Sunday, 18 May 2008
Monday, 12 May 2008
Blessed Hope
Blessed Hope-Where are you planning to be for Thanksgiving this year? Personally held as my favorite holiday, I love the aromas of traditional foods blending with the feast of friends and family gathered to share good company, good food and lots of stories.
I am also not delusional. Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday by President Lincoln during the middle of the Civil War. Many families, with no Christmas gifts to distract their attention, have annually reenacted that dark time in our country’s history at their holiday tables and will probably give it another go around this year. Traditional behavior patterns sometimes are part of the family festival landscape and are even more difficult to adjust than the menu.
Nonetheless, here we are. Thanksgiving is two days away. Last year at this time President Bush, with extraordinarily low approval ratings, was talking troop withdrawals while he pardoned a turkey from certain death-for-dinner. This year, that low presidential approval rating was brought home at the polls in a midterm election that handed the House and the Senate back over to Democratic control. As a result, the reality of dialogue between the White House and Congress is at hand, and U.S. involvement in the deteriorating situation in Iraq is already poised to be reconsidered and redirected. My assumption is that last year’s pardoned turkey will be joined by a similarly-saved buddy. Each will have their chance to live a peaceful life of solitude down on the farm.
Things have changed a bit here in the United States this past year. We have mutually agreed to keep a few things in place, including the turkey pardoning, but mostly, our voice has said, “No More.” If we want to move forward as a country and make a positive impact on the world, we must change our perception of ourselves, our agenda with other countries and accept the reality that we don’t have the right to do as we please, whenever we please.
What I am most grateful for this year, as I prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family and friends, is the blessing of hope. This majestic turn of events in our government means people are paying attention, making conscious choices, and for that I can only breathe a prayer of gratitude to God. If we can begin to govern ourselves more sensibly, I hope and I believe that we can offer that same consciousness to supporting the people in the world who need us most. We have great wealth, we have great influence, and we can implement this blessing of hope to protect the people of Darfur, heal the HIV/AIDS victims in Malawi, Kenya and Zimbabwe, and help rebuild Granada, Indonesia and Pakistan, countries who still suffer the effects of hurricane, tsunami and earthquake. Our blessing of hope can be realized as resurrection in the lives of people who are most yearning for new life.
Advent is about to welcome us to prepare for the coming of the Christ among us. But, before we begin that journey to Bethlehem, for a moment we have the chance to pull back from our tables of abundance filled with food, love, joy and laughter, and take hold of what we already have. We are blessed as a country, we are blessed as many communities, we are blessed as individuals. Remembering all that we have sets forth the path of faithful gratitude to God, who blesses us with all good things. Knowing this, we must seek to embody our hope as justice for all of God’s people. “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for God who has promised is faithful.Blessed Hope
Parvati Shallow
Parvati Shallow-
Born on September 21, 1982 and raised in Vero Beach, Florida, Parvati Shallow and her family moved to Atlanta when she was 11 years old. She was later educated at University of Georgia, where she received an arts degree in journalism with minors in French and Italian.
An outdoor person, Parvati enjoys being around nature and spending most of her time camping and hiking through North America's state parks such as the Tetons and Yellowstone. A true adventurer even in college, she organized a two-month backpacking trip through Europe where she and two friends visited 13 countries, sleeping in youth hostels, train stations, on beaches and park benches.
Parvati's cheap thrills include good sushi, wearing oversized jerseys, karaoke and cheering on The Dawgs. A couple of years ago, she found another of her talents in the form of boxing, and began competing in 2004. Passionate about the sport, she teamed up with some fellow boxers and formed the non-profit organization, Knockout for girls, which provides scholarships and boxing lessons for underprivileged girls. The organization recently held their first fundraised event which featured boxing matches and a fashion show. Parvati intends to carry on her mission in the organization and hold another fundraiser in February 2008.
It was a season with more backstabs, blindsides, evacuations and eliminations than ever before as Survivor Micronesia paired ten fans of the show against ten returning favorites. In the end, after 39 days and 20 castoffs, sexy flirt Parvati Shallow became the soul survivor of perhaps the most entertaining season of the hit reality show yet.
After 16 seasons of the CBS reality series, it seemed as though everything had already been done, but the producers decided to bring back some of the most beloved and infamous players of previous seasons to go head to head against die hard fans who vowed to spoil their game.
Early on, Shallow, who was a returning player from Survivor Cook Islands, joined forces with Panama alum Cerie Fields and last season's Amanda Kimmel to create a dominant force in the game. The three women used their brains and their skills of persuasion to pull off some of the most impossible strategic moves ever by eliminating the powerhouse men from the competition.
After blind-siding former ally Ozzy Lusth, the three women, along with new recruit Natalie Bolton, went on a backstabbing spree, sending man after man to the jury box.
Fields, the lovable mother of three who provided most of the comedy of season, orchestrated the demise of her fellow teammates, but after losing an unexpected final immunity to Kimmel, she was voted out, leaving only Kimmel and Shallow in the final two.
While Kimmel played a strong physical game, Shallow used her womanly charms to beguile both the men and the women of the show and wound up earning the most votes at the final tribal council.
Next season of Survivor will return to Africa and 18 new castaways will once again try to outwit, outlast and outplay each other for a chance at a million dollar prize.
'Bold' With 3G BlackBerry 9000
'Bold' With 3G BlackBerry 9000-
Sweepstakes Monday and the familiar business-oriented BlackBerry design is crammed with improved features and includes new consumer elements that will place it in competition with Apple's iPhone. RIM is calling the device the BlackBerry Bold, although a few users already know it as the BlackBerry 9000.
AT&T already has exclusive U.S. rights to Apple's iPhone and a new high-speed version of the Apple handset is expected to be unveiled next month. Both devices are slated to operate on 3G high-speed UMTS/HSDPA networks.
RIM trumpeted the consumer features of the Bold, noting its 2 megapixel camera and video recording capability.
"While it is designed to meet the extensive requirements of the business professional during the day, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone also caters to the business person's consumer side," RIM's announcement stated. In a nod to Apple, RIM observed that BlackBerry Bold Media Sync users can sync with Apple's iTunes. The RIM handset also features several multimedia elements. The handset has dual stereo speakers and includes Roxio Media Manager and Roxio PhotoSuite 9 LE.
