Prayer

Prayer (from the Latin precari "to ask earnestly, beg, entreat") is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication.

Prayer can be a form of religious practice, may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words, song or complete silence. When language is used, prayer may take the form of a hymn, incantation, formal creedal statement, or a spontaneous utterance in the praying person. There are different forms of prayer such as petitionary prayer, prayers of supplication, thanksgiving, and praise. Prayer may be directed towards a deity, spirit, deceased person, or lofty idea, for the purpose of worshipping, requesting guidance, requesting assistance, confessing transgressions (sins) or to express one's thoughts and emotions. Thus, people pray for many reasons such as personal benefit, asking for divine grace, spiritual connection, or for the sake of others.

Some anthropologists believe that the earliest intelligent modern humans practiced a form of prayer. Today, most major religions involve prayer in one way or another; some ritualize the act of prayer, requiring a strict sequence of actions or placing a restriction on who is permitted to pray, while others teach that prayer may be practiced spontaneously by anyone at any time.

Pray (Take That song)

"Pray" is a song by English boy band Take That. Written by Gary Barlow, it was released on 5 July 1993 as the second single from their second studio album, Everything Changes (1993). It is the first of twelve singles by the band to reach number one on the UK Singles Chart, staying at number one for four weeks, and starting a streak of four consecutive number one singles. The song has received a Gold sales status certification and sold over 410,000 copies in the UK, won Best British Single and Best British Video at the 1994 BRIT Awards, and was the finale of Take That's Beautiful World Tour (2007).

Music video

The video was directed by Gregg Masuak and shot in Acapulco, Mexico. The clip features the band members in the exotic location singing and dancing. The band members are paired with a goddess of the four elements, taking on a different form with each – Air (Mark Owen), Fire (Jason Orange), Earth (Robbie Williams) and Water (Howard Donald) – with the exception of Gary Barlow who is represented in a neutral black and white context. In Barlow's autobiography, he stated that after the disappointment of where "I Found Heaven" was filmed, the band were a lot happier about the location for this video.

Pray (Rebecca St. James album)

Pray is the fifth studio album from Christian pop and rock artist Rebecca St. James. It was released on October 20, 1998 by ForeFront Records and was certified Gold by the RIAA in September 2006. The album won a Grammy Award for Rock Gospel Album of the Year, St. James's only Grammy so far. The album was produced by Tedd T.

Track listing

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Singles - CCM Magazine (North America)

Radio success

In the United States the lead single "Pray" did well on the Christian Charts, while "Omega (Radio Remix)" also got good radio airplay. The song "Peace" did extremely well and is still heard on Christian Radio, ten years later in 2008. In the UK, "Pray", "I'll Carry You" and "Peace" all landed in the Top 100 Songs of 1999, while in Australia "Peace", "Give Myself Away", "Pray" and "OK" all made the Top 100 Songs of 1999. In 2000 "Omega" and "Come Quickly Lord" both landed in the Top 100 Songs of 2000 in Australia. Though never released as a single the song "Mirror" has become a major fan favorite.

Index of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition monsters

This is the Index of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition monsters, an important element of that role-playing game. This list only includes monsters from official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition supplements published by TSR, Inc. or Wizards of the Coast, not licensed or unlicensed third party products such as video games or unlicensed Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition manuals.

TSR 2009 - Monster Manual (1977)

This was the initial monster book for the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, published in 1977. Gary Gygax wrote much of the work himself, having included and expanded most of the monsters from the previous D&D supplements. Also included are monsters originally printed in The Strategic Review, as well as some originally found in early issues of The Dragon (such as the anhkheg and remorhaz), and other early game materials. This book also expanded on the original monster format, such as including the stat lines on the same page as the monsters' descriptions and introducing more stats, expanding the length of most monster descriptions, and featuring illustrations for most of the monsters. The book features an alphabetical table of contents of all the monsters on pages 3–4, explanatory notes for the statistics lines on pages 5–6, descriptions of the monsters on pages 6–103, a treasure chart on page 105, and an index of major listings on pages 106-109.

Goldbug (comics)

Goldbug is the name of two fictional supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Publication history

The first Goldbug first appeared in Power Man #41 (March 1977), and was created by Marv Wolfman and Lee Elias.

Fictional character biography

Matthew Gilden

Goldbug is a gold-obsessed, technologically powered professional thief. In his first appearance, Goldbug, using the false identity of "Jack Smith", hired Power Man to prevent a shipment of gold from being stolen by the Goldbug. "Smith" then donned the Goldbug costume, stole the gold, and attempted to pin the crime on Cage and Thunderbolt. Cage and Thunderbolt recovered the gold and cleared their names, but Goldbug escaped.

Later, the Goldbug was revealed to be an unwitting pawn of They Who Wield Power, including the Hulk's foe Tyrannus, and set out to capture the Hulk. Goldbug kidnapped the Hulk to power his technology and set out to find the city of El Dorado, the legendary "city of gold." The Hulk broke free and escaped, causing the Bugship to crash. They nevertheless arrived in El Dorado, with the Hulk dragging the unconscious Goldbug to El Dorado. There, Goldbug planned to kill the Hulk, but one of the members of They Who Wield Power revealed himself to be Tyrannus, who killed the other two members of They. Goldbug learned that he was Tyrannus's pawn, and Goldbug and the Hulk both turned on Tyrannus but were captured. Goldbug freed the Hulk from captivity to battle Tyrannus, and they used El Dorado's technology against him. Tyrannus was teleported into space. The Hulk and Goldbug were teleported to New York, where Goldbug was apprehended by the Heroes for Hire: Luke Cage and Iron Fist.

Goldbug (band)

Goldbug were a British band in the 1990s. Formed in Brighton in 1995 by a former member of the Beatmasters, Richard Walmsley and DJ Adil Magik, with a session vocalist, Sandy McKenzie, who was recruited through an advertisement in Melody Maker.

Goldbug are best remembered for a #3 hit single with a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love", also sampling "Asteroid" (the Pearl & Dean theme tune) released on the Acid Jazz label, which hit the UK Singles Chart on 20 January 1996, but only stayed for 5 weeks. The track was featured on Now That's What I Call Music! 33, and the band made their sole appearance on Top of the Pops on 25 January 1996, performing it.

The band's name was taken from a computer virus. Adil Magik left the band after musical differences with Walmsley at the end of 1996. Their sole follow-up single, "Real Hip Mary", failed to reach the top 75 in 1997. In 2000, Walmsley sued Acid Jazz over unpaid royalties relating to the "Whole Lotta Love" single. He was successful, receiving many thousands of pounds. Due to the royalty disputes, McKenzie received no money from the band's short existence.