The Royce Files

I decided to head out early this morning for the Twin Towns rather than do an odd overnight adventure in Birch Lakes State Forest . The decision was mostly because I could not locate a Zune cable. I wasted tons of time looking for it rather than packing. However I went to bed prepared to leave near the strike of 6AM. Well, I left around 6:20AM instead. Finally made to Albertville Outlets with time to spare. It was a pretty ho hum experience. Adidas has nothing and so did Nike. However, I discovered the Crocs store and man the prices were dropping. You could get the real deal Crocs of numerous styles for less than a saw buck. From there I went to Maple Grove and then finally onto the hotel I am currently staying in for the conference I am attending. 2 chaps from Northern Ireland are the speakers. You might of heard of one- U2 has- Robin Mark . Robin played and Paul Reed spoke tonight (he's the other chap.) One point from Paul's message was that corporately the church needs to ...

W ell another St. Patrick's Day is done and dusted. Nothing spectacular in the Go this year. The parade this weekend was rather ho-hum but it definitely looked more like a St. Patrick Parade- lots of people walking and hardly any floats. I suspect this is what it evolves to become. However, I think there should be some more imagination and creativity put into it. And there needs to be more music! I digress. In the States, St. Patrick seems to have become the patron saint of drinking. Perhaps this is the case elsewhere. I know no other day to celebrate a Christian pioneer that is celebrated with numerous pints. Somehow we lose track of Patrick and celebrate all things Irish by drenching ourselves with green beer. Although one website notes that binge drinking is normal in Ireland , I highly doubt that is for what the Irish want to have a reputation. And the cost of a pint in Ireland, I can hardly believe this is affordable behaviour. In other Irish news- violence again erupted in th...

Next step taken in Northern Ireland. Today a new power sharing Northern Ireland Assembly convenes. Since 2002, when a previous assembly had power, the British government appointed a secretary, Peter Hain, to administrate Northern Ireland affairs. It appears that old rivals may have "buried the hatchet" as one account says. In March the 2 icons of opposing sides of the struggle in the North, Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams sat down and worked out a deal to share governing power between Protestants and Catholics. That was amazing considering the history of antagonism from both sides. Questions linger. Will it work? Will it be fair and democratic? Has reconciliation really started in earnest? Will Northern Ireland soccer team qualify for the European Cup? [Hopefully for that last one, the North will secure their spot in the finals this fall] The situation in Northern Ireland is much more complicated than merely Catholics and Protestants. History plays a big part. Injustices of the p...