Let The Madness Begin

In less than 24 hours Chad, Sabrina (Chad's wife), Emily, and myself will be in Anaheim, CA, at the Honda Center watching the first and second rounds. We get to see part of the West and South regions. The games are as follows:

West Region
UCLA vs. Mississippi Valley State University
BYU vs. Texas A&M

South Region
Marquette vs. Kentucky
Stanford vs. Cornell

Can't really complain about those games...especially with getting to see Stanford and UCLA!

So if you happen to be watching any of these games, be sure to keep an eye out for us! Just look for me...I'll be the guy with brown hair, a shirt, and a face :)

Religion

I don't get these religions that say they are a "branch" of Christianity and believe in Jesus, or acknowledge Jesus as a true prophet, but then change/add to/take away/alter what Jesus taught. I just don't get it, I don't think I ever will. It makes no sense to me. If you believe that Jesus was who he said he was, and did what witnesses said he did, then how can you include him in your religion but yet change stuff?

If you believe in this Jesus, by default you have to you believe in the Christian Bible and the New Testament. At the end of the New Testament in Revelation (and in other places) it clearly warns about changing things written in the Bible:

"I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book."
Rev 22: 18-19

The only thing that does make sense to me is that the people of these religions have obviously been taught or shown a false Jesus. That's the only way they could "include" him in their religion, but not follow him, which is the greatest tragedy of all.

The Weather

Talk about nice weather. The whole last week has been in the low 80's...it feels like the equivalent of about 70 in Michigan. Pretty much perfect in my book...especially for riding my scooter. Sometimes I take the long way home from work through Papago Park. (See picture)

High Speed Rail

What's the deal with the U.S. and it's lack of high speed rail? (I guess really you could throw in public transit all together.) Sure, the U.S. is much larger than areas in Europe and East Asia where high speed rail is more available, but that doesn't explain the Northeast and the West Coast. There's no reason the D.C.-NYC-Boston corridor and the San Diego-LA-San Fran-Sacramento corridor shouldn't have service. Imagine if major routes like those (and others) had the option of high speed rail...even the slower high speed rail trains go about 120 mph. You could go from NYC to Boston in less than two hours compared to 4+ hours by car. Or LA to San Fransisco in three hours compared to 6+ driving.

I'm no transportation expert, but from my small research and knowledge, it seems like rail is cheaper and just as fast (if not faster) to use than planes, on trips involving a couple of hundred miles or less. No showing up 1 - 2 hours before your flight. Minimal/no security delays. Bigger and more comfy seats. Smoother and more quiet ride. Using electric instead of petrol for the fuel. What more can you want?

Or forget about city to city transit, that's an easy one. What about big city light rail? If there was actually practical rail transit available think how much traffic you could get rid of? Or how much time you could save not waiting in that traffic? Oh wait, that's right, if we did that my 45 minute commute from Suburbia to work wouldn't let me get in my Hummer by myself (I get 12 mpg @ $3+ per gallon. But I go grocery shopping once a week with my wife and two kids, so it's justified), go through the drive-thru at Starbucks, hurry up and make my way to the parking lot we like to call "Freeways" and creep along at 30 mph, then finally get to work and barely squeeze into the parking space (Hey, if I'm "on the line, I'm in", right? It doesn't matter if it's BOTH of the lines does it?). Oh yeah, I almost forgot, this commute time lets me catch up on all the phone calls and emails I've been meaning to get back to on my PDA.

I'm sure it's politics, it always is in the U.S. I'm not sure how happy the auto makers and the airlines would be if the government allowed potentially cheaper and more practical rail to be put into place. Oh, you bet there's some good ol' American culture in there messing things up too. We like our big cars and trucks. They make us feel "safe", they help our ego and they validate our status in culture. I know I just opened another credit card to help pay for the lease on an H3 that I use to pull my boat to lake once a month. I already use my H2 for commuting and I don't want to put any more wear-and-tear on it.