So it wasn't as full as I imagined...

Today went pretty well.. I woke up five minutes early, which I used to make a rice-and-beef dish for breakfast. So, for the first time in a while, I went to work completely full. I felt great. Once there, things progressed at a decent rate. I even had an astronomy-related conversation with the morning checker.

I have come up with a few more brainstorms regarding my campaign idea. Sadly, the more that I read the Dragonlance Campaign Setting for 3rd Edition, the less I like my idea for a "Dragonlance" campaign. Oh, it would work, and could be a lot of fun, but it was heavily modified, and included elements from Midnight and Arcana Unearthed. Some of those elements interfered with what I'm beginning to feel is Dragonlance. No worries, though. I have plenty of time.

After work, I swung by Comics N Collectibles to see if they had Age of Mortals, which I have realized I am going to need to run a Dragonlance game. They didn't have it. Oh well, I'll get it next week or something. I got home, and remembered that today was September 11. Yep, it's my friend Charles' birthday. I checked my e-mail, and he had sent a reply to my e-mail from this morning: He wanted to hang out!!

I hung out with Charles, his fiancee Melissa, and his parents. It was fun all around. We even watched The 13th Warrrior, and Charles and Melissa were both impressed. I came home, and I'm going to sleep now. Heck, I'm worn out. I blame being in bed no later than 930pm all this week.

Well.. sleep awaits, and no amount of putting-it-off will change that.

...

Like a quiz, the news of the deaths of Johnny Cash and John Ritter is everywhere. This is really sad, but I guess it's one of those things that occurs eventually. We're just not prepared for it. I'm not downing anyone for their feelings; I'm upset about it too. It's sad, but why are we sad? They're gone? What right do we have to expect them to be here for us forever?

The first celebrity death I remember hearing about that meant something (as in I knew who it was):was Lorne Greene. He passed away on September 11, 1987. (I just found this out. I looked it up.) Up until that point, he was the father on Bonanza, and the space captain those few times I got a chance to see Battelstar Galactica. It struck me profoundly that someone who could do those things could actually die.

While I knew academically about death, I had not yet had to deal with it on a personal level. So, the shock of someone dying was weird to me. (Less than a year later, I had to deal with my grandmother's death, and things changed then, too. But I digress...)

I've since come to realize that we're here for a (relatively) short period of time, and what we do with that time is our choice. Johnny Cash and John Ritter did not waste that time. The number of posts about them indicates that, as much as their actual works.

Will they be missed? Yes. Should we be upset that they died? I don't think so. They lived full lives, and touched more lives than any of us probably have. I would say that I'm thankful for what they did give us, instead of grieving for what is "lost" because they're no longer around.

Still, your milage may vary.