The Hero Revealed

Heroes and their stories make up a large body of literature. From our early childhood we have been enthralled by the adventures of brave souls who have done great deeds. Most times, these folk have been much like us. They lived lives of mundane existence and we can identify with that. But one day, something special happened, one day the adventure began.

So it was with Tolkiens The hobbit, which is a great introduction to the amazing trilogy The Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit transports you into the mindset of the rest of Tolkiens works, much as A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man enables you to understand Ulysses, the magnum opus of James Joyce.

As the heroic story begins, there is nothing about the hobbit that would forecast the drama to come. But come it does, with almost too much intensity for the hapless hobbit, or the enchanted reader. There are many adventures on the path, with much testing and challenge. Lady luck intervenes at times, until at last; our hero-in-the-making is confronted with the ultimate encounter, the Dragon. This, the last battle, is neither quick or of certain outcome. The Dragon has fearsome physical and magical powers. Our hero now, for that is what he has become, must bring all his courage, his cunning, his physical and psychic strength to the confrontation.

The struggle is long and arduous. just when it seems that all is lost and the dragon will triumph, the hobbit reaches deep within for one last bit of courage that even he did not know was there. Clutching his sword with a confidence gained from all his previous trials, one last lunge finds a fatal spot, the dragon crashes to earth.

The story would be unsatisfactory if it ended there. The author lets us follow our victorious hero home, to spend his days reflecting on his adventures, with his pipe and contentment. He realizes that the path took him through the dark night of his own inner being. He remembers that guidance was always with him, encircling him like a soft wind.

The heros saga is presented to us often, in ancient as well as modern guise. Whether using sword, Kalishnikoff or light saber, the struggle is the same. The courage to overcome can only be found within. Frank Lloyd Wright remarked that there was nothing about the caterpillar that would indicate it would become a butterfly. So it was with our hobbit friend. By overcoming his fears he found a hero, waiting to be wakened. And may it be so, with each of us.

All Yoga Positions

Relieve Your Neck Pain with Yoga

Everyone gets a little stiff neck once in a while, and yoga can wipe away the pain with a few concentrated exercises. First, though, you must be certain the pain isn't related to something more serious than a simple stiff neck. Instead of yoga, see a doctor if any one of the following is true:

- You neck pain has persisted for more than three days, or it keeps coming back.

- Your neck pain is accompanied by dizziness or nausea.

- The pain seems to radiate down into your arms or legs.

- The pain began with a fall or accident.

If your stiff neck does NOT meet any of the above conditions, these simple yoga exercises can help increase your neck's flexibility and strengthen the neck muscles. By exercising you speed blood and needed nutrients to the area, easing the neck pain gradually. Try these:

Neck stretches

sitting cross-legged, tall and straight, and inhale eyes forward. Exhale, moving chin to chest. Repeat this breath five times, the fifth time holding chin to chest breathing three times through the nose. Inhale, raising the head to center again. This time drop your right ear to your right shoulder during the exhale. Repeat this breath five times, the fifth time holding ear to shoulder for three breaths. Repeat this sequence with the left ear to left shoulder.

Half-Circle Rolls

Drop your chin to your chest. Slowly roll it up to your right shoulder, down to center, up to the left shoulder and down to center. Repeat this three to five times. Never roll the head in a full circle, as this can cause damage.

Shoulder Hunches

Hunch your shoulders up as high as you can, then relax them completely. Repeat five to six times. Next roll your shoulders in forward circles five to six times, then backward circles five to six times. Notice how relaxed your shoulders feel. Try this quick relaxation exercise any time you feel tension building.

Chest Expander

stand with your feet together and your fingers interlaced behind your back. Inhale while raising your hands behind your back, squeezing your shoulder blades together and tucking your tailbone under to keep from over-arching your back. Hold this position for three to four breaths, then lower your arms slowly during the next exhale.

Arm Lifts

Hold your arms straight out in front of you, parallel to the ground with palms facing each other but not touching. Inhale while bringing them up next to your head. Exhale while you bring them down again. Repeat this four to eight times.

Press It

Place either palm on the back of your head. Simultaneously press the head and hand against each other for a count of ten. Move the palm to the forehead and repeat the pressing for another count of ten. Now place the right palm against the right side of your head and press head and hand together for a count of ten. Repeat with the left palm and left side of the head.

These yoga exercises are designed to relieve physical stress and related pain. The best pain relief is pain prevention, so be sure to watch your posture and set your workspace to avoid slouching.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Yoga

Hot Yoga In Albany New York

BlackBerry Cell Phone Review

A permanent access to all your emails... You dream about it? Blackberry phone did it. The BlackBerry is a wireless handheld device introduced in 1999 which supports push email, mobile telephone, text messaging, internet faxing, web browsing and other wireless information services. Same size as a PDA, with a mini keyboard, BlackBerry device allows you to receive and reply to emails.

How does it work? Connected to a cell phone network (Cingular BlackBerry, T-mobile BlackBerry, sprint BlackBerry, Nextel BlackBerry and Verizon BlackBerry), terminal BlackBerry regularly query the email server of the user. When a new email arrives, the terminal signals it. The user can then read the message and reply. Innovation comes from the fact that synchronization of the emails with the messaging server is real time through the cell phone network it is connected and it supports both GSM, GPRS and UMTS.

Of course, BlackBerry service is more specifically dedicated to companies. The devices are very popular with some businesses, where they are primarily used to provide email delivery to roaming employees. To fully integrate the BlackBerry cell phone into a company, the installation of BlackBerry Enterprise server is required.

but the popular device BlackBerry that allows reading emails using cell phone network is forbidden in some companies. Indeed, some security experts fear about communications being intercepted. However, Research In motion (RIM), editor of BlackBerry, claims that all the traffic is encrypted from start to end by the Blackberry servers installed in companies. In fact it has the exact same security level as a traditional VPN if correctly configured.

A Blackberry handheld allows users to fulfill their need of communication but also give them the feeling of control that a phone conversation doesn't offer. More and more professionals often work in mobility situation and need to permanently be connected to computing system of the company.

According to a recent study, one third of business users show signs of BlackBerry addiction almost similar to those of alcoholism. Some people even use the ironical term "crackberries" to name the phenomenon. Also, most users are supposed to get BlackBerry devices to enhance their productivity but their constant attachment to email make it hard for them to concentrate on other things when they are out of office.

The professional Blackberry is a "all in one" terminal, phone/PDA/messaging, which design is optimized to allow users to manage emails on the go and to access various applications. The original BlackBerry device had a monochrome display, but all current handsets have color displays.

Most BlackBerry devices is equipped with a full QWERTY keyboard, The ease of keying in and sending not only emails, but also sms, is particularly practical, even if they do not have a BlackBerry.

However, the BlackBerry has no memory extension, no 3G compatibility, no camera and not much style. What is more, multimedia functions still remain low compared to other Symbian or windows mobile. That is until today with RIM unveiling its first and brand new multimedia phone dubbed the new BlackBerry Pearl. but still BlackBerry devices depend on mobile phone service coverage and are not wifi compatible unlike similar handheld devices that are on the market now.

RIM BlackBerry is increasingly integrating instant messaging into their new devices and software. RIM offers its own proprietary BlackBerry Instant Messenger, but also offer a yahoo Chat and Google Talk clients and probably an upcoming BlackBerry MSN Messenger client.

According to RIM, BlackBerry PDA is used by about 5.5 million users worldwide.

Blackberry is used by almost 3 million users in America. Some sources say about 1 million government employees are regular users. Canada is another one of the key market of the company.

While including the usual PDA applications such as address book, calendar, to-do lists, etc you can always download more BlackBerry software like games, ringtones, themes, webclient and other applications.

Find more information about BlackBerry cell phone at Ringtone Jam Jam. The website also provides BlackBerry ringtones for download.

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