<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20504730</id><updated>2009-02-20T20:32:31.676-07:00</updated><title type='text'>the scoop</title><subtitle type='html'>testing. testing...123. hello? Can you hear me. Say something if you can hear me. 1.2.3. Is this thing on?</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thescooponrachael.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/20504730/posts/default?orderby=updated'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thescooponrachael.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Rachael</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/10768285893472619229</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>4</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20504730.post-113912014501092628</id><published>2006-02-04T21:37:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2006-02-04T23:15:45.030-07:00</updated><title type='text'></title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7759/2055/1600/Jan%2028,%2006%20Lake%20Louise%20008.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7759/2055/320/Jan%2028%2C%2006%20Lake%20Louise%20008.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ffcc66;"&gt;I'm feeling the pressure. The audience ( aka- you) has not been offered anything for which to applause. And I have to say, I don't need the applause but I want an attentive audience. It'd be a shame for the masses to file into the auditorium (aka- my blog) for the grand opening only to find that the stage is bare. This resulting in an uncaptivated audience filing out of the auditorium never to return.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ffcc66;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ffcc66;"&gt;Enough with the metaphores.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ffcc66;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ffcc33;"&gt;I've struggled to write any entries in my blog, always coming on to write one, but always leaving with a blank screen. I 'm not sure if the problem lies with shallow thoughts, or a hesitance to share them. The latter must be true because my mind hasn't stopped spinning for months, spinning so quickly infact that words are difficult to catch. So I think the only way to do this is to start ranting. Ranting about anything that comes. If I can be quite honest, and I can because this is my blog, I believe that there is great injustice in the world. I've been reading alot about corrupt governments and corporations. So here is the honesty: why, in the name of God (and I say this with reverence) do I sit with idle hands. I am now guilty of knowing and doing nothing, nothing but praying. And I do believe that prayer is neccesary. I do not, however, believe that God intends me to pray and never get up from my prayer to be at His beckon in order that the prayers may be answered through me. So you can see that the thoughts spinning 'round and 'round have not been gentle ones. They're beating around my brain like a bunch of rocks. Heavy rocks. Did you know that rich nations give around 50 billion in foreign-aid to under developed countries each year? Sounds good doesn't it?, infact it makes us sound like saints, 'the affluent do-gooders!'. But don't stick out your chest just yet. Hear the rest of the story. These same wealthy 'do-gooder' nations are using their power to manipulate atleast 100 billion (notice that this is twice the amount given in foreign-aid!) from under developed countries through International Trade Tariffs. Struggling countries are prone to dependancy on International Trade; this dependancy makes them vulnerable to be taken advantage of by the elite. And shame on us for abusing the opportunity to squeeze as much as we can from their suffering economies. So for any of you out there who care to pray, pray this: that I will be at God's beckon call to answer the prayers not only from my own mouth but from the mouths of the oppressed. I realize that I cannot answer prayers, but I understand that with prayers of intercession, God expects a sprint ready position. I hesitate to pray sometimes for fear of the personal consequences. For example, if I pray for the salvation of a friend, the moment I am up from my knees I meed to be vulnerable to the Holy Spirit leading me to the fulfillment of my prayer. So when I pray that the corrupt governments relieve their oppression of the poor, can I really stand up from that prayer and follow the Spirit to fulfill that prayer? It all seems too much, too overwhelming to pray. Pray for me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ffcc66;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/20504730-113912014501092628?l=thescooponrachael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thescooponrachael.blogspot.com/feeds/113912014501092628/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=20504730&amp;postID=113912014501092628' title='4 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/20504730/posts/default/113912014501092628'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/20504730/posts/default/113912014501092628'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thescooponrachael.blogspot.com/2006/02/im-feeling-pressure.html' title=''/><author><name>Rachael</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/10768285893472619229</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='07957053336239545200'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>4</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20504730.post-113639896752985147</id><published>2006-01-04T10:41:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2006-01-26T10:28:17.083-07:00</updated><title type='text'></title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7759/2055/1600/IMG_0302.1.jpg"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7759/2055/1600/IMG_0302.1.jpg"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7759/2055/1600/IMG_0302.1.jpg"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7759/2055/1600/IMG_0302.1.jpg"&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7759/2055/1600/IMG_0302.1.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="WIDTH: 327px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 190px" height="253" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7759/2055/200/IMG_0302.0.jpg" width="200" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:arial;color:#663300;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I'm fiddling around with this new stuff. You'll be seeing posts come and go. &lt;span style="color:#ffcc00;"&gt;Be patient.&lt;/span&gt; I'm not desiging templates just yet. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/20504730-113639896752985147?l=thescooponrachael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thescooponrachael.blogspot.com/feeds/113639896752985147/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=20504730&amp;postID=113639896752985147' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/20504730/posts/default/113639896752985147'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/20504730/posts/default/113639896752985147'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thescooponrachael.blogspot.com/2006/01/im-fiddling-around-with-this-new-stuff.html' title=''/><author><name>Rachael</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/10768285893472619229</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='07957053336239545200'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20504730.post-113760949371911095</id><published>2006-01-18T11:25:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2006-01-19T18:58:21.626-07:00</updated><title type='text'></title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7759/2055/1600/Jan%2019,%202006%20Riding%20at%20Norquay%20032.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7759/2055/320/Jan%2019%2C%202006%20Riding%20at%20Norquay%20032.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ffcc00;"&gt;Can I be honest here?&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style="color:#cc9933;"&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff99ff;"&gt;I really didn't think that anyone would see my blog. I have noticed however, that because of those crazy little lists of blog members that some people have on their blog sites, people do infact look at my blog.&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ffcc33;"&gt;Which, I have to say, is a &lt;strong&gt;terrible shame&lt;/strong&gt; because all you have come to see here, is an &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff99ff;"&gt;owl&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ffcc33;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ffcc33;"&gt;So it has occurred to me that if people are taking the time to visit my blog, that I should maybe write something from time to time. I could make it interesting maybe. Even right now I intended on writing something a little bit lengthy with some quality content to keep the audience captivated...but I don't feel like it. I'm out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color:#333333;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/20504730-113760949371911095?l=thescooponrachael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thescooponrachael.blogspot.com/feeds/113760949371911095/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=20504730&amp;postID=113760949371911095' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/20504730/posts/default/113760949371911095'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/20504730/posts/default/113760949371911095'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thescooponrachael.blogspot.com/2006/01/can-i-be-honest-here-i-really-didnt.html' title=''/><author><name>Rachael</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/10768285893472619229</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='07957053336239545200'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20504730.post-113639632177084742</id><published>2006-01-04T10:22:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2006-01-04T10:38:41.776-07:00</updated><title type='text'></title><content type='html'>&lt;div align="justify"&gt;&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7759/2055/1600/IMG_0302.0.jpg"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7759/2055/1600/IMG_0176.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 267px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 204px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" height="240" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7759/2055/320/IMG_0176.jpg" width="154" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:georgia;"&gt;&lt;span style="color:#333300;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:85%;"&gt;I know that some of you out there are probably holding your jaws in place at the sight of this. "Rachael, made a blog?!?!" I don't believe it myself. "'tap...tap...' is this thing real?" YOU BET IT IS! Next thing you know I'll be designing templates and wearing geek glasses.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/20504730-113639632177084742?l=thescooponrachael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://thescooponrachael.blogspot.com/feeds/113639632177084742/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=20504730&amp;postID=113639632177084742' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/20504730/posts/default/113639632177084742'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/20504730/posts/default/113639632177084742'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://thescooponrachael.blogspot.com/2006/01/i-know-that-some-of-you-out-there-are.html' title=''/><author><name>Rachael</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/10768285893472619229</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='07957053336239545200'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>1</thr:total></entry></feed>