Tradegdy, followed by a Sci-fi Thriller Western

Figures now place the death toll of the earthquake in Kashmir in the 14,000's.
14,000 lives lost in the disaster. Makes Hurricane Katrina look like a afternoon shower with its toll of "just" over 1,000. For me, even 1,000 lives lost is a bit hard to comprehend. I have to think about it as all the juniors and seniors at my old high school being killed in order to understand it. Even then, it still feel numb. Numb-ers do that. What is the numb-er gradiant where it doesn't feel so bad? If one person is killed, its the worst, because we can see that one person. We feel, poignantly, all that person was or could have been. When it becomes two people killed, it's a nastier shock, but not that much nastier. And so on. We recoil in horror when a bus of 14 people catches fire, but with nearly the same recoil, take in 30 deaths in a riot. It would seem we plateau- there are limits to our ability to come to terms with horrorible things. We simply don't have the emotional reserves to handle the magnitude. Perhaps it follows a logrithmic curve.

So when I see that 14,000 died in Afghanistan, I can only sigh with sadness. The immensity of it is beyond me. That over 30,000 died in the tsunami last winter felt surreal. There was nothing to relate it to. In product design, if something fails and causes more than one death, than it is said to be "catastophic". What is "catastrophic" multiplied many times worse? "Biblical" is the only word that comes to mind.

Anyway, I went to a really fun party last night where two friends of mine were celebrating thier birthday. It was a huge party, very sucessful, and I was surprised that the police never came by. It was pretty quiet by the street though.

Today I worked on my library project, drafting two sections and doing more hand sketches. I finished reading Blink!, so I need to pound out a rough draft tomorrow so I can edit it for Tuesday.

This evening I went to see Serenity with Jen and her mom, Diane. I'm surprised they agreed to see it, actually. When I first saw the preview for it, my first reaction was "this is going to be really corny and stupid." I was amazed, however, when it got an 81% approval rating on rottentomatoes.com . The movie is essentially a spagetti western set in space. One reviewer compared it to what Star Wars would have been like if Han Solo was the main focus. It was really a fun movie, and while it cobbled togather a story and some characters from other movies, it blended them togather really well, using complete unknowns for the roles. It's a genre-bender too: sci-fi, thriller, comedy, western. It's really got a campy feel to it, and even though the trailer gives all the good scenes away, its still a fun time. The director really did not take himself, nor the movie, as seriously as Lucas. Dad would like it the most, and I think mom would like it too.