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The Virginia National Guard's 29th Army Band shared the sounds of the holiday season with the money clips Heights and Richmond communities during the third annual Holiday Concert Series Dec. 4-5.

The three free concerts were hosted by Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Colonial Heights Dec. 4, Hunter Holmes McGuire Veteran's Hospital on Dec. 5 and Saint Paul's Baptist Church in Richmond on Dec. 5.

"These celebrations are the Adjutant General's way of saying 'Thank you' to the families and communities," said Col. Thom Morgan, Virginia National Guard director of manpower and personnel. "It is our gift to them for their commitment and continued patriotic support to the Commonwealth's Soldiers and Airmen."

The events featured holiday music, activities for children, a visit from Santa Claus and refreshments. "This is the Virginia National Guard's way of saying thank you to Virginia's citizens for their continued patriotic support to the commonwealth's Soldiers and tiffany engagement rings," said 1st Sgt. Fred Lewis, 29th Army band first sergeant.

The band performed a variety of holiday songs, such as "White Christmas," "O Holy Night," "The Christmas Song," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," and Christmas Eve/Sarajevo." Each concert ended with an audience sing along capped off by an appearance from Santa Claus.

Five vocalists joined the band for the performances- Capt. Clay Blevins, commander of Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, 116th Brigade Combat Team and his wife Cindy, Tina Harrison, Chelsey Helms and Melissa Carter.

Following the concerts, guests and band members gathered for cheap bangles and visits with Santa.

For more photos, please visit the Virginia Guard Flickr page.

BAGHDAD - Education is essential for a child growing up in the world today. That is no less true in cufflinks, where schools are a building block for a child's future.

Three schools were officially re-opened here, Nov. 5, 2009, thanks to Multi-National Division- Baghdad Soldiers.

The Shab Female School, Yassamin School, and Monte Tenaybo Schools were in shambles before they came to the attention of Army Reserve civil affairs Soldiers, according to Staff Sgt. Frank Halstead, Brooklyn, N.Y., of the 1479th Civil A/fairs Company. The 1479th is attached to 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.

"All three schools had to be completely redone because they were a mess," Halstead said. "They had to be painted and cleaned, the wiring had to be redone, and the walls on the outside needed repair. Basically they were just the shells of buildings."

So Halstead and his fellow civil affairs Soldiers took up the contracts and set to work. They arranged for the repairs to be made and periodically checked the work to make sure things were being done correctly.

"We had to make sure they were done up to earrings," said Halstead. "Finally it all came together, and the people have schools now."

On opening day, the students gathered to sing songs and perform skits for the Soldiers and officials who came to see the work come to fruition.

"It feels pretty good because today you actually get to see the kids' reactions - it's not just a bunch of older people standing around talking to each other," said Halstead. "The kids were happy. They looked like they wanted to be in school, and to me that's a good thing."

For 1st Lt. Lacey Rector, the girls at Shab Female School were a welcome sight.

"It's nice to see females, because you don't see them very often over here," she said. "It's nice to see that they are being educated as well."

Rector, from Willoughby Hills, Ohio, is assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Co., 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st BCT, 1st Cavalry Division.

The project is another example of the continued commitment of U.S. Forces to helping the Iraqi people, according to Halstead.

"We're here to help, not hurt, them," he mused. "They know if their children are being necklaces, then that's going to help them in the long run. They appreciate it."

With three more schools operational in the Baghdad area, more children are getting the chance to better themselves and their communities by getting an education. It is one more thing that U.S. Forces are doing to make Iraq a better place.

Most art documentaries serve as dull, glowing hagiographies of their bangles. Not so "Exit Through the Gift Shop," a raucously entertaining postmodern survey of guerrilla street art that appears to be one thing (a chronicle of the scene centered on its most enigmatic figure, Banksy), only to fold back on itself and examine would-be filmmaker Thierry Guetta instead. Such a radically nonstandard approach, in which helmer and subject switch places, perfectly suits these artists' anarchic personae. While publicity will require some creative thinking, the out-of-the-park result should have daring distribs laughing all the way to the banksy.

Though they were brought together by a mutual love of street art, it's hard to imagine two more different personalities than Banksy and Guetta. The latter is a compulsive videographer, one of those unique 21st-century creations who seems to insist on documenting his every waking moment, whereas Banksy has risen to where he is only by protecting his true identity.

Why then would Banksy suddenly agree to make a film about himself? "It's not 'Gone With the Wind,'?" he quips at the outset, appearing from his U.K. studio with voice and face distorted, but it's a long way from "Cool as Ice" or any number of callow pop portraits.

Rather than revealing anything personal about Banksy, the doc immediately begins to explore the rich psychology of its primary cameraman. Drawn into the scene by his cousin, French mosaic artist Invader, Guetta was running with graffitidom's biggest heroes long before names such as Shepard Fairey, Neckface and Swoon were sought after by serious collectors.

Given the illegal nature of their work, their feats were often taken down or painted over right away, and Guetta offered such underground legends videographic immortality. More than just a groupie, he was their witness. It was part of Guetta's lunatic charm that he rings managed to convince the scene's most camera-shy figures to let him record them at work, spinning tales of a documentary he was making about the whole street art movement.

In truth, Guetta had no such intentions -- nor did he even know where to begin editing the thousands of hours of footage he'd haphazardly stashed back home.

Finally, when Banksy called his bluff, Guetta did go back and attempt to make something -- an embarrassing greatest-hits montage called "Life Remote Control" -- but a minute or so of this post-MTV pastiche is all it takes to understand why Banksy decided to have a go at it himself.

So, while "Exit" hardly functions as a comprehensive history of guerrilla art (you'll have to go back to "Style Wars" for that), it does present some of the most astonishing insider footage ever captured of street artists at work. Would these characters actually call themselves "artists"? Their crush of dealers, auction houses and museum curators surely would, though Banksy cleverly challenges many of those assumptions with the film.

In letting Guetta into his world, Banksy couldn't possibly have anticipated the megalomania in store for his camcorder-toting friend: Relieved of his filmmaking obligations, Guetta returned to L.A. and decided to invent his own street-art persona, "Mr. Brain Wash." Somehow, both the press and public bought it, and "Exit" is bracelets if not a blatant condemnation of such a shortcut to celebrity, as told by someone who holds himself at least partly responsible for creating the monster.

The University of Connecticut has announced a campaign gift of more than $1 tiffany silver pendants for the Honors Program from alumni Robert and Carlotta Holster.

"Building on the quality of our outstanding Honors Program is a key strategy to attract the very best and brightest students to the University of Connecticut. This wonderful gift will enable us to expand the opportunities for students to have a truly enriched experience, and will enable us to provide the quality of undergraduate education that our top students have come to expect," said Provost Peter Nicholls.

The new endowment will support activities designed to enrich the academic experience for honors students, such as undergraduate research, international travel, and academic and creative projects.

"Mr. and Mrs. Holster's gift will support the types of enrichment experiences that make the difference between a good collegiate career and an exceptional one. We know that students benefit tremendously from individualized and independent academic experiences," said tiffany silver rings Goodstein, director of the Honors Program and associate vice provost of enrichment programs at UConn.

The Holsters are giving back to UConn for the excellent education they received as undergraduate students. Mr. Holster earned a bachelor's degree in economics and Mrs. Holster earned a bachelor's degree in child development and family relations from UConn, both in 1968. Mr. Holster credits his professors during his first year with inspiring a lifelong passion for learning and preparing him for success throughout his life.

"They were talented, engaged with their material and their students, and it was infectious," Mr. Holster said. "Those freshman courses in economics, English literature and history armed me with models for thinking about things that assisted me later in the Army and in graduate school, and remain relevant to this day in business."

Mr. Holster is chairman of the board and former chief executive officer of HMS Holdings Corp. HMS coordinates health care benefits between government entitlement programs (e.g., Medicaid) and the health insurance industry. Mr. Holster was elected to the Board of Directors of the University of Connecticut Foundation in 2009.

The Honors Program enrolls 9 percent of the undergraduate population at the main campus in Storrs. For students entering the program in 2009, the average combined critical reading and math SAT score is 1395 and the average class rank is the ninety-fifth percentile. Twenty-six percent of students entering the program are tiffany underrepresented ethnic or economic backgrounds.

A series of free College Depot seminars is being offered for students and parents tiffany silver earrings assistance with college planning. Participants will have an opportunity to learn about the college planning process, from admissions to financial aid and career exploration.

The workshops will be held at Burton Barr Central Library, 1221 N. Central Ave., second floor.

* Monday, Jan. 4 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. New Year's Resolution - Back to College Judy Reno, director, College Depot, will host a workshop for all ages interested in attending college. She will explore topics, including self-motivation, goal setting and creating a college plan.

* Wednesday, Jan. 6 5 - 6 p.m. Explore Financial Aid at the University of Arizona Colleen Moran, admissions counselor, University of Arizona, will discuss grants, loans, work study and scholarships. Find out about UA's Arizona Assurance Program.

* Saturday, Jan. 9 2 - 3 p.m. How to Pay for College Diana Mateer, client relations manager, EdFund, will share ideas on how to pay for college including financial aid, scholarships and savings.

* Sunday, Jan. 10 2 - 3 p.m. tiffany silver keyrings to Pay for College **This session is conducted in Spanish* * Silvia Valadez, advisor, College Depot, will share ideas on how to pay for college, financial aid and searching for scholarships.

* Saturday, Jan. 16 2 - 3 p.m. Financial Aid Workshop Nicole Porter, admissions manager, Grand Canyon University, will discuss ways to pay for college, including scholarships, loans and the importance of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

* Saturday, Jan. 23 2 - 3 p.m. Ensure Your Success in High School and College Mary Niemczyk, Ph.D., will provide information on learning and study strategies that can be used in high school and college. This workshop can help students become successful, lifelong learners.

* Monday, Jan. 25 5 - 6 p.m. Scholarships and Financial Aid Suzanne Ringle, director of Financial Aid, tiffany silver notes Community College, will provide information on grants, scholarships, work study and more. Find out about financial aid specifically available for prospective Gateway students.

Two relatively new commercial labels for retail shopping entered my tiffany silver accessories recently: "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday." I'm sure you have seen these terms used ad nauseam in retail news stories. I'll briefly explain these terms and give you a novel third term I am proposing shortly.

The first label - Black Friday - applies to a day of frenetic buying activity, usually on the day immediately following Thanksgiving, whereby devoted shoppers drop enough dough to cause several major retailer balance sheets to produce black numbers, i.e. to become profitable.

Cyber Monday is a neologism coined by the U.S. National Retail Federation a few years back as a result of observed online sales rising rapidly on the Monday following Black Friday. The term "Cyber Monday" is still gestating but that need not concern us here.

In my view, the day after Christmas day (usually called "Boxing Day" in the U.K.) should be named "Returns Day." On this day, shoppers and gift recipients would be able to return items purchased or given as gifts between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day (plus or minus three or four days) with no questions asked.

I'm sure FedEx or UPS could set up several temporary storefronts in shopping malls to handle the deluge of returnable items. The process would work somewhat like getting a medical prescription filled at a supermarket pharmacy. All the work would be done by the staff of what I'll call "The Returns Store."

You would take in the return items and their tiffany silver bangles. The Returns Store staff would figure out the refunds and shipping costs, obtain a Returned Merchandise Authorization (RMA) number, print shipping labels, box the returns and send them, and you would walk out with a check or credit card refund.

Contrast this simple, straightforward and efficient process with a typical returns procedure for an Amazon "storefront." Just in case you are not familiar with the storefront concept, let me explain as briefly as I can. Storefronts are electronic online retailers whose products are displayed on Amazon's website in the same style as Amazon's goods and are processed just like any other items.

The differences are that the shipping and handling are done by the storefront and any returns have to be processed by the storefront employees according to that company's own policies, which can be, and often are, very different from Amazon's policies. This procedure can work well but it can also be a nightmare for the purchaser.

Let me give you an example that I had to deal with recently. I am omitting the actual name of the storefront to protect the guilty. I'll just call it the "storefront." The process began with reviewing my Amazon account to find the storefront's return polices. This consisted of a full page of single-spaced tiny type - Sections (a) through (m) with detailed descriptions of getting an RMA, restocking fees, unacceptable returns and much more.

I followed the storefront's instructions to the letter. After three 800-number calls (long waits), I obtained an RMA, boxed up the product, and dropped it off at the local post office. Cost of shipping: $9, time expended: about three hours. All this for an item priced at $20! I did get an acknowledgement that the storefront had received the return but after a month had passed I had yet to get a refund. Bricks-and-mortar stores are looking much better at this point.

As I was preparing to say "Never again!" to the Amazon storefront method of online shopping, I came across an tiffany silver bracelets in The Wall Street Journal (page R7, Nov. 30, 2009) entitled "Get Smart About Product Returns," which should be required reading for marketing, sales, and support managers in both online stores and conventional retail operations.

The authors, two business-school professors, show how a carefully crafted returns policy can be a revenue generator rather than a revenue drain. Such policies can build customer loyalty and increase sales, say the authors, by actively managing returns and providing first-class service.

Yes, I know you hate the fword, but in this case it applies-oh, stop looking at me like tiffany pendant.

Rhys did stop looking at the woman seated across from him in the crew's commons of his temporal "schooner" Ceilidh. He got up and moved into the galley to pour a calming cup of tea.

"By simple, I simply mean," said Danetta Price-Bekwe doggedly, "that they're not sophisticated enough to have a concept of capitalism beyond barter. You know: Here, I'll give you this; you give me that.' The first contact team was at a loss to know how to convey what we want - new Lingua Franca units notwithstanding. Those machines are fine for words, but they're not so good at body language and subtext. Alas, neither are our advance guys. They're businessmen and geologists, not cultural anthropologists. "

"Ah," said Rhys, grimacing less at this admission than at the taste of his tiffany necklace.

They possessed the technology to fly great (if measured) distances back and forth in time and space, and yet could not program a ship's galley to brew an acceptable cup of tea. Rhys abandoned the Ceilidh's substandard offering and poured a pot of hot water. He would have to dig into his dwindling supply of Harrowgate Ceylon.

"So," he said as he extracted a pair of tea bags from his stash and plopped them into the pot, "Tanaka Corp wants a cultural anthropologist to decipher the subtext."

Danetta- pretty, petite, blonde, and sharp as a slice of Bute cheddar- looked only moderately uncomfortable. "Correct. They want you to go to Furry's World and figure out how to negotiate with the native population."

"Furry's World?"

Danetta grimaced. "Fourier's tiffany bracelet, actually. After the gentleman who made first contact. We haven't nailed down what these particular natives call it just yet. The natives are a little . . . furry, so . . ." She shrugged.

Each year the Phoenix Police Department's Maryvale Precinct "adopts" a tiffany necklaces in need from our community. Families are referred to the precinct through schools, churches, community organizations, and police officers that meet these individuals in the course of their regular patrol duties. The families are interviewed and the decision to help the family most in need is always a difficult one. This year's Maryvale precinct family is the Johnsons - a single grandmother raising six grandchildren; ranging from ages 6 - 14 years old.

An officer recently interviewed Ms. Johnson in her home to learn more about her family and her needs. While the Johnson home is tidy, it was void of any children's toys and most of the rooms were sparsely furnished. Ms. Johnson explained that she had recently moved to Phoenix after trying to rebuild her life for more than a year in Cedar Rapid, Iowa, following what was described as the 500 year flood in June of 2008. Ms. Johnson explained that she had believed her and her tiffany ring would be able to weather the storm and remained in their home until the National Guard "came knocking on our door and told us we had to evacuate." Ms. Johnson and her family lost everything and began the task of rebuilding in Cedar Rapid. Ms. Johnson said the task seemed overwhelming and she just felt everybody needed a new start. She wanted to move to a warmer climate and chose Phoenix saying California was out of the question because "I don't like earthquakes either."

Ms. Johnson said the family moved here with mostly just the clothes on their backs. She saves each month until she can afford to buy a bed for each child. She has managed to buy a mattress and box spring (no bed frame) for the 14 year old granddaughter, a mattress (no box spring or bed frame) for one of the boys and a set of bunk beds for two others. The two remaining boys sleep on air mattresses on the floor. None of the children's rooms have any other furnishings and Ms. Johnson said it would be nice to have a dresser or two for the kids to put what little clothes they have away. Currently the clothes are kept folded on the closet floors. Ms. Johnson currently has one sofa and a dinette for her family.

Maryvale Precinct Officers have worked hard to provide the Johnson family with the many other items needed to tiffany note a home, and one of the officers entered the family in a "Furniture Giveaway" sweepstakes presented by Ashley Furniture, for which they were selected.

The corrected release reads: DHL Express Delivers Holiday Gifts to U.S. Troops in the Middle East For the sixth straight year, tiffany earrings Express, the world's leading express delivery and logistics company, has teamed up with the New York community to donate and deliver hundreds of holiday trees, decorations and messages of support to U.S. troops in the Middle East through DHL's annual "Trees for Troops" charitable program. The special holiday shipment will receive a send-off celebration on Monday, December 7th at DHL's international gateway facility at JFK Airport.

DHL is donating all transportation and logistical services of the trees and holiday items, which have been generously supplied through donations from New York businesses and community organizations, including Dee's Nursery, Adelis International Security, Adopt-a-Soldier Platoon, Proctor-Hopson Post 1896 Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), and other members of the New York metro community. 500 real trees with lights and tinsel, menorahs, holiday decorations and "Santa Sacks" filled with thousands of holiday cards written by local school children will be transported to U.S. troops overseas.

Monday's send-off will commence at 12:15 p.m. at DHL's gateway facility at John F. Kennedy International Airport, as the trees and holiday items arrive by police escort from Dees Nursery in Oceanside, New York. After a brief ceremony, featuring entertainment by the USO and letters to the troops read aloud by local school children - the trees will be loaded onto a DHL 767 aircraft. The shipment will lift off on Tuesday, December 8 for DHL's European hub in Leipzig, and then onward to DHL's Middle East hub in Bahrain. From Bahrain, the holiday shipment will be separated and distributed to military units throughout Iraq and Afghanistan.

"As the specialists in international tiffany key, DHL is proud to leverage our extensive global network and deliver this much-deserved shipment of holiday gifts to our U.S. troops this season," said Ian Clough, CEO of DHL Express, USA. "Aside from Santa himself, we are the most reliable route for on-time delivery to remote locations around the globe - but we wear yellow."

In Iraq and Afghanistan, DHL Express has more company staff, in more locations in country than any other carrier in the region, in addition to owning its own trucks and planes. DHL Express has operated in Afghanistan since 2001 and in Iraq since 2003 in direct support of the Department of Defense. DHL has been operating in the Middle East for over 30 years -- longer than any other carrier.

DHL launched its annual Trees for Troops program in December 2004, after Jim Adelis, a New York businessman, overheard a woman at Dee's Nursery inquiring about how to ship a Christmas tree to her son in Iraq. Adelis, whose son was stationed in Iraq at the time, was inspired to reach out to DHL and the local community to deliver more than just a single tree. In November and December 2004, with the help the U.S. Army Reserve 77th Regional Readiness Command, Dee's Nursery and the New York metro community, DHL delivered two shipments featuring a total of 135 trees and holiday decorations from JFK to U.S. troops stationed at Camp Anaconda in Balad, Iraq.

DHL Express is the international shipping and logistics expert. Its U. S. A. operations focus exclusively on import and tiffany pendants services to and from the U.S. market to more than 220 countries and territories worldwide through its unparalleled global network, catering to companies that operate globally and require fast, reliable international shipping services. This year, the U.S. Express network enhanced its international capabilities through new dedicated flights; a new principal hub in Cincinnati, Ohio and a new partner for retail access to international shipping services. The company also enhanced its culture of international expertise by providing Certified International Specialist training to all employees, a new requirement for every DHL U.S. Express employee. With more than 40 years of international shipping experience and 46 state-of-the-art hubs around the world from Shanghai to Cincinnati, approximately 95% of U.S. inbound shipments are cleared on the day of arrival, where regulations permit.