Blogger's comment system has been...DELETED! It's just too cumbersome. So I went back to Haloscan. The one perk that Blogger's comment system had was the email notification. Oh well, it wasn't good enough for me to keep it. Maybe it'll get better later on.

I got rid of Trackbacks though. What's a trackback anyways??? Well, since nobody knows how to use them and I don't know what they are, they seem to have very little use here. But for some reason, Haloscan recommends that I use them. Hmm, maybe they are using them to keep track of me. Well, I don't think so.

If you're like me, one of the first things you see when you get online is the top headlines for the day. Usually one of those is the number of people or soldiers that were killed in Iraq today. It weighs heavy on my heart to read that every day, but not only that, I have become desensitized when the number is small. However true it may be, I think our media is being very irresponsible in their "bean counting" of deaths in Iraq. Not to trivialize the violence and death that occurs in Iraq, but here are some actual statistics from a valid source on death in the world:

There is an estimated 6,379,157,361 people who live in the world at present.

The death rate estimated for 2004 (based on last year's numbers, I'm assuming) is 0.886%. So that means 56,519,334 die in a year which is 154,847 per day! Now this is just the flat number of people who die for whatever reason whether it is natural causes, disease, violence, etc.

Of that number, 3,209,354 deaths in a year are from infant mortality.

I couldn't get any death stats on anything else, but the point is alot of people die and they aren't even involved in the war in Iraq. But the media would like to focus on death in this area while ignoring all the death that occurs everywhere else.

One could argue that because this is a war, people should know how many people are dying as a result of the choices our government is making. So let's look at some statistics of how many people have died in wars where America invaded another country:

I'm trying to get these numbers from a source that looks legit. They aren't exact numbers, but they are close. These are just U.S. soldier casualties. It's hard to find accurate numbers on civilian casualties. Not that a good number could be found, but I don't think I need it to prove my point and I don't have the time to be looking up all these numbers.

World War I - 53,402
World War II - 291,557
Korean War - 33,741
Vietnam War - 10,789
Gulf War - 147
Afghanistan - 120
Iraq - 580

Not very big numbers since Vietnam and certainly very small numbers considering about 150,000 people die each day. You also didn't see the media bean counting the deaths from wars before now. I think this is because no one in my generation or the generation before mine has ever had to fight for their freedom, only for the freedom of others. It's easy to outrage people when the headlines say "100 Dead from Attacks", but imagine if someone printed "150,000 Will Die Today and Every Day Following".

In light of all of that: 353,737 are born in the world every day which is more than twice the number of people who die every day.

The bottom line is death is coming for us all at some point. The real tragedy isn't how someone dies or that someone died, it's where they spend eternity. The Bible says the way to salvation is narrow which means most of the people who die will spend their eternity in suffering and it happens to alot of people every day. Those numbers are far more tragic than any casualties in Iraq.

The Marauder's Map

If you've seen or read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, then you've heard of the Marauder's Map. For those who don't know, it's a really cool idea. Basically with the help of the map, Harry could see everyone who was on the school grounds in real time. He would see their location and their name would be floating above their footprints. No one could hide from the Marauder's Map. Anyways, since I'm fascinated with really expensive techie toys, I was thinking that the Marauder's Map really isn't such a far fetched idea. At my work, we already have these proximity badges that have little passive (no power required) devices that communicate to the doors. Obviously they aren't powerful enough to just read it when we get close to the door, so we have to put the badge up to a reader still, but you could have a badge that does. What I'm getting at is this badge has all this information about me. It knows who I am and what areas I have access too. So I thought if you put these little RF readers that are powerful enough to read someone's badge anywhere on the campus, you could essentially know where they are at all times. You could have this computer screen with a layout of the whole workplace and see everyone's name just floating around where they are. You could even know when someone is hiding out in the bathroom, ha ha. You would just have to put these little RF devices all over the campus kinda like how cell towers are all over the city for cell phone service. It would be the boss's dream come true. Now he doesn't have to look far to find you. He could even use the search tool on the program and the program could pinpoint your location for him. Talk about big brother!

So I'm convinced that this must exist somewhere already since the technology to make it seems to exist already. You're probably wondering why I don't make an effort to find out or seek to invent it myself. I don't want such a thing to exist, ha ha. That would be just where it would start. First the workplace, and then the world! They can use it to fight terrorism. Every person must be ID'ed and that will make them possible to track. It's kinda sounding like Minority Report, ha ha. Of course a badge won't do it by then, it will have to be implanted. People would have these little nanomachines coursing through their blood vessels always telling Big Brother where they are and if they are in a place they are allowed to be. Anyways, such a thing sounds much more fun in a book than in real life. Of course, that's where we started in the first place...The Marauder's Map from Harry Potter. And then Big Brother also came from the book, 1984 (written in 1948). Yeah, so I hate it when I come up with a really cool idea for one of my books, and then I realize the reason it's cool is cuz I got it from some other book subconsciously. I want my stories to be original. I don't care if they sell if they are based on someone else's ideas. That person was the real genius not me.

Anyways, I thought I would just share that little bit about the Maurader's Map. Pretty cool idea. Wish I had thought of it. Imagine all the trouble you could cause with it.

"Mischief managed" indeed.

Hmm, I don't like that the only way to see someone's name when they post a comment is they have to be a member of Blogger. So it's either be a member or be anonymous? I don't like that. I will have NONE of that. Well, since a few of my posters aren't Blogger members, just put your name in your post and mark anonymous I guess or get a Blogger account, ha ha. It doesn't mean you have to post to it. Some of these features are making it alot more Xanga-like. I don't like Xanga. It's too busy looking. How much random info does a person need to see on a blog? Well, overall, so far so good.

So I've been checking out the features on Blogger and there are alot of new things here. So the first thing I changed was the comment system. We'll see how well Blogger's version works out. I'll just comment Haloscan in my code for now. Bummer I can't import my comments.

The Yosemite photos are up! Check them out here. If there is a particular one that you like, and would like the glorious full digitalness of it, let me know and I can email it to you. You need to be able to receive a 2 MB attachment though. Some are smaller, but all are over 1.5 MB.

I have an update on the Skit DVD. The last of the coveted Skit DVD content was shipped in last week and has now been digitized. (Thanks, Cynth!) The quality was much better than I expected so it is replacing some of the other footage I had from other sources. So this DVD isn't going to be as crappy looking as once believed. Also, this latest shipment adds a couple skits that were once considered lost (Adventure Skit 1 & 2 and The Phobia Skit). The menus look really good and are quite zany. They represent the skits very well. It looks like it will be a 2-DVD set (just like every other studio DVD these days). The DVD should be ready in about a month. However, that's the time I'm moving so that could delay production. Look for the Skit DVD early this Fall!

This weekend I went to Yosemite for Paul's bachelor party. The main task for the weekend was the hike to the top of Half Dome. This was my third time making the 17 mile journey (round trip). I never thought of a hike as being extreme until I did the Half Dome hike. The first time I did it, I swore never to do it again for many reasons. The first reason because it was a difficult climb and it was really hard on my legs. The second because of the precarious climb on the rock at the end where some parts are at a 60 degree incline on smooth rock and the only thing keeping you from dying is God's grace and your death grip on the cable (no safety features here folks). The third because I've done it before so why do it again? Well, I guess the biggest lure to doing it again is to experience it with people who haven't done it. It's also a great fellowship time, but I think I would like to do that on a different hike now, ha ha.

Anyways, I hadn't done this hike in about 4 or 5 years. What's different between now and then? Well, I've been working out at the gym since then so I've put on about 40 pounds of muscle (somehow I still look skinny, ha ha) and I've aged 4 or 5 years. I have found that these two cancel each other out. It was just as difficult as any other time and I'm just as sore now as I was then. It seems like the extra muscle only helped in carrying my extra weight. I've also learned that strength is useless without endurance which is one thing I haven't worked on since my cross country days in high school. Half Dome is an endurance hike and strength only helps on the last 200 feet of the climb. I did get to the top faster than I ever did before which was about 3 1/2 hours. I could have gotten up quicker had I not stopped for lunch. For those who know I'm a slow eater, that was not so for this lunch.

The cables at the end are by far the most daunting part of the climb because it actually is a climb. If you ask me, if you must use your arms to go further, it is no longer a hike but mountain climbing. I also consider it mountain climbing when you can die if you let go. Anyways, if you do slip and slide to your left or right, you fall about 5000 feet. If you're lucky enough to fall straight back, you may have a chance after tumbling up to 200 feet. If any of that wasn't bad enough, how about 200 people on that cable going up and down on a path that is really only wide enough for one person? This was the most crowded I had ever seen it. It was so ridiculous. It was taking over an hour for people to go 200 feet because most people weren't in the best shape so they had to keep stopping to rest. So some people would just go up on the outside of the ropes which is was even scarier to pass the group. I couldn't help but struggle with the double standard. I thought people were so stupid for crowding themselves on that thing so that they move so slow which probably tires them out even more and yet I wanted to get up there too. I came all this way and even though I made it up there before, I wanted to take some photos with my new digital camera. So we got in line. After about 20 minutes, we ascended a whole 20 feet. Then this girl was coming down on the outside and told us, "You should totally go up on the outside, you'll race up there like Spiderman." Two thoughts came to mind upon hearing this: 1) The difference between me and Spiderman is that my hands and feet don't stick to vertical surfaces and 2) I'm wearing Vans, not climbing shoes, and they are worn pretty smooth as it is. Then I noticed that she was wearing Birkenstock sandals, and then I thought, "well, if she can do it, I can". And I did race up there like Spiderman. I passed some of the most terrified people. They must have been hanging there for an hour at least. When it got really steep, I cut back in. It was soon after the bottleneck anyways, so it pretty much only took 20 minutes from when the girl gave us her advice. It was still totally nuts. You may think it was really stupid to do that, but I honestly think it was safer to spend as little time on there as possible.

That was the experience of Half Dome the third time around. I remember the first time I thought that this would be a great place to propose to your girlfriend, but then I thought it would really stink if she died during the climb, so scratch that idea. I can't remember what I thought the second time. I think I was too exhausted. The third time I thought, "People should definitely do this, but I'm not going with them anymore." Anyways, despite that I'm in pretty good shape, my legs are really sore and I'm basically walking with two limps. You would think that two limps would cancel each other out, but no, it just makes it look alot more painful, ha ha.

I'll have pictures online later this week.

I've become more of a weekly blogger lately. This is mainly because I have less and less free time at work to do these kinds of things. I'm glad for this though since I actually feel like I'm earning my paycheck. Anyways, I've been thinking lately as to why I started blogging. I think mainly it is because too many random things happen to me for me to just keep it to myself. Plus there are just too many things I think about that I would like to be more accountable to. But I think the plan from here on out will be a weekly blog. This will do a couple things. First, it will (hopefully) increase the quality of the blog entries and second, it will give me more time to do other things of which I will probably blog about, ha ha. Anyways, I'll probably break the rule here and there cuz some stuff just has to be posted the day it happens and sometimes there is just more to say in some weeks than in other weeks.

Anyways, as always I saw a movie this weekend. The third installment of Harry Potter was great. All the movies have been great so far. Like the two other movies, this one is jammed pack with as many plot points from the book that will fit on film so the movie feels a little rushed. I felt that this movie was probably the biggest departure from the book, not because it had some new stuff, but it just couldn't include everything so some things were just passed over. I really liked the casting for the new characters and they created that feeling that I had for them in the book. Gary Oldman is the perfect Sirius Black. I was excited to learn that he was cast all those months ago and I'm glad he pulled it off. So it's kinda funny to see all the kids in their awkward adolescent phase. The main three don't look as awkward as some of the others. Draco Malfoy and Neville Longbottom are probably the most different. It may be a problem in the future if these young actors grow into sizes that don't fit their characters. I really don't care though, they should just stick with them, who cares if they look older than they are playing. No one notices if they all age at the same rate anyway.

This weekend I got to hang out with some old college buddies without their wives for the second time in the last 6 years. They really like this board game called Settlers of Catan. I wonder what the deal is with married people and their board games. Anyways, I normally don't play "bored" games, but this one was actually pretty fun. I give it my seal of approval. It's even more fun than a card game (although this game also has cards in it).

Tonight I laughed so hard. We celebrated Aaron's birthday today and afterwards we talked about old times. I forgot how many random pranks we pulled on people in our Bible study. There were so many good ones although I think most of the time only me and Aaron were laughing, ha ha. I can't tell them all here, but here are a few:

Lois Hill is probably the most classic prank. Aaron had gotten this container from some perfume mailer that looked kinda like an urn and it had "Lois Hill" engraved on it. So we put ashes in it from the BBQ and told everyone we were hanging onto this dead lady's remains for some people while they were out of town. People would come over and we would start juggling it around. People were really freaked out about it. We wanted the container to bust open and shoot ashes everywhere to really freak people out, but it never happened. Finally, we set it up upside down with the lid on really loose and put it on the coffee table during out 4th of July BBQ. Someone had to touch it then. Then when I was outside, I heard all this screaming and poor Jim was our victim. He said stuff like, "I hardly touched it, it was like someone had left it that way so it would open on purpose!", ha ha. The really funny part was we forgot to tell him later that it wasn't real, so he actually went home thinking he had dead lady ashes on him, ha ha!

And then we came upon this tape called "I Like It Nasty". It had been in the apartment already when we moved in. So we just planted it in each other's stuff. But we lost it the day that the guys put it in some guy's Bible case. We never heard about it or anything. I don't know how many times we dropped the word "nasty" just to see if he'd react, ha ha. We used other things later on that replaced it such as this cadaver toy that came with one of the X-Files action figures. We used some other random things too. One time I found one of those things in my bag when I went to Albania, I had to hold onto it for three weeks before I could get Aaron back, ha ha.

And then there was the time we put a monkey mask on a really long pole, and then went into the backyard and poked this head up in the window of the girls upstairs (Tiffany and Larissa). That was immediately followed by a cup of water dumped on my head. I admit they got the best of me that time.

Those were good times.