You Are So Not Gellin'

Ferdinand Magellan must have wished he had his Dr. Scholl's.

On this date in history (April 27, 1521) he was killed in the Philippines during a tribal skirmish after traveling over three-quarters around the globe.

Poor dude. You are so not gellin'.

PS. Thanks for the cool Global Positioning System.

If you feel a slight breeze from the North, no need to check the weather... it was just the collective sigh of relief from the entire state of Wisconsin (and one lone soul in North Carolina).

Not only is Brett coming back, but Green Bay also signed cornerback Charles Woodson of the Raiders to a multi-year deal. Now, if we have a good draft, I think this could turn out to be an outstanding year for the Pack.

Chess Boxing?

Can you guess what these guys are doing??

A strange new hybrid-sport called Chess Boxing. You can see the official site here. One round consists of 4 minutes of chess then 2 minutes of boxing. This goes for eleven rounds or until an opponent is knocked out. There are other disqualifications but they are not worth getting into at this time.

That's all I can say about that... I honestly am speechless about it.

Doug & Kerigan in '05

This picture is from June of '05, but I like it, so here it is...

Doug & Jude

Jude & Kerrigan's Adventure

Birthday Cake

Even though Jude's birthday was last November, I thought I'd put the birthday cake I got to make for him on here for you all to see.

Not bad, eh?

Passover

Couldn't help but post this one. Amy said something to me tonight that made me do a double-take and laugh...

"The only holiday in the Bible is Passover and it's the only one we don't celebrate."

That one deserves a bit of study. I've already done a quick online search of the word Passover, and saw that it is only listed 3x in the New Testament, not including the four Gospels. And although I know there are other holidays mentioned in the Old Testament, I concede that in general, it is a true statement and is a bit funny.

I'm not about to drop all my holiday celebration, but it is something interesting that caught my attention.

The White Stripes

The White Stripes is a band I have been following for the past five years and I thought I'd post an entry about them in case some of you hadn't heard their music. They'd been around for a while (formed in '97) before I finally cottoned on to them.

They are a two-man band out of Detroit, Michigan, though at first impression you'd think they were straight out of Liverpool. For a while I thought they were a Brit band. Meg White (Megan Martha White) plays drums and occasional vocals and Jack White (John Anthony Gillis) plays guitar, piano & vocals.

It has been said that they are brother & sister, but then it was retorted that they at one time had been married then divorced. Either way, their music is amazing.

Anyway, back to the 'band'. To date, they have five CD's out: White Stripes, De Stijl, White Blood Cells, Elephant & Get Behind Me Satan. All of which are top notch. They also have a live dvd called "Under Blackpool Lights" recorded in England in 2004. Great show!

I'm not a music reviewer, so I can't tell you how song one hits with the force of a howitzer, or how song two brings a spine-tingling xylaphone ballad... All I know is that there is so much musical diversity in their repitoire I don't know how to categorize them. They have such a unique sound and play with such texture and fullness that you have to often remind yourself that it is just the two of them.

I remember when they played on Late Night with Conan O'Brien for an entire week a couple years back when they were promoting Elephant. That was the first time I saw them live and they blew me away. They are one of those bands that their live presence is better than their studio work.

I raise a toast to Jack & Meg. I hope that the conception of Jack's new band 'The Raconteurs' doesn't mean an end to the Dynamic-Duo.

If you haven't heard or seen them, give them a chance. They're not to everyone's taste, but they're my favorite.

Comments on Jesus Walking on Ice story

The following story was featured briefly on Yahoo News:

Jesus Could Have Walked on Ice, Scientist Says

Rare conditions could have conspired to create hard-to-see ice on the Sea of Galilee that a person could have walked on back when Jesus is said to have walked on water, a scientist said today.

The study, which examines a combination of favorable water and environmental conditions, proposes that Jesus could have walked on an isolated patch of floating ice on what is now known as Lake Kinneret in northern Israel.

Looking at temperature records of the Mediterranean Sea surface and using analytical ice and statistical models, scientists considered a small section of the cold freshwater surface of the lake. The area studied, about 10,000 square feet, was near salty springs that empty into it.

The results suggest temperatures dropped to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 degrees Celsius) during one of the two cold periods 2,500 –1,500 years ago for up to two days, the same decades during which Jesus lived.

With such conditions, a floating patch of ice could develop above the plumes resulting from the salty springs along the lake's western shore in Tabgha. Tabgha is the town where many archeological findings related to Jesus have been found.

"We simply explain that unique freezing processes probably happened in that region only a handful of times during the last 12,000 years," said Doron Nof, a Florida State University Professor of Oceanography. "We leave to others the question of whether or not our research explains the biblical account."

Nof figures that in the last 120 centuries, the odds of such conditions on the low latitude Lake Kinneret are most likely 1-in-1,000. But during the time period when Jesus lived, such “spring ice” may have formed once every 30 to 60 years.

Such floating ice in the unfrozen waters of the lake would be hard to spot, especially if rain had smoothed its surface.

"In today's climate, the chance of springs ice forming in northern Israel is effectively zero, or about once in more than 10,000 years," Nof said.

The findings are detailed in the April 2006 Journal of Paleolimnology.

Well, -that- was interesting. Here's Matthew's account of the event:

Jesus Walks on the Water (MT 14.22-27)

22Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

25During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear.

27But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."

(see also Mark 6 & John 6)

Okay, let's assume for a moment that our scientist's data is correct and such icy conditions did occur two times over the past 2,500 years, which I humbly concede is entirely possible... I have two comments:

One - God's timing is sweet! Jesus would have been there at just the right time.

Two - Jesus was the world's first surfer! Righteous! Righteous!! Hang Ten Commandments, dude! (sorry for the shameless puns... I thought they were funny...)

To me, being a person who trusts the Bible and reasonably takes what it says at face value, I believe that this article is reaching. Like I mentioned earlier in the post, I understand that such an occurrence is scientifically reasonable and may have happened, but to suggest that this is an explaination for a recorded miracle is weak. If -anything- this only strengthens the miracle of the event. Whether Jesus walked on the water (H2O) or if he walked on the water (ice)... either way, it is a miracle. With that said, however, I do not believe that Jesus would have tried to deceive his friends by feigning walking on water by tip-toeing on ice, nor do I believe that if this -had- happened that the disciples wouldn't have seen it, nor failed to have recorded the event accurately.

Finally, Peter's brief walk on the water would have to be explained as such... he also stepped out onto the ice, but either slipped off the edge and fell in, or his portion of ice melted while Jesus' patch stayed firm enough to not only maintain his weight, but to pull Peter up...

Personally, I find this theory harder to rationalize than as it is recorded in the Bible. At the end of the day, God can work the way he chooses to work, and if he made a sheet of ice available for Jesus to stroll out to the boat on, then so be it. If that's the case, then he led that sheet of ice right out to their wind-tossed boat.

You go God. Sweeeeeeeeet.

Yankees hand A's historic beating: 15-2

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- All spring, Alex Rodriguez noticed a quiet confidence about this Yankees team that he had yet to see before.
It wasn't so quiet in their opener -- and manager Joe Torre might be right about this lineup being among the best he's had.

Rodriguez hit a grand slam and drove in five runs, Johnny Damon drove in a run in his Yankees' debut, and Randy Johnson exhibited the dominant form he lacked for much of last year in a season-opening 15-2 rout of the Oakland Athletics on Monday night.

"We have a hungry bunch," A-Rod said. "We've had it since spring training on. I see a different attitude."

Rodriguez's 12th career grand slam highlighted New York's seven-run second inning that staked Johnson to a big lead early. Johnson allowed one run and five hits in seven strong innings, an impressive 106-pitch performance for the 42-year-old lefty to kick off his second season with the Yankees.

"You don't want to lose your focus that you're going to cruise through it by any means," Johnson said. "I was able to get some easy outs."

The 15 runs were the most allowed by the A's on Opening Day, surpassing the 14 the Philadelphia A's gave up in a 14-8 loss to the Washington Senators on April 17, 1945.

Goofy Kids

Jude & Kerrigan doing their best Gene Simmons impression.

I should Photoshop some kiss makeup on them...

Goofy kids.

V for Vendetta

"This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."

Rob & Tiffany Visit

Our friends, Rob & Tiffany Jeffers, from Virginia Beach came down to visit this weekend. We all had such a great time and it was so nice to see them again! -Thanks for coming down guys!

The kids had a blast together. Kathy is getting so big, but she is such a tiny little thing.


Rob and I went to go see 'V for Vendetta' on Saturday night... I don't know how to review it in a few words. Amazing. I loved it and we talked about it the rest of the night and all through Sunday. Maybe I'll post my thoughts on it on a future blog, but not this day.