Something different in Charm City

"I don't know what you've heard about Baltimore, but from the water's edge, it's a marvelous place.

"They have taken 18th and 19th century docks and converted them into a waterside park. Behind the inner harbor attractions is the commercial high-rise section connected by elevated walkways along waterfalls and hanging gardens. Baltimore also has MacArthur Memorial Park and first rate art galleries.

"Eventually the walk along the waterfront will extend to Fells Point, several miles away.

"The people of the city recreate on the waterfront. There were school groups everywhere, touring the museums, and noontime concerts and paddleboat rentals. Water taxis ran to points of interest on the waterfront, and city office workers had lunch on the bulkhead and in the market place. 

"For boaters, it's front row and center stage."

- ppgs. 92-93, Honey, Let's Get a Boat ...

Big is as Big does

Let's talk tankers ...  because when we're talking tankers size counts for a lot.

The TI Class of ships are the four largest double-hulled supertankers in the world, and as of 2004 became the largest ocean going ships since the previous largest, the single hulled supertanker Knock Nevis was converted to a permanently mooredfloating storage and offloading unit (FSO). -wiki

Pictured here is the world's largest tanker, the TI Europe.  TI Europe has three sister ships: TI Oceania, TI Asia and TI Africa. - source

She's 1246.5-feet long ... that's almost 4.25 football fields laid end-to-end ... with a 223-foot beam.

That means you could lay eight (8) Calypso's end-to-end across the width of her deck.  Sister-ship TI Oceania (below) can capable of carrying 4.2 million barrels of oil ... enough to keep a small country going for several months. 

Even with all that weight, TI Europe cruises at 17.5 knots.  Wow.

But here's what got my attention: if you lined up TI Europe directly behind TI Oceania (end to end), Calypso's 500,000 candle-power spotlight couldn't reach far enough to see TI Europe's bridge.

OK so you're asking, where do ships this size go?

Answer: When you're this big, pretty much anywhere you want to.  :-)

Another Must-Have item, just in time for Christmas

$168,000 speakers.

"We're pretty sharp on the fairy dust market, and while it no doubt goes for a premium in certain parts of the world, there's still a serious surcharge being added in here for transparency. Japan's own Hario is catering yet again to the affluent among us with its Harion speaker set, which boasts a subwoofer, two mid-range drivers and a pair of acrylic tweeters -- all encased in heat-resistant glass. Of course, the company is no stranger to pumping out exclusive glass-based kit and charging a wad for it, as this particular package will run customers a staggering 16 million yen, or just north of $168,000. Oh, but if you and ten others dial in right now, they can be produced and sold for just 10 million yen each ($105,030). Economies of scale, now that's good stuff." - source

It's just that they don't work with my decor, right.

Car Carrier Correction

Ain't the web wonderful?  It's amazing what you can find on-line, just by looking.

In the November 24 2008 post, I eye-balled a guess of 500ft for Astro Coach's over-all length.

Turns out the actual figure is 610.3 ft (186.01m), with a beam of 105 ft.

Learn more about Astro Coach here. 

NOW you may kiss the bride

- from The Chicago Sun-Times

BY MARY WISNIEWSKI Staff Reporter/mwisniewski@suntimes.com

So what is it like to kiss a girl for the first time ever, after she has become your wife?

"It was surreal," said Claudaniel "CD" Fabien, 30, after his marriage to Melody LaLuz Fabien on Saturday. "It was like, my other self came out and said, 'Look dude, you're kissing her!' "

Claudaniel, 30, and Melody, 28, had pledged to be abstinent before marriage -- but went a little further by agreeing not to kiss each other on the lips before their union was official.

Why so strict? They didn't even want to get close to temptation, instead waiting until the minister said the magic words: "NOW, you may kiss the bride."

Both Claudaniel and Melody Fabien are abstinence educators -- Claudaniel for the nonprofit Confederation of Spanish American Families. Melody is director of the "What's Good" program for the LYDIA Home Association, a Christian service agency. Both teach abstinence programs within the Chicago Public Schools.

Melody and CD met on their way to a mission trip in Uganda in 2006. 

You MIGHT be having an Off-Day if ...

What should I do tomorrow?

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Pride came in with the wind

That's the Pride of Baltimore II, with Fort "Star Spangled Banner" McHenry in the background.

Photos taken this afternoon from the end of my dock.

What I DON'T want for Christmas

(humor)

A Snuggie?

Don't do it.  Just saying.

It's just not my color, thanks.

I paid my money, so why didn't I see Him?

Scripture tells us that after Christ was resurrected he remained on earth for more than a month, and appeared to hundreds and hundreds of believers before he ascended into Heaven.

I started wondering about the folks who followed Jesus during his 3-year ministry, but then weren't included among those who literally eye-witnessed his resurrection.

And I started wondering if one of them might have been named Brother Bigbux.

Oh I can still hear him, griping and complaining to the disciples, "Why didn't anybody tell me Jesus was back?  I had to hear it from Peter, because nobody ever tells me what's going on with this church.

"Haven't I been generous with my tithes and offerings?  Didn't I donate a warehouse-full of palm fronds when nobody else had any?  

"Why, I've contributed more than anybody else and frankly, if it wasn't for me this ministry woulda folded in its first year.  Didn't that entitle me to know Jesus was back?  If I'd known he was back, then I coulda told him some of my ideas about fixing what's wrong with His church.

"You know what?  I don't believe Jesus came back.  I think ya'll made it up. Because if he'd really come back from the grave, I woulda been the very first person he appeared to.

"So I'm withdrawing my financial support from this church and finding me a place where the congregation appreciates all my opinions and contributions.

"Oh and one other thing.  What'd ya'll do to hurt Judas's feelings?"

Yep, I feel quite certain a man like that must've existed.

Perspective - (Reality/Hope) = Expectations

 We feel disappointed when our expectations go unfulfilled and we have expectations when we feel Entitled.

Nothing ever quite completely suits us when we feel entitled.  Not even on the best day.

Oh, how much simpler life would be if everything ... and everybody ... simply conformed to what entitlement tells us should be true.

When we're disappointed, it's because we feel we deserve something better.

Disappointment is a strong emotion and draws a map to Feeling Discouraged. Given enough discouragement, our outlook can swing to a perspective of Feeling Rejected.  And the Yellow Danger Alert associated with Feeling Rejected is that rejection hurts and stings enough to whisper that our worst fears and misgivings about others will inevitably, and always, turn out to be true.  

Lo and behold, we start seeing that no one else ever quite measures up to our expectations.  Because, strangely, the pain reaction of Feeling Rejected has made us feel superior.

--   ---  --

You've probably heard something like this,

"What so-and-so did disappointed me, but that's not the first time.  Nobody has ever lived up to my expectations and I always end up getting disappointed.  

People who get along with others are either putting on a front, or they're living in a dream world because they can't see what's really going on."

Expectations = Entitlement - (Reality/Hope * Rejection)

Rearrange the letters any way you like but you can't find enough, not in a lifetime, in "Entitlement," "Disappointment" or "Discouragement" to ever make Joy.

You gotta add Jesus and Mercy first.

-- --- --

Seems like it'd be easier to address our Personal Expectations first ... before we tackle fixing what's wrong with everybody else.

Tug-A-Lug, toot toot

This morning I watched two tugboats dock a 500-foot long car carrier ... by turning it on a dime and (safely) backing their charge into her slip.  

The entire endeavor took about 45 minutes and not once did they back off, take a time-out, ask for a "do-over" ... or form a committee and ask for a vote about what to do next.  Those guys are Good.

They have to be.

--   ---   -- 

Tugboat captains communicate with whistles, btw.

waiting

Still limited connectabilitation.

what should I do tomorrow?

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

- Deuteronomy 6:5

Type A, or Type J?

Even before my wifi connection headed south for the winter, I cut back on my blog-reading.  Seemed like "Leadership" began showing up everywhere, and spread faster than a "Type A" flu.

I'm fallible and imperfect, and don't deserve or aspire to be called, or ever be looked up to as, a Leader in God's kingdom.

I'm at the very bottom rung, struggling to be a follower ... and to embrace a Type J personality instead.

  

Sign o' winter

Maybe hard to see above, but it snowed here for about 3 hours this morning.

Snow is the blue stuff on the XM Weather radar, above.

Brrrr, arrrrg.

The Book of Static, it's not

When I was a kid, I thought the preacher was teaching from "The Book of Axe" and assumed the name was somehow derived either from the violent political climate back in "Biblical days," or from the manner of Paul's execution by the Romans.

So I was surprised by what I found when I read the book as an adult.  The book reads so much like an adventure story, on several levels, that I might have named it "The Book of Adventure."

More reasonable folks might even have suggested the name "The Book of Action" because the text is so descriptive and vivid in its narrative of the first few years of Christ's church.

Persecutions, shipwrecks, daring escapes, stonings, miracles and life-changing conversions are all there.  Enough action and edge-of-your-seat excitement to make a feature film ... and three sequels, for a start.

It's the kind of excitement that, if ushered into many of today's contemporary church services, would need to be "toned down" a bit ... to "maintain the reverence of the service" ... or squelched with some other legalistic conforming, because Excitement don't belong in this church.

We like our Bible stories dusty and quiet, you see.  So they don't interfere with or much impact our lives as we like living them.

Also included in Acts, significantly, are frequent updates on the numbers of people Preached and Reached for Christ.   And descriptions of what the first believers' excitement led them to accomplish through, and by obeying, the Holy Spirit.

Maybe the title "The Book of Acts" sounds like Acts are something that happened a long time ago, back in Bible Days, that's over and done-with today.  

Hmmm.  Can't help wondering what our churches would be like today if Acts had originally been titled The Book of Action and Eternal Excitement instead.

Lightning Rod?

Ed Young's Sex Challenge

(CBS/ AP) The pastor of a Dallas-area mega-church challenged married congregants during his sermon Sunday to have sex for seven days in a row -- and says he's practicing what he preaches. 

The Rev. Ed Young, 47, says he believes society promotes promiscuity, and he wants to reclaim sex for married couples. Sex should be a nurturing, spiritual act that strengthens marriages, he said. 

"God says sex should be between a married man and a woman," Young says. "I think it's one of the greatest things you can do for your kids because so goes the marriage, so goes the family." 

-source

DSC

About 40 minutes ago the DSC (Digital Selective Calling) alarm sounded on my GPS.

It's gone off 3 or 4 times over the past few months since moving here, but tonight was different.  Tonight the call registered an MMSI (Maritime Mobile Service Identities) number; MMSI is a unique number assigned to a unique vessel; reason enough to start thinking this call was real ... and not a false alert.

I called the Coast Guard on the VHF and reported the vessel's coordinates and MMSI.  Right away they were back on the air with an alert for any vessel in the area, about 15 miles away, to respond to Rosie's distress.

Then just after 9 PM the DSC alerted again with the same GPS coordinates.

Makes you wonder what's happening out there.  And about how quickly things can go badly, badly wrong.

Go Mike Go

Wow.

At 16, he's the youngest person to ever sail around the world.

Solo.

Showing the Love

Oh yes when there's something we want, we know just how to show our love?

By writing a check, slapping down a credit card, applying for a new loan ... or otherwise financially oligating the future to satisty ourselves in the moment.

How does God show His love?

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

- 1 John 4:9

Variable Conditions

(humor)

Seems like about two weeks since I've been able to receive a wifi connection lasting more than 4 seconds, which makes adding new posts here almost impossible.

But that's gonna change soon.

See, I found a 220-volt 500-watt USB wireless booster card that promises the ability to connect with any unsecured hub within 1500 miles.  And it comes with a handy 50-foot whip antenna, too.

Stay tuned: more updates on my USB-ham radio experiments as they occur.

Friday fotos

Got these images around 10 AM this morning ...

Barney bites reporter

Call it "Election Reaction"?

Video here.

How did we get where we are?

Spiritual ennui.

Election Results

The "law of unintended consequences" (also called the "law of unforeseen consequences") states that any purposeful action will produce some unintended consequences. A classic example is a bypass — a road built to relieve traffic congestion on a congested road — that attracts new development and with it more traffic, resulting in two congested streets instead of one.

This maxim is not a scientific law; it is more in line with Murphy's law as a warning against the hubristic belief that humans can fully control the world around them. Stated in other words, each cause has more than one effect, and these effects will invariably include at least one unforeseen side effect. The unintended side effect can potentially be more significant than any of the intended effects.  - wikipedia

Never A Perfect Weekend

First, the good:

Florida spanked Jaw-ja 49 zillion to 10

South Carolina is whupping Tennessee 21-0 at halftime

Then, the weekend Spoiler:

Clemson defeated Boston College 27-21

Now I'm going to bed.

Herculean Effort & Perseverance

 This morning I finally tired of seeing 1350 [literally] Unread Messages sneering from my InBox and deemed it was time to take effective action.

Took about two hours to sort and scan through the message headers but now they're all where they belong.  Now that it's done, I practically feel as invincible as Hercules.

On the other hand, Hercules probably stuck with DOS.