My senior year of high school I came to DC for a leadership conference (incidentally this was also my first experience with snow). While here I met a guy from Ohio, with whom I've since emailed and IM-ed, and even added to my Friendster list. I have to admit that I've pieced together my understanding of him from these sources and from his AIM profile and away messages. My overall impression is that he is somehow a well-adjusted version of Dave, and I'd like to get to know him on a more legitimate basis. Since that's not going to happen, I'll remain content in the conviction that he seems like an absolutely beautiful human being. I'm truly astounded by the life he's managed to lead at such a young age. The one thing that he really has in common with Dave is his faith, if you can excuse the fact that he's VERY Catholic. In my state as an avowed agnostic, I still find it touching and worthy of respect that he's been able to hold onto that piece of himself. I think that the source of this sentiment is the fact that he expresses his faith through peace and love. Again, I'd have to actually get to know him more realistically in order to have this substantiated, but I like to hold onto my idealized vision of him. Every time I meet some one I can hold in such high esteem it does a little to restore my faith in humanity, if not a higher power.

This tangent was brought about by his current away message referencing the Pope's deteriorating condition. I'll echo his statement and say "Peace for JPII." I'm now going to change the entire tone of this posting and say that since it's April Fool's Day, I'm half expecting to have a Papal representative come out this afternoon and say "Just kidding!" Yes, I know, I'm going to hell.