Celestial New Year's Eve

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Celestial Show Set for New Year's Eve

Editorial Director
SPACE.com robert Roy Britt
editorial Director
space.com – Tue Dec 30, 11:47 am ETA delightful display of planets and the moon will occur on New Year's Eve for anyone wishing to step outside and look up just after sunset.


Venus, brighter than all other planets and stars, will dangle just below the thin crescent moon in the southwestern sky. It'll be visible -- impossible to miss, in fact -- just as the sun goes down, assuming skies are cloud-free.


Soon thereafter, Mercury and Jupiter will show up hugging the south-southwestern horizon (just above where the sun went down) and extremely close to each other. Jupiter is very bright and easy to spot; Mercury is faint and harder to see, but it'll be apparent by its location just to the left of Jupiter.


Jupiter and Mercury will set less than an hour after the sun, so timing your viewing just after sunset is crucial. You'll also need a location with a clear view of the western horizon, unobstructed by buildings, trees or mountains.


All the planets, along with the moon and sun, traverse an arc across our sky called the ecliptic, which corresponds to the plane in space that they all roughly share. For this reason, you could draw an imaginary line from the general location of Venus and the moon, down through the other two planets, and the line would point to where the sun went down. This line could also initially help you find Jupiter and Mercury.


Weather permitting, you can get a preview of the sky show on Tuesday, Dec. 30. On this evening, the planets will be in nearly the same place they'll be on Dec. 31, but the moon will be midway between Venus and the Mercury-Jupiter pairing.


One last trick:


Venus is so bright you can see it during daylight if you know where to look. Given Venus' proximity to the moon on New Year's Eve, this would be an excellent moment -- just before sunset -- to use the moon to help you find Venus and gain bragging rights for being one of the few people to be able to claim seeing more than one planet during the daytime (Earth being the other one).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20081230/sc_space/celestialshowsetfornewyearseve

Penguin Baseball

Click the guy and the penguin will drop then click again to take a swing. =)

Official

So today I officially signed all the paperwork and am no longer a TEMP! My life is no longer my own.

In the Office

Someone has hooked up their iPod to the speakers and I just heard the Batman TV theme song and now the full Gilligan's Isle song is playing. Why? Why me *inserts earphones and turns up CHRISTMAS MUSIC**??

Christmas Music

I feel like I'm missing out on Christmas and I dont like it.. and it's not my fault so don't think this is a post about being too busy.

In my life this year there has been a serious lack of Christmas music. I've reached the point in my adult days that I can no longer wait until Thanksgiving to play Christmas music. So normally in October I bust out my favorite CDs and start playing them. However:

1. Work
2. Church
3. Eateries and shopperies

1. Until just 3 days ago we had a Christmas Grinch in our office who would NOT put Christmas music on. It's December. It's freezing outside. We have a Christmas tree up and shining in the office. But NO Christmas music anywhere. It started becoming a battle. The minute the gentleman who handles the music would step out of the office or go to lunch, a lovely co-worker would intervene with Christmas music, but the minute she left we were back to Lifehouse or Coldplay or Eagles.. .all very good music. But I can hear that 340 other days of the year. So what did I do? I brought in my own Christmas CDs and listened to them at my computer with my little earphones. What did that accomplish? A little bit. I got to listen to Christmas music. But the minute I had to move or get up it was back to Dave Matthew's or Colbie Callait or Queen .. all good music, just not fitting the mooooood. I began to resent the guy in control of the music who was really not supposed to be in control of the music. I began to feel really bad for my coworkers. I could listen to my personal Christmas music and even then it was interrupted. But Christmas is not a personal holiday and deserves to not be interrupted! So I had been working on mustering up some courage to confront this person. Couldn't do it. I didn't want the one co-worker who stepped up everytime to be left alone in her endeavors. I had planned on marching over to the gentleman and saying HEY! Give me Christmas or I die! But I know he doesn't work that way. If I challenged him he would become angry. So I waited. Several times I began an email to him, but I had to wait until my heart was more right and to make sure I could really phrase things kindly. Eventually, Tuesday I sent him an email. And mooooooooooostly since then we've had Christmas music. Still heard some Lifehouse yesterday and some Coldplay this morning. But at least I know my coworkers and I are cheered by the fact that we are hearing Christmas music after it was a bit of a battle to get it going and that we get to hear it for the few days before Christmas comes.

2. Our worship pastor at church whom I love and am thankful for and who does great work. Has refused and deprived the church of singing Christmas songs these past 2 Sundays at church. Mom sent him an email to find out what was going on and he stated that most Christmas songs words weren't what he was looking for in quality/standard that he chooses for the church and so he has avoided them. I wasn't sure what to think of that? My first response was that after coming through my divorce and it officially taking place at Christmas time I had worshipped to Christmas music over the past 2 years like never ever ever before. All those lines that you memorize when you are 4 and sing over and over and over every year had never been truly discovered or appreciated by me until just 2 years ago. So to say that Christmas music isn't worshipful - or at the least that there are just a few songs that are - hurt my heart a bit. I understand his desires and his approach and his goals.. just not sure that I really agree with him on this. Especially in light of Christmas music having a general lack this year.

3. When eating out or in retail stores. To me (- though I haven't paid attention at every place -) I am just not hearing Christmas music. I asked today at a local BBQ place why they weren't playing Christmas music and the guy just glazed right over the question basically stating that he had no idea why.

Sidenote: Everything says Happy Holidays. It's amazing that that only took like 3 years to reach full effect.

You know that song Where Are You Christmas? by Faith Hill? I don't really like that song.. but the title is reallly true this year. 'Where are you Christmas? Why can't I find you?' Christmas is disappearing. There are many responsible for that, but we need to speak up so that we literally don't have to one day wake up and wonder where Christmas went.

Can you guys (who don't read my blog anymore) comment with some lines from Christmas songs that you find to be worshipful? Let's see what we can find.

I'll start it off:

O Come, O Come Emmanuel:
O come, thou rod of Jesse, free,
Thine own from satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell thy people save,
And give them vict'ry o'er the grave

Oh, come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Oh, bid our sad divisions cease,
And be yourself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!

O come, Thou Wisdom, from on high,
and order all things far and nigh;
to us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.

http://www.liturgy.co.nz/reflection/oantiphons.html - straight scripture for the verses of O Come O Come Emmanuel

12 Days of Gifts

Costs: $86,000 dollars.

THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
On the Twelfth Day of Christmas,

My true love sent to me

Twelve drummers drumming,

Eleven pipers piping,

Ten lords a-leaping,

Nine ladies dancing,

Eight maids a-milking,

Seven swans a-swimming,

Six geese a-laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle-doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree!

So how much does everything cost? Here's a breakdown for each item.

1st Day of Christmas
A PARTRIDGE

COST: $20 (last year: $15)

Also on 1st Day of Christmas

A PEAR TREE

COST: $200 (last year: $150)

2nd Day of Christmas
Two Turtle Doves

Cost: $55 (last year: $40)

3rd Day of Christmas
THREE FRENCH HENS

$30 (last year: $45)

4th Day of Christmas
FOUR CALLING BIRDS

$60 (last year: same)

5th Day of Christmas
FIVE GOLDEN RINGS

$350 (last year: $395)

6th Day of Christmas
SIX GEESE A-LAYING

$240 (last year: $360)

7th Day of Christmas
SEVEN SWANS A-SWIMMING

$5,600 (last year: $4,200)

8th Day of Christmas
EIGHT MAIDS A-MILKING

$52 (last year: $47)

9th Day of Christmas
NINE LADIES DANCING

$4,759 (last year: same)

10th Day of Christmas
TEN LORDS A-LEAPING

$4,414 (last year: $4,285)

11th Day of Christmas
ELEVEN PIPERS PIPING

$2,285 (last year: $2,213)

12th Day of Christmas
TWELVE DRUMMERS DRUMMING

$2,475 (last year: $2,398)

The total cost of 12 days of Christmas in 2008 for your true love? $86,609! An increase of about nine percent from last year's cost of $78,100.


And for those of you who get bored with the song.. you should check out Relient K's version of the 12 Days of Christmas. They do the whole song quickly and add a chorus that says the following:
"What's a partridge? And what's a pear tree? Well I don't know so please don't ask me, but I can be those are terrible gifts to get." It's great.

None of these items are on my Christmas list.

That's me!

A lady in the sales department at work was just on a call and I overheard her say, "We have one girl in here who is wearing mittens. That's how cold it is today."

That girl with the mittens has also been called "Snow princess." and "Alaska W Gnome."

Rain!

I LOVE THE RAAAAAAAIN! It's been raining all day.. and I don't mean overcast with a chance of drizzle.. or enough to just make the roads wet..it's good and raining outside. Enough rain is happening right now that you have to use your windshield wipers when you drive and you gotta wear a hooded jacket when you're out..ahhhh.. so great. Christmas.. here I come.

Christmas Trees

Up until yesterday I was able to say, "I've decorated 4 Christmas trees this year and notta one of them has been my own." Yesterday my parents got our Christmas tree and it was my job to put the lights on it. Then I had choir practice so couldn't decorate it. By the time I got home last night all the decorations were DONE. So in essence this year.. I can say I decorated 4-1/2 Christmas trees. That's a lot. I'll try and edit this post by adding a pic of our tree later.. when I'm home. Mom, get a picture ready.