I'm quite mad at Burger King. Well, perhaps mad isn't the right word, I'm more deeply disappointed. And appalled.

I went to Burger King today and picked up their kids' magazine. Yeah, that same thing you read when you were little and then sent in the club membership form. You felt soo cool when that card came in the mail. Anyway, so I picked up this magazine/fun book because it was about Lord of the Rings movie. I looked through it and it seemed pretty basic. It had a color the picture of Frodo, a word scamble, and a maze of Saruman's castle. As I looked closer I also saw a strip of gold on the side with some elfish lettering on it. An arrow pointed to it and said to have an adult help you make you and your friends your own fellowship rings.

Ok, perhaps its just me, but does this not sit well with anyone else that has read the Lord of the Rings books?? Isn't the point of the books that we must DESTROY the ring? Gandalf points out many times to Frodo that you should NOT except in extreme situations wear the ring. The ring must be destroyed, not used. If you wear you come under the power of evil and Sauron. Now if I'm a parent, I don't exactly want my kid wearing a ring like that, no matter how fake it is.

This is probably the first time I am seriously considering writing a letter to a major corporation. Usually I decide that my complaint is quite small and trivial, but this seems a bit too much.

I have to wonder what kind of people make those magazine fun books.

What an interesting and wonderful month! I was encouraged strongly, not by my boss, but by my boss's boss, to take Christmas off. Why, you ask, was I even considering not taking Christmas off? Well, we're (at my company, in my department), under a lot of deadline pressure).

Anyhow, most of my family was together over Christmas, except for my sister and brother-in-law, who are in Germany until September, at which time he is going to be transferred to Missouri. (For the curious, he is one step over the infantryman, but it does not necessarily help his safety in the Army... he is in the group that goes and builds bridges and blows up mines ahead of the infantry... Yikes!!!!

Thursday, I was able to see the Olympic Torch and carrier...it was exciting! They passed about two blocks from my work, and I went with several other people from work, and we were right there.... we saw the (cute) young woman get out of the van, then she jogged a few yards back (with the unlit torch...out of our view...) and took the "handoff". Then she jogged past us.... we all cheered :-) and it was WONDERFUL!!!!! I was 10 feet away!!! I'll never forget it. :-D

My Girlfriend persists. She continues to bring ice cubes to bed with her. I tell her I think it's not healthy. I explain the disadvantages. She refuses to talk about it. Everynight, whether we are turning out the lights together or separately, there they are. Cold and sharp, down at the foot of the bed. I roll over, but they seem to follow me-pressing against my legs or my back. I pull away and wrap the blanket around myself but still, there they are.

Some day that woman will wear socks to bed, I swear.

My Sci-fi Channel Haiku for today:

Oooo! Monster Island!
Dude! I LOVE Monster Island!
I just wet my pants!

Josh and I were acquaintances at best.

I would see him every now and then with Trevor. Never knew his name before the beginning of this semester so whenever I made reference to him I labeled him as "blond guy that hangs with Trevor". Because until a few days ago that was all he was to me.


When Ashleigh IM'ed two days ago and asked if I knew a Josh Myers I really had to give it some thought. The name sounded a bit familiar, and since I was curious as to what her motive was I went ahead and typed "yeah".

"Did you hear what happened to him?"

No, what happened?
I figured he had gotten arrested for drugs or something because that was the type of guy he was. While I waited for her answer I took out my yearbook and scanned the pages until I found the name. When I saw the picture I recognized him as a guy that ate lunch with me.

The "blonde guy that hangs with Trevor". So I actually did know him.

But what she said next shocked me.

She told me that he had died in a car wreck the day after Christmas. I really didn't know what to say. She told me the details about how he was late coming his girlfriend's house and had some how lost control and hit a tree. Later I found out from other people that something must have jumped out into the road and he swerved to avoid colliding with it. He went over a median, hit a tree and his car flipped. Upon landing it burst into flames. The police could not identify the body. No way to tell his race or gender because of the burns.

Josh is the first person I ever "knew" my age that died innocently. He wasn't DUI, he wasn't involved in gang and/or drug violence, and he didn't commit suicide like any of the other people I know. He was doing something I myself do everyday. Except he died. This is the first time I am actually scared. People always say that if you don't do this, then this won't happen. But what do you do when death comes when your just trying to live?

I thought about going to Josh's funeral today, but I'm a coward. I don't want to deal with reality. I don't want to admit that it could happen to me. I just want to live.

Girard Joshua Myers IV
1983-December 26, 2001
RIP

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