Coffee Klatch

It’s only been in the last couple of years that I’ve been attending liturgical style worship services. I have to admit that I’m rather addicted now. Having grown up Baptist, liturgy was something that I never heard about, let alone got to see. But since I’ve become a Lutheran, I have grown to really appreciate the liturgy. I’ve written about this before a couple of times, so today I’ll just share a few things that I appreciated this morning.

The liturgical year follows a cycle as does the natural year, focusing on the life of Christ, from before His birth (celebrated at Advent and Christmas, of course), through His life and death (Easter), and into the Time of the Church (summer and fall), where we focus on the Holy Spirit’s continuing work in the Church. It is an annual cycle that has existed almost since the time of Christ, providing continuity and establishing a schedule where all the elements of Christianity are included in their times.

This continuity is not only within the teachings or topics, but between churches. Believers that worship in a liturgical setting know that other Christians around the world are doing the same thing, teaching the same topics, and probably even reading the same passages (in this kind of service, each week there is usually a reading from the Old Testament, the New Testament epistles, and the Gospels). There is a tie-in with Christians around the world, knowing we’re all part of a larger body and are worshiping God together in much the same way.

When you’re travelling, there is continuity also. This week I am in Grand Rapids and today I went back to Immanuel Lutheran Church where I’m officially still a member. The pastor at one point referred to the parables that had been talked about the previous week, and I could relate, even though I hadn’t been here, because we’d been discussing those in Indianapolis for the last couple of weeks. That was very cool!

The liturgy is not only good for keeping continuity and helping organize the church teachings for the year, it is a means for building unity among Christians around the world and throughout history. And as we worship God together, all over the world, that worship is filled with even more meaning.

The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod website has some great articles describing the liturgical year in more depth.

Current music: Echoes of Childhood, by Michael Jones

I tend to use Musicmatch when I’m listening to music. Both for the Jukebox player and for streaming audio. Today I came across a group I don’t remember hearing about before. They’re called Leahy and they’re a Celtic-pop group that actually hails from Lakefield, Ontario, Canada.

Their first CD is called Leahy and it was released in 1998. It is all instrumental music and VERY fun to listen to. All 8 or 9 musicians are brothers and sisters (thus the name) and they’re EXCELLENT musicians and dancers. The best part in my opinion is the fiddle, but it takes the rest to make it go, so to speak.

Lakefield is their second recording (2001), named after their home town. Half of the songs on this CD include vocals, and I’ve read mixed reviews of those vocals and if the group sounded better or worse because of them. I guess you’ll have to decide for yourself. While the vocals are pretty good, from my perspective the most enjoyable part is the instrumental songs.

In All Things is a more varied CD. It premiered in January 2004 and it encompasses more musical styles than the other two, but still retains that Celtic influence that made them who they are. I haven’t heard this CD yet, but reviews tend to have better things to say about the vocals on this recording than the last one.

Leahy is a FUN band with some terrific music! And the reviews I’ve read unanimously say that they’re even better live, if you can find them in concert in your area. You can click on any of the images here to visit Amazon, read other reviews, and hear samples of all the songs on these discs. Or you can visit http://www.leahymusic.com/, which is the official website of Leahy. They’ve got tour info, bios, a gallery, and even an online store where you can get recordings, posters, and sheet music!

Current music: Leahy, by Leahy

Okay, I thought I’d have some fun and use StumbleUpon to visit TEN random websites and list them here. If you remember from using StumbleUpon yourself or from reading my blog posts about it, when I click the button, it will give me a “random” website based upon my preferences. A site that people with similar interests to mine have voted thumbs up. So here we go! Without a clue what kind of site will come up and with the intention of listing each one of the next ten regardless of what they are, I perform my first click….

1. The Essential Restaurant Guide for Rome at Epicurious.com
   http://www.epicurious.com/restaurants/erg/rome/index
2. Wikipedia
   http://www.wikipedia.org/
3. International High IQ Society - Free IQ Tests
   http://www.highiqsociety.org/noflash/nonmembers/iqtests.htm
4. TAXI: The World’s Leading Independent A&R Company
   http://www.taxi.com/
5. WorldGenWeb Project - Free research guidance from our world-wide network of volunteer genealogists
   http://www.worldgenweb.org/
6. Questia - The World’s Largest Online Library of Books and Journals
   http://www.questia.com/
7. alphaDictionary (Free English Online Dictionary) - Are you a Yankee or a Rebel? a speech pronunciation quiz
   http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/yankeetest.html
8. Christ Notes: Bible Search and Bible Commentary
   http://www.christnotes.org/
9. TinyURL - Making Long URLs Useable
   http://tinyurl.com/
10. High Speed and Photoinstrumentation Photographs - Exhibit 3
    http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/exhibit-3.html

Conclusions: You never really know what you’re going to get. All the sites were decent quality with regard to usefulness, professionalism, and overall design. And as for relating to your own personal interests, anyone who knows me at all can tell that they’ve done a pretty good job matching up quality websites with my interests!
Current music: Devotion, by Yanni

It’s a week late, but I have to say something anyway. My blog is a year old! Happy Birthday to it! Happy Birthday to it!

I started my blog on 2o July 2004. I called it “The Pfitz Pfactor” and I used Blogger.com because it was free, easy to use, and had some nice templates. I have since learned CSS (initially thanks to tweaking those Blogger templates), migrated my blog to WordPress, moved the blog to RoyaltyLinks.com (my genealogy research site) so I could host it myself and use WordPress, added a TON of quality links in the sidebar, and changed the name to “Pfitz’s Miscellany” (which I thought better reflected the nature of the content).

In one year (stopping counting on 20 July 2005), I posted 443 articles, including over 100 in the Personal category, almost that much of Miscellaneous Thoughts, and quite a hefty number (40+) in Technology, Religon, News and Current Events, and Humor. And as of one year, had had well over 6,000 visitors! Yes, that includes repeat visits, but only one count per day per person.

Quite the year for blogging, it seems. When I “get into something,” I really do!

Current music: Return of the Guardians, by David Arkenstone

Something our media have failed to report is the news that the U.S. Army has surpassed its recruitment goals for last month. It appears that only the Washington Post bothered to make any serious point of communicating that. When the news about our military is bad, it splashes all over the headlines, but when good news happens, it gets buried. Either by small articles or nestled in a bigger article that focuses on whatever negative aspect they can find.

Go figure.

You think I’m exaggerating? Check the news and read the articles intelligently. I’ve seen it too often to deny it. Since the war is not condoned by the liberal media, any news that’s reported about it is done from a negative perspective. If they choose to mention a positive thing, it’s an aside within an article that takes a different negative perspective, so they can continue attacking.

Current music: Classics, by Sarah Brightman

Last night I saw one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life! I laughed so hard I could hardly breathe. My stomach hurt and I was crying. My face and shirt were wet. And I couldn’t stop! Oh my word, it was hilarious!

It was a StrongBad email, from HomestarRunner.com. In particular, it was the email called “Bottom 10” and you can get there directly by clicking the link. Someone emailed StrongBad asking for his “Bottom 10″ list. And that has got to be the funniest SB email I’ve seen, and the hardest I’ve laughed in a long, long time!
“I love to laugh. Loud and long and clear!”

So our van died this week. En route to Indianapolis from Wisconsin, my wife, three boys, and two dogs found themselves on the side of I-65 halfway between Lake Michigan and Indianapolis at 2:30am. I won’t rob her of telling the story (she’ll probably post it on her blog before long), but suffice to say that the van engine is shot and not worth rebuilding for that 15-year-old piece of junk!

The down side is that after everything gets worked out for getting the family back home and disposing of the van (and getting the title and van together geographically), we’ll still be out a vehicle and unable to afford car payments.

The up side is that I HATE that Mazda MPV minivan and won’t miss it at all (except for needing a second vehicle sometimes).

The good news is that God is in control and we just have to get our narrow focus shifted to the big picture, where we know He is working and will provide. Times like this are always fun, because you never know how God’s going to resolve things… but He always does!

Another quote from The Federalist Patriot:

“A generation ago, liberals figured out something that most conservatives couldn’t have dreamed of in their worst nightmare. A few well-positioned autocrats can do what most Americans thought, and the Constitution says, takes two-thirds of the Congress and three-quarters of the state legislatures to do: namely, change the Constitution to mean whatever they want it to mean. The plan was simple. Put justices on the Supreme Court, backed up by lower court judges, to ‘modernize’ our Constitution by fiat, with the claim that Supreme Court decisions, whether based on the words of the Constitution or not, have the same status as the Constitution itself. How often do we hear that our founding compact needs to be a living, breathing document whose meaning changes with the times? Never mind what the words of our Constitution actually say; never mind the clear intent of the Constitution’s writers and signers; never mind two hundred years of judicial interpretation; never mind the centuries-old wisdom of the common law: We are much wiser today than our predecessors. Or so goes the liberal boast. In fact, it is said, we are now able to see just what they were ‘getting at’ even better than they could — as if the U.S. Constitution were only a ‘nice try’ at a plan of government.” –Sen. Rick Santorum

I guess I’m of the school of thought that says the Constitution is not a dynamic document, but a fixed one, that our country was founded on. Our Founding Fathers did not make it easy to change or reinterpret that document because they wanted it to remain consistent in standing for what it does, with everything clearly spelled out. If you don’t like the Consititution the way it is, either push to get it CHANGED (not re-interpreted) or move to a different country that was founded on principles that YOU believe in.

This quote from Oliver North stands on its own. I offer it to you, dear readers, for your consideration.

“In this era of hyper-sensitivity and political-correctness, words no longer have meaning. Those who are good are too often portrayed as evil; indefensibly wicked acts are made less so by the way they are described. Words like ‘hero’ and ‘hatred’ have lost definition. In the midst of a struggle for survival, the inability to discern attackers from allies, friends from foes and heroes from cowards is potentially catastrophic. … The word ‘hero’ no longer means one who has willingly put himself in grave physical jeopardy for the benefit of another. Heroes are people who overcome evil by doing good at great personal risk. Through self-sacrifice, fortitude and action — whether they succeed or fail — heroes provide a moral and ethical framework — and inspiration — for the rest of us. Unfortunately, our modern definition of ‘hero’ has been corrupted to include all manner of people who do not warrant the title. The athlete who just set a new sports record isn’t a hero. Nor is the ‘daring’ movie star or even the adventurer out to be the first solo climber to scale Mt. Everest. They may be brave — but they don’t meet the definition of a hero, for whatever they achieve benefits only ’self.’ Real heroes are selfless.” –Oliver North

There’s a very interesting website called The Federalist Patriot that provides political news in the form of a variety of email-based newsletters focusing on the constitutional federalism envisioned by our Founders and outlined by our Constitution. It’s “the Internet’s Journal of Record for the conservative revolution inspired by Ronald Reagan — a revolution waged by the American people against the prospect of a tyrannical government that threatens the very liberty that gave it rise.” If you’re interested in subscribing (it’s free), visit http://federalistpatriot.us/subscribe/.

Today’s quote from our Founding Fathers:

“I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.”

– Thomas Jefferson (letter to William Charles Jarvis, 28 September 1820)

Current music: A Day Without Rain, by Enya