Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Fall on your knees
Merry Christmas everyone!
St. Joseph, patron of families, champion of purity, and model of humility, pray for us!
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
So to honor him
This is the second installment of Sounds of the Season and it features Josh Groban's beautiful version of Little Drummer Boy.
Many lines in this song struck me while listening to it.
"I am a poor boy too"
We must remember that Jesus humbled Himself and became man to save us and that we must become poor in order to inherit the Kingdom of God.
"I have no gifts to bring"
How often in our own lives do we feel like our gifts and talents do not measure up to those around us, as the little drummer boy must have felt among the kings who brought their finest gifts.
"Shall I play for you"
The drummer boy realizes that all he has to offer is the gift of his music and so he offers that as his gift. Sometimes, it is important to recognize that God wants all of us, however meek and lowly.
"So to honor him"
This little drummer boy gave all he had for the glory of Christ. Let us remember that all we do must give God glory first and He will return the glory in His time.
"Then He smiled at me"
I pray that the Lord is able to smile at me if I have given Him all my talents and gifts, just as He did to the drummer boy who did the same.
St. Joseph, patron of families, champion of purity, and model of humility, pray for us!
Many lines in this song struck me while listening to it.
"I am a poor boy too"
We must remember that Jesus humbled Himself and became man to save us and that we must become poor in order to inherit the Kingdom of God.
"I have no gifts to bring"
How often in our own lives do we feel like our gifts and talents do not measure up to those around us, as the little drummer boy must have felt among the kings who brought their finest gifts.
"Shall I play for you"
The drummer boy realizes that all he has to offer is the gift of his music and so he offers that as his gift. Sometimes, it is important to recognize that God wants all of us, however meek and lowly.
"So to honor him"
This little drummer boy gave all he had for the glory of Christ. Let us remember that all we do must give God glory first and He will return the glory in His time.
"Then He smiled at me"
I pray that the Lord is able to smile at me if I have given Him all my talents and gifts, just as He did to the drummer boy who did the same.
St. Joseph, patron of families, champion of purity, and model of humility, pray for us!
Monday, December 22, 2008
If Santa Did Exist
Today I crush all the little one's dreams of a jolly old Santa Claus coming and delivering joy to all the children of the world. Call me a grinch, but you know you will laugh.....
Scientists have tried to answer the question, "Does Santa come with flying reindeer to deliver presents at Christmas?" This is what they have found:
1. No known species of reindeer can fly, but there are 300,000 species of living organims yet to be classified. Although most of these are insects and bacteria, this does not rule out flying reindeer.
2. According to the Population Refeence Bureau, 378 million people celebrate Christmas worldwide. With an average of 3.5 children per home, that's 91.8 million homes for Santa to visit.
3. Thanks to different time zones, Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, assuming he travels east to west. This works out to 822.6 visits per second. That means for each celebrating household with at least one good child in it, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, place presents under the tree, eat the cookies and return to the sleigh.
4. Assuming that all 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed throughout the earth, the total trip time will be 75.5 million miles. That means Santa's sleigh must move at 650 miles per second, 3000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth (the Ulysses space probe) moves at 27.4 miles per second.
5. Assuming that each child get nothing more than a medium-sized Lego set (weighing 2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying a payload of 321,300 tons, not counting jolly ol' Saint Nick himself.
6. A standard reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even if flying reindeer might pull 10 times more than a normal reindeer, Santa would need 214,200 reindeer to pull the sleigh. The reindeer, payload, Santa and sleigh would therefore weigh more than 353,430 tons. This is four times the weight of the Q.E. II cruise ship.
7. This 353,430 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates tremendous air resistance, heating the reindeer in the same manner as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would therefore absorb 14.3 quintillion joule of energy, per second, each.
8. The lead reindeer, as a result will burst into flames, exposing the reindeer behind them and creating massive sonic booms in their wakes. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 0.00426 seconds. Santa will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500 times greater than gravity. Assuming that Santa weighs 250 pounds (a modest estimate for sure), he would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,375,000 pounds of centrifugal force.
In conclusion, if Santa did exist, he's dead by now.
Scientists have tried to answer the question, "Does Santa come with flying reindeer to deliver presents at Christmas?" This is what they have found:
1. No known species of reindeer can fly, but there are 300,000 species of living organims yet to be classified. Although most of these are insects and bacteria, this does not rule out flying reindeer.
2. According to the Population Refeence Bureau, 378 million people celebrate Christmas worldwide. With an average of 3.5 children per home, that's 91.8 million homes for Santa to visit.
3. Thanks to different time zones, Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, assuming he travels east to west. This works out to 822.6 visits per second. That means for each celebrating household with at least one good child in it, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, place presents under the tree, eat the cookies and return to the sleigh.
4. Assuming that all 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed throughout the earth, the total trip time will be 75.5 million miles. That means Santa's sleigh must move at 650 miles per second, 3000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth (the Ulysses space probe) moves at 27.4 miles per second.
5. Assuming that each child get nothing more than a medium-sized Lego set (weighing 2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying a payload of 321,300 tons, not counting jolly ol' Saint Nick himself.
6. A standard reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even if flying reindeer might pull 10 times more than a normal reindeer, Santa would need 214,200 reindeer to pull the sleigh. The reindeer, payload, Santa and sleigh would therefore weigh more than 353,430 tons. This is four times the weight of the Q.E. II cruise ship.
7. This 353,430 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates tremendous air resistance, heating the reindeer in the same manner as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would therefore absorb 14.3 quintillion joule of energy, per second, each.
8. The lead reindeer, as a result will burst into flames, exposing the reindeer behind them and creating massive sonic booms in their wakes. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 0.00426 seconds. Santa will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500 times greater than gravity. Assuming that Santa weighs 250 pounds (a modest estimate for sure), he would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,375,000 pounds of centrifugal force.
In conclusion, if Santa did exist, he's dead by now.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Sounds of the Season Pt. 1
This year I will feature several Christmas songs on my blog. These will not be poppy Santa songs (lol, I typed Satan instead of Santa the first time......) but rather classic Christmas tunes that have solid messages or just an everlasting quality to them.
The first in this series is "Go Tell It On The Mountain" by Big Daddy Weave. While not my all-time favorite Christmas song, I heard this version on the radio the other day and it really caught my ear. Very nice voice quality, and stuck to the original song in tempo and lyrics.
Enjoy!
St. Joseph, patron of families, champion of purity, and model of humility, pray for us!
The first in this series is "Go Tell It On The Mountain" by Big Daddy Weave. While not my all-time favorite Christmas song, I heard this version on the radio the other day and it really caught my ear. Very nice voice quality, and stuck to the original song in tempo and lyrics.
Enjoy!
St. Joseph, patron of families, champion of purity, and model of humility, pray for us!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Oh Tannenbaum!
This Christmas marks an exciting time for Diana and I. Not only is it our first Christmas as a married couple, but it is also the first time that we will celebrate Christmas with a real live (well, live at one time) tree!
This is the tree just after getting it screwed into the stand. Notice that the branches are still bunched up from being tied for so long. A few tamps on the ground and a couple days later, the tree was ready to decorate.
The other conundrum that we ran into this Christmas is that we both wanted to have an angel tree topper, rather than the star that we had been using for so long (a homemade aluminum foil star). We also did not have a "First Christmas" ornament. Fortunately, a trip to the southern christmas show in Charlotte and another trip to Garden Ridge satisfied both desires!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPxCHi4mLYA
Merry Christmas!......more Christmas madness to come, but my wife is bumping me with her pregnant belly.....
St. Joseph, patron of families, champion of purity, and model of humility, pray for us!
For as long as we both could remember, our families had real trees at Christmas time. When Diana moved into the condo several years ago, she was not able to manage a Christmas tree (physically and financially) so a friend of her family bought her a 5 foot artificial tree that she and I would cheerfully decorate every year. While it certainly put us in the Christmas mood, there is nothing quite like a real tree at Christmas.
I remember years ago when my brother and I were little we would help Dad hoist the tree onto the top of the van and tie it down, then carry it off the van into the garage where we would trim the bottom and get it ready for the stand. I always liked using the bow saw to lop off the end of the tree! I hope that that memory is one that I will be able to pass on to my children.
This Christmas, Diana and I purchased a tree from the Knights of Columbus at our parish (it is a yearly fundraiser, they get the trees from a local farm that grows and cuts them!) We got the tree last weekend and I had the privledge to prepare it for the house.
Well, 2 jigsaw blades, a circular saw, a hammer, a screwdriver, and 45 minutes was all it took to cut about 6 boughs and 3 inches off the end of the tree to get it ready for the stand. I think I need a bow saw haha!
Fortunately it was light enough that I could carry it up the stairs and maneuver it into the tree stand that we inherited from Diana's parents with no problems.
This is the tree just after getting it screwed into the stand. Notice that the branches are still bunched up from being tied for so long. A few tamps on the ground and a couple days later, the tree was ready to decorate.
The other conundrum that we ran into this Christmas is that we both wanted to have an angel tree topper, rather than the star that we had been using for so long (a homemade aluminum foil star). We also did not have a "First Christmas" ornament. Fortunately, a trip to the southern christmas show in Charlotte and another trip to Garden Ridge satisfied both desires!
The smell of fresh cut pine tree now infuses our home everytime we walk through the door. We are so blessed to have this little comfort in our home this year!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPxCHi4mLYA
Merry Christmas!......more Christmas madness to come, but my wife is bumping me with her pregnant belly.....
St. Joseph, patron of families, champion of purity, and model of humility, pray for us!
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