Happy New Year

I know I'm about 8 hours early, but that's okay. To anyone who visits this page, I hope your 2005 is better than your 2004 (or at least, not any worse).

Now, let's get to the moral of the post. If I can give you any advice for the new year, if you're going to make any resolutions, make sure the following is one of them. In fact, if you will, I'd like you to say it with me:

"I, , resolve to place my keys in the same spot after coming home every day in 2005".

Yes, there's a story to be told here. I was visiting my family these last few days, and they asked me to go get some onions out of the garage. However, the key was nowhere to be found, turns out it was left in the garage. That's okay, there's a spare set on my dad's key ring. Problem was, my dad's keys were missing. Again, that's okay, because there are two garage door openers. One of which is on the visor of the car in the garage, so that's out. The second of which is sitting on the table...with no batteries. Hmm. It's a small town, all the shops are closed, no chance to get batteries. Windows are locked, so I can't climb in there and unlock it from the inside. Hmm. Well, I guess we have to wait until the next morning to go get batteries from the store so we can put them in the opener and get into the garage. We did that, only the opener still wouldn't work. Okay then, there's only one solution left: pick the lock.

With a hammer.

It worked, and we got in the garage.

20 minutes later we found my dad's keys under the kitchen table. Such a fun story (as long as you weren't involved).

Now, to my New Year's Resolution: Weight Loss. Now, I'm sort of cheating since I've lost almost 25 lbs. since June, but there's more work to be done. So, I'll be keeping everyone up to date here.

The Asia Quake

The most recent reports have 23000 people dead, a number that is most certainly going to rise. This quake, at magnitude 9.0, released 100 times the energy of the world's largest thermonuclear weapon. That is a devastating amount of power. For more technical info on the quake, consult the USGS.

Now, I was browsing the CNN website, and on the front page, under the main headline, was a story about how a regular on Oprah had survived. I couldn't bring myself to click the link. 23000+ people dead, but at least an Oprah regular has survived. Does that make it better?

This quake is the 4th largest since 1900. Now there's concern that with the decaying bodies that disease and groundwater contamination could become a major issue. This will get worse before it gets better.

Study Break

Well, I'm supposed to be studying for exams, and I'm not. I'm watching TV, that's a good way to prepare, eh? Watching reruns of Seinfeld will definately help me in my US Politics exam tomorrow night. Nonetheless, I think I'll be fine. I've got the rest of the night and all day tomorrow to study.

Got some Christmas shopping done today, so far so good. Wish I had more to say, but it's better than nothing I suppose.

Hello

Okay, my blog at angelfire kinda disappeared. I can still add posts to it, but when I try to view the blog it says it doesn't exist. Yet if it doesn't exist then how can I add posts to it? You see why my mind has been taking me in circles for a while now. I figured if I thought about it much more the universe might collapse in upon itself, which wouldn't make a good birthday present for me tomorrow.

And, coming to a Darwin Award near you:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/30/lava.lamp.death.ap/index.html

For those too lazy to click the link, in essence, a guy was trying to heat up a lava lamp on his stove, when it exploded causing one of the shards of the glass casing to puncture his heart. Wow.

And under the brilliantly stupid category, the age old "Separation of Church and State" debate has taken an interesting turn, where a teacher has been told to stop using the Declaration of Independence as a teaching aid, since it contains the word God:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1124041declar1.html

I think the next logical step is to ban the phrase "Separation of Church and State" since it contains the word "Church". Let's call it the "Separation of *wink wink* and State". I like it.

...Oh my, breaking news, I've just been informed that the Declaration of Independence was created over 200 years ago, yet just now someone realized that the word "God" was in it. Now, I know I'm not an American so I don't have the same reverence for these documents, but how did "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." get turned into "The Declaration of Independence is unconstitutional".

The teacher is has now filed suit so that he may continue using copies of the Declaration to teach US history. So, they want kids to know American history, they just aren't allowed to read about it. It's like the time Homer smoked pot,

"Daddy's wonderful new medicine, which you MUST NEVER USE, let's him hear and see magical new things." I'm done ranting about this, come find me when the US Constitution becomes unconstitutional.