At the age of three, you could quote John 3:16 and you were baptized at the age of nine. You always knew you would do "great things for the kingdom." To this day, you're one of the first people in the sanctuary on Sunday mornings sitting in your front row seat. You love to raise your hands in worship and throw out a few shouts. You can't stop talking about how great pastor preached even though you've forgotten most of what he's said.

After church you go out to eat with your friends, and after your meal, you leave the waitress a tract for a tip. During the week, you put in your daily reading and prayer, and you try and be a good witness. You can't seem to figure out why none want anything to do with what you have to say. But you're not worried, because at next week's gay pride, you're going with a group to "stand up for what's right" because that's what Jesus would do.

Fight the good fight against the enemy and his army of liberals. And standing there, holding your protest sign, you wonder why they're not running to you wanting to accept Christ. Why are they so angry? Why do they hate you and every other Christian? You've already forgotten about how fired up you got about last week's Capitol Hill meeting where the right to preach against homosexuality was in jeopardy.

On the other hand, when someone questions your integrity, you simply say, "No one's perfect." Yes you know all the clichés. They are your scripture. As for prayer, well, you do a lot of praying. You pray every night for God to "send the right person into your life" or "put you in the right job." But you pray for others as well when you say, "...and bless my friends and family, amen."

Have I painted the picture for you? There must be more to it than this! The world hates us, but can we blame them? Sure we preach truth, but we do it with such hatred. Is it enough to just tell someone about Christ? Read them John 3 and tell them about hell and maybe they'll listen...until our lack of faith causes us to stumble before their eyes. Who sits on the throne of our hearts? Our God or our philosophies? Is it enough to just read the word, or should we listen to it? Is it enough to just pray to God, or should we sit and talk with him? To find out whom he truly is. There must be more to it than this!

Do we truly believe in what we preach? This is harsh, but is it far from the truth? We must always check our hearts. You say you're a Christian? If you are saying with me that there must be more to it than this, then repost this message.

http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid/cs_abuse.shtml

Funny stuff! Go to that link to see more.

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• Customer: "Hi, I was wondering if you could fix my laptop. It's under warranty."
• Tech Support: "What seems to be the trouble with it?"
• Customer: "My wife got mad and threw it in the pool."

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An man purchased a laptop from me. He called about a week later and said that it would no longer boot up. He brought it in, and I discovered that sixteen nicely drilled holes were in the bottom of the case. I asked him about it, and he said the machine was too hot sitting on his lap, so he had drilled these "air holes."

"Could that be the problem?" he asked.

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• Customer: "I need a new modem."
• Tech Support: "What's wrong with your current modem?"
• Customer: "The Internet light is not on."
• Tech Support: "Did you reset your modem recently?"
• Customer: "Yes I did, but what does it have to do with it?"
• Tech Support: "Well, resetting the modem wipes out your configuration profile, so we just need to reconfigure it."
• Customer: "Did you not hear me? The modem is broken, and I demand a replacement now!"
• Tech Support: "The modem is not broken. If you are willing to, we can configure it in about 2 minutes."
• Customer: "I want a new modem!"
• Tech Support: "We can't replace modems over a simple reconfiguration issue. All we have to do--"

CRASH.

• Customer: "Now it's broke! Replace the thing already!"
• Tech Support: "Ok sir, we cannot replace a modem that you destroyed, and your modem is past warranty, so you'll have to buy a new one anyway."
• Customer: "!*#$(*@#%!@&#$&*(!@#*$!@*^!@#$@" (Click.)

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About a year ago, I was called out to do field service. When I got to the lady's house and was let in, the first thing I noticed was the smell of gunpowder. The second, the double barreled 12-gauge shotgun lying on the couch. Third, the big gaping hole in the side of her computer. (It was one of those Macs where the CPU and monitor are in the same housing.)

I looked at her. She was a little grey haired woman, around 60 or so. Had she? Not possible. Still, I had to ask.

• Me: "Did you shoot...?"
• Customer: "Yes, I got a little mad at it. They told me I couldn't hurt it, but I think they were wrong. Can you salvage anything?"

I mumbled something about not being a Mac tech and told her I would send one out as soon as I could. Then I burned rubber out of there.

About a month later, my boss called me in; he had the woman on hold. She had apparently complained that I was not competent and that I had lied when I said I would send out a competent Mac tech -- or perhaps I just hadn't been able to find anyone competent working for us. I filled him in. He paused for a second, picked up the phone, and said, "Ma'am? Did you put a shotshell into your computer? ... Uh huh...I'm sorry, ma'am, we really can't...well, no.... I'll try to send one out.... Nice doing business with you...." He hung up, looked at me, and said, "You think any of our Mac techs will go?" I shook my head. "Me neither."

We heard from her again last week, when my boss told me that the woman had called up to cuss me out, saying not only was I a "young whippersnapper" but also a liar, since one of our competitors had fixed her computer just fine, even fixing the little scratches and stuff on the monitor glass. That sounded fishy, so I went over and talked with the techs. After a case of canned drinks and a few bags of junk food, I wormed the whole story out of them. Apparently, about the only salvagable part was the hard drive (which the buckshot had missed), so they took it out, went out and bought a whole new computer, slapped the hard drive in, and presented it to the lady as her repaired computer -- of course charging her an arm and a leg.

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• Customer: "About time too. Are you a real person?"
• Tech Support: "Yes sir, how can I help you?"
• Customer: "I moved some stuff I don't use to the trash and deleted the trash, and now I'm getting all sorts of %&*#ing errors. What are you going to do about it? You've got an accent, haven't you?"
• Tech Support: "Yes sir, I'm in Ireland."

It became apparent that the customer, in his wisdom, had destroyed the Windows registry and deleted just about everything he needed to run Windows.

• Tech Support: "Sir, I believe we will have to reload your system with its original operating system, as you are presently unable to get into your system due to the necessary files being deleted. Unfortunately you will lose anything added since you purchased the system. Shall I walk you through the reload sir?"
• Customer: "You mean I paid $2,000 dollars, and I have to reload this myself?" (rants for fifteen minutes, makes death threats and references to being supported by a third world country) "*&@$ing reload! I'll give you a reload!"

Bang! Bang!

• Tech Support: "Sir, is everything all right?"
• Customer: "Sure is. I just blew the $#%&ing thing to bits with my shotgun you *$@%ing &*%$er."
• Tech Support: (taking a satisfying long breath) "Sir, I would like to advise you at this point that gunshot damage is not covered under the terms and conditions of your warranty. May I suggest a servicer in your locality to assist in the reassembly of your machine?"
• Customer: "$%!# you."

I dissolved into fits of laughter.

Have you ever watched American Idol and amidst the gut busting laughter found yourself wondering why people got it in their heads that they could actually be recognized as a great singer? Even though they clearly cannot carry a single tune and everyone around them are nearly floored with laughter, they still insist that they are great singers. Clearly, they are completely ignorant of the art of music. In the same sense, thousands of young gamers aspire to design some of the greatest video games. Greater than Halo. Greater than Zelda. Greater than Final Fantasy.

During my first year in design college, I witnessed numerous young people coming in with the same ideas only to find out that they were way in over their heads. Sure, they may have had some great ideas and their drawing skills weren't half bad, but they hadn't even scratched the surface of the art of designing video games.

First off, understand one thing. If you tried and failed calculus, or you avoided the subject all together, you will find that game designing is out of your league. Understand that the mathematical variables used in the simplest games require a great amount of math skills.

Ok so maybe you've decided that you would like to take on the more artistic aspect of the games. Make sure first off that you have nerves of steel. The graphic design industry will chew you up and spit you out. And just when you think you've recovered, they'll chew you up and spit you out again. This is the cycle of the design industry. They will not settle for anything less than best. No matter how many As you got in art class or how much money you've made selling drawings on ebay OR how many props you got off your Photoshop skills on Gamestop. You will still be pushed to do your best, and for many, best isn't good enough.

So if you want to be a successful game designer, you must go into it with your whole heart. If you think you got what it takes, go for it! Be ready for consistent criticism and late hours. Good luck!