Jeff Freeman, RIP

Oh God even typing this up just breaks my heart. First, the statement from his brother posted on the SWGEMU.com site:

Some of you know who Jeff Freeman was; he was the lead designer at Sony when the major changes were made to SWG that left so many upset. Although it was not his fault he took the brunt of the criticisms, attacks, and even death threats.

Some of you may have even known him back in the UO days as Dundee, Guild Master of the Nameless Ones on Lake Superior and later the administrator of the private UO server World of Dreams.

I am not sure why I have chosen this forum to share this news; it may be that I would have loved to see Jeff build the game that he really wanted to, if he was running a private server. You see I am his brother. On September 24th Jeff took his own life. I am not angry at him or anyone else, sad yes, like so many others I feel a bit of guilt but I love my brother and I am thankful that he is no longer suffering.

Below is part of the obituary that will run in the Longview News Journal on Wednesday, October 1, 2008.

LONGVIEW - Memorial services for Jeff Freeman, 39, of Austin, will be at 4 p.m. Thursday, October 2, 2008 at Triumphant Christian Center, 1308 Reel Road, 903-xxx-xxxx.

Born October 8, 1968, he was a computer programmer who worked on many popular programs including Star Wars Galaxies and had served this country as a member of the U.S. Army Reserves.

"Because Christ suffered so much for us, we can receive so much comfort from Him." 2 Cor 1:5

I hope all of you will join me and our family as we celebrate his life.

later his brother posted a follow up:

Yes, I do plan on posting on his blog but I do not have any of his login information. That is something I am working on today. When I do get access to his blog I will post some pics etc... to show what a great person he was.

I am sure it seemed strange that I posted here, but this is the only contact I have the SWG community. I was a fan of pre-cu and have played on the test server. I have even considered running a server when SWGemu is released. I am not the programmer my brother was but I am excited about the project.

Also, I want everyone to know that it was not SWG that lead him to take his life. He has been troubled for sometime. There were alot of personal issues that tore at him. I did not post here because this is a community of pre-cu fans. As I stated before this is just the SWG community I have a connection to.

Regardless of how SWG turned out we must admit that many of the great things we enjoyed about pre-cu was because of his work.

Kylrathin I to wish it was a joke. I miss him so much.... I need him back...

He and I began our correspondence back when the whole NGE thing happened. We started out as semi-adversaries, but I'd like to think he and I became actual internet buddies over the years, and not only did I grow to respect him, but like him as well. He was a good man and a good game designer; and I am going to miss him greatly. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Here's the link to his blog: http://mythicalblog.com/

""Birth Of Freedom Shorts Series #5: Is Secularism Neutral?

Another cool little short from the folks at the Acton Institute:

L'Shana Tova!

Happy New Year! Welcome to 5769

The Bill Fails DOW Down 777

777 -- that's the number of God in the Kabbalah; Crowley's "Flaming Sword." Pretty weird.

I must say, I am glad the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 went down and failed, even if it leads to a serious market downturn. I feel that it was the wrong approach to a serious problem, and in the wrong run, not only would not fix the problem, but would have made matters worse.

I am proud of those Republicans and Democrats who, in a new kind of bipartisan effort, actually listened to the people and allowed the bill to go down.

Now it is time for them to take a step back, hold hearings, and ignore the idjits on the right and left who CAUSED the crisis. They need to ask, no BEG, Ron Paul to get some sound money economists up there are ask them how the heck did we get here and what must we do to get out?

Why do I feel they will not do this?

Democrat Cover-up?

Sounds like "Insider Trading"

Is this Democracy?

Revelation 5:13

And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, [be] unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.(KJV)

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, everything in the universe, cry out: "To the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor, glory and might, forever and ever." (NAB)

And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They also sang: "Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever."(NLT)

In the past few weeks we looked through some of the lines in the letters of Paul that point to an eventual reconciliation of all men to God, seeing that how one man's sin damned us all, and one man's righteousness redeems all (Rom. 5:18), and assuming one means one and all means all, that implies all sinners, even the sinners who do not know Christ and have not accepted him.

We have looked at how in his First Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15:22-26), he states that, building on the all dying in Adam idea, and all rising in Christ fulfillment, he begins to spell out how this works, that Christ is the "firstfruits" then us, His believers and followers, but THEN He defeats death itself -- the final enemy.

We have looked at 2 Corinthians 5:16-19, where Paul writes about how we are to put off our worldly view because God has reconciled the whole world to Himself in Christ. he didn't say just the part of the world of believers, but the whole thing.

Then we looked at 1 Timothy 4: 9-10; possibly one of the most famous lines proclaiming the salvation of all where he references yet again the special slavation for those who believe but that Christ is the "savior of all men."

Once again, does ALL mean ALL? People who like to take the Bible literally seem incapable to take these words literally. They look at other parts of the Bible which seem to speak of people burning in hell forever, decide that it is THOSE words they need to take literally, and then choose to NOT take these words literally.

Thus, through a selective choice if literal interpretation, they CHOOSE to damn their fellow human beings to Hell. Over time, I'll try and go into these Hell discussions in the scripture; after all, Jesus does talk about a place called Hell and honesty requires that any developed theology deal with this.

Okay now to the verse of the Day. We have here a sign of the culmination of God's Glory; where EVERY creature in heaven, every creature on the earth, every creature under the earth, every creature in the sea -- literally ALL LIFE itself sing unto the Lamb forever and ever. So, not only are YOU going to be saved, but so is your cat, your dog, that goldfish you flushed, that squirrel you ran over with the car, and the cow that provided me with that juicy hamburger I had for lunch today -- ALL of them are reconciled in Him.

ALL means ALL, at least to me. EVERY means EVERY, at least to me. If I'm gonna be a Biblical literalist, and I am forced into finding contradictory literalisms, I'm gonna CHOOSE the one that makes God something better than me. I'm gonna choose the one whose mercy and love is infinite, who is a true Father to all.

I hope after some pondering and study you come to feel the same way. Remember this is only the beginning of this discussion. First, we spend some time putting our best foot forward. Then, I'll try and deal with the best arguments against my theology, then try and reconcile the irreconcilable, knowing all things were reconciled in Christ -- so by following Him, we should be able to deal.

In God we'll Trust.

Global Economic Meltdown -- the Music Video

You knew it would eventually had to happen, here it is:

Go Jet-Man Go!

This was a really cool Dave Stevens comic and a fun little movie -- it captured one of my oldest dreams -- to have my own jetpack.
Say hello to the real Rocketeer:

It's a beautiful thing. Where can I get mine?