RIP Patti Greenwell - 03 July 2021 - Plague Journal Day 478

Micah 6:8
Psalm 100
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

It's taken me a while to be able to write this post. My good friend, Patti Greenwell, went to be with her Lord a few days ago. She had come into our lives about 37 years ago when she became the music director at GPUMC, and has been a big part of them right on up to now.

She's done pretty well since her husband, the fabulous Charles Greenwell, passed on last year, but it was pretty clear that she was sorely missing him, and was ready to join him whenever God was ready to have her. That makes it a real mixture of emotions - we're sad for ourselves, as we won't have her over for dinner or directing the choir anymore, but we're happy for her and for Charles as they're reunited in that mansion not made by hands.

Someone commented about the picture that was posted on our church Facebook page with the notice of her passing, that she could see the love in Patti's eyes, even in a posed photograph. That's what she was like - she truly did love us, and wanted the best for us and from us, all the time.

That comment got Art Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes" stuck in my head. It's probably an unusual earworm, really, but the chorus just keeps going around and around in my mind.

Bright eyes
Burning like fire
Bright eyes
How can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes

And a different song, "Going Home" by Sara Groves, keeps adding itself to my internal medley. There are similarities in parts of the melodies, and the topics are similar, but Sara seems to hit it on the head (as she often does - she's quite a songwriter) - with the longing we have to be home with the Lord, especially when someone we love has gone on before.

The good news is that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. This is proof of God's love for us, and the promise that what looks like an ending is really only a beginning.

I'll see you one of these days, Patti. Love you.

Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

There's A Beautiful Field - 02 July 2021 - Plague Journal Day 477

Micah 6:8
Psalm 119:175-176
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

02 July 1937 was the last time American aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan contacted anyone. They were attempting to make the first around-the-world flight - apparently they either didn't make it, or they're going for the record of the longest time to circumnavigate the globe. Neither of them, nor their plane has ever been found. That has led many to claim she was either abducted by aliens, eaten by cannibals, or just quit and retired to a tropical island. I'm more inclined to think they crashed somewhere and will never be found.

Every time I hear of or think of this story, it takes me back to a visit I made to my sister back in our university days. She was attending Michigan State University, and we ended up at a bar called Coral Gables in the area to hear an all-woman string band called the Bosom Buddies. That was the first time I heard the song made famous by the Country Gentlemen, Amelia Earhart's Last Flight. There were other memorable songs, and they were quite good, really, but that one has stuck with me to this day.

Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Eau, Canada! - 01 July 2021 - Plague Journal Day 476

Micah 6:8
Numbers 15:15-16
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Today is Canada Day, eh. Who knows? Maybe one day we'll be allowed back in the country.
The world's longest undefended border has been closed for well over a year, and it doesn't look to be opening any time soon. Justin, was it something I said? We'd really love to get back over there, spending our tourist dollars and cheering our Ti-Cats on to victory of the Argos (who suck, in case you weren't aware).

At least I still have a bit of water from Kakabeka Falls, so I can raise a glass of Eau Canada in a toast to our neighbour to the South.
Cheers!


Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Meteor? My Asteroid! - 30 June 2021 - Plague Journal Day 475

Micah 6:8
Genesis 19:23-25
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

We have a couple anniversaries today. First off, on 30 June 1905, Albert Einstein submitted a paper titled “Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper” ("On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies") outlining his theory of special relativity. Over 120 years later, it is still the generally accepted theory about the relationship between space and time, or rather of spacetime. Special relativity was the predecessor to his theory of General relativity, which Einstein published in 1916, and which also remains the most-commonly-used description of gravitation and the like.
I have to admit that I had never noticed the title of that special relativity paper, but reading the introduction I understand it - the theory was working to extend Maxwell's electrodynamic theories to more arbitrary frames of reference. Pretty interesting.

Next up, on 30 June 1908, what is known as the Tunguska event left 2,000 square km of Siberian forest flattened and scorched. These days, the generally held explanation is that an asteroid or comet or meteor exploded in the atmosphere above the forest there. It is the largest impact event in recorded history (note that word, recorded - it's important as Velikovsky can confirm).

So there we have the theory of special relativity published (and remember, that was the basis for the Manhattan Project) and exactly three years later - to the day! - we have the largest recorded impact / explosion / destruction. As we've asked in previous posts about other oddities, can that be a coincidence? Hard to believe, isn't it?

Speaking of Oddities - who remembers them from the old WWF days? (I think it's pre-WWE, but I may be mistaken.) Kurgan et al. were an interesting sideshow in a sports-entertainment genre that welcomed sideshows. And with that wrestling reference, we wish a Happy Birthday to Cody Rhodes (the American Nightmare).


Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Let's See How Things Develop - 29 June 2021 - Plague Journal Day 474

Micah 6:8
Mark 8:22-25
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?


Today is National Camera Day as well as National Waffle Iron Day. That reminds me of a picture I took, developed, and printed, way back in the pre-digital days of photography.

Way back when, I used to develop my own film (black and white only, I never did progress to color, simply because all the instructions made it sound like I needed better control of temperatures than I thought I could manage) and print my own pictures - including pretty big prints, probably up to 16x20.

It was a lot of fun, and was a great creative outlet as well. The picture these celebrations brought to mind was of the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial that I took on a family vacation to Washington, DC. It was a standard portrait-orientation shot from a bit to Lincoln's left, but once I saw it, I wanted to try something "different" with it. So I got out a sheet of 8x10 paper and exposed the print normally. Then I put a sheet of normal window screen material over the paper and just turned on the light very briefly. When I developed the print, the open parts of the screen were black square, while where the wires were you could see the original print.

It was a very cool effect, and it actually worked the first time I tried it (imagine that!). However, I don't think I ever printed anything else that way, and it wasn't long after that that my photography hobby tapered off.
I actually still have a couple pieces of my old equipment down the basement (an enlarger, a print dryer, possibly some other items as well). I need to find someone who might want them. I'll also look around for that old print (very unlikely to have survived a few house moves) and if I find it, I'll scan and upload it.

Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Keep Your Hands Off My Pi! - 28 June 2021 - Plague Journal Day 473

Micah 6:8
Job 26:6-14
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Today, 28 June (in normal US format 6-28) is Tau Day. eta beta pi

In 2001, Bob Palais published π Is Wrong, where he said pi (π) should not be used for the circle constant—the geometry of a circle expressed in a single number. Instead, he called for tau (τ), which is equal to 2π, or roughly 6.28318, to be used instead. Then, on June 28, 2010, Michael Hartl published the Tau Manifesto, which stood behind Palais and expanded on his ideas. Like Palais, he called for tau to replace pi, saying pi is a "confusing and unnatural choice for the circle constant." He believed tau is a better way to describe the relationship between the circumference and the radius of a circle. With the release of his manifesto, he also created Tau Day. Just as 3/14 is Pi Day, 6/28 became Tau Day.
It is claimed that, for some unfathomable reason, a growing number of mathematicians and physicists agree tau should replace pi, although they also admit that this is not yet widely accepted.

If tau makes so much more sense, why hasn't it been widely accepted? I'll tell you why. Because it doesn't make more sense - they're just plain wrong. Looking only at the circumference (perimeter) of the circle and the diameter might, just might, make one think tau made sense. However, when one looks to the area of a circle, tau is much more cumbersome than pi. The circumference is 2πR, the area is πR² - using τ instead says the circumference is τR, but the area is now (τR²)/2.Why would anyone want to move to that?

Further, there's the wondrous and amazing Euler Identity bringing two irrational numbers (e and π) and the basis of the imaginary numbers (i) together in a beautiful equation. Just look at this beautiful derivation and tell me that tau is a valid replacement for pi. Not in this man's mathematics, pal!

Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Worship - 27 June 2021 - Plague Journal Day 472

Micah 6:8
Mark 5:21-28
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

 

 

When the COVID case levels settled down in Grosse Pointe, we resumed our in-person worship.
Yes, we still have in-person worship in the Sanctuary today, and we're not requiring masks for fully vaccinated worshipers! You don't need to have registered ahead of time to attend, and we've opened all the pews for seating worshipers - your favorite pew is now open, Cathy!
For our 9:30 worship service have a solo at offertory time, and two hymns for us to sing while Doug plays. Yes - we're back to congregational singing. We're Methodists again!
Remember, we'll be streaming for all those who can't join us in person, and intend to continue that practice indefinitely.

As usual, today's stream should just appear as the latest entry on our YouTube channel, here.
You'll find all our previous worship videos right there at that same place, and today's stream will stay there as a recording as well.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264