Christian Gamers Alliance

SteveRacer at Fans for Christ pointed me to the Christian Gamers Alliance when I was looking for Christians to play Guild Wars with. And-yay!-I found a new guild: the Spirit of Elijah! (We're under "Guild Wars Forum", about halfway down the list of forums.)

Everyone is really nice; I've never gamed with such a generous, helpful group of people! My husband and I both play; we had been sharing an account ever since we bought Guild Wars. Well, we have so much fun doing stuff with our guild that we now have two accounts!

In case you can't tell, I love my guild! We're very active (but low pressure). For instance, last time I checked our guild list, thirty-nine guildees had logged in within the last twenty-four hours! Considering that Guild Wars limits each guild to one hundred members, including the officers, that's a lot! We're keeping a full enrollment of one hundred; right now, all our members have logged in within the past month. It's fun just to be on TeamSpeak and chat while we play, either together or separately.

But Christian Gamers Alliance has more than a Guild Wars guild. There are groups for World of Warcraft (of course), Counter-Strike, Age of Empires, Dark Age of Camelot, Unreal Tournament, Half-Life, Starcraft, Warhammer, and more. Plus general discussion and prayer and advice forum, among others. There's even a forum called "Lydia's Place," just for ladies (it's by invite only, to keep the guys out!)

So if you're a Christian interested in gaming, come one over! We would love to have you.

Podcasts for the Creative Spirit: CraftSanity

I'm ashamed to admit it now, but I ignored podcasts when they first came out. Yeah, I know, appalling for a gadget freak. But I've learned my lesson! Now I subscribe to nine of them and am reviewing a tenth.

My first podcast find was some really good Star Trek fan fic by Darker Projects, called The Section 31 Files (which I found pretty much by accident). That got me thinking about what else might be out there. So I went searching and found a couple of really great art/craft podcasts: CraftSanity and Crafty Chica.

CraftSanity's vision is really great. It's hosted by Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood, a journalists who relies on her creative projects to keep her sane. After successfully completing an art degree, I have come to the conclusion that art and craft don't have to be separate things. Well, I must not be as crazy as I thought (on this point at least...), because Jennifer and her guests feel the same way.

Speaking of guests, Jennifer has some great ones. I won't say that I agree with all of them on every point (and probably would disagree with them polically!), but that doesn't matter. Just listening to different artists discuss how they got where they are is incredibly inspiring–even if I have no plans to crochet an angry ear of corn or make a curse-your-boyfriend sweater (which wouldn't be my thing if I were single)! Few of these artists are working in a traditional medium, which is certainly encouraging to a book artist and wannabe weaver! (Oh, I miss my weaving class!)

By the way, most of her guests contribute a project to the site or provide a link to one. Anyone need to crochet an eyeball? Or just make a stupid sock creature, like I plan to do!

Full of 8bit geeky goodness!

I love 8bit Theatre! Some of my friends at Fans for Christ got me addicted. The first day, I read the first one hundred episodes. (So pathetic, I know.)

8bit Theatre takes a jab at everything gaming-geeky, but in a good-natured way. You name it, it's there. D&D? It's there? Trekkiedom? It's there, too. And of course the whole thing is inspired by Final Fantasy. So if you're a fan of the old 8 bit RPGs (and gaming in general) and you haven't read it, head over there right now!

By the way, my favorite character is White Mage. She's the only consciously good character in the bunch! Fighter is great, too, with his ridiculous fixation on swords and shinies. Black Mage is just so...not good (but eternally hilarious). And while Red Mage and Thief aren't evil, they definitely wouldn't be found on the good axis. Of course, they're just as neurotic as everyone else!

Fans for Christ: Christian Freaks Welcome Here!

New Year's Eve/Day I was at Galactic ConQuest II, a small con put together by Kyle Puttkammer, owner of my favorite comic and games shop. While there, one of the volunteers told be about Fans for Christ, a really great website for "Christian Freaks." I had been looking for just such a group, so I joined just a couple of days later, with the screenname "MaidMirawyn".

Well, I've had a blast. When my husband went out of town one Friday night in January, I found friends online who kept me company until 3 am, when I was way too tired to be lonely anymore.

Basically, we waged war on Jaws using a force of ninja gremlins, llamas in duct tape armor, penguins, gooseberries, tamed trains, and a hippo. And some stray alpacas I found wandering the beach. Oh, and two pygmy komodo dragons with kazoos. Did I mention the aquatic elves?

It seemed to make sense at the time.

But even more, people share what's going on in their lives. We have a prayer section and "God talk", plus arts and music. There are also forums for goths, gamers, RPGers, cosplayers, anime fans, and more.

If you're a Christian freak or just curious, stop on by! All we ask is that you be nice.