Christian Friends

I tend to make friends in all walks of life, different religions, cultures, education levels and economic backgrounds. Its disapointing that many of Christian friends, after they realise that I am unconvertable, cease to have contact me. I am not saying all of them, but enough for me to realise that unflexible belief in dogma robs people of their humanity.

I am thinking specifically of 3 Christian friends that I have. I have spend alot to time with them, aside from their beliefs, we had a lot in common. I considered them good friends. However, at some point they asked why I don't believe. Some argued passionately that since I share similar morals, it should be no problem to bridge over to Christianity. However, if I did I would be entirely untrue to myself - and a hypocrite. I had no trouble with their beliefs however, after they saw I wasn't going to be a believer, they ceased contacting me. I can't think of any other reason for this cessation of contact.

I am no big fan of any organised beliefs - but I find this a bit silly. I am not going to quote scripture here, but sometimes I think I am more moral than they are. I certainly don't begrudge them, I would be delighted to see any one of them again, however I think they have some mental barriers with hanging out with non believers.

Google Street View - Neat Sunbeams

Albert Street in Auckland - link - I've added autolevels to make the beams more contrasty:

Google Date Search - Broken?

I clicked on the show options for google search and entered the dates as they showed in the example (click to enlarge):

23/5/2004 format doesn't work, according to the suggestion, however, if you type "May 23 2004" it works. Go figure!

Pumpkin Boats?

In Maine USA, they grow pumpkins so large you can go kayaking with them down the river. Its the Damariscotta Pumpkin Regatta. Large Pumpkings are hollowed out and go down the river. The site also gives advice how to grow these monster pumpkins. Some pics:

What kind of human are you verifying?

Apparently, a "Bruised Ho". Funny Captcha complements of Stumbleupon:

Do Germans Have Humour?

Germans are often poked fun at because of there seeming lack of humour - however, according to wikipedia - its just that the German language doesn't lend itself to the same kind of humour as the English or american variety. Here are some interesting points about German Humour:

• Because German grammar is highly structured, punchlines often can't be put at the end of the sentence as in english
• In German, there are less puns or wordplay because German uses compound words which reduces double meanings of a word.
• According to Richard Wiseman's LaughLab, Germans actually laughed at the most jokes when they did a query on the world's funniest joke.

But the poor Germans (Austrians and Swiss for that matter) never catch a break, with hits like Brüno and sites like Hammerzeit which like to 'take the mickey' out of our Teutonic friends.

Some might say that losing the second world war and once being ruled by the world's most notorious dictator left its mark on German speakers. However, one thing that has happened in recent years is that Hitler is being less demonified as a despot and more characterised as bumbling buffoon. Mel Brooks said “With Comedy, We Can Rob Hitler of his Posthumous Power”.

In recent times - Germans used Hitler in advertising - this would have been a serious breach in times past. However now see image below:

And making fun of Hitler seems to be popular internet meme - there are all sorts of 'LOLhitlers' on the internet today:

isometric game engine update

Just found a couple of new game engines for isometric games. See original list of isometric game engines

Verge3: Verge3 is a game engine designed to help people make rpgs, but it can actually make most any game in a Genesis/ Super Nintendo style. It is Windows Native, written in C++, and allows for a huge amount of flexibility. VERGE is an acronym for:
Vecna's Extrodinary Role-playing Game Engine.

Agen: AGen is a framework that serves as an abstract interface layer between the system hardware and your game. Programming games should not be about studying the inner workings of a hardware device or an operating system. AGen allows you to focus entirely on the game logic thanks to its simple and lightweight framework