So Long Ed...

[Man in Black]

[[Ed McMahon]] (March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009)

He seemed to be a genuine person and a good man.

[Jason]

It's insane how many celebrities and athletes are dying. It's really saddening.

[Man in Black]

I usually get all my news from Yahoo and Google... the past few days I've been scared to get on the internet because I don't want to see who's next.

[Jason]

I'm a pretty big mixed martial arts fan. And about three fighters, one of which I was quite a big fan of, died within a year of each other. I was scared to open mmaweekly.com for quite a while. So I know exactly how you feel.

Evan Tanner. 37 years old. Such a great guy. His MMA career was fading. He had been absent from fighting for a while and was just starting to make a comeback. He decided to take a break after his recent loss. He wanted time to clear his head about his career, life and things like that. So he took a short vacation in the desert.

I recommend checking out his wikipedia page. Reading his last blog entry on the SpikeTV website was heartbreaking to say the least. It's on his wiki page.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Tanner

[Jason]

Here's his last blog ever.

"I'm hoping that very soon I'll be sitting out in the quiet of the desert beneath a deep blue midnight sky, listening to the calm desert breeze. The idea going into the desert came to me soon after I moved to Oceanside. It was motivated by my friend Sara's talk of treasure hunting and lost gold, and my own insatiable appetite for adventure and exploration. I began to imagine what might be found in the deep reaches of the untracked desert. It became an obsession of sorts.

"Treasure" doesn't necessarily refer to something material.

Today, I ran to the store to pick up a few things, and with the lonesome, quiet desert thoughts on my mind, I couldn't help but be struck with their brutally stark contrast to my current surroundings, the amazing congestion in which we exist day to day. The landscape as far as I could see, crowded, choked, with me and the rest of the species, an almost writhing mass of organisms, fighting over space and resources,....on the highways, in the parking lots, on the sidewalks, and in the ailse of the stores. And to think, there are still places in the world where man has not been, where he has left no footprints, where the mysteries stand secure, untouched by human eyes. I want to go to these places, the quiet, timeless, ageless places, and sit, letting silence and solitude be my teachers.

I've been gathering my gear for this adventure for over a month, not a long time by most standards, but far too long for my impatient nature. Being a minimalist by nature, wanting to carry only the essentials, and being extremely particular, it has been a little difficult to find just the right equipment. I plan on going so deep into the desert, that any failure of my equipment, could cost me my life. I've been doing a great deal of research and study. I want to know all I can about where I'm going, and I want to make sure I have the best equipment.

One more week. I think one more week, and I'll be ready to go. "

[Fish]

I completely missed this thread. God rest your soul, Ed McMahon. You were first when it came to second bananas.

A long time fan.