Does God really hear my prayers?

During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

- Hebrews 5:7

I will give you thanks, for you answered me; 
       you have become my salvation.

- Psalms 118:21

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.

- John 14:1

Church Vision: Let's take it slow, and not bite off more than we can chew

I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?

- Jeremiah 33:27

Atheism: the last superstition

The History Channel is airing The Universe: Parallel Universes ...  about quantum physics and science's latest take on the nature of "Reality."

I've already seen it; it's amazing.  The show is so comprehensive, yet so concise in its presentation of complex and anti-common sense material, that I'm recording it to DVD ... because I want to give every one of my atheist friends an opportunity to see it.

Why?  I'd be eager to hear an atheist continue to pedantically embrace a "Naturalistic," or "I can't see God so He must not exist" dialectic after being exposed to "Infinite Universe Theory," String Theory and/or M-Theory.

After all, Quantum Physics has led to science's best current depictions, and explanations, of the nature of Reality.

And then I'd like to hear an atheist try to explain how they know God doesn't exist, why God couldn't be infinite, and why atheism isn't the last, and perhaps the Ultimate, superstition.

Talk about collapsing their wave function.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

- Revelation 22:13

Borrow-A-Blog

My friend Frances posted this on her blog the other day; I'm borrowing the entire text to include here:

Friday Devotional - something to think about

I usually blog about silly stuff but today I thought I would do a devotional type post. 

This is something that has been on my mind with Christmas right around the corner and tons of commercials on TV about giving and getting. When I was in college I worked at the mall and I remember how much it stole my Christmas spirit and put me in a bad mood to deal with all the shoppers. Givng and getting is NOT the point of Christmas. 

Spending precious quality time with family and remembering Jesus' birth is. 

Does anyone really need more stuff? I know there really isn't any item that I need. 

My actual needs are pretty basic: food for myself, dogfood (which I feel like I buy every time I turn around!), power and gas for my home, etc. It's wants that everyone focuses on this time of year. Sure, there are things that I want, but I don't really need them. More things does not make you a happier person. 

I'm not sure where this quote is from or where I first heard it but this is what I am thinking about today: "The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they make the best of everything they have." It is so easy to watch commercails and see things in the mall and think you need them. That's how commericalism and marketing works! 

I know I'm guilty - it's worked on me plenty of times! I rent a basic older brick home in a nice neighborhood and I'm always thinking of how when I buy a house (hopefully in a few years) it's going to be so much nicer. 

When I'm in Atlanta for work I see all these beautiful homes and think how much I love would to live in one.   I'm always imagining fancy granite counters and an island in my kitchen instead of the basic plastic counters I use now. Visions of big walk in closets dance in my head. 

Will that really make me a better person or a happier person? No, of course not. 

Just something I'm thinking about today... 

Smooth

(cooking)

I know butter is bad.  It's full of all kinds of nasties ... cholesterol, saturated fat n' stuff ... it's just that butter tastes so good.  On everything.  Especially pizza and cinammon rolls.

And Plugrá European Style Butter tastes indescribably Awesome.

Try it for yourself if your self-control feels strong as iron, but don't say I didn't warn you.  :-)

Plugrá Recipes

- Seared Shrimp with White Corn Polenta

- Coconut Chocolate Marquise

Reverend Billy's Church of Stop Shopping

"Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir believe that Consumerism is overwhelming our lives. The corporations want us to have experiences only through their products. 

"Our neighborhoods, 'commons' places like stoops and parks and streets and libraries, are disappearing into the corporatized world of big boxes and chain stores. But if we 'back away from the product' – even a little bit, well then we Put The Odd Back In God! "

- source

No comment.

Knock Nevis, who's there?

Turns out the TI class of supertankers wasn't the largest ever built.  That distinction belongs to the leviathon Knock Nevis, above.  As a tanker the ship was known under the names Seawise Giant, Happy Giant, and Jahre Viking. 

The Knock is listed as 260,941 Gross Tonnes and has a length of 1504.1 feet,  making her the largest ship ever constructed.  She has a beam (width) of 225.72 feet and a draft of 80.74 feet, which is too deep to navigate the English Channel, the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal.  

(For the numerically-curious, my little Calypso is 6.045 tonnes, has a 28 foot over-all length, a beam of nine feet and a draft of 4.5 feet.)

But Knock Nevis isn't the biggest in every respect.  In terms of gross tonnes she ranks fifth, at 236,710 gross tonnes, behind the four Batillus class supertankers. These ships are apparently the largest self-propelled objects ever built.

In 2004 Knock Nevis was converted into a storage tanker and is now permanently moored at the Qatar Al Shaheen oil field in the Persian Gulf.

Comments

are back.

PS.  The risk of going to bed at 8:30PM is waking up at 12:09AM and feeling invigorated, alert and ready to go ... as if you'd just had a refreshing nap.

Wonder if I should wait a few hours, or start the coffee now.

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.