing or ten things.

You get the idea. We don’t need all our strategies in place by January 1st. But we can make 2014 a year where we pursue love with more intentionality than we ever have before. And as we meditate, letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly (Colossians 3:16), the Holy Spirit will guide us in creating the strategies we should use.

The Most Courageous Resolution

But let’s also be clear: making love our aim in 2014 will demand more courage and faith than any other resolution we can make. Nothing exposes the depth of our sin like really seeking to love God with our entire being and loving our neighbors as ourselves (Luke 10:27).

So we must let our pursuit of love drive us to the gospel. None of us has ever perfectly kept either of the two great commandments. Ever. Our very best efforts have been polluted by our prideful sin. And we have rarely been at our very best.

We can only love because God first loved us (1 John 4:19) and sent his Son to become sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Christ has kept the greatest commandments (and the rest) perfectly for us! So we are forgiven of our constant failure to love as we ought and are given grace to grow in the grace of love. And because of Jesus, someday we will love perfectly just as we have been loved.

So let’s make our resolution to pursue love this year more than we ever have, knowing that we have been loved with an everlasting love (Psalm 103:17).

Thanksgiving is one of those staunchly American holidays, where we come together with friends, family and loved ones, enjoying good food and good company, thankful for the blessings that we've been given.

But thankful to whom?

Perhaps because this is an American holiday, and we Americans are known for our independence and love of autonomy, many people are subtly, perhaps unconsciously patting themselves on the back, thankful for their own ingenuity or resourcefulness, grateful to their own determination and hard work in making their lives as bountiful as they are.

Or perhaps people are thankful to the government for providing the infrastructure and institutions that keep our society running smoothly and with few real disruptions to our cultural sense of security.

But to the Christian, Thanksgiving Day is (or at least should) have a deeper, significance. We show our gratitude to our Lord and Savior, to our God and King, Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God.

The Scriptures make it clear what sort of problem we're actually looking at here.

People are sinners. That means more than just the drunk-druggie-alcoholic triangle of substance abuse. That means more than the condemning pharisee or the loose-living pervert.

In fact, we were so deep in our plight, that we couldn't even see it as a plight, so rebellious, that our rebellion seemed as plain and as proper as breathing. So even though God in his love and grace provided us rebels a beautiful world to live in, with the blessings of a common goodness that touches all things, we would rather ignore him than be grateful. In fact, one of the biggest condemnations of all Sin in the Bible starts out with a very simple phrase:

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to Him...
Romans 1.21a

From that seemingly innocuous start, Jesus (through Paul) lists a compounding snowball of sinful actions, behaviors and attitudes that get worse and more intense as the list goes on. But it all starts with ingratitude.

That's the root of all sin.

Adam and Eve could have given thanks to God for the entire Garden of Eden, but instead they snubbed his glory and wanted the one thing they weren't given.

Being a sinner means, ultimately, that we refuse and we neglect to glorify God and give Him our thanks. When we think we know better than God, we refuse and neglect to give him thanks.

The self-righteous religious person forgets God's commands and instructions to genuinely love others. He refuses to thank God.

The soccer mom who's a good moral person may look to the gifts of her family and her children for happiness and fulfilment rather than the Gift Giver.

The druggie who is looking for his next fix is more thankful for the immediate relief and escape rather that thankful to the God who calls him to simply and actively trust Him.

The liberal Christian feels that God can only act in ways that bring immediate human comfort and pleasure. He refuses to thank a transcendent God who's vastly more involved and loving than to always make sense.

We often just take so many things in this world for granted. Our health, our food. The stability of our civic life. Our education or even our capacity to learn.

None of these things, and a whole lot more besides, are ours by right or by privilege, but are graciously given by our loving God in heaven. The Eternal God is not bound by any external duty, especially not to folks who would rather see Him dead by their hands. But he gives and gives to us, out of the infinite resources of His love. And while it's not His sole or prime concern, God really does want to see the flourishing of humanity.

And that's why God gave us His Son, to live the perfect life, to die in our place, and to be raised again as a promise to us. This gift of Jesus is the greatest gift that God's given to us, and the one where our gratitude, or ingratitude, demonstrates where our hearts lie: either with God in repentance and faith, or against God in sinning rebellion.

God invites you even know, turn from your sins, and turn to Jesus. Thank him for his gift of salvation-rescue and glorify Him with your life of faith.

This thanksgiving, don't forget to enjoy yourself and let your heart turn toward God with every bite, every bit of good conversation and every moment spent with loved ones.

Today is the day we celebrate (or at the very least observe) what people consider the start of the second major division to occur in the organized Christian faith, the Reformation. October 31st is when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of Wittenburg Chapel. This was pretty much how people made "blog posts" back then. If they wanted something to be read, understood and acted on, they'd write them down and post them somewhere relatively public.

To be historically honest, the Holy Spirit started stirring God's people to re-examine themselves, their corporate faith and the traditions that had built up centuries before with the testimonies and lives of priests and monks like John Hoss and Girolamo Savonarola, and merchants and philosophers like Peter Waldo and John Wycliffe.

Martin Luther himself was great man, but did have his flaws and missteps. He was a rough German, possessed legendary flatulence, a gruff lawyer, and not known to be all that gentle. Not everything borne out of the Reformation was immediately positive either. But with his re-discovery of justification by grace through faith, and his own love of God's Law, he set the stage for a massive public reawakening of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the good news that even though we are enemies of God and have willfully cut ourselves off from him, God himself did everything necessary to remove that hostility between us and him. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and becoming joined to Him in faith is all that God requires so that we can be fully accepted by him. Our good works may be necessary and meaningful, but they don't determine our eternal fate or our standing with God.

So ultimately, a celebration of the Reformation is a celebration of our Lord Jesus, a festival of love and of learning more about Him and His ways, with our eyes opened by his grace to see his grace.

We were given the Scriptures not so we can have some inspiring stories to whip up moral fortitude and virtue within our hearts; but by knowing who Jesus is, and what He's done, His Person and character, we can look to Him in faith, believe Him and receive eternal life and joy from Him.

My main spiritual problem right now is that I don't believe that Jesus is good.

Yes, I know he's good, and I know that everything He does and allows in our lives is out of His loving care and passion to see His people happy in His holiness.

But for me, somewhere along the line, I lost that sense of God's being there for me, that his goodness extends even to my circumstances.

As a result I've become afraid of almost everything to some regard, unable to take real risks (since that would involve confidence and trust and faith). In addition, I've developed green eyes of jealousy, since there's nothing more delicious to a coveting heart than comparing one situation with another and complaining about the contrast.

Without realizing it, my entire life has been turned into a collection of fearful exercises.

I'm afraid of talking with people, in general. I'm afraid of making mistakes and taking risks. I'm afraid that I don't measure up to the Lord standards, or that I'm not truly sincere in my faith and therefore not saved at all.

I've always been afraid of dying alone and forgotten, but I'm afraid of connecting with an honest, genuine intimacy (because I'm apparently prone to "falling in love" which I've been told I'm scared of) I'm afraid that I'm codependent, but I'm also afraid of being independent. I'm scared of being laughed at or pitied. I'm scared of being repulsive.

I'm afraid that I've ruined my life so spectacularly that I can never recover. But oddly, I'm scared of success too. I'm afraid of not being good enough to deserve the friends and community that I long for.

I'm scared of my parents, that through all their manly mistakes and failures in raising me and my siblings, will be granted an open door to heavenly bliss while I'm locked out because I'm not doing one or two things perfectly right. I'm scared they'd put me out on the street. I'm scared of being a coward.

I fear that with all these fears and lack of faith I'm disqualified from serving the Lord in full time ministry like I've been trying to work towards.

And with all these mounting fears God has quietly and subtly set me down besides Joshua 1, or maybe the One True Joshua, if we go by typology and later symbolism.

No less than four times does the Lord remind his new champion for Israel to be "strong and courageous. Don't be afraid!"

"Be strong and courageous, because you will lead..." Joshua 1.6
"Be strong and courageous. Be careful to obey..." Joshua 1.7
"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1.9
"...Be strong and courageous!" Joshua 1.18

It feels something like running into a spiritual brick wall or being punched in the gut, really. Here I am either running around like a chicken with its head cut off, or like an old tired dog flopping down on the side of the road, resigning himself to death, and God is saying, "Don't be afraid." It's scary in a way - here I go resorting to fear again - because God very clearly says that it's a command, it's something that I, as one of His people, am obliged to follow. So being timid and fearful of everything isn't just unattractive, it's downright rebellious against God, too. Why would I do that?

But the other thing that really made me see that God was sitting me down and giving me a Grace Smack, was His words in verse 5:

"As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you."

Now anyone who's been a follower of Jesus for an extended period of time knows exactly what that sounds like. Even though the only instance I can find of "never leave you or forsake you" in the New Testament was in Hebrews 13, and even then it was quoting the parallel in Deuteronomy 31. But I suppose that only makes the impact stronger.

The so-called "vengeful," "mean" God of the Old Testament is making the singular tender promise that we often hear misquoted as being part of Jesus's message in the Gospels. (Not that it makes it any less true of Jesus.)

There's nothing that inspires a person to bravery or valor more than that subtle hand squeeze or that quiet whisper to let the loved one know that he's not alone. This is one such "hand squeeze" (and it's even the first mentioned in the Bible), and there are numerous numerous other times too.

Can you really think of anything else that might encourage those of us who are counted among His Friends? God takes your hand in His, even squeezing it slightly, looks you in the eyes, and smiling beckons you to join Him.

I guess I look at everything I'm scared of an see that this fear is a waste. It doesn't make it all disappear at once, of course. I still have to deal with that deeper problem of not being confident in God at all, and failing to believe what He says, before this problem resolves itself, but I think I'm at a good starting place.

http://fav.me/d5wn2aj

Yeah, you probably wouldn't get it unless you've been a fan long enough to see the final episode of last season. I need some more friends with more interest overlap I think.

edit: And this -

Hah! I saw the best advice just a few moments ago when browsing through my favorite pet rat message boards.

"Rats will get into trouble and they will get injured, but they're incredibly hardy animals and they always bounce back. Just give him some time, some extra snuggles and kisses and an extra treat and he will be good as new!"

It really is that easy.

[12:53] * Jude is suddenly prompted to watch some old school Power Rangers...
[12:54] <Fahn> Lol Jude~
[12:54] <Fahn> Ivan Ooze ftw
[12:56] <%Jude> The guy who played Tommy, the White Ranger, is like an MMA fighter now with tattoos all over.
[12:56] <%Jude> It's rather unnerving to watch him fight.
[12:56] <%Jude> ...Not that I'm a fan of MMA or anything.
[12:56] <%Jude> Publicly.
[12:56] <Fahn> X3
[12:56] <DeFuret> Haha
[12:57] <Fahn> But you're publicly a Power Rangers fan?
[12:57] <%Jude> ...
[12:57] * Fahn snickers and hugs Jude

I found this on Facebook today...

10. Give them a job application
9. Ask for their rent because its due.
8. Offer them a solution to the problem at hand.
7. Tell them you're not interested in them sexually. [you know what? I've lost my best friends over this, at least 3 times over!]
6. Tell them you talked to someone they hate. [And I've lost friends to this one too!]
5. Have a social life. [I've lost furry friends to this one a lot. Wow, is the fandom really so shallow? "Yes. Yes it is."]
4. Be truthful and not overly dramatic.
3. Say "This is a Drama-Free Zone"
2. Tell them the internet/wifi is down and there won't be access for a while.
1. Introduce the importance of personal space and hygiene.

[Forgot to crosspost this from my main blog earlier]

Wow, various forces seemed to have come together and were keeping me away from properly updating for more than a month. If it wasn’t my webhost going nuts or my depression putting its boot to my neck, it was family life and personal health taking a dip. But I’m back and writing, and I’ll be updating every few days if not everyday, just to get back in the habit of such. I’m almost done putting the finishing touches of revision on a short story narrative that I’ll be publishing to Kindle soon. So these are somewhat exciting times.

I’d wanted to start chronicling publicly the various ups and downs in my life in a humble, truthful way. One of the downsides to social media is that it turns life into a grandly shallow production where each of us is the star of our own stageshow. This self-focus does border on unhealthy and it only serves as a way for people’s pride and arrogance to show through.

If I’m not careful, then my journal turns into a pity party. “Oh look at me! Look at what I have to suffer through, I don’t deserve this! Pay attention to me and feel my agony!”

Pride at it’s most subtle.

On the other hand one thing I’ve noticed about Facebook, Twitter and a lot of social media is that people tend to be dishonest with their lives. You’d think that if someone is updating their status every few hours that you’d see major disappointments and down turns as well as the good times. Behind the wall of the internet are people who are hurting in various ways, who put forth an incomplete (if not sometimes completely untrustworthy) mask in a way to protect themselves.

Pride again.

So to help combat those failures that I see in myself I’d like to start two additions to my blogging life.

First, you’ll notice a new page to the blog. I’ve made a listing of the various goals I have in life. Some big, some little, all of some importance to me. (Not every goal is there, especially some of the more deeply personal ones).

In addition, I’ll be sharing something that I’m thankful for, and something that I’m praying for. One of the defining characteristics of us Reformed types is our joyful submission and acquiescence that we really aren’t the in leading role in our lives: Jesus holds that position. But that doesn’t mean we get carted around fatalistically like cattle, or manipulated like puppets on a string. Our lives, my life, is a narrative of Jesus Christ – His adventures with his family and His journey impacting and shaping the world through me. I’m not the star, but that doesn’t mean I’m unimportant to the story.

Gratitude and my prayers to Christ remind me that I have not “made myself.” My own Self has just as much that I didn’t choose, or didn’t have any influence over, as it does. My family, my history, my DNA that all shape my moods, my tastes and my worldview in ways it would be foolish to say that it was all completely volitional. Thanks and prayer are twin teachers, reminding me that I’m not in control, and when I try to hold tightly to things that I really have no grasp on at all, I just look silly. (We all do really.) They help me lose the self focus that consumes everyone of us.

What I’m thankful for – I’m thankful for the friends of mine this last wee who reminded me that I have some real goals in life and that it’s not too late to fulfill them. Even if they weren’t explicitly trying to get me to stop feeling sorry for myself and to start seeking out self-confidence and discipline, their words were encouraging enough to do so.

What I’m praying for – I’m 80% sure that I heard my hard drive clicking sometime last week. Given that I’m focused on freelancing, on writing, on self-education and yes, even on gaming, my computer forms a large focus of my life. I don’t know what a complete hard drive failure would do to me, so I’m praying that I can find work – freelancing or otherwise – and save up the 800 dollars I need to build my own computer that I should not have to worry about for another few years.

Happy birthday to John Calvin! Today is the 540th anniversary of his birth. A giant of Christianity and of the Reformation, it's not all that well-known that he fought with insecurity and esteem issues his entire life. This would be a good opportunity to get to know him as a mentor and as a friend through his writing and life.

If only we all could be as humble, loving and faithfully productive servants of our Master Jesus Christ as he was.

Sometimes human fallenness increases to such a degree in such places that it really is in the best interests for people to make a clean break with their civil government and start anew with a fresh vision and a relatively clean slate.

I'm sure that historians, theologians and political scientists will be looking into the details of the American Revolution for many more years than they have already. The start of the United States was definitely a good thing, though from our standpoint in Time, we really can't tell what could have happened if things had gone differently.

But whatever your political, national or ethnic affiliation, let's not get confused. Just because the terminology is similar doesn't mean they are similar

Humans rebelling against a flawed government that no longer works for the benefit of everyone, protecting the Good and punishing the Evil (Romans 13.1-2, 1 Peter 2.14)? That's a good thing, and one of the highest expressions of the human spirit.

Humans rebelling against an All-Good, All-Knowing, Perfectly Loving God who really does have their highest good in mind, merely because they think they know better? That's a horrible, ugly thing!

Let's take this time today to remember our country honestly, both the advances and its mistakes, and with humility. We took on a world superpower, permanently and officially separating ourselves from their customs, their heritage, their history to become our own people. Blood was spilled, lives were lost but a new nation came into being. May it fill us with a courage and a nobility for us today, to live and love outside ourselves and our own interests.

But... most importantly, let's remember to lift our thoughts to Jesus in this celebration. Why?

Jesus, the King of the World, came on a rescue mission to forgive and save the traitors who he loved deeply, so they would not get caught up in the judgment they rightly deserved. He permanently added human nature to Himself, joining Himself with the rebel's, joining himself with our customs, our heritage and our history. He lived a perfect life, spilled his blood and died in our place. With His death, he brought into being a new People of God. And with his resurrection and His Holy Spirit, he's established a new Kingdom that is without end. A kingdom of holy, loving people who live and serve Him and each other.

Let's allow our High King to reign in us, to give rise to the sort of courage and nobility and completely overwhelming love so that he can use us all the more.

I had a hard drive failure last night, so my desktop is now a paperweight. I should have enough to buy a new one in a few weeks, but until then, I only have limited use of the "family" laptop (which itself is on its last legs).

I'll keep doing my best to keep my friends updated in the meantime.

When it rains it pours, doesn't it?