Jonathan D. Blundell

I don’t know quite what it is, but I really like this art piece. It’s part of an installation in Belfast.
I think it would be really cool to do something similar to this on one wall in my apartment/house — just as long as it’s portable to move again elsewhere.

A new report based on its annual tracking survey by The Barna Group reveals that one-third of the adult population (34%) has not attended any type of church service or activity, other than a special event such as a funeral or wedding, during the past six months.

Adults disassociated with a conventional church have a wide range of beliefs, some of which are biblical in nature. Some of the perspectives held by half or more of the unchurched population, either strongly or moderately, include the following:

50% agree that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches.

66% agree that their religious faith is very important in their life today.

64% contend that Satan is not a living being but is just a symbol of evil.

62% believe that a good person can earn eternal salvation

51% believe that Jesus Christ sinned while He lived on earth.

61% say their single, most important purpose in life is to love God with all their heart, mind, strength and soul.

55% argue that they are totally committed to having a deeper relationship with God and will do whatever it takes to get and maintain that relationship.

66% say they are completely committed to making the world, and other people’s lives, better.
Having studied the growing numbers of unchurched adults in America for more than two decades, George Barna indicated that we are approaching one of the two times of year when massive numbers of the unchurched alter their pattern and attend a church service. “Every year, many previously unchurched people return to a church for one or more Easter season services. More often than not, this is the result of one of two motivations: the compelling invitation of a close friend who accompanies them to the service, or a personal crisis that compels them to seek God more fervently. Impersonal marketing efforts generally have limited impact in persuading the unchurched to break their normal Sunday morning habits.”

Bono will be speaking in Dallas May 5 at the Music Hall at Fair Park.
From the World Affairs Council:

The World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth will present Bono, lead singer of Irish Rock Band U2, humanitarian and co-founder of DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), on Friday, May 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Music Hall at Fair Park. This TIME Magazine Person of the Year in 2005 has used his celebrity worldwide to influence the powerful to the benefit of the poor. Bono will speak on his work to bring attention and resources to the fight against global AIDS and poverty in Africa.
In 2002, Bono co-founded DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) to raise public awareness of these issues and put pressure on wealthy governments to increase the quantity and quality of development resources for Africa while improving policies which impact African countries. Additionally, DATA works with African leaders to improve democracy, accountability and transparency to ensure aid is spent wisely.
From his participation in Live Aid and subsequent trip to Ethiopia in 1984 to last summer¹s Live 8 concerts, Bono has been an ardent supporter of Africa. In 1998, he became a spokesperson for the international Jubilee 2000 ‘Drop the Debt’ movement where his involvement drew public attention to the debt burden in the poorest countries and his intensive lobbying of politicians helped leverage a promise from wealthy nations to cancel $100 billion worth of poor countries’ debt.
Recently, Bono and DATA helped launch the ONE campaign in America. To date, nearly two million Americans have joined this campaign to make poverty history. ONE played a pivotal role in raising American voices in 2005 to secure promises of near universal access to life-saving AIDS medicines, debt cancellation for 18 of the world¹s poorest countries, and a doubling of aid for Africa by 2010.
The New York Times cited Bono¹s work as one of the reasons why President Bush promised to increase U.S. aid by nearly $30 billion over five years, including a major new initiative to fight AIDS in Africa. In 2004, this promise resulted in the largest increase in U.S. foreign assistance in 40 years.
U2 has received extensive recognition for their music including 22 Grammy Awards. Bono has appeared on the covers of TIME Magazine (three times), Newsweek, Vogue and Rolling Stone (twelve times).

I’m working on getting press passes, but if anyone would like to throw $50 bucks my way, it will insure me going and I’ll gladly report the story here too.

Jonathan Blundell
Staff writer

After playing with the new Cingular 2125 Smartphone for a little more than a week, I haven’t decided which I love more, the phone itself or the new Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system.
This is slick Cingular branded phone operates on GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks worldwide and is only available to Cingular customers.
One of the first thing most people will notice is the beautiful 2.2-inch 64k color screen (320 x 240) that shows crystal clear graphics and text, including pictures taken from the 1.3 mega pixel camera on the phone.
The only downside with the screen is the screen ratio, it’s longer than it is wider. Web pages will likely load by default in columns, rather than the entire width of the page at once. But users can change the way pages load to suit their personal preference.
You’re also likely to notice the absence of a rocker button (pad) to move between options and menus.
The rocker button most users have likely become familiar with on other phones, is replaced with a cool directional joystick, similar to the TrackPoint mouse found on old IBM ThinkPads.
It takes a little getting used to, but I really missed it when I went back to my old Motorola phone.
With the Windows Mobile 5.0 OS, you get a number of Windows standards built in, including Windows Media Player 10, Internet Explorer, Pocket Hotmail and MSN Messaging, as well as the option to sync with your desktop Outlook for e-mails, calendars and contacts.
While traveling, you can also use Xpress Mail, Goodlink, or a POP3 service to get your e-mail on the go.
And the phone comes with ClearVue software, which lets you view Microsoft Office files from Word and Excel.
And as part of the Mobile 5.0 OS, you can customize nearly every part of the phone, including sounds, backgrounds and images to display for each caller.
The Internet Explorer web browser is quick and effective for surfing the web.
On the Cingular EDGE network, average download speeds are from 70 Kbps to 135 Kbps, much faster than a dail-up connection.
Utilizing the TI OMAP 850 processor (200 MHz), I was amazed to see some pages, such as Myspace.com profiles, load much faster than they do on my desktop computer running Mac OS 9.
The Windows Media Player played Microsoft media files and Mp3’s flawlessly. Unfortunately the phone only has a 24MB hard drive to store files on, but you can add additional space with a mini-SD card expansion slot.
Mini-SD cards currently come as large as 2GB for $150, which is larger than many basic Mp3 players on the market.
This phone may not replace a Trio or Blackberry just yet, but it’s a great mid-range model, for those not ready to shell out hard earned money for the high priced devices.
And at a light 3.74 ounces and only 4.57-inches tall, 1.81-inches wide and .69- inches thick, you won’t mind the extra padding left in your wallet.

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Features:
Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 software
TI OMAP 850 Processor (200 Mhz)
64MB Flash ROM/ 64MB SDRAM
GSM/GPRS/EDGE Network Compatible
Mini-SD card slot
2.2” 64K Color LCD Screen (320 x 240)
1.3 Mega Pixel Camera with camcorder
Bluetooth/Infrared/Mini-USB connectivity
Speakerphone
1150mAh Li-ion Polymer battery