Contentment?....Joy?....Definitely not lackidaisicalness....

Today is quite the good day. I found out about making it on Wheat team (working with Janet, Angie, Nate, Gary, and my good friend Emily) and that I'm giving Talk 6 for TEC 67. I'm very, very, very excited for this TEC. I only know of a couple people from Blue Earth so far who have decided to go through (at least they better send in their apps), but hopefully there will be a couple more yet before the deadline.

** Redundancy Alert for Shayla** My school is randomly 2 hours late. They gave us 2 days like that this year, and the first one was in September. We have a homeroom to deal with registration for the first 25 minutes that we're there, so my first hour class is only about 25 minutes long. In other words, I only have to deal with advanced algebra for less than half an hour. I'm very happy about that.

Shayla asked me tonight how life was, and I really felt good about my response. My life right now is great. I can't think of a single thing that I feel is going wrong, and everything just seems to go pretty smoothly. Nothing is too redundant or horribly boring in school, TEC is going to come faster than anyone expects, my relationships are pretty sound, and the weather was fantastic this week. The only negatives I can see in the near future are the projected storms we might get this weekend and the other involves my sleeping pattern. I screwed it up this week, but it hasn't had too much of an effect on me yet.

Lent is different for me this year, even though I never usually give something up for the season. I decided not to give anything up, and instead I took something on. Seeing as I'm very inconsistant in reading my Bible, I decided to make that my daily habit during Lent in hopes that it will carry on after the season is over. So far so good, but 2 days doesn't say much. Everyone who gave something up for Lent is definitely in my prayers because it can be very, very tough.

On that note, I'm sending my content, joyous self back upstairs. I slept for a little while already, but Leviticus is always a good way to put yourself to sleep.

A Funny Thing Happened....

I went to see Melissa Oswald in a play last night called "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum." It was absolutely hilarious. Waldorf's website describes it like this:

"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" by Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove, and Larry Gelbart, is a musical comedy about the trials and tribulations of a slave, Pseudolus as he schemes to find a way to earn his freedom. Filled with chases, courtesans, soldiers, and a gallery of off-the-wall characters, "Forum" is a slapstick loaded, hilarious musical comedy that will entertain and amuse everyone who knows how to laugh. With such familiar numbers as "Comedy Tonight," and "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid," the show boldly proclaims, "we shall employ every device we know in our desire to divert you."

On that note, I'm really bored. I stayed out at Oswald's last night, and I was up all night playing Black Hawk Down with Tommy, Andrew, and Branden. I think I fell asleep for good at about 6:30 or so. Good times....

Short, sweet, and pointless

I have a bad cold (i.e. headache, sore throat, runny nose). Thankfully there's no fever or much other pain. I did think I was going to die when I coughed this morning right after I woke up. One of the worst pains ever....

Knowledge Bowl was good on Wednesday. I sat out on a bad round. There were a lot of questions I knew that other people didn't (i.e. K-r-z-y-z-e-w-s-k-i).

Duke had a heartbreaking loss on Wednesday. I was going to blog about it, but I ran out of steam. Scheyer had a career high 26 points.

It's bound to be a boring weekend.

Tim's lost a lot of hair in the last 2 years.

What I've learned so far in AP European History

My goal for my blog is to set aside a day every other week to talk about European History with you fine folks. I'll try not to bore you too much.

1. Rats can fall from a height of 50' and land without any harm. They must also chew on things often or else their lower incisors will grow into their brain and kill them.
2. Neil Patrick Harris is in fact a homosexual. I'd heard something to this effect, but I wasn't sure. So no, Barney from How I Met Your Mother is not a good womanizer in real life. He does make a very effeminate king in Joan of Arc.
3. Joan of Arc is a wonderful TV movie....to fall asleep to almost every day in class.
4. The Great Schism is one of the top 3 finest displays of Catholicism's problems. Not saying I have anything against Catholicism, just pointing out how horrible the Great Schism made the Catholic Church look. I mean, honestly, two "popes" along with the real one?
5. The French were crazy in the Middle Ages.
6. The French are crazy now.
7. Jen laughs really loudly. Whenever her and I are actually quiet during class, everyone else is talking and vice versa.

I give up on thinking of random things now. Mmmmm....Black Plague....

Who Wants to Be A Lifeline?

As I sat there watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? today, I started to think about who would be on my "phone a friend" list. Here's who I have so far along with their subjects of expertise:

Greg -- computers, old TV shows, original Nintendo games
Janet -- reality TV
Nate -- random trivia (woot for Knowledge Bowl)
Mariah -- shoes
Cody -- photography, theater, lighting, theater lighting
Jennie -- motherhood
Ben -- death-related issues
Tim -- llamas

Ok, so I ran out of ideas after a few people. If you have any other areas you want to be included in or you're not on the list at all and have an idea, be sure to let me know. That way I'll put you down on the list if I'm ever on Millionaire.

Excitement!

I'm posting in an e-mail again because I don't have enough time to read everyone's blogs tonight (sorry!), and I know I would end up doing it if I went to Blogger. I just wanted to post something quick because I'm very excited about tomorrow. I'll be in Mankato for One-Act Competition, and it's going to be a great time. We leave at 7:45, but we won't go on until 3:45 (lametastic). If you want to check it out, the whole thing starts at 10:00 am at Fitzgerald Middle School (about 5 blocks up the hill from Riverfront I believe).

The other thing I'm excited about is today's Knowledge Bowl meet. I knew a lot of folks from the NRHEG teams (Cody, Trevor, Andrew...), and it was a huge meet. Out of 69 teams, the Blue Earth teams were 8th, 28th, and 32nd. Not too shabby. My team was the 32nd one, but we did the best out of our 3 teams on the written round (43) and we our best verbal round was in the last round (14). There were 23 rooms, and we went from room 5 to 11 to 13 (twice). It was a good day though.

For those of you going to Roch tomorrow for TEC, have a great time! I'm still really disappointed that I'm missing my first Agape since I went through, but I'll survive. It'll just get me excited for TEC 67 in the good ol' town of B.E.!

Good gracious....

I'm not having the best week ever, no matter what VH1 says. Our last comp essay is supposed to be fairly easy because it's a college essay with a lot of choices for topics. Lo and behold, I can't get anything done on it. I've changed my topic at least three or four times, and I'm working on changing it again right now.

One Act is going pretty well. We have a few things to fine tune, but we should be ready for the competition on Saturday. We're also performing it Thursday morning for some of the people at school. Something's wrong with my throat right now, so I have no idea what's going to happen in the next few days. I can talk and all without having a raspy voice or anything, but it's really sore and such. It feels like it did after yelling at the TEC 65 talent show. It's crazy.

Friday is my first day off, but we all know what happens when you hope for a relaxed weekend: BUSYNESS! Friday brings about Knowledge Bowl (69 teams from 23 schools) in Blue Earth. I'm guessing my team won't do very well yet again, which is disappointing. One of our B.E. teams will do pretty well. Saturday, as I said, is One Act. I won't be able to make it to Agape for the first time since I went through TEC. I honestly think that's my biggest disappointment, even if we don't do well at One Act competition. Sunday might actually be a day of rest for me. Thankfully, I won't have any homework since it's the end of the semester this week.

I'm pretty stressed right now, but I'm trying my best to just shrug it off and try to stay positive about these last few days. Comp is my only big concern, and I just have to finish a rough draft (which should've been done today); it's all smooth sailing as soon as I have the rough draft done.

I suppose....

I'm pretty out of it right now, but I suppose it's normal for me.

I don't want to work on my 2nd to last comp essay for this semester, but I suppose I should.

I haven't seen how that last essay went for me, but I suppose I'll find out fairly soon.

I'm working on writing Talk #3 for TEC 67, but I suppose it's kind of slow-going.

One Act play is getting frustrating and stressful, but I suppose it'll turn out just fine.

This semester ends next Thursday, but I suppose I'll have to put up with it until then.

Milk Duds taste great, but I suppose I should quiet eating them for the night.

It's kind of cold in here, but I suppose it's partly because I'm not wearing a sweatshirt.

I feel like going to school late tomorrow, but I suppose I should try to make it on time.

My nose is running, but I suppose it'd be easy to catch.

I know you all enjoyed this pointless blog, but I suppose I should end it and get back to work.

Dropping the Hammer

The title I used is actually the title of my latest comp essay (yes, the one I was procrastinating on earlier in the week).

Yesterday was our first Knowledge Bowl meet. One of the 3 teams from my school got 2nd, the other was in the mid-teens, and the team I was on was about 20th. There were 27 teams there, so I was a little disappointed in our score. There were a lot of interesting questions that I knew. Since KB is using a new company to get their questions from, there are a lot of pop culture questions in comparison to previous years. I do give a special thanks to Bob for having a link to Ken Jenning's blog on her own, seeing as his name was an answer to a question (I think I was the only one in the room who knew it).

Today, I thought I would have a bad day. My contact irritated my right eye really badly yesterday, and it was blurry all night last night. I figured it would be a good day if I woke up and it was clear again. Sadly, there was still some blur, and I decided it wouldn't be a very great day. That was until I had my conference with Mrs. Alleven. She gave us extra credit if we had her go through our essays one-on-one with her and make sure we're going in the right direction with our writing. After reading mine she said, "Interesting." Usually that can be good or bad when she says it, but it turns out she really liked my essay thus far. All I had to do was add a little bit more. Hopefully this is a good sign for what my grade will be.

Curiousity cramped my style

I'm procrastinating yet again (imagine that) on a comp essay. This time it's a literary analysis on the short story "The Hammer Man." I know what I want to write, but I have no idea how to write it. Good times.

I really need to hang out with the people in my school more. Yeah, I have friends at my school, but I'm not as close to any of them as I am all the folks at TEC. The worst part about that is the fact that everyone from TEC lives anywhere but close. Oh well. "I will survive"

Why is this blog sounding so emo? I'm in a great mood tonight, but this still turned out to be a negative blog. It happens.

Back to work for me....

....what??

These last couple nights have been horrible to me. Nothing bad has happened or anything, but I managed to screw up my sleeping pattern horribly. I'll fall asleep around 7:00 and wake up between midnight and 1:00. Then, I either stay awake until I have to go to school or I'll get another hour of sleep at the most. It's nasty. I don't like it. I think tonight was a little better since I slept from 7-11 and I'm already getting tired again. As soon as I finish my homework I'm back in bed.

Other than that, things have been going pretty well. I've actually done my homework lately instead of procrastinating hardcore. I finally got an A on my grammar quiz in Comp (we get 9 tries, and it isn't very easy to get an A on it). My grade on my PPP (Personal Philosophy Paper) was surprisingly better than I thought. When I wrote it the morning it was due, I didn't follow the guidelines at all. Instead, I decided to kind of just rant. I ended up with 90% on it though because he liked it and I stayed on one line of thought the whole time.

I think I'm getting a new phone on Saturday. My 2 years is finally up on the piece of junk I have right now, so I'll be getting my free upgrade as soon as possible. It'll be the highlight of my week thus far.

If you can't tell, I've got nothing to blog about. Maybe Tim and I should get together and brainstorm more interesting topics....

My dad's gone missing....

It was Saturday night up at my dad's house, and we decided to go to Target to buy a DVD. We get there, eventually find the movie, and just kind of wander around some more. Cody and I were looking at a sweet speaker system, and our dad was just an aisle farther down. When we looked in the aisle, he was gone. Since he was holding the movie, we figured he might've gone to the registers. After walking past each and every one, he wasn't there.

We decided to entertain ourselves a little bit. There were two security guards standing by the entrance, so we walked over there. We put worried looks on our faces and said to the male guard, "We need your help. Our dad walked off somewhere in the store, and we can't find him anywhere. He's been diagnosed as clinically insane, so we need to find him quick."

Needless to say, our dad wasn't too happy with us, but at least we got a good laugh out of it.

Pre-Christmas school day

For the last two years, my school's choir teacher has played Christmas music in the Commons on the last morning before Christmas break. It's kind of a cool idea and all, but very random. I never really thought much of it meaning anything until I walked into the school today. As soon as I heard the music, I realized how close Christmas actually is.

I had one-act play auditions on Monday, and I ended up with 4 different parts in the play. We're doing "High School for Dummies." Sadly, our competition date is the Saturday of the upcoming TEC weekend, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it to Rochester in time for Saturday night's festivities. I'll definitely be praying for everything to go well.

That's all I've got. Not sure how much I'll be online leading up to Christmas, so I'll say this now:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Remember the real reason for the season. We celebrate Christ's birth through love, not gifts. Be joyous this season, and don't worry about being politically correct in wishing people a good holiday. If they're offended by you saying Merry Christmas, they can feel free to say Happy Hannukah or Happy Kwanzaa right back to you.

God bless you all!

Mariah's English assignment

I had nothing interesting to blog about tonight, so I chose to use Mariah's English assignment as a quiz of everyone's knowledge. Figure out which common phrase corresponds to each of these:


1. Surveillance should precede saltation.

2. Freedom from encrustation of grime is contiguous to divinity.

3. The stylus is more potent than the claymore.

4. Eschew the implement of correction and vitiate the scion.

5. All articles that coruscate with resplendence are not truly auriferous.

6. A revolving lathic conglomerate accumulates no diminutive glaucous saprophytic plants.

7. Missiles of ligneous or petrous consistency have the potential of fracturing my osseous structure but appellations will eternally be benign.

8. Pulchritude possesses solely cutaneous profundity.

9. Exclusive dedication to necessary chores without interludes of hedonistic diversion renders John a hebephrenic fellow.

10. Individuals who make their abode in vitreous edifices would be advised to refrain from catapulting petrous projectiles. [Hint: Chuck Norris does both]

11. Neophyte's serendipity.

12. Members of the avian species of identical plumage congregate.

13. It is fruitless to become lachrymose over precipitately decanted lacteal fluid.

14. Scintillate scintillate astral minific.

Bob and Giesenbauer

I noticed Tim's random Threeve in his own blog comments that stated how long it had been since Bob had commented him. That made me wonder how long it had been since she had commented my blog also. How long has it been? Counting this post, it is 15 posts and 117 days. I'm pretty hurt by that.

I also learned yesterday of a website offering random "Bad Commercials" for radio broadcasts. I decided to fill in the questions and see what they had to say about Giesenbauer, Inc.



Hey!

It's the season for sheer randomness, and Giesenbauer, Inc. is your sheer randomness headquarters!

Are you really, really gullible? Then call us today at 507-317-2081!

Yes, it's that time of year again at Giesenbauer, Inc., where you'll find Death second to none.
So for all your sheer randomness needs, call us at 507-317-2081!

This offer is illegal in every state except Minnesota and Iowa, and you won't believe our friendly, knowledgeable staff!

Yes, you've got us screwed six ways to Sunday, because we've got to get rid of this crap before the auditors discover our two sets of books.

So hurry on down to Giesenbauer, Inc., where we haven't had an employee freak out and shoot innocent customers for over 2 months and with prices so low, you know our stuff must really suck!

So call now at 507-317-2081. That's Giesenbauer, Inc.. 507-317-2081.

And remember our motto, "But our shenanigans are cheeky and fun..."

That number once again is 507-317-2081!
That's 507-317-2081!
507-317-2081!

"Chem is cool....if you like drug addictions...."

Chemistry has been quite the interesting class these last couple days. Yesterday, we spent a good amount of time learning how to build molecules of caffeine, nicotine, codeine and cocaine. Great fun! We then spent almost an hour talking about 1 of the 5 groups we intended to cover in our notes. Completely avoiding ethers, aldehydes, ketones, and carboxylic acids, we spent that hour taking about alocohols. Think that says something about where some people's minds are?

Today we had a "Code Red" drill test during chemistry, and it was decided we should definitely be in chem if there is ever a real "Code Red" threat because we have a small storage room to hide in. When we got back out from the storage room, we finished covering those groups that just happened to be left behind yesterday (and of course people had to complain that it was taking forever to get through them....and whose fault is that?).

That's my rant on the randomness of chemistry these last two days, and I'll end this blog with a quiz. Name each of the following four compounds by their more common (household) name:

1. CH2O -- methanal
2. (CH3)2CO -- 2-propanone
3. C2H4O2 -- ethanoic acid
4. C4H8O2 -- butanoic acid (this one's a tough one)

Battle With Worry

The above title is actually the title of my first completed composition essay (remembering an event). I have nothing better to blog about, so I'm posting it on here. It's roughly 4 pages on Word, so it's a little long (just a heads up).



Of all the adult women I have ever met, I see my mom as one of the strongest; her mentality, emotion, and will power are all characteristics that show her tough shell. Only something like a natural disaster would ever cause me to feel like I needed to worry about my mom. This last summer happened to be when she first encountered the dilemma of “her boys,” my brother Cody and me, having to worry about her, and it happened to be one of the most practical yet scary reasons there could ever be.

On June 2nd, like most other lazy summer days, I was lying in my bed when two soft knocks sounded at my door, followed by an immediate turn of the doorknob. Since my mom has been the only person ever to enter my room that way, I knew she was the one behind the dark wooden door. Her expression as she opened the door instantly told me she was not having a good day. Knowing my brother Cody lie in his bedroom next to my own, my mom sat down, called his name, and asked him to shut the door after he entered.

Sitting down next to me on my bed, my mom began to tell us about a former problem she encountered. Some years ago, a lump had developed in her breast. She did not go to the doctor at the time to have it examined, and it eventually disappeared and ceased to bother her. Then, just a few months before this conversation, my mom had discovered a new lump. At first, she thought nothing of it, but she finally decided to hear the doctor’s opinion. That led to the conversation in my bedroom.

With her voice starting to crack and tears forming in her eyes, she said to my brother and me, “This time it’s cancerous.” I could not think of any time when I had seen my mom shed a single tear, so when she started crying, I knew she feared what would happen. Silent and worried, Cody and I choked back our emotions as we had been doing in tough situations for as long as I can remember.

After a few minutes in silence, the small refrigerator in the corner started with a hum, and my mom continued the conversation by telling us not to change our plans for the summer. Cody would still be traveling on a theater tour, and I would still be camping at Whitewater State Park with my youth group. Unlike my brother, I could have easily changed my vacation plans in order to be with my mom at the hospital in Mankato during her surgery. Instead, she insisted I still attend my camping trip, just as I expected.

Seeing as though Cody and I are both devoted to our belief in God, Mom asked us to pray. Not only would we pray that her surgery succeeded in its purpose, but we would also ask God for peace, courage, and a positive attitude for the three of us. Knowing we also had a large Christian community to utilize because of our involvement in Teens Encounter Christ, Cody and I later decided to ask those friends, through phone calls and e-mails, to pray for our family.

Finally, my mom exited my bedroom without saying another word. Cody, wearing a black t-shirt and the jeans he borrowed from me, scratched his chin as he continued to sit on my bed solemnly. I quickly realized he was having the same issue as me; we both wanted to say something, but neither of us had the right words. My head buzzed with loud thoughts that muted out the sounds of the television. Before either of us could think of the words that we hoped to say, Cody left in sheer silence.

Nearly two weeks later, I reluctantly started my camping trip. The hilarious car ride to Whitewater took my mind away from the bad news, and few thoughts about the situation entered my mind until Wednesday, the day my mom scheduled her mastectomy. Because of my worry, my breakfast that morning lacked taste. I knew my grandma had accompanied Mom to the hospital, but I still felt uneasy about not being there. “How will I know everything is going well?” I thought. Luckily, the arrangements to receive phone messages from my grandma were in order, but I had to travel almost four miles into the town of Alba to get a signal on my cell phone. My youth director took me aside on that warm Wednesday morning to pray with me; the words, “she is a strong woman,” flowed from her mouth during the prayer and sang to my heart like a beautiful chorus. An idea arose as we were finishing the prayer, and I chose to hike to a glorious cliff, appropriately named Inspiration Point, later that afternoon. I only hoped my phone would receive even a slight signal there so I could check my messages. My phone showed enough of a signal to make calls, but my voice mailbox was void of any message from my grandma. The desire to know whether the surgery ended successfully or not burned inside me like a wildfire; I called my grandma to find some information.

“The doctor said everything was perfect. They took out some lymph nodes, and they’re pretty sure they got all of the cancer,” Grandma said quickly. She then added, “Your mom’s asleep right now, but I’ll have her call you as soon as she’s awake enough to talk.”

Two hours later, as the sun began to set, I was still perched on the edge of Inspiration Point, sitting quietly in the presence of God, fighting the tears of joy creeping to the rims of my eyes, and glorifying the fact that the surgery went well. The steady vibration of my cell phone in my pocket brought me out of that euphoria and back into reality. A huge smile stretched across my face as I answered the call from Mom. After deciphering her quiet, raspy voice for fifteen minutes, she told me it was time for her to receive a check-up and some medication, ending our conversation.

Before she lost all of her hair, my mom donated it to Locks of Love. The rest began to fall off of her head quickly, so she chose to have her head shaved instead. Seeing my mom without any hair continues to be somewhat of a strange experience, but I know she is bald because of the treatment that is helping her. Anxiously, my mom counts down the days until the end of her treatment, and at the same time I think about the reasons she, Cody, and I stayed so strong during the ordeal. My mom admits she would do anything in the world for my brother and me and that she sees us as the most important part of her life. Similarly, my brother and I have had to grow up fast and be strong adults because we have lived without a father figure in our house for nine years. She may have to “worry about her boys” more than we need to worry about her, but I believe Cody and I have an unending need to protect our mom during troubling times because we had to rise to the level of mature adults quickly. Mom has continuously shown a strong mentality, emotions, and will power, but all in all she stays strong for “her boys.”

I made the switch

I decided to switch over to Blogger Beta. I had wondered about the changes for a while, and tonight I finally checked it out. I liked some of its easy features that make it much more like Wordpress now (sorry, Greg). The most interesting feature I found is the one I'm using right now. I think it might've been available for the original Blogger, but I just never found it. What is it? Well, I'm typing this blog via e-mail. Gmail to be more specific. I love Gmail (thanks for the invite way back when, Bob!)....

"Run, freedom, run! You gotta run away!"

Tonight was the last of my performances for the 2nd play I've ever been in. I joined the Town & Country Players in their dinner theater show. It was "Earth So Rich the City Grows," and it told the story of how Blue Earth was started. We had some interesting songs, but they weren't all that exciting. It was a really lame show, but at least the costume was more comfortable than the one I wore for "Once Upon A Mattress."

On that note, and continuing with the musical aspect of this blog, I struck up a conversation yesterday with the guy who directed our school musical. I asked him if he had ever heard of the Broadway show "Avenue Q," which is basically an adult version of Sesame Street. He had, and we talked about it for a few minutes (and sang some of the songs) before he introduced me to "Urinetown." It's about a city where a drought occurs and people can no longer own personal toilets. They must pay a fee to use a public restroom, and if they get caught urinating (or deficating) anywhere else, they are sent to Urinetown.

I must admit, it's a strange concept. I borrowed the soundtrack from Kurt, and it has some good songs. All in all, I like it. It would probably be an interesting show to see. He said it was the only one he saw while he was in New York, and he really enjoyed it.

Philosophy book

I've been skimming through my philosophy book (Philosophy for Dummies) instead of reading chapter 8 and taking notes. I found some interesting passages on one of the many well-known characters within the TEC Community: Death
**Red are from the author, Green are quoted in the book from other sources

Part IV title: "What's the Deal with Death?"

Chapter 17 title: "Philosophical Consolations on Death"

Chapter 18 title: "Is There Life After Death?"

"We face our mortality, and we look at four different fears that Death inspires."

"...yet by looking at the questions distinctively raised by Death..."

"Death and taxes. You'll have to see an accountant for tax advice. But a friendly philosopher can help you understand the other unpleasant certainty in life."

"We fear Death. And we all live in some measure of denial, pretending that it's a fiction."

"Death surprises us in the midst of our hopes." -- Thomas Fuller (18th Century)

"My first real experience with Death was when I was in seventh grade."

"As a young boy, I heard about Death only when my mother talked about her childhood."

"Men fear Death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other." -- Francis Bacon

"There are at least for different kinds of fear of Death [one of them being] fear of punishment after Death."

"Whose Death is more terrible..."

"Therefore, after Death, there must be a realm of existence in which justice prevails."

"He didn't see Death coming."

"This is a particular kind of fear of Death...that is confined to those maintaining a certain specific world view."

"I did not believe at the time that Death is annihilation..."

"For life is nearer every day to Death." -- Phaedrus

"In the midst of life, we are in Death." -- The Book of Common Prayer

"All our life is but a going out to the place of execution, to Death." -- John Donne

"Nobody knows, in fact, what Death is, nor whether to man it is not perchance the greatest of all blessings..." -- Socrates (scary thought)

"Death, the most dreaded of evils, is therefore of no concern to us; for while we exist, Death is not present, and when Death is present, we no longer exist." -- Epictetus

And though there are many, many more along with those, my favorite would probably be this one:

"Death...is simply the ultimate horror of life." -- Jean Giradoux