The most dangerous career

What is the most dangerous career these days? It seems like being a celebrity is up there in the top ten. I just has not been a good week in Hollywood.

First Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson die on the same day. Now Billy Mays, who made one think everything he sold was fantastic, was found dead this morning.

Studies have already been done on one breed of celebrity is most at risk: young rock stars.

Within half a century, nearly 100 rock starts have died, according to the BBC news. On average, US rock stars die at the age of 42 and those from Europe usually die at the age of 35. 25% of these deaths is linked to drug and/or alcohol use. Excessive behavior could also be a contributing factor.

FYI: the average American usually dies at the age of 78.

At least with this week's celebrity deaths, there is only one star the public is looking at and his possible irresponsible use of prescription drugs. That one star is the rock star.

Update on Michael Jackson Post

It was announced later in the day, on the 25th of June, that Michael Jackson died as a result of a heart attack. Toxicology reports are still in the works.

This really surprised me: a heart attack. Jackson seemed like he was a very slim person. Maybe too slim? He was a vegetarian as a result of his love of animals. I do not know if he worked out, but dancing has to count for something. He was not even that old: 50.

What I can only conclude from this is that he had ridiculously high stress levels in his life. And/or he had high cholesterol that went unchecked. I guess he could have also had an underlying heart condition that was not made known to the public.

Learn about heart disease among the African American and Latino populations.

So, what can we, the public, learn from this? Prevention is key:

• Exercise.
• Eat right.
• Chill out: learn to manage stress and anger appropriately.
• Monitor your blood pressure. Check it at the drug store or supermarket. If it seems to be high a lot, talk to your doctor about it.
• Check your cholesterol levels. If those are high, do something about it. One does not have to be overweight to have high cholesterol.

Heart disease is one of the number one causes of death in the US.
Be proactive about this in your own life.

Michael Jackson is Dead

This is figure from my generation that seemed to be immortal. He was found unconscious at his home and was rushed to the hospital, where he later died. Sources do not know the cause of death.

Click here to read the AP report.

God Rested

Genesis, the first chapter of the Bible, is pretty amazing. My favorite verse is Genesis 2:2: "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work."

When I look up "God rested" on a search engine, a bunch of sites come up with topics that are really serious and think way into this phrase. Yes, it is a good thing to have quiet time with God, but is this really what this verse about?

A lot of people use the Sabbath, the day God rested, as the day they might go to church, make the sign of the cross, and say a couple of extra prayers. This might be the day where people might spend a little time meditating. This might be the day where people acknowledge God's existence.

I have to wonder if God spent the day in meditation or what not. Whenever I think I God resting, I think of Him sleeping in or taking naps. Maybe I picture this because this is what I like to do on my day-of-rest.

Recently, though, I started to look at God's resting day a little differently when I had my youth group make a comic book of the first two chapters of Genesis. The kids, with their imaginations, designed what creation might have looked like. One kid drew about the first couple days, another did days 3 and 4, etc. I got stuck with day 7: God rested.

I had to think about what the teens were seeing: God was maybe floating around and the earth had no form. (How do you even draw that?) Then He decides to make a bunch of cool stuff like the planet, water, land, animals, plants, and humans. God takes a step back at the end of each day and acknowledges what a great job He did (He has a good self-esteem. Maybe we should all try doing this for ourselves at the end of the day.)

On the 6th day, the big project is complete. I hardly think God would sleep all day. I think this would be a cause for celebration or having a good time as a result of His creations. He could have rested by not stressing out or worrying about the task at hand, knowing there would always be tomorrow to start-up again.

My drawing ended up being one of God in a recliner, with His feet propped up. Next to Him is Michael, the angel, and they are playing the original version of Halo. Oh, yeah: God has a 2-liter of soda with Him, too. (I guess this kind of sounds like God spent the day being a nerd.)

So maybe the day-of-rest, the Sabbath, is not a day in which nothing is done. Yes, it is a holy day, but maybe this is because this is the day where it is okay to not stress out about the trials of life or work. Rather, this is the day where one can kick-back and have fun and know it is all good.

"I live in aso of kumamoto."

Over the winter break, I made some great new friends from Japan. Two spoke English fluently, the other barely spoke English. As a result, she would teach me Japanese and I would teach her English.

My friend has learned a lot of English since then and we have been writing to ech other back and forth. I love having a pen pal!

In my limited understand of the Japanese language and its sentence structure, I read this sentence with a lot of confusion and laughter:

"I live in aso of kumamoto."

This is what when through my head:

"You live in the what of Kumamoto?! I guess she really doesn't like it there."

It is not my friend's fault I read her sentence incorrectly. It is 100% mine. I even went and looked-up "aso" online to see what she meant. "Aso" is the name of the city in which my friend lives in Kumamoto. Duh, Flora!

Learning Japanese is going to be a long, interesting journey.