Recently, the newspapers have been filled with disheartening events, and it’s not about the war overseas or stock markets or fuel prices. In the past week alone, I’ve found out that friends of friends/friends of the family have passed away; unfortunately, some rather tragically. I won’t go into details here, but needless to say, it’s had a sobering effect on me.

I’ve known death; through funeral announcements/obituaries of public figures and sometimes acquaintances and old teachers/mentors…and always I’ve felt the pang of regret. ‘I should have emailed him…’ or ‘I saw her just last month…’, things like that go through my mind, and yet… I distance myself emotionally from it, because yes, I fear death, knowing I have so much more to live for and dream of doing in my life…

I offer my prayers to those who pass away and sympathy for those who remain. And only hope that before my time comes, I have lived my life as best I could and left my loved ones with happy memories…

“A gamer’s virtual skills save a real life…”

Whoa! Now, I’d be the first to admit that some games have actual real life application (hand-eye coordination, timing, *cough cough*) but this really came as a surprise to me. Then, I read the article and found out that the game “America’s Army” does real-life simulation of actual soldiering, including training to become a medic.

To me, that is one super cool game-feature; being able to learn how to deal with emergencies. I know I won’t learn first-aid playing Soul Calibur 3, that’s for sure…