I went running today for the first time in a little over 22 months.  My lungs wanted to kill me the whole time, but my feet held up just fine.  I didn't have a watch but it felt like I did two miles in 18 or 19 minutes.  It feels good to be able to do that.

On another note, I've had a thing lately for chocolate milk shakes from Burger King.  It started a few weeks ago when I got one after an exam, and I've had one a week for three weeks in a row now.  I only mention it because all three times, I've ordered a medium, but two of the three times I've received a large.  The first time I thought Burger King simply had a huge medium, but the next time I got the real medium.  The two times they've given me a large, I've only been able to finish about half of it.  I'm not going to complain though; sometime I might actually need that much milkshake.  You never know.

Check it out:

Chris Schilling sent me this; he found it in a building at IUPUI.  Nice, right?

Lampost foils New Zealand inmates' escape

Here it is.  

I'm saying this is the first step towards the genetic selection of children.  It starts, like in the case in the article, with well-intentioned people working for the genuine good of someone who needs help.  I see it progressing so that the extra set of chromosomes will be able to be examined for specific diseases, which is also not a bad thing.  Then, someone who wants to make money will take the technology and apply it so that parents will be able to select more specific, and cosmetic, aspects of their children.  How would you feel about that?  Will we eventually breed ourselves the perfect race?  On the other side, would you really fault the parents who want to give their children the best chance to succeed?  

My good friend Marti presented me with the opportunity to go to a conference in Las Vegas for students interested in making disciples/starting churches.  I went, and I learned a lot.  Now, phone pictures!

It was a little cold when I left.

It's been close to four years since I had In-n-Out...

We talked to an employee while walking around in the Bellagio, and I assume he wasn't lying when he said it cost around 20 billion to build it.

The fountain show was pretty at night

I had to have it at least twice.  I rarely eat burgers, and when I'm presented with good ones, why not?

It isn't house sitting unless the first thing you see when you walk in the door is cat puke.  Literally, right inside the door.  Thanks VC!

I was just reading through the blog of a friend, and one of his posts made me want to comment.  You can find it here.  I wanted to express my opinion, but do it in a respectful manner without any emotion.  As I spent more and more time trying to perfect what I wanted to say to him, I became increasingly frustrated.  Not only with trying to express my thoughts the way that I wanted, but with said friend.  I don't know what he currently believes about a lot of things, but I know what he used to believe.  He was a great mentor and friend to me during some very important years in my teens.  I would attribute much of who I am today to who he was during those years.  I'd say he taught me more about loving people and how to live without being a burden to others than anything else, but his faith spilled over into my life in a huge way too.  Who is he today?  I don't know; we haven't spoken in some time.  He is a very intelligent person, and I believe that when he went in search of the truth he did so to the best of his abilities.  I also think that he knew what he wanted to find, and he did.  It isn't disappointment I feel, it isn't anger, and it isn't doubt.  What I feel is long-lingering sadness at the loss of his company.  I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter what he found or didn't find, because I don't consider faith a matter of what you are able to convince yourself of.  I don't have to understand everything that's related to the man I believe was fully god on earth to be content; I don't need to have a logical explanation for everything in the book I believe is the inerrant transcript of the maker of the universe to be able to sleep at night.  I believe.  How do you explain that?  How do you lose that?  Je ne sais pas.