Happenings at our small town

Check out some happenings around our town. These are what I like to write about--these goings-on in the community. I get to meet the movers and shakers. In fact, here, the Mayor walks simply among all of us townspeople, so does our Senator. (I should muster up guts to ask them pose for a pic--with me!)

Community Mourns Death of Teen

Santa for Seniors





Olio Bello d’Olivo.

Sticky Chicken and Ribs.

For more details, go to The Brentwood Press.

CNN Heroes

For those of us thirsting for a meaningful Christmas and meaning in the world, CNN Heroes Presentation was like a drinking fountain, with cool and sweet water runneth.



From a nun who runs a boarding school for abducted and raped girls in Uganda, to a dentist who gives free treatment in Kenya for a 60,000 people ratio, to a Cambodian ex-prostitute who no spends her life rescuing young girls sold to brothels, to a 10-year old boy with leukemia who goes around the USA, collecting swabs of DNA for a bone marrow bank, to a Cuban woman who organized a dignified living for the poor collecting garbage, thus producing the most efficient organic garden from proper segregation--so many ordinary people doing extraordinary things to better the world.



Only a year after he was diagnosed with leukemia, 12-year-old Pat Pedraja began a one-kid mission to change the makeup of the nation's bone marrow registry. He persuaded his family to get a bus and drive cross-country to encourage minorities like himself to become marrow donors.

In just three months, Pedraja raised more than $100,000 and helped sign up more than 5,000 people to the registry. He plans to tour next summer, too.

"People don't know that it's such a big issue," he said. "People are dying each day, and people aren't informed about that, and I want to change that."

Visit the link here and view the whole list of the most extraordinary people who will remind us that there is a hero in each of us, too.

What is the Story of Stuff?

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

Creator Annie Leonard says, "You cannot run a linear system of stuff on a finite planet."

Find out why inspite of a deluge of consumer goods, we are still unhappy.

Enjoy the straightforward documentary with simple animation but a most powerful message. Watch the Story of Stuff here.

Look around for better alternatives. Get involved.