Polar Bear Plunge
Yesterday, the annual New Year’s ritual of jumping into freezing cold water took place at countless beaches across the nation. This ritual has a few aliases: Polar Bear Plunge, Polar Bear Swim, Penguin Plunge, etc. No matter what you call it, it is all the same, a bunch of extremely dedicated and a few just plain crazy people jumping into freezing cold water.
Although, in actuality many of the ones who go in on New Year’s Day are actually among the less committed, and often do it more as a novelty and out of festivity; and while this doesn’t lessen the challenge and pain, it does afford the plunges a bit more of a safety net often, including warm facilities near by and EMS standing by on scene. In fact many of the beaches have clubs of diehards that take regular dips in the frigid water during the winter months.
Interestingly, New Year’s Day does not often disappoint, and seems to offer up bitterly cold temperatures year after year just in time for the Polar Bear Swim. For example, while Rhode Island had a snow storm early in December, most of the snow from that storm had melted away and the temperatures reminded fairly mild around Christmas, but on New Year’s Eve a good 6 inches or more of snow fell on Rhode Island and Southern New England. Additionally, the temperature dropped into single digits in the over night and early morning hours and only warmed up to somewhere between the mid 20’s and mid 30’s or so.
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Happy New Year
Interestingly enough the number 8 is numerologically associated with new birth and new beginnings; so 2008 was accordingly a year of firsts. 8 because it is 7+1; with 7 representing completeness while 1 represents beginnings, hence 8 is a new beginning.
Additionally, we see Biblically support for this that 8 is used in 8 days after a birth a child was required to be circumcised, and 8 people were saved on the ark, and of course it is also used elsewhere, but those are some of the more obvious and clear examples.
So let us just hope that these new firsts we have seen in 2008 yield positive outcomes in the years to come. For many of you 2008 could not have ended soon enough. I have certainly felt the pain in many ways, as I know most all of you have, and while I am gland I didn’t lose any money in stocks or such. I can only say that because I never had anything to lose in the first place. In fact I wish I could of had stocks to have lost some value in, for as the saying goes it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.
Unfortunately, I may never know what I have lost in this economic downturn because the way it has most affected me, as well as many others, is in the area lost of job opportunities, which has made it increasingly difficult to find what would be considered a career job or to venture out on your own. As I have unfortunately not been able to find what would be considered a career job, I simply have a what is basically considered a peon type job.
While I am certainly grateful and thank God that can at least subsist on my current job, so long as I have family and friends who help cover the shortfall. Hence, I have become increasingly dishearten with the glass ceilings in place within my current postion, which has put me in a postion of need instead of postion of being able to give and help others. Perhaps one benefit, in a way, is that it is certainly a very humbling postion to be in, and it certainly prevents one from thinking too highly of oneself.
I say all this, not to detract from the many good possiblities I believe the future holds, but rather to say that no matter what situation we may be in there is always hope for tomorrow so long as we live. While things may seem bleak now, for many of us, I believe that one great thing is that there are so many more opportunities out there to do good, and for each of us to help other, no matter how desperate our own situations may seem or actually be. While many of you may be unable to help fisically, as I am; if we forego luxuries such as sleep, time off, coffee, than I am sure we can all find ways to help others. The Bible says in Luke 3:11 if you have two coats you need to give one to someone that needs one, and I think most of us will find we have at least two coats.
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Snowy Stream
Merry Christmas everyone, or as they say in Hawaii Mele Kalikimaka. If you live in Southern New England sorry it is not much of a white Christmas, so hopefully today’s photograph, taken a couple days after the large snow storm last week, will help give you at least some sense of a white Christmas.
I have also included a song (there is also included an embed version along with the lyrics at the bottom, but I am not sure if that will work). Hopefully this will help us remember what Christmas is really about, because Christmas is about so much more than just having a day off and getting together with friends and family.
Although, that is a certainly a big part; however if that was the whole of it, then for you who unfortunately must be away from friends and family or must work through the holiday would then have nothing to celebrate. Fortunately, that is not what Christmas is all about; it is all about Jesus Christ, and anything else is secondary. It is about Solus Christus meaning because of Christ alone for Soli Deo gloria meaning glory to God alone.
If it was not for Christ birth, death, and resurrection; we would all have nothing to celebrate during this Christmas season, except perhaps that we have at best a short 100 years or so on this planet. Fortunately, that is not the case, because of the ultimate Christmas gift Jesus Christ, who is indeed the reason for the season. Now we can all look forward to paradise after our short lives. All you must do is chose to follow Him.
Because our focus is Christ alone He often allows us to also have the other benefits of family, friends, and presents, but let us not forget that Jesus said in Luke 14:26 that whoever does not hate his father, mother, wife, children, siblings, and his own life, cannot be His disciple.
Now by this He is not telling us to hate anyone, per say, but rather He telling us that we must love Him so much that we are willing to sacrifice even what we hold most dearly, if He so calls us. While it may be true that He may not test many of us to give up our family and friends, He certainly reserves that right, just as He was justified in testing Abraham by asking him to give up Isaac.
Accordingly, we must trust that if He requires us to give up someone or something He always has greater plans in mind for us. This is so important to remember because all to often we have a natural tendency to first be mad with God if He requires us to make a great sacrifice.
He only wants the best for us, but that means that we must at least be willing to sacrifice it all for Him. While there are other Christmas and seasonal songs it is amazing that there are no other popular seasonal songs about any other gods. This season I have been thinking about Christmas songs a lot, and read a book entitled “Best-Loved Christmas Carols”
It is incredible how many of these songs have endured so long, and with more modern ones it is incredible how they also continue to present the Christmas story in such a great and yet still subtle way. Even more amazing are some of the stories behind their creation, as you will specifically see with “O little Town of Bethlehem”. First, “Joy to the World” composed by Isaac Watts and first published in 1719 in a collection entitled Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, is based right off of Psalms 98:4-9. It was just put in the Language of the New Testament by Isaac Watts; and is even today still one of the most popular Christmas carols around.
One of the other great carols “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, written by Phillips Brooks in 1868 was actually inspired during a Christmas Eve service on a visit by Brooks to the Holy Land. He really got a sense of what it must have been like to on that first Christmas as he was there overlooking a small village and shepherds in Bethlehem. Just before the next Christmas the church organist, Lewis Henry Render, who had been asked to set the poem to music came through with the music that was put to the words; purportedly it came to him in a vision the night before. Christmas, it was then song on Christmas at the Church of the Holy Trinity.
Lastly, The “Twelve Days of Christmas”, perhaps one of the lest obvious ones was actually written to commemorate the Epiphany, meaning shining forth originally a celebration of His incarnation, but in the West since 534 AD now a celebration of the visit of Magi. Accordingly the “Twelve Days of Christmas” was written to commemorate the visit of the Magi, and was actually meant to be sung during the 12 days after Christmas till the Epiphany, January 6th. It is first through to have been created as a memory game for children, but others hold that there may actually be considerable symbolism of Christianity in the song. However, no one knows for sure, and while the case for the symbolism of song is not a particular strong case, it is still a plausible case; as there is still a vert distinct possibility for it.
The symbolism breaks down like this. My true love is God, and the rest of the breakdown is as follows:
A Partridge in a pear tree is:
Jesus Christ as a mother partridge feigning an injury to protect her young. This one threw me a little at first because I did not realize birds actually fake injuries to protect their young, and it seems strange to think of Christ’s injury on the cross is as feigned. Although in one sense I suppose it makes sense that He was not really injured as He does in John 10:18 say He lays down His life of His free will and has the authority to take it up again. I do not think this means that He did not suffer pain in doing so, but rather that He was never ever incapacitated, even for a moment, in performing His sacrifice.
2 Turtle Doves: the Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens: faith, hope, and charity
4 Colly Birds: the four gospels
5 Gold Rings: the first five books of the Old Testament ie. The Pentateuch
6 Geese a-laying: the six days of creation
7 Swans a-swimming: the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit
8 Maids a-milking: the eight Beatitudes
9 Ladies dancing: nine fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords a-leaping: the Ten Commandments
11 Pipers piping: the eleven faithful disciples
12 Drummers drumming: the twelve beliefs in the Apostles’ Creed
The shepherds are lit
A star in the sky
On the outskirts of town
A new baby cries
No room at the end
No crib to be found
Oh but look at him now
He is the reason for the season
He is the light that shines on our lives
The baby Jesus born in God’s grace
So we all might rejoice on this day
He is the reason for the season
It is a time for presents and toys
Tales of Saint Nick
Tidings of joy
As we celebrate the miracle birth
Oh right here on this earth
He is the reason for the season
He is the light that shines on our lives
The baby Jesus born in God’s grace
So we all might rejoice on this day
He is the reason for the season
He’s the reason for the giving
The joy thats never ending
That comes on Christmas morning in the eyes of a child
It’s what it means to me and you
That’s the true meaning of this time
Oh this time
He is the
He is the reason for the season
He is the light that shines on our lives
The baby Jesus born in God’s grace
So we all might rejoice on this day
He is the reason for the season
He is the light that shines on our lives
The baby Jesus born in God’s grace
So we all might rejoice on this day
He is the reason for the season
If you like the song, please support the artist, and buy it. You can get it DRM free (digital rights management) from Amazon for only 99 cents or 5 Pepsi points until the end of the year:
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Beach For Sale
At same beach in East Greenwich where I took the yesterday’s picture of the day I saw this real estate sign just ruining the pristine scenery. Then I thought I just have to photograph this if for no other reason than the powerful message that I can send when you see this real estate sign in front of this immaculate beach. The message is one of how many affluent people like to believe they can own the shorelines if for the right price.
Granted the sign was far enough up on the beach that they are actually able to own the land up there, but still the fact that the sign was beach side instead of roadside just really struck me as inappropriate and presumptuous; as if they believe they can own the shore. I understand that this is really more of marketing tactic, as oppose to a genuine effort to impediment. However, I believe the message is still the same. Further, even though the land area above the high tide line can be purchased, property owners must yield at times beyond the high tide line in order to not impede typical shore activities. While other states have various ways of providing access to the shore; Rhode Island, being the ocean state, has written into its Constitution a guaranteed right for all citizens to access the shore. Despite this fact, many coastal residents regrettably go to great lengths to impede this access. Nonetheless, the Article I section 17 of the Rhode Island Constitution provides the citizens with the right to “enjoy the privileges of the shore.” Further, some privileges such as the right to fish, swim, gather seaweed and pass along the shore are explicitly included in the state constitution as a result of the constitutional convention in 1986.1
One example of how residents attempt to impede access in Newport near the cliff walk and in many other places around the state there are signs at costal access locations saying that parking there is restricted to residents, however most all of the residents in those areas have large compounds with ample parking space or at least a driveway; so they have no need to park along the roadside. Fortunately, if you know your rights and are courteous about it most of the time you will not encounter problems with access, aside from the physical impediments place on some shorelines.
1Nick Battista, Access to the shorline lmited by property in Rhode Island(http://www.risaa.org/newsletter/1008/1008_22.pdf)
2Jim Bedell, Narragansett Times (http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1714&dept_id=73826&newsid=14846534&PAG=461&rfi=9)
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Rock to Sky
The above picture was taken from a beach in East Greenwich, which looks out down Narragansett Bay, just prior to sunset. The sky was darkened by selecting the sky separate from the sand with the magic wand tool in Photoshop, and then applying a separate exposure curve to the sky. Lastly, a small area along the tree line was cloned to blend the darker sky with the brighter foreground elements. I believe that the darken sky really highlights the rock which is the main focal point of the image, which then draws you into the nice textures of the sand, and of course up into the sky.
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Sorry I have not written anything in a little while, but I been fairly busy lately as my car died a couple of weeks ago and I have just exploring options and dealing with a lot of stress. Due to God’s grace, I have been just getting by for the time being. For those of you who may recall a post I wrote a couple of posts a few years ago my car it is a 1999 Plymouth Breeze, and it now has 146,000+ miles on it. It is strange how foreign cars like Toyotas are ok with that high mileage. So if you need a prime example of why we should not bailout the big three you need look no further than my car.
The car started shaking a little, at first and then maybe a week after that it was done. One night it just started shaking real violently and the check engine light began flashing; mind you there was not check engine indication until this point; after that I turned around and managed to get the car home. At first I was hopeful that there was a chance I might just be able to change the spark plugs when I got a chance, or maybe a coil pack, and hopefully it would be fine. So the car started up with some hesitation one or two times after that night, then it just would not start, although it seemed like it wanted to. Come to find out there is some sort of compression problem with the cylinders, and basically it is cheaper to get engine than to fix my engine.
Even though I know some people may view money as a dirty word (or something of that nature) which should never be discussed in the same context with prayer, I do not believe that is the case. As the Bible simply says the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. Note that it is the love of money which roots all sorts of evil. I by no means love money as I only seeking money enough to cover needs, and to continue to cover any operational expenses of this website, so that I may continue to provide you with great content. Since primary needs (food, shelter, and clothing) are first, at the moment I am only able to work mostly from a good size backlog of imagery and content. Nonetheless, I am confident that somehow God will continue to meet my secondary needs (needs such as job, car, and tools; which lead to provision of primary needs), or at the very least ensure that my primary needs are met through some other means.
I know God is not limited by money, and can work in many other ways that do not even involve money. Further, I understand that money is worth nothing more than what it can be traded for. However, I believe this does not mean that when you have needs, which can be met through the trade of money; that you do not ask for money. Certainly, I am not excluding any possibilities, or any help. For example, I would be thrilled if someone has a decent running car they are willing to donate.
Accordingly, what I am asking for is not money per say, but for a way to continue to make all necessary exchanges. I fully believe when I previously asked for donations that someone was praying, because even though no one donated I was afforded a number of opportunities which led to a slightly improved financial state; although nowhere near enough to begin to fix my current car problem, but maybe almost enough to pay for the diagnostic. While not all the opportunities worked and one in particular remains to be seen (although that one is no longer looking positive) there were a number of definite possibilities. That being said I am far from out of the woods yet so please continue to pray, and please pray not just for me, but for the anyone you know of that is in need.
Thank you all and may God richly bless you,
Jonathan Haynes
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Frost Crystals on Grass
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The contest has ended and out of the 4 answers there was one somewhat close answer from Tim Linden before the deadline, and one dead on answer from Christina Angeloni after the deadline. Considering this small volume and the fact that one of the answers was from a 3 year old (who had a little help typing it), the contest did not really accomplish its goals. However, I see this failure not as a total defeat, but simply as a small hurdle which will be overcome.
Now at least I know that most of my 150+ daily visitors must be coming because they are looking for something else here. Accordingly, I will continue to try to deciphered what you are coming for while continuing my best efforts to provided you with that, along with exploring new and innovative ways to keep you engaged and active in this community longer.
Of course, as I said, I would have liked to have seen more people participate in this contest, so in the future I will probably be running the contests longer. Although,the contest was to officially end on Sunday; since I did not have any really close guesses by the deadline on Sunday I allowed the winning entry in past the deadline. Nonetheless, I will still be contacting Tim Linden about a consolation prize for coming close before the deadline, but since he is my partner in photography he may not care as much for a free print.
So again, congratulations Christian Angeloni on your win, and thank you to everyone who participated. Above you will see the original photo, and it is indeed a close up picture of frost crystals. I just find it amazing how the frost crystals cling to the grass like they do, it almost appears as though they grew on it. For those of you who may have missed out this time be on the look out for future contests, and of course one of the best ways to do that is of by subscribing to my blog.
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Mystery Photo
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That’s right I am not telling you what today’s picture is of, well at least not yet. It is a mystery, so you hopefully you will be able to tell me. I am running a contest over the weekend; in which I am giving you, the reader, a chance to tell me what today’s picture is of. If you correctly identify what the picture is of, within your comment, you will win a free print, up to 8×10 (not applicable for editorial only photos). Why am I doing this? I simply want to engage you more, and encourage two way interaction here. I want to pull you out of the mindset that this is a passive medium, I want this website to be an active medium where you, the reader, can become actively engaged.
Just to be upfront, the colors in the photo have been changed, so what you intially think of is probably wrong. If you feel strongly that you first guess is right, after knowing the colors you see here are not the original colors, don’t let me dissuade you from your guess; go with your instinct. Also the hint is cold. Please be specific in your guess, if there are number of close guesses the guess with the most exact detail will win. The contest will run through Sunday and end on Monday. So, Midnight on Sunday, Eastern Time, is the deadline to enter your guess and still be eligible to win. Limit one guess per household. Thank you and good luck.
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John Banister House
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Today’s picture is of the day is of the John Banister House in Newport Rhode Island it is a beautiful house restored to the period of which it was built. Built in 1751 the house is decorated with many pieces which were brought back by Captain John Banister himself from places such as India, Africa, and the Far East. For those of you not familiar with Rhode Island. Rhode Island was heavily involved in the China trade during that time period. Perhaps one of the more famous traders is John Brown of also a slave trader for whom Brown University is named after. Another was John Dewolf, lots of Johns here; good thing I am Jon not John, and of course there were also others who were not John such as Moses Brown, brother of John Brown and co-founder of Brown university. Moses Brown also has a preparatory school named after him. Interesting Moses became an abolitionist after founding his school; prehaps he felt guilty about his involvement in the slave trade.
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Sunset Over the Road to Quonset
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Today’s picture of the day is of Sunset over the road to Quonset Point. This road to Quonset Point was recently completed, and now allows people to get in and out of Quonset much more quickly. Although, some more work does still remain, the redirection of route 403 is mostly complete, and has its own exit (exit 7B) off of the highway (route 4) now. Being that Rhode Island has very few hills and few points of high elevation, there are very few high vantage points in the North Kingstown. Sadly this overpass is probably one of the highest vantage points in North Kingstown. In fact the highest elevation in entire state of Rhode Island is Jerimoth Hill in Foster, which is a whole 812 feet above sea level. I think this sad fact would be more forgivable if Rhode Island was not so close to Mt. Washington, the highest point in Northeast, and bordered by Connecticut and Massachusetts, which can both claim mountains for their high points.
On my way home yesterday I noticed the vantage of sunset looked quite nice from this overpass, so I stopped near devil’s foot, and walked down the sidewalk of route 1. I saw the sunset, which was nice, but then suddenly as the sun when down below the horizon this pink lining, which you see here appeared in the sky. I knew the sunset was shaping up nicely by the strange lighting I saw in the sky, but the pink lining that appeared in the sky was quite unexpected.
Quonset Point the former home of the Seabees, and the place from which Quonset huts get their name, sat in disrepair for many years prior to the recent revitalization; which has turned it into an quickly expanding industrial park that has seen much grow in recent years. Also, there was talk of creating a megaport in Quonset a few years ago. Although, the talk has now subsided in the face of much opposition, I suspect once they have fully finished the 403 highway relocation and the Freight Rail Improvement Project project talk will likely pick up again. The project is very near completion now, and the governor even lead a ceremony and parade down route 403 a few week ago this year on October 22, to celebrate completion of the major portion. So far the talk of there has not been any renewed interest in the megaport, that I am aware of, but I still wonder if it may start back up gradually or be worked into Quonset in a smaller phase plan.
Also, Quonset is probably one of the only places, which currently has a runway long enough (not ideal, but still long enough) to land 747s. It has a runway of 7,504 feet just a bit longer than the main runway at TF Green Airport, Rhode Island largest and busiest airport, which only has a runway of 7,166. In fact President Bush landed in Quonset when he visited Rhode Island with in his 747-200B (thats right he only visited the state once in his 8 years). Of course they desperately want to lengthen the runway at TF Green, but have been unable to because it would mean tearing up a bunch of homes and businesses.
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