Every 2nd of November
Every 2nd of November, for most of my adult life, it is one of those days where I wake up or approach the day and feel an auspiciousness, like it's supposed to be a birthday or an anniversary of some kind. In fact, I'm very good at remembering birthdays, particularly, but I am very certain at this point that no actual thing has ever happened on this day that warrants the ghost that seems to haunt it.
And yet here we are again, another year, another Nov 2nd, and I don't know what this feeling is all about. Perhaps it is not a memory, but an occurrence in the future that is so resonant that it sends ripples backwards in time-- a day where someday I might stand at an important crossroads, wherein I decide to act despite my better judgement, and walk into my own demise... Hopefully/likely in an attempt to pet or save a cat.
Perhaps it is also just a form of epilepsy.
Nevertheless, my tasks are upon me for the coming week again today. Hebrew homework (verbs now, til the end of the semester), the final touches on my Daniel assignment, and more observation of children's programming for my newest project in the children's ministries course. It is interesting to see the variety of resources available, and the approaches they take to engaging children. It's a domain of which I have absolutely no background, so even though I thought it was going to be like pulling teeth, and made jokes about how it would be easier if the shows were "sponsored by the letters T. H. and C.," I found that looking at the shows from an educator's perspective rather than that of a captive was helpful. I've also been tasked with listening to children's media in general, which has included some music, that also has a wide range, and then even some videogames, (which are far on the worse-side of hit-or-miss). Generally I find the best are on legitimate platforms like the Appstore, where at least the production value is good, though I would not say that there is much that is both fun and educational at the same time. A shame, really. I have often lamented the gap between the potential for language learning in games, and the lack of dedicated options.
I had also decided to explore Roblox, which is not a game itself, but a platform on which users (largely children) can play or create their own games that are similar to Minecraft in controls and various other qualities. I didn't dare probe the most disastrous of these, but "played" three: one of which was a decently-structured roleplay as a follower of Jesus; one was an in-game virtual replica of an Orthodox church that one simply wanders around in and explores, with no further mechanics but the ability to have open chat with others within; and the last one was a game where one walks into a loosely-based Catholic church where there are many booths, and players are to choose whether they will enter a confessional as a priest or a confessor-- the latter of which may either be forgiven, or sentenced to violently combust. Confessions I observed included a range from "I own five dogs," to "I like femboys", or "I kill woman-- cold blood." Disappointing for a game that was rated 5+, but honestly not unexpected. Not my first day on the internet.
Anyway, I only went there because I had heard that there was a "Christian movement" within the Roblox platform, but it seems that reports were exaggerated. There is, however, a community called "The Robloxian Christians" which is a non-denominational group with 64K+ members, who have created online virtual gathering spaces for prayer and educational purposes. Unfortunately, the lower framerates on my laptop vs a real gaming console gave me motion sickness so I had to stop before resuming exploration.
Anyway, off to another week! God bless and protect us all! What will this one hold, I wonder?
