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It was one of the warmest afternoons this winter when a group of 35 to 40 Savannah Adventure Club members gathered in the middle of the 100 acre Bonaventure Cemetery off Victory Drive in Thunderbolt, Georgia.

The Cemetery was originally a family plantation that was deeded to the city for use as a burial grounds for all beliefs.

The cemetery hosts numerous historic characters from early Georgia history, some of which were moved from older cemeteries like Colonial Park downtown.

Georgia writers, songsters, and former mayors are buried under impressive monuments and statues and the grounds are situated on the Wilmington River giving spectacular views of the marsh and centuries old live oaks.

In the spring the azaleas are in bloom, but this time of year, the only color comes from artificial flower arrangements and the bright colored cloths of tourists roaming about the grounds.

You would have been hard pressed to find a face you did not recognize in the 30-player starting field of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Super High Roller event. The price tag for admission was a cool $100,000, and two re-entries put a prize pool of more than $3 million up for grabs. After three days of high-level play, it was none other than Team PokerStars Pro Viktor Islidur1 Blom left sitting alone with the chips, the trophy, and the $1.25-million top prize.

With eight players returning to the final table on Saturday and only five spots paying out, three men were forced to go home empty handed. The first of those was the fifth-place finisher in the 2011 Super High Roller, Humberto Brenes. The behatted Costa Rican came into the final table with a rubber shark head protecting the shortest stack in the room. Just a few minutes into play, Brenes three-bet shoved his into the of Galen Hall, and the could not save the shark from extinction.

Next to go was the next shortest stack as they began to fall out in order. It was Mike Timex McDonald who took his stand with on a four-bet shove. It is hard to fault him for playing back at the aggressive Blom, but Isildur had the dominating in his hand. Timex flopped lucky on the , but the cruel landed on the river to seal his fate in seventh place.

The remaining six players were thusly perched on one of the largest bubbles imaginable. Zero dollars for sixth place; a quarter-million for fifth. The players and spectators hunkered down for what figured to be a long grind, but a cooler of a pot burst the bubble in less than a half hour. Scott Seiver was under 20bb when he found and four-bet shoved. Hall was the three-bettor, and he snap-called with his superior and the chip-leading stack. There was no funny business on the board, and Seiver was relegated to the nearest barstool to shake off a disappointing exit.

Three of the final five players were Team PokerStars Pros, but the pair of Canadians were the next two to exit. Daniel Negreanu couldnt get anything going at the final, trending slowly downward until there was nothing left. With less than 30 big blinds, he shoved in with , and he was likely content to flip for the double against Bloms . Negreanu mentioned that hed pay $100,000 to pick a hand after the flop, and he would gladly have traded with Bloms pair after the board flop brought three blanks. No help came on the turn or river, either, and Kid Poker was dusted in fifth place.

Just a few minutes later, Jonathan Duhamel and Blom went to war on a , and the action left Duhamel all in with . He was in front as the cards laid, but Bloms had plenty of outs. The turn was one of them, and Duhamel could not fill up to stay alive. The river was the last card of his day, and the 2010 WSOP Main Event champ added another $313,600 to his stat sheet with a fourth-place finish.

Things had been moving right along, and Bloms ascension to the chip lead figured to drive the action. But three-handed play would linger for hours with the two men mostly trading small blows and passing the blinds and antes around. Finally, Blom began to gain a foothold and take control of the match, mostly working on the stack of Hall.

Hall won the PCA Main Event in 2011, and he was two knockouts from making himself immortal at Atlantis, but it was not to be. With his stack whittled down to about 25bb, Hall took his stand with pocket nines. Blom had a snap-calling hand, though — — and five blanks on board sent Hall to the rail in third place and set the stage for the final duel.

Dan Shak had been the chip leader through much of three-handed play, but Blom took over that top spot with that penultimate knockout. And Shak was next. The heads-up duel was largely one-sided and fairly brief, and the last hand saw Shak miss a combo draw with one card to come. His fell to Bloms on the board, and that was the end of the road for Shak.

With that, Blom has etched his first major live title into the record books, conquering the Super High Roller to win $1,254,400, an enormous trophy, and Shamballa bracelet worth more than $25,000!

Experience the real India on bicycle, with every spin of the wheel revealing a whole new world of adventure and mysticism. Pushing this philosophy and the accompanying thrill is a group of young men who have launched a novel bicycle-tour movement in India.

Pradeep Sharma and his two friends are engineers working for multi-national companies (MNCs) in Bangalore. But their quest for adventure and green concerns has driven them to launch cycle tours and encourage people to take to pedalling for fun.

HAVING conquered both Poles, many would be tempted to go home, put their feet up and take a breather.

But Julian Evans is no ordinary man and having taken on the daunting conditions of the South Pole he is already preparing for the next challenge.

Mount Everest is within his sights and for someone with the kind of determination that has seen him raise more than £50,000 for a host of charities, it will doubtless not be long before the peak is within his reach.

Mr Evans (39), of Harborough, was part of a team that reached the South Pole at 1.30am on Friday, December 9. The chartered surveyor was on the ice for more than two weeks.

Click on the multimedia link on the right to see a gallery of photos from the expedition.

Although he has took on a polar bear during his trek to the North Pole in 2009, the challenge of the south was the unremitting and frigid environment itself and on several occasions while on the trek he drew breath and feared for his life.

Adventure Time: My Two Favorite People
DVD
Staring John Di Maggio, Jeremy Shada, Tom Kenny
Created by Pendleton Ward
Cartoon Network
Release date: September 27, 2011

I know a lot of people who are fans of Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time, and it seems to be one of the network’s most popular shows these days, but for whatever reason I never really gave it a shot. There was just something about the style of the show that kept me away for whatever reason. However, when the chance came to review the first DVD release of the show I took a shot, even only to see if the people recommending it to me were full of it. Having watched some of it now, I can understand why some people like it; I just don’t know if I’m as sold on it as they are.

Right off the bat, I will point out that the Adventure Time: My Two Favorite People DVD contains 12 random episodes from the series, and these episodes are not of the half hour variety. When the box says twelve episodes, it means twelve of the 11-minute shorts, so it’s basically 6 full episodes. And when I say random, I mean random. The 12 shorts collected here come from all points of the series, and don’t have any connection between them, which to be fair, kind of fits with the tone of the series, but will be sure to disappoint fans of the show. Those looking for a complete season set of the show will have to wait and hope that it comes out. Cartoon Network loves to release these partial season discs and only rarely releases complete season sets. If you’re a big fan of the show, you’ll have to decide if it’s worth your money. I would probably just wait for a full season, but that’s just me. The plus side is that this disc is pretty cheap, so it doesn’t feel like as much of a blatant cash grab. There’s enough here to recommend, but not enough to make it a must buy.

As for the show itself, I found it fairly entertaining. It wasn’t the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, but it has a charm all its own, and I can see why people like it. The show features a unique art style, with the characters in near constant motion. If anything the show has energy, and it is this energy that makes the show so enjoyable. It doesn’t hurt that the characters are fun to watch and each episode feels like its own little movie. It also doesn’t hurt to have one of the main charterers voiced by John Di Maggio, who has great comedic timing and is an experienced voice actor. The rest of the cast does an equally excellent job. I also enjoyed the music on the show more than I expected to.

Would I rush out and buy this? No, probably not. But I’m not an Adventure Time super fan. Watching this disc didn’t make me fall in love with the show, but like I said, I can understand why others enjoy it. There aren’t a lot of extras on the disc, just some character profiles, so that doesn’t add a lot of incentive to pick this up. If you absolutely HAVE to own every piece of Adventure Time merchandise, well then there’s not much I can do to sway you from buying this, but if you can hold off, I’d say wait for Cartoon Network to release a more comprehensive collection. I’m giving this one a 3 out of 5.

New Delhi: Television actor-producer JD Mathejia, who is currently seen in the reality show `Survivor India`, feels that Indian people are not adventurous and as a result, there aren`t too many adventure shows on television.

NEED to escape the city in search of adventure?

Leader is giving three lucky families the chance to win a weekend adventure at Lake Mountain Alpine Resort in Marysville.

The prize includes entry to the resort for two adults and two children, a family pass for activities such as dune buggies, laser skirmish and flying foxes, and an overnight stay in a cabin at the Marysville Caravan Park.

The competition closes at 5pm on January 18.

Each prize is valued at $402. The prize is for use before May 1, 2012, and is subject to availability.

The winners will be drawn at Leader’s Blackburn office on January 19 and notified by mail.

One entry allowed per person. Leader Community Newspapers reserves the right to invalidate all multiple entries submitted by one person.

gt;gt; To enter, write your full name, postal address, email address and daytime phone number in the form below, then type in the verification code and press “Submit”.

Click here to read more about Lake Mountain Alpine Resort.

THE Scottish Government has announced the launch of a consultation into implementing a new voluntary code of practice for outdoor activities.

The consultation will investigate the best way forward for legislation in Scotland to licence operators in activities such as caving, climbing, trekking and water sports.

The move comes after the UK Governments proposal to replace the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority which was established in 1995.

Minister for Commonwealth Games and sport Shona Robison, who is leading the consultation, said that an appropriate safety system should continue to provide a level of reassurance and confidence to users, their families and the wider public.

The UK Governments proposed abolition of the AALA has implications for Scotland, she said.

Any safety system developed for adventure activities in Scotland would need to meet the needs of providers and users whilst being robust and proportionate.

Thats why I want to hear views on whether a statutory inspection and licensing regime should be maintained or if a new approach should be adopted, and I would encourage anyone with an interest to have their say on what should be put in place.

The consultation seeks views on three proposals adopting the model proposed by the UK Government, which would remove the costs and bureaucracy of licensing but end the current inspection regime; introducing a non-statutory, voluntary accreditation scheme, which would include an element of inspection and accreditation but would only be able to promote and encourage compliance, not enforce any scheme; introducing a statutory scheme, which would see the continuation of an inspection and statutory scheme for operators in Scotland.

The consultation runs until Friday, March 30, and can be found at www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications

And its a landslide victory for Final Fantasy XIV! After about a day of neck-and-neck competition with Earthrise, FFXIV pulled ahead for a devastating victory, surely due in no small part to the efforts of the Final Fantasy XIV community, which rallied on the forums to see the game to victory. So well done, FFXIV fans. Hopefully Ill be able to do your game justice.

I would like to take a moment to highlight the disconcerting number of people in the comments who voted for Final Fantasy XIV in hopes of causing me some kind of lasting mental harm (Im looking at you, Bree). Well, you played right into my hand! After hearing Eliots emphatic reassurances that the game has improved by leaps and bounds, I couldnt wait to get my hands on the game again. But now, I get to do it for money! Eat that, suckers!

Ahem. Now that thats out of the way, head on past the cut for the moment youve all been waiting for: the opportunity to choose what character I play!

Lets start with the basics, shall we? I tend to play exclusively male characters in MMOs, but obviously I dont have that luxury this time around. Its not like playing a female character makes me uncomfortable on a base level, though, so go wild. Whats it gonna be, folks? (Note that this poll is null and void if you choose Miqote or Roegadyn as my race, since they only come in female and male varieties, respectively.)

Although Roxanne Boks new book Horsekeeping is specifically about her adventures in trying to make a go of a horse farm in Salisbury, its also about finding a passion in life and then pursuing it.

In other words, you dont have to love country life or horses to find inspiration and entertainment in the just-published memoir.

I was 46 years old when I started, so I think its never too late for anyone. People should just go for it. My adventure began with my love of nature, Bok said of the unexpected new chapter in her life when the neighboring El-Arabia Arabian horse farm went on the market.

I think something like this makes you feel younger … that decision not to go off (quietly) into the sunset, she added.

Im talking about a passion, not a fling, Bok stressed of finding a life-changing connection with a new career or a new place.

A passion is deeper and better than a fling because it becomes endlessly fascinating.

Roxanne wound up taking over the farm, along with her husband Scott and their two children.

The Boks had been dividing their lives between the business and cultural worlds of New York City during the week and escapes to their country home every weekend for two decades.

After working on the farm for a few years, Bok took a writing workshop where she was given an assignment to explore memoir writing. Before she knew it, the stories of her new life started to add up and a book began to form.

People seemed to enjoy what I wrote, so it was an exciting new world for me. I began writing about (the farm) a lot, Bok recalled.

The subsequent creation of the book helped Bok to understand how and why she had begun her new life of horsekeeping.

I was forced into looking at how I got there and my life with animals. In a way a memoir is self-indulgent because youre trying to figure out things about your life, but some of them have universal synergies, Bok said.

One of those universal synergies is the connection so many people feel with horses. Its fascinating to see who you can meet in a (horse) barn, Bok observed. People from all different walks have an immediate and very strong bond because of the horses.

It is a delicate process to write about a life that includes many other people — both family and friends — but Bok sees her book as a very personal interpretation of events.

You just have to write from a place of being honest within yourself and realize that everyone sees things slightly differently. I tried to be honest and tried not to be cruel, but I was lucky not to have any cruel incidents to write about. One of the problems with my memoir is that it is more or less a happy story, Bok said, with a chuckle, acknowledging the fact that some people prefer to read about the terrible things that happen to people rather than the good things.

On a personal level, the writer also sees Horsekeeping as a gift to her two children who will be able — years from now — to reconnect with their mothers spirit and their own young lives during a family adventure.

Part of the writing was quite personal, because my mother died when I was very young and I would give anything to have something to remember her by … but those memories (of hers) are gone, she said.

When I asked Bok if she could see herself living in Salisbury permanently — giving up the New York City portion of her existence — the writer said she wasnt sure.

One of her blessings, Bok added, is being able to enjoy two different lifestyles.

I realize more and more that its the contrast that keeps the dream of Salisbury alive. Each Friday, when we leave the city, its still as exciting as it was 22 years go, she said.