All my life, I have always thought it was the coolest thing on planet Earth to be an American. I have been to at least 7different countries or political jurisdictions in the world, and whenever someone asks me, “Where are you from?” it is a special thrill to be able to answer, “America – I’m an American.”

Thanksgiving is the unique American holiday. We share Christmas and Easter with every other Christian nation. Most every country celebrates its Independence Day, and the birthdays of their founding heroes. Thanksgiving is ours, where we give our deepest thanks to Providence for the extraordinary gift of America to mankind.

Other countries have their special times to celebrate their uniqueness, when their citizens take justifiable pride in their country’s achievements, and all to the good. Thanksgiving is America’s Day, the time when all Americans – all – get to celebrate the achievements of the most successful society in human history.

Tragically, however, there is a group of Americans for whom Thanksgiving will be bleak. Pessimists.

The purpose of Thanksgiving is to be thankful for being American. Thankful with no buts. This is the day to celebrate the goodness of our country – the moral goodness, the moral decency of American institutions, American history, and the character of the American people.

No whining and moaning about what happened to the Indians, or about slavery and poverty and racism. No buts. Think that pessimists can do this? Let’s see. Ask any you might know to agree that:

• America is the least racist nation on earth (to disagree, another country must be named and knowledgeably described with less racial turmoil and animosity).
• Americans are the most charitable and generous people on our planet; no other people or country comes remotely close.
• America has more religious freedom than any other nation.
• American capitalism has created more wealth for more people than any economy in the world history.
• American soldiers have brought more freedom to more people throughout the world than those of any country in world history.
• Western Civilization, of which America is the pre-eminent example, has brought incalculable benefits to mankind, compared to which its blemishes seem negligible.
• I love being American. I am proud to be an American with no shame, embarrassment, or apology.

The terrible problem pessimists will have answering yes to any of these questions, and thus be thankful for America on Thanksgiving is that they can’t really celebrate being American, for they feel guilty and embarrassed about it.

Yet to truly celebrate Thanksgiving is not just to be thankful for America with no buts, but also to be thankful for America with no fear.

Yesterday, the day before Thanksgiving, a Reuters-Zogby poll was released, claiming its results showed that:

“Americans enter the holiday season in a dark mood, with economic worries, security fears and a lack of confidence in government fueling growing pessimism.”

An inspiring antidote to this pessimism was provided last week (11/16) by Rudy Giuliani in his speech to the Federalist Society. I encourage you to read it entire. It’s funny and instructive. For example:

“I stand with Ronald Reagan. He was once accused of having a 19th century attitude on law and order. He responded that it was a false charge. He had an 18th century attitude.”

The antidote was provided at the end of his speech:

“I get very, very frustrated when I hear Americans talk about or hear certain Americans talk about how difficult the problems we face are, how overwhelming they are, what a dangerous era we live in. I think we’ve lost perspective. We’ve always had difficult problems, we’ve always had great challenges, and we’ve always lived in danger.

Do we think our parents and our grandparents and our great grandparents didn’t live in danger and didn’t have difficult problems? Do we think the Second World War was less difficult that our struggle with Islamic terrorism? Do we think that the Great Depression was a less difficult economic struggle for people to face than the struggles we’re facing now?

Have we entirely lost perspective of the great challenges America has faced in the past and has been able to overcome and overcome brilliantly?”

He could also have used an instance when America was far, far more stuck at the bottom of the barrel than now – in 1980, at the close of the impossibly disastrous Carter presidency with unemployment, inflation, and interest rates staggeringly high and everyone from Henry Kissinger on down convinced we had lost the Cold War.

I want you to trust me on this. By next Thanksgiving, that Reuters-Zogby pessimism will be a distant memory. All the Democrats have to sell is fear, surrender, and taxes.

We, on the other hand, can celebrate Thanksgiving with no pessimistic fear, guilt, or embarrassment. We can revel in the fact that Americans have so impossibly much to celebrate on this day that, by comparison, our country’s flaws don’t matter. That America is the noblest nation in the history of humanity. That we are members of history’s greatest civilization at its prime.

Take the time to savor your presence in history, the incredible blessing Providence has bestowed upon you in being an American, on this day. Drain the goblet of gratitude while liberals and politicos quaff their cup of guilt. Gratitude to Providence for the existence of America, gratitude for the privilege of being American.

Giving such thanks for being American is a curiously humbling experience. Humbling in an Einsteinian sense. There’s a story about Albert Einstein attending a scientific conference with a friend, who points out a young promising physicist. “Professor Anderson,” Einstein’s friend comments in admiration, “is a very humble man.” Einstein looks at his friend with scorn, and replies derisively, “Humble?? He hasn’t done anything yet to be humble about!”

Just as Einstein had accomplished more to be humble about than any other scientist, so America has accomplished more to be humble about than any nation in the saga of civilization. It’s funny how real pride and real humility are two sides of the same coin.

So primarily, Thanksgiving is the opportunity to express our gratitude towards Providence for the humbling honor of participating in and contributing to a civilization that stands at the pinnacle of history, a civilization that the Greeks would have called makarios – blessed.

For me personally, it is an opportunity to thank all of you for being a part of my listening audience. Quite frankly, it is an honor to broadcast for you, for people whose values I share. Please accept my deepest wishes for the Happiest of Thanksgivings. On this day, every American has the opportunity to be thankful for America.

- On the 25th of November, an open introductory session about the project was held at RUFY’s art center. There, Aya Tarek, a pop/street artist and the main organizer of the workshop, discussed street art on a global and a local level.

“The main point behind our project is to build an organized Egyptian street art movement,”, Aya explained. “The majority of Egyptians have never been to an art gallery in their lives, simply because the art presented in such white cubes doesn’t reflect them; it doesn’t reflect their realities. It’s mostly westernized and made for the enjoyment of certain highly-sophisticated group of people. Art should not be limited, it should open for everyone, so if Egyptians still fail to reach art, we will bring art to them, to a wall just around the corner.”

Aya, sarcastically, replied those who claim that there is no street art in Egypt, showing various pictures of street art, done all over Alexandria, using primitive methods and techniques. There is no sense of planning behind such works, nor do they have any strong conceptual value. They were merely done for advertising (Hair removal products, Spiritual treatment Hotline, etc..) or done as reminders to constantly praise Allah (إن الله يراك! فاخشه) or even done to express personal emotions, vividly, like (Halazon <3 Koki) or (Hamada, sex 0124858715)

“If done in an organized manner, street art could really beautify the city and could become a strong method to self-express and create freely, in public space, beyond the rims of the classic art forms.”,  Aya explained.

She also discussed the work of  the few groups/individual artists, who focused either fully or partially on street art, like (فوق وتحت) who are considered the first group of young artists, based in Alexandria, Egypt, to focus totally on street art, inspiring others to follow their footsteps. After the break-up of the group, all the members are still active and working solo.

Finally, Aya showed different styles of street art done all over the world, hoping that one day, there will be an active, organized street art scene, in Egypt.   *sighs*

Artists mentioned in the talk:

- BLU (Europe)

- Os Gemeos. (South America)

- Icy (Iran)

- فوق وتحت (Egypt)

More about Aya Tarek:

Aya Tarek was born on the 14 of November, 1989.  Her work is based in Alexandria, Egypt. She is currently a student in the faculty of fine arts, painting department. Aya established her own art studio in August, 2008. She also started observing her work with refreshing concepts through her activity as Urban/street artist, exposing the perplexing issues of gender minorities on public space.

She participated in various workshops and group exhibitions. She is also a participant in (pick4) exhibition at townhouse gallery in Cairo. She is currently working on many projects, mostly concerned with the reflecting the cultures and the issues of Islamic conservative societies.

If nobody sang and nobody laughed

and nobody cared much about you,

If nobody spoke a word of cheer

to help your long day through;

If all the joy went to the great

and nothing was left for the small,

Then surely the world would be upside down

and life hardly worth while at all.                            ~Author Unknown

Fra den 1. til 4. februar 2010 afholder Thomas Martinsen og undertegnede et Silverlight 4 kursus.

Kurset henvender sig til udviklere som vil i gang med at udvikle “Line of Business” applikationer med Microsoft Silverlight 4.

Det bliver fire intensive dage hvor vi kommer rundt om en meget stor del af de features der ligger i Silverlight.

Information og tilmeldning sker her.

Al Jazeera English – Empire – Europe: A fast-track superpower?
Video | Info

Europe has finally adopted a new treaty to strengthen its union, and chosen a president and foreign minister to speak with one voice for the continent.

Twenty-seven countries, with more than 500 million people, a combined economy bigger than the US and almost two million soldiers under arms, the European Union is to all intents and purposes, a superpower.

However, Europeans remain divided on central issues. Its cheerleaders, and foremost the dominating Franco German alliance, are celebrating the supranational Union they expect to lead globally, just as its detractors warn of a giant leap toward a federalist Europe that looks to compromise their national sovereignties and weakens their democracies…

The video is about 45min long.

4Shared -Permite baixar arquivos

AdSense- Para Anunciar produtos da Google em seu site $$

AdWords- Comprar palavras pra aparecer no Google

Google Earth - Mundo via  Satelite do Google(ver o Mundo)

Gmail -e-mail da Google

Google Docs – permite criar documentos(textos ) Parecido com o Word

Google Toolbar- Barra de ferramentas do google

Google Maps- Mapas do Google

Orkut -Sistema de rede social

Youtube-  Site de videos

Google -Videos site de videos

Google Images search- Pesquisa de imagens do Google

Google Alerts – Manda novidades do google

Google Sites – Permite criar e publicar sites

Google Talk – Permite conversar on line

Google Tradutor(Tanslator) – Traduz linguagens de textos

Google Calendar – Calendario

Google Checkout - Ferramenta de pagamento que organiza, protege e pesquisa ofertas, para uma compra mais fácil e segura.

Der Spiegel hat eine rechte gute Kritik der Hart aber fair Sendung zum Thema Ernährung.

Zur Kritik.

I think the following conversation pretty much sums up whats happening with me right now.

Context: Marie chats with Natz (close friend, and presenter of the tablet in question).

I am high, as I type this post. 

http://www.zylostudio.com

It’s been 4 years since my website hasn’t develope the design..
I think it is time to modify… no I mean Revamp all the Pages!!!

After I haven’t taken any job for a month finally the new web design is finished,
Under the main concept “The Evolution of Imagination”…
this time I made it to a simple informative webpage
I think it’s easier to use than a Exceeding Technique Flash Web,
which has a wonderful design but…
just can’t find any page link you need to see.

Ha ha Ok.. I hope you enjoy all my pages

http://www.zylostudio.com

…

table talk

So I have this obsession–words. How they look, sound, fit together. Whether written, sung, or spoken; published, produced, or impromptu; strings of words race around in my head constantly, the ones that resonate.

With writing, the combination, the order can be done, undone, and redone. You can spit it all out, then fix it. Mold and shape the words to do what you need. A professor once enlightened me with the power of writing when he explained that, usually, when you read, you say the words aloud in your mind. In saying them, you think them and the writer’s thoughts can become your own. The affect can be extremely effective. It’s good then, that writing allows one so much time. Time to harness and convey with cautious intention.

In speaking though, time is of the essence. You can’t say it all and take back what you didn’t mean or didn’t mean to say. Because in speaking, what’s said is said. But when you obsess over something you’ve heard, you say it in your head too; you have that thought. The problem is that thing you’ve heard often isn’t as careful as something you’ve read, but the affect, the effect, is just as lasting.

I like apples. I don’t know if apples love me though. Wish apples could talk, then I’d just ask ‘em. Until the all-knowing gods give apples the ability to talk, I’ll just stick with eating them.

Ryan

Mature Audiences!
Anniversary program of the Edge Talk Show.

Here is the talk I gave at GDC Europe this year, I hope you enjoy it.

The first game development workshop I held on November 16 was quite successful and more important a lot of fun! The students were very motivated to learn how games are being developed and I was very positively surprised how easily they followed my Mini Mario Kart sample.

As promised earlier on this blog and also during the workshop, I finally put up my slides for everyone to have a look at. Get them here and feel free to comment and leave some suggestions

Talk Tennis is the name of a comprehensive online tennis forum. It is, in my opinion, the best tennis forum on the internet. If you are a fan of tennis, I highly recommend that you visit the forums. They are really interesting! This is the website:

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/

Enjoy!

If you want to make money online, click here: http://tinyurl.com/yfk7wqj

There’s an unfinished story sitting on the nightstand of my brain; it’s threatening to crawl out of its margins and stain the wood it lays on. It’s a story about an incomplete girl and a summer spent dipping strands of hair into cups of tea….a girl who has nothing to say but is dying to say it.
She’s tired of all the sighing and breath-holding yet she’s not sure what would really happen if her nearly invisible life was actually seen by someone.
She cries dirty tears that draw the future lines on her face and cradle baskets under her eyes that accumulate looks and judgments, whispers, unholy cries for help and shameless acts.
She lives in a world outside the kissing and far away from the embraces that demolish knees leaving them buckled. Disconnected from the way a pair of hands can carve into a back and shake debris from someone’s being and leave them to face the world helpless and kissed.
And so she writes. She writes because the words are heavy. Because she can’t help but scribble a few clumsy verses here and there even if she just tosses them into an old shoe box deciding that its a shitty pointless day for writing…  Everyday is pointless when it comes to writing, that’s why she likes it.
She writes about the storms that take place in the far left corner of her bedroom, about paper hearts and how rain makes apple sauce. She writes about the smell of the dirt in the garden and the way warm water feels running over her hands and about fucking and the things that most people don’t notice.

She writes and she shrugs and she misses him and she eats cereal and she has a bath and she paints and she smiles and she writes and she soaks up some more tears with tissues that lay around her house reminding her that she gets better all the time…and so she writes.

and so she writes...

and i have no business doing this…no business at all…but its just that from time to time i feel like i’m dying a little bit and then those words…all those lovely words reminding me of what i meant to say… or that i meant to say something….

ฝ่ายวิรัชกิจ ขอเชิญชวนคณาจารย์และนิสิตพบปะ ซักถามและพูดคุยกับ

เอกอัครราชทูตอเมริกัน ประจำประเทศไทย

ฯพณฯ Eric G. John

และร่วมรับฟังการบรรยายโดยเอกอัครราชทูตในหัวข้อ

A Productive Partnership: the Current State of U.S.-Thai Relations

ในวันพฤหัสบดีที่ 3 ธันวาคม 2552 เวลา 10.30-12.00 น.

ณ ห้อง 111 อาคารมหาจุฬาลงกรณ์

These portraits illustrate why

I normally like photographing

landscapes. No two-way 

conversation is necessary.

Once I see what I like the most

about their personality, I point

and shoot. For most portraits,

it is  necessary to talk to

the subject to develop the most 

cursory of relationships prior

to pushing the button to expose

the subject’s personality.

Stephen K. Malshuk

American Photographer

 Long ago, I read a novel about life in the Appellachian mountains in the United States.

The theme of the novel is the fate of two children, whose writer father dies in a car accident and mother becomes paralytic, unable to respond even. So from New York, the children are transplanted to the primitive life in the rugged hills, where their grandmother lives, whom the kids have never seen!

I immensely enjoyed the novel.

When the grandmother wakes up the girl (the younger one is a boy) and tells her, at five in the morning, it is time to milk the cow, the girl protests: why can’t the cow sleep for some more time?

The have a negro boy as friend and guide, who will show the way to cross the valley and reach the next mountain which, by road will take half a day to reach. The boy dies in an accident, caused by illegal blasting of a tunnel, by a company producing oil. They want to destroy the hill to get oil.

A lawyer friend of the grand mother regularly comes and reads the bible, sitting by the side of the immobile mother, without even caring whether she hears it or not.

Once the children go to the lawyer’s office in the far away town, and are surprised to see plantains, pumpkins and other vegetables in the office. THEY WERE TOLD THAT VILLAGERS GIVE IT AS THEY DO NOT HAVE MONEY TO GIVE AS FEES!

The hill contains oil. All others agreed to sell land to the oil companies, but the grandmother refuses. In the end, the court decrees against her. She breaks down in the court; but the children become millionaires!

As usual, the lawyer reads the bible and in the end he conveys the news to the immobile mother. She smiles and tries to get up, something no one could believe. I think the lawyer  marries her.

Today I read in the science section of the Times Of India, that a patient supposed to be in comma for twenty three years, woke up to tell that he was fully conscious and used to hear their talk.

I was reminded of the novel!

I look back over the past year and it melds easily into the year prior.  I look at photos of Samuel when we first moved here to Salem, in 2007.  He was a baby, bald and beautiful and quickly learning how to walk and take over my heart.

I see the faithfulness of my God in our lives.  His protection, His grace, His love and abiding mercy blow me away . . . even when I prove so unfaithful, He still loves me . . . still accepts me back with loving arms.

Sometimes I lose focus of the good and zero in on the negative.  I find myself pitying my position and lack of moola that the school regime has left us in until Justin is done.  But, in reality, we are on the best ride ever!  My husband is not stuck in a wood mill . . . but is persueing, oh so diligently, a better future for himself and our family.

My boys are growing robust and inquisitive . . . full of life and questions.  I don’t dare take credit for their well-being . . . that thanks goes to God and His amazing grace.

So, here I am, standing on the brink of another Thanksgiving holiday and I’m in tears with gratitude to God and the graciousness of family and friends that has, and is, seeing us through this era of our lives.  I, everyday, learn to be more generous . . . more forgiving . . . more willing to give the benefit of the doubt; slower to judge.  And that is due to the example thats I’ve witnessed towards us.

Thank you, God!

Thankful to family and friends . . . you know who you are!

God bless your holiday and weekend spent with family and friends!!