A side quest adventure in the world of Awaken Online!Eliza's parents are relentless - forcing her to constantly take prep courses to prepare for college and medical school. Sometimes, it feels like her entire life has already been planned out.Which is why she leaps at the chance to escape into a new virtual reality game, Awaken Online. What she wasn't expecting was to encounter a capricious god and his loyal "pet." Or to be chosen as this god's "avatar" within the game and forced to tackle a series of asinine quests. Yet, she just can't shake the feeling that there is more to the irritating god than first meets the eye.

In Awaken Your Senses, longtime ministers Beth Booram and Brent Bill invite you to engage your right brain in your faith through sensory spiritual practices that position your heart for divine encounter. Readings and a variety of exercises lead you to experience God in new ways through seeing, tasting, touching, smelling and hearing.

Unhyped and therefore unnoticed, technology is altering the behavior and mission of city halls, statehouses, schools, and federal agencies across America. From transportation to education to elections to law enforcement (or, as we're now referring to it, 'homeland security'), the digital revolution is transforming government and politics, slashing bureaucracies; improving services; producing innovative solutions to some of our nation's thorniest problems; changing the terms of the Left/Right political debate; and offering ordinary people access to a degree of information and individual influence until recently accessible only to the most powerful citizens, finally redeeming the Founding Fathers' original vision for our democracy, and enriching American life and society in the process. Based on interviews with over 500 leading politicians, researchers, technology industry CEOs and leaders, futurists and front-line public employees, Government 2.0 journeys across America and overseas to demonstrate the promise and perils of this emerging world and offer a likely road map to its implementation. You'll hear from technology executives preparing for an onrushing future when, for many citizens, most government interactions could take place on private-sector websites; from bureaucrats like OSHA's Ed Stern fighting to get their agencies to adopt expert systems technology; from William Bennett, whose virtual education company offers a glimpse into one possible future of American education; and from Governor Jeb Bush and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as they endeavor to overcome bureaucratic inertia to provide more open, efficient, and effective governments. Rich with anecdotes and case studies, Government 2.0 is a must read for every entrepreneur frustrated by paperwork, every parent who's sick of being surprised by bad report cards, every commuter stuck in traffic, every activist trying to fight City Hall, and every taxpayer who cares about the future of government.

From Deborah Pegues, popular author of 30 Days to Taming Your Tongue (more than 500,000 sold), comes an indispensable guide for overcoming the emotional barriers that rob men and women of life's fullness and derail their personal and professional relationships. Pegues uses biblical and modern-day examples to help readers identify and overcome the obstacles that hold them back. Readers will discover emotion-taming strategies such as establishing boundaries extending grace, mercy, and respect to others conquering perfectionism accepting themselves and learning to laugh at themselves telling the truth and striving to do the right thing 30 Days to Taming Your Emotions provides Scripture-based principles, heart-searching personal challenges, and healing prayers and affirmations that point readers to a new sense of emotional freedom. Compilation of Supreme Confidence, 30 Days to a Great Attitude, and 30 Days to Taming Your Stress.

Advances in digital technologies have provided ample positive impacts to modern society; however, in addition to such benefits, these innovations have inadvertently created a new venue for criminal activity to generate. Combating Violent Extremism and Radicalization in the Digital Era is an essential reference for the latest research on the utilization of online tools by terrorist organizations to communicate with and recruit potential extremists and examines effective countermeasures employed by law enforcement agencies to defend against such threats. Focusing on perspectives from the social and behavioral sciences, this book is a critical source for researchers, analysts, intelligence officers, and policy makers interested in preventive methods for online terrorist activities.

Reconnecting with the sources of decisions that affect us, and with the processes of democracy itself, is at the heart of 21st-century sustainable communities. Slow Democracy chronicles the ways in which ordinary people have mobilized to find local solutions to local problems. It invites us to bring the advantages of "slow" to our community decision making. Just as slow food encourages chefs and eaters to become more intimately involved with the production of local food, slow democracy encourages us to govern ourselves locally with processes that are inclusive, deliberative, and citizen powered. Susan Clark and Woden Teachout outline the qualities of real, local decision making and show us the range of ways that communities are breathing new life into participatory democracy around the country. We meet residents who seize back control of their municipal water systems from global corporations, parents who find unique solutions to seemingly divisive school-redistricting issues, and a host of other citizens across the nation who have designed local decision-making systems to solve the problems unique to their area in ways that work best for their communities. Though rooted in the direct participation that defined our nation's early days, slow democracy is not a romantic vision for reigniting the ways of old. Rather, the strategies outlined here are uniquely suited to 21st-century technologies and culture.If our future holds an increased focus on local food, local energy, and local economy, then surely we will need to improve our skills at local governance as well.

From Deborah Smith Pegues, popular author of the bestselling "30 Days to Taming Your Tongue," comes a powerful guide for conquering those bad attitudes that can derail your personal and professional relationships. Here's just a sampling of the attitudes Pegues tackles head on: condescension control envy intolerance judgmentalism resentfulness self-centeredness sullenness victim mentality "30 Days to Improving Your Attitude" uses biblical and modern-day examples to help readers recognize and overcome such counterproductive behaviors as expecting failure, putting down someone else's success, being indifferent to the needs of others, and criticizing the conduct or choices others make. Scripture-based principles, heart-searching personal challenges, and healing prayers and affirmations will point readers toward the path to a new attitude.