This morning I woke up with a heavy heart. Today I was going to see The Passion, a movie that I've wanted to see about as much as I didn't want to see it. I don't really like gory movies, but there are some gory things that need to be seen because they really happened kind of like Saving Private Ryan. The war experience never seemed real to me until I saw that movie. So I was curious on how this movie would affect me. I've heard the account of Christ's suffering many times in church in all its graphic detail. To see pictures that go along with it was a bit intimidating for me. I was not looking forward to seeing my Lord crucified, but I felt that I had to see it because I am who I am because of it. I wouldn't describe the movie as being good or bad, but instead I would say it was real. Some parts were very painful to watch and other parts I was so desensitized by the gore that I felt nothing. Overall, I felt more than I didn't feel though.

Some of the symbolism was very interesting. I don't really have a problem with it as I'm sure Satan watched the entire account. Where else would darkness be in the entire world when that was going on? When I watched the Roman soldiers and Pharisees beat and mock Him, it would have been a natural response to hate them, but to my greatest joy, my natural reaction was to think how much God loves us in spite of our sin. I think many people who don't know God personally are going to see this movie and feel guilty. Sadly, I don't think the gospel is presented clearly enough in the movie to explain to someone with no church background. For a Christian, all the elements are there and are obvious, but it's spread out through flashbacks and here and there and I think it will be confusing for people. I was surprised to see that John 14:6 was quoted in the film in the flashback of the last supper. I've heard in two interviews with Mel Gibson that conflict with one another and both of those conflict with John 14:6. What DO you believe, Mel?

Anyways, when the movie was over, I was joyful in my heart. The crucifixion was a good thing and it pleased God to do it. I have eternal life because of it. I have no guilt because my sins are forgiven. That doesn't mean I was not challenged by what I saw. If every day, I strived to love God more than the day before, I would still not love God as much as He loves me. All I could think about when watching that movie was how much I love Him and how I need to love Him more than I do.

I took the quiz. I never really saw myself as a Homestar Runner type, but who can argue with test results?

Which Homestar Runner character are you?

Last night I was flipping around on cable and came upon Straight Plan for the Gay Man on Comedy Central. I believe it was the premiere episode. This is a really funny show especially if you've seen Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. I'm not really a fan of QESG, but my old roommate used to watch it alot and I would just make fun of it. Now there is a show that does it for me. Anyways, the premise of the show is a flaming gay guy will volunteer to have his entire lifestyle changed so that he can appear straight. Then they take him somewhere where straight people go and see if he can fool the people there. Two of his helpers go with him and people decide which of the three was gay. So the guy goes through 4 days of straight training and on day 5, he reported to work at a meat packing plant. The straight training included getting voice coaching so he could talk masculine, getting his apartment redecorated straight style, getting some straight man's clothes, and learning to eat like a straight man. Actually, now that I think about it, the "straight" point of view in this show is probably more bachelor than anything else. The redecorated kitchen looked exactly like mine, ha ha. Some of the other redecorated rooms looked very familiar too. Shopping was done at the Salvation Army which is something I've never done. I guess if you're straight that means you're really poor or you like to wear other people's old clothes. I think they were just trying to be as extreme opposite of the show they were trying to spoof. The straight man's cuisine consisted of meatloaf and more meatloaf. I'm surprised they didn't mention lasagna.

Speaking of lasagna...the quest to find quality microwaveable lasagna continues on. This cursed strike leaves all the stores without large size Stouffer's lasagna which is like the best lasagna for the shortest time. All the ingredients taste real and it actually smells and tastes like you made it from scratch. It's also just the right size for one meal even though it says that it's 3 servings. Who decides how big a serving is anyway? That person must be European. Anyways, I haven't had decent lasagna for months. The store only has small lasagna from Stouffer's which must come from somewhere else cuz it tastes nasty. I went to three grocery stores last night and couldn't find the large size anywhere so I'll just have to suffer through small lasagna again. I've tried other lasagnas out there, but they all taste bad. That's the reason the good one is always sold out. If only I knew which day those came in. Anyways, curse this silly strike that's been going on for like 5 months now. I only got one (maybe two or three) thing to say to those strikers. The cost of my health benefits have gone up every year and yet I still have gone to work. Things cost more as time goes on. Deal with it. That's life. Your job requires no skills and so you are easily replaced. You are overpaid as it is to do such unskilled work. I am only the customer so that means I am not your enemy. Don't boo me and give me a hard time for going to your store or when you go back to work, I'll stop going to your store, and then your store will close and you will all get laid off. If you want to boo someone, boo your union for making you strike over this silly thing. I want my lasagna back, ha ha.

Anyways, one could argue that I could investigate other foods besides lasagna. I like lasagna and so I want that. It also is a big help in getting the super amount of protein and calories I need for working out so I can maintain my weight. It's hard to counter fast metabolism.

Another subject...lots of rain the past few days. I met someone at church who was visiting from Canada. I told her that she came on a weird week. The weather report isn't usually "rain until further notice". It hasn't rained the past two days, but it's looked stormy still. I actually like the gloomy weather. I don't know why that is. Maybe if I lived where it was gloomy all the time, I would like sunny weather. I don't really like rainy weather all the time, but I do enjoy the gloom. I think it makes L.A. look alot clearer and it also brings out the colors of the landscapes. Was that a straight thing to say?

This week I saw two of my friends from Belarus, Gleb and Taras. Both of them lead the New Generation ministry in Belarus of which I helped with for the last two summers. They are touring the country receiving teaching as well as doing some teaching themselves. Anyways, it was good to see them. Gleb knew I wasn't coming back this summer, but he asked if I was coming the following summer. This is such a difficult question to answer because who can know what they will be doing in a year and a half. I don't even know where I will be living in a year and a half. I answered as diplomatically as I could, "I want to." I really don't know at this time if I ever will go back though, but it was true that I wanted to. You always need to be careful when telling a foreign national what you will do. Your word is a promise whether you say "I promise" or not. Just this week I got an email from one of my friends in Belarus asking me why I haven't sent a picture of me and her yet like I "promised". Luckily, Gleb-mail will be alot quicker than the regular post so all is forgiven. You always have to be mindful of what you say because people put alot of hope in it. American culture is very forgiving of this and small things promised can be overlooked over time because they are small. But in Belarus (and Albania) it doesn't matter how small a thing you say, it means everything to them.

Anyways, when hanging out with Gleb and Taras, we were watching the Primetime interview of Mel Gibson. The Passion has created a lot of attention for him especially in the last month to its release. I think that one of the primary things that Christians wonder about concerning him is whether he is really a Christian. In watching the interview, he came off a bit quirky, but for the most part he held up really well concerning his faith. He derailed a bit when he said that people can be saved outside of Christ, but that it's just easier to be saved if you take Christ's path. I wonder if Mel Gibson ever read John 14:6? But even if he believes that, I still believe that Gibson is saved. I used to believe that Mormons were saved when I was in junior high and early in high school because I had a lot of Mormon friends and they were moral like me, but in reality they don't trust solely in Christ's sacrifice on the cross to pay for their sins. That's a damning disbelief. But was I not saved as well for thinking that they were saved? Of course not because I believed that my debt was paid because Christ paid the penalty for me. Another reason I think he's saved is because he is really sticking his neck out to do this thing. Christianity is tolerated but it's not popular in the entertainment business. Not only that, but he's made a film that sticks very close to Scripture and he is burdened that it's represented accurately. He has received a lot of criticism and he has not wavered. He even put the film in a language that no one understands to add to its authenticity. He risks damage to his career by the release of this film. He spent his own money to make it. He doesn't care, he feels it has to be made. So much for promoting self-image, this is not your typical Hollywood celebrity. I think another strong indication of his salvation is his transformation. It was almost like he was quoting Ecclesiastes when he said he had it all and now he looks back to it and he no longer wants it. It means nothing. It's not even attractive to him. I can't agree with him on everything he says, but it seems that he does have a genuine relationship with Christ. Ultimately, only God knows, but He also said we would know our brethren by their fruits. The cross and Christ are offensive to many people, and he's gone on national television to explain it and defend it many times while taking a beating from critics in newspapers all over the country. Now that's faith that few of us have been tested in. When was the last time you were on national television proclaiming your beliefs? How easy would that be?

I'm sure alot of Christians think that this movie is just what is needed to save people. No doubt that some people will be saved as a result of this, but let me make it clear that God doesn't need this movie to save the lost. God doesn't need a famous celebrity to spread His message successfully. If God needed people with powers of influence, then he wouldn't have been born into a carpenter's family from Nazareth. He wouldn't have chosen fishermen and tax collectors to be his disciples. And He wouldn't have kept the company of prostitutes, thieves, and other scum. Read 1 Corinthians 1:25-27. Our God makes kings out of shepherd boys. Why? So He can be even more glorified. The individual is nothing apart from Christ. But God does use kings from time to time and I think that's what we're seeing here with The Passion. (Oh and I know that the full name of the movie is The Passion of the Christ, but I think that's redundant so I refuse to call it that, ha ha.)

I got back from the Foundry retreat yesterday. Our speaker was Chris Mueller. We stayed at the Hyatt in Newport Beach. Foundry retreats are a bit more expensive than the college retreats I've been to ($175!!), but then I just found out that Crossroads are up to $150 and they have to go to Riverside. So maybe it's not as bad as I thought. Anyways, the events were alot of fun. The talent show featured many talented people as well as many untalented people still most were entertaining. People kept asking me what I was going to do for the show. I thought this was interesting since I never planned on doing anything. Most people have only seen my theater talents in the form of the Prop Skit competition where my roommate, Chris, and I had won two times in a row. Basically, that's where you get a partner and a bunch of normal items and develop a skit to perform that uses these items in no way people would expect. You get one night to think up an idea and perform it the next morning for everybody. The best skit out of 5 teams wins. Anyways, since I had to do this already, I didn't consider entering in the talent show as well to do more of the same. I don't really like performing on stage anyways. Well, I like it and I hate it at the same time. I hate all the time up to the performance and then I like to make people laugh.

Anyways, Chris and I laugh about how we got mixed up in this prop thing to begin with. The first time we were not told it was a competition. Our pastor just asked for volunteers to be in a skit. So after volunteering, we were told to grab a partner and compete against each other. Whoa, talk about bait and switch. It's really hard to do a good skit. You really need the right company. I didn't know Chris at the time and we paired up only because everyone else was so quick to grab somebody. So we kinda looked at each other, shrugged, and said, "Let's get on with this." The rest is history. We won the first competition and ever since we have to keep competing to "defend" our title. What makes it hard is first we have to live up to the hype from our pastor, and then we can't do the same thing we did before since that's what people would expect us to do. We always have to be one step ahead of our competition. So this was our third crack at it. So I guess either people didn't know about the competition this time or people were intimidated since we didn't have four teams to challenge us right away. Then by the next day, two of the teams dropped out, and one had overslept. It kinda stinks what happened, but our pastor basically told the other team that he was just going to let the champions do an exhibition. I think the reason for that is because in the past, no skit has been close to ours. I don't say that because we are so awesome, but when you have an actor paired up with someone who has done over 60 skits in the past 7 years for large groups of people, you just can't beat experience. Anyways, I guess our pastor thought that the other team would look bad by themselves. So we just did our skit. People liked it, but I think our 2nd skit competition was probably the best received. Still, it is a challenge to get a tired group laughing in the morning, so SUCCESS! We still got a prize too. Anyways, I think there are alot of funny people in our group, but for some reason they don't want to compete. I can think of a few guys who could give us some good competition. At this point, we've established ourselves pretty well. What's fun about that is you can create your own humor and force it on your audience and they laugh, ha ha. I hear UCLA skit team is having a bit of trouble this year. That's too bad, although I didn't always write winners either. You learn by failure in this game.

Anyways, completely random and off-topic. Check out the states and European countries I've visited. I only count the countries in Europe I've visited since I started traveling at age 25. Anything before age 2 doesn't count mainly because I can't remember which countries those are. Although I did count Scotland because I was born there. Anyways, if you want to do something like this on your blog, go to World66.com.



create your own visited states map



create your own visited european countries map

I came to work today and all the lights on my half of the room were dead. So the whole day I felt like it was time to go since all the lights were off. I was a bit bored today. I finished my work too quickly...doh! I keep telling myself to enjoy days like this cuz as I get older, I will only get busier. So with the extra free time I decided to check on the status of my new laptop for work. Since they are going to travel me, I need a laptop. I say, cool. Anyways, checking the status online shows that they received it a week ago and the status has changed from Pending to Resolved to Closed to Internal Use. Internal Use? What does that mean? Does that mean they just get to mess around with my PC until they see fit to give it to me? Sometimes I think the service center just wants to mess with me because I left their organization over 5 years ago. It didn't sit well with everyone. What did they expect? That I would stay a PC tech after I got an engineering degree? Ha ha. Anyways, speaking of leaving the organization, I heard through the grapevine that my old functional manager just found out I left his organization to go to the one I'm in now. Just found out??? That was 3 months ago! On top of that, he took it personally and got angry and went on some tirade because of it and actually called a meeting for the remaining members in his organization. I am dazzled by how I can cause such waves. If I was so significant, why did they dump me in a hole of a cubicle on some lame project so they wouldn't have to worry about me? And why get mad? I went to him first telling him I needed something better or I was going to leave. I told him I could only last about another month. I didn't get a call or an email or any ray of hope since that conversation. Yeah, so I left your organization, are you really surprised? Sheesh. Anyways, if you check the archive, I did say I could upset some upper management by doing this. The alternative was quitting so I don't really care. I have to laugh though when I think that these guys thought I was still working for them all this time. You would have thought they caught this when they realized I didn't need a performance review from them.

Anyways, on to better topics. I got a new daily Bible which I like alot. Sometimes I want to read the Bible, but I don't know what to read so it's kinda cool to be told what to read. I figure I can do that for a couple years. The challenge to having a daily Bible is you become aware of how many days you missed reading it. I'm always catching up it seems. I'm about 2 weeks behind. Each day is split up in 2 chapters from the OT, 1 from the new, and a partial Psalm and Proverb.

Anyways, I've been reading the story of Joseph and also studying Daniel on the side with my core group. There are a lot of similarities between those two. Both were forced to live in a pagan land. Both were godly men under the authority of ungodly leaders. Both interpreted dreams. Both remained faithful to God despite hardship caused by it. Both received tremendous blessings from God despite their hardships. It brings to mind that many of us are in situations like theirs every day. In the working world, you are most likely under the leadership of ungodly people. Daniel endured much hardship for his faith, but God blessed him through all of that. I've become so familiar with these stories I look at it from beginning to end as a whole, but much can be learned from looking at the story through the eyes of Daniel and Joseph.

Imagine your brothers just sold you into slavery, what now? So much for having a normal life, but then you get bought by someone who treats you well and puts you in charge of his affairs. Things are turning out ok, until his wife frames you and you get thrown into prison, what now? I guess you're going to rot here for the rest of your life. But then a ray of hope as you interpret dreams for the Pharaoh's butler and cook. The butler is going to put in a good word for you. You'll be out soon. A month goes by, two months, a year, two years, three years, how long must I wait? I think the butler has forgotten about me by now at least the jailer gives me free roam in the prison. The next day Pharaoh summons you, you interpret his dream, and you're free, not only that, you are made second in command of all of Egypt. The point is if you could look at your life complete like a story like we can with Joseph, there would probably be very little reason to be concerned with the day to day struggles in life. Joseph lived a very good life but the beginning of his life was pretty rough. If you just focus on the early part of his life, you think, what a crappy life, how unjust and unfair, but if you look at his whole life, he had a very good life. But our lives aren't a whole story we can read. We only know the past. Sometimes experiences from the past can get us through ones in the future and sometimes we just have to rely on faith. Not every Christian has a great life and for some it doesn't get any better until they die, but God promises eternal life with Him. If you look at your story as your entire eternal life, there is no struggle too difficult to make your life bad. But it takes faith in God's promise to look to the future and it is so foolish to be tangled in the present yet so easy. Another cool thing about the daily Bible is I read this passage in Matthew. I can imagine God saying to me, "Oh Kevin, you of little faith, why did you doubt?". The stories of Joseph and Daniel never spoke of their ambitions in life. Joseph never whined about being sold into slavery or being put in jail. Daniel never cursed his bad luck for being plucked from his own land to live in a pagan land that conquered his nation. Just think how upset you would be if the USA got invaded by some Middle Eastern country and conquered us, then they moved all of us out of our homes to Iraq and changed our names to Mohammad and Saddam. That would be a terrible change in life. Think how that would affect all of your hopes and dreams. Joseph and Daniel never sought their ambition, but just remained faithful to God. I can't help but think how I want to live my life that way. This is my new challenge.

The innertube jumps are online. Special thanks to Amy for hosting the videos for me. If you want to download the file, right click on the link and select Save As from the menu. (Mac users do a shift-click instead of a right click I think, but you should probably just get a PC to remedy this problem.) If you want to watch it in your browser, just click on the link and a new window will open with the video in it. Each file is between 4-7 MB. It may take a few minutes, so be patient. If you're on dialup it could take 30 minutes to 1 hour for each one. You must have Quicktime installed for it to work. If you just want to download the stuff from the website directly, click here. Now that the technical stuff is out of the way, here's a technical analysis "play-by-play" of each jump.

Jump #1: Click here to watch the jump. This one is Russ and me. Harrison says that Russ and I were probably the only ones who weren't stupid since we didn't know that we were going to jump in the first place. I think it's funny that Harrison said this since he was the only one that did it twice and had complete knowledge of what was going to happen thanks to our example. Speaking of example, Russ and I are the oldest in the group...way to set an example, ha ha. I still can't believe we hit that bump. I honestly wasn't aiming for it, but maybe subconsciously I was curious to see what would happen. Anyways, too bad there is no audio because our screams of terror definitely add alot to the experience. You can see from the top, we gain quite alot of speed. That's pretty daunting without a jump. Then we spin around backwards, but spin back forwards just in time to hit the bump. You'll notice that when we hit the bump, I fly a good deal higher than Russ. I believe this is because our arms were locked and since I hit the bump more than Russ did, my vector was more vertical than Russ'. Since I was connected to Russ, my body rotated to account for it thus making my flight mostly upside down and as a result land on my neck, head, and shoulder. The lesson learned here is, it is better to be as disconnected as possible from your buddy. If you step frames, you can actually see my body bend on the impact. From the angle it's hard to tell, but we got about 30 feet of distance on that jump. You can see that after the jump, I'm a bit dazed and try to see if everything still works, and then Russ tackles me before I can manage to stand. Thanks Russ. Ha ha, no harm done.

Jump #2: Click here to watch the jump. This one is Harrison and Matt. The angle of the shot is a little better here so you can see how long the jump distance is. The run down the hill was pretty similar to the first jump. Notice how they spin backwards and then spin frontwards just before they hit the bump just like in the first jump. I guess chaos theory only applies after you hit the bump. These guys hit the bump straight on which led to the best air of all the jumps. I was quite impressed by these guys as they didn't flail much at all and actually gave the illusion that they were in control during the flight. It was almost like a dive or something. Notice after they land, Harrison is quick to proclaim victory and then proceeds to empty snow from his jacket (either that or check to see if everything still works) while Matt seems to be doubled over in pain the entire time. Matt, who flew farther of the two, scraped his forehead pretty good and knocked a tooth loose. In retrospect, Matt was the only one who wished he hadn't done it, but I think having the moment on video will change his mind in time. Some say that the first jump (mine) was the best probably because it was the most unexpected or the most brutal of the landings. I would have to say this one is better purely based on style points.

Jump #3: Click here to watch the jump. This one is Andrew and Joe. These guys had a little different strategy. In all the other jumps, the riders sat side by side in the tube, but these guys did it bobsled style. As was learned in Jump #1, it is best to be as disconnected from your buddy as possible. As a result, bobsled form = bad idea. The run down consisted of the familiar spin and a slight second spin variation on bump impact. These guys tried to hang onto the tube at all costs thinking that this would improve their landing. Instead, they all flip over together. Upon hitting the ground is where bobsled form is not the best choice as Andrew kicks Joe in the chest and knocks the wind out of him. Andrew bit his tongue on the landing being the second jumper to draw blood. This brings up the second lesson learned...keep your mouth shut and your teeth clenched for impact.

Jump #4: Click here to watch the jump. This one is Erik and Harrison. Here's a new close up and fresh angle to watch people hurt themselves. This was the only jump where the riders were completely backwards when hitting. That's got to be the most terrifying of all. If you step frames, you can see the expression of discomfort on Erik's face shortly after hitting the bump. Notice the innertube has deflated a bit due to a leak. That was this baby's last ride. I guess we went beyond the scope of design for this child toy. I'm impressed that Erik was able to stay in the innertube all the way to the landing. Harrison was tossed off pretty quick, but I like how he's sprawled all spread eagle-like in the air. Nice form. From this angle, you can see how brutal a shock it is to hit that bump. It's not comfortable. It hurts when you take off and it hurts more when you land.

In summary, all of these make me laugh so hard. I will treasure these forever. I hope you enjoy them and if you're having trouble seeing them, let me know. I want everyone to be able to see these.

My blogging has taken a hit in the recent weeks. This is mainly because I'm a lot busier at work lately. This is good. I would have more time to do this at home if it weren't for SSX3. Those who have played the game understand, those that haven't are missing out, ha ha.

This weekend I went to Mammoth for some snowboarding and bruising. I made it up there just before the storm hit which is good since I don't have chains. Anyways, I like snowboarding, but I'm probably not serious enough about it to buy my own gear. I only go about once or twice a year and those times are only because my friends are going. Snowboarding is one of those things where it's fun, but when you're done for the day, you're glad you're done. I could never do two days in a row. I'm so sore after the first day, all I want to do is relax. Usually I get the most soreness from snowboarding, but Sunday I went innertubing and discovered there are more dangerous things to do in the snow...

The hill wasn't that steep and it gradually leveled out. There was only one obstacle which was a small bump about 2 feet high near the bottom. From two hundred feet up the slope, the chances were pretty slim I would ever hit that bump. Russ, my tubing partner, agreed. We actually didn't use a tube. We bought this jumping play pen for kids which kinda looks like a kiddie pool (basically an innertube with a floor). So, Russ and I sat in it and took off. We picked up alot of speed, then we turned around backwards, but we turned around again just in time to see that little bump right before us. It was a lot bigger close up. We were screaming the entire time. Then we hit it and all I saw was white. This is mainly because I was upside down about 10 feet in the air. About 30 feet later, I hit the ground. Snow might be soft, but it's still hard when you land on your head. I brought myself to my feet, still a bit dazed and saw Russ who was a good distance away from me. We both laughed so hard. Either it was because we were so happy from surviving or from the sheer thrill (or terror) of the experience. Anyways, our friends watched in silence wondering if we were alive or not until we cheered. Then our friends decided they would try it against our advice. Watching other people do it made me cringe. Every jump looked totally brutal. If I hadn't done it first, I would never have done it. One loose tooth, one bit tongue, one scraped forehead, one wind knocked out, and one scraped neck later, everyone got it out of their system. Only Harrison tried it twice and managed to not get hurt both times. For everyone else, once was enough. We got video of every jump. There is no audio on my jump so unfortunately you can't hear the contrast of screams of terror followed by the cheers and side splitting laughter of joy. I'll let you know when it's online. Anyways, my back, ribs, and neck are sore, but I've felt this sore before when I was new to snowboarding. Somehow I feel like the number of years I have left to do this kind of stuff are very few.

I got back this weekend from my two week trip to Florida. Not a bad trip, but I have all week to talk about that. Let's get this Paris thing done.

Part 2

Anyways, continuing on with driving in Paris. Parisians have many double standards when it comes to driving. First, while at a red light, you have about one second of grace to hit the gas before someone lays their horn on you, however it is completely acceptable to block an entire lane of traffic by putting on your hazards and leaving your car to go buy bread at the store. Second, it's against the law to not signal while turning, eating or talking on the cell phone while driving (after all, this is unsafe), but it is quite normal to tailgate with about 5 feet of space in between vehicles. I was actually yelled at by a police officer because I failed to signal when trying to park and he almost hit me because he was tailgating. Well, I'm in their country so I guess I was wrong. I should have put on my hazards and blocked him while I went into the store to buy bread. Suck on that, Inspector!

Anyways, the last week was spent in Paris seeing as much as we could (and we saw alot). I always thought that tourism would be really light in Europe during the winter. This is true until Dec. 31. Then everyone showed up. There were crowds that equaled the summer's tourism easily. The crowds were there until we left on Jan. 4. Who knows how long they were still there. So keep that in mind if you ever plan to tour in Europe during the winter. On that day, we went up the Eiffel Tower. Really, really cold up there. Oddly, it was colder half way up than on top. Sadly, it wasn't a very clear day. Well, it wasn't clear until we got back to the bottom. Then we made our way to the Catacombs. The catacombs are a very surreal place. The story behind it is a couple hundred years ago, the city was infested with cemeteries from the centuries. They wanted to build in these places so they decided to move all the bones to the limestone caves outside the city (this part of the city is now within the city limits). It took the clergy 60 years to move 6 million bones and bless them in their new resting spot. The walls are lined with caches with bones stacked up to the ceiling. We became quite desensitized very quickly and began taking silly tourist photos in front of the skulls. (What do you expect from three members of skit team?) The catacombs have 175 miles of tunnels, but only 1 mile is open to the public. The really morbid thing is at the end, they search your bags for stolen bones. I can't believe people actually steal the bones. Do you ever wonder that one day your bones would be on display for tourists? Maybe you should, moo ha ha. It was hard to believe that every skull I saw was a soul. There were so many. You would expect a great New Years' Eve story being in Paris and all, but I was pretty tired that night. It was really cold too and the thought of going back out into the cold and wait for a number countdown in French really didn't appeal to me. Pam and Nate seemed to agree. Either that, or they were fuming internally, ha ha. We watched Finding Nemo instead. The next morning it snowed. Most of the museums are closed so we visited the Pompidou which is the museum of modern art. I've never been to a modern art museum before, but this fulfilled all my expectations. I saw one room that was littered with trash that was supposed to be an exhibit. I did enjoy this one room that was all black and white. We took some surreal pictures in there. We also visited the Sacre Couer which is another church. It's only 125 years old though so it's not nearly as impressive as Notre Dame in that respect. It does look much different than the typical churches you see all over Europe both inside and out.

January 2nd was museum day. We got to the Musee d'Orsay, but the line was a mile long. If you buy a museum pass, you don't have to wait in line to enter the museum. So we spent the extra money and did just that. A one-day museum pass is worth about 3 museum admissions, but if you can save three hours of standing in line, I think that justifies it. You can get a museum pass at most metro stations. I don't think most people know that about museum passes. It's awesome, you just show it to the person who works at the museum entrance and then you get to take cuts in front of everybody. I think that's when the people in front of the line learn about museum passes. Anyways, I saw some Renoir, Van Gogh, and Monet. The most recognizable Van Goghs to me wasn't there. That would be the Starry Night. The second half of the day we went to the Louvre again to see a different wing. This time we saw all the Egyptian artifacts and some Greek ones as well. One thing that's annoying about museums in Paris is that all the captions are in French. I'm not saying it's a fault on their part, it can just be aggravating to want to know more about what you're looking at and then you can't read it. If you happen to see an English tour guide, you could always piggy back there, ha ha. The plus side of this is you can get through the museum really quick since you can't read anything. That night, our friends Patrick Tsai and Sheryl Chow were in town and met us for dinner. They were recently engaged. We walked along the Champs Elysses (which is about 2km) from the Louvre to the Arch du Triomph. We ate at this restaurant called Spicy which is just off the Champ Elysses. If you want a fine French dining experience, you should go there. It's a little pricy though. Maybe they should have called it Pricy instead of Spicy, ha ha. The food isn't all spicy though and the creme broulee is extremely good.

On January 3rd, Pam went home so we took her to the airport. She was flying Air France so there was a long line for security because of the recent terrorist threats. She told me later that first line took 3 1/2 hours and she waited in two more lines after that. All the flights were delayed that day. After that, Nate and I went to Invalides where Napoleon is entombed. It is also the French Army museum. I don't know why there are so many jokes about the French never winning any battle. Napoleon conquered quite a bit. That guy has huge size issues. He rode a smaller horse just so he could look bigger. His tomb is enormous. It's hard to believe there is a very tiny man inside that tomb. Even Goliath would have had alot of space in there. But nothing could be bigger than Napoleon's ego. Again, I wish I could have read the captions. Some interesting things in the musuem were the mummified remains of Napoleon's dog and horse. There is also this suit of armor chest plate that has a cannonball hole in it. It went right through some guy. It looked brutal. I wonder if he felt it. Anyways, that was our last full day in Paris. We took lots of pictures on our last day. Even though I spent so much time there, I still wish I could have stayed longer. The plane ride home was long as I mentioned a few weeks earlier. We came into Los Angeles from the north which is weird cuz I usually come in from the east. I saw my old house in Camarillo from the plane. It was really clear that day and I was surprised to see how massive Los Angeles is. There can't be a city that takes up as much space as Los Angeles. It may not be very tall, but it is very broad. I just saw a grid that spread to infinity. Normally the smog blocks it after 5 miles or so (or even less). Anyways, I like living in a city, but I'm not so sure I have to live in a city this big. In comparison, Paris is only about 8 miles wide. Another observation I made while in Paris was that every day the sky looked like a painting. I wondered why the sky never looked like that at home, then I realized it's because it's rarely cloudy and it's always smoggy. I have some great desktop wallpapers of France now.

Phew...now I can go back to current events. I had been cut off for the past two weeks. My remote access account didn't become available in time for my business trip so I had no internet access. This little thing would have been great help for my sanity when in the hotel room night after night. The weekend was the worst though. I watched one movie, but then I had no idea what to do with the rest of my time for that weekend. It was too cold to go to the beach and too far from anything else that Florida has to offer. Panama City is known as the Redneck Riviera, ha ha. That's where all the kids from the southern colleges go for their Spring Break. Summer doesn't really start in Florida until about mid-February so I had to work in some pretty cool weather, but not nearly as bad as the Midwest. I could never live there.