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It's hard to believe that the date circled in my calendar for months now is finally arriving. The day I have dedicated my life (and savings) to for the past eight months. The day in which I hope to accomplish something greater than I ever thought possible. The day I (God willingly) will become an Ironman.
I'm not going to lie. I've got a LOT on my mind right now. Do I have everything I need? Am I ready for the challenging bike course? Should I have tapered differently? Is it OK that I probably gained five pounds this past week just because I've been eating and not training as much? Is my bike going to flat out on me? Is it going to be cold, hot or windy? Really, the list goes on and on and on...
This article that my friend (and now an Ironman as of Sunday, you get it girl) Christa sent me sums it up pretty well. Please humor me and read it.
You've been following your schedule to the letter. You've been piling on the mileage, piling up the laundry, and getting a set of tan lines that will take until next year to erase. Long rides were followed by long runs, which both were preceded by long swims, all of which were followed by recovery naps that were longer than you slept for any given night during college.
You ran in the snow.
You rode in the rain.
You ran in the heat.
You ran in the cold.
You went out when others stayed home.
You rode the trainer when others pulled the covers over their heads.
You have survived the Darwinian progression that is an Ironman summer, and now the hardest days are behind you. Like a climber in the Tour de France coming over the summit of the penultimate climb on an alpine stage, you've already covered so much ground...there's just one more climb to go. You shift up, you take a drink, you zip up the jersey; the descent lies before you...and it will be a fast one.
Time that used to be filled with never-ending work will now be filling with silent muscles, taking their final, well-earned rest. While this taper is something your body desperately needs, your mind cast off to the background for so very long, will start to speak to you.
It won't be pretty.
It will bring up thoughts of doubt, pain, hunger, thirst, failure, and loss. It will give you reasons why you aren't ready. It will try and make one last stand to stop you, because your brain doesn't know what the body already does. Your body knows the truth:
You are ready.
Your brain won't believe it. It will use the taper to convince you that this is foolish - that there is too much that can go wrong.
You are ready.
Finishing an Ironman is never an accident. It's the result of dedication, focus, hard work, and belief that all the long runs in January, long rides in April, and long swims every damn weekend will be worth it. It comes from getting on the bike, day in, day out. It comes from long, solo runs. From that first long run where you wondered, "How will I ever be ready?" to the last long run where you smiled to yourself with one mile to go...knowing that you'd found the answer.
It is worth it. Now that you're at the taper, you know it will be worth it. The workload becomes less. The body winds up and prepares, and you just need to quiet your worried mind. Not easy, but you can do it.
You are ready.
You will walk into the water with 2000 other wide-open sets of eyes. You will look upon the sea of humanity, and know that you belong. You'll feel the chill of the water crawl into your wetsuit, and shiver like everyone else, but smile because the day you have waited for so VERY long is finally here.
You will tear up in your goggles. Everyone does.
The helicopters will roar overhead.
The splashing will surround you.
You'll stop thinking about Ironman, because you're now racing one.
The swim will be long - it's long for everyone, but you'll make it. You'll watch as the shoreline grows and grows, and soon you'll hear the end. You'll come up the beach and head for the wetsuit strippers. Three people will get that sucker off before you know what happening, then you'll head for the bike.
The voices, the cowbells, and the curb-to-curb chalk giving you a hero's sendoff can't wipe the smile off your face.
You'll settle down to your race. The crowds will spread out on the road. You'll soon be on your bike, eating your food on your schedule, controlling your Ironman.
You'll start to feel that morning sun turn to afternoon sun. It's warmer now. Maybe it's hot. Maybe you're not feeling so good now. You'll keep riding. You'll keep drinking. You'll keep moving. After all, this is just a long training day with valet parking and catering, right?
You'll put on your game face, fighting the urge to feel down as you ride for what seems like hours. You reach special needs, fuel up, and head out.
By now it'll be hot. You'll be tired. Doubts will fight for your focus. Everyone struggles here. You've been on that bike for a few hours, and stopping would be nice, but you won't - not here. Not today.
You'll grind the false flats to the climb. You'll know you're almost there. You'll fight for every inch of road. The crowd will come back to you here. Let their energy push you. Let them see your eyes. Smile when they cheer for you - your body will get just that little bit lighter.
You'll plunge down the road, swooping from corner to corner, chaining together the turns, tucking on the straights, letting your legs recover for the run to come - soon! You'll roll back - you'll see people running out. You'll think to yourself, "Wasn't I just here?"
The noise will grow. The chalk dust will hang in the air - you're back, with only 26.2 miles to go. You'll relax a little bit, knowing that even if you get a flat tire or something breaks here, you can run the damn bike into T2.
You'll roll into transition. 100 volunteers will fight for your bike. You'll give it up and not look back. You'll have your bag handed to you, and into the tent you'll go. You'll change. You'll load up your pockets, and open the door to the last long run of your Ironman summer - the one that counts.
You'll take that first step of a thousand...and you'll smile. You'll know that the bike won't let you down now - the race is down to your own two feet. The same crowd that cheered for you in the shadows of the morning will cheer for you in the brilliant sunshine of a summer Sunday. High-five people on the way out. Smile. Enjoy it. This is what you've worked for all year long.
That first mile will feel great. So will the second. By mile 3, you probably won't feel so good.
That's okay. You knew it couldn't all be that easy. You'll settle down just like you did on the bike, and get down to your pace. You'll see the leaders coming back the other way. Some will look great - some won't. You might feel great, you might not. No matter how you feel, don't panic - this is the part of the day where whatever you're feeling, you can be sure it won't last.
You'll keep moving. You'll keep drinking. You'll keep eating. Maybe you'll be right on plan - maybe you won't. If you're ahead of schedule, don't worry - believe. If you're behind, don't panic - roll with it. Everyone comes up with a brilliant race plan for Ironman, and then everyone has to deal with the reality that planning for something like Ironman is like trying to land a man on the moon. By remote control. Blindfolded.
How you react to the changes in your plan will dictate your day. Don't waste energy worrying about things - just do what you have to when you have to, and keep moving. Keep eating. Keep drinking. Just don't sit down - don't EVER sit down.
You'll make it to the halfway point. You'll load up on special needs. Some of what you packed will look good, some won't. Eat what looks good, toss the rest. Keep moving. Start looking for people you know. Cheer for people you don't. You're headed in - they're not. They want to be where you are, just like you wanted to be when you saw all those fast people headed into town. Share some energy - you'll get it right back.
Run if you can.
Walk if you have to.
Just keep moving.
The miles will drag on. The brilliant sunshine will yawn. You'll be coming up to those aid stations fully alive with people, music, and chicken soup. TAKE THE SOUP. Keep moving.
You'll soon only have a few miles to go. You'll start to believe that you're going to make it. You'll start to imagine how good it's going to feel when you get there. Let those feelings drive you on. When your legs just don't want to move anymore, think about what it's going to be like when someone catches you…and puts a medal over your head... all you have to do is get there.
You'll start to hear the people in town. People you can't see in the twilight will cheer for you. They'll call out your name. Smile and thank them. They were there when you left on the bike, and when you came back, and when you left on the run, and now when you've come back.
You'll enter town. You'll start to realize that the day is almost over. You'll be exhausted, wiped out, barely able to run a 10-minute mile (if you're lucky), but you'll ask yourself, "Where did the whole day go?" You'll be standing on the edge of two feelings - the desire to finally stop, and the desire to take these last moments and make them last as long as possible.
You'll hit mile 25. Your Ironman will have 1.2 miles - just 2KM left in it.
You'll run. You'll find your legs. You'll fly. You won't know how, but you will run. The lights will grow brighter, brighter, and brighter. Soon you'll be able to hear the music again. This time, it'll be for keeps.
Soon they'll see you. Soon, everyone will see you. You'll run towards the lights, between the fences, and into the night sun made just for you.
They'll say your name.
You'll keep running.
Nothing will hurt.
The moment will be yours - for one moment, the entire world will be looking at you and only you.
You'll break the tape at the finish line, 140.6 miles after starting your journey. The flash will go off.
You'll stop. You'll finally stop. Your legs will wobble their last, and suddenly...be capable of nothing more.
Someone will catch you.
You'll lean into them.
It will suddenly hit you.
You are ready.
You are ready.
We leave tonight to start our trek to Whistler. After spending the night in Jasper, we'll arrive tomorrow evening. I will check-in Friday, do some light workouts, attend the athlete briefing, drop my bike and gear bags on Saturday, and throw my feet up knowing that it's all in God's hands from here.
But I'm not too proud to ask for some final help and motivation from everyone. So if you have any final encouraging messages or thoughts for me, please leave them here in the comments, text me or email me. I'm planning to gather everything and re-read them as much as possible over the next few days to remind myself why I'm here and how grateful I am for this journey.
Thank you all for the love and support along this crazy journey. I will be doing everything I can out there on Sunday to make you all proud!


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When leaders from the Group of 20 nations meet here Thursday and Friday, they will find a city that has resurrected itself.
From the roof of the city's convention center – one of the G-20 venues – the dignitaries will look out on the Allegheny River and perhaps see kayakers on a waterway that used to be a dumping ground for industry. The leaders will enjoy canapés at the Phipps Conservatory, which was founded by a captain of industry but is now a green showplace. And if the visitors are able to walk the streets, they might hear jazz or Mozart – without a smoke-belching stack in sight.
Yes, even though the football team is called the Steelers, city officials want the world to know that steel is no longer Pittsburgh's raison d'être. The city with a sooty past is now exporting its medical technology. In rivers where waste used to abound, bass tournaments are now held.
Even as the United States struggles to exit the recession, the city boasts it has 25,000 unfilled jobs.
"People hear 'Pittsburgh,' and they think an older town; they think a dirty town," says Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who proudly calls himself the youngest mayor of a major US city. "And, of course, that's not the case."
In a statement Sept. 8, President Obama explained why he wanted to hold the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh. "As a city that has transformed itself from the city of steel to a center for high-tech innovation – including green technology, education and training, and research and development – Pittsburgh will provide both a beautiful backdrop and a powerful example for our work."
Mr. Obama knows the city well, having visited it often last year during Pennsylvania's Democratic primary, which he lost to then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. While campaigning in Pittsburgh, Obama got a tour of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, proudly touted by city officials for its LEED Gold certification from the US Green Building Council.
The facility, which will host G-20 meetings, uses natural light to illuminate much of the floor space. It can turn off the ventilation and let in outside air for about 50 days of the year.
Most of the building's components were built within 500 miles of Pittsburgh. Yet another green feature: a rooftop herb and vegetable garden, which is used by chefs preparing food for events in the facility.
"This building was intended to be an example and a catalyst for future green efforts in the region," writes Mary Conturo, executive director of the Sports & Exhibition Authority, which owns the center, in an e-mail.
On Thursday, the visiting dignitaries will dine at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, an elegant greenhouse that melds glass artwork with exotic plant life.
It was built in 1893 by Henry Phipps, one of Andrew Carnegie's business partners. The facility is described by its executive director, Richard Piacentini, as "an excellent example of the old Victorian mind-set that there were no limits to the amount of resources we could use and the amount of pollution we could produce."
But today, this place is more about conservation with a drought-resistant lawn, natural heating and cooling, and the purchase of clean-energy offsets to account for all the power usage.
"We have tried to make the facility more sustainable within the historic nature of the building," Mr. Piacentini says.
Pittsburgh is developing an "emerging conscientiousness" on green issues, says architect Christine Brill, who works on urban design and landscape. For example, the city is starting to value open space, she says.
"The idea is to take back open industrial spaces and repurpose them – perhaps build greenways and trails so people can get around the city in a green kind of way," says Ms. Brill, a partner in Studio for Spatial Practice in Pittsburgh. "A lot of people have left the city. Greening might be a way to bring them back."
This is not to say Pittsburgh is the paragon of environmental correctness. According to a May report by the Brookings Institution in Washington, Pittsburgh ranked 34th among the 100 largest metropolitan areas in terms of its carbon footprint.
"While Pittsburgh is doing a lot of proactive things, is being creative with green-energy innovation and building a cleaner economy, you can't discount that their energy is coal-produced – and that elevates the carbon footprint of every household," says Mark Muro, a fellow for the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings.
Pittsburgh has a history of reinventing itself. In the 18th century, the city became known as the "Gateway to the West" because vessels could proceed down the Ohio River to the Mississippi, says Andrew Hannah, an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh.
"But the opening of the Erie Canal changed that, since goods from Europe no longer needed to go through Pittsburgh," he says.
Instead, in the early 1800s, Pittsburgh became an industrial center, thanks to Mr. Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. Industrial giants such as Alcoa and US Steel flourished.
But in the 1980s, the US steel and manufacturing industries crashed. Large Pittsburgh-based companies, such as Westinghouse, stumbled into bankruptcy. The city had been the third-largest hub in the US for corporate headquarters, but after large employers such as Rockwell International moved out, it had fewer than 10 Fortune 500 headquarters.
In January 1983, unemployment in Pittsburgh was more than 18 percent, with some 212,400 people out of work.
"When the steel industry all but collapsed, we in this city had no choice but to reinvent ourselves," Mayor Ravenstahl says.
Now, Mr. Hannah is CEO of a company that's an example of the new Pittsburgh. Plextronics makes an ink that can efficiently conduct electricity. The chemical can be used to make inexpensive solar panels or extremely thin light fixtures.
A CMU professor, Richard McCullough, devised the ink and teamed up with Hannah seven years ago. Their company is in a research park that includes other companies spun off as a result of other professors' discoveries. "The universities today are driving industry," Hannah says.
This is not to say the "old Pittsburgh" has just gone away. One steel mill is still within the city limits. And 100,000 manufacturing jobs are still in the region, points out Dennis Yablonsky, CEO of the Allegheny Conference, which encourages economic development.
But Mr. Yablonsky sees the G-20 meetings as an opportunity to showcase the city's progress and maybe entice more businesses. "We hope to attract corporate executives and say to them, 'Look at Pittsburgh,' " he says.
While Pittsburgh may show that cities can recover, Yablonsky says, it can't be done overnight. "In Pittsburgh's case," he says, "it's a 30-year transformation story."
Related: G-20 summit: how Pittsburgh plans to handle protesters

subset: commoncrawl


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I am prefacing this by saying I have seen Adam Warren pitch about a half dozen times, from Staten Island up through Scranton.
I have never seen him as bad as he was in his major league debut Friday night at Yankee Stadium. And I don't mean bad by results oriented bad, but approach on the mound bad, stuff bad and command bad.
Warren can be a pretty decent major league pitcher, and it would be a mistake if the Yankees ended up giving Warren the Chase Wright treatment of permanent banishment to the minor leagues after one bad start to a major league career.
But that will likely happen. Look for David Phelps to get the missing CC start next week.
Warren did get the first two guys out in the first inning, but then walked the next two. Granted they were the biggest power hitters in the Chicago White Sox lineup, Adam Dunn and Paul Konerko, but attack the strike zone with two outs and no one on base! Solo HRs won't kill you, but two-run shots will.
What I did notice was Warren has a pretty good change up last night, striking out the leadoff batter on a change up and throwing a 2-0 change to Dunn for a called strike after falling behind on two curve balls out of the zone. Memo to Warren and Chris Stewart: Adam Dunn takes a lot of pitches. He never faced you before and was likely going to take the first pitch you threw him no matter what.
With two outs and no one on, throw a 0-0 strike.
However, Warren only threw a couple other change ups in his 2.1 innings, which generated swings and misses or outs. I am surprised Warren didn't throw more as the change up was the only effective pitch he had all night. I am also surprised the catcher, Stewart, didn't call for more changes.
Warren was throwing his fastball with good velocity (up to 93) in the first inning, but the pitch lacked pop and the extra giddy-up required to get a fastball by major league hitters. What it also severely lacked was movement. It was as straight as an arrow. It was the lack of movement that allowed Dunn to receive that first inning walk. A 3-2 fastball was just off the inside corner, perfectly placed under Dunn's hands, but with any tailing movement to the pitch, Warren probably gets the called third strike.
But Warren's fastball was straight all night. I don't remember Warren having that straight of a fastball, and he used to throw a 2-seamer once in a while, but never saw it last night.
Warren also had a very ugly slider/cutter* last night. In the past, I have seen this pitch get lots of swings and misses during his minor league stints. But it was always much tighter and with good, sharp bite and he often threw it for strikes.
*I saw Warren in back to back to back starts a few seasons ago. The first two were in High-A Tampa, which saw Warren dominate both games. He was then promoted to Trenton and I saw him that next week pitching in Double-A. He did a double take when I saw him in Trenton, "like what are you doing here, weren't you in Tampa?" type look. Anyway, we talked about his slider and he said it was not a slider but a combination slider/cutter, which I quickly said, "You mean like a slutter?" He laughed and said that it was funny I said that, because that is what his father called the pitch – the slutter. (His dad was in Trenton for his Double A debut, and, obviously as you saw on T.V. was in Yankee Stadium for his major league debut).
But last night, Warren often started the pitch out of the zone and the slurvy break just brought the ball further low and away, a very easy pitch for major league hitters to recognize and avoid. Last night's slutter was more an A-ball type offering rather than a major league pitch. It has been better in the past and should (needs to) be better in the future.
Plus, if the hitters weren't chasing the pitch, he needed to throw it for strikes early in the count to hitters. Just to show them he can and to begin to bring the strike zone back into play, to the hitter and the umpire. I am not a big Lou Piniella in the TV booth guy (too general, not enough insight) but he did say a couple things last night worth noting. One was that Warren needed to throw more strikes to keep the umpire on his side, especially as a major league debut guy. A young pitcher needs to establish the strike zone to the umpire.
Without that extra pop on his fastball, the White Sox hitters knew Warren couldn't blow the ball by them. He may have been throwing up to 93 MPH, but it sure seems like David Robertson's 90 MPH fastballs have more juice. When hitters know you can't blow the ball by them, they sit on certain pitches and wait patiently until they get that pitch.
Perfect example is the double hit by Gordon Beckman in the second inning. Beckham easily fouled off two outside pitches, one maybe off the plate and when Warren came inside on 1-2, he stroked a solid double down the left field line on a 93 MPH fastball. As Warren had done often early, he worked outside early to hitters, and then came inside with two strikes. Beckham recognized this and patiently waited for the inside pitch he could handle, then…well, he handled it.
Warren walked only two batters (both in the first), but he was nibbling with his fastball all night, just missing off the outside corner. I suggest throwing the ball over the plate more, then working to expand the zone later in the game when you have established the zone to both hitter and umpire.
So to summarize, Warren had brutal stuff – a very straight , medium pop fastball, with no movement at all; a slutter with no bite, was recognized all night, didn't get chased and wasn't thrown for strikes; PLUS a seldom used change up which happened to be his best pitch all night.
As I said at the top, it was a very bad night for Warren in terms of approach, stuff and command, which obviously had terrible results on the scoreboard. He is better than what he showed last night, and I sincerely hope the Yankees (and their fair weather "fans") given him another opportunity.
His opponent was Jose Quintana, who pitched last year for the Yankees High-A Tampa team, before being released in a 40-man roster crunch. Quintana was to become a minor league free agent, and needed to be placed on the 40 man roster at the end of 2011. But despite very good numbers in each of his prior minor league seasons, the Yankees chose to not keep Quintana.
Since the White Sox brought up Quintana, I have read a few reports how the Yankees blew it with Quintana, how he would be perfect fit with the major league team, etc. If the Yankees did offer their final 40 man roster spot to Quintana last winter, he would be no higher than Double-A Trenton and would never sniff the major leagues before 2014, if then. He would be on strict pitch counts and innings limits, placed on the phantom DL to limit his work and he would be buried behind all the arms at Scranton (including Russ Ortiz and now Chris Schwinden – lol).
The only chance Quintana would have had to pitch in Yankee Stadium was if it was for another team. Which last night it was.
The White Sox do things differently than the Yankees. They take risks, play young players and generally think outside the box. And they have patience with young players.
Actually, I didn't think Quintana was all that impressive last night. He has slight movement to a nothing fastball, a weak breaking ball and so-so change up. But he has been successful thus far by keeping hitters off balance and locating his pitches well. Doesn't sound like a Yankee pitching prospect, huh?
He has a smooth easy delivery and despite getting into a few jams last night, shows the poise of a 10 year veteran. He also trusts his stuff and throws strikes.
You know who Quintana should be? He is exactly what Yankee left handed pitching prospect Manuel Banuelos SHOULD be. But Banuelos is hurt again and has pitched only 24 innings this season.
What was impressive last night was rookie White Sox manager Robin Ventura, who confidently left Quintana in the game during the 6th inning. With an 8-6 lead, two outs and no one on base, a fielding error allowed a runner on second base, and there a right handed reliever warmed up in the bullpen. However, Quintana was allowed to pitch to Derek Jeter, a right handed hitter facing the rookie for a third time.
I guarantee Joe Girardi hooks a rookie starter in that spot, if he was allowed to start the inning at all.
Quintana calmly retired Jeter and finished his night. Ventura made a gutsy, good call leaving in Quintana. The worst case scenario the game becomes tied with a Jeter two-run homer. But more importantly Ventura gave a huge boost of support to his young pitcher, which not only helped last night but also in future appearances.


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Oh my stars is it really March and I am just now doing your February post! YIKES MC I am sooo sorry. But this last 2 months have been non stop with all your gymnastics meets! You have had 3 meets and lots of extra practices this last month because state is coming soon! You have have also been training for the LittleRockers Marathon. You are one busy girl, and you have done it all with out missing a beat and keeping all As. Your dad and I are so proud of you sweet girl!
Peace Out 1st Grade!
1 year ago


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Check out this highly original light fixture developed by MADLAB called Bacterioptica. Its spaghetti-like structure consists of over 15,000 feet (4,572 meters) of fiber optic cables that are attached to a series of petri dishes. And according to the instructions, owners are encouraged to grow cultures taken from samples of skin, mould, the yard — whatever. And as the bacteria grows within the petri dishes, the light emanating from the chandelier will likewise change and evolve.
The modular composition contains hundreds of metal rods, couplings, caps, and canisters, which provides a near-infinite array of design configurations.
MADLAB describes it like this:
Bacterioptica breaks from design norms, a light fixture outfitted with petri dishes. Designed to be adaptive, not only in its form and mechanics, but more importantly, in the way it evolves. Bacterioptica is not your typical chandelier, just as no family is a typical unit of interactions. Its on/off switch does not control it. Bacterioptica is alive. It grows. It is itself a household organism. It is living and breathing the same air and bacteria we are.
H/t BitRebels.


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Ani Sup Utara @ TTDI Jaya
38, Ground Floor, Jalan Opera U2/L, Seksyen 2, 40150 TTDI Jaya Shah Alam, Selangor
Daily: 8am - 11pm, (Friday open at 3pm)
Up to RM 20
Ani Sup Utara is a chain of restaurants specializing in Malay style soups that is rapidly gaining momentum. Since the first restaurant in Shah Alam in 2003, countless branches of Ani Sup Utara have opened their doors around Malaysia.
Their soup selection includes common entries like Sup Ayam and Sup Kambing to unusual choices like Sup Burung Puyuh (quail soup) and Sup Paru (soup made from cow lungs). Soups can be ordered a la carte or as a set with rice, sambal, salted egg and cucumber slices. Besides soup sets, Ani Sup Utara also offers Nasi Ayam, Bubur, Bihun Sup (vermicelli in soup) and Soto. Available for breakfast are a variety of cakes, kuih, and Nasi Lemak.
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ホーム > アーティスト > オーケストラ > ケルン室内管弦楽団 (Cologne Chamber Orchestra)
The Cologne Chamber Orchestra (Kölner Kammerorchester), founded in 1923 by Hermann Abendroth, is the oldest chamber orchestra of the region. Its first concerts took place under the direction of Hermann Abendroth and Otto Klemperer. Helmut Müller-Brühl took over in 1963 and, in collaboration with numerous international soloists, the orchestra appeared with great success throughout Europe, North and South Americas and Asia, receiving invitations to many international festivals.
From 1976 to 1986 the orchestra, under the name Capella Clementina, played on historical instruments, setting a pattern for performance practice and helping to revive baroque music theatre. Since 1988 the orchestra has had its own annual concert series at the Cologne Philharmonic. Over 200 recordings, broadcasts and television appearances document the orchestra's vast repertoire which, since 1995, has been continually extended by recordings for Naxos. In 2001 the orchestra won a Cannes Classical Award for its recording of Telemann's Darmstadt Overtures (8.554244), one of a number of acclaimed recordings.
Christian Ludwig served as music director of the orchestra from 2008 to 2011. Since then and significantly after the death of Helmuth Müller-Brühl on 3 January 2012, the Cologne Chamber Orchestra has worked with different international guest conductors.
© Naxos Japan, Inc. All rights reserved.


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Two cancer survivors, a small business owner, a pastor, some Southern Baptists and Chuck Norris. What do they have in common? All want to point people to Christ through BGEA's evangelistic website, PeaceWithGod.net.
Across the United States and around the world in countries like Croatia, New Zealand, Kuwait and the Congo, web administrators are posting links to PeaceWithGod.net on their church websites, blogs and business pages. PeaceWithGod.net presents the Gospel in a simple way and gives visitors the chance to ask questions, indicate commitments to Christ and receive follow-up discipleship materials. More than 12 million people worldwide have visited PeaceWithGod.net, part of BGEA's Search for Jesus ministry, since it launched in 2011.
Gustavo Núñez owns Onsite Auto Detailing in Wisconsin. While developing his website, Núñez was looking for something simple to tell people that "Jesus is the Savior." He found PeaceWithGod.net and put a link to it at the bottom of his home page. He can't tell who clicks on it, but isn't concerned about that. He'll leave the results up to God.
"I just want to serve the Lord," he said, and show people that there's hope. He found hope himself in 2000 after someone invited him to church and he decided to follow Christ.
Another church called NorthRidge in New Hampshire has a large screen shot of PeaceWithGod.net on its home page. A page on its website titled "What we believe" cites the Great Commission.
"Everything that we do … is driven to be able to get the Gospel out clearly," Pastor Mike Mills said.
The nondenominational church's website has more web visitors than members, but "whether they come to church or not," Mills said, "I want them to get the Gospel and how to be saved."
Mills' church is half an hour from Boston, and about half of his members work there. The Boston Marathon bombings in April were a wake-up call, he said, and he hopes the sudden tragedy will continue leading people to seek God.
Mills found out about PeaceWithGod.net from BillyGraham.org. He and his church regularly support BGEA, and Mills lists PeaceWithGod.net on the business cards he hands out in the community.
Martial artist and actor Chuck Norris has also helped get the word out about PeaceWithGod.net. On a March blog about religious liberty, he mentions his and his wife's belief in Christ. Norris tells about Christ's free gift of salvation and links to PeaceWithGod.net.
For a pair of cancer survivors – a Georgia man and a young Utah woman – linking to the evangelistic website was a way to share their faith with those who followed their progress.
"I understood from the beginning," the man wrote on his website, "that as a Christian, I was not promised that I would never have problems, but I was promised that He would never leave me or forsake me."
He linked to PeaceWithGod.net hoping to give others the same assurance.
Several states away in Utah, a young girl's parents kept a website as she battled cancer. The site is full of encouraging Bible verses, and a link to PeaceWithGod.net is at the very top.
Terry Harper, executive director of the West Virginia Convention of Southern Baptists, said when his organization was looking for evangelistic content to go online, it turned to PeaceWithGod.net rather than "recreate the wheel." The link is found under "Become a Christian" on the organization's website.
"That's what we're about – reaching people for Christ," Harper said.
As a boy, Harper watched Billy Graham on TV. He now looks to BGEA for theologically sound material.
The West Virginia Convention of Southern Baptists also supports another evangelistic effort called My Hope America with Billy Graham, a nationwide effort to tell others about Christ.
"I think it's fantastic. … I'm promoting it across our state," evangelism missionary Matt Shamblin said. "I look forward to seeing what God's going to do with it."
In addition to publicizing PeaceWithGod.net, the organization is reaching out to every church in the state to encourage My Hope participation.
How You Can Get Involved
•Add a banner for PeaceWithGod.net to your blog, church website or business page.
•Become a volunteer e-counselor or online discipleship coach with Search for Jesus.
•Support BGEA's Internet evangelism ministry.


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McLaren driver Jenson Button came to Budapest on Tuesday to show what it's like to do 150 MPH on a downtown avenue. What must be a PR burden for a modern F1 driver is an aural delight for an entire city, sweltering in the early spring heat. The McLaren was loud in a rather cosmic way.
These things happen because Formula One is financed by big companies and big companies—British telecom Vodafone in McLaren's case—are not always content with having their logos slathered all over racing cars which grace hundreds of millions of television screens every other Sunday. Sometimes, they demand more of the fabulously talented and lucky young men who get paid fabulous amounts of money to race fabulously fast experimental machinery. Sometimes, these men have to suit up between races and entertain the masses.
Budapest was the scene of Jenson Button's crafty win last summer on an uncharacteristically wet and chilly Hungaroring. His return to the city, nine months later, coincided with conditions typical for Hungarian Grands Prix but very atypical for spring in Budapest: dry, 90-degree heat. This time, he raced not in the dust bowl 20 miles from town, where the Hungaroring is, but on Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út, an avenue which cuts a diagonal across downtown Budapest.
Gawker Media, the company which publishes this website, has an office in downtown Budapest, and Button's impromptu circuit came to within 100 yards of that office. For a few glorious minutes, I got to experience what it's like to live in Monaco during the Grand Prix. In an empty conference room, drink in hand, I closed my eyes and listened to Button's impossibly loud car doing burnouts outside the windows, then accelerating off in the direction of the Gustave Eiffel-designed Nyugati railway station. This is what beautiful, manic engineering will do with 2.4 liters of displacement and a very short exhaust manifold. The noise was all-enveloping, it was alien, diaphanous, crystalline. The windows rattled in their 120-year-old frames.
I never saw Button's car, but I heard it was the very car he scored his greatest win with, at the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix, where he came from last place to pick apart an imperial Sebastian Vettel and force him into a mistake on the last lap.
I have no idea how Formula One's 1.6-liter turbos, to be introduced for the 2014 season, will sound like. They may sound wonderful. They may sound crap. But the current 2.4-liter V8's, like the Mercedes-Benz FO 108Y fitted into Button's McLaren MP4-26, are an epiphany. Go and hear one while you can.
Photo by Gergely Rácz.


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Mum always like to watch fireworks. I remember her bringing me to watch NDP fireworks year after year. I grew up also enjoy watching fireworks.
I love fireworks because it reminds me that beautiful things don't last forever. Of cos, beautiful things don't disappear as fast as fireworks. But they do disappear some day. Fireworks taught me to treasure the beautiful things around you before they disappear.
But of cause, there were people who tried to capture the moment using camera. Yes, you can capture images of the fireworks, but you cannot retain the feeling of watching the fireworks appearing right infront of you. I remember once when I tried to capture the fireworks on camera, taking shot after shot until the fireworks is over. I've been so busy trying to take photo until I didn't really enjoyed the fireworks. Not only that, when I watch the photos I took, the feelings is not there too.
It's just like real life. We've been busy trying to hold on to the things that we love until we forgot to enjoy the moment. Why bother? Beautiful things will disappear one day no matter what you do. Just enjoy the moment of beauty while it is still with you.
I'm not saying that we should just sit there and see the beautiful things in our life pass us by. We should always fight for what we love, but while trying, we should also remember to enjoy the moment….. and yes, I'm re-learning how to enjoy the moment again……


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Carl Crawford is back!
From the Dodgers -
The Los Angeles Dodgers today reinstated outfielder Carl Crawford from the 15-day disabled list and optioned outfielder/first baseman Scott Van Slyke to Triple-A Albuquerque. Crawford last played on June 1, when he suffered a left hamstring strain while legging out a double at Colorado, and went 5-for-13 (.385) with a double and three RBI in four rehab games with Single-A Rancho Cucamonga. Prior to the injury, Crawford batted .301 with nine steals, 12 doubles, five homers and 13 RBI in 51 games with the Dodgers.
Van Slyke has hit .236 with six doubles, six homers and 13 RBI in 27 games during his two stints with the Dodgers this season, last appearing in a game on June 30 against the Phillies.
Friday, July 5, 2013
Dodgers reinstate Carl Crawford from the disabled list, option Scott Van Slyke
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