No entry in over two weeks...I told you I was filling my spare time with other activities.

Anyway, just a quick line to say I have taken a break from studying to upload the sermon from last Sunday. Click on Sermons above or to the left (depending on your platform).

My lack of activity here can be summed up in one word: Suikoden.

About 8 years ago, Konami release Suikoden on these shores for the PlayStation. The game promised a deep and engaging story. It promised hours of fun trying to recruit a large number of characters to join your alliance, perhaps the largest of any RPG out there (the closest being Chrono Cross). You amassed 108 characters to build up your castle and create an army in order to overthrow the Scarlet Moon Empire.

Shortly after, they released Suikoden II, and players were once again recruiting 108 characters, building a castle, and toppling an empire (this time, Highland). Some characters made a return in this game from the previous; in fact, had you played the first, you could load the data from it into the second game in order to "unlock" a sidequest, as well as other items pointing back to the first game.

A couple years ago, Konami released Suikoden III, this time for the PlayStation 2. Another 108 characters to recruit, some repeats. Another castle to build. Another empire to topple...sort of. Once again, data from the previous game could be loaded to start this one to unlock some features.

Later this month, Suikoden IV is scheduled to be released. Soon, fans of this series--myself included--will be recruiting another 108 characters, building another castle, and most likely toppling another empire. We will most likely be able to load Suikoden III data to begin the next game. The saga continues, the story grows...Konami is delivering on their promise.

What does all of this have to do with free time? Well, all of it has been spent finishing Suikoden II (which I bought on eBay a few months back...almost a year). I just finished Suikoden II last night. I'll be restarting Suikoden III with Suikoden II data. I'll be getting Suikoden IV so that I can continue the saga myself. This also means that upcoming free time will be spent playing Suikoden III. It's really a great game series...I enjoy it.

Whatever was ailing Atlantis' part of Freeshell has been corrected. Or so it seems. As I know that the admins are still working on updating all of their machines, Atlantis and all sub-sites are still liable to go down. But, we're up for now.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

While it does that, you may read, you may read, you may read...my sermon from this past Sunday. Click on the Sermons link above (or to the left for mobile browsers) to view.