Chinese Drum Girls - unbelievable

HP Office Orchestra

Swan Lake - Chinese Ballet Performance done in Germany on Jan 26, 2008

In case when the video takes too long to load, you might as well go to YouTube directly by clicking the following link.

http://youtube.com/swf/l.swf?video_id=gOqxSaW05p4&rel=1&eurl=&iurl=http%3A//i.ytimg.com/vi/gOqxSaW05p4/default.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskLn4MLQHIZmvAOeitAzJYu_>br?

Father and Daughter

'TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY?

Beautiful Love

'TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY?
By Jim Elliff

"'Tis the Season to be jolly?" Well, maybe.

The business of Christmas, that is, the hard and cold commercial trade of the Thanksgiving to Christmas sales window, is a measure of how well America is doing. It's the thermometer in our corporate mouths.


Needs are created through the media in order to entice the buyer into purchasing more this year than last. No one is to be disappointed at Christmas, after all. The manipulation is as blatant toward children as adults. And who can bring themselves to crush the psyche of anyone by not giving them all they want?

The end result of all of this is "happiness." The receivers of the presents are happy and the merchandisers are happy. The media people are happy and the credit card people are happy. Everything is happy during Christmas.

Happy is what it is supposed to be, that is. But sometimes things go south. The economy may well not cooperate.

Sickness may invade the home, jobs may be lost, anger and sulkiness may pervade the atmosphere, death may stalk a family member, drugs and alcohol may taint family togetherness, divorce clouds may darken the skies, disappointment may rule a child's spirit, and depression may turn you pensive and silent. And so it goes behind the closed doors or in the inner space of so many. The Bible says that even in their laughter there is sorrow.

Can tinsel and presents, carols and candy really bring happiness? Not often, and not much. And if our happiness is based on circumstance, is it a true happiness? Isn't it just a playful escape, a temporary delusion? Does a little thin paint on the outside eradicate the rust beneath? Do cosmetics on a corpse make the death go away?

I think the diversion is worth something, mind you, But when the reality is so strong, do we have the right to call even Christmas a source of true happiness?

This "reality" is much more troubling than the list mentioned above-the depression, sickness, sulkiness, and aggravations. The reality for a person without Christ is a permanent state of non-forgiveness, alienation from God, separation from the true people of God forever, and hell. Those are the matters that make happiness hard to come by and what makes laughter so fugitive for the thinking person.

Even joy based on family can elude you. Everything is moving, changing, shifting. You cannot rest on anything to bring solid, stand-against-all-odds joy but that which is permanent. And that which is permanent is God.

When the angels sang about Christ's birth, they said that they were bringing tidings of "great joy." Great joy?—yes, joy for every person who will come to Him by faith. It is in the relationship with God through Christ where joy is found.

If a person is related to God through His Son Jesus Christ, then joy, that deeper happiness that is more than a facial characteristic, is a birthright blessing. The true Christian should be joyful because his sins are forgiven, his place in heaven is secure, his life is in-dwelt by God's Spirit, and he has an open door to God's throne room. No matter what happens, he always has reason to rejoice because the big things are taken care of, and the Spirit in him promises to help him through all the rest. In a word, his joy is not based on circumstance, but on huge unchanging facts and an even bigger God behind the facts.

For sure, some true Christians forget what they have and need a refresher course on what is provided for them, but on the main you will notice that true Christians have joy that is bigger than circumstances. I'm not saying this about pseudo-Christians, of course, the church-goers who really don't know Christ.

Christmas then is not the season to be jolly, as if the other seasons are the opposite. But it is the reason to be joyful. Christ's coming to the earth, His perfect life and sacrificial death as a substitute for sinful people like us, is certainly a reason for joy to all who will come to Him by faith.

Is that you?

If you are one of those who has not come to Christ, then the best you can do this season is to hope for good circumstances and a kind of naïveté about your actual situation before God. But things could be different and the coming of Christ that you are singing about this holiday time could become the best news you have ever heard-good tidings of great joy!

Copyright © 2002 Jim Elliff
Permission granted to copy in full for non-profit use, including all copyright information.
Other uses require written permission.

Merry Christmas from Lowes -A video made a couple of years ago

Tips On Pumping Gas - Good Info

TIPS ON PUMPING GAS--GOOD INFO!

I don't know what you guys are paying for gasoline... Here in California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon. But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money's worth for every gallon.

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose, CA. we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.

TIPS:

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening... your gallon is not exactly a gallon.

In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

Another reminder: If there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up! Most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.