Posted on 12/31/2009 9:20:34 AM PST by NormsRevenge
SYDNEY – Under explosive bursts of crimson, purple and blue, more than 1 million New Year revelers in Sydney got one of the world's biggest parties started Thursday — bidding farewell to the tough year that was 2009 and welcoming a new decade.
As the family-friendly, pre-midnight fireworks show illuminated Australia's largest city, preparations were under way across the world for pyrotechnics, parties and prayers in the final countdown to herald the end of the period dubbed "the Noughties."
The mood of celebrations was tempered in some places by the effects of the financial downturn, which bit hard in 2009, sending economies into recession, causing millions to lose their jobs and home foreclosures to rise dramatically in some countries.
There were also reminders of threats and the fight against terrorism that during the decade led to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and rising militant violence in Pakistan.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
2010 .. Bring It On!
I resolve to learn how to use my new color scanner/printer, the digital camera, the photo printer, my Photobucket account, and my cell phone.
But not all in one day.
Father Frost, equivalent to Santa Claus, and a Snow Maiden sing during a New Years parade in Bishkek December 31, 2009. REUTERS/Vladimir Pirogov (KYRGYZSTAN - Tags: ANNIVERSARY SOCIETY)
Father Frost? Can't fool me, It's al gore in a santa suit.. and that looks like a yout'ful hillary warbling
I resolve to not make any resolutions I can’t keep.
:)
I bought the P90x thing in August and the DVDs have sat on my TV ever since.
I resolve to spend 12 weeks with that.
To continue pointing out the dangers we face in America.
Members of a winter swimming club form a 2010 sign in the snow on the bank of the Yenisei River as they celebrate the coming of the new year in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, December 27, 2009. REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin (RUSSIA - Tags: SOCIETY IMAGES OF THE DAY)
Just to do the right thing....
My resolution is to take my friends that have recently become gun owners to the range, and also get the ones that haven’t to the store.
It's very interesting, from photos the musketfire really is something to behold at night, and I'd love to get down there to see it, sometime. Apparently it's drawing quite the crowd of participants and spectators, above and beyond the descendants of the original settlers who carried on the tradition, related to the Mummers of Philadelphia, when they came to the colony of North Carolina back in the mid-1700s.
Chant of the New Years Shooters
Good morning to you, sir. We wish you a happy New Year,
Great health, long life, which God may bestow
So long as you stay here below. May he bestow the house you're in,
Where you go out and you go in. Time by moments steals away,
First the hour and then the day. Small the lost days may appear,
But they soon mount up to a year. Thus another year is gone,
And now it is no more of our own, but if it brings our promises good
As the year before the flood, but let none of us forget
It has left us much in debt, a favor from the Lord received
Since which our spirits hath been grieved. Marked by the unerring hand,
Thus in His book our record stands. Who can tell the vast amounts
Placed to each our accounts? But while you owe the debt is large,
You may plead a full discharge. But poor and selfish sinners say,
What can you to justice pay? Trembling last for life is past
And into prison you may be cast. Happy is the believing soul,
Christ for you has paid the whole. We have this New Year's morning
Called you by your name, and disturbed you from your rest,
But we hope no harm by the same. As we ask, come tell us your desire,
And if it be your desire, our guns and pistols they shall fire.
Since we hear of no defiance, you shall hear the art of science.
When we pull trigger and powder burns, you shall hear the roaring of our guns;
Oh, daughters of righteousness, we will rise and warm our eyes
And bless our hearts, for the old year's gone and the New Year's come
And for good luck, we'll fire our guns!
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