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Well the last blog entry (yes I know it was a long time ago) certainly seemed to generate some discussion – some positive, some negative – all certainly interesting. I am not sure as to the protocol for responding to these ‘posts’ as reading them there were a few thoughts that came to mind. Nonetheless, I was very surprised and happy to read so many well-considered comments on such a range of issues from SoapNet to spirituality – all on a DOOL blog, who would have thought!

Firstly I apologize for taking such a long time in writing this, time is a commodity I have little of but I am going to make a point of pushing this further up my to-do list as when I get to it I really do quite enjoy blogging. Again, not being much of a blogging expert I am still scratching my head as to what I should write.

I have done a little traveling since my last entry to both South America and Madagascar. Both projects there moving forward well and I offer a few more details as things move forward, for the time being here are a few pics I took along the way:

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Hi ,

Welcome to my blog.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas or Holiday – personally I celebrated Christmas – I am not a Christian, but as it’s a delineation of a pagan festival I am giving myself a get out of jail free card on this one.

(The date of December 25th probably originated with the ancient "birthday" of the son-god, Mithra, a pagan deity whose religious influence became widespread in the Roman Empire during the first few centuries A.D. Mithra was related to the Semitic sun-god, Shamash, and his worship spread throughout Asia to Europe where he was called Deus Sol Invictus Mithras. Rome was well-known for absorbing the pagan religions and rituals of its widespread empire. As such, Rome converted this pagan legacy to a celebration of the god, Saturn, and the rebirth of the sun god during the winter solstice period. The winter holiday became known as Saturnalia and began the week prior to December 25th. The festival was characterized by gift-giving, feasting, singing and downright debauchery, as the priests of Saturn carried wreaths of evergreen boughs in procession throughout the Roman temples.)

For the second year I opted to neither give nor receive gifts. Instead, I made donations to various charities on behalf of those who would otherwise have received gifts and encouraged others to do the same. There are a lot of organizations that offer this, my favorite, and my main source of gifts, is a great organization called Heifer International. Here you can purchase a variety of animals that are then donated to struggling communities in the developing world. From chickens (or chicks) to cows and goats I love this organization and encourage all of you to consider it when the time comes next year.

I have not yet decided how to use this ‘blog’ there is so much to say in so little space so I think I will mix it up a little, so there will be some personal stuff, some work stuff and anything else that falls in between from opinion to commentary. It’s going to be an great year and I am very much looking forward to 2008 both personally, with my upcoming wedding, and professionally - who knows what is happening there, but its certainly going to be an interesting year.

Check in again soon,
James