It's the end of the world as we know it...

At least the end of the year and it's been a long, long time since I've written. Frankly, I'm only here because I can't log into World of Warcraft at the moment and I don't want to read. I finished the Book of Mormon again, totaling 75 books for the year and I'm content with that. Amber will be tomorrow. Corwin and Merlin and their many adventures.

I have been thinking about Asia and the tsunami. Boy what a mess. Even though atomic weapons in just a few instants killed more than this tsunami, my mind seems better able to wrap itself around that idea than this. Maybe because the death and destruction is so wide spread over so many places and peoples. Over 100,000 people gone to see their Maker. I seriously doubt it was a "wrath of God" wave as I have heard some people describe. I can't see that much wickedness that needed to be cleansed in that area when there is so much apparent wickedness in others.

While I was thinking about it, almost instantly while I was finishing up the Book of Mormon (like the next verse I read) was "For behold that all little children are alive in Christ, and also all they that are without the law. For the power of redemption cometh on all them that have no law" [Moroni 8:22]. I am certain that not all of them had a chance to hear the gospel and it was a comfort to reaffirm the knowledge that they will be cared for. I am still just in shock every time I try and wrap my mind around the number of souls. I can't imagine the number of secondary related deaths from disease, exposure and everything else. *shudder* As I go into a new year, I hope I can feel compasion for everyone all the time, not just victims of natural or man made violence. Mayhaps that is the pure love of Christ, that charity, that we have been told to strive for.

In other news -- Fred Riccilli was sealed to Hope Miller on the 29th. It was a brief trip for Michael and myself, but we were glad to be there and grandpa seemed very pleased we could be there as well. Now we just have to do a bit o' research and find grandpa's parents. He's not very good with dates, but then he's a bit older and his folks were born in Italy. Goodness knows I have to *think* about when my parents' birthday's are (yearwise) because it's never been overly important to me to know how old they are, they are my parents regardless of age, right?

2005 will mark a few anniversaries for me. Albeit later in the year and you may hear about them again.

1> 15 years out of High School. Amazing to me, that.

2> 10 years since Roger Zelazny passed.

&

3> 10 years since Oingo Boingo called it quits.

Strange how time marches on so quickly. Course it's a man made invention so maybe we should just uninvent time and make life a lot simpler. *nodsnods*

Ya know, gang, that's it for now. Probably for this year. So have a fantastic Eve and I am sure I'll see you around sometime next year.

~Gojira
~ゴジラ
~Case

A long, long, long breakdown . . .

Thanks to Oingo Boingo for my title. It has been a long, long, long, breakdown. Where have I been? Well, when not doing schoolwork or sleeping, I've been in another world. The World of Warcraft. Yeah, one of those games. Good thing I'm still doing my homework and all. Cause for the next 10 days I'm gonna be busy with it. This coming week (or this week since it appears to be after midnight) is the last week of classes, next Wednesday [that'd be the 15th] are finals. So I've got loads going on. Everyone trying to cram in the last few chapters and whatnot. It's a flood of things to do.

For instance -- Monday is Physics and Speaking Test (Japanese). Tuesday is the Written in Japanese. Wednesday is Computer class comprehensive final (not really worried about that). And then Friday is our Kanji final in Japanese. Then the following Wednesday I have both my Japanese and Physics finals one right after the other. Basically 4 hours of testing straight.

So as you can see -- busy time ahead of me. In the meantime I'll be playing some WoW. I've got 3 characters. My main one is a Night Elf Hunter (currently level 25) with a nifty Kitty as a companion who chews things up while I stick it full of arrows. I play that one with a bunch of people I've known on-line, some for more than a decade. We also have Horde characters (vs Alliance) on a different server. A Troll Priest who hasn't had a lot of playtime. My other char is on yet another server with one person I know, but she lives in Aussieland so I don't see her much. A Human Warlock who has a friendly neighborhood summoned creature to do her bidding. Her? Oh yeah, they're all girls.

Why do I play girls? Well not enough girls play games. If I am going to look at something for hours, I'd rather it be a girl than a guy. I have been playing the girls of games since the days of Chun Li in Street Fighter. Take your pick of a reason. It's some of all of the above. The only difference between them and the male characters is the graphics. At least in a game like this. In the fighters, ala Street Fighter, the girls are often quicker. If you made such differences in an MMORPG, however, someone would figure out the uber-setup and nobody would play anything but that... well, people would, but a large portion would all play the same thing.

I may get to go home for Christmas, sorta. Derek and Fam will probably be going out Christmas day. Fine with me. Grandpa Fred is scheduled to be sealed to Grandma Hope on the 29th so we'd like to be there for that. I don't know if anyone has managed to get his parent's information. The biggest problem we had with that was that Grandpa couldn't actually remember their exact names or birthdays. He is first generation Italian-American so as immigrants his parents records could be a little tougher to trace. Guess we'll see what happens, but it would be nice to be there for that.

I am looking very forward to rereading the Chronicles of Amber. Ahh, Corwin my friend, just a few more days amigo.

My head is superclogged at the moment so I'm gonna call it quits for now. See ya all later somewhere on the Stomping Ground.

~G