Matthew 8:23-26

Bear with me a little on this post, I’ll get around to the verse.

Above is the front door to Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Tulsa. A better photograph is posted on the Tulsa Gentleman Blog. I made a comment on his post about what I called a dollar sign to the left of the door above the bench. He responded:

“There are 2 ancient symbols for Jesus Christ, one on each side of the door. The one on the left (that might be mistaken for a dollar sign) consists of the overlaid letters I H S. IHS is the Christogram for the Greek spelling of Jesus (ΙΗΣ- iota-eta-sigma; short for ΙΗΣΟΥΣ)

On the right side of the doors is another ancient symbol for Jesus Christ, consisting of the superimposed Greek letters chi (Χ) and rho (Ρ), often embroidered on altar cloths and clerical vestments. Also called a Christogram.”

Here is a closeup of the superimposed IHS symbol.

Doesn’t look much like a cash symbol when you look at it closely does it. I first saw the symbol years ago and thought it meant that it takes money to run a church. Hey, don’t laugh. It does!

According to religionfacts.com the symbol is simply called the “Chi-Ro” pronounced “ke-roe.” These are the first two letters for Christ in Greek. It is an ancient symbol that goes back before the Emperor Constantine. He started using it widely when he saw the symbol in the sky before an important battle in the year 312. The symbol is also called the Labarum.

Yet another symbol that has intrigued me for a long time was the following ship.

I could not for the life of me figure out what that meant. Well apparently ships are another ancient Christian symbol. It is called the “Bark (or Barque) of Saint Peter. It symbolizes that the Church is the vessel that transports Disciples safely from the stormy earthly realm to the heavenly realm.

So now we get to the verse for today.

²³And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.

²⁴And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.

²⁵And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.

²⁶And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. (Matthew 8:23-26, King James Version)

(from BibleGateway.com)

For other pairings of verse and photographs check out That’s Baloney.

Play On by Carrie Underwood

Sweetie gave me a CD for Christmas. Carrie Underwood’s “Carry On.” It’s the only music I have listened to since. It’s wonderful. All the songs are great.

Cowboy Casanova is what is getting the airplay and is very good but I love “Quitter” the best. I play it over and over. I haven’t been this excited about a song since Metallica’s “Cyanide” from their Death Magnetic CD. The song has a mandolin riff going that I just love. You can listen to it here.

Carrie is at the top of her form in this CD. I give it 3.5 stars out of 4.

Bear Gryllls’ Bad Drinking Water Blues

One of my favorite shows is Man vs Wild with Bear Grylls. Bear is a supposed ex British commando of some sorts who puts himself in situations and shows us how to survive situations.

This season he shows us how to drink bad water in a manner that bypasses the “gag reflex.” It is something you do only as a last resort he tells us. I don’t think this technique has ever been shown on television before.

So, as part of my commitment to public service, here is the video on how to drink really really bad water without throwing up.

His ratings must really be low. I wonder what his camera crew thought of all this?

XX Rated Skywatch

I love Skywatch Friday, the participants are so talented and the commenters are so nice and encouraging. The whole experience has been very uplifting and I never go anywhere without looking at the sky all the time. Skywatch is really a bright spot in cyber space. Just think, without Al Gore we wouldn’t have this. Thanks Al, really.

Well, Tulsa has been pretty drab lately. I have been trying like crazy to get a good skywatch photograph but mother nature hasn’t been there for me. So I decided to spice things up a little bit with the first (to my knowledge) XX Skywatch Photograph. So brace yourselves, here goes, ready …

Please don’t think less of me.

For GOOD photographs of the sky from all over the world check out Skywatch Friday.

Global Warming and Me

I’ve been following the global warming controversy for some time. I think in the early 1980’s I saw my first graph of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere vs time and accompanying graphs of average surface temperatures over time. The trend started up in the late 1800’s following the advent of the industrial age.

(Note the above graphs and all the rest of the images, unless otherwise stated, are from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change web site.)

I was interested but not too concerned. The issue got another lift when former Senator Gore became a spokesman and helped put out the movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” I didn’t really listen to him. Sorry, I didn’t care for him, so I didn’t listen to his message.

Then as the issue developed further Oklahoma’s own Senator Jim Inhofe came out with his message that global warming is just a big hoax. Of course, why scientists would perpetrate the hoax is not explained.

The whole time I was sitting back and just reading and pondering, but I was wasn’t reading and pondering very deeply. My position was that Earth may or may not be warming but it might be due to natural cycles beyond our control. I go to lots of energy industry conferences and stuff and since weather is vitally important to our business for a number of reasons I have many meterologists talk about weather patterns. They all acknowledged that the Earth is warming up, but they also said that they thought it inconclusive about whether humans are causing the warming up by our emissions of greenhouse gasses.

But now we are getting to the point where the USA and the rest of the world are talking about spending some serious money on the issue. Hundred of billions of dollars. Hey that wakes me up.

So I decided that it is time for Yogi to take a stand on this issue. The issue has become so polarizing though that it is hard to find non-biased sources. I’m an engineer and prefer arguments based on science, facts, and logic. I am also not a conspiracy theorist. So where do I start.

As luck would have I received the Winter 2010 Issue of “The Bent” which is an engineering honorary society (Tau Beta Pi) journal. There was an article in it Alan S. Brown who is a science writer. The article is “Climate Models and Their Critics.” (The article is not available online as far as I can tell.)

Climate models are very important because we cannot model the Earth in a laboratory. We have to model the weather. The models are very complex and have to take many factors into account. One simulation can take months to run on the most modern supercomputers. The models have got tremendously better over time but they are still approximate. All models are approximate so criticizing a model because it is not exact doesn’t make sense to me.

Mr. Brown references the Intergovernmenal Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”). It is an international scientific body that that reviews climate research. Check it out I think they are solid. They won a 2007 Nobel Prize for their work on climate change. Their web site is amazing. They summarize findings from lots and lots of research. It is all foot noted and documented.

Here are some of their conclusions from the “Summary for Policymakers” from their last report.

“Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is

now evident from observations of increases in global

average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting

of snow and ice and rising global average sea level”

Further:

“Observational evidence4 from all continents and most

oceans shows that many natural systems are being

affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature

increases.”

And:

“Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures

since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the

observed increase in anthropogenic GHG concentrations.

7 It is likely that there has been significant anthropogenic

warming over the past 50 years averaged over

each continent (except Antarctica)”

“Continued GHG emissions at or above current rates

would cause further warming and induce many changes

in the global climate system during the 21st century that

would very likely be larger than those observed during

the 20th century”

I could go on and on but I’ll just cut to the chase and say I am now a believer in the concept of human activity causing climate change by causing increased emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

So what does that mean? Nope I am not jumping over to the Democratic Party. The country still needs to evaluate what needs to be done about the problem. The proposed solutions are very expensive and need to evaluated on their own merit. For example I am totally against giving China 2 cents to help them solve their problems

So what about you, have you taken a stand on this issue yet? What is it?

It’s Complicated – the Movie

Last week Sweetie went off to watch “it’s Complicated” with Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, and Alec Baldwin. Ms. Streep and Mr. Baldwin play a couple who have been divorced for ten years who … It’s complicated and I don’t want to spoil any of it for you.

Lets just say that Meryl Streep steals the show. She is smart and sexy and does a great job in this movie. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin also do a great job but they are just the supporting cast to the star.

There are some moral predicaments in the movie. They don’t flinch from them. Sometimes the antics of the grownups has consequences on those they love. Consequences that last years.

I loved this movie. It was the perfect date night romantic comedy. I give it four stars out of four.

Check out the web site. Lots of good stuff there!

Hot Club of Cowtown at Cain’s Ballroom

Saturday night Sweetie and I along with our friends Jim and Leanna headed downtown to legendary Cain’s Ballroom to see the western swing trio “Hot Club of Cowtown” play some music.

I have to admit that in 18 years of living in Tulsa I have never stepped inside Cain’s despite blogging about it twice, here and here.

We didn’t know what to expect. I think something like Cain’s I think about people getting drunk and passing out, crowded, expensive. But we went anyway.

Was I surprised. The place is nice, parking is plentiful, the admission at $20 seemed a bargain. The drinks were cheap ($2.50 for a beer), the management very nice and accommodating, and the crowd was very laid back. There were a few children in attendance and everybody seemed pretty chilled and sober. And of course there is no smoking!!!! I was totally relaxed.

The opening act was a charming little outfit with a strange name “Three Penny Upright.” They are two female singers (who have really strong clear voices) a guitar player, drummer, and a bass player. One of the singers had a washboard. I have never seen a washboard actually used as a musical instrument before, I mean if you don’t count “Hee Haw.” They played for a while and were very good. I could hear them again.

Then a pause and Hot Club of Cowtown came on. They were great. They are just three, a guitar player, bass, and a violinist and how they made such a big sound I will never know. I bet Bob Will’s ghost traveled up from Memorial Cemetery at 61st and Memorial (I can get you the GPS coordinates if you are interested in paying your respects) just to hear it. The music is large, and happy, and played and sang very very well.

(Photo downloaded from their web site)

I give them four stars out of four.

I give Cain’s four stars out of four. A double header folks!

Here is Hot Club’s performance of Ida Red from YouTube

A performance of the same song by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys in the movie “Blazing the Western Trails”

Smiles all around in our party Saturday night.

Sweetie and I will be heading back to Cain’s soon. We are definitely seeing Hot Club in Cowtown next time they are in the city.

Have you gone out to hear some good music lately?

Keep Us Alive with Three Square Meals

That is how the “The Message” Bible translation reads for Matthew 6:11 which is part of the Lord’s Prayer.

It is a reminder that despite all our agricultural expertise and industry our food, both physical and spiritual, comes from God.

This past New Year we certainly had three square meals.

Sweetie baked some scones for us. I know it’s kind of messy but I had to have a couple before I remembered to take a photograph.

Here is an action shot of SuperPizzaBoy and the scones. This is a very historic photograph of SPB.

It’s historic because it is the first time that SPB has ever used a napkin instead of a shirt sleeve to wipe his face.

Sweetie also baked us an apple pie. Before,

I’m always after her to not be so stingy with the apples.

After,

I fried the chicken! Of course I ate most of it also.

The Yogi family wishes you a happy, prosperous, and blessed 2010.

For other pairings of verse and photographs click on over to That’s Baloney.

Saving My Neck Downtown

I love Tulsa even though it has a few faults. One of the things that drives me crazy is that we get ice and snow here and nobody downtown clears their sidewalks. It’s not only irritating its dangerous.

I bought myself some slip on grippers for my shoes and life is now grand. Earlier this week after our recent ice and snow storm I had to make a few errands in one trip. I had to go to the courthouse and pay the real estate taxes, drop off and pick up some books at the library, and go the post office to mail some letters. Couldn’t do it before.

So I strapped on my new duds and off I went.

They took a little getting used to plus they are very noisy but I was able to walk on sheets of solid ice with no problems at all. And, as a bonus, you get to talk to a lot of people. A sheriff’s deputy at the courthouse wanted a pair and asked where I got them and so did a security guard at the post office wanted some for his wife.

The only thing is don’t wear these inside. I took a few steps in our lobby downstairs and took them off. I think they would scar a floor in now time. Fortunately they are pretty easy to put on and take off.

My life is changed. I can venture out at lunch now after ice storms.

I rate them four stars out of four.

London Boulevard by Ken Bruen

I just got through reading London Boulevard by Ken Bruen. I started today about 2PM and finished at about 10:30 tonight. Its only 250 pages but I just couldn’t stop reading it.

It is a retelling of the movie Sunset Boulevard but amped up, made more explicit, set in modern day London and given a few twists. The protagonist is not a movie writer, he is Mitchell, a small time but dangerous criminal just out of prison after a three year term of aggravated assault. The older lady is not Nora Desmond but Lillian Palmer a former star of the stage who has been waiting for the right vehicle for her return to stardom. She is tended to by her loyal butler Jordan.

I found the book to be fantastic and give it a rare four stars out of four. I’ll be checking out more of Ken Bruen’s books!

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