I figured that I skipped my third and last part of Pic of the Day 5

sorry >_<

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so…here it is:

There’s no info about the first two pictures…I think it’s just a random shot

(reading left to right)

Actually, I’m not sure if the middle one is random though — but to tell you the truth, I forgot when was it taken and on what occasion.

The third one was from my Halloween ^^

I don’t know if you notice it, but I was wearing the cat ears

That’s all then — this is the last part.

The next Pic of the Day, I guess, will be a whole new picture — unless if I receive another gift like this, I will post it!

Thanks a lot ♥

Playing well for part of the game and coming up short in the end seems to be the trend following the Guelph Hurricanes these days.

Thursday night they faced a very good Waterloo Siskins ( 19-5-0 38 pts.) team at home and found themselves down 3-0 after the first period. Then they clawed their way back to outscore the Siskins 2-1 in the 2nd and 3rd period, eventually losing the game 4-2.

Saturday night they travelled to Cambridge (14-7-2 30 pts.) to take on the Winter Hawks in a game where they faced 52 shots, including 31 in the 2nd period. Cambridge scored 5 goals in that period and would go on to win the game 6-4.

Then the Canes visited Elmira (11-11-3 25 pts.) Sunday night and they finally avoided the one period let down and came away with a single point in a 3-2 shootout loss.

That point will be critical as teams jockey for playoff position. Currently Guelph sits 8th in the MidWestern Division and would face the top seeded Brantford Golden Eagles in the first round of the playoffs.

*Other GOJHL Notes:

The Stratford Cullitons snapped their 11 game losing streak Sunday afternoon with a 6-5 win over the Listowel Cyclones.

GOJHL’s leading scorer is Josh McQuade (Brantford Golden Eagles) is averaging 3 points per game (81 pts. in 27 games) and is on a pace to score 153 pts. this season.

Next home game for the Canes is Thursday December 3 when they face Josh McQuade and the 1st place Brantford Golden Eagles. Game time at the Sleeman Center is 7:45 p.m.

You have to feel, ‘I have got to change’. Most of us don’t think of problem-solving as it is not part of work. We tend to be procedure-oriented, but processes are obsolete and old – Sam Pitroda

The mania of the shopping is able sometimes to embrace a lot of persons. Admittedly it is often connected with numerous sales. Then however the majority of made then purchases is ill-considered, because a reasonable price is a main stimulus which is inducing people to the shopping. With most often bought assortment the pose of course is a food clothes. We are spending it on it game of our earnings. Straight out people working in offices of all kinds, offices are forced to purchases of elegant clothes, that is so which are forced to contacts with requiring customers. It is obvious, after all, woman’s suits or suits are diverse far more expensive than normal blouses or skirts. We are spending on clothes, in which we are going to work, so also considerable sums. Our expenses connected with clothes largely are often also dictated with fashion being in effect, on streets, because we often meet people in the same clothes. Certainly it doesn’t result from the fact that there are the same goods in shops, but exactly from the fashion being in effect. With the rest very well one can see it at teenagers which after all walk similarly dressed. Expenses of clothes are conditioned with the fact that after all we are wearing various clothes what the day but everyone want after all nicely and elegantly to look like. Therefore we quite often buy all clothes and shoes, bags as well as a lot of different additions. The part of people is doing the shopping only in shops of remarkable clothes, different are buying in boutiques, shops, supermarkets or even in the street. However this shopping has one – common factor everyone want to look nice not only at work or once in a blue moon but also also, usually. Therefore than they aren’t announcing that the clothing market will collapse, even in the crisis people will be buying clothes. He can in a bit of a smaller amount but certainly they will be buying.

I have now started to read ‘Calvin for Armchair Theologians,’ by Christopher Elwood. I have to admit that I come to this book with a very doubtful attitude. The front cover illustration of John Calvin and the many ‘comic-like’ illustrations throughout the book worry me. I just don’t get a sense that this book is a serious treatment of John Calvin. That is the impression that presents when just looking at the book – I hope to be proven wrong for having ‘judged a book by its cover.’ The illustrations in the book are by Ron Hill, who is apparently a freelance illustrator and cartoonist.

I have to admit that the ‘armchair theologian’ part of the title also gives me a poor impression of the book – it sort of gives me the picture of a guy who loves to watch sport on the TV while sitting in his armchair, while not really taking the sport seriously in his actual life – has nothing to do with it in reality, in that he doesn’t play sport. This is the idea that ‘armchair theologian’ paints for me, which is an approach to theology that is far removed from the Bible’s idea of involvement with the truth.

But, as I said, I hope to be proven wrong for having ‘judged a book by its cover.’

Today’s suggestion is about doing something about the many children throughout the world that receive no education or very limited education. This can be especially true of many girls in some countries and seems to be more so in some strict Islamic communities and regions.

It is difficult to know just what can be done in this field by the ‘average Joe,’ so to speak. Whereas individuals may not be able to do a lot personally, they may be able to contribute by being part of a larger organisation that is able to bring pressure to bear on governments around the world.

It is also possible to be part of a humanitarian organisation that seeks to assist people to receive education and/or by donating money to such a group.

For some ideas on this particular suggestion have a look at:

www.campaignforeducation.org & www.unicef.org

A response to reading ‘365 Ways to Change the World,’ by Michael Norton

This video will show you the small part of the Great Juggling World!!!

Just enjoy!

Alicia Keys “Empire State Of Mind”(Part II) No Jay On This One But Still Dope. Alicia Keys The Element Of Freedom Drops December 15th

Alicia Keys – Empire State Of Mind (Part II) …::LISTEN::…

So I had to open my big mouth on my previous post today and say that Facebook is keeping its nose clean with regard to news as of late. I guess it still is despite this particular incident that happened to a woman living in our neighbor to the north, Canada.

You remember Canada. The place where Facebook had to adhere to their privacy policies for threat of shutting them down? Well, I wonder how that privacy deal is working out because it looks like companies working on Canadian soil may need a lesson in privacy. The CBC reports

A Quebec woman on long-term sick leave is fighting to have her benefits reinstated after her employer’s insurance company cut them, she says, because of photos posted on Facebook.

Nathalie Blanchard, 29, has been on leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Que., for the last year and a half after she was diagnosed with major depression.

The Eastern Townships woman was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits from Manulife, her insurance company, but the payments dried up this fall.

When Blanchard called Manulife, the company said that “I’m available to work, because of Facebook,” she told CBC News this week.

Now before you get your knickers in a twist, I am not defending this woman. Honestly, I don’t really care if she is trying to get over on a company or not. I have too many other things to worry about.

What does make me wonder is how the insurance company accessed her Facebook account if they were not allowed by Ms. Blanchard? My guess would be that someone at IBM who is her ‘friend’ on Facebook turned over some data but I am not a private investigator and any speculation as to how this happens stops here.

What doesn’t stop here is where are lines going to be drawn moving forward. Of course, if you are ignorant (or even stupid) enough to put damning evidence on Facebook then that’s nothing that anyone can control. What will be considered actual evidence as retrieved through social media?

The story says

She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on the popular social networking site, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday — evidence that she is no longer depressed, Manulife said.

Huh? What if she was just trying to get undepressed (is that even a word?) and and part of the process was to share her ‘happiness’ with others? Where will a line be drawn on this kind of stuff? In the US it’ll like land in the 9th Circuit because if it’s weird that’s where it goes.

Anyway, what’s your take on this one? Should the insurance company be ale to use Facebook as evidence if they were not directly connected to her account? Is finding out information in Facebook any different though than investigators digging to find evidence any way they can? Or will these kind of stories just always be part of the social media world we live in and we just need to make sure to keep our side of the street clean?

Fire off before you head out for the weekend. We’d like to hear from you.

Social Media Monitoring in Just 60-Seconds. Guaranteed!

Portsmouth manager Paul Hart leaves the Premier League strugglers with immediate effect…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: soccer shop. The blog is also related to: european football.

“this music is oceanic”.

Pomówmy o dźwiękach, co istnieją w odpowiedniej odległości, gdzieś w przestrzeni. I tylko czasem wnikają głęboko, głęboko pod skórę, pod paznokcie, pod powieki, jak miłość. Muzyka, jak każde uczucie jest raną, jak każde piękno, jest raną, którą chce się pogłębiać. Myśliwski pisał, że książki to świat, który się wybiera, a nie świat, na który się przychodzi. Czyż nie jest tak samo z muzyką? Muzyki, tak jak szczęścia trzeba szukać w sobie, bo nikt nam go nie da, jeśli sami nie ukierunkujemy się na nie. A szczęścia “czasem więcej jest w jednym dobrym słowie, niż w całym długim życiu”.

Prawdy i piękna szuka się jak dobra, czyż nie? Właśnie to jest to, co zawsze wydawało mi się najbliższe w literaturze, a co teraz z wielką radością odkrywam w muzyce, nieco bardziej świadomie wybierając ją i chłonąc. Piękno jednoznacznie kojarzyło mi się zawsze z czułością. “Są takie oczy, nie pozna pan po nich, że płakały. Wystarczy je otrzeć. A są takie, że płacz długo w nich stoi, nawet gdy dawno płakały”. Piękno zawsze było dla mnie ciepłem, stąd tak często wracam do powieści Borisa Viana, do wierszy Buntinga, Pasewicza, do książek Llosy, z których wieje taką nieodpartą potrzebą ciepła, zrozumienia i miłości, która jednak nigdy człowieka nie spotyka, mimo że czasem wydaje mu się, że się o nią otarł. Jednak nie sama czułość świadczy o dobroci, ale i prawda. A nie znam innej prawdy, niż tęsknota za pięknem. “Przeszłość to tylko nasza wyobraźnia, a wyobraźnia potrzebuje tęsknoty, wręcz karmi się tęsknotą. Przeszłość drogi panie nie ma nic wspólnego z czasem, jak się sądzi”.

Tak oto uzupełniają się te kategorie i, niby nóż, dźgają nam serce, ciągle popychając do rozwoju, do poszukiwania tak, byśmy mogli dogonić życie, i siebie dogonić. Spróbować się odnaleźć. Najgłębiej przecież kocha się przez ból, kochasz kiedy boli Cię czyjś ból. I czasem w tym, co uda Ci się przeczytać, usłyszeć, zobaczyć znajdujesz jakąś wiązkę czyjegoś bólu, który Cię dotyka, rani, kaleczy. Trzeba być otwartym na ten ból, na ten smutek.

Słucham dzisiaj “Lamentate” Parta w wykonaniu Boreyki i Hilliard Ensamble. Można by powiedzieć, że to utwór, który opłakuje nie śmierć, nie zmarłych, nie to, co minęło, ale to co mija, czego zaczyna nam brakować teraz – życie. Arvo Parta inspirowała rzeźba Anisha Kapoora “Marsjasz”, patrząc na niego, pamiętając o tym jak Apollo obdarł go ze skóry po przegranym turnieju muzycznym, autor “De profundis” wierzył, że obserwuje siebie, martwego. I miał poczucie, jakby jego ciało nie było gotowe na przyjęcie tego wyzwania, śmierci. Więc może stąd u ponad siedemdziesięcioletniego kompozytora tak dramatyczny ton, takie wołanie o posłuch. Czuję się onieśmielony wspominając te ciche, a zarazem przeszywające solowe partie fortepianu, które czasem rozrywa orkiestra. I ten moment, kiedy zbliża się finał i potęguje się ból. Uważam to dzieło za jedno z jego najważniejszych dokonań.

Chciałbym Państwu zwrócić uwagę również na ciekawą propozycję fińskiego kompozytora, Sasu Ripatti, niektórym znanego pewnie jako Luomo. Niedawno odbył się koncert jednego z jego projektów – Vladislava Delaya, na którym zagrał z Luciem Capece i grupą Food. Przed nimi wystąpił zespół eyebrow. Na stronie Arctic Circle Radio można posłuchać audycji, w której o tych bardzo utalentowanych artystach opowiada Collin Buttimer, dziennikarz i krytyk muzyczny BBC. Myślę, że warto, oto bezpośredni link do audycji. link

Na koniec coś, co przez ostatni tydzień budziło mnie i cieszyło. Dobre, ale nie najlepsze wykonanie, najlepsze mam na płycie tylko, youtube niestety – wiadomo. Koncert na skrzypce i obój J. S. Bacha, mov. 1, allegro. Wspaniały fragment. Miłego wieczoru Państwu.

This set of lectures is the third and last part of “The Life of Muhammad (saaws)”. This set covers the last five years of the life of the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad (saaws) from the fifth year of Hijra to the tenth. It includes the important events of the truce of Hudaybiyyah, the battle of Khaibar, the battle of Mu’tah, the conquest of Makkah, the battle of Hunain, the battle of Tabuk and finally the passing away of the seal of the Prophets.

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Direct Downloads:

(Right click and save target as)

CD 1 | CD 2 | CD 3 | CD 4 | CD 5 | CD 6 | CD 7 | CD 8 | CD 9 | CD 10 | CD 11 | CD 12 | CD 13 | CD 14 | CD 15 | CD 16 | CD 17 | CD 18 | CD 19

ARVO PÄRT – In Principio

1 In principio for choir & orchestra : I. In principio erat Verbum
2 II. Fuit homo missus a Deo
3 III. Erat lux vera
4 IV. Quotquot autem acceperunt sum
5 V. Et Verbum caro factum est.
6 La Sindone for orchestra.
7 Cecilia vergine romana for mixed choir and orchestra.
8 Da Pacem Domine for choir & orchestra.
9 Mein Weg for 14 strings & percussion.
10 Für Lennart in memoriam for string orchestra.

Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra,
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, dir. Tonu Kaljuste

ECM Records 2009,

congratulations to ECM for 40 years of inspiring music and 25 years of splendid issues from Arvo Pärt’s cosmos …

“Arvo Pärt has put his finger on something that is almost impossible to put into words – something to do with the power of music to obliterate the rigidities of space and time. One after the other, his chords silence the noise of the self, binding the mind to an eternal present.”
–Alex Ross, The New Yorker

review from dustedmagazine.com:
“The stark yet luminous tintinnabuli style with which Arvo Pärt made his reputation in the 1970s and ’80s has over the years given way to a more encompassing approach to composition – one that, while drawing from seemingly ancient aesthetic and spiritual values, also utilizes techniques and tonalities that were new in the 20th century. Yet, as interesting as it might be to follow these variegated strands and analyze them, it is perhaps more satisfying to let Pärt’s music – its structure, its profound emotional and spiritual effect – unfold with its own sound and sense. This latest collection on Pärt’s home label ECM offers a generous selection of new works and revisions of relatively recent compositions, lovingly performed by the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir conducted by Tonu Kaljuste.
— Kevin Macneil Brown

“In Principio” is a weighty, yet spacious orchestral and choral setting of verses from the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the word…” Shimmering high strings are juxtaposed with the centered and monolithic weight of low strings, brass and reeds. There is a tint of Mozart in the transparency of the orchestration, an even stronger shadow of Beethoven in the almost-brutal pull between rising consonance and earthy dissonance. The final section does no less than reveal Pärt’s mastery of form and structure: The horizontal beat and pulse unfolding in time find miraculous symmetry with the vertical unfurling of the spacious triadic harmony.

“La Sindone” is a sonic rendering of the Shroud of Turin. Appropriately – and bravely – it follows metaphors of fabric and thread, with broken and flowing weavings of melodic line. Again, there is that shimmer in the high strings, a portentous rumble in the lower register: cellos, basses, percussion. These weaving and twining voices eventually create a babbling beauty, each note a tonal center despite the increasing density of sound and line. Then comes a falling away to near silence, before a rising motif ascends through triadic repose into stepwise chromatic exultation. All of this is sublimated at last in a resonant unison.

Among the other standouts on the disc is a choral and orchestral setting of the Gregorian antiphon “Da Pacem Domine.” Here, Pärt’s choral writing is lovely and gripping all at once; the massed power of the lower voices in Pärticular is stunning. This prayer for peace is sublime and uplifting, but it rises from a palpable undercurrent of fear and trembling.

That might be a clue leading to the essence of Pärt’s utter mastery. Yes, his imagination and technical command have allowed him to fabricate a body of work that seems to stand out of time and musical history. But ultimately, and more importantly, it’s the mysterious ways in which his sounds and structures touch on resonant words and universal, yet indescribable experiences and meanings that make Arvo Pärt’s music so majestic, so crucial.”