For those of you who have not heard, Heath Ledger was found dead today in his apartment in NYC. He was 28 years old.

This is quite tragic as not only is it the end of an acting career that was just gaining steam, his two year old daughter won't have much of a memory of him.

I'm envious of guys who have both kids and success at a young age. I'm ten years older than Ledger, but my daughter is the same age, and I have a baby on the way. I think it's incredibly selfish of him to go this way. It was mentioned in several reports that he died of a heroin overdose. Now no one intends to overdose on heroin, but generally when someone dies it's accidental. Could have been pills. Most reports that there were pills all over the place. Some reports are saying it's a suicide. How bad could that guy's life have been?

But if you have a successful career, and a family that depends on you, why would you risk your life with drugs? Is the high so good that it's worth the risk? I can't imagine anything that good, but then again, I've never tried heroin.

I can't imagine if it was me leaving Alison, Nikki and the baby behind. I've been looking forward towards fatherhood for quite some time. I'm glad that I achieved it before I turned 40, but I wish I had had my kids when I was younger, and healthier and in better shape. I would have like to share more of my youth with my kids. Not like I'm an old man now, I'm just sayin'.

This is really really tragic. There isn't much more to really be said about it. The how's and why's aren't anywhere near as important as the fact that everything that Heath could have been is gone.

After watching Phantom Menace with my buddy Kyle in 1999, he lamented that he wished it was better. I replied that if people don’t care enough to get out and vote (the 2000 election) then how are they going to care about fake space politics?

In retrospect, Star Wars has become an eerily accurate reflection of what has transpired these past eight years. While watching the local news yesterday, I realized that there was an ungodly amount of people who had no idea who the candidates were or what they looked like. It seemed like many of the people interviewed bore a sort of “I’m buying a Buick because my daddy drove a Buick” mentality regardless of what common sense or their own research actually told them.

This is a guide to help people understand who’s who among the players and candidates. Interestingly enough, there are many parallels.