God
Video Games
Faith
I subscribed to "Game Pass" for a month so I could see how "Forza Horizon 6" is. Every single game I've ever tried on my 9070 XT has absolutely blown me away from a performance standpoint, and this is no different. What a wonderful video card!
Click below to see the full-size image. This is with, quite literally, everything maxed, including the ray-traced reflections and global illumination. FSR 4.1 is set to "Balanced". So then I flipped on AMD's "Fluid Frames" frame generation, and their control panel is telling me I'm getting right around 130 fps. Just astonishing!
I'd write more, but I'm going on day three of having a pretty nasty headache: my watch tells me I've been waking up over a dozen times a night-- last night was fifteen. But in case they're helpful, I will drop a couple of correspondences I've sent to friends over the past handful of days (with all personal details redacted naturally), in case they help some of you too.
God bless!
The first involves someone with whom I was speaking about the nature of anxiety. The second involves a friend who is having a conflict with someone else.
Anxiety and Satan
One more thing about anxiety popped into my head on the drive home: a priest once explained to me that anxiety is not from God; this priest could not emphasize the point strongly enough.
He went on to say, anxiety is a tool that the Evil One uses to turn us inward, rather than outward. When we get turned inward, we're not picking up on cues from the Holy Spirit regarding those around us; instead of serving others we're stuck in our own heads, which is exactly where Satan wants us.
In fact, I was told that the Evil One will sometimes even use someone's own holiness-- such as with many of the Saints-- to turn them inwards; for example, scrupulosity.
For you and me, God made us both intellectual people-- and it's that very charism which Satan is going to zero in on for us: that tendency to overthink things. I think that is why the "floor mat" trick [a humility technique I practice during the Mass] works so well for me: "Mike, your gaze is drifting inward again..."
You probably know a ton more than I do, so I'm most likely stating the obvious with all of this-- but I'd rather err on the side of being redundant in the off chance something I say may in some small way provide you with relief.
Thanks so much for our awesome chat by the way-- I hope we get to talk again soon!
God bless,
Mike
Sheep Among Wolves
Jesus: "See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."
You mean no ill will to this person, you want to lead all souls to heaven, even (or maybe especially!) people like them who cause you and others distress (that's the "dove" part). But at the same time, you recognize that you're among wolves, so a certain amount of shrewdness is needed (the "serpent" portion). It is not sinful to exercise caution in these situations; indeed, the Lord Himself gave these instructions.
"Everything you say which could harm me is instead going to slide off of me like water, and prompt me to pray for you to love God with all of your heart, because in so doing you will stop causing hurt to those around you."
This goes into what [a mutual friend] was saying too: "All of those anxieties and fears inside of you... when you really start focusing on what others around you need, those other things don't really matter anymore." By shifting the focus to prayer for their soul, I think you'll be more able to have that healthy compartmentalization without shutting off all emotions in all situations.
"I'm talking to a deeply damaged person in this situation, and in their damaged state they may lash out at me and at others." It'd be like finding a wounded animal in the woods; the animal may try to bite you-- you try to help, but cautiously. Then when you get home and pet your own dog at home, you're not afraid because the context and situation is different.
This isn't a perfect metaphor because unlike an animal, this person has free will-- so I'm not excusing culpability on their part in any way. But the metaphor does illustrate how we can and should compartmentalize situations based on their context as best as we can, so we can avoid a general, lasting sense of disassociation-- compartmentalization can help us set healthy boundaries.
Blessings,
Mike
Click below to see the full-size image. This is with, quite literally, everything maxed, including the ray-traced reflections and global illumination. FSR 4.1 is set to "Balanced". So then I flipped on AMD's "Fluid Frames" frame generation, and their control panel is telling me I'm getting right around 130 fps. Just astonishing!
I'd write more, but I'm going on day three of having a pretty nasty headache: my watch tells me I've been waking up over a dozen times a night-- last night was fifteen. But in case they're helpful, I will drop a couple of correspondences I've sent to friends over the past handful of days (with all personal details redacted naturally), in case they help some of you too.
God bless!
The first involves someone with whom I was speaking about the nature of anxiety. The second involves a friend who is having a conflict with someone else.
Anxiety and Satan
One more thing about anxiety popped into my head on the drive home: a priest once explained to me that anxiety is not from God; this priest could not emphasize the point strongly enough.
He went on to say, anxiety is a tool that the Evil One uses to turn us inward, rather than outward. When we get turned inward, we're not picking up on cues from the Holy Spirit regarding those around us; instead of serving others we're stuck in our own heads, which is exactly where Satan wants us.
In fact, I was told that the Evil One will sometimes even use someone's own holiness-- such as with many of the Saints-- to turn them inwards; for example, scrupulosity.
For you and me, God made us both intellectual people-- and it's that very charism which Satan is going to zero in on for us: that tendency to overthink things. I think that is why the "floor mat" trick [a humility technique I practice during the Mass] works so well for me: "Mike, your gaze is drifting inward again..."
You probably know a ton more than I do, so I'm most likely stating the obvious with all of this-- but I'd rather err on the side of being redundant in the off chance something I say may in some small way provide you with relief.
Thanks so much for our awesome chat by the way-- I hope we get to talk again soon!
God bless,
Mike
Sheep Among Wolves
Jesus: "See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."
You mean no ill will to this person, you want to lead all souls to heaven, even (or maybe especially!) people like them who cause you and others distress (that's the "dove" part). But at the same time, you recognize that you're among wolves, so a certain amount of shrewdness is needed (the "serpent" portion). It is not sinful to exercise caution in these situations; indeed, the Lord Himself gave these instructions.
"Everything you say which could harm me is instead going to slide off of me like water, and prompt me to pray for you to love God with all of your heart, because in so doing you will stop causing hurt to those around you."
This goes into what [a mutual friend] was saying too: "All of those anxieties and fears inside of you... when you really start focusing on what others around you need, those other things don't really matter anymore." By shifting the focus to prayer for their soul, I think you'll be more able to have that healthy compartmentalization without shutting off all emotions in all situations.
"I'm talking to a deeply damaged person in this situation, and in their damaged state they may lash out at me and at others." It'd be like finding a wounded animal in the woods; the animal may try to bite you-- you try to help, but cautiously. Then when you get home and pet your own dog at home, you're not afraid because the context and situation is different.
This isn't a perfect metaphor because unlike an animal, this person has free will-- so I'm not excusing culpability on their part in any way. But the metaphor does illustrate how we can and should compartmentalize situations based on their context as best as we can, so we can avoid a general, lasting sense of disassociation-- compartmentalization can help us set healthy boundaries.
Blessings,
Mike