Bless the Animals Day is Here

For Catholics, St. Francis of Assisi is remembered each year in October, and as part of that remembrance, there is a traditional blessing of the animals.  However, over the years the idea of having one's animals, especially beloved pets, blessed has spread across the world, and across the denominations. 

October 4th is Feast Day for St. Francis of Assisi

The Catholic blessing of the animals occurs on the feast day for St. Francis, and is accompanied by this blessing by the priest:

“Blessed are you, Lord God, maker of all living creatures. You called forth fish in the sea, birds in the air and animals on the land. You inspired St. Francis to call all of them his brothers and sisters. We ask you to bless this pet. By the power of your love, enable it to live according to your plan. May we always praise you for all your beauty in creation. Blessed are you, Lord our God, in all your creatures! Amen.”

October 2 - 3 Other Blessings of the Animals Will Take Place

Non-Catholic events that provide a blessing of the animals - particularly pets - will be happening across the globe over this weekend.  For example, yesterday in Long Beach, California, there was the 9th Annual Interfaith Blessing of the Animals.  Another was held here in San Antonio, at a local United Methodist Church -- and because we like to be different, this year the 25th Annual Blessing of the Animals and Pets will occur in Market Square on December 11, 2010. 

Prayer Available for Animals Anytime at God, Bless the Animals Site

Of course, you can pray for your pets anytime, anywhere.  However, there's also a site with written prayers and the opportunity to send it prayer requests as well as ask for emergency prayers at the internet prayer ministry, God, Bless the Animals.

Getting Rid of Online Advertising 1 - Opt Out at the Network

Network Advertising Initiative is an organization devoted to finding answers to the growing problem of spam, spyware, and other evil things used to monitor your web use for marketing purposes.

Yep, there are "advertising networks" out there keeping track of where you surf through small programs (e.g., cookies) silently placed upon your computer. No one asks your permission, they ride along the internet and grab hold unless you've blocked them somehow. These networks use the data sent by the software to their main hub to compile your preferences. All for the purpose of gearing advertising especially for you, lucky you.

That's why when you surf for netbooks, you suddenly get ads for netbooks showing up on the magazine sites you visit for example. Targeted online advertising.

There's no single magic button to stop this Big Brother type of tactic. However, there are ways to minimize it, and one of them is to Opt Out at the network site.

For example, you can Opt-Out at the NetworkAdvertising site fast and easy. Just follow the steps.

Does it mean that they'll never put a cookie back on your machine? Nope. However, with some other tools that I've already implemented, I'm happy to report that I only had one cookie from this network on my machine - made me all Security Proud.

More on that later.

FOXBusiness Offers 7 Steps to a Single Income Family: Is Downsizing Becoming Acceptable?

Today, FoxBusiness has a great article entitled, "7 Steps to Becoming a One-Income Family" that really does give substantive help in moving from a two-income household to a one-income family.

What I like best is the end of the article, where the expert points out that American society predominates with instant gratification and a pressure to spend - but that the ability to simplify things is doable, and he appears to say there is power in it.

Which those of us who have been simplifying voluntarily for years know - and have been sharing with anyone who cares to listen, for years now.

Power. And freedom.

Maybe if the main stream media is writing articles like this, frugal living and voluntary simplicity won't suffer such a stigma in the future. Downsizing is cool now? Wow. That's great.