BIG update

Hey all... BIG update... I'll post it all up:
Hell… I have finally found out what this place is… it is what happens when your flight is delayed 22 Hours three days before Christmas.

I cried. That was the first thing I did. Then, it sank in. I get an extra day. A day on which I can simply relax, watch TV, listen to music and enjoy myself at the expensive of British Airways in a nice hotel.

After a bit of thinking, I believe it really was God. It took us forever to get our connecting flights, but we finally got it… Dhaka, London, Detroit, Houston…. YA! But, that was the end of it… no… we nearly missed our flight in London… idiot security guard. She told us that we had already missed our flight and that there was no way we could make it. Praise God though, we made it, managed to get on board, and well… here I am, typing up this blog entry on my dad’s laptop.

In other news… I’ll miss Bangladesh. I said good-bye to all my friends at Church… it was hard, I realized how many people I have grown to know, trust, and enjoy relationships with. Mark, Sayed, Austin, Jacob, Julius, Max, Saion, Jay, Jackie, Jo, Sam, Deborah, and more I’m sure. What is more is that I know I’ll be missed. Max, Jacob, and Julius really need my support in their day-to-day lives. To be honest, of that group, I may know the most of the Bible… I may understand the more “advanced” principles of what is called Christianity. Its hard living in this world and our religion doesn’t help one bit…

Anyways… I don’t what else to write… I can’t wait to see Muti and Pawpaw, I can’t wait to get my laptop, and I hope that my 40k models get to me ASAP. For those of you who don’t know… I ordered some 40k models (I spent $120ish dollars on ‘em, and my bro spent the rest. Sadly, the models are stuck in the USPS system thanks to Christmas).

Oh, did I mention that I watched 3:10 to Yuma. Very interesting movie. A good western staring Christian Bale and Russell Crowe… well done, good action, nice plot, very good acting. Oh, and right now, I have three movies on my must watch list, they are: Shoot ‘em Up, AVP2!!! And I am Legend. All sound amazing…

Also, I’ve decided to give Heroes another try… I talked to Caleb about it, and he told me that after the first 4 episodes the sex in it pretty much disappears… for which I am very, very, very glad. I actually watched some episodes in the hotel… when were it, yesterday (lol) it looked very good.

Well… I still have another 3hrs left… I’ll do some other writing and get to this movie that I wanna watch called Rescue Dawn… also staring Christian Bale.

NOTE: This may not get onto the ‘net till Christmas… or after, but it was written on the 23rd or something like that… I have no idea what the date is… nor do I care…

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I’m in my grandparent’s house now… very happy. The trip by car was good… I slept 90% of the way. We stopped for dinner at Applebees… I had some of the best beef I have had in years, gotta love Sirloin steak.

Right now I am about to have some breakfast… chocolate milk, bagels, cream cheese… jealous yet?

Oh… a final note on the journey of hell… we lost our baggage. Yes, we lost our luggage… its currently in Heathrow Airport. The ground crew in Houston said that it should all be to us (they will ship directly to Georgetown, w00t!) hopefully by tomorrow… despite it being Christmas. Oh, Uncle Robert, my mom told me to mention that your laptop is in our check baggage, :p rofl.

Merry Christmas!

This was written on the 24th unlike the rest of this post.

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Merry Christmas!

So far, this Christmas has been good… I woke up too early (4:30AM… darn jetlag) but managed to remain mostly asleep until around 5:30. At 6 I got up and opened my stocking and then read a chapter in my newest book, Bitterwood by James Maxey… so far it’s a good fantasy novel. It has some interesting ideas, and I like the way the author presents dragons, he makes them different than contemporary dragon stories, like Eragon, but I ramble… Christmas.

We had breakfast… fruit salad, eggs, bagels, coffee and chocolate milk. Now we await the coming of Aunt Diane and her boyfriend, Mark so we can open presents… I can’t wait till I get to unwrap my Laptop, turn it on and well… enjoy it. ‘Course, I need to buy CoD 4 and CS: Source, but until then I can play Oblivion and Sims 2… I can’t play DOTA as I was a retard and forgot my AI copy, besides, I don’t have the patch… so I’ll need an internet connection… something I don’t have for this PC or any others ‘side my granddad’s OLD PC…

Anyways… merry Christmas to all, may you be blessed.

I’ll update this Christmas post later, after I’ve opened the presents…

Oh, wait… I can blog about my books!
I went to Barnes and Nobles yesterday, very happy, picked up three books and decided to return for two more… Glen Cook novels. Anyways, I got Fulgrim, by Graham McNeil, a Horus Heresy novel on the Emperor’s Children and their primarch, Fuglrim. I also got two Solaris Publishing books, their Anthology of short fantasy stories and Bitterwood, which I have already mentioned.

The anthology is good, I’m sure I’ll enjoy at least most of the stories. I already read the one in there by Steven Erikson (for this Brian, you should buy it, the story is pure Erikson genius) there are also stories by Steven Savile and James Maxey, so I should enjoy the thing. At the least it’ll give me a better understanding of what fantasy is… I need all the exposure I can get if I’m going to make my own fantasy setting.

Anyways… Bitterwood. Its fantasy, but I can tell its set in the future, a future were we are like medieval people and dragons rule the world. Anyways… it’s still in the beginning stage, and people are still introducing themselves, so far the main characters are all dragons, but I hope we get to see lots of the dragon killer, Mr. Bant Bitterwood.

So… my life of novel reading is, so far, going very good, the only thing that is frustrating is the lack of Malazan books… I haven’t asked about Ian Esslemont’s book, but I really should, the only problem is that it is Hardback… maybe I can leave it here.

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Dec 28
Well…. Lets see what have I done the past few days?

Well… I haven’t read that much, but I won the single player of CoD 4 on regular. It was VERY fun, I very much enjoyed running about with M4A1s that are either silenced or have an underslug grenade launcher. Also, I really like the nightvision thing… its fun. Finally… I now know why a person would use their pistol over their assault rifle… if you silence your pistol, in close corners, it can be very useful. Anyways… I can’t wait to play the game in multiplayer, which should be very fun.

Company of Heroes is also good. I’ve already played it a bit, but now it runs properly, nice and fast. So I’m enjoying it a lot more. I think the final games I really want are Bioshock, Mass Effect (if it is for PC) and Medieval Total War II… I may have to pick one over the other… but whatever. Oh… I also want a real copy of CS… but I want to check if I don’t already have it… as I know I already have HL2 Episode One, which may have it already…
Anyways… a while ago I realized that I need to start accounting, lol. So I installed Quicken on my PC and will deal with all that probably on Saturday or Monday.
In other news, I hope to see AVP2 either Saturday or Monday as well…
I also need to make an order off of Amazon. What am I buying? The Tome of Salvation, Night’s Dark Masters (if I have the money) and Storm the Gates of Hell, an audio album by Demon Hunter. My bro will be getting Realms of Sorcery and my mom will also be buying him Skillet’s lastest album, Comotose.
Well… I think I’m gonna go write some random stories and stuff.

Christmas Blues

Well… I leave soon. I’m excited. I’m depressed. I’m… scared (?) I don’t want to go. I don’t want to leave, Brian, Caleb, Matt, Julius, Jacob, Max, Deborah, Jo, Jay, Jackie, Evans, Austin, Sayed, Mo, and the rest of 4him and my friends. I want to go. I want to see Muti and Pawpaw, Aunt Diane, all my cousins, all my family. I want to go. But I don’t, but I do. Get the point?

I played most of Half-life 2: Episode Two, didn’t finish it, but got really close… so I figured I won’t need to buy it in the states. I got Jimmy Eat World’s first album. I love it.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas. May your life be as blessed as mine! I wish you all my greatest of blessings. May Jesus Christ bless you and fill you. This year, I pray you may all get to know him in a deeper a more intimate way that the one before. May my Lord, and hopefully yours, keep you safe.

Updates!

Darn it! I forgot to upload my two most recent blog entries...

well there they are, this one is dated December 5

Hmm… I haven’t blogged in a while… so I guess I’ll go ahead and do so.

My life, day by day, grows more and more crazy. What can I do? A cyclone hit Bangladesh… giving my parents extra work, their company is getting audited, and my mom, being unofficial head accountant for her company in Bangladesh is really busy. My dad is in the process of getting himself ready for leaving for the States. Making sure he has the right presentations and the like… ya know? It’s a lot of work… and a pain.

And me… I have school… lots of school. Science has been easier, one experiment shouldn’t be too hard, on the other (if we do it) will not be too bad. Next module we don’t have any experiments, YA! It’s on Evolution… I already read through it a while back, and it’s very good… Dr. Wile does a great job of pointing out all the flaws, misconceptions and bad ideas that the Theory of Evolution has… it’s really sad that scientists continue to believe it. You would think they’d give up and come up with a new, equally flawed idea… but no, they just edit and change the Theory of Evolution… sad.

Anyways… I am, for the hundredth time playing Neverwinter Nights… doing what I call speed leveling. I am using a combination of cheats and knowledge of stuff to grab all the crap I need from chapters 1 and 2 to get to chapter 3 ASAP. I should finish Chapter 2 by the end of this weekend. And hopefully get to chapter 4 by the time we get to the States… if I work really hard, I might be able to go to chapter 5… but I doubt it.

Also… the more I play Neverwinter Nights, the more I realize how stupid DnD is… I am a level 6 Dwarven Barbarian… I can easily take on 4-5 orcs (with the help of my level 6 Halfing Rogue) or ten-twelve goblins with real ease. Now… while that may not sound bad… the thing is… they don’t even hurt me… it would probably take 15 orcs… attacking me AT once to do any reasonable damage… even then, I wouldn’t die as I would have three or four potions… which I should be able to use. Plus, I usually don’t bother with using my Barbarian rage, which would help. Oh… did I mention I have magical armor and a magical sword… at only being level 6?

Now… while WFRP may be more of on the opposite edge… to me it’s more realistic. By the time a player gets to say… their 2^nd career, they can easily take on 1-2 1^st career monsters. So, a party of 4 could take on 4 1^st career people with a very good chance of winning. If they were really unlucky, or most of the characters were non-combat characters (IE a scribe, servant, valet, and student, instead of a Soldier, Wizard, Bounty Hunter, and Mercenary… or even a mix of them, a Bounty Hunter, Servant, Student and Merc), they may end up losing.

But in DnD… only fighting 1 person per PC? What crap is this! No, no, you must take on 10 people per PC to make sure of a kill. I swear, by level 10, I could probably break into a poorer noble’s mansion and kill everyone… wait… I did that at level 5!!!! With what? One rogue and one barbarian/fighter… once I even did it with a pair of fighters… it gets a bit silly, IMHO. Especially when I start killing giants… that was just plain dumb.

So… for all of those here who are going to be making RPGs… please, remember, NO STUPID POWER LEVELS! NORMAL POWER LEVELS PLEASE! I DON’T WANT TO BE ABLE TO KILL GIANTS REGULARLY AT LEVEL 12! (Out of twenty mind you… so that would be a character who has gained 60% of his exp… plus my henchman… so two characters…).

If you must include Giants, Dragons, and the like, make them only killable by HIGH END characters… in DnD terms that would probably be characters with SUPER UBER GEAR!!!!11!!! IE longswords +10 that does 3D6 extra fire/ice/sonic/whatever damage and armor of equal power that are around levels 19-20…

In WFRP terms, that’s a lucky party of warrior characters (Champions, Witch Hunters, and Daemon Slayers…) with a few magic weapons (Greatsword that does extra damage) and is smart (IE they trip the dragon instead of attacking it outright… that or bring an army and dragon-slaying objects with them).

End of Rant.

See you next time.

Isaac

PS you may be wondering why I am playing Neverwinter Nights, eh? Well… it’s because I don’t have anything better to do. DOTA is boring unless I can play multi-player as my favorite hero is not in AI mode (he is now the Sacred Warrior… I LOVE this guy). Sims 2 is okay for temporary distractions… but only such. There is only so many times I can power level my way through a family… getting everyone to the top of their careers in 27 days… so here I am… playing Neverwinter Nights… a game I never bothered to beat because I kept messing up my saves and stuff.

Don’t worry, once I go to the states I will get a Real copy of Company of Heroes, Call of Duty 4, Medieval Total War II, and play Dow: DC and DOTA online… plus all the other games I talked about… not to mention start assembling new 40k models and stripping (paint wise) old ones…

And the next one, dated December 10th

This Saturday I went to the 4him “formal” christmas party that we had.

Actually, it was really formal, more like semi-formal. Generally, the men were supposed to wear pants and nice shirts, and if they could, a tie as well. The girls were encouraged to wear skirts of some sort or a nice saree/sawar.

Anyways… it was nice and fun. We hung out, talked, ate lots of good food (mostly chicken… no rice, surprisingly, and a beef pie which was very nice), drank lots of good drinks (Chocolate Milk! Soda! Water!) and good desert (Lemon Cake and Chocolate Cake… plus some local sweet thingie and donut bits… all very good). We had the traditionally 4him White Elephant Gift Exchange… the one where everyone gets a number, and, in that number order, you take turns picking out a gift. However, once you have picked your gift, it can be “stolen” from you. One gift can be “stolen” twice. If your gift was “stolen” you can “steal” another gift (but you can’t steal yours right back!) or take another gift from the tree.

The fun thing about this is that the good gifts are often stolen a lot and the bad gifts (gag gifts… like toothpaste and soap) curse their owners with the fact that they must pray that someone is strange and takes their gift… fun, no?

The party was fun… it is always great hanging out with my friends, and the food was really good. So, I enjoyed myself.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Oh… only 12 more days till we go to the States… I’m not sure if that’s totally a good thing… I still have a lot of school and my parents are beginning to panic with the amount of work they have…

CS stuff

You know, Counter-Strike is a really good game.

Why do I say this? Well… it is.

Now… of course, CS wouldn’t be so fun if we didn’t have the amount of players that we have at the game cafes. Seriously, if everyone at the Game Café (the biggest one, mind you… we have other, smaller ones that we play DOTA, Generals, C&C 3, and possibly Call of Duty 4) we can have easily 12 on 12 matches. THAT is a lot players… especially for some of the smaller maps (Stone World IV is tiny! Yet we do it). Of course, this also works for bigger maps like Aztec and De_Dust2.

Of course, it wouldn’t be fun without the “good” players. By that I mean there are two groups of people that play CS… the bad players who just come for fun but don’t really know how to play, and the much better players who game their like EVERY day for HOURS.

How about me? Well… I only game weekly (though I may increase that this summer… money allowing, lol). But I would say that if I work in a team (IE, I don’t run off by myself and get killed) then I can do fine. I won’t hit the top kills, but 3^rd or 4^th place… which isn’t bad. Of course, depending on the map, I can easily hit higher… but with maps like Aztec or De_dustII… I tend to get killed a lot more than I would like (last time I played Aztec I had a 1:1 death/kill ratio… IE I would kill one person, and then die). Honestly, the only way I can see myself improving would be gaming more often. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get the money for a real copy of CS Source in the States and game online there… if not, I’ll have to pray that I don’t lose my amazing skill.

What weapons do I use? Well… of all the weapons, pistols, SMGs, Shotguns, Rifles, Machine Guns… I use a little of each, depending on the map. For instance, De_Dust, Italy, and De_Dust II, I can use most SMGs… though De_Dust II isn’t really doesn’t do good with SMGs (the map is to big for the short-ranged nature of an SMG… to many spots were rifles and such will pwn you). So… I’ll start with pistols and work way down:

The only pistols (besides the default, free one) that are worth anything are the Nighthawk (similar to the Desert Eagle) and the Duel Elites (2 9mm, if I am correct) The Nighthawk is a 7 clip gun that will kill someone in 2 shots to the chest. However… if you miss, you’ll probably run out of ammo and die. Still… it’s the best pistol in the game. The Duel Elites have more ammo and fire faster, but don’t do as much damage. Still, they are about equal to a cheap SMG, so that’s not bad. I tend to lean towards the Night Hawk because its actually a bit cheaper.

Shotguns… well, these weapons are very focused and only good for certain maps. Why? Shotguns have a small ammo amount (max of 7 shots… not good) and are short ranged. The one/two shot kill thing is great, and in small, crowded maps, someone who knows how to use the shotgun is a very good addition to any team. I personally only use the expensive shotgun because it fires much faster (semi-auto… the cheaper one is even slower). However, it’s not cheap, so I don’t use it to much.

Rifles. Rifles are the bread and butter weapons of CS… as such, if an SMG is not good for the map, I will them. I prefer SMGs because of the cheapness of the weapons… I can save up and then splurge on a big gun like a shotgun or multi (more on these later). Anyways… there are two kinds of rifles, snipers and not snipers. The most common not sniper is for the Terrorists the Ak-47 (known as the CV-47) and for the Counter-Terrorists the M16 (Maverick something). If I play CT, I’ll use the Maverick quite a bit, I like it. There are other guns… various snipers, some semi-snipers (zoom, but not near as nice as the snipers of the game), the Krieg and Bullpup (one for CT, one for Terrorist), I’ll use those if I have the money, and it’s the right map, but I don’t have to. Finally, the snipers… I don’t use the bolt action snipers (Magnum and Schmidt) but I will use the Multis (semi/full-auto sniper) from time-to-time… I’m not that good with it, but I can use it… sorta… not really.

Finally… the machine gun… I don’t use the machine gun, its expensive, and not that good, I don’t use it. In fact, I don’t know how to use it… it would appear that the huge ammo clip would allow for suppressive fire… but this isn’t a game where you want to try that… we have respawns and mass charges… plus flashbangs.

One thing I forgot to mention was equipment. Here you can get nightvision, bomb defusal kits, Kevlar, smoke, flashbang, and HE grenades, and extra ammo. Obviously I always buy extra ammo, sometimes I get either an HE or flashbang grenade, it depends on the map and how I’m feeling.

So… that’s me and CS

Stuff....

What is magic? This is a question that I have asked myself almost daily for a long time now. Why, you ask, right? I mean, obviously, magic is a supernatural force. But, I am sorry, that is simply not a good enough answer for me.

For instance, take the Novels Eragon and Eldest. In these books (I know, they aren’t the best books in the world, but the magic system is a good one, IHMO), magic is a combination of mental and psychical strength and the knowledge of an ancient language. For instance, if I say “fire” in this language, with the right intention and stuff (saying “fire” is not enough, you actually have to summon the magic to you), then that will happen… fire will come, either it will magically appear on the ground, on your sword, or perhaps your arrow.

In Dungeons and Dragons, the RPG magic comes in four forms. The magic of a wizard, the magic of a sorcerer, the magic of most divine spellcasters (IE paladins, blackguards and clerics) and finally the magic of druids.

Wizards cast spells through a combination of strange words, gestures, and magical components. When all combined, these three things can bring about extremely deadly consequences. However, the amount of work, through memorizations of ancient tomes of dark knowledge (sorry… I can’t help but picture evilness in magic… its how I think) to the consorting of demons (who in my mind, are always evil and untrustworthy).

Sorcerers, however, simply cast their spells through sheer willpower and innate strength. No magically theory, no spell books, gestures or goblin teeth. Just sheer mental willpower. They simply CAN cause fire to come from their hands. Obviously, the power of a sorcerer is must more unrefined and dangerous than that of a wizard. Think of it as the difference between a man who is a genius because he worked really, really, really hard and one is just IS smart. The first man may actually know more than the second, but the second man will still give him a lot of competition.

Divine magic is an entirely different thing, however. Divine magic is, simply put, blessings from the gods. A cleric can heal you because his god wants him to heal him. Same with paladins (and there counterparts, blackguards), usually though, paladins magical powers are much less so than clerics. Druids are extremely similar to divine spellcasters expect in the fact that they draw their powers from nature, which is sorta divine (at least in Dungeons and Dragons).

You see? Two different settings… four different ways to cast spells. All four can bring about the same effects (the healing of wounds, the creation of fire, ice and water) but each are at least somewhat different!

So, my question for a good while now will be the following: What is magic? Now, when I say this, I do not want a generallistic answer. I want your personal preference. How do YOU define magic? Is it a set of rules that can cause devastation? Is it simply runesmithing? Or perhaps alchemy? It is a great deal of different kinds of magic? Is it similar to Warhammer? Or perhaps Eragon? Maybe wizards are more like Gandalf, more like advisors with great power, perhaps? Or are they like Quick Ben of Malazan, a man who tricks gods into doing his will, and at the same time can bring some serious power to bear (hey, he helped kick the butt of the White Crow! (Forget his full name… sorry))?

There are so many possibilities… I want to include all… but if I do so… magic won’t be that cool, just “meh”, ya know?

So… seriously… anyone who reads this, reply, either by commenting in the blog (you know you want to, :P) or by emailing me (if you know my email), heck, you can even write on my wall on Facebook! (yes… for those of you who may not know… I do have facebook (Roy Isaac Johnson)).

Perhaps later I will give an update on my life… another weekend article, perhaps?

Ttyl…

Isaac, the masterofweirdness

My Weekend II

My weekend was, once again, really fun. First off, we had a good church service, then I went to club and ate lunch. Afterwards, me and Julius (who came with for a sleepover) lost a game of football (soccer for you Americans) to three other guys. It wasn’t that they were better… they just had a goalie… and more players.

So, then we come home, hang out, and Jacob comes by, we hang out some more, we get dinner, have dinner, watch Top Chef, and then Roleplay, which I will tell you about on my WFRP Campaign blog. All I will say is that it was amazing.

Anyways… after we roleplay, we just hang out a bit… we talked about random stuff... and about 1:30AM I went to sleep.

The next morning we have chocolate chip pancakes, I tell Julius about DOTA, Jacob left early to go to a concert (NOT that kind of concert… just him and some other kid’s doing this thing called God’s Candidates). So, we hang out, Julius prepares to lead worship at 4him, and then we go to 4him.

At 4him, Dustin spoke… which was great, he gave his testimony about how God brought him to Bangladesh and how God saved him from Leukemia and all that. It’s a really great story.

Then we come home… go to sleep and well… it’s now Sunday.

Oh, one more thing. We now have a tentative night for 4him Formal Christmas Party. What does this mean? It means I have to wear a tie and collared shirt to a party… evil… stupid… silly…

Anyways… onto life.

Oh, DOTA 4.49b is now out… www.getdota.com just remember, you have to have a patched version of Wacraft III: The Frozen Throne, before you can play!

My Weekend

Well… I had an interesting weekend.

Church was good… it was Children’s Church this week, which means that I had to help out… it, was great though, I ran two of the games, and they were really fun. Naomi and Nate did the play, which rocked. The sad thing is that Dustin, the guy was running Children’s Church is leaving to go back to the America for a year.

Then… Saturday… I went gaming, I got Season I of Heroes, and got some more WFRP Character Sheets… so I’m ready for all those 2^nd Careers that will be coming up soon.

Gaming rocked. We played a bit of CS_Italy, which went terribly… the Terrorists didn’t know how to play a hostage map… you wait for the enemy to come to you, not run around like a bunch of ninnies, which is exactly what they did. We also played a bit of DE_Dust2, which wasn’t bad… but my team, the Counter-Terrorists didn’t do so well.

Finally, we play DE_Aztec… a map set in an Aztec ruin. It was HUGE and well… in this map, I finally truly understood the beauty of the Krieg Commando and Bullpup… decent scoop, high rate of fire, and well… that’s just want you need.

I also learned a great new tactic… hit and run. It’s quite simple, you enter a room, there are two CT or T in it, you shoot a bit, run out, run in, shoot a bit, run out, rinse and repeat until they are dead… it works pretty well.

I also learned that pistols are, in fact, quite good. Jacob told explained it to me. The best pistol, the Nighthawk, is basically a 1 Shot kill weapon, it kills you really easily, and so, you grab one, kill someone, grab their gun, and boom! You have a free gun.

Anyways… finally… 4him… this was… depressing. Jackie and Jay will be leaving this Summer for the States… which is really sad, because well… we’re not ready for them to leave… to put it plainly, it is there job to mentor us to become men and women of faith that know our faith, and while some of us, like Evans, Sam, Jo, and Mark, possibly are ready to have them leave, Me, my sister, Jacob, Julius, Max, and lots of others are not at ready for them to leave. Now, it wouldn’t be to bad if I wasn’t leaving for the States for 6 months in 7 weeks… I won’t be seeing them much…

Anyways… my goal I guess with them would be to have a meeting with Jay some week before we leave, talk to him, and stuff… an overall goal with 4him would be to find a new Youth Leader for the guys… I mean, to an extent Debra’s bro is there (I don’t know how to spell his name… so I won’t misspell it, lol) but, he’s still… in a way… one of us… sure, he’s 26 or something, but still… he is in a way still a member of 4him.

Anyways… guess the only thing I can really do is trust God… he’s provided for me before, he’ll do it again, I know. Still… no one can really ever replace Jay.