The Sad Truth...

...is that it looks as if my readership is down to zero once again. I'm the only one who gets on my site consistantly... if anyone is out there, please please PLEASE leave me a comment and let me know.

What, no "Hallelujah"?

"For many in the United States, the phrase Smoky Mountain conjures up images of breathtaking beauty in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park between North Carolina and Tennessee, the most visited national park in the country. For most in the Philippines, Smokey Mountain conjures up images of the last place on earth anyone would want to visit.
Hundreds of families live on the edge of the city’s garbage dump nicknamed Smokey Mountain because, during the summer months, the mountain of rotting garbage often ignites underground and sends out toxic clouds of smoke that hang over the area like a blanket.

This is the rainy season, so the smoke is drowned out by the rain. Of course, rain just brings on a different kind of misery — thick, stinking mud.

Smokey Mountain is one of the five poorest places in the world. The people who have built homes here make their living by scavenging through the city’s garbage looking for items that can be recycled for money. The average return on a hard day of ripping through bags of stinking trash is around 200 pesos — about $2 in the United States.

In the 1970s, what was once a small village by the sea became the growing, burgeoning city of Manila’s primary dumping site. By the early 1980s, Smokey Mountain became an international embarrassment to then President Ferdinand Marcos. He had the site bulldozed, and new public housing was built for the poor about 25 miles south of Manila. The dump was closed in 1995, and the "new" Smokey Mountain opened a mile away.

Families who could not make the minimum $8 monthly mortgage payments in the government-built apartments were forced once again into shacks along the new garbage heap."
(Kathy L. Gilbert, www.umc.org, 10.17.07)

I want to tell you that it ticks me off - more than a little bit - how ungrateful we can be. I'm not saying "everyone else is ungrateful", because I am as well. Overall, we are one of the most ungrateful people groups on the face of the planet. We have so much to be thankful for, and yet, we forget it all when things get difficult. We complain and whine and wish things were good for us.
I am especially disappointed right now in those of us who have been complaining about the raise in gas prices, but now that they are down, we haven't even whispered a hallelujah. I don't care if the drop in price is temporary or not, it is still a blessing. Will we complain to the Father when things are bad, and then not even praise Him when they are good?

I hope this makes your day so much better...

"Jenny"

"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party"

"People need to stop being concerned with whom I am involved with, and focus on the economy."
- Richard Nixon (during Watergate)

Sound Familiar?

I'm sorry if this is too pointed or unsupported for your liking, but I think we need to realize what is happening here. It seems as if history is repeating itself...

An apology

I just wanted to say sorry to anyone who watched the video that I had posted previously (about 2 posts down from this one). I have replaced it with another one, which is harder to understand, but there's nothing in it that requires "beeping". =)
I should have previewed the other one before I uploaded it.
Again, I apologize.

"168 Killed in India Temple Stampede"

Just a word on my local newspaper:

I'm not sure whether every newspaper blindly scrapes the bottom of the barrel-o-lame and prints completely unnecessary stories, but our newspaper certainly does at times. Here are a small sample of real-life headlines from yesterday's newspaper:

"2008 Boy Scout Popcorn Sale Kicks Off"
"Man Saves Dog From Shark In Fla. Attack"
"Overwhelmed Mail Carrier Accused Of Hiding 9,000 Items"

and last, but not least,

"Dolphins Go On Diet At Japan Aquarium"

Let me just give you a little sample of the article that follows that last headline. Check this out.

"Dolphins at a Japanese marine park are going on a low fat diet after developing pot bellies and failing to look sharp in their aquatic performances. Kinoski Marine World in western Japan said Tuesday that all its 19 dolphins have been on a low fat diet since late August, when they started failing to hit jumping targets and keep upright while treading water." (From wire reports)

As you can see, our city newspaper has found their niche - in the world of "global-inquirer-esque" reporting. Good thing too, or I would be totally uninformed about overweight dolphins in Japan.

This is a test... (this is only a test)

I've been trying out some different things with my blog, just to see what I can do. If this post goes through correctly, I may soon be making the transition into... TRI-MEDIA BLOGGING!!! (Which just means I'll be adding video to my blog.)
I'm sorry about posting so many articles, so often. I know that It's difficult to keep up, and becomes annoying if you have to read more than one at once. Still, stay with me. It only gets better from here.

I hope you enjoyed the video. Let me know what you thought.

"It's a small world after all..."

Just a little update to what I told you the other day about meeting Ty Pennington. I found it strange, as I have met him so recently, that I have been riding the metro with his cousin for almost two months now. She told me this morning of her relationship to him, and that she rarely gets to see him. (Except on TV, I suppose.) What a strange 'coincidence'. Just thought you'd like to know. It certainly is a small world, isn't it?